The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


now in the hands of Secretary Cortel-
you, are five thousand requests for
Mr. McKinley's autograph. 1t had been
his custom to devote spare moments to
the qualification of these demands in
so far as he could, but during a few
months absence or through a period
when the President would be busily
occupied with affairs of state these
letters asking for autographs would
pile up. The five thousand referred to
accumulated during the summer vaca-
ton season.
THE residents of West Forks,
says the Kennebec (Me) Journal,
were startled last week by the sud-
den appearance of a crew of woodmen
which came out from the Spencer tract.
They had heard of the assassination OF
President Mckinley through a Cana
dian, who reached the camp at night,
and who told them the country was
going to war as soon as a sufficient
number of men could be raised. The
next morning an early breakfast was
eaten and the crew started for the set
Element with all possible speed to Of
fer their services. When they learned
that there was no possibility of war
they quoted down and returned to
camp"
The city of Grinnell. Iowa, has just
adopted drastic liquor law. 1t is,
under the ordinance, a crime for two
or more citizens to get together and
take a drink of beer or liquor, no mat
ter where they meet. even If it is in
their own homes and they are MEM
bers of the same family. Under this
ordinance it is a crime to set a glass
of beer on the table at the dinner hour,
provided the family consists of more
| than one person. The exact wording
of the ordinance is: THAT it shall be
unlawful for two or more persons to
congregate within the limits of the
city of Grinnell on any street or vacant
or unoccupied property on or about any
lumber yard, in any car, or on or about
any railroad grounds or stock yards,
in or about any barn, stable or corn
crib, storehouse, elevator or depot, or
in any other place, for the purpose of
drinking beer or any kind of intoxi-
eating liquor, or for the purpose of Gre
| ating a disturbance or doing or COM
hitting any disorderly act"
| "A correspondent of the Temps of
Paris, writing from Constantinople,
points out that the proposed taxation
of religious orders in Turkey is not to
| be regarded as measure of retaliation
| against France or any other nation
| In particular. 1t is simply one more
manifestation of the anti-foreign spir-
it which has been evident for a long
| time in the Ottoman policy. This
latest scheme for raising a little of
that ready money of which the Porte is
ever in want is an old one, and is
aimed not only at the French monks,
but at all the converts, churches,
schools hnGnffolS 81 oct, III scI
ments under the charge of monks and
nuns of any nationality not possess
ing firman. Under it they would be
made to pay the customs tariff of s
per cent. ad valorem. The government
has been planning this extortion for
more than a year, but has always met
with the opposition of the foreign mis-
sions. 1t has now consented to give
the orders a years longer lease of
life, but after Sept. 2, 1902, it will begin
to apply the tariff of per cent ad
Valorem in the case of every article
addressed to a monk of whatever de-
nomination. Some of the new treaties
OF commerce which Turkey is ne
gotiating are already dealing with this
question. One of them stipulates that
every monk or nun shall have the
right to pass merchandise free of duty
up to the amount of 400 piastres an
nually, or of 4,S00 piastres annually
for each convent. 1t seems, therefore,
| that the opportunities for blackmail
in this direction are likely to be lin
| tied.
Another famine is impending in In
dia, this time in the province of Gu
jerat, says the New York Post. The
| immediate cause of it is a plague of
rats winch have practically destroyed
| the young crops of maize, wheat and
rice. The government tried to meet
the evil by offering rewards for a GER
! tain number of rats tails, but life is
a sacred thing in the eyes of the ma
| tives, and, rather than kill the vermin,
! they allowed them to grow fat at their
! expense. But, according to a letter in
| London weekly, neither scarcity of
rain nor plaques of rats, locusts, or
i other pests can account for the
chronic recurrence of famine in India.
The real responsibility, says the writer,
lies at the door of the Vanya, or Bahia,
who have been called the Jews of In
! ola. They are the grain merchants,
and are nearly all rich, many very
rich. A poor farmer, whose crop has
failed comes to one of these men. He
is starving, his family is starving, and
| the Vanya is most willing to relieve
| his wants, but on his own conditions.
viz, the whole of next years crops
must be handed over to him, the Vanya
| only undertaking to supply little food
| in return, and perhaps seed for the
! following years crop, which will also
| belong to him. The rich man boards
| his grain year after year, and in the
year of famine sells 1t out at an ex-
orbitant rate, while the poor man and
| his family die. The people are kept
| in perpetual poverty. and in a. year of
| famine death is inevitable unless gov
| eminent relief comes. Famines will be
of regular occurrence, concludes the
writer, unless some means are found
| to curb the rapacity of these remcrse-
less spectators.
There is little doubt but that both
the bicycle and automobile will play a
most important part in the next great
| European war. and all the principal
| countries seem to have realized this
| fact and are making elaborate ex-
periments along similar lines. The
! utility of such machines in a district
where there are good roads is conced-
| ed by experts, and the recent ascent
| of Vesuvius by an adventurous auto
mobolist, and the crossing of the Alps
by another party with longings for no.
toriety have opened the eyes of the
skeptics that they may be used under
| other conditions. In the Boer war the
| bicycle IS said to have been a com