The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-10
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


way extensions in that country during
1903, as only 211 miles of new track
were opened by both government and
private companies.
Not long since attention was called
to the suggestion of, Sir oliver Lodge
that fogs might be dispersed by means
OF electric discharges into the atmos-
phere at high voltages. Tests which
he had made were successful, though
the area affected was quite limited,
and it is doubtful whether his pro-
cess could be carried out on a suffi-
GENTLY large scale to make it of great
value.
Nehemiah Murkett of East Hamp-
ton, Conn, is smoking some cigars
over thirty years old. They were made
by the widow of Stephen Mitchell, who
sold these cigars, handmade with Ha-
vana filler. for one cent each. In set
Ting the estate of a dealer who ham
died them Mr.. Murkett came into pos
session of a box. While the cigars are
hard they smoke exceedingly we'll.
Much attention has been attracted
in international trade circles by the de-
cision of Germany to house her consul
ate at Hankau, China, in large. new
building. This is interpreted as speak
ing for the high appreciation by Ger
many of her growing commercial in
terestS in that region of China, of which
Hankau is the center. In 1901, 245 Ger
man steamers. with a total tonnage of
27,26S tons, entered at Hankau.
Gen. William Booth of the Saliva
ton Army once explained his theory
of getting work done. 'They call me
a pope sometimes. 1 reply it is the
only way. Twenty people are banded
together and nineteen are for taking
things easily, and if you leave them to
themselves they will take the easy
path. But if you say, Go. that's the
path they will go. My people now
want and wait to be commanded"
One summer a country house was
so overrun by ants that the owner, aft
er destroying a large ant-hill near the
house and collecting the numerous pu-
pae for poultry feed, laid sticky fly pa
per before the door of the house in
such a manner that the ant could not
enter without crossing 1t. In the
morning he found his poultry feed gone
and the fly paper covered with sand,
dry grass and pine needles, over which
the ant had passed dry shod." The
ant-hill had also been rebuilt during
the night.
The youngest king in the world is
Daudi Chua, King of Uganda, who is
now about eight. He holds his court
seated on a scarlet throne, with a
leopard skin mat under his feet, and
bearing In his hand a toy gun. The
British exercise a protectorate over
the young king and his kingdom, and
have established for him sort of Par
lament which he opens regularly with
much pomp. Little Daudi Chua speaks
English and gives state dinners, at
which there is curious mixture of Afri-
can and European foods and customs,
though the royal table is supplied with
fine linen, cut glass and silver brought
from London.
The indentif1ca ton of criminals by
means of finger prints introduced in
recent years in European police and
penal establishments, says Harper's
Weekly is paralleled by similar GUS
tom which has been used in Korea for
centuries to identify female slaves. In
a paper recently read before the An
thropological Society of London, by
missionary from Korea, it was stated
that in the deeds of sale of slaves the
hand of the latter was placed on the
sheet of paper on which the deed was
inscribed. and an outline of the fingers
and thumb was traced while, in ads
dition, an impression was made of each
finger. Such impressions. which nat
urally furnished a complete Identified
ton, have been found on deeds that
date back 1900 years.
During their Investigations the cen
sus enumerators in the Krugersdorp
district unearthed an extraordinary
specimen of longevity in the person
of very old native woman, whose age
is believed to exceed liz years, says
the Johannesburg Is. Al Star. She
went to the .Transvaal with the origi-
nal band of the rehellious subjects of
Chaka, the Zulu Napoleon. Her parch-
ment face is wrinkled like a piece of
corrugated iron or walnut shell, and
she is stone deaf. but is otherwise in
possession of all her faculties. She is
surrounded by a whole tribe of de-
scendants, down to the fifth or sixth
generation, and the superstitious ma
tives invest her with all the mystic
charm of immortality. She is believed
to be one of King Edwards oldest sub
jects.
The Hon. r. J. Strut in his report
to the Royal Society makes an esti-
mate of the amount of radium deliver
ed every year by the Kings Spring,
Inc element Is contained III L0e
water and in the deposit, the latter
being richer in radiun. but the guam
tity of the water, of course, enormous
ly more abundant. AS a net result
he estimates that "the annual delivery
of radium by the spring amounts to
about one-third gram" or about five
English grains. DR.. ]. G. Thresh has
anaylzed the water from the hot
springs of Buxton, the deposit from
which was found to hold radium "in
a proportion not very different from
what was found in some of the Bath
deposits" Probably the radioactive
element is present in most hot springs,
and is derived from rocks deep down
in the earth's crust.
According 10 the Electrical World,
the China and Japan Telephone Com
pany of Shanghai, China, was much
troubled several years ago through the
perforation Of the lead sheathing of it's
aerial cables by a number of small
holes near every clump of bamboos by
which the line passed. These were as
sumed to be due to small rifle bullets,
and 81 reward was offered for the con-
viction OF anyone molesting the cables.
This did not stop the trouble, and it
was finally discovered that the holes
were made by a species of wasp, which,
apparently mistaking the lead Cor pre-
ferring it, for the bamboo stem in
which ii normally lays it's eggs, bit
holes in the insulation and deposited
it's eggs about the telephone wires.
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