The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The trees now growing on-the farm
(near Franklin, N. H. where Daniel
Webster was born are to be cut up into
friction matches,a manufacturing COM
pany having paid $500 for the standing
timber upon it. The Legislature of
New Hampshire refused at it's late
| session to pay $4,000 for the entire farm,
though many patriotic citizens of the
state petitioned to have it preserved
as perpetual memorial of New Hamp-
shire's greatest son.
of the interesting numismatic
finds" which DR.. Carl Peters has just
brought home with him from Central
Africa perhaps the chief is a Portu-
guese gold coin, in a splendid state OF
preservation, which bears the date of
1898. This would be about the time
that Homem, the first Portuguese COM
mander, went to Manicaland, and just
after the Portuguese took possession of
Inyaga. The figure of the Egyptian
goddess isis" upon which so much
store is laid, and is supposed to date
back to 2500> B. c., was discovered by
negro in garden little to the west
of Fura station. These will be forward
ed in due course to the British mu-
scum for Identification.
If majority of those who preach
the Word as calling in America are
rather poorly remunerated, apart from
the feeling that they are doing good a
majority of those engaged on the same
lines elsewhere apparently need have
no far of dying poor. The yearly sal
airy Of thousands of American preach
ers is said not to rise beyond $500. In
England where the figures are some
what more tangible, 1t is stated there
n hot hni in
cumbents SIS per week. FIFTEEN hundred
again think their ministers are suf-
f1ciently paid on ten, and there are
three hundred that expect a clergy
man to keep up appearances on five.
Money may be the root of all evil, but
this would indicate little probability on
the other side of the clergy generally
falling a prey to the corrupting influ-
ences of excessive wealth.
"A geographical globe of unique in
terest now has a. place in the building
of the Academy of Science at Tsarskoe
Selo, Russia. 1t is of copper, eleven
feet in diameter, and weighing three
and one-half tons, has mechanism for
causing it to revolve on its axis. and in
its interior, reached through a door, it
has table at which twelve persons
can sit. The outside represents the
earth while the celestial spheres of the
world are shown on the interior. This
great work of the early apparatus
makers was begun in 1854, was finished
ten years later in the reign of Duke
Frederick of Holstein, and on the cap
ture of the fort of Tinningstedt, in
Schleswig Holstein, it was presented
to Peter the Great. It's conveyance to
st. Petersburg, partly by water and
partly through forest, roads, required
special appliances and four years of
time. 1t was presented to the academy
in 1928, but until recently has remain
ed in a neighboring museum.
The renewed efforts of the Bona
partists in France to focus the atten-
tion of the country on Prince Victor
the pretender, has brought out from
some searcher of records, a curious CO.
incidence in the lives of the first and
third Napoleons. Napoleon was born
on Aug. Is, 1862 and on March 30, 1914,
the last day of the empire (since the
provisionary government was instituted
the next day., his age was Al years
and 227 days. Napoleon III was ex-
actly that age to a day when he was
proclaimed emperor on Dec. 2, 1852.
If this age means something in the
lives of the Bonapartes, Prince Victor
will either be made emperor of the
French in March, 1907 or will lose the
throne. The napartists-those most
Enthusiastically minded-think the former
may be the case, for they point out
that time will fall just ten months
after the end of the parliament to be
elected next spring, quite a proper time
for the induction of a new emperor, as
it would probably take about ten
months after the end of parliament to
complete all arrangements.
"A writer in the Nineteenth Century
presents some interesting figures show
ing the enormous prices now obtainable
for mezzotints. The collecting of these
old steel or copper engravings-the
etchings of a century ago-long has
been fad among wealthy connoisseurs
in England. For more than a century
the prices of mezzotint portraits, es-
pecially those after paintings by Sir
Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, and
other mastsrs of the early English
school, have been increasing steadily.
Occasionally, great collection of meg
zotints is sold at auction in London,
almost always setting new records of
values. Mr.. Blyth's famous collection
was sold last March for a total of $685.
5S5 A single engraving-a portrait of
Mrs. Carnac. after Reynolds-brought
a trifle more than $4,000. The prices
obtained at the Blyth sale represented
an enormous profit to the collector. Sir
William Fraser's collection, made thir-
ty or forty years ago, was sold last
December for six times the original
cost. A single folio volume, containing
210 portraits of women, for which this
collector paid less than 800 forty years
ago, realized $3.50 at the SALE Rom
ey, the painter who was at his about
1885, received only $500 or $500 for his
best portraits. Recently there mezzo-
tints made from his paintings sold for
$4,000. The writer In the Nineteenth
Century thinks the craze for mezzo-
tints, now at its highest point. will not
die out. People who happen to possess
we'll preserved engravings of this kind
are fortunate. Collectors who began
gathering mezzotints years ago, when
prices were comparatively low, now
may reap a profit larger an many a
successful gold mine pays. To fall heir
to a good collection of mezzotnts is as
kindly a turn of fortune as anybody
need desire.
Notwithstanding the assertion that
Fighting Bob" Evans found the con-
ming tower the most desirable place
from which to direct the movements
of the battleship Iowa during the battle
of Santiago, a majority of the naval
board of construction favors the total
abolition of the coming tower on naval
vessels. says the Chicago Record Her.
aid. The coming tower is a survival
I