Coronation Preparations and Silent Weapons
The opening of coronation week was marked by a great influx of guests into London from all parts of the world. Many members of the royal families of Europe have already arrived to witness the ceremony, and all the hotels are crowded with visitors. There have been many alarming stories of the king’s illness, and some reports that the king would not be able to have the ceremony performed on that date; but such reports are believed to be exaggerated. A wonderful scheme has been arranged for illuminating the great fleets at Spithead on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights following the coronation. All ships are to be outlined in electric lights of various colors. Clouds of steam are to pour from the escape pipes of the vessels, and these clouds are to be illuminated by colored lights. The searchlights of the fleet are also to play a prominent part in the illuminations. According to a report from Paris, a French artillery officer has invented an apparatus, which, when applied to a rifle or a rapid-fire cannon, completely suppresses the flash, the report, and the smoke, even of black powder. In speaking of the matter the inventor says: “I have succeeded in converting the explosive power, which has been known for centuries, into motor power, giving impulse to projectiles from rifles and cannon without report, flash, smoke, or recoil, and without any diminution of force or effect.” Weapons equipped with such apparatus would be able to rain a perfect hailstorm of missiles upon a city or army without disclosing the location of those using them. It will also make murder much more easy and its detection more difficult. The Government of Cuba, despairing of any assistance from American legislation, has adopted a measure which calls for the expenditure of $3,500,000, to be distributed among the sugar-growers and tobacco-raisers. The money advanced to the sugar-planters will be at the rate of two cents per pound on all sugar held by them, the money to be returned to the government in instalments; and cattle-breeders are to be paid a premium of $5 for each cow imported for breeding purposes. There is also to be an increased tariff on many articles now bearing small duties. The government will raise the money for distribution among the farmers by an internal loan secured by bonds. The Senate, on June 19, passed the Spooner substitute for the Hepburn Nicaragua canal bill. The Spooner substitute provides for the building of a canal by the Panama route in case the President can secure a clear title to the property and concessions of the French company. In case he can not, he is to order the building of a canal by the Nicaragua route. The House voted almost unanimously for the Nicaragua route, and this action of the Senate is regarded by many as an attempt to prevent the construction of any isthmian canal. There will be a conference between the Senate and the House committees, the outcome of which it is impossible to forecast. The Philippine Civil Service Commission reports good progress in the work of fitting the Filipinos for places of trust and employment under the island government. Ten thousand adults are said to be now attending night schools in Manila for the purpose of learning the English language and fitting themselves for civil positions. The commission has been surprised to find so much good material, especially in parts of the island of Luzon remote from the center of education at Manila. But why should they be surprised? They have been informed of educated natives and stable government in the interior of Luzon again and again. The famous Ninth Infantry, which has seen service in Cuba, China, and the Philippines, and one company of which was practically annihilated at Balangiga, Island of Samar, arrived at San Francisco on June 21, with the exception of Company B, which remains in China as a legation guard. The regiment numbered 1400 men when it sailed for the Philippines. It now numbers 550, including those left at Peking. The United States official representative at the coronation ceremonies in London, Mr. Whitelaw Reid, has refused to ride in the carriage with the representative of the Turkish Government. This has made necessary a special arrangement by which Mr. Reid is furnished a state carriage for his sole occupancy. The personal intercession of the king was necessary to bring about this change in the official program. A British shipping combine is reported to have been effected at London. This shipping trust will be capitalized at $100,000,000, and will receive heavy subsidies from the British Government to enable it to compete with the Morgan shipping trust. It is reported that Canada will grant the combine $1,000,000 a year in subsidies. Six additional large passenger boats will be built and a dozen fast freight boats. At Philadelphia, on June 17, former President Grover Cleveland was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence by the Catholic college of St. Thomas of Villanova. Mr. Cleveland is the only one in the United States who has ever received this degree. He had already received the degree of LL. D. from Princeton University, with which he is officially connected. Four American teachers on the island of Cebu, P. I., went out for a day’s outing recently, and have not been heard of since. Several parties have been searching for them, but without success. A small party of American soldiers was captured and murdered at about the same time; but the captors of the latter party have been captured and will be punished. Recent reports from Alaska state that the steamer Portland, with more than a hundred persons on board, has been caught in the grasp of an ice floe, and is being rapidly carried through the Bering Straits into the Arctic Ocean. The great danger is that the steamer, which was not built to withstand the pressure of the ice, will be crushed by its grinding force. Brazil and Bolivia are reported to be near a conflict. Brazil has demanded that Bolivia shall annul a contract recently entered into with certain powerful capitalists, intimating that in case Bolivia refused so to do, Brazil would take compulsory measures. The contract affected territory between the two countries. Bolivia has not replied to the threat. A street-car strike is now in progress at Toronto, Ontario, and on June 22 there were a number of riotous demonstrations when the company attempted to operate its cars with new men. The local officers were unable to control the rioting strikers, and the militia has been called out. Many persons were hurt by flying missiles. The United States cruiser “Denver” was launched at Philadelphia on June 21. She is a vessel of sixteen and one-half knots speed and 4,700 horse power, a protected cruiser of 3,100 tons displacement, and 292 feet in length. Her principal armament consists of 10 five-inch rapid-fire guns, and her cost is $1,080,000. There is a movement now on foot in Chicago for the consolidation of all the large packing concerns into one corporation, doing business under one management. Thus they hope to evade the anti-trust laws, while the business can be conducted at a profit even greater than that made at the present time. Secretary Root has prepared for the Senate a statement of the expenses of the war in the Philippines. From this statement it appears that the total cost of the transportation of the troops by rail amounted to $4,803,448. A resident of Hartford, Connecticut, who died recently, left in his will a bequest of $100,000 to the Advent Christian Publication Society of Boston for the purpose of controverting the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. His heirs contested the will, but the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut has just decided that the bequest was valid. The United Irish League is making preparations for celebrating coronation day in Ireland as a day of mourning. One district council has resolved to hoist a black flag over their council chambers on that day and the day following, and will ask other councils to join them in thus celebrating coronation day. A despatch from Shanghai, China, states that the Chinese cruiser Kai Chi was completely destroyed on June 22 by an explosion. She sank at once, and 150 of her officers and crew were drowned or killed by the explosion. This cruiser was built in 1882, was of 2,110 tons displacement, and 260 feet long. At Hoboken, N. J., on June 22, a sympathetic strike was declared among the silk-weavers employed there. This move is made to express sympathy with the silk-weavers now on strike at Patterson, N. J. Trouble is feared at Hoboken, and the mayor has sworn in a large force of special policemen. Reports from Washington indicate that President Roosevelt has abandoned his purpose to call an extra session of the Senate for the purpose of ratifying a treaty with Cuba in reference to trade concessions. All hope of reciprocity for the Cubans has thus been abandoned, at least for the present. The Vatican has given its reply to Judge Taft’s proposition in regard to the purchase of the land of the friars in the Philippines. As this reply was not in agreement in detail with the judge’s proposal, it has not been made public, and the negotiations are still in progress. A report from Newport, Virginia, states that a company of striking miners visited a mine being worked by non-union help, and after vainly attempting to induce the miners to quit work, threw dynamite into the shaft, killing a number of the non-union workers. The amount of gold coin now held by the United States Treasury aggregates $554,000,000. This is the largest heap of the yellow metal gathered together in one place anywhere in the world. The next largest is the $514,000,000 held by the Bank of France. Forest fires in Washington along the line of the Northern Pacific railroad during the week have destroyed standing timber to the amount of over a million dollars. A tract of timber land estimated at over sixty square miles has been devastated by the flames. So great is the dearth of harvest hands in Kansas that many large wheat-fields are said to be going to ruin for lack of help. The State Employment Bureau has taken up the work of assisting the farmers to secure help, but with only partial success. The police being powerless to control the frenzied strikers in Patterson, N. J., on June 18, the militia was ordered out for the protection of life and property there. The strikers were led by anarchists, and in the rioting many were hurt. Mount Pelee continues in eruption, and all the inhabitants of the northern part of the island have deserted their homes. Ashes and mud continue to fall on that section of the island; but no further loss of life is reported. There is a strong indication that the boilermakers of the Southern Pacific Company will join in the strike of the Santa Fe boilermakers, because of the assistance given to the Santa Fe by the Southern Pacific Company. Reports from the Philippines indicate that cholera is spreading rapidly in the islands, despite the efforts of the civil and military forces to stamp it out. Ninety American soldiers have died of that disease since its outbreak. In the municipal elections recently held at Naples, Italy, the candidates put forward by a well-known secret society were successful over all others. It is expected that the government will dissolve the council thus elected. The government is now preparing its case against those implicated in the silk customs frauds at New York City. The case is to be pushed vigorously in both the criminal and the civil court. Reports from South America state that the Colombian revolt has been practically crushed out, but that the revolt in Venezuela is rapidly nearing a successful termination. All day June 20 a Venezuelan gunboat bombarded the suburbs of the city of La Guayra, where the revolutionists are entrenched, but without result so far as reports indicate. The city of Agua Dulce, Colombia, which had been in the hands of the Colombian rebels for some time, was recaptured by the government forces on June 19. There is practically no change in the coal-strike situation in the East, except that a special convention has been called for July 17. A conflagration in Portland, Oregon, on June 21, destroyed property valued at $440,000.