Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1897 — WESTERN. [ARTICLE]

WESTERN.

The Chinese government proposes to establish a school for Chinamen in San Francisco. The Supreme Court of Missouri overruled the motion for rehearing in the case of George Thompson, a St. Louis negro sentenced to be hanged on Jan. 7, 1898, for the murder of a church sexton. In his cell in the county jail at Liberty, Mo., William Carr, under sentence to be hanged next month for drowning his 3-year-old child in the Missouri River, tried to commit suicide by swallowing a quantity of pounded glass. At Lincoln, Neb., Eugene Moore, exAuditor of State, charged with the embezzlement of $23,000, was declared guilty as charged. Sentence was deferred. Moore and his attorney admitted the shortage, but contended that it was not embezzlement. The ever popular Bostonians, than which there is no better light opera company in America, are now playing an engagement at McVickcr’s Chicago theater, with the new comic opera, “The Serenade,” as the bill. This opera is already well known to music lovers by its great success when first produced in New York. Since its original presentation it has been heard in other cities and the New York verdict has received this further endorsement. The cast of this opera, which is by Victor Herbert and Harry B. Smith, will include the full singing and acting strength of this organization. From all accounts “The Serenade” is said to be a most highly diverting and humorous entertainment. E. B. Thompson, who lives in the western part of Routt County, near the scene of the recent fight between Utes and game wardens, arrived in Craig, Colo., and gave the startling information that the Indians were again invading that section. Mr. Thompson says that although he has not seen any of them, he has heard the shooting, and on Douglass Mountain he has seen moccasin tracks and the tracks of ponies. The mail carrier, whose route lies between Maybell and Lily Park, reports having seen four Indians who were some distance from the road. Residents of Brown’s Park also report having seen several Indians, and say that they are evidently killing game, as they heard a great deal of shooting. Dr. T. J. See, one of the staff of observers at the astronomical observatory maintained at Flagstaff, Ariz., by Percival Lowell of Boston, has described the recent important work undertaken at the observatory. The study of Mars is the chief work, and the problems to be solved in the planet involve the measurement of fine lines supposed to be canals, which are found ok its surface. Since 1890 the work has been prosecuted with the new 24-inch telescope. It was announced at Harvard College that since August, 1890, Dr. See has discovered with the Lowell telescope about 600 new double stars, besides measuring some 700 objects noticed by previous observers. The new double star discoveries are interpreted by Dr. See to suggest that this formation of rings is only an exception to the rale; that the more usual method of the formation of a

system from one great original mass is that central mass divides en masse, the satellite beginning life as it were in nearly its ultimnte form. From Washington comes the news that some interesting reports have been made by Indian agents in their annual review of in their fields. At the Pottawatomie and Great Nemeha reservations in Kansas there are about 16,000 acres of surplus lands in the Prairie Band reserve that arc likely to be a subject of contention in the future, and there seems to be a growing sentiment in the tribe favoring their sale. At the Omaha and Winnebago agency in Nebraska the assumption and dissolution of the marriage relation at will, without form of law, is common, and it is predicted will necessarily cause endless trouble. Maj. A. E. Woodson of the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, in Oklahoma, reports: “The mother-in-law is much in evidence among these people. She makes herself a ‘holy terror’ unless the family affairs are conducted according to her ideas. Much of the jigent’s time is occupied in the settlement of family quarrels.” Many of the Indian agents recommend discontinuance of the issuance of rations and clothing and urge the substitution of a policy of making cash payments to the Indians for a time. At the Green Bay agency, in Wisconsin, the tribe is reported as retrograding, mowing to factional troubles. A special front New Kensington, Pa., states :Tf what Hiram S. Maxim claims is true, aerinl navigation is an accomplished fact. Mr. Maxim, who is the inventor of the Moyim gun, says he has traveled across the continent and back to his starting place in such an airship. Indeed, it was his strange craft which aroused such extraordinary interest last summer and which was reported having been seen at Denver, Chicago, St. Louis and other Western cities. Mr. Maxim's craft is cigar-shaped, conical at both ends, with an upright aeroplane at the stem for steering apparatus. The skin of the ship is double and filled with hydrogen gas. Every part of the ship and motive power is made of aluminum; the motive power being naphtha. The whole thing weighs 5,000 pounds, occupies 106,000 cubic feet of space, can attain easily a speed of 100 miles an hour, and will carry passengers and freight parcels. New Kensington aluminum furnished the material. Mr. Maxim’s company is the Atlantic and Pacific Aerial Navigation Company, of which C. A. Smith and M. A. Terry, wellknown business men of San Francisco, are respectively president and secretary. A trip to the Klondike will be made soon.