Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1889-11-07

p1nn1ng the paper III molu, anu tneh
pouring in the iron, The writing thus
transferred to the plates, when the iron is
cooled, is wonderfully clear and distinct,
and is so deeply imprinted as to defy any
attempt at erasure
THE Salt Lake Tribune says the Scandi-
nayians are rapidly leaving the Mormon
church. The Scandinavian Methodists
and Lutherans are the cause of it. For
two years or so they have worked quietly,
but most efectually, among the Scandl-
navian saints, and have cut swath after
swath in the ranks of the church. At the
rae they have been holding revivals and
gathering In the harvest from the Nor
mon fields, there will only be a corporal s
guard of Scandinavians left in Salt Lake
Israel by another year. They are being
converted faster to Christianity than the
elders can send over fresh supplies, and
when once converted from Mormonism
make excellent citizens.
EVEN in staid Massachusetts, it is found
that the libel law is unjustly oppressive and
out of harmony with the spirit of the age.
An amendment, drawn in the interest of
the Suburban Press Association and which
the Legislature will be asked to pass at its
next session, provides: mo action or pros
ecution shall be maintained for the publ
cation of any matter of Legitimate interest
to the public, if such publication is made
without malice and if the author or pub
Usher thereof causes effectual retraction or
correction to be made Of anything untrue
or mistaken in such publication as soon as
practicable after being requested so to do
by any person aggrieved by the original
publication.
THE loss to California by forest fires this
year is estimated at S25, 900, in the value
of the timber destroyed, while the defor-
esting of the mountains works great harm
to the agricultural interests. The response
bility for these terrible confagrations is
placed upon the sheep-herders. The stats 5
official foresters and the mountaineers who
live in the high forests affirm it. The
herders drive their sheep upon land that
does not belong to them. They eat feed
that is not paid for, and requite the service
by burning down the forests through which
they pass and in which they pasture their
stock. The press of the state is naturally
making a loud demand that this wanton
destruction of property shall be stopped.
IT is the unexpected that always happens
Just as the people of America mad resigned
themselves to the conviction that the end
of the world would find a Chicago court
reaching out its tenacles for completion of
the jury in the Cronin case, the announce
ment comes the jury is complete. Ifthe jury
is composed of intelligent men who will
weigh the testimony carefully and decide
with due sense of importance of the case,
Chicago is to be congratulated. 1t is to
be hoped the jury is so composed, though
the methods it has been necessary, under
law to follow in obtaining it leaves very
little foundation for such hope. But in
spite of defective jury laws, Chicago came
out all right the anarchy cases; and she may
do so In the Cronin case, which involves
issues and consequences quite as ser
ious as any that were involved in the pros
ecution of the anarchists.
THE race troubles of the Chickasaws,
watch in past years have been mainly con-
fined to the status of the freedmen, have
now taken a new and more important
form. The recent decision of the Chica-
saw Supreme Court deprives of citizenship
all white men who have married Indian
women of the tribe. These men have
hitherto not only enjoyed the franchise,
but have had seats In the Legislature, and
have filed other offices like full-blood
Chicasaws. The controversy has a politi-
cal bearing in consequence of the disputed
election of year ago, which resulted In a
very close vote and threatened to lead to
riots or civil war That the Chickasaw
Supreme Court has a right to determine
the qualifications for citizenship is indi-
Gated by certain decisions of the Depart
ment of the Interior In reference to other
civilized tribes, and also by some adjudi-
Gated in the Supreme Court of the United
States But the white men who suffer
from the present decision declare that
there are provisions in existing treaties
between the Government and the ChicaSaw
Nation which it would nulify; and apart
from the legal points involved it is rather
against the spirit of the age to take away
from a whole class citizenship once enjoy
ed, whether among Indians or white men
Unless the Chicasaw Legislature shuold it
self grant relief Congress will be appealed
to, and the question will probably be united
with that of selling surplus Chicasaw lands
and Severalty allotmentS. The white hus
bands have too large interests in the farm
ing and cattle business of the Chicasag
Nation to submit to the present decision
without hard struggle.
The grant of a concession by the Mexi-
can Congress to a proposed colony of ne
groes may prove of Importance and value
to each of the two Republics There are
great tracts of land in many of the Mexi-
can States that are we'll fitted for colonial
ton but that do not attract white settlers.
IF negroes from the United States could be
todnoad tn settle there they would ba