Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1892 — STRANGE FOREIGN PRACTICES. [ARTICLE]

STRANGE FOREIGN PRACTICES.

In Switzerland, it Is said, they will pay higher wages to a milkmaid who ean sing to the oows than to one who cannot. This is done on the prinolple that bad treatment of a cow injuriously affects its milk. When a person wishes to leave a Japanese theater temporarily he is not given a pass oheok, as In this country. The door-keeper takes the person by the hand and stamps on it the stamp of the establishment The form of oath binding on the Mohammedan conscience is to make the Koran rest on the head while the oath is administered. But if the Koran is skillfully held just above the head the form is not valid and the oath not binding. The favorite food of the Sandwioh Islanders is the flesh of the Mexican hairless dog. It is said to taste like spring ohioken, and is considered a great dainty. These dogs are raised in large numbers, and fattened for the market Alin over the city of Berlin are what are called “molkerls," or milk stations. In the basement of an elegant blook of buildings a few cows are kept These are well fed and cared for and furnish elegant milk for the patrons in the neighborhood. Ant vessel causing a disaster at her launoh is regarded by the Japanese as doomed to ill-fortune for her whole oareer. At Osaka lately a vessel capsized while being launched, several persons being drowned. She was destroyed by night with much oeremony. The Siamese have great regard for odd numbers, and Insist on having an odd number of windows, doors, and rooms in their houses and temples. There must be an odd number of steps in the stairs and an odd number of feet in the height of all steeples and minarets. In Paris it is not customary for patients to wait in the ante-chamber of great physicians, but Inquiry has to be made by letters, whioh are rarely answered unless they come from some aristocratio quarter of the city. In some cases, however, numbered tickets are given out at six in the morning.