Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1898 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

There are four Smiths in the present and there will be five in the next. Four of them are Republicans and three come from the State of Michigan. The only Democratic Smith is David Higlibaugh Smith of Hodgensville, Larne County, Ky., who represents the district in which Abraham Lincoln was born. Mrs. Dominis of Honolulu, formerly queen of the Hawaiian Islands, arrived in Washington from San Francisco. She comes to present , a claim to Congress through the Secretary of State for the crown lands in the Hawaiian Islands, which are said to be valued at $4,000,000 and to produce an annual revenue of $160,000. Gen. Garcia and his Cuban associates are pleased with the President’s message, and declare that his references to Cuban independence are in effect, if not in words, a recognition of the republic. It is doubtful, however, whether the President intended that such a construction should be placed upon his words. A communication received at the State Department from the cofisuls general at Berlin and Frankfort places the total value of all exports from Germany to the United States for the quarter ending Sept. 30 at $19,789,007, an increase over the same period of 1897 of $5,110,093. The monthly statement es the director of the mint shows the total coinage at the United States mints during November, 1898. was $7,845,910. of which $5,006,700 was gold, $2,755,250 was silver and SBB,Q6O minor coins. The standard dollars coined amounted to $1,402,000. Bishop Hurst of the Metbodlat Church returns to Washington from a tour of the cities, with assurances of contributions of $1,000,000 from the rich Methodists of that State for the American university in this city. The President did not offer a plan for a government in the Philippines in his message, simply because be desires first to ascertain how far the people Are capable of self-government. The Secretary of the Navy has added to the ornaments of his office the figurehead of the cruiser Cristobal Colon, which was destroyed in the battle off Santiago. A canvass of the Republican Senators discloses only two votes on that side against the ratification of the Paris treaty, those of Messrs. Hale and Morrill.