The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

tlafly dangerous rays. M. II. Bee
puerel placed very active radium
preparation in his waistcoat pocket for
six hours. The resulting sore took
ten days to develop and forty days to
heal. Several others had similar ex-
periences, and all who have worked
with very active preparations expert
ence pains and sores in their fingers
which take two months to heal.
DIR. S. G. Tracy of New York, de-
monstrated before a recent gathering
of medical men the action of an in
strument combining the principles of
the microphone and telephone, being
so constructed as to magnify sound at
least five times. 1t is intended to SUI
persede ear trumpets and conversation
tubes. The essential parts are sound
transmitter, a sound receiver, spe-
cially constructed induction coil and
an electric battery. The battery is a
dry cell, which does not require re-
newal oftener than about once a
month.
The conversion of railways from
steam to electricity is proceeding on
two distinct lines, namely. that in
which the train, made up as before of
carriages, is drawn by a locomotive
placed in front, the only difference be-
tween it and the existing locomotive
being that the locomotive is worked by
electric motors and not by steam en-
gines, and the method in which each
carriage carries it's own electric motor,
supplemented occasionally by a single
carriage without a motor, and known
as a trailer. 1t is claimed that the
independent system is more economi-
cal.
An ingenious time-saving appliance
for trans-shipping mails and baggage
in. connection with the cross-channei
service has been brought into opera
ton at Dover. 1t is an endless trav-
cling platform and is worked by cleo
tricity. 1t brings packages of any
weight ashore at the rate of one in
Is seconds. Some of the packages I'M
loaded recently weighed seven hundred
weight and required four men to lift
them, but they were brought ashore as
easily as a handbag. The trans-ship-
ment was performed in less than half
the usual time. The harbor of Dover
is being so much improved by protect
ing moles that it is expected to rival
that of Liverpool, becoming place
at which all ocean liners will call.
The Philadelphia Record relates:
"A pigtail party was given in his
studio the other night by an artist
from the West The arriving guests
were very curious to know what on
earth this sort of a party is, and they
found it to be one whereat the tails of
pigs are the main dish of the supper.
AS accessories there were served, of
course, sauerkraut. sausages, cheese,
pretzels and beer; but the delicious
pigtalls lorded it easily over their
neighbors. They were fried, and each
guest found he could eat dozen with
out difficulty. In St. Louis. the ar
fist said, 'pigtails are as common an
article of food as pigs feet or beef
steak. Every butcher has them on
sale, and they cost about 20 cents
dozen. Here in the East they seem
to be unknown. / had great deal of
trouble to get these that you are eat
ing tonight, and had to order them
two weeks in advance Several men
got the recipe for their cooking, and
said they would leave standing orders
for pigtails with their butchers.
The other day. says the Washing
ton Post, party of travellers who
stood in the Worlds Fair building, at
Chicago, loking with admiration upon
what was then the highest type of
$685." model of gracefulness and
strength combined were somewhat
grieved and very much astonished to
see this same machine hauling away
like an old truck horse at a train lad
en- with milk cans. The change repre-
sents our departure from the old and
entrance into the new era. Not far
from the place where 1899" was dis
charging her cars upon which were
laden milk cans there was a coal
barge, a battered. dirty, dismantled
vessel, discharging coal into one of
the chutes in the North river. 1t could
have matched experiences with 1899"
for it's career is also Illustrated by vast
changes. In the heyday of the Amer
lean clipper ship it won as great fame
as did 1893" at Chicago in 1898. 1t
made the worlds record for a voyage
from San Francisco to New York, and
for another from Liverpool to San
Francisco. Americans were all proud
of it, but the screw propeller and the
iron steamship put and end to its pres
tige and it became some years ago
just an ordinary coal barge.
In a valise specially prepared for
travelling, Queen, little French poo
die, left for Paris yesterday, where 1t
will reside in the future, says the Chi
cago Tribune. Queen is the property
of Mrs. Chas. Schmidt, whose husband
was connected with the Auditorium
Hotel for many years. The Schmidts
will make their home in Paris. When
they prepared to leave Chicago their
most troublesome problem in the way
of packing was the disposition of
Queen, family pet for years. Nothing
would appease Mrs. Schmidt but
properly arranged travelling home for
Queen. Mr.. Schmidt accordingly went
to a trunk and valise firm and told
what he wanted. After considerable ex-
perimenting a dog valise almost equal
to a Pullman car in it's furnishings was
turned out. An ordinary black alliga-
tor valise was secured. Windows with
leather flaps in each end were put in,
with fine woven screens covering them.
The inside was finished in purple plush
and the bottom was covered with a
small pillow. When put in it's valise
the animal appeared contented. Dur
ing the passage over the Atlantic Mr..
Schmidt will sit up nights and hold
the Valise in his hands to prevent
queen from becoming seasick. At
least that is what Mrs. Schmidt tells
her friends.
"A recent addition to the collection
of the Academy of Natural Sciences
would not hold the attention of the
general public for one instant, as they
would pronounce it a dilapidated, dead
mouse in bottle of grimy alcohol,
says the PHILADELPHIA Record. Yet this
little creature is one of the most curl
Gus known to naturalists. The inte-
rior of Australia contains a wild.
I tH1 III u.