Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1899 — ADVANCE IN QUININE. [ARTICLE]

ADVANCE IN QUININE.

RISE OF SIXTY-FIVE PER CENT. IN THE PRICE. Consumption Has Overtaken the Eapply—Surplus of Bark Is Used UpFife Causes Loys of One Life and Much Property in Cleveland. . The New York Tribune, discussing the recent advance of 65 per cent in the price of quinine, says the United States consumes about ‘one-half of the world’s output. The cause of the present scarcity is attributed by some to efforts made by London speculators to corner the market. This may be true to a certain extent, but the fundamental cause is the fact that consumption seems at last to have overtaken the supply, and the surplus of bark which has existed for years is now used up. The recent war with Spain caused a big demand for quinine, and the opening up of new colonial territory by several countries in Africa and elsewhere has also been a potent factor in reducing the surplus of bark. The consumption of quinine during the last bubonic plague in India was also immense. It is said that many cultivators of cinchona have neglected their trees in recent years, when the price fell below a profitable figure owing to overproduction, and that this has caused the marked stringency in the supply, which is the basis for present high prices. It may take some years to bring the crop up to its former volume, if, indeed, there be any desire to do so, which is doubtful, on the part of the planters. STOVE WORKS BURNED. Fatal Fire at Cleveland—Property Lose of $450,000. Fire broke out in the japanning department of the Dangler Stove and Manufacturing Company’s plant in Cleveland, and notwithstanding the enormous quantity of water pouj-ed into the building by fifteen engines, the structure, filled with valuable machinery and large quantities of manufactured goods, was practically destroyed. The high wind which prevailed caused the fire to spread to the plant of the Cleveland Machine Screw Company, adjoining, and it was also destroyed. The loss on the Dangler works is conservatively estimated at $300,000, and on the Cleveland Machine Screw plant at $150,000. Three hours after the fire started a falling wall at the screw works buried beneath it Lieut. Roth of fire company No. 7. Later in the day Roth’s dead body was taken from the ruins, badly crushed and burned. Seven hundred men are thrown out of employment as a result of the fire.

PITIABLE ECENEBIN RUSSIA. Peasants, in Fear of Starvation, Are Compelled to Devour Garbage. The newspapers of St. Petersburg publish pitiable accounts of the condition of the famine districts of Russia, especially Samara, in the eastern part of European Russia. The efforts of the Red Cross Society have staved off the horrors of actual starvation, but the society’? funds are almost exhausted and the dire distress, compelling the consumption of all kinds of garbage, has produced an epidemic of terrible mortality, with typhus, scurvy and other pestilential diseases. The peasants are compelled to sell everything and are living in cold, damp and filthy cabins. Weakened by hunger, they fall ready victims to typhus and acute scurvy. Report on Canada’s Railways. The annual report of £he Dominion department of railways and canals shows the total number of miles of completed railways in the dominion to be 19,118. The paid-up capital amounts to $941,297,037. The gross earnings were $59,715,105, an increase of $7,361,829, and passengers carried was 18,444,089. Only five were killed in accidents. The deficit in working the federal government railways, of which the mileage is 1,742, was $461,956. Shut Out by a Soap Trust. Bernard Gross, a soap manufacturer of Milwaukee, claims that he is unable to buy tallow from any of the packing house men. Other soap manufacturers are in the same predicament and may have to shut down their works. It is said that the soap combine has shut off the supply of tallow in order to cripple the independent dealers. Murderers Miss Rich Booty. The body of a man identified as Christopher Diamond, an umbrella mender, was found in the canal at the Race street crossing in Cincinnati. Marks on the body indicated that he had been murdered and robbed. At the morgue, however, nearly S3OO was found concealed in his clothing. Prairie Fire in Nebraska. A bad prairie fire has been raging near Maywood, Neb., the tall, dry grass giving it a full sweep. Many stacks of unthrashed grain and hundreds of tons of hay have been burned. The town, which is poorly protected, was only saved by everyone turning out and beating back the flames. Tries to Kill a Texas Judge. At Sweetwater, Texas, F. P. Woodruff, a lawyer, attacked and shot Judge John H. Cochran in chambers with a revolver, the trouble growing out of the court’s refusal to approve a bill of exceptions in a lawsuit. A bystander named R. P. Watts was shot in the hip. Soldier Crushed to Death. Private Herman McCall of Company I, Ninth United States infantry, was crushed to death between the iron side of the transport City of Puebla and the piles of the Broadway wharf, San Francisco, while climbing down the side for his own diversion. Fire at Thomasville. At Thomasville, Ga., fire destroyed the opera house and three other buildings. Loss about $40,000. The large Piny Woods Hotel, filled with Northern guests, escaped uninjured, after an exciting night for its inmates. Try to Burn a Hotel. A desperate attempt was made to fire the Lafayette Hotel, the largest hotel in Philadelphia, by thieves for the sake of plunder. Bld Made by Americans. The American minister has made President Cuestas the offer of an American syndicate to construct the Montevideo harbor. Fatal Fire at Memphis. In a fire at Memphis, Tenn., fonr people lost their lives and several were seriously injured. •’ ; . ...

- * FT? -7 < • . • ; . , . • ’ ' 4 . ? ..« ■■"• ■. ' CHILDREN FIRE KEG OF POWDER. Several Persons Injured and Store Wrecked at Dewitt, Ark. A terrible explosion of powder occurred at Dewitt, Ark., as a result of which two children were fatally injured, several other persons badly hurt and property to the value of several thousand dollars destroyed. The explosion occurred in the store of S. L. Leslie. A report was beard and the explosion which followed wrecked the building. About a dozen people were in the building at the time, including Mr. Leslie’s family and some customers. Two of Leslie’s children were fatally burned. The others were more or less injured, several badly, but not fatally. It is supposed the explosion was caused by the children playing in the store, who, it is thought, accidentally set fire to the keg of powder. - MISSIONARY in peril. Attacked by Chinese Recruits and Deserted by Escort. Missionary Parsons of the China Mission Society was attacked by imperial soldiers while en route from Ching Kiang to Paoning last month. He left Ching Kiang with an escort of four soldiers provided by the Chinese Government. At one point, where they crossed a river, they noticed a great number of local militiamen who had just been drafted into the regular army standing on the opposite bank. As they were landing the soldiers started for Parsons with swords and knives. To save himself he jumped into the water and swam into midstream, while his escort ran away. A Chinese gunboat put out from shore and rescued him. Secretary Alger’s Determination. Secretary Alger has come to the determination to maintain summer camps for the United States troops in the Southern States, and the delegation of Georgians who called upon him recently to secure that object have been so informed. It is also the intention to maintain one of the camps in the neighborhood of' Atlanta. The only condition is that the present Georgia quarantine regulations, which operate so as to prevent tbe movements of troops absolutely demanded by the military needs- of the case, shall be adapted to the requirements. The number of troops to be located at any one camp will not be large, for it is said at the department that only about 15,000 soldiers will be so located, but there is likely to be much changing around among the men. Troops returning from Cuba are to be detained in the Georgia camps about twenty days, at least, before being sent to their homes or to the Northern posts. Rich Strike of Zinc Ore. Great excitement prevails in Pleasanton, Kan., over the rich strike in the zinc mine. For several days the miners have been following the lead and taking out rich ore, but the matter was kept quiet until now, when the company became satisfied that rich zinc was there in large quantities. Will Organize an American Party. The leaders of the Radical party in Porto Rico have decided to organize a Republican party with a thoroughly American platform. The platform will pledge fidelity to the American flag and hail the prospect of annexation to the United States.

Imprisoned Miners Released. The two mine pump men, Charles Reuss and Burt Froy, who were imprisoned in the Bon Air mine at Leadville, Colo., thirteen days before, were reached the other night and restored to their friends. They show little effects of their experience. Wreck on the Erie. Train No. 5, a fast through west-bound passenger train on the Erie road, jumped the track at Rittman, Ohio, the engine and baggage car going into the ditch. Engineer Wallace Logan was almost instantly killed and his fireman seriously injured. Alabama College Is Burned. Montezuma University, at Bessemer, Ala., was destroyed by fire. The fire originated from a defective flue and forty pupils got out of the building without injury. The building cost $30,000, insured for $5,000. Hurt in a Boiler Explosion. A boiler under the sidewalk at the corner of Washington street and Second avenue, Seattle, Wash., exploded. One man was killed and two fatglly hurt. Race War in Arkansas. An unknown number of negroes,have been lynched in Little River County, Ark. The whites claim the negroes were planning a race war. Boiler Explodes, Killing Three. Three men were killed and several injured, some fatally, by the explosion of the boiler in a sawmill at Mattie, Md. JIAitKET QUOTATIONS. Chicago—Cattle, common to prime, $3.00 to $6.00; hogs, shipping grades, $3.00 to $4.00; sheep, fair to choice, $3.00 to $5.00; wheat, No. 2 red, 70c to 71c; corn, No. 2,35 cto 36c; oats, No. 2,26 c to 27c; rye, No. 2,54 cto 55c; butter, choice creamery, 20c to 22c; eggs, fresh, 11c to 13c; potatoes, choice, 60c to 70c per bushel. Indianapolis—Cattle, shipping, $3.00 to $5.75; hogs, choice light, $2.75 to $4.00; sheep, common to choice, $2.50 to $4.50; wheat. No. 2 red, 68c to 70c; corn, No. 2 white, 34c to 36c; oats. No. 2 white, 31c to 32c. St. Louis—Cattle, $3.50 to $6.00; hogs, $3.00 to $4.00; sheep, $3.00 to $4.75; wheat, No. 2,73 cto 74c; corn, No. 2 yellow, 33c to 35c; oats, No. 2,27 cto 29c; rye, No. 2,55 cto 57c. Cincinnati—Cattle, $2.50 to $5.75; hogs, $3.00 to $4.25; sheep, $2.50 to $4.75; wheat, No. 2,71 cto 73c; corn, No; 2 mixed, 36c to 38c; oats, No. 2 mixed, 28c to 29c; rye, No. 2,58 cto 60c. Detroit—Cattle, $2.50 to $5.75; hogs, $3.00 to $4.00; sheep, $2.50 to $4.50; wheat, No. 2,71 cto 73c; corn, No. 2 yellow, 34c to 3Qc; oats. No. 2 white, 31c to 33c; rye, 59c to 61c. Toledo—Wheat, No. 2 mixed, 73c to 74c; corn, No. 2 mixed, 34c to 36c; oats, No. 2 white, 26c to 28c; rye, No. 2,54 c to 56c; clover seed, new, &J. 40 to $3.45. Milwaukee—Wheat, No. 2 spring, 67c to 69c; corn, No. 3,30 cto 32c; oats. No. 2 white, 29c to 31c; rye. No. 1,54 cto 55c; barley, No. 2,46 cto 48c; pork, mess, $8.75 to $9.25. Buffalo —Cattle, good shipping steers, $3.00 to $5.75; hogs, common to choice, $3.25 to $4.25; sheep, fair to choice wethers, $3.50 to $5.25; lambs, common to extra, $4.50 to $6.25. New York—Cattle, $3.25 to $5.75; hogs, $3.00 to $4.50; sheep, $3.00 to $5.25; 38c; butter, creamery, 17c to 23c; eggs, Western, 13c to 15c.