AMERICAN SUMMARY.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 74518, 6 February 1890, Page 6

AMERICAN SUMMARY.

SAN FRANCISCO, January 13. .An artesian well, completed at Woontocket recently, broke loose on January llth at half-past seven a.m., and will Pood the town. A solid column of water as big as a man's body is thrown 6tt high from the pipe. The engine-house rapidly filled with quicksand, and the lower parts of the town were soon under water. No Siwer can control the well at present, ore water comes from it than runs in " the neighboring river, and the great roaring is heard for miles. '_ A terrible cyclone swept the Southern States on January 12th in the village of Clinton, Kentucky. Eleven persons were instantly killed, and fifty-three wounded. Sixty nouses were demolished. The weather this season has been more than unusually tempestuous all over the country, and in the mountains a greater depth of snow has fallen than was ever known before. Trains have been snowed In, and when not impeded by snow, have been blown from the track by the force of the wind. In California especially it was uphill work getting the mail and express matter through to the interior towns. Passenger traffic was out of the question. E-ui Formes, the well-known and popular operatic basso, died in San Francisco on December 15th, of pneumonia. The great singer was born at Mulheim on the "Shine in 1810.

Henry George, author of " Progress and Poverty,** after his lecturing tour in the West, will sail from San Francisco for Australia on February Bth, He intends to promulgate his peculiar views throughout the colonies.

Wardner, a thriving town of 1500 in. habitants, in Idaho, and the most important place in the great mining district was completely destroyed by fire on' January 3rd. Governor Goodall, of New Hampshire, Issued the following extraordinary proclamation on December 28th:—"In view of various and heinous crimes within the past few weeks directly traceable to the cue of intoxicating liquors, in the sale of which the criminal laws have been flagrantly violated: now, therefore, I warn all persons engaged in the illegal and deadly traffic to desist therefrom immediately, and I call upon the AttorneyGeneral, soldiers, and sheriffs of counties, the mayors of cities, select men, and all other officers throughout tbe State, and upon all good citizens of every party, to unite in one supreme effort to -lose up and -"ippress every liquor saloon of any description within our borders. Let no gui<ty man escape. I cannot refrain from urging all churches, temperance organisa--ous, and all persons who desire the best -ood of the commonwealth, to redouble tieirefforts to promote personal temperance among our people."* The riverside mills, Georgia, were aurned on the night of January 10th. Forty men were buried by the f*M*»*~g of the mills.

A movement is on foot in New York to onild a continuous railroad system, beginning at the southernmost point in Mexico that is reached by rail from the United States through to Central America and the Isthmus, and running well into ooatn America.

Gilbert and Sullivan's new opera "The _was produced in New York •mJannary 7th atthe Park Theatrewltb

A plague of diphtheria and. black tongue was raginar in the mountain districts of Western Virginia on January 7th. The county had erected a temporary hospital, and many physicians and nurses were attending.

The Grimnel mansion at Fall river, Mass., was burned on December 19th, together with the famous collection of Arctic relics and curios it contained. They had been gathered together by Mr Grimnell's father, and consisted of mementos and trophies of the Arctic expedition of Dr. Kane while on his search for Sir John Franklin. There was also the famous painting, "The Finding of Sir John Franklin." The collection was valued intrinslcallv at 60,000d0L For sentimental reasons Commander Grimnell is inconsoltble.

The scale of wages insisted hy the Pennsylvania coal miners was signed on December 30th- It is their ultimatum, and if not agreed to by the operators on May Ist that day will see a strike of 100,000 men, th. largest coal strike in the history of America.

On December 27th the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, the sister school and priest house adjoining, and seven other dwelling-houses at a place called Plains, Pa,, were wrecked by a big cave-in of the earth's surface, owing to underminine by a colliery. In some places the earth had gone down 12ft. The loss to property is IOQ.OOOdoL Many persons aro injured.

Bloody riots took place in Jessup, Augusta, and Macon, Georgia, on Christmas day. Several white men as well as negroes were killed. The trouble in Jessup was due to a black desperado named Brewar, who came into town to celebrate the day. Nine were killed and as many more badly wounded. The military were called out both at Jessup and at Macon, where the riot was terrible. In fierceness and duration it had all the features of a pitched battle. A mob of several hundred men raided the gaol in Columbia, S.C., on December 28th, overpowered the gaoler, and took out eight negroes, charged with murder, aud shot them to death beyond the town. It is called a managed affair. A colored citizens' mass meeting was held in Columbia, S.C., on January Ist, to take action in regard to the lynching of their fellows. Resolutions were adopted, urging colored men not to hold indignation meetings nor agitate in favor of retaliation, and advis ing them to seek residences in other sections of the State and elsewhere.

An avalanche fell on Sierra City, California, on January 3rd, and swept most of the buildings into ruin. Several persons were overwhelmed and suffocated. Enormous snowdrifts blocked' travel in all directions in the Californian mountains. Should a warm rain set in the destruction to the Valley country would be incalculable.

Among the notable deaths of the month are Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta (G.A.) Constitution, and chief exponent ot the "New South" policy, and "fix-Speaker Randall at Washington. The former died of pneumonia, and the latter of cancer.

A party of sixty persons met to sup at the residence of a friend in Brownsvale, Minn., on Januaiy 3rd. Among the meats served were sausages, and forty-five of the guests who par took of them were seized with vomiting, a.nd fell upon one another on the floor. One victim died the following morning, and twenty others are so low that their recovery is not expected. The sausage meat was trichinosed.

A terrible cave occurred in the Lane mine at Angelo camp, Calaveras County. California, on Sunday, December 23rd, burying and crushing to death sixteen miners. The mine is said to have been improperly timbered, and the men were told to beware, but neglected to heed the warning.