The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


freight cars.
Minor C. Keith, the banana king Of
Costa Rica, constitutes what is called the
Kitchen Cabinet" of the administration
The term is not used in. an offensive
sense. for Mr.. Keith married the sister OF
President Iglesias. and that gentleman
has undoubtedly been glad several times
to avail himself of his American broth
er-in-law's undeniable talent for affairs.
Several months ago. when Costa RIGA
was struggling to get on a gold basis,
considerable trouble was experienced in
getting together enough yellow metal to
make a start When almost every re-
source had been exhausted, there was still
a deficit of about 100000 There's a
little gold over at my Office l can let
you have" said Mr.. Keith, who happened
to be in San Jose, and he departed to get
II. Presently he returned with $4,000 in
good American ten-dollar coins, and lit
tie later he brought in SIS. 900 more.
President Draper OF the University of
Illinois devoted part of his baccalaureate
sermon to the remarkable advancement
of education in this century. In this move
ment and particularly in the line of uni
versal education, the United States had
taken the lead, he said, but statistics Of
fered by him showed wide distance be-
tween the best school systems in this
country and the average. Thus, in the
United States at large, the average school
period is 4.3 years, while in Massachusetts
1t is years. The proportion between the
period in that state and the period in the
United States is 20 to 43. The proportion
between the productive capacity of each
individual in Massachusetts and in the
United States at large is 6S to 81 This,
he says, means that each individual in
Massachusetts has productive capacity
of $3.50, more than the average of the
United States as a whole and the excess
of production in Massachusetts, is twenty
times the cost of maintaining its excellent
school system.
"A remarkable case of death by light
ming occurred during a football match in
England. When the rain poured down
many of the spectators took refuge in
the grandstand. Suddenly the building
was struck by lightning and the electric
fluid splintered the Flagstaff from top to
bottom in its progress. One young man
was killed instantly, and some thirty
others were severely injured. The hat
of the young man who was killed was
partially burned, the crown was torn off
and the lining wrenched out. His hair
was burned off. and the metal collar stud
he was wearing at the time was com
pletely melted, making superficial
wound in his neck. He was badly
scorched about the body and down his
right leg, abe trouser of which was torn,
and the right boot split and burned. He
had several coins in his right trousers
pocket, all of which were fused into one
solid lump of metal Curiously enough
the man standing beside him experienced
no effects of the shock.
The kind of livery best suited to the
New York automobile is still undecided.
Automobile fashions came first from the
French English use of the automobile
followed, and the English makers set out
to invent a fashion of their own. They
did this with such complete success that
the two styles are quite different. The
English Iiveries are noticeable chiefly for
the elaborate frogging added by the Lon
don tailors. Both styles of liveries are
used indifferently in this country, with
the advantage iii numbers rather on the
side of the French. Late purchasers of
automobiles have on the other hand shown
a preference for the English style, so the
question Is now complica ted to a degree
unpleasant 90 owners of automobiles, of
which every detail from the color of the
vehicle to the drivers hat is a matter
Of Importance. This confusion is not
effort is now being made by a number of
automobile owners to come to some agree
ment as to the correct styles.
by the death of Jonas Gilman Clark,
which occurred recently at Worcester,
Mass, America has lost one of her typi-
cal founders OF colleges. Born in 1S45, the
son of a farmer In Eastern Massachu-
sets, he was the lineal descendant OF
John Clark, a member of the first pro-
vincial Congress held in Boston in 1774.
and of Hugo Clark, an immigrant by the
Mayfower upon one of its voyages. In
1858 he went to California, when the gold
craze was at its hight. He soon became
prominent in public affairs, taking a part
in the promotion of the union sentiment
when the Civil War broke out in 1861. At
the close of that conflict he returned to
the East, and became a banker in New
York, retiring twenty years ago to take
up his residence in Worcester. He had
long had desire to found a university
ito increase human knowledge and trans
nit the perfect culture of one generation
to the ablest youth of the next; to afford
the highest education and opportunity for
research" and he secured a charter for
Clark University at Worcester in 1887.
endowiug it with 100000, to which he
added like amount later on.
Scientific men assert that the globe VIC
now inhabit is growing heavier at the av-
erage rate of 500 tons a year. says the
Chicago Chronicle. The meteors or shoot
ing or falling stars (of which now and
against such brilliant displays rejoice the
careful watchers) in passing through the
earths atmosphere are burned up and fall
on 10 the earth's surface, occasionally in
a heavy mass but most usually in small
meteroic dust Prof Nordenskjold, from
his great experience estimated that from
the cause named. 500 tons fall, uniformly
and steadily over the whole globe in each
year, and the observations of Russian
scientists yield similar result. These me-
teoric streams, says another astronomer.
are really small planetary bodies. revolv-
ing around the sun is fixed orbits by the
force of gravity. The earth revolves on
its axis at the rate of 900 miles an hour
and speeds through space in its orbit
around the sun at the rate of 100 miles
every minute, and I'm August and Novem-
Der plunges into the very midst OF the me-
teoric stream going in the opposite direc-
ton. The rapidity with which they en-
ter our atmosphere and the friction thus
generated are so enormous that they are
set fire to, the smaller ones being consum-
ed and falling in dust. while the larger
ones occasionally reach the earth in the
shape of meteoric stone or iron.
The countryman who expressed his
surprise and admiration at the sight of a
ffarr t.ls