NEWS AND NOTES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 30, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 26.

Progress of the War.—

A war balloon was sent to Cuba with the expedition under General Shafter, and will be given its first test in actual service......On June 15 the battle-ship Texas, with the Marblehead and Suwanee, entered the bay of Guantanamo, and destroyed a fort at the town of Caimanera......At daylight on June 16 and 17, Admiral Sampson’s squadron bombarded the forts at the entrance to Santiago harbor for the third time, and it is reported that the vessels did great damage to the fortifications. On two nights previous to the bombardment the dynamite cruiser Vesuvius threw 250-pound charges of gun-cotton into the harbor and upon the fortifications......General Shafter arrived off the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, on June 20, with 16,000 troops, landing part of them at Bacquiri with but little opposition, June 22......An American cable office has been established on the soil of Cuba, at the camp of the marines who were landed near Santiago last week. This was accomplished by taking ashore one of the cables recently severed, and making the proper connections. Admiral Sampson and General Shafter are now both in direct communication with Washington......General Blanco has announced that he will entertain no proposition for the exchange of Lieutenant Hobson and his men, and that hereafter any American vessel coming within range will be fired upon by the forts, even tho under a flag of truce......It is reported that a member of the Havana volunteers attempted the assassination of General Blanco a few days ago, but only succeeded in giving him a severe flesh wound......The American supply ship Zafiro, which arrived at Hongkong on June 20, was at once ordered out of Chinese waters by the Chinese collector of customs, without allowing the usual twenty-four hour stay......Native volunteers in the Spanish army in Manila are continuing to desert and join the insurgents. Chief Aguinaldo has completely surrounded the city with an army of 30,000 men, and it is reported that up to the present time he has taken 4,000 prisoners. The Philippine militia are said to be nearly all now fighting in the ranks of the insurgents. On June 12 an assembly of the natives was called at Cavite, when a declaration of independence was formally made by Aguinaldo, together with an acknowledgment of an American protectorate......The rebels have captured the governors and garrisons at Bulucan and Batangas, comprising 750 men, and have surrounded the garrison of the province of Pampanga......Augusti, the Spanish captain-general of the Philippines, has resigned his position, according to recent report, so that the surrender of the city would not devolve upon him......The steam launches of the Marblehead and Dolphin, on June 21, fished up seven submarine mines which the Spanish had planted in the channel of Guantanamo Bay.

International.—

The house of the Spanish consul at St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, was stoned by a mob of negroes on the night of June 18. He had rendered himself obnoxious by securing the imprisonment of a number of editors for printing the Iowa’s battle hymn, and by inducing the government to prohibit the singing of “Marching through Georgia.”......A bill granting a franchise to the Pacific Cable Company for a cable from Honolulu to Japan has been passed by the Legislature of Hawaii. The franchise is conditioned upon the company securing a franchise within eighteen months for a cable between the United States and Hawaii......A cargo containing 1,300 tins of opium was seized by the authorities at Honolulu recently......In the Berane district of Albania 700 houses belonging to Servian Christians, have been burned by the Turks, who are said to be committing many atrocities in that locality. The Albanians and Servians have taken up arms, and a battle occurred between them on June 18. The Servians were pursuing the Albanians at Berane, when the former were fired upon by a Turkish battery, and lost many in killed and wounded. Said Edin Pasha has been sent to restore order and rebuild the burned villages......The Senate of Hawaii has passed a bill to license the sale of opium. * The vote was unanimous, in spite of the opposition of the islanders......Australia’s pest, the rabbit, is being exterminated by the thousands through the inoculation of chicken cholera. After being inoculated the rabbits are released and spread the contagion rapidly among their kind......A band of forty brigands has abducted the sister of the sultan of Turkey......A telegraph line 2,000 miles long has just been completed between Cape Town, South Africa, and Blantyre in British Central Africa......France has now a new cabinet under the leadership of M. Ferdinand Sarrien. It is announced that the foreign policy of the nation will be unchanged......Italy’s new cabinet which went into office on May 31, has resigned, and it is felt in Italy that this sudden resignation of the new ministry foreshadows an important crisis.

Domestic Miscellany.—

The claims of Canadian sealers against the United States for seizure of sealing vessels, were settled on June 16 by the payment to the British minister at Washington of $473,000......Professor Haupt, of the Nicaragua Canal Commission, appeared before the Senate committee on the Nicaragua Canal, on June 16, and reported that the building of the canal was entirely feasible, and placed the cost of its construction at between $90,000,000 and $95,000,000......Count Cassini, the new Russian minister to the United States, arrived at New York on June 16......One hundred Alaskan prospectors are reported to be at the head of Portland canal, unable either to proceed or retreat. The report states that the entire company is in danger of starvation......The one million acres of land recently wrested from the Southern Pacific Company by a decision of the courts, will be thrown open to location by the United States as soon as actual settlers have proved their claims......A monument is to be erected to ensign Worth Bagley, the first officer in the American navy to fall in the war with Spain......An X ray plant is to be shipped to Manila for the use of the surgeons of the army, and others have been shipped to Tampa for use in the Cuban expedition......Three tons of smokeless powder were blown up at the Kings Powder Mills, near Springfield, Ohio, on June 20. The explosion is attributed to spies......Fifty unsuccessful gold seekers arrived in Seattle on June 22 from the Copper River region, having lost their entire outfits in attempting to ascend the river, while reports of great distress come from the prospectors who are seeking to get to the gold regions over the Sticken trail.

Casualties and Calamities.—

At Wetumpka, Alabama, on June 17, five negroes who participated in the murder of three aged people, were taken from the sheriff, hanged to a tree, and their bodies riddled with bullets......Gangs of Austrian peasants attacked and plundered the shops of the Jews at Fenyaztak, Austrian Galicia, on June 16, and wounded several. The police fired on the mob, killing six of the rioters and wounding five. Riots of a similar nature have occurred at Gorlice, in the same province......During a hurricane which raged along the coast of Australia from the 8th to the 10th of May, thirty persons are known to have lost their lives, and nearly 100 vessels of various kinds were wrecked or badly damaged. The steamer Maitland went down with thirteen passengers and a crew of seventeen......A serious epidemic is raging in the group of islands east of Australia known as the Loyalty Islands. It is said that the disease is terribly fatal to the natives......At the launching of England’s newest first-class battle-ship, the Albion, at the Thames Ship-building Yards, on June 21, forty persons lost their lives. The ship’s plunge into the water created a great wave, which caused the collapse of a staging occupied by about 200 people, and all were precipitated into the water. The sailors present foolishly attribute the disaster to the fact that the Duchess of York refused to break the customary bottle of champagne over the vessel’s bows at the launching......One of the small boats of the Russian steamer Bay of Naples capsized off Noumea, Loyalty Islands, on June 22, and fourteen of the sailors were devoured by the sharks.

Fires.—

A despatch from Yokohama states that the ancient Japanese temple of Dianen-butsuji, which was erected 800 years ago, at a cost of nearly $4,000,000, was destroyed by fire on May 22. The East Henwan Temple at Kyoto was destroyed on May 25, at a loss of $100,000, together with a warehouse valued at $150,000......The grand opera house at Albuquerque, N. M., was destroyed by fire on June 19. The building and its contents were valued at over $200,000......The town of Tracy, California, was almost entirely destroyed by fire on June 19. The loss is estimated at $100,000......The great silver mining camp of Park City, Utah, was entirely wiped out by fire on the morning of June 19. The buildings destroyed include eighty business houses, four churches, the city hall, and post-office. The loss is placed at $750,000.

Religious.—

The sultan of Turkey, according to the Frankfort Zeitung, has purchased 3,000 square yards of land near Jerusalem, which he will present to Emperor William as a site for a monastery......Ministers from various churches of San Francisco and neighboring towns have organized a society known as the United States Army and Navy Christian Commission of California, the object of which is to spread the Gospel among the soldiers, sailors, and marines going to the Philippines.

Educational.—

A university for the higher education of women is now being erected in Tokyo, Japan, at a cost of $200,000. The project has the support of the emperor, empress, and the nobility......Mrs. Elizabeth Kelly has donated $75,000 for erecting and equipping a new dormitory for women at the University of Chicago. It will be called Green Hall, in memory of Mrs. Kelly’s parents......During the past week three comets have been discovered by observers at the Lick Observatory. All are small, however, and invisible to the naked eye.