The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Won tell. he says II Is uODOuy DuS-
mess how old he is. But as he entered
the navy in 1918, and must have been
at least Is years old at that time, the
supposition is that he is between SO
and 100. The admiralS oldest son, Rear
Admiral Thomas o. Selfridge, Jr.,
owns to being Sc years. The senior
Selfridge was born in HubbardSton,
Mass.
When the late President Barrows
of Oberlin College was asked by II stu
dent if he could not take less than the
regular four years course, Or. Bar
rows looked the applicant over
thoughtfully and replied: why. GER
tainly, my lad. A short course if you
like. but my advice to you is to take
the longest course possible. The
length of time you wish to devote to
study rests with you entirely and
should depend on what you intend TO
become. Just remember that when Sod
wants to make an oak he takes 100
years, but when. he wants a squash he
takes six months"
We have frequently noticed, says
American Medicine, the fact of the
word drunkenness of ignorance, the
strange intoxication which seems to
have seized upon millions whereby
they secure a morbid and deluSlonal
exaltation that is inversely proportion
al to their lack of real knowledge, and,
while repeating some bombastic far
rago of senselesS words they soar in
kind of phantasmagoric no-man's-
land, freed from all the laws of logic
and common sense. In a defense of a
system of Mental Science" and ."Ab-
sent Treatment" one occasionally
comes upon sentences that betray
glimmers of sense, but one wonders
how to explain psychologically the fact
that stares at one of crazy folk dis
coursing grandiloquently on mental sci
chology, logic or etymology a min
ute.
"A dispatch from Newburg, N. Y,
says: The New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railroad Company has estab-
lished independent fire departments at
all it's stations and freight yards along
the Highland division. The company
has taken the matter of fire insurance
into its own hands. None of the COM
pany's property is to be insured in
the future. They argue that if office
forces are well organized and have the
proper paraphernalia to fight fire they
can do it quicker and more effectively
than a fire department, which neceS-
sarily loses much time in reaching the
scene of a fire. At the yard here the
company has placed fire hydrants.
Three crabs are in the yard, each
equipped with $50 feet of first-class
hose. Besides the hydrants, the COM
pany has supplied the various build
ings with four kinds of extinguishers,
and the employees have been instructed
in their use. The company has con-
verted it's insurance fund into a fire
department fund. and the officials feel
sanguine it will prove as useful. Day
and night forces are employed at the
station and freight yards, thus giving
the railroad property continual pro-
lection.
Mr.. Shaw of the Royal Society says
that fogs appear of many colors, of
different densities and, in respect of
their position, develop at very varied
distances from the earths surface.
Many fogs are surface fogs, and en-
velop us from our feet upward in the
dim and dusky haze. Others, well
known to Londoners at least, seem to
be arrested at the tops of the houses,
or even beyond this limit, so that the
whole city is covered with black pail
which remains in the air, but leaves
the space between the ground and the
housetops perfectly clear under the as
pect of a black night. 1t is curious
to note how little that is really def
mite appears to be known regarding the
exact origin of fogS Mr.. Shaw, for
example, says that one of the main
questions to be settled is the source of
supply of the water which constitutes
the main feature Of fogs which are
not simply wreaths of smoke. 1t will
have to be determined, he says, wheth-
er this water comes from the ground
or from the air next the soil, or from
some higher strata of the atmosphere.
The general view taken of the genesis
of the fog seen in our big centers is
the presence in the air of large num-
Der of solid particles chiefly, of course
derived from imperfectly consumed
| COAL
The Goodwood course is quite
unique. 1t is a long way from a sta
ton and is not near any town, says the
London Tattler. 1t is on hill, the
| top of which is shaped like horse
shoe, the space between the two horns
being represented by deep ravine.
| The course runs round the horseshoe,
the start being at the end of one horn
and the finish at the end of the other.
The result of this is that the eques-
| TRANS, who on other courses, contrive
| to see both start and finish by the
| simple process of riding across while
| the race is in progress cannot do so
| at GOOOdWOOd. They must elect which
| they will see and remain there; on the
other hand, the course is very easy
to follow with glasses. The races. as
| an institution, are comparatively mod
| ern, but there must have been hunt
races and matches on this course since
| the days of William III, when we hear
of the Goodwood Hunt as in existence.
| In 1900, however, the then Duke of
Richmond made a new course, which
| is practically the present one. In
| 1901 the course was completed, and in
order to celebrate this a regular meet
ing was got up by the Duke with the
assistance of the hunt and some off,
| GERS of the Sussex militia and yeo-
manry and prizes to the value of about
$1,000 were put up. This meant a
good sum in those days. This was the
! first Goodwood meeting of Importance.
and from that year it became an an
nual event.
George KEENAN,, writing to the
| Outlook, says that a careful investi-
cation of the stories of witnesses of
the eruption of Mont Pelee shows that
| the flames, so often described were
not present in the catastrophe The
| descent of the erupted mass, which
| looked like black cloud, was watch
ed by Father Mary from Morne Rouge;
| by Messrs. Lassere and Simonut from
the Grande Rebuilt; by Mr. Guirouard
from the bishops garden, just back
of the Grande Rebuilt; by Mr. Fer
nand Clerc from Mont Parnasse, a
mile east of st. Pierre; by Engineer
Charles G. Evans from the deck of the
| ROraima, and by Mr. ] Montera from,