Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-11

| him again. if he hasn't moved to Texas.
Tacoma. or southern California, OF Maine,
or North Dakota, you feel that he must
| have had some exceptionally good rea-
sons for staying at home Men used to
wac their heads, and croak about the in
ability ofrollinc stones to gather moss.
We have changed all that Moss is at
| discount and there is a premium upon
rolling
When Daudet in his youth Was engaged
| to become the Secretary of the Duke de
Moiry. he was surprised at being received
at his FIST interview with his employer
with marked degree of GOODNESS and an
abrupt intimation that he might retire.
| The Duke afterward confessed laughingly
that on beholding the soft-eyed, blooming
lOng-haired youth, he fancied that some
one was playing trick upon him and
substituteda pretty girl to represent his
new Secretary. But the passage of years
| as we'll as DaUdet's intense suffering from
rheumatism have deprived him of the
| delicate bloom and feminine charm of his
early years.
Misgovernment of Cities.
From Topic of the Time with the
above title in The Century for September,
we quote as follows: 1T cannot be
denied that our unrestricted. suffrage
| makes the problem more difficult here than
it is abroad; but the difficulty is not in
| surmountab'e, and it is not, as it is often
claimed to be, the chief cause of our
troubles. We are In the habit of charging
all our worst evils to be combined ignor-
ant corrupt vote, but there is not a city in
the land in which that vote is not many
thousands less than the combined intelll-
gent and honest vote The trouble is
that the latter vote, misled by party names
and party issues which have no bearing
upon questions of municipal rule, is about
evenly divided In most municipal cleo
| tions, AMI is thus deprived of nearly al its
influence. When the happy day shall
come that the respectable voters of our
cities join hands and say that henceforth
they will know no politics in the admins
t1atlon of city affairs, and will only aid
| candidate whether or no he is. fit and
honest, then there will no longer be any
| danger to apprehend from the combined
ignorant and vicious vote. 1t will make
very little difference what kind of a sys-
TEN we have upon which to govern the
| city when this spirit shall have entered
into the election of its officials, but until
| we can secure that spirit in the election it
will be useless to hope fer reform under
the most perfect system which the hui
man mind can devise, for an ideal system
| administered by ignorant and corrupt men
cannot produce intelligent and honest
government without performing a mir
| acle.'
Strange Reptiles.
| From Through the Back Ages by Teresa c
CrOftOn in st. Nicholas
| An extraordinary creature of this time
was the ''fsh-lizard" It had head like
a lizard, jaws and teeth like crocodile,
the backbone of a fish. the paddles of a
whale, and the trunk and tail of quad
ruped. The first skeleton of this animal
was discovered in England by country
girl. She used to make living by selling
fossils, which were very abundant in her
native place. One day she discovered some
bones projecting from cliff. Clearing
away the rubbish, she found that they be-
longed to the skeleton of some animal en-
bedded in the rock She hired some
workmen to dig out the entire rock and
the monster proved to be thirty feet long.
What a sensation it created! That
region, Lyme Regis, was found to be a
ver1table graveyard of these wonderful
animals. The jaws of some of them were
eight feet long and contained one hundred
and sixty teeth. Whenever tooth was
| lost in a conflict, duplicate tooth In the
jaw was ready to take its place. Their
eyes were larger than a mans head, and
| possessed of very powerful and far seeing
vision, so that no matter how dark the sea
nor how far distant the prey there could
be no escaping those eyes! Its stomach
was like great pouch, and 1t swallowed
| it's food without chewing. 1t was so
greedy monster that it ate even small
animals of its own kind!
Nobody can say for certain whether its
skin was covered with scales or not. Still,
as no remains of scales have been found,
it was probably soft and smooth 1t had
to come up to the surface to BREATHE like
a whale and perhaps it had ''blowers" to
blow out water. What a commotion it
must have made!
Another animal of this family had the
head of a serpent upon the neck of a gil
gantic swan. 1t was fitted for quicker
motion than the fsh-lizard. 1t probably
swan on the surface like swan, and
! thrust its long neck down in search of
prey.
The most wonderful Of all, however
was the dragon OF which told you. 1t
is called by hard Greek name which we
will translate into "wing-fnger. There
were two points in which it resembled a
bat: its eyes were so formed that it could
see in the dark; and it had enormous
wings joined to its claws like those of p
bat. 1t was probably a water animal,
whose wings were used to take flying leaps
| through the air as flying fish do, but
nlot