The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-26

Exploits in navigation by small
boats are extending to Eastern Eu-
rope. Simon Strabrovsky, a hardy Rus
sian fisherman of Odessa has just ac-
complished the feat of navigating
alone a small sailing boat from that
port across the Black sea to Constant
tinople and back, putting in at Con-
stanza and Saline on the return voy-
age. One popularity of the adventure
is that Strabrovsky- navigated without
a compass, declaring that the stare
were enough. He received a sum of
$1,000 for his exploit.
"A project is on foot in Alexandria
for restoring the sphinx, near the
great pyramid of Ghizeh, to it's orig
inal condition. Thick layers of soil
completely cover the head of the mon
ument, while the lower parts are great
~ obscured by Accommodations of sand.
1t is proposed to clear all these accu-
mutations away and to clean the head
completely. 1t is hoped that when the
work has been completed the sphinx
VIII once more appear, If not in its
first freshness, at least in the gran
deur of its original proportions.
In Japan the nose is the only fea-
ture which attracts attention. The
nose determines the beauty or ugIiness
of the face, according as it is big or
small This is probably due to the fact
that difference in noses constitutes
about the only distinction between one
Japanese face and another. The eyes
are invariably black, the cheek bones
high and the chin receding. In japan
a woman who has huge proboscis is
always great beauty and reigning
belle. There are a few large noses
among the natives, and lucky is he or
she upon whom nature lavishes one. In
all Japanese pictures representing the
supposed beautiful woman the artist
invariably improves on nature by de-
picting this feature as abnormally de-
veioped.
There is a fire insurance company
in Baltimore that was saved from a
loss of 100000 because of the slowness
of one of its officers. A foreign COM
pany had written a big amount of in
surance in Baltimore and, as is usual
in such cases, offered part of the risk
to various companies. The Baltimore
company had chance to take 5000 900
of the risk. The policies were attrac-
tive from an insurance standpoint, but
the officer who had to pass on the
transaction haggled about the rate
He always does. He never closes a
deal until he has thought about it just
as long as suits him. The amount In
dispute between what the foreign
company wanted and the Baltimore
company was willing to pay was less
than $780, but the slow man wouldn't
give way. While the slow man was
thinking the thing over the fire start
ed in Baltimore and the foreign COM
pany has to pay the 100000 which the
Baltimore company would have lost
had the slow man not been so slow.
The test of the auction room is still
antagonistic to the exaggerated prices
which the violin fanciers would have
us believe show the true worth of old
violins, SAYS the New York Tribune.
Some excellent specimens were sold
last week, and they were nearly all
purchased by dealers, so that; their
authenticity may almost be taken for
granted, but &20O. was the highest
price secured. This was gained by
Joseph Guarnerius of 1871, while a Je-
rome Amati with certificate by the
renowned authority Josef Chanot)
fetched e100, an A. and H. Amati of
1880 went for &95 and some excellent
old fiddles fetched a little over $50
each. l sometimes wonder that orCi-
nary purchasers do not buy more at
these sales, where, although no great
bargains are likely to be picked up
for the dealers would not allow a vio-
lin to go to an outsider for much I'M
der its trade worth-yet the prices are
very greatly below those asked in the
shops, and are, of course, almost trivial
compared with the figures quoted by
some of the collectors. The $4,000
fiddle is in fact a myth. Nothing over
&1,00O has ever been known-London
Truth.
"A dispatch from Washington says:
The emus at the National Zoo have
in the last few days begun to lay
eggs, probably stimulated by newspa-
per reports of the high price of the
domestic article. The authorities of
the Zoo have saved all the eggs, and
now they have started the process of
incubation in an incubator. They say
that emus have never been Matched
in this country, although many have
been brought into the world in this
artificial way in England. Little is
known of the conditions under which
the incubation of emu eggs must be
conducted, but the rules followed in
Matching ostrich eggs will be followed,
as the eggs of the ostrich have been
Matched here successfully. Many eff
forts at incubation by government Of
ficials have been attempted from time
10 Ilfne. One was TO Dring out a
brood of boa constructors some years
ago. Eighteen eggs were placed in an
incubator and watched carefully for
two months. The incubator was kept
at 102 and 1903, as would be right for
hens eggs, and later it was found that
boa constructors eggs should have been
kept at an average temperature of 96.
The Zoo people are quite sanguine of
success with the emu. The old birds
are dull in color, but the young are
said to be very pretty, with a bright
cream-colored plumage striped with
dark from head to tail.
-Flatfootedness may or may not be
increasing among the moderns, says
the New York Post, but it has at last
brought out some very interesting the
cries as to why 1t should be prevalent.
Sandow got fiatfooted from lifting
heavy weights, according to the opin-
ion of DR.. Sargent of Harvard Chill
dren are likely to be afflicted in this
way when they wear spring heels for
the bones of the instep. in the case of
young people, depend for keeping their
place upon adequate support of the
heel. Fat children find themselves be-
coming fatfooted because of the ali
normal weight the feet have to sus-
tain. Poor feeding of the child tends
to make it flatfooted, for the bones of
the foot require plenty of lime to make
them firm and strong. Poor feeding
leads to "rickets" as well as f1atfoot-
edness, though the physician who saws
1t does not stop to explain ricketts,.
What used to be called rheurna ttsrn %