The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-19
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

was introduced as evidence at the
Roscommon assizes recently, and the
witness had to translate it for the
judge.
That was very fine distinction
drawn by the Venetian shopkeeper
who put these announcements in his
windows: English is spoken" and
American understood"
The estate of Maurus Jokai, the
Hungarian author. shows liabilities of
$4,000, all of which goes to show that
it only pays to write novels when one
comes from Indiana.
"A proclamation has recently been
made in Rhodesia prohibiting the
practice of sorcery, including the
throwing of bones, the use of charms,
any manner of COMPUTATION and trial
by ordeal.
"A Swiss journal relates that the
two sons of the German Emperor who
visited Zurich the other day happen
ed to see in the window of a booksell-
er number of volumes marked For
hidden in Germany" They promptly
went in and bought copies of them.
"A falling dumb waiter killed Jo-
seph Rinaldo at New York on Satur-
day. Rinaldo was delivering ice. He
pulled the waiter up to the fourth
floor and looked up the shaft. The rope
broke, and before he could get his
head out of the way the waiter struck
him.
Michael Burns. an ex-convict, shot
and killed his wife in Chicago Thurs
day night. Saturday night, attired in
woman's clothing, he attended the
wake, and was recognized by his sis
ter. He fired two shots at her, but
did not hit her, and then went to his
fathers house and committed suicide.
-Titian's portrait of Ariosto, the
Italian poet, recently in Lord Darn
ley's collection, has been purchased
for the British National Gallery. The
price paid was $150,O00, of which $92,-
500 was subscribed by a number OF
wealthy men, among them William
Waldorf Astor and j. Pierpont Nor
gan.
With better knowledge and more
extended search in Alaska the United
States may again include tin among its
important metallic products. A lode
has been found in the Lost river dis
trict about thirty miles east of Cape
Prince Of Wales. Prospecting is now
going on in this locality and the out
look appears to be good.
"A French collector of stamp duties,
unable to bear the heat of Provence
immersed himself up to the throat in
a large wine barrel filled with water
which he had placed in his office, and
from his cask transacted his official
business. An inspector was so scan
dalized at the spectacle that he sus-
pended the collector at once.
A new fuel successfully tested at
Muncie. Ind, has been invented by
Jacob Smith, a glassblower. 1t is said
to possess more heat units per pound
than either coal or wood; it can be
manufactured and sold at a profit for
half the cost of coal, and it does not
smoke except when a strong draft is
used. The fuel is made largely from
the refuse of pulp mills.
Until forty years ago an English
book was practically unknown in ia
pan, the only foreign literature stud
led was the Chinese, and the first Ian
guage to be taught in the schools was
the Dutch. Now, while English is the
most common among the people, and is
studied by all high school pupils, Ger
man and French are favored generally
by scholars and physicians.
"A Berlin chemist has secured a
patent on a compound for animal food
which has sawdust for its chief ingre-
dent. The inventor argues that as
many animals have a liking for the
roots and leaves of trees and shrubs
and apparently find plenty of susten-
ance in such articles OF diet, such ami
mails should subsist equally as well
upon sawdust when properly prepared
The theft of more than a mile of
expensive copper signal-tower wire
from railroad tracks running out from
the Grand Central station in New York
is a remarkably daring operation,
based on a close study of the hours
at which the trains run. 1t ought to
be possible to devise an electric pro-
tective system which would reveal in
stantly the slightest attempt to tam
per with the wires.
"A man was sued for libel not long
ago for likening some one to Mr.. Dick
in David Copperfield," whose chief
popularity was that, no matter what
he said or wrote, he could not keep
Mr.. Chamberlain recently made confess
sion of a similar weakness. II could
not, if I would" he said in an address
at Rochester, keep King Charles
head out of any speech l made"
The French physiologist Fere has
made experiments which show that the
process of digestion dimnishes the ca
pacity for muscular work fully one
half AS regards the effects of stimu-
lants like tobacco and alcohol, he has
found that while they diminish fatigue,
the effect never lasts more than ten
minutes, and is followed by a greater
degree of fatigue than would have ex-
listed if they had not been INDUCED in.
The richest man in Europe is the
Emperor of Russia; his reported con-
tribution of 200, 100000 rubles to the war
fund is quite possible, as his ances-
tors left him an enormous wealth, and
his annual income is estimated at over
$A0,000,000 His expenditures are on
the same scale. A single court ball
has cost a million rubles. Yet for
his personal needs the Car is said
not to spend over $50 day. The EN-
press has the finest jewels in the
world, hut wears them only half a
dozen times a year.
"A telautograph instrument, says
the New York Times, a new device for
the transmission of messages, has been
installed in the offices of the Prudential
Insurance Company for the purposes
of communication between the cashiers