Troy weekly news. (Troy, Idaho) 1897-1933, 1905-07-14
QUEER SToRlt5

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South Africa Is to enter the paper
making world, it having been found
that kind of grass which grows there
makes an excellent grade of paper. Brit
lsh manufacturers are already putting
up mills there.
The South American negroes have a
queer way Of decorating the graves Of
their dead friends. 1t Is the custom
down there to make a border around
the grave of the medicine bottles used
during the dead ones last illness.
A blind man named Green made a
curious defense at Birmingham, Eng
land, to a charge Of smashing plate
glass window worth ELS. He had been
blind, he said, for seven years. On
the night in question, he cried for as
sistance to cross the road, but no one
came. Then he heard some one at a
distance and struck at what used,
when he could see, to be boards sur
rounding waste ground. He was aston
ished when he heard the sound Of
broken glass. The jury acquitted him
and he was discharged
Near Pontefract, France, lives a
banker who has museum of old doors.
They are from old houses, castles or
abbeys that have some historic inter-
est Quite lately he bid $1,000 in Paris
for the door through which during the
French revolution, Marie Antoinette,
Charlotte Corday, Danton and Robe
sphere passed to the guillotine. One
of his doors is said to have shut off
Charles II. from his Roundhead pur-
suers, and it bears marks of batter
ing ram. A collection Of ancient wealth
ercocks is also one of this mans pos
sessions
A feature Of low street life in Toxic
Is the "kuisha," or moxa doctor, who
applies small pads, made Of certain
dried herbs, to the skin, then setting
them alight, the ensuing blisters being
supposed to be most effective as cure
for various ailments. Among the doc
tors remedies, too are rhinoceros pills,
warranted a sure cure for tightness of
the chest, gnashing of the teeth and
depression of spirits, and "furidashi,
popular remedy for coughs and colds,
which is said to expel the devils and
promote circulation; while musk pills
are prescribed as an infallible cure fol
every Ill, from a red nose to seasick.
ness.
An engineer named Knorr, a Ger
man who has become a naturalized
Russian, built four of the great bridges
on the Trans-Siberian railway, includ
ing the big Yenisel and Obi bridges
which cost, respectively, $2,350,0OO an(
S2,0O0,0OO. They were great engineer
ing feats, and brought him information
al fame in his profession. But he wal
pursued by a curious fatality. A writ
err in "T. A. T." says: He had dv'
daughters, who were famous in Russii
for their beauty, and whom he lovet
dearly. Just after his first bridge wa
completed one Of them died; and a
each of his three succeeding bridge
was built, another died. He would no
build fifth bridge.
Discipline is severe in the German
army, and the treatment of private
Is sometimes unjustifiable. At Dessa
a sergeant who had been drinking t
excess insulted two young women VIII
were escorted by a couple Of men 1
the ranks. The privates protested
the minor officer, who drew his swor
and attacked them in his drunkenness
wounding one Of the girls. In the a.
fray which followed the sergeant wa
disarmed and felled to the floor. A
three were put on trial. The sergear
was sentenced to prison for hv
months, while the unfortunate private
were condemned to five years benin
the bar at hard labor, were dismisse
rom the service and were deprive
Of their civil rights. Service as a pr
vate in an army so regulated cannot
cause Of pride in time of peace.