Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1874 — EPITOME OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

EPITOME OF THE WEEK.

Tondehsetl from Telegrams of Accompanying Dates. Friday, December 26. —A Washington dispatch says.our Government will enforce its demand on Spain for indemnification to the families of American citizens slain nt Santiago de Cuba, as soon as it can procure the necessary evidence to sustain the demand. .... According to the report of the Executive Committee of the National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry, that organization has raised SIOO,OOO during the year, has paid its debts, aud has a surplus of $50,000, of which $40,000 have been invested in Government bonds.... City Solicitor Healey, of Boston, has given an opinion that women cannot legally serve on the Boston School Committee. Four women were chosen to that position at the recent election.... Complete official returns make the majority for the new Pennsylvania State Constitution 145,150.... There are seventeen subordinate Granges of the Patrons of Husbandry in New Hampshire, representatives from all of which took part in organizing a State Grange at Manchester, recently.... The Grangers of Northwestern Missouri, Eastern Kansas and Southern Nethe 24th, and adopted the platform of the Illinois Farmers’ Association. They algo added two resolutions, setting forth determined opposition to special legislation and demanding a uniform currency, on the ground that they are now obliged to sail their grain on A gold basis and to buy their supplies on the basis of depreciated paper money....On Christmas Day at Riga, Ohio, there was a shooting-match, at which two brothers engaged in a personal altercation over the loading of a rifle. One shot the other dead, and the crowd present hanged the fratricide to the nearest tree. Saturday, December 27.—8 y the recent sinking in the River Tyne, England, of the steamer Gypsy Queen, eighteen workmen lost their lives ...Ina desperate conflict between a band of Carlists and a Republican force before Bocayrente, in the province of Valencia, Spain, the insurgents have been defeated with heavy loss in killed and wounded.... A Madrid dispatch announces that the resignation of General Sickles, United States Minister, has been officially accepted... .A Committee of Safety appointed by the unemployed workmen of New York have made a demand upon the City Government for work. They also demand that all contracts be abrogated, and that the city let the public works directly to the applicants.... The Now Hampshire State Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry have adopted resolutions —against special privileges asking more for themselves than they are willing to grant to other industries; denouncing trickery, bribery and corruption in elections; favoring equal and just taxation; calling upon the State to give its children a moral and liberal education; acknowledging the rights of woman by admitting her as an equal in the Order; demanding justice and economy in public affairs, and recommending the Order as a bond of union stronger than armies.. ..Chris. Rafferty, three times convicted and sentenced to be hung for the murder of a Chicago policeman, and who was to have been executed at Waukegan on the 26th, has been granted a supersedeas by three Judges of the Illinois Supreme Court. ■.. The locomotive engineers and firemen- on tile leased lines of the Pan-Handle Railway west of Pittsburgh struck at noon on the 26th, in resistance of a reduction of ten per cent, on their salaries. The strike has resulted in a general stoppage of trains. One report states that all branches of the Pan-Handle and Pennsylvania Central lines are affected simultaneously by this strike. Monday, December 29.—France is said to have given satisfactory assurances to Germany relative to the hostile pastorals of the French Bishops.... The report is reiterated at Madrid that the Spanish Government will insist upon the return of tlie Virginias,’ and the payment by the United States of an indemnity... .The Madrid Government lias not only refused to accept the resignation of Captain-General Jovellat^—but—has—granted him extended and extraordinary powers.... The Prize Court at Havana has condemned the steamer Virginius as a lawful prize.... The President has appointed Caleb Cushing Minister to Madrid, General Sickles’ resignation having been accepted.... The United States steamer Juniata has arrived at the Brooklyn Navy-Yard, having on board the one hundred and two persons recently prisoners at Santiago de Cuba.. .. The strike of railroad engineers and firemen continues, and violence is reported from some localities. Switches were misplaced and trains thrown from the tracks. A train containing troops bound for Logansport, Ind., to assist in preserving order at that point, was ditched, and the soldiers were compelled to walk five miles into town. Charles Wilson, the Chief of the Brotherhood of Engineers, has issued a manifesto declaring that the strike on the leased lines of the Pennsylvania Railway Company in direct violation of the rules of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. His advice to all members of the Brotherhood who have quit work on account of the strike is to go to work at once, and to use every influence in their power to induce all persons engaged in the strike to resume, and to desist from any interference with the Company’s property or men Tuesday, December 30.—The English steamer Becklow was recently wrecked near Gibraltar, and twenty-two out of twentythree of those on board were 105 t.... A Washington Associated Press dispatch says that the report that the Spanish Government has asked of the United States the restoration of the Virginius, and the payment of an indemnity, is not believed in official quarters, no authentic information having ’ been received to that effect, and beside such requisition would be contrary to the terms of the protocol between the two nations.... President Grant has pardoned Ringold, Young, Neil and Harkins, of Alabama, who were serving out terms of Imprisonment for Ku-Klux outrages. During eighteen months past, fifty-nine persons who were convicted of such outrages have been pardoned.... A New York dispafch announces the arrival at that portof the United States steamer Ossipee, without the Virginius and it is rumored that the latter vessel has foundered at sen.... John F. Patterson, of New York, "has sent a letter to Secretary Fish, dated December 26,’ de-, daring that he is the registered owner of the steamer Virginius. He protests against t ■ :■

the opinion of the Attorney-General by which he and the vessel were condemned on ex parte testimony furnished by Spain. He states that the Solicitor of the Treasury gave him a bill of sale of the steamer, and thereupon he (Patterson) truly swore that he was owner, and the Government gave her an American register, which has ever since protected her. He insists that any testimony charging perjury on his part is false.... All the factories at Fall River, Mass., have resumed .operations, and nearly ii 11 tire other large manufacturing establishments in the New England Stated which had either closed or reduced their forces, had resumed or are about to resume on full time and with full forces... .The enumeration of school children iu the State of Indiana shows 631,149 white and 9,183 colored school children, a total of 649,332,... Ex-City Treas : lirer Gage, of Chicago, has turned over all his property, without reserve, to the city, and ■the same has been accepted. Mr. Gage’s assets, putting all his possessions at the lowcstfigurcs, reach the sum of $528,502, while his deficit, including bank accounts and interest, is placed at $507,703.58....The engineers strike continues, and outrages are reported as having been perpetrated by strikers at several points on the line of railroads. It is stated that at Indianapolis on the morning of the 29th, a dozen men went to the engine-house of the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolts Railroad. One held a revolver to the head of the watchman, and the others broke up and disabled nine engines. One Pan-Handle engine standing unattended was started by a striker, resulting in its wreck. A Columbus (Ohio) telegram says the railway authorities think the strike must break before many days, and on the other band a visit to the rooms of the Brotherhood of Engineers shows them to be as determined as ever. They say Chief Engineer Wilson’s order has no effect upon them. Wednesday, December 31.—-The treaty between Russia and Bokhara has been-pub-lished, It gives the Khivan territory on the right bank of the Amadaria River to Bokhara, which, in return agrees to abolish slavery and establish mutual trading facilities with Russia... .The Secretary of the Navy has received a dispatch from the Commander of the Ossipee, announcing that the Virginius sunk on the night of the 26th, off Wilmington. It seems the Ossioee, with the Virginius in tow, left the Dry Tortugas—on —the—l9th.—On - - the ... 20th _a_ strong gale commenced, and the Virginius began leaking badly. On Christmas Day her condition was so critical that the Ossipee put into Frying Pan Shoals, off Cape Fear, with her charge, apd came to anchor. The next morning the Virginius signaled the Ossipee she was sinking. The crew were at once transferred to the. latter, the hawser was cut, and the Virginius went to the bottom, leaving only a portion of her mainmast above water.... A Washington dispatch states that Mr. Cushing has been instructed, after his arrival at Madrid, to give his attention towards securing, upon the part of Spain, a policy of political and administrative reforms (among which is the abolition of slavery), which slih.ll tend towards the restoration of peace in Cuba... .The trunklines of railways between the East and West have issued a new freight schedule, advancing the tariff on all classes of freight... .The local division at Indianapolis of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers has issued a cardin which they say they are not willing to stand idle and sec their good >ume tarnished by the base representations of those arrayed against them; that many acts of violence have been perpetrated .which they emphatically deprecate, no matter by whom committed; that they have endeavored to discover the perpetrators, and can not. The perpetrators do not belong to the Brotherhood, and it is believed the outrages were committed by men hired to blacken the good name of the members of the Brotherhood and weaken their cause by carrying them on and charging them to the strikers.