The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

One of the important Developments the
last year in Y. NJ. c. A. work has been
the introduction of library privileges to
the men at the army posts. Through the
generosity of friends tifty-five travelling
libraries have been secured, each contain
ing from sixty to "A hundred volumes. one
of these libraries is sent to post or to
regular camp, and remains three or
four weeks, when it is moved to another
post and is in turn replaced by a new
library.
Systematic protection of the forests
against fire rs an issue before the New
Jersey Legislature. The total forest area
OF New Jersey is more than 100000 acres,
which is believed to be larger in proper
ton to its size than that of any other
middle state. The proposed preventive
measures will follow the general lines of
a suggestion made by Clifford Pinchot, an
authority on forestry, which involves a
system of fire lanes, to be patroiled daily
by Wardens.
The drouth in the western districts OF
New South Wales is terrible. Over 3d.
COO 600 sheep have persisted. The area of
drOuth-afflicted country is vast enough TO
find room for two or three Kingdoms,
and il is as monotonous as vast. HIS
unknown.
At the whisper of rain these sealike plains
blossom into unparalleled verdure, but
under the rainless crystalline skies these
shadeless pastures shrivel into one vast
level floor of sand.
The official flag Of the pan-American
Exposition at Buffalo was selected from
800 designs and is the production of Miss
Adelaide J. Thorpe. In the upper corner
is a single white star, on blue field,
IMPLYING North America: on red field,
in the opposite corner, are four stars, rep
resenting the southern cross constellation
and South America. The center of the
flag is a diagonal white bar, bearing the
golden eagle of liberty, with green scroll
in its talons, inscribed PAX, 1901"
The effect of last years strike in the
mining district of Idaho appears in q
bill which has been presented to the Legis-
| nature of that state. The measure stipu-
! iates that martial law under the procla-
nation of the Governor shall not prevail
for a longer period than thirty days, and
it provides that whenever a county is
declared 20 be in a state of Instruction
the Governor ''shall also immedia tely
| convene the Legislature in extraordinary
| session FOR the purpose of adjusting the
| difficulties"
Astronomers now agree that the mark
ings on the surface of Mars form COM
plete network of narrow, straight lines
crossing the entire face of the planet in
all directions and are always visible The
| narroWest are thirty or forty miles wide.
Two hundred of these so-called canals
have been charted. 1t is supposed from
| the unity in she design of the network
! that the inhabitants of Mars are under
| one government and are highly skilful
| in the engineering demanded by the fact
| that the planet is entirely without a rain
| fall.
There are now sixteen prisoners in
solitary confinement in the Massachusetts,
state prison at Charlestown the most
| dangerous of the lot being Jesse Pomeroy,
| the boy murderer He is constantly
laying plans to escape and keeps the
| guards ever on the alert to thwart him.
| He once pulled down the ventikator over
| his cell door and made a saw of a por-
| ton of the material Then the place was
walled up and fresh air introduced into
| his cell in other ways. He has now been
| imprisoned on a life sentense tWenty-sev-
en- years.
Ever since the assassination of King
Humbert hundreds of Italians have been
| trying to win prizes in the national lot
terry by playing those numbers which cor
| respond with his age. These numbers are
| 56, 10 and 40, the King having lived for SC
| years, ten hours and forty-nine minutes.
II these three numbers should win the
| player would receive $3.50 times the
| amount of his stake Some unusually op-
| timistic gamblers have tried to win even
more than this by playing a fourth num-
| Der G8, which is the symbol of regi-
| eide. If this combination, &C. TO- 40 and 70.
were to win the government would have
| TO pay $4,000 times the amount of the
stake. The last drawing was held in Mi
| ian a rev days ago, and, singularly
| enough, the winning numbers were SIS. 10,
| 4S and Y. These came pretty close to the
mark, and as a result Italian gamblers
| are more determined than ever to keep
on playing their favorite combination
until it brings them good fortune.
There are certain Christian names that
seem never to belong properly to men of
years, dignity or high position, says the
New York Commercial. Just think of a
President of the United States struggling
FOR four years to appear anything but
boy after his sponsors in baptism had
tagged him with the name of Guy. Fritz
or Herbert! Can anybody conceive of a
| college president christened Harry?
wouldn't it condemn to almost per-
petual classification as a lightweight?
Frank and Arthur are almost as bad as
suggesting youth or frivolity. There
was Franklin Pierce, to be sure. whose
intimates called him Frank when he
first went into politics-but that little cir
cumstance must have been an ever-pres-
ent handicap when he afterward entered
the White House and had to sign adte
of Congress and treaties with foreign
powers. When Arthur SewaH was nomi-
mated for Vice President inl1896 thousands
of people who didn't know him or had
never heard of him set him down at once
as a man somewhere around 30 why"
they argued. parents didn't use to name
their boys that way forty, fifty or sixty
years ago?' 1T gave me a shock to read
in the evening newspapers last Monday"
said an Albany young woman az "Giov.
annr' the other night, that at the funeral
OF man who had long been 'Yale's old
est living graduate the Rev. Harry P
Dewey ID. D., conducted the services in
Brooklyn's Church of tho Pilgrims! Was
ever Harry Doctor of Divinity before?
And wouldn't it jar you If your grand
mother was named Maud or Fay? And
shall we ever have Claude for president
OF Harvard or Guy or a Roy in the