The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-01-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

| into brlquetteS. 1t consists or mine
ing the refuse from abattoirs, fish mar
kets, etc, straw, paper and the like
and adding tar and naphthalene. The
whole mass is then mixed in a knead-
ing apparatus, dried and pressed into
| briquettes. The director of the Paris
municipal laboratory says: 'These bril-
quotes have a slight odor of gas, burn
brightly and engender heat slowly.
With a more highly perfected method
of manufacture they will engender less
ash and the eat-prodcing qualities
will be about the same as those of
common coal. They will also possess
the advantage of burning slowly and
developing no smoke"
Bologna has been having a sensa-
ton in tile rumor that its great lean
ing tower, the pride of the city, is
weakening, and may fall. This has
caused so large an influx of visitors
that it is said the hotel keepers may
not be wholly guiltless in regard to
the rumor. The city has two of these
| square towers, the Asinelli, which is
3l5 feet high, and was erected in 11o9,
and its rival. the Garisenda, which
was built one year later, and was orig
1nally much higher, and is rendered
peculiar by its decided inclination TO
| one side. 1t is now only 1913 feet high
the width of one side is % feet, the
walls at the base are feet inches
thick while higher up they are feet
| inches. It's origin is somewhat OBJ
scure, but it was certainly intended to
Guido the Asinelli, and both were for
| retreat in troublouS times. Some say
| the original intention was to make
1t lean. but others contend that either
the ground has settled or there was a
defect in the engineering. This unique
relic was so little thought of by one
or its later possessors that it was sold
Tor 22O lire something less than $44.
AT last, says the Scotsman we
have detected and run to earth the
cause of the slackness of British trade
| 1t is the hall porter A man who says
ne came from foreign country to buy
| goods to the amount of 10000 COM
| plains that he was practically driven
cut of England and forced to make his
| purchases in Germany. THE institu-
ton that is most fatal to British
| trade, he says, lis a creature known
| as the hall porter, whose object in life
apparently is to prevent anyone from
seeing his employer. The hall porter
takes the ground that the merchant
Tor whom he works is afflicted with a
| mania that drives him to wish to lead
| solitary existence. If he can succeed
4 in frightening away a caller he CON
slders that he has scored a point and
that he is incompetent if the caller gets
III. The hall porter imagines that his
boss desires an atmosphere of gloom
| ana loneliness, in which he can sit in a
sort OF gloomy state and bite his nails
ana brood. According to the hall por-
| Ter man hires an Office DIS a sort of
crypt, or cell, in which he can be alb
solutely safe from intrusion. The hall
porter is put there as a sort of scare
crow to brighten away customers. The
result of your British hall porter
| game Is that now make my purchases
on the Continent" This must have
been peculiarly shy and feeble speci-
men OF the genus commercial"
The following paragraph from re-
cent letter of the Chief of the Weather
| Bureau bears on the question whether
the climate has changed in recent
times. I'm the first place, instruments
al data are not available in any part
| OF the world for longer period than
800 years, and even these are not ac-
| curte. The effect of mans occupancy
of the earth is an unknown factor
Through his agency large areas of the
| earth's surface have been deforested
| and cultivated. Water has been di-
verted from streams and spread over
| the soil. thus Transforming deserts into
! FERTILE plains. The latter, in turn,
| through the varying fortunes of en-
! pires have again become arid While
the total effect of such changes as man
has wrought is probably small who
| shall say that 1t is absolutely nil? In
| the second place, the records of the
| Weather Bureau show that during the
| last fifty years there have been three
marked cold periods in the South At
lantic states, viz, from 1852 to 1857,
| both inclusive; from 1871 to 1876, both
inclusive, and from 1892 to 1901, both
inclusive, a total of twenty-one years
out of fifty. All of the years within
| the above named periods were not uni
| formly cold. Indeed, within the last
| named period there were two normal
winters, viz, 1894 and 1898 The final
conclusion appears to be that the sta
| tistics show no progressive change in
climate in this region, and that there
is not known priori reason why there
| should be such a change"
The coat of arms adopted for
Porto Rico is a departure from the
style followed by the different states
| of the United States and was decided
| upon after long discussion by the com
mittee. The old seal of Porto Rico.
| granted by Spain about the middle of
| the sixteenth century, presented three
| leading features, rock in the ocean,
| the lamb of st. John and design of the
Spanish flag and castle. The shape Of
| the shield was retained and also the
| rock, after being remodeled as to copy
| with some exaggeration, the contour
of the island as it appears to the voy-
! ager before entering the harbor of San
| Juan. Behind the rock is shown the
! rising sun. The choice of a crest pre-
| scented difficulty. No heraldic animal
! was suggested as having peculiar To-
| cal significance except the game-cock,
whose present popularity the govern
ment is trying to suppress. No suita-
BILE tree was suggested. The bust of
Columbus was considered, but it was
regarded as lacking in artistic effect.
| One of his caravels was found to make
a striking effect above the shield and
| il was adopted. Concerning the motto,
| the committee decided that Spanish
was out of the question, but English
was such an unknown tongue that
Latin was chosen. Many mottos were
submitted, but the successful sugges-
| ton came from a Washington woman,
and almost simultaneously from DIR.
David j. Hill, assistant secretary of
| state. 1t is from Ovid: "Prospera lux
oritur," which, translated, means, "A
happy day is dawning."
If a person suffering from perss-
tent cold feet is constitutionally of low
vitality his first duty should be that
of braeing his system by generous