DOMESTIC | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 6, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 18.

DOMESTIC.

—The report of the Branch Mint at San Francisco shows that during the year 1896 the State of California produced $17,181,562 in gold.

—On April 22 Nancy Allison McKinley, mother of the nation's President, celebrated her eighty-eighth birthday at her home in Canton, Ohio.

—A train on the Houston and Texas Central was derailed by wreckers at Fairbanks, Texas, on the night of April 26, killing one man and seriously injuring thirteen.

—A fire at Newport News, Virginia, on April 27, destroyed railroad and shipping property to the extent of $2,000,000. Eight persons were more or less seriously burned in the conflagration.

—A severe earthquake was experienced at Cairo, Illinois, on April 25. The largest structures were shaken, and the streets were crowded by terrified people, but no fatalities are reported.

—Major-General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the American army, has been authorized by the President to go to Europe to witness the struggle now going on between Turkey and Greece.

—On April 22 the President's nomination of Harold M. Sewall, of Maine, for Minister to Hawaii was confirmed by the Senate. Mr. Sewall is the son of the defeated Democratic candidate for Vice-President.

—A plan is now on foot by this government to create a war vessel reserve. The vessel to be made the nucleus of the reserve fleet is the Columbia, and other vessels will join this force as fast as circumstances allow.

—Four persons lost their lives in the burning of a tenement house in Brooklyn on April 28. Crazed by the smoke, a mother threw her two children, aged three and five years, from a window to the sidewalk, killing them instantly.

—A bill is now before Congress, the object of which is to admit the Indians of Annetta Island, Alaska, to citizenship, in order that they may cover their land, which is rich in gold, with mining claims. The bill is being opposed by a wealthy mining syndicate which desires to secure the island.

—The Des Moines River broke over its banks on April 26, and the cities of Ottumwa and Bradyville were inundated, causing serious loss of property and railroad stock. Hundreds of families were compelled to leave their homes in boats and on rafts.

—At Portland, Oregon, on April 27, while an electric car was crossing a bridge at high speed, the breaking of an axle threw the car and its thirty-one occupants into the river below, killing three persons outright, and seriously injuring or maiming eighteen others.

—A large filibustering expedition left Sea Island City, N. J., on the night of April 25, carrying 5,000 rifles, 120,000 rounds of ammunition, a Hotchkiss gun, and a flying machine, which is to be adapted, if possible, to dropping dynamite on the heads of Spanish troops in Cuba.

—The corner-stone of the Transmississippi Exposition was laid at Omaha amid imposing ceremony on April 22. There was a long procession of military and civic societies, and addresses by the mayor of Omaha, the lieutenant-governor of the State, and ex-Secretary of Agriculture Morton.

—At a recent test in Washington, D. C., of the Hoadley-Knight compressed air motor for street-cars, the invention proved a complete success, and many street-car lines will soon be equipped with this novel propelling power. The motive power is carried in "bottles," which are tested to 4,000 pounds pressure, and the cars will run fifteen miles with one filling.

—On the morning of April 28 James Brooks, a farm laborer, of Redlands, Cal., entered the house of John Qualls, whose daughter had refused his attentions, shot the young lady and her mother, and set fire to the house. Then, setting a barn on fire, he entered, and was burned to death. The women were rescued from the burning house, but are not expected to live.

—Two immense cannon have recently been despatched to San Francisco to add to the defensive armament of the Golden Gate. These are forty-five feet long, twelve-inch rifled bore, and throw a projectile weighing 1,000 pounds. The actual weight of each gun, without mountings, is 115,830 pounds. Preparations are also rapidly being made for the fortification of the entrance to Puget Sound.

—The U. S. Government has again appointed Prof. David Star Jordan, president of Stanford University, to act as special commissioner in the Bering Sea dispute; and England has appointed Prof. D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, of the University College, Dundee, as its representative. The purpose of this special investigation is to harmonize the differences which appear in the reports submitted by the commissions last year.

—The two amendments submitted to the Methodist Conference by the General Conference in May, 1896, have now been voted upon by nearly all the conferences, and it seems certain that both have failed. One of the amendments pertained to the eligibility of women to the General Conference, and the other related to the equal representation of laymen. A two-thirds vote of the General Conference and a three-fourths vote of the annual conferences is required to carry the amendments, and the final vote will fall considerably short of the necessary majority.

—The tomb of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, at New York, was dedicated with imposing ceremony on April 27. Ten of the largest ships in the American man-of-war fleet, with a large number of the revenue marine, lighthouse tenders, and merchant marine, and war ships from several foreign powers, took part in the parade, and were reviewed by the President in the Dolphin. Speeches at the tomb were made by President McKinley, Gen. Horace Porter, and Mayor Strong. The land parade consisted of 60,000 men, including members of both the Union and Confederate armies, State militia, and National Guard.