Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1908-10-08

According to the delegates to the IA
| tional opticians convention in Philadel-
phia, wOmen's eyes are weaker than
mems, and more Of the fair sex wear
| glasses.
The French Ministry is drafting 4
| bill to make a standard karat for
weighing precious stones, fixed at 2Oo
milIigrams, and prohibiting the word
for any other weight
Miss Ross Becker has been appointed
a claim agent and United States pen
sion attorney in Missouri. She has
been known for years as one of the
most successful women in st. Louis,
being a notary public and an insur-
ance agent.
Miss Ruby Abrams, who was recently
graduated at the head of the art class
in Cooper Institute, is deaf, and until
a few years ago was also dumb. She
has been an art student ever since she
was graduated at the head of her class
six years ago at the Institute for the
! Improved Instruction Of Deaf Mutes.
| She has the record of having won four
| prizes during her art course.
1t is not a hundred years ago since
| stays for women were composed not Of
whalebone or hardened leather, but of
bars of iron and steel from three inches
to four inches broad and eighteen inches
long. Again, during the reign Of George
III. the top Of the steel stay had long
stocking needle attached to it to pre-
vent girls from spelling their shape by
STOPPING too much over their work.
Consul General ltobert J. Wynne
makes the report that the returns of
shipping and tonnage of the Suez canal
| for 1907 show that the net tonnage
exhibits an all round increase the fig
ures for the last year showing an In
crease Of 1892, $50 tons, as compared
with that of 1906, and an increase of
1884 ,329 over 1905. Receipts during
1907 showed an increase Of 81 ,557 900,
as compared with 1906.
The boring of an artesian well is not
an easy task. The well of Grenelle
! (France) required from Dec. "a, 1888,
to Feb. 2G, 1871, for completion. The
one at Passay of the same depth took
only two years 70 make. Our engineers
now count upon one year IN which to
complete the we'll of Maisons-Laffitte.
This well is already at a depth Of AGO
meters. 1t will go to a depth of $50
meters.-De Dion-Bouton Journal.
Mrs. Phoebe Rideout, of California,
is the latest recruit to the ranks of the
women bank presidents. Mrs. RdeOut
has just been elected to succeed her
late husband as the president of the
bank at Oroville, Cal, and also as pres
dent of the banks at Marysville and
Gridley. The aggregate capital Of the
three Institutions Is said to be more
than 100000. Mrs. William Lang
don, wife of the city attorney of San
Francisco, has been elected president of
the Union Savings Bank at Modesto.
Miss Esther V. Hassen. of Washing
ton, is to be the chief hospital nurse
of the navy. She is a graduate Of the
New Haven Training School for Nurses
and has served in her profession in
Philadelphia, on the hospital ship Re
lief and on the Isthmus of Panama.
Her appointment will make her head of
the corps of women nurses in the naval
hospitals here and abroad, but not on
ships of war. The corps of naval
nurses will number eventually more
than fifty and will have an organiza-
ton similar to that of the army women
nurses
The production of American gems
more than doubled last year, according
to the government reports, the total
value for 1907 being $471 300, while in
the preceding year the total was $685.
000 The total production of sapphfres
in the United States last year was val
ued at S229,SOO. Tourmaline is second
In Importance and Is placed at $S4, 100
Among other important gems produced
were chrysoprase, to the value of S45,,
900; california;, $4,000; turquoise,
$23S4O; spodumene gems (kunzite and
hiddenite). $14,5OO; varicite, utahlite
and amttrice, $500; rose quartz, beryl,
aquamarine and garnet, each over &c.
600.
Old-time barristers in England did
not openly receive fees for their serv-
ices. An early method of collecting
fees was the pocket which in medieval
times a barrister used to have placed
in the back Of his gown, into which the
solicitor would surreptitiously slip the
fee The pocket has long since disap-
peared, but the services of a barrister
are still supposed to be honorary, and
by the unwritten yet despotic law OF
the profession he must not sue for ais
fee He has, however, some compensa-
ton in being permitted to demand cash
IN advance, and when once briefed in
case etiquettE allows him to pocket
the honorarium whether he is able to
appear for his client or not.
Women postal clerks in Norway have
been promised equal pay with the men
clerks as one of the first results OF
their obtaining equal political rights,
!
lishwomen were still recognized as pos
sessing an economic and political stat.
us side by side with Englfshmen, there
was written an interesting entry in
the church warden's accounts of St
in's-in-the-Felds, proving that one
Elizabeth Bartlett was intruSted with
the casting of the second bell, and that
all the women employed thus We're paid
at the same rate as me-. for the same
work. Another instance is to be found
in the records ef the Fleet prison, OF
which the first female warden. appoint
ed in 1917 ON the death of her hus
band. Robert, received the same salary
las the said Robert had been accus
toned to during life" There was Nc
talk then of combining the woman's
sphere to work that was paid badly.