The Savannah morning news., 1903-09-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Strange condolences nearly always
mark great characters. Nine years
the Italians say, Pope Plus X, was in
the seminary, nine years a parish
priest, nine years archpriest, nine
years a canon of Treviso, nine years
bishop of Mantua, nine years cardi-
nal and patriarch of Venice. And
nine years pontiff comes naturally
into the minds of those who are inn
pressed by condolences.
In England special 1915 license
is required for the privilege of keeping
man servant, and a Londoner re-
Gently arrested for failure to comply
with the law brought forward the novel
defense: He is my housemaid" There
seems to be an increasing tendency in
London to employ men to do the work
commonly assigned to housemaids, and
they do it better. The defense, how
ever, was not accepted by the law.
A most sensational balloon ascent
was made at Roubaix. France, the
other day, by a lion tanner named Hen
ri and two aeronauts. A small cage
containing two lions was placed in d
specially constructed car, and when
Henri entered the cage the aeronauts
installed themselves on a platform
above it, and the word to let go was
given amid tremendous excitement. The
1 lions soon became distressed and
| erouched in the corners, whining pit
eously.
Baron Toll, whose polar expedition
left st. Petersburg on June q, 1900,
has not been heard from since June
8, 1902, when he left the ship Sarya
with the astronomer CaahOpe hound
for Bennett Island. On Feb. % last,
Lieut.. Koltschak, one of the mem
bers of the original expedition, who
had in the meantime returned to the
Russian capital, left it again to search
for Baron Toll in New Siberia. Ac-
cording to the latest reports he has
as yet found no traces of him.
The Mandans, a tribe of Ameri-
can Indians, have a curious custom
as regards producing and stopping
rain. This business is mainly in the
hands of the young men, who vol
unteer to stand in turn upon the roof
of hut from sunrise to shutdown Vo-
c:ferouslY commanding the rain to
fall or cease. They are assisted by
the medicine men, who meanwhile
perform their mysteries inside the hut
The young men who fail retire in dis
grace, but the winner ranks as med
icine man, an honor always won, for
the ceremony is kept going daily I'M
til success is attained.
This time it is Russian who has
found out that he is heir to an es-
tate of sixty-two million rubles, which
has been deposited in a London bank
enc hundred and fifty years. Amer
leans, it appears, are not to monOp-
olize all big inheritances of this kind
though such a prOdigious number of
them first and last have held out
hands of reckoning to credulous COM
patriots, with no money ever shown
except the advance fees paid to the
lawyers. Demetrius Doroshenko,
Muscovite da% laborer of Kharkov,
may have better luck, but it will not
show good business judgment if he
sets up an automobile on the strength
of his prospects.
AT Budapest recently a servant
girl absconded with $500 belonging to
her employer. She was subsequently
arrested, but no money was found on
her. She has since confessed to the
theft. but states that she paid the
money over to a married woman
named Hauser, who consented to sell
her husband to her for the sum in
question, the girl being madly in love
with the man. When she found out
that she had been deceived and that
the married couple were keeping the
money and enjoying themselves with
it, the girl made a full confession
The authorities have ordered thor
ough search to be made in the house
of the Hausers, in the hope of re-
covering some of the money.
In Holland the nests of storks are
generally on the summit of tall post,
put up on purpose for them, on which
is fixed an old cart wheel Says an
English writer "A Dutch gentleman
of my acquaintance has one such post
in his grounds within sight of his
library window but he improves on
the cart wheel by having an iron frame
work for the reception of the nest The
first year it was put up, toward the
end of June, solitary young stork
used to come daily and carefully in
spect this framework. saw him
there myself one day, standing in the
empty receptacle exactly like a would
be benedict inspecting an empty house,
contemplating the view and wondering
if the drains are all right, The YER
dict was apparently favorable, for next
season saw the nest occupied by the
newly welded pair. Their power of
wing is very fine, and on hot DAYS |
have watched them ascending in spiral
circles, hardly moving their broad
wings, till they have looked no bigger
than flies. After the young are hatch
ed they appear to be suspicious of one
another and unwilling to leave the nest
unguarded." Denmark is the country
which is especially favored by these
fne-looking birds. In the towns you
may see many nests on the buildings
In close proximity to one another, and
the bird themselves feed unconcerned-
ly in the meadows and roadside fields
In the country nearly every farmhouse
has place made for the storks' bene-
mt in the gable end of the matched
roof And they are generally occu-
pied. Storks have no voice; the only
noise they make is "klappering'' (snap-
ping their great red mandibles rapidly
mad loudly. Thus they greet one an
other generally by throwing back the
head until the upper mandible rests
on the back; but occasionally "kIap-
pering" is performed with the head and
Dill in the ordinary position
The prevailing belief that gorrilIas,
chimpanzees, or orang-outangs, as
they are variously called, use clubs
when they attack each other or their
enemies is an entirely erroneous one"