The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-08-17
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

judge Harmon of the Essex county.
Massachusetts,, probate court has held
that John w. Hutchinson the noted vo-
/ calist and old-time abolitionist is not in
sane, and has refused to appoint con-
servator for his property, as he considers
him competent to care for it properly.
The petition for a CONSERVATION was filed
| by three of his children.
"A sailr named Wilson, who was on
! the Oregon when she grounded on the
rocks recently, is authority for the state
ment that after she had stuck there three
days a big modern Chinese cruiser hove
in sight chased by the Russians. AS she
! approached the Oregon she ran up an
| American flag. Her officers claimed the
protection of Capt. Wilds and got it.
According TO report recently issued
by the Rhode Island State Board of Ag-
riculture, which is also catalogue of the
farms for sale in the state there are 251
untitled farms with buildings. and 9S
without buildings, making q total of 349
farms in The little state which are without
any sort of tillage The total acreage of
these untitled farms in 30.31S: tillage. 12,044;
pasture. 1.s1s, wood 16, ISL. The total price
or valuation of these 30,31S acres is s313 800.
Says Memorial Diplomatique," Paris:
"a tuiIOuS ltStiu 10 NOiiChl dLiOAA5 ltiC
fishermen Of Corfu. 1t is recounted that
the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, in her
great grief at the loss of her son, retired
to the Villa d'Achillean. There she col
lected all the pearls which she had worn
since her marriage, and, enclosing them
all in a small box, threw them into thesea.
The fishermen never put out in their boats
without hoping to recover the box some
day in their nets.
A curious instance of the irony of fate,
remarks the Bombay Gazette, may be
witnessed just now at the Calcutta docks,
where hundreds of Chinese carpenters,
| etc, are busily at work preparing the
transports TO carry the enemies of their
own country to their destination at Hong
Kong. John Chinaman. however, is pro-
verbally Indifferent to things outside his
immediate view, and it is quite possible
that these Celestials have never even
! heard of Chinese crisis.
There is quite a mild excitement just
now at the Bank of England, says the
London Chronicle, because of an innova-
ton at that venera BILE and conservative
institution. A flagstaff has actually been
placed above the building and many are
| shaking their heads at the sudden giddi-
ness of the Old Lady of Threadneedle
street. The suggestion has been made in
all seriousne SIS that numbers might well
be placed on the Flagstaff and the bank
rate indicated from time ito time by the
hight of the flag on the pole.
An effort is to be put forth, says the
London Popular Phrenologist. to make
this years congress in November a really
| imposing gathering. A large number OF
prominent persons, M.P's and others. who
are known to be favorable to phrenology
are 10 be invited to the graf public meet
ing in the evening, and it is hoped that a
notable parsonage will preside. Phrenol-
ogs S everywhere should, by their pres
ence and otherwise, help the council in the
| supreme effort to compel a recognition of
phreno ogy by the highly educated and in
! fuential classes.
Many years ago. relates the British To-
bacco Trade Review, Mr. Kruger bought
from an old half-breed woman peddler a
| meerschaum pipe, to which she ribbed
the power of foretelling the future. The
old woman predicted that three important
| changes in his life would be foretold by
| accidents Detailing the pipe. Early in
the year 1881, before the independence of
the Transvaal was modified, the stem
came to pieces; a little before the Jane
son raid he Clipped piece off the bowl;
and just before his departure for the
pipe fell to the ground and was smashed
1 to fragments.
The smallest and oldest republic in the
thirty-two square miles, lying in the Apen-
! mines, has two Presidents, each of whom
exercises power for six months. The mode
of electing these officers is extremely Gu
rious. Every six months the members of
the Chamber of Deputies, which is the
popular house of the Legislature, nomi-
nate six of their own number; three bal
lots are then given to every voter, each
with the names of two of these six. The
polling place is the Cathedral of San Ma
rino, the capital of the country. The
ballot-box is placed on the high altar. and
after the ballots have been placed in the
b''x a child draws one at random. A
priest then Announces the name on the bal
lot, and the person thus named becomes
the President of the republic.
A department store, the main purpose
of which will be to elevate the negro, will
be established next fall in Chicago by
the Rev. j. NJ. Townsend of Allen NJ. r,
Temple, a colored church, who has been
elected field secretary of the African
Methodist Episcopal Mission work. with
headquarters in Chicago, says the Gin
cinnati Enquirer Il maintain" he said
groes is employment in something mora
than mental lines. The negro problem is
not one of the race. but of the individual
In connection with my church work in
Chicago, / will run the department store
and l have the capital in view White
and colored will have employment on the
basis of ability. The money power will
raise the negro as it has the Jew who
was once al much prosecuted as the negro
is now"
The beet sugar industry is attaining
wonderful proportions in various sections
OF this country says the Phila-
delphia Record A few years ago
in some sections of central New
York the peppermint oil crop was the
leading feature, and brought more money
into the hands of the farmers than did
the apple crop But now the peppermint
crop is mostly thing of the past in that
section and the mint stills are kept in
operation by the crop of a few acres neae
them. The beet sugar crop has driven
the mint crop westward, for the farmers
find ii more profitable to raise sugar
beets. Ten years ago every community
in central New York had a resident who
was getting rich by sitting mint, but
these same mills are now falling into dis
use. Lyons N. Y, was the center OF the
mint market of the word. but that honor
is now among the claims of distant West
ern citips The fame of tho Wavna co,,p