The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


at history by declaring that Columbus
was a highly respectable and fairly
wealthy gentleman, who paid a large
part of the cost of his voyage; that he
was tall and red-haired. utterly unlike
his portraits, and that Isabella had no
jewels to pawn, having hypothecated
them several years before 1892.
The most curious spire in England
is at Chesterfield, the leaning tower
of Pisa not being more interesting to
sightseers than the queer kink in a re-
spectacle church. which tradition says
was caused by the devil kicking out
as he passed the spire. The devil had
just had his hoofs shod by a local
blacksmith and his pain was so intense
the edifice was shaken out of shape.
Another and wittier legend says the
splre was bowling to a lovely and vir-
tuous bride. Many noted persons have
IN years gone visited Rowsley and
quaint Peacock Inn and thence travel
ed to Chesterfield to gaze or1athis freak
of nature. for natural causes are sup
posed to have bent the spire, rather
than an irritable devil whose hoofs were
not shod to please him.
The army reform report, recently
issued in England, finds that one of the
faults of the army is that it has no
thinking department" The evident
lack of brain in the administration of
their army has long been a grim joke
with the British. This London news
paper story, published a few months
ago, illustrates public sentiment on the
subject: Sir Frederick Treyes, the
eminent surgeon, happened to meet in
the street an army officer. consider
able portion of whose brains he had
had to remove in a South African hos
pital during the Boer war. The sur
geon spoke to him and congratulated
him on looking so well. ooh, yes. am
all right now. thank you" replied the
officer, land I've got a snug berth in
the War Office, too
Among the advantages promised to
the people of South Africa by the
British government is the utilization
as a domestic animal of the zebra,
which is indigenous to that RECON. An
attempt is to be made to domesticate
the zebra for use in the recently ac-
quired possessions. 1t is proposed to
catch large numbers of wild zebras
and allow them to breed in captivity,
training the young as draught animals.
No attempt apparently will be made
to time and train the captured ami
mails themselves, although this has
often been accomplished with selected
individuals. The zebra proper is very
difficult to tame. but allied varieties,
such as the South African quagga,
are more easily domesticated. At the
cape twenty years since these were
often seen working with draught
horses.
Asbestos is found in most countries
of the earth, and especially large de-
posits are found in Canada, Vermont,
California, Russian steppes, the Alps,
the Himalayas and the southern coun-
tries of Europe. 1t is said that Canada
produces about SIS per cent of the total
The United States is sending per cent.
of the aggregate to market, and Euro
pean countries supply the remaining
10 per cent. Though the resources are
well-nigh inexhaustible, the present
output is very small, comparatively.
Asbestos now forms an important feat
ure in all large buildings. Asbestos for
building purposes is worked into forms
like plaster of Paris, and if necessary,
can be made as smooth as glass, hard
as marble and of a very artistic char
acter at little apparent increase of cost
AS recent fires have shown, such a
composition is found expedient in all
houses and buildings of a public char
acter. 1t will, no doubt, be used much
more, extensively in the near future, as
a requirement of the law,
Few business men will employ
left-handed person as a clerk or book
keeper and the prejudice against them
extends to the government departments
at Washington, says the Chicago
Chronicle. The chiefs of those depart
ments are entirely willing to overlook
bad penmanship on the part of a really
n nNa1 ,A..s,~ -
man or woman who writes with the
left hand at which the balk is made.
The dead line is drawn just the moment
it is ascertained that a clerk is left
handed and he is forthwith informed
that if it is his desire to continue in
government service it will be necessary
for him to write with his right hand.
This information is always bitter pill
for the left-hand penholders, but there
is nothing to be done but begin to write
with the right hand or throw up the
job" and few are anxious to quit gov
eminent service even for this cause''
No matter how perfect a hand the left
handed clerk may write, there is no al
tentative but to learn to write with the
right hand, and sometimes it takes
months to get to the point where even
a legible hand is written by the clerk
who is forced to learn the business
over" But during this period of max
ing the change the chiefs are easy and
patient and make the work as light as
possible on the unfortunate clerk One
of the best men in the Department of
Commerce and Labor began his career
in the Bureau of Statistics He had
left proof-reader's desk in the gov
eminent printing Office to accept the
clerkshfp in the bureau. He began To
write with his left hand and he almost
threw fit when the chief told him to
put the pen in the right hand, that left
handed penmanship didn't 60. Then il
was that he wished he was back in the
big prtntery, where any kind of 'hand-
writing" passed muster, Just SO the
correct marking was made on the proof
and was plain enough for the conposi-
tor to decipher.
Few fishes are nest-builders. The
majority of them make their homes
wherever chance and the waves land
them. There is one member of the
hnny tribe, however, that exemplifies
the protective provisions of nature
the marbled angler OF the Sargasso
sea. Owing to its peculiar structure
IL is poor swimmer and it, there
fore, spends most of its life moving
slowly about on the bottom among
corals, seaWeeds, etc., which these
nshes clasely resemble in color and in
outline. They cling. too, to the float
ing masses of sargassum weed with
their peculiar fms, and the color and
the marking of the fish closely resem-
pie the weed itself Not only does
the weed thus furnish a home for
THIS species, but the fish actually con-