Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 November 1893 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

1 ; BUENOS AYRES. There has not been, nor is there likely to be any extensive emigration from the United States to any part of South America. Still it will not be without interest to note a peculiarity not generally known, and seldom spoken of, of a port that is an avowed rival and respectable competitor with New York in all the harbors of Europe for the stream of humanity that continually flows from the Over populated countries of the old world in search of a land where the conditions of life will be less burdensome and oppressive. Of late year the Argentine has absorbed vast numbers of immigrants, and the steppes and elevated plains of that far off land, when once reached, have afforded profitable employment and comfortable homes to thousands of the down trodden peasants of the East. But in reaching these lands immigrants have had to pass through Buenos Ayres, which if a special correspondent of the In-ter-Ocean is at all trustworthy, is a veritable gateway of death. A plague indigenous to that locality, and which does not extend its ravages to the country districts, is an annual visitant that sweeps unknown thousands into eternity with a swiftness and unexampled fatality that is appalling. The epidemic annually appears in January, which is midsummer in that hemisphere, and medical science is powerless to save the victims or stay the progress of the disease. It is uniformly fatal in twenty-four hours after the attack, and can not be diagnosed or given a a name. It is not yellow fever, nor any of the maladies peculiar to tropical countries, but is an unknown and uncontrollable terror that is confined to the city of Buenos Ayres and its suburbs. Native Argentinians ignore it, or always lay—it to the filthy habits of the Italian quarter, but the truth seems to be that the disease attacks all classes without discrimination or regard to their habits or nationality. The death rate has been known to rise as high as three hundred a day, and coffins rise to fabulous prices, while hundreds of corpses are of necessity buried in trenches like the dead on a battlefield. The rudest pine boxes sell for SSO and even the demand for these can not be filled. Twice as many men die of the disease as women, while very few children are carried off by the epidemic.

CHINESE CONCESSIONS. The Geary Chinese exclusion law, which practically failed of enforce-, ment because of a lack of funds, seems likely to be so amended that, to use the languageof its author, “it has had its teeth drawn.” The House Foreign Affairs /Committee have reported favorably a substitute which , extends the Chinese registration period for six months from the passage of the act, and permits the testimony of anybody except Chinamen to be taken to prove that Chinamen are entitled to register. Mr. Geary’s amendment to the substitute requiring photographing in connection with the indentification clause received but three votes. Mr. Geary cast the only adverse vote in the committee against the substitutes for his bill, and declares that he will fight it before the House. THE SOUTHWESTERN TERRITORIES. The annual reports of the Governors of New Mexico and. Arizona have been made to the Secretary of the Interior. Governor Thornton, of New Mexico, states that many silver and lead mines have been closed in New Mexico, while Governor Hughes, of Arizona, submits statistics which show that the output of Arizona’s silver mines last year was less than $300,000, against $6,278,895 for the year previous. In both Territories the range stock has suffered a loss of 60 to 80 per cent, because of the unprecedented drought which has now continued for two years. Very recent rains give some promise of relief in this direction. The wreck of silver mining has stimulated the search for gold in Arizona. Gratifying results have been obtained. The long continued drought has also had an indirect influence in giving an impetus to water storage projects. The sugar-beet industry is attaining important proportions in New Mexico. AU kinds of tropical fruits flourish in Southern Arizona, and this line of horticulture is being rapidly developed. The doubtful tenure of titles to real estate in New Mexico has for forty years checked, the development of that Territory. The last Congress established a Court of Private Claims, and it has already passed upon and quieted titles to no less than 1,559,875 acres. The entire task of perfecting the titles to realty will soon be completed. Both Territories are anxious for admission as States, and

both Governors plead the cause of their people for this much desired recognition. The outlook for this consummation is not good. There is a growing sentiment among public men against any further admissions and the only probable way for Arizona and New Mexico to attain statehood is to unite and seek admission as one State. The great State that could thus be formed could hardly be denied immediate admission, and we would then have a mate for Texas, with an area for an empire of 235,000 square miles. 'J- ■ ■

HIGH TIDE IN PENSIONS. The enormous increase in the number of pensioners during the last few years is thought by m<ftiy to have carried the pension roll to high tide, and it is believed that already the number of persons receiving bounty for service or disability has begun to diminish and the expenditures made necessary on that account are beginning to be perceptibly lighter. The public in general will be surprised at such a statement, but the records of July and August have proved that such is the fact. On July 1 there were 966,012 names on the roll; Sept. 1 the number had fallen to 964,398. Pension authorities now calculate that in a year the net decrease at this rate should be 2,684, or rather that in that period 50,000 names will be dropped from the rolls and only 40,000 added. The impression, however, is general that this rate of decrease will not as yet be sustained. Commissioner Baum estimated that high water mark for the pension roll would not be reached until the middle of 1894, when the number would be about 1,200.000, requiring an appropriation of SIBB,000,000 per annum. Mr. Raum’s figures may have been exaggerated, but the roll will more than likely reach 1,000,000 before the ebb tide sets in. THE GULF DISASTER. The full details, only a part of which we have been able to give our readers, of the great calamity that swept over the Gulf coast and the Mississippi Delta, especially, on Sunday and Monday, Oct. 1 and 2, are heartrending, and caused even strong men to shudder and women to grow pale. Two thousand dead! Hurled into eternity white fleeing for their lives before the awful destroyer. It was the greatest calamity in American history. The survivors have had human help to a liberal extent, buthuman aid availeth little in so dire a misfortune. It can not restore the loved and lost, and time only can restore the desolate waste of ruined homes and sodden fields, once fertile and productive. Organized relief work is doing everything possible. Supplies from New York and other great Northern cities have been sent in generous profusion. The Red Cross society has its self-sacrificing lieutenants in the field, and the wail of distress that came up from the stricken region has been answered by loving words of comfort and noble deeds of sacrifice and large hearted charity. The whole country is in sympathy with the stricken terrtory.