Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-30

appears that the pulp which covers the
poppy seed contains saccharine matter
which, after due fermentation and distiI-
lation, pooduces a kind of brandy of an
agreeable flavor. AS this pulp has been
hitherto thrown away, the discovery, it is
said, affords poppy planters an oppor-
tunity of realizing more profit their
crops without very great expenditure of
capital.
FIFTEEN years ago that portion of
Washington which is now the center Of
fashionable residences was the fayorite
camping ground of negro squatters.
Some of the more frugal squatters pur-
chased bits of ground at mere nominal
sum, which they cling to yet. What cost
800 at the time mentioned can now be
sold for prices ranging from $4,000 to
$4,000, according to location. One
aged negro woman who still works by
the day when she can get work, has been
offered $4,000 for her cabin and bit of
ground As she would not know what to
do with that amount of mony should she
accept the offer, she declines to part with
her property.
THE United States not only have more
wheat and more breadstuffs to sell this
year than last, but are finding foreign
purchasers for their surplus. The total
export of breadstuffs for the month of
November just closed amounted to S12,-
598,841, as against $7149,785 for the
month of November, 1885. The value of
the export of breadstuffs for the first five
months of the present fiscal year was
$65, 215,1O8, as against $40, 821, 554 for the
same period of 1885. For the eleven
months of the current year ending No
7ember 30, the export reached $135, 076,-
GA, as against $119,572, 858 for the first
eleven months of 1885. A country in
which bread is so cheap and plenty and
which has so large surplus to sell to
poorer neighbors must be pretty good
country in spite Of the assertions of So
cialists and anarchists to the contrary,
KANSAS City has a law requiring all
clergymen, Judges and Justices, to return
to the Clerk of the Board of Health al
the names of the persons married by
them. After notifying these persons
time and again of the law and receiving
no returns from some, the Clerk decided
to bring them to terms by due process
of law, and SO on Saturday night the
Rev. Messrs. j. H. Williams, J. J. Xenne-
dy, I. P. Haley, Robert Laird Collier,
j. G. Taylor, H. Robertson, G. j. Sage,
B. P. Fullerton, John Morgan, G. L.
Thompson, and J. G. Morris, and Judges
FL. P. White, P. Bailey and j. T. Clayton,
were arrested and their names entered
on the central police station register.
They gave bonds for failing to make re-
turns of marriages in a reasonable time,
and on Monday were arranged. Nine of
the accused were given thirty days in
which to make returns. The others were
fined $3.50 each, and said that they
would thereafter obey the law.
A PETITION is being extensively circulat
ed in Maryland calling the attention of
congress to system Of slavery existing
on vessels engaged in oyster-dredging
in the waters of the Chesapeake bay and
its tributaries, which, in its brutality, OPP
rarely been equaled in history. Men are
enticed, by false representation, to ship
for short period, and often are kidnap
ed By brutal force, and kept against their
wills by force as slaves on these vessels
IN the bay for three, for, and i've months
being transferred from one boat to an
other, kept at hard work without proper
provision, without pay, and under the
most cruel and horrible treatment. Many
of them have been murdered, and the
murderers never have been brought to
justice; and the suffering of these poor
men from maltreatment, as we'll a the
exposure to cold and elements without
proper protection of the law, as there is
no police supervision over these waters;
and your petitioners pray that commit
tee may be appointed b y your honorable
body to inquire into this great grievance,
and that such laws may be passed as will
remedy this cruel wrong