The Savannah morning news., 1904-04-29
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


claims that he will show that no flow
er, not even the pansy, possesses the
color possibilities of the gladiolus.
An Investigate ton of the cause of
pneumonia by the archaeological de-
partment of the Board of Health of
New York, shows that contagion is of
comparatively little Importance in the
spread of the disease. The board is in
clined, therefore, to attribute the excess
sive death rate from pneumonia 20 the
cold of the last winter,
In the British House of Commons,
as soon as the question to be decided
is put from the chair, a clerk at the
table sets in motion huge sand glass,
Familiarity known TO members as the
egg boiler" probably because it takes
three minutes to run out. AS the last
sand runs through the glass the SER
seantat-arms instantly locks the mas
sive oak doors of the chamber. and
only those members who have succeed
ed in getting through the doorway can
vote.
1t has been announced that the
British postoffice proposes to exercise
its right to buy out the Great National
Telephone Company at the end of the
eminent is the first step towards break
ing up the monopoly which has shack
led and curbed the development of
telephones in the United Kingdom
With low rates and quick service the
public will be provided with a system
such as has heretofore been undream-
ed of The postoffice has already
provided system for great part of
London at a charge less than $4O
nj Of tic sub I.
erS.
The worlds best timekeeper is said
to be the electric clock in the base
ment of the Berlin Observatory, which
was installed by Prof. Forester in 1865.
1t is inclosed in an alright glass cyl
inder, and has frequently run for pc
RODS of two or three months with an
average daily deviation of only fifteen
one-thousandths OF a second. Yet as
tronomers are not satisfied even with
this, and efforts are continually made
TO secure ideal conditions for a clock
by keeping 1t not only in an alright
case, but in an underground vault,
where neither changes of temperature
nor of baromerric pressure shall ever
affect it.
Punctuation. says the London
Graphic, is one of those periIous en-
terprises in which, as Sir Thomas
Browne has it, celebrity should be con-
tempered with cunctation." Lawyers,
alive to its dangers, Danish it from
their deeds, conveyances and advertise
ments; suits. as they we'll know, have
before now turned upon the placing
or misplacing of a single comma. The
Bishop of Southwell. in a letter to the
Times day or two ago, showed that
the meaning of the Pray yer Book had
in many passages been impaired or al
tered by the punctuation of the presses
From Boston. in the United States.
comes an Illustration of how a pune
tuation mark may affect the material
conditions of an entire community.
The printer who printed the Mass -
chusetts liquor law happened to put
a semicolon in the wrong place. The
result is that, contrary to the inten-
ton of the Legislature, the law, as it
stands, forbids the sale of intoxicating
liquors after II o'clock at night, and
blbulous Bostonians are protesting that
an accidental semicolon should not be
allowed to bring refreshment to a full
stop at an hour which will handicap
the attractions of their city in COM
petition with those of other centers of
population on the Atlantic seaboard.
The comma and the colon, the semico-
Ion and the period are beyond doubt
tools to be handled with circumspec-
ton, for punctuation is also interpre-
tation, and in that pregnant fact
boundless possibilities lie concealed.
Highly valuable observations have
been made of late years with regard
to the migrations of birds, and some
of the facts now definitely ascertained
INV r1f
a communication on the subject to
London Nature Mr.. w. Eagle Clarke.
who has devoted a large amount of
time to the inquiry points out that "a
considerable proportion of our native
bred song thrushes, blackbirds, sky
larks, starlings, rocks, lapwings, and
other species. which are usually re-
garded as being wholly resident
throughout the year. are migratory;
indeed they are as essentially summer
visitors to our isles as the swallow
and the cuckoo" It is a curious fact
that many birds of the Continent cross
over the narrower part of the North
Sea to this country for the winter-no
doubt because of our miIder climate.
Some of these stay in England, others
prefer ireland. and some leave us for
more Southern lands. Mr.. Clarke.
through long residence on the Eddy
stone Lighthouse, found that the birds
are capital meteorologists, taking adj
vantage in their flights of the kind of
atmospheric pressure distribution
which suits them. They do not risk
a voyage across the channel when the
wind is high: if it exceeds a velocity
OF forty miles an hour only swallows
and martins venture forth. Otherwise
they care little for the direction of the
wind, and for some occult reason near
ly all of them make the crossing at
night time. Probably it is a mistake
to suppose that in severe seasons our
feathered friends stay at home to be
frozen. 1t is more likely that, like
favored people of fashion, they betake
themselves for the season to the Ri
viera, Italy, or Spain.
Among the Sights" which have
been most visited by tourists in Paris
during Easter is the Morgue, that sin
lister, low-roofed building resembling a
railway booking office, which stands
under the shadow of Notre Dame,
says the London Globe. There is no
difficulty in seeing the gruesome pho
tographs of those who have never been
reclaimed, and the bodies reclining
peacefully on the slabs, but there is a
good deal more to be seen and learned
than the general public suspect in con-
nection with this unattractive institu-
ton. If you will ring a bell at the
gate to the right hand side of the
building, and hint that you are inclined
to pay for the services of a guide, you
will find yourself without delay in the
engine house, containing two gas en-
gines OF about IL horsepower each,