The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-17
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Z
and the women raised the rest of the
money necessary.
Japanese is the latest language to
be added to the list taught at the Uni
| versity of Chicago Prof Yashiaka,
a graduate of Northwestern Univers-
] ity, has been selected to teach the Ian
guage There are number of stu
dents in the university who expect to
| go to Japan as missionaries.
If the story told by the wife of
Senior Severe is not true it is at least
well conceived. Severe was the aero
naut who was killed at Paris recently
| by the explosion of his balloon. His
wife says that just before this disas-
ter he had a dream in which he seem
| ed to be in an airship above a ceme-
terry. From the open graves arms were
| outstretched toward him. Among the
/ dead he recognized his mother. He was
! much impressed by the dream and had
| a presentiment that an accident would
| happen to him." The disaster actually
occurred above a cemetery, that of
| Mont Parnasse.
"A New York Herald correspondent
writing from Fort de France says:
| From end to end of Martinique the
| cocks are growing at all hours of the
night. Nothing has so worked upon
| the superstitious minds of the negroes
of the island as this remarkable fact
| l am told that until after Pelee's first
eruption the fowls slept as TRANQUILITY
as did their owners. I inquired as to
| whether cocks were heard to crow on
the night of May T. before the noun
tain first broke forth, but 1 could find
no one who had heard them. So seri-
ously has this fact been taken to heart
as an omen of approaching evil that it
has already grown into a proverb which
may be freely translated thus:
While the cocks crow at night
Beware of Pelees might.
"A man who is given to tracing the
ways in which one branch of COM
merce affects another shows the inter-
esting and important relation that ex-
! lists between the coal strike and the
shipment of grain-from Chicago. Rail-
| roads and vessels, he says. must have
good cargoes both going and coming
! in order to make money. The lake
boats load with grain at Chicago, Mil
waukee and other Western points,
discharge their cargoes at Buffalo and
| take on return cargoes of coal from
! the Pennsylvania coal fields. The in
| ability to get cargoes of coal during
| the continuance of the strike will make
| the vessel owners try to find business
between other points on the lakes and
| shipments of grain from Chicago will
| therefore be light.
! The scientific cause of tornado's
destructive effect is not generally I'M
! derstood. The effect is produced by
! different air-presses. The normal air.
pressure on all surfaces at sea level is
14.7 pounds for each square inch, or
about 2,117 pounds for each square foot
! The pressure in the center of a tornado
| in the dark sfunnel" is one-fourth
! lighter. Now, before tornado reaches
a house, the air-pressure on every
| square foot of wall inside and out and
of roof and floor, is 2,117 pounds, and
as this pressure is exerted in every di-
| rection, it is not appreciate. But when
| the tornado comes the pressure on the
| outside of the house is suddenly re-
| duced to the extent of 500 pounds, while
! the inside pressure remains unchanged
! The inevitable result is an explosion
from the inside. The walls and doors
of house under these circumstances,
are always blown outwards, not in
wards.
The state crown worn by Queen
Victoria at her coronation was mi
nutely described by Prof. Tenant of
Kings College, in 1858, says the Lon
don News. In the front of the crown
and in the center of four Maltese
crosses of diamonds, is the famous
ruby said to have been given to the
Black Prince by Don Pedro, King of
CASTLE, after the battle of Najera,
near Vittoria in 1857 Henry V wore
this ruby in his helmet at Agincourt
Besides the Maltese crosses are four
f1eurs de lis, each composed of up
ward of eighty diamonds, with a ruby
in the center. The total number of
precious stones in the crown are: One
| large and four small ruoies, one large
and sixteen small sapphires, eleven
rubies, thirteen hundred and sixty-three
brilliant diamonds, twelve hundred
| and seventy-three rose diamonds, one
hundred and forty-seven table dia-
monds and two hundred and seventy
| seven pearls.
1t is scarcely to be expected that
the dramatists, ever seeking some new
field for the scene of their efforts, will
long allow the volcanic explosions at
st. Pierre to escape them. says the
| New York Sun. But even the earliest
to utilize any scenes of the recent
eruptions will not be a pioneer in draw
ing inspiration from Mont Pelee. 1t
| mas Deen fecdlle0 by a ETeuchmdn with
a long memory that Adolphe d Emery,
author of THE Two Orphans" "A Gel
| ebrated Case" and about a hundred
other melodramas, succeeded in get
ting before the public first with play
| based on the volcano at Martinique
| 1t was called 1.-The Earthquake at
Martinique" and was acted in 1910 at
the Theater de la Gazette, in Paris. The
old,play, in spite Of it's horrors, is said
| to have been very effective on the
stage. In it the villain who murdered
an old man. led his wife and daugh-
ter into a crater of the volcano 100
feet under the surface of the earth.
! There was a sudden earthquake, and
the villain fell into a cavity and was
| killed while the woman and her child
were rescued.
In lecture lately delivered before
the Norwegian Geogra phical Society by
Capt. r. Amundsen, the author gave
an account of the proposed exploring
expedition to the magnetic North Pole.
! says Nature. Capt. Amundsen was
! the first officer of the Belgica, which
! sailed for the Antarctic in August.
1897, with the view of determining the
exact locality of the magnetic South
! Pole, and it was While that ship Law
fixed in the drift ice west of Graham
! Land that the idea was conceived of
! exploring the magnetic North Pole.
| For the contemplated expedition the
! Gjoa. one of the strongest and best
| sailing vessels of the Arctic fleet. has
! been purchased at Tromso. In 1881 Sir