Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-04-17

aud | want as far as possible to get used
to my future surroundings oh, said
she, and the result was we bought the
dishes.
Parrots
Parrots are very mischievous birds. and
in the West Indies they are as plentiful as
sparrows are here In the towns almost
every house has parrot or two, and they
fly IN the woods in great iocks. If you 90
through town In Hayu or st. Domingo
or Jamaica you will hear yourself so often
greeted with Good day. sir" spoken in
very good French, that you will think the
people, whom you cannot see, are the most
polite IN the world but after visit or two
you will find that it is the parrots from
their perches IN the windows who greet
you so politely. But in the woods
the Wild parrots are not at all polite,
but ON the contrary, are extremely rude:
and If a traveller is unluky enough to get
under an apricot tree they will 90 in focks
to the tree and shake and bite off the fruit
until 1t falls down upon him And this is
serious matter, for apricots in those
countries grow to the size of man head
A contributor signing himself as an "Old
Salt sends Merry Times an account of
parrot he used to possess. She was a
grey parrot with scarlet tail, and he
traded Crimean shirt for her with a ne
gro at place called Annamaboo on the
west coast of Africa The Ashantee war
was I'D operation at the time, and Poll
could only talk what was called "bush
talk, which was, in fact, no talk at all.
but series of unearthly screetches. But
she soon learned to say many things.
Good evening. Goodbye. What do
you want? Goon-goon. Hullo! Poor
old Poll. Scratch Polly's head. Here,
Bob, seek. Here, Watch, seek" Watch
and Bob were the dogs. Get up, there;
glong. Gee. Haw. Woo-ish. Cocka-
too, Pig-pig pig-huoy. Come. Boss
come, Boss. all these she would speak
with great distinctness, in a voice that
was many times mistaken for man s. She
could initiate to perfection the barking of
dog, the mewlng of a cat, the cackling
OF hen, The growing of rooster, the
gruntlng of a hog, the squealing of pig
and the whinnying of horse, and she was
an expert whistler Her owner could
teach her any word, or even a sentence of
four or five words in a few days, by keep
ing her In darkness and often repeating
the lesson to her. She ate everything that
the family did, not excepting salt fat pork,
which some authorities declare will Kill a
parrot.
She had one wing clipped and enjoyed
the freedom of the house in the day time,
but at night she always went to her cage
to sleep.
There was a pet monkey in the same
house with Poll and one day he put his
hand slyly between the wires of her cage
to get something she had dropped on the
floor of it. But Poll was on the watch and
she seized the intruding fingers, and in a
moment Jocko, Poll and the cage were in
pile In the middle of the floor. Jocko
chatterlng and threatening vengeance and
Poll screaming Mulla! what do you want
what do you want.
Why the Eight-Hour Day is Demanded
loo many advocates of the eight-hour
day are in ignorance of the vital principle
which underlles the agitation. They argue
in this fashion: If the hours of labor are
cut down to eight, the idle men who have
focked to this country will be employed,
and we shall be correspondingly happy.
Following that course of reasoning to its
logical conclusion, we should have to cut
down the yours of labor still further in a
few years to accommodate the idle thou
sands imported to this country by steam
and railway companies, and after the mum
Der of the unemployed increased again we
should have to reduce the hours of labor
again and again until the unemployed of
Europe and of Asia had landed, when we
should have nothing to do. On higher
ground does the sincere advocate of the
short hour work-day base his agitation. The
final solution of the work-day problem will
come when the workman becomes sharer
in what he creates. To-day the laborer is
considered by his employer as to be no more
factor in the field of production than the
spade which he handles Che laborer has
no other interest in the work he performs
than to draw pay for the work done at the
end of the week or month. Workman and
employer find their interests to be identi-
cal in but one particular get the most
out of each other. Take an employer who
gives work to one hundred men. The
value of their labor we will rate at 50 a
day. He pays them an average of 81 a
day each. His profits will equal the total
wages paid, and In twenty years he may
retire a wealthy man. How fares it with
his workmen? They remain poor, and re-
tire only to the poor-house or the
cemetery What do the riches of
the one represent? Unpaid labor. To
labor, then, belong the vast sums that rich
men leave after them to erect poor houses
and charitable institutions, which would
not be necessary if the workmen were paid
what they earned.-Master Workman
Powderly in North American Review for
April