The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-02
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Col. HARDY w. u. Price OF clay
ton, Ala, is one of the few still sur
viving who took part in the battle of
San Jacinto, which decided Texan in
dependence, is hale and hearty, and
remembers the battle as thought it
happened but yesterday. He is IS
years of age, having been born in
Edgecombe county, North Carolina, on
May 6, 1917.
The Abyssinians, who are warlike,
overbearing in their manners and in
tolerant of foreigners, though compar-
atively civilized says a writer in Scrib-
ner's, are strongly tinged with super
stition; even the Emperor, though in
tellectually far above the level of his
subjects and we'll versed in European
affairs, clings to many of the ancient
Ethiopian beliefs, among which the
fear of the evil eye" is the chief, to
such an extent that when he drinks he
is protected from the view of everyone
by the 'shammas" held by his attend
ants with averted faces. The sham
ma is the large cloak worn by Abys-
sinians, made in three strups of white,
red and white, which are the national
colors.
There are still to be found in London
even within the sound of Bow Bells,
some trees remarkable enough both for
hight and girth to deserve a visit, says
the London Globe. Churchyards are
good places to look for large trees be-
sides the funeral yew- The ivy is
not, strictly speaking, a tree, but it is
hard to apply any other designation
to the venerable plant whose foliage
nantes Old Chingford Church. It's
trunk has become veritable timber,
and it can scarcely be younger than
the fabric to which it elings If we
go further afield numerous instances
may be recalled of giant trees-gigan-
tic, that is to say, for these temper
ate regions. 1t is to be feared that
they are doomed to perish when they
grow in the outskirts of large towns.
Some notable names have been
added to the roll call of Westminster
Abbey under Dean Bradley says the
st. James Gazette. Charles Darwin,
Archbishop French-himself once dean
of Westminster-Robert Brownin, AL
fred Tennyson and William EwaSt
Gladstone are among the names that
have been added to the burial roll of
the Abbey under Dean Bradley's su-
perviSion, and nobody will quarrel with
them. 1t will surprise many people,
perhaps, to know that only ten per-
sons have been buried in the Abbey
in the last twenty years, and that only
two of these were wom4n-Lady Lou
lisa Percy and Mrs. Gladstone. These,
with two poets, two architects, an
archbishop, a scientist, a queens
printer and a statesman, complete the
roll of the great dead who have been
buried in Westminster Abbey since
DR.. Bradley became dean.
The most satisfactory part of the
very satisfactory statistics on the in
creased popularity of the British mu-
scum, according to the Westminster
Gazette, is that relating to Sunday
afternoon visits. The number of these,
we are told, have steadily increased
year by year, the total for 1901 being
1885, as against 43, 1892 in 1900. OF
course, we are a long way off that
blessed future when the man in the
street will have sufficient knowledge
and imagination to appreciate at any
thing like their true value the price
less treasures of the dim past. the
very wealth of which is the despair of
the scholar, the student, and the an
tiquarian. But it is something gained
that year after year more toilers-for
it is these, of course, who are the Sun
day visitors-should care to tighten
the burden of the British Sunday by
visits to the nations storehouse of
knowledge, and even If 1T be only to
gaze vaguely upon Egyptian mummy,
Greek vase, and Assyrian tablet, it is
q. step in the right direction, since
every object at the museum is food for
the starved or lethargic imagination.
Once the imagination is stirred curios-
ity concerning facts soon follows, and
when thus the real interest is aroused
another element that makes for a
fuller, and, therefore, a happier, life of
the masses, will have been given to the
nation.
If swimmers could be trained to
keep cool under all circumstances there
would be comparatively little drown
ing among bathers and summer pleas
ure seekers, says Outing. Cramp is
usually assigned as the cause when
some good swimmer browns. But
cramp ought in reality to be nothing
serious. Usually it affects only an arm
or a leg, or maybe only hand or
foot Any moderately good swimmer
can keep af1oat with one arm, or even
without the use of that; yet good
swimmers are drowning every week as
a result of cramp. If such fatalities
were analysed they would be more
properly clasSed as drownings from
fright and loss of nerve. This comes
from the fact that every one is taught
in childhood to fear the water, and
comes as a grown man and swim
mer to fear cramp. The average opin-
ion is that the man who is attacked
when swimming in deep water is rs
good as drowned Therefore, when a
swimmer feels a~leg or arm begin to
cranp, he is frightened, in most cases,
entirely out of his wits. He loses his
head begins to splash and paw and
struggle, and then goes down. What
the swimmer should remember is that
he can keep afioat with, very, very lit
tie effort if he will turn on his back
and keep his chest inflated. 1t is the
simple matter of floating, which every
swimmer knows and finds very easy.
If the swimmer will keep cool and float
the cramping limb will frequently re-
lax after a little and he will find him..
self as well as ever.
1t was during the great exhibition
of 1900 that that peculiar body, the
Paris police force whose composition
is a matter of mystery to the foreign
err, was announced to have added to
it another branch in the form of brig
ade of swimming policemen, officially
known as lies agents plongeurs. 3"
Theirs was the by no means pleasant
duty of parading the banks of the river
Seine, where it runs through the
French capital, on. the alert for per-
sons who willingly or otherwise found
themselves Immersed in its waters
Now, says thes Chicago News,
conceived the idea of creating a new
force-'les chiens-plopgeurs, or canine
llfe-savers. The necessary documents
uara ds-aut1s ,fsa inearyrsfa tbiS v,0x.al