The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

NNN-~ - w. 80 ~ PSJ LII IuAlC NN4ACAos
Representative STEVENSON, of Min
nesota, has introduced in Congress a
resolution requesting the Secretary of
Commerce and Labor to report to the
House what legislation is required to
establish an effective system of labor
insurance, and to what extent such a
system could be established by Federal
authority.
The Chicago Tribune prints a table
showing the occupations of the sixty
nine aldermen of that city. Lawyers
are numerically the strongest. thirteen
of them holding seats in the municipal
legislature. Next come contractors,
seven in number. There are six saloon
keepers and six real estate men. No
other occupation is represented by more
than three aldermen.
"A London physician, at the risk
OF giving away the secrets of his pro-
fession, writes to a paper that in the
course of thirteen visits to a victim
of the grip he could do but two things
Of positive value. The first was to
open a window, and the second was
to pull off three of the six blankets
under which the patient was swelter-
ing. The moral is that sick people
need fresh air even more than we'll
people do.
Newspaper work in Russia is
pleasant sort of life, and the govern
ment spends more money on it's press
censorS than on it's schools. Last year
eighty-thre papers were suspended
for various periods, and twenty-six
were forbidden to accept all advertise
ments, while 259 editors were told they
OO1Jl6 ~ n oh in i1oar
if they continued their methods of re-
viving various public questions. A
Russian paper is valuable thing
from a news standpoint.
England is always glad to get an
other citizen. but sometimes she goes
about it in a strange manner. accord
ing to the Springfield Republican. A
sailor recently deserted from a Russian
battleship and joined an English crew
on a faraway island. He told them
that he was tired of the rule of the
Car and wanted to become an Eng
lish citizen. They were at a loss how
to naturalize him, but finally each one
threw a bucket of water on him and
so washed off the Russian.
"A teacher at Buckport, Me-, is feel
ing a bit discouraged just at present.
The other day she was trying to get
a bit of knowledge into the class in
arithmetic, and one boy in particular
would do nothing that he was asked
to. Finally the teacher, in desperation,
turned on him and asked him what
he intended to be if by any chance
he was permitted to grow up. The
youth replied that he thought he would
be a teacher, and have his scholars
to do his figuring for him.
Great quantities of gold exist in the
desert sand of the Southwestern United
States. In the new process of Thomas
a. Edison the air blast is used for sep
arating the gold, the heavy metal fall
ing almost vertically, while the sand
and gravel are blown away. The ma
terial is handled at the cost of about
cents per ton. The apparatus of
Prof. Elmer X. Gates includes a dynar-
mo on truck, and as this is drawn
along SCOOPS raise the sand. pass it in
a stream through a magnetic field and
dumps it, the gold receiving a static
charge that causes it to fly to a metal
knob of opposite polarity. Samples
from an S0-mile stretch of desert yield
ed - to Is cents of gold per ton.
Forest and Stream notes that the
merits and dement's of owls and
hawks came up again at the recent
meeting of the New York League, and
a recommendation that the birds
should be destroyed was referred to a
committee for more mature considera-
ton. The charge against the species
is that they destroy great numbers of
game birds. On the other hand, they
destroy also great numbers of noxious
creatures, and the opinion of economic
ornithologists is on the whole favor
able to hawks and owls. Notwith-
standing this, we have in different
states conflicting laws on the subject,
some making the killing of hawks and
owls a misdemeanor, and others CIV
ing bounty for their destruction.
The influence of the wind on vege-
tation has been the subject of a re-
port by Prof. ] Fruh to Swiss geog-
raphers. The effect is a powerful one,
especially on trees, and even the pres
ence or absence Of forests may be
determined by the character of the
prevailing wind or the conditions that
modify it's action. The wind acts es-
pecially as a drying agent, in this
way giving a special aspect to many
plants. When the wind is almost al
ways from the same quarter the plants
usually show greater development up
on one side-trees are smaller upon
the windward edges of forests and
trunks and branches are permanent
ly hent to leeward. The determinations
are most marked near the sea or in fiat
regions. The cherry, the plum, the
walnut, the black poplar, the ash and
certain pines are very sensitive to the
wind, but mountain pines and certain
frs offer great powers of resistance,
and these are recommended for refor-
esting windSwept lands.
"Details are published of wonder
full new motor invented by Peter
Thornley,, an English engineer. The
invention is considered OF such impor-
lance that its development may re-
suit in express railway engines run
ming at twice their present speed at
only half the cost and in Atlantic lin
ers crossing from Liverpool to New
enough to be carried in typewriter
case. The new motor is capable of de-
veloping 1,500 revolutions a minute,
giving fifteen horsepower under a
boiler pressure of 200 pounds to the
locomotive the steam is admitted after
the piston has moved from five to eight
inches along the cylinder. Mr.. Thorn
ley has devised a valve which will adj
init a given quantity of steam at every
commencement of the stroke and SO
nicely adjusted that the expansive force
of the steam admitted is just sufficient
to drive the piston at the end of it's
journey. By the most modest esti-
mate the saving in coal is rs percent,
III