The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

rier pigeons recently took part in a
race from Rome to Client
The stick insect of Borneo, the
largest insect known, is sometimes
thirteen inches long. 1t is wingless,
but some species of stick insects have
beautiful colored wings that fold like
fans.
The bands of elk that wintered in
Jackson Hole country Wyoming, four
years ago were estimated to number
$4,000. They now number less then TO-
600, according to the estimate of the
ranchers.
The oldest piece of writing in the
world is on a fragment of a vase
found at Nippur. 1t is an inscription
in picture writing and dates $500 years
before Christ. The University of
Pennsylvania has obtained it.
Japan has an avenue of trees fifty
miles in length. The trees are the
syptomera, and every one is a perfect
specimen, quite straight, from 100 to
$50 feet in height, and twelve to fifteen
feet in circumference. The avenue ex-
tends from the town of Nanaanda to
Nikko.
More than 6,90O000 French women
work for their living. Most of these
outside workers (more than 2,700,000)
are employed in forestry or agricul-
ture, including women land owners.
Industrial occupations claim nearly
100000 mere, the cloister 10000, the
theater about 10000 and the liberal pro-
fessions 1873, AGO.
in Cuba cabbages frequently weigh
as much as 20 pounds. All vegetables
do well. Radishes may be eaten from
IA to IS days after sowing, lettuce in
five weeks after sowing, while corn
produces three crops per year. Sweet
potatoes are perpetual. The natives dig
up the tubers, cut them off, and plant
the old vines, which produce a new
crop in three months. All sorts of
fruit, horticultural and greenhouse
plants and dubious stock are also
grown.
Lighthouse keepers on Percy ISL
and, off the coast of Queensland, in
1900 were forgotten for months by the
government authorities The food sup
ply of Percy Island is supposed to be
delivered once a quarter, but no food
arrived at the island after the first
W
CHANGED to pass in October. The ISL
anders, twenty in number, though de-
lirious from lack of food, managed to
hail the vessel, which left behind an
ample supply of provisions.
A dispatch from Fresno Cal, says:
What undoubtedly is the largest known
tree in the world has been recently
discovered two and q half miles from
the Sanger Lumber Company's mill at
Converse Basin, far up in the Sierras,
in this county. The discovery was
made by a party of hunters, but little
credence was given to the report until
the tree had been visited by people
who have verified the finders state
ment. The monster was measured six
feet from the ground and it took a
line 154 feet and s inches long to en-
circle it, making it over 81 feet in di
ameter. This tree is a few rods from
the company's boundary line and is
on the government reserve, hence it
will stand to interest sightseers and
will escape the woodmans ak.
Another story of guides strength
and presence of mind is told by Mr..
Horace Walker, an ex-president of the
Alpine Club, says Outing. Mr.. Wal
ker was with Peter Anderegg some
where in the Engadine. Roped to-
gether, they were cutting steps up an
ice slope, Peter leading. They came
TO d point where a huge boulder was
embedded in the ice. Imagining it to
be firmly fixed, Peter trod on it. To
his CONSERVATION, it began to move.
1t came straight for Mr.. Walker, who,
standing in the steps cut for him,
could not possibly get out of the way.
He thought nothing could possibly save
him. But Peter met the emergency
by a wonderful feat of strength. In
an instant he shifted himself back
into the ice step he had just Quilted.
Then. with a mighty effort he jerked
Mr.. Walker out of his foothold, and,
sustaining his weight by the rope that
linked them, swung him out of the
way of the rock. The rock thundered
down in the very place in which Mr.
Walker had been standing, and then
MIR. Walker swung back again and
resumed his foothold safely. There
has seldom been a narrower escape in
the history of climbing.
Fancy dresses, like coronation
robes, come high if anything unique is
attempted. Not long ago in London a
young woman appeared at a ball as a
beetle. Her gown was a simmer gilt
ter of irideScent beetle wing cases.
green, gold and glossy black Fifteen
thousand beetles were sacrificed to
produce the gown, which was made in
India. 1t originally was owned by an
Indian rajah, and came into possession
of the wearer's father. The value of the
robe is $500, says the Chicago Sunday
Tribune. When the Infanta Eulalia of
Spain visited the worlds fair she was
presented with a magnificent robe of
some cleaning green stuff, the texture
OF which she was unable to guess. It's
material was spun glass. 1t was made
at Dresden, in Germany, took five
months to complete, and cost $1,75O.
The color effect of this dress under
strong light is marvellous. AS it's wear
er moves ripples of pale green, pale
blue and silvery white appear to chase
one another across it's surface. The
dress does not sparkle, but possesses
a silvery sheen all it's own. When the
princess wore it recently at a fancy
dress ball in Madrid it created a ire
nendous sensation. Equally sensation
al, more costly but certainly not 80
beautiful, was the attire worn at Ma
pies fancy dress carnival by a woman
who represented Money" She had
more than $500 worth of paper money
fastened on her gown, besides an enor-
nous number of coins of different aees