Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-11-01
FOREIGN GOSSIP.

AS part of the defense of the low
or Thames, boom is soon to be
stretched across the Medwayat Sheer
ness. Four obsolete gunboats will be
used in the construction, which will
cost many thousand pounds, the shore
anchorages alone requiring $4,000.
"A custom that has existed for sew
eral centuries is still maintained in
some towns on the lower Rhine. On
Easter Monday-auction day-the town
crier or clerk calls all the young peo-
pie together, and to the highest bidder
sells the privilege of dancing with the
chosen girl, and her only, during the
entire year. The fees flow into the
public poor box.
Five battalions of the Tyrol rifle
regiment, the Kaiserjager, lately per-
formed wonderful march from the
Pusterthal to the valley of the lower
Inn. They had to cross the Zillerthal
Alps by passes $500 feet above the sea.
Rain fell in torrents all the day long
and on the mountain top they met a
binding snowstorm. One battalion ac-
complished the feat in thirteen hours,
while another had to pass sixty-three
mountain torrents through water often
waist high.
"A prisoner in India recently, on be-
ing released, revenged himself on the
assistant commissioner who had SEN
fenced him by cutting off one-half of
his mustache while he was sleeping
out of doors on a hot night. 1t was
then found that there was no way of
Furnishing him under the penal code;
for, while cutting the hair of a native
is punishable as dishonoring the per-
son, there is no such provision for En-
glishmen, and the bodily harm done
was too slight to be considered an Of
Tense.
Sir Watkyn William Wynn owns
1877, OPS acres of land in Wales, and has
immortal rights over 10000 acres
more. Of the land he owns, $4,000
acres are occupied by Welsh-speaking
and $4,000 be English-speaking ten
ants. The tenants are GAL in all.
Among them, twenty-four families have
held the same land from 200 to $50
years each; three is one parish an aver
age of 1888 years apiece; one for 400
years, 'while the Foulkes family are
supposed to have occupied Gartheryr
1000 years."
To prevent the wearing out of boot
soles new invention is now being test
ed by the military authorities of Ger
many. A whole regiment has been pro-
vided with boots, the soles of which,
instead of being strengthened with
iron or aluminium nails (the latter be-
ing but of recent triaD, are coated over
with paste made of linseed varnish
and iron filings. This paste can be ap-
piled as often as needed, is claimed to
keep the leather pliable and in good
condition, besides offering more resist
ance than any number of nails.
Some one has taken the trouble to
draw up a list of condemnation to death
in France and their results since 1865,
in order to show the different ways in
which successive rulers have exercised
the prerogative of mercy. Under the
second empire, from 1865 to 1870, there
were 1913 condemnations and eighty
five combinations, or forty-four per
cent; under MacMahon, from 1878 to
1878, 179 COMBINATIONS and liz COM
mutations, or sixty-two per cent; I'M
der NJ. Grevy, from 1878 to 1886, 211
condemnations and 162 combinations,
or seventy-six per cent, and under NJ.
Carnot. 1877 condemnations and sixty
eight communications, or forty-five per
cent. M. Grevy, it will be seen. was
most merciful, and next to him Mar
shall MacMahon, who, although an old
soldier, had great difficulty, it is said,
in turning a deaf ear to the appeals of
the relatives of condemned men.