News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 20, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 42.

International.—Advices from Sierra Leone, West Africa, state that one hundred native chiefs have been arrested and are awaiting trial at Freetown for the murder of American and other missionaries in May last. A number of the chiefs implicated have already been convicted...... A London despatch from Peking states that the empress dowager and the Imperial Clan have adopted as the new emperor of China, a son of the late emperor, T'Ung Chi, who will shortly be proclaimed. An edict of the empress orders the suppression of the native press and the punishment of the editors; and all officials who have signed memorials in favor of reform have been dismissed from office as “slaves of the foreign devils.” Great Britain is despatching quantities of war munitions to Hongkong, and the first-class English cruiser Terrible has been ordered to join her sister ships in Chinese waters. Each of the foreign legations at Peking are now being protected by military guards of their own nationality......Many Christians, Mussulmans, and Jews are leaving the island of Crete, through fear of another massacre. The sultan has agreed to the joint demand of Russia, England, France, and Italy for the evacuation of Crete by the Turkish soldiers. He proposes, however, to retain three fortified places in Crete with garrisons sufficient to protect the Mohammedans. Measures have been taken to begin the withdrawal of the Turkish troops from the island......The procedure for reopening the Dreyfus case has already begun before the Paris Court of Cassation......Over sixty thousand men are now idle in Paris. The strike includes all the building trades, and thousands of those who are willing to work are prevented from doing so by the strikers. It is believed that this social agitation is directly due to the Dreyfus affair, and is being fostered by wealthy opponents of revision. So serious has the situation become that thousands of armed troops are being sent into Paris from towns near the capital, and are patrolling the streets to maintain order......The conservative press of both England and France are seeking to calm the popular clamor over the occupation of Fashoda, on the Upper Nile. By the publication of official documents, it appears that these two countries were very near to war during the past week. France is still waiting for a report from the expedition which the English found at Fashoda, and Lord Salisbury has declared that the Anglo-Egyptian forces will hold Fashoda and will not countenance the presence of any foreign power along the Upper Nile......On October 9 the city of Calcutta, India, was officially declared to be free from the bubonic plague......A part of the English troops who took part in the defeat of the Dervishes arrived in London on October 6, and were given a grand ovation......The Emperor and Empress of Germany started on October 12, on their journey to the Holy Land, accompanied by a number of high officials of the empire, ladies of the court, and a special body-guard. The baggage of the party consisted of 110 trunks, many of them of enormous size.

Domestic.—Yellow fever is still on the increase in the Southern States, and many are fleeing from the infected localities. Governor McLaurin, of Mississippi, having fled from the capital to his country home, on account of the plague, was ordered out of town by the town authorities, through fear of contagion......Six American soldiers were killed in the battle with Indians at Leech Lake, Minnesota, on October 5. Sixteen were wounded, including five civilians. Additional troops have been sent to the vicinity of the outbreak, and negotiations looking to the peaceful settlement of the trouble are in progress......Figures just compiled at the Navy Department show that seventeen American sailors were killed during the war with Spain, and sixty-five wounded......Admiral Sampson is reported to be seriously ill at Havana, where he was at work on the American evacuation commission......The coal miners' strike at Virden, Illinois, resulted in a pitched battle, on October 12, when a train-load of southern negroes arrived to take the places of the striking miners. The company had built a stockade around their works, and had employed armed guards both in the stockade and on the train. The battle between the guards and negroes on the one side and strikers on the other, began before the train stopped, and continued between the guards and strikers after the train had left the town. Twelve men were killed and thirty wounded. Troops have been sent to the scene of the disturbance......The battle-ships Oregon and Iowa sailed from New York on October 12, under sealed orders. The gunboats Wilmington and Helena are also under orders to sail within a week......On the night of October 3 the city of Honolulu experienced a reign of terror on account of the irresponsible acts of drunken officers of the American troops quartered near that city, who on their own account proclaimed martial law and conducted their operations in a most high-handed and disgraceful manner.

Cuba.—The 2,000 irregular Spanish troops who rebelled at Cienfuegos recently and entrenched themselves to resist attack, laid down their arms on October 9, after being paid off. The Spaniards at Manzanillo have evacuated the place, and the city has been occupied by the American troops. The American flag was raised over the government buildings on October 10. The American commissioners at Havana have received instructions from Washington that Spanish sovereignty in the island must end by December 1, and the government of the entire island be at that time turned over to the Americans. The United States commission has landed, free of duty, supplies for the destitute at Matanzas, Bahia Honda, and Caibaren......Archbishop Chappelle, of Louisiana, has been appointed by the Vatican as apostolic delegate to Cuba. The duties of this official will be to act as the personal representative of the pope in providing for the assimilation of the church in the West Indies into the American church, and to deal with the settlement of the church estates in the islands.

Philippines.—General Rios, the Spanish commander in the Visayas Islands, reports the submission to Spanish authority of 4,000 insurgents, and a victory over insurgents from the island of Luzon, in which the latter lost 122 men killed and many wounded. The Spanish Government is sending to the garrison of Iloilo, on Panay Island, a large ship-load of munitions of war. This raises between the two governments the question of the right to re-enforce during an armistice......The Philippine Government has refused to release the Spanish priests held by them as prisoners of war, in spite of Aguinaldo's promise that they would be given up. Negotiations are now in progress for the release of the priests upon the payment of $100,000 to the insurgent leaders.

Porto Rico.—Owing to the repeated delays in the evacuation of Porto Rico by the Spaniards, President McKinley has instructed the American commissioners at San Juan that the island must be evacuated by the Spanish forces by October 18, and that should any still remain in the island after that date, they will be placed in temporary barracks until transportation can be secured. The government of the island is to go into the hands of the Americans on that date. Two regiments of American troops have been despatched to the island......On October 9 a company of drunken Spanish soldiers at Arecibo fired into a crowd of unarmed natives, killing five and wounding twenty-five. The American forces took charge of the city and restored order.

Fires.—The Tourist Hotel, under process of construction at Tacoma, Washington, was burned on October 11. The cost of the structure up to the date of its destruction was $600,000......A disastrous conflagration occurred at Hankow, China, on October 2, destroying 10,000 houses and entailing a loss of over $5,000,000......The entire business section of Red Fern, near Sydney, Australia, was destroyed by fire on October 8......A $200,000 fire visited Atlantic City, N. J., on October 8.