The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-04-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

- ne VI ldlStllos W II
formerly amounted to nearly 100000
boxes a year, has been reduced TO all
most nothing by the California crop.
The patent office at Washington
during 1908 granted 1859 patents. The
net balance to the credit of this office
since it was founded in 1886 is S5,6s2,
$40.
The per capita value of England's
foreign commerce last year was $3.50;
that of Germany $47.6O; France, $43;
Austria, SIT, while that of Belgium was
$120.
That coral reefs are made up en-
tirely of the skeletons of animals and
algae is proved by the borings to a
depth of more than 1000 feet in the
Pacific Island of Funafuti.
Surveys, which have just been com
pleted, for a ship canal across Russia
to connect the Baltic and Black seas,
show that the distance will be l, 4GS
miles and the cost $1SO,000O0O.
The playing of golf on Sundays is
practiced to such an extent that in a
certain parish in England it is said
to suit the convenience of players.
When the Kaiser promised to in
scribe on the flags Of the German
troops in South Africa the names of
the battles they won, he probably did
not know that they had just won the
battle of Otjihinamaperero.
AT a recent meeting of the Royal
Transportation Commission in Hall
fax, reports and maps were submit
ted, showing that the Canadian route
between Europe and the East was $50
miles shorter than those from United
States ports.
Street railways owned by English
municipalities make handsome profits,
which materially reduce local taxes.
During the current year, it is esti-
mated, Nottingham will clear $780,,
900 from this source; Liverpool, $123,
900; Leeds, 100000 and Manchester,
$25O.OOO.
The arbitration law of New South
Wales has been in operation over a
year, and it has been found that so
long as it's decisions are in accordance
with the wishes of the employees there
has been no resistance, but whenever
a decision has been adverse to them
they have shown spirit of resistance.
-Emigrants from Denmark, none of
whom is illiterate, all come to the
United States Ninety per cent. of
them are Lutherans, and nearly all of
them settle on farms. The ordinary day
laborer in Copenhagen receives 1874
year, with board, lodging and washing;
by the day, in harvest time, 90 to 65
cents.
Beginning one mile west of the
head of the Galops canal, in Canada,
and extending for over two miles,
channel has been cut 300 feet wide.
By the use of this channel the large
vessels now navigating the st. Law
renee are saved the tortuous and dan
gerous passage by the south channel
through American water.
1t can be said with reasonable GER
tanty that electricity and magnetism
are state of disturbances in the univer-
sal ether although the exact kind of
disturbance can not yet be defined,
partly because the mechanism of the
ether itself must be sufficiently known
in order to differentiate its disturbed
conditions from its normal conditions.
-Emigrants from Southern Italy ale,
many of them. disfigured by what is
known as "black teeth" The teeth
of these persons are affected during the
period of growth by some gaseous con-
stituent of drinking water, probably
from impregnation with volcanic va
pors The defect often gives a SIMS
ter look to an otherwise handsome
face, but fortunately does not, it seems,
affect the strength or durability of the
teeth.
The London Lancet reports dis
cussion of the Academy of Medicine,
Paris, in which NJ. Lucas Champion
mere said that every day more con-
fiunation was forthcoming of the idea
that it was the principal cause of ?p-
pendicitis. In those countries where
the natives eat very little meat, us in
Brittany, appendicitis is very rare.
In England and the United States,
where a great deal of meat is eaten,
appendicitis is four times commoner
than in France.
Shouting and swearing at horses
ought to be forbidden by law, says
Our Four Footed Friends. Horses
have extremely sensitive ears, and a
whispered word is just as good as a
shout until they are spoiled by shout
| ing. j. B. Haggin, who owns more
| thoroughbreds than any man alive, and
| wins many races with them, never
| permits an unkind or cross word to be
spoken to an animal on his ranch.
| The men say that is why none of his
grooms is ever hurt A horse in good
health that has not been made a
rogue by bad handling will do his
best without either flashing or shout
ing.
Another step in the direction of
technical education has been made in
the city of Dresden in the establish
ment of a school for locomotive driver
apprentices. The initiative was taken
by the Locomotive Drivers Assocla-
ton of SaXony, which succeeded in in
teresting the members of the Dresden
City Council in the scheme, as we'll as
the directors of the technical school
and the administration of the Royal
State Railroads. The school is for APP
prentices between twenty-five and thlr-
ty years of age who are employed in the
Dresden car shops. Among the sub
iects taught are German, arithmetic,
graphics and the mechanism of loco
| motives.
The Japanese have already done a
great deal more than adopt Western
science. They have materially added to
it. Hitherto their greatest success has
been in bacteriology. a study demand
ing the utmost patience, manual deX-
terity and refinement of technique; and
in the records of this branch of science
thew take rank only below France and