Faster Trains and Yaqui Massacre
A TWENTY-HOUR train service has now been inaugurated between New York City and Chicago on both the Lake Shore and the Pennsylvania road. In order to cover the distance in 20 hours, these trains run at a very high rate of speed over almost the entire trip. The great business rush in these money-mad centers has made necessary this reduction in running time. Other roads also are cutting down their running time between important points. Altho the great overland roads have been continually cutting down their running time, a speed war between several has been threatened for months. The Canadian Pacific also has made an important increase in the speed of its trains, reducing its time to 4 days and 1 hour between Vancouver and Montreal. With this increase in train speed the danger to the traveling public is increased in double proportion; but the risk is taken in order that men may the more rapidly heap together treasure in these last days. REPORTS from Mexico indicate that a most cruel slaughter of Yaqui men, women, and children at the hands of Mexican troops has taken place in Uvalama Canyon. The women and children were left in charge of a few of the warriors in this deep ravine. The Mexicans surrounded the camping place, and at dawn advanced to the slaughter. Long after all the men had been killed, the troops continued to fire upon the defenseless women and children. The survivors, many of whom were wounded, were marched in chains to Hermosillo, whose inhabitants, shocked at the treatment which the Indians had received, are said to have done all they could for the prisoners. General Torres is now pursuing the main body of Yaqui warriors. The whole number slaughtered in the canyon is placed at 217. THE volcano of Kilauea, H. I., is again in active operation. Violent explosions have occurred there, sending out dense columns of smoke and ashes. Two volcanoes in Nicaragua have recently begun to show signs of violent activity. Mount Fanno, in Oregon, is sending out smoke and steam and rumbling ominously. Advices from the island of Sicily state that deep underground rumblings are heard there, and the inhabitants are panic stricken, and earthquake shocks are reported from various parts of the island. Colonel Deming of the United States Geological Survey reports that recent observations in Pennsylvania show that there has been a marked increase in the elevation of many places where he has taken observations, and he attributes this to the disturbances in the West Indies. JAPAN has entered the naval race with a determination to come behind in nothing. Her naval plans now contemplate the building of four 15,000-ton battle-ships, two 10,000-ton armored cruisers, four 5,000-ton cruisers, fifteen torpedo-boat destroyers, and fifty torpedo-boats. Her battle-ships will be as large as any afloat, her cruisers as swift and as well armored and as well armed. Her great fleet of torpedo-boats indicates that she intends to defend her coasts against the attack of any hostile fleet. At a recent meeting of the Massachusetts Medical Society the announcement was made by Dr. R. G. Southwick that it was now possible to cure cancer, tumors, lupus, and tuberculous glands in all cases where the X-ray can be directly applied to them and exert its full power. He said that the cure had gone so far already that the X-rays were far superior to the surgeon's knife. It is said that one of the most remarkable things about the X-ray treatment of these diseases is the rapidity with which it works. THE bill providing national aid for the irrigation of arid States passed the House on June 14 by a vote of 146 to 55, and went to conference with the Senate Committee. The slight differences were speedily adjusted, and the bill now awaits the signature of the President to become a law. This bill assigns the receipts from the sale of land in these States to the construction of storage reservoirs and other permanent irrigation works, the water thus available to be distributed under the laws of the several States. THE city of Nanning, China, has been bombarded by an army of rebels, and between 300 and 400 of the inhabitants were killed by the missiles of the attacking Chinese. After the bombardment, the rebels returned to their fortified retreat in the hills. They are said to have been supplied with modern arms and ammunition. Boxers have been tearing up the rails near Tien-tsin and destroying the railroad bridges, forcing the Belgian engineers and assistants to discontinue their work. MACHINES which are expected to revolutionize the glass business were put in operation at Alexandria, Indiana, on June 10. The machines will do away with a great amount of the hand labor heretofore necessary in the manufacture of glass. The glass blowing and other parts of the work will all be done by the machines, and as a result many thousands of laborers will be thrown out of employment. The glass machines will be installed in other factories as rapidly as possible. NINE men and one woman were burned to death in a sanitarium fire in Chicago on June 9. The greater portion of the patients were seeking cure from the drink habit, and many of them were either strapped to their beds or were helplessly bound up in straight jackets. The fire was so sudden and spread so rapidly that the attendants were unable to get all of these to places of safety. On the same day five persons lost their lives in a fire at Saratoga, N. Y. THE Corliss Pacific cable bill, by whose provisions the government was to take upon itself the work of laying a cable from San Francisco to the Philippines, was defeated in the House on June 11 by a vote of 116 to 77. A private company has already begun the work of laying a cable over the route which would have been taken by the government, had Congress passed the Corliss bill. A REPORT from the Baptist mission situated at Kadiak, Western Alaska, states that garden vegetables planted there in April were ready for the table by the middle of May, while barley, oats, wheat, and other products were flourishing. Reports from several different parts of Alaska recently indicate that Alaska will yet have a place among the agricultural States of the Union. ON June 13 President Roosevelt sent to Congress a message urging the importance of some kind of reciprocity arrangement with the Republic of Cuba. Reports from both houses after the reading of the message state that congressmen who are opposed to a reduction of the tariff between the United States and Cuba are still determined to oppose any measure of the kind. GOOD progress is reported in the laying of the all-British Pacific cable from Vancouver Island to Australia and New Zealand. Spur cables have been laid, connecting Norfolk Island and Suva, Fiji; Norfolk and Queensland, Australia; and Norfolk and New Zealand, and these cables are now kept busy. The entire cable will be completed early in December. ON June 14 a memorial arch was unveiled at Columbus, Ohio, and dedicated to the 2,250 Confederate soldiers who died in prison there during the civil war. The ceremonies were elaborate, and were participated in by many Southern men. The graves were decorated jointly by the Ladies of the Grand Army and the Daughters of the Confederacy. THE great power of that steel trust known as the United States Steel Corporation is shown in the business which it controls. From official statements made at the directors' meeting held last month, it appears that the amount of business done by that trust reached considerably more than one million dollars a day. TWO DESPERATE convicts, confined in the Oregon State penitentiary at Salem, escaped on June 9, killing three officers and one prisoner in their flight. Altho three companies of militia and several posses have been hunting the murderers, they have eluded their pursuers and disappeared in the dense forest. THREE churches were struck by lightning in Chicago on June 15, and one of them was burned to the ground. During the storm two persons were struck by lightning and killed, and three were killed by the intense heat which preceded the storm. THE latest report from South Africa states that 16,000 Boers have surrendered thus far, and others are coming in. EVOLUTION and its progress must depend upon the inherent force in man and his environment. Surely it is a hopeless thing when measured by the past ages. Creation and regeneration are dependent upon the power of God, and man's willingness that God's power shall be exercised. The former is "scientific" infidelity, the latter is scientific Christianity. ON June 14 Senator Elkins introduced a joint resolution in Congress providing for the annexation of Cuba as a State of the Union, to be called the State of Cuba. The introduction of this resolution has brought out the fact that a number of congressmen are in favor of such a move as this. EXTENSIVE tests are now being made by the Navy Department with fuel oil and appliances for burning it. If satisfactory, the department will adopt oil as fuel in place of coal. So far the tests are reported to have showed 33% better results than were obtained from an excellent quality of coal. JOHANN MOST, the anarchist who published an inflammatory article in his paper at the time of the assassination of President McKinley, will spend one year in the New York State penitentiary, the Court of Appeals at Albany having unanimously affirmed the judgment of conviction. OVER one hundred counties in Texas are now under prohibitory liquor laws and prohibition officers have been elected to enforce them. So strong is the prohibition sentiment becoming in Texas that many large liquor firms are preparing to move to other States. A STRIKE of 7,000 laborers is reported from Manila. The object of the strike seems to be rather indefinite, and the laborers are said to have quit work solely through fear, the strike leaders having threatened them with death if they continued to work. THE number of immigrants arriving at New York during the month of May was the largest ever recorded for one month, amounting to 83,500. The immigration commissioner states that 53% of them are undesirable, having no trade or regular vocation. TWO GERMAN war-ships have gone to the Venezuelan port of La Guayra to protect the interests of German residents there. A local revolution is reported to have broken out at La Guayra, and the town has been bombarded by Venezuelan gunboats. A REPORT from Cape Wolf, Prince Edward Island, states that a rain of sulphur fell there on the night of June 8 to a depth of half an inch. It would seem that this sulphur dust must have been carried from the volcano of Martinique or St. Vincent. ON June 9 the House passed the anarchy bill by a vote of 175 to 38. This is the bill for the protection of the President, Vice-President, members of the cabinet and foreign ministers and ambassadors, and for the suppression of the teaching of anarchy. THE big ship-building trust, known as the United States Shipbuilding Company, has purchased the great armor-plate works at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This company is now able to build a battle-ship, armor and equip it, in its own works. A STRIKE of street-car men is now in progress at Pawtucket, R. I., and considerable violence is reported. Troops have been ordered to the scene of disturbance, but have been unable to quell the rioters or make it safe to operate the cars. CUBA has begun to enforce the law against the immigration of Chinese. Forty-three Chinese who arrived at Havana on June 11 were denied admission. Cuba's immigration laws are practically the same as those in force in the United States. THIRTEEN thousand persons attended the annual communion services of the mother Christian Science church at Boston on June 15. The principal feature of the day's exercises was an address by the founder, Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy. ARTICLES of incorporation of the United States Shipbuilding Company, a trust, were filed in Trenton, N. J., on June 11. This new concern will be capitalized at $20,000,000, and will be bonded for $16,000,000. A COMBINATION of cotton yarn mills is being organized in the South with a capitalization of $60,000,000. The object, as with all other trusts, is to fix prices, regulate production, and float bonds. SIGNOR MARCONI reports that he has now invented a highly sensitive detector of electric waves, by which it is possible to read about thirty words per minute in wireless telegraphy. THE Senate committee on territories has decided to postpone the consideration of the Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico statehood bill until the next session of Congress. TWELVE persons were killed, many injured, and property said to aggregate $1,000,000 was destroyed, by a tornado which visited a section of Central Illinois on June 11. THERE is no indication of the settlement of the great strike of coal-miners in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. GONZALA DE QUESADA, Cuba's first minister to the United States, sailed from Havana on June 9.