The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-01
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


merged several times during the year at
the seasons of high floods, says a Lon
don newspaper. The idea in building the
bridge in this way is to save the mate
rial that would be required to build 1t
sufficient high to escape submerSion az
! high water. The country on the banks
of the Mary river lies so low that the
approaches would have to be eXtraordln-
arily long to be entirely out of the water
during foods, and this would have involv-
ed an immense expense, so that ii was
decided to disregard the floods and build
the bridge for use during low water and
employ boats during the comparatively
short time that the water would cover
the bridge. The bridge will clear by
twelve feet and six inches at ordinary
high water The highest flood level is
thirty-three feet, so that at times the
| bridge will be submerged more than
, twenty feet.
1t has been discovered by DR.. A. D.
Waller, an English scientist, that in the
case of the particular class of vegeta-
BILE seeds with which he has experiment
| ed, namely, beans, the seed is alive If it
responds i'm a particular way to an cleo
trio stimulus, and that, on the contrary,
1t is dead if it fails so to respond. THE
method of distinguishing, says the
| Electrical World and Engineer May 1S),
| Consists in placing the bean between
| pair of suitable moist electrodes, and
| sending an electric discharge or impulse
| through the same, such as the discharge
of one-microfarad condenser, which has
| been charged by a couple of Laclanche
| cells. After the electric impulse, the
bean electrodes are connected to sem
sitive galvanometer. - Two such
| stimuli are usually given, one in the pos
| ifiUa and the her in the negative d.
| rection. If the bean is alive, 1t will
| give only a relative stimulus, while If
| the bean is dead, it will give only a rel
atively feeble polarization electro-motive
| force in the opposite direction to that of
| the stimulus. The process of distin-
| gushing seems usually to have killed
| the bean, but in some cases the bean
has been successfully planted after the
| test From theoretical stand
point the subject is highly interesting,
| since it opens up a wide avenue for the
| study of the relations between lfe-that
| wonderful enigma-on the one hand, and
| electric actions, so completely capable
| of measurement and control, on the 9TH
| er hand
1t appears that there are varying SUI
pe1stitions about the opal, says the New
York Press. The incident of it's very re-
cent association with two ACCIDENTAL
Deaths one that of young Hay, draws re-
newed attention to it's supposed fatality.
| The late Alphonse XII. gave an opal ring
| 10 his wife, Queen Mercedes, on his we'd
| ding day, and her death occurred soon af-
| terward. Before the funeral the King
gave the ring to his sister Maria del Pr
| lar, who died within a few days. He
| then presented the bauble to his sister-in-
law, the Princess Christiana, who died in
| three months. Astonished at these fatal
| tiles Alphonso resolved 20 wear the ring
himself and died within a very short
time. The Queen Regent then attached
| the ring to a gold chain and suspended it
| on the neck of the Virgin of Alfudena of
| Madrid. The opal is considered unlucky
| for the same reason that peacocks' feath-
| ers in house are said to be unlucky it
| comes from the Greek word "ops," mean
ing eye. A peacock's feather, being full
of eyes, acts as a spy in a house, prying
| into ones privacy. Similarly, it is I'M
| lucky to introduce the 'eye-stone," or
| OPAL into a house. because it will inter-
| fere with the sanctity of domestic con-
| tentment. The ancients called the opal
"ceraunum," from the notion that it was
a thunderstorm. The opal is fatal to
| love, and sows discord between giver and
receiver. Given as an engagement token
it is sure to bring ill luck On the other
| hand, it is regarded by some as am en-
| bleTn of hope, and is dedicated to October.
Formerly it was believed to possess magi
| cal virtues, as the comforting of invisible
ty when wrapped in bay-leaf.
| The leading article in Ainslee's Maya
zine describes the University of Pennsyl-
vania's excavations at Nippur. The ar
| ticle reads in part: 1.-THE mounds which
are being excavated at Nippur cover sew
eral distinct cities, each one apparently
| having been founded on the ruins of the
| city which preceded it. 1t would seem
that when temple had crumbled away
a new dynasty would level the ruins by
| building a platform over them. On this
the new temple would be built. Five or
more such platforms have been discov-
| cred in Pippur, and each one represents
| an interval of centuries Each city in
manner became the cellar of its success
| sor, and one can imagine in the millen-
| NUNS that passed some inhabitant dis
| covering a strange passageway beneath
| his house winding down to wonderful
| caverns. Yet the platforms seem to have
| kept the periods quite separate OF
| course those objects which are compar-
atively recent were found not far below
| the surface of the mounds. Such, for
| instance. were the business records OF
| the firm of Murashu Sons of Nippur, a
| concern which thrived in the time of Ar
| taxerxes l., 464 years before Christ.
| These tablets are, in a sense, the oldest
| bookkeeping records in the world. Prof.
Hilprecht. in telling how he found them,
says: While exploring the central part
of the northwestern ridge of the ruins of
| Nippur we discovered a room (55x2.75 me-
| ters wide) about six meters below the
| surface. Its ceiling had collapsed long
! ago; its side walls, for the greater part,
were in ruins, and the clay floor was
| covered with earth and rubbish from
above. gang of trained Affej work.
men was ordered to remove the debris
that filled the room, when suddenly they
noticed numerous clay tablets lying upon
the floor A few hours later, the whole
room had been carefully searched and
| cleaned. Seven hundred and thirty tab
let's were gathered and safely stored in
the castle of our fortified camp. After a
critical examination of the building IT.
self. and of the condition, position and
contents found therein, 1t became evil
dent that the excavated room had been
once used as a business archive of the
apparently wealthy and influential firm
OF Murashu Sons of Nippur who lived
in &he time of Artaxerxes 1. and Darius
H., in whose reigns the documents are
dated These tablets are mortgages,
notes, legal contracts and agreements of