News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 32.

FOREIGN

—Advices from Bombay state that the ravages of cholera are again on the increase in that vicinity.

—Thirty-eight persons were drowned in the province of Esthonia, Russia, during the recent floods there.

—The Anglo-Egyptian expedition up the Nile has captured the town of Abu Hamid after some severe fighting.

—It is reported that fighting between the French and Siamese has again broken out in the neutral zone on the Siamese frontier.

—A cable from Havana states that General Gomez has started westward to take personal command of the forces in Havana and Matanzas provinces.

—The Canadian Government continues to send mounted police into the Yukon mining country, the last company of fifty being armed with Maxim guns.

—It is semi-officially announced that Japan has selected Belgium to act as arbiter of the questions in dispute between Hawaii and the Japanese Government.

—The national legislature of Norway has abrogated the law excluding from the country Roman Catholic religious orders—with one exception, the Jesuits.

—By the failure of the Canadian Government to act promptly in the matter of the Pacific cable from Victoria to Australia, it is believed that the undertaking will be abandoned.

—The police of Constantinople have arrested seventy-five students of the military school and thirty-six of the medical school on the suspicion that they are affiliated with the Young Turkey party.

—A despatch from Montevideo states that war in Uruguay will be resumed at the expiration of the armistice of twenty-two days, signed on July 20, between the insurgents and government forces.

—The city of Oporto, Portugal, is in open rebellion, and authority has been maintained only by a proclamation of martial law. Eighteen army officers have been arrested as ringleaders of the revolt.

—A report from Bulgaria states that preparations for a declaration of independence are being actually carried on by that country, and that freedom from the Turkish yoke will be declared on August 14.

—The officials of the Canadian Pacific Railway have been notified by the Dominion Government that all laborers from the United States employed on that road must be transported at once to their own country.

—The peace negotiations between the sultan and the ambassadors of the powers are being still further delayed by Turkey’s professed financial inability to move her troops out of Thessaly before a portion of the indemnity is paid.

—Dr. Zertucha, the betrayer of Gen. Antonio Maceo, who expected $50,000 for his treachery and received imprisonment instead, has been released from his incarceration in La Cabana fortress, by order of General Weyler.

—The German Government has entered a formal protest against the duty imposed by the new Dingley Tariff Bill upon sugar upon which export bounty has been paid, as is the case with certain grades of sugar coming from Germany.

—Signs of trouble in Chile are again being manifest. The president is reported to have declared that it is impossible to govern the nation under existing conditions; and it is expected that the coalition scheme will cease to be.

—The Canadian Government has made application to the United States Government for a permit to build a telegraph line from a navigable point on Lynn Canal, Alaska, to Tagish, across the summit, a distance of nearly 100 miles.

—Scientific explorers in Egypt have found copper images bearing inscriptions of such an early date that they are undecipherable by any key yet known to Egyptologists. It is believed that they date from the first dynasty or earlier.

—An official despatch from Simla, India, states that a British column has overtaken and defeated the force of rebels which attacked Fort Shabakdar on August 7. In the encounter the British lost twelve killed and forty-eight wounded.

—A cartridge factory at Rustchuk, Bulgaria, was the scene of a terrible explosion on August 6. Forty-six persons were killed outright and sixty others so badly injured that their lives are despaired of. Most of these victims were children.

—Another Indian outbreak is reported near the Afghan frontier, and this also has been stirred up by the “Mad Mollah,” who represents that the success of the Turks in Europe provides a favorable opportunity for completely defying English rule.

—A despatch from Ottawa, Ontario, states that the Dominion Government has decided to rescind the royalty tax of ten and twenty per cent. on all gold taken from mines in the Klondike region. This action is due to the protestations of Canadian miners and business men in the northwest.

—While four hundred women were bathing in a swimming tank anchored in the Dnieper River at Kremeutchung, Russia, on August 5, the structure was torn from its moorings by a sudden rush of water, and overturned. Only half of the unfortunate swimmers were rescued alive.

—The Bulgarian authorities having given orders for the execution of one Takeff, the miscreants who were hired to do the work mistook the famous poet Constantinoff for their intended victim, and killed him instead. A similar case of the execution of Bulgarian justice was reported a few years ago.

—Now that the search light has become such a formidable adjunct to the war vessel in finding its prey at night, a paint has been discovered which will render a vessel upon which it is used absolutely invisible under the rays of that most powerful of lights. The secret is the property of a French inventor.

—A mining engineer in the employ of Li Hung Chang reports that in the regions of Jeho, Manchuria, and Chinese Amoor he has found the country rich in gold deposits. The Chinese officials are much excited over this news and are making preparations to have the gold fields worked by the government.

—Several thousand Armenian agitators are said to have crossed the Persian frontier into Turkey on August 6, and killed 200 members of the Migriki tribe, including women and children. The authorities have taken measures to capture the marauders and provide for outbreaks in the valleys of Van.

—A decisive battle is reported to have been fought between Spanish and Cuban soldiers in Matanzas Province, in which the Spanish were routed with severe loss. It is believed that the encounter was between the personal commands of Generals Weyler and Gomez. Artillery and men have been ordered to Guines to support Weyler.

—The Philippine rebels are reported to be closely following the tactics of the insurgents in Cuba in their fight for liberty, and according to a report from a Japanese correspondent at Manila they are proving very successful. The rebels have inaugurated a national government and several district governments. Most of the principal districts and towns are said to be in the hands of the liberators.

—As communications are being restored in the earthquake-ravaged province of India the number of the casualties continues to increase. The number of deaths in the Cherra Hills is now reported to be over 4,000. The ground is cracked open in numberless places and covered with mud and sand thrown up through these gigantic fissures. A tidal wave added to the terrible destruction of the temblor.

—On the evening of August 7 Emperor Nicholas, of Russia, gave a state banquet to Emperor William, of Germany, and his wife, the Empress Augusta Victoria. Expressions of good-will and a desire for peace between the two nations were the burden of the toasts given by the two emperors, Emperor William pledging his full support to the emperor of Russia against any one who might attempt to break this peace.

—The contribution to the Vatican, known as “Peter’s pence,” during the last few years has been falling off considerably. These contributions are used for the expenses of the Vatican, and the poverty-stricken pope, whose property mounts high into the millions, is in such danger of having to bear a part of the expenses of his household that he is now working arduously to increase this branch of his income.

—A cablegram from Calcutta states that the City of Everett, which sailed from San Francisco with a cargo of wheat for the famine sufferers of India, has arrived safely at that port, and that the cargo is even more acceptable than was expected. The cargo will be turned over to the interdenominational missionary committee, and will be systematically apportioned among the missionaries of all Protestant denominations in the famine districts for distribution among the suffering natives.

—Señor Canovas del Castillo, prime minister of Spain, was assassinated on August 8 by an Italian anarchist. The assassin fired three times, each shot taking effect. He was immediately arrested, and declared that he had killed Canovas in accomplishment of a just vengeance. It was found that his relatives had been connected with the Barcelona bomb-throwing tragedy, and were executed for that crime. Messages of condolence and sympathy were sent to the queen regent and government of Spain, and to relatives of the deceased from all the principal nations of the world. General Azcarraga, minister of war, has been appointed premier ad interim, but it is believed that this office will finally be given to Señor Sagasta. The Spanish official journals admit that the loss of Canovas, who was universally recognized as their greatest statesman, portends for the government a dark future. It is believed that the Carlists will put forth greater exertions than ever to place Don Carlos on the throne of Spain; and the advocates of a republican form of government are equally energetic.

DOMESTIC

—Father Brown, of Leadville, Colorado, according to the Catholic Mirror, has had to place a guard of twenty-five armed men over the Catholic cemetery to prevent gold prospectors from locating claims.

—Four firemen were killed and about fifty persons seriously injured at a fire in Chicago on August 5.

—A combination has at last been formed in the United States to control the production and price of spirituous liquors.

—The home of James Russell Lowell has been purchased by admirers and friends of the poet, and will be turned into a park.

—The Ohio Populists have chosen “General” Jacob Coxey, of Industrial Army fame, as their nominee for governor of the State.

—The State Department at Washington has received official notification that Captain Merry, of San Francisco, will now be received by the Central American Republic as U. S. Minister.

—On August 9 miners to the number of 350 employed in the coal mines of King County, Washington, went out on a strike, because of alleged unfairness in the weighing of the coal which they turn out.

—Mrs. I. P. Banks, a widow living near Quitman, Georgia, has confessed the murder of her six-year-old son, giving as her reason for the act that he was too ugly-looking to live. The child’s face was disfigured by a birthmark.

—At the Christian Alliance camp-meeting at Old Orchard, Maine, on Sunday, August 8, the appeal for funds to carry on missionary work in foreign lands met with a hearty response, and $65,000 was raised for that purpose.

—The new bullet-proof cloth invented by Casimir Zeglen was tested at Fort Sheridan on August 11. A dummy was dressed in a suit of this cloth and bullets from the Krag-Jorgensen rifle failed to penetrate it at a distance of 200 yards.

—The ship-building firm of William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia has brought suit against the United States Government for $1,726,149 for alleged damages caused by government delays in the building of six battle-ships and cruisers.

—The Chinese of San Francisco have begun on a large scale the removal and shipment to China of their dead countrymen now buried in the city cemeteries. Why such activity is manifest in this matter at the present time the Chinese refuse to tell.

—Work has been resumed on the Hudson River tunnel, which is to connect New York and Jersey City. Over four thousand feet of the tunnel had been completed when the work was abandoned, leaving only about one thousand feet now to be excavated.

—According to the provisions of the Dingley Tariff Bill a discriminating duty of ten per cent. will be imposed upon all goods from a foreign country coming into the United States through Canadian territory, that is, over the Canadian Pacific Railway.

—Eight prominent young people of Eddy County, New Mexico, indulged in a mock marriage ceremony recently, and soon found, to their dismay and astonishment, that they were legally married by a justice of the peace. Applications have been made for annulment of the ceremony, but this can not go into effect before October.

—The steamer Mexico, after delivering her gold-seekers and their baggage at Dyea, Alaska, started at once on her return voyage to San Francisco, and in a fog was totally wrecked on a rock near the village of New Metlakatla, August 5. Her passengers and their valuables were saved in the life-boats, but the vessel is a total loss.

—It has been discovered that crude oil sprinkled along a road will effectually lay the dust for a long time, and the railroads between Camden and Atlantic City have been thoroughly saturated with this preparation at a cost of $80 per mile. The efficacy of this application is such that the whole Pennsylvania system will soon be treated to the new dust exterminator.

—It is announced that a conference of men and women interested in good health, social, and philanthropic questions, will be held in Battle Creek, Mich., October 12 to 17. The conference will be under the direction of Rev. Samuel G. Smith, professor of sociology in the Minnesota State University, and J. H. Kellogg, M.D., superintendent of Battle Creek Sanitarium.

—A report in regard to missions in Alaska states that the Presbyterian denomination has more missions there than any other Protestant denomination, being virtually the pioneers in that field. They have churches established at Sitka, Juneau, Fort Wrangel, and Howkan, and missions in many other places. The Quakers have a mission on Douglas Island, near the Treadwell gold mines. There is one Congregational mission in Alaska, and that is situated at the most western point on the continent, Cape Prince of Wales, only forty miles from Siberia.

—No particular change has appeared during the week in the great strike of coal miners in the central eastern states. In some towns martial law has been proclaimed. On the whole it is estimated that a larger number of miners are now idle than at any previous period; and hunger is becoming a foe with which the miners have to reckon. In some districts the striking miners have been evicted from the company houses. A large number of mining operators have signed the uniformity agreement. When a sufficient number of signatures are secured it is believed that the strike will be settled.