Pike County Democrat, Volume 27, Number 46, Petersburg, Pike County, 26 March 1897 — Page 2

ftofikeComitgftwottat H. M«C STOOPS. Editor and F« oprietor. PETERSBURG, - - INDIANA. Powell Claytow, of Arkansas, wm, on the 18th, nominated by the president to be minister to Mexico. A dispatch from Malta, on the 16th, said that 600 British troops had been ordered to Crete from that station. P. a Heath, of Indiana, waa,.on the 18th, nominated by President McKinley to be first assistant postmaster general. The blockade of the ports of the island of Crete by the war ships of the concerted Eiiropc&n powers went into effect on the 16th. The snpretoe court of Michigan heard arguments, on the ITth, In the Pingree to compel the Detroit common council to order a new election for mayor. A special cable dispatch from Athens, on the l»th, said the great PanHellenic society had decided to give the signal for a general uprising of the Greek race in the Ottoman empire. The officers of the Greek army now massed on the Ottoman frontier have bound themselves by oath not to return home without fighting. The army is practically beyond the control of the king.

A dispatch from Athens says that a strict blockade of the Cretan ports began cm the 17th. The blockading of the Greek porta, the dispatch said, would not. Judging from appearances, begin for some time. The archbishop of Manila, the cap-' ltal of the Philippine islands, cabled to the authorities in Madrid, on the 16th, that 20.000 additional troops to reinforce the Spanish soldiery there p-ere imperatively necessary. Failures throughout the Ini ted States, for the week ended on the 10th, as reported by R. O. Dun <fc Co., were *16, against 3*1 for the corresponding week last year. For Canada the failures were 50. against 49 last year. Thi ease of Joseph lsagi, Turkish consul general at Boston, who is under arrest charged with the embezzlement of a large sum of money while acting as trustee, reached the supreme court of the United states on the lst,i. The London Daily Chronicle, of the 18th, said: It is stated that somewhat grave news has been received regarding the condition of the health of Kmperor William of Germany, and that certain constitutional probabilities have been discussed. THE senate committee on foreign relations ordered a favorable report on the arbitration treaty to be made to the •enate with certain amendments. Chairman Davis was instructed to push the consideration of the convention with all possible speed. The steamer Peru, which arrived at San Francisco on the 17th, brought, aews that Prince Yoshito Harunomiva. crown prince of Japan, was dead. The fact, however, had not been officially announced in Yokohama or Tokio, it being thought best to keep it secret for state reasons. A dispatch from Lloyd’s agent at Brest, on the 18th. said it was greatly feared that the Dutch mail steamer Utrecht, which sailed from Rotterdam. February 88, for Batavia, Java, had foundered in the vicinity of Ushant, amt that the 100 persons she had on board had been lost. A dispatch from Athens, on the 16th •aid that at a protracted cabinet meeting it was finally decided to take active measures, which meant a declaration of war against Turkey, thus to acquire the right to maintain her army in Crete ami deprive the powers of any right of interference. Ox the basis of the importations of the last fiscal year, the Dingley tariff introduced in the house, on the9 15th, is expected to increase the revenue about 8118,000,000, the income being divided among the several schedules, wool and the manufactures of wool famishing 844.500,000, and sugar 831,*50,000.

It is said.on what is regarded as good authority, that, President Kruger of the Transvaal and President Steyn of the Orange Free State hare agreed upon a federal union of the two republics as a result of the former s visit to Steyn. Such a union is regarded in Cape Town with much concern, as it would seriously complicate the situation. The McKinley administration is the •object of much discussion in Havana, and the Spanish officials are trying to propitiate it by releasing Imprisoned Americans, as Gen. Wejler much fears the effect on the United States of the ^ tales of .insult and injury to Americans which Consol-General Lee may unfold when he returns home as a private citizen. It waa positively stated in Italian semi -official quarters, on the 14th, that the powers had virtually decided to make no reply to Greece's answer to the note demanding the withdrawal of the Greek fleet and troops from Crete, but to proceed at once to take such steps as would compel Greece to aoeede to the demands made upon her. Tux historic flag, the standard of the dross, which was raised by Prince Alaxander when the war of independence began in 1^1. which resulted in freeing Greece from the Turkish yoke, will be formally handed to the regiment commanded by Crown Prince Constantine upon the occasion of their departure from Athena for Thessaly. The flag has been kept in the monastery of Lab ria since the dose of the war of independence.

CURRENT TOPICS. THE HEWS DT BRIEF. 1» the Klx4er's ceiling FIFTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. ___ _ __ 15th. President Moproclamation convening the Fifty-fifth In extraordinary session was read, rote undivided attention of senators and spectators in the galleries. Most of the session, which lasted until 3:25 p. m.. was spent in recess a writing the organization of the boose...-In the house organization was effected by the election of M>. Reed, of Maine, speaker by the following rote: Reed, tt»; Bailey (dem.. Tex.) 1M, Bell (pop.. Tex.) 21 and Newiands (siL, Nev.) i, and by the re-election of the sergeant-at-inns and other officers of the last house. Mr. Reed took the oath of office, administered by .’dr. Hsirmer (rep.. Pa.), the senior member, and in turn administered the oath to all the members. The rules of the last house were temporari ly adopted. After the drawing of the seats the president's message was received and read; the pingiey tariff bill was introduced; the com mittees on rules, ways and means and mileage were appointed. and the house, attp. m., adjourned until the 18th. I» the senate, on the 16th. one pension bill was passed, and several hundred bills, public and private, were Introduced and referred. Over two hours was spent in discussing the credentials of Mir. John A. Henderson, appointed by the goverftor of Florida to fill a vacancy. An effort to have Mr. Henderson admitted proved unsuccessful, and the matter was referred, together wii h like cases from Kentucky and Oregon, to the committee on privileges and elections. The senate then adjourned until the 19th. ....The house was not in session on the 16th. Is the jsenate, on the 18th. during an open session of lone hour's duration, a large number of bills that had been on the calendar or on the flies in commit tees in the last or prior congresses were re-introduced. The bill for the adjustment of t|he government debts of the Paciflo railroad companies was reported and placed on the calendar. A resolution was agreed to looking to the purchase of the islands of St Croix. St. John and St Thomas. The senate then went Into executive session.In the hbuse, .the committed on ways and means not being ready to report, after the reading of the Journal the house jadjourned. I> the se nate, on the 19th. during a short open session. 18)7 bills were added to the 768 already introduced; during the extra session. The petition of Jcjhn Howard Addicks. contesting the election of Senator Kenny, of Delaware, was of £ id ar presented and referred. The senate went Into executive session on the arbitration treaty at 12:50 p. tn.j. and at 4 o'clock adjourned until the 23d..l4* the house the first representative day of the extra session gave indications of an unusually man of the the tariff t general passed. lively session. Mr. Dingley. chairways and means committee, reported ill. with a recommendation that it do pass, which, with the accompanying report, was placed upon the calendar. The sundry civil and deficiency appropriation bills were

PERSONAL AND GENERAL. It'was the? 15th, iug>-4he waters,. \ isn and ready re speetive Piraeus, island o! Volo in 1 A BCGO asserted in St. Petersburg-, on that the admirals commandforeign squadrons in Cretan ith the except ion of the ItalFreneh commanders, had al-eei-red orders from their regovernments to blockade the he town of Syra, on the Greek that name, and the port of ’hessaly. Y. in whieh were seated SanfonLGartliner and Mrs. Chas. Fenton, was struck by a train on the Erie railthe 15th. while crossing the that road in Bath. X. Y. Mrs. Fenton was killed, but Mr. Gardiner escaped unhurt. Ox the (morning of the 15th tramps drove spikes in the Louisville & Nashville switch at Springfield, Tenn. A freight train waa wrecked, several cars being telescoped, with heavy loss. The deed is supposed to have been done for road, on tracks of Ox the lished revenge by tramps recently ejected from a train, who doubtless intended to wreck jthe Chicago limited. 15th the Paris Eclair pubrjeport of an interview with M. Delyannik, prime minister of Greece, in which he declared that Greece would not assent to the establishment of an autonomous administration in Crete. j Tuk sugar refinery on South Second street, Williamsburg. N. Y., belonging to the American Sugar Refining Co., after a sh|ut-down of over five months, opened, tin the 15th, with a force of nearly 400 men. The introduction of the tariff bill with its increased duty on sugar is believed to be responsible for the resumption. Charcoal, the Indian murderer of Sergeant (White, was hanged at Mael.eod. Mail., on the 16th. He was carried to the scaffold. no doubt that Frank W. Chicago, will be appointed and promptly confirmed public printer. Maximu.ijax Barkioz was arrested in SL Louis, on the 17th, charged with nt and larceny, preferred There Palmer, of embezzle i

t>y «ionn tpiienmeyer, proprietor oi me Great Eastern Tea' Co. of that cityT The amount stolen will aggregate be* tween SS.QOO and $4,000. KxrcROR Francis Joseph will pay a visit to StL Petersburg in April and remain there two weeks. The unruly elephant Tip. belong mg’ to the Barnnm & Bailey show, was strangled; to death at the winter quarters of the circus in Bridgeport, Conn., on the 10th. Efforts to poison the elephant by concealing capsules containing large quantities of cyanide of potassium had jproven futile. Ursrt White. of Rhode Island, is to be secretary of the embassy of the United Stjttes in Great Britain. Gbu. Horace Porter. of New York, was, on the 16th, nominated ambassador to France. A duel with swords was fought, at the St. Onen race course, near Paris, on the 17tjh, between Signor Pini, Italian champion, and M. Thomeguex. a French amateur. Five hundred astonished | Rotators witnessed the fight. In the sixth attack M. Thomeguex was slightly wounded in the lip. Ox the ].7th the river steamer SunoL bound from San Francisco to Vallejo, Cal., collided in San Francisco bay with the bark Olympia, bound in from Philadelphia. The Sunol turned bottom np and sank; The crew and passengers were picked np by boats from the Olympia sad other vessels near at hand. Is a saloon brawl in Canon. Nev., on the night of the 17th, Dick Bradford, a Montana miner, who backed Fitzsimmons, wan fatally shot by a stranger named Smith, who took the Corbett side. Smith was arrested and jailed amid threats of lynching. Warhixotox Bissisg resigned the postmastership at Chicago, on the 17th, to devote all his time to his candidacy for mayor of that city. I

Wtt.t.tam T. Adams, the author, widely known by his non de plume “Oliver Optic," was reported, on the l?tb, to be ! very ill at his residence in Dorchester, Mass., and his physicians expressed the opinion that he could live but a short time. Tux much advertised pugilistic en- | counter between Corbett and Fitzsimmons came off at Carson, Nev., on St Patricks day, and it would seem that the good oid saint frowned upon the desecration of his particular day, at the colors of the Emerald isle, worn bj : Corl>ett went down before those of hi# Cornish adversary. Sxchktaby Bliss, on the 17th, sent s letter to Commissioner Lamoreux oi the jjeneral land office, whose action in the Chicago lake front case was annulled and severely censured, offering ! to Mr. Lamoreux an opportunity to de-1 fend himself. Thk admirals of the combined fleetsj in Cretan waters on the 17th, made a form al proclamation of the intention oi ! the powers to confer upon the island an autonomous government, subject tc i the suzerainty of the sultan. It transpires that the steamer "Vill« ! de St. Nazaire, which left New York March 6 for the West Indies, wai | wrecked the following day off the Carolina coast, and. as far as is known, only four of the 80 persons who took passage on her survive.

A ifivk- tear-old son of A. J. Karabeer, living' near Marshall, Okla., wai killed, on the 17th, by a horse drag* ging a big log over him. The boy waa watching his father work, the horse being lassoed to the log. Th* United States weather bureau, on the 17th, gave out the startling information that 800 square miles of the state of Arkansas was under water and that the Mississippi river would continue to rise. Fora rescue steamers, including twe government boats, arrived at Memphis, Tenn.. on the 18th, from the overflowed country north of that city, landing 400 refugees and 1.000 head of stock to be cared for by the already over taxed Bluff city. The Austrian government, on the ISth, made a protest to the ports against the ou t rages commit ted by Moslems in the vilayet of Useob,xin Euro pean Turkey. The gunboats Wheeling and Marietta were launched successfully at the yards of the Union iron works, San Francisco, on the 18th. A Russian* steamer convoying a battalion of troops to Crete passed through the Dardanelles on the l>th. Judges Wallace anti Laeomb, oi the United States circuit court of appeals in New York, decided, on the 19th, in favor of the railroad companiesin the suit of the United States vs. the | Joint Truffle association, and dismissed the application for an injunction restraining the companies from operating under the joint traffic agreement. Ox the 19th Adam Adamiek, a Pole, of Chicago, celebrated his 112th birthday anniversary. Iljs wife is living and is 87 years of age. Both are almost blind from old age, though their general health otherwise is remarkably good. The report of the committee on ways and means on the tariff bill was made to the house of representatives, on the 19th. by Chairman Dingley. The president, on the 19th, nominated Charles U. Gordon to be postmaster at Chicago. The president, on the 19th, sent in the nomination of Willis Van Deventer, of Wyoming, to be assistant attorneygeneral, vice Isaac H. Lionberger, resigned. LATE NEWS ITEMS. The senate was not in session on the 80th_In the house the agricultural and Indian appropriation bills were considered and passed, with the exception of one paragraph, without change. The paragraph, added by the senate to the Indian bill, opening the Gilsonite or asphalt lands in the Uncompahgre reservation, in Utah, to entry under the mineral laws, was stricken out. Several resolutions making appropriations for mileage, stationery and pay of session employes immediately available were offered and agreed to. The r house adjourned to the ±Jd.

Dcrixg toe nrst wees oi toe exiru session of the fifty-fifth congress the tariff bill was reported, and an order .regulating its discussion adopted. Four appropriation bills also, whieh failed to become laws in the fifty-fourth congress, necessary for the prosecution of important parts of the public service, and carrying a total of over seventytwo million dollars, were passed by the house. The Japanese consul in New York city, in a communication to the United Associated Presses, said that he was authorized by his government to state that not withstanding the recent adoption by Japan of a gold standard of currency, she will continue the use of silver and that all silver bullion now in the possession of his government will be coined into subsidiary coins. Taj: weekly statement of the New York city associated banks for the week ended on the 30th showed the following changes: Reserve, decrease, $8,694,575; loans, increase, $457,500: specie, increase, $360,100; legal tender, decrease, $6,046,000; deposits, increase, $4,365,300; circulation, decrease, $353,400. The payment of Cherokee freedmen that has been going on at Hayden L T.. for some time, has been finished, and the pay station moved to Fort Gibson. where the payment was begun on the 23d. There has been $300,000 paid out, leaving a balance of $600,000 still due the Indians. A very serious situation exists throughout the central and western districts of the island of Jamaica, in consequence of the extreme scarcity of water, which is cansing widespread suffering among the inhabitants. Secretary Alger acted promptly in relieving the floor* sufferers of the Mississippi valley by the use of vessels belonging to the war department. Ox the 20th the hanks of New York city held $47,059,973 in excess of the requirements of the 25-per-cent rule. ’

-s-;-INDIANA STATE NEWS. Al Danville Harvey Welker played ghost sad was fatally shot by a man whom he attempted to frighten. Thk wife of ex-Mayor Tharp, of Washington, horsewhipped a young man named Earl for slapping her son. A pet eat was found alive and unin* jured under the ruins of the Park theater, Indianapolis, where it had remained over a week. A tcb of chemicals in the match factory at Aurora, exploded and seven i men were slightly burned. It was : with difficulty that the buildings were : saved. Kittens belonging to a family in j South Bend showed evidences of a j malignant disease and an examina- • tion by a doctor revealed the fact that | they had diphtheria. Whether or not j the felines have spread the disease is i not known, but the health officers | will cause a rigid outlook to be kept : on all tabbies. Noah B. Hoovek, farmer of Peru, fell from the top of his windmill the j other day, and suffered terribly, when j he was relieved by death. Mr. Hoover was one of the best known farmers in j Indiana. One of the rare coins much sought | after by coin collectors has been se- | cored by George P. Emswiler, of xnoncL It is a Mexican dollar coined during the short reign of Maximilian.

Several years ago Jacob Ginpelparger, of Lagrange, sold his body \f or 1 S15 in order to save funeral expens^i. ! He is now dead, and the doctor who bought the body has laid claim to it. It is belie Ted that members of a gang of counterfeiters killed Joseph Sanders, one of their number. He was found dead on a road leading into Mancie about a year agot The church originally erected by Henry Ward Beecher in Indianapolis will be demolished. He preached in it when be was 36 years old. A second militia company is to be enrolled at Terre Haute. ® Clem. Samvel and Oliver Gaar, sous of t ne late Abram Gaar, have presented to the First M. E. church of Richmond, where their father was a member, a handsome pulpit in his memory. It was dedicated with a special programme. Richmond ministers are making a war on spiritualism. Lillie „ White has been arrested I charged with drowning her infant | child at Laporte. j M. C. Kindle, of Goshen, depended | on faith to cure him of a chronic dis- | ease and died.. A big bunch of shamrocks from Irei land have been received by Postmaster Rush. M us. SaRepta Cline, noted for her J numerous charities, is dead at her : home iu New Salem, aged 73. J. W. Stroh, of Crawfordville, has I instituted in Rushrille Tribe Not 100. \ of the Tribe of Ben-Hur. It starts off | with S3 members. I Justice of the Peace Elv Johnson, of Piainfield, will celebrate his fortieth anniversary as “'squire*’ next autumn. He is now over SO years old. A.W’. Bieghle, ef Laurel, has a deed to government land signed by President James Madison. There was a strange upheaval of the ground on the farm of George White near Franklin. F3r a distance of 30 feet the ground was thrown up several feet high. Warrants have been issued for two Indianapalis medical students, charged with attempting to steal corpses from the graveyard at Chillicothe. The farmers of Howard county have organized to watch the markets and make carload shipments of produce

; at a time. Gov. Mount the other day appointed I John W. Vest custodian. E. A Legsdon ; assistant custodian, and Samuel C. Shutt engineer of the statehouse. Mrs. Henrietta Wilkie, of El wood, i the other day applied for admittance to the Madison county bar, and is the ! first woman to make such application I in this court. She is the wife of Atj torney Herman Winkle. Miss Olive Hall, a young woman j living near St. Joseph, has been sent | to the Central insane asylum. She imagines that she is Mrs. James G. j liiaine, jr.. and spends the day writing 1 letters to her imagined husband. | The prisoners in the county Jail at | Warsaw attempted to escape the other j night by setting fire to the building, j William Crowl threw a lighted match i through the grates into a barrel of \ kerosene which was standing in the j corridor. An explosion resulted, the I woodwork in the corridor becoming i at once ignited. Sheriff Matthews did j not release the prisoners as they had ; anticipated, bnt let them suffocate ! while he and his deputies battled with \ the flames until the fire was under con- | trol. It was then discovered that sev- ! era! of the prisoners were in a bad j condition from the effects of the heat i and smoke! Crowl and two others ! were carried out unconscious and badj ly burned. ' Owe of the biggest beets ever grown ! in El wood was being exhibited the | other morning and measured 36 inches | long and SO inches around the largest part. It weighed SO pounds. Two children of John Sheets, of Swan township. Noble county, were iatally burned the other morning. Their parents left the house, and during their absence the children, aged • and IS, procured an oil can, pouring the liquid over the floor and set fire to it Cha& Grat and We Gaynor, on trial at Greencastle for the murder of Wm. Counts, were sentenced to prison for life. The men narrowly escaped i the gallows. Five of the juryman were in favor of hanging. » The contractors have begun work ) cm the foundations of the big ! steel plant that the American Tin Plate Co. is erecting in Elwood at a cost of $100,000. , We Grises, aged 67 years, suicided the other afternoon by hanging himself in an unoccupied loghouseuear bit borne at Howard, Parke county. He been married to his second wife About two weeks.

FORMALLY NOTIFIED By tho Representatives of the Six Signatory Powers Of the Blockade of Cretan Ports, It R* uiains an Open Question Whether tho United States Will Give Its Assent to the Form of Blockade Proclaimed. V* As,niXGTOX, March 23.—The representatives in Washing-ton of the sis powers signatory of the Berlin treaty, G reat Britain, France, Italy. Germany, i Austria-Hungary smi Russia, have in eoneert notified th»s government of the j blockade of Crete, the respective notes of Sir Julian Psimeefore, M. Patenotre. Baron Fava, Baron Von Thiel* man. Mr. Uengle Muller Von Henger* j var and Mr. Kotzebas having been j delivered to Secretary Sherman yesterday. They were almost identical. and consisted of a mere formal announcement of a blockade Cretan ports against ships under the Greek Ijneing at nine o'clock yesning. Merchant vessels of rers, including those of the es and of the treaty po vsubjeet to overhauling by ling war ships of the eonts, are uot to be disturl>ed linary commercial oceupa■y carry no merchandise intended for the use of the Greeks or insurgents on the island. It is a question whether this government will give its assent to this form oi blockade which involves a grave departure in international law, and would establish a 'precedent abolishing rights that the United States might not desire to surrender.

i nere is utue or no nKennooa oi an American vessel attempting to run the Cretan blockade, for the Stars and Stripes on merchant vessels in the Mediterranean is practically unknown. An indication of this is given in the records of the Suez canal, the American dag having passed that highway only three times in IS‘J5. on two private yachts and one man-of-war. while in tSOO uot a single vessel showed her flag in the canal. This year, the passage of the cruiser Detroit, early next month, will probably be the only oecasiem for showing the American colors in the Red sea. Around Crete an Amen can ship is rarer than at Suez. Nevertheless if the United States should even tacitly consent to being kept out »f Crete, where there is no proclaimed condition of war, any more than there is in Cuba at the present time, such action, it is anticipated by those familiar with international precedents, may establish an untoward precedent in relation to countries were American commerce is immeasurably more important and where American merchant dags are more numerous. THE” BLOCKADE OF~ CRETE It is Only Dbrvctetl Against Christians—Tlie Musinus Allowed to Do as They Please. Caxea. March 21.—According to the i proclamation issued by the foreign ad- \ mini Is. the blockade of Crete began at | eight o'clock this morning. It is apI parent that the blockade is directed [ solely against the Christians iu^the interior and that the Moslems will suffer little inconvenience from j the action of the six great Christian nations of Europe. It ap- | pears that the object of the blockading I squadron is to prevent the landing of i supplies of food, clothing, etc., destined for the starving Christians in the interior, while the Mussulmans who have floeked to the coast towns are allowed to land whatever they want. The few Christians remaining here And it difficult to understand the motives that are prompting the powers to exert their strength to crush the Christian population of the island, while the Moslems are given a five hand to do about as they please. About the only hope of the Christians outside the coast towns is in Creek blockade runners, who will not hesitate to run through the cordon of foreign war -.hips around the island. There was an exchange of shots yesterday between insurgents and Moslems in the vicinity of Suda bay. The Turkish war ships in the bay bombarded the'insurgents, but the result is not known. A number of foreign wai -hips were in the bay, but they took no part in the tiring.

DOWN AN EMBANKMENT. lira. Fullerton, » Prominent Citizen of St Louis. Killed and Mzujr Injured. C i* MBEiiLAN d, M«l„ Mareh 34.—Ten persons were injured und one killed in a wreck on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad near Oakland yesterday morning1. Train No. 3, from Cincinnati and St. Louis was derailed. Three , sleepers, two day coaches and the postal car ;eft the track. One sleeper rolled down the embankment and into the Youghiogheny river. The balance of •.he train remained on the bridge, or doubtless the casualties would have ueen much greater. There were 38 persons in the car which rolled into the river, all of whom escaped with trifling injuries except two. Gen. J. S. Fullerton, of St. Louis, a Union veteran of Chickamauga fame, was killed. The sleeper in which his section was located was submerged. Fifty men searched the river all day. but were unable to find the body. The current is so swift at the paint where the accident occurred that it is believed the corpse has been carried lown the stream. A reward for its recovery has been offered by the railroad company. " COLLIDED WITH A BRIDGE. 4 Panic Ensues, In Which Many Persons Were injured. Coxstaxtixople. March 33.—While the battleship Osmaniyeh was passing jot of the Golden Horn Saturday in ompany with a number of other 1 urkish war vessels, she collided with the old bridge leading from the Unkapaui quarter of Constantinople to Galateai t here was a large crowd assembled on the bridge to witness the departure o* the war ships and when the Osmaniyeh struck the structure there was a pi.? ' -ad many persons were iswsi

— LEVEES GO TO PIECES. Cate Advice* From tt»« Flooded —Flftee* Mile* of l«m Go to Sooth of OMda, Artu-The Water i U»*r Over the 84. ftudl Basin—f Memphis, Tenn., Mafch 31.—The (Dost important development in the flood situation yesterday was the break that occurred at Sans Souei, on the Arkansas side, about seventy-five miles north. It was 300 feet wuie. On the same stretch of levee a section of ten miles between Elmont and Osceola has been abandoned because the water was higher than its top. South of here the gravest danger exists at Australia, on the Mississippi side, where a break is imminent. A break is reported to have occurred atRescue, near Friar's Point. On the Arkansas side the levee from. Modoc to Avenue in the Helena district, has been abandoned for more important and urgent work at Yellow Banks. At the latter place the wateris two feet higher than the regular levee, but sacks of sand are employed, against the excess and are thus far holding well. The river here remained stationery all day, due in some measure to the breaks in and overflow of levees above. Fifteen Miles of Levee Goes to Pieces. *■ Memphis, Tenn., March 31.—The levees for a stretch of 15 miles from and south of Osceola, Ark., all went to pieces to-day. There were some twelve or fifteen breaks, in extent from 300 to 1,000 yards, and the water from the overburdened river is sweeping over the St. Franeis basin to return to the river just above Helena. Confidence is expressed of one or i more breaks at Lnxera. above Osceola. j Most of the women aud children had already left Osceola, only the men remaining to strengthen and guard the levees. These were to-day taken across the river to the Tennessee side, which is secure by reason of a tail bluff. Below, also on the -Arkansas side, there is a break at Modoc. Along the Mississippi front - every levee is reported intact and in no immediate danger. Engineers here are rather dubi- | ons. however, about their holding out though every material break on the opposite site is relief to just that extent. . i . The areas of farming lands sub- | merged through breaks already occurred aggregate well up in the thousands. No Idrownings were reported to-day. The river to-night starns at 37 5 feet, a fall of one-tenths

A Dozen Families ^escussl. IIei.esA. Ark., March 21.—The river situation here looks more serious and work is going- on night and day raising the levees from one end of the city to the other. Xo danger to the city proper is apprehended. The Kate Adams brought up a dozen families yesterday morning from , the overflowed districts below. The water has gone over the levee below Modoc, ^ and is flooding the White River bottoms. The people down there have all got out and no loss of life is expected. It was reported that the levee had broken at Q. K.. 13 miles above,but this was later denied. Weather Favorable to the Permanency ol 5 i the Lerees. Vicksburg, Miss., March St.—The weather is very favorable to the permanency of the levees, it being calm, cool and bright. Tools and materials are being rushed forward on every train to the levees in Mississippi. The Mississippi valley route reports all the levees intact yesterday. There was no news from the Lea levees. The river rose one-tenth of a foot here yesterday. This is an abnormal ris< at this stage of water and it is now +4** feet. NAVAL NEWS.

Hear-Admiral John D. Walker KetiredVro motions. Washington'. March 21.—In the naval orders Admiral John D. Walker was plaeed onTH^retired list on reaching the age of 63 years. The resulting promotions are: : Admiral. Joseph X. Miller, command* ing Sie Boston nary yard, from cornmo dare. ,

REAR-ADMIRAL. WALKER. Commodore, Henry L. Howison, commanding- the battleship Oregon, from, which he has been relieved by Capt. Albert S. Barker. ‘ Capt. Charles D. Sigsbee, the naval | hydrographer, from commander, who is • ordered to command the coast defense vessel Monad nock. April 15, relieving Capt. G. W. Sumner. Admiral Walker's place on the lighthouse. board is surrendered to Capt. Winfield S. Schley, relieved of the command of the flagship New York bj | Capt. Silas Casey. - London. March 21.—The London Gazette, the official government organ, announces the blockade of the ports of the island of Crete by the^varships of the European powers, commencing Sunday, March 21. The blockade applies to ships sailing under the Greek flag. Vessel* sailing under neutral flags will be allowed to laDd mes> efiandi.se on the island, provided that such merchandise is not intended for the use of the Greek troops in 6ret«, hut these vessels may be overhauled at discretion by the warships of the interThe Cretan Blockade.