The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-03

$625,OOO or more than 50 a pound for
the crop, he thus destroyed property
that had cost him S11S.0
From Germany Uncle Sam has gath
cred a story of queer moving vans
that are built to carry household fur
niture not from street to street, but
actually from country to country,
These queer vans travel so far that
1t is not uncommon to see a van with
big German lettering on it and the
name of a Berlin firm rolling placidly
through Italian cities or the French
plains. And now it is proposed by a
keen and imaginative business man to
send these vans still farther-across
the ocean into America. So before long
it may be that we will see German
vans with pictures of Leipsic or Ber-
lin or Dresden or Hamburg trundling
through our own streets, having NOV
ed an entire German household bodily
from the Fatherland to New York or
Chicago, or even Seattle or San Fran
cisco.
This is not the only funny thing that
Uncle Sam has discovered in Ger
many. On the River Elbe he has found
great steamboats, that move up and
down the river for 290 miles from
Madgeburg in Germany to Melnick in
Bohemia without paddle wheels or pro-
pellers. They have their own machin-
cry in them, to be sure; but that ma
chinery has hold of a chain that is
stretched all along the river bottom
from the one city to the other and the
boat moves by pulling itself along on
the chain. At first sight this seems
like going back to primitive times.
But while apparently clumsy, this way
of going is just the best way that
could be imagined for ships on the
River Elbe, because the stream goes
through so much mountain country
that il is very narC NV and very Mlft
and steamers going with their own mo-
tive power have to use almost all their
engine power in efforts to hold their
own.
But with the chain steamer can
tow four or six barges holding from
1900 to 1900 tons at a speed that pow
erful tugboatS cannot attain, and at
an expense of only about. une-third OF
the fuel required by free running YES
sells.
OF course you all have read of the
brave knights of the Order of Malta
and how they long garrisoned and held
the island of that name lying in the
Mediterranean ocean. Many, many
years their great flag with it's mighty
cross Haunted out from the hight over
the harbor and as far as it was visible
so far was the sea safe.
Well, from that stronghold of chiv
airy and romance comes a report to
Uncle Sam that what Malta wants
just now is not armor, or squires, or
shields, but just simple American soda
water fountains. And the man who
who sends that news, adds that almost
every one in Malta wants to use cleo
trio light and that there is a great
field there for American electricians.
OF course, if you are in hurry you
will say hastily that this is the way
trade and business are driving all ro-
nance out of the world. But if you
will think for moment, you will see
that really this march of American
business is far greater romance than
the old ones that are disappearing be-
fore the new. For our ploWs are 60
ing into Arabia where plainsmen
still go on forays, and soon there will
be farms and the fierce robber bands
will have no wild country in which to
dwell; the Emperor Menelik of Abys-
Sinia is sitting POSSIBLY even while
you are reading this) before an Amer
lean music box; the poor old Sultan
of Turkey, fearful all the time of be-
ing assassinated, carries an American
revolver as he passes furtively through
his magnificent Oriental palaces; the
Shah of Persia has chained his great
pet tiger with a chain made in Penn
sylvania; the Rajah of Gwalior, who
owns a carriage of solid gold and a
palace far more splendid than any de-
scribed in the Arabian Nights" has
American harness for his horses; the
seal hunters of Siberia carry American
shotguns and repeating rifles; the very
head hunters of Borneo rejoice when
they can obtain an American knife.
So you see, Romance is right here
now. You must merely get behind the
looking glass;" as Alice did.
]. w. M.