p. 14 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 10.

News and Notes

FOREIGN.

—On March 1, the town of Candiamo, Crete, fell into the hands of the insurgents.

—About March 15 six English commissioners will leave Cairo, Egypt, to visit King Menelik, of Abyssinia.

—Natives of New Guinea have murdered the resident governor, together with six miners, and about forty of the governor’s native following.

—The Brazilian rebels still hold their own, and it is reported that they have among their munitions of war several rapid-fire guns of the latest pattern.

—Advices from Japan state that the government has adopted a gold standard at a ratio of 32 1-3 to 1. This standard will go into operation next October.

—A young lady, a member of a distinguished French family in Cuba, has been arrested by the Spaniards, on the charge of preparing lint for wounded Cubans.

—A despatch from Constantinople to the London Times states that all diplomatic relations between the courts of St. Petersburg and Athens have been broken off.

—The following law is now in force in Argentine: “On and after Jan. 1, 1897, every male between the ages of 20 and 80 shall pay a tax until he marries, and shall pay it once in every month.”

—It is announced that the king of Greece intends to take command of the northern army in person. A force of 1,000 Macedonian volunteers have crossed the border and joined the Greek army.

—A terrible mining catastrophe occurred at Zacatecas, Mexico, on February 27. A fire broke out in the mine, and all efforts to rescue the men proved unavailing. Seventy-five were entombed.

—Famine is now staring the inhabitants of Crete in the face as a result of the cordon of battleships which “the powers” have thrown around the island, and which prevent the landing of supplies.

—It is reported that Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, has the largest death-rate from the use of alcohol of any city in the world. The number of deaths from that cause is ninety in a thousand.

—During a bull fight at Durango, Mexico, on March 2, the audience is reported as going wildly enthusiastic. The cause for the enthusiasm was the killing of eight bulls, four horses, and four men.

—At a dancing party in Yandol, Mexico, on February 27, a fight was precipitated by an insulting remark to a young lady, and two of the participants were killed, while fifteen were more or less dangerously wounded.

—A large number of London’s religious leaders have begun midnight services in the slums of that city, in the hope of rescuing souls from the multitudes who frequent the vicious resorts in those parts of England’s metropolis.

—Diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Venezuela, which were broken off on account of the boundary dispute, have been resumed. Venezuela’s minister to Germany has been transferred to England, and a settlement of the controversy seems now assured.

—Considerable opposition to the course of the government has been stirred up in Germany in the matter of its interference with affairs in Crete. A prominent official asserts that Germany’s interests are in nowise involved in the Orient, and that the present course of the government can only make her enemies.

—The legislative assembly of Norway has unanimously decided to appoint a committee of nine to consider the question of entering into treaties of arbitration with foreign countries, and to submit proposals for such treaties. France is looking to the adoption of an arbitration treaty with the United States similar to that now under process of ratification between the United States and England.

—The Cuban news budget of the past week contains the following items: A Havana newspaper publishes an account of the death of Salvador Cisneros, president of the Cuban Republic. The report is not yet confirmed. An engagement took place between Cuban cavalry and a force of Spanish infantry, in which the latter lost 46 killed and were driven from the field. General Gomez is reported marching toward Matanzas Province, destroying railroads and bridges, while General Garcia is operating in the province of Puerto Principe. General Weyler’s march through Santa Clara was attended by continual fighting. At Ceniza he is reported to have lost 500 in killed and wounded, while in the battles of Calabazas and Cabaiguan his loss is reported to have been equally large. In the battle of Valdez Hill the forces of Colonel Coses were drawn into ambush by the Cubans, and literally cut to pieces by the machete. General Gomez met a superior force of the Spanish near Arroyo Blanco, and by the use of the dynamite gun inflicted heavy loss upon the enemy. Heavy reinforcements compelled him to retire at last, with a loss of 20 men killed and a considerable number wounded.

—Turkey has mobilized 72,000 troops near the frontier of Greece, and has ordered her army to be increased to 170,000. Greece still remains firm in spite of the collective note from “the powers” ordering her to evacuate Crete at once, while the admiral of the Grecian fleet has departed for Cretan waters in person. The Greeks claim that if “the powers” use force to compel their country to withdraw from Crete, none but the commander of the troops in the island will return. The troops will cast their lot in with the Cretans and fight for the liberation of the island. A crisis seems imminent, and a general European war possible; but how long the winds of strife will be held, none can tell.

DOMESTIC.

—Provision has been made for the building of three more torpedo boats, at a cost not to exceed $800,000 each.

—The new torpedo boat Farragut, on her trial trip, developed the wonderful speed of nearly thirty-five miles an hour.

—The Iowa, the largest battle-ship in the navy, is now ready for her trial trip, which has been announced for March 29.

—The report of R. G. Dunn & Co. indicate a slow and gradual, but encouraging, improvement in business during the past week.

—The bill for an international monetary conference passed the Senate on March 2, and was signed by the President the day following.

—The famous filibustering tug Dauntless was released on March 2 under $10,000 bonds, and her captain expects soon to put to sea.

—The Mulaphy Savings Bank, of St. Louis, Mo., closed its doors on February 27. The liabilities over assets amount to more than $200,000.

—An extensive fruit-drying plant near San Jose, Cal., was completely destroyed by fire on the night of February 28. The loss is estimated at $50,000.

—Gen. Julio Sanguilly, an American citizen who has been imprisoned in Cuba for over two years, has been released and is now in the United States.

—Dr. Fred Rutland, president of a Chicago medical college, has been arrested for granting degrees, for a financial consideration, to persons ignorant of medicine.

—It is computed that about $12,000,000 a year is given for foreign missions in the whole world. This is estimated at $1.00 for every $1,250 earned by church members.

—It is stated that a Boston syndicate is buying up great quantities of wool, expecting to corner the market and profit by the increased prices under the incoming administration.

—Great distress has been occasioned during the past week along the course of the Ohio River and some of its tributaries by the remarkable height to which the waters have risen.

—An amendment has been offered to the sundry civil bill, restoring to the public domain all but two of the forests which have been reserved by proclamation of President Cleveland.

—The Government of Siam has agreed to arbitrate the two actions for damages brought by representatives of this government, and next November has been decided upon as the date of the hearing of the cases.

—A party of Mormon elders have recently been working in the suburbs of Chicago, and as a result of their proselyting about 200 young people, many of them girls, have banded themselves into a colony to emigrate to Utah.

—Ninety-nine men, styling themselves the Brotherhood of the South Sea Islands, purchased a vessel and started for the South Seas on February 25, expecting to establish a colony on some of the sparsely-settled islands in that region.

—John C. Warren, of Philadelphia, has a monkey which he has taught to play the violin. The first tune which the monkey mastered seemed to awaken a latent talent, and he now executes a number of difficult pieces, among which are several waltzes.

—Two condemned burglars of Tacoma, Wash., have made the startling confession that they are members of an organized band of burglars numbering over 200 that is now operating on the Pacific Coast. They are known as “Knights of the Jimmy.”

—On March 3 the Supreme Court of the State of California denied a new trial in the case of Theodore Durrant, the man who was convicted of the murder of Minnie Williams, and was accused of murdering Blanche Lamont, in a San Francisco church, about two years ago.

—A newspaper man of Sonoma County, California, claims to have discovered a tree in that county which yields a product that will be a satisfactory substitute for india-rubber. The increased demand for rubber on account of the great quantities now used in bicycle tires has caused scientists to predict a rubber famine unless some substitute can be procured. The tree is now known as the oleo elastica, and grows abundantly in the county named.

—Wyoming, a Pennsylvania mining town, is threatened with destruction by a cave-in in a mine. The disaster is due to the moving of quicksands beneath the surface. A number of the most prominent buildings in the place are sinking, and others are sure to follow.

—President Cleveland has refused to interfere with the death sentence of the notorious New Mexican murderers, and there remains now nothing but to carry out the sentence, unless the incoming President should appoint a new governor who would extend executive clemency.

—Robert Gardner, a young religious enthusiast who recently came to Los Angeles from the east, has just concluded a fast of fifty-two days. The fast was ended by immersion in the cold waters of the Los Angeles River, which threw the faster into a critical condition. He is now locked up in the county jail.

—United States troops and Indian police are now actively engaged in driving prospectors out of the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma Territory. These mountains are in the reservation of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Indians, and old prospectors claim that within a year they will be as noted as the gold fields of California.

—The Supreme Court on March 1 decided that the steamer Three Friends, which has been engaged in a number of filibustering operations in behalf of the Cuban insurgents, was forfeited to the government, and must be placed under control of the courts. This reverses the decision of the court of the Southern District of Florida.

—On February 25 three of the children of Ricardo Pastini, of San Francisco, Cal., were fatally poisoned by eating mushrooms which the father had himself procured, supposing they were not poisonous. The father, mother, and one daughter recovered from the effects of the dangerous delicacy. The three little boys were buried side by side on the same day.

—The commissioners appointed by the President to decide at what point should be expended the $2,901,787 appropriated by Congress for the improvement of a Southern California harbor, have rendered their decision in favor of San Pedro. Commissioner Morgan, who favored the Southern Pacific Railroad terminus at Santa Monica, did not sign the report.

—The Citizens’ Railway Company, of Knoxville, Tenn., began tearing up its tracks on March 1, 200 negroes being employed in the work. The police arrested the men, and the sheriff arrested the police. On account of the riot thus precipitated the fire company came to the rescue and dispersed the participants by drenching them with water from the fire hose.

—The city council of Chicago, on March 2, passed an ordinance requiring every dealer in cigarettes to pay an annual license of $100, and prohibiting their sale within 200 feet of any schoolhouse. The ordinance also requires that all cigarettes sold must be free from opium, morphine, gypsum, or other poisonous matter, and imposes a fine of from $50 to $200 for each violation.