The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-04-09

"A MarysvilIe to.) dispatch runs:
Charles Hemming. a farmer, a few
days ago tapped fourteen sweet apple
trees, and to-day had obtained seven
barrels of sap that is far superior to
that taken from maple trees. 1t is said
that it will make more and better
sugar.
Just for a joke Dumas once adj
dressed letter to 1.-THE greatest poet
in Paris" The postoffice sent it to
Lamartine, the idol of sentimental
readers. He hesitated to open it, and
took it to Victor Hugo, who protested
that his brother bard had far too hum
Bile an opinion of himself After some
conversation they agreed to decide by
lot which of the two should open the
envelope The lot fell to Victor Hugo,
who, taking out the letter, read: My
dear Alfred 1t was written to AL
fred de Musset.
"A new terror has just been added
to life by M. Emile Gautier of the
Paris Journal, who has written a long
article, supported by irrefragable med
ical evidence, to prove that there is
serious peril to the public health in
the paper confetti, which are so prom
inent feature in the Paris carnival.
1t appears that these circular scraps
of many colored paper are the chosen
home of whole menageTie of mi
crobes. Sterptococci, staphylococci
Pfeiffer's microbe Ito which we owe in
f1uenza), the bacillus of tuberculosis,
and other germs. are found in album
dance in the confetti, especially after
they have been passed from hand to
hand, and used as missiles in the mer-
ry war of Shrove Tuesday and mid
Lent. Those dates are, it is said, in
variably followed by a notable in
crease in the number of cases of GER
tain diseases. the germs of which are
to be found in the confetti.
The manager of a life insurance
company recently received the follow
ing letter from a policyholder II
hold policy in your company for $780,
600, on which have paid the yearly
premiums. have now to inform you
that my physician advises me that l
have a pronounced case of appendicitis
and his diagnosis is confirmed by a
specialist whom | have consulted.
am told that the only hope of saving
life is an operation, which, with hos
pital expenses, will cost $500, an
amount that / have no means to pay.
am sensible that L owe it to you, who
49,
my life, to give you the option to pay
the cost of this operation to save my
life, that | may continue to pay you
the yearly premiums on my policy q
believe that / am otherwise strong and
healthy, or in the alternative to pay
the $4,000 to my beneficiary within
few weeks. / am quite willing to be
examined by any physician you may
name and to have you select the oper-
ating surgeon. Immediate attention is,
of course, imperative.
Yesterday afternoon, says the Bal
timore Sun, Mr.. Clayton Colman Hall,
in a lecture on the manners and Gus
toms, social and economic conditions
in Maryland during the Colonial Pc
Rod, discussed the labor conditions of
Maryland, including the condition of
the "indentured servants" who after
ward became known as redemption
ers" These We're persons who bound
themselves to servitude for a term of
years in order to work out their pass
age money to the New World. Among
them were included many persons of
education and refinement who, when
their term of servitude was completed,
attained to places of influence and i'm
portance in the province. 1t was not
u1lil alter Ifte DCSll1AliAS VI NhC NAe IL
tenth century that there was any
great number of negro slaves in Mary
land, but from that time the increase
was rapid and the effect upon white
labor injurious. The negro slave was
a slave for life, while the white man
was bound to servitude for a few years
only, and was therefore considered less
valuable
A correspondent of the New York
Sun writes: Is the X-ray a test of
death? Again the statement is made
in the public press, based upon the
word of physician, who assumes that
"the x-rays will determine positively
whether real death has occurred"
Dead fiesh,'' he says, offers mora re-
sistance to the penetration of the rays
than the Lying, and a glance at the
Photograph of the person would de-
termine whether it was a corpse or
not" Now this is one of the many pro-
fessionaI statements that are thought
lessly put forth, and, as in this in
stance, might do great harm. There
may be more resistance" but 1t is in
degree only if at all. l have recently
seen a, print from an X-ray negative
of nnumluys hand, in which the flesh
Is rendered as transparent as glass.
Now, if this Egyptian princess, who,
it is alleged, has been a mummy for
two thousand years, is not pretty
nearly dead, isn't she dead enough to
prove that this physician has been a
little hasty in his conclusions and to
demonstrate that the x-ray is no sure
test for death?
Frank NJ Woodruff divulged a Sc
cret at the Academy of Science in Lin
coin Park last night, says the Chicago
maritime birds to alight in Lake Mich
igan. Few Chicagoans know that every
fall flocks of migratory birds that be-
long to salt water bodies pass over this
city by the lake so high up in the air
that they cannot be seen by human
eye, and only two students of these
strange fowls know how to bring them
out of the. clouds. Mr.. Woodruff who
is the taxidermist at the Academy of
Science, is one of them, and ]. Grafton
Parker, another ornithologist, is the
other. Every year Mr.. Parker and Mr..
Woodruff betake themselves to the
south end of Lake Michigan and after
placing decoys off the Indiana coast
wait patiently until far up the sky
there comes the shrill whistle of a sea
bird. Then Woodruff, who has studied
their calls until he can initiate them
perfectly, sends back an answering
whistle that must travel miles upward
through space. Scores of times these
efforts have resulted in Turing the mis-
guided birds out of their winged flight
to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic
seaboard-for. it is thither they are
bound.
4