The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-09
NEWS AND NOTES.
Spells OF Scissors and Pen from Ex-
changes.

changes.
a San Francisco paper states that
! petroleum has been struck at depth
of 800 feet, about two miles south of
! Sonoma.
California imported about 100000
! tons of coal from Australia in 1888,
| about double the quantity of the
| previous year and % per cent. of the
| total supply. This is not bad, con
sidering the interruption of the
strike at Newcastle
The Los Angeles Herald says
I Fresno and up-country papers are
now discussing the merits of various
varieties of fig trees. Cultivation
and packing figs for market will be
one of CALIFORNIA; greatest indus
tries" Hear that, Hawaiian diver
sifed industrialists!
OF the worlds refraction tele-
scopes nine have apertures exceeding
20 inches, viz: Lick Observatory,
California, SO inches; Pulka, Russia,
30; Yale College, %; Littrow, vi
emma, q; University of Virginia, &c;
Washington Naval Observatory, %;
Gateshead, England, 20; Princeton,
n. j., %: and Buckingham, London,
England, 81. Six of these instru-
ments are the work of an American
firm.
Egypt, once the granary of the
world, is threatened with famine be-
cause of lack of water in the Nile.
1t is thought that some enemy has
changed the course of one of the
great tributaries of that river so that
it is either lost In the desert or has
found route for itself into the Red
Sea. Should that supposition be
correct Lower Egypt may become
desert waste, for in many cases it is
much easier to change the course of
a stream than to restore it to its
original bed.
Wards monument to Henry Ward
Beecher will have portrait statue
in bronze eight and half feet high,
showing the popular preacher bare
headed, with his soft felt hat In his
right hand by his side, and his left
hanging down. The head is up and
turned little to the right. He wears
an overcoat with cape and cravat
knotted under broad, falling shirt
collar. On one side of the nlne-foot
pedestal OF granite will be a bronze
colOred woman reaching up to lay a
palm-leaf at his feet; on the other
side are two white children Offering
flowers in somewhat the same way
The monument is to cost $35, 900,
and will stand in Prospect Park,
Brooklyn.
1t costs something to run the
political machine in the large cities
of the United States. The Republi-
can city committee of Philadelphia
met recently to settle up their bust
ness. The Chairman reported that
the Auditing Committee bad found
the accounts correct in every partic-
ular. The total expenses of the
campaign were 3,383. 65. The
largest item was $4,000 for natural
izatiOn and tax receipts, the next
largest being $1,000 for printing It
was reported that the old committee
still has outstanding debts amount
ing to $4,000. The receipts of the
committee lack about $4,000 of the
full amount required to pay off all
expenses, and this amount has been
advanced by the Chairman He will
he repaid by contributions from those
candidates who have not paid their
assessments. Seventy-three thous-
and dollars looks like a good deal of
money, but after all it is less than
ten cents head for the entire popu-
lation of the city.
The history of the Kelly motor
continues to illustrate the power of
cheek and the perennial gullibility
of mankind. Some recent litigation
in connection with this pretended
invention has recalled the fact that
as long ago as 1878, Prof. Marks of
the University Of Pennsylvania was
approached byiChas. b. Collier, who
was then Secretary of the Keely
Company, and requested to make an
investigation of the motor. He
ageeed to do this with the under
standing that if he discovered the
motor to be an imposition he would
publish that fact. Mr.. Collier, at
that time, said that it would be diff
cult to overestimate the value of a
favorable report. Upon investiga-
ton Prof. Marks became convinced
that the source Of the alleged power
was compressed air located in a
cylinder which MIR. Keely called an
expulsion tube. He was not allowed
to unscrew a stop-cock in this tube
in order to test the correctness of
this suspicion, and was also refused
the privilege of testing a gauge on
which there was al alleged pressure
of $4,000 pounds. He then told Mr..
Keely and Mr.. Collier that they and
their machine were frauds, and pub
lished this statement in 1878. Prof.
Marks says that he still believes that
the motor is fraud, and that Mr..
Keely is a swindler, and possibly so
also is Mr.. Collier. Notwithstanding
the fact that this motor" has been
before the public for about half a
generation without a single one of
the many brilliant promises made
having ever been fulfilled, there are