The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-02
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

State Irrigation Commissioner Cochran
has been busy in Edmunds county. South
Dakota, directing measures to destroy
grassh oppers, which have alarmed set
tiers there and in Brown county, says the
San Francisco Post. Prof. Saunders OF
the State Agricultural College, is on the
ground experimenting the work. Fourteen
hopper dozers are in use Crude petro-
leum is shipped in by the railways free
and used in the work One can gather
about a bushel of hoppers in the twenty
minutes. They move across the road ike
a big gray blanket and have already done
much damage. The county commission
ers will offer a bounty of 50 cents per BUSH
ell for the hoppers. Prof. Saunders de-
cares that if the hoppers are permitted
10 reach the period for wings, they will
deposit millions of larNa for next year
crop The county has set men at work
burning off stubbie and grass on unused
lands.
The earliest miners and metal workers
of whom we have record were the Ayran
peoples of Euro-Asian origin, who, though
of pastoral and arboreal habits, were ia
miliar with the metals and worked with
them-at least with the metals gold, silver
and bronze. Chaldeans and Assyrians, as
we know from the cuneiform inscriptions
which go back 5000 years B. c., were I'M
doubtedly expert in the use of metals,
while the Egyptians had an intimate
knowledge of the arts and sciences, says
Self-Culture. In the brick and other in
scrfptions recently discovered artisans are
seen at work with curious details of their
methods and tools. Potters, indeed, had
attained eminence in their art, and the
Egyptians had certainly a knowledge of
chemistry, as the samples of their glass
blowing and the stone pictures of tools,
foreeps, blowpipe etc, prove. Gold was
largely used at an early period-betWeen
1900 and 5000 years B. c., as we find from
some newly discovered and ingenious
weighing balances. Many centuries older
than the pyramids which date from sixty
to fifty centuries back, we have examples
of engineering in Memphis, which could
not have been constructed without tools
and necessarily an acquaintance with
metals. The word natal" to forge, in
dicates an early acquaintance with the
fusing of ores and the malleabiity of
metals. How these early primitive people
discovered the uses of things must, of
course, have been through their wants
and needs, particularly after they left pas
toral and tent life and began to build
cities. The Arabs are credited with be-
ing early acquainted with the alloys,
though alchemy, as a science, dates only
from the sixteenth century.
There are no drunkards in China,
neither is there an excise law, says the
New York Journal And yet 1t is as easy
to get intoxicated in China as elsewhere,
and, perhaps, easier, for drinks are cheap
er. Wine of all kinds has been known and
drunk in the Celestial kingdom since the
days of the Chau dynasty, some 1000 years
B. c. Everybody drank the fermented
4r,ss- -, i i
establishment would have coined money
had it existed. Things went from bad to
worse, until one of the emperors of the
Chau dynasty went upon a protracted
spree. When he began to ''see things" he
stopped short, and reformed, and demand
ed reformation on the part of all his sub
jects. He decreed the instant destruction
of all wine cellars distilleries and saloons.
Since then wine made of the grape has
been questionable in China, and scarcely
any is made there or used. Sherry, port
and whisky have become rather popular
in China during the last half century but
they are considered as food, and only
taken at and with meals. Among the ma.
tive beverages is shoa-shng, a palish
brown mixture, the taste of which sug-
gests ripe hickory nuts. 1t is served at all
state banquets, and also at private din
ners. When cold ii is cloudy; when warm
it grows clear, emitting a peculiarly pleas
ant odor. What shoa-shing is to the up
per classes, sam-shui is to the masses 1t
is made from rice, and is its triple dis
tillate. Old sam-shui is very expensive,
and tastes like old sherry. Koa-ling Is
made from Monaghan millet, and bears a
family resemblance to rye whisky. 1t Is
drunk only in Northern China, but has a
large use in the making OF liqueurs. or
these latter, ung-ka-peh or wo-shia-pi IS
the best known. It is thick, oily and yell
low, and is cross between yellow Char
treuse and Benedictine. It's taste is sweet
ish and aromatic, and 1t has a great repu-
tation as an appetizer. Other liqueurs
made from koa-ling are moo-qua, made
OF koa-ling and melon; meu-kwai-loo,
ying-toa, and hundreds of other drinks.
Then there is fun-chin, or raw alcohol,
used for medicinal purposes. Fermented
fruit juices and flower wine, made by
sleeping petals OF leaves, are also common
beverages. Geranium wine is a horrible
connection, while the bay-leaf wine is
the equivalent of the bay rum used by our
BARRIERS. All told, there are some 1000 dis
tinct drinks in China, yet drunkards are
almost unknown.
The photograph, which has passed
though many commercial vicissitudes,
has proved itself a more practical and
valuable device in a field originally I'M
thought of. says the Pittsburg Dispatch.
For the last five years New York pro-
fessor of languages has taught various
tongues by photograph in all parts OF the
world, but especially in South America
and Mexico. He furnishes a textbook.
say for Spaniards to learn English, ar
ranged I'm twenty lessons. These lessons
are also given In his own voice on twenty
cylinders. Accompanying these TRANSCRIPT
ed cylinders are twenty plank ones. The
graphophone, which is a variation of the
photograph. Is found a convenient instru-
ment TO send to the pupil. There is also
sent cylinder containing a lesson IN any
language. with chapter or scene from a
comedy or a novel. or with a song or a
ballad. Blank cylinders for the return
messages or rotations cost 70 cents
apiece The pupil. thus equipped opens
the book at the FIRST lesson. puts the
tubes into his ears and starts the machine
slowly. He repeats this practice on any
passage, again and again, more and more
rapidly, until he IS thoroughly familiar
with every intonation and accent. Hav-
ing In this way mastered the hrst les
son he puts one OF the blank cylinders in
the ma chine and answers the questions Of
the lesson. This cylinder inclosed in a
little box. goes back to the teacher who.
NrfNh rHs. . A.