The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-09
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Il gov 10 9lUs
Only 100 Russians reside in Japan,
whereas there are 5000 Japanese set
| tiers in Manchuria and Eastern Sibe-
ria. The retail trade there is largely
in the hands of Japanese vessels plying
between Japan and Vladivostok are far
superior to the Russian.
New Yorks Board of Health has
outlawed the feather buster, declaring
it a disseminator of germs and a cause
of pneumonia and other diseases. Dust
says the Health Board, must be collect
ed with damp cloth and not aroused
while in repose it is as a sleeping lion.
Indiana has a local option law
which makes it a little hard to "dry
up" a town, but GentryvilIe has just
| succeeded, unless an appeal to the
courts proves of avail. A saloonkeeper
| is refused a license when a remon-
STRANGE bearing a majority of voters
names is presented before the County
| Commissioners. Every applicant in the
| township of Gentryville has been re-
| fused a license, and feeling runs high.
| The case of the last applicant was
| fought for four days, and the adverse
| decision has now been appealed from
| to the Circuit Court.
-Flogging is still allowed in English
prisons as a punishment for mutiny or
violence, but recently published statis-
| tics make it doubtful whether even in
these extreme cases corporal punish
ment serves the purpose for which 1t
| is intended. 1t is shown that since the
| number of prison offenses for which
| fiogging was allowed was reduced in
1898, the number of offenses against
YaV-iGRf, dicoirlfno hoG 60efno cd from IA
to 131 per 1000 prisoners. while there
has been an increase in the number OF
those offenses for which the cat is
still the penalty.
The system of simultaneous tele-
graphing and telephoning on the same
wires, by the apparatus invented by
| Signori Turehi and Bruno, which has
been in operation for several months
| on a section of line from Bologna, has
proved a thoroughly practical success,
| according to the London Globe, and
the Italian government contemplates
| installation of the system on other sec
| tions. The two inventors are now in
Rome negotiating with the Minister of
Posts and Telegraphs the details for a
/, working agreement, which will prob
ably ultimately cover the whole coun-
try.
"A singular feat in the forgery of
bank notes has Just been accomplished
in Copenhagen, but with results that
ultimately brought the authors to dis
aster in a most ludicrouS way. With
no apparatus better than a small lith-
ographic press and one or two most
imperfect and primitive tools litho-
grapher had succeeded in producing
10, 900 notes of 10 kroner, each so per-
foot that nY11N CfnnidifW TrpUnnfpd a
great success. The police quite refused
to believe that notes so perfect had
been produced with means so made
quate, but the photographer, touched in
his artistic pride, asked for his press
and, going to work in his cell, soon
demonstrated that it is possible to be at
once knave and a fine artist. And
now in Copenhagen, says the London
Globe, the strange spectacle is wit
messed of forged bank notes for 10
kroner, worth nothing as money, selling
freely among connoisseurs for 80 kroner
as beautiful specimens of Autograph
ers' work.
in recent County Court action,
says the London Taller it was stated
as evidence of the debtors means that
his fingers were so stained with cigar
cites that he was evidently a persist
ent smoker. The judge, however, re-
fused to listen to the novel story. All
smokers, of course, know that the I'M
slightly stains caused by cigarettes are
not due SO much to excessive smoking
as to the manner in which the cigar
cite is held in the fingers. If the Gig
arctic when not between the lips is
held with the lighted end downward
three or four cigarettes a day are suf-
fcient to leave their marks on the fin
gers of the smoker. The man, how
ever, who always holds his cigarette
with the lighted end upward may
smoke as many as twenty day with
out diseoloring his fingers. All artists
and most chess players who happen to
be cigarettes smokers invariably hold
their cigarettes with the lighted end
down, and consequently seem to smoke
far more than is actually the case.
1t is interesting and instructive to
note from the statistics of book i'm
ports and exports for the eleven months
of 1903 ended Nov. 80 that Americas
book purchases abroad were only
slightly in excess of the foreign sales
the imports aggregating in value $4,-
1873, 900 and the exports 1891, 900. More
over, good deal more than half of our
book imports came in free of duty, hav-
ing either been printed more than
twenty years or in languages other
than English. OF the aggregate, 3d.
100000 worth came from the United
Kingdom and only $4,000 from Canada.
The bulk of the British books came,
doubtless, in sheets, or such works the
demand for which would not justify an
American reprint. Looking at the
other side of the account, it is signifi-
cant to note that we sent books to the
value of $1,557, 900 to Canada and 81,
100000 to England. The only other for
eign purchasers of books whose record
exceeds five figures were Germany,
Mexico and British Australasia.
Richard Guenther, United States
Consul General at Frankfort, Germany,
says the New York Evening Post,
gives the following description of a
new device for the automatic stopping
of trains, patented by a German engi-
neer: 1.-The device by which a train
can be stopped without the aid of any
of the train employees, and which at the
same time notifies one or more of the
nearest railway stations of the occur
renee, consists of contact apparatus
which is so placed between the rails
that a plate, fastened to the lowest
part Of the airbrake pipe under the
tender, is touched in passing over it.
In consequence of this a valve is OPEN
ed and the train is stopped through
the airbrake. The device is put up
like pendulum, attached to which is q
counterweight so that the apparatus
which in a vertical position closes the
line, can be turned down from the
nearest watchmans house by means Of
wire and the line in this way be OPEN
ed The interior. ~ the hand of tba