Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1878 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

FOREIGN NEWS. United States Minister Seward writes «of the famine in China that the actual famine is preßßing upon 16,000,000 people, while 60,000,000 are Buffering more or less diHtreßß. The crops, he Bays, have been good immediately around tho stricken districts, hut, as the food can be transported only on wagons or pack animals, it ■cannot be taken thither in Buflicient quantities to save the lives of the people. There has been serious rioting in Constantinople. The troops fired on the mob, killing twenty-one and wounding seventeen. Property in Caracas. Venezuela, to ttlie amount of SIOO,OOO, was destroyed by the ■earthquake of April 14. The water in the rivers became so hot that the fish sought refuge «n the shore—a cane of jumping from tho JtyjWig-pan into the fire. A London dispatch says it is now more than probable that the congress will meet during the first fortnight of June; also that, oiving to tho unsettled stale of public affairs in Constantinople, tho English licet will probably movo to the Princes’ islands. Count Schouvaloff returned to London last week, and it is believed his mission to Bt. Petersburg has been highly successful. The insurrection in Laz : stan against ■iho Russians is spreading. It is estimated that 'between 10,000 and 15,000 Lazis are under arms. These are prosecuting a guerrilla warfaro against the Russians about Artvin and Batoum. Servia has placed her army on a complete war footing, at tho request of Russia, and sent large forces to the Bosnian frontier. The Czar is sending monoy to the Servian capital, to pay for tho supplies rendered necessary by the general mobilization. The Russians affect to be confident of 'peace, and yet they have given their war preiparations a sudden acceleration that would almost make it appear that they are really certain that the conditions which Count Schouvaloff takes to London wi 1 bo rejected, and war will follow. A Loudon dispatch states that the Russians are concentrating an immense army on the frontier of Austrian Poland.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

Eust. Mrs. Leon Lewis, the novelist, died in Rochester, N. Y., a few days ago. The Rev. Samuel S. Isaacs, editor of tho Jewish. Messenger, and the oldest Jewish minister in the country, died in New York last week, aged 74. Cardinal McClosky has returned from Europe. Harvard students have been recently discovered by the collego authorities having knowledge of the examination papers before boing regularly issued, and two members of tho Junior class have been expelled, and one or two employes removod. John Hughes, of New York, has clialonged Daniel O’Leary to a six days’ pedestrian match for the Astley belt and #SOO a side. During the progress of a fire at Hartford, Ct , last week, an explosion blew down a wall, killing three firemen. The magnificent woman’s hotel, constructed by the late A. T. S ewart, and recently opened in Now York, lias proved a great fail lire, and is to he transformed into a general hotel/ West. The Senate of Minnesota, sitting as a high court of impeachment, is engaged in the trial of Circuit Judge Sherman Page, for official misconduct. The Coroner’s jury which has been holding an inquest on the victims of the mill explosion at Minneapolis, Minn., has retnrned a verdict that the disaster was tho result of an explosion of mill-dust floating in the air, kindled by fire in the woodwork of the Washburn A mill, originating in a spark from the stories running empty. No evidence is found to chow negligence on the part of the mill-op eratives, hut the open purifiers in use in mills are condemned as generating an unusual amount of dust. The Southern Hotel, at St. Louis, the burning of which created such a horror throughout tho country a year ago, is to be rebuilt. It is estimated that fifty people were killed and over half a million dollars’ worth of property destroyed by the recent terrible cyclone that swept across the State of Wisconsin. Six or seven hundred Nez Perces Indians who took part in war under Chief Joseph last summer have sent a request to the authorities at Washington to be allowed to leave Fort Leavenworth, where they are how dotaiuod, and return to their old reservation in Washington Territory. After several consultations between the President and Secretary of War, and Secretary of the luterior, it has been d cided not to grant the request. Hontli. Collector Woodcock telegraphs the Commissioner of Internal Revenue from Nashvillo, Tenti., that Special Deputy Collector Davip, with one companion, attempted to seize an illicit distillery on Saturday in Grundy county, 'rhey were attacked by seven men. Davis killed one, wounded one, and captured ono of his assailants, but had to leave the distillery without completing its destruction.

POLITICAL POINTS.

Tho committee appointed by Speaker Randall to conduct the investigation of the Louisiana and Florida elections, provided for by tho Potter resolution, is constituted as folows : Clarkson N. Potter, of New York ; William It. Morrison, of Illinois ; Eppa Hunton, of Virginia : John A. McMahon, of Ohio ; J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky; W. 8. Stenger, of Pennsylvania ; Thomas R. Cobb, of Indiana—democrat a. B. p. Butler, of Massachusetts; Frank Hiscock, of New York ; J. D. Cox, of Ohio, and Thomas B. Reed, of Maine—Republicans. lho Nationals of Indiana met in State Convention at Indianapolis on May 22, and nominated the following ticket: Secretary of State, Henry James; Auditor, Jacob F. BirdTreasurer, R. P. Main; Attorney General, David Moss; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Prof. John Young. The Republican Convention of Vermont met at Burlington on May 23. Col. Redheld Proctor was nominated for Governor, E. P. Colton for Lieutenant Governor, and John A. Pago, present incumbent, for State Treasurer. The resolutions declare that “the motives and general oourse of the administration of President Hayes have our hc'.xity approbation,” and condemn as un I uir and revolutionary the measure of tho Democratic House of Representatives to investigate a part only of the facts pertaining to the I residential election, and consider that all < fforts to reopen a question of such magnitude, after it has onoe been lawfully, and we

believe justly, closed, are detrimental to the prosperity and .perilous to the peace of the country, deserving the reprehension of all good citizens.” The Democrats of Pennsylvania held their State Convention at Pittsburgh last week. Andrew H. Dill was nominated for Governor, H. P. Ross for Supreme Judge, and J. Simpson Aprica for Secretary of Internal Affairs. The platform adopted declares that the Republican party, its measures and its men, are responsible for the financial distress 'and misery and want that now exist; that its present hold upon the Federal power was secured by fraud, perjury, and forgery; that further contraction of the volume of United States legal-tender notes is unwise and unnecessary; that treasury notes issued in exchange for bonds bearing a low rate of interest is the best form in which the credit of the Government can be given in paper currency; that the public lands are the common property of the people, and they should not be sold to speculators, nor granted to railroads or other corporations, but should be reserved as homesteads for actual settlers; that “thorough investigation into the electoral frauds of 1876 should be made; fraud should be exposed, truth vindicated, and criminals punished, but we oppose any attack upon the President’s title as dangerous to our institutions and fiuitless in its results.”

WASHINGTON NOTES.

The House Committee on Expenditures in the State Department has agreed to report articles of impeachment against Consul General Bradford at Shanghai. The Republican members have doubts that the office is impeachable under the constitution. A Washington dispatch says “the sale of tho 4-per-cont. bonds has already reached such an amount as will shortly justify tho issue of a call for five million 6 per cents., which will be replaced by 4 per cents. Sherman denies that the Syndicate has made an offer for six hundred millions of 4 per cents, at par, provided it was given a monopoly of the sale. Ho says that under no circumstances will ho give any bankers a monopoly of the fours. They are, he considers, the people’s bonds, and he intends they shall remain so.” The President has appointed William P. Chandler, of Illinois, Surveyor General of Idaho Territory. Secretary Sherman submitted a financial statement to the Cabinet, at a meeting the other day, showing that there is a falling off in the revenue receipts of the present fiscal year, thus far, of $11,000,000, as compared with the corresponding time last year ; also, showing a decrease of $8,000,000 in the Government expenditures. Numerous localities in Illinois and Wisconsin were visited on the evening of May 23 by' the storm-king, and suffered vast destruction of property and serious loss of life. At Mineral Point, Wis., tho tornado appears from the results to have been tho severest, fully a score of dwelling-houses and other buildings being utterly demolished and as many more unroofed and otherwise injured. The contents of some were blown fully half a mile avray. Eight persons were killed outright, and many others wounded, some of them beyond hope of recovery. The loss of property is estimated at over SIOO,OOO, without reckoning horses, cattle, etc. Everything in the line of the tornado is laid low, huge trees being carried hundreds of feet, huge rocks being misplaced, the ground plowed up, etc. At Paoli, Oregon, Mount Vernon and other towns west of Madison the liurric&ne was nearly as severe as at Mineral Point. Houeeß were unroofed, barns and fences prostrated, and many persons injured. On the same day a tornado swept through the town of Barrington, Cook county, 111., making havoc wherever it struck tho earth and killing three persons. Another tornado swept through Brown county, 111., and three lives are reported lost. Tlio President has nominated Charles Payson, of Massachusetts, Third Assistant Secretary of State : S. A. Brown, the present Chief of the State Department, to be Consul at Birmingham, England; O. M. Spencer, of lowa, to be Consul General at Melbourne, Australia. Consuls, Charles M. Murphy, of New Hampshire, at Moscow, Russia ; John F. Hazelton, of New York, at Genoa, Italy; Charles E. Jackson, of Wisconsin, at Antigua, and John B. Gould at Marseilles, France. The customs agents of the treasury havo discovered an extensive scheme for smuggling cigars into Now York by throwing them overboard in rubber bags from incoming steamships outaido of Sandy Hook. This practice has been conducted with great success off tho Florida coaßt on cigars imported from Havana.

MISCELLANEOUS GLEANINGS.

A telegram from Ottawa, Canada, says the Dominion Government is in receipt by cable of a statement from the Imperial Government to the effect that war between Great Britain and Russia is inevitable. Several miners were killed by an explosion of gas in a colliery near Halifax, N. S., last week. A telegram from North Troy, Vt., says: “A correspondent of the Associated Press visited several of the principal towns on the Canadian border, and finds everywhere the moat intense excitement prevailing. The Dominion militia are supplied with arms and ammunition, and are ready at an hour’s notice to concentrate their forces to repel invasion on the Canada border. The soldiers say no doubt exists in their minds that an invasion is imminent, and that tho Irish Nationalists are now in large numbers, with the greatest secrecy possible, making their way into the interior of Canada, with orders to concentrate at different points for an onslaught on Montreal, Quebec, Ottawa and other prominent Canadian towns.” The Bennett polar ship will soon sail from London for Havre, where a temporary crew will be shipped, when she will leave for San Francisco. Mr. Bennett hopes the expedition will sail for the north in June, 1879, It will go by the route through Behring’s straits. The pleasure steamer Empress of India, with a party of about eighteen persons on board, became unmanageable and capsized over a dam on Grand river at Galt, Ont., a few nights ago. All the passengers were plunged into the river below and eight of them drowned.

FORTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.

Monday, May 20.—Senate.—Mr. Thurman, from the Judiciary Committee, to which was recommitted the House bill to provide for the admission to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of any woman who has been a member of the bar of the highest court of any Btate or Territory fortheperiod of three years, reported it back with the amendment of Mr. Sargent, providing that no person shall be refused admission to the bat of the United States court on account of sex. There was no law prohibiting a court from admitting women to the bar, and therefore, there was no necessity for this legialai tion....Mr. Christiancy introduced, by request a bill to reorganize the Court of Claims. ... rhe Senate indulged in a long and animated debate upon the House bill to place the name of Gen Shields on the retired list of the army, with the rank of Brigadier General. Mr. Sargent

moved to amend the bill by adding the name of Gen. Grant. This was agreed to—yeas 30, all Republicans with the exception of one (Lamar); nays 28, all Democrats except Oglesby.... Mr. Morrill addressed the Senate in opposition to the bill to repeal the Resumption act. House. —The following bills were Introduced: By Mr. Harris, repealing the law imposing a tax of 1 per cent, on State banks; by Mr. Shelley, of Alabama, giving the guarantee of the Government to the payment of 6 per cent, interest on the bonds to be issued by the followingnamed companies to the following amounts: The James River and Kanawha Canal Company, $60,000,000; Atlantic and Great Western Canal Company, $50,000,000; the Florida Coast Canal Com pany, $12,008,000; the Fort St. Philip Canal Company, $10,000,000; the Rock Island and Hennepin Canal Company, $13,000,000; the Oswego Canal Company, $25,000,000* the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad Company, $5,000,000; the Niagara Ship Canal Company, $14,000,000; by Mr. Garfield, for taking the tenth and subsequent censuses; by Mr. Atkins, requiring all appointments in the civil service to bo distributed equally among the Congressional Districts; by Mr. Crittenden, providing that the claims of militiamen or non-enlißted persons on account of disabilities received In battle with rebels or Indians shall be valid if filed previous to July, 1682... The 4rmy Appropriation bill was discussed. Tuesday, May 21.— Senate. — Mr. Conkling, from the Committee on Commerce, reported adversely on the Senate bill to authorize the construction of a bridge across the Mississippi river at Memphis, and it was indefinitely postponed... .The Senate resumed consideration of the bill to place the name of Gen. Shields on the retired list of the army. The question was on concurring in the amendment of the committee of the whole placing the name of Gen. Grant on the retired list, and It was defeated— 32 to 28 —a strict party vote, the Republicans voting in the affirmative and the Democrats in the negative. After debate, Mr. Thurman moved to strike out all after the enacting clause of the bill as an amendment, and insert in lieu thereof a provision authorizing the Secretary of tho Interior to place the name of Gen. Shields on the pension lißt, at the rate of SIOO a month. A lengthy debate ensued, which was participated in by Messrs. Thurman, Blaine and Hill. The amendment of Mr. Thurman was rejected—yeas, 31 ; nays, 83. The question beina on the passage of the bill, a vote was taken without further diecussion, and it was rejected—yeas, 30 nays, 34. Mr. Teller entered a motion to reconsider the vote by which the lull was rejected. House. —The House devoted the entire day, in committee of the whole, to the consideration of the Army Appropriation bill. Wednesday, May 22. — Senate. —The Senate discussed the resolution of Mr. Davis authorising an investigation of the books and accounts of the Treasury Department. .. .Mr. Paddock’s bill for the relief of settlers on the public lauds was passed. It allows pre-emption settlers who have changed their title to homestead entry the benefit of the time the land was occupied under the pre-emption entry... The remainder of the day was occupied by a speech by Mr. Lamar on tho Texaß Pacific Railroad bi 11.... The Senate, in executive session, confirmed tho nomination of S. B. Packard as Consul at Liverpool, by a strict party vote. Lucius Fairchild was also confirmed as Consul General at Paris. House. —Mr. Harrison, of Illinois, offered a reso lution extending the Potter investigation to Oregon and South Carolina. On a vote as to whether it was a question of privilege no quorum responded, and Mr. Harrison withdrew his resolution. Mr. Wilson then offered a resolution extending the power of the investigating committee to any State where there may be any well-grounded allegation of fraud, which was adopted.... Articles of impeachment were reported against O. B. Bradford, late Vice Consul General at Shanghai. China, and referred to the Judiciary Committee... .Mr. Butier’s bill for the publication of ihe Official Advertiser of the United States was passed after a good deal of discussion... .The Houso indulged in another lively debate over the Army Appropriation bill.

Thursday, May 23.—Senate.—Bills were passed to provido for service of process in caees of inter-pleader in courts of the United States, and authorizing the erection of headstones over the graves of Union soldiers interred in private cemeteries.... The resolution of Mr.- Davis authorizing the select committee to investigate the books of the Treasury Department to continue the investigation during the recess was adopted.... The bill providing for a permanent form of government for the District of Columbia occupied a large share of the day’s session.... The Senate, in exeentive session, confirmed a large number of appointments. The nomination of John B. Frothiugham to be Assistant Appraiser of Merchandise at New York was rejected. House. —Mr. Robertson, rising to a question of personal privilege, stated that charges had been made against citizens of the parishes of East and WeEt Feliciana, which, if true, would compel him to retire in shame from his seat. He sent to the Clerk’s desk and had read that portion of Secretary Sherman's letter to Clarkson N. Potter, in which he refers to the election in those parishes. Mr. Robertson then proceeded to make a general statement as to tho election in East and West Feliciana, but was interrupted by the Speaker pro tern., who reminded him that all .hat was remote from a question of personal privilege. Mr. Burchard— Unlesß the gentleman connects himself with the frauds he speaks of. Mr. Robertson—l do connect myself with those frauds by denouncing them and branding the charge in lhat letter as a viio calumny. There was a conspiracy in those parishes, and I believe that John Sherman was connected with it.... The House devoted the balance of the day and the entire evening session to tho consideration of the Army Appropriation bill. Friday, May 24. — Senate.— Mr. Edmunds, from the select committee to take into consideration the state of the law respecting the ascertaining and declaration of the result of the election of Presidents ana Vice Presidents of the United States, said that he was directed by the committee to make a report in part, in the form of a bill to amend sundry provisions of chapter 1, title 3of the Revised Statutes of tho United States, relating to Presidential elections. The bill reported by Mr. Edmunds provides that, when there is ojily one return of the vote of a State, it shall not be rejected except by the concurrent action of both houses. Ii more than one return is received, the vote of the State is not to be counted unless both houses agree as to which is the legal return. It also names the first Tuesday in October for Presidential elections, and the first Monday in January for the meeting of the electors. The bill was placed on the calendar... Mr. Burnside, from the Committee on Education and Labor, reported adversely on tbo House joint resolution to provide for the enforcement of the Eight-Hour law, and also adversely on the Senate bill to regulate the hours of labor. Placed on the calendar... .The Senate then discussed the bill to provide for a permanent government for the District of Columbia. House. —The House spent another day upon the Army Appropriation bill. Saturday, May 25.— Senate.— Mr. Oglesby, from the Committee on Public Lands, reported, and the Senate passed, the House bill which provides that tho notice of contest now provided for by law under the Homestead Pre-emption and TreeCulture laws of the United States Bhall be published in some newspaper printed in the county where the land contest lies, and, if no paper be printed in the same county, then in a newspaper printed in the county nearest to such lands. The object of this bill is to protect the interests of all parties to contests.... Tho bill to provide a permanent government for the District of Columbia was discussed. House.— Mr. Goode, the Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, reported a bill to apply the proceeds of the sale of public lands to the education of the people... .The House spent the day in committee of the whole on the Army Appropriation bill. There was an animated debate over the provision to reduce the salaries of the General of the Aitny and Lieutenant General, but tho reductions as fixed by the committee were sustained. Mr. Scales offered an amendment transferring the Indian Bureau to tho War Department, but action upon it was postponed.