The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-07
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

stood up for his rights and got dam
| ages from a paper and a man he in
| terviewed. This man was the chief
| justice of Victoria, and in the inter-
| view he said some things about Aus
| tralian women which these same wom-
! en- raised a row about at once, and of
course the justice wrote to the paper
| and said he had been misquoted. The
| reporter was dismissed at once and
then began his law suit, which he won
| easily.
Sir Hiram Maxim writes in the
Harpers Weekly of the way in which
cheap acetyIene gas was discovered.
! The discovery was made accidentally.
! Wilson, a scientific expermenter, be-
/ lieved that nearly all metallic oxides
| could be reduced to a metallic state by
| heating them to an extremely high
! temperature by the voltaic are in the
presence of free carbon. Mr.. Wilson
wished to obtain metallic calcium. He
therefore mixed a quantity of quick
! lime with puIVeriZed coke, and brought
the mixture to high temperature by
| the action of the voltaic arc. He ex-
| pected to obtain a white metal, but in
stead he appeared to produce nothing
but Stag. This was thrown into the
yard, and one day at noon while the
boys were having their luncheon they
| picked up these bits of Stag and threw
them at each other. One piece fell
| into pail of water, and produced a
| bubbling effect and a strong odor. This
attracted Mr.. Wilson's attention. and
| upon investigation he found that the
| strong-smelling gas was extremely in
| fiammable. Further investigation re-
vealed that it was pure acetylene gas.
From one of the French naval ports
comes an interesting story of an in
cident which recently occurred there
A general holding d high command
made his appearance suddenly a few
| days ago at the barracks of an in
| fantry regiment, which, in obedience
| to his orders, was promptly drawn UP
in the yard. Then he explained the
reason in brief address. He said that
| as he was walking in the town attired
in multi on the previous day a man
| belonging to the corps, who was the
| worse for liquor, accosted him rudely
| and asked him to stand him a drink
Let him step out of the ranks" he
concluded. Immediately bugler
emerged and, saluting, said: at is l.
mon general" The incident is char
acteristic, and apropos of it we are re-
| minded of such an adventure which
befell certain French marshal A
grenadier, who was exasperated at
some injustice that had been done him,
| pointed his pistol at him and pulled
the trigger, but 1t did not go off. With
out moving a muscle the veteran cried.
-Four days in the cells for keeping
your arms in bad state" The bugier's
honesty can scarcely have failed to
be an extenuation of his offense in the
eyes of the general.
Miraculous cures are said to be
performed by lad of Is named Ed
ward Pirsch, who lives with his par-
ents and two brothers in the hamlet
OF Chevelipont near Villers-la-Ville.
South Brahant, in Belgium, says the
New YORK Globe. Three years ago
| the boy became a spiritualistic medi-
UNI, and since then has been treating
people suffering from serious lingering
diseases from all parts of the country.
He has become the leader of a large
and enthusiastic spiritualistic group.
He works with his father, who is a
| master marble mason. He says he re-
celVes constant communications from
spirits, sometimes from as many as
fourteen consecutively. The most i'm
! portant of these is the spirit of a de-
ceased Servian doctor named Cypriot,
who dictates prescriptions of herbs.
which the inhabitants say perform as
founding cures. Many of the herbs
used are not known in Belgium and
have to be procured abroad. The boy
knows nothing of medicine, but the
prescriptions are drawn up as by a
professional hand, and are given in
minute detail. Pirsch writes the spirit
| messages in French, often backwards.
The handwriting is of quite a differ
ent character when different spirits
are supposed to be speaking. The boy
shows photographs which he has taxi
en- depicting what he says are spirit
hands.
IA new graft has been discovered
in Sedalia," says one Of the papers at
that place. Every night for some
time past the mems waiting room at
the Missouri Pacific station has been
crowded with men sleeping in seats,
When asked their business there by
station attendants, they invariably
resurrected tickets to some nearby
town and said that they were waiting
for trains. few days ago about fifty
of these regular boarders applied at
the ticket Office to have the tickets re-
deemed The agent then became aware
of the fact that the tickets were pur-
chased for the sole purpose of bunk
ing in warm room"
Near Santa Catalina Island, off the
| coast of California. was caught re-
Gently the largest sunfish ever taken
or perhaps seen. 1t was literally i'm
possible, even with all the available
tackle used in lifting huge tunas and
black sea bass, to weigh this fish en-
tire or to lift it from the ground. so
that it weight was guessed at a ton.
while conservative estimates placed 1t
at from 1880 to 1900 pounds. The can
tors discovered 1t while fishing from A
launch. 1t was swimming with its
huge, sharklike fin above the surface:
the launch was steamed alongside and
a boatman thrust a heavy gait into n
Immediately the fish began a series IF
elephantine struggles which more than
once threatened the boat. After three
hours the fishermen subdued II and
with no little difficulty towed Il into
port. nv
speaking of canals" said the en-
gineer who had been talking about
Panama, according to Comfort. "a
very interesting canal, and one NOT
much heard Of, is that connecting the
Gulf OF Corinth and the Gulf of
Aeglna, in Greece. It's some older
than any we have in the Western heno-
lsphere, also, for Fernandez. tyrant of
Corlnth, proposed to cut through the
isthmus as long ago as 600 years be-
lore Christ. Superstition stopped him.
however. Julius Caesar and Caligula
look 1t up again when Rome had hold
OF Greece, but 1t was too much for
them. Then came Nero, and he went at
II with vigor but the work stopned
Wnen he died. Others kept poundino