Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1898 — DISTRESS IN RUSSIA. [ARTICLE]

DISTRESS IN RUSSIA.

FAILURE OF CROPS BRINGS ON A FAMINE. * Government la Striving to Relieve the People of the Sticken District*, bat Officials Are Slow-Short Corn Crop in Kansas. Famine Causes Suffering. Owing to the failure of the harvests in seven districts of the Government of Karan, Russia, and in the provinces of Samaria, Saratof, Simbirik, Viatka and Persia, where the crops are almost worthless •nd even the landed gentry are beginning to ask the Government for relief, the Government is adopting measures to relieve the sufferers. The distress, however, is becoming more acute every day. The peasants are denuding their cottages of thatches in order to feed their stock. In spite of all that can be done, cattle and horses are dying in great numbers. The Government officials are slow in getting the relief measures into effect and the only relief thus far has been the granting ■of permission to the peasants to gather fagots in the woods for fuel and to collect dried leaves for fodder. The peasants are exhausted from lack of food and unless the promised supplies are speedily •ent the suffering will be terrible. STOLE THE BANK’S MONEY. Cashier of a Minnesota Institution Confesses His Guilt. At Preston, Minn., M. R. Todd, the cashier who wrecked the Fillmore County Bank, has confessed the theft of all the bank’s deposit funds to M. T. Grattan, one of his bondsmen. Grattan told Todd that a lynching was imminent unless he made a full statement. Overcome by fear, he confessed that just prior to the bank’s assignment he had taken all the money on deposit and delivered it to a former partner. Farther developments are expected. It develops that Todd is a forger, a spurious note, having turned up in the bank’s paper. A note given by the Presbyterian Church, of which Todd was treasurer, was paid and Todd said he had destroyed it. The note now turns up as collateral In a La Crosse bank. Todd seems to have completely looted the bank and his mother-in-law’s large estate. The feeling •gainst him is bitter, almost to the point of violence. DECLARES BOYCOTTS LEGAL. Judge Valliant Renders an Important Decision at St. Louis. At St. Louis, Mo., Judge Valliant, who in all probability will sit on the Supreme Court bench of Missouri after Jan. 1, as judge in the Circuit Court indorsed the boycott and said that unions had a right to bring the attention of the public to their grievances through a boycott as long •s it was not by force or by intimidation. The decision was brought out in the case ■of Marx & Pass against Watson and others, representing the local tailors’ union. The firm employs non-union men, and for this and other reasons growing out of labor difficulties the union has declared a boycott. Judge Valliant quashed an injunction against the union. Standing of the Clubs. Following is the standing of the clubs tn the National Basebail League: W. L. W. L. Boston 70 40 Pittsburg ;.. .56 56 Cincinnati ..72 42 Philadelphia. 51 58 Baltimore ...67 39 Brooklyn ....43 64 Cleveland .>..65 46 Louisville ...45 68 New Y0rk...62 49 Washington. 39 70 Chicago 63 50 St. Louis 22 81 Following Is the standing of the clubs In the Western League: W L. YV T*Indianapolis. 69 45 St. Paul 63 52 Milwaukee ..72 47 Detroit 43 72 Kansas City.7l 47 St. Joseph... .39 72 Columbus ...64 45 Minneapolis. 39 80 Agreement Ratified by Indians. Official returns show that the ChoctawGhickaaaw agreement wns ratified by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations at the late election by a large majority. A menis ber of the Dawes commission, a representative from the Interior Department, Agent Wisdomand Gov. McCurtain have met at Atoka to count the votes of the two nations on the agreement. Gov. McCurtain was elected by a safe majority on the agreement issue. Stanford Estate Must Pay. The California Supreme Court has reversed the decision of the Superior Court in the matter of the collateral inheritance tax on the Leland Stanford estate. The Superior Court had ruled that the estate need not pay the tax. Leland Stanford bequeathed $2,500,060 to the trustees of the Leland Stanford University and $2,200,000 to relatives. Short Corn Crop in Kansas. The opinion of grain men throughout the Kansas corn belt has been secured as to the late corn, and all agree that not more than half a crop need be expected. Continued dry and hot weather has destroyed thousands of acres. The corn blades have rolled up under the scorching beat, and the crop in many localities will not make good fornge. Child Killed in u Cyclone. In a cyclone at Justin, Texas, the plantation of Parker Terrill was devastated, dwellings demolished, barns rased, stock *he<ls wrecked and corn torn from the ground. An infant child of one of Mr. Terrill’s tenants was blown through the boards of a closed door, being the only fatality reported. Injured in a Collision. Three miles east of Alvn, Ok„ there was a collision between a west-bound working train and the dastl>oun<l passenger train on the Panhandle Branch of the Rnnte Fe. Eighteen 6r twenty people were Injured, but none seriously. Both unglues were badly damaged. Editor Hitchcock for Congress, The Democrats, Populists and free silver lU'pubFwans of the second Nebraska district have named Gilbert M. Hitchcock. publishgr of the Omaha World-Her-gdd, for Congress.

INDIANS TO GO TO MEXICO. Creek Tribe Dissatisfied with the United States’ Treatment of It. Many members of the Creek Indian nation, dissatisfied with the United States Government for abolishing the Indian Government and interfering in their tribal affairs, are making elaborate preparations for establishing a large colony in Old Mexico. The Creek tribe consists of about 15,000 members, who are the exclusive owners of some 3,000,000 acres of the finest and richest farming lands in Indian territory. Fully 3,O<X) of the Indians will emigrate with the first expedition. Charles Douglass of Fort Scott, Kan., who has large financial interests and mining lenses in the Creek nation, and is founder of Creek City, has been engaged by the Indians to take charge of the colonization and exchange their lands for property in Mexico. Mr. Douglass, the Governor of the Creek nation and three prominent members of the tribe, already selected, will leave soon for Mexico to secure a location and land concessions from the Mexican authorities. It is claimed that as soon as the first party is settled another and much larger number of Indians will be ready to go. BIG FIRE IN NEW YORK., Hundreds of Sleeping People Bewildered by the Flames. The explosion of a large ammonia tank, used in the making of artificial ice, set fire to Jacob Hoffman’s Crescent brewery, a five-story brick structure in New York. The flames spread with marvelous rapidity, and the Central Bottling Company's plant soon caught fire. Within a very short time the entire block, surrounded by Third avenue, Fifty-fourth and Fiftyfifth streets, seemed to be doomed. The surrounding tenements, all filled with sleeping people, next ignited, and the bewildered tenants began to pour out into the streets by the hundreds. Alarm after alarm was turned in by the police and the earlier arrivals of firemen, until four alarms had been sounded and eighteen engines and five hook and ladder trucks were on the scene. Many thrilling rescues of frightened men, women and children were made by the firemen. STRIKE QUICKLY BROKEN. Hazleton Miners Return to Work When Threat Is Mode to fchut Down. The 700 coal miners and laborers employed in the Audenreid and Honeybrook strippings of the Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Company at Hazleton, Pa., who went on strike the other day, returned to work the next morning. The men struck because of what they claimed to be the unjust discharge of two Hungarian laborers. The prompt and decisive action of Superintendent Richards in posting a notice that if the men were uot at work in the morning the mines would be shut down for the balance of the year produced a wholesome effect on the strikers, although they claim the two discharged men will be reinstated. Marine Horror Feared. Mute evidences of a great ocean disaster in which one vessel and perhaps two may have gone to the bottom were seen ten miles off Fire Island by the crew of the incoming British steamship Algoa, from Hamburg and Shields. The Algoa passed through a vast quantity of wreckage in which were steamer chairs, trunks, boxes and bedding. Captain Hansford expressed the opinion that there had been a collision near where he saw the wreckage. and that at least one of the vessels in it had gone down. Captain Hansford thinks the vessel was a steamship carrying passengers and that there must have been loss of life. The trunks and furniture were scattered over more than five miles. No bodies were seen by Captain Hansford or his officers. Captain Hansford is positive that the wreckage had not been in the water more than twentyfour hours. The captain did not pick up any of the wreckage or attempt to identify it. He supposed that the disaster was already known in New York. Forest Fires in France. A pine forest twelve miles long, at Marchfe Prime, near Bordeaux. France, is on fire. The fire' was caused by the carelessness of a peasant who was burning weeds. A still more serious conflagration. involving the forests of Luxey, Lipostey, Labouleyre and Ichoux, in the department of Landes, is in progress. An excursion train bound from Bayonne to St. Sebastian was compelled to turn buck because of the fire. It waited for two hours at the Labouleyre station and then, with the windows of all the cars closed, a second attempt was made. ' Upon nearing the forest the engine driver found that the sleepers were burning, but resolved to make a bold dash at full speed. He succeeded in getting the train through, but the passengers were half-suffocated and many of them fainted. * Ht. Louis Bank Ryatqmutically Robbed A St. Louis bank, one of prominence throughout the West, has been for several months the victim of systematic robbery. By means of a booked wire, reached through an orifice at the bottom of a steelwalled vault, the culprit or culprits have worked a highly lucrative game, until from the best information obtainable the authorities believe the bank’s losses will foot up into five figures. The cashier of the bank has no explanation to make. Detectives have the bank employes under surveillance. Menocal !■ Now Out. A. G. Menocal, civil engineer in the navy, who was court-martialed tome mouths ago and sentenced to suspension from duty on furlough pay for three years for neglect of duty in connection with the construction of the Brooklyn dry dock, has been pardoned by the President, which restores him to his former status in the navy. Mr. Menocal retires from active service on Hept. 1. Jewish Colony in Porto Rico. Barnet Pruaen, a well-known Kanins City commission merchant, is at the head of a movement to form a Jewish colony in Porto Rico. “I already have,” he said, "the promise of nearly fifty families to | join me. Those families can raise from SS(X) to SS.(XX) each to put into the venture, and if all agree we will form a communistic colony. We hope to leave by Jan. 1.” ' No Trace of Mr. Andie. The expedition of Theodor Lerner, which started in May last to search for Andre and to proteeuje scientific investigation. has returned to Hammcrfest, Norway, in order to enable his ship, the Heligoland, to rydit prior to starting on another voyage. Lerner found no trace of the missing aeronaut, but achieved intereating geographical and scientific results