The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-13
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Los Angeles draws its electricity from
a turbulent mountain river ninety miles
away. The 1900 horsepower runs street
cars and machinery and supplies the city
with light and heat.
Officials in Cumberland county, Penn
syivania, find tramp-farming profitable.
The sheriff receives a fee of 9 cents per
day for boarding each tramp. The con-
stable is paid $l.75 for each arrest and the
magistrate $l.50 for the commitment. The
tramps are committed for thirty days and
are promptly re-arrested upon their dis
charge.
The Chinese department of the British
Museum library contains a single work
which occupies 5000 volumes. This won
derful production of the Chinese press is
one of only a small number of copies now
in existence. 1t is an encyclopedia of the
literature Of China, covering a period of
twenty-eight centuries, from 11O0 B. C. to
17O0 A. D.
The Chilean coal mines opened In 1855,
seem to be nice places to work in. The
seams of coal run from the shore under
the waters of the Pacific ocean, and the
tunnels are so clean that you could walk
through them in dress suit without MAX
ing yourself dirty They are lighted by
electricity, and you can have ride for
mile under the ocean on an electric car
a speed of twenty miles an hour. The
mines form quite a catacomb of wel-light-
ed passages under the water The out
put of coal is now 1000 tons a day, and
75O miners are employed in them.
Eight of the fifteen brightest stars
eNypr in LOT
the February evenings They are, in the
order of brightness, Cirrus, Capella, Rigel,
Procyon, Betelgeuse AIdebaran, Pollux,
and Regulus Add TO this list the planet
Mars also visible now, which is in no
wise dimmed by such illustrious company,
and 1t will be seen that February is a
very important month in the calendar of
the amateur astronomer. Mars and its
eight stellar associates are easily located.
The planets ruddy light and steady glow
make it the most noticeable object high
in the northeast after nightfall.
About ten million feet of Maine birch
wood Will be sent to England and Scotland
this year for spools The wood is cut in
small logs in winter, sawed at mills near
the forest In spring, and piled up for s.a-
soning until warm weather, about the mid
die of June. Then the bars are bundled
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and loaded generally into steamships for
the European market. This has been one
of the most important industries in North
ern and Eastern Maine, and its expected
revival is welcomed"by all classes, from
woods laborers to shipping merchants. In
the fruit-box trade also a revival is ex
pected this year. There are now bound
to Maine ports, with cargoes of salt from
Sicily five Italian barks, and probably all
,~1xr
in Bangor for Italian ports.
"A touching love story has been tele-
graphed from romantic Roumania to the
English papers. 1t all happened in the
little village of Vacresti de Rastvaca, near
Bucharest. A young peasant, Damian
Valda loved a beautiful young person
whose parents, at least, did not ''recip-
rocate his affection" Valda was denied
the house. but he remembered that the
little god laughs at bolts and bars and
took comfort. The girl approved of plan
which he devised. He procured a covered
wagon and a dozen friends, drove up one
night and rushed the house. The girl,
already muffled, was brought out, and
Damian, industriously plying the whip,
away they tore to his home. He lifted
down his precious burden and gently drew
the veil from her face. The features were
those of his ''in spe" mother-in-law.
The pictorial postal cards of Germany,
which furnish the imperial mail depart
ment with an ever-lncreasing amount of
revenue, have for some time been assum-
ing decidedly artistic character. 1t now
appears that even the masters of German
art do not disdain TO take a hand in this
direction. A Berlin paper warns the COZ
lectors of picturesque Observation-Disclosures"
TO look out for a new one which is to be
issued by the committee of the "Interna-
tionaSe Postkarten Gesellschaft," The ar
fist in this case is no other than Adolph
Won Menzei, the president of the Berlin
Academy of Arts, and one of the five for
eign members of the British Academy of
Arts. The subject of the picture is
night scene in a Berlin cafe; and as the
number of copies will be limited, 1t is
quite certain that the card is destined to
command in time a very high price. 1t
seems rather strange that this feature of
mail devices has not yet been introduced
in the United States. Even the Kaisers
pilgrimage to Palestine has been used as
the subject of pictorial cards, for every
effort is being made to keep the famous
journey before the German mind Pales-
tine thalers have been coined with the fig
ures of the imperial couple on the face
and a guardian angel distributing Wreaths
with both hands. God the Almighty gave
His guidance is the inscription on these
memorial coins.
An article on Heroes of the Railway
Service in the Century for March con-
sists of notes from the experience of
Charles De Lano Hine, a graduate of West
Point. who after serving four years as an
officer, voluntarily resigned his commits
sion in the army to become a freight
brakeman. He worked six months as a
brakeman and two years as a yard-mas-
ter, all of the time in constant contact with
the men and the dangers he describes. In
the late war he was a major in the First
District of Columbia volunteer infantry
Here is one of the good stories he tells:
Not long ago freight conductor started
on night run after drawing his months
wages from the pay-car. He had with him
his young son, lad of p, and when well
under way they began to cook supper on
the caboose stove. The rear brakeman
on watch in the cupola, observed that the
engine seemed to have unusual difficulty in
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