Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1898 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

It is now, proposed to send Sampson to Europe in command of a fleet instead of Watson. The idea originated with Secrets ry_ Long, who thinks that the glory of the navy and the estimate in which it is now held by foreigners may be still further enhanced and emphasized if the commander of tt*. Cuban fleet should make a cruise around the harbors of Europe with a few of the ships and men whose names were unknown to fame a few months ago but are now familiar to the military authorities of every nation. Secretary Long wants to send the Oregon as a sample o' our battleships'and the Minneapolis as a type of our cruisers, because both of them were not only constructed but designed in the United States, and they are undoubtedly superior in every respect to anything of their tonnage afloat. • • * Secretary Wilson of the Department of Agriculture expects great things from the Paris exhibition. Congress appropriated $75,000 for an agricultural exhibit at the exposition. Secretary Wilson has had his departmental force at work on the exhibit for the last six months, and it will labor for eighteen months longer. If an independent force of men had to be hired to do the work which Secretary Wilson has mapped out an additional appropriation of $200,000 would be required. As it is, the $75,000 will be enough. Secretary Wilson has the theory that the. foreign demand for American products could be enormously increased if we went about th* building up of the European markets with trained intelligence instead of going at it haphazard. • • • It appears that Lieut. Blandin of the navy, who died of cerebro-spinal meningitis at a hospital in Baltimore the other day, has had a suicidal mania ever since the destruction of the Maine. He was officer of the deck at the time of the explosion and was hit in the head and knocked senseless by some missile'hurled through the air. He recovered consciousness after a few moments and Was ahle to leave the vessel with the other officers. His skull was not fractured and there were no symptoms of concussion of the brain, but he had ever since complained of violent headaches and had been a victim of melancholia, which the surgeons attributed to the nervous shock caused by the disaster and the wound. • * * It is an open secret that-Secretaries Alger, Day and Bliss will resign from the cabinet as soon as the war is over and the country is enjoying a state of peace again. The three refuse to discuss the report, even in the slightest degree. It is known that there have been some heated discussions among the cabinet members concerning the policy of the Government as it relates to Spain, and the supposition is that these discussions have led to a rupture among the members. • • • Some of the cases which have hero brought to the naval hospital at Norfolk are desperate, particularly those of the Spaniards of Cervera’s fleet, some of whom are literally torn to pieces. The wounded prisoners receive the same attention and treatment that is given onr own men, and they were given the most comfortable places on the ship. * * * From New York word comes that the railroads are getting ready to bear down on Congress next winter in greater force than ever and make a supreme effort to secure certain legislation amending the interstate commerce law. Whether they will attempt to force through a pooling bill is somewhat doubtful, but they will endeavor to obtain advantageous legislation as close to pooling as they can get.