Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 July 1887 — THE CONTINENT AT LARGE. [ARTICLE]

THE CONTINENT AT LARGE.

In an interview with a New York Herald correspondent, King Kalakaua declared that he would not sign the new Hawaiian Constitution unless compelled to An excursion train on the London and Port Stanley Railway was run into at St. Thomas, Ont, by a Canada Southern freight train. The wreck took fire, and probably a dozen persons were burned to death and many others injured. The loss to property was great. ASt Thomas dispatch gives the following particulars of the horror: The freight train was made up of a number of cars laden with oil. The enginte crashed into one of those cars, when the oil instantly took fire and burned with great fierceness, communicating to the cars on both trains and extending to Griffin's warehouse, coal and lime sheds, adjoining the track on the west, and John Campbell’s dwelling on the east, all of which were burned to the ground with their contents. Engineer Donnelly of the excursion train was buried in the 'wreck. His fireman jumped and escaped with slight injuries. The forward car of the excursion train was SRod with passengers, who made frantic efforts- to escape, but notwithstanding hundreds of brave and willing hands were" immediately at work to assist in their rescue a number of lives were lost; how many is not yet known. At 8 o'clock, when thousands of people were crowding fcround the bunting pile, one of the oil tanks on the cars suddenly exploded, throwing hundreds to the ground with great force and scattering fire in all directions, and severely, perhaps fatally, injuring many. Already nine bodies have been taken out. They were "burned to a crisp. The National Educational Association, at Chicago, at their third and last day’s session, discussed “The Place Manual Training Should Occupy in a System of Public Schools” and “What Can Be Done by Educators to Enlighten and Arouse the Peoplo and Excite Public Sentiment in Favor of Fducation?” A number of thoughtful papers were read on both topics. The resolutions adopted recommend various measures to the State Legislatures- and Congress in the interest of popular education, declare that there’s “an urgent necessity for temporary Federal aid in the education of the illiterate massgjtyof the South,” “commend the National Bureau of Education as an agency of increasing value and worthy of more liberal support,” and specify different methods by which the efficacy of our school system can be increased. A Chicago dispatch of Monday says: “Mr. Palmer’s superb dramatic organization are still delighting Chicago theater-goers with their fine representations at McVicker’s Theater, and, considering the torrid weather, are meeting with excellent success. This week they give us a revival of ‘Onr Society,’ with that delightful little actress, Miss Annie Russell, intheroleof ‘Sylvia.’” The Signal Service weather and crop bulletin for Ihe week ending July 16 estimates that corn has sustained some injury by reason of the protracted drought and excessive heat A Chicago dispatch says that Saturday and Sunday last were by all odds the two hottest days in the history of that city. The temperature rose to 102, and hundreds of people were prostrated by the intense heat In the country towns south and west of Chicago the heat was even more fearfuL At Beloit the thermometer is reported to have stood at 107, while at Streator, IIL, it reached 108. The whole country east of the Mississippi and south of the lake 3 suffered from the extreme heat, the thermometer throughout the entire region registering from 90 degrees to 108 degrees. Fourteen Joliet convicts were prostrated by the neat, and two of them died. Fatal sonstrokes were numerous in the cities and towns of the Mississippi valley. 8k Louis and Cincinnati had a large number of fatalities.