Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1899-10-26
EXCHANGE GOSSIP.

F. Marion Crawford will not return
to America for year at least He is
now in Sicily
James H. Reagan of Texas, the last
of Jefferson Davis's confederate cabi-
net, is now in hisS1st year, but recent
visitor to him says that in spite of the
signs of age in his face. his brown eyes
shine lustrously, his voice is steady,
and his step firm. He says he has TAX
en- great care of himsef, goes to bed
early and gets up at sunrise, works
hard and sleeps well. Of the confeder-
acy he says: "The cause we advocated
was dear to our hearts; we worked for
it, fought for it and prayed that it
might be victorious, but l am not sure
now that things are not better as they
are"
In spite of British rule India is still
virtually a soapless country. Through
out the villages of Hindustan, soap IS
indeed regarded as natural curiosity,
and it is rarely, if ever, kept in stock
by the native shopkeeper. In towns,
it is now sold to a certain extent, but
how small this is may be gathered
from the fact that the total yearly con-
sumption of soap in India is about
100000 hundredweight; that is to say,
every $500 persons use on an average
only 112 pounds of soap among them,
or, in other worus, considerably less
than an ounce is the average consump-
ton to person.
When Sir John Steell the noted
English sculptor, had the Duke of
Wellington sitting for a statue, he
wanted to get him to look warlike.
All his efforts were in vain, however,
for Wellington seemed, judging by his
face, never to have heard of Waterloo
or Talavera At last Sir John lost
patience somewhat, and this scene fol-
lowed
CAS- I am going to make this statue
of your grace, can you not tell me what
you were doing before, say the battle of
Salamanca? Were you not galloping
about the fields cheering on your men
to deeds of valor by word and action?"
BAH" said the duke in evident
scorn, of you really want to model me
as | was on the morning of Salamanca,
then do me crawling along a ditch on
my stomach, with telescope in my
hand"
The wooden belfry of famous Fan
euil hall, Boston, has been replaced by
one exactly similar of iron, and it is
hoped that the work of altering and
strengthening the historic building
will be completed by the middle of Oc-
tober. The drillrOom used by the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com
pany is now unobstructed, truSs@S haV-
ing supplanted the supporting columns.
George Averoff, the wealthy Greek,
died recently at Alexandria, Egypt.
was due to his generosity that it was
possible to revive the Olympic games
in Athens in 1896. He rebuilt the
stadium at an expense Of more than
$500, 900.
Labor is very scarce in Mexico owing
to the wave of prosperity which has
swept over the land, and there is talk
of importing negro laborers to that re-
public from Jamaica. The Mexican
Herald says that within the next few
months there will be great activity in
the way of railroad building and con-
struction of port worhs Fully 10000
laborers will be required, and as most
of this work will be done in districts
affected with yellow fever, the problem
becomes more difficult. 1t is almost
impossible to procure men from ,Ae
north to go down into the hot coun-
try"
Senior Margai, who recently surprised
the Spanish cortes by holding up the
United States as an example to be fol-
lowed by Spain, is strangely, enough,
one of the leading authorities on Uni
ted States history. He has written a
history of the United States in two
large volumes, and his library, which
is perhaps the finest in Madrid, con-
sists largely of works on the same sub
iect 1t is his ambition to write the
standard work on this subject.