The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-23
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


ed to pick cotton in Mississippi. They
are quick and active, nimbIe fingered
and tireless, and after a few weeks of
practice can pick as much cotton per
day as the best negro pickers.
The contractor for the New York
rapid transit subway recently stated
that, owing to the great development in
electrical art, a generation of electric
ity is now only three years, says the
Electrical Review. This is startling
announcement, and sets one 20 think
ing. What becomes of all the old ma
chinery. and who pays for the new?
How long will ii be before a company
can install a plant and feel assured
that the machinery will not have to
come out within a year or two? Does
not this continual scrapping or ma
chinery mean a loss somewhere?
When Senator Scott first went to
Congress a committee was appointed to
investigate certain alleged irregulari-
ties in his election. The West Virgin
lar paid considerable attention to this
committee, dining and winning the mem
bers deliberately. This went on for
some time, but finally he learned that
the committee intended to report in his
favor but liked his entertainment too
we'll to close up their labors. Then he
gave them one more feed, but over
the cigars told them that henceforth
they might live on bread and water
for all he cared. The report exonerat-
ing him was forthcoming next day.
in his presidential address to the
Royal Statistical Society in London
Major Craigie pointed out that since
1880 the population of the world had
increased from approximately S47,-
100000 to approximately 1900, 900, 600.
of whom one-fourth are in continental
Europe. The empire of China and
Great Britain account for about one
half of this number. Six states and
six only govern and protect about
three-fourths and ten control six
seventies. The order in which the ma
tons stand is: Great Britain, China,
Russia, France (all over 100000, 000),
United States, Germany, Japan, Aus
tria-Hungary, Holland and Italy.
Renewed attention is being drawn
to the fact that hardly any Of the
leading men of New York were born
in that city. This is especially no
ticeable in professional and commercial
life, nearly all the prominent editors.
lawyers, preachers and financiers and
many leading physicians hailing orig
inally from outside the confines of
Manhattan Island. No native New
. Yorker was ever elected President.
There have been, since 1777. when
George Clinton was elected Governor,
fifty-five gubernatorial elections, and
but four of the long list were born
New Workers. In the last fifty years
not one New York city man has been
elected United States senator.
throughout the world feel the compe-
tition of the artificial product Thirty
years ago the madden industry in the
South of France was destroyed, and
now the indigo industry in the Far
East meets the same fate, both the re-
suit of the work of scientists. Perhaps
the time may come when chemical
synthesis will celebrate it's triumph
over the great food products, result
that Will be a blessing to all mankind,
although not of particular advantage
to the agrarian industry. which will
then have an experience similar to
that of the woad cultivators in Thu
ringia, the madder growers in South
France and now the indigo producers
in India. The persistent claims of DO
litical economists that the agrarian in
dustry is of the greatest Importance
must be considered in the light of
competition between artificial and
natural food products.
Seventy thousand acres of coal
land, worth all the way from $40 to 800
an acre, aggregatlng at the lowest fig
ure $2,000,000 or $4,000 900, says the Bal
timore Herald, are involved in a ques-
ton of title which has been raised
within the last few days in Parksburg.
w. Va. The question is who owns the
bed of the Ohio river-the United
states, West Virginia or the owners of
property abutting on the river? The
state of West Virginia has jurisdiction
in criminal cases over the surface of
the Ohio river, but the United States
owns the waterway, while the people
along the river bank in many places
claim the land clear across to the Ohio
side. The question arose in connection
with sale of coal lands few days
ago, and unless the Legislature enacts
some law upon the subject it will prob
ably be carried to the Supreme Court
of the United States. The state bor-
ders along the river for 225 miles, and
the river has an average width of at
least half a mile for this distance.
Every acre is underlaid with coal.
which can be mined by shafting, and
the value of the land for that purpose
will be worth fighting for.
1t is curious how the little letter
"y'' has proved a huge differentium.
For, whereas the Smiths as a rule,
have been money making, the
"Smyths" have shown themselves chiy-
alrous and aristocratic. While the
Smiths Svere Roundhead, the Smyths
suffered for Tory or Jacobite princi-
pies, according to the London Mail.
Apropos of these variations in the
spelling of the great patronymic. Mr..
Compton Reade propounds a theory
which should prove of comfort to both
branches of the family. He holly COM
bats the notion that the Smyths.
Smythes and Smiths have assumed
a variation of spelling to lend an aris-
tocratic flavor to a homely name.
Nothing" he declares, "can be further
from the truth. The original form was
Smyth, just as the modern cider is a
corruption of the ancient 'cyder.' So
far from the Smyths having Smythed
themselves, | can discover barely one
notable instance of the change from g
TO " but l can trace numberless in
stances of Elizabethan Smyths having
become Victorian Smiths. The roco
spelling of the word Smith is apnar-
entity due to the righteousness of some
medieval clerk, who. in writing
Smyth, took upon himself to dot botb
points of the " thus producing
The mountings for ship guns and
guns in coast Notifications are SO de-