The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-10


think they need them they build city
halls and court houses and such things
without reaching into their pockets. Their
trees do the business. OF course, 1t must
be remembered that the people of Orsa
have no collectors office to keep supplied
with SUCH funds as the collector and his
friends may desire to make use of, and
there are no elaborate spoils system for
their Mayors or their bosses to manipu-
late for the purpose of wiping out private
political debts; but still, on the face of
the returns there seems to be an indi-
cation that tree planting is a good thing.
Some persons who have parrots for
pets are fond of teaching the bird to
take bits of food from the lips of its mas
ter, says the New York Press. This prac-
tice has cost postmaster of a little town
in Italy his life. A friend of the postmas-
ter had returned from America, and had
brought with him a parrot which he
gave to the postmaster. In time that Of
fetal came to be exceedingly fond of the
bird, and taught it the trick of feeding
from his lips. Once In awhile the bird
would give a decided nip to the mans
lips, but nothing was thought of that,
not even when the bird began to show
signs of illness. One day the bird nipped
the lips of the man a little harder than
usual, causing a slight wound, and with
in a few hours the man died in agony of
a strange malady that attacked his lungs,
bronchial tubes, heart and brain. Doctors
were called in hastily, but they could do
nothing for him, and even after death
came they could not tell from an exam
nation of the body what swift and terri
bic disease it was that carried off the
man. Stranger yet, the mans wife and
cousin, as we'll as the man who originally
owned the parrot, were seized shortly
afterward with a disease which resembled
exactly that which had been the death
of the postmaster.
A Long Island man who was showing
friend a couple of hunting dogs at his
place the other day looked up as he
heard the sound of approaching wheels,
says the New York Tribune. Here's
the bread man." he remarked, and as his
friend gazed in surprise at the open cart
laden with bullying sacks thinking IT the
strangest bakers outfit he had yet seen,
the owner of the dogs bought a barrel
of the merchants stuff ''It's for the
dogs, you KNOW" he explained as the
wagon drove off Broken up and mixed
with other things it makes good food for
them. That man does very well with
his stale bread business. He buys the
bread at a low price in the city when "
is too old to sell to customers there. But
it hasn't reached the dog food stage, then,
by any means. He first retaiIs it as long
as he can to the Italians who work on
the roads and do all the hard labor here
abouts. / believe they wash 1t down with
beer of about the same state of fresh
ness. Well, when the bread gets so stale
that even the Italians can't eat it, it is
ready to be peddled around among the
villages in the neighborhood The far
mers buy ii to feed their pigs and chick
ems, and good many people use it, as
10, for their dogs, so there is no loss or
waste to cut down the dealers profit"
"A Washington dispatch says: The
Monthly Summary of Commerce and FL
nance, issued by the Treasury Bureau of
statistics, presents in the current num-
Der some interesting facts about the COM
merce- of the principal nations of the
world. The most interesting fact is that
the United States stands in the fiscal
year 1900 clearly and unquestionably at
the head Of the worlds list of exporting
nations. Her average monthly exporta-
tions for the nine months ending with
March, 1901, were 1924, 497,S53, while those
of the United Kingdom, her closest com
petitor, were Sill, S16246 per month during
the same period. Those of Germany, the
next largest exporter, were $S7, 551 200 per
month during the twelve months ending
with December, 1900, and other nations as
follows: France. $685. 467, 900: Russia. $685.
$4,000; British India, $26,747,00O; Austria
Hungary, SIS, 753, 1885, Belgium, $2S, 56S, O0O
and Italy, $2051S,OOO The total domestic
exports of the United States in the nine
months ending with March are s., 120, 4SO. :
673 while the expectation of British and
Irish produce in the same period is $780,
1924, showing the exports of the United
States to be S60O00.000 greater than those
of the United Kingdom, her gratest rival
during the term under consideration. The
United States, in the nine months ending
with March, 1900 showed 1894, 000, 900 excess
of exports over imports; in the same
months of 1901 the excess of exports was
$521 ,0O0, 900, a gain of $127 900 900 in 1901 as
compared with 1900.
Ordinance bureaus all over the civil
lied world have of late years given
good deal of attention to the development
Of light artillery for field service. says
the New York Tribune. Germany led the
way, with a quick firing 15-pounder,
whose caliber is about three inches in
1896; and other nations have been fol-
lowing her example more or less active
ly. France, Italy and Russia are said to
have adopted a somewhat similar gun
while most of the other powers are still
experimenting. England, however. has
recently made a large purchase of Ger
man guns, securing no less than eighteen
batteries of six pieces each. The guns
In question came from the Erhardt
works, near Dusseldorf, One of their
special characteristics is that their car
riages and mounting are constructed of
steel In tubular form, thus insuring a
combination OF llghtness and rigidity.
The saving in weight which Is thus OBJ
tained makes IL easy to handle a gun In
a fight and to move 1t afterward. Two
other peculiarties OF the mounting prac-
tically overcome the recoil One is a n.y.
drauiic brake. and the other a contri-
vance whereby one tube telescopes into
another. The Erhardt gun can be work.
ed up to a frequency OF sixteen shots a
minute. It's action is short and sharp II
not decisive. for the timber carries only
thlrty-two rounds OF ammunition. Solid
shot for IL weigh between fourteen ana
fifteen pounds each The shrapnel shell
contains 3O5 bullets, which. at the max
imum rate OF fire. would amount to near
~ five thousand a minute. The burning
period OF the fuses is twenty seconds. and
the explosion should occur at a range of
six thousand or seven thousand yards or
between three and four miles From the
descriptions given the Erhardt guns an
pear to be formidable weapons Tho
chief criticism which they evoke is that
they are likely to waste ammunition.
Such a fault however, Is chareeable 10
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