News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 31.

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FOREIGN.

—Sir Wilfred Laurier, the Canadian premier, has been made a grand officer in the Legion of Honor.

—General Weyler has telegraphed his government that he has decided to grant amnesty to 1,000 exiles.

—A report from the Crimea states that during the recent floods there at least 150 persons have been drowned.

—The Canadian Government has despatched another large squad of mounted police to the Yukon gold fields.

—England has agreed to another convention on the sealing question, to be held at Washington, D. C., during the coming autumn.

—Recent reports from the terrible outbreak of Mayon volcano, on one of the Philippine islands, places the casualties up to July 8 at 500.

—It is reported that a Russian expedition has discovered in eastern Siberia and in the vicinity of the Sea of Okhotsk twelve gold-bearing regions.

—It is announced that the rising of natives in Bechuanaland has collapsed, and that the chiefs and their followers have surrendered to the British.

—Advices from Madrid state that serious rioting has taken place there between the police and the populace on account of the excessive tax imposed on articles of consumption.

—Another terrible massacre of gold seekers is reported from the interior of New Guinea. The exact number of the whites who lost their lives is not obtainable, but it is believed to be large.

—Heavy tribal fighting is reported along the upper Nile between the Dervishes and the Jaalins. The latter were defeated in a pitched battle, losing 2,000 killed. The losses of the Dervishes were also large.

—The Brazilian Government has ordered another attack on the fanatics at Canudos. The government force has been increased to 15,000, and additional reinforcements are being hurried to their assistance.

—The Canadian mounted police are reported to be meeting all prospectors coming into the gold fields over the mountain trails, and compelling those to return who have not one year's provisions with them.

—A sharp engagement is reported to have taken place between 2,000 Turkish troops and the armed villagers of Metzovo, Trikhala, and Kalarrytes, in Thessaly. The Turks retreated after losing seventy killed.

—The captain and seven of the crew of the English ship Pegu were murdered by Achinese pirates near the island of Sumatra, on June 14, and the vessel was then looted of all the valuables which she carried.

—Captain Boycott, from whose name the term “boycott” was derived, died recently at his residence in Suffolk County, England. He was not the “boycotter,” but the one “boycotted;” but he won after a long struggle.

—The Uruguay revolutionary committee, located at Buenos Ayres, has sent delegates directly to President Borda, of Uruguay, to treat for peace, having learned that the president was desirous of settling the rebellion in that way.

—Reports from the rebellious district in India state that the English garrison at Fort Chakdara has been relieved by reinforcements, and that severe fighting has taken place between the military and the tribesmen, in which the latter lost heavily.

—England has renounced her treaties of commerce with Germany and Belgium, and all the nations interested are guessing at what the outcome will be. It is regarded by British subjects as a master stroke, by which England will be a heavy gainer.

—In a battle in Portuguese East Africa on July 21 between government troops and native rebels, the latter were repulsed with a loss of 300 killed; but in the Bilini district, near Delagoa Bay, the natives claim a great victory, and declare that not a Portuguese is left alive there.

—On account of certain accusations made by Prince Henry of Orleans against some of the Italian prisoners in Abyssinia, the former has been challenged to a duel by General Albertone. The prince has accepted the challenge, and the duel will be fought in Switzerland sometime next month.

—The Japanese Government has notified the State Department at Washington of its acceptance of the offer made by Hawaii to arbitrate the dispute between the two countries. The arbitration tribunal will consider the immigration question and other matters in dispute between the two governments.

—Advices from Lisbon, Portugal, state that affairs in that country are in a critical condition. The government has set the constitution at defiance, and is adopting stringent repressive measures. King Humbert, of Italy, fearing for the safety of his sister, the empress dowager, has stationed two war vessels at Lisbon, and directed the Italian minister to render all possible assistance to the royal family in case of an emergency.

—It is reported that one of the essential conditions upon which Japan will insist in the event of the arbitration of her claims against Hawaii is that the United States shall assume a contingent responsibility in carrying out the decisions of the arbitration tribunal.

—On the 29th of July the insurgents near Santa Clara, Cuba, dynamited a culvert, thus blocking railway traffic. They also destroyed the city's telegraphic communications with the surrounding country, and in the suburbs of the city fought a battle with the local volunteers.

—The government of Hawaii has passed a law denying the residence permits in the islands to Chinese. This virtually shuts out Chinese immigration, and it is believed that the move was made by the advice of the United States Government in contemplation of the annexation of the islands.

—Disastrous floods are reported along the Danube River in Austria. Eighty-five persons have been drowned at Silesia, sixty between Irschel and Lausen, and many at other places, while over one hundred are missing, and supposed to be drowned. Immense damage has also been done to the crops along the river.

—A despatch from Manitoba states that a balloon believed to be that of Professor Andree was seen passing over Whitemouth on the evening of July 29. It has not been reported from any other place, and it is believed by scientists that Andree and his two companions have met the fate of many another Arctic explorer.

—A Jewish company is in process of formation, with a capital of $250,000,000, for the purpose of purchasing Palestine from Turkey. The representatives of the late Baron Hirsch, the great Hebrew philanthropist, are said to favor the plan. It is the purpose of the company to establish a limited monarchy, like that of Great Britain.

—The Albanian detachment of the Turkish army recently attacked simultaneously seven block houses along the Servian frontier, and the Servian Government has directed a formal protest to the ambassadors of the powers, urging an explanation from Tewfik Pasha. It is considered that this is a part of an organized plan to provoke Servia.

—A despatch from Rome states that Cardinal Jacobini has been chosen by the pope to formulate plans for extraordinary religious services throughout the world in commemoration of the close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. National committees are to be appointed in the different countries for the accomplishment of this end.

—A large number of rabbits, which had been inoculated with contagious and dangerous diseases at an experimental laboratory in Paris, were stolen from the laboratory recently, and placed upon the market for food. Luckily the loss of the inoculated animals was discovered in time to prevent the merchants from disposing of many of them. Only two families actually ate the animals, and no serious results occurred in either case.

—Reports from Cuba indicate that, so far from the province of Havana being pacified, the city of Havana itself is in actual danger. Within the last two weeks two of the immediate suburbs of Havana have been raided by the Cubans, and large amounts of money and military supplies carried away. One of these suburbs was held for some time, the inhabitants fleeing for their lives. Many influential residents are leaving Havana on account of the terror which these raids inspire.

—Tewfik Pasha has submitted to the ambassadors of the powers a series of amendments to the treaty of peace which the ambassadors had agreed upon. This is thought to indicate an intention on the part of the sultan to delay the peace negotiations for two or three weeks, and the ambassadors are considering the advisability of issuing another ultimatum to the Porte. The sultan has despatched seven war vessels to the island of Crete, and is demanding of the international fleet permission to land troops. The commander of the foreign fleets has decided to prevent this act by force, if necessary, and the sultan's representative in the island has refused to recognize the foreign commander's right to interfere in the matter.

DOMESTIC.

—The treasurer of Modoc County, California, has suddenly disappeared, leaving an estimated shortage in his accounts of $35,000.

—The general strike of the Pantsmakers' Union went into effect in New York on August 1, and as a result 8,000 laborers are idle.

—The Nicaragua Canal commissioners appointed by President McKinley have begun their labors in the interests of that enterprise.

—On the evening of July 30 a cyclone demolished a house and barn near San Jose, Illinois, killing seven persons and injuring three others.

—Four girls were drowned in Skunk River, near Lancaster, Iowa, on the evening of August 4, having been caught in the current while wading.

—The official call has been issued for the sixth national irrigation congress, which will be held at Lincoln, Nebraska, September 28, 29, and 30.

—The Empire State now holds the record on fast trains, a regular train having covered the distance from Syracuse to Buffalo, 149 miles, in 143 minutes.

—Another heat wave has visited the Mississippi Valley, and scores of prostrations are reported. Cincinnati reports five deaths from sunstroke on August 4.

—Two hundred women and girls and four hundred men employed in the Fulton Cotton Mills at Atlanta, Georgia, struck on August 4 on account of the employment of negroes in the mill.

—A lake of pure petroleum, five or six miles in length, and of unknown depth, has been discovered in Alaska, two miles from the ocean, and a company has been formed in Seattle to handle the product.

—A disastrous hail-storm passed over South Dakota on July 30, leaving a path ten miles wide in which every vestige of growing crops was destroyed. It is reported that 1,000,000 acres were thus ruined.

—The State Department at Washington has presented to the Peruvian Government an ultimatum in the matter of the McCord claim, demanding immediate payment of the $50,000 indemnity for which the suit is brought.

—Colonel Fred. Grant, son of U. S. Grant, has resigned his position as police commissioner of the city of New York, because the rules of the board of commissioners were so obnoxious to him that he could not retain his position on the board and his own self-respect.

—A thorough revision of the rules governing the adjudication of pension claims under the act of June 27, 1890, has been made by assistant secretary of the Interior Webster Davis. The new code, it is said, will furnish a safe, speedy, and uniform system of adjusting this large class of cases.

—The brig Percy Edwards, which started with a company of adventurers to find an “Adamless Eden” in the South Pacific Ocean, was partially wrecked in a furious gale and nearly sent to the bottom. The crew managed to sail the hulk back to Fiji, where the adventurers are now stranded.

—A number of United States senators are planning to visit the Hawaiian Islands at once to inform themselves of the conditions that exist there and be ready for the great battle which it is expected will take place in the Senate in the autumn, when the Hawaiian annexation treaty comes up for discussion and adoption.

—The Princeton University, a Presbyterian college, now has a saloon, near its campus, by the consent and invitation of its faculty, a number of whom signed the petition for its license. The saloon is the property of Princeton alumni, and upon this petition for the renewal of its license appears the name of Grover Cleveland, LL.D.

—Leon Godchaux, the owner of seven sugar plantations in Louisiana, and said to be the largest producer in the United States, has ordered an increase of sixteen and one-half per cent. in the wages paid to his field laborers. The wages of laborers skilled in the manufacture of sugar will be increased from twenty to thirty per cent.

—A new kind of asphaltum has been discovered on the government lands in Utah, which it is proposed to use in painting ships' bottoms to protect them from seaweed and barnacles, which so soon slacken the speed of sea-going vessels. This new product is called gilsonite, and so far it has been found in no other part of the world.

—The decree of sale of the Union Pacific Railway was approved by the Federal Court at Omaha on July 29. The date of sale will not be fixed until twenty days have expired, that much time being given to the company to redeem the property. The sale of the Colorado Midland is advertised for September 8, to take place at Colorado City.

—Dr. Benjamin Andrews, who has been compelled to give up his position at the head of Brown University on account of his advocacy of free silver, has been tendered the presidency of the Cosmopolitan University, a new institution which is designed to reach the masses, and which will be patterned somewhat after the Chautauqua University. The editor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine is the chief mover in the establishment of this institution.

—The condition of the striking miners in the coal regions of the eastern States shows little material change on the whole. Accessions are reported to the ranks of the strikers in certain localities, and in other places the miners seem to be losing heart, and some are returning to work. In West Virginia an injunction has been issued restraining the labor leaders from in any way interfering with working miners, and in Pennsylvania the governor has been asked to call out the troops to protect the operators. The end is not yet.