Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1900 — IN GENERAL. [ARTICLE]

IN GENERAL.

Chief Moore of the weather bureau has forbidden employes to smoke cigarettes during business hours. Kuskonook, a railway town on Kootenay lake, B. C., terminus of the Bedlington and Nelson Railway, was swept away by fire. Many hundreds of families were ’made homeless. Ice floes in the Exploits river have swept away the railway bridge at St. John’s, N. F. t which cost SIOO,IXIO. The express and mail trains on the way to that city returned to Port Aux Basque. One of the large buildings of Hand 4b Co.’s fireworks factory in Hamilton, Ont., was wrecked by an explosion. Walter Teale, son-in-law of Prof. Hand, one of the partners in the concern, was blown to atoms. Secretary of State Hay and Ambassador Cambon have signed a protocol extending the time allowed for the ratification of the French reciprocity treaty. It provides that the treaty is to be ratified within twelve months. • A serious riot occurred at the works of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company at Sydney, C. 8., among a large number of Italian employes who were brought from New York and Boston. James Beckman, the chief of police, was fatally stabbed. An engagement between the Yaqui Indians and Mexican troops took place in the Bacatete mountains. The Indians made a sortie. They drove in the Mexican outposts and threatened to attack in force, but after brisk tiring that lasted for two hours the Indians withdrew. Judging from reports already received, the total number of seals actually taken by the Canadian seal fleet thus far is about 296,000, and the prospect is that as four weeks of the fishing season have yet to run this total will be increased by some 60,000. As the entire catch last only 247,000, this year’s figures promise to be the best within twenty years.

The several Mormon colonies in Chihuahua, Mexico, have been increased in population by the arrival of over 5,000 Mormon immigrants from Utah during the last two months. Wealthy Mormons of Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah, have purchased several thousand acres of land near the Dublan colony, and will divide it into small farms for the new settlers. Immense corporations arc backing the promoters of the Uniontown, Waynesburg and West Virginia Railroad Company. They see in it a short route to Chicago and the West, which to them means cheaper freight rates. Chicago is brought thirty-eight miles nearer to the coke regions of Connellsville, and the distance between the Fayette fields and Cincinnati is reduced seventy-one miles. Bradstreet’s views the business situation thus: “Some few irregularities are visible in the general trade and industrial situation, the results of the workings of counter currents in various lines, but taken as a whole the general outlook rex tains most of the encouraging features noted for some time past. Favorable reports as to retail distribution and as to collections come from Southern, Western and Northwestern markets, due to better weather. Continued good railroad returns, record-breaking merchandise exports from New York, with signs of resumption of heavy shipments of iron to Europe, and good wheat and fruit crop reports, except from the central West, are also features. Wheat, including flour, shipments for the week aggregate 2,903,495 bushels, against 2,727,450 bushels last week. Corn exports for the week aggregate 3,123,848 bushels, against 3,729,291 bushels last week.”