The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-03-04
ITEMS OF INTHEsT.


mines. The report of the Fifth anthra-
cite district says that the number of
employees in and about the mines of the
district is 5,63S. The Americans num-
Der 4,541; English, 302; Welsh. 275;
Scotch, SO; Irish, 1.156; German, III;
Poles, 1923: Slavs, 1882; Austrians, 327;
Hungarians, 1887; Italians, 1.135;
Swedes, A.; French, q; Bohemians, 2;
Tyroleans, 210; Russians, 222; Lithuan-
| ians, 1873; Greeks. 40; Swiss, 1; Dutch, L.
AS regards mining in the Yukon,
the conditions are rapidly changing.
Machinery and organized labor are be-
ing introduced, and the camp is no
longer placer camp for the poor man.
In fact ordinary placer mining can
| only be seen now in some of the low
bench claims on Dominion and Bonanza
creeks, where the conditions are so ia
| vorable that the gravel can be worked
as low as half a cent to the pan. AL
though a thifty miner ought to be able
to live on 81 or SO day, yet IS or 10 is
the rate of wages; the interest on loans
is 60 per cent. and house rent is half
the value of the house.
Mr.. Hill, the railroad magnate,
says, in regard to the effects of COM
petition. that commercial wars between
| roads really result in higher tariffs.
'They cut each other to the heart
said he, land then patch up an agree
lnent whereby everything is higher
than ever. The rebate system is part
of competitive warfare, and you know
the rates the general shipper gets
thereby. He pays the freight which the
large shipper has lodged. Roads are
bound to hustle for business, and they
will do much to secure the patronage of
| large shipper The Interstate Com
merce Commissioners are unable to
stop these secret reductions to large
shippers, but pooling of earnings, will,
1t is said, stop them.
"A river steamer named the New
Diplomacy, destined for the Volta
| river, in Ashanti, just sent to Africa,
| is 20 feet long, and is the first of a
fleet of river steamers intended to
open up the Volta river for passenger
and cargo traffic to the interior, fol-
lowing the Joseph Chamberlain, just
recently sent to Ashanti. She is of
the screw tunnel type, of extremely
| light draft, drawing only 10 inches of
water when under steam. The boat
will be lowered from the deck of the
liner with steam up, and will proce
direct to the mouth of the river ready
to tow the lighters to the shore. A
short line of light railway will con-
meet the upper and lower river and
communication be thus made from the
coast direct to the mines.
Questions as to whose servants
may wear cockades are constantly be-
ing sent to the editors or ladies' pa
pers, but no one ever asks what was
the origin of this ornament, says the
London Chronicle. 1t dates from the
time when every one wore three-cor-
| hot -
to keep the brim in place. The cockade
is not an ancient decoration; it came
into use during the early days of the
House of Hanover. and it was called
the "black cockade of Hanover" to
ditinguish it from the white cockades
of the Stuart. Mr.. Fox Davies, the au-
thority on such things, long ago sug-
gested that the color of the royal cock
ade might be altered when a Coburg
king came to the throne, and that at
the time of the official Specification the
opportunity might be taken of stating
definitely to whom the new cockade
would appertain.
1T is a popular belief in London
elat the air of the underground roads
is good for Group, whooping cough and
various other ailments. A physician
who was travelling on one of these
roads recently noticed that a woman
in the compartment almost pulled
down the window when they entered a
tunnel, and held outside q child whom
she was carrying, so that the young
ster might get the full benefit of the
foul atmosphere, and when he asked
the reason of this extraordinary per-
Torrance she told him that tunnel
air. had been found to be complete
cure for the Group. And the other
day an East End mother was discov-
cred by a guard giving her baby two
complete rounds on the Inner Circle, :"
because she had been told by an herb
alist and bone setter that sulphur
| Gus atmosphere was good for the
whooping cough.
Mining operations in South Africa
are being resumed, the rate since De-
cember 10 having been the dropping
of 100 additional stamps weekly. The
Chamber of Mines of Johannesburg
arranged that two mines should start
weekly with so stamps each. The
Rose Deep, Driefontein, Henry
Nourse, Crown Deep, Geldenhuis Es-
tate, one of the Consolidated group
and others have been permitted to be-
| gin operations and by the end of Feb
) ruary it is believed that a quarter of
the industry had then been restarted.
A large number of permits have been
granted to miners to return indepen-
dent of the 1000 per month granted
to refugees. The outlook for obtaining
native labor for the Northern Trans
Naal and Mozambique is encouraging.
johannesburg is assuming its old time
activity and the railroads to the
Transvaal are bringing in freight
faster than at any time since the out
break of the war. Prices continue
high. The output of gold last month
was worth $1,4o0,O00.
Every housewife knows that If she
wants her fruit to keep she must first
cook or thoroughly heat it and then
see that the jar is perfectly sealed,
but everyone does not understand that
the cooking or heating is done to kill
germs or bacteria that are in the fruit
and that the jar is sealed to prevent
the germs which are in the air from
coming in contact with the fruit, says
the Florida Bulletin. 1t is the pres
ence of these germs which causes de-
composition in the fruit or meat, or, as
we say, causes it to spoil" and if it
is heated to a sufficiently high tenn
perature to kill all of the germs that
are on it, and the air is kept away
from it so that no more germs can
come in contact with it, it will keep.
1t has, however, been learned that
certain chemicals will also kill these
germs and prevent their development
from the spores, and shrewd manufae-
turers have for some time used these
1 l. l..