The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-14
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

puDilCS are HOOuluS lHe New orleans mar
ket, says the New Orleans Times-Demo-
crat. The soils of Salvador are in the ma
jority. They are about the same size and
weight of a silver dollar making it pos
sible for swindlers to use them with COM
parative ease, and the profits are about as
great as those accruing from counterfeit
ing without the element of danger. Money
brokers, to whom the victims go to con-
vert the foreign coin into American cur
rency, say that the town has not been
flooded in this way for years past. Vic
TINS are bringing in reports from all quar-
ters Of the city, showing that the town is
being thoroughly worked.
Three elderly gentlemen visited the
town of Cottage Grove, in Lane county
Oregon, last week, for no other purpose
than to ride on a railroad train and eat
at a hotel, says the Portland Oregonian.
Each Of them was nearly so years of age,
and had never seen a railroad or eaten at
a hotel, says the Moderator. Their awk-
wardness was apparent to the hotel clerk
to whom they told that they were born on
the coast near the mouth of the Umpqua
river, and that they had never before been
away from the county or in sight of a rail
road, and that they came up to Drain for
the purpose of seeing railroad, and rode
to Cottage Grove to be able to lord it over
some of their neighbors, and say that they
had been out of the county where they
were born and had ridden on a railroad,
and while here INDUCED in the novelty of
eating at a hotel. Their home is forty
miles from the railroad.
The natives of the Island Of Papua
have no concern about either gold silver
of bimetallism. They have the single rum
standard. Harold Avery, who describes
in the Scientific American visit to viii
lage situated at Port Moresby, opposite the
Australian port of Albany, on Cape York,
says: THE basis of exchange in arrack
Java RUM, one-half gallon of which is
reckoned equal to one days work at fish
ing or rattan cutting; no money is used.
When this nectar of the Papuan enters a
home every occupation is dropped, and
the family devotes all it's attention with
enthusiastic energy to its consumption.
Their efforts never flag while the rum lasts
or strength remains. The resulting stupe-
faction lasts for days, but on recovery the
family cheerfully proceeds by perseVerlng
industry to acquire the means OF procuring
more Arrack is without rival as the
most viilainous intoxicant known, and Its
only competitor in the affections of the Pa
puan is roast wild pig. Together, they
are simply irresistible.
Besides a considerable number of large
water power installations, Switzerland Is
full of power plants, nearly every town
in that land of mountains and waterfalls
being well supplied with power from the
''white coal" as the melting snow on the
mountain sides has well been called, says
an exchange. When there are no large
streams, many small ones are impounded
and collected in reservoirs on the lull-
| sides. and it is rare to find place OF any
size which is not well lighted by the
power of some mountain stream. AT Mon
| treaux the electric tramway gets its power
| in this way, and from the old Roman
| town of VeVey to the medlaeVat caste Oh
! ChiIlon one may ride in a trolley car pro-
| Delled by the power of an insignificant III
! lie stream. which may or may not be no.
| ticed when climbing up the hinsides just
| above. The capabilities of this general
| utiliza ton of natural powers are begin-
ming to be understood everywhere, and
| with the appreciation of the possibilities
/ of the best methods of long-dlstance
| transmission, the development OF many
mountain streams must surely come
| There are innumerable streams which
while very small, are yet very high, anu
| these can with comparatively little dlfl-
| Guilty be impounded, and carried down
| many hundreds of feet, thus making ur
for their lack of volume by me great pres
sure readily obtainable, and, either by the
use of electricity or compressed air, the
| power may be transmitted to many points
| of applica ton with but little loss.
The Chinese jeweler is a creature OF
method. but the methods are entirely his
own. says the New York Times. There
are two jewelers. in Chinatown, but their
establishments do not resemble the or
/ binary places known as jewellery shops
| The Chinese jeweler is manufactures
| as well as a shopkeeper. His establish
| ment is a tiny room up one or Two mar
| row flights of stairs. The room in one
| place is divided by an open-work iron par
| tition, with an arch and counter near
| the window, where the jeweler stands al
| work He is an elderly Chinaman, wear
ing glasses, and he works over a tiny
fire in the window All his work is done
| by hand and some of it is beautiful.
| There are heavy silver bracelets which
open with a hinge and fasten with an
odd little staple. The fine raised pattern
is cut out, every bit of it, by hand. There
are gold rings made in the same way
| They are fine rings, made of twenty-four
| carat gold. Almost nothing is kept in
| stock There may chance to be few
| rings and bracelets, which are taken from
| a small safe. Most of the goods are
made to order. When the manufacturer
is asked the price of ring he weighs
It before he answers. His scales con-
sist of a slender stick of ivory, perhaps
! a third of a yard long, covered with Chi
nese characters. At one end is small
brass plate suspended from the stick by
fine threads, and a very small weight
also hanging by a thread, is moved along
to the balancing point by the jeweler as
he holds the little machine in his hand
The front part of the little shop is filled
with a stove, table, dishpan, dishes-as
many things as can be well crowded into it,
An important commercial application
of the Roentgen rays has been made Ii
France in method of detecting adul
terated vegetable products, which are
most frequently falsfed by the addition
of mineral substances, says the Boston
| Journal of Commerce. The method pos
l'sesses many advantages, as it requires
but small samples of the substance. II
leaves the specimen completely intact anC
the time consumed in the determination is
very short, a quarter of an hour suf-
ficing for about a half-dozen examinations
| The proof is also such that it can be
understood by any one. Experiments il
Illustrating the application of the method