The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

| the peppermint oil industry.
The plan was adopted with success
a few years ago in the construction of
cycle paths in Minneapolis and st.
\ Paul.
The prismatic colors of shells, scales
OF fish, wings of insects and feathers
of birds depend upon the interference
/ of light in the thin plates that compose
the integuments.
A branch line of the Chicago, Bur-
lngton and Quincy Railroad will be
built in Missouri this spring. The line
| viii be about fifty miles long, and its
! main business the hauling of water
| melons. The section also has a large
amount of timber.
Many stomachs refuse iron, which
is an excellent tonic. A new way has
| been discovered for rendering it di-
| gestible. Citrate of iron is mixed with
/ the food of hens, so milligrams a day
| being the dose. After a month of this
| diet, the yolks of eggs become rich in
| iron and the most delicate stomach can
digest>it.
The trouble of Germany over the
Polish question continues. The irxni-
grafton of Polish Iaborers. men and
women. to serve as field workers in
| Germany, shows no abatement. In
some localities native labor is almost
| entirely displaced. The insignificant
wages for which the strangers toll, and
| the little beer consumed by them, make
against the German peasantry. Racial
| animosities and outbreaks are getting
to be but too common.
The first newspaper of Virginia
was a weekly, established in 1870. The
subscription price $50 a year. The
! hrst printed newspaper is supposed to
| have been gotten out by authority of
| Elizabeth in 1858, her highness
| printer doing the work. The title. was
the English Mercurie, and the earliest
number, which contained naval intel
| ligence, given after the fashion of the
| London Gazette of 260 years lated, is
preserved in the British museum.
The first official currency in use
among the early settlers of Massachu-
sets was under an ordinance of the
| General Court passed March a. 1884 O.
| s.: 1T is ordered that musket bullets
| of fun bore shall shall pass current
! ly for farthing apiece, provided that
noe man be compelled to take above II
! pence att a TYNE in them" The first
real coins struck for circulation in this
country are known as Sommers Island
| pieces. The material was copper and
the denominations shillings and six
pences. The Sommers Islands are now
known as the Bermudas. The coins
were made about 1909 and bore on the
| diverse hog and on the reverse an
ancient Spanish caravel.
Interesting facts as to flight of
birds have resulted from a long series
| of observations. whose general results
| have recently been published. An
| eagle was observed by Hergessell. of
Strasburg, to fly at a hight of 5000 feet
A lark was detected at an altitude of
| 1000 feet. Aeronauts have encounter
ed crows as high as 1920 feet from the
earth. These, however, are exceptional
attitudes for birds to attain. AS a rule,
| 1900 feet seems to be the limit. The
German Ornithological Society has been
conducting experiments with pigeons,
and finds that when liberated at a
hight of 5000 feet down to as little as
| 2,lOO feet they drop rapidly to a much
lower region of the atmosphere.
Church statistics of the year just
| closed show some interesting facts
about the various denominations in this
city, says a New York letter. There
| dNOO
churches, of which 23S are Roman Cath
| Ollie. The total Indebtedness of all the
| churches is about $12 100000, and there
| are only a little over 300 churches that
are entirely free of debt. In all
Greater New York the Protestant
| Church membership is estimated at be-
ing 425.24S souls. The parishioners of
! the Roman Catholic churches approx
| innate 976,025 in number. The total es-
! tlmatn0 value nf 90 IN
| Church property in the boroughs is SAL
| 800; that of the Protestant churches
is $S7,012, 1928.
In his article on the cooperative
town of Greeley, Col, in Harper's mag
azine, Prof. Richard T. Ely comments
ON the differing social conditions in the
East and West: THE farther West
! one goes, the more democratic becomes
society" says Prof. Ely. Il must con-
| TESS that 1 did not understand true
AmerlcaniSm, in one of it's phases at
| least, until l got far away from the
| Atlantic coast. Coming to Madison,
! Wis, from Baltimore, Md, the freedom
| OF intercourse between all economic
classes and men of the widest diver
gence of wealth and intellect attracted
my attention: but there are social diff
| Ierences even in Madison which would
| be scorned in a place like Greeley.
Anything like aristocracy seems to be
absolutely unknown in Greeley, unless
II is the aristoCracy of personal merit i"
is it or is it not insulting to call
person hippopotamus? Only a few
months ago, says the New York Post
an European actress brought suit
| against the dramatic critic who ven
| tured to compare her to that ponderous
| but not beautiful creature. To her
mind this was mortal affront and
| induced people to stay away from her
| performances. Yet thousands of peo-
pie every year pay their money to
see the hippopotamus in the menagerie
Now Maryland sheriff has slapped
| the face of an editor, and in extenua-
| ton pointed to the ''libelous stuff the
| editor had printed about him. This
| was nothing else than the picture of
| hippopotamus with face like that
| of the sheriff So far, the story tailed
with the experience of the offended
| actress, but it has since developed
that the sheriff thought the animal
| in the cartoon was a pig. That might
have been ground for an assault, but
II the thing was hippopotamus it
was surely pleasantly. Doves
swans and fawns are supposed to be
| complimentary, while their near refa-
tlVes, squads, geese and calves, are
symbols of uncouthness The hipno-
potamus has hitherto remained I'M
classified.
Bob Smith was made to surrender
the race mare Sally Sensible following