Evening star., 1903-07-25

I'm nearly all the commercial countries
of Europe =" SAYS United States Consul HoSs-
field in an official report. the canal seems
to be regaining its long-los prestige. Ger
many has expended during the past ten
wears hundreds of millions OF marks for
the construction of artificial water courses.
and Austria will expend during the next
nine wears no less than :i2'.uoTn crowns
ts,i5g1l,Us for a like purpose, while ltaly
seems to be determined not to remain far
behind in the Improvement of inland naVl-
cation.
About two years ago the Italian gov
erument appointed a commission to inves-
tigate and report upon the advisability OF
establishing "A system of national water
ways in the northern part OF the Kingdom
This commission recommends the eStao-
lishment of "A network OF inland water
courses of total length OF 2.ll2 miles
This great work can be achieved the more
easily because northern Italy has already
1.6I7 miles of navigahle rivers and canals
and these can be connected with each
other by II system of auxiliary canals of
total length of less than 434 miles. The
commission estimates the total cost of
the proposed improvements at $22,1I4.Wo.
The main line of the proposed system
would be canal connecting Venice with
connect Milan with Bologna and third
Bologna with Venice. 1t is further pro-
posed To open an inland water course from
Venice To the Austrian frontier. for which
purpose the rivers Stella, Corno and AuSCa
could he utilized.
AN improved system of water highways
would be :, powerful stimulus to the farms
and factories of northern Italy. enabling
manufacturers to collect their raw mate
rials and fuel with less labor and expense.
and opening more distant and more protfta-
BE markets for both industrial and agri-
cultural products.
q 1t is worthy of note that some of the ca
nails which 1t il proposed to make of
i'm this national system of waterways
were constructed nearly '1h years ago. and
that one of them Is known to have heen
equipped with lift locks as early as i3I.'
The asphalt pavement Is a sort of Stor-
age warehouse for heat" remarked a man
who liked To talk about the weather when
his friends We're doing their best to thiull
about something else. AS 1t was useless to
attempt to divert his mind from his favor
te topic until he had his say for the time
ut least. he was usually allowed to pro-
cred without hindranCa. Thus it happened
when he broached the subject in little
group h. had Joined he was given the right
of way without an audible protest.
Totally unconscious that he was only
tolerated or rather the subject which he
had started to discuss he proceeded to
bring out what was on his mind.
Il don't claim" he went on. that l have
said anything that is at all original IN
ascribinc to our pavements this quality. 1t
is quite a self-evidcnt fact to all who spend
any time in the city during the summer.
But | happeuad to demonstrate the fact IN
such way rs 10 lift it out of the range
of being Il mere notion
Il dii il in this way he added, noticing
n d"gre" of attention ON the part of his
listeners which they had not prevIouSls
manifested. Il fastened THERMOMETERS
at each cnd "f a pol" which was about ten
feet Eiau and took care that hoth regis
tered ,.vavt!y thc same which is by 10
means ,.,,fn,lon in the average of these
instruments. Then ! placed the pole about
sunset uu the street pavement. so that II
remained IN q p"rpendicuiar posi,i"n
In a short time" he continued, his man
ner becoming quite Impressive, Il noticed
that the thermometer at the foot OF the
pole showed five degrees of higher temper
ature than the one at the top. Thls diler,
ence grew less as the evening went on ana
the radiation of the heat from the pave
ment lcsSened. But it was after o clock
when | noticed the lower instrument ""s
a half degree. higher than the upper and
II was not until IL o'clock that both ther-
mometers gave the same reading.
1T seemed to me he added. that TINS
experiment gave a rather practical demon
stration of what the average city pavement
can do in the way of retaining what the
sun so profusely pours out on hot day in
summer" ="
He was through with the subject. and so,
evidently were the listeners, for the con
4 versatiou turned to other topics.
1T wouldn't surprise me- said an official
of the War Department. III the peso, the
unit of the Philippine currency, acquired
the name of 'Conant,' just like the silver
dollars of tile United States are sometimes
called after Bland. the silver representa-
tive This would result undoubtedly from
the active part taken BY Mr.. Conant, a
we'll known newspaper man. in securing
the legislation on which the monetary SyS-
TEN OF the Philippines is based. The other
day the Secretary of the Navy received a
cable message from the naval agent at
Manila asking if he had authority to use
"Cuuauts instead of Mexican dollars in
making certain payments The officials of
the Navy Department were obliged to call
the inSular bureau of the War Depart
mcnt To- ascertain what 'Conants We're.
John BulInd. head of western detective
agency. Was Il caller on Maj. Sylvester a
few day ago. lie stopped in the city two
days cn his way from New York to Chica-
go. Will" visiting police headquarters the
head OF the hg detective firm was in a rem
inisccnt mood and Maj. Sylvester was en-
tertaiued hy his stories of celebrated cases
with which h" WIS connected years ago
Most of the business of this firm has more
or less Iedring on the commercial world
The firm was founded In 1870 and and des-
pite III" many years of his active service
Mr. Bulaud holds his age well and saws;
Il m only Il kid There is something