DOMESTIC

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 20, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 33.

—Seventy-five of the 119 counties in Kentucky have driven out the licensed saloon.

—Plans have been filed for new buildings, costing $250,000, by the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn, N. Y.

—A clash between union and non-union workmen at Cleveland, Ohio, on August 14, resulted in the shooting of three men.

—The bottoms of iron ships are now being sheeted with copper by a process similar to that by which cutlery and jewelry are plated.

—The mill of the Sperry Flour Company at Paso Robles, Cal., was destroyed by fire on August 12. The mill was valued at $35,000.

—The clerk of the Bullion and Exchange Bank of Carson, Nevada, absconded recently, and experts report a shortage of over $74,000 in his accounts.

—As the result of a race war between white and colored laborers in Polk County, Arkansas, three negroes have been shot and a number wounded.

—The recent hot wave is said to have caused the death of George H. Miller, builder of the Capitol dome at Washington, who died on August 12, at the age of 72.

—Warren & Co.'s electrical supply factory in New York City was destroyed by fire on August 11, causing a loss of $200,000 and the lives of five employees and firemen.

—The wife of President Dole, of the Hawaiian republic, is now in this country, arranging for the matriculation of her nephew at Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.

—The big dry dock at the Brooklyn Navy Yard collapsed on August 8 and nearly destroyed the new torpedo boat Ericsson, as well as a number of other vessels in its immediate vicinity.

—William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall were formally notified, at Madison Square Garden, N. Y., on August 12, of their selection by the Democratic party for president and vice president of the United States.

—At a Christian Alliance camp-meeting at Old Orchard, Maine, on August 9, the sum of $101,324 was raised for foreign missions, $2,500 of which will be used for building two steam launches for the Kongo mission.

—The wonderful Roentgen ray, which enables the eye to see through opaque substances, has been declared by Nicola Tesla to be composed of material particles instead of simply light waves, as heretofore supposed.

—A gang of swindlers operating under various names in New York and Chicago was arrested on August 9, after having amassed a fortune of nearly or quite a million dollars by fraudulent misrepresentation.

—According to reports from Alaska, a young whale, captured there two years ago, has been tamed and trained to work in harness. The owners are contemplating a trip down the coast with this unique propeller.

—Four bathers caught in the undertow on Lake Michigan on August 9 were drowned. Five yachtsmen were drowned in the Detroit River on the same day, in consequence of a heavy storm which capsized their boat.

—The Pacific Coast Steamship Company's steamer St. Paul was wrecked near Monterey on the night of August 10 while a thick fog obscured the rocky shore. The passengers were safely landed, but the vessel will be a complete loss.

—Three Italian murderers were taken from the Hahnville, Louisiana, jail on the night of August 8, and lynched by a mob, which had overpowered the prisoners. There is some excitement in Italian Government circles over the matter.

—The Collector of Customs at San Francisco has ruled that Chinese merchants who return to China and remain there over six years are not entitled to land at the port of San Francisco, and the federal government has approved the ruling.

—A party of Louisiana negroes employed in building railroads in Guatemala, tell harrowing tales of their treatment at the hands of the contractors. In attempting to escape, four of the negroes were shot by the soldiers detailed to guard them.

—By the derailment of a trolley car at Columbia, Pa., on August 9, three persons were killed and fifteen more or less injured. The next day, at Lancaster, Pa., a car of the same kind ran away and killed eleven persons, and injured about fifty more.

—On August 10, 24 Chinese employed by the Sisson and McCloud Railroad, near Sisson, California, were captured by 150 whites, and driven out of town, with orders not to return. The officials of the road propose to send the coolies back under guard, and trouble is expected.

—The California Federal Court at Los Angeles has decided that the United States Government can fix its own rates for the transportation of troops and mails over all railroads in this country. From the rates which the government has named, this victory will represent between forty and fifty million dollars annually, as the decision coming from a federal court is of force throughout the nation.

—The unprecedented heat wave which the middle and Atlantic states have been suffering up to August 15 reached the proportions of a veritable plague in many of the large cities. Reports from metropolitan centers for the week ending August 15 show a death list of 621, independent of the hundreds of smaller places where fatalities occurred. This seems the beginning of the fulfilment of that prophecy which declares that the sun shall have power to scorch men.

—According to the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for June 30, 1895, just issued, there are in the United States 236,894 miles of railway track. The number of passengers carried during the year was 507,421,362. The revenue from freight amounted to $729,993,462, or a little more than $4,000,000 more than it cost to operate the roads. Thus the proceeds of the passenger service was clear gain for the companies, making it a question hard to answer why nearly 38,000 miles of these roads, representing 169 companies, should be in the hands of receivers.