The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-23
lTE4s OF INTEREST.

York Tribune a photograph of an old Idaho
mortgage, which shows in startling way the
amazing possibilities Of compound interest
The mortgage was executed in 1851 on piece
of land in Boise City TO secure the sum of S34C
If paid in legal tender. with interest at the rate
OF ~ per cent. per month. But II said note
shall be paid tn n the sum OF S170.
with interest at 10 per cent. per month. and if
said interest is not paid at the time of maturity
OF this note, said interest to be added to the
principal, and said principal and interest to-
gether all draw interest per month as above
stated" These conditions were evidently not
fulfilled. for note is appended TO the document
as follows: The above mortgage is not salts
fed, according TO the records Of Ada
county. With interest on $40 at 10 per cent.
per IL onth, compounded every SIX months, the
debt would now amount to S54, 972, 003 1872,
62e 5O.' There are great many miliionaires
in the country, but there is probably only one
man in the world who is indebted in the sum
of nearly $4,000, 200, 100000.
ONE MAN makes all the ink with which the
United States government prints It's paper
money. His father invented the ink, but be
never told any body how be did it until just be-
fore he died. when he let his son into the secret,
says the Lad Is Home Journal Had an I'M
timely accident gathered the inventor to his
fathers before he told his son about the ink the
government printer would have been in a bad
way, for thus is the only kind OF ink that will
print on the peculiar surface OF the fiber of
which government note paper is made. The
maker employs only six men in the manu-
tacture OF his ink, and none OF them Is in the
secret, nor has any one yet seen the interesting
act of mixing the Ingredients OF which the ink
is com posed. The owner OF the secret locks
himself up in his own room two weeks in each
year, and it is there aud then that he mixes
stuff enough to supp y the government with ink
for the ensuing twelve mouths The process OF
locking himself up surrounds him with an air OF
romance something like that Of the man whom
Baizac n ade to search for the GlkGhest, ths
only difference being that the slkahest fellow
shut himself up for q lifetime and got nothing,
besides alternating the affections of his wife,
while the other locks himself up for two weeks
and gets $4,000 year.
IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN that oil poured upon
the surface OF stormy water has wonderful
effect in calming it, says the Y,7Lth's Conrdn-
son. Many ssels have pro ably been saved from
destruction ny this simple ms hod, and every
month the United States photographic bureau
publishes, along WITH its pilot Chart" dozens
of letters from ship captains describing tie re-
suits they have obtained by the use OF oil in
smoothing tie waves of an angry SCI. The
reason OF this curious effect OF oil upon water
is, In general sense. perfectly apparent. II
depends upon the vi ,cosity, or 0dhesivtness OF
the OIL whica causes it to act somewhat like a
skin drawn over Ene Inoie unstable surface OF
the water so that the tenoency OF the latter to
break into sprays as IL is driven by the wind ia
restrained. The danger to sips from a hi kh
running sea arises from this breaking of the
waves. AS long as the surfa e OF the waves is
smooth and unbroken, the ship rides
principle upon which the oil acts is thus
evident enough, the real method of it's
action IS not so apparent. This has recently
been subjects ID a mathematical luvestiE cation
by A. b. a'set in England. tie SHOWS that
the visc0siUy of Oil is 80 much greater than
that OF water, being in the case Of olive oil more
than 23O times as great, that the w;tter may be
regarded as trctionless liquid in comparison
with the OIL The surface tension between the
oil and the air is a'so shown to be considerably
greater than that between the oil and the
water. With these data he finds that the mo.
ton will be stable, or there will be no breaking
of the waves unless the latter vary in length
between two certain fractions of a c5ntimeter
namely nne-clevenths and siX-dfthS The re-
suit would, of course, vary little with differ.
ent kinds OF oil, aud IS matter OF fact the re-
ports OF mariners show that there is a
considerable difference in the effect produced
upon the waves, depending upon the sort of oil
that Is used. Petroleum and various kinds OF
fish oils have been employed. The effect il
always found to be beneficial, though In varying
degrees.
AS MATTER OF FACT, says a writer in the
Catholic World, this earth of ours has long
passed its youth. 1t ia now verging on old age
and, with its poles covered by everlasting ice il
may be iikened to a body whose eXtermities are
bleached and paralyzed with years. hven in
the geological period which Immediately pre-
coded our own aud which is known as the post
pliocene or Quaternary, great changes tool
place, and man has been a witness TO them
The rivers Of to-day are mere brooks compared
to what they were then, and in North Anne rics
we can trace the shore lines OF immense qua
ternary lakes which no longer exist But wuile
this fact may interest and perhaps surprise us
little, it does not tax our credrity so much a
when we are told that once, instead OF SNOW
aud ice, a luxurant vegetation fiourisaed not
far from the poles. Indeed. the French natural
list. Button, believed that on our planet, Whca
was slowly cooled and consolidated, life
began at the poles; and that from thence
it spread In the direction OF the tropics, where
at first the heat was too intense 10 admit ofany
kind of life. But it is only within recent years
that we have been able TO get a glimpse OF the
ancient arctic zone, which is much moro access
IDLE than the antarctic. and what has thus far
been brought 70 light makes buttons dc ring
conjecture appear not 30 very improbable. In
Spitzbergen and Greenland. Ia Alaska, along
the banks of the Mackenzie river, even in Grin
nell Land between 500 and $50 north latitude
the farthest point yet reached-fossfl plants
have been found belonging to the carbonifsr-
Gus, lurASsc, cretRceous and tertiary periods
aud these plants have been described by Prof
Oswald Heer of Zurich, Ia his admirable work,
''Flora FOSSILS Arctica-" The fossil seUuoias of
blance to the living sequoas OF California,
while the fossil laurel-lauruS prImiRenia-of
ancient Greenland ia said to be the direct an
cestor OF our present laurel. The cold which
overwhelmed the ancient polar regions is not
arrested in its progress: the cause which first
brought it on is still at WORK. Our sun is bs-
coming more and more condensed and by and
by it will no longer mud in the contraction of
its diameter source sufficient TO keep up its
energy, and with the extinction of the sun our
earth must perish The approach of this deadly
world chill is infinitely slow--so slow that mis-
tory takes 10 note of it; but in time the nov
crowded, busy portions of the earth must meet
the fate OF Greenland and Spitzbergen. This
day is still buried in the distant future; but far
off as it is, the lesson OF the past tells that il
Is