The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-04-28

There Is law in Holland to the
effect that when young man Of prop
erty is inclined to be fast and is spend
ing his money too rapidly, the govern
ment may step in and take care OF it
for him until he can prove that he has
reformed and will henceforth make
proper use Of his means. This law was
invoked in the case of Count Weygand
A. Deveer, apd being disgusted with his
native land Or himself he ran away and
came to Canada. Hers he married a
nice young girl for his wife, and to.
gether they removed to st. Louis, where
Mrs. Devcer set up dressmaking es-
tablishment. She was quite successful,
and her husband having sowed his wild
oats had sense enough to reform.
Thereupon he procured certificate OF
thee the faesal Gay sffaateited" nts patrimonyHa
goodly sum, enough to support them,
and the happy countess has quit run.
ming sewing machines and making
dresses.
Old customs still prevail to o great
extent in the northern and western por.
tions of England. In the north, espe-
cially amid the great Black Country,
they are almost universal, while in the
midlands and in the south they seem to
have disappeared. Many of these Gus.
toms come within tho category OF su.
perstitions. In the moth no childs
nails are ever cut on Sunday; no in.
fant's nails are cut until it has attained
the age CT one year, but are bitten: the
inside of child's hands are never
washed until three weeks after birth;
infants, before they are carried down.
stairs, are always taken upstairs, in
order to insure their course in the world
upward; no child is shown itself in the
glass, or its teetbing process will be
painful; cake is always given to the
first person met on the road to the
christenip0: marriaoe shnnl1 nnva- no
performed on Saturday, but always, il
possible, on Wednesday; the person
who sleeps first on the wedding night
will die first, as will the person who
kneels first at the marriage ceremony.
In Cornwall no miner whistles under.
ground; Cornish child born after mid.
night will see more of the world than
ordinary folk, and Sunday is an espe-
cially lucky day for birth.
When completed the railroad bridge
over the Missouri river, at Bismarck,
Dakota, will be one of the finest struc-
lures in the United States. The bridge
will he mile and half long, and re.
quires two years more for its compile
tion. The stone for the caissons were
brought from Sauk Rapids, more than
300 miles eastward, in Minnesota.
These caissons are sunk forty or fifty
feet down in the quicksands of the
river in order to form firm founda-
tion. 1t is impossible to find terra
firms in the bed Of the Missouri, the
a section OF the suspension bridge over
the river at Omaha was blown into the
river. it quickly disappeared. A few
hours later, when workmen with neces-
sary machinery endeavored to grapple
the section, it had entirely disappeared
beneath the quicksands, and they were
unable to discover it. Some four years
ago waterspout carried away, in the
spring, the Kansas Pacific railway
bridge over the Kiowa creek, some fifty
miles east of Denver. A freight train
plunged over into the. treacherous
flood. A body Of workmen were sent
for from Lawrence, 600 miles away, to
fish out the train. The editor of the
american A0ricuhu isl was there about
five months afterward, and he says the
mea had recovered the freight cars.
They had not yet, however, discovered
the engine, for which they were still
exploring by means OF long poles.