The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-16

N--~~-
the places where the story of Robin
son Crusoe" is supposed to have been
written are as numerous as the tradi-
tons of Homer's birth. Gateshead-at-
| Tyne, an inn in Halifax. a house in
| Whitechapel, washhouse in Hartley
| ard Defoe's home in Stoke Newington
are all pointed out to literary pilgrims
as being respectively the birthplace OF
| this famous piece of fiction. Stoke
| Newington is, at any rate. associated
with the tranquil period of Defoe's
| rather unquiet life. There he kept his
carriage and there his three daughters
! kept house for him, admired for their
beauty, their education and their pru-
dent conduct. wrote a friend who mar
| ried one of them.
Each ear has four bones. The
body has about 500 muscles. The hu-
| man skull contains thirty bones. The
| lower limbs contain thirty bones each.
The sense of touch is dullest on the
| back. Every hair has two oil glands
| at its base. The globe of the eye is
moved by six muscles. The cerebral
| matter is about seven-eighths water
| The human skeleton, exclusive of
teeth. consists of POS bones. Hair is
very. strong. A single hair will bear
a weight of 1.150 grains. The enamel
|
| calcerous matter. The roots of the
| hair penetrate the skin about one
| twelfth of an inch. The normal weight
| of the liver is between three and four
| pounds The wrist contains eight bones,
| the palm five; the fingers have four
| teen. The weight of the average-sized
man is 40 pounds; of woman, lbs
| pounds.
| in a review of the sea power of the
great nations the Naval Annual shows
| that in the ten years from 1892 to 1902
| these changes have occurred: 1. Rus
| STA, Germany, and the United States
have all become the owners of as many
battleships as France, which ten years
ago was in that respect second only to
! Great Britain. 2. Japan's navy has
been created, and, for Asiatic purpos-
es, is united with Great Britains. 3.
British and Japanese navies together
| number forty-seven arnor-cladS of the
| st-class-three more than the COM
bined total of Russian, French and
| German warshps of that class. A.
France has made armored cruisers the
| prime feature of her new construction
and will shortly count thirteen of them
5. Great Britain has we'll maintained
| her lead over her two most probable
adversaries and now counts twenty
nine nrst-class battleships ready for
action against seventeen for France
| and Russia combined. Assuming that
| the United States do not join 1t, the
| Naval Annual concludes that no COM
| bination of naval powers could be
made strong enough to destroy British
| sea power.
The example of France in the de-
velopment of internal waterways is
worthy of the study of other nations,
says the Pittsburg Dispatch. Starting
in 1880 with a canal system more in
elusive than any other nation of her
size, she has spent $120, 900, 900 in ex-
tending and improving her cheap wat
er transportation; and she will ex-
pend 300 000,0 coo more in completing
projects already begun. The result of
these Improvements is a cheapness of
internal transportation that constitutes
one of the chief causes of her indus
trial stability. France has no water
ways of such magnificent possibilities
as the Ohio. Yet the contrast is af-
forded that while France long ago ca
nalized her rivers, and connected them
| by artificial canals, the United States
prepares to put hundreds of millions
| into foreign canal. while it has let
| the utilization of it's internal streams
| drag on without any definite plan for
| completion. The movement to secure
| the full and prompt improvement of
| the Ohio river is in favor of reversing
| this political stupidity. 1t is easily evil
| dent from the French course that if
such stream as the Ohio had existed
| in France, it would already have been
| developed to it's highest freight carry
ing capacity. The effort to get that
done in this country will-especially
if perfected by a barge canal connec-
| ton with the lakes-add more to the
wealth of the country than any other
| possible expenditure.
Frederick Z. Rittman Of Cleveland,
auditor for the War Department. is
| custodian of one of the largest collec-
tons of records extant, says the Cleve-
land Plain Dealers Washington dis
patches. There are nearly eleven miles
of shelves, and each shelf is piled high
with closely packed documents Those
all pertain to the doings of our army
| in the Civil and Spanish wars. settle
n1ents and records of dsbursing Of
1 fcers, commissaries, settlements with
soldiers, medical officers paymasters
of the army, officers of the ordnance
department members of the engineer
! corps and others of the United States
army. They are contained in two shah
by buildings used for offices some dis
/ lance from the war department.
though pertaining thereto. The papers
| were recently weighed and measured
by Auditor Rittman and his assistants,
/ and much to their surprise it was dis
| covered that there are 240 tons of the
! records, and that they cover nearly II
miles of shelving. A large force is en-
| rloyed mending the muster rolls and
| other documents. Having been so long
! folded and packed and paper cracks
! in the folds and is mended by pastinr
| transparent vellum of a peculiarly thin
! strong sort over the cracks The vel
lum is cut into strips of suitable
! lengths, the paste is already prepared.
| and all that is to be done is to dab the
| one upon the other and lay it smooth
! ly over the crack. These records are
searched by people looking up military
records. Often large civil causes hang
on these records in cases where mill
tary bounties are concerned.
One of the odd but profitable voca-
lions of man is that of collecting
sponges from the floor of the sea. In
collecting sponges four methods are
| mployed-harpooning, primitive div
ing. dredging and diving with special
! outfit. With harpoons one of the chief
| difficulties is to see the bottom clear
| ~ through a troubled sea- To obviate
| this wooden or since plate cone. like
| water bucket, open at the top and
with glass bottom, is used. On look
ing through this water glass which
is partly submerged. the bottom of The
| = CO,