The Savannah morning news., 1901-05-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

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lington the other day witness sWore
that he had purchased number of "long
necks," and that was all the prosecuting
attorney could get out of him. The pre-
siding judge sent the witness to Jail for
contempt. In half a day the man plead
ed for his release, and upon being brought
| back to the court room he explained
that a long necK' was a high ball .
The judge and prosecuting attorney need
ed no more light on the subject The
witness was excused and the jointkeeper
convicted
A law enacted by the Tennessee Legis-
lature has far-reaching possibilities as to
the extension of prohibition. An old law
forbids the sale of whisky within four
miles of any schoolhouse, except in incor-
| porated towns of over 1000 population The
new law permits towns of 5000 inhabitants
or less to surrender their charters by a
majority vote of the electors, and thus
get rid of the saloon. 1t applies only to
towns Incorporated under the general law,
| but as a town holding a special charter
may, by a tWo-thirds vote, go under the
general law, it may be made to apply to
all towns not exceeding the population
mentioned
As for the ravages of white ants in
Rhodesia, says the Zambesi Mission Rec
ord, it is no uncommon thing for the col
onist, on returning from his days labor
to find the coat he left hanging on a nail
of his cottage wall and the books on the
table absolutely destroyed by these tiny
marauders. Nor is this all. On awakening
| next morning you are astonished to see in
the dim light a cone-shaped object rising
| from the brick floor a short distance from
your bed, with two holes on the top like
! the crater of miniature volcano. Up
on closer examination you discover that
the holes have the size and shape of the
side of your boots. Nothing is left of them
except the nails, eyelets, and maybe part
of the heels
The good effects of improved santa
! ton in modern days and the general in
crease of knowledge in regard in the
laws of health are shown nowhere so con-
clusively as in the extension of the aver
age duration of human life says Leslie's
! Weekly. Sixty years ago the expectancy
of life of male child averaged less than
| forty years and that of a female child
forty-two years. At the present time the
average for males is nearly forty-six
years and for females forty-eight. This
means that nearly three years have been
added to the working lifetime of men and
two years and half to that of women.
| There is encouragement for this for all
| who are engaged in teaching and preach
| ing the gospel of good health. Ignorance,
| prejudice and Indifference are slowly Civ
| ing way to enlightened and eommon-sense
methods of caring for the body 1t is not
unreasonable to expect that by the end
of the present century the average dura-
ton of human life may be raised to at
least fifty years.
The usually humorous incidents were
not lacking in the recently taken British
census. An immigrant in New Zealand
stated to the authorities that his mother
was Kaffir, his father am Irishman who
| had become a naturalized American, but
| afterwards served in the French army
and that he was born on the passage be-
tween Yokohama and Colombo in a Span
ish vessel. ''Put him down a Scotchmanr
was the official decision. man brought
up at Bow street was accosted by eight
linguists and a professor in seventy-fve
| languages without a. response. But test
| case for the census officials is that of a
man in Wales, who asserts that he was
found on dereiict vessel date unknown
and knows nothing about his father OF
| mother. A householder could not tell how
many children he had, while still another
| entered two pigs and sheep dog as
members of his family" A West Indian
church clergyman, who had a very low
| church son (also a clergyman staying
| with him, is alleged to have registered
him as ''unatic' in the proper column.
DR.. Clouston, of Edinburgh Asylum,
Scotland, writes to the Health Monthly:
81 am safe in saying that no man in
dulges for ten years continuously even
though he was never drunk in all that
time, without being pyschologically
changed for the worse. And if the habit
goes on after forty years the change is
| apt to be faster and more decided. We
| see it in our friends, and we know what
| the end will be, but we cannot lay hold
of anything in particular. The fortune
and works suffer, and yet we dare not
say they are druukards, for they are not
| 1t all depends on the original inherent
strength of the brain how long the down
ward course takes. Usually some inter-
current disease or tissue degeneration
cuts off the man before he has a chance
of getting old. I have seen such man
simply pass into senile dementia, before
he was an old man. from mild, respecta-
bic alcoholic excess, without any alco-
holism or preliminary outburst at all.
And | am sure l have seen strong brains
in our profession, at the bar and in bus
! mess break down from chronic excess
without their owners ever having been
once drunk"
The depopulation of Ireland by emil
grafton goes steadily on, says the New
York Post. Official returns just issued
show that the number of emigrants who
left Irish ports in 1900 was 47,1O7 or 1O.5
per 1000 of the estimated population of
Ireland in the middle of the year. being
of
the number departing i'm 1899. The total
| number of emigrants natives of ireland
who left Irish ports from May l. 1851
| (the date at which the returns began),
| to Dec 81, 1900, is 3,941, 1926 3A males
| and ,S3S,O75 females. These figures tell
| their own tale. 1t is interesting, how
| ever, to note that not all who quit the
| Emerald Isle seek fresh homes on this
| side of the Atlantic. In 1900 no fewer
than $3.50 natives left Ireland with the
intention of settling permanently in Great
| Britain. OF these ALB left for England
| and Wales, and ,92 for Scotland, the av-
erage for the four preceding years being
| 1757 and 1,030 respectively. This shows
a considerable increase. The number of
| persons who leave England and Scotland
| for permanent residence in Ireland is very
| small. On the other hand, the annual ex-
odus from Scotland to England is consid-
| cradle.
Efforts have been made recently in
two Western states, Minnesota and Wis