The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-06-15
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

During the year ended June 30 1897, |
there were exported from China 26, 705, 1913 |
pounds of frecrackers, valued by the Chin |
csc imperial customs at 1888. 0S2 haikwan !
taels, equalling at the average rate of |
exchange during that time, $1.5S4,1 Isl in
gold. The entire export was from the
province Of Kwangtung. OF the total
over 24.0o0.O0O pounds were sent
from the port Of KOwloon over 100000
pounds We're sent from Canton, and the
remainder from Lappa and Swallow. The
greater part of the shipments was sent
to New York by sailing vessels, small
quantity went to England, and other uoun-
tries took only very inappreciable amounts
Recent reports make it appear that
the outlook for the sheep-raising indus
try in Australia owing to the prolonged
furnishing drought, has never been so
gloomy as now. Millions of sheep have
persisted this season, and from Western
Australia, Victoria and New South Wales
the reports are disheartening. The feed
has been dry and dead so long and the
water has become so nearly exhausted
and so poor that stock is being rapidly
decimated. Thousands of men are being
employed in the various districts cutting
the boughs of the apple, the oak, and
other trees for food for the starving
sheep. and in skinning the animals that
perish in the mud at the failing water
holes.
Germany has $50 carrier pigeon socie-
ties, with over 100000 birds. and military
authorities there strive to make them use
ful messen gers of army movements. 1t is
IA ther odd that in Austria there should be
but a single society, and no attention PAID
to the utilities of the bird in it's relation TO
army movements. The routes of fight fol-
lowed in Germany by the Military Carrier
pigeon Society are laid down every year by
the Prussian ministry OF war. Flights take
place from Linz, St. Polten, Vienna and
Budapest for training the birds, which are
sent in truck loads from Cologne. Over one
hundred and seventy societies take part.
German officers are specializing as to what
use, If any, will be made of pigeons by
American military authorities in the COM
ing Cuban campaign.
Julian Ralph sums up his impressions
of Russia In these words: "In a SEN
tence, Russia Is a huge farm, compris-
ing a seventh of the land surface of the
globe, and a twenty-siXth of its total area.
It has half dozen men to manage it-ac-
cording to the policy of one of the six
and the people are divided into ten mill
ions of men and women Of the more or
less comfortable, more or less educated
class, and 119,O1000 citizens, the mass of
whom form the dullest rudest least am
bilious peasantry in Europe. If one tray
els over Russia to spy out the land he
may go for days across it from west to
east without breaking the continuous
view of a fiat disk, whose only variety
lies between its farmed fiatness and its
waste f1atness its squat, shrinking, I'M
kempt villages and it's sandy districts
wooded with thin birch or evergreens. EV-
erywhere it is new, rude and untidy."
in study of deep coal mines in Prus-
STA in the Revue Universelle des Mines
(February and March 1882 F. Tomson
describes the largest hosting engine in lse
in that country 1t is intended to hoist
from shaft so meters deep, and will raise
a load of 4, 400 kilograms in addition 10 the
weight of car, etc, at a speed of 10 me-
ters a second. The engine is of the vert-
cal compound type and works at a boiler
pressure of $50 pounds. There are two
drums, each of which will carry 900 meters
of cable mounted on parallel shafts.
The consul general Of the United States
at Shanghai, China. reports that there are
now in operation i'm and about that city
nearly 10000 spindles OF these, $4,000
have been working eight or ten years; the
remainder have been put in since the Jap
anese war. 1t is also reported that $4,000
new spndles will be put in one of the
Shanghai mills shortly. No new mills are
building. Eighty thousand spindles are
working at Wuchang; of these, $1,000 have
| been in operation for about eight years
| the remainder one year.
Within forty years there has been
much shifting in the tobacco producing
area of the country. Prior to 1853 Virgin
| ia was the greatest tobacco producing
state, the annual yield being $4,000, coo
| pounds The present yield of Virginia is
| approximately, only 100000 pounds per
| annum. Succeeding the civil war Ken
| lucky took first place in tobacco and holds
| it, with an annual yield of upward of
! 225 900, COO pounds New Mexico produces
| the smallest crop-only 1900 pounds. In
| diana produces just about as much now
| as it did in 1859, but Wisconsin has in
| creased its output from 5000 to %, 900 900
| pounds, and bids fair to rank among tie
| high producing states. Illinois has re-
| duced its crop from 122, 900 pounds in 1859
| to 10000 pounds in 1897. 1t WAS long be-
! leved that tobacco could not be produced
| on prairie soils, but Kansas, which pro-
duced only 10000 pounds in 1859, now pro-
! duces approximately 10000 pounds, or more
than three times the original production
| In North Carolina and Florida there is a
| steady increase in the tobacco area.
"A good deal of ill-feeling has been ere
ated in England by the sale to the Grand
| Duke Demetrius Of Russia Cbrother of the
| Queen Of Greece, of the Derby winner
"Galtee More" says a London correspon-
| dent. English people resent the export of
| their turf favorites and the Duke of
| Westminster has never been pardoned to
this day for having sold Ormonde, people
| contrasting his action in the matter with
| that of his father and predecessor, the
| Marquis of Westminster, who, when in
| vited to put price upon his celebrated
| horse, Touchstone, replied ironically
mot even a German principality could
| buy Touchstone." OF Lady Clifden, it is
| related that she would not part with any
of her husbands favorite race horses
| and ordered them all to he kept until
they died off The price paid for Galtee
More is $4,000. and he is credited with
the intention of running it for the Gold
cup at Ascot this month. If he does so il
is not improbable that the Car NAV avail
himself of the opportunity to revive the
| so-called Emperor's plate, the prize which
the first Car Nicholas Instituted for the
| annual Ascot RACES, but which has been
discontinued since the Crimean war.
The latest product of scientific prona-
cation is the odorless onion. Just how an
onion can be odorless and still remain an