The Savannah morning news., 1902-03-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


was discovered perfectly constructed
arch built before the time of the ko-
mans.
The American consul at NADIA
gascar says, speaking of its eastern
seaport: Perhaps no city of this size
in the world is so lavishly endowed
with churches, hospitals, etc, as is
Tanarivo. There is a school of man
ual labor, where every branch of man
ufacture is taught, and many hand
some specimens of work are shown
The United States Steel Corpora
ton now has on it's books orders for
5000, 900 tons OF manufactured steel,
for which it will receive $500 900, 900
when delivered This makes business
enough to keep the plants of the COM
pany occupied for nine months to
come. AS any reduction in the price
of steel, whenever it shall come about,
will greatly stimulate the demand for
the metal, it may safely be assumed
that the iron and steel productivity of
this country is likely to increase for
several years to come.
"A national association of banks is
said to be in process of formation for
the purpose of entering the money or
der field az a competitor of the express
companies and the government itself.
1t is proposed to issue a uniform bank
money order, payable through an i'm
mense clearing house in New York.
probably the Western National Bank,
with branch clearing houses in all the
other larger cities. The rate which it
is proposed to charge is one-tenth of
1 per cent. which, on orders for 500
or more would be 10 cents or just one
third the charge by express companies.
We have no such affection for sto-
ries about cats as for those about dogs,
saws the New York Times, but a cat
story that reaches us from Brooklyn
is at least as interesting as a third or
fourth rate dog story, and is therefore
worth printing. The Brooklyn cat in
question has received a large amount
of attention and affection from the
members of the family with whom she
lived-they might better have given
both to a dog, but it's a Brooklyn sto-
ry, remember-and the creature had
come to regard herself as of much i'm
portance-an absurd mistake of
course. but never mind that, either
The other day an amiable child visited
the cats family, and received much
petting. This the cat observed with a.
Jealous and angry eye, and manifested
displeasure in several sulky feline
ways. Later the hosts and the little
guest betook themselves to a sort of
roof garden with which the house is
equipped. The cat followed, watched
for a while the continuance of the con-
duct to which she objected, and then
disappeared. An hour or two later she
was found dead on the ground close to
the house, and her owners declare that
she committed suicide out of grief over
the neglect to which she had been sub
jected. Nobody saw the animal jump
from the roof, so it may have been an
accidental fall. The chances that a
cat would fall from a roof are minute,
but so are the chances that she would
commit suicide. Just what happened
Will never be known. The problem is
not very important. II it had been a
dog, now, the matter would have been
|. worth earnest and laborious inVestiga-
ton.
The annual report of the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad deals with such enor-
nous figures that one can hardly real
ize the immensely of the traffic done
by the roads in the control of this
great system, says the Boston Herald.
For instance, it is stated that 243 500. -
900 tons of freight were carried over
it's lines in the single year 1901. and
that this was equal to moving 81 1925
100000 tons one mile. Dividing this fig
ure by 365, the number of days in a
year, it will be found that the aver
age daily freight business of the Penn
sylVania system amounted to the
movement of 60,076712 tons one mile
each day. To make those figures even
more impressive, an estimate can be
made of the number of horses needed
to move this amount of freight one
mile in day Taking the average
days work of a good horse as equal
10 moving 1,5OO pounds fifteen miles.
1t would mean practically the move
ment OF ten tons one mile in a day
as the measure of a horses work. On
this basis it would take more than 6
OO0,0OO horses to equal the daily av-
erage of the Pennsylvania road. OF.
ABOUT half of the total number of
horses in the whole United States
Some time ago, in reading an article
on transportation, we saw an estimate
OIL the work done by certain trained
men in carrying freight in Africa. If
our memory serves us, these carriers
were able TO transport about seventy
POUNDS a distance of about fourteen
miles a day, which would be eouaI tn
moving about half a ton one mile in
d DAY On that basis it would require
over 100000 900 carriers to transnort
IN Gay the average freight of the
pennsylvania system last wear o,,
ABOUT as many carriers as there arc
inhabitants in North and South Amer0
lea. These figures are, of course. rol,ob
estlmates only, but they give some idea
OF the immensely of the railroad indus-
Try OF this country for about one fiftb
OF the total railroad freight business Of
the United States. u
Prof. Woodward in the Pon,,lar
Science Monthly has lately given an
account of his researches on the ,ro
gressive cooling of the earth and -.
relation to the length of the dav noes
the length of the day vary? was -
formerly shorter than nowq win -
in the future, be heightened? The az
swer depends upon the mass of tbe
earth, which varies, since meteo,,ic
dust perpetually falls upon the s,,r-
race and thus increases the QUANTITY
OF matter: and on its volume. which
becomes smaller as the mass is nro-
| gresslVely cooled. Laplace concludad
from the data at his disposition Tho
there had been no sensible change IN
the length of the day for 1000 wears
woodward has repeated his calcuIa.
| tlon with new data and concludes tbo
the duration of the day has not chang
ed as much as half a second during tbo
| nrst lO,OOO,0O0 years after the beoi,,
| nlng OF qualification of the earth,s r.
! ter;a' When the cooling of the eartb
| nnally reaches its term the chance Iii
| be marked. Prof Woodward,s ,o.,,I.