The Savannah morning news., 1901-06-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST,".

Twenty-Five students of the University
of Pennsylvania, who wish to see the
Henley regatta in July, will work their
way over on. cattle ships. Most of
them" says the Philadelphia Record, are
provided with a limited amount of money.
out they do not intend to spend this on
transportation. All expect to follow the
crew TO Ireland, where the varsity eight
will row the University of Dublin eight
On the Lake of Killarney. on July Ii.
After this the undergraduates will spend
their time in sightseeing in England and
on the continent. Nearly all these stud
ents stand we'll in their classes and are
prominent in university affairs. Several
of them, who are not used to manual
labor, went into active training before
their departure, in order that they might
better endure the work on board
ship. All of the boys expect to return in
the same way, and will be on hand before
the opening of the fall term"
We all know only too well the COM
mon cold says the Philadelphia Ledger.
1t actively commences by causing a.
tickling in the throat or nose, due to
congestion, and eventually ascends or de-
sends, as the case may be, causing all
manner of stuffy discomfort. 1t is not.
perhaps. sufficiently recognized that the
common cold is most infectious. The
germs, whatever they may be, have a
way of running through household. The
first infected member of a family ought,
If it were practicable, 10 be put into
quarantine, so as to save the rest of the
clan. Unluckily colds may be caught in
the trolley or on the train, or any place
of public assembly. Sad to say, places of
worship are great breeding places for
colds, because The ventilation is not
usually of the best and the air, being
overmuch used by the congregation, be-
comes Of low quality, so that the respirer
of such air often falls an easy prey to
the germs which are responsible for colds.
The unlucky man who wiser than his
generation, insists on opening windows,
often gets much abused for causing colds
by creating a draught. But the mischief
was probably done before the breeze be-
gan to blow.
Sir Robert Ball, the eminent English
scientist, says that the sun is shrinking.
1t is well-known fact, he explains, that
most things in cooling become smaller;
a poker, for example, was shorter when
it was cold than when it was hot. The
sun, too, must obey this fundamental law,
and must, therefore, be getting smaller.
If we could measure it's diameter on two
successive days we should find 1t had de-
creased by nine inches-that is to say,
il was shrinking at the rate of, roughly,
five feet week, or mile in every twenty
years. In view of this shrinkage some
of the younger members of his audience
might feel anxious lest the sun should
not last their time. Such anxiety, how
ever, was gorundless, he was $4,000 miles
in diameter, SO it would take 10000 years
for him to be reduced by 1000 miles to
S5S,O00, and the lecturer was sure that if
there were two suns in the sky, one $780,
600 miles in diameter, and the other $685.
600, no one would be able to tell by look
ing at them which OF the two was the
smaller. But as the sun is shrinking nine
inches every day, and had been doing so
for ages. it follows that in the past it
was very much greater than it is now.
A dispatch from Plainield N. j.,
says: Strange was the battle waged in
the back yard of Henry Windham's Ho-
tel Waldorf at Plaintieid last night. The
contestants were a hop-toad of quite or
binary dimensions and an immense miller,
pure white in color. The moth was
fully four inches long from tip to tip of
his outspread wings Its body was as
thick as a mans two thumbs and five
inches long. When first seen the miller
was flying at the toad with outstretched
wings, at times futtering against the
toads head and beating it with as pow-
erful blows as the creature could sum
mon. The toad did not move except
to make a vicious snap at the moth when
it came within reach. For fifteen min
utes and more the strange fight went on,
while a crowd forsook the monograph
to gaze at the battle for life between
such rare foes. The white dust from
the wings and body of the miller had
powdered down upon the toad until the
latter had lost much of his usual APP
pearance. But the strength of the mil
Ter was unequal to the strain. Wearied
by its frequent attacks it at last could
not escape the final lurch of the toad.
There was a snap, a confused fiutter.
and then the toad hoped away, while
a little white dust about his jaws and
scattered upon the ground were all to
give witness to the fight which had been
waged there.
The cost of the New York city fire
department, the efficiency of which is I'M
challenged, is $3,5OO,OOO, and it is some
what curious circumstance that the in
creased cost of the department, made
necessary by Albany legislation for the
most part, has been since consolidation
almost exactly 100000 a year, says the
4NCW LOlh quiz III 1910 TIE utpdiLII
cost $3.200000. In 1899 it was s., 100000 In
1900 1t was So, 10000 and the appropriation
for this year is $3500,000 the demands
upon the department increasing, of course
as the population in the city enlarges,
and fires multiply. Chicago which has
suffered more severely from a great con-
hagration than any other large American
city, expends S1,50O,o00 a year for the main
tenance of its fire department. and Bos-
ton, which has suffered severely in the
same direction. though very much less
populous and much more COM
pact city than Chicago, expends ST.
100000 In fact. it has come to be accept
ed as an axiom among fire department
officials that those cities which have SUI
fered most from fires are the ones which
make the most liberal provision for their
departments. while those cities which
have not suffered seriously do not pro-
vide much for fire protection. Southern
cities generally spend little on their fire
service, and it has been found generally
that the ratio of cost increases as the
population becomes more compact. In
respect 10 celebrity in responding to fire
alarms some Western cities notably
Kansas City. have made good records
but none of them compares favorably
with New York either for speed or eff
cheney.
1T seems perhaps Incredible" says