p. 14 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1898

News and Notes

FOREIGN.

—During the year 1,775 new Sunday-schools have been organized in India, with a membership of 66,000.

—A conspiracy was lately discovered at Teheran, Persia, to murder the shah and install a younger brother in his place.

—The Corean Government has granted to two Americans important mining concessions covering a period of twenty-five years.

—The body of the chairman of the Indian Plague Committee at Bombay, was found near the scene of the recent plague riots, where he had been murdered by the rioters.

—Sixteen men were driven to sea on floating ice off the coast of Newfoundland, during the storm which raged there February 1, and it is believed that all have perished.

—A majority of the striking engineers of England have voted in favor of accepting the terms of their employers, which will probably end one of the largest strikes on record.

—On February 1, Gen. Santos J. Zelaya was inaugurated president of Nicaragua for a second term of four years. There were no disturbances connected with the ceremony.

—The British mail steamer Channel Queen struck on the rocks off the island of Guernsey on February 1, and it is reported that nineteen of the sixty-five persons on board lost their lives.

—A special from the City of Mexico states that President Diaz is arranging for a tour of the United States. It is understood that he will visit all the principal cities and the Pacific Coast.

—The attitude of Bulgaria in connection with affairs in Roumelia is causing such uneasiness to the Porte that the sultan has ordered the Minister of War to prepare 80 regiments of 1,700 men each for service in Roumelia next spring. It is reported that the Kurds are still devastating Armenian villages, and that there is complete anarchy in the Asiatic provinces of Turkey.

—The Turks in Thessaly are attempting to enforce the payment of taxes by the peasants, while the latter have resisted with force of arms. The result of the engagement between the troops and peasants is not known.

—What seems one of the richest gold mines ever discovered was recently opened in Conception del Oro, State of Coahuila, Mexico. It is said that the ore assays $42,150 per ton, and that the vein is six feet wide.

—The opening of the new submarine cable to the West Indies, via Turks Island and Bermuda, was celebrated January 31. It gives the United States and Canada a competitive route for cablegrams to the West Indies.

—A despatch from Constantinople reports the arrest of the sultan’s secretary and favorite on a charge of high treason. The secretary has long been under suspicion on account of his son’s connection with the Young Turkey party.

—Dr. Schenck, whose name but recently became famous by the report that he had discovered the secret of sex, states that the report of his discovery was overdrawn, and that he is “able to correct nature only in certain exceptional cases.”

—The Russian Government has invited the emperor of Korea to again occupy the Russian legation at Seoul. The emperor has refused to take up his residence at the legation, and his refusal has caused the resignation of his pro-Russian foreign minister.

—A detachment of the English army in India was cut off by Afridis on January 29. General Westmacott visited the scene of the fighting on February 1 and recovered twenty-two bodies of the British soldiers killed in the engagement. He also inflicted severe loss on 300 of the rebels who opposed him.

—The British steamer Tourmalin, while attempting to land a cargo of arms and ammunition for friendly natives on the Sus coast of Morocco, was intercepted by government officers and a fight ensued. The Moorish troops then demolished the villages favorable to foreigners, killing numbers of the inhabitants.

—The French press is now sounding a note of alarm against a continuation of the Dreyfus agitation, pointing out that by such agitation the country is playing into Germany’s hands. The Petit Journal says: “We have certain proofs that Germany foresees the possibility of war, and is making arrangements.”

—Within a space twenty-five by fifty miles, in the State of Oaxaca, Mexico, continual earthquake phenomena are being experienced, the peculiar characteristic of the disturbance being a constant rumbling and roaring, without any commotion on the earth’s crust. Local scientists fear that a part of the isthmus is about to sink.

—The czar continues his demand upon the sultan that Prince George of Greece be appointed to the governorship of the island of Crete. This is said to be in accordance with a promise which the czar had made to the dowager czarina. Italy has indorsed the candidacy of Prince George, and it is believed that the sultan will yield.

—The Prussian Government, on February 1, issued a decree, to take effect at once, prohibiting, on sanitary grounds, the importation of American fresh fruit. As a result, 16,000 barrels of apples have been forbidden a landing at Hamburg, and two trains loaded with fruit have been forbidden to cross the frontier. This action is exciting some indignation at Washington, and there is talk of retaliatory legislation.

—The consensus of opinion over affairs in the Orient seems to be that England has allowed Russia to outwit her in the game of diplomacy. England made specific demands for the opening of Port Arthur and Talien Wan, and it seemed that a crisis would be reached if the demand was not complied with; but it has been discovered that a secret treaty had been concluded between China and Russia in regard to these ports and the occupation of Manchuria by Russian troops, whereupon England withdrew her demand. The English liberals vigorously denounce the reported “backdown” of the British Government, declaring it to be a humiliating surrender and a severe blow to British interest and prestige. The Conservatives are also deeply disappointed over the present outlook.

—The steamer Warrimoo, which arrived from Australia on January 29, brings the intelligence that the most appalling climatic conditions have been prevailing throughout Australia and Tasmania. The prostrations from heat were so numerous that in large cities the condition of affairs was alarming. The thermometer during the heat of the day averaged 124 degrees in the shade, while in the sun it stood at 160. The heat was so great that numerous fires were started from spontaneous combustion. In Victoria Colony 100,000 acres were burned over by fires supposed to originate in this way. Hundreds of houses and barns and miles of fences have been burned. According to the report, sixty lives had been lost in the flames, and great numbers of domestic animals had perished.

DOMESTIC.

—Six persons lost their lives in a hotel fire at Gloversville, New York, on February 1.

—Four persons lost their lives and a number were injured in a railway accident on the Maine Central near Orono, Maine, on January 29.

—Advices from Victoria, B. C., state that two more steamers have been wrecked in Alaskan waters during the present week, the steamer Coquitlam and the ferry-boat Alaska.

—The first shipment of reindeer from Norway for the Klondike relief expedition arrived at New York on February 1. Seven of the forty-two in the shipment died on the voyage.

—The most elaborate reception of the present official season at the White House was that tendered President Dole, of Hawaii, by President McKinley, on the evening of February 1.

—One of the engineering parties seeking a feasible route for a railroad over Chilkat Pass is reported to be snowed in about twenty-five miles from Pyramid Harbor, and unable to proceed.

—The U. S. cruiser Brooklyn has been ordered to make a cruise in the West Indies, and the cruiser Montgomery has been ordered to make friendly visits at the smaller Cuban ports.

—It is stated by the principal agent of Joseph Leiter, of Chicago, who has been buying up such large quantities of wheat, that the Leiter firm has now cornered all the surplus wheat in the country.

—The largest congregation in this country is that of St. Stanislaus Kostka, in Chicago, which has 30,000 communicants. The number of attendants at the services on Sunday frequently exceeds 15,000.

—The ownership of the United States cruiser Marion has been transferred to the State of California for the use of the naval reserve, and was formally received by representatives of the State on January 31.

—The trial of Sheriff Martin and his deputies for the murder of the Hungarian strikers at Latimer, Pennsylvania, on September 10, began on February 3. It is expected that the trial will be closed in one week.

—On January 29 the government received sixty-nine bids in reply to its advertisement for the construction of an armor plant. The bids will be transmitted to Congress before further action is taken in the matter.

—The revenue cutter Corwin has been ordered to join the Bear in going to the rescue of the whalers imprisoned in the ice off Point Barrow. They are to meet at Oonalaska and proceed north as soon as the ice will permit.

—Negotiations are said to be going on in the Senate for a combination of the forces of the friends of Hawaiian annexation and Cuban independence, with a view to precipitating a crisis on both questions, without waiting for executive action.

—The Santa Fe Railroad has been so seriously blockaded by the burning of a tunnel near Williams, Arizona, that it is feared many towns will run short of provisions. Two men have been killed and eighteen injured in the work of repairing the tunnel.

—A test is soon to be made of a submarine boat to ascertain the feasibility of making a voyage in it under the ice. If the test is satisfactory, Professor Ridel proposes to use it in making a voyage to the North Pole, driving it under the ice where necessary.

—It is reported that the aerial tramway over the Chilcoot Pass has been completed and is ready to transport freight from the base of the mountain to Lake Lindeman. This will shorten a prospector’s journey over the pass from about a month to one day.

—By an adverse majority of fifty the House, on January 31, buried the Teller resolution, which had just been passed by the Senate. The resolution provided for the redemption of the bonds of the United States in gold or silver at the option of the government.

—Fifteen of the largest paper mills in the United States have formed a gigantic paper trust with a capital stock of $45,000,000. The company is to commence business with $60,000,000 cash. It is believed by the organizers of this trust that it is formed in such a way as to be free from the interference of the anti-trust laws.

—S. B. Nickum, of Logansport, Indiana, claims to have discovered a new light which will remain perpetual so long as the glass composing the globe remains unbroken. It is not an electric light, and has nothing to do with electricity or gas. A composition of chemical substances is enclosed in a glass globe, the air exhausted, and the globe sealed. As soon as the air is removed from the globe, the light is produced.

—A severe storm swept the Atlantic and New England States on February 1 and 2, doing incalculable damage both on land and sea. Roads were blocked, and telegraph and telephone wires stripped from their poles. The cost of the storm in Boston alone is estimated at nearly one and one-half million dollars. Fully a hundred vessels, mainly fishing craft and coasting schooners, were destroyed in the storm. In many places the beach is strewn with wrecks, and thirty-two corpses have been washed ashore. The estimated damage of the storm throughout New England is $10,000,000, and it is considered to be the worst since 1839.