News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 2, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 34.

FOREIGN.

—The ameer of Afghanistan has taken a solemn oath to maintain friendly relations with Great Britain.

—The queen regent of Spain, on August 20, conferred upon General Azcarraga, who is also minister of war, the premiership of Spain.

—The poor of France are petitioning the government to reduce the import duty on breadstuff, as the sudden rise in wheat is working hardship among them.

—The steamer Cheang Hy Etong foundered in a typhoon on August 20, while off the Malay peninsula, and twenty-one of her passengers and crew were drowned.

—On account of the short wheat crop in most wheat-raising countries of the world, the Russian Government has prohibited the exportation of Russian wheat.

—Professor Falb, of Vienna, has figured out the date of the destruction of the earth, and places it on November 13, 1899, when there is to be a collision between the earth and a comet.

—The Brazilian fanatics have strongly entrenched themselves near Canudos, and have sent out well-armed forces into the States of San Paulo and Parana, raiding plantations and towns in their route.

—M. Faure, president of France, is now visiting Czar Nicolas at St. Petersburg, and both Russia and France are congratulating themselves upon the strengthening of the ties of friendship between the two great nations.

—The government at Vienna has suspended relations with Bulgaria because of the latter’s refusal to apologize for the remarks of her premier concerning the morality of the Austrian court. Austria has recalled her minister.

—Serious fighting is reported from Brazil between the insurgents and government forces, in which the former were driven from their position with heavy loss. They have again entrenched themselves, and are awaiting a renewal of the attack.

—The king of Benin, by whose orders an unarmed English expedition was massacred some months ago, and whose city was later captured by the British, has surrendered himself and followers to the English. His public submission was made on August 7.

—On August 20 Constantinople was startled by another bomb explosion, and but for the prompt action of the police a massacre would have followed. The British and Italian guard-ships left their anchorage and entered the harbor of Constantinople.

—A despatch from Madrid states that there will be concerted action by the governments of Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, and Russia to stamp out anarchism. It is stated that a penal colony will be established for the detention of dangerous anarchists.

—A special despatch from Norway says that Captain Beade’s north polar expedition has returned safely from the icy sea, having been unable to proceed beyond latitude 80 degrees 40 minutes, on account of the great masses of ice which were encountered.

—On August 18 a company of Kurds raided two Armenian villages on the border of Persia, and massacred 200 Armenians, Persians, and Mussulmans, indiscriminately. The Persian Government has decided to send more troops to the scene of the invasion.

—For years there has been a dispute concerning the location of the remains of Martin Luther. It is now definitely settled that he and Melanchthon are resting side by side in the old castle church of Wittenberg, upon the door of which Luther nailed his ninety-five theses.

—Advices from Santa Clara, Cuba, report that a severe battle was recently fought between the insurgents and the Spanish under General Lopez. The latter were defeated and left 100 dead men on the field. The Cuban leader, Flores, and twenty-four of his followers, were killed.

—A meeting of 3,000 people was held at Athens on August 22, at which the peace negotiations between Turkey and Greece were denounced, and King George was urged to resume the war. The press of Greece and the majority of the population are opposed to the war agitation.

—A city official of the City of Mexico has given out the information that a plot has been discovered for the assassination of President Diaz. An Italian anarchist who is now in the city is believed to be there for the purpose of carrying out the plot, and is therefore under close police surveillance.

—Reports of new atrocities on the part of the Spanish in Cuba and new forms of torture for the captured insurgents and pacificos are continually coming from that war-wrecked island, until the senses become almost benumbed to an appreciation of the heart-rending suffering which is going on there.

—General Chamberlain, one of the highest army officers in India, speaking of the cause for the Indian revolt, states that it is directly due to the provocative policy of the English Government toward the independent tribes, and in annexing Chitral after a solemn promise that its independence should be maintained.

—Juan Idiarte Borda, president of the republic of Uruguay, was assassinated on August 25, as he passed out of a church door. Since his election in 1894 several attempts have been made on his life. The assassin claims to be alone responsible for his rash act, stating that it was due to his personal hatred for the man. It is thought that this will add fuel to the flame of the rebellion now in progress in that little republic.

—The representatives of the powers in the peace negotiations between Turkey and Greece have notified their respective governments that it will be impossible for Greece to pay a larger indemnity than £3,000,000, and recommend that it be reduced to that amount. Turkey persists in her determination to hold Thessaly until the indemnity is paid, and Lord Salisbury insists upon Turkey’s withdrawal from that territory.

—An important concession has been made by the government of Honduras to wealthy capitalists of the United States for the building of a railroad and branches in that country. The syndicate to which this concession is granted will have charge of the collection of customs, will establish banks and import white colonists. The American consul to Honduras states that this means absolute control of the trade of Honduras by the United States.

—Advices from the seat of trouble in India state that the insurgents in the field actively operating against the British now number fully 40,000. They have captured Fort Maude, in the Khyber Pass, and burned it to the ground. It is also reported that the rebellious Afridis attacked the Sepoys near Fort Ali Musjid on August 23, and killed 300, capturing their rifles and ammunition. The English have 42,000 soldiers now in the field to deal with the natives.

—“Occultism in most grotesque and monstrous forms has lately come to light in Paris and other French communities,” says the Literary Digest. This is particularly manifest in what is known as the Satanist Society, or “devil-worshipers,” whose chief center of influence is Paris. Belgium is said to be permeated with this form of occultism, and even in Great Britain, societies of this kind are established, where the rite of the “black mass” is celebrated.

—Great efforts are being put forth to save Evangelina Cisneros, niece of the president of the Cuban republic, from a twenty-year term of imprisonment to which she was cruelly condemned by Spanish court-martial because she would not submit to dishonor at the hands of a Spanish official. Many petitions have been circulated in her behalf by prominent American women, and the pope of Rome was also induced to intercede for her. It is believed that she will be released.

DOMESTIC.

—A strike of 12,000 cloak-makers has been ordered in New York City.

—Three young men who were rowing on the Niagara River were thrown into the water by the capsizing of their boat, and all three were swept over the falls.

—It is reported that President McKinley is now sounding European governments to ascertain the extent of their neutrality in case the United States should intervene in Cuba.

—At the recent commencement of Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, there were twenty-two graduates in the classical, philosophical, and scientific courses, no one of whom uses tobacco or intoxicants.

—With 7,000,000 tons of ore in sight, the Treadwell Mine on Douglas Island, Alaska, is soon to have the largest stamp mill in the world for crushing ore. The number of stamps will be 300. This mine will produce $125,000 a month in gold.

—A successful trial has been made of the compressed air engine upon the New York elevated Railroad. The motor carried a charge of compressed air of 2,500 pounds pressure to the square inch, and made two trips in much less than schedule time.

—There are mutterings of trouble among the Cherokees of Indian Territory over the contemplated destruction of their tribal government. The citizens of that district are fearful lest the full-bloods shall take up arms to prevent any action toward that end.

—A new use has been discovered for the cathode ray, that of beautifying the skin. It is claimed that the “bombardment of particles” when continued for a sufficient length of time will cause the old skin to fall off and a newer and purer tegument to take its place.

—Prof. David Starr Jordan, of Stanford University, has returned from his trip to the sealing grounds of Alaska, having accomplished the work for which he was sent there by the U. S. Government, that is, the branding of female seals to prevent their destruction by pelagic sealers.

—Lieutenant Squier, of Fortress Monroe, and Professor Crehore, of Dartmouth College, who have lately been experimenting in England with their newly patented apparatus for rapid telegraphy, have succeeded in sending messages 800 miles at the rate of 4,000 words per minute. They claim to be able to transmit the usual contents of a daily newspaper in one hour over any long telegraph circuit.

—The coal-mine operators have decided to take action at once for opening their mines in the strike district, giving the strikers an opportunity to return to work, and employing new men if the strikers refuse. The committee of mine operators has adjourned sine die, without coming to any agreement with the strikers, and it is believed that serious results will follow the attempt to work the mines with new laborers.

—The annual reunion of the Grand Army of the Republic is now taking place at Buffalo, New York, with President McKinley in attendance. The encampment opened on the morning of August 24 with a grand parade, and was followed in the evening with camp-fires for the old soldiers, receptions, and musical entertainments for the ladies. It is stated that a larger number are in attendance this year than for several years in the past.

—Prince Louis of Savoy and his party of Italian mountain climbers have returned from their ascent of Mount St. Elias, in southern Alaska. They were fifty-one days in reaching the summit, and were the first white men to scale this lofty peak. Two questions have been settled by the expedition,—the height of the mountain, which is 18,100 feet, and the fact that it was never a volcano. The party of Americans who are making the ascent have not yet accomplished the feat.

—J. H. Carpenter, founder of the Carpenter Steel Works, of Reading, Penn., has offered to furnish steel armor for government war ships at $150 per ton, or one-half less than the price at which several armor-plate manufacturers declined to furnish it. Congress recently authorized the Secretary of the Navy to contract for armor at $300 per ton; but no bids were received from the companies which had been previously manufacturing armor for war vessels. Mr. Carpenter’s process is entirely new, and electricity is one of the principal features in its production.

—There has been great excitement throughout the country during the past week over the rapid rise of wheat. The shortage in nearly every country in the world has caused large demands upon the wheat of the American producer, and the scenes in the wheat pits of the large cities have been beyond description. Manipulators of the market have added hundreds of thousands of dollars to their bank accounts in a single day. Wall Street brokers have estimated that the world’s demand for American wheat will bring into this country during the year over $750,000,000. American farmers are happy, while the poor of foreign cities look with dread to the coming winter.