The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-05-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

numbers over 1000 men. and if the gov
eminent does not need it the members
propose going 10 Cuba anyhow and will
ofrer their services to Gen. Gomez.
BY a decree of the Gar, the metric sys-
TEN of weights and measures has been
adopted for use throughout the Russian
Empire, and a commission has also been
organized TO consider the reform of the
Russian calendar so as to harmonic with
that prevailing in the other civilized coun-
tries.
In the course of the arguments before
the house of lords in a case in which the
necessity for additional refreshments ac-
commodation at Oban Station arose, Lord
watson, himself a Scotsman, interposed
and remarked that refreshments in that
part of Scotland had only one meaning,
and that-whislxey.
The following centennial celebrations
will be held this year: The 4O0dth an
niversary of Vasco di Gama's discovery
of the way to India by way of the Cape
OF Good Hope, at Lisbon. in May; the
burning of Savonarola, at Florence, in
May; the birth of Holbein, at Basic, in
June; Montpelier will celebrate the Tooth
birthday of Auguste Comte; Ancona that
of Leopard and Paris that of Michelet,
the historian.
The Montevideo Times says that
pretty scandal has come to light. The
Paraguayan war medals, which were de-
llvered with so much fuss and parade by
the Borda administration, have been re-
Gently examined in Brazil, and that out
of the twenty-five gold medals only five
have been found to be made of the genu-
inc metal, the rest being of more or less
base alloy. Most of the silver medals have
been found to be merely electroplate, the
bronze alone being genuine
BY a French process, discovered by DR.
Calmette of Lille, France, ordinary starch
flour may be converted into alcohol direct
without going through any sugar stage
thus getting rid of the mailing operation.
The yield of alcohol is much greater by
this process, being one imperial gallon of
alcohol 10 100 degrees per 25 pounds of
corn. This process has been in use in the
north of France on very large scale
since May last, and the French govern
ment has taken it up for use in the colo
MES.
The word tandem is of Latin derlva-
ton and means at length, and, like a great
deal of our cycle nomenclature, it was TAX
EN- from the horse and carriage trade.
where the word was intended to express a
Harvesting of horses one before another in
stead of side by side, but it was, however,
not strictly limited to two horses. and
meant any number that might be driven in
this fashion. What is known as a tandem
bicycle, however, is one carrying two per-
sons only, one in front of the other, but if
more than two persons are carried the We
hicle is then classed as a multicycle For
instance, one carrying three people is cali
trlDlet. a fVp
quintuplet; six, a seXtuplet; seven, a sep
tuplet; eight, an octuplet; nine, a month";
plet, and the only ten-seater that has ever
been built is called the "Oriten."
1t is estimated that the steam power of
Great Britain is equal to the united
strength of 1,00OOOO,OO0 men. The number
of persons employed in her coal mines
is but 100000, and of these fully two
thirds dig coal for other uses than for
engines leaving 1855 men to mine the
coal necessary to do the work of 1000 Co.,
900. The engines are made by $4,000 men
so that 1866 men furnish the means of
doing the work of 1000, 100000, the strength
of each being thus multiplied nearly
5000 times. This gives to each man, wo-
man and child of a population of $780,
900 some thirty willing slaves, born fully
grown, exempt from sickness, needing no
clothes, eating only fire and water, and
costing merely the work of one man in
5000.
All good Mussulmans," says Richard
Davey, in his book just published, Should
have four official wives, so the Sultan has
four kadines-sultana is not Turkish. Each
bears her own distinctive title and takes
precedence accordingly. Death quite re-
Gently moved the bach kadine, or first wife
Of he
of the pacha, all too well known for his ex-
plot in the Sasunk. The three other ka-
dimes are respectively denominated the
skindji kadine, or second lady; the artanie
kadine, or middle lady, and the kutchuk
kadine, or little lady. When a kadine be-
comes a mother of a male child, she is
called khasseki sultan, or royal princess;
when of daughter, khassei kadine, or
royal lady. The fact that each of these la
dies must, according to the Moslem law
have court equal in every detail, from
the mistress of the robes down to the low
est scullion, and even TO the number of the
horses in each stable, explains why some
other female parsonage of the imperial en-
tourage must perforce be selected to hold
the place and title usually allotted to the
wife of homogeneous sovereign"
The weight of the earth is undoubtedly
pretty accurately known, and knowing it's
weight it is of course an easy matter to
know the number of foot-pounds of work
that would be required to lift it any spe-
cif1c distance. J. A. Renie, in Power.
gives the figures as follows: 1T would
require the power of a 10000 horse power
engine about 70,O0OGOO,0C0 years to lift the
earth one foot in height, and to do this
work, allowing thirteen pounds of water
per hour per horsepower, it would re-
qure about 1000, O0O, 100000, 100000 gallons
of water, or more than would be dis
charged at the mouth of the Mssissipp;
river in 60,0O0 years. This would be enough
water to cover the entire surface of the
earth to depth of about 1900, 900 900. Co.,
900 tons of coal; if this coal was loaded on
cars of twenty tons each it would REQUIRE
100000, 000,000,00O cars; if the cars were
thirty feet long and all coupled together
in one train would reach around the earth
100000 times, and if it was running
twenty-five miles per hour 1t would re-
quire 100000 years for it to run the length
of itself"
Chen Was His Voice for War.
Doc" said a man who had approached