The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

D
years, has recently had conferred upon
him by the King of Siam the Royal Or
der OF the White Elephant.
All the world seems to agree that
the peacock is unluclxy. The tail is
emblem Of an evil eye or an ever
vigilant traitor. Argus was the chief
Minister of Osiris, king of Egypt
When the King started on his Indian
expedition he left his Queen. Isis. re-
gent, and Argus, with 100 spies Called
eyes,, soon made himself so powerful
and formidable that he shut up the
1 Queen regent in d strong castle and
proclaimed himself king Mercury
marched against him, took him pris-
oner and cut of his head; whereupOn
Juno metamorphosed Argus into
peacock, and set his eyes in its tail.
On account of the approaching
completion of the tunnel of the Jura-
Simplon Railway, the monks of the
historic hospice of the Grand st. Ber-
nard are considering a proposal to
abandon IL. The carriage road from
Giays TO Domo d'Ossola, which was
constructed by Napoleon. is costly to
maintain on account OF frequent ava
lsnches, and when the post goes by
railway the Swiss mail stages, which
in summer now traverse it daily twice
each way, will be withdrawn, leaving
the hospfce practically in the midst of
a mountain solitude. The monks have
occupied il since 1926, and have Gre
ated for it a name of renown all over
the world, the memory of which is
likely to outlast its material founda-
tons.
Few people not acquainted with the
figures have any idea of the enormity
Of the insurance business of the United
States, says Leslie's Weekly. 1t not
only exceeds that of any other country,
but is twice as great as that of all
the rest of the world combined. At
the present time there is in the United
States about $4,000, 10000 of life in
surance in force, including assessment
business. This means over $3.50 for
every man, woman, and child in the
country, or $500 for every family. The
annual risks written by the fire insur-
ance companies are estimated at $780,
O00000.0 600, which is $3.50 per capita, or
$l,250 per family. Thus it will be seen
that every family in the country, as
an average, has insurance assets of
over $4,000. This total amount of life
and fire insurance is equal to one-third
the total wealth of the United States.
1t is ten times the savings banks de-
posits and five times our total de-
posits in savings, state, and national
banks. 1t is an almost identical amount
with the debt of the whole world, and
1t is about the same as our annual
turnover in commerce, trade and trans
portation, and the United States leads
in this field of business endeavor as it
will soon lead in every other.
There is at present in the Central
Police Station of Paris a prisoner,
named Castet, who is known as the
Man with the Steel Hands," says an
exchange. He was arrested on a Curl
Gus charge, which will have to be con-
strued as an assault. Castet went to
the Bichat Hospital and asked to be
admitted as patient. He was ex-
am!ned by a resident medical student,
who said that there was nothing the
matter with the applicant. Castet
then took one of the students hands
in his and actually crushed the young
medical mans fingers. 1t was like
the grip of the commanders statue in
the sad case of the rake, Don Juan
The student cried for help, and the
man with the steel hands was arrested
by the police, to whom he calmly stated
that he crushed the doctors fingers as
a token of thanks for declaring him to
be in perfect health. At the police
station Castet broke thick log of
wood in two. bent a pair of pincers
with three of his fingers, and snapped
a rope tied in tenfold thickness around
cask. All this was done Ohe Lon
don Telegraph's Paris correspondent
tells us) to show the remarkable
strength of his hands, but he will have
to answer all the same for having as
saulted the medical student.
Few, perhaps, are aware that the
first automobile, considered in the
sense of vehicle containing within
lnseH powers of locomction, of which
there Is any authentic account, was
a seH-moving shrine OF Bacchus, SAYS
the Washington Times. This was the
Invention Of Heron of Alexander, who
describes it in his work on automatic
mechanism. The shrine in question
was mounted upon two supporting and
two driving wheels on the axle
OF the driving wheels was drum,
about which was wound a rope, which
passed upward through the space on
one Side of the shrine over pulleys,
and was fastened to the ring of a
ponderous lead weight, which rested
upon a quantity of dry, fine sand
The escape of this sand through a
small hole in the middle of the floor
of the compartment containing it al
lowed the lead weight gradually to
descend, and, by pulling upon the cord
caused the shrine to move slowly for
ward in a straight line Heron des-
cribes the method of arranging and
proportioning the wheels in csae il
was desired that the shrine move in
circular path. He also shows how
the shrine can be constructed to move
in straight lines at right angle to each
other. Officials of the Patent Office
overlooked the device of Heron when
they granted patents on slot machines,
notwithstanding that previously,
Thomas Eubank, Commissioner of
Patents, in 1885, illustrated and des-
cribed Heron's invention. The mech
anism of the latter is almost identical
with that in the modern device and
simply serves as another proof of the
saying, There is nothing new under
the SUM-"
An enormous wheel is now in pro-
cess of construction at Paterson, and
by spring it will be shipped to Michi-
gan on a train of thirty cars, to take
it's place in the Calumet and Hecla
Company's works, says the New York
Post. The mills where the copper ore
is ground are so large, and the debris
accumulateS so rapidly, that it takes
a small army of carts to carry it away,
and at great expense. 1t was therefore
decided to build a sandwich to do the
work. The apparatus will be set up
in the stamp mill in such a position
that the buckets fastened to the wheel
will scoop up the waste as they re-
volye, and automatically dump their
contents into an elevated trough or
no