The Savannah morning news., 1903-05-27

fers from such VIGOROUSLY bad bar
gains with railways Gas the United
States postoffice does) that the post
office is beginning to send parcels by
it's own vehicles. Horse or motor vans
now run on most of the main roads
from London, and by this means H.
SOC, 900 parcels a year are saved from
the extortionate railway rates.
The bursting of a twelve-inch gun
on the Iowa is still under investiga-
quarterly target practice for six years
battle with Cervera it had been fired
more than 200 times. The average life
of the large bore, built-up gun is esti-
mated as ranging from $50 to zoe
rounds, so the gun has had it's day.
The Londoner will be greatly an
royed by innovations when the Ameri-
can electrical cars are running in the
Metropolitan underground and tu'pen-
ny tube railways. The fare will be
cents for any distance; there will be
no first, second or third class; the
high speed will be over sixty miles an
hour, and the twenty-second limit to
stops will give him a Chicago educa-
ton in movement.
The Island of Formosa, 300 miles
north of Luzon, has been so managed
that it has been a source of revenue
to Japan in each Of the seven years
since it was acquired by that country.
A government monopoly on salt pro-
duces $350,000 a year, and on camphor
and opium about 100000 each. The
camphor monopoly may suffer, as did
indigo culture from its production ar
tif1cially in Germany.
The chief defect of the box kite, of
which DR.. Langley's aerodrome is an
elaboration, is that the weight in
creases with the cube as rapidly as the
lifting power does with the square, so
that the larger the kite the less it will
lift in proportion. Prof. Graham Bells
kites are equal-sided triangles, so that
they need no bracing, and it is found
that the lifting power increased at a
greater rate than the increase In
weight. A flock of these kites recent
ly lifted a 200-pound weight.
1t is announced from Lisbon that
the German Kaiser has expressed his
desire to visit incognito the Portu-
guese capital while en- route for
yachting in the Mediterranean next Au-
gust. This desire is said to have been
expressed in a personal letter address
ed by the Emperor to Dom Carlos. The
Ministerial papers in Lisbon, while
commenting upon the rumor, neither
affirm nor deny that negotiations are
now pending which may result in a
more or less suspicious visit from the
Kaiser.
An attempt is being made by the
municipal authorities at Aries, France,
working in conjunction with the
street railway company, to put a stop
to cigarette smoking on the part of
minors. The scheme, which has al
ready been successfully employed in
Sydney, n. S. W., is as follows: Every
student who is seen to ride on the cars
with a cigarette between his lips loses
the benefit of transportation at half
fare. In case of remonstrance the an
swer is simply: He smokes, there
fore he is no longer a child"
"A tailor's bill nearly 5000 years old
is one of the quaintest finds that the
Nippur expeditions of the University
of Pennsylvania have ever made, says
the Philadelphia Record. This bill is
on a limestone tablet. and the clothes
that it describes were temple robes-a
Kings gift to his priests. In all, nine
ty-two robes are mentioned on the tab
let. Among the items are: twelve
white robes of the temple, eleven robes
of the house of his lady, ten collars of
the house of his lady, ten pure gold
collars, thirteen white robes, four
scented robes. Many of the words of
the inscription are indecipherable.
Archaeologists think that these are
technical words, peculiar to certain
parts OF dress, words like for instance,
such terms of the modern dressmaKer
as applique" herring boniAg," pip
ing" "passementerie" and Swatch"
The British delegation representing
the fishing trade at Hull, Grimsby,
and Aberdeen, which visited the Brit
ish Postmaster General the other day
to urge upon him the necessity of
establishing Geographic communica-
ton between the United Kingdom and
Iceland and the Farce Islands, has
now turned its attention to the Great
Northern Company of Copenhagen.
Some years ago negotiations for a
similar purpose were opened between
the Danish Company and the British
Postoflice Department, the latter
promising generous facilities. The
count of lack of funds. 1t is now pro-
posed to enlarge the scope of the
Great Northern Company so as to
make it possible for Englishnen par
ttcularly interested in telegra phic
communication with Iceland to be-
come stockholders. The British post
office has expressed it's readiness to
transfer the message over the depart
ment's internal wires, although it is
unable to subsidize the projected
cable.
THE market price of wild animals
said an animal and bird dealer, ac-
cording to the Philadelphia Record,
rarely huctuates. Adult Nubian lions,
for instance, have been worth just ST.
900 each for the last ten years. These
lions are caught when they are cubs
the mothers being killed and the little
ones brought up on goats milk. Tigers
fetch from 1875 to $1,000, according to
their size and condition. The Siberian
tiger is the rarest; it is worth $1,7OO.
The most expensive of all animals is
the hippopotamus. This must be cap
tured in it's babyhood-full grown it's
capture is impossible-and baby hippo
requires no less than thirty quarts of
goats milk in those impassa BILE and
wild lands. But catching hippos is
worth ones while. for these animals,
fun grown, find a ready sale at from
$4,000 to $4,000. Next in value to the
hippopotamus comes the giraffe. which
is worth $4,000, though in 1880 it was so
cheap that every zoo and show had
four or five of them. Giraffes are
taken when young. Horsemen pursue
a foC