The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-07-06

| III Tic corps or SOcleGleS no one Is al
mitted to full membership until he ha
fought one or two duels Duels hav,
to be provided for aspirants Tn
mensur is a festival or rather tourna
ment, where there is no personal bit
terness between the combatants ant
where there has been no persona
provocation. The leaders of the diff
ferent societies exchange challenges
and supply the combatants- Thes,
tournaments generally take place a
some little distance from the town, il
a glade in the back yard of an inn Oh
in large hall hired for the purpose, il
full view of the whole world. The DO
lice are discreet enough not to come
around while the fete is in progress.
Sometimes there are twenty or thirty
combatants- Emperor William has APP.
proved these customs, considering that
they were conducive to discipline and
would produce very obedient soldiers -
N. Y. Herald.
The course of promotion in the
navy pay corps is illustrated by the
cases of the officers just advanced to
low them in the list of twenty past as
sistant paymasters. The officers Just
promoted have been about sixteen
years in the service, of which four
were passed in the lowest of the paw
corps grades and the remainder in the
next highest. The officer now first on
the list of past assistant paymasters
has been fifteen years and half in the
service, of which he passed three and a
half in the lowest grade. When pro-
motion comes, which must be soon, he
will have been more than twelve years
past assistant paymaster.
The Scandinavian and Finnish sport
of skeeing has struck Maine this win
ter, and is atfording exciting and novel
amusement to the venturesome young
men. 1t was imported few weeks ago
into Philipsburg by gentleman just
returned from Finland, and has spread
rapidly. The snowshoe known as the
skee is narrow strip of wood five to
ten feet long, an inch thick and slightly
wider than the foot of the wearer
Skeeing, practised as sport, consists
in sliding down long, steep declivities
on these runners, and the sleeper the
hill the better. A popular variety of
skeeing is to slide at express speed
down a declivity that ends in a preci-
pice, not too high, and at the edge to
make a tremendous flying leap into
space. The distance thus covered in
such matches in Finland is enormous.
No subordinate in the navy ever
knows anything, and sometimes even
the captain of a ship is kept in ignor-
ance of her destination. Sailing under
sealed orders. which has such a smack
ofancient and perilous times, is custom
by no means abandoned in the United
States navy. 1t is only few years
since a United States man-of-war left
New York, crossed the Atlantic, and |
passed through the Mediterranean
before those on board learned that it |
was her duty to visit the Johannes |
island, in the Indian ocean, off the |
coast of Africa, and there seize an
American merchant vessel, carried off |
by mutinous crew, and supposed to
be engaged in the slave trade. 1t was
on this strange quest that the ships
company discovered former naval |
officer of the United States, living like
an eastern potentate, and exercising
the power of life and death over a
whole island of his own.