The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Since 1888 the American prune product
has increased rapidly, the quantity import
ed in 1897 being less than one-eleventh. and
the value less than one-fortieth of that
Of 1892. The California production for 1895
was estimated al 81, 800 pounds, a guam
THY which viii be largely increased by
trees already planted. but not yet bearing
age. Outside Of California the principal
prune production is in Washington, Ore
gon and Idaho.
The authorities of Toledo O., have
given to a company the right to run rail
wagons on the street-car tracks. These
wagons are constructed with a double set
of wheels and can be drawn on ordinary
roads or on street car tracks, the shift
ing from one set of wheels to the other
and the mounting on the rails or dis
mounting therefrom being quick and easy.
The farmers can load these wagons and
drive them to the trolley line, where
motor car will pick them up, one after an
other and haul them to the city. As this
is to be done almost wholly during the
night time it will interfere little with city
traffic.
An apparently authoritative statement
was published recently says a London
! exchange, to the effect that uuInine was
being sold to brewers for use as substi-
tute for hops, and that when the board of
inland revenue was appealed to the an
swer given was that the transaction was
not Objectionable from their point Of view,
because hops are not excisable. That, of
course, does not prove that a beer made
| with quinine or other bitter than hops
may be safely sold, for it is possible that
the vendor might be convicted under the
sale of food and drugs act, if a court took
| the views that by beer or ale was gener-
ally understood a fermented liquor made
from malt and favored with hops.
DR.. Andrew Wilson, of London, writes
thus: Il have received several letters #
late reiterating a question I might wei be
tired of answering, DO tomatoes cause
cancer" But for the fact that one takes
pleasure in stamping ones foot on a
misleading statement calculated to preiu-
dice people against a vegetable food Whch
is entirely heaithfuI and safe, I should
grow weary of asserting that not a lot
or little of proof has ever been Offered IN
support of the outrageous statement noted
above. One might as well allege that cab
| bage causes cancer, for there would DE no
more proof to be had concerning the Ioma-
to myth. can only repeat that the tonla-
to is an excellent vegetable enough. and
may be partaken of by those with whom
1t agrees without any fear of its initiating
tiny disease whatever
According to the London directory
| singular degeneracy seems to be born of
great names in A D. 1898 Oliver Crom-
well is a manufacturer of clock hands;
Martin Luther sells secondhand furniture
John Milton is a carpenter; William Pitt
is shoemakers; ]. Fenimore Cooper is a
green grocer; Henry w. Longfellow is a
broker. In Paris the same degeneracy OF
great names is noted. An examination of
Bottin's directory will reveal that Robes
pierre is a cheese merchant; Moliere Is
tailor Victor Hugo is a dentist; Chopin
doctors sick horses; Donizetti is a g!azier;
one Boileau is a pork butcher, While an
other is maker of leather straps We
might even find that the same deplorable
! state of degeneracy exists in New York
| If we had the hardihOod to delve in the
directory of the metropolis.
The queerest little sheet in the world.
both in name and purpose, is that publish
ed under the title of the KamIoops Wawa
says the Keystone. Kamloops is the name
| of the town in British Columbia. from
| which this odd periodical halls, and its
mission is to teach the Indians English 6y
| means of the Wawa system of shorthand.
! which the editor confidently claims is the
| simplest system known to man To sub
/ stanuate this statement the New Year
number announces that since its birth In
| 1871, 1000 Indians have learned to al
/ and write by its aid The Kamloops Vawa.
! however, has one point in common witt
! other papers not devoted to such a worthy
! object. and stating it the editor uncon
| SclOusly shows up one more weakness
/ which The red man shares with his white
| brothers. He says: Two thousand Indians
| have been perusing the Wawa these hast
] TWO years. Unhappiy, most of them have
faiied to bring the paper the support Of
| their subscription. Hence" he continues.
with commendable abruptness 1.-The diff
/ culty-$500 in arrears and $500 more required
to carry on the paper during 1896. A trife
elsewhere" the editor airily says, but the
! paramount of Importance for the little
! Wawa." Not the least peculiar fact about
! the Kamloops Wawa is that it is five cents
single copy and one dollar a year by sub
| scriotions.
Referring to the many ingenious and
! interesting theories which have been ad-
vanced regarding the generation and ori-
gin of natural gas-accounting, too, for
| the great pressures under which it is stor-
| ed-a writer in Casters Magazine argues
| that the distribution and intimate rela-
| ton of the carbon compounds all favor
| the theory of generation by the decompo-
! sition OF vegetable and mineral organic
matter under widely different variations
! and surroundings of temperature. pres
sure, and other forces and chemical in
huences, from the earliest developments
of organic life to the present time; the
! gas is, according to such conditions. the
product probably of slow primary decom-
| position, at low temperatures, Of animal
sediments, as may be seen, for example
in the shallow, undisturbed portions of
fresh water lakes; further, the deposits
! of. oil and gas in the peculiar geological
! formations from which they are being
| drawn for commercial uses are due to the
accidental disposition of the anticlinals
| and syncinals which act as reservoirs
! and do not necessarily indicate the re-
| striction of their generation to any par
| ticular geological periods. The richly
| productive gas pool is a dome or inverted