The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

president of the company, said to-day
| that he received letters from chi
cago medical school some weeks ago.
requesting that human skin be ac-
copied for tanning. He refused, but
a foreman. wishing to experiment with
| a human skin, received it. The fore
man took the hide successfully through
! what is known as the chrome" pro-
cess. Only the initiated can distin-
! guish the specimen from dog skin or
the skin of young pig
1t is announced that, as a result of
investigations and experiments lasting
many months, our War Department is
| now in possession of a secret method
of firing big guns that does away with
the little cloud of white smoke which
| has heretofore betrayed the firing OF
pieces even when loaded with smoke
| less powder. This discovery will make
1t impossible for the enemy to discover
| the position of a masked battery, or 10
| know when a gun has been fired until
| the shell drops among them or flies
| over them, provided the gun is con-
eealed in any way. Soldiers in South
Africa, where, for the first time, smoke
| less powder has been extensively used
in warfare, have, however, pointed out
that, when they can see the guns, they
| can always tell when the enemy is
about to fire. When the loading of a
gun is completed, the gunners jump
| away from it, and when that movement
is seen, it is known that shell is to
be expected the next moment.
Senator Proctor of Vermont knows
what it is to see a volcano in eruption,
says the Washington Post Twenty
years ago he stood upon the side of We
| suvius while that mountain belched
| forth lava and smoke. I'VE had gone
up a part of the way in carriages"
| said Mr.. Proctor yesterday, relating his
experience, but when we came to the
! place where we were to take the cog
railway we found that there had been
! an accident and the cars were not run
ming. About dark the manager sent
everybody away, with the statement
| that no ascent would be possible until
| the next day. Being compelled to leave
| Naples on the following day and haV-
| ing letters to the manager, 1 persuad-
| ed him to let me have some guides
| and try to ascend the volcano on foot.
He consented and we started, We
| could not get close to the crater be-
| cause the fire and lava were pouring
FORTH and even where we stood a
| shower of pumice was falling We tried
| to get the guides to take an American
| coin and get an impression of it in
the soft lava, but they would not do it.
The stuff was too hot. remember that
it was midnight when we reached the
highest accessible point on the summit,
but the stream of red-hot lava made
the locality as light as day."
Once more the much-disputed ques-
ton of the hight attained by birds in
their flight has been revived by the
report of a number of observations
made in Germany, says the London
News. These are stated to show that
the highest flier is the eagle, which
was seen at a hight of 5000 yards. In
this connection it may be worth while
recording some remarkable statements
of e. Y. Daubeny, lately published in
Mature Notes" The migratory move
| ments of most birds wrote that gem
tleman, are probably performed at
| far greater distance from the earth
| than 10000 feet. Some few species,
however, such as starlings, larks and
| hooded crows, when migrating hardly
ever go up beyond 1000 feet, and gen.
orally keep close to the water. 1t IS
| difficult to account for the enormous
velocity of some birds flight when mi
| grating. The Northern bluethroat goes
| at the rate of $40 miles an hour, fly
| ing 1890 miles from Egypt to Heligo-
| land in a spring night of barely nine
| hours, but have only moderate pow
| fly from Labrador to North Brazil,
| $500 miles, without stopping" going
| at the rate of 1886 miles in an hour,
| and probably more" How can this
| speed be attained? 1t is impossible in
the dense air near the earth, and con-
| sequently the birds resort to great
nights where the resistance of the air
is slight, and where there is a state of
calm and but little moisture.
In these sober days, says Amateur
| Gardening, when the tulip, the queen
of spring flowers, is to be bought and
sold as cheaply as IS. per hundred, it
may seem hard to realize that time
was when a single bulb would fetch
as much as $3.50 to $500. Yet it is too
true that, in the days of old, stolid
and phlegmatic Dutchmen absolutely
lost their heads land their wealth. in
bulb buying and collecting. 1t was in
the year 1854 when our brother Dutch
men became mad on tulips. This craze
took hold of all classes, rich and poor,
learned and Ignorant though, of
course, the rich were able to collect
the largest and best selections, only,
in due time, to find themselves ruined
when the bulbs once more fell to their
normal onion price value. AS every
body was crazy in the eagernesS to
purchase tulips, the price rose enor-
mously. Diamonds and precious stones
were regarded as trash in comparison
with a few good bulbs. Those were
the halcyon days of growers and bulb
merchants. Many made their fortunes.
though some came a cropper with the
buyers, in the inevitable smash which
was not long in ensuing. AS much as
$1,000 is accredited to have been given
for a collection of forty roots The
craze dropped as quickly as it arose,
and when the fictitious prices began to
drop Holland was plunged into a state
of financial difficulty even worse than
that which prevailed in England at the
bursting of the South Sea Bubble, or
of that in France during the Revolu-
ton.
An interesting discovery has been
made at Stabiac. a suburb of Pompeii
which shared the awful fate of that
beautiful city when Vesuvius buried the
surrounding country beneath a pale of
ashes and lava, says the Brooklyn
Eagle. This discovery is nothing less
than the unearthing of the skull, sword,
ring and other ornaments, all of which
are supposed to have belonged to Pliny
the Elder. When the eruption of the
great volcano began Pliny was with his
fleet in the Mediterranean, not far from
the Bay of Naples. He Immediately
ordered his ship, the Liburna, to be
rowed in shore and landed, in order
that he might offer help to his friend
POmDeianuS who had a villa q Stu