p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Sep 1, 1904

Current Mention

— The battle-ship “Louisiana,” the largest in the American navy, was launched at Newport News, Va., August 27.

— The revolution in Paraguay has caused an “indescribable panic” at Asuncion, and foreigners in all parts of the country are leaving, under protection of the diplomatic corps.

— A tornado swept through Chautauqua County, N. Y., August 25, striking a grove in which a picnic crowd of several thousand persons were gathered. Four persons were killed, and many were seriously hurt.

— An Antwerp dispatch reports the burning of immense oil tanks at Hoboken, Belgium, containing 26,500,000 gallons of oil, August 26. A number of lives were lost. The property loss will be several million francs.

— Eighty-four arrests for violation of the Sunday law were made in Alexandria, August 14. The arrests grew out of an effort by the Retail Merchants’ Association to enforce the Sunday law upon grocery and meat stores, but the men arrested were milk dealers, railway employees, druggists, newsboys, bootblacks, liverymen, and news-dealers. Not one was a grocer or a dealer in meats.

— Cæsar Booker, believed to be 125 years old, died in Washington, Ga., on August 24. He came to Georgia ninety years ago as a slave from Virginia. He did not know his exact age, but his memory of events of over a century ago was good and indubitably correct. Not a house of the present Washington was built when he was purchased by a Wilkes County farmer. Cæsar leaves six children, the oldest of whom lives near Thomson, Ga., and is ninety-six years old.

— It is reported from Reno, Nev., that recent cloudbursts and washouts in Tonapah and along the lines of the Tonapah and Carson and Colorado railroads are the most disastrous in the history of these districts. People at Tonapah and Goldfields are on the verge of starvation. They are being temporarily relieved by the rushing in of supplies via Croon Springs, Silver Peak, and Candelaria by wagon trains. But this is only temporary, and as over 5,000 persons must be fed in the different camps, extraordinary measures must be taken for their relief. Food supplies are practically exhausted.

— Striking dock laborers and marine workers have completely tied up marine traffic at Marseilles, France. On August 26 the strikers presented an ultimatum demanding the general adoption of eight hours’ work without a diminution of wages. Unless it is accepted, the marine workers of all the ports of France will be ordered to strike. An appeal is also made to the government, which will consider the question at a cabinet meeting, August 29.

— It was hoped that the christening of the czarevitch, the new heir to the Russian throne, would be made the occasion of the proclamation of constitutional government in Russia, but this hope met with disappointment. Certain concessions of a minor character were proclaimed, however, for the purpose of propitiating the peasantry and the rank and file of the army, who are peasants in uniform. The edict issued to commemorate the christening of the heir to the throne abolishes the use of the knout among the rural classes, and curtails it in the army and navy. It appears, also, that a general reduction of the penalties imposed for common law offenses is proclaimed, together with a general amnesty for all past political offenses, except in cases of murder. Persons arrested for offenses, the punishment for which would not have involved the loss of civil rights, are pardoned, provided they had not been sentenced at the time of the czarevitch’s birth. Absolutely nothing is done for the Jews, except to set aside the fines that have been levied upon Jewish communes whenever individual Jews have avoided military service.

— The Russian cruiser “Novik” was sunk off the island of Sakhalien, August 21, by two ships of Admiral Kamimura’s squadron, after a fight which lasted some hours. The “Novik” had escaped from Port Arthur, and was trying to reach Vladivostok. The Russian ships in the harbor of Shanghai have not been dismantled. Representatives of the powers at Shanghai, under the leadership of the American consul, took joint action to protect the foreign residents there and insure the neutrality of that port, the Chinese taotai having given notice that he was unable to do this. Japan has notified the powers that if the Russian war-ships in that port are not immediately disarmed, she will take whatever steps she may deem necessary to protect her interests, which is taken to mean that Japanese ships will enter Shanghai harbor, and seize the Russian ships. General Kouropatkin’s army and the Japanese forces opposed to him fought a battle, August 25, which seems to have been of an indecisive character. Port Arthur is reported to have about reached the end of its powers of resistance, and its fall is looked for at any time.

— The attorney for the Western Federation of Miners has sent a petition to President Roosevelt asking him to intervene in the labor troubles at Cripple Creek. The president is asked to consider questions of rights of citizens. His attention is called to the provisions of the Constitution guaranteeing life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all. Then follows a showing of the maltreatment of men at the hands of a mob,

this being supported by affidavits of several of those deported August 20. It is declared in the representations made to the president that none of those whose cases are placed before him had committed any wrongful act or in any way violated the law, being at the time of the assault and deportation pursuing in peace their customary vocations.