The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

to be produced next season in London
by the English actor. Martin Harvey.
Betsy Hulet Foster, go, daughter
of John Hulet, who fought at Bunker
Hill and who was present at the sur
render of Burgoyne, has just died at
Berea, o.
The Warsaw (Poland) Jail contains
a wholesale bigamist, who is known
to have gone through the marriage
ceremony with seventeen women, all of
whom are alive.
The house fly is very rapid in
flight, its wings making 800 beats a
second, in which time it goes twenty
five feet When alarmed the rate is
increased to that of fifty feet a sec
ond.
The earliest extant manuscript Of
the Hebrew Old Testament is a copy
of the Pentateuch, now in the British
museum, and assigned to the ninth
century, and the earliest manuscript
bearing a precise date is a copy of
the prophets, at st. Petersburg, dated
n. d. 916, while the majority of the
manuscripts belong to much later Pc
RODS.
uum has been attained by Prof. James
Dewar in his search for the absolute
zero. He uses no air pump, but a
glass receiver with a small receptacle
in the bottom is filed with air, which
is frozen and falls into the lower
tube. The neck of the latter is then
sealed in the blow-pipe flame and the
part containing the air broken off.
"A mammoth dove farm at Elysian
Park in southern California is owned
by one ]. Y. johnson, who began five
years ago with 400 birds. Now he has
about 1900. The squads bring from
81 to SO a dozen. White doves pre-
dominate, and there is an effort to
confine the marketable supply to white
birds. From to 10 sacks of wheat
and 20 of screenings are consumed in
a day.
In Germany electricity, among
other curious results, has rehabilitated
the discarded windmill. At Neresheim
a windmill supplies power for thirty
six incandescent lamps that light
large paint factory. Another in Schles-
wig-Holstein keeps up a steady cur
rent of thirty volts. At Dusseldorf a
windmill winds up a heavy weight of
which the descent works a powerful
dynamo.
The best sailing vessel flying the
American flag is the steel four-master
Atlas, which arrived at Baltimore a
few days ago after run of 1890 miles
from Hong Kong in ninety-two days,
says the New York Tribune. The At
las averaged 172 miles a day. and III
knots an hour. Her best days run was
312 miles. at the rate of 1914 knots an
hour. This breaks all authentic rec
ords, except that of the bark Amy Tur-
ner, which made the run from Hong
Kong to the Virginia coast in eighty
seven days. The Atlas beat out of
sight the British bark Kelat, which
cleared for New York eleven days
ahead of the Atlas. The English captain
boosted the sailing qualities of his YES
sci, but at the time the Atlas reached
Baltimore had not arrived in New
York.
"A Western ranchman tells this
story of a snow storm in British Co
lumbia: "a bunch of horses became
lost and when we did find them they
were in at least six feet of snow. They
were on a ridge and it was impossi-
BILE for them to get any food. And,
say, don't you think that a horse can
go insane just like any human? Well,
1 was inclined to think that such was
not the case until 1 saw those horses.
There were about twenty OF the hun
dred head dead, but I will swear that
the rest were crazy. Well, sir, of those
alive there was not horse that had
hardly a rib of hair on their tails or
names. They had become so crazed
with hunger that they ate each others
names and tails off. / have been in the
cattle business a long time, but 1 never
saw anything like that before. OF
course, as we had no feed with us, we
had to beat a trail back to the nearest
ranch, where we bought some hay and
packed it to where the horses were.
We camped there for about two days
until the horses got strong enough to
move and then we brought them home.
Some of those critters have hardly
started a tail or name as yet. 1t was
certainly a queer freak, and don't
think 1 will ever see the like again"
"A Berlin paper of recent date, IN
an article on the "cakewalk," the new
American dance, which threatens to be-
come popular in Europe" gives this
startling account of the origin of the
dance: "At a dinner given by a wealthy
plantation owner a rich negro and his
wife were guests. The black pair were
so inflated with pride at being there,
and walked with so much studied air
that they attracted much attention
When the black couple had retired the
host offered a prize of a cake to the
man and woman giving the best imita-
ton of the black pairs walk. Every
body wanted to win the prize, men and
women did their best to produce the
pose and step of the high nosed ne
groes, and that was the first cakewalk."
The careless German historian fails to
give the name of the planter who en-
tertains his black neighbors and makes
fun of them after they have gone, says
the New York Tribune. Evidently the
writer is angry with the United States
for sending the cakewalk to Europe
for he says: Last year there was ex-
hibited at the South Kensington Muse
UNI the art treasures which ]. Pierpont
Morgan bought of Mannheim, the COL
lector. There were thirteen cases full
of these magnificent pieces of silver
enamel and faience. At the same time
one could see at the Guhd Hall other
works of art for the Morgan palace,
while at Cherbourg and at Havre price
less pictures were being transported
to America. And for these treasures
what does America bring us? The
cakewalk."
-"Cripples as a rule are a generous
lot" said an observant man, accord
ing to the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat, land 1 saw a fine exemplification
of the fact the 0thar oxyaripU Co,,o