The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-03-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


the Royal National Lifehoat Institution
totaled $4,000.
The Chemical Committee of the
British Royal Agricultural Society in
vestigated some new food" stuff which
purported to be rice meal and was sold
at the rate of $40. so a ton, and found
it to consist of the ground-up husks
of the rice grain, and not worth 81. 80
a ton.
In the case of some English peo-
pie sympathy with Japan has taken
the form of drinking Japanese sake,
which is kind of beer made from rice.
1t lntoxicates very quickly and has the
additional advantage, so to speak, that
the intoxication it produces does not
last long.
In spite of the reduction of trans
portation charges of 10 cents a ton,
the receipts from the traffic of the Suez
canal for the year 1903 are only a lit
tie less than those of the previous year,
so that a further considerable increase
of traffic can be stated. The receipts
We're S2O,70O,000, or $4,000 less than in
1902
The discovery is announced of
nickeliferous copper in large quanti-
ties in Cape Breton Island. The ore
body is reported to be between 270 and
$50 feet wide, carries gold and silver,
and contains high values in copper
and gold. 1t is said the property will
prove to be among the largest copper
mines in the world.
The idea that fish nourishes the
brain is popular fallacy, says the
Lancet, London. 1t is doubtful wheth-
er any given food in common use con-
tains constituents which have a selec-
tive action, or the property of minis
tering to any one part of the body
more than another. 1t is often said
that fish is food which ministers
particularly to the needs of the brain
because it contains phosphorus. AS
matter of fact fish does not contain it
in the free state. The notion that fish
contains phosphorus had, no doubt, its
origin in the glowing or phosphores-
cence in the dark. This phospheres-
cence is due to phosphorus at all,
but to Micro, organisms.
"A working model has lately been
shown in London of the proposed mo-
norail between Liverpool and Man
chester. The model, which is going to
the st. Louis exhibition, is one-six-
teenth of the actual size, and demon
strated the fact that monorail train
will not jump the track. The running
wheels are in the center of the train,
straddling a Roman "A" shaped struc-
ture, at the apex of which is the rail.
The under works of the carriage hang
down on either side, and there is an
ingenious arrangement of horizontal
wheels which runs along the guide rails
half way down the sides of the Roman
"A" with f1anges beneath. When the
train takes curve the pressure falls
upon these horizontal wheels, and there
is thus practically no more risk in
turning curves than running straight.
Mr.. Behr, the inventor, said the speed
of the railway to be built from the
model will be one hundred and ten
miles an hour.
Some sensitive essayist should
take the smell of place as subject, says
the London Chronicle. Paris, for ex-
ample, is lightly pervaded with the
odor of burning charcoal, and coming
from Paris to London, one is newly as
sailed by the appeal of SCOT. Cologne
has reputation, long undeseryed, for
smells other than that of its famous
water" and it has been said that in
years of old blind man could find his
way about Cologne by following his
nose. Moscow has an odd perfume
of it's own. 1t suggests cranberries of
peculiar pungency. And it never leaves
the nose. Garlic, of course, is the basic
smell that greets the stranger who
lands at Calais. But the most curious
of smells of place is that of ST. Peters,
burg. The present writer had often
wondered what it was, having detect
ed 1t even between the sheets of his
bed at the most exorbitant hotel On
his third visit he was driving in a
droschky from the station with a fresh
young English girl, who had never
been away from Kent before. Now,
do you smell anything?" he asked.
Yes" said the girl. "Old boots"
That is the smell of st. Petersburg.
Centenarian shoe leather.
"A writer in the National Geograph-
ic Magazine attempts to paint the
Philippines as they are, for the bene-
fit of the adventuresome. The picture
of this land of promise is not engag-
ing, says the Philadelphia Ledger. If
the Caucasian, or the native, for that
matter, would avoid cholera and dys-
entery, he must either boil or prefer
ably distill all drinking water, and the
government maintains a distilling
plant in Manila for the benefit of the
government employees. The slim diet
of rice and vegetables which suffices
for the native will not sustain the
American, who must exc out a sub
sistence on canned goods and frozen
meat from Australia or Chicago. AS
there are but half dozen milch cows
in all Manila, condensed milk and
canned cream must be used. Rents are
1lmOGf OrOhihitiWo H1te Of four ,-~o,,,,
built of nipa, rent for $3.50 American
gold a month, the annual rent being
more than twice the cost of the build
ing. Everything that the American
wants and must have is extraordinarily
dear, and the mere cost of a bare sub
Sistence is at an unimaginable alti-
tude. Manila is evidently not the
place for the poor adventurer because
there are many places in this country
where food is relatively cheap, the eli
mate good and work at high wages
plentiful. The man with capital may
find opportunities in the Philippines;
but the man with capital can find an
opportunity anywhere.
When dynamite explodes it leaves
little to mark the spot where it has
lain save evidences of its destructive
ness, says an exchange. Two interest,"
ing exhibits of its force are shown in
the Stevens Institute of Technology at
Hoboken. N. j. They are steel blocks.
six inches in diameter and four inches
thick, showing respectively the impress
sion of an oak leaf and the imprint of
the headline of a western neWspaper.
1t was during test of high explosives
that cartridge of dynamite was plac-
ed on newspaper covering the block