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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 7, 1905)
1 I THE NEWS IN NEBRASKA I THE STATE APPROPRIATION. Money for Public Buildings May Be Tied Up by Legislative Act. "TlNCOLN—The supreme court must decide whether building approp riations made by the legislature lapse under the constitutional provisions providing for the lapsing of approp riations for governmental running ex penses. The question will be pre sented to the coart by the state board of education for normal schools and the board of regents of the state uni versity in an action to mandamus the auditor to allow vouchers and draw ■warrants for the payment of claims in advance of completion of the build ings for the unexpended balances of the building appropriations made by the legislature of 1903 for the Peru normal school, the Kearney normal school and the university. The amounts involved are $12,000 for the Peru library building, $15,000 for the main building at the Kearney normal and' $20,000 for the administration building of the university. All three buildings are tin the course of con struction, but, according to the law. all appropriations made in 1903 lapse August 31 of this year. The board of regents recently in structed that the unexpended balance of the university building fund of 1903 be drawn on advance warrants, to be held in trust until the building was completed. A voucher was presented for the amount, but not acted on by Auditor Searle. Today the state board of education asked the auditor to make a ruling in a similar proposi tion in regard to Kearney and Peru. The board had fortified itself with an opinion by the attorney general that such proceeding would be legal. Despite this opinion the auditor in formed the board that he would not take the responsibility of allowing the claims until the work bad actually been completed and requested that he be mandamused to do so. that the courts might interpret the law. The decision of the auditor places the attorney general In a peculiar sit - uation, as in the mandamus proceed ings he must appear for the auditor in an action instituted by a state board at his suggestion. — GETTING BACK TO DUTY. State House Again Puts on Working Appearance. LINCOLN—The state house has again assumed the appearance of a real estate capitol, all of the state officers who have been away on their vacations having returned and settled down to work. Governor Mickey and Secretary of State Galusha returned from Portland; Land Commissioner Eaton returned from Portland and H. Lindsay, clerk of the supreme court, returned from Spearfish. Every one of them came back feeling robust and looking good. Those state officers who went to Portland were delighted with the ex position and Nebraska’s part of it and especially were they pleased with the courtesies extended to them by the New York commissioners, who turned over their building and annex for the Nebraska day exercises. Secretary Galusha said Governor Mickey deliv ered a splendid address that took well. Enroute home Governor Mickey was taken ill just after leaving Seattle, and at Spokane a physician was called to the train and soon straightened him out. The governdr is feeling all right now, though he shows that he has been through a strenuous experi ence. Adjutant General Culver re turned from Sea Girt, N. J., where he has been with the National Guard team. Back Pay for Soldiers. The names of the Nebraska soldiers of the Spanish-American war to whom money is due from the government have been received by the governor, and upon his return to the state Ad jutant General Culver will attend to the distribution of the same. Dies at Kansas City. SEWARD—News was received of the sudden death of Miss Minnie Cole of tais place at Kansas City, where she was visiting friends. Miss Cole was a teacher in the public school, and has lived In Seward since child hood. Twc People Killed by Lightning. BEATRICE?—Coroner Walden re turned from the home of William O. Bering, near Plckrell, where he was called to Investigate the cause of death of Henry Henke, aged 76, and Anna Henke, aged 70, who were found dead in bed, having been killed by lightning. No inquest wag held. Insane Man From Boston. YORK—H. L. Smith, who left Bos ton last spring, was found at the Bur lington yawls. When he left Boston he had $200. and when found possessed just 3 cents. He has at some time been in the insane asylum. —-->- ■«, ■ v—:■ 1 ■■ Demand for Furnas Lands. CAMBRIDGE—By reason of the splendid crops in Furnas county the last few seasons has been the occa sion of numerous land seekers being In evidence lately. A large number of farms have changed hands the last six months and indications are that the tide is just starting. The Repub lican valley has become famous far and wide for good crops at all sea sons. Lands have been and are sell ing below their actual value as com pared with the lands a short distance •east of this locality. Alleged Horsethief Returned. WAHOO—Sheriff Webster return ed from Cuming county with the man who, it is alleged, stole Joseph Erick eon’s horse, near Wahoo, a few weeks ago. He was captured by Sheriff Kloke of Coming county, near Stan ton. Lightning Does $4,000 Damage. NEBRASKA CITY — Lightning •truck the barn of F. Charles Schreit «r. residing seven miles northwest of this city, and it was destroyed with ^ts contents and two head of mules. OVER THE STATE. Henry Walker, an old soilder and barber of McCook, committed suicide by shooting himself. He had been drinking heavily. The physics building of the state university will be ready for occupancy in two months. The stone tops for the laboratory tables have arrived and will be placed as soon as the piping and wiring of the tables fs finished. A young son of M. Henderson of “N" town, Seward county, accidentally shot himself with a 22-caliber rifle, the charge taking effect in his thigh and passing downward. The physicians say the wound is not necessariy fatal. Fred Cordson was brought before County Judge King at Pender upon the charge of incest with his 12-year old daughter. He waived hearing and was bound over to • district court in $1,500 bonds, which he failed to fur nish. The Johnson county fair will be held at Tecumseh September 12, 13, 14 and 15. The premium list is a large one and the races promise to be excellent. The agricultural exhibit will be an in teresting one, as will also the live stock show. A message has been received by Mr. August Johnson, a farmer living be tween York and Bradshaw, that his son, Carl Johnson, had been drowned in Oregon. There were no particulars. The remains will be buried in Ne braska. Charles T. Bowman was blown to the ceiling by an explosion of machin ery in the plant of the Lincoln Uphol stering company July 3 last. He sued the company for damages and it an swered by saying that according to the most reliable inspection the ma chinery was all right. The defect was not to be seen, hence it i3 not liable. The nineteenth annual reunion and picnic of the old settlers’ association of Cuming county was held in the Riv erside park in that city. Each succeed ing year demonstrates the increasing popularity of this annual gathering. „'n spite of the threatening cloudy weath er some thousands of Cuming county citizens gathered to celebrate this day. Bids for the construction of a resi dence and barn and granary for the state experiment sub-station at North Platte will be advertised for in a few days. Superintendent of Construction Chowins of the State university has completed the pains. The call for a house the cost of which probably will be $3,500, and a barn and granary at $2,200. Mrs. Harriet M. Steele has brought suit in the district court of Otoe coun ty against the Missouri Pacific Rail way company for $5,000 damages for the death of her husband, John S. Steele, who was a watchman at the Missouri Bacific crossing at Weeping Water. Steele was killed by a train while he was standing on the railroad crossing. * a. o. ciregererc, wdo raises oeeis ior the sugar factory in Dodge county, re turned from an inspection trip through Colorado, Wyoming and western Ne braska. The trip was made for the purpose of gaining familiarity wfth the beet raising industry in these sections. Mr. Gregereit got some pointers that ne will use in the cultivation of the crop here. For the first time for about eight years Seward county’s general fund warrants are being registered for lack of funds. This is owing partly to the failure of a railroad to pay its taxes and partly because county expendi tures are a little heavier than they used to be. As a result the county board has this year made a heavier l^vy than before. The body of the unidentified negro who was murdered in Norfolk when he asked for a drink was sent to Lin coln, where it will be given, according to the state law, to a medical college, for dissection. No friends claimed the body and this action was required. No trace of the murderer has been found and the chances are fast diminishing for ever catching him. The Johnson county teachers’ insti tute, just closed, is said to have been the most interesting meeting of the kind ever held in the county. Ninety eight teachers enrolled during the ses sion. County Superintendent B. E. Dill has shown marked ability in the government of the schools of the coun ty the past two years and the county teachers’ association, by resolution, at the close of the institute, commended his work and unanimously indorsed him for re-election this fall. A couple of grafters, claiming to be from Plattsmooth. have been trying to swindle the farmers along the Iowa bottoms. Their graft is a patent medi cine which they claim will cure rheu matism in any form, and also numer ous other ills to which the flesh is heir. To substantiate their claims the young men produced testimonials con tming the signatures of a number of Plattsmouth people. The "medicine,1’ it is said, is mostly water, with a lit tle coloring matter, and net the graft ers considerable profit on eacn sale. Nebraska City was visited by mil lions of small crickets the other night and the building^ along Centra^ avenue were black wit* them. Where they come from or where they go no one can tell. They were about all gone next morning. Frank lams, the horseman, arrived in St Paul from Europe with his annual importation of Belgian stallions and coach horses. The transportation from New York was made by means of a specially chartered Wells-Fargo express train consisting of five large cars, and the trip was made in sixty hours. The old settlers of Gage county held their picnic on the Chautauqua grounds at Beatrice with a large at tendance. These officers were elected: Hon. W. L. Jackson, president; Hugh J. Dobbs, vice president; C. F. Gale, secretary; A. D. Sage, treasurer. Arrangements ave been made for the laying of the corner stone of Sew ard county’s new $85,000 court house on Wednesday, September '20, at 10:30 o’clock. The exercises are to be in charge of the Masonic order, while all the other fraternal and benevolent orders in the county will be invited to participate. Star Gazing During September Month— Uranus and the Cluster of Twinkle rs south Fig. 1—The constellations at 9 p. m., Sept. 1. It is the purely autumn constella tions which may be seen covering the face of the sky during the evenings of September. A last glimpse of the striking summer group Scorpio may still be had, but this constellation is rapidly sinking low down in the south west and will soon disappear for an other year. At the close of the month the Pleiades and the Hyades, the first of the winter stars, may be seen just above the ground in the east, telling us that summer is indeed over and Fig. 2—The square in Fig. 1, enlarged, showing the position of Uranus and Surrounding Stars. that winter is at hand. Meanwhile it is the less striking but no less beauti ful faint autumn groups which are with us. Directly overhead will be seen the brilliant Vega with the Northern Cross on the east and the delicate little oval figure known as the Northern Crown to the west. Below the Northern Cross is the bright group Aquilla, or the Eagle, while further south, at the point where the milky way meets the ground, is the large faint group Sagit tarius, or the Archer. Arcturus, the largest star of the group Bootes, may • still be seen driving the Great Bear in j ceaseless flight before him in the northwest, while directly opposite him in the extreme southeast there is ap Fig. 3—Star clusters as they appear In a small telescope. pearing for the first time this year the magnificent Royal Star. Formal . haut. Mars Will Disappear. The planet Mars is still conspicuous in the southwest, but it would disap pear during the month were it not that it has already begun its very rapid eastward motion among the stars. It is now just above Antares, the fiery red star which will be seen sitting in the extreme southwest, but during the I month it will move entirely out of the constellation Scorpio and well into the milky way. As will be seen from fig ure 1 it will by this time almost have overtaken the planet Uranus, which is itself moving very slowly toward the east, but it will not pass this body until Oct. 8 at 3 o’clock in the after noon. | The beautiful planet Saturn, with its ‘rings, is each evening being brought into more and more favorable position for observation. It is now in the south east in the constellation Aquarius. It may be easily located on the brightest object in this part of the heavens, with the single exception of Fomal haut, a reddish star which is much lower down near the ground. The earth is well above the plane of the rings, so that we now look down upon them and see them well opened out. The rings will continue to widen until Oct. 27, after which they will appar ently begin slowly to grow narrower again. Their appearance will thus gradually change from that shown in figure 5 to a very narrow line, as shown in figure 6, and finally when we arrive in such a position that we view them exactly edgewise they will disap pear from view entirely, except in the largest telescopes, and the planet with its moons will alone remain visible, as shown in figure 7. The September Stars. Figure 1 shows all of the brighter stars just as they appear in the sky at 9 o’clock on any of the evenings of September. If the observer wTill watch the heavens for a few moments only he will see that the groups toward the west, or on the right side of the map, are slowly setting while those on the left are mounting higher and higher in the sky and new groups, not shown on the map, are rising in the east to take their places. A watch of only ten or fifteen minutes will make this motion very evident. By 10 o’clock the group Aries will be well up from the ground in the east, while below this, in the position occupied by Aries in figure 1, will be seen the constella tion Taurus, with the beautiful Pleia des and Hyades. Between these two groups a most striking star will at once be noticed, a star very much brighter than any of the fixed stars in the east. This is the planet Jupiter, which is rising earlier and earlier each evening and which will for many months be the most beautiful and con spicuous object in the heavens. A View of Uranus. The possessor of a small telescope should not fail to look for the planet Uranus, not only because it is in a more favorable position for observa tion than it will be again this year, but also because it is in a very rich region of the sky and is surrounded by many beautiful objects which will well repay examination. To make this easier a part of figure 1 is shown on a much larger scale in figure 2. This figure is a map of the stars inclosed within the square at the bottom of figure 1. These may be very readily found on the sky by noticing that the stars A, B, C, E, F and K are the same on both maps. Below and to the right of A. figure 2, will be seen a fourth magnitude star DH: to the left of this there is a row of three sixth magni tude stars of which the middle one is Uranus. The observer will probably have no difficulty in finding Uranus with the help of figures 1 and 2, but when found its appearance will probably disap point him. Its apparent diameter is only four seconds—that is, it only ap pears to be about one-tenth as large in diameter as Jupiter and therefore in a small telescope it looks almost ex I Fig. A—The Horseshoe Nebula. --- — - — ayzuy uk« a ramer small greenisn star Yet if the observer will compare the planet with the other stars near it he will soon notice a difference in the character of its light or luster, while if he has access to a telescope of four or five inches aperture the little round disk will be very distinctly visible. Has Dense Atmosphere. The planet is so inconspicuous in the telescope only because it is so enormously far away. Actually it is a great world 32,000 miles in diameter, but so great is its distance from us that its light occupies two hours and forty-seven minutes in making its long journey to the earth, although light travels more than 186,000 miles in one second of time. The planet is sur rounded by a very dense atmosphere, and indeed is very probably wholly vaporized and at a high temperature. Its density is still very low; a cubic foot of Uranus would only weigh one fourth as much as a cubic foot of our earth, and apparently many ages must pass away as it shrinks together and cools off before it can support any form of life which we can conceive of. Four Small Moons. Uranus is attended by four small around the planet in only two and one half days, while the outer one requires only thirteen and one-half days in which to make the circuit. It will be remembered that our own moon goes around the earth in twenty-eight days. While a month on Uranus, reckoning by its nearest moon, is but two and one-half days long, the year, on the contrary, is eighty-four times as long as ours, for Uranus occupies eighty four years in passing around the sun. Only an inhabitant who lived to be a good old age would therefore be priv ileged to see the four seasons, spring, summer, antumn and winter, on this planet. On figure 2 there are shown a few of the interesting objects in this part of the sky. Each round dot of this fig ure represents a star, the size of the dots showing the comparative bright ness of the stars, while each triangu lar dot shows the position of a star Fig. 5—Saturn as it appears now. Fig. 6—Saturn as it appears when the rings are seen nearly edgewise. Fig. 7—Saturn when the rings are turned edgewise towr cluster or nebula. Each dot. s marked D. each triple star T, red star R, and each variable star V. Star Clusters. The clusters will well repay exami nation. Those at L, S and 2 are rather loose clusters, but are fine objects in a small telescope. Those at W, O and Q are densely crowded clusters of faint stars, the first being surrounded by a superb field of brighter stars. The two dots marked P are remarkable nebulas. The lower is an enormously extended nebulous cloud which is di- ' vided by black lanes into three parts and mixed up with a cluster of stars; the upper is the horseshoe nebula whose appearance in a large telescope is as shown in figure 3. In figure 4 are several star clusters as they ap pear in a small telescope; the first of these is the cluster at Q, figure 2. m _ •____ The Catch of the 8eaaon. The old multi-millionaire crooked one rheumatic knee at the feet of the beautiful debutante, while in the dis tance the orchestra was playing some leit motif from Rausmittfaimsky’s sub lime works, and the haunting melody filtered through the tropical vegeta tion that screened them from the dancers. I “Miss Youngbudde—Ethel—I love you!” j “But, oh, Mr. Stocksandbonds, I—I,” stammered the sweet young thing, not ing, however, that her ofllcial stenog rapher and recording phonograph were in good acoustic positions. “Ah, Miss Ethel,” the old multi-mil lionaire was saying, "it is in the meri dian of life that we can appreciate woman’s worth and her cheering, di vine presence. All else have I, pal aces, automobiles, yachts; but without you they are as nothing.” “Ah, Mr. Stocksandbonds,” blushed the debutante, “I would marry you, in deed I would, but for one thing against you—your personal habits.” “But,” protested the old millionaire, with dignity, “I have always consld ered myself—and so have my friends —as a very criterion of morality and clean living. Unlike the worthless and poverty stricken young rakes of these days, Ethel, I am not only fabu lously rich, but have absolutely no bad habits.” “That's just it, Mr. Stocksandbonds; that is just why I must refuse you," said the girl, in a tone of infinite sad ness. “Impossible!” gasped the aged mil lionaire. “Do you mean to say that you would admire bad habits in a hus band?” Dreamily, sadly, the romantic young debutante pulled to pieces a red, red rose. “Tell me,” persisted the suitor, “why you would wish to see me dissipated?” “Why, er—er, bad habits shorten life, you know,” murmured*the maiden. But then, reflecting that she could easily drive him to drink after mar riage, the romantic girl accepted the suitor. Ship Insurance. The ships of the world are Insured for a total of $4,750,000,000. Towel Was Done Brown. Senator Pettus of Alabama, on a bright April morning, was defending the government's bestowal of seeds upon the farmers. “Those who oppose this custom,” he said, “are ignorant of the farmer’s work and of the farmer’s needs. They are as ignorant as a little Alabama girl of whom I heard the other day. “This little girl’s mother handed her a damp towel. “ ‘Minnie,’ she said, ‘take this towel into the kitchen and hold it in front of the fire until it is dry.’ “‘Yes, mamma,’ said the child and she threw the towel over her shoulder and departed. “The mother continued her work. She forgot all about her daughter. Ten or fifteen minutes passed. “Then there sounded from the kitch en a clear young treble voice. “ ‘Mamma,’ it called, ‘is the towel done when it’s brown?’ ”—Salt Lake Herald. Bantam Chickens. Bantam chickens came from Bantam, a town in Japan. PATH OF ECLIPSE OF SUN AUGUST 30. The eclipse of the sun early on the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 30, was visible in some partial stage over most of the United States. The line of total eclipse passed far to the north in Canada. The partial eclipse in the United States started a few minutes before the sun arose. In some parts of the northern part of the country the sun’s disk was two-thirds obscured. In the above diagram the heavy black line marks the path of totality. The dense shadow of the moon swept over this narrow belt from west to east with the velocity of a cannon ball. The dotted line in the lower part of the map marks the southern limit of the eclipse. People living south of that line saw nothing at all of the eclipse. The star on the eastern coast of the United States, near Cape Charles at the mouth of Chesapeake bay, shows the place of “first con tact,” that is, the place which was the very first on earth to see the eclipse begin. GETTING INTO BAD HABITS. Injurious Small Actions Too Frequent ly Pass Unnoticed. I wonder how many women who aro “all nerves” realize that much of their trouble is due to certain little everyday habits that pass unnoticed, but are none the less injurious? For instance, the manner of sitting. The average woman assumes a strained and incorrect position when reading, waiting and sewing—yes, even when resting, says the Pittsburg Dispatch. Now, a good habit, like a bad one. is only repeated action; and a little thought on the subject would soon ren der it the most natural thing to as sume a correct position at all times, sitting, standing or lying down. Don’t sit with the shoulders drawn forward, one shoulder higher than the other, and your head bent down until the shape of your vertebral column resembles the letter C. Another bad fault is slouching down in your chair until you are literally sitting on the end of your spine. Not only should “grown-ups” look to their own bad habits, but they should watch closely the small children with whom they come in daily contact and try to keep them from acquiring in jurious habits. Children should be prevented from their particular fail ing as much as possible at once, and it is worth while to give up a few weeks to the cure, just as you would if they were suffering from a childish disease—measles, or mumps, for in stance. The problem is made particularly difficult in that frequently we find them established before we have real ly noticed them. Bennie's Bait to Catch Devils. Many years ago, in the village *of Houlton, Me., there lived a young man named Benjamin Salmon, known by every one as a simpleton, who was always doing strange things. One day a number of boys discovered Ben nie perched on a fence behind a barn with a cotton string and pin hook at tached to a willow stick, fishing in a pool of stagnant water. This was great fun for the boys, but their jeers had no effect on Bennie. Joshua Smith, a revenue officer, who was passing, stopped to see what the fun was. After taking in the situation he addressed Bennie thus: “What you fishin’ for?” Bennie, without raising his head, re plied, “Devils.” “Ah, devils, eh,” retorted Mr. Smith; “and what have you on for bait?” With the same indifference Bennie j replied, “Revenue officers, sir.” Odd Things About Words. “Were you in the garden for the purpose of committing a felony?” asked the English judge of the small boy. “No, sir,” said the boy; “me and my cousin were after the gentleman’s fowls and eggs.” Forfeiture of lands and goods and “corruption of blood” (loss of hereditary standing) were for merly the penalties for felony. Be fore they got their technical sense, however, ’’felon” and “felony” (con nected either with Latin “fallere,” to deceive or “fell,” gall, bitterness) connoted wickedness, anger, courage or melancholy, as the case might be. “The admiral began to laugh for fel ony,” says Caxton, meaning that he laughed, not feloniously, but reckless ly. Also a boil or whitlow was a “felon” and cholera “felony.” Babies Mixed on Bargain Day. It was a bargain day on Sixth ave nue, New York, and twenty baby car riages. all properly checked, were ranged up in front of a department store while the mothers were inside buying things they didn’t need. Sud denly a baby at one end of the line stood up, toppled over against the next carriage, and in a moment all tne carriages went over like nine pins, 'sending the kids sprawling' | about the sidewalk. It took a long | time to identify them, for an attend ant had put them back indiscriminate ly, and they were not checked like their perambulators. This thrilling incident shows that the only sure way to avoid similar catastrophes would be to brand each child with a num ber and hang a corresponding number round the mother’s neck, like a bath room key.—Boston Herald. THE HOTEL BIBLE. Landlord No Longer Provides Guest with Good Book. People are not so good as they used to be. The traveling salesman says they are not. He attributes their downfall to the scarcity of Bibles in hotels. “There was a time,” said the drum mer, “when every hotel I stayed in supplied its guests with Bibles. They were not fine Bibles. Possibly they cost only 25 cents apiece, but they w'ere all there and answered the pur pose just as well as an Oxford edition. Usually the Bible lay in plain sight on the table in each bedroom. If it wasn’t there it was in the top bureau drawer and all us fellows knew enough to look for it there. And very frequently we did look. I read the Bible a lot in those days, maybe just because it was handy. I’d come in tired and disgust ed with life, especially that part repre sented by the evening paper, which was about the only thing I had to read and when I got plumb sick of that I’d turn to the Bible. Some mighty good stuff I found fhere, too. I haven't come across many of those hotel Bi bles in the last two years. I’ve missed them a lot. I don’t know who is re sponsible for their disappearance. I understand that some tract society used to furnish them to the hotels. If the missionaries really were back of the movement, and through some mis representation of facts have come to the conclusion that the game was not worth the candle. I’d like to advise them to set the good w'ork going again for a lot of us chaps have backslidden since the Bibles disappeared from ho tel bedrooms. His Fatal Error. They were seated on a park bench in the gloaming. “Miss Wiggins—Nellie, dear,” be said, '“will you marry me?” “Really, Mr. Goodwin—er—George, this is so sudden. Eut—w'ell—assure me that you have no bad habits—do not drink, gamble and the like, and I’ll think about it.” "I never drank a drop of liquor in my life,” answered the young man, “I never play cards and regard prize fighting and horse racing with dis dain.” “George,” she said, “I—er—think you may hope.” “And as for baseball,” continued George, “I detest it, and—” “What!” she exclaimed. “You de test our great and glorious national game? Then all bets are off, George; I can never be your wife.” Astor’s "Stately Pleasure Dome.” The London Mirror tells of the ac tivities of our former fellow-citizen. Mr. W. W. Astor, in making a new home for himself in England. It seems that he has bought a property de scribed as “the historic Hever estate in Kent,” and is improving it. It includes 2,000 acres of land and a moated castle, nearly six hundred years old, where at one time Henry VIII maintained Anne of Cleves. On this estate Mr. Astor has put to work about one thousand men, with due ap paratus, and is making changes rated as improvements which the calculat ing natives estimate will cost him a million and a quarter pounds. He is building a lake, a model vil lage, roads, bridges and gardens, and Is doubtless having a good deal of the sort of fun that Mr. Kipling in a re sent story has suggested as a suitable ^creation for tired Americans. Auto Opens New Fields. An automobile milk wagon which is running in Ohio and doing the work of two and three horses every day is one of the recent developments of the horseless age. Another is an automobile in the Congo Free State, where electricity and coal are not to be considered as power generators, and where, therefore, wood was mus tered into service as the only logical fuel. The wood burning car weighs a ton and has a maximum speed of twelve miles an hour. Sheet steel wheels with heavy pneumatic tires are used. The fifteen horsepower engine is inclosed in a bullet proof bonnet, as the vehicle is to be used in transport ing troops and is expected to be under fire at times. A third novelty in the automobile business » the arrange ment of an enterprising Yankee for a regular service of motor omnibuses to the pyramids. Giant Steamers. The world’s merchant marine of giant steamers of over 12,000 register tons now includes fifty-six vessels, thirty-one of which are under the English flag. Mysterious Cannon Ball. A three-pounder "live” cannon shell of foreign make has been found in a field on the banks of the River Hum ber, near Hull, Eng. The startling dis covery was made by an old naval re serve man, who at once took the pro jectile to Hull and handed It over to the police. The chief officer of the Royal Naval Reserve Battery on ex amining the shell found that it had been fired, but it had not exploded. It is 8 inches long, 3 inches in circum ference, and copper covered from nose to base. He considered it dangerous, and took charge of it. No one seems to know how it came there. Grand Trunk Terminal. It is stated on what is said to be unquestionable authority that Kairn Island, twenty-five miles south of Port Simpson and facing Tucketts inlet, is to be the site of Laurier City, the western terminus of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. America Interests Japs. Japanese publications are full of American articles on all kinds of sub jects.