The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

creasing rather than decreasing. At
tacks are made even in Marsala-
The Governor of Bombay has Of
vations on the distribution and habits
| of Misunderstanding mosquitoes.
"A substitute for human hair is now
being made from cellulose and nitro
| cellulose, according to German scien-
tiflc periodical.
Mrs. Daniel Dutro, who lives at
Rattlesnake Point, near Helena, Mont,
set a mouse trap in her kitchen one
night last month. She heard a row in
the kitchen during the night, and on
going to learn the cause found that a
big rattlesnake had stuck the end Of
his tail into the trap and was playing
snap-the- whip in the kitchen and slam
ming the trap around in a lively way.
She killed the snake with a club, and
will probably not set another trap in
her house. 1t is too exciting a sport.
"A new game has been recently de-
v'sed which is in reality electric bat
tledore and shuttlecock. The two
players each hold a wand which has
| been electrified by friction. The shut
; tlecock is represented by a butterfly
made of collodion. The latter is
thrown into the air. and as it is APP
preached by either of the wands 1T is
repealed by electrical action and goes
skimming through the air away from
the wand. In this way the butterfly
is sent hitler and thither without be-
ing touched.
The Centerview CMo.) Record tells
| Of young man who had been writing
a girl in Minneapolis for three years.
| intending some day to ask her to mar
~ him. The other day he received a
| letter and a picture from her The let
| ter announced that she had been mar
ried two years, and the picture was of
her baby. my husband and 1 have
enjoyed your letters very much" she
| wrote, but 1 guess you'd better stop
writing now, as 1 have to spend all
| my time caring for the baby" The Rec
ord says the words the young man
used after reading the letter would
shock a field of oats.
Much interest has lately been
aroused in London by two surgical OPP
erations which have resulted in a mark
ed change of character in the patients
One was that of a boy of good family
who had developed strangely brutal in
| stincts. A clever surgeon examined
him with care, located what he con-
sidered the seat of the trouble, removed
piece of the skull, and thus relieved
the reforming pressure. The lad was
| restored to his parents normal and
| lovable child. The other case was that
of a soldier who, after an injury in a
skirmish, developed a propensity for
theft. An operation on the brain cured
him.
The uses to which the army is put
have increased wonderfully in both
number and importance since the Span
ish War. In Puerto Rico it distributed
| food after the hurricane and provided
for fair elections: in the Philippines,
| before war ceased, the army establish
ed schools with soldier teachers, stop
| ped smallpox by enforcing vaccination
and improved sanitation which eXclud-
ed other contagious diseases. A stable
government and healthy cities were
given Cuba by the army, so that that
country no longer menaces our South
ern cities with epidemics. Our army
is constructive rather than destruc-
| tive agency and has saved more lives
| than it has destroyed.
The earth contains an abundance Of
water, even in places like some of our
great Western plateaus where the sur
|
est depth at which underground water
can exist is estimated to be about six
miles. Below that, it is believed, the
cavities and pores of the rock are COM
| pletely closed. The amount of water
| in the earth'S crust is reckoned at
nearly one third of that contained in
| the oceans, so that it would cover the
whole surface of the globe to depth
of from 5000 to $500 feet. The. waters
/ nm n
sinking below the unsaturated zone of
the rocks, but in the sands of the Da-
| kota formation, which supply remark
able artesian wells, the motion does
not exceed one or two miles B. year.
The underflow toward the sea beneath
the great plains may sometimes take
the form of broad streams or moving
sheets of water. But the movement is
excessively slow.
in several Western steel works
electromagnetic are coming into use
for lifting and transferring steel and
| iron plates and Orders. Instead of the
ordinary hook and block. with its
dangling chains, there is a mass OF
| metal and wires, which, when the
current is turned on, simply picks up
the object itself and hangs on to it"
until the current is turned off. A mag
net weighing $50 pounds will easily
carry load carrying five tons, and the
possible load which may be carried by
| this method can be increased by sim
| ply making a larger magnet and CIV
| ing it more current. 1t is calculated
| that the time and labor saved, which
with the block and chains is required
| for fastening the load to the crane,
amounts to so per cent. of the cost of
such work,
| There is trouble in South Africa
regarding the colored labor problem.
| The Hindu traders Called "ArabS')
year by year become a more important
! element in the commercial affairs in
| Natal. That they are keen competitors
| and possess many qualifications for
| commerce cannot be denied. They live
| frugally and can save money where
Jew would starve. Thus it is that many
of them are becoming wealthy men,
! possessing a great deal of property,
| and in some cases even driving their
own traps, sometimes even with a
white coachman. A pet scheme of
| theirs appears to be never to pay until
full legal process, even to the point of
seizing their effects and selling by
auction, has been resorted to. Then
they pay, and return next day to the
merchant to begin new account.
Dragons were important animals in
ancient and medieval natural history.
Until comparatively recent time no
scientist ever thought of questioning
| the existence of this most formidable
l.E Iz .,EV oh 49,.