davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19

Philadelphia man-'Is the London
Echo the only paper you have about the
housea" Yes, 1 only subscribe for a
foreign paper now.n "Why, that
doesn't give any American news, and
you were never in England II know
that, but the London papers don't
print any baseball news."-Norristown
Herald.
Some one has discovered that a mos
quito cannot get his bill out while a
bitten person holds his breath. If the
tailor and the shoemaker couldn't oct
their bills out while the debtor held his
breath many impecunious society voung
men would cut off their respiration nm.
til they were black in the face.-Nor-
YfSt0Gn Herald.
"What's the matter with McSlimp
He has put OF more airs of late than q
few" Quite natural. He has lust
returned from a summer resort. He
was the only man there. He'll get
over it after a time. but just at present
he is so pulled up with self Importance
that you cannot touch him with a ten
foot pole."-B0St0h TrdRscrtDt.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
AN IRON MANS THEORY.
The Time Coming When No More Ore VIII
BE Needed.

'tIron has eternal life," said James
nj. Swank, general manager of the
American Iron and Steel association,
to a Philadelphia Record man. when
the king of metals is taken from the
ground it is not used up and cast into
b waste heap. Once worn out it is
manufactured, passes into a new shape.
and is really never altogether consum-
ed. Old stoves are burned out. but
they are melted down again and recast
for another term of service. Horse
shoes are worm away, carriage tires
wear out, engine boilers and all the
iron and steel parts of the locomotive
fall sooner or later, street tracks give
way after a certain amount of traffic
has passed over them, but all the worn
out metal goes back to the furnace and
the rolling-mill, and is soon seeing a
new existence, strong and seryiceable
as ever
The truth which Mr.. Swank thus
gave expression to is one of foremost
interest to manufacturers of iron
and steel. 1t means that iron
once taken from the ground is forever
in the market. At all the great trade
centers are regular quotations of old
rails, both iron and steel, and scrap
iron. Sometimes the current prices of
old and new steel rails approach close
ly, and at such a time there is a ten
dency among the railroads to replace
their railway with new and heavy
steel.
In every quarter of the United States
H. E~1I nNNt
forth in a junk-shop or on a more pre-
tentious scale. All the manufactured
forms of iron and steel that have pass
ed their prime are gathered in. The
railroads are very large sellers of iron,
but from a dozen other quarters the
supply comes. Not the shrewdest man
in the iron business a pretend to es-
innate how much of the yearly output
of iron manufactures and steel is made
from remelted old materials and how
much from new ores fresh taken from
the earth.
The proportion of the former, how
ever, is certainly immense, and sure
to incre ase with a powerful momentus
as the development of the country
goes on and the generations of iron
multiply.
so heavy is the supply of old iron
and steel Offering" remarked General
Manager Swank, that some manufac-
turers are almost ready to believe that
as the time goes On no more iron ore
need be taken from the earth. The ex-
listing supplies will be self-replenishing,
and iron and steel workers will only
have to remold, remake, remanufac-
ture. As long as there is in any coun-
try a large growth in population and
be delayed, but should these factors
become stationary the mines of iron
ore may remain buried in the bowels
of the earth. The many millions of
tons of metal above ground will serve
to satisfy needs.n
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
God.


Grand the expanse of the heavens, but grander
the thoughts they suggest;
Lovely the blush of the morning. the crimson
and gold of the west;
Bright are the stars of the midnight, floating
in measurelesS space,
But deeper and grander the secret we strive
mid their brightness to trace.
Fair is this beautiful planet, its carpet OF YER
dure, its seas,
Its mantle of Iife-giyfng air, its sunshine, its
mists, and its breeze;
Deep the emotions that nature quickenS to Life
in the soul,
But deeper and grander the glimpses we catch
of the infinite whole.
Cunning the hand of the artist, a study his
thought-chiseled face;
Bewitching the smile of the maiden, entranc-
ing her beauty and grace;
Perfect the cup of the lily, sweet is the breath
of the rose,
But deeper and grander the spirit that vainly
they strive to disclose.
wondrous the symbol of being spread out on
every hand.
wondrous the secret of nature, of sky, of the
sea, of the land;
Vast is the outward creation, undiscovered by
man and untFod,
Yet ignorance in its presumption Familiarity
PIRATES about Cod.
Eliza Lamb Marlyn in Boston Globe.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
King KaIakaua as He Is.

The King entered from an adjoining
apartment. He wore a suit of white
linen and low-cut white canvas shoes.
He wore no decorations of iewelry OF
any kind save one solitaire diamond
ring. After we had been introduced
he invited us to be seated. We then
had a very pleasant general converse
ton for three-quarters of an hour.
Then shaking hands we bid him good
bye. Before leaving he mentioned
several persons in st. Louis he wished
to be remembered to, and one lady he
wished to be especially remembered to.
He is about ffty-three years old, Of
good address and has received a good
collegiate education. He speaks En-
glish %fiuently. The stories that are
told about him-not being able to 90 to
the Paris Exposition for lack of money,
&c.-are not true. There are half q
dozen wealthy men on the islands who
would loan him all the money he might
want at any time. His present salary
IS $50, 600 per annum, with IS, 900 added
for household expenses and perquisites.
The crown lands yield him an annual
revenue of from $50, 900 to $40, 900.
Several years ago he got in debt and
the latter amount is 20 used to pay
off this debt. He voluntarily appointed
three commissioners to take charge of
the crown lands and from the event
pay his debts. This is so much to his
credit, as by law he cannot be sued in
any court in the kingdom.-St. Louis
POSt-Dispdtch.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
A Mexican Burying-Ground.

Many readers Of the Globe have read
descriptions of the quaint and pictures
que city of Guanaiuato, in the state of
the anne name in the republic OF
Mexico, about 160 miles north of the
City of Mexico, in the eastern range of
the Sierre Madre mountains. 1t is a
city of 20, 900 inhabitants, and it's only
industry is mining. 1t is situated in a
gulch which follows the meanderings
of a stream known as the G~uanajuato
river. 1t has, however, but little water,
a " in the rainy season, when at times
it is a mountain torrent.
Few of the many tourists who have
visited Guanajuato have seen the
municipal burying ground or pantheon.
1t is located on the summit of the hill
just west of the station Ell Cantador. 1t
was established in the year 1864, and
since that time the records show veI
80, 900 have been buried there. This
does not include those buried in the
Catholic cemetery, which are compare
lively few.
The burying places are graded as tc
price and quality. the poor and INDECENT
using a municipal coffin to carry them
to the grave. when they are dumped
into the grave, quick-lime is thrown on
the body and the grave covered upwith.
out anything to designate their name.
When the ground is well planted and
is needed again they are dug up and
the bones thrown into a vault which ex.
tends the whole length of the cemetery,
north and south. This vault is now
about half full of bones, and also 0
tainS many mummies taken from the
inches. These inches or receptacles OF
the dead are arranged around the sides
of the inclosure six deep, and are sold,
the least price being $25. which en-
titles the corpse to a resting place fol
five years, $50 for ten years, and 500
for all time to come. The vault is
about 500 feet long by six wide, and
about ten feet high, with an arched
roof. 1t contains openings every fifty
feet, giving light and ventilation. The
descent into this vault is made through
an opening just large enough to admit
of an easy passage, and by way of .
spiral stairway. All in all it is an in.
teresting sight. and will repay any
sightseeing tourist who happens tc
visit Guanajuato. The sexton in charge
of this quaint burying-ground is a queer
character himself, being a spiritualist,
and claiming to have daily communica.
ton with the spirits of the departed
dead. | have had many interesting
conversations with him, and on n oc-
casion he was considerably amused
when [ suggested he had a large field
from which to select his subjects fol-
spiritual conyerse.-Chicdgo Globe.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
A HUNGER STRIKE.
A Graphic Account of Life in the Political
Prisons of Siberia.

In his Siberian series in the Century
Mr.. George KEENAN, gives the follow
ing account Of a prison revolt among
the eXiles: A few days later-about
the middle of July-all the rest of the
state criminals were brought back to
the political prison at the Lower Dig
gings, where they were put into new
and much smaller cells that had been
made by erecting partitions in the or
iginal kamcra in such a as to
divide each of them into thirds. The
effect of this change was to crowd
every group of seven or eight men into
a cell that was so nearly filled by the
sleeping-platform as to leave no room
for locomOtion. Two men could not
stand side by side in the narrow space
between the edge of the platform and
the wall, and the occupants of the cell
were therefore compelled to sit or lie
all day on the plank mares without oc-
cupation for either minds or bodies.
No other reply was made to their petit
tions and circumstances than a threat
from Khalturin that if they did not keep
quiet they would be fogged. With a
view to intimidating them Khalturin
even sent a surgeon to make a physical
examination of one political, for the
avowed purpose of ascertaining whether
his state of health was such that he
could be tiogged without endangering
his life. This was the last straw. The
wretched state criminals, deprived of
exercise, living under dungeon condi-
tions," poisoned by air laden with
the stencil of eXcrement-buckets, and
finally threatened with the whip when
they complained, could endure no
more. They resolved to make that
last desperate protest against cruelty
which is known in Russian prisons as
a "golodofka," or ''hunger-strike.n
They sent a notification to Major Khal-
turin that their life had finally become
uncomfortable, that they preferred death
to such an existence, and that they
should refuse to take food until they
either persisted or forced the govern
ment to treat them with more human
ity. No attention was paid to their
notification, but from that moment not
a mouthful of the food that was set
into their cells was touched. As day
after day passed the stiffness of death
gradually settled down upon the prison.
The starving convicts, too weak and
apathetic even to talk to one another,
lay in rows, like dead men, upon the
plank sleeping-platforms, and the only
sounds to be heard in the building
were the footsteps of the sentries, and
now and then the ~incoherent mutter-
ings of the insane. On the fifth day of
the s'golodofka" Major Khalturin, con-
WINGED that the hunger-strike was seri-
Gus, came to the prison and asked the
convicts to state definitely upon what
terms they would discontinue their
protest. They replied that the condi-
tons of their life were u~nbearable. and
that they should continue their self
starvation until the excrement-buckets
were taken out of their cells. until
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
The insignificant Nickel.

Everybody does not know what i'm
portance may be attached to the con-
tents of his pocket when he carries in
it the insignificant bit of money known
as our 5 cent nickel piece. 1t seems
that an ingenious d%iscoverer has found
out that the whole metric system OF
weights and measures is contained in
this little coin. which, it is said, holds
the key to the linear measures and
weights, being explained thus: The
diameter Of this nickel is two centimet-
ers, and its weight is five grammes.
Five of them placed in a row will give
the length of the diameter, and two OF
them will weigh q ~decigramme. As
the kiloliter is a cubic meter, the key
to the measures of length, it is also the
key to the measures of capacity. This
is n1uHum IN pdrUo, OF metric system,
in a nut she'll.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
MELON Is KING.
How 1t Rules and SweIls in the Land OF
Dixie.

From the report of the convention OF
Georgia farmers in the Savannah NeaOs:
The Georgia Southern & Florida for
warded 542 carloads of melons.
To give you an idea of the wonderful
possibilities of this business / submit
the results obtained by James P. Sharp
of Clay county for the years 1885 and
1887.
In 1885 Mr.. Sharp planted seventy
acres in watermelons. This crop was
cultivated by two mules. Mr. Sharp
shipped sixty-three carloads of melons,
containing $50 to 1000 melons per car.
Many acres made a carload each.
Five measured acres made six and
three-fourths carloads. This crop sold
for So, 500 in round numbers. Freights,
commissions, fertilizers, ~cultivators,
ETC., cost 81, 800, leaving a net profit OF
81, 600, or 81, 900 to the mules and about
$29 per acre.
In 1887 Mr.. Sharp planted sixty
acres in melons and sold forty-four car
loasis for 81, 400. He paid his entire ex-
pen>Cs with 81, 900 and made clear
money So, 400, or 81, 700 to the plow and
about $57 to the acre.
george w. NcOUC me senior partner
of a large fertilizer factory, makes to
me this significant statement: Give
years ago only 5 per cent of the farm
ers in Georgia paid cash for their fertil-
i%zers; now 25 per cent pay cash out OF
their w money. Five years ago near
ly all the farmers gave cotton options
for fertilizers; now so per cent of the
farmers give bank notes, and pay them
promptly at maturity, like other bust
ness men" We are upon the begin
ming of a great future for Georgia and
the south.
DR.. Oemler says that prior to 1882 nc
crop had been grown in Georgia or in
the south expressly for the northern
markets.
The varieties that used to be grown
for the northern market were the
"rattlesnake," the mountain sweet, ,
the Pearson" the "scaly bark" and
the Cuban queen" but the "Kolt
| GEM is the principal variety that has
been shipped the past year or two.
The melon industry has now grown
to such large proportions that it re.
quires almost as much attention from
the railroads and steamers as the orange
crop of Florida.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
RELICS IN OHIO MOUNDS.
A Gigantic Man Buried Alongside a Coloi
sal Panther.

Soon after the 1st of March | left fol-
southern Ohio to collect relics to be
placed on loan exhibition in the Smith
sonian institute at Washington, says 6
writer in the Cincinnati Commercial,
Gazette. During the last two months
eleven large mounds have been opened
and placed on exhibition.
These mounds vary in height from
eight to thirty feet, are generally con-
ical in shape, and contain all the way
from 800 to 10, 900 square yards of dirt.
They were built by the aborigines OF
this country hundreds of years ago tc
serve as burial places for the distin-
guished dead. Theyare generally placed
near some stream in a valley and not
unfrequently on high points of land,
which command a good view of the
country, but the larger ones are in the
valleys. These mounds are usually
composed of clay, sometimes of sand,
and often have layers of charcoal OF
burnt clay in them. These layers are
often as brightly colored as if they had
been painted.
The first mound opened was on rather
high ground, the third river terrace.
This mound was Is feet high, 60 feet
wide, and 10 feet long. 1t took six
men eight days to dig through. When
about twenty feet from the eastern edge
we came upon a thick layer of burned
bone. This layer was six inches thick
and the width of the trench. The ashes
of which it was composed were either
resultant from animal or human bones.
we could not tell which, but at any
rate, whether animal or human, it must
have taken thirty or forty skeletons
(f cremated) to have made that many
ashes.
About five feet above this layer, o
nine feet from the summit of the
mound, was a skeleton of a very large
individual which had buried by the side
of it the bones of a panther. Whether
the person had killed the panther and
it was buried with him as an honor OF
whether the panther had killed the in
dividual [ al not say. This much,
however, can be said, that in forty-three
mounds opened no find of this nature
has been made. 1t is therefore quite
interesting and important. The skull
OF this panther was very large, teeth
very long and sharp. 1t would take q
moundbuilder of a great deal of nerve
to attack a beast of this size if he had
nothing but a stone Ratchet and bow
and arrows to defend himself with. Sc
if he did kill the panther he is certainly
entitled to a great deal of credit. Just
below this skeleton and lying on the
layer of buried bones was a medium
sized parsonage who had buried around
his neck, between his upper and lower
jaw, 147 bone and shell beads. The
shell beads were made from the thick
part of conch and Pyrula shells. These
shells must have been carried from the
Atlantic ocean, as they are ocean shells
and not found inland, or the tribe to
which the man belonged may have
traded with tribes neal the ocean and
thereby got the beads.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19

they were permitted to have books and
to exercise daily in the open air, until
they were allowed to direct the expen-
diture Of their money for better food
and better clothing than were furnish
ed by the Government, and until he
(khalturin) gave them a solemn assur-
ance that none of them should be fog
ged. The commandment told them that
the talk about tiogging vas nonsense;
that there had never been any serious
intention of ~resorting to the whip, and
that, if they would end their strike, he
would see what could be done to i'm
prove the material conditions in their
life. Not being able to get any posi-
tive assurance that their demands
would be complied with, the prisoners
continued the ''golodofka." On the
tenth day the state of affairs had be-
come alarming. All of the starving
men were in the last stages of physical
prostration. and some of them seemed
to be near death. Count Dmitri Tolls
tot, the Minister of the Interior, who
had been appraised of the situation,
photographed the commandment to keep a
''skorbnOi leest," or hospital sheet, y
setting forth the symptoms and condi-
lions of the strikers, and to inform him
promptly of any marked change.
Every day thereafter a fedsher, or hos
pital steward, went through the cells
taking the pulse and temperature of
the starving men. On the thirteenth
day of the ''golodofka" Major Khal-
turin sent word to the wives of all po-
litical convicts living at the Lower
Diggings that they might have an in
terview with their husbands-the first
in more than two months-if they
would try to persuade them to begin
taking food. They gladly assented,
of course, to this condition, and were
admitted to the prison. At the same
time Khalturin went himself to the
starving men and assured them, on his
honor, that if they would end the hun
ger-strike he would do everything in
his power to satisfy their demands.
The entreaties of the wretched, heart
broken women and the promises of the
commandment finally broke down the
resolutions of the politicals, and on the
thirteenth day the first and most OBJ
stinate hunger-strike in the history OF
the Kara political prison came to an
end.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
Indifference to Peril.

A Denver gentleman who has been
On a camping tour through the noun
tains has recently returned and relates
an incident which testifies to the state
ment that even the most dangerous
callings become ordinary every day
affairs to the men engaged in them, the
element OF danger being apparently
lost sight of. He was driving his team
across a mountain road when, coming
to a narrow place, another team was
met. In this latter were the driver
and his wife, and as the passage was
narrow and rough, there being many
boulders on the side where the turning
out had to be made, his wife got out of
the wagon. This was to be expected,
but when the Denver tourist saw her
run somewhat speedily and hide her
self behind a large rock, it somewhat
astonished him.
Il say" he asked, "what makes your
wife act that way?"
'Oh, | don't know exactly, but /
guess she may be a little scared"
"But what is she scared abOutP"
''Oh, | have got some stuff in my
wagon which she does not like to see
uInpeu OfeI GleSo IOChS, duu lie
coolly proceeded to head his team over
the boulders.
Say, what have you got in your
wagon?"
You see those three boxes--well,
they are full of giant powder"
"My God, man, you don't intend to
drive over these rocks with all that ex-
plOsive matter?"
Eyes, [ do. Why notP I have been
teaming giant powder for ten years
But it might explode and blow us,
horses and all to the devil"
"What of it? We would never know
what hurt us, would we?'
And it vas with difficulty hat he
was persuaded to wait and carry it
about fifty feet.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
Views from Pixies Peak.

The signal service officer at Pixies
Peak said to a correspondent the other
day: Sometimes [ stand 1t the win
dow with my telescope. l can see the
houses of Colorado Springs, twenty
miles away, the men sitting in their
shirtsleeves, slipping iced drinks to
keep cool. the ladies walking about in
white summer robes. | lower the glass.
The summer scene is gone. Green
trees, animal life, men and women
fade away like creatures in a dream,
and l am the only living thing in a
world of eternal snow and ice and 81
lence."
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
Jack the Ripper.

A popular practice among the aban-
doned Whitechapel women is to de-
mand money of a man, and upon ~
fusal to stand him up as being Jack
the Ripper" A day seldom passes that
some unfortunate fellow is not subject
ed to Imprisonment in this way.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
The First Settlers.

The first settlements in Arizona and
California were founded by Eusebio
Kino, a Jesuit, who was an explorer in
those regions as early as 1850. He
founded the first settlement in Arizona
on the ella river in 1910, and in 1897
founded the first settlement in Califor-
MIA.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
Road to the Summit of Pixies Peak

A carriage road to the top of Pixies
peak has just been completed. 1t be,
gins at Cascade canyon. and extends
sixteen miles until it reaches the very
summit, Il. 141 feet above the sea level.
AT II point on the road one can see
locomotive smoke ninety miles away.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-12-19
Chinese Census Takers.

In China the inhabitants are counted
every year in a curious manner. The
oldest master of every ten houses has
to count the families and has to make
a list, which is sent to the imperial tax
house. Last year the whole number
amounted to 879, 3S3. 800 inhabitants.