The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-08-28

bureau in the Imperial Palace of To-
kio. says that the Emperor of Japan's
love of poetry increases with years.
| Scarcely an evening passes that his
majesty does not compose from TWEEN
| ty-seven to thirty of the thirty-one
| syllabled couplets called"wa-ka." These
| are handed to Baron Takasaki for ex-
| animation. Baron Takasaki has held
his present position since 1892, and he
| declares that the number of couplets
| composed by his majesty from that
| time up to the end of last March was
$1,000.
The use of Japanese and Chinese
mating as an article of house furni-
ture is almost universal in this coun-
try in fact, we are the best foreign
customers the extreme east has for
the product. 1t has long been contend
ed that these mattings could not be
manufactured here for the simple rea-
son that the peculiar rush out of which
they are made is not indigenous to this
country, and no one seems to have
thought of introducing it's cultivation.
1t appears, however, that a rush is to
be found growing in the greatest pro-
fusion in the waters of the Trent and
Neuse rivers. about Newborn. N. c.,
which experts have found to be iden-
teal with the Japanese and Chinese
plant. The plant is said to be hardy
and of rapid growth, and in order to
turn IL into the manufactured article
no great degree of skilled labor is re-
quired.
The biggest mosquito that was ever
captured was finally landed in Newark,
N. j., after an awful struggle. People
are Mortified at it's size, and fear that
1t is the forerunner of a new brand,
far worse and far more deadly than
anything that has yet attacked the
unfortunates of that vicinity. The mos,
quito was seen ambling along through
the air at about Z o'clock in the even
ing. At first 1t was mistaken for
chicken hawk. When it finally came
down near the ground dozen men and
boys, armed with all kinds of weap-
ons,. surrounded it, and ii was finally
dispatched. Then it was measured.
Competent persons say that the meas
urement recorded three inches over
all. Its bill was longer than a plumb
er's in winter time, while its legs were
the size of sparrows. The oldest in
habitant" declares that he never saw
the like of it before.
According to the recently completed
census of Great Britain and ireland,
the respective representation of the
House of Commons of the three Sec
tions-Ireland, Scotland and the admin
istrative county of London-presents
the following surprising figures: Ire
land, with the smallest population of
the three, returns 103 members; Scot
land, with a population $4,000 greater
than Ireland returns only 70 members.
While London, with population con-
siderably greater than either of the
n p1t
it another way. Forty-th three thousand
persons in Ireland have as much rep
resentation as 3d. 900 living in Scotland,
or as $4,000 living in London, which
means politically that one mans vote
in Ireland is equal to one and four
tenths mems votes in Scotland and
one and seven-tenths mems votes in
England; or. that $4,000 voters in Ire
land have as much weight in determin-
ing the policy of the country as $1,000
voters in Scotland or $4,000 in London.
did you ever know that ants will
make lemonade?" asked the laxative
grocer, according to the Philadelphia
Record. Yes, it's a fact l happened
to cut lemon the other day, and l left
it on the counter. A couple of minutes
later l noticed bunch of ants making
a great to do around the lemon. The
antics of the little insects were so
methodical that / took a few minutes
off to investigate. A little sugar had
been spilled on the counter near the
spot where the lemon lay and the ants
were busy making trips between the
sugar and the fruit. You may not be-
lieve 1t, sir, but every time one of the
little creatures made the trip he car
ried back a grain of sugar, which was
dropped into the lemon juice and then
6NU05Irad Ctr
maybe the manufacture of lemonade
was only an accidental process due to
the close proximity of the sugar and
the lemon. so I carefully swept the
sugar away. 1t seems incredible, but
as true as I'm standing here those ants
hunted around until they found the
sugar barrel until the whole bunch
trooped back, laden with sugar, which
they dipped in the juice and swal-
lowed. Wonderful is no name for it!'
-Profs. Hartley and Ramage have
recently made a number of analyses
of dust from various sources by means
of the spectroscope. Dust from the
clouds collected either by itself or in
hail, snow, sleet or rain, exhibits a reg
ularity in composition not seen in 9TH
er varieties of dust. 1t contains, APP
parently, the same proportions of iron
Nickel calcium, copper, potassium and
sodium. Nordenskiold collected and de-
seribed three different kinds of dust
One consisted of diatoms and another
of silicous, and apparently felspathic
sand; both being obtained from the
surface of the ice in Greenland. The
third variety was composed of sooty
looking particles, containing elements
invariably associated with iron mete-
orites. metallic cobalt, nickel, carbon,
silicon and phosphorus. He therefore
concluded that it was meteoric matter
showered down upon the earth, and
that cosmic dust is falling impercepti-
bly, and continually. Volcanic dust
contains lime and magnesia and shows
the spectra of the alkali metals. Flue
dust contains larger proportions of
lead, silver and copper than ordinary
dust, or coal ashes. In it are also
found nickel and manganese as we'll
as notable quantities of the rare metals
rubidium, gallium, indium and thai
lium.
-English-speaking countries have
four different miles-the ordinary mile
of $3.50 feet and the geographical or
nautical mile of 6.0S5, making a differ
ence of about one-seventh between the
two; then there is the Scotch mile of
5,92S feet, and the Irish mile of 6,720
feet; four various miles, every one of
which is still in use. Then almost
every country has it's own standard
mile. The Romans have their mil
DasSn1lm 600 naces which must bava