The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-11
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

"A little record of observations
made by the Geographic. operator at
Fort de France of his communications
with his colleague at st. Pierre on the
morning of May s brings out perhaps
more wildly than anything has yet
done the awful suddenness of the ca
tastrophe, says the Paris Matin. From
1880 a. m. to 500 a. m, the moment
when the city was struck, the two
were in unbroken communication. At
! T:S0 the st. Pierre operator explained
that there was mo danger" and from
minute to minute messages We're ex-
| changed on the most ordinary matters.
| At SOL Fort de France asked for repe-
| tition of a phrase, and the only an
swer that came was a faint culver or
buzzing from the instrument, and the
tape recorded a long dash. Death, to
all appearance, had come to the OPP
orator at st. Pierre with his hand on
his lever.
What dirty. dreadful. disgusting
stuff" exclaimed man, regarding
that peculiarly unpleasant compound,
the mud of London streets. Hold, my
friend" says Ruskin: mot so dreadful
after all What are the elements Of
this mud? First there is sand, but
when its particles are crystallized ac-
cording to the law of its nature, what
| is nicer than clean, white sand? And
when that which enters into it is ar
ranged according to a still higher law,
we have the matchless opal. What
else have we in this mud? Clay. And
the material of clay, when the par
ticles are arranged according to their
higher laws. make the brilliant sap
phire. What ingredients enter into the
London mud? SCOT. And SCOT in it's
crystalized perfection forms the per-
feet diamond. There is but one other
water. And water, when distilled ac-
cording to the higher law of it's nature,
| forms the dewdrop resting in exquisite
perfection in the heart of the rose"
Col. Templer's name recalls a mys-
terry of ballooning which never has
been and never can be solved. 1T was
he who, twenty years ago, assembled in
balloon with an M. p. who has new
er since been seen. 1t was one of the
rare occasions when the House of
| Commons has issued a writ on a pre-
! sumption of death. Mr. Powell, M. P,
was daring and enthusiastic bal
| loonist, and, with Col. Templer and a
mutual friend, he made an ascent in
| the South of England with a govern
ment balloon. When over Weymouth
| the balloon, through some failure of
machinery, fell rapidly to the ground,
and two of the aeronauts fell out. Just
as suddenly, and just as unexpectedly,
| the airship rose again-before Mr..
Powell had alighted. The M. P. was
carried back towards the skies, and
| from that day to this his fate has been
mystery. Since the moment when
| Col Templer, half senseless by his fall,
cried to him to descend, nobody has
ever seen Mr.. Powell, M. p, and not
a trace has been found of the balloon.
-Postoffice authorities are consider
ing the advisability of issuing series
of small two-cent stamps, to be used
on envelopes containing visiting cards
and petite notes. The suggestion
| comes from New York. The parties
who made it believe that there would
be popular demand for the miniature
stamps, on account of the prevailing
custom of sending cards of congrat-
l. ulation, coincidence, farewell. etc. The
| subject has been presented to Third
Assistant Postmaster General Madden,
who has jurisdiction of postage stamp
designs and issue, but he is not smitten
with it. He believe that, on the con-
trary, the Department would more
gladly issue rule prohibiting the use
of tiny envelopes. The letter-carriers
lose them, the inscriptions are often
| difficult to decipher, and they are ac-
| counted general nuisance by clerks
and postmaSters everywhere. However,
as the small envelopes cannot very we'll
be abolished. Mr.. Madden has prom
ised to see what can be done in the
way of preparing stamp that will not
entirely obscure them.
German railroad engineers have
surprised the whole engineering world
by disregarding in the new electric
railway in Berlin what has been looked
upon as an axiom of good railroading,
says the New York Sun. Contrary to
modern custom, they have equipped
| high speed electric railway with light
rails, and ties which in some places
are five feet apart. The road is now
| complete and in operation, and British
| and American engineers are watching
| it with the greatest interest to see how
long it will last, confident in their own
minds that very soon there must be
a collapse. If the railroad is running
in good order at the end of several
years, it may lead to the reversal of
some present ideas in railroad con-
struction. American engineers have
held that heavy rails are a necessity
at any cost, particularly on roads OPP
Grated by electric power and British
engineers have supported this view,
both in argument and in practice. "It
might be possible to operate such a
road, with very light rolling stock
moving at low Speeds" says the En-
cheering News, but this road is to
carry electric motor cars weighing 26
tons and three-car trains are to run
at speeds of thirty miles an hour at
intervals of two and one-half to five
minutes. If this track maintains it's
line and surface under electric motor
ear traffic, there must be something
in German conditions very different
from those which obtain in the United
States"
Lewis NJ. Haupt, formerly a mem
Der of the Nicaragua and Isthmian
Canal Commission. asks. in an article
in the July number of the North Amer
lean Review, why is an Isthmian
Canal not Built?" Mr. Haupt signed
the supplemental report of the 18TH
milan Canal Commission declaring in
favor of Panama, although he thought
the Nicaragua route the better of the
two, his reason for doing so CAS- at his
request, it was recorded in the min
utes of the commission being to avoid
throwing an obstacle in the way of
the construction of some waterway be-
tween the Atlantic and the Pacific. He
states at length the grounds of his
opinion that the Nicaragua route is
preferable to that of Panama: 1.-THE
problem is not merely concerned with
the cost of traVersing the isthmus from