The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-10-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

power in swimming twelve miles an hour.
1t is an inexplicable fact that men
buried in an avalanche Of snow hear dis
tinctly every word uttered by those who
are seeking for them, while their most
strenuous shouts fail to penetrate even
few feet of snow.
Husbands and wives travelling togeth-
er in Norway, Austria, and Hungary pay
only one fare and half on the railways.
Where several children of family are
taken along a considerable reduction is
made in their fare.
If child in Switzerland does not at
tend school on a particular day the pa
rent gets a notice from the public au-
thority thai he is fined so many francs;
the second day the fine is increased, and
by the third day the amount becomes a
serious one. In case of sickness the pu-
pill is excused, but if there be any sus-
picion of shamming a doctor is sent If
the suspicion proves to be well founded
the parent is required to pay the cost of
the doctors visit
The total consumption of coffee in Eu-
rope and the United States was 1,O99, $50 900
pounds in 1898 and !, 2i6,64O,O00 pounds IN
1897, an increase in the latter year of 129,
$4,000 pounds OF this increase 100000 900
pounds came to the United States. The to-
tai consumption of this country has reach
ed the enormous amount of 636 $40 900
pounds, or 9.95 pounds for each individual.
This is 26,O0OO0O pounds in excess of the
amount consumed in all Europe. In 1898
Europe consumed 542, $4,000 pounds and
the consumption in the United States was
1876 2S4, 900 pounds. In Holland the consump-
ton for each inhabitant in 1897 was esu-
mated at % pounds. In Denmark the indi-
vidual average was Is pounds; in Belgium,
IL pounds; in Germany, ga pounds; in
France, ga pounds, and in the United
Kingdom of Great Britain only seven
tenths of pound.
1t has been untruly said that woman
has no original genius; she can copy, but
she cannot create Invention is response
bic for the statement that 400 women APP
piled for patents last year, says an ex-
change. However, applying for a patent
does not always mean that an invention
is valid and workable. The patent Office
of this country at once grants an appli
cant a patent, and then leaves him to
discover whether he is infringing on some
one else's rights. One young lady in
South Africa invented a patent curling
iron, from which she receives 200 year.
Another woman improved on baby car
riages and gained a fortune of 10000. The
ex-Empress of the French devised the
crinoline, not an unmiXed benefit to hui
manity. One lady has invented an APP
pliance for deadening the sound of car
wheels, perfectly successful and another
has devised a curiously ingenious paper
bag making machine. Then there is Mrs.
Henry Chetwynd's fire escape, a most
ingenious apparatus, admirable in every
way as a means of saving life from fire.
Joaquin Miller, the California poet will
sleep the long sleep in a tomb satisfactory
to himself 1t has already been built I'M
der his own supervision and from his own
designs. in romantic spot on the top of
a heaven-kissng hill back of the poets
home in Oakland where big trees thrust
themselves up into the air and huge bowl
ders dot the ground. Upon one of these is
carved in big letters ITO the Unknown"
the poets greeting to the future which
has eyes cannot pierce. The tomb itself is
square solidly built of $40 rough blocks
of stone, to last for all eternity. Three
steps lead up to it. 1t is ten feet square
and eight high, so that from the top step
a man can look over and see in its top
only a shallow depression. Here the poet
has directed that his body be cremated and
the ashes scattered to the winds. Miller
is not in ill health, but wishes to be ready
for death when ii shall come. His exper-
fence in the Kfondike aged him, but he
plans to put his experiences on paper in
ashes of his body from the square pile of
rocks on the hin.
"A native writing to the st. Louis
Globe-Democrat on the needs of the is
land presents more startling facts as to
the results of Spanish rule in Cuba. Cuba
has been paying Spain $50, co., 900 annually
and of this enormous sum not a penny has
gone to the support of primary schools
and but very little to educational work of
any kind According to the provisions of
the law there should be 1870 primary
schools in Cuba, and it has but 49, and
these miserably equipped. OF more than
100000 children of school age only 1852
attended school the year preceding the
outbreak of the recent three years war
Baracoa, with 1855 children, for instance,
had but two public schools, with ca
pacity for 1856 pupils, at a total cost of $3.50
a year. 1t is estimated also, that % per
cent of the Cuban people, black and white
can read. Only from Z to 10 per cent of
the negroes can read The Cuban negroes
however, have organized a simple system
of their own, and though very rudimentary
it has been the means of melting them to
improve their limited educational oppor-
tunities A still further Indictment to am
bition on the part of the negro population
is that an Cuba there is not the prejudice
on account of color that prevails in the
United States. There is freedom of social
intercourse which leaves the way open
for preferment if the negro can but &C
quire an education and possesses ability
What Cuba needs most just now is Ameri-
can educators of ability and experience
and schools and universities such as this
country enjoys. Above all it needs the
American common-school system and some
institutions and schools such as those of
Hampton and Tuskegee.
Not quite, but nearly one-half, of the
railroad mileage of the world is in North
America. If to the railroad mileage of
North America be added that of Brazil
and Argentina in South America, $1,000
miles collectively. the total will exceed
the mileage of all the rest of the world
Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the
other South American countries included,
says an exchange. Moreover, railroad
building is being carried on much more
rapidly in the United States than else
where. But it is not only in respect of
the extension of its railroad system that
the United States takes precedence, for
some recent computations show that the
Init Al Fr.. l. -.