The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-05-13
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


refers to the editor of this paper and
some of his friends as bumbs," says
a ToDeka (kan.) journal published by
colored people. I'VE want this fool to
understand that il takes men OF more
intelligent caliber to handle our course
than him. AS we ride upon a railroad
pass. we don't have to be called
bumb by a jealous negro sheet that
walks"
In the city of Hot Springs, Ark,
running is a misdemeanor," says Vic
tor Smith in the New York Press. ANY
person going faster than a walk lis ar
rested and fined. This law is in the in
terest of invalds who throng the
streets and suffer relapses from the ex-
citement caused by the undue haste of
a stranger. One who runs is supposed
to be a thief, murderer of escaped lun-
attic"
The red light treatment for small
pox, mentioned by Prof. Macfadyen at
the Royal Institution, is an instance of
how modern scientific experiment has
confirmed one of the empiric cures of
the past, says the London Chronicle.
Even so far back as the reign of Ed
ward ", smallpox patients were treat
ed by wrapping them in red covers and
putting red balls in the bed. 1t was
thus that John of Gaddesden treated
a Prince of Wales. This method has
also been noticed as a popular custom
in Roumania. In recent years, too,
French surgeon has told of smallpox
patients in Tonkin being isolated in
alcoves almost darkened by red carpet
hangings and of wonderful cures en-
suing. In Japan the patients were
covered by red blankets and the chill
dren given red toys to play with. One
objection to red light is it's obviously
trying effect upon eyes and nerves.
Byron has left it upon record that the
night before his wedding he thought
he was in hell. The explanation is that
he retired to rest in bed surrounded
by red curtains and left the light burn
ing.
There is a lot of old cats at the
Sailors Snug Harbor on Staten Island,
says the New York Commercial Ad
vertiser. They are of the tramp spe-
cies and the most ancient seafaring
man there does not know where they
| came from. They are unkempt cats,
but are not gaunt and hungry looking.
| They live on gold and silver fish in
season and then disappear until the
| little lake is opened in the spring. The
water comes flush with the banks of
| the lake, and so rapidly do the fish
| multiply that the man in charge of the
! grounds rather likes it when a new
| cat shows up. 1t means less work for
| the lawn keeper, for if it were not for
| the fish-catching cats that crouch at
| the waters edge the man in charge
would have to drain the lake and throw
| out the surplus fish. Sometimes, how
| ever this is necessary. Cats are like
| humans" says he. when they know
thing is free they don't banker after
| it as they would after stolen fruit
| There are times when these cats get
| tired of fish, but that WEAKNESS doesn't
| last long" The celebrity with which
| these cats get bites" is more re-
| markable than that displayed by them
| in catching mice. They crouch by the
| edge of the water, and as a gold or
silver fish nears the bank the cat
| with unerring certainty, strikes out
| with one paw and a fish wiggles in the
| grass. "One would think" said the
| attendant, that the fish would get
| on to this cat business, but it's the
same with fish as with humans an
idiot is born every minute"
Prof. Shaler, Dean of the Lawrence
| Scientific School and Professor of &C.
ology in Harvard, says of volcanic
| eruptions: volcanic outbreaks are
| merely the explosion of steam under
| high pressure, steam which is bound in
| rocks buried underneath the surface of
the earth and there subjected to such
| tremendous heat that when the condi-
! lions are right its pent-up energy
| breaks forth and it skaters it's stone
| prison walls into dust. The process
| by which the water becomes buried in
| this manner is a long one. Some con-
| tend that it leaks down from the sur
| face to the earth through assures in
| the outer crust, but this theory is not
| generally accepted. The common be-
| lief is that water enters the rocks dur
| ing the crystallization period, and that
| these rocks through the natural action
of rivers and streams become deposited
! in the bottom of the ocean. Here they
| lie for many ages, becoming buried
deeper and deeper under masses of like
| sediment, which are constantly being
washed down upon them from above.
| This process is called the blanketing
process. Each additional layer of sed-
| lment, while not raising the level of
| the sea bottom, buries the first layers
| just so much the deeper and adds to
their temperature just as does the lay
| ing of extra blankets on a bed When
| the first layer has reached a depth of
| few thousand feet the rocks which
| contain the water of capitalization are
subjected to a terrific heat. This heat
generates steam, which Is held in a
| state of frightful tension in it's rocky
prison. Wrinklings in the outer crust
| in the earth's surface occur, caused by
the constant shrinking of the earth it
| self and by the contraction of the out
| er surface as it settles on the plastic
| centers underneath. Fissures are caused
| by these foldings, and as these assures
| reach down into the earth the pressure
| is removed from the rocks and the
! compressed steam in them and it ex-
plodes with tremendous force
Viewed from ST. Pierre or the sea
in front of it, Mont Pelee-the people
of the island call it "Morne Pelee."
meaning the skinned, that is, the clear
ed, mountain-looked like the safest of
| neighbors, with nothing in it's appear
| ance to recall its previous activities
| or TO threaten their resumption, saws
| the New York Times. For a consid-
| cradle distance to the northeast of the
| little city the ground rose smoothly
| and gradually, forming one of the
| most productive sugar districts in the
| island, and even the upper part of the
| irregular cone had been worn into
| comparatively gentle curves by the at
| TRITON of the tropic rains The sum-
init was much blunted, and the peak
| as whole did not give a hint of its
| volcanic nature or it's terrible poten-
| tialities to the ordinary observer. Hot
springs were numerous along it's
! slopes, however telling of something
/