News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 15.

FOREIGN.

—A Valparaiso (Chile) despatch says that eight men were killed by the bursting of a steam pipe on the Monitor Huascar as she dropped anchor in that harbor on April 2.

—A despatch says that John Hays Hammond, the American mining engineer arrested by the Boers in Johannesburg, has been permitted to go to Cape Town, but only on bail amounting to $100,000.

—The United States of Colombia has just signed final papers for the purchase of the Italian ironclad Saint Bon. It is believed a purchase of two more war vessels from the same government will follow. Work has been begun to fortify the coast of that country also.

—It is announced through the North German Gazette that the mission of Dr. Leyds, secretary of state for the Transvaal, to Germany to enlist the support of the latter country in the cause of the former, has failed. The reason given is that Germany does not care to exercise a protectorate over the Transvaal.

—No money has as yet been paid by Venezuela to Great Britain in settlement of the Uruan incident, and it is stated that the South American republic will refuse to consider the question until after the report of the American commission on the boundary question. Another point upon which refusal is based is the wording of England’s claim. The claim states that the intruders were arrested on “British soil.” Venezuela wants this changed to “disputed territory.”

—The excitement in Spain over the proposed recognition of the Cubans as belligerents by the United States seems to be subsiding. The journals of that country are evidently assuming a more practical tone, asserting that, while the action is probably inevitable, there is no immediate cause for trouble. As a result, the universities of Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Valencia, and Cadiz, which were closed because of their anti-American demonstrations, have been ordered to reopen.

—In his recent message to the Mexican Congress, President Diaz expressed his full belief in the principles of the Monroe Doctrine, but stated that in the little difficulty between the United States and England, which had now apparently blown over, he preferred to remain quiet. An expression of opinion at that time was withheld, as he did not thoroughly understand the matter in hand. Nevertheless, as to England’s attitude of refusal to arbitrate certain boundary questions, he added that that was a principle which Mexico herself would hold to under certain circumstances.

—It has been announced that an American, named Raum, now conducting explorations in Egypt, has discovered the cap of the Sphinx. The news caused some comment, and illustrations of the supposed cap have been published. But Egyptologists now state that the piece can not be what Mr. Raum claims because of size and certain other peculiarities. It has long been believed that originally the head of the celebrated piece of sculpture known as the Sphinx had a cap, but the piece just discovered is only four and a half feet wide, whereas the top of the head is nearly thirty feet long by fourteen wide. Allowing much for crumbling, even this is a great difference.

—A short despatch from Pekin announces the important fact that the Chinese Government has decided to enter the Postal Union. This proposal will have to be acted on, however, by the Postal Congress before rates will go into effect. This will bring into the universal Postal Union all the regularly organized governments of the world except the Orange Free State of South Africa, and will mean a great work in China herself to establish the necessary system. At present letters are forwarded by private carriers, and what postal service there is, is through private offices. This seems to be one further advance in harmony with the ideas of Li Hung Chang, who, by the way, is announced to visit the United States after the coronation of the czar of Russia.

—A message to the National Armenian Relief Committee from Miss Clara Barton, at Constantinople, says that every facility for the distribution of relief funds, clothing, and food has been ordered by the sultan. But, notwithstanding this, transportation is so slow, and the supplies so meager, that those on the ground are in despair over the situation. In Marash are 12,000 refugees, and cold, famine, and smallpox are doing fearful work. Altho $500 a week is used for food, clothing, and bedding, this sum is barely inside starvation rates. In Zeitun is a similar condition. Eight physicians have been ordered for Beirut. A caravan is now on the way to Harput, having left supplies at Aintab. The committee has forwarded $10,000 by cable, but the call comes for more money to keep the people from starving.

—Further details of the fall of Pinar del Rio, in western Cuba, confirm first accounts. The insurgents, aided by the American artillerymen from the Bermuda, surrounded the place quietly, then made a sudden attack, firing buildings and forcing themselves to the plaza. The arsenal of the Spaniards was captured, while their forces fled or shut themselves in barricades. The place was held several hours. Another victory, fully as important to the insurgents, was the sacking of Santa Cruz by Gomez about the same time. A stratagem here effected an entrance. A Spanish column was absent from the city when Gomez threw his forces about the place in the darkness. Having learned the bugle-call and countersign, he boldly advanced, gave the signals, and a large force gained the plaza. The firing was the signal for the wild rush of the balance of his men, who swept everything before them. The city was held for several hours, and arms and ammunition were taken. These two were the only cities considered safe for supply centers outside of Havana, and their capture will be an immense gain for the Cubans. That the Spaniards consider these battles as severe blows, altho they have only reluctantly admitted any advantage of the insurgents, is shown by the fact that Generals Pando and Valdez, military commanders of the two cities destroyed, have been ordered to return to Spain by Captain-General Weyler.

DOMESTIC.

—Governor Hughes, of Arizona, has been removed from office by President Cleveland, and Benjamin J. Franklin, a prominent lawyer of Phoenix, has been recommended to the Senate in his place.

—An east-bound train on the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad was held up by three masked robbers on the morning of April 1, near Lebanon, Mo. The express company’s safe was blown open and considerable booty secured.

—During February the number of immigrants arriving at New York was 11,822, more than double the number arriving in the same month of 1895. On April 1 the station at Ellis Island was taxed to its utmost to accommodate barred and detained immigrants, who numbered 881. It is stated that a large proportion of these arrivals are undesirable, altho admitted under the law.

—Commissioner Booth-Tucker, the new leader of the Salvation Army in this country, with his wife and other leaders, are putting forth earnest efforts to win back Ballington Booth and his wife, who have started the new movement under the name of “The Volunteers.” Public prayers are offered for the former leaders, who are actively pushing plans for the new organization. It is stated by Booth-Tucker that General Booth himself may visit this country in an effort to effect a reconciliation.

—By the explosion of a boiler in an oil mill at Memphis, Tenn., on April 1, five men were killed and six injured. On the same day ten Italians perished by suffocation in a tenement fire in New York. At another fire, on March 29, four people lost their lives. A further list of casualties includes a $500,000 fire in Brunswick, Ga., on April 2, with the death of one man overcome by the heat, three men killed in the Giles mine near Ward, Colo., on April 3, by an accidental explosion of giant powder, and nine lives lost near Booneville, Ky., on the same day by the sudden rise of a creek from cloud-burst.

—One of the fads nowadays is for condemned murderers to write an autobiography, for the edification of the curious. Durrant has long been at work in this line, and now H. H. Holmes, the Philadelphia murderer, is engaged in a similar work. The latter confesses to twenty murders, and proudly claims to have been a professional, planning his murders with all the skill at his command. And the worst of it is that such criminals are carefully housed and shown every attention and given every possible facility to glorify their evil deeds. And the public buys, and, as it always does, falls into the spirit of the hero of the story. The whole thing is wicked from beginning to end.

—On the night of March 28 a human fiend entered a farmhouse near Akron, Ohio, and brutally murdered the farmer, Alvin Stone, and his wife, both aged parties. An attempt was then made to butcher the rest of the occupants of the house, numbering four, but the murderer succeeded only in rendering three of them unconscious by his blows, while the fourth, a young lady, escaped and gave alarm. The object was not robbery, for nothing was taken. A similar account of wanton murder we note in a despatch from Chicago, announcing the suicide of one Henry Bastian. The item calls attention specially to the matter from the fact that to the man was traced the recent murder of two farm-hands in his employ, and the suspicion attached to him of having killed two others a short time before. No motive can be assigned but a devilish lust to kill. Bastian is thought to have become aware that suspicion was directed toward him, hence the taking of his own life. Human life is of little account in these days of evil.

—The joint conference of the House and Senate appointed to consider the Cuban resolutions, has decided to adopt those formulated by the Senate. This places the final burden of discussion on the House, and at last accounts, as we go to press, that body is laboring with the question. The interest in Cuban affairs does not abate in the least, and, as reports of insurgent gains arrive, together with reasonably authentic accounts of Spanish cruelties, the clamor grows louder for some national recognition of the Cubans as belligerents. On April 1 Senator Call, of Florida, offered a resolution providing for the sending of a naval force to the island to protect American interests. The measure has not come up for action.