News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 9, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 35.

News and Notes

By Editor

FOREIGN.

—It is reported that the Spanish Government is making an inspection of the coast defenses of the United States. —A rebellion is now in progress in the district of Yang-Chan, China. The malcontents are said to number 10,000. —The bubonic plague has broken out in the city of Foo-chow, China, and the people are said to be dying very rapidly. —In a great labor strike in Budapest, Hungary, August 23, two hundred persons were more or less seriously injured. —On August 27, the branch of the Dominion Bank at Napanee, Ontario, was robbed of $32,000. The burglars were not apprehended. —On August 27, under cover of the darkness, another large and well-equipped expedition left Tampa, Florida, to join the insurgents in Cuba. —The French Government is now arranging for a loan of nearly $300,000,000, the greater part of which will be devoted to building up the navy. —The Korean Government has sent out the information that the ports of Chenonpo and Mokpo will be opened to foreign trade on October 1. —On the same mail with the advices from Manila, stating that the Philippine rebellion is ended, come stirring accounts of renewed and severe fighting. —Italy has threatened war with Morocco unless the crew of the Italian brig Fiducia, which was recently captured by Moorish pirates, are immediately released. —The Portuguese bark Rosita Fario was captured recently off the coast of Morocco by pirates, and, besides plundering the vessel, the captain and crew were carried off. —The gunboats of the Anglo-Egyptian expedition on the Nile have passed the fourth cataract, and the expedition is preparing for a dash into the region of the Dervishes. —An alleged anarchistic plot for the assassination of Spain's queen regent has been unearthed in London, and twenty Barcelona detectives have been detailed to locate the plotters. —A destructive earthquake, accompanied by a tidal wave, occurred in Japan on August 5. Two hundred persons were drowned and 5,000 houses were demolished or swept to sea. —The police of Constantinople continue to make wholesale arrests of persons suspected of complicity in the bomb-explosion plot recently brought to the attention of the Turkish officials. —The English police posts on the Samana range in India were captured on the night of August 28 by the rebellious Afridis tribes. The rebels have captured two important mountain passes. —The Austrian minister of agriculture, in his estimate of the wheat yield of the entire world for the present year, states that on the wheat crop there will be a shortage of 50,800,000 hundred weight. —Severe fighting continues between the Kurds and Armenians, on the Persian frontier. It is stated that the Kurds were defeated in a recent engagement, with the loss of their leader and 300 men. —The peace negotiations between the powers and Turkey have now been taken out of the hands of the ambassadors, and the cabinets of the various countries interested will deal with the difficulty direct. —The sugar planters of Java are threatened with the complete extinction of their sugar crops. A disease which they can neither explain nor control is laying waste thousands of acres of the sugar-cane. —At a cabinet council held in Madrid, August 30, it was decided to call out the next class of reserves of the Spanish army, numbering 80,000. Half of these will be sent to Cuba and the Philippines. —The government of Spain is arranging a fresh credit with the view of strengthening her navy. The navigation tax will be the security for the loan. She will immediately construct one large iron-clad and six cruisers. —On the 22d of August the Cuban general Banderas attacked the fortified town of Tapaste, Havana province, captured the garrison, looted the Spanish stores of provisions and drugs, hanged fifteen guerrillas, and departed. —Spain is said to be laying the groundwork for the presentation of an enormous claim for damages against the United States on account of the many filibustering expeditions fitted out in this country to assist the insurgents. —Twelve persons were killed and a number injured at an election riot in Merida, Yucatan, on August 14. The police and soldiers fired into an assembly of citizens who had met to protest against the re-election of the present governor. —A Spanish column of 1,200 men attacked a Cuban fortress at Sabana de Becorro recently, and report its capture by a midnight surprise. The troops had fourteen killed and thirty-six wounded, while the Cuban loss is placed at sixty killed. —The revolution in Uruguay seems to be in no way affected by the assassination of President Borda. Fighting continues, and the rebels claim that if the president's probable successor is elected, the end of the revolution will be farther off than before. —A report from Honolulu states that prominent anti-annexationists are arranging for a monster mass-meeting of natives to take place at the time that the American senators are in Honolulu, the object of the congregation being to create sentiment unfavorable to annexation. —General Azcarraga, prime minister of Spain, has declared the confidence of the government in the political and military plans of General Weyler in Cuba, and states further that if the United States makes any demonstration, Spain will "do her duty;" that is, she will declare war. —The Indian rebels that are causing so much trouble for the English in India are said to be well armed with Lee-Metford and Martini rifles. The sultan is manifesting great interest in the spread of the rebellion, and is kept informed by telegraph of every development in the situation. —A Japanese newspaper, published in Yokohama, states that the Japanese commissioner to the conference to be held in Washington, on the sealing question, will be instructed to side with representatives of the United States in plans for the protection of the seal herds of Alaskan waters. —General Weyler has called in his troops from chasing the elusive rebels, and they will be concentrated in the larger towns, until the hot and rainy season is over. This decision had hardly been made before a call was issued by the heads of the Cuban Republic for a meeting of their government on September 2. —The British post at Gazerbund, Beloochistan, which was held by native levies, was attacked on the night of August 28 by the Brahuis, and the entire garrison killed. An outbreak is also reported among the fanatical Mohammedans on the Malabar coast, and many new signs of disaffection are reported along the Indian frontier. —By order of General Weyler all the cattle in Cuba are being seized by the soldiers for the support of the army. According to the proclamation, cattle owners are to receive a compensation of $1.50 per head for all cattle so taken; but the cattle are herded in such a manner that identification is impossible, and the money is said to be going into the pockets of the Spanish officials. —It has now developed that Japan is secretly negotiating with the Diet of the Greater Republic of Central America, to have all trans-oceanic treaties between those States and the United States abrogated, and concessions for the building of the Nicaragua Canal transferred to the Japanese Government. Some of the Central American States are said to favor this, because the United States Government did not recognize the establishment of the Greater Republic. —The return of President Faure, of France, from his meeting with the czar was celebrated with wild enthusiasm by the French on August 31, and it is stated that this date will hereafter be celebrated throughout the republic as Alliance Day. Three minutes after the presidential party had passed Madeline Church a bomb was exploded within the inclosure, but no one was injured. The bomb was similar in construction to the one exploded on the day of the president's departure.

DOMESTIC.

—Seven persons were fatally poisoned recently in Calloway County, Kentucky, by eating a poisoned melon stolen from a neighbor's melon patch. —Great numbers of very fine pearls are now being found along White River, Arkansas, near Mount Adams, and the river for miles is lined with pearl hunters. —Five prisoners in the Leadville, Colorado, jail overpowered their jailer, locked him in a cell, and with the keys still in their possession, succeeded in escaping. —Residents of Wheeling, West Virginia, have recently presented the gunboat Wheeling, now completed at San Francisco, with an elegant silver and crystal service. —The burning of a furniture warehouse in Pittsburg, Penn., on August 26, caused a damage to the building and adjoining property estimated at $165,000. Two firemen were killed by falling walls. —An attempt to open the Champion mines near McDonald, Penn., on August 27, proved a failure. Five hundred women attacked the working miners with sticks and stones, and compelled them to leave the mine. —A contest took place at Chicago on September 1 between a bicycle skater and a bicycle rider. The bicycle skate, which was but recently perfected, proved a dangerous rival for the "silent steed," the skater winning the race. —Mohammed Nouri Bey, of the Turkish foreign office in Constantinople, states that the Armenian revolutionists are all pupils and protégés of the American mission schools at Marsvan, Bitlis, Erzeroum, and Van, and that the activity of these schools is a curse to both Armenia and Turkey. —The corporation of Brown University has voted unanimously to ask President Andrews to withdraw his resignation. The request was accompanied by a letter expressing the confidence of the corporation in the president's ability and management. —As a result of a raid on a moonshine distillery in the mountains of Pope County, Arkansas, on August 27, two officers were killed, two mortally wounded, and the remaining two of the posse are either dead or in the hands of the bandits. —During the past week sixteen iron-works and fifteen woolen mills have started up, and the prices in steel are said to be growing stronger. The bank clearings during the week show an increase of forty per cent over the corresponding week of last year. —Telephone connection was formally opened on August 31, between Minneapolis and New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and other large cities. The wires worked well over the whole distance, altho the atmospheric conditions were not the best. —In some of the mining districts of the eastern States the strike is considered practically ended. The plan now is for the miners to return to work at the rate of 64 cents per ton, and continue at work during the time that the settlement by arbitration is pending. —The destitution among the miners at Nelsonville, Ohio, is said to be very great. Manager Buckley says that the entire mining population of the town, numbering 1,260, are absolutely without anything to eat, and that unless help comes soon the consequences will be appalling. —Formal instructions have been issued for the allotment of the Indian lands of the Uncompahgre reservation, and also on the Uintah reservations, upon which the Uncompahgre have located. Lands not allotted to the Indians will be opened for settlement by the whites on April 1, 1898. —A rumor comes from Alaskan sources to the effect that certain United States commissioners, recently sent into eastern Alaska, are there for the purpose of assuming control of a large portion of the Klondike region. If the rumor proves correct, there will be serious trouble between the two governments. —Ten saloons of Kansas City, Mo., were raided by the police on August 29, and $3,000 worth of liquors seized and poured into the gutters. Ten large dray loads of saloon furniture were also taken and destroyed at the police headquarters. It is reported that similar action will be taken against some seventy other places of like character. —A new and powerful explosive has been invented by two youthful chemists of Chicago, which only explodes after sinking into the water. Three ounces of the composition were tested off the government pier at Chicago on August 26, and the force of the explosion was an astonishment to those who witnessed it. It can be used only in naval warfare.