The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-18
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Every native and naturalized citi-
zen in Denmark over so years old and
unable to support himself or family
receives a pension varying from Sz-5O
to S4.5 per month.
-Hawaii's population is one OF the
most mixed on earth. OF its 10000
people. $4,000 are Japanese, 10000 Chi
nese and another Is, 900 foreigners from
Europe and America.
The atmospheric pressure upon the
surface of an ordinary man is S2,40o
pounds. The ordinary rise and fall of
the barometer increases or decreases
this pressure by about ton and
quarter.
deep off Cape Florida. Near Cape Hat
teras the depth is only half as great.
the stream appearing to have run up
hill, with an ascent of ten inches to
the mile.
"A Melbourne juror refused to serve
on the ground that he had just got
work after three months idleness, and
would lose 1t again If he failed to put
in an appearance. The judge frowned,
fined the offending juryman a penny,
anu pdlu the coin nlInSel1.
The Swiss Federal Council pro-
poses to modify the penal code so as to
permit of punishment by Imprisonment
of all persons who in public extol or
attempt to honor any act of criminal
intent or consequence. The new law is
direct attack upon the Anarchists.
The French sardine crop for the
year is a failure. One of the causes
assigned is at variance with the ex-
perience of the ordinary fisherman, it
is that the fish are too large. The sar-
dine comes principally from the At
lantic coast of France-not from Sar-
DINA.
Engineers are as rule sternly util-
itarian, but there are occasions on
which they indulge in sentimental
practices, according to the London
Chronicle. One of these occurred the
other day on the completion of the
first transcontinental railway in Africa.
When the plate laying gangs from
Bulawayo and Salisbury, respectively,
came within twenty chains of each
| other telegram was sent to the con-
tractors and engineers, who at once
arrived on the scene. The rails were
| Joined, and two engines proceeded
slowly toward each other from either
side. Attached to the drawhead of the
engine from Salisbury was a bottle of
champagne, and as the two engine met
1t was broken, and the new railway
was christened in the orthodox man
| ner.
In Japan houses are not numbered
| according to their sequence, but ac-
| cording to the order of their erection,
says the Pittsburg Gazette. That is to
! say, No. 73 may adjoin No. /, with
| No. 102 on the opposite side. No. 2
| Is probably a mile down the street.
| The city of Toxic is made up of 1880
| street, in which are 31S,320 houses.
These houses are divided up into fif-
teen wards. If a street passes
| through more than one ward the
| houses are numbered according to the
wards in which they are-that is, a
street passing through six wards will
possess six number ones. It would
| be like hunting for needle in a hay
stack for a stranger to try to find a
number in Toxic, but a jinriksha driv-
| er knows the position and number of
almost every one of the houses in To-
| kio. He is able to do this by having
| made this business the one study of
| his life.
| in the fiscal year 1S99-19oo the
| present outbreak of plague began in
India with two small districts and one
| native state affected, and $50 deaths
says the New York Commercial Ad-
| vertiser. In the next year it spread
considerably; a mortality of $3.50 re-
suited. Last year 1t caused over 200,-
900 deaths and had spread to twenty
three districts and nine native states.
Experience has shown that isolation OF
the sick is practically impossible; that
evacuation of dwellings even in viii
lagos can only be partial and that dis
| infection is Of no use. The rapid
| growth of the intensity of the present
| epidemic has led the Punjab govern
| ment to make a serious study of it,
and it now proposes as the most prom
Using means of staying its progress
during the coming winter to offer uni
versal voluntary incubation with one
of plague anti-toxins. Arrangements
are being made to provide for 6,5oO,0Oo
| NEGOTIATIONS between now and Jan. 1,
which, it is estimated, will cost more
than Rs. s lakhs ($400, 0OO).
| The leading problems of what may
be called terrestrial astronomy" are,
at present, a more accurate determine
| alton of the earths form and density,
says Success, and of the Irregularities
of its rotation. The former is not neg
lected; but just now special import
ance attaches to study of the slight
'wobbling" of the earth's axis, and
| the strongly sustained variations in
the length of the day. These phenom-
ena lie at the very boundary of posi-
| BILE observation. The greatest depar-
| ture of the pole from its mean posi-
| ton since its "wobble" was first de-
tected, fourteen years ago, has been
less than forty feet. 1t is studied only
indirectly, through the infinitesimal
changes in the ATTITUDES of different
| Observatories. But the notion, slight
as it is, is now beyond question; and
the Investigations of DR.. Chandler have
shown that, although apparently ex-
tremely irregular, it is, in the main,
really governed by law, and amena-
BILE to calculation. The theory, how
ever is still imperfect, and in order to
| obtain the necessary data a chain of
| astronomical stations encircling the
| earth has been established by differ
| ent governments. There are six of the
| stations, all on or near the parallel of
| SO degrees 10 minutes, where continu-
| Gus observations of the latitude are to
| be kept up for at least fourteen years.