The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


tons, or 111,6S0 tons less than for May,
1908, and exports were 100000 tons,
being drop of 203,6O0 tons.
The Australian government has or
ganized an expedition under Capt.
Barclay to explore the region, COM
prising $4,000 square miles, between
Eyre lake and the western boundary
of Queensland. It is a desert of the
worst type, which has cost the lives
Of several explorers.
The largest station for wireless
telegraphy is being placed near Pisa,
Italy. On its completion, by the end
OF this year, it is expected to afford
direct communication with all coun-
tries of Europe, as we'll as the United
States and Canada, and with all yes
sells on the Mediterranean, Indian and
Atlantic oceans.
According to the United States
census in 1890 there were 81, $50 mem
bers of the bar in the United States
or one to every 69S of the population.
According to the census of 1900 the
total number was 114,703, or one to
every 659 of the population. Since 1900
unere has been very considerable
aodltlon to the number of lawyers.
The new mercury vapor arc lamp
brought out by the General Electric
Company is shown in use for photo
graphic and other purposes at the St.
Louis Exposition. An adaptation of
TINS lamp for general illumination is
known as the "orthocrome." Prof
Ste1nmetz's luminous arc is another
novelty In the illumination exhibits.
Hospitals were founded in very ear
ly times. India, Persia, and Arabia
mad hospitals supported by their kings
and rulers before the Christian era. In
ancient Egypt hospitals were unknown.
the sick being tended at home or in
temples. Plato says that the Greek
maintained shelter houses for the sick
IN various places, supplied with at
tendants.
Two new ideas in street-car con-
struction detail originating in Phila-
delphia are substitutes for the grab
handles on the side posts of open cars.
consisting of brackets which inclose
the space between the back of the
seats and the posts, and an entrance
guard which slides upon the inside of
the posts, and which when not in use
is held under the curtain guards by
gravity catches.
One OF the richest bachelors in
England, and the richest peer in the
House of Peers, the Marquis of Butte,
has just celebrated his twenty-third
birthday, and there's not a Young
splnster of high degree whose family
would not like to have her capture
the matrimonial prize. Whoever the
future marchioness is she must be a
Catholic, and this obligation has in
terfered with his lordship's choice.
The new British torpedo boat de-
stroyer Waveney belongs to the new
class of torpedo boat destroyers. and
has been buRt with a displacement of
$50 tons and equipped with one 12-
FOUNDER and five 6-pounder quick-fir-
ing guns and two 1S-inch torpedo
tubes. The Waveney has been fitted
with engines of 1000 horsepower, sup
piled with steam from modified Yarrow
Water-tube boilers, propelling her at a
speed of 251k knots an hour.
"A Russian ophthalmologist afirms
that contrary to generally received
opinion the electric light is less
prejudicial to the sight than the other
varieties of artificial light. He bases
this affirmation on the fact that dis
eases and affections of the eye are
directly proportional to the frequency
of winking. Now he has shown that
winking occurs with candlelight 6.S
times nMnute; with gaSlignt, 2S
times; with sunlight, 20 times, and
only 1.S times with the electric light
The officials of the Wesleyan Sun
day-school, Swinton. England, lay
calm to having upon their register
the oldest Sunday school teacher in
England, If not in the United King
dom. Mr.. George Doxey, who is now
in his eighty-eighth year, has been a.
teacher sixty-nine years, and holds the
remarkable record that for half a CEN
fury he was never absent from school
and during forty years he was never
once late. Though 81 years old he is
able to read without the aid sof Spec
tacles.
Since early last spring Mayor SyI-
vester, vice president of the Audubon
Society, has had several deputy war
dens securing the country in search of
those who might kill birds of destroy
nests. The work done in this d.
rection for several years past has re-
suited in a noticeable increase in song
birds throughout the District of CO.
lumbia. He reports that there are few
boys who have shown a disposition to
SAuNSAIC piIuS' 1He MAYOR says that
school training in bird protection is
having a wholesome effect.
The telephone system in Paris has
long been cause of dissatisfaction to
subscribers, and it is claimed that in
no large city of Europe is the teIe-
phone so badly managed as here, saws
the Electrical Review This is dine IN
different causes, one lying in the ineffi-
cient administration (the system is op-
Grated by the government and an
other in the old types of apparatus
which are used. 1t is stated that If
Paris had the modern apparatus which
is used in America, for instance, half
the trouble would be avoided. The on
orators are overworked, and there is a
great lack of discipline in the central
stations. The subscribers are at a dis
advantage owing to the monopoly
which exists, and up to the present
their protests have had but little effect
The matter has been brought to a head
lately owing to some difficulties which
occurred between certain subscribers
and the administration, resulting in
several lawsuits. The Subscribers
have formed an association in order to
defend their interests, and 1t is hoped
that this action will lead to some re-
forms.
"A new form Of telephone transmit
ter which is claimed to be greatly SUI
perior to others has been invented Nv
a Brussels engineer NJ Sheers. II re-
produces the voice. music etc with