The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Henry n. White, a letter-carrier in
the Cleveland (Ohio) postofice. is a son
of Gen. Sir George White, who command
ed at Ladysmith. He came TO America
nineteen years ago
No one VINO has not seen a kopje, says
a South African. can easily realize it, says
an exchange Ii Is not hin so much as
the stump of a hill-what is left of it after
ages of denudation; but the special feat
ure of it is that it is almost invariably
covered with a breastwork of powders.
Tropical torrents have washed away the
earth and all the soluble components of
the rock. and what is left consists Of heaps
and lines of detached masses of sandstone,
ironstone or granite The kopje are the
Beers fortifcations, and he has any num-
Der of them.
There is man in Philadelphia who
will sell wooden leg cheap. It belonged
TO his wife's first husband. She kept it rs
a memento of the departed displaying it
in a prominent place in the parlor. As
might have been expected, however, it
was bauished when she married the sec
ond time, but when the ardor of the
honeymoon began to diminish she restor-
ed the leg to its old position. The hus-
bands objections have failed to remove
what 10 him is a disagreeabe object, but
he thinks that a fair pecuniary offer for
the appendage would tempt the quondam
widow to part with it.
The Electrical Review finds the world
less interested in expositions than it for
merly was. The idea was a fairly new
one when a show of industries was made
at the London Crystal Palace half a CEN
fury ago. The French afterward, with
their genius for spectacular effects, devel-
oped the idea and made it impr6 sSiVc.
They carried the art of displaying meth
DDS of production and products TO great
perfection. In point of size and in some
other respects perhaps, beat the
world in 1893 at Chicago. Now the French
are making a great effort to surprise or
impress the world anew this year at Paris
with an exposition that IS to sum up the
achievements of the nineteenth century.
AS for thN Paris Exposition, lit will lie.
says the Review. ''ot course, very beauu
full and probably well-mana ged, but it Is
doubtful whether the American exhibitors
who participate in il will be rewarded by
large profits. To put it plainly, people are
tired of eXpositions, and the eXpOSitions
themselves have shown tendency of late
years to degenerate aud to allow the side
show element too much prominence
The most remarkable departure in ma
chine-shop practice during recent years
| has been the great advance in turret work.
| The turret lathe is to the standard type
what the milling machine is to the re-
| ciprocating machines. Within half a doz-
en- years its capacity has grown from that
of rod work of very moderate diameter
and length to heavy bar work of great
| length, and the tooling of castings, even
| of considerable size. The extension of tur-
ret practice goes on so rapidly that we
| find the manufacture of turret lathes
| gives full employment to many firms
few of whom confine their energies to the
| manufacture of a single type only, in diff
ferent sizes. The general extension of tur-
ret work to lathes of nearly all kinds
| including the vertical type, and even to
drilling machines is proof how greatly
| this has been neglected hitherto. Al
| though turret work lends itself best to
| repetition work, yet 1t is not to be de-
| spised in the work of the general shop
as witness the chucking turret lathe; for
since 1t will hold drills, reamers, turning
| and boring tools and threading tools. its
employment saves a deal of trouble in
setting tools in the slide rest, or in chang
ing work from lathe to drilling machine
illustrating the fearful possibilities of
| the British campaign in the Transvaal,
Montegu White, the representative of the
| Beers, recalls enc chapter in the history
OF his adopted country. The Beers were
| trekking in the land of savage tribe
| Wn6n Lney received OV6TlQTeS 10 attend
! a peace council. Between 200 and 800 of
the burghers went to the rendezvous As
| they approached the chief sent word that
| as an evidence of good faith he must ask
the arms to be left behind. The Beers
| consented to this, and joined the powwow
| At signal the chief raised his hand. The
warriors seized their clubs and Drained the
entire party. Then hurrying to their laagcr
| the savages attacked it and massacred
the men. Two boys escaped and ran to
| give the alarm to a third party, consist
ing mainly of women and children. The
women seized arms, fortified the position
| and then ensued perhaps the fercest battle
| in the long record of Boer warfare. Mr.
| White says that the Boer women are
even more determined than the men in
| opposition to the British. He SAYS that
the bloodiest fighting of the war is to be
expected when the British columns enter
the Transvaal and the women of the coun-
try take the guns, with which all of them
are familiar, and join the men in the
trenches.
The French war department. says En-
cheering, an English technical journal.
is now carrying out series of trials with
motor carriages for field guns and Gen
De Gallifet has stated in the Chamber
that there Is every prospect of a satisfac-
tory result. The point is of considerable
importance, in view of the necessity es-
tablished by war operations in South At
RIGA for a much heavier weapon than the
| 12-pounders and 15-pounders, with which
our army has been hitherto equipped. The
4.7-inch and the siX-inch guns are regard
ed with favor as necessary additions 10
the equipment of our field forces As to
the difficulties of mobility the 47-inch
gun with a mobile field carriage we are
informed could be made with a weight of
about 213 tons, which is not an excessive
| load; and mechanical power could easily
| be applied for the movement of these
guns as well as for heavy transport wae.
| ons. Letters from the front speak with
| approval of the success of the traction
engines used by Gen. Buffers army ser
vice corps, Notwithstanding that on the
| WaY from Erere and Chieuelev To Sr,onr