Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-07-29
NOTES OF THE DAY.

! Twenty years ago England had
IL GIG male and 14,901 female school
teachers. Last year there were $3.50
! female and only 26,270 male teachers.
The Italian minister of public works
is practical man. He has abolished
the complaint book" which used to
be a feature of Italian railway sta
lions. Instead complaints must be
written on stamped sheets, which may
! be purchased at the station and
dropped in a box provided for that pur-
pose. Thus the state will profit by
these complaints, bu,, as they cost
money, people will be less ready to
make them.
Germany has during the last two de-
cades spent close upon $100, 900 900 in
dredging and improving the Rhine,
the Elbe and the Vistula. The fact
has lately been brought home to the
French legislature, which is expected
to take early action with regard to the
restoration of the banks of the Loire
and it's conversion once more into a
navigable stream and into an artery OF
commerce.
The citizens of Dion, France, recent
ly voted a sum of money for putting a
railing around a tree standing within
the city limits The tree bears label
which informs the sightseer that it is
the Oldest poplar in France. The
town council has a record tracing the
history of the tree since the year 722
A. D. 1t is 122 feet in height and
forty-five feet in circumference at the
base.
Commencement week at Colorado
&C llege, Colorado Sprir gs, was made
particularly notable to the students
and alumni by the laying of the cor
nerstone of Ticknor hail. for the use
of the girl students, the expense Of
building to be betrayed by "a gift Of
$4,000 from one who eXIcts that his
COR herr name shall not be made
! known.
There is a surprising irruptiOn Of
women into the political field in Ken
lucky this year, there being not less
than forty who are candidates, most of
them regularly nominated, for elective
Offices, mainly educational. There are
already ten female superintendent of
schools in the state, and their success
has been so marked generally that they
have excited the emulation of their
sisters. In many cases the nomination
is equivalent to an election. They
| have been named by many parties
national democratic, republican, silver
| pcpulist, indepe 1dent and what-not.
Barney Cole, a sexagenarian OF West
| Liberty, w. Va, went to lot Of trou-
bile to commit suicide, only to find that
! he had over-done the business. He
took an anger and a can of powder to
! the woods, bored 9 hole in an old log,
filled it with powder, plugged it lighted
fuse and lay down beside it. The
charge exploded and cut up his face,
but didn't hurt him beyond recovery.
A Jail bird who recently escaped
lection sent back to the city marshal
the underground steel collar from one
Of his legs, broken in pieces, evidently
with a hammer The pieces of the col
lar were neatly wrapped up and packed
IN a box, evidently made by the pris-
oner He had escaped from the same
institution a number Of times before.
An East Tauton, Mass, young man
who thought he was old enough to
have Il girl called On a young woman
& few nights since. The girls mother
quietly left the room, and in a few
minutes returned with a big piece OF
bread and molasses, which she handed
to the caller, telling him to eat it and
run home, as his mother might be IN
easy if he should stay out late.
A kentucky photographer who de-
sired to secure a picture Of a tres
which has figured as a gallows in two
Or three lynchings, hired a negro t.
. allow himself to be suspended from the
"hargman's'' limb by means of a rope
around his body just below the arms
: while a photograph was taken of the
. tree with him dangling from the limb
f The negro was SO proud of himself il
: that attitude that he begged one Of thu
: Dictrres and had it framed for his par
= lor.
1t may be interesting to know tina
2 the felt sombrero is regarded as NOR
7 CT d protection against heat than tn
= straw hat in the hottest countries. TIL
= cowboy Of the western plains, who i
|, without the shade Of trees, always use
e the former. 1t keeps out the hot all
= which the latter lets in. The principI
Y is exactly that recognized by the Arab
d OF the desert and the Hindoos of India
Y who pile up fold after fold Of line
e turban over their heads and JGtwee
T their skulls AID the tropical sun.