The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

VI SCOlOSJ al lilC ~ Vi 1N6UIdS-
ka, thinks the geysers in Yellowstone
Park are disappearing. THE rapid de-
cline of the geyser phenomena in the
Yellowstone National Park" he says
seems to be but little understood, but
to those who will visit the spot fire.
quently the changes seem startling
and to the geologist alarmingly rapid
If one may judge from impressions, IT
seems safe to assume that, if the de-
cline in geyser activity noted during
the last four years should continue for
the coming eight or ten years, the
features which most impress the geolo-
gist will have disappeared. AS a warn
ing, every geologist who intends Wis
iting the park should not postpone
the trip year, but should visit it ar
once"
Snakes seem to be plenty in the
neighborhod of Goshen, If the stories
that are waited from over that region
are correct, says the Bridgeport Far
mer. Dynamite is a sweetish sort of
stuff, and snakes love sweet stuff A
big black snake, about seven feet long,
was in mans garden near the forest
and crawled under the hog pen just
as the man picked up a rock and threw
1t at the reptile. The rock hit the
snake, however, which, probably hav-
ing swallowed one of the sticks of
dynamite, exploded and blew himself
into smithereens, demolishing also the
entire corner of the hog pen, which
now gives silent testimony of the truth
of the story. The hog was scared half
to death, but was not otherwise hurt,
as he was in the front of the pen. The
man who owned the hog and the stick
OF dynamite was also badly scared
but was not hurt. The mans name
is Igney Androsky. Pole or Prussian,
who vouches for the story, but says in
extenuation of the act of blowing up a
snake by striking him with a stone
that he didn't know dot snake was
loaded The Polander states that he
bought few sticks of dynamite to
blow up some stumps that were in his
garden.
Prof Matthew Flinders Petrie in a
lecture this week sums up in a few SEN
fences of intensest interest the latest
evidence of the antiquity of the human
race, says London cable to the Chi
clga Chronicle. Antiquarians now have
to deal with Egypt alone. There is an
unbroken chain of historic record from
5000 3. c., besides actual objects which
carry history back 1000 years further
thus giving, 5000 years to human his
tory, but this is yet far from the begin
ming. There were traces which showed
that civilization must have come from
another country, but where no one has
the slightest idea. The earliest graves
have figures of a race of bushmen OF
type discovered similar to those found
in France and Malta, proving that the
race extended from Africa to Europe
Then there are figures of women OF
earlier races, which probably were OF
the paleolithic age. Beyond this there
vas time the climate of Egypt was
totally different from to-day; when a
rainfall fortified what is now a desert
and when animals of which all trace
has been lost inhabited the country
Other land might show the age of mar
TO be more remote by physical evidence
but nowhere could we feel more plainly
the certainty of the antiquity of man
than where 5000 years continuous re-
mains did not yet bring us into the vast
periods of those climatic and geological
changes through which man had kept
up the chain of life to the present day
The points of my argument as tc
the development of the American loco
motive as a high-speed and high
power machine, says a writer in the
L
a radically new locomotive is not avail
able for immediate service; that rail.
way officials will give promising de.
vices fair trials; and, lastly, that the
field for radical improvement is ex-
ceedingly limited. Step by step the
present engine has ben raised from 50(
horsepower to 1,500 horse-p power AND
more in some cases, but not by means
of startling novelties of any kind. The
through increasing the boiler power
from $50 pounds per square inch, which
was a maximum fifteen years ago, tC
200 pounds as a rule and 225 pounds pei
square inch in some engines, but the
steam distributing details remain JUS
where they were fifteen years ago
with some notifications in dimensions
none whatever in application. l be-
lieve that the cylindrical, corrugated
flrebox recently introduced by Mr.. Cor
nelius Vanderbilt has great POSSIBLE
tiles in the direction of still higher
pressures, and in that direction is ar
advance, but higher pressures alone
will not increase average railway
speed 20 per cent. and at least that is
demanded. The greatest stumbline
block is the line itself, as it exists or
most American railways, and it seems
hopeless TO expect any improvement
until the rOaQDeQS OF Ine railways o.
the United States are constructed fol
high speed. There is no object in build
ing Empowered locomotives to draw
trains up steep hills and around short
curves, or upon gradients more or less
heavy, by brute force. That is merely
burning the candle at both ends, fol
it increases the expense of mainte.
nance without correspondingly i'm
proving the service. High speed a:
obtained at present is costly-exceed.
ingly so-and railway managers are
we'll aware of it.
American history, as far as
know it, says a magazine writer, ha:
not mystery enough for a really excit,
ing romance. Nobody of the highes
importance ever vanished away, disap.
peared; nobody except a certain regi-
eide, and he was of English importa.
ton. The aniable and beautiful wife
of none of your presidents was ever ac.
cused of plotting with an admiral Of
your fleet to blow up the President ir
the White House. the question of he,
guilt remaining deliciously obscure. No
one of your presidents, after fighting
his way to within a lance's length Of
a hostile general. ever vanished away
leaving public opinion uncertain as t.
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