Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1898 — KANSAS CITY BLAZE. [ARTICLE]

KANSAS CITY BLAZE.

LARGE FURNITURE STOCK BADLY DAMAGED. Firs Burwed for Three Hours anti Caused a Loss of s2so,ooo—California Oil District Is Wrecked by a Heavy Windstorm. Gutted a Furniture Establishment. Fire in the furniture establishment of Robert Keith & Co. at Kansas City caused a loss on stock roughly estimated at from $200,000 to $210,000 and on the building of $40,000. The building, owned by Dr. John Bryant of Independence, was amply covered by insurance. The furniture stock was insured for $185,000. The Keith house was one of the largest of its kind in (he West and carried a stock valued at $250,000. The building is seven stories in height. The fire started at 4:20 in the morning on the top floor, which was stored with mattresses and other inflammable material. It burned fiercely and was not got under control till 7 o’clock. The fourth, fifth and sixth floors were gutted ami the remaining floors were soaked with water. The most valuable portion of the stock is in the water-soaked floors. The mammoth retail dry goods store of Emery, Baird, Thayer & Co., on the north, was threatened for a time. PILLORY AND LAfH. Pr isoners at Newcastle, Del., Receive Punishment of an Ancient Kind. The pillory and the cat-o’-nine-tails were used the other day at Newcastle, Del., to punish violators of the law. A furious snowstorm was in progress when the sheriff took Cato J. Pennington, Jr., and Joseph H. Bussell from the jail and locked them in the public pillory to receive the first installment of the punishment which had been meted out to them for attempted burglary. A large crowd assembled to witness the now almost obsolete punishment. Although the sheriff had permitted Pennington and Russell to wrap themselves in blankets, they were almost lifeless from the intense cold when their pillory sentence was served. From the pillory Pennington was led to the whipping post. His back was bared to the stinging cold and the sheriff seized the cat-o’-nine-tails and proceeded to give Pennington thirty lashes, every one of which brought out big red welts. From the whipping post Pennington went to the penitentiary, where he will serve ten years. Four other prisoners were next taken to the whipping post and thrashed by the sheriff while the crowd looked on and jeered at the evidences of pain given by the law breakers.

STEEL RAILS GO UP. Activity in the Market Due to Big Earnings l>y Railroads. Steel rails have been increased $1 per ton by the concerted notion of all the big steel manufacturing plants in the country. The new rate of sl9 per ton in Chicago and S2O in New York goes into effect at once, prior to the usual receipt of orders from the railways, which secure supplies in advance for next summer's construction. Within ten days orders have been booked by American steel manufacturers for 500,000 tons of steel rails alone. The activity in the steel market is due mainly to the enormous earnings of the railroads. Afraid of Son Jose Scale. France has notified the State Department that a decree will issue presently prohibiting the importation of trees, shrubs and plants front the United States, and requiring an inspection of till fruits, fresh anti dried, at the point of landing in France. France fears the tree pest known ns the San Jose scale. The trade affected is very small.

Will Raise Kciiiu Mercedes. The Navy Department has made a contract with the Merritt-Chnpman Wrecking Company to raise the lteina Mercedes. The Merritt company telegraphs the department that it will proceed in a short time from New York with a new expedition and powerful machinery to raise this wreck. I.leut. Hobson will superintend tlie work. Cabinet of Cuhu Resigns. The Cuban colonial cabinet formal ly resigned to (Jen. .limine* Castellanos, the new governor and captain general of Culm, their respective portfolios. (Jen. Castellanos, however, officially reappointed them and requested them to remain in office until the Spanish flag had been lowered in Cuba. Disastrous Prairie Fires. Prairie fires have played havoc in Oklahoma and Indiau territory. Millions of tons of hay in bale and bulk hafe 'been burned, and no less than MX) residences have been destroyed. Several lives have been lost iu these prairie tires. Ksrthqnake at Patras. At I’atras, Greece, a severe earthquake •hoek occurred, causing the inhabitants to become panic-stricken. Eorty minutes later a second shock was experienced. No fatalities have been reported. Burglars Open a Hank Vault. The vault of the Wrenthnm. Mass., National Bunk at W rent hum was blown open by burglars and rifled. About S2.(XH) and notes valued at $65,000 are missing. Itlanco Units Havana. Celt. Blanco and his aids, Gen. Solano •ud the stuff generals have left Havana for Spain on the transport Villaverdc. Hpnin Accepts Peace Terms. The Spanish members of the peace commission have accepted the terms of peace proposed by the United States. Assembly Is Buried in Kiiliin. At the opening of a new college at IV-resa-Argentina, near Turin, Italy, the great hall < ollnpsed, carrying down the asaembly iu the ruins. Three bishops were injured, one of whom lias since died. Score* of persona were killed or seriously hurt. Trsilt Knits Into the River. A fast freight on the Shenandoah division of the Norfolk and Western Bail way went through a bridge near Riverside. Vu. One man was killed, one fatally injured and another badly hurt.

TJTES ENTER A PROTEST. They Do Not Wish Government to Coerce Them Regarding Lands. A delegation of White river Ute Indians who have been in Washington several days had a hearing before the Secretary of the Interior. They submitted the matter of the lease of a large stretch of the Gilsonite lands in their reservation to the Raven Mining Company and asked that the lease be approved by the Secretary. They made a vigorous protest against the sending of any more Government commissions to treat with them for the allotment of lands, the cession of any portion of their territory or kindred matters, and they asserted very positively that what they wanted to do with their lands was to lease them for revenue-producing purposes, and not to cede or otherwise dispose of them. THREW DOLLARS AT LASSIES. Unusual Experience of Salvation Army Corps in Dakota. Two rounders found their way into the Salvation army barracks at Pierre. S. D., and as the services warmed up they began to show their spirit by throwing silver dollars at the lassies who were leading the meeting. They were encouraged in their work by the leader of the meeting announcing to them: “There is no limit on this game,” and they played it only to the limit of their cartwheel dollars. After the game was over the lassies gathered about S2O off the floor and the hallelujahs were none the less fervent from the size of the contribution. TRAIN ROBBER CAPTURED. Pat Moriarity Was Seen with tlic Man Who Was Killed. The identity of the train robber killed by Express Guard Blakeley in the hold-up at Daggett. Cal., the other night has been fully established. The dead man is Ignatius Elsler. The sheriff's posse has returned to San Bernndino, convinced that there were only two men in the hold-up. The sheriff took with him Pat Moriarity, the man found at Barstow, after the special arrived there. Moriarity was seen with Eisler the day before the hold-up.

Kchooner Held at New Orleans. The American schooner W. H. Swan was seized by the collector of customs at New Orleans for carrying contraband goods. Besides 3,050 cigars which were not down upon her manifest, she had on board, clumsily concealed, thirty-seven Manser rifles, fourteen bayonets, fortyfour belts of cartridges, forty-nine boxes of cartridges, one sack of cartridges and three brass cannon. The ship cleared from Santiago for a small Georgia port and put into New Orleans in distress, and when the customs inspectors boarded her they discovered the cargo. The ground is taken by the officials that not only are the ordnance and arms contraband by not being on the manifest, but they are the property of Spain. Race War in Arkansas. While a band of whitecaps at Black Rock, Lawrence County, Ark., had Henry White, a negro, accused of hog stealing, in custody, they were fired upon by the negro’s friends. One hundred shots were exchanged. Henry Hale was shot and killed, Chubby Spades was mortally wounded and George Warner dangerously injured. All arc white. The casualties on the negro side are not known. The alleged thief escaped. A coroner’s jury charges him with murder. Many negroes in the vicinity have been whipped by whitecaps recently and, a race war is threatened, Scalpers Are Victorious. The so-called anti-ticket scalpers’ law has been declared unconstitutional by the New York Court of Appeals, and is therefore inoperative. This law. wlflch was passed by the last legislative session in spite of bitter opposition, declared it a criminal act for any one to sell railroad tickets in that State except the authorized agents of the railroad companies.

Murder and Rob n Gnniblcr. Mark Murphy, 25 years old, a gambler, who wont to St. Louis recently from Chicago, was killed in the resort ho conducted at 16 A North Twenty-third street. His skull was beaten in with a blunt instrument and be died shortly after his bleeding body was discovered by James Johnson, son of the assistant prosecuting attorney of St. Louis. lowa Railway Accident. A throe-conch and baggage passenger train on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern road was wrecked six miles north of Burlington, lowa. One of the ears, containing thirty passengers, rolled down an embankment, turning three times in 150 feet. Two persons were fntnlly, three seriously and seventeen slightly injured. Trouble In an Ohio Regiment. Col. C. V. Hard, commanding the Eighth Ohio regiment, was asked to resign in a “round robin’’ signed by a number of regimentnl officers, and refused to do so, scoring the signers bemuse of their taking action without making any charges. He charges their only reason is that they are seeking promotion. Caused a Loss of $250,000. The most disastrous prairie fire that ever ravaged the Indian Territory has been brought to an abrupt stop by heavy rains. The fire started in Chickasaw and Choctaw nations, and it is estimated that property valued at $250,000 lias been destroyed. An area of seventy-five miles square was burned over. $1,100,000 for Pnbllc Uses. The wifi of the late Edward Austin of Boston bequeathes $1,100,000 to public uses. Harvard College will receive $500,000, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology $400,000, Itadcllffe College $30,000, ltonnoke College $30,000 and the Tuskegee, Ala., Normal and Industrial School $30,000. New Receiver Appointed. At Toledo, Judge Taft accepted the resignation of Receiver Pierce of the Clover Leaf Railway. It is to take effect Dec. 1. Samuel Hunt of Cincinnati, an official of the Cincinnati. Portsmouth and Virginia road, was named liy the court for the vacant receivership. Wrecked by an Kxplosinn. The powder mill at Lainonte, Mo., blew up, blowing six men to atoms and wounding several others. The explosion took place in the packing house, and was of such force ns to he heard and felt for a distance of twenty-five miles. Printers and Pressmen Unit. Printers aud pressmen went out on strike the other day in three cities: Iu Columbus, Ohio, aud Minneapolis for s ninehour day at ten hours’ pay, and at Galveston, Texas, for a raise to 35 cents an hour.