davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
EMAIL BOXES FOR MONEY.
Post Office Officials to Issue Orde

Post Office Officials to Issue Order
in Interest of Rural Carriers.
Rural letter carriers are TO receive re-
lief in the very near future. The relief
will come in the shape of an order requir-
ing patrons 10 furnish protection for
money placed in the mail boxes. Fourth
Assistant Postmaster General DeGraw
AMI Superintendent Spilman of the rural
delivery service have set themselves TO the
task of relieving the suffering of carriers
in this regard. While not yet officially
announced. the outcome of their consid-
Grafton of this phase of the rural service,
will be the placing of small wooden boxes
inside the rural mail boxes. Patrons Nho
have not stamps will be required to put
their pennies or other coins in this little
inside box. The carrier will pick up the
box and turn out its contents, the act en-
failing no hardship whatever. If the pat
rons do not put their coins in the wooden
boxes the carriers will not be required to
pick them up during cold weather. 1t
will be no hardship on the patrons to
place coins in the little wooden box, which
looks like a happy solution of vexing
problem. The probability is that the box
will work so satisfactorily that it will be
adopted rnanently-summer as well as
winter-since it will simplify matters
materially
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
NEW YORK.

Holiday buying has had the center of
the stage, and retail business has felt very
perceptibly the influence of the spirit of
the season. While much more marked
than some time ago, however, the volume
of retail buying as whole is not up to
expectations, and is certainly well below
year ago at this date. Sentiment as to
the outlook for trade next year is very
mixed.
Conditions in financial circles are still
slowly but quite surely approaching nor
NAL. From the country at large there
is reported a continued easing up of the
situation as regards cash payments, and
several cities are practically on a cash
basis.
A very favorable feature III the present
period of repression is the tendency to-
ward enlargement of our export trade.
This is most notable in the grain trade.
Business failures for the week ending
Dec. 10 number 29S, against 2S4 last
week, 227 in the like week of 1906, 30
in 1905, 249 in 1904 and 243 in 1903.
Canadian failures for the week number
40, as against 30 last week and 25 IN
this week a year ago.-Bradstreet's Com
mercial Report.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02


eridge reduced the time limit of sena-
torial apprenticeship by speaking after
three months occupation of Senate
seat. Davis purpose to establish a
new record had been widely advertised
and there was a large crowd to hear
him.
In 1898 Davis was Attorney General
of Arkansas and, while in this position.
secured the Democratic nomination for
Governor. Although bitterly opposed
by practically every newspaper in the
State he was elected by one of the
largest majorities ever given in Ar
kansas. Three times he was elected
Governor. He is of a restless, nervous
temperament, devoted to his family, an
enthusiastic lover of books and a keen
student of men. He is of fine appear
ance. being over six feet tall. His
daughter is his constant companion and
stenographer. Senator Davis is a
nephew of the illustrious Southerner
whose name he bears.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
"a NE - Side
( 9l6egFy Is
Inc News ~
N(%@N~<>~

Money is suffering from bad circulation.
Pennsylvania miser who spent only 3
cents last year is dead. -Ie just couldn't
bear the increase in living expenses.
An Aurora (Ill.) physician has discov-
cred that peanuts are beauty diet. This
ought to be a circus for some people.
An Eastern banker says, 1--WE want
more common sense. We want also more
dollars, which are not so common now.
If prices of bread and meat keep on
coming down, pretty soon the average
man can afford to eat three meals day.
Chief Sprybuck, the Indian who drank
quart of blue paint, is carrying the
decorative interior" fad to an extreme.
With 100000 divorce suits in ten
years, the United States is plainly in need
of a national ay-Married Association"
After while it may dawn ON the army
recruiters that the average soldier doesn't
look upon S13 month as any great graft.
Secretary Cortelyou is trying to inn
p1 css us with the fact that stockings were
made to be worn and not to hoard money
in.
James J. Hill says the railroads need
billions of dollars. From present pros
poets. it will be some time before they
get 'em.
An Italian count one American heiress
married turned out to be an ex-convict.
Some of the other counts haven't yet been
convicted.
Those people who will fail to notice the
absence of "In God We Trust from the
new ten-dollar gold pieces will be largely
in the majority.
Astronomers are worrying over the fact
that the rings of Saturn are disappearing.
Maybe the hard times have compelled her
to pawn 'em.
Fines aggregating $4,000 have been in
ficted upon party of hazers in Chi
ca go school. There won't be any more
hszing in that school
Every time the price of meat goes up
cent it costs the American consumer
S16S, 100000. That's enough to drive
man to breakfast food.
If Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish can engineer
an effective crusade against American
girls marrying foreigners, she will save
this country lots of money and the girls
lots of trouble.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
TEL EGRAPHIC BREVITIES

Thomas w. Lawson has been elected
president Of the Bay State Gas Company
Of Delaware.
The chief of staff of the army has rec
commended the construction of officers
quarters at the army war college IN
Washington at an expense of 100000.
It is reported that Heinrich Conreid of
the Metropolitan opera house III New
York has had trouble with the directors
of the company and will retire at the end
of the present season.
Fire in stable in East Ninth street,
New York City, spread to an adjoining
bnilding. causing the death of one man
and iniurv to another man and a woman
ycho were overcome by smoke. Nine
horses in the stable are supposed to have
been burned.
DIR. William F. Boos of Boston issued
q statement that he found in the body
of William Farnsworth Baker, the Boston
Young man who died under suspicious cir
cumstances in Bagota. n. j., more than
enough arsenic to kill several strong,
healthy men. 1t was also stated that the
embalming fluid used in preparing the
body for burial contained no arsenic.
The organization of a Hughes club,
with Senator Durkett as the aspirant for
the vice presidency, was begun in Lin
coin. Neb. The delegation has been prac-
tically pledged to Taft, but the Hughes
and La Toilette men will make i contest.
Fire completely destroyed the plant OF
the Pfau Manufacturing Company at 52o-
53S Reading road, Cincinnati. The COM
pany manufactured plumbers supplies.
The fire caused panic in large tene-
ment building which adjoined the factory
Policemen, headed by Night Chief Corbin,
carried several babies from the building,
passing through dense smoke In perform
ing the rescue work. The loss will be
$4,000. with IS per cent insurance.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
Could Cut Fares in Two.

According to newspaper declarations,
the public service commission for New
York City WILL in its coming report to
the Legislature, make some rather start
ling declarations and suggestions in re-
gard to the railroad companies of the city.
l. is limited, for instance, that the COM
mission will declare that with proper cap
italization, the railroads could carry pas
sengers at less than half the fares row
charged, and still make large profits. In
totaling up the business for the year end
ing June 80, it was found that the re-
ceipts of all the New York City COM
panies amounted to $66,093,776. The to-
tai operating expense for the year was
S37,013,0G2, leaving a balance of $685.
0S0,714.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
GHOOzS
CsO 9tLEaEs
~@%~-%@%OO~

Replying to this declaration, Mrs. John
S. Crosby, president of the Women's Dem
ocratic Club of New York, points out that
there is little in the training OF children
that the man, as well as the woman, ought
not to learn, and that if womankind were
restricted to the rearing and teaching of
children she would be deprived of many of
| the best opportunities for learning how to
do that very work.
As an exercise in the duties of citizen
ship the political class of Columbia uni
versity held a mock Republican national
convention. The only outsider who par
ticipated was Timothy L. Woodruff, ex-
Lieutenant Governor of New York State.
The favorite candidates in the order Of
popularity were Hughes, La Toilette,
Root, Cannon, Roosevelt, Cortelyou and
! Fairbanks On the final ballot Hughes
| received 525 votea and La Toilette 352.
President Joseph Swain of Swarthmore
announced that he and the trustees had
come to the conclusion, after asking the
opinion of twenty-five other colleges. that
they should not accept the millions left
them by Miss Anna T. Jeans, with the
condition that all intercollegiate athletic
| contests be abandoned. President Swain
said, however, that if the estate were
very large he would favor trying the ex-
pertinent. with the privilege of returning
the money if il were found that the gift
was of less value than the lack of free
dom.
Prof FrankliD H. Giddings of Column
| bia university, after a recent address be-
| fore the Peoples Institute at Cooper
| Union, New York City, on the subject of
The Jews in America" was asked for
an expression of his opinion as to the re-
cent agitation over the Christmas cere-
monies IN the public schools. He replied
that he could not see how any one could
subscribe to the doctrine that it was right
| to tax one group of persons for a general
purpose and compel them under the law
to submit to things that are contrary to
their conscience. In reply to the question
how the Jew would treat the Christian if
| their positions were reversed, he said that,
Judging from history and present condi-
lions. he did not think the Jew could
treat the Christian worse than the Chris
tan treats the Jew, and he was inclined
to think they would treat them better.
| The professor gave it as his opinion that
the Jews in America would. in time, be
come so Americanized as to lose their
racial identity.
The faculty of the Cornell university
| medical college at New York announced
that hereafter the usual high school
course generally accepted as sufficient
| preparation for the study of medicine
would not enable students to enter there.
Candidates for admission would have to
be graduates of approved colleges or scien-
tific schools, seniors in good standing at
Cornell or any other ike university which
would permit the substitution of the first
year of the medical course for the senior
year Also others not possessing degree
may be admitted by passing a special ex-
animation.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
GRAIN CROPS SHORT,
BUT WORTH FAR MORE
Government Final Estimate Shows
Great Decline i'm Cereal
Production.
PRICES MAKE FARMERS HAPPY.
They VIII Get Half a Billion OF
Dollars More This Year
than Last.

The government report shows q
shortage of 7S5,9S7, 900 bushels in total
crops as compared with the crons of
1916, Which were the largest ever raised
III TINS country, and a shortage of ST.,
zo'Uoo bushels as compared with the
yields of 1905, which were also very
large.
Inc chief shortage is in the corn
crop, with 335,0OO,O0O bushels. oats
with 211,OOO,O0O bushels and wheat
with 1O1,O0O,0O0 bushels.
1here is something of an offset TO the
Dig losses in the feeding grains in the
increase of 6,431 900 tons of hay as
compared to that of 1906. and of
3,045,3SS tons as compared TO tba cron
of 1905.
prominent features of the final revis-
ION of its crop estimates for the wear
by the Department of Agriculture were
the increases made in the reports of
area seeded to spring wheat. corn and
oats. In each of these particulars as
well as in the estimated weight of
spring wheat and oats the official re-
ports ran more or less counter to the
general impressions of spectators. In
a rev instances, such as the weight of
oats, the figures given were at variance
with all the experiences of the trade
for the year to date.
Figures of the Report.
The report gave final estimates of
acreage, production and value of farm
crops, showing winter wheat acreage
to be %, 10000, production 400 442 900
bushels and value per bushel $50 cents.
Spring wheat acreage was 17.079,000.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
G9AXxMERCLAL
J.. NJ HIN
3Ss& s5Ei AND shs na
H~S7slNE s&ss
zENKNCKL
CHICAGO.

An improving tone appears in business,
circles, although actual recovery in ac--
tlvlty is not looked for before a return
TO normal banking conditions is effected.
Seasonable weather brought a heavier
movement IN the leading retail lines, and
the absorption of necessaries and Christ
mas goods advanced to gratifying proper
tons, dealings generally rejecting a Set
ter disposition among buyers.
Wholesale branches mainly enter upon
the usual quiet attending the close of the.
year, but there was a fair aggregate of
demands for immediate delivery and sat
lsiactory mail orders were received fer
spring merchandise. Mercantile collec-
lions show more promptness at western
points, although extensions are not infre-
quently asked particularly where the
shortage of currency yet remains severe
Defaults in this district again include
none of special significance and the num-
Der this month thus far is less than a
year ago. Requests for accommodation
In January Increases and current settle
ments at the banks involve some renew
ais, but the financial exhibit required of
borrowers discloses little disturbing weak
HeSS Among manufacturers ana ulSlIiD-
uters, and this creates a more confident
feeling as a basis for future financing.
Money remains quoted at per cent
minimum on local loans required for for
warding of foodstuffs, but higher rates
are made for commercial paper bought by
outside banks Augmentation of gold re-
serves and note circulation strengthens
the situation and permits an expanding
shipment of currency to the interior.
There is no decline in outputs of rails,
wire and footwear, and there is better
inquiry for pig iron, although some con-
sumers hold for lower cost.
Failures reported in the Chicago dis
trict number 23, against Is last week and
% year ago. Those with liabilities over
$1,000 number ., against Z last week and
3 in 1906.-Dun's Review of Trade
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
VANDERBILT WEDDING is OFF.
Society Folk Hear Count Is Dfssat-
fsned with the Settlement.

Society Folk Hear Count Is Dissat-
fsned with the Settlement.
New York society is stirred by re-
port from Newport that the wedding of
Miss Gladys Vanderbilt. heiress to the
$12,OOO,G00 Vanderbilt fortune. had been
called off owing to dissatisfaction on the
part of Count Szechenyi, the Hungarian
to whom she was betrothed, with the
amount of the marriage settlement which
was to be made to him. In all the salons
of Newport the story went that the sturdy
Americanism of Alfred G. Vanderbilt and
Reginald Vanderbilt, the prospective
brides brothers, had revolted against the
marriage of their sister to a man who
they believed had revealed himself as a
fortune hunter and that they had per-
suaded their sister after much trouble that
the foreign nobleman is unworthy of her.
The Vanderbilt family, however, will go
no further than the admission that the
wedding has been postponed.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
Striped Suits Abolished.

John V. Coggey, commissioned of cor
rectlon at New York City. has announced
the adjustment of striped suits and the
lock step at the penitentiary on Black
wells Island. The reason given for this
altion is that it saves the prisoner from
humiliation which he can never forget.
He gives it as his opinion that there is a
germ of decency in every human being
and that with proper treatment there is
hope for the reformation of many of
those who pass through the prisons of
Greater New York. Particularly does
this apply to frst-term offenders. but to
afford any prospect of success in this di-
rection the heart must not be crushed out
OF the unfortunate by piling humiliating
indiCuitieS unon him
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02

board our ships, the Navy Department
year after year has approved of plans
by which the greatest guns on the
ships are directly above an open shaft
leading to the powder magazine.
That other nations long since recOg-
nized the criminal stupidity of thus en-
dangering the lives of officers and men
and have remedied the defect by use
of common sense and ordinary precau-
tiOnary measures.
That, without regard to the protests
of experts. our battle ships have been
and ships are in action, the sea would
wash over the vessels, render some of
their most effective guns useless and
practically leave the ship to the mercy
of the enemy
The officers in the American navy
who command the battle ships and
squadrons are too old; that under eX-
listing conditions young men cannot at
tain command, and that the service is
badly crippled as a result.
Hat IueIS 10 IOO HILL
agement'' in Washington; too much
red tape in the Navy Department +;
that American genius is stifed because
of the bureaus immersion in details,
and that with the Secretary of the
Navy civilian, he should have a
board of expert advisers.
Other matters are dwelt on, but the
foregoing are by far the most impor-
tant An afternoons fight on water
sealed Russia's fate in the recent war
with Japan, says Mr. Reuterdahl, and
the same may well be true of the next
war into which this nation is plunged.
The issue is so important and the stake
so tremendous that the sea power
which is prepared in every respect to
meet the crisis will be the victor.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02

In discussing the effect on the forests
Of the country by the use of Christmas
trees, of which it is estimated that 1000
600 are used each year, Clifford Pinchot.
United States forester. says that the eff
feet is infnitesimal compared with the de-
struction caused by forest fires and waste
full numbering. If planted four feet apart
these trees would be grown on less than
1,400 acres. He says that trees suitable
for Christmas trees do not grow in the
old forests, where reproduction is most
important but in the open, and there is
NJ more reason for an outcry against
using land to grow Christmas trees than
to grow flowers. According to Mr.. Pin
chot, the center of the Christmas tree in
dustry lies in the big cities of the East.
New York City and the New England
States consume 100000 trees, or nearly
one-half of all the output. Maine, New
Hampshire. the Berkshire Hills. in Mas
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
CROPS OF UNITED STATES FOR THREE YEARS

the famous Dreadnought, of the Brit
ish navy, and % per cent more efec-
tive in gun-fire than the latter The
North Dakota will be 80 feet long.
1t is already figured out that the
launching will take place next October,
or in ten months from the time of the
laying of the keel. , Although the keel
was laid only recently the North Da-
kota is regarded as nearly per cent
finished. Long before the keel blocks
were placed in position the ship was
completely laid down in the mold-loft
and over 30 per cent of all the plans in
the construction of the ship were de-
veloped and approved.
The North Dakota is a sister ship Of
the Delaware now being built at New
port News.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
MATRIMONIAL RUSH IN N. Y.
Hundreds Seek TO Wed Before
License Law Makes 1T Difficult

Hundreds seek TO Wed Before
License Law Makes 1t Difficult.
Cupid has been having an inning in
New York. Beginning Jan. a new law
requiring licenses to wed will be in force,
and hundreds of couples have been rush
ing to the ministers to escape the pub
licity which will follow the recording of
all marriages. There are commonly about
30 marriages a day in the city. but for
week this number has been increased
threefold, bringing the biggest matrimo-
NAL rush the city has ever seen. One
minister announced that he married TWEEN
ty-five couples in one week and had en-
gagements TO unite twice that number be-
fore Jan. /. There are many objections
to the new law voiced by ministers and
others. The directors say that the law
makes marriage more difficult while they
believe that all difficulties in the way Of
matrimony should be smoothed away.
They believe that the new law will induce
Opponents
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02

sachusetts, and the Adirondacks and Cats
supply for New York, Boston and Phila-
delpha, and even Tor Baltimore and
Washington. The swamps of Michigan,
Wisconsin and Minnesota furnish the
markets of Chicago, st. Paul, Minneapo-
lis and Detroit, while the local demand
throughout the central West is mainly
supplied by nurserygrown Norway
spruce
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
Fells Thief with Bag of Cash.

After leaving his poolroom at , 80
o'clock the other morning, William Ma
thias, carrying a canvas bag containing
$50 in silver, was attacked by two high
waymen in McKeesport, Pa. He used the
bag as a weapon and felled the nearest
footpad He fought off the other thug for
a few minutes. The first assailant regain
ed his feet and renewed the attack when
Matthias ran. One of the robbers fired a
Juliet which struck Matthias right elbow.
SCATTERING the bone. 1t was necessary to
amputate the arm.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02

production 224, 645 900 bushels and val
ue Sc cents.
Corn acreage was 99.931 GOO, produc-
ton 2,592, 100000 bushels and value
51.7 cents.
Oats acreage was 81, S37, 600, produc-
ton 754, 443,00 bushels and value 44.o
cents.
1t was announced that the total val
ue of the farm crops for 1907 was So
4O4 100000, an increase of S42S,OO0,OOO
for 1906.
The farm value on Dec. l of the four
crops already mentioned follows: Corn,
81 $40, 446,0 eco; winter wheat, 1851, 211,-
600; spring wheat, $193, 600; oats,
1884 56S,000.
The comparative prices for the grain
~. f,N1l
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
Big Year for Cotton Mills.

Statistics just compiled show that the
dividends paid to stockholders of New
Bedford, Mass, cotton mills in 1907 have
been the largest in the history of the city.
The total dividends of eighteen corpora
tions reach $2,57S, $50, on a capital stock
of S1S.UO,000. an average of 1913 per
cent. Last year the average rate was S.92
per cent. in 1905 it was &C and in 1904
the percentage was %.
Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-01-02
FIvE-YEAR-oLD GIRL MURDERED
Body Hidden on River Bank, Il

Body Hidden River Bank, Is
Found-FOur Greeks Arrested.
Anna Walftola. j-year-old daughter of
Mr.. and Mrs Walftola, has been brutally
murdered at Ford City. Pa. Her body,
which the slayer concealed on the rl!er
bank, has been found. One of a party of
seven Greeks is suspected of the crime,
and four of them are under arrest. They
lived in a boarding house adjoining he
Walftola home No incentive for the
crime has been found. The child was
shot in the throat with shotgun.