p. 907 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 18, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— It will cost $2,500 to make changes in the State senate-chamber necessary to accommodate the high court of impeachment for the trial of Governor Sulzer.

— The marriage of Miss Jessie Wilson, second daughter of President Wilson, to Francis B. Sayre, of New York, is to take place at the White House in Washington on Tuesday, November 25.

— Andrew Carnegie has transferred a trust fund of $10,000,000 to the Carnegie Dunfermline Trust (London), the interest of which is to be used for the good of the masses of Great Britain and Ireland.

— A tabulated list of aeroplane fatalities since the first man was killed in 1908 has been prepared by the New York Times, and is as follows: 1908, 1; 1909, 4; 1910, 32; 1911, 73; 1912, 113; 1913 (to date), 77; total, 300.

— Automobiles for children are the latest French novelty. These are not the toys with which the American public is familiar, but real motor vehicles with a three-quarter horse-power engine. They are so designed that they cannot exceed four miles an hour in speed, even on a down grade.

— The champion polygamist of the British Empire has been discovered among the Bantu tribesmen of the Transvaal, according to the returns of the census office at Johannesburg. He has forty-six wives and is thirty-five years of age. His nearest competitor in this matter boasts of only twenty-eight wives.

— By an overwhelming vote, the French Chamber of Deputies recently put into force the principle of a three-year term of service in the army, a measure which will increase the military strength of the republic by one third. Hereafter recruits will be available for military service at twenty years of age instead of twenty-one as at present.

— Dogs are again being used in war. Three centuries before Christ the Teutons used dogs as fighters, and the Romans dreaded them more than the men. But now the French army is using dogs as aid to the Red Cross doctors in finding the wounded. Dr. Durand, who is in charge of them, says the dogs show remarkable intelligence. They will take a command from no one who has not a red cross on his arm.

— Chicago is to have a unique isolation hospital. It is claimed that it will be the finest public hospital in the world. It is to be on “individual cubical system,” each patient having a private room, with a clear glass wall on each side through which relatives and friends can see him. There will also be a telephone at the bedside of the patient so he can talk to his friends. This glass-walled corridor running through the center of the entire building with a telephone opposite each patient's room, so visitors can see and talk to the patient at the same time and not be exposed to danger of contagion, is the most striking feature of the hospital. Then on each side of this main corridor there will be a nurses’ corridor. The glass walls will be perfectly air-tight, so visitors will be fully protected while seeing and talking with the patients.

— In consequence of the killing of a number of Japanese in the city of Nanking, China, it is reported that a Japanese force armed with quick-firing guns has been landed at that place. Three Japanese cruisers and a gunboat are backing up the landing party.

— Statistics compiled recently show that only 20,000 Americans are now in Mexico, where last year there were 40,000, and that American investments have depreciated about 50 per cent. This is attributed to the unfortunate condition of affairs existing in that country.

— The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company is to install a telephone despatching system. The work on this system will start this week, and it will require about three months to complete it. This system will make it possible to establish instantaneous connection between despatching headquarters and trainmen. All trains will carry instruments, making it possible for trainmen to make connection at any point between telephone stations, and all side-tracks and blind-sidings will be equipped with telephone boxes.

— The dry excavation of the Panama Canal has been completed, the steam-shovels working in the Culebra cut having been removed September 6. The further excavation of the canal will be completed by dredging. Completion of the dry excavation, just ten days ahead of the schedule time, advanced the work on the great waterway almost to the final stage. Much digging and cleaning out remains to be done in the Culebra cut and at other points along the route, but all this will be accomplished by mammoth dredges floating on the surface of the canal. An army of men will be busy during the next two weeks removing steam-shovels and other equipment and material, including thirty-six miles of railroad track, from the nine-mile channel in Culebra cut, between Gamboa dike and Pedro Miguel locks. This is preparatory to turning water into the channel from Gatun Lake, on the Atlantic side, on October 5, five days in advance of the date set for the dynamiting of Gamboa dike. While the cut is being cleared of railway and equipment, drilling and blasting will be going on at the bottom of the channel, loosening up rock and earth for the dredges that soon will be clawing away through water. On August 1, 998,000 cubic yards remained to be taken out of the “theoretical canal prism,” and since that time the steam-shovels have reduced the amount to approximately 650,000 cubic yards, which is left for the dredges. Six of the shovels will be retained, however, for the work of removing material from the east and west banks near Culebra to lessen the danger from slides. The destruction of Gamboa dike will leave only one such obstruction along the canal route,—the dike over which the railroad crosses at Gatun locks, and which can be removed at any time. The last barrier on the Pacific side, the Miraflores dike, was dynamited three weeks ago, turning Pacific tide-water into a channel 5,000 feet long, 500 feet wide, and 41 feet deep. Dredges are now navigating this channel, and a fortnight ago, on the

Atlantic side a big suction-dredge steamed on Gatun Lake up to a point near the Gamboa dike. Small vessels probably will be able to pass through the canal from end to end by October 10, and the waterway should be ready for shipping proper early in December.