Northern Texas has been suffering because of heavy rain-storms that prevailed there for several days prior to April 19. On that date the worst of the storm seemed to be over. The loss is estimated at more than $1,000,000. The Texas and Pacific Transcontinental Railway was cut in two by the floods, and trains were not able to pass to or from California for nearly a week. At Waco the Brazos River reached a depth of thirty-five feet, and the eastern portion of the town was inundated by the breaking of a levee. Farms in the lowlands are greatly damaged, and hundreds of head of livestock are drowned. The Cotton Belt Railroad lost many of its bridges, and it will be some days before it can attempt to run trains. At Fort Worth the water in the park and vicinity rose to a depth of ten feet. Between Fort Worth and North Fort Worth, where the packing houses are located, the water reached a depth of six or seven feet. Fully 8,000 persons, principally of the poorer classes, were driven from their homes in the submerged districts. Later reports indicate that the storm swept on to northwestern Texas, where there were a number of cloudbursts, and five towns were swept away. It is said to be the worst storm that was ever known in that region.
"Flat-Iron" Building, New York, Only About Half as High as the Life Insurance Building in Course of Construction.
A criminally inclined person, while under the influence of liquor a few days ago, shot and killed a leading citizen of a small town in Nevada. The person killed had served his community as justice of the peace and had been called upon at different times in the discharge of his duties to sentence the man who finally murdered him. The murderer had been about the streets trying to pick a quarrel with different persons he met, and finally walking into the place of business of the ex-justice of the peace, called out, "Prepare to die; I am going to kill you," and immediately fired. His bullet passed just below the heart of his victim, killing him instantly. Liquor-drinking inflames the criminal propensity, and then the old grudge comes up against judges that have passed sentences for former crimes, and murder is the result. This is one of the things that has come to be recognized as a menace to both judges and juries in these days. The possibility as well as the probability of meeting the fate of the Nevada justice of the peace is keeping many a righteous sentence from being pronounced.
In a collision at Baybrook Junction, eight miles from Melbourne, Australia, on April 20, forty-two persons were killed and sixty others badly injured. Serious wrecks on English trains, or on trains in any of the English colonies, are very infrequent. It has been one of the boasts of England that she so conducts her railway traffic that the possibility of accidents is reduced to the minimum. But in spite of her great precautions, here is one of the worst wrecks on a railroad that has ever occurred. The driving activity of this age has put a strain upon men that is beyond the legitimate powers of endurance, and the breaking under this strain is bound to result in carelessness or forgetfulness or something of the kind, and these big accidents are the fruitage. God did not create men to work under a constant nervous tension of the highest pitch.
A diplomatic difficulty has arisen between France and Turkey over the coal-mines at Ereglee, Asia Minor, 128 miles from Constantinople. Turkey is seeking to regain control of the mines, but the concessions are held by French capitalists who decline to consider the resale of the property until the Porte furnishes evidence of its ability to pay. In the financial condition of Turkey it is impossible for her to consummate the deal, and in the meantime France has closed her market to any Turkish loan, and has notified the Porte that she will exact an indemnity of $2,500 a day until settlement is made, in addition to a compensation of $2,800,000 for losses to the company incurred by disturbances.
An attempt was made to assassinate Manuel Estrada Cabrera, president of the Guatemala republic, on the evening of April 20 in Guatemala City. The assassin fired several shots, all of which went wide of the mark except one which struck the president's finger. The latest despatches say that discontented students with anarchistic tendencies were at the bottom of the plot. It has been only about a year since underground mines were fired beneath Cabrera's carriage, killing his coachman and two of his horses, and narrowly missing him.
A despatch from East St. Louis under date of April 15 gives the information that three hundred workmen fought at the works of the American Aluminum Works to-day when Armenian, Greek, and Turkish laborers became angry because the company, in taking back its employees, gave preference to Americans and negroes. The timekeeper's shanty at the main gate of the works was demolished and many heads were battered with sticks and stones.
It is good to learn that all liquors are barred on all Pullman cars in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The reason is not because of a temperance sentiment on the part of the Pullman company, but because the territory is becoming so spotted with Prohibition laws, that the company's employees were in constant danger of breaking them in dispensing liquors. The only safe thing the company could do was to discontinue altogether.
As an indication of the awakening and progress of China may be mentioned that on April 19 a twenty-five mile railroad from Shanghai to Sunkeank was thrown open to traffic. It was constructed entirely by Chinese engineers and capital. This is an interesting fact to keep note of.
An electrical engineer at the Union Pacific shops at Omaha, Frederick H. Milliner, has succeeded in applying the principle of wireless telegraphy to an electric motor. For some time he has had a wireless electric truck in successful operation in the shops.
Insurgents attempted on April 19 to wreck a Seoul train on which Marquis Ito was riding. It is said that the Japanese activity and domination in Korea is causing hundreds of the people to cross the frontier and become Chinese subjects.
