Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1905 — Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN

The cleaner the stalls are kept the - less bedding required. Chickens fed a variety of food grow fast and this means a marketable condition in a short time. The Washington dewberry, or Oregon evergreen blackberry, as it is called, had a little booin the past fall. A system of feeding should always be adopted that will prevent nil possibility of checking growth when the pigs are weaned. Fowls which feather and mature early are good egg producers; are good setters and mothers and usually attractive in appearance. It is claimed that seeds left in their seed covers till wanted for planting germinate much more certainly than those from which the hulls have been removecl. & Money invested in a railroad ticket to attend a poultry show is a paying investment. The exhibitors are always on hand to explain and answer questions, and much can be learned from them. An lowa mathematician has figured that corn yielding thirty bushels per acre will cost thirty cents per bushel: a yield of thirty-five bushels, twenty-two cents; forty bushels, eighteen cents; fifty bushels, fifteen cents; sixty bushels, thirteen, cents. A farm would be unworthy of that name without a well selected flock of chickens, but do not keep poultry purely from sentiment. It is a paying business, but an expensive hobby. Know which of the birds it will ,pay to keep and which it will pay to rid yourself of. The rank and tile of the farmers are not engaged in farming for pleasure <>’■• pastime. This belongs to the wealthy and the urbanite who may be ex--1 loiting some pet hobby. 'The general larmer pursues agriculture for a livelihood and devotes his res Hirers to getting the most from the work performed on his holdings. For many years wo have been told that snow is a poor man’s manure. We know that' there is nitrogen in) snow and that the soil is more or loss benefited by it. but when one has to dig through snow to a gate four times a week, taking away six sept at a time, he becomes skeptical about the eheniiial analysis of this particular kind of fertilizer. In some parts of Michigan the farmers’ club spirit is so well established among farmers that when the meeting day comes around a whole neighborhood will get together and spend the entire day at some neighbor's home. They have a program, take their lunch, eat, visit, walk out over the farm of the host, look at his stock and see his buildings, and one has no idea of the influence it has on such farmers. There is a vast difference in balky horses. Some of them are incurable and others will do fairly well under the most favorable circumstances. There are such things as balky drivers and these are as plentiful as balky horses. A man ought to reason, something the horse cannot do. Horses are frequently whipped when they are frightened or at a time when they should not be whipped antbAhey are made balky. Some will balk when hitched to a wagon that will work all right to a plow. There are different remedies for the cure of disease and ailments to which poultry are subject. 11 Is a matter of. importance that nob only the remedy, but also the proper manner of applying be clearly stated. Fowls are caused much suffering and annoyance from the attacks of insects, several varieties of which make a specialty in particular, of preying upon and annoying our domesticated varieties of fowls. One form of Insect attacks the log, getting a lodgment in the scaly covering, and soon producing an unsightly appearance known as “scaly legs." Kerosene is the usual remedy, nnd is the proper one when rifthtly applied. as it does the work effectually, but improperly applied it sometimes causes serious trouble. The proper time to apply the kerosene is in the daytime, and the proper way Is to either dip the shank in or paint the remedy on with a small brush; in cither ease care should be fc taken not to allow the oil to reach the body. Feeding the Hogs New Corn. The idea that cholera will be brought on by the feeding of new corn to hogs is not correct, although it is safe to say that the effect of the new corn on the system of the hog lays the animal open to attacks of any disease, and if cholera Is within reach the animal Is likely to contract it. The best !>lan of handling the corn problem for mgs is to carry over sufficient so that ;the season's corn need not be fed until (fully matured, but If this cannot be [done the next best thing is to buy old jeorn rather than run any risk of feeding the new crop. Even when the fiew crop seems well ripened, it must »e fed with care. Use it sparingly for •while, putting other grains with It

and only increasing the quantity of the corn as one sees it is doing no harm. Care in feeding new corn, as suggested, may mean the lives of tha hogs. History of Sheep. Of all domesticated animals tha sheep has, from time immemorial, been most closely associated with mankind. An erudite author, says Outing, sixty years ago, having laboriously collated an assortment of allusions to sheep made by sacred and profane writers, concluded 1 ' that the history of these animals is so interwoven with the history of man that they never existed in a wild state at all. Biblical history from the time of Abel is full of allusions to the flocks Which formed the chief possessions of the Jewish people and their neighbors. The spoils of war and the tribute of vassal kings largely consisted of sheep. Thus we read that Mesha, king of Moab, was a sheep master, and rendered unto the King of Israel 100,000 lambs and 100.000 rams with the wool. Moses after his victory over the Midianites obtained as loot no less than 075,000 sheep, and long before the Christian era sheep were cultivated in western Europe. Spain and Italy possessed them from an unknown period, although long after Rome was founded the inhabitants had not learned how to shear the fleece; and until the time of Pliny, the practice of plucking it from the skin was not wholly abandoned. Disking Pastured Alfalfa. In reply to an inquiry, Professor Ten Eyck says: I think it would be advisable to disk the field of alfalfa which yom . describe, immediately after cutting and taking off—tire if the alfalfa has been pastured closely it may not be necessary to cut it, although the cutting will usually cause it to start more readily and evenly. After pasturing all summer, doubtless the soil of this field is firm and compact and needs loosening. If the ground is reasonably moist or if you can disk soon after a rain, the surface can be loosened and a soil mulch produced which will aerate the soil, conserve the soih moisture aml favor a -renewed growth of The alfalfa. Our methods of disking alfalfa at this station is to set the disks rather straight and weight the harrow with rock, causing it to cut two or three inches deep. We prefer to cross-disk and follow with the smoothing harrow, in order to break tin* clods, level the surface and leave a good soil mulch. The harrow also assists in pulling out and destroying the crab-grass and other weeds to some extent. At this 'Station we have practiced disking after each cutting during the season with no bad results, but as a rule I prefer to disk alfalfa early in the spring or immediately after the third or fourth cutting in the latter part of the summer or early in the fall. Filling the Ice House. It costs about $25. often less, to fill a 100-ton ice house. In the summer with ice at 25 cents per 100 pounds it would cost SIOO for 20 tons, and.every farmer with a medium sized dairy will use this much. Ice can be stored in a wood shed, tool shed or any good building. Ice will not keep as .ivell in these buildings as in an ice house, but they can be used. I remember, we put up ice once in a building with a tin roof, and everybody said it wouldn't keep. But it kept nicely. It is best to build an iee house in the side of a hill, putting a drain in the bottom, to carry off the water that accumulates. The .ice should be put up while it is very cold, as when it is thawing the lee is wet and bad to handle. Tire ice should.be sawed out in squares just large enough-so that one man can handle a block easily. Ice hooks should be used to pull the blocks of ice out of the water. The ice should be laid in a solid mass in the ice house, pounding pieces of ice in the cracks and Joints so as to make the mass solid. Snow is better if it can be had. After a layer has been put down, cover with snow an inch or so deep, then begin laying the next layer. If there is no snow this may be omitted. After the house is filled, throw two or three buckets of water on the ice to wet it so that it will freeze in a solid mass. It is then ready to cover with sawdust. Place about a foot of sawdust on the floor of the building before putting In the ice. Leave a space of 1 foot between the Ice and walls for sawdust, also cover the ice 1 foot deep. Care must be taken not to put too much sawdust on, for it can be overdone, as well as not using enough. When too much Is used the sawdust heats, causing the ice to melt rapidly. The sawdust should be tamped down quite often, As the Ice melts, keep it tamped down so that no air cavities are formed. When using the ice, begin on a layer and use from It till it Is gone, then begin on the next layer, etc. Haul the sawdust in the fall and have everything ready for harvesting the ice.—Peter H. Smalley in Farm and Home.

KANSAS FIGHTING OIL. TRUST.

Whole State Aroused in. Effort to Shake Off Monopoly’ll Grip. Kansas has set out to iightthe country’s most powerful trust —Standard Oil. Under the leadership. of a determined Governor, it is demanding of the Legislature that appropriations be made in aid of the planihy which the Rockefeller interests are to be made to feel that they are not all powerful. Should Kansas be successful, similar results might follow in other States. Ever a leader in public policies—and sometimes in public follies—the latest venture of the Kansas statesmen will be watched everywhere with interest. Throughout this State it has aroused much enthusiasm. The Moses of this crusade is Gov. E. A. Hoch, a country editor With ideals Who was elected to the governorship in November. He begaifthe fight between the State of Kansas and the Standard Oil Compahy when he advised in a message to the Legislature immediately after his inauguration that a State refinery be established. He declared that the trust was getting an evil grip upon the State and that it was not dealing fairly with the producers of oil. Newspapers have charged that bribery on a large scale has been attempted and a committee was appointed to investigate, whereupon there was a wholesale exodus of lobbyists from Topeka. Acting upon the Governor's advice, a bill establishing a State' oil refinery at a cost of $400,000 has been introduced in the Legislature. Other measures aimed at the Standard Oil Gompany are a bill to make pipe lines common carriers and compelling them to deliver the product of any producer to any consignee who may have a place of business near the line: a bill fixing a maximum freight rate of 5 cents a barrel on crude and refined oil from points in the field to the large manufacturing centers of the State, and a bill prohibiting discrimination between different localities or consumers in different parts of the State on the prices of any commodity sold by any company or corporation. 'The latter measure is especially'designed to prevent the Standard from selling oil cheap in one part of the State and increasing its price in localities where it has absolute control of the situation. The trust instituted, a boycott. It declared'that because of unfriendly legislation it would purchase no more Kansas oil. The effect of this is to close the oil industry of the State, throwing out of work about 1.000 men. “The closing of the plants and shutting down of the pipe lines,’” says a Standard Gil magnate, “will let the legislators and people see what adverse legislation would do to tire industries of the State and will probably create a sentiment among the people in favor of tlie State abandoning the plan of entering the oil business," In this conclusion he is in error. The effect has rather been to arouse the State to the power of tire trust and make it more determined to rid itself thereof. The farmers of the State are urging the Legislature to build the refinery and hundreds of them are'purchasing oil stock. The leaders of the anti-trust, fight are confident that with fire establishment of a State refinery, which will free the State from the shackles of - tire monopoly, a great impetus will be given tn the industry, that thousands of men. not now employed in oil production* will be given work in this field and that Kansas will rival Ohio and Pennsylvania as a producer.

ENTOMBED IN A MINE.

Scores of Workers Buried by Accident in Alabama Coal Shaft. One humlred and fifty-two miners, who descended into the depths of the Alabama Steel and Wire Company's Virginia City coal mines, six miles south of Bessemer, Monday morning, were sealed in a tomb hundreds of feet below the earth’s surface as a result of an explosion that occurred at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. , > Between them and the distracted women and children who gathered about the spot that once was the entrance to the mine were thousands upon thousands of tons of slate, coal and earth, and masses of shattered timber, closing the shaft with h plug as solid as the walls of the mine, and sealing the death chamber as completely as could the alchemy of a Hermes. There was no means by which air might penetrate to the entombed men. once the supply that was in the mine when the explosion closed the shafts should lose its life-giving qualities, and there was the probability that the explosion itself filled the inner passages with noxious gases. Gangs of men worked witli desperate energy to dig into the choked mouth of the mine. There is some mystery about the cause of the explosion. By some it is said to have been the result of what is known in mining vernacular as a "dry shot.” The men at work in the minew ere on the sixth lift, far underground. The noise of the explosion aroused the entire mining camp. At once' a large gang of men was organized and equipped witli tools and tire work of opeinng the entrance to the mine began. An average of over l.OO*) persons are killed every year in the collieries of the world through explosions, tires and falling debris that entombs them beyond the aid of rescue. The number killed in coal mines each year during the last decade is ns follows: 18951.030 19001.012 189(11.025 19011.131 1897 930 1902.1.018 1898 908 1!M)31,183 1899 91(1 19041,147 Of more recent disasters the greatest calamity befell the workers in the Albion colliery, near Pontypridd. South Wales, June 23, 1894. By an explosion, to which was added the horror of tire and intombment. the greater part of the miniers were killed. There were 28(» bodiep taken from the mine when the tire had burned itself out. In this country the most horrible mine disaster was that in Fraterville. Tenn., where about 200 workmen were killed May 19, 1902. The exact number of ’ dyad was never known, as many of the bodies were so deeply buried that they were not recovered. More than 200 were missing after the Calamity. Another mine disaster on July 10 of the name year killed 105 workers in the Holling Mill mine of Pennsylvania. A third great disaster occurred June 20. 1903, and snuffed out the lives of 175 r men and boys at Hanna. Wyo.

▲ muggy plass- -tbs barber shop.

INDIANA LAWMAKERS.

Gov. Hanly's first veto message waV read in the House and the Senate Monday, the bill unfavorably acted upon being Senate bill NoJ 80, introduced f>y Senator Barens, and known as the “spite fence” bill. The House witnessed a brief but lively debate on Mr. Long's bill to increase teachers' salaries. The bill was advanced to engrossment. In the Senate Senator Moore of Putnam and Montgomery counties introduced a bill to put a statue of Gen. Lew Wallaee in statuary hall at Washington, I). C-., and moved to suspend the constitutional rules. Though twenty-eight Senators voted for tire motion and only eight against, it failed because a two-thirds vote of all Senators was necessary, and the bill was referred to the committee on finance. After a discussion in which two Senators only took a stand against tire measure, the Senate passed Senator Kirkman's bill placing it in the power of Superior, Circuit and criminal judges in their discretion to parole and suspend sentence on prisoners convicted of felonies and misdemeanors, except for those convicted of manslaughter and murder in the first and second degrees. A new graft scandal was uncovered in the Legislature Wednesday, when Representative Ananias Baker flashed a sealed envelope before the eyes of his astonished colleagues and shouted that it contained a bribe given him by the tobacco trust to vote against the anti-cigarette bill. Amid silence he tore open the envelope and held up a SIOO bill. This dramatic episode was followed by swift action. The members within ten minutes had passed the bill by a vote of 74 to 17. An investigating committee was at once formed, and got into action with such celerity that the same evening an affidavit was issued for the arrest of O. A. Baker of Marion, a former State Senator and now a tobacco trust lobbyist, charging him witli attempting to corrupt Representative Baker. Tire House passed the Newhouse railroad commission bill, which already has passed the Senate. The measure creates a railroad commission, composed of three persons, to adjust freight and express rates, supervise passenger traffic, and adopt regulations necessary to govern car service and the location of switches and sidings. Scandal is piling on scaudai in the State Legislature. Frank Fitz Gerald, a well-known young attorney and son-in-law of D. M. Barry, acknowledged Thursday that he had “handled” several members of the present House and Senate in the interest of different corporations. His declaration came on the heels of testimony that a number of envelopes containing money and similar to the one received by Representative Baker, wln.se statement started the present graft investigation, itad been sent to a number of members. The names of these members age in tlre_.possession of the investigating committee. In the meantime Oscar A. Baker, former State Senator and agent of the .tobacco, trust, who'is charged with having attempted to bribe the legislators to vote against the anti-cigarette bill, has disappeared. The House, by a vote of 35 to 9. passed the Davis anti-pass bill, which prohibits the issuance of railroad passes to any citizen of the State. Tire bilk-provides heavy penalties for violations of the law. Senator Davis of Monroe and Greene counties introduced a bill in the Seiiate to prevent whites from marrying persons having more than one-eighth Filipino blood. The bill grew out of a situation at Bloomington, where Filipino students are attending the State university and are flirting with white girls. Parents of these girls are fearful of marriage^nd have requested the passage of the bill. In the House on Tuesday the codification commission bill on drainage was advanced to engrossment with amendments. Tire rights and privileges committee reported for passage of codification commission’s eminent domain bill that passed the Senate. In the House the House bill for State laboratory of hygiene, under direction of State Board of Health, was passed. The Ulrey Senate bill for track elevation in Fort Wayne was passed. Tire House bill for registration am) examination of trained* nurses, under board created by bill was passed with amendments. A legislative reapportion ment bill was introduced by Senator Kirkman. Bills Signed by the Governor. S. B. 14. Hendee. To legalize the incorporation of Lapel, Madison county. Emergency. S. B. 47. Wood of Tippecanoe. Providing that the State shall pay its proportionate share of expense in collecting omitted property. Emergency. S. B. 8(5. Moore. Providing that in any township or ward a remonstrance may be tiled either against an individual petitioner for liquor license or against the business, the remonstrance in either ease to be effective for two years. S. B. 71. Stepbenson.(' To compel the acceptance by boards of county commissioners of land or buildings donated for school purposes. S. B. 85, Milburn. Making the infliction of a jail sentence, upon conviction for sidling tobacco to minors, optional with the court. Emergency. S. 2. 137. .Murray. Providing for deposit of cash or certified Check in lieu of bond ip civil and cj'iminal cases. S. E. 121. StriiTCr. To legalize the incorpijration of Upland. .Grant county. Emergency. 11. B. 72. Beckman. Legalizing the sale qf certain lands under the school fund aw. Emergency. 11. B. 132. Batman. Legalizing tire incorporation of Nashville, Brown county. Emergency. 11. I>. 25. Sweeney. To change the time ts holding court in Perry. Crawford t.pd Harrison counties. Emergency. H. B. 30. Legler. Requiring county recorders to enter nil cancellations, satisfactions and assignments in the entry book. 11. B. 79. Denbo. To legalize the incorporation of the town of Greenville. Bills on Third Readini;-Senate. 8. 11. 284. Bell. Allowing school trustees to issue bonds for school purposes before the redemption of bonds already issued and unpaid. Passed, 37 U> 0.

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Rat Poison in Flonr Alniost Kills Four Persons—Sou Held for Father's Murder Prosecuting Attorney Forced to Resign-Suspccted Student Freed. Because Mrs. Rebecca Stewart,, a prominent woman in Leroy church circles, kept rat poison on a pantry shelf right over her flour barrel, sire and three of her family were perhaps fatally poisoned. and Mrs. Stewards daughter, Mrs. Harriet Hathaway of Troy, is in a critical condition. ' Mrs. Hathaway, who teaches the village school? suggested’biscuits for supper. They were made, and in some manner Mrs. Stewprt allowed the box of poison to fall into the flour barrel. After partaking of the food members of the family were seized with convulsions. Held for Father’s Death. The jury which tried John Godfrey, Jr., on the charge of killing his father, John Godfrey, Sr., at Miami, last March, returned a verdict Ttfter deliberating twelve hours. Tire verdict was voluntary manslaughter, and the penalty is fixed at two to twenty-one years. The verdict is not a popular one. The general impression was that the jury would acquit. The first vote was six for acquittal and six for conviction of murder in the first degree. Prosecutor Made to Quit. Deputy I’rosecutor Jesse I’. Houghton resigned upon demand from the members of the Knox County Bar Association. It is said he was requested to hand in his resignation or stand trial for having fraudulently collected costs in cases against law violators where the cases were never tried. His resignation is due to the wholesale prosecutions instituted in Fyffe's court which were worked up by Detective Charles Snyder. Normal Student Freed. Zeno Vandbver, the Indiana normal school student at Terre Haute arrested for thefts, in whose room were found pocketbooks stolen from gymnasium lockers and 1(H) locker keys, and who was formally accused of stealing a few towels, was acquitted at the preliminary hearing, as was also Lewis Phillips, a fellow student whom Vandover told the police had divided stolen money With him. Coeds “Soak" Eavesdroppers. The young women of Butler university gave a party the other night: one-half of them being dressed as boys. While theywere in the parlors of the dormitory the young men secured ladders and gained admittance through windows. The eaves-, droppers were discovered and drenched -with ice water before they could escape down the ladders. Within Our Borders. August Pequignot of near Fort Wayne killed himself with a rifle. Walter W. Modiin of Richmond shot his wife and slashed her throat with a razor. The W. C. T. I’, of Warren is urging the town council to miss a curfew ordinance. Adolphus J. Hines, a former policeman of Fort Wayne, hanged himself with a halter strap in his barn. Fred Steariy. 17 years old, of Brazil, accidentally "shot himself in tire stomach, inflicting a fatal wound. B. Ilullett, aged 35, was fatally injured at Boonville by a mule, which slipped on the ice. falling on him. Clinton Reynolds of Selkirk, Mich., made restitution to a merchant in Indianapolis for a 5-cent eraser he had stolen when a boy. The theft, he said, stood between him and salvation. Mrs. Henry Welsh of Covington gave birtli to triplets, one girl and two boys. The girl died at birth and one of the boys died soon afterward, but the third child, it is believed, will live. Burglars broke into Mrs. R. W. Davis’ store in Shelbyville and secured $39, which amount was in a small cigar box at the cash desk. It is thought that the robbery was the work of local talent. Washington Kelley of Marshall county has just received from tire United States government tire sum of seventyfive cents overpaid by him at the close of the war when he settled his accounts with the quartermaster. Ivy L. Reynolds, captain of tire Indiana National Guards, Company L, at Connersville, has resigned his office with that military organization on account of business duties, and' Basil Middleton, first lieutenant, has been appointed to fill the vacancy. Burglars started in to ransack the business portion of Denver. They robbed five stores, and, while breaking into Harry Meredith's grocery, the proprietor, who lives upstairs, opened tire on them. It is thought one robber was wounded. Grandville Costin and son Orla were found guilty at Martinsville of an attempt a* manslaughter on Ira G. Ratts on Nov. 8 and sentenced to from two to fourteen years in the penitentiary. Ezra Costin, another son, was released on the same charge. The Dennis Carbon Fuel Company has been formed to make fuel out of the, marshy soil in the Kahkakee river valley. It is estimated 20(1 square miles of marsh fuel material lies in Laporte. Starke, Porter and other Indiana counties bordering on the Kankakee river. The fuel will be made by a secret process. each ton being composed •of 1,800 pounds of marsh soil and 200 pounds of other ingredients. The cost to the consumer will be half that of anthracite coal. The Rev. I’. S. Wadkins of Danville has deelini-d a call to the pulpit of the Morgan Street Baptist church in Rushville. The jury’ in the case of Tobias McGrew and Eugene Pierson, charged with robbing and attempting to murder William Brown, returned a verdict of not guilty in Angola. When Chuck Stewart, a c->al miner, chased Elmer Winters, wlip hail ent him with a knife, behind the bar of William Warren's saloon ten mi Lus north of Terra Haute, Warren shot him several times and he will die.

THE WEEKLY HISTORIAN

One Hundred Years Ago. The large cotton manufactory in Saco, Me., was burned, the loss being $300,000. Napoleon controlled the entire military department of Holland. The Portuguese government ordered that all ships, prizes of the English, should quit Tagus, and that no such prizes should again be admitted. Napoleon received the foreign envoys, who presented letters of congratulation from their respective courts upon the birth of Prince Napoleon. The English government ordered that corn and other provisions from the United States should be admitted into all British possessions. The slave trade bill, presented to the House of Commons,’ provided that no negro slave should be admitted into any of the British colonies.

Seventy-five Years Ago. Peruvian diplomats arrived at Paris to solicit the recognition of their government. The Lyceum Theater of London was burned. The petition of English Jews for the removal of their civil disabilities was presented to Parliament. Fourteen hundred troops embarked from Spain for Manila and 3,000 for -Havana. Fifty Years Ago. An industrial exhibition opened in Paris. George W. Green, a rich banker of Chicago, who had been convicted of the murder of his wife, hanged himself in prison. All banks of San Francisco were closed and serious financial panic resulted. . " The two British houses of Parliament began to communicate by letter. The Russians Attacked Eupatoria, which was defended by the Turks, and were repulsed with a heavy loss. Forty Years Ago. The Union army took possession of Wilmington, N. C. Sherman’s cavalry were reported, on the North Carolina border, with communication between Charleston and Richmond cut off. \ Charleston, S. C., was in the possession of the Federal troops. The War Department announced the capture of Columbia, S. C., by Sherman. Lee took general command of the Confederate armies and recommended the enlistment of negroos. Announcement was made in the North that Mexico and the Confederacy had entered into a treaty by which Confederate deserters were returned. Thirty Years Ago. The survey of the canal route across the isthmus of Panama was being made. The Indemnity which Spain would pay for the Virginias affair was fixed at SSOO for each case. The Pennsylvania Company refused the use of its tracks in Philadelphia to the Baltimore & Ohio, an incident of a railway war. Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist, died in London. D». De Koven, against whose election there had been much opposition, accepted the Episcopal bishopric of Illinois. The Eads Mississippi improvement bill passed the House of Representatives. Twenty Years Ago. The police in the Southern Russian provinces made a large number of arrests in connection with a nihilist plot. A bill for the retirement of Gen. Grant was defeated in the House by the votes of Southern Democrats. Congress passed an anti foreign contract labor bill. Dispatches from.Korti to London dared Gen. Buller surrounded and closely hemmed in at Abu Klea. The Swiss authorities intercepted a plot to blow up the federal palace at Berne with dynamite. The Washington monument at Washington, D. C., was dedicated. Ten Years Ago. The National Council of Women opened its convention in Washington, D. C. More than ,a score of small coastwise vessels were reported to have been lost in a blizzard that swept the Atlantic coast. Field Marshal Oyama. in command of the Japanese at Weihalwei, announced the surrender of the Chinese on sea and land.