The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

icaI experts When the plague broke
out in Constantinople the Sultan asked
ii anything was known as to the
cause. On being informed that 1T was
to be found in the state of the drink
ing water he called at once for six
empty bottles, which he had filled In
his presence, all from the same one
of the palace wells, placed his own
seal upon them, and then, without di-
vulging their community of origin,
handed all six to a prominent analyst.
To his amazement the report sent in
was that four of the samples contain
ed plague microbes. The fifth was
merely putrid water, and the sixth was
quite pure.
London has recently been the head
quarters of a number of distinguished
visitors from all parts of the globe says
Modern Society, among them the RaJah
of Sarawak. Sir Charles Brooke, on
his way to the house that has been for
some time in preparation for him in
Worcestershire. Sir Charles anxious
and worn countenance suggests that
the sovereignty of his small territory
about half the size of Great Britain
is by no means a Sinecure. AS matter
of fact, the natives of Sarawak have
but the slightest veneer of civilization,
and the Rajah has to govern them with
a firm hand to prevent their relapse
into the most terrible barbarism. The
present Rajah adopted the name of
Brooke when he was chosen to succeed
his uncle at Sarawak. His name was
originally Johnson.
1t would seem that the world is
getting too small for us, says the Phil
adelphia Record. We are to fight dis
ease by destroying insects and NAM
mails. Rats carry plague; cats, diph
liberia; mosquitoes, yellow fever, and so
forth. Now there is to be war to the
death on the sparrow. 1t has been
demonstrated that he is the carrier of
the San Jose scale, so much dreaded
by the fruit grower. This audacious
foreigner invades every place and not
only does his dirty nest in the vines
close to our windows breed all sorts
of noisome vermin, but he must needs
fly from tree 10 tree constantly, and if
one tree becomes infected he is sure
to spread it to others. Truly, the
charges laid against the English SPAR
row are numerous, and persons who
want to possess their share of the earth
in peace and quiet are urged to poison
the Migrants during the winter when
our native birds are away.
"A proof of the conservative ways
of the English people is the manner
in which Goals for the household fires
are distributed and stored, says the
Nineteenth Century. Instead of the
American coal cart, which is loaded in
less than five minutes from an elevated
coal bin, the American visiting London
finds an ordinary wagon made to carry
about dozen large bags of coal, which
are filled one by one at an expense of
much time and labor, and then lifted
into the vehicles like so many milk
cans. When an American coal cart
reaches the house where it's load is to
be dumped the cart is backed up
against the side of the pavement, the
chute is drawn out like the barrel of
a telescope and the end inserted in the
coalhole. In a few minutes the entire
load, with the rush of water falling
over small cataract, runs down into
a heap on the floor of the coal cell
lar. In London, on the other hand,
each bag of coal has to be taken sep
arately from the wagon and emptied
as near as may be in the coalhole, and
when the task is at last finished the
coal which has fallen on the pavement
has to be laboriously shoveled into the
coal cellar.
in a recent number of the Electri-
cal World and Engineer there is pub
lished a very interesting article on the
history of the use of electricity as a
means of decoration. He commences
in 1882, when E. H. Johnson, the pres
ident of the Edison Electric Light
Company in New York, had set up in
one of the rooms of his residence, for
the amusement of his children, a
Christmas tree, the punches of which
were studded with hundreds of electric
lights. These were covered with silk
of various colors, and as the tree re-
volved the lights were automatically
turned on and off. This was the first
time that anything of this kind had
been attempted, and it was regarded as
a great achievement. From this be-
ginning the author traces the use of
electricity for similar purposes through
its various stages up to the Pan
American tower, which is the browning
achievement of this art OF this the
writer says: IAN old German proverb
maintains that paper is very tractable
and permits of all sorts of liberties.
So, too, the conception of this tower
artstically depicted in the many il
Illustrations and Autographs freely cir
culated prior to the actual illumination
showed a LUMINOSITY electrified struct-
ure, which had the appearance of be-
ing lighted from within, as if con-
structed of glass, producing a trans
lucent and luminous effect not unlike
the miniature chalk towers on street
sale by Italian vendors some years ago.
If such an effect were obtained by ex-
ternal light, it could only be insured by
placing a model of the tower in an
absolutely dark background, so that no
light would be reflected and illuminat-
ing 1t by powerful searchlights or
projectors"
There are 10000 cripples in the
state of New York and 5000 of them in
the city. The best that many of them
can do is to beg, but for a year and
a half there have been organized in
New York city classes in several in
dustrial schools for cripples only. Here
the child handicapped by the useless
ness of a leg or arm, by blindness, spi-
nal disease or other infirmities, is
taught to become self-supporting, help
full and made to view life with a clear
and healthful vision. A writer in the
New York Times gives the following
account of the training of these unfor-
tunate children of the poor: I'm these
schools children with the use of but
one hand are taught to sew; boys suf-
fering from hip disease can use their
hands, and use them expertly, II prop
erly taught. Some of these develop
ability as designers in ironwork. There
are those whose lower limbs are help
less who have learned to support them