Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1879 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

FOREIGN NEWS. Many Russian students, arrested for participation in the recent disturbances, have been banished to Siberia. A public whipping on a big scale has taken place at St Petersburg, where 200 rioters were flogged as a penalty for resistance to the police authorities. ’ There were over 15,900 commercial failures in Great Britain during 1878, or 4,000 more than in 1877. A dispatch from Constantinople says a thirty-eight-ton gun burst at Ismid, during practice on the British man-of-war Thunderer. 'Fhe vessel’s turret was destroyed, seven men killed, and forty wounded. In France, a sudden thaw has caused many of the rivers to overflow their banks, doing considerable damage to property. Gen. Grant arrived in Dublin, Ireland, on the 3d inst He was presented with the freedom of the city. The Town Council of Cork, in Ireland, refused to give a public reception to Gen. Grant. Moncasi, the assassin who tried to kill the King of Spain in October last, has been executed. The Senatorial elections in France have resulted in a great victory for the Republicans. They will have nearly sixty majority in the next Senate. Another heavy bank failure is reported from England—the Gornish Bank, at Truro, with several branches, and deposits amounting to £5,000,000.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. XCaat. Ex-Gov. Steams, of New Hampshire, is dead. By the burning of a bam at East Orange, N. J., two young men were burned to death. An old woman and the watchman lost their lives by the burning of a small house attached to the Irving House, at New London, Ct. Three men are reported killed by an explosion of the nitro-glycerine works at Upper Preakness, N. J. The three men killed were torn into fragments and blown in every direction. A brother of Benjamin Hunter, the convicted Camden (N. J.) murderer, has asked Gov. McClellan for a special session of the Court of Pardons, to consider the commutation of the death sentence, on the ground that Benjamin is of unsound mind. The scarlet fever is playing havoc with the young people of New York. There were 180 deaths from this disease in that city last week. The Bryant memorial exercises, at the Academy of Music, New York, on the 30th ult., were of a very imposing and impressive character. George William Curtis was the orator of the occasion, and President Hayes, Secretory Evarts, Gen. Sherman, Gov. Tilden, Peter Cooper, Gen. Hancock and a large number of other distinguished persons were among the spectators. There were 917 failures in New York city in 1878, with liabilities amounting to >64,000,000. Caleb Cushing died at his residence in Newburyport, Mass., on the 2d of January, after an illness of brief duration. He was 78 years old. West. Advices from Breathitt county, Ky., report that the new County Judge, Randall, has had all the ringleaders of the Little faction arrested, which has produced consternation and dismay among those concerned in the late difficulties, and that Breathitt is now one of the most peaceful counties in the State. None of the Strong party had been caught, but it -was the intention to arrest the leaders of that party as fast as they could be found. There were 7,361 deaths in the city of Chicago during the year 1878—the smallest number in any one year since 1871. A fire at Paris, Mo., destroyed $40,(XX) worth of property. Judge Charles T. Sherman, brother of Secretary and Gen. Sherman, died at Cleveland, Ohio, last week. A battery of three boilers at Htilman A- Fairbanks’ distillery, Terre Haute, Ind., the largest in the world, blew up with terrific? force the other day, killing two persons, demolishing the large boiler-room and creating great disaster and rum.

A committee of the Legislature of Oregon has just completed an investigation into the finances of the State Government, and have discovered that funds to the amount of about $97,000 have either been unaccounted for or paid out without authority of law. The committee’s report is very severe in its condemnation of Gov. Grover. Thursday, Jan. 2, was one of the coldest days experienced in the Northwest in many years, the mercury ranging from 15 to 30 degrees below zero, according to location. The Second Baptist Church, in St. Louis, has been destroyed by fire Loss, •140,000. During the progress of a feast at the Town Hall hi Barnesville, Ohio, some rascal nut croton oil in the food, and between 800 and 400 persons were taken violently i 1. For the third time within a period of seven years the Chicago Postoffice has been burned out It was located in the Honore building, on Dearborn street, one of the finest and prettiest blocks in the city. The loss by the fire is about $79,000, fully covered by insu'ance. ■ South. The Congressional Yellow Fever Commission met at New Orleans on the 30th nit, and proceeded with their investigation. Drs. Holliday and Holcomb, two leading physicians of that city, were examined. Both agreed that the fever originates in New Orleans every year from a germ which was originally imported there, and has become a part of the climate; that the epidemic was undoubtedly incurred by neglect in removing garbage, and by filling up streets with the offal and garbage of the city. A fire at Charleston, 8. C., destroyed a cotton-press warehouse and over 10,000 bales of cotton, valued at nearly $600,000. Four tramps were frozen to death at Glasgow Junction, Ky., during the late cold snap. The Rankin House, with thirteen large stores umlgrimth, at. Columbus, Ga., has been destroyed by fire. Lobs, $200,000. > Washington notes. The Secretary of the Treasury has called in for payment $10,000,000 additional 5-20 bonds, with the proceeds from the subscriptions to tfae 4 per cents. • The advocates of the Texa# Pacific Railroad bill say-that they have made a careful Mnvaw of the House and Senate, and find a wadn the House and six |q

Senate in favor of the bill when it shall be put on its final passage. Senators Patterson, Garland and Grover, who in behalf of the Senate Committee on Territories have conducted an inquiry into the condition of affairs in the Indian Territory, recommend the enactment of legislation by Congress which shall provide for the erection of the Indian Territory into a Territory of the United States, and the conversion of the Indians nto citizens, amenable to Federal laws and competent to serve on United States Conrt juries. A new circular has been issued by the Secretary of the Treasury in regard to subscriptions to the 4-per-cent. bonds, in which it is stated that United States notes, as well as coin, can now be received for subscriptions; and that, instead of paying a commission on all subscriptions, the department will pay no commission on any subscription less than >IOO,OOO. The public-debt statement shows an increase of the debt for December of >1,233,785, and the following balances in the treasury; Coin, *224,865,477; currency, >4,515,550; currency held for the redemption of fractional currency, >10,000,000; specif deposit for the redemption of certificates of deposit, >3,455,000; coin and silver certificates, >24,076,830; outstanding legal tenders, >346,681,016; fractional currency, >16,108,154. The recent letter of the Secretary of the Interior, calling upon Gen. Sheridan for specific facts in support of his charges against the efficiency of the Indian service, has elicited a reply in the form of a report from Gen. Sheridan to Gen. She: man, in wiiich he specifies numerous instances of bar! management in the Indian service. A package of currency containing >IO,OOO was stolen from the Government Printing Office, by some adroit thief, a few days ago. The Government Directors of the Union Pacific railroad have sent their annual report to the Secretary of the Interior. They are of the opinion that the Union Pacific, in view of the extremely liberal aid that it has received from the Government, and the brilliancy of its success as a commercial enterprise, should be judged by the most severe standards known among the railroads of the country. Measured by this standard they report the deficiencies many and apparent.

POLITICAL POINTS.

The National Executive Committee of the Socialist-Labor party has issued an address to the working people, in which the action of the German Government in its dealings with the Socialists in that country is strongly condemned, and the workingmen all over the United States are called upon to testify in public meetings to be held for the purpose their approval of the sentiments embodied in the address. Clarkson N. Potter and Jacob D. Cox, a sub-committee of the Potter Investigation Committee, arrived at New Orleans on the 30th ult., for the purpose of prosecuting the inquiry that was cut short by Yellow Jack last summer. No other members could be prevailed upon to go. It was agreed that Potter’s vote should ho counted as two in order to avoid a tie on party questions. The Potter sub-committee began work at New Orleans on the 31st ult. by examining Oscar Arrayo, Secretary of State,* who produced the records of his office relating to the election of 1876. P. G. Deslonde, Secretary of State under Kellogg, testified to affixing his signature to the first set of Republican electoral certificates, but had no recollection of signing any second set Judge Billings and two or three other witnesses were examined, but nothing of an important character was elicited. A bundle of documents left in a store by Mrs. Agnes Jenks, and addressed to her, was produced before the committee. Among the documents was one purporting to be the alleged original “Sherman letter.” Chairman Potter made a statement to the press to the effect that these documents had been dropped by Mrs. Jenks for the purpose of imposing upon the committee. He declared that the so-called copy of the Sherman letter was a forgery.

At the second day’s session of the Potter Committee, in New Orleans, Mr. John Ray, counsel for Secretary Sherman, filed a communication setting forth that he had no intention of offering further evidence on the subject of intimidation in the .elections of 1876. Chairman Potter then announced that, inasmuch as several witnesses wanted by the committee were in Washington, the committee would adjourn to that city. In the meantime Mr. John Ray, representing Mr. Sherman, and another gentleman to be selected by the Chairman, would remain in New Orleans and take whatever testimony might be offered in rebuttal of the evidence already taken by the committee. Hon. E. B. Washburne denies the report that he has been tendered the post of Minister to Berlin, and says he would not accept it if it were. The people of Maine having failed, at the November election, to choose a Governor, owing to the fact that no one candidate received a majority of all the votes cast, the Legislature, as provided by the State constitution, has settled the matter by electing Alonzo Garcelon, Democrat Maine has not had a Democratic Governor before in over twenty years.

Philadelphia bouts an export grain trade of 37(000,000 bushels this yew t