The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-04
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Philadelphia and the number of deaths
from the disease may warrant the state
ment that it is epidemic. For years the
disease has ragged in the Quaker City,
but with the procrastination which at
tacks communities as wen as individuals,
little or nothing has been done to remedy
the evil, although the source of the dis
ease has been time and again traced to
the water supply. The fever is more prev
alent in that part of the city known as
West Philadelphia, and there it is pro-
posed by the Board of Health to inves-
tigate the sewers. An inspection of such
sewers may be all very well in its place,
but with the actual source of the dis
ease known ID seems but another case of
procrastination.
"A Chinese funeral never proceeds
straight from the house of mourn
ing to the graveyard, says an ex-
change. The devil is always on the look
out for funerals and follows them to seize
the soul of the dead man, so, in order to
outwit the evil one, the bearers take up
the body and start with it in a brisk
trot while the packs of firecrackers and
pyrotechnics emitting a dense smoke and
vile smell are set off just as the process
sion starts Having thus deceived Old
Nick as to the direction taken by the
bearers they run as fast as they can
with the body then suddenly turn a cor
ner and stop while more fireworks are
burned. The devil cannot turn a corner
easily, and so, if really in pursuit. he
shoots on by and by means of a good
deal of sudden Turning and stopping and
a lavish expenditure of fireworks the
funeral procession generally gets to the
grave in safety, while the Old Boy, con-
fused by their movements and half suf-
located by the fireworks, is still wander
ing about in the city. The Chnaman who
dies in the country is not in such good
/ luck, for there is less chance to outwit
the enemy, but by many detours it can
very often be done.
The little brass cash, the Chinese
coins, are the lineal descendants, in un-
broken order, of the bronze ak of remote
Celestial ancestors, says the Cornhill
Magazine. From the regular Ratchet to
the modern coin one can trace a distinct,
if somewhat broken, succession, so that
it is impossible to say where the one
leaves off and the other begins. Here is
how this curious pedigree first worked it,
self out: In early times, before coin was
invented, barter was usually conducted
between producer and consumer with
metal implements, as it still is in Central
Africa at the present day. At first the
Chinese in that unsophisticated age were
content to use real hatchets for this COM
mercial purpose, but after a time, with
the profound mercantile instinct of their
race, it occurred to some of them that
when a man wanted half a hatchets
worth of goods he might as we'll pay for
them with half a Ratchet. Still, as it
would be pity to spoil a good working
implement by cutting il in two, the
worthy All Sin ingeniously compromised
the matter by making thin hatchets OF the
usual size and shape but far too slender
for practical usage. BY so doing he in
vented coin, and, what is more, he in
vented it far earlier than the claimants
to that proud distinction, the Lydians,
whose electrum staters were first struck
in the seventh century, B. c.
Americans, who go abroad must ex-
peot to be robbed right and left" said
young man who recently returned from a
| brief European tour, says the Philadee-
phia Record. lone expects to be held up
for all sorts of tips, but when the beggars
follow you home you can't help feeling a
sort of admiration for their ingenuity.
went over on one of the Red Star Line
boats; and the first thing l did on landing
at Antwerp was 10 go to the cable office
and send a message to my mother, an
nouncing my safe arrival. / paid the toll
| and thought no more about it until l got
letter from the Antwerp operator, ad-
dressed in care of my mother, saying that
| through an error he had not charged me
! enough for my cab.egram sent on such
| and such date; that he had been obliged
| to pay the difference out CT his own
| pocket and as his salary was very small
| and he had a large family and all that
sort of thing, he felt sure 1 would reim-
| burse him. The amount was a trifling
/ nd 4 n TN tom
order. l have since learned from expert
! enced travellers that l had been made the
victim of a systematic form of robbery,
and that scarcely a cab,egram is sent
| from the other side unless il is of bust
ness nature, that is not followed by some
such plea from the European operator"
1T is certainly extraordinary" said a
New Orleans collector, according to the
Times-Democrat "how an entire edition
of a book, running up into the hundreds
or even the thousands of copies, will DIS
! appear in toto from the face of the
| earth, but the ways and chances by
| which odd volumes are occasionally pre-
! served from destruction are equally re-
| markable. Some years ago, to give you
| an illustration l attended the sale of a
| private library that l felt certain conceal
| ed some good things. 1t was wretchedy
! tioneer put up what he described as a
| package of old maritime reports The
| bundle was enclosed in heavy wrapping
! paper, tied with stout manila Irvine, but
| torn corner showed what seemed to be
lot of statistical pamphlets, dating back
to the 40s l bid them in for % cents,
| and when 1 opened the package at my
office was astonished to find that it con-
tanned a perfectly fresh and unhandled
copy of Hawthornes Grandfather
| Chair" printed in 1871. The volume was
carefully wrapped in brown paper, and
l feel sure that it was just as it came
| from the booksellers. My theory is that
| its owner, whoever he may have been.
| tied it up with the nautical pamphlets
| and then forgot what he had done with
| II. The package was probably tossed
aside and if anybody ever undertook to
Investigate its contents one glance at
those ponderous nautical statistics proba-
bly, Instantly sickened him at heart of
the task.
in an article on the stings of wasps a
British medical journal cites the two fol-
lowing cases which have come under its
notice: strong, healthy girl of q was
stung on the neck by wasp and tainted.
On regaining consciousness she complain
ed of a general feeling of numbness and
partial blindness aud vomited She recov-
| cred in the course of few hours. Two