The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Gently caused the following card to be
inserted in a local paper: Wake up!
Change cars! Don't you think you nave
been carrying my money long enough
Come in and secure my autograph on
a receipted bill. You will feel better
about it, and l assure you the feeling
will be mutual. Very truly yours, B.
C. H., Spencer, M. D."
For the first time since the passage
of the present state constitution, the
New York Legislature will meet on
Jan. l. This is because Jan. l Will
fall on Wednesday. Prior to 1894 the
Legislature of the Empire State met
on the first Monday in January. When
the constitutional convention was in
session some churchmen urged the
change from the first Monday in jan
uary to the first Wednesday so that
the Sunday preceding might not be
desecrated by the holding of caucuses,
etc.,
Chinese quack doctors in the vicin-
ity of foreign hospitals in the far in
terror hang out foreign flags, inscribed:
Cure according to the foreign devils
plan" This is very flattering to the
European medical profession, and the
Chinese quacks. like quacks of other
nationalities, are apparently allowed to
sail under false colors with impunity.
1t is not so. however, with the native
butcher. For hanging out foreign
merchants sign at Marking a Chi
nese butcher has been arrested and
beaten with five hundred strokes ''for
the information of the public"
The New York Herald says the fiat
90 in, do
mand, now we'll recognized and indus
triously catered to, for servants who
are physically small. Not only does the
big servant take up space actually
needed for other things, but she Cor
he, as the case may be- so dwarfs the
appearance of everything else as to
make the tiny rooms, halls and door,
ways, and the still timer furniture,
seem ridiculous; and appearances, in
New York as elsewhere, are import
ant. This is one reason, says the
Herald, why the Japanese are coming
into demand.
"A dispatch from Springfield, Mass,
Dec. 26. says; A double wedding, by
which relationships are peculiarly COM
plicated, was performed by Rev. L. G..
Gagnier in ST. Joseph's Church here
lO-Qdy NIP v SSIIllIlc IIdTTleQ MS
sister-in-law, Mrs. Alphonsine Des Jar
dins, while his daughter, Miss Ida
Gemme, married her cousin, Arthur
Des Jardins, the sons of the elder
bride. Philip Gemme is now brother
in-law to his own wife. He is the I'M
Gle of his own daughter, having mar
ried his daughters aunt, and is also
his son-in-law's uncle, in addition to
being the said son-in-law's father-in-
law. Mrs. Gemme is the mother-in-
law of her stepdaughter, the sister-in-
law of her husband and her sons aunt,
having married his uncle. Her step
daughter is also her niece.
The Electrical Review boasts that
electrical science has made a good be-
ginning of the twentieth century,
equaling its best achievements in any
preceding year. Since last January we
have had Pupin's revolutionary discov-
cry as ITO long telephone circuits, Edr-
sons new and more efficient storage
battery at high speeds and Marconi' s
demonstration of his ability to send
wireless signals over distances OF thou
sands of miles. There has been large
progress also on the theoretical side.
The theory of ions, or electrons, as re-
Gently developed, suggests an expIana-
ton of a host of chemical, optical,
thermal and other phenomena, and
even promises an explanation of iner-
tia and gravitation. Atoms are split
into a thousand parts. The idea
grows that there is after all but one
element, and that only mode of mo-
ton of the ether. Never before was
the interest in physical problems 50
intense, and never before were there
so many trained thinkers engaged in
solving them.
The prejudice against naming a
vessel after reptile, snake or any
singing thing has received further
backing through the recent wrecking OF
the Viper and the Cobra. This is the
fourth Viper that has been lost in the
British navy. One was wrecked in
1880. The Vipere, a French prize, used
in the British service, was lost in 1893
A third of the name went to the bot
tom in 1897, and the fourth was re-
Gently smashed off Guernsey. The Ser
pent, wrecked eleven years ago, was
the fourth British man-of-war of that
name to meet the same fate. Two
Snakes have been lost, one in 1881 and
| another in 1847. Three Lizards have
been wrecked, one in 1915, one in 1896
and one in 1913. An Adder was lost
in 1916 and an Alligator in 1882, a
Crocodile in 1884 and a Rattlesnake in
1881. Two Dragons and a Basilisk
have also gone down, and if records
of other navies could be gone through
the list might be interminable. On the
other hand the vessels of the Morse
men, which were known by the hideous
heads of dragons and reptiles which
they carried at their high prows. dc
not seem to have been thereby doomed
TO disaster in their prolonged trips
to the Mediterranean. They had a be-
lief, said to be still existent, that II
was unlucky and a sacrilege to cal
boat by the name of Valkyrie. and
Lord Dunraven's first challenger OF
that name was soon sunk by the Satan.
ita, and his second challenger of the
same name caused nothing but trou.
Bile, and was cut to pieces, while prac-
tically an untried boat, after a short
existence.
Long before the dawn of the Chris.
tan era wireless methods of communi.
eating intelligence to a distance were
employed-not electric telegraphs a,
the term is generally understood. Il
is true, but wireless they certainl,
were, says Casters Magazine. POLY.
bus, the Greek historian describes 3
telegraph system employed for militar,
purposes, 300 b. c., in which torche,
were placed on high walls in prear.
ranged positions to correspond to let.
tiers of the Greek alphabet, and by 8
suitable manipulation of the torches
| messages were thus transmitted to :
distance. The Gauls, too, were won
10 transmit important intelligence t.