p. 14 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1898

News and Notes

FOREIGN.

—The Egyptian troops have captured the Dervish outpost of Mugalla, west of Kassala.

—According to the latest reports from Turkey, the sultan has refused to pay an indemnity for American property destroyed during the Armenian outrages.

—Fifty persons were killed and eighteen injured by an explosion of gas in one of the mines of the Donezater Company, on the north shore of the Sea of Azov, on January 18.

—The shortage of crops in Austria-Hungary is reported to be much greater than had been anticipated, and will necessitate the importation of $100,000,000 worth of food supplies.

—It is reported in Shanghai that the demands of the French on China in regard to the island of Hai-Nan have created such uneasiness in Japan that the mikado will send a squadron to the island.

—As a result of further attempts to equalize the German and Czech languages in Bohemia, renewed rioting has taken place, and no satisfactory settlement of the disturbing question seems possible.

—A detachment of the Kongo (Africa) state troops was defeated by insurgent tribesmen north of Lake Tanganyika. Baron Dhanis, the commander, who was personally conducting the punitive expedition, was killed.

—A bread riot occurred in Ancona, Italy, on January 17, arising from a demonstration of women organized by the Socialists to demand a reduction in the price of bread. Several arrests were made in the mêlée which ensued.

—The Government of Chile is preparing for war, presumably with Argentina, and has called to active service all her National Guard and youths of twenty years or more. She has also purchased three cruisers from Brazil.

—The Russian ambassador to Constantinople is reported to have represented to the sultan that unless Turkey gave her assent to Prince George of Greece becoming governor of Crete, Russia would propose the annexation of Crete to Greece.

—Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, Chancellor of the Exchequer, voicing the policy of the British Government anent affairs in the Orient, has stated that England “was determined, even at the cost of war, that the door of Chinese commerce should not be shut to Great Britain.” All the influential journals of the kingdom applaud this sentiment.

—President Sanford B. Dole, of Hawaii, arrived in San Francisco, California, on January 18, en route to Washington, where he will use his influence in favor of the annexation of the islands to the United States. He will be the guest of the nation while at Washington.

—England continues to strengthen her fleet in the Orient, having ordered two of her North Pacific fleet now stationed at Esquimalt to proceed to the China station at once. Other vessels belonging to this squadron are to be kept in readiness for a cruise on short notice.

—Gen. Sir William Lockhart, commander-in-chief of the British forces in India, has been called home to explain the recent reverses of the army. It is stated that his appointment will be canceled unless he can throw the responsibility for the disasters upon the shoulders of his brigadier-generals.

—The old home of Sir Isaac Newton, near Leicester Square, London, is about to be pulled down to make room for a modern structure. Once before this interesting building was threatened with destruction, but public sentiment was sufficiently raised against it to save it to the present time.

—Mrs. J. C. Ayer, widow of the famous patent-medicine manufacturer, died recently in Paris, leaving a fortune of over $15,000,000. She was known as the wealthiest woman in Paris, and spent her entire annual income of $2,000,000 for her own pleasure and the maintenance of her elegant establishment.

—A committee of the Dominion Cabinet has drawn up new regulations for the government of mining in the Yukon. The sliding scale of royalties will be abandoned, and a uniform royalty of 10 per cent. will be exacted from the product of all mines, whether great or small. Instead of reserving alternate claims, the government will reserve alternate blocks of ten claims, which it is thought will be an improvement over the present regulations.

—According to advices from Shanghai, the Russian minister to China has informed the Tsung-li-Yamen (Chinese office for foreign affairs) that as soon as the German affair is settled, Russia will restore Port Arthur to China, and withdraw her troops without demanding indemnity. In return, the despatch states, the Chinese Government must employ only Russians to drill the army of China and to control her customs and railways. There is little reason to believe that the other interested nations will agree to China giving Russia such an influential position in the empire.

—All France is in a turmoil over what is known as the Dreyfus affair. An attempt to open the case of this exiled and imprisoned officer of the French army brought certain scandals to the attention of the public which resulted in the court-martialing of another officer named Esterhazy. The charges were so serious that the trial was held behind closed doors. Esterhazy was acquitted, whereupon Zola, the noted French novelist, took up the matter against Esterhazy and in favor of the exiled Dreyfus, making serious charges of criminal conduct on the part of high officials. The anarchists have espoused the side of Zola, with the students in opposition, and the two conflicting factions, backed by their sympathizers, have stirred up alarming riots in the French capital.

—The more serious outbreak anticipated in Cuba during the week did not materialize, tho it is reported on what seems good authority that a conspiracy on the part of the volunteers to overthrow General Blanco, drive him out of Havana, and capture the fortifications in and around the capital, was nipped in the bud by the plot becoming known to the police but a few hours before it was to have been carried out. All the colonels of volunteers in Havana were at once summoned before the captain-general, and compelled to swear allegiance to the queen and the flag. General Blanco now proposes to send half of the volunteers into the field and disarm the others. General Gomez has issued an address to the Spanish landholders and business men, telling them that their lives and property will be respected in the event of the success of the revolution.

DOMESTIC.

—The Stanford University, at Palo Alto, Cal., dismissed forty-one students soon after the beginning of the new year, for inferior work, immorality, and drinking habits.

—According to the New York Press, Tammany’s program for the governing of Greater New York will make it what is known as a “wide-open” town, with greater license for prize-fighters and characterless women.

—John M. Bittenger, U. S. Consul-General for Canada, has been blackballed by the leading social organization of Montreal, on account of certain printed statements of his in regard to the annexation of British America.

—Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, has issued a sweeping order to the effect that every gambling-house in the city must close. The prohibition also includes professional boxing bouts, prize-fights, and the operating of slot machines.

—What will probably be the greatest convention of woman suffragists ever held in the world is announced for February 14 to 19 inclusive, in the city of Washington, being the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the woman suffrage movement.

—Hon. Benjamin Butterworth, U. S. Commissioner of Patents, died at Thomasville, Georgia, on January 16, from an attack of pneumonia.

—The House of Representatives voted on January 13 to continue the annual appropriation of $130,000 for the free distribution of seeds to the farmers.

—The steamer Walla Walla left San Francisco on January 17, carrying 360 passengers for the Klondike, the first large instalment of the spring rush to the Yukon gold fields.

—The Commissioner of Internal Revenue states that during the past year there has been a decrease of nearly 6,000,000 gallons in the consumption of whisky and other spirits, and of 1,403,004 barrels in the consumption of beer.

—Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, introduced in the Senate on January 14 an amendment to the Constitution, making April 30 inauguration day, instead of the 4th of March. The resolution was referred to the committee on privileges and elections.

—On account of their liberal support to the Tammany campaign fund in New York, the liquor dealers are demanding of Mayor Van Wyck that the treasurer of the Liquor Dealers’ Association be appointed as one of the police commissioners for that city.

—The mining town of Randsburg, California, which is not yet two years old, and containing a population of over 3,000, was almost entirely destroyed by fire on the night of January 18. Only one lodging-house and a few cabins remain standing.

—The Chinese Minister to the United States has presented to the President the request of Li Hung Chang that a son of General Grant be appointed as Minister to China. The President had already selected Edwin H. Conger, of Iowa, for this station and no change will be made.

—The steamer Corona, from Dyea and Skagway, arrived at Victoria, B. C., on January 17, with twenty returning Klondike miners whose recently acquired wealth is estimated at over $1,000,000. The members of this party left Dawson on December 14, and came out over the mountain pass.

—A gigantic strike of the cotton-mill operatives in the New England States took place on the morning of January 17. It is computed that 12,000 employees are idle, which means the stopping of 1,000,000 spindles and 25,000 looms. The cause of the strike was a reduction of 10 per cent. in wages.

—Two Americans, natives of Bridgeton, N. J., are now on their way to one of the central provinces of the Chinese Empire for the purpose of constructing mints there for the coining of copper and silver coins on the order of the Chinese emperor. They will have to travel 900 miles inland before they arrive at their destination.

—The Board of Trustees of Princeton University, seemingly stirred to action by the New York Voice, have instructed the faculty of that institution to literally and strictly enforce a forgotten regulation of the college which forbids students indulging in intoxicating liquors or frequenting places where such are dispensed.

—The executive committee of the American Federation of Labor has issued an address to the members of the fifty-fifth Congress, calling for an eight-hour working day on all public works, legislation to prevent “government by injunction,” prohibit the transportation of prison-made goods from one state to another, and to restrict undesirable immigration.

—A dispute has arisen between American and Canadian representatives in regard to the boundary line in the vicinity of Lake Bennett. The United States Commissioner for Dyea and Skaguay has laid claim to a strip of land three miles wide which would give this country control of the territory through from the coast to the lake. The Canadian official has communicated the matter to the government at Ottawa.

—Thomas A. Edison, Jr., has invented a machine with which he expects to compress air by wave power with machines located twenty miles at sea. The inventor states that a wealthy syndicate has the matter of immediate construction of the apparatus in charge, and that the amount necessary to complete the plant will probably be not less than $25,000,000. He expects with this to generate power enough to supply the whole of New York State.

—The principal discussions of the week in Congress have been in regard to the Immigration Bill, the annexation of Hawaii, and the recognition of Cuban belligerency or independence. The latter consisted chiefly of an attempt on the part of one side to get the question before the House, and the successful prevention of the same by the other side. It was the decision of the majority not to embarrass the executive with Cuban legislation at the present time.

—The Lodge Immigration Bill was taken up in the Senate on January 17, and passed. It provides that every immigrant over sixteen years of age must be able to read and write the English or some other language, except parents, or grandparents, of children over twenty-one years of age, who are qualified under the law, providing such parents or grandparents are themselves over fifty years of age. The law does not require the qualification of wives who either accompany or come to join their husbands who are qualified under the law.