The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-02

The chief of bureau of ordnance has
completed arrangements for supplying the
volunteer regiments with Krag- Jorgensen
rifles of 1898 model and smokeless-powde
cartridges. There are between $1,000 and
$1,000 of these rifles in hand at the arse
nails.
According to the most recent reports
received at the United States navy depart
ment large amount of the present years
budget in the French expenses is being
taken up in the repairs and notifications
of old and almost obsolete ships For eX-
ample. the old Magenta, built as long ago
as 1882 is having changes made in her
machinery altogether out of proportion 10.
her value as fighting unit.
Twenty-Five military men and eighteen
civilians have occupied the position of
Secretary of War in this country's histo-
~. Those who had either been soldiers
or had some kind of military experience
were: Knox, Pickering, NcHenry Mar
shall, Dearborn, Eustis, Armstrong, Mon
roe, Shelby, Porter, Cass, Poinsett, Marcy,
Davis. Grant, Thomas, Schofield, Raw
Inns, Belknap, Proctor, Elkins, A.ger. The
following have been civilians: Dexter,
Griswold Calhoun, Barbour, Eaton, But
Ter, Bell. Spencer. Floyd. Cameron, Stan
ton. Taft Don Cameron, McCrary, Ram
sey, Lincoln, Endicott. Lamont. Secre-
tary Lincoln wore a uniform for brief
period.
According 10 The Church Family News
paper of London, some accounts which
date back to 1888 show that the principle
of allotting sittings to particular people
and charging for the same was then in
force At St. LaWrence's Church, Read
ing, there is an entry under date 1547, for
the church WardenS expended 5s. for maxi
ing a pew for the magistrates wives. In
1876 the church wardens decreed that wom-
en- occupying seats in certain favored po
sltions should pay I'D. each. For still bet
ter positions near the pulpit the charge
was Cd. Al Dorchester, in 1925, Robert
Poldens wife is noticed as paying Is. Cd.
for seat in the 'womens square" So
there is reason for believing that origi-
nally pew rents were charges made every
time particular seats were occupied.
Perhaps nothing so well illustrates the
accuracy of modern astronomy as the re-
cent Investigations into the variation of
latitude. Prof Charles r. Doolittle, direc-
tor of the Flower observatory of the Uni
vers.ty of Pennsylvania, announces that
the result of a long series of individual
determinations shows that the latitude of
Philadelphia varies about forty feet an
nuaaly. That such a small change can be
recognized is certainly one of the triumphs
of science. The first suspicion that there
was a systematic variation in latitude was
aroused by certain observations made at
Berlin in 1SS4-S5. This result was subse-
quently confirmed by investigations set on
foot in various parts of Europe, as well as
Honolulu and Cordova. DR.. S. c. Chandler
has shown that the matter can be eXpfa n
ed by supposing the earth's axis 10 revolve
mean position the period of revolution be-
ing about AT days. The greatest possible
change in the position of the pole is not
more than twenty yards, so that il win he
seen that no very startling results are
likely to follow the discovery. 1t is just
possible. however, that the matter may de-
ve,op into something of Importance in the
case of boundary lines which are fixed by
latitude determinations. The most stril6-
ing fact is the emphasis on the point that
nothing known to astronomy is fixed or
immovable, not even the position of the
earths axis from year to year
. There is one man in Washington who
at noon every day stops business all over
the United States, and closes the telegraph
wires for a space of about three and
half minutes, SAYS the Washington cor
respondence of the New York Mail and
Express. This man is the one having
atory. AT three minutes and fifteen sec
onds before u O'Clock, each noon, he opens
the circuit and connects the electric clock
at the observatory with the telegraph
wires Instantly all the wires have to be
cleared, and every second is sounded by
beats by the pendulum of the clock. This
gives timely warning to all who are walt
ing to have their clocks or chronometers
corrected by wire, and it conveys to all
maritime exchanges, time balls and every
place connected with the naval obseTv-
atory all over the country the warning
that noon is approaching. The pendulum
omits the twenty-ninth second of every
minute, so that observers who are correct
ing two or more chronometers can have
the time to do so, and then the fifty-1fth,
fifty-siXth, fifty-seventh, fifty-eighth and
fifty-ninth seconds of every minute are
also omitted for the same reason. But
at exact noon the pendulum swings, and
this single signal marks and corrects the
time. This signal also connects all the
clocks in the circuit. These are located
in all the large cities, in railroad, steam
ship, business, government and municipal
offices. 1t also drops the time balls in
New York and all places where noon is
recorded in that way. 1t drops the time
ball al San francisco at 8 o'clock in the
morning, there being three hours differ
ence in time and so the time at San
Francisco is corrected three hours before
noon. Not only does the electrical device
on the clocks record the correct time, but
it changes and throws the clock hands
back or forward to exact noon. Any one
going into a telegraph office a minute or
so before noon will see all the opera tors
idle because this one man in Washing
ton has stopped all work until he reports
the correct time at noon sharp.
The locust provides one of those in
stances of mans weakness before diff
culties of a peculiar order, says the Chi
cago News. The multtudes in which the
pest will spread itself over districts seem
at first to paralyze all efforts at effective
destruction. II would appear from re-
searches that this voracious insect has al
ways been in existence in the Argentine
republic, but this was of less importance
until quite recent years on account of the
small area of land under cultivation
About twenty years ago some of the pio-
neer wheat growers south of the city of