San Francisco Mail News.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 218, 15 September 1888, Page 8

San Francisco Mail News.

GENERAL NEWS SUMMARY.

London, August) 24. The tug Sfccrm King was in the act of towing the steamship Great Eastern from the Clydo to Liverpool, on August 23rd, when an enormous sea was encountered and the hawser parted, and the vast steamship went seaward, labouring heavily. She; was overhauled next day. ~ King Otto, of Bavaria, at last accounts is rapidly growing weaker, mentally and physically, His insane fits are increasing and hie condition is such that his attendants never permit 'him, out of. their eight. According to a° London despatch, August 19th, the Japanese Government has decided to spond §10,000,000 in five years purchasing men-of-war. v A thunderstorm in the vicinity of Romenburg, Austria, on August 21st, destroyed 35 houses. Other villages were submerged. Three persons were killed, at Aspern, and twelve at other places. Many head of cattle and immense stacks of corn were destroyed. < Advices from Zanzibar, August loth, Bay that the Sultan has officially' transferred the administration of the coast line to a German Company, whose flag, jointly with the Sultan's, haa been*' hoisted at fourteen ports. The Italian envoy had hot renewed his relations with the Sultan. J Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana, was destroyed by lire on August 16th. Lobs 82,000,000. j ' ' .» The famine in Epirus has been productivo of serious rip W; Tho,Albanian garrison at Motzova, exasperated at the nonf receipt of their wages, revolted on August 15th, burheql ten houses,killed alargenumber of Christians, and then plundered many shops. , , : \ The Free Masons, of Glasgow presented an address to the Queen on August 24th. In reply she said uhe fully appreciated itho charitable- work in which the Society was ongaged. O'Donnell, who recently lo3t his libel suit against the '•Timea,"- cabled his solicitor from Paris, on August 24th, to bring suit against Parnell for charging collusion with the "Timee."

The Umbria'won the alleged ocean steamship race, arriving at «.Q.ueensfco)vn at 4 o clock a.m., August 24, beating the City of pHejv;, York. The time of the winning steamer was six days and 4 hours, from New York to Queenstown. The force of police detailed in 1882 to protect various members of fcho British Ministry, vvas withdrawn? on August 21sb.' , ■ ■: ■,•' . ,'■'■ ;! ■

Queen Victoria arrived at Renfrew; August 22nd, on her way .to Glas&ow, where fhe was to visit the Exhibition on the same afternoon. The houses were decorated w|th flags. Ponsonbj, Private Secretary, refused to present to Her Majesty a petition signed byvtbe; Irishmen of Glasgow; praying for Dillon's release, :: At Glasgow an address was presented by the President of the Exhibition to the Qpeen, who, replied in tittiugf teimb'.

The ironclad' Warrior while cruising up the Channel, August 22rd,-discovered- a wrecked balloon, and rescued tho aeronaut acd bhreo companies.found clinging to the basket ropes. They had jaeeooded from Antwerp on Monday, the'2G6h.j,y While preaching in Winehe'stßr Cathedral oil August llfcb, Bis%p iH^riris, of Michi pan, U.S., was stricken withi apoplexy attd foil unconscious. He died August^ 21st, : :s The revival of tho English snipping trade is now considered as permanent, and nearly all the vesselsjlajd up in the Type have gone into 'commission.'.- ""'

Larry Donovan, of. New York, the! champion, bridgo-jumper of\the world, i leaped from Clifton Bridge/ over the river I Avon, England, on the "morning of August 7fch, and met his death. This bridge has j the highest) span of any in Great Britain, j and Donovan made the leap without any ; special preparation for the feat;. There' was an apparent collapsa of the body! before it struck the waiter, and the unfori innate man is Joolieved to have died in mid-.; air. His body did nttrise to the surface after Pinking.. : Donovan had previouslyV leaped from Brooklyn Bridge, Niagara, and< London Bridge. He was only about 24;: years of age^ arid a: compositor by trade.: Later despatches—August 12—say Dqno-" van's body had been found in tho water atDeptford. .(iS -'< ■■.V-'-- ':"•/■'; "''''■ ''" " ■{■■.;, Parnoll has retained J. B. Bftlfour, |i formerly Lord Advocate of Scotland, and Asher, formerly Solicitor-General for- Scot-l lnnd in Gladstone's administration, to con-; duct his suits in the Scotch Courts, Septein-! ber 13th, against ''.The Times." A despatch dated London?; August 10th,; says their io deep concern over the • de-; struction of crops by rain • and cold weather. Meetings of. Jandlords and ■tenants are being held to consider the situation, and the. conclusion reach ed; is that En glish farmers mu6t .aban-j don wheat' - raising;"" that the uncertain, climate, coupled with foreign competition,; renders it impossible to make wheat pay aa a crop. ... ~/,,' I) •■'-■ ■' >-,v ■:?.,.:- I Dillon is failing in health under his treatment in Dundale gaol, and is losing flesh' rapidly. , , ; • .;-'■.,'. : v ' ir _ ' A fire, attended with great loss of life, op-; currcd in a six-storey brick building on the Bowery, N.Y., a'on_ August 4th. :;,;Some| twenty persons were1 bui'ried to 'death and many seriously injured. The place waa occupied by Polish Jews workingat tailoring.' ,: The Pope received the cardinals on! 19. He is represented as very weak' Jiand worn, and is still forbidden to takoi [fjexercise in the gardens. Rlieninatism isj 1 his principal ailment, .i ''■ '"' ' : .: j, The cardroom hands-in the Blackburn^ '■mtlls went put on August 15thj .the em- ■ ;<plbyer3 refusing to grant thenrlO per cent. \ .advance in wages deman*ded. r Ten thousand; ;men will be. affected as the -strike became; : general, and the whole tuado is paralyzed.. ; The banking-house of Baring. Bros, and' other well-known ba.'ikersi?will issue in ,Oc-1 . tober next the stock of a company with a'i 'capital of £10,000,000, to eupply Buenos Ayros, in the Argentine Republic; ;withj water. j

~Aflvices .from i 'Zanzibar, > at ! London, August 23rd, say that 'an 'armed force landed, from a Gerrpan* gunbpat cut down the Sultan's flagstaff and removed tho flags.; Armed parties also'latided at otherpqinta arid acted in a similar arbitrary man her.

Reports rendering the ,wheat crop .in .Russia, received up to August! 22rd, show the;prospects ofsumnier wheat to bepromising.' The yield of winter wheaS will reaoh thei average; It,: is expected the -whetit, crop in .India will reach '260,000,000 bushes of sixty-p'even pounds each. This will insure a good average quantity for ox-' rinvh.' ' .-■.-•". ■' ■' T '