The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


the late Prof. Henry 4. Rowland of
Baltimore is beng Installed and will
shortly come into use, says the Berlin
correspondent of the London Times. II
is claimed for this system that it en-
ables a total of 20 operators at the dis
patching and receiving stations to send
in one hour $4,000 words on a single
wire. BY the Hughes system, at pres
emit in use between Berlin and the
towns just mentioned, it is not posi-
BILE TO send more than 1900 words in
an hour The dispatching instrWte nt
OF the octopleX system resembles
typewriter. Any given letter can be
telegraphed by the depression of the
proper key. The receiving instrument
prints the message on sheet of paper,
which may be detached and forwarded
as soon as the telegram is concluded.
M. Mermod. in a communication to
the Astronomical Society of France,
gives an account of a meteorite found
not far from Lausanne, Switzerland,
soon after its fall. 1t appears that in
November last four foresters were at
work when they heard a loud noise
like musketry above them in the air,
followed by a whistling sound. On
searching for the cause, they found the
branch of a tree some thirty feet away
from the parent tree, marked with fresh
wounds. Fifteen feet away was found
a meteorite, still hot, about 122 degrees
Fahrenheit, and weighing twenty-one
ounces. It's form was that of a poly
hebron, almost pyramidal, and the sur
face was black and polished. From
the fact that at various places in the
neighborhood some of the observers
being twenty miles away, the noise of
an explosion was heard by different
2 fe hall hot ha it1ae1 N
found was a part of a larger body. The
specimen has been placed in the Lau-
same museum.
Reports of the falling of volcanic
dust due to the recent explosions in the
West Indies continue to be published.
The British steamship Coyd, Capt.
Thomas, was on May T. 275 miles south
east of the Island of ST. Vincent. vt
about 10 D. m. dust began 70 fall and
was the thickest between midnight
and a. m, May 8. At 1870 D. m. To-
cal time. there was absolute darkness.
Since the surface wind at the time WAS
easterly, it is evident that the dust
was transferred wholly by upper cur
rents. The material is described as
yellowish gray and of a remarkably
uniform fineness, having been thor
oughly assorted from the coarser pdrti-
Giles in its long light. The particles
range in size from 0.3 to 0.001 of a
millimeter or less. Considering the
great distance this dust Travelled
through the air before falling to inc
vessel, it is surprising that it sinks
rapidly in water. Stirred / ITO dis
titled water and allowed to stand, in
five minutes Is per cent. falls to the
bottom: in 10 minutes 81 yer cent: IN
80 minutes 81 per sent, yet this dust
travelled PTS miles in the air. The dust
is mixture of crystal fragments and
glass, which indicate clearly a volcanic
origin.
Many odd traits of character show
themselves in the grim shadow of the
gallows, says the New York Post Here
is curious instance from Mississippi.
One William Mathis, white, and one
Orlandus Lesser, colored, associated
themselves together there in the bus
mess of counterfeiting. They lived
together, worked together and finally,
one thing leading to another, they to-
gether murdered two revenue officers.
They were tried and convicted and
sentenced to be hanged together. But
here Mathis baked. When it came to
dying with the colored man his white
mans blood revolted. He appealed to
his keepers and those about him, and
finally succeeded in having his petition
heard by the Supreme Court. 1t might
seem that this was merely an effort
to secure delay, but the facts do not
bear this idea out. From the stipula-
lions which he declared himself will
ing to make, it appears that his real
object was, as he stated it, to avoid
being hanged with negro. He was
even willing to die day or two be-
fore his sentence required, in order
to avoid this association, which he had
entered into without protest when he
was free. The Supreme Court, how
ever, was unable to take a favorable
view of the petition. The court held
that the crime had been committed
by the two men, at the same time, un-
der identical conditions, and that it
could not interfere with a uniform en-
forcement of he sentence.
The postal authorities of Great
Britain are having trouble with the
world only" on the face of the post
card. Several attempts have been
made to avoid ambiguity. 1.-The ad-
dress only to be written on this side"
was held to bar the use of a typewriter
or printing press, which was not at
all the intention of the postoffice. The
only" has now been dropped, in def
erence to a colonial precedent, and
there is no direct prohibition against
carrying the letter over to the fact of
the post card; yet the correspondent
who tries that plan will hardly be
blessed by the recipient who is fined
penny The postal authorities of this
country wrestled with the same prob
lem. Six attempts have been made to
find a brief, elegant and unambiguous
legend. An early postal card was in
scribed, Nothing but the address, can
be placed on this side" which was
neither true nor elegant. Nothing but
more to the point. But it looked clum-
sy, and the next issue had Write only
the address on this side" which was
objected to as barring the Typewriter.
Write the address only on this side,
the message on the other" followed
and was promptly criticised as being
both clumsy and ambiguous. Then
the word only was dropped without
much Improvement. Finally Uncle
Sans hirelings gave up the struggle
to be original, and simply adapted the
French announcement into This side
for address only"
Writing in the Century of the
Southwest, (Arizona and New Mexico
particularly, Ray Stannard . Baker
has this to say of the self-protected
plants of the desert spaces I'm the
green hills one loves to lie on the
grass, to brush against the trees. to
pick a twig here and there and taste
the tart sap, but the desert allows
no such familiarity Everything that
lives within it's confines is either armed
or armored. Every cactus stalk is
covered with a myriad of spines and
hoks as sharp as needles, that warn
one to Keep his distance Tread not