The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

-hU4NdhS there uSSu 70 De q ldISC tract
of smoking prairie" 1t was good graz
ing gound, but during and after a rain
it smoked and no one knew the cause until
a stranger quietly bought the tract one
day and announced that ne had a fortune.
The cement lies on the surface in great
quantities, and is worth $40 barrel,
The blowing engine being erected by
the Carnegie Steel Comapny at the convert
ing mill of the Edgar Thomson Steel
Works at Braddock Penn, is almost COM
pseted. and is expected to be in working
order by Feb. /, says the New York Times
1t viii be, when completed the largest en-
CINE in the world. 1t is of the vertical
cross-compound type, with high and low
pressure steam valves. There are two air
cylinders 50 by 60 inches with one 42-inch
diameter, high pressure and one SO-inch
diameter, low pressure valve, each with
a 6O-inch stroke. The f1ywheel is "a feet in
diameter, and weighs 100 900 pounds The
air cylinders are equipped with patent re-
auction and delivery air pipes. The blow
ing capacity will be 10000 cubic feet per
minute.
"A contract has recently been received
by the Westinghouse Electric and Manu-
featuring Company for installing an cleo
tricai plant 10 operate a large cotton min
+t0%i -Ae-AiNt4CoNCly ILuSidtlQ. Inc machinery
involved in the contract consists of two
alternating current generators and TWEEN
ty-one motors having an aggregate capac-
ICY OF $40 horse power. The contract was
received through the London agency. from
Boyer, Peacock & Co, of Manchester
England. The contract is one of the first
Of the kind being taken up by the Eng
hsh manufacturers. The people there are
realizing that they can get better results
by operating their machinery by electricity
as is done in this country, and at the same
time economic and get greater security
from fire.
-On recent afternoon al Niagara Fails.
while a large number of people were
crossing the ice bridge in the gorge at
the foot of the falls the ice started to
move down stream through the center
the sides of the bridge for a short dis
lance out from the shore being held nv
the shore ice. There were from fiftv "a
100 people on the bridge when it started
to move, and as they felt the mass trern
bic they were thoroughly alarmed. The
surface of the bridge became much broken
and 1t was difficult to select a oath
across. Far out in the center We're a
number of boys, and they fed to shore
with wonderful speed Others near shore
got off the moving ice on to that not in
motion and hurried to shore. Within
short time all were safe. After moving
about 500 feet the bridge lodged again.
Botany, so much less ostentatious than
her sister sciences, has latterly steadily
advanced in a manner not so generally
appreciated, but no less marked. Hippo-
crates, the father of physicians. writing
about 400 B.. c., knew but 234 species or
KINDS OF plants, says an exchange. A COM
paratively few years later Theophrastus
one of the first real botanists whose name
has come down to us, had increased the
number to only 500. In n A. D. Dloscor-
ides had gained but little, to which Plinv
IN turn contributed 200 more Then, for
nearly fifteen centuries practically moth
ing was accomplished ntil Ray. who
wrote between 1855 and 1904, enumerated
and described 1855 species. In the early
portion of this century Person, De Can
dole and Stendel catalogued 10000 includ-
ing towering and lower plants, a number
raised by Lindley QS40 TO 1887. And
now, after the work of Duchartie and Du-
rand, with new species being published
every year, the total is estimated by ex-
perts as little short of 100000.
We can form no conception of that
which is wholly foreign to our experience.
says the New Orleans Picayune. To the
dweller in the thirtieth century our lives.
Hteratures and achievements may seem
as far off, as queer and Old ashioned as
colorless and unreal, as those of the
Egyptians in the times of the Pharaohs
seem to us, says a writer in Lippincott's
Magazine. The spoken languages of the
world may undergo some such change as
stenography seems to be making in the
method of writing them. new and
wonderfully. condensed form of expression
may rise upon our present system, in which
simple sounds with few combinations
may take the place of our words, phrases
and sentences. What literature may be
to such language we can form no con-
cepuon. 1t would be safe to say that both
prose and poetry, as We understand them.
would disappear. But, anticipating only
such changes in language as have been
going on gradually since the dawn of
history, is there anything to indicate that
there Will come a time in the future
when poetry will cease to be written.
or, if written at all, that it will occupy
a much more restricted and humble place
than now? Has poetry the capacity to
adapt itself to the trend and current Of
modern life and thought?
The Prince of Monaco has been known
since 1885 as an enthusiastic student of the
sea and its various forms of life, says the
New York Sun. He usually spends his
summers in the study of oceanographic
problems, and his cruises have on some
occasions been extended almost to the
coasts OF America. A short time ago he
delivered lecture before the Royal Geo.
graphical Society in London, in which he
told this incident: One afternoon, while
In the Bay of Biscay, he sank the trap
in which he collected specimens of sea
lie. 1t went to the bottom in over 1900
feet OF water, and as night approached he
fastened to the wire attached to il an cleo
trio buoy and then stood off a mile or
so. 1t did not happen TO occur to him
that he was right in the track of steamers
plying between Northern Europe and the
Mediterranean, but he was reminded of
the fact later. AS he and his fourteen
sailors were watching with a good deal of
satisfaction the swaying buoy with its
brilliant illumination a steamers lights
came into view. 1t was soon evident that
the steamer was curious to know the
meaning of the illumination, for she alter
ed her course and made for the light She