The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-22


Chicago has now the largest lift
bridge in the world spanning the Chi
cago river. The movable part of it is
2l5 feet long, rs feet longer than the
great Tower bridge across the Thames
in London, which has been considered
marvel of engineering skill. and the
bridge itself is $50 feet long from end
to end. 1t is built wholly of steel. Each
of the two moving leaves weighs o.
900, 900 pounds Besides having the
largest span of any. moveabfe bridge
ever built, it is remarkable because lit
is constructed for the heaviest railroad
service. There are double tracks across.
The bridge is designed for a load of
10000 pounds per lineal foot, in addi-
tion to a concentrated load of 100,0 900
pounds at any point on the floor of the
structure. This gives it exactly twice
the carrying capacity of the Tower
bridge. 1t has cost $450,O0O.
The Peking Gazette. speaking of
Chinese in foreign lands, says: I'VE
dress and speak differently from for
eigners, just as foreigners do who come
to China. But nobody in the street
calls us Chinese DEVILS The children
in the street wish to see how long our
queues are, but the police, seeing them
annoy US, scatter them. When we go
into a shop to buy anything we are
treated with even more consideration
than their own people. We enter their
homes, it is the same. They seek to
please us in every way. show us curtos
CT play the organ or piano for us. The
writer has been to France, England,
America, Japan, Spain and South
America, and stayed years, and every,
where he was treated with the same
courtesy" 1t is to be feared that some
Chinese laundrymen in this country
would not wholly indorse this view.
The famous De Rougemont, some
times called the modern Munchausen,
has turned up again in New South
Wales, where he is lecturing. His ex-
cuse for lecturing is lack of money.
After his notorious exploits in fiction
he went, it is said, to South Africa,
s.nd was with the British forces at
Elandslaagre Nicholsons Mex and the
early stages of the siege of Lady
smith. Removed from Ladysmith by
the military authorities, he was for
some time with the Beers as an artist.
After many other adventures, he land
ed in Sydney, to find that the bank on
which he had draft had suspended
payment. Now he is promising to con-
duct his hearers to the land of Ophir
Ito where 1 left gold and pearls
white pearls, to say nothing of the
black onesAwhich was unable under
the circumstances to bring away with
me-"
Prof. Schafer, in the University
College Gazette, tells a story about
Robert Grant, the comparative anato-
mist, a quaint figure in his day, who
always wore full evening dress, and
worked with Darwin. He used, says Prof.
Schafer, to occupy house in Euston
Square. near the station. When the
railway company obtained powers to
open up the square so as to give bet
ter access to its station, the new street
which was thus. formed passed, the
house occupied by Grant, and it might
be assumed that, the increased traffic
would disturb it's quietude, and that
the occupier might be fairly entitled
to compensation. At any rate, the
story goes that thercompany rendered
such compensation as to a poor man
like Grant was, a good round sum.
Grant, however, would not accept a
penny, stating that he could not see
that the change which was to be made
would in any way injuriously affect
him. -
The statistics Of divorces in France
during the last civil year yield some
curious results. During the year the
courts received 1850 requests for dl-
Vorce and AL to make a previous de-
cree of separation. absolute so that
9,521 cases were considered. Demands
for simple separation to the number of
2,S59 were also received. The following
tables relate to the 1880 cases in qucs-
tion: