The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

One young woman picked 104 quarts
of Strawberries at Meriden, Conn, in
less time than a full day.
"A pianist has to cultivate the eye
to see about 150O signs in one minute
the fingers TO make about 1000 move
ments and the brain to receive and I'M
derstand separately the 1900 signs
while 1t issue 1000 orders. In playing.
Weber's Motto Perpetuo" pianist has
to read 4,541 notes in little under four
minutes.
How readily Americans move" is
shown by the fact that hardly two
thirds Of the representatives and only
about half the senators in Congress
We're born in the states which they now
serve. No member of either House from
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, the Dako-
tas, Washington or Wyoming is a ma
tive of the state he represents.
Among the red dots on the map
denoting the British Empire is a group
of islands south of Australia bearing
the name of the Royal Company Is
lands. Now the admiralty has issued
a notice to Mariners headed Royal
Company Islands-non-existe of"
The original report of their discovery
emily been seen by passing vessels.
The Park Row building in New
York is the tallest inhabited building
in the world. 1t covers $1,000 square
feet of ground and is thirty stories
high. The distance from the curbing
to the cornice is 1856 feet, to the top of
the towers. 800 feet, to the top of the
flagstaff, 447 the depth of the founda-
hGIOTU RI1rhi11or ic II in o
a total distance from the foundations
to the top of the Flagstaff, $50 feet.
The monthly weather bureau pub
fishes summary of the observations
covering three remarkable meteors OBJ
served by the U. S. S. Supply at sea
on February rs last. The meteors ap-
peared in a group, the largest having
an apparent area of about six suns.
1t was egg-shaped, the sharper end
forward. This end was jagged in out
line. The other two meteors were
round, one apparently double the size
OF the sun" and the other about the
The crusade against English spar
rows, which was taken up with con-
siderable vigor some years ago, when
the Legislature of this state enacted a
statute making it a misdemeanor to
give food or shelter to the noisy lit
tie birds, has not been prosecuted with
much earnestness of late, says the New
York Tribune. They are now so nu-
merous all over this city that one gets
the impression that there are more of
them than ever before. They are quar-
relsome, bullying, pestiferous nuis-
ances, with nothing in the least at
tractive or agreeable in their notes.
their ways and habits, and they ought
to be exterminated because they fight
with and drive away many of the most
interesting and sweet-voiced of the
smaller American song birds.
Peat briquettes. all heat except
pinch of ashes, can now be made by
improved processes for $1.21 a ton, says
the New York Tribune. The peat
supply increases proportionately with
the distance from the equator. In cold
and wet countries, the climate does
not well do the drying, and methods
have consequently to be resorted to.
So prepared, there is peat enough dis
tributed here and there in the world
to conduct a substantial civilization
ON for an indefinite succession of CEN
turtles. Alaska has plenty of it, and
so has Siberia, with ample deposits in
other Far Northern countries. Sweden
already uses 100000 tons of the
briquettes yearly, and within fifty
miles of Chicago are deposits of the
material sufficient to supply the city
with fuel for a period to come per-
haps as long as it may have any use
for fires or domestic hearths to light
them on. One-seventh of the area of
Ireland consists of peat boys hereto
fore not to be profitably worked, but
by the new process made as valuable
as coal mines.
In book on Japan, Douglas Sta
den recounts the things that the Japa-
nese have not. They have no bread,
no beds, no boots and shoes, no trou-
sers for the men, no petticoats for the
women. This sounds alarming but
both sexes wear instead several dress
ing gowns, one over the other-the
kfmonos of commerce. In their houses
they have no windows, no doors, no
walls, no ceilings, no chests of draw
ers, not even a washing stand, and
the wardrobe is only lot of boxes
piled one on top of another. In the
kitchens they have no range, no pots.
no pans, no flour bins, no -four, no
kitchen tables. But, then, they have
no tables or chairs in the drawing
room, and in the real native house the
drawing room itself is only a lot of
bedrooms with their walls taken down.
There is no reason why you should
find anything in Japanese house ex-
cept mats and a charcoal stove for
warming your fingers and the teapot.
and committing suicide. Japan is full
of cherry trees and plum trees, but
they do without fruit. The cherries
are used for the blossoms, and the
plums for hanging poems on.
"A lady who was in Port Arthur
during the bombardments ordered by
Admiral Togo has described the curl
Gus effect produced on cats by the
cannonade. Il was at my window
during each bombardment," she has re-
lated, but only through the day, be-
cause at night 1 did not dare stir out
of bed. In front of me there was a
little roof on which five or six cats of
the neighborhood collected. Each time
there was bombardment the cats duly
arrived. and, having observed them, 1
on the second occasion proceeded to
watch them. With my family we pass
ed the hours looking at them. At
each gunshot the cats arched their
backs and stiffened their legs, and
seemed both terrified and furious.
Then when a kissing shell arrived, it
gave the signal for a frightful battle.
They jumped at each other, raging like
tigers, and seemed to hold each other
responsible for What was taking place.
The effect was so comical that we could
not help laughing, although the occa-
sion did not inspire gaiety. After hav-
Ing fought, the cats retired for while,
as though bewildered but as soon as
the commandment commenced again