Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1899 — IN GENERAL. [ARTICLE]

IN GENERAL.

James Shearer & Co.’s big lumber establishment in Point St. Charles, Canada, was badly damaged by fire. Sir George R. Kirkpatrick of Toronto, Canada, died, aged 58 years. He was Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1892 to 1897, and was several terms speaker of the Dominion Parliament. J. Homer Bird, the condenined Alaska murderer, after being refused a new trial by Judge Johnson, will make an effort to prolong his life by an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, according to reports brought by the steamer City of Topeka. The execution of Bird will be the first legal hanging in Alaska during American occupation. D. B. Green, Col. John F. Gaynor and William T. Gaynor, the contractors with whom former Capt. Oberlin M. Carter was associated in the Savannah river and Cumberland sound improvements, surrendered to United States Commissioner Shields at New York. The men were indicted by th? United States grand jury at Savannah for being in a conspiracy by which the Government was defrauded out of $575,949. The statistician of the Department of Agriculture reports the wheat crop of the United States for 1899 at 54<,300,000 bushels, or 12.3 bushels an acre., The production of winter wheat is placed at 291,700,000 bushels and that of spring wheat at 255,000,000 bushels. Every important wheat-growing State has been visited by special agents of the department, and the changes in acreage are the result of their investigations. The newly seeded area of winter wheat is estimated at 30,150,000 acres, which is about 200,000 acres greater than that sown In the fall of 1898. The average of condition is 97.1.

Bradstreet’s says: “General trade in wholesale and manufacturing lines is quieting down, but it is worth nothing, if undisturbed by the money situation, the influences of which have been confined to speculative circles. Holiday trade, on the other hand, has been given a decided impetus and comparisons with the same period of preceding years are un , *ormly favorable, little doubt remaining that, although retail trade in seasonable lines has been somewhat affected in some localities by unfavorable weather, holiday specialties have enjoyed exceptional activity. As regards prices, it is a notable fact that as many staples have advanced this week as there have declined, while by far the larger number of quotations have remained steadj- or firm. Wheat, including flour, shipments for the week aggregate 3,258,649 bushels, against 5,133,331 bushels last week. Corn exports for the week aggregate 4,017,185 bushels, against 3,815,699 bushels last week.”