News Record
FROM MARCH 7 TO APRIL 7, 1905
Government and Politics
March 7.—George B. Cortelyou takes the oath of office as Postmaster-General and announces that he will resign as Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
The special session of the United States Senate considers the Santo Domingo treaty.
Senator Elkins, Chairman of the Senate Railroad Committee, announces that hearings on the freight-rate question will be held during the recess, beginning in April.
Charles H. Treat, of New York, is appointed United States Treasurer.
March 8.—The Senate confirms the President’s diplomatic and consular appointments, chief of which are those of Whitelaw Reid as Ambassador to Great Britain, Robert S. McCormick to France, George V. L. Meyer to Russia and Edwin H. Conger to Mexico.
President Roosevelt announces his intention of appointing ex-Representative F. C. Tate, a Georgia Democrat, United States District Attorney.
Senator Hemenway, former Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, figures a national deficit of $18,000,000 for the coming year; while Representative Livingstone (Dem.) says it will reach $93,000,000.
March 9.—Commissioner of Commerce James R. Garfield spends the day in the New York offices of the Standard Oil Company, investigating books and reports.
The Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth, of New Haven, Conn., states before a legislative committee that the sum of $150,000 was expended in the recent senatorial fight resulting in the election of Morgan G. Bulkeley.
March 10.—To avoid legislative investigation, the New York Telephone Trust agrees to reduce its tolls 20 per cent.
March 12.—Government agents unearth great coal land frauds in Utah.
March 13.—The United States Supreme Court decides that the peonage laws are constitutional.
March 14.—The President is informed that the treaty with Santo Domingo, which has been radically amended by the special session of the Senate, stands no chance of receiving the two-thirds vote necessary to its approval by that body, as all the Democrats oppose it and some of the Republicans are lukewarm.
The New York State Senate passes resolution directing an investigation of the Gas Trust.
March 15.—Agreement is reached that the Santo Domingo treaty is to be neither ratified nor rejected at the special session of the Senate, but is to be left over to the next session.
Governor James B. Frazier, of Tennessee, is elected United States Senator to succeed William B. Bates, deceased.
Harry S. New, of Indiana, is made Vice-Chairman and Acting Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
March 16.—Secretary Taft states that the Administration policy is indefinite retention of the Philippine Islands and that independence cannot come during this generation.
The Colorado Legislature votes to seat James H. Peabody (Rep.) as Governor, unseating Alva Adams (Dem.), whose majority on the face of the returns was over 9,000. Peabody promises to resign and let the Lieutenant-Governor occupy the office.
A New York legislative committee is appointed to investigate the Gas Trust.
Senator Morgan, of Alabama, attacks the treaty with Santo Domingo, charging that it was brought about through an improper understanding between William Nelson Cromwell, a New York lawyer, and President Morales of Santo Domingo.
March 17.—Mrs. Ella Knowles Reader, of New York, asserts that the present situation in Santo Domingo is due to the interference of President Roosevelt to prevent her plans for forming a treaty.
Governor Peabody of Colorado resigns and is succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Jesse F. Macdonald.
The Attorney-General of Missouri begins proceedings against the Standard Oil Trust.
Senator Carmack, of Tennessee, predicts war between the United States and Japan over the Philippines.
March 18.—The Missouri senatorial deadlock is broken by the election of Major William Warner (Rep.) to the United States Senate.
The special session of the United States Senate adjourns without a vote on the Santo Domingo treaty.
Edwin V. Morgan, of New York, is appointed Minister to Corea.
March 20.—By the order of a special Grand Jury, a Beef Trust investigation is started in Chicago.
March 21.—In John D. Rockefeller’s home, North Tarrytown, N. Y., his candidate for Mayor is overwhelmingly defeated by a butcher.
March 23.—Truman H. Newberry, of Detroit, is appointed Assistant Secretary of the Navy.
The Delaware Legislature adjourns without electing a United States Senator.
The Maryland Supreme Court orders the Governor to submit the constitutional amendment for negro disfranchisement to popular vote.
March 25.—The Government declares its intention to prosecute the Santa Fé Railroad for giving rebates.
March 28.—President Roosevelt decides to accede to the request of the Santo Domingo Government to appoint an agent to collect the revenues of that country.
The Federal Grand Jury sitting at Louisville, Ky., indicts that city on four counts for peonage.
Dr. Washington Gladden, Moderator of the Congregational Church, enters formal protest against the Board of Missions accepting the $100,000 gift from John D. Rockefeller. In spite of this and other objections, the board accepts the donation.
March 29.—The President requests the resignation of all members of the Panama Canal Commission, also of General George W. Davis, Governor of the Canal zone. The request is complied with immediately.
W. E. Gould, of Baltimore, is appointed American agent to collect customs in Santo Domingo.
The general counsel of the Panama Railroad Company purchases for the Government all but five of the outstanding shares of the company.
March 30.—The United States Government sends another warship to Santo Domingo.
President Roosevelt appoints Judge Charles E. Magoon, of Nebraska, Governor of the Panama Canal zone.
The Federal Grand Jury investigating the Beef Trust at Chicago indicts T. J. Connors, an Armour director, for tampering with Government witnesses, and it is reported that other indictments of prominent trust officials will follow.
March 31.—The investigation of the Gas Trust in New York discloses that the value shown on the books is over $15,000,000 more than that listed for taxation. The secretary of the company says he cannot explain the discrepancy.
April 1.—The Nebraska Legislature passes the Junkin Anti-Trust bill, aimed at the beef packers.
Theodore P. Shonts, President of the Clover Leaf Railroad, is appointed Chairman of the new Panama Canal Commission.
April 2.—Former Senators Frank J. Cannon and Thomas Kearns, of Utah, declare war on the Mormon Church. Mr. Cannon denounces President Smith as a “traitor.”
April 3.—The President completes the new Panama Canal Commission and designates salaries as follows: Theodore P. Shonts, Chairman, salary, $30,000; Charles E. Magoon, Governor of the Canal zone, salary, $17,500; John F. Wallace, Chief Engineer, salary, $25,000; Rear-Admiral Mordecai F. Endicott, Chief of the Navy Bureau of Yards and Docks, salary, $7,500; Brigadier-General Peter F. Haines, U.S.A., retired, salary, $7,500; Colonel O. M. Ernst, U.S.A., salary, $7,500; Benjamin F. Harrod, of New Orleans, salary, $7,500.
President Roosevelt starts on a two months’ outing, his trip to include a reunion of his old Rough Rider regiment and hunting excursions in Texas and Colorado. He states that he leaves Secretary of War Taft “sitting on the lid.”
Charles H. Moyer, President of the Western Federation of Miners, sues ex-Governor James H. Peabody and others for $300,000 for false imprisonment during the Colorado strike.
April 4.—At a municipal election in the city of Chicago Edward F. Dunne (Dem.) is elected Mayor over John M. Harlan (Rep.) by a majority slightly exceeding 24,000, thus reversing the immense majority of over 60,000 by which Theodore Roosevelt carried the city five months ago. The issue in the campaign just closed was that of municipal ownership of the traction lines, Judge Dunne standing for immediate city ownership of these utilities.
Rolla Wells (Dem.) is re-elected Mayor of St. Louis by small plurality.
President Roosevelt is given an ovation in Louisville and other cities on his way to Texas.
General Home News
March 7.—The strike continues on the New York Subway and Elevated railways. The Subway trains are run intermittently by “strike-breakers,” resulting in one accident, seriously injuring over a score of people.
March 8.—The Mayor of New York offers to arbitrate the Subway strike. The workingmen accept the offer, but the company declines.
The Standard Oil Company, in retaliation for adverse legislative action in Kansas, refuses to admit low-grade oil from that state to its pipe lines, thus shutting off from the market three-fourths of the output.
March 9.—After a conference of national labor leaders, Warren E. Stone, national head of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, declares the New York Subway and “L” strike unauthorized, and advises the men to return to work. He is supported in this by National Chief Mahon, of the Amalgamated Street Railway workers. This practically ends the strike, though the local unions still hold out.
For the first time in the history of medicine New York surgeons succeed in grafting a finger cut from the hand of one person onto the hand of another.
March 10.—The will of William F. Milton, of New York, gives to Harvard University the sum of $1,000,000. James C. Carter’s will gives $2,000,000 to the same institution.
Whitelaw Reid announces his retirement as editor of the New York Tribune.
March 11.—The New York Subway and “L” strike is officially declared ended. The company announces that it will take back no motormen over forty years of age.
Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick, the notorious “frenzied financier,” who raised millions on forged notes bearing the signature of Andrew Carnegie, is found guilty after a short trial in Cleveland, O.
March 13.—Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, says that he will investigate the charge that the New York Subway and “L” strike was sold out.
President Roosevelt addresses the National Congress of Mothers at Washington and denounces race suicide.
The defection of one of the large mills threatens to dissolve the Paper Trust.
The independent packing companies, with Schwarzschild & Sulzberger, of Chicago, in the lead, organize to expose and fight the Beef Trust.
Justice Kelly, of the New York Supreme Court, orders trial of the suit brought by Hon. W. R. Hearst against the Gas Trust.
March 14.—Nineteen persons are killed in a New York tenement house fire.
The war in the Equitable Life Assurance Society is settled by the factions agreeing on a plan to mutualize the company.
The Mormon Church excommunicates ex-United States Senator Frank J. Cannon, of Utah, because of editorials in the Salt Lake Tribune, of which Mr. Cannon is editor.
March 15.—A bull market in cotton is started by Daniel J. Sully, one day after he is released from bankruptcy.
Andrew Carnegie declares that a Pan-American railroad would be more effective for defense than all the battleships we can build.
March 17.—Secretary of State John Hay sails on a European trip in an impaired state of health.
President Roosevelt addresses the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick in New York, after the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the history of the city.
March 19.—Twenty-four men are killed in a mine explosion near Thurmond, W. Va.
The Panama Canal Commission issues a long statement denying charges made against the body relating to the sanitation of the Isthmus.
Senator Thomas H. Carter, head of the Government commission, reports charges of wholesale bribery in connection with the giving out of awards by the St. Louis World’s Fair officials.
John D. Rockefeller, George J. Gould and other prominent men are reported to be implicated in the Utah coal land frauds.
March 20.—Over one hundred workmen are killed and wounded by a boiler explosion in a shoe factory at Brockton, Mass.
Three thousand men are thrown out of work by the shut-down of one of the Havemeyer sugar refineries at Brooklyn, N. Y.
March 21.—Twenty-seven New England Congregational clergymen enter vigorous protest against the acceptance of a $100,000 gift from John D. Rockefeller to the Board of Missions of that church.
March 22.—It is given out at Denver that the strike and contest over the governorship have cost the state of Colorado $2,000,000.
More than 11,000 immigrants land at Ellis Island, New York, in two days, thus breaking all former records.
March 23.—The Wyoming court decides against granting a decree of divorce to Colonel William F. Cody (“Buffalo Bill”).
The ship with which Lieutenant Robert E. Peary will make another attempt to reach the North Pole is launched at Bucksport, Me., and is christened the Roosevelt.
March 25.—A plan to merge the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Harvard University is made public in Boston.
The New York Central Railroad announces that in the near future it will supplant all its steam locomotives with electric motors.
March 27.—Mrs. Cassie L. Chadwick is sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment.
Gessler Rosseau is found guilty at New York of having sent an infernal machine to blow up the steamship Umbria.
Andrew Carnegie announces that henceforth he will give donations to small colleges in preference to founding libraries.
March 28.—Governor Joseph W. Folk of Missouri, at a speech in New York, declares that bribery is treason, and says that his state is leading a movement to make it odious throughout the country.
March 29.—A disastrous fire over 100 feet underground is caused by a wreck in the New York Subway.
March 30.—The New York legislative committee investigating the Gas Trust develops the fact that the company has been paying 10 per cent. dividends on watered stock.
Charges are made that James H. Hyde, First Vice-President of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, used company funds in paying expenses of spectacular balls of last winter; also his private servants.
President Mellen, of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, tells a legislative committee that great abuses have grown up in the railroad business, and says that there should be stricter state and Government control.
March 31.—Harry N. Pillsbury, the American chess champion, attempts suicide at Philadelphia, but is prevented.
Henry H. Rogers, of the Standard Oil Company, issues a defense of John D. Rockefeller’s gift to missions, and incidentally attacks ministers and deacons and defends railroad rebates to his company.
April 1.—A mysterious epidemic of spinal meningitis, or “spotted fever,” is ravaging New York and other cities and baffles the medical profession. Over a thousand deaths have occurred since the first of the year.
Mr. and Mrs. J. Morgan Smith, brother-in-law and sister of the notorious Nan Patterson, are located in Cincinnati, and letters are secured which, it is said, will have an important bearing on the trial of the actress for the murder of the bookmaker, “Cæsar” Young.
In the Equitable Life Assurance Society war James H. Hyde, the First Vice-President, denies the charges made against him and retains Elihu Root, Samuel Untermeyer and others as counsel. He announces that if President Alexander wants a fight he can have it. The State Insurance Department of New York takes a hand in the case, and an investigation of the company’s affairs is ordered. The Alexander forces charge that loans have been made out of the association’s funds to Edward H. Harriman, of the U. P. R. R., that the dinner to French Ambassador Cambon was paid from the company’s money, and that Vice-President Hyde has usurped the President’s functions. Chairman John D. Crimmins, of the committee of policyholders for mutualizing the society, announces that the Hyde faction has conceded all the committee’s demands and that the Alexander people alone stood in the way. For this reason Mr. Crimmins, who was understood heretofore to stand with Alexander, refuses to go further in what he terms the personal fight on Hyde.
President Samuel Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, sends out a warning to the members that the Socialists are attempting to disrupt the organization.
In the Gas Trust inquiry an official of the company admits that there is $12,000,000 watered stock in the corporation.
At a meeting of the National Association of State Dairy and Food Departments being held in Chicago, J. M. Hurty, Secretary of the Indiana Board, states that 455,000 babies were killed last year by adulteration of milk and other infants’ foods.
A threatened coal strike in Pennsylvania is averted by the granting of the wage scale of last year.
April 2.—H. Rider Haggard, in an interview given to the New York Journal, says that the poor of America are as miserable as those of England.
April 3.—Fifty men are entombed in a mine explosion at Zeigler, Ill. Most of them are believed to have been killed.
April 4.—Vice-President Hyde, of the Equitable Life, accuses President Alexander of being in a conspiracy to ruin the company, and cites as one of his proofs the fact that Second Vice-President George E. Tarbell, one of Alexander’s supporters, disposed of his interests in the company before beginning the present fight.
April 5.—J. G. Phelps Stokes, the New York millionaire philanthropist, announces that he is soon to marry a poor East Side settlement worker, the daughter of a Russian Jew.
April 6.—In a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, Vice-President James H. Hyde wins a virtual victory at all points over President Alexander. The Hyde-Crimmins two-year mutualization plan is adopted and Hyde committees are appointed to investigate the affairs of the company.
S. C. T. Dodd, chief solicitor of the Standard Oil Company, defends John D. Rockefeller from the attacks of Congregational ministers and others, which he terms “vile” and “doubly vile.”
The Russo-Japanese War
March 7.—General Kuropatkin stubbornly resists the Japanese advance about Mukden, but the day generally goes against him. Fighting is heaviest west and northwest of Manchurian capital.
March 8.—The Japanese crush the Russian eastern wing and cut off General Rennenkampf’s division. They also continue vigorous attacks on the west and northwest and reach a position directly north of Mukden.
General Kuropatkin retreats from his southern and centre positions on the Shakhe River, abandoning siege guns and burning stores.
It is reported that the Russian Baltic fleet starts on its return, having gone no farther east than Madagascar.
March 9.—General Kuroki drives the Russians from Fushun and terrific fighting continues all about Mukden. Marshal Oyama reports the cutting of the railroad between Mukden and Tieling. The Japanese, after several fierce onslaughts, succeed in taking a hill considered the key to the Manchurian capital, and Oyama predicts that Mukden will fall tomorrow.
March 10.—At ten o’clock in the morning the Japanese capture Mukden, and General Kuropatkin begins a demoralized retreat to the Northwest, battling to save a remnant of his once great army. This is made the more difficult by the almost complete circle that the forces of Marshal Oyama have made about the Russians. Great numbers of prisoners, and immense quantities of guns, ammunition, food and other supplies, fall into the hands of the victors.
Count Tolstoi writes to the London Times denouncing this as a “reckless, disgraceful, cruel war instigated by a score of immoral individuals.”
March 11.—General Kuropatkin reports that the remnants of his armies are retreating on Tieling. They are still harassed by Japanese attacks. The Russians have lost considerably more than 100,000 men. The battle of Mukden, which has ended in such a disastrous Russian defeat, is the greatest in history, having lasted twelve days and having involved nearly 1,000,000 men. It marks Field Marshal Oyama as one of the world’s great commanders.
March 12.—The Russian losses in the battle of Mukden are now placed at about 150,000; Japanese losses at about 40,000.
It is reported that the Czar will send another army to the Far East and will order the Baltic squadron to go forward and give battle to Admiral Togo.
March 13.—The main body of the Russian troops reach Tie Pass, hard pressed by their foes. General Kuropatkin reports 50,000 wounded in the past few days. Marshal Oyama reports the country swept clear of Russians for a distance of twenty-five miles north of Mukden.
March 14.—The Russian War Council in session with the Czar votes to continue the war.
Despite a repulse south of Tie Pass, the Japanese continue a rearguard attack on the retreating Russians.
March 15.—A Japanese fleet of twenty-two warships going westward is sighted off Singapore, India.
March 17.—The Czar curtly dismisses General Kuropatkin from his command, and promotes Lieutenant-General Linevitch, heretofore at the head of the first army, to be Commander-in-Chief of all the forces in Manchuria.
The Russian War Council decides to place a new army of 450,000 men in the field, and orders the Baltic squadron to proceed on its way to the East.
The Russian army, having abandoned Tie Pass, continues its flight northward, harassed by Japanese attacks from all sides.
March 19.—The Russians are still retreating and Kai-Yuan and Fakoman are occupied by the Japanese.
March 21.—General Kuropatkin returns to the front to accept a subordinate command under General Linevitch.
March 22.—All the Russian ministers but two are now said to favor peace.
March 24.—The Russian troops halt for a short rest at a point seventy-four miles north of Tie Pass. The Japanese armies are believed to be executing another flanking movement.
March 25.—It is given out from St. Petersburg that the Russians have sent 800,000 men to the front since the beginning of the war.
March 28.—The Japanese again attack the rearguard of the retreating Russians. General Oku reports that the spring thaws make the movements of both armies difficult.
It is no longer denied that the Russian Government is moving for peace.
March 29.—A court-martial is designated to try General Stoessel, it being customary in Russia to so try any officer that surrenders.
All Europe shows eagerness to invest in the new Japanese bonds.
March 30.—Both Russia and Japan deny that they are making any efforts to bring about peace.
General Linevitch issues an address to his troops, closing with the words, “May God help you in the coming battle.”
The Japanese continue their flanking movement and skirmishes occur between them and the Russian outposts.
March 31.—General Sakharoff, former Chief of Staff, quits the Russian army because of a quarrel with General Linevitch. General Stakelburg also leaves, the reason assigned being ill health.
The Russian Baltic fleet, which left Madagascar on March 16, is reported in bad condition.
April 3.—A bomb explosion at Harbin destroys seventy-five persons and an immense amount of Russian supplies.
Prince Ouktomsky, deposed from the command of the Port Arthur squadron, reaches St. Petersburg and demands a court-martial.
April 6.—Both the Russian Baltic fleet and the Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo are reported approaching each other in the vicinity of the China Sea.
General Foreign News
March 7.—Practically half of the workingmen of St. Petersburg are on strike. The situation continues grave, though quiet, at Warsaw and at other points in Russia.
Hon. George Wyndham, Chief Secretary for Ireland, resigns from the British Ministry.
March 8.—The peasant revolt in outlying Russian provinces is rapidly spreading.
Men at the Russian naval dockyard go on strike.
China decides to build immediately the Kalgan Railway and to place it under a Chinese engineer, which is regarded as an anti-Russian move.
On a fiscal policy division forced by Winston Churchill in the British House of Commons the Government is sustained by a majority of 42.
Both Premier Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain deny that they are protectionists.
March 9.—Russia pushes troops toward her Indian frontier, in evident opposition to Great Britain’s moves in Thibet, Persia and other Central Asiatic territory.
The plague in India kills 34,000 in one week.
March 10.—It is reported that the Russian revolutionists have agreed to a general uprising on May 1.
The rioting of the Russian peasants continues, and great destruction of property is reported from Tchemigoff, Orel and Hursk.
March 14.—French bankers refuse to negotiate a loan to Russia until more is known of the intentions of the Russian Government.
The Canadian authorities serve notice on polygamous Mormons that they must either leave the country or be prosecuted.
Russian peasants pillage the estate of the late Grand Duke Sergius in the Dimitrov district.
The peasant uprisings spread to the northwest provinces of Vilna and Kovno.
March 16.—William Marconi, the inventor, is married to Beatrice O’Brien, sister of Lord Inchiquin.
March 17.—Mobilization orders lead to renewal of strikes in Russian Poland.
France complains to the United States of the infringement of the rights of the French Cable Company in Venezuela.
March 19.—An international conference at Vienna considers the proposal to form a World’s Chamber of Agriculture.
March 20.—Governor Miasoredeff, of Viborg, one of the Russian provinces of Finland, is shot and seriously wounded by a fifteen-year-old boy who proclaims himself a “revolutionist.”
March 21.—After a great debate in the French Chamber of Deputies, a motion to postpone the bill separating church and state is defeated by a vote of 363 to 40.
March 22.—Many peasants are killed and wounded by Russian troops in the provinces of Kutno and Ostrow.
The British House of Commons condemns the proposal of a protective tariff by a vote of 254 to 2.
March 23.—It is announced in the British Parliament that up to March 11 of this year there have been 346,000 deaths from the plague in India.
President Morales of Santo Domingo declares that unless the treaty with the United States is ratified there will be a revolution in that country.
March 24.—President Castro of Venezuela curtly declines to arbitrate the asphalt controversy with the United States.
March 25.—Under a tentative arrangement made with President Morales of Santo Domingo, the revenues of that country will be collected by an agent named by President Roosevelt.
March 26.—Baron von Molken, chief of the Warsaw police, is severely wounded by a bomb which destroyed his carriage.
Internal disturbances are again on the increase throughout Russia.
It is announced that King Alfonso of Spain is to marry the Princess Patricia of England.
March 27.—Warehouses and shops at Yalta, Russia, are pillaged and burned by rioting mujiks.
March 29.—The Swiss Bundesrath rejects the commercial treaty with the United States owing to amendments made to that instrument by the United States Senate.
March 30.—President Castro of Venezuela turns on his accusers and states that he has documentary evidence that both the French Cable Company and the American Asphalt Company are in league with the revolutionists.
Emperor William of Germany sails for Morocco.
Several prominent “terrorists” are arrested in St. Petersburg, among them being two women.
Peasant outbreaks continue in Russia and the Kharkoff district is laid waste.
Another meeting of the Zemstvo representatives is called at St. Petersburg for the end of April.
The Italian Ambassador states that Italy would have taken drastic measures to collect her debt from Santo Domingo, had President Roosevelt not taken the matter in hand.
March 31.—Emperor William at Tangier gives assurance that Germany will protect the integrity of Morocco and maintain the “open door.”
President Arnal, of the highest court of Venezuela, declares that the French Cable Company has forfeited its contract.
The agrarian risings in Russia reach such proportions as to overshadow the war. They render further mobilization of troops impossible.
An important group of the Russian clergy declares for the separation of church and state.
April 1.—The Federal District Court of Venezuela charges General Francis V. Greene, an official of the New York and Bermudez Asphalt Company, with having given $130,000 to the rebels in the Matos revolution against President Castro.
Camille Flammarion, the celebrated French astronomer, predicts a hot summer because of the sun spots.
The Victorian, the first turbine steamer to cross the Atlantic, makes the trip in a little less than eight days.
The Police Commissioner of Lodz, Russian Poland, is severely wounded by a bomb explosion.
April 2.—Four persons are killed and forty injured in renewed riots at Warsaw.
April 4.—Severe earthquakes in Northern India cause much loss of life and damage to cities.
H. B. Irving, son of Sir Henry Irving, wins a triumph in London in his first appearance, playing Hamlet.
April 5.—A Russian medical congress at Moscow adopts peace resolution and favors a constitution and other radical demands.
A newly appointed member of the British Cabinet is defeated for re-election to Parliament in a district that has not before gone Liberal in twenty years. Winston Churchill says it is the beginning of the end of the present Government.
April 6.—King Edward of England and President Loubet of France meet in extended interview at Paris. This is regarded as significant in strengthening the understanding between France and England relating to Morocco and as being a counter move to Emperor William’s assurance of political integrity of that country.
The reform movement increases throughout Russia.
Obituary
March 7.—John H. Reagan, former United States Senator and State Railroad Commissioner, dies at his home in Texas, aged 87.
Albert M. Palmer, veteran theatrical manager, dies at his home in New York, aged 66.
March 8.—Henry A. Barclay, prominent New York business and race-track man, dies at his home, aged 60.
Rear-Admiral Edwin S. Houston, United States Navy, dies at Lausanne, Switzerland, aged 60.
March 9.—William Brimage Bate, United States Senator from Tennessee and former Governor and Major-General, C.S.A., dies in Washington, aged 78.
March 12.—Caleb Huse, foreign purchasing agent for the Confederate Government, dies at the age of 75.
March 14.—Henry R. Reed, millionaire sugar merchant, of Boston, aged 62, dies under mysterious circumstances in a New York hotel.
Henry Cyril Paget, Marquis of Anglesey, dies at Monte Carlo, aged 30.
March 16.—Meyer Guggenheim, prominent New York capitalist and head of the Smelter Trust, dies at Palm Beach, Fla., aged 78.
March 17.—Lot Thomas, former Congressman from Iowa, dies at the age of 61.
Charles C. Cole, former Supreme Court Justice, District of Columbia, dies at Washington, aged 64.
March 18.—General Joseph R. Hawley, former United States Senator from Connecticut, dies at the age of 78.
Cyrus G. Luce, once Governor of Michigan, dies at the age of 80.
March 22.—M. Antonin Proust, French author and former member of Gambetta Cabinet, dies at Paris.
Rev. Dr. Elmer H. Capen, former President of Tufts College, dies at the age of 76.
March 24.—Jules Verne, the celebrated novelist, dies from a stroke of paralysis at Amiens, France, aged 76.
Señor Manuel de Aspiroz, Mexican Ambassador to the United States, dies at Washington, aged 68.
March 29.—Jacob L. Greene, President of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, dies at his home in Hartford, aged 67.
William Hammond, a prominent real estate man of Boston, Mass., commits suicide in the Hotel Astor, New York.
March 30.—Hugo Jacobson, the American representative of a French steel firm, commits suicide at the Hotel Breslin, New York.
March 31.—The Dowager Duchess of Abercorn, grandmother of the Duke of Marlborough, dies at London, aged 92.
William H. Muker, once well-known American actor, dies at New Rochelle, N. Y., aged 83.
Dr. William Bodenhamer, once family physician of Commodore Vanderbilt, dies at New Rochelle, N. Y., aged 97.
April 1.—James M. Seymour, former mayor of Newark, N. J., and Democratic candidate for Governor, dies at the age of 67.
April 2.—William F. Potter, President of the Long Island Railroad Company, dies of spinal meningitis, aged 50.
April 4.—William H. Delius, son-in-law of Chief-Justice Fuller, of the United States Supreme Court, dies by suicide at Chicago, aged 53.
Bishop Alphonse Favier, Catholic Apostolic Vicar to China, dies at Pekin, aged 68.
Toll
ONE fashions beauty into form, to shapes most wondrous fair; There comes a stranger to his door and claims an equal share
Another plants the seed and sees the harvest spring—that day Comes one whose face he does not know, and takes a third away.
A little child, whose plaintive mouth has never learned to laugh, Sits stringing beads—to her appears the man who claims his half.
A woman with her needle sits—and one stitch out of three She takes for him whose face perhaps her eyes shall never see.
And where the mighty merchant ships in the great harbors wait— His is the service of the crews and his the share of freight.
And who is he, who walks abroad in all his pomp and pride, Who takes his toll, and nothing gives, and will not be denied?
A wondrous miracle is he—but not of God because, He can be banished as he came—by simple change of laws.
The laws that give to manikin dominion of the sod, Appareled him in majesty, and made him as a god.
Oh, sad the tale and grim the tale, that now is almost told, And but a little while, and then—the stupid drama’s old!
But strange we’ll seem to future times, with our fantastic tricks, Who worshiped God one day in seven and cheated Him in six!
Joseph Dana Miller.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Antiquated spellings were preserved.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected.