The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

| ITEMS OF INTEREST.
A new iron ore field. which is said to
be of considerable Importance is to be
| opened in Hungary. According to the En-
| cheering and Mining Journal, it is in the
| eastern portion <of the country on the
| frontier between Pennsylvania and the
| Banat. It's extent is not fully determined,
but the presence of large deposits of good
| quality is indicated. 1t is the only known
| iron ore field in central Europe as yet
untouched. The Prague Iron Industries
Company of Bohemia is behind the new
venture.
The Academy of Natural Sciences of
| Philadelphia has a collection of locks of
hair from the heads of all the Presidents
of the United States. at has been as
| signed to the ornithological section''
says the Philadelphia Record, land is
| under the care of Prof Witmar Stone
Formerly a lock of hair was a highly
esteemed memento of those beloved and
honored. When Henry Clay travelled
around the country it is related that the
hotel chambermaids gathered the few
of his hairs left in his dressing comb
which they sold at 81 or more a hair"
Eric Boyd, of Kansas, who is serving
in the Philippines, writes home thus
From practical experience (for | have
been where there are no canteens and
also where there is ohe) think it good
thing. A canteen sells only beer and
lunch and such articles as cannot be
purchased in the commissary. l have
noticed that in places where there is no
canteen a great many of the soldiers
drink the native drinks, which are about
as poisonous as wood alcohol and do
man just about as much good. If the
temperance people could visit these
islands, anywhere outside of Manila they
would not want to do away with the
canteen."
There is clock now in the possession
OF King Edward VII at Marlborough
House to which a somewhat curious
story is attached. 1t was presented 10
the then Prince of Wales on the occasion
of his visit to India, and was said to
have been made by a priest of the great
est sanctity. 1t was so constructed as to
show the hours in Sanscrit figures the
changes of the moon and other things
After it had been brought to London the
clock remained quiescent for some years,
and eventually the Prince desired that it
should be put in working order When it
was taken to pieces there was found on
the interior of the case which covered
the handspring the name of a clerken-
well firm
Consul Nelson of Bergen in the author
of report that a Copenhagen chemist,
after experimenting for several years,
has invented a cheap substitute for rub
Der, which he calls 'soicum." 1t is pro-
duced from asphalt, and can be used for
the manufacture of linoleum, rubbers, in
sulators, etc. 1t is also claimed that the
material can be used as paint, in all
colors, and that 1t is absolutely water
proof. The immense value which a cheap
and good substitute for rubber would
have, has led to a great number of ex-
periments during recent years with va
rious substances, none of which, however
up to date. have shaken the eminent
position which rubber holds as an insu-
lator and waterproofer.
After a successful endeavor to intro
duce macaroni wheat into this country,
the Department of Agriculture is con-
fronted with the discouraging sequel that
there is no factory at which to market
the product. Macaroni. it should be ex-
planned, requires certain species of hard
wheat for its manufacture Efforts have
been made to use the ordinary American
wheat for this purpose; but they have
not bene entirely successful, and at pres
ported. The Department sent abroad and
secured from Algiers and Russia the
italian and French macaroni mills, and
particular kind of wheat used in the
Italian and French macaroni mills and
has succeeded in making it grow in sew
eral parts of the West. Now the author
tiles say that there is an opening for
some bright young macaroni-maker and
an accommodating capitalist.
Wonderful are the ways of red tape
says the Chicago Chronicle. Since 1871
part of the appropriation for the Yank-
ton-sioux Indians has been expended in
the purchase of pants" to cover the
nakedness of the little boys of that tribe.
This went on until 1896, when it was found
that the 435 pairs of unmentionables were
not needed by that or any other number
of boys in the tribe. Whereupon someone
with no knowledge of government circum-
locution gave the 1875 pairs of pants to
435 naked Pine Ridge Indian boys. This
was all very well until it came to de-
Gliding to what appropriation those 435
pairs of pants should be charged The
question kept hundreds of government
officials awake from 1896 until the other
day, when some high muckimuck decided
that the only way in which the books
could be kept straight was to issue 1876
ton-Sioux reservation and put them upon
435 Indian boys whether they wanted them
or not. There hasn't been anything so
funny since Mark Twains Great Beef
Contract"
-Apropos of the partial abandonment of
the electric automobile service in several
cities, notably in Chicago and Boston, the
Electrical World says: THE discontinue
ance of the vehicles has doubtless been
determined by entirely adequate reasons,
but 1t is nevertheless a pity, and it's effect
upon the progress of the art is assuredly
for the time being unfortunate Automo-
biles of every kind are in their infancy
and are all frequent candidates for the
repair shop. With equal or anywhere
nearly equal likelihood of breakdown and
liability 10 annoying and costly repairs we
must confess our personal prediction
for sitting over a storage battery rather
than high-pressure steam boiler or a
tank Of gasoline. No motive power other
than electricity gives the same simple
and compete speed regulation, the same
freedom from noise and smell or anything
like the same simplicity of mechanism
With the electric automobile the chances
of breakdown outside of the battery are
small, and the mechanism can be made
~ a "a. H..