The Savannah morning news., 1904-04-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

shoemakers' knives They attribute
this TO the saving of shoe leather
made by the public use of street rail-
way cars.
The value of the farm animals in
the United States. as shown by the
Agricultural Department, is: Horses,
$1,000 100000; mules. $200,0O0000; cattle,
S1,S00,000000; sheep, $16S,000,O00, and
hogs. $685., 100000.
A plant for boiling whales, which
cost S1.O00,00O. is in operation in New
foundland. Every ounce of the whale
is used in the manufacture of oil, stear-
in, bone. meat. or bones. and other ar
ticles of commerce.
The cembalo. a quaint Instrument,
200 years old, upon which Rossini took
music lessons when he was ten years
old. will be exhibited at the st. Louis
fair. 1t is the property of the Malorbi
family, of Lugo. Italy.
Death from old age. says Sir Her
man Weber. is due to atrophy CEN
nected with changes in the blood YES
sells. Vigorous circulation, promoted
by keeping the various organs in ac-
tion is the best preventive.
"A series of tests of the Edison
nickel-iron storage battery in the Cen
trail Laboratory of Electricity in Paris
shows that it has a capacity twice as
great as that of the hest lead-cell used
in France-the Fulmen cell.
Col. Arthur Lynch, who has been
living quietly in London since his re-
lease from prison. told a reporter the
other day that he expected to go to
the Far East soon on behalf of "one
of the big American journals"
The British government continues
to be denounced by the workers union
for the low wages paid at government
work shops. shipyards, arsenals and
gun factories, but all denunciations and
resolutions seem to have no effect.
"A German scientist has succeeded.
by treating the cleansed vegetable
fibers of peat moss with the waste mo-
lasseS of beet sugar manufacture, in
producing a compound that serves ac-
ceptably as food for domestic animals.
The loss incurred by the wearing of
coins in circulation has been made the
subject of a number of precise expert
ments, from which it was ascertained
that ltlC 6OlQ COiilS lOSC oT2 pei NChNs
in 100 years. Large silver coins lose
1872 per cent. and small ones 40 per
cent.
M. Dubois, in paper read before
the Academy of Sciences, Paris, shows
that it is possible, by means of the
Roentgen rays, to examine the living
oyster without in any way injuring 1t,
and to ascertain whether or not it con-
tot, or1 1toir1 a
pearl the oyster is returned, and is
allowed to live until the disease has
developed large pearl.
Steamship agents are not happy be-
cause the spring bookings for Europe
are not so large as last year. and they
do not anticipate any great increase in
westward passengers because of the
St. Louis Exposition. Last year 49,
438 cabin passengers were recorded as
either coming from or going to Europe.
There were 10000 in 1891, but in 1898
the number was only S0,5S6.
"A writer in the American Journal
of Pharmacy declares that about three
fourths of all the medicinal plants used
in the pharmacopoeia either grow wild
or are cultivated in this country. OF
the remaining fourth, he thinks that
probably one-half could be grown in
this country, leaving but compare
lively small number of plants that
could not be economically grown.
"A grand excursion of American
bowlers is to be made to Germany this
season, and plans have already been
perfected for the party to sail on the
Hamburg American steamer Bulgaria
on June 10. The main object of the
tour is to give American bewlers an
opportunity to compete in the eleventh
German united bowling festivities,
which will be held at Sollngen from
July 16 to July %.
In an account of a journey made
last year in the Congo Free State the
Rev. A. E. Scrivener of the Baptist
Missionary Society of England, thus
comments on the treatment of the ma
tives by the agents of the state: '1t
all seemed so foolish to kill the peo-
pie off in the wholesale way in which
| it has been done in this lake district
because they would not bring in suffi-
cient rubber to satisfy the white men
and now here is an empty country
and a very much diminished output of
ruber as the inevitable consequence"
"A prominent English writer, still
III iAC hC16lI "a has POWClS A0S OOSAA
pensioned by the Society of British
Authors because he works very slow
| ly and has no head for business" says
the Boston Transcript. "Henceforth
| he will perhaps produce even more
slowly, but his stuff will be none the
worse for the reasonable elaboration
taken in preparing it. If certain talent
ed American authors could be put in
| a similar position, where they could
curtail their output and improve it's
quality, our national literary stand
ing would be correspondingly i'm
proved"
Increased attention is being paid
to the problem of rendering wood and
other easily infiammable substances
fireproof. From reports in the Ger
man press it would seem that the pro-
cess of Mr.. Gautseh of Munich is
very successful. The timber to be treat
ed is placed in a vacuum, produced by
pumping out the air. The cells are
thereby freed of air and the wood is
then impregnated under pressure with
a solution of sulphate of ammonia and
borax ammonia. The color, texture or
density of the wood is not affected
thereby. The process renders it fire.
proof and proof against decay.
The umbrella tree is found in Cey-
lon in greater profusion than any
where else in the world. AS mat
ter of scientific fact, these trees grow
to their greatest hight and attain to
their greatest size in very wet, rainy