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Show A Strange Weddlnc Ciutom. During medieval times a woman whe had nothing when she was married escaped es-caped responsibility for her debts. Women were then often married In a single garment to relievo themselves of Indebtedness. A young and noble Uerman lady of tho sixteenth century, to make assurnnca doubly suro, had tho marrlogo ceremony performed whllo she was standing in a closet, entirely en-tirely divested of clothing. She put out hor hand through tho crack of tho door ni 1 f Pn inr.-1'! A'-torn as tho coi v ii.uiiy vvua pcrlouuod tho groom, clergyman und w Itnessos loft the toom, tin) camo out. arrayed herself her-self In clothes provided by her husband hus-band and took her place at the mar-rli"r mar-rli"r feast. What MacMnerv It Doing;. Ono ot tho astonishing tacts In tho Uold of industry Is tho marvelous power of machinery operated by hand. In the cotton trade, in lOT'J, the average product of every employe wan something some-thing less than 0700, vvjillo thlrtyyears later ho was nble to produco n valuo of St.300, notwithstanding tho reduced price of cotton. In tho woolen factory the chnngo wns much tho snmo, the hand of each worker being abla as long ngo ns 1860 to make over 81,200 of product, prod-uct, und in 1880 nbout 31,800, tho proportion pro-portion of material consumed by improved im-proved machinery being about the same. Bow much tho world Is Indebted In-debted to Invention cannot bo stated in tangible form, says the Journal of Flnnuce, but with tbo strength of man remaining tho samo nnd the skill ot tho proscnt artisan, though showing somo advances, still not distancing that of tho ancient Bgyptlan, the vast Increase of human resources is duo mainly to tho Influence of Invention In discovering ways In which machines can do tho work of men, Tho competition compe-tition Is no longer a competition of bklll of labor, but that of invention, and In America wo aro far in advance of any other nation In this respect. A man who fifty years ago could turn out n vnluu equal to a scant wage, now, at fairly good wages, Is abla to bring Into being four or five Or sU timss tba value i , i i iniri |