p. 14 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 31, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 13.

News and Notes

FOREIGN

—The war along the northeast frontier of India is now regarded as ended, the rebels having given the seventy hostages demanded by the British.

—The Chinese Government has refused to comply with the recent demands of France, and is now waiting to see what course France will pursue, in view of her refusal.

—The Spanish Government has decided upon a strict censorship of the Spanish press, and also to prohibit the transmission of all telegrams relating to the flotilla and the general naval preparations.

—Reports from the island of Madagascar state that a French expedition sent out against the insurgents has met with serious resistance, losing 6 officers, 100 men, a number of rifles, and 125,000 cartridges.

—Theodore Ledner, a German, with an expedition aided from state and private sources, will start next May in search of Herr Andree, the missing aeronaut, and in the prosecution of scientific investigations on his own part.

—The scarcity of rice in the port of Canton and an attempt on the part of shipping agents to export that article to San Francisco, caused a rice riot in the former place recently, resulting in the death of several of the rioters.

—The Chinese Government recently sent a special commissioner to Russia to obtain a modification of Russia’s demands. This commissioner has been entirely unsuccessful, and there is no alternative for China but to agree to those demands.

—A terrible explosion took place on March 18 in the Santa Isabel mine, at Belmez, province of Cordova, Spain. Seventy corpses have already been recovered, and many are as yet unaccounted for. Five of those rescued have died of their injuries.

—Along with the imperial denial of the conspiracy on the part of the Yang-tse-Kiang viceroys, comes the report of another conspiracy in the Chang Sha province of Hunan. It is feared that this, in conjunction with the other rebellious provinces, will prove to be a very formidable rebellion.

—The inability of Italy to keep pace with Russia and France in the increase of their navies has become so manifest that the government has decided to make no expenditure for war ships for the present year. The Italian people are unable longer to bear the heavy taxation necessary to create additional war ships.

—There are now between thirty-five and forty British war ships in Chinese waters, and these have lately been augmented by the arrival of the battleship Powerful, one of the most destructive vessels afloat. To provide coal for this immense fleet, English agents recently bought up all the available coal at coast ports. This policy is now being pursued to such an extent that English agents are meeting vessels far out at sea and purchasing their entire cargoes. It would seem from this that English officials expect important operations in the Orient before many months.

—On March 2 a committee of five congressmen sailed for Cuba for the purpose of making a thorough investigation of present conditions in that island. This committee returned on March 19, and on the 21st presented its report, of which the following is a summary: In the rural districts hardly a human habitation is visible, and the once luxuriant plantations are now overrun with weeds and hardy shrubbery. Half of the rural population has perished. In the central and western provinces there are large districts from which the whole population has been swept away, less than one-fifth of them being still alive, and, from being gathered together under Spanish surveillance, known as reconcentrados. There are 205,000 in the island who are absolutely without food and must die of starvation unless the provisions now being sent them from American sources are continued until after peace is restored. The Spanish have suffered also. Their hospitals are crowded, and every ship returning to Spain carries large numbers of invalid soldiers. One-half of Spain’s 250,000 troops will never see their native land again, and hardly one-fifth of those in the island are now effective. Twenty years will not repair the ravages of this war, and the descendants of the reconcentrados will bear the marks of this awful period for generations to come. Altho the destruction of human life has been brutal and terrific, especially in the slaughter of pacificos, yet the insurgents are stronger than ever, only lacking the armament to deliver the final blow. Many sanguine Spaniards who are honest and intelligent admit that Spain can never regain control of the island; and peace will never come until imposed by the action of the United States. Smallpox is still rampant, and yellow fever, at all times present, will reap a fearful harvest before the last of April. The autonomist government is trying to relieve the suffering, but is almost helpless under the present difficulties. The inhabitants of towns and cities have suffered as well as the rural population, and disease and starvation are everywhere doing their awful work.

—Reports from Africa state that a battle is imminent between the Anglo-Egyptian column and the Dervishes. The combined forces have started to meet the enemy, and the enemy are advancing also.

—There is considerable doubt expressed as to whether China will be able to give such guarantees as will influence English and German capitalists to subscribe to the £16,000,000 loan which has been guaranteed by England and Germany. The unsettled condition of affairs in the Orient and the inability to foresee what Russia and France will do, have combined to bring about this state of feeling on the part of investors.

DOMESTIC

—The Fay Livery Company, of Chicago, have contracted for 200 electric motor cabs, which will soon be in operation in the streets of that city.

—The two new battle-ships, Kentucky and Kearsarge, were launched at Norfolk, Virginia, on March 24, but it will be some time before they will be ready for sea.

—The Pacific Mill, at Tacoma, Washington, the largest shingle mill in the world, was destroyed by fire on March 22, causing a loss of $150,000, with small insurance.

—Six negro convicts were killed by an explosion in a coal mine at Pratt City, Alabama, on March 19. The men were 1,800 feet below the surface, repairing the air machinery.

—Chaplain Chidwick, of the battle-ship Maine, has completed his mortuary report, which shows that 257 men and 2 officers perished in the catastrophe, and 7 died afterward from injuries received in the explosion. Only 171 of the bodies have been recovered.

—The U. S. battle-ship Oregon, provisioned for a number of months, and with magazines crowded with ammunition, sailed from San Francisco on March 19. She will touch at Callao, and from that port will doubtless be ordered to join the Atlantic squadron.

—Two hundred of the reindeer purchased in Norway and transported to the Pacific Coast for use in the Klondike relief expedition, which has now been abandoned, have been sold to parties engaged in mail carrying and general transportation to the northern gold regions.

—The House, on March 21, unanimously passed the bill for the relief of the survivors and victims of the Maine disaster. The bill reimburses the survivors, officers, and men for the losses they sustained, to an amount not to exceed a year’s salary, and directs the payment of a sum equal to a year’s pay to the legal heirs of those who perished.

—The famous “Black Jack” gang of ruffians and desperadoes has been completely wiped out by the “avenging angels” of the Mormon colonies in the vicinity of Casas Grandes, Mexico. The gang was surrounded and its members shot to death in one of their mountain retreats, after having brutally murdered a woman belonging to the Mormon Church.

—Blanche K. Bruce, the colored register of the U. S. Treasury, died at Washington, on March 17. Mr. Bruce was one of the leaders of the colored race, and had held the position of U. S. senator from Virginia. President McKinley has appointed Judson Lyons to fill the vacancy. Mr. Lyons is also a negro, and the Republican national committeeman from Georgia.

—An organization known as the “Catholic Truth Society” has recently been established in San Francisco, the object of which is to disseminate the doctrines and dogmas of the Catholic Church among the people of the Pacific Coast. This is to be accomplished by the use of tracts and other literature which is to be distributed broadcast, and by the opening of reading-rooms stocked with Catholic reading matter.

—Gold worth $559 and silver worth $32 were extracted at the New York assay office on March 21 from a quantity of bullion taken from ocean water by the Electrolytic Marine Salts Company, of Lubec, Maine. It has long been known that there was gold in sea water, but it has never before been extracted successfully. It is estimated that it took 15,000 tons of sea water to produce the amount of gold and silver above stated.

—The bark Helen W. Almy, which left San Francisco March 20 with twenty-seven passengers and a crew of thirteen, is now floating on her side in the waters south of the Golden Gate, and no one has yet been found to tell the tale of the wreck. There is every reason to believe that all of the forty persons she carried lost their lives. Most of her passengers were from the East or points inland, a party of twelve being from Coalgate, Indian Territory.

—The Naval Appropriation Bill for the present year has been reported to the House, and carries a total of $35,686,058, an increase of nearly $4,000,000 over last year. This bill provides for the construction of three first-class battle-ships of 11,000 tons’ displacement, one of which will be named the Maine. These vessels are to cost $3,000,000 each, exclusive of armament. The bill also calls for six additional torpedo-boats, six torpedo-boat destroyers, and one gunboat.

—The North-bound overland train of the Southern Pacific Company was held up by masked bandits on the night of March 22, near Visalia, Cal., and it is supposed that a large amount of booty was secured. The express car was literally blown into kindling-wood by the explosions of dynamite bombs; the big through safe was totally wrecked, and the registered mail pouches were rifled of their contents. Sheriff’s posses from three counties are in pursuit of the desperadoes.

—Heavy rains in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky are causing serious floods in those States. The property losses in Ohio and Indiana already are placed at nearly $13,000,000. Thousands of persons have been driven from their homes, a number are known to have been drowned, and many more are missing. Practically all the railroads in Central and Southern Ohio are crippled by washouts, submerged tracks, and dangerous bridges. Two trains have gone through sinking bridges, resulting in the loss of a number of lives.

—The present outlook in regard to the relations between the United States and Spain has shown no signs of brightening during the week. The preparations for war on the part of both countries indicate the seriousness of the present situation, and it is the expressed opinion of men standing high in the confidences of the government that war can not be averted. Nearly half of the $50,000,000 appropriation recently made has been already used in war preparations or is covered by contracts already let. Both governments are doing their best to procure fighting vessels from other nations, or prevent the other from doing so. The report of the court of inquiry into the Maine disaster is on its way to Washington, and is expected to be in the hands of Congress on the 29th, accompanied by a message from the President. Upon its contents will depend, in great measure, the question of peace or war, altho it is claimed by many that the present conditions in the island of Cuba may be made the real point over which hostilities would begin.