The Savannah morning news., 1900-07-17
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

auks' eggs and other rarities at his ia
nous rooms in King street. Covent Gar
den, London, recently refused to deal with
forty-three lots OF British birds eggs,
objecting that their sale was contrary
to law. This example is bright one, and
if other dealers will follow the lead so
honorably set British taken" examples
of rare birds eggs will not fetch a price
long enough to tempt poor men in the
country to break the law. Mr.. Stevens
had a most successful sale of his great
auks' eggs. One was an unrecorded egg
from a French collection, fine specimen
with a peculiar type of marking. It
brought s1,575, the highest price yet given
Another fetched 5000. AS there are only
seventy-five eggs known to exist, the egg
may prove a good investment.
Illustrations of the adage that there is
nothing new under the sun are never far
to seek, and a singular instance is sup
piled in THE Art of Ware" by Niccoli
Machiaveli, dated 1860, and Translated by
Peter Whitehorne. At the end of the
book the translator has added some orig
inal matter In telling How to Write
and cause the same that is written to be
read afar off without sending any mes
sage" he says: "a captain besisged in
any town or fortress unable to communi-
far as light may be seen, and by day as
far as a FURNISHED glass casting the sun
on a hut, or suchlike, may be described
he having arranged with his friends the
order of signal-one or two lights being
flashed, hidden or diplayed again." This
is the principle of the modern hello
graph.
The manner in which the big trunk
lines out of New York supply the locomo-
tives of their fast express trains with
water without stopping them seems SIM
pie enough in the summer. But some
ingenuity had to be exercised to solve that
problem for the winter time. During the
cold season the long narrow bitches which
at intervals run along the track for somc
distance between the rails, and which are
filled with water, are likely to freeze over,
making 1t impossible for the shovel which
is let down from underneath the tender
to scoop up the water as the train rushes
along. In order to prevent this freezing
over the water is heated in big tanks
and steam pipes are run along the sides
of the bitches, keeping the water above
the freezing temperature In this man.
ner considerable time is saved, as other
wise the train would have to make stops
at the different water tanks along the
line, and the expense of the device is off
set by the time saved.
The agricultural papers are sounding
notes of warning about the Belgian hare
fad, which has overtaken the Pacific
coast and parts of the Middle West, and
threatens to extend eastward go slow
with this graceful long cared rodent
advises the American Agriculturist. Pa
pers in California, with an eye on the flu
ture are questioning the wisdom of the
~
productivity of the animals. An author
ity says that with a pair for a start It
is easily possible to close the first year
with 800 young. This suggests the posi-
bility of untold millions in a few years,
and the setting loose of many of them
to prey upon the crops. OF course, the
experience of Australia is cited. There
the rabbits, originally introduced only
thirty years ago for colonist sport, have
overrun the sheep farms and made
very table desert of vast grain areas. At
one time 600 acres was infested with
them in Australia; the government has
paid millions of dollars to eradicate the
pest and TO this day is utterly unable to
successfully cope with it.
The New York Evening Post says:
In arguments for the adoption of the
meter system in the domestic water SER
WIZ III lpulLdiO IL Is SllOWu IfldI the udtly
per capita consumption in that city is
nearly twice that of Detroit, Cleveland
and Chicago. over FIVE times as much as
Milwaukee, three times as much as New
YORK, and six times as much as London.
During a recent period of three weeks
the average amount of water pumped for
Buffalo was 100000 gallons day or
115 gallons per capita on a basis of 400
600 population. Last February and March
fhn .lsafax
10000 900 gallons, and ii ran up to $780,
091, $50 on Feb. 20. The waste in summer
is due to the excessive sprinkling of
lawns, and in winter to the practice of
letting the water run continually to lie.
sen the danger of freezing. 1t is assert
ed, with good show of reason that all
over 80 gallons per capita in Buffalo 'ls
simply wasted" and the conclusion is
reached that 100000 could be saved an
nually to the taxpayers of Buffalo by
the adoption of the meter system.
An American girl writing to a London
paper of the invasion of Europe by Unit
ed States tourists describes their advent
in England in this wise: We come by all
ships that rum from the stately Oceanic
to the dicky cattle carrier which lands us
after 10 days of odoriferious passage Some
of us who have been lin it, in Wall street
tidNCt vi INC pIOfnetldue OeCk Tor 800
each; some go second class, and very
good 1t is, too, and many of us come with
one of those specially conducted tours
which defy description. You pay your
money and they give you no choice. You
get packed into the ship and like the man
in states prison, you become a number.
AT Liverpool or Southampton they herd
you into the railroad train, which Is per-
haps the most interesting item in the
trip, because it is so funny Then they
rattle YOU through London in long brakes.
souse you through Saint Pauls Cathedral
and hardly give you time to scratch your
maine on the gravestone of Oliver Gold
smith before you find yourself at Kenil-
worth and Stratford and Canterbury and
the Peak of Derbyshire and Edinburgh,
and then you are hurled across the chan
mel TO France and through the exposl-
ton like a rush of mad dogs, so that when
you recover consciousness you find your
self again in New York, with a police
man grabbing you by the collar and tell
ing you to move on there; don't block
up the sidewalk"
r. W. Ashcroft. in the Electrical
World and Engineer, says that the cleo