News and Notes

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

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 44.

FOREIGN.

—Grain reports from Austria-Hungary show a shortage for the present year of over 60,000,000 bushels.

—The British gunboats on the Upper Nile shelled the city of Metemmeh on October 20, killing 600 of the Dervishes.

—It is reported that the States constituting the Greater Republic of Central America have again refused to accept U. S. Minister W. L. Merry.

—The sultan of Morocco has won a victory over the Bananier tribe at Tadla. Many prisoners were taken and fifty-five heads were spiked on the walls of Markesh.

—The steamer Acapulco, from Panama, which arrived in San Francisco on October 30, brought word to the effect that the revolution in Guatemala was at an end, with Barrios victorious.

—An English syndicate has secured control of the customs revenue of the republic of Santo Domingo for a period of one hundred years, by making a loan of $7,500,000 to the local government.

—The Chinese Government has contracted a loan of £16,000,000 with a wealthy London syndicate. The loan will be used in building Chinese railways, and is secured by the customs of China.

—It is reported that Bulgaria has sent an ultimatum to the sultan stating that unless her demands in regard to the Bulgarian bishops are granted by November 3, she will throw off the Turkish yoke.

—An attempt to decrease the wages of cotton operators in England has resulted in a threatened strike, which will involve 200,000 laborers, and will mean the ruin of the cotton industry in England.

—Further details of the fearful panic in the village church of Kheiloff, Crimea, on October 26, place the number of persons who were trampled to death at seventy-four. One hundred and sixty others suffered severe injury.

—The strike of bakers became general in Madrid, Spain, on October 29, and residents of the city are experiencing great difficulty in procuring bread. The government is using soldiers to operate the bake ovens to a limited extent.

—The British dependencies in the West Indies and South America are making a concerted move for the securing of reciprocity arrangements with the United States which will give them better commercial facilities under the Dingley Bill.

—A report from Argentina states that the present prospects for a large wheat crop in that country are very good, much better than had been expected. Argentina is buying no American wheat, but will instead have wheat to export.

—The Ottoman Government has notified the powers of its objection to Colonel Schaefer of the army of Luxemburg as provisional commissioner of the powers for the island of Crete, and in her objection she is sustained by Germany.

—Eight whaling vessels, instead of five, as reported last week, are fast in the ice off Point Barrow, northern Alaska, one of them being 150 miles from shore, where it is said to be impossible either to reach them with supplies or for them to reach the mainland.

—On November 1 two expeditions started from Norway to search for Professor Andree, concerning whom nothing certain has been heard since he started in his balloon to cross the north pole. One of these expeditions will be under Captain Sverdrup, in the ship Fram, the same captain and ship that were with Nansen in his polar exploration.

—Serious trouble is anticipated between Germany and Haiti over the imprisonment of a German citizen. The German minister to that republic has hauled down his flag, and three German war ships are expected there soon to back up the minister's ultimatum.

—A fatal railroad accident occurred in Japan on October 3, in which a train carrying forty persons leaped down an embankment several hundred feet. Only ten of the victims were rescued alive at the time the despatch was sent, and these are in a badly mutilated condition.

—During the week a number of victories are reported by the British in the region occupied by the rebellious Indian natives, who, tho strongly intrenched, have been forced to give way before the superior generalship and more effective war implements of the English forces.

—The distressing news comes from Calcutta that the ship load of wheat sent to the famine sufferers of India by American philanthropists has been seized at that port and is being held for customs duties. The captain has objected to paying the duties because of the exorbitant rate charged.

—Affairs in West Africa are drifting toward a collision of the national parties concerned, France and England, and the press of both nations are assuming an attitude which is calculated to hasten the event in that quarter as well as in the Upper Nile region, where England has always claimed the right of supremacy and where two French expeditions are now established.

—General Weyler has sailed for Spain and General Blanco in command in Cuba. He has issued a declaration stating his intentions to carry out a new government policy, calling upon all classes to yield allegiance to Spain, and avowing it to be his purpose to "vigorously fight" those now in rebellion. No hint is given of autonomy, and this is producing a bad effect upon Cuban sympathizers.

—On October 25 several hundred Grecian volunteers invaded the shops of Athens and seized clothing and food. Many of the shopkeepers defended their goods with arms. The rioters defended their course on the ground that they were cold and hungry. It has recently been brought to light that the torpedoes with which the Greek war vessels were armed during the war with Turkey were absolutely harmless; and the government will court-martial several officers who were responsible for the negligence.

—The Spanish Government is much exercised over the preparations now going on in different parts of that country for a grand reception to be given to General Weyler. The Carlists and Republicans are doing what they can to make the demonstrations a success for the embarrassment of the present government. Spain's latest attempts at purchasing war ships in England have failed, owing to her lack of credit, and a number of destroyers are being held by their makers until Spain shall pay the cash for them.

DOMESTIC.

—Fire at Healdsburg, Cal., on October 31, destroyed property to the value of $50,000.

—Six men were killed and a number wounded during election riots in Kentucky on November 2.

—Fire in a coal mine at Scranton, Penn., on October 30, cut off the retreat of eight miners, and they were suffocated in the shaft before assistance could reach them.

—The United States cruiser Baltimore sailed from San Francisco for Honolulu on October 30 where she will be made the flag-ship of the squadron in Hawaiian waters.

—A burning cigarette stub thrown down by a careless laborer in a mine in Sonora, Mexico, caused an explosion on October 28, which resulted in the death of thirteen men and the fatal injuring of five.

—The American ship Commodore is reported wrecked on Malden Island, a small coral atoll in the South Pacific Ocean. The entire crew was saved, a portion of them being now at Launceston, Tasmania.

—A sixteen-year-old boy while digging fish bait on a small island in Clinton, Iowa, October 29, unearthed an iron box containing $50,000 in gold and currency. There are various conjectures as to the owner of this buried wealth.

—Two passenger steamers, the Alice and Merwin, which were frozen in the ice at the mouth of the Yukon River, have been released from their perilous position and have sailed into the river, where they expect to make a safe harbor for the winter.

—The pastor of the Mintonville, Kentucky, Christian Church preached a sermon recently in which he took the position that there is no devil. When he attempted to speak again, he was ejected from the house and about twenty shots were fired after him.

—There is still little change in the fever-infected districts of the south. A slight frost on November 2 was expected to retard the progress of the disease, but failed to do so. The average number of deaths is about five daily, with from forty to fifty new cases.

—The Seventy-six Stone House, at Tappan, N. Y., from which Major Andre was taken to be hanged, was blown down in a gale on November 2. This building was erected a number of years before the Revolution, and during that time was used as an inn.

—The new Congressional Library at Washington, which has been in process of construction for six years, was opened to the public on November 1, all the departments except those of fine arts and music being ready for use. About 350,000 volumes are now on the shelves of the library.

—The grand jury of Wilkesbarre, Penn., have returned true bills against Sheriff Martin and his deputies for the Latimer shooting. The bills include nineteen counts for murder, one for each man killed, and one for the victims considered collectively. Thirty-six true bills were found in the same way for felonious wounding.

—Important preparations are in progress for the signing of the new treaty between the United States, Russia, and Japan for the suspension of Pelagic sealing in Bering Sea and the North Pacific. Before the day of signing the treaty the delegates of Russia and Japan will have been raised to the rank of envoys extraordinary and plenipotentiary.

—Greater New York held her first municipal election on November 2, with seven candidates for mayor, one Tammany Democrat, one Jeffersonian Democrat, one Gleason Democrat, one Republican, one Citizens' Union, one Prohibition, and one Socialist. Judge Van Wyck, candidate of the first-mentioned party, received a plurality of about 86,000 votes.

—Henry George, the well-known single-tax advocate, and candidate for mayor of Greater New York, on the Jeffersonian Democratic ticket, died on October 29 in the heat of his political campaign, only three days before election. His son, Henry George, Jr., took his father's place on the ticket, and it is believed polled a small portion of the votes which his father would have received had he lived.

—The auction of the Union Pacific Railroad took place on November 1, at Omaha, Nebraska. There was but one bid for the road, that offered by the reorganization syndicate, and amounting to $58,065,748. The Kansas Pacific branch of this road and the Central Pacific remain to be disposed of, but their sale will not take place until after Congress meets. The auctioneer received $100,000 for his half-hour's work.