Vegetarian Meals and Manchurian Crisis
A NOVEL venture has recently been started by the Vegetarian Societies of London. Desiring to acquaint the public generally with the dishes belonging to a vegetarian diet, the Vegetarians have begun to distribute meals cooked to order on the vegetarian plan to the offices and houses of those who wish to be thus supplied. The plan seems to be meeting with general favor, and it is expected that the number of distributing wagons will soon have to be greatly increased. ENGLAND, Germany, and Japan are reported to have presented identical notes to Russia and China, warning them that the signing of the Manchurian agreement will involve the partition of China. The belief is general that the crisis between Russia and Japan is really grave. General Yatsumi, in a recent interview, is reported as saying, “According to the communications received from my government, I think that a conflict between Russia and Japan is inevitable. The Japanese army was never in a better condition for a conflict, and delay only increases the facilities of Russia.” The Japanese are a unit against yielding to Russia in the matter of the Manchurian agreement or allowing her to dominate affairs in Korea. In view of the strong opposition of the other interested powers, China has refused to sign the agreement with Russia, altho Russia is said to have threatened to break off diplomatic relations with China if the agreement is not signed. We are thus on the verge of the greatest war the world has ever seen. An attempt has been made on the life of another of the czar’s ministers, M. Zipyagin, minister of the interior. This is the third attack on the members of the czar’s official household within as many weeks. The Warsaw University has been closed by the government in consequence of demonstrations of sympathy on the part of the Warsaw students with the students of other universities who have suffered at the hands of the government. Thousands of Russian laborers and students continue to parade the streets as a token of their opposition to the course of the government, and further disorders are expected. THE capture of Aguinaldo by Gen. Frederick Funston and a company of picked men has been the most important piece of news coming from the Philippines during the week. The capture was made possible by the treachery of one of Aguinaldo’s trusted followers. The captors were led, in the guise of prisoners, into the Filipino leader’s stronghold, captured him, and after a fatiguing march reached the coast, where the gunboat Vicksburg took them on board. Other prominent Filipino leaders are surrendering, and many are claiming that the back of the opposition in the islands is broken. BECAUSE of the serious tension between the United States minister to Venezuela and the Venezuelan Government, the minister has been called to Washington in order that the President and the State Department may be thoroughly informed in regard to the difficulty which has arisen there. The impression seems to be quite general that the United States is preparing to force Venezuela to give guarantees of security to and respect for American officials and other American citizens in that republic. DURING an anti-Jesuit riot in Barcelona, Spain, on March 31, the police, who sought to disperse the rioters, were met with clubs and volleys of stones, whereupon the police charged the crowd, using their revolvers freely. A large number were wounded, and the feeling of the people against the police and the Jesuits is running high. Similar demonstrations have been made by the people of Valencia, and they have petitioned the governor, demanding the expulsion of all the monastic orders. THE Russian Government has exiled Count Leo Tolstoi because of the attempted assassination of one of the czar’s ministers by one who claims to be a follower of the Russian novelist. Since the fact of his exile became known, a petition has been sent to the church officials of Russia by 1,000 of the students of the university of Kieff, asking that the petitioners be excommunicated with Tolstoi. This is done as a protest against both the excommunication and the exile of the Russian novelist. THE great railroad interests of the country are reported to be forming an organization for the purpose of buying in the Panama Canal Company, in order to forestall the building of the Nicaragua Canal by the government. By building and controlling the Panama Canal, these great corporations could make themselves absolute masters of all transportation from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast, and thus make the rule of the money-gatherers more secure than ever. PAPERS have been filed at the State Department at Washington by the minister of Colombia which contemplate giving to the United States a right of way for a canal across Panama, irrespective of the claims of the French company now building a canal along the same right of way. According to the terms of the French concession, the ditch was to be completed in 1904, and will be forfeited by the inability of the company to complete it by that time. A DESPATCH from China states that the German first-class battle-ship Weissenberg has started from Shanghai toward Nankin and the North, her purpose being to impress the Chinese and the allies with the fact that Germany means to preserve and increase her prestige and interests in the Yang-tse Valley. This is the region which England has regarded as under her sphere of influence for the past few years. A SYNDICATE at Peking composed of English and Italian financiers has secured a concession of 71,000 square miles of territory in the provinces of Shansi and Honan, which are rich in coal, iron, and petroleum. The concession includes an unbroken coal belt of 3,000 square miles. PRESS correspondents in South Africa declare the outlook there to be a gloomy one, and they see little prospect of a cessation of hostilities in the near future. They declare Lord Kitchener’s policy to have been a failure. A company of 130 colonial troops was captured by the Boers on March 27, and liberated after being stripped of their arms. The fighting now is between small detachments only, but these seem to be scattered over a wide range of country. THE United States Steel Corporation (the great steel trust) has amended its charter, increasing its capitalization to $1,100,000,000. This trust was incorporated under the laws of the State of New Jersey, and the State’s fee for filing the papers amounted to $220,000. So the billion-dollar trust has come, and fortune is being piled upon fortune, as the Lord declared it would be in the last days. FIVE million dollars is the price reported to have been paid to a Salt Lake man for a process of utilizing crude petroleum by which a greater amount of heat and light are produced than by any method now known. The light given by this process is said to be more intense than the electric arc light or the light given by acetylene gas. IT is reported that a gigantic conspiracy to defraud the government has been discovered in the commissary department of the Philippines. Thousands of dollars’ worth of provisions, according to the report, have been sold by commissary officers to hotels and bakeries, the fraudulent dealings going as far back as June, 1900. A DESPATCH from Manila states that commander Roper of the gunboat Petrel was suffocated during a fire on that vessel on March 31. The commander was trying to rescue some of his officers and men, who were cut off by the flames in the vessel’s sail room, when he lost his life. The vessel was not materially damaged. THE condition of affairs in Russia is still serious. The measures taken by the government to suppress demonstrations are very unpopular with the masses, who are demanding liberty. Many university professors have been petitioning the government for a more liberal system of education for the country. TONS of American flags have been contracted for in Chicago by the government, to be used in and upon the school-houses of Porto Rico. The plan is to have the American flag flying also from all the school-houses in the Philippines before the end of the year. THE British Government has been notified by Dr. Leyds, the European representative of the Boers, that a powerful combination of European and American merchants intends to boycott England’s goods systematically until independence is granted to the Boers. ROBBER bands of Boxers and Chinese soldiers are causing fresh disturbances in Manchuria, and the forces of Russia operating in that vicinity are being strengthened in preparation for the revival of Boxer operations in the spring. A DESPATCH from Kieff, Russia, states that an attempt has been made on the life of the czar of Russia by one of the official members of his own household, who committed suicide immediately after firing on the czar. IN view of the refusal of the Boers to accept the proffered peace terms of General Kitchener, the English Government has announced its determination not to offer any more favorable terms to the burghers. FROM five to eleven fresh cases of bubonic plague are reported in Cape Town every day. The disease seems to have gained a foothold there in spite of the best efforts of the health authorities. A MEETING of eminent scientists is soon to be held in London for the purpose of considering the ravages of consumption, methods of treating it, and the influence of climate in battling the disease. JAPAN is preparing to relieve her troops in China by a force fifty per cent stronger than those there at the present time. Mail advices seem to indicate that war with Russia is considered certain. THE Cuban Constitutional Convention is now discussing in secret sessions the provisions of the Platt amendment which define the relations to exist between the United States and Cuba. THE strike of dock laborers in Marseilles, France, still continues, with disastrous effects to the business interests of that city. It has already cost the city several million dollars. AN automobile has been built in Paris which is capable of a regular speed of 70 miles an hour, and can be run at the rate of 98 miles an hour for short distances. THE Legislature of Maryland has passed a State election law which practically disfranchises 40,000 of her citizens, those who are unable to mark their own ballots. THE great tin-can trust has finally been organized and capitalized, its capitalization amounting to $88,000,000. THE claims of the government growing out of the war with Spain now amount to $30,000,000.