NEWS AND NOTES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 37.

International.— A report from St. Petersburg states that nearly all the European powers have sent favorable replies to the note of the czar calling for a peace conference. It is stated that the disarmament congress will meet in St. Petersburg in November...... The German ambassador at Washington has demanded that the same tariff decreases granted France shall be granted Germany. The claim has been refused...... A party of Indians who arrived at Manitoba recently from the Hudson Bay district report that some time ago a strange man came down among their people out of the clouds. If their story be true, it is supposed that this is Herr Andree...... After ten days’ work, the joint commission of the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland, adjourned on September 2, and will meet again to finish their work on September 20...... On September 1 a treaty was signed between England and Germany, but so far the provisions of the treaty have not been made public. English papers assert that it is a treaty of offense and defense in certain eventualities...... The French minister of war has resigned on account of the agitation in reference to the reopening of the Dreyfus case. The French cabinet met on September 6 and decided on a revision of the case. The fear is almost universal in France that the revelations which will be made in a revision of the trial may involve the country in war with Germany...... Joseph Chamberlain, secretary of state for the English colonies, accompanied by his wife, has arrived in New York...... The business depression in Japan following the exposure of the great frauds perpetrated there in business circles, has thrown thousands out of employment, and trouble is feared from this crowd of penniless idlers...... On account of a riot in Candia, island of Crete, between Mussulmans and the British force stationed there, a British war ship stationed in the harbor shelled the city, setting it on fire, and killing many of the rioters. Detachments of British and other foreign troops were landed during the day, and severe fighting occurred. The foreign consulates were burned by the rioters, and it is reported that 100 British soldiers were killed...... The Anglo-Egyptian army under Sir Herbert Kitchener has met the Khalifa of the Dervishes, destroyed his entire army, and taken the cities of Omdurman and Khartoum. The slaughter among these fanatical children of the desert was terrible. No greater bravery was ever shown on a battle-field than was shown in this battle by the Dervishes, but they were mown down by machine guns and quick-firing rifles faster than they could rush to the attack. It is reported that 10,800 were killed. The British loss is placed at 200 killed and wounded. Many of the wounded Dervishes were put to death by the English and Egyptian troops because of their habit of killing or wounding those who have heretofore attempted to succor them on the field of battle. In all 16,000 of the blacks were wounded, and over 3,000 were taken prisoners...... A report from Peking, China, states that Li Hung Chang has been dismissed from power. For some weeks England has been demanding that this action should be taken because of this Chinese statesman’s partiality toward Russia. England has thus gained one point in her struggle against Russian influence in China...... An attempt was made recently to assassinate the czar of Russia and the czarina while passing a certain point in the city of Moscow. A house was filled with gas, and one of the conspirators was to enter and light a match while the czar was passing. The explosion was ill-timed and a staff officer and wife were killed instead of the czar. The body of the assassin was found in the débris.

Casualties and Calamities.— A crowded trolley-car was struck by a fast train at Cohoes, N. Y., on September 5, and crushed to splinters. Fifteen of the occupants of the car were instantly killed, and all the rest were more or less severely injured, several of whom are expected to die...... Eight men were lost in the wreck of the schooner Richard F. Hartley in a storm, off Port Royal, N. C., on August 31. Several other vessels were wrecked at the same time...... A report from Unalaska states that word has reached that station that the entire whaling fleet which had been imprisoned in the ice has been crushed and sunk in the breaking up of the ice...... Four men were killed and three fatally injured by an explosion of dynamite at Stintsville, Indiana, on September 2...... Seventy-five persons died from sunstroke in Greater New York, on September 3, and nearly two hundred others were prostrated by the heat...... On September 6 a terrible accident occurred on a bridge which is being built across the St. Lawrence River, on the line of the New York and Ottawa Railway. Two spans of the bridge fell, carrying down the sixty men who were working upon them, into the river below. The list of dead reaches more than a score, and a larger number still are seriously injured...... An unknown schooner went down off Eastlake, Nova Scotia, on the night of September 4, and all her crew are believed to have been lost.

Domestic.— The thirty-second annual encampment of the Grand Army of the Republic opened at Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 5, with a large attendance...... The U. S. gunboat Wheeling has been allotted the work of bringing home from Alaska the large number of unfortunate miners who are there without funds or means of subsistence...... The government has closed a contract with a firm for making a $3,000 sword for Admiral Dewey...... The Navy Department has opened bids for supplying the navy with 1,000,000 pounds of smokeless powder. It is believed that the navy will use no more of the ordinary black powder...... The Pacific Cable Company has decided to begin work at once on the survey for a Pacific cable connecting San Francisco, Honolulu, the Caroline Islands, Guam Island, the Philippines, Japan, and Australia. The project calls for about 10,000 miles of cable, the cost of which will be about $10,000,000...... The government is conducting an investigation of the subscriptions for the new war bonds, and has found several hundred fraudulent subscribers. A systematic plan was discovered by which single parties secured a large amount of the bonds.

Aftermath of the War.— It is stated that 3,000 soldiers have died in camp since the beginning of the war. The sick list is high in nearly all the camps, especially so at Chickamauga, Montauk Point, Camp Meade, Camp Thomas, and at Santiago...... The city of Memphis has established a rigid quarantine against all the rest of the country, to guard against yellow fever, which has appeared at some of the southern ports where returning troops have landed...... On September 3 the War Department decided to muster out nineteen additional regiments of volunteers, and issued the statement that all the other regiments would probably remain in service for some time...... The Spanish Cortes convened on September 5, and a bill was introduced to authorize the government to cede territory and conclude peace. The sessions are to be secret. Spain has chosen her members of the peace commission, but it does not include a single man of real prominence in Spanish politics...... It is reported that the Spanish Government has issued a decree for assembling an army of 110,000 men for service in the Philippines. That government has requested of the United States permission to send a few gunboats to the Philippines to assist in maintaining her sovereignty in the islands. The request has been refused...... The government steamboat Meigs, whose crew was engaged in removing torpedoes from the Mississippi River at St. Philip, Louisiana, was completely destroyed by a mine or torpedo, on September 4, and four of the crew were killed.

Philippines.— The Spanish governor of the Philippine Islands, replying to the request of his government for information as to the true conditions there, states that to re-establish Spanish sovereignty in that group would require a standing army of 60,000 men, a large fleet, and an endless quantity of material...... Twenty prominent leaders of the Philippines held a council on September 5 to discuss the policy of the islanders toward a future government. Eighteen of them were in favor of outright annexation to the United States, while but two were in favor of a republic...... The Spanish Government has begun negotiations with the Philippine insurgents for the surrender of the 6,000 Spanish troops now held as prisoners by them...... It is reported that the Catholic orders in the islands are selling their immense property holdings to a Hongkong syndicate, fearing that under American government their titles would not be recognized...... The United States transport St. Paul arrived in Manila, from San Francisco, on September 1, with all well on board...... A deputation of the richest natives of the southern islands of the Philippine group visited the United States consul at Hongkong, on September 2, urging the immediate annexation of the whole Philippine group by the United States.

Cuba.— Miss Clara Barton has left Cuba, bringing back a steamer loaded with provisions which the authorities at Havana would not allow her to land without paying large duties. Another steamer is now in the harbor of Havana with a cargo of provisions which she has not yet been allowed to land...... The Cuban officers and soldiers who had shown hostility to the Americans have begun to come into Santiago and surrender their arms to General Lawton. Many of these are given positions of trust, and municipal affairs in that city are beginning to assume a condition of solidarity. Several Cuban generals have placed themselves at the service of General Lawton.

Porto Rico.— General Miles sailed from Porto Rico on September 1, with 4,600 of the troops which have been operating in the island. There are still 12,000 American troops in that island...... The American commissioners appointed to co-operate with the Spanish commission for the evacuation of the island by the Spanish troops, arrived at San Juan, Porto Rico, on September 6. It is not known how long it will be before the evacuation will begin.