The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


of this country are thriving In only three
States-North Carolina, California and
Oregon-are the birds holding their own.
Among the reports from South Africa
is one to the effect that Mauser bullets are
ineffective in checking a charge of cav
| airy. Horses shot through the lungs and
! even through the breast were able to gall
| lop 400 yards before they fell.
As soon as a franchise is secured from
the British Columbia Parliament, work on
a tunnel through Chilcoot Pass will be
| begun by the Chilcoot Company, which
will expend 100000 in the work, and
building an electric railway from Dyea to
| Whitehorse.
! "A railroad man says that there is no
! limit to the size of the American locomo-
tive, and "as long as heavy rails can be
| secured, just SO long will engines grow.
| Some of these days we will be using 200
| pound rails and locomotives twice the size
| of those now in USE"
Girls are not employed at the telephone
| switch-boards at Cairo, Egypt. Men are
| used and are required to understand and
| speak English French, Italian, Greek. and
| Arabic. 1t would be interesting to see
| what the New York Telephone Company
would do under such conditions.
The switches in the yards of the Atch-
| ison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway at
Fort Madison, Ia. are lighted by electric.
| ity. The lamp is an ordi mary inc andesce-t
| one of eight-candle power, fitting a socket
inside. The wiring is brought to the
| switch in an underground pipeline. and
! tapped by branch pipe standing vertical
! ly, three or four feet clear of the switch
stand, and arching over it so as to enter
| the top of the switch-lamp. The lights
| are said to work satisfactorily, dlspens ng
| with a lamp-tender, and believed to be
| safer than the common oil-lamp, as they
| do not go out so readily.
| -Mahometans in Bombay are protesting
| against sanitary measures, on the ground
that they are contrary to the laws of the
! Prophet. Apparently they would rather
| obey the Prophet and die of the plague
| than violate his laws and live. They might
| be humored in their choice, If only they
| themselves were concerned. But the well
| fare and safety of millions of others are
| at stake, and, with all due regard for re-
| lgious scruples, humanity must be reck-
! oned more precious than creeds. 1t has
| for years been notorious that the Maho-
| metan pilgrimages to Mecca have been
| the most active means of dissemination OF
| Asiatic cholera. The world cannot afford
| to let the bubonic plague be fostered and
scattered by similar means.
The inadequacy of the telephone system
in Toxic is the subject of an article in the
| Japan Times. 1t is declared that at the
end of February the number of subscribers
| in Toxic was 5,465, and 56A applications
| were on file for installation of service. Ac-
| cording to the schedule, LOO of the appli-
| cations were to be filed by March 81, but,
owing to delays in getting the wire, the
| work contemplated will not be finished be-
I fore lime / and the of Srlepd M
! ised thereafter it looks as If it would be
! three or four years before the company can
catch up with its work. So anxious are
| the people to get the service that they are
offering premiums for the transfer of in
| struments which are now in, and as high
as $125 has been paid for the transfer Of
an application dated prior to June, 1897.
Occasionally a man,if he is extremely
careless and awkward, will jab his finger
into his eye when he is washing his face
| but one has to go a long way to find a
| man who, having lost one eye by suH
clumsiness, pushes in the other, says tho
! New York Fress. A grOcer's assistant in
London, i ears old, while washing his
face put his finger into his right eye. The
| eyeball became infiamed and was taken
out. This was in 1896. Four years later he
ran a fingernail into the other eye in the
same manner, causing an even more Sc
| rious wound. The surgeons, who seemed
| to have had no hesitation about taking
out the other eye, wanted to save this
one if possible, and so they postponed thu
operation 10 see if sight even in a small
| degree couldn't be retained There was
| an element of luck in the matter for the
| grocer, for he was insured in an accident
| company and the corporation agreed to
lay the claim at once without waiting to
see If the eye eventually could be saved
The Electrical Review, in an article
on thunder-storms says that 1t is just
as we'll for people who live in the suburbs
or the country to know that the average
lightningrod has about as much influence
| on the disposition of lightning to strike
| their premises as the color of the paint on
| their houses. 1t can be said with some
| certainty that the average lightning-rod
is of no use whatever, and it can be pre-
dicted with certainty that ample protec-
! ton would be given a barn. for example
| by enclosing it in a thick copper she'll 1t
| is conceivable that a lightning-rod con-
| structed upon the most scientific princi-
| pies would be of little avail if it came
| into the path of certain varieties of light
| ming discharge. 1t is again perfectly pos
| sible that lightning may take the ordinary
| hghtning-rod as path and go quietly to
earth over it without doing damage. There
should not be, in thickly populated re-
| gions, where houses are close together
| any un6aSlneSS ABOUT the dam
ger of lightning. In places where the pop
ulation is entirely concentrated and the
buildings are close together, the fatal re-
suits of lightning are practically nil. 1t
is in the country districts, where trees
are abundant and houses frequently sur
rounded by them, that fatal accidents
more frequently occur. Furthermore, the
city man as a general thing has no light
| ning-rcd The country man almost inva-
| rlably has. In either case, however the
chances of death by lightning are so small
as TO be utterly negligb e.
A special kind of photograph called
the telegraphone has been invented by
Mr.. V. Poulsen of Copenhagen. AS de-
scribed by the Electrical Review, the in
vention consists largely in substituting
a steel ribbon for the wax cylinder used
in the ordinary photograph and in mag
nothing points in this ribbon instead of
marking it with a pointed rod as is done
in the case of the wax cylinder. The os