The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

"A Germantown man has been en-
joying the usual latitude of the trav-
eler. Strange" he says, ARE some
of the farming methods of California.
One day in the vine country l heard
a tremendous bang, bang, banging,
and started from my seat, thinking
that a dreadful explosion had occur
red; but my host told me, with a
laugh, that his men were merely
ploughing with dynamite. Then he
went on to explain that when it was
desired to loosen up the soil to a
depth of three feet or so, dynamite
cartridges were set in the earth and
fired off. They broke up the ground
beautifully. They did the work much
better and much more cheaply than
any machine or any manual labor
could do, and in addition to this they
destroyed the parasite called the phyl-
loxera, the bane of the vine grower.
No vineyard whose soil had been dy-
namitcd, my host said, ever suffered
from the phylloxera afterward."
Some of the people of Washington
have their coal cellars under the side
walks. On some of the streets the
sewers run under the sidewalks also,
and both the coal cellars and the
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pavement, which are covered with iron
plates. This arrangement has caused
an incident which has amused all
Washington. A certain banker living
on Connecticut avenue, after persist
ent entreaties, secured three tons of
coal the other day. for which he paid
SIS a ton. The coal was delivered ac-
cording to his order and dumped on
the sidewalk in front of his house, but
a hn nj n
stow it away, lifted the plate from the
wrong manhole and shoveled all of the
coal into the sewer. The city officials
are now after the banker for obstruct-
ing the sewer, and the banker is after
the coal dealer for more coal. He has
employed several men to get the coal
out of the sewer, but it is a difficult
business. They have to send boy
down, who passes it up in tin cups.
The grave digger beetle formed the
subject of an interesting experiment
that was conducted recently by an in
genious student at the university, says
the Philadelphia Record. The young
man had secured from some place or
other four hale beetles of the grave
digger variety. He put them in a box
filled with earth and then he threw
in to- them a small dead sparrow. In
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the bird. They worked like beavers
for two hours, when one of their num-
Der, for some reason or other, ceased.
But the rest kept on for three hours
more, when all dropped out but one.
He indomitably continued and in a
little while he had finished a hole just
big enough for the sparrow and six
inches deep. Then, with a herculean
effort, he showed the bird into the
ora Hu-ffI f- i
on the soil again. For several weeks
the experiment of the student went on,
and during it the beetles buried five
frogs, two grasshoppers, four birds
and mole. These grave diggers lay
their eggs in dead flesh, and then bury
the flesh. Their larvae, Matching out
underground, feed on the carrion pro-
Vided by their thoughtful parents till
they are ready, as full-fledged beetles,
to come up out of the earth Then
they. too, take up the grave digging
trade.
is laughter a good thing-the
laughter which is directed to some
thing (which fails to comply with a
social requirement" which is COM
PEELED by the sight of incongruity, or
by sudden surprise? All laughter, at
all events, is not good, says the Lon
don Spectator. The giggle and the tit
ter and sniggle from the throat out
ward; or at best produce some Whit
fling, husky cachination, as if they
were laughing through WOOL" But
though the Singer is detestable, you
can still have too much of hearty
laughter, of the roar of Teuteldroekh
1t is only the unrestrained or the ir-
responsible man who laughs tempest
uously often; and, indeed, as a man
grows older and gets a wider view of
the world he laughs, no doubt, less
loudly. Prof. Sully thinks that as a
nation we have lost some of the mirth
OF 200 years ago: If he means the
noiser, self-abandoned mirth of 200
years ago, it is not perhaps to be re-
GREETED. 1t is true that hearty
laughter is often an index to an hon
est soul; Carlyle was probably right
when he said that mo man who has
once heartily and wholly laughed can
be altogether bad" But there is a.
better laugh than Teuteldroeckh's,
and that is the deep-found chuckle of
kindness and experience together
Pe1Naps we laugh more wisely, even
ii more rarely, than our forefathers.
A Paris toy manufacturer has been
making a small fortune out of the
Humbert safe fraud case, says the
Cincinnati Enquirer. While the Hum
herts were still fugitives he contrived
a miniature chateau, in which the po-
lice, blindfolded, are hunting for the
culprltS, who are dressing themselves
leisurely for departure. The touching
of spring puts the police on the back
porch, while the Humberts issue from
the front door ready to step into their
carriage. Thousands of these chateux
were sold after the news of their flight
and the loss of millions to the dupes
had appeared in the French papers
Or course, after the arrest of the Hum
berts in Madrid, the manufacturers
had a surplus stock of chateaux on
hand. But he is making money hand
over fist on a still more ingenious toy.
Paris fakirs and gamins are selling the
Humbert safe, on the supposed con-
tents of which Nine. Humbert man.
aged to borrow millions from men
high in diplomacy and finance The
little strong box is made of papier
mache. blow through the key hole
initiates the balloon, which opens the
back partition of the safe. On the
wind bag is the Inscription 100, 900, 900
francs" Then the safe closes of itself
slowly as the air presses from the bal
loon through the key hole with an
lronical sound, reminding of the way
the French public had been hoodwink-
ed by this family Of Adventures.
Scientists of the Geological Survey
are interested in a new invention
which undertakes by electrical pro-
cesses to locate running water in the