The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

the tribute he paid to a deceased
friend: HE did not possess an inter
esting vice to brighten his somber vir-
tues"
Sailing ships cannot be said to have
had their day, says the New York
Journal of Commerce, when Americans
are building multimasted schooners
that would have seemed remarkable
as square-rigged vessels forty years
ago, and that would have found few
peers in carrying capacity among
steamships twenty years ago, and the
Germans and English are building sail
ers with a capacity comparable with
some of the larger modern freight
steamers. Since 1898 France has added
greatly to her feet of large sailing YES
sells, and while this is attributed to the
provisions of the subsidy law, which
especially favored sailers, a good deal
of it must be attributed to the economy
of these carriers, which seemed for a
time liable to become extinct in the
face of steam competition, but whose
value has been better appreciated as
the rates of freight have declined and
economies have been sought in every
direction. England built a ship last
year that would carry $4,000 cases of
oil. and Germany, which had already
built sailing ship of $500 tons dead
weight capacity, has just launched enc
. that will carry 5000 tons dead weight.
In thesmeanwhile our great sailers are
fore-and- alters, because higher wages
make 1t more important here to econo-
mize in the matter of crew.
Results have been obtained by the
ordnance officials of the naval gum
proving station at Indian Head, on the
Potomac, through which gun may be
fired with the heaviest charge without
showing the usual little cloud of white
fog or vapor which smokeless powder
gives. The method through which this
valuable development of burning pow
der without the least seTnblance of
smoke being visible will remain a Sc
cret with the American ordnance Off
GERS, and is the first successful effort
made here and abroad by which guns
may be fired with only the whiz of the
projectile and the report of the dis
charge to proclaim the fact. Lieut..
Joseph Strauss, the inventor of the SUI
perpoSed gun turret applied to the bait
tleShips kearsarge and Kentucky, act
ing under directions of the Ordnance
Bureau, has been rendering these trials
for months. The process of igniting
smokeless powder heretofore has been
through the use of small quantities of
black powder used in connection with
the smokeless, and with which it is
made to burn quickly. The result has
been to cause a slight cloud of faint
white smoke-enough, however, to dis
close the fact of the gun being fired
The new invention does away with the
use of the black powder and enables
the smokeless variety to be quickly ig-
nited and made to burn as rapidly as
under the old process, and at the same
time produce no smoke.
The third annual session of the
American congress of tuberculosis is
to be held in New York from the I'd
to the 4th of June. The session prom
ises to be very large one, for not
only are delegates from every state of
the union expected to be in attendance,
but the governments of Canada and
Newfoundland, and possibly some of
the Central and South American coun-
tries, will be represented officially Ad-
ditional interest will be lent to the de-
alterations of the congress through the
recent expression of Prof. Koch to the
effect that the tuberculosis of cattle is
not transmissable to man. At the last
session signs of opposition to this the
DRY of Koch were noticeable, but, on
the whole, the members were unwill-
ing to dogmatiZe until further proof
either for or against the theory, were
LII lAlOOlAlAliSs bOlllCC ltlSll lISIC mas USSn
extraordinary activity among medical
men, both of this country and else
where, and while nothing positive has
been evolved, there has evil
IDENTIFY been great progress towards a
definite solution of one of the most Sc
riouS problems which confront the hui
man race. The session will be devided
into four sections. viz: First, Proven
tive Legislation, Embracing the Social,
Municipal and State Aspects of Tuber-
culosis;" second, Tuberculosis in Its
Pathological and archaeological AS
pects;" third, THE Medical and Sur
gical Aspects of tuberculosis" fourth,
THE Veterinary Aspects of Tubercu-
losis."
The Colorado Desert is a level
plain of clay. relieved here and there.
by hills of sand. 1t was formerly the
bottom of a great shallow lake, the
rocky banks of which still remain in
the shape of stony cliffs that bear the
ancient water marks upon them 1t is
an arid wonderland. The hills de-
scribed are not stationary, but travel
constantly, though slowly, journeying
over the plain as the winds direct. The
sand of which they are composed is
not of the ordinary kind, but of ma
ture marvellous. Most of the grains are
transparent, others are translucent
while many are of rainbow hues, being,
in fact, small gems of red carnelian,
green chrysolite, and vari-colored gar
net. Seen beneath a microscope, most
of them are perfect spheres, rounded
and polished by attrition with each
other. Composed of these strange ma
terials, the sand hills look like great
snowdrifts, with here and there a
CLEAN of color. Continually they give
forth a rusting sound. as the tiny
spheres are shifted by the winds, roll
ing slowly onward. The northern por-
ton of the desert is paved with the
most wonderful pebbles in the world,
in many parts so exquisitely laid as to
defy successful imitation by the most
skilled worker in mosaic flooring.
These pebbles are of porphyry, agate,
carnehan, quartz-crystal, garnet and
other such beautiful materials. They
are packed together so that the sur
face composed of them is like floor,
and they look as if pressed into it with
a roller.
The question as to the derivation of
that word 'loafer," which Mr.. Rhodes
will is likely to elevate from the slang
dictionary, is already getting acute,
says the London Chronicle. Despite
Notes and Queries and the derivation,
through Hans Breitmann, from that
lofer QoveD of yours always hanging
around here the word is Spanish, and,
like galoot and others, came from Mex
leo, through Texas to the States. 1t
is the Anglicized or Americanized
form of galliferro, IAN idle. lazy vag-