The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Joseph l.. Ray, the nead OF the lnIor-
nation bureau of the Carnegie Steel
Works and the confidential clerk of
Charles NJ Schwab, is in Chicago exam
ming models for a private car for Mr..
Schwab The cost of the car will be
$35,O0O 1t is to be the regulation length,
seventy feet, and will contain two state
rooms, dressing room, dining room
bathroom and a kitchen. An observation
room will be made entirely of plate glass.
Onyx will be used largely for the floor
and walls, and the wood will be chosen
carefully. piano room will be one of
the principal features. Ray, who is a ne
gro, was born in Charlottesville, Va, and
is a graduate of Howard University,
Washington, D. C. He is SO years old.
Naturalists in Germany are much in
terested in wonderful old tree which has
been discovered near Homburg. says the
New York Herald. 1T is an oak, and is
notable not only on account of its great
bulk, but also for the fact that at the
base of the trunk it is entirely hollow The
trunk, indeed is not more than eight or
nine feet high, but it is more than 20
feet in circumference. Some idea of the
size of its interior may be gathered from
the fact that four persons recently found
ample room in it. In winter the old oak
looks very bare and gaunt, butt according
to peasants in the neighborhood who
have known it for many years. it regu-
larry puts forth new twigs and foliage
every spring, so that, ancient and de-
cayed though its trunk may be, it is
nevertheless crowned and surrounded
with masses of green leaves, just as it
was in the days of its youth. The people
of Homburg are very proud of this natu-
raj curiosity, and it is safe to say that
many tourists will have a look at it dur
ing the coming summer.
1T is mistake to suppose that the
Eskimos of Greenland live in the huts
made of ice or snow, even though some
OF the writer's of Biographies do say so
says the Pittsburg Post. The huts in
which they pass the winter are rud<ly
conical in shape, a little more than NE
feet high and made of stone, with the
cracks and spaces filled with earth and
the whole covered with turf or, sod A
passageway about six feet long and less
than three feet square leads to the inte-
rior, and there is a small window in the
hut directly over the passageway. The
hut, which is called an igloo, contains
only one room, and has built around its
sides rude platform or bench of stone.
When summer arrives the Eskimos aban-
don their igloos and dwell in skin tents,
called tupcs. Huts made of ice and stone
example, when they are travelling long
distances during the winter, or when for
| some reason they do not return to their
| regular winter settlements. In other
words. huts made of ice or snow are to
| the Eskimo what tents sometimes are to
us.
Recent explorations in Egypt under
Prof. Flinders Petrie have just brought
| to light the toilet objects and jewelry
worn by the royal ladies' more than $500
| years ago, says the jewelers. Review. The
most astonishing find was the forearm of
the wife of King Ter, still in its wrap
pings, with four splendid bracelets intact.
| Here is the description of them: zone is
a series of figures of the royal hawk
| perched on the tomb thirteen figures in
cast and chased gold alternating with
| fourteen carved in turquoise. The second
| bracelet is of spiral beads of gold and
| luzuli in three groups. The third brace
let is of four groups of hourglass beads,
amethyst between gold with connections
of gold and turquoise. The fourth has a
| centerpiece of gold copied from the rosette
seed of a plant, with amethyst and tur-
| quoise beads and bands of braided gold
wire" This jewelry is described as brill
| liant and exquisitely finished" and is 1000
years Older than any previously discov-
cred. ID appears that the arm of the
queen was broken off by the first plum
derers of her tomb and laid in hole
in the wall. There it lay unnoticed till the
present time. 1t gives one wonderful
idea of the antiquity of the human race
to know that $500 years ago the jewelers.
ART was as advanced, in some respects
as 1t is to-day.
During a recent trip through the
lower western section of the country"
turned to New Orleans, according to the
Tfmes-Democrat, II believe l discovered
the LATEST and most stupid form of life
to be found anywhere on the globe 1t
was an aquatic fowl with a big, clumsy
looking beak, in form something like
the dodo, now extinct. 1 have spent
some time in watching this fowl, which
is found in some of the shallow lakes,
and the chief point of interest to me was
the startling stupidity displayed. They
call them shags, I believe, out West
They generally squat on stumps or logs
in the lake and watch for the smaller
fish that play around the surface Of the
water. They are fairly clever in catch
ing what they want, and they throw out
their bills with considerable precision
when they dig for game, and they never
get to eat what they catch until they
have fed at least one and maybe more
than one member of another kind of wa
ter fowl. Whenever a shag begins to
catch fish a long-legged long-necked wa
ter hen will take place Immediately be-
hind him. When the shag lands the fish
the water hen simply reaches over and
gets 1t. Without any show of resentment
and without turning around the shag will
continue its watch for fish, and this is
kept uo until the water hen has finished
its meal, and then, if no other enterpris-
ing member of the same tribe comes
along, the shag is permtaed to enjoy the
product of its own sleepy efforts. l have,
on one occasion, seen one shag feed as
many as three water hens before eating
a single fish. 1t Is certainly a singular
display of stupidity, and after having
watched the performance a number of
times l am convinced that the shay Is
actually too dull to even know that the
water hen stands behind him TO steal
the fish out of his mouth
A writer in Leslie's Weekly says: The
ceremony in the old South Gate was held
to release a spirit from hell, says the au-
thor of delightful paper on Korea. In
the middle of the dense crowd filling the