Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-10-29

The Women'S Progressive ASSocla-
ton of New South Wales has won
what 1t considers a great victory. Three
hundred thousand dollars had been
voted to increase the salaries Of the
teachers Of the public schools. The
men teachers, If reports are true, tried
to gobble it all up, but the association,
whose members are all voters, thought
the women teachers were entitled to
share They fought the point and
won.
Peat beds In Ireland may yet be-
come a valuable asset in the country's
industrial development other than for
fuel, as it is now claimed upon the au-
thority Of an Austrian experimenter
the fibres of the remains Of the reeds
and grasses Of which peat Is composed
can be utilized not only for paper max
ing and carpets, but for weaving the
finest fabrics as well. The claim is put
forth that the fiber is elastic and dur
able and. being a nonconductor of heat,
the cloth manufactured from it is as
tough as linen and as warm as wooden.
! Sir William Ramsay's declaration as
to the probable near achievement of
! the transmutation of metals is a vivid
| instance of the way modern science is
rs-establishing what only a short time
ago was dismissed as superstition. In
book only fifty years old a writer
| describes as folly the medical practice
Of the middle ages of putting smallpox
patients In a red room, draped with
red hangings, curtains and red bed
| clothes. Yet the value of red light in
preventing the sufferers being marked
bv smallpox was scientifically discover
ed anew a few years ago by Finsen,
of the violet light rays fame.
One of the most successful hoaXes of
| history was the mechanical chess play
err with which Baron Kempelen of
Hungary, astonished Europe about the
wear 1863. This was apparently fig
ure controlled by mechanical devices,
and which was able, notwithstanding
the fact that apparently no intelligence
was concerned in it's movements and
decisions, generally to beat its human
| ANTAGONISTS. The cabinet connected
with the automaton appeared entirely
too small to contain a hidden operator.
And vet it did conceal a man who was
an EXPERT chess player. He was a
Polish patriot who had lost both of
his legs. This man, Woropsky by
name, was an expert player. With
| him in the cabinet the rest was easy.
For 1.4OO years the Faust legend
the sale of q human soul to devil
has existed The first recorded hint of
its vitality Is given in the sixth cen
turv story of '@rheophilus." That story
suited the early Christians in their eff
forts to stamp out the necromancing
devices of evilly disposed persons prone
TO seek power by unholy means. The
association of the name of Faust, how
ever. with the legend is not more than
400 years old The likeileSt prototype
Of the modern Faust is the man Of the
same name who in Cracow boldly pro-
claimed himself a professor of magic.
In the sixteenth century stories Helen
Of Troy was bestowed by Mephistophe
les upon Faust and not until the nts-
die of the eighteenth century does there
appear a shadowy Margaret, In the
form Of a beautiful but poor girl"
who afterward develops into the Mar
garet Of Goethe.
What a writer calls 1.-The most ORR
ginal telegraph line in the world" once
extended between the city of La Paz,
the capital OF Bolivia and the town of
| Oruro. In this part of Bolivia there
are no growing trees and wood Is 50
difficult to procure that even the ordi-
nary household furniture of the natives
is invariably made, not of wood, but of
dried mud, or adobe, as it is called.
When the war broke out in 1880 be-
tween Chile and Bolivia this material
was used to construct pillars to take
the place of ordinary posts for sup
porting telegraph wire, with the addi-
ton of old bottles as insulatorS These
pillars were subsequently built on
stone foundations and measured about
five feet square at the base, with
height of about fifteen feet. They were
placed at intervals Of about 361N feet
and thus held the wire at a height
sufficient to clear the only animals OF
the country, the lama and donkey. The
total length Of the line was 156 miles
and it rendered useful service, for some
ten years before being replaced by a
wooden telegraph pole line.
The dollar you throw away when