Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1911-02-23
COST Of CARRYING
MAILS IS LEARNED
PostoffIoe Department Men Have
Completed the Difficult
investigation.
LOWER RATES MAY BE RESULT
sernhardt at National Press Club
Congress Kills Plan to Erect Re-
formatory Near Mount Yer
non-Longworth Wins
His Long Fight.
By GEORGE CLINTON.

BY GEORGE CLINTON.
Washington-For more than six
months the postofiee department has
been making an investigation as to the
actual cost to the railroads of carrying
The United States mail. The work is
done. It has been the hardest job
which ever has been undertaken by
government officials bent on getting
mere figures The attempt has been
10 find out what it costs TO carry the
mails over every line of railroad In
the United States, main lines and
branch lines, with view to finding
out If the carrier companies are charg-
ing Uncle Sam too much money for
The work which they do.
No one knows to just what use the
Information will be put, but If it has
been found that the railroads are max
ing more than due profit, they prob
ably will be made to reduce their
charges and the saving which will
come to the government will be put
to service betterment uses, possibly in
the way Of reducing the cost of first
class postage or possibly in increas-
ing the efficiency and number of rural
routes.
For some time the postoff1ce officials
have been considering the advisable
Ity of sending the magazines of the
United States by freight instead of on
the fast mail trains as at present. The
explanation is that magazines VIII sui
go as mail matter and will be dellV-
cred by the postofTice department, just
as they are now, and that therefore no
protest can stand. If such mails are
sent by freight the cost Of carrying
them will be much less than it is now,
and it is possible that the plan Will
be put into effect if the protest is not
strong enough to make the officials
change their minds.
Bernhardc at Press Club.
At the National Press cIub in Wash
ington, Mr.. J. M. Jusserand, the am
bassador of France to the United
States, and Nine. Sara Bernhardt, the
great French actress and perhaps the
greatest artist in the world, were the
guests of the members a day or two
ago.
Nine. Bernhard speaks English fair
ly well and understands it perfectly,
but she never will speak it, or any
other language except that of her ma
tive land, if she possibly can help it.
It has been said that she has the most
wonderful voice with which nature is
capable of endowing one, and, it is
understood that this now aged woman
has maintained all her life that to at
tempt conversation in any except her
native tongue would tnjure the carry
ing and the resonant qualities of her
voice and destroy some of its power.
Be this as it may, the madame spoke
in French and among other things said
that she would return to America in
1915, would visit the Panama canal
and witness its opening. The actress
went to Panama with the French en-
gineer, de Lesseps, years ago, when
the French people started to dig a
Panama canal on their own account,
an attempt which ended in failure.
Geographers Eat New Vegetables.
When the National Geographic soci-
ETY. held its recent dinner, a new veg
etable called the dasheen was served
in place of the ordinary potato. The
dasheen was brought into America
from some far off place by the officials
of the bureau of plant industry, with
a view to finding out if the American
taste took kindly to it, and if it would
grow we'll in American soil.
The dasheen, which in flavor is some
thing like the potato and in appearance
after being cooked very much like it,
is a prolific producer, so prolific that
it is supposed that when it once gets
a foothold it will produce enormous
crops and that as a sequence it can
be sold very cbeaply.
The officials of the plant industry bu-
reau have found out that it takes some
time to cultivate a taste for new eat
abIes." They have brought in one
or two things which people at first
would have none of, and yet after a
time a liking for the strange edible
was developed
No Refornatory at RelVoir.
Congress has refused to sanction
the order of the commissioners Of
the District Of Columbia to estab-
fish a reformatory upon the old
Virginia estate of Beivoir, which is
close to Mount Vernon. Sentiment
prevailed in the matter and no penal
institution will be erected near the
tomb of the Father of His Country.
In Fairfax county, Virginia, where
Washington rests, the land is rich with
memories of the kind which patriotic
Americans hold n reverence. Gunston
hall. colonial dwelling erected in
the year 1850 by George Mason of his
torlc fame, still stands. In an &C
count Of the construction of the dwell
ing Isl years ago, It said:
The brick mansion, with cut stone
auoins. gambrel roof and four great
chirnneys. represents no special type
cf architecture, but evidently was built
by Colonel Mason to suit his own Ideas
IF taste and convenience. Carved red
and wElte columns connected by lat
tice work uphold the pretty portico,
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