The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-07
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

NSeuS 10 grow SILK IN neF teTTlIOTN.
Successful experiments in the culture
of silk worms have recently been made
in the province of Nina Geraes.
"A comedy Pueblo Indian girl was
graduated at the head of the class
of professional nurses at the Phila-
delphia Woman's Hospital. Miss Sci
cher Atsye violates many of the ac-
cepted ideas of the personal appearance
of Indian women. She is small and
attractive. She was brought east
twelve years ago. when she was only
10 years old, and was educated at Car
Isle.
The street car system of Budapest
is considered the best in the world. and
has been initiated by several American
cities, including Washington. The I'M
foreground railway is also a model. The
stations are built of porcelain tiles in
side and out. The cars hold forty-two
people. they run by the electric third
rail system, and the fare is 4 cents,
the stations being at intervals of a
quarter of mile.
"A common sight in Sicily, where is
famous Mount Etna and where remains
of Greek architecture abound, is a
train of freight cars bearing tons of
Ddt VI SuIpHuIf dS ytIION dS SOlu.
This island now supplies about 30 per
cent. of all the sulphur produced. The
rocks and the soil are largely of vol
canic origin, and the sulphur mines
penetrate in some cases deep into the
earth. Some of the best mines are
quite near Girgenti. the celebrated
Agrigentum of the Roman historians.
The great cost of Transporting
timber from the forests of the North
west by vessel to the west coast of
America has caused experiments to be
made at various times of transporting
timber in bulk. The rats are cigar
shaped, built in a. central hulk, and
secured by chains every twelve feet.
The whole raft is about 400 feet In
length. made up of S0-foot logs, and
being 80 feet in diameter. 1t would
take the full capacity of a dozen ordi-
nary vessels to carry as much timber
as there is in such raft.
"A striking proof of the lasting
qualities of cedar wood has been dis
covered in the state of Washington.
Near Acme is a forest of hemloeks,
which has grown up over buried for-
est of cedars. 1t has been found that
the trunks of cedar are we'll preserved,
although they have been lying in damp
oO1A 1OA ct lGdSl lou yedISs IlG IiIkS
of growth on the hemlocks show that
they have been growing over the cedars
for that length of time.
The Bayarian state railroads report
that their experiments with alcohol as
an illuminant with lamps having
something like a Welsbach gas burner
have been entirely successful so far
as the illumination is concerned. But
c 4adf CFan hi hot
should be kept clean and carefully and
cautiously handled, and the change
of the asbestos nantes at the proper
time and keeping them in order are
of great Importance. The officials are
instructed to give special instruction
and supervision to the men who care
for and use these lamps. The chief
object in introducing alcohol as an
iiluminant seems to be to increase the
market for the product of the disti1-
leries.
Sir Robert Ball has calculated the
heat which the sun has yielded in con-
tracing to its present form. 1t amounts
to as much as 3,400. 900 globes of coal,
each as heavy as the sun would give
out. Now, as the sun is about $4,000
miles in diameter, 3,400 such globes
would stretch from where the sun now
is 1892, 100000 of miles into space. which
would be far outside the orbit of Sat
urn. But that is not all, for there is
still enough heat in the sun to warm
the earth for millions of years. Thus
bit as the sun is, it is an economical
warming apparatus. 1t only needs to
shrink sixteen inches per day to give
out all the heat we need, not to men,
ton thousands of times as much scat
tered in space.
At one place in England the ancient
ceremony is still observed of weigh
ing" the Mayor into office. This year
the same man was reelected and the
people of the town consider 1t to the
credit of their aldermanic turtle and
champagne that the official scales
showed him to be heavier by several
pounds than he was year ago. High
Wyconbe is the place which thus takes
its Mayor by weight, and in the same
town every Michaelmas the old-fash-
Toned system of "hirings" is observed.
Those desiring to change their situa-
lions gather in the market place. To
denote their calling eowTnen and Shep-
herds wear tufts of hair in their caps,
while the caps of plowmen and team
boys are adorned with whipcord. The
bargaining for wages is all public.
and after their engagement these hired
prize oxen at a county fair, with
bright -colored ribbons and go off to-
gether to a meadow, where innocent
sports are INDUCED.
The natural history books teach us
that there is but one true species of
horse, the Equus caballus. This crea-
ture, found wild in Central Asia, was
believed to represent the only surviv-
ing species of a family whereof the
ass and zebra are also Representatives
1t appears, however, that we shall re-
quire to revise our ideas regarding the
horse species. The Duke of Bedford
has imported IL colts from Mongolia
of Przewalski's horse, a form discov-
cred by the colonel whose name Ii
bears. At Woburn Abbey the colts
are seen to be of the size of ponies.
They represent distinct species, and
not mere hybrid or crossbreed be-
tween the horse and some allied form.
There was a wild horse of the Kirghiz
stepoe called the Tarpan. 1t is now
extinct, but its leanings, 1t is said,
were nearer to the existing and ordi-
nary wild horse than to the Przewalski
form. The Woburn colts illustrate,
once again, the great difficulty of de-
termin!ng the exact nature of a "spe-
cies" of animals.
Considerable dissatisfaction is be-
ing expressed at the new ration allow
ance for patients established by the
New York state commission in lunacy.
The present high price of potatoes is
responsible for one of the changes, and
the place of the tuber is to be taken
~ nd