Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1901-04-25
FOREIGN CHIT-CHAT
WHAT A PLOWMAN'S FURROW
DISCLOSED AT cLosEBURN.
KAISER WILLIAM AS A BOY
American Enterprise Wanted-Where
the Wicked Are at Rest-Francis
Joseph and Frau Schratt-Brde
Of But Half an Hour-Other Gossip
From Abroad.

Samuel McMichan, a piowman O
Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
rested his horses at the end of the
field he was working a few weeks age
and cast his eye back along the line
he had followed to see that it was
straight. It was not. His critical eye
noticed an uneyen1ess in the ground
and Samuel McMichan stepped back
over the clods of that highlying field
| to ascertain the cause. He found that
his DlOw had broken open an earthen.
ware pct, and before him lay scat.
tered hundreds of pieces of what in
his homely Iowland way he called
tin With a capfui Of tin" Nc
Michan went off and consulted the
farmer, and most Of the tin" turned
out to be silver pennies of the reign
Of Edward /, who annexed Scotland,
and Edward H.. who lost it. There
were over 1900 Of them, all in good
preservation, each measuring three
quarters Of an inch across. They
weighed five pounds in bulk.
The oldest of the coins are those of
King Alexander Of Scotland, who ruled
from 1919 to 1885. There are also a
few bearing the mint mark of Water
ford, in Ireland. The latest are those
of Edward II, whom the Scots cheer
fully thrashed at Bannockburn in 1914.
In 1913 Edward Bruce drove the Eng
lish oppressor out of Nithsdale, and it
is suggested that some Englishman,
| being in a hurry to reach the border,
put his 1000 silver pennies in a pot
sherd and hid it in the ground.
Americans Wanted
while American syndicates are
| talking of giving us electric railways
under our streets and steamboats, on
| the Thames, says the Westminster
| Gazette, they might turn their atten-
ton to the cross channel service. If
New York were in the place of Lon
don we can imagine a magnificent
| fleet of passenger boats in the chan
mel The train at Dover or Folke-
stone would be run straight on board
the steamer, as is done on Lake On
tario, and Off again on the other side
so that half the trouble and discom-
fort of the journey would be avoided
| But then the trains would be like draw
| ing rooms on wheels, with bedrooms
attached, not merely stuffed boxes;
| the boats would be like Atlantic liners
and if the harbors could not take
! hot
would have to be made big enough to
| do so. We are not overanxious to
quicken the pace of living to the
| American fever heat. London, with
it's antiquated omnibuses and sui
phurous underground and gently NOV
ing trains, may have charms for some;
| but at the same time if London could
| be handed over to the Americans for
a short space, while we hibernated, We
should find out how very much behind
the times we had been on waking up"
Upon the Just and Unjust.
The late Bishop Of London was
quick at impromptus. Here is one he
wrote on a card in the occasion of the
rainy church congress of London,
| 1899:
The rain it raineth ev'ry day
Upon the just and unjust Teller,
! But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust takes the just's UNI
brella,
When DR.. Creighton was in Lou
don it was his habit to lunch at the
Athenaeum Club, around the corner
from his own home, in st. James
Square. "a club is a place." he once
remarked, where women cease from
, troubling and the wicked are at rest"
| While the bishops practice Of wear
| ing his inter drew censure he retOrt-
ed: my predecessors have worn the
inter on their carriages, their tea
spoons and their horses blinkers. I
choose to wear mine on my head"
Ready Repartee.
The Journal des Debats relates the
| following characteristic story of EN-
peror William H. when a little boy of
4 years: ct was on March 10, 1863.
King Edward VII. then prince of
! Wales, was kneeling before the altar
of ST. Georges chapel at Windsor with
his blushing bride, Princess Alexandra
of Denmark, now the queen consort
of England. During the wedding cere-
mony, which was most impressive
and attended by magnificent as
semblage of the British court and
nobility and foreign princes and dig.
nitaries, a restless little boy was
noticed in the front row behind the
bridal couple Two highland youths
who held him by his hands, seemed
to have great difficulty in restraining
him Suddenly the little fellow slip
ped from the grasp of one of his
guards, who promptly caught him by
the ear to prevent further escapades
This so angered the youngster that
he stopped and deliberately bit the
Highlander's bare calf. The read!
repartee created no little astonish
ment and amusement among the at
tendant royalty and peerage. Tha-
little boy is today the German En-
peror William II. The two highland
ers who watched him at the time were
the duke of Connaught and the Duke
of Albany, his uncles."
Emperor and Actress.
The Paris Steele revives the stor.
Of the alleged impending marriage o
t Emperor Francis Joseph II Austri;
I and Frau Schratt, formerly Of tn
) Imperial Burg theater, which was re
t Gently denounced as sensational in
vention in Vienna. The Steele say