AMERICAN NEWS. NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 108, 3 November 1908, Page 11

AMERICAN NEWS. NEWS AND NOTES.

A GREAT OFFICE BUILDING. What will be one of the largest office buildings in the world is to be erected in Chicago by the People's Gas, Light, and Coke Co., at a cost of 3,000,000 dollars. It will occupy the site of the picsent office building of the corporation at the north-west corner of Michigan boulevard and Adams-street. The new building is to be twenty stories high, and will occupy a site that is 196ffc on Michigan-avenue and 171 ft on Adams-street. Ernest R. Graham, of D. H. BurnhamandCo., says there is no building in the country that will have a larger floor area devoted to offices. This area amounts to 550,320 square feet, or thirteen square acres. The following is from the San Francisco Chronicle : — M'Kee Rankin, the 'theatrical manager, and his star, Miss Nance O'Neil, were arrested here today (21st' September) by a United States deputy marshal on an indictment found against them last July in California, alleging that they had infringed the copyright of the Suderman play, j "The Fires of St. John." After formal arraignment by the United States Commissioner they were held in 2000 dollars bail each for examination tomorrow, and were later paroled in the custody of their counsel. The arrest of Miss O'Neil was made upon an indictment returned by the Federal Grand Jury for the Northern district of California, charging the unauthorised use of an adaptation o£ "The Fires of St. John," by Charles Swickard. M'Kee Rankin presented Miss O'Neil in the piece at San Jose, at the American Theatre in this city, and at Ye Liberty Playhouse in Oakland. Harry Bishop and Abe Cohn withheld a portion of the guarantee due Rankin, and this action resulted in Rankin having his attorney file civil suits against the managers, which was met by Swickard with a criminal prosecution for infringement of the copyright laws. L. R. Stockwell and Norval MacCregor were indicted with Miss O'Neil for having used the adaptation of Swickard in San Jose. Both were arrested and released on 5000 dollar bonds. The copyright laws provide that the unauthorised use of a translation or adaptation may be punished by a fine of 1000 dollars, a term of imprisonment or both, the fine to go to the playwright. l Swickard claims that the adaptation used was his, and it was staged without his authority. M'Kee Rankin, on the other hand, contends that he did not use Swickard's adaptation. Swickard meets this contention by asserting that only a few minor passages .were changed, and that this was done only to avoid responsibility. HONOLULU HARBOUR. The United States Superintendent of Public Works has drawn up and Governor Froar has approved of a comprehensive plan of improvement for Honolulu harbour. The plan includes the construction of two more wharves of a size and a depth of slip sufficient for tho 'largest steamships on the Pacific Ocean, the extension of the Matson wharf and slip, and the dredging of other slips so as to accommodate vessels of large draft. Within ten years and leso the shipping of this port has been completely revolutionised. The sugar crop of the islands, instead of being shipped in sailing vessels, with which the harbour was then filled, is now carried in large steamships, so that larger wharves and deeper slips are necessary. The dredging of the harbour by the United States by which it as not only deepened, but greatly enlarged, haa made possible the plan for progressive harbour improvement which is now planned. GIRL PREACHER. Inez Bowers, ot Huntington Park, a girl of 11 years, has (says a Los Angeleß despatch to the San Francisco Chronicle) developed into a wonderful child preacher with a remarkable command of language, stiong voice and eloquence and force of expiession that would be the envy of the ordinary pulpit orator. She Is the daughter of Mrs. M. E. Bowers, superintendent of the grammar department of the grammar school for Christian workers in Huntington Park, where she has been a pupil. Two weeks ago the little girl suddenly became possessed of a desire to address a^church gathering, and refused to be dissuaded. Her mother finally consented and she appeared before the school and without preparation deliver a notable discourse. ' Afterward she went .to Pasadena and addressed a large church gathering, astonishing all who listened. Last night she preached In tho Friends Church, Whittier to a congregation that spread through the outer doors, pleading the great cause like one inspired, and bringing tears to the eyes of scores. "Gods Love for Jlau" was her subject. PANIC REIGNS ON MAURETANIA. PROPELLER BLADE BREAKS. The following despatch from New I York (dated 19th September) appeared in the San 'Francisco Chronicle : — For more than half an hour last Wednesday the great turbine steamer Mauretania, with all her cabins filled with frightened pasj sengers, rolled and pitched helplessly in mid-ocean, with wwes constantly breaking over her decks. She had run into i the storm hours before, but had been kept under headway until one of her propeller blades flew off , with a crash that alarmed nearly every one on board. So tremendous was the force of the blow which the loosened propeller dealt the | ship that the whole middle section seemi ed to rise, the flooring buckled nntil the i tacks from the carpet were hurled against the ceilings, and passengers were thrown about the cabins. The engines were stopped at onco, and the big ship, losing her way, began to wallow in the trough of the seas, while the passengers besieged tne captain, imploring him to tell the nature of the accident. Every effort was made to quiet the frightened ones, but the intense excitement did not subside until the steamer started once more on her way. The compartment adjoining the propeller joints filled with water. It is believed that the detached propeller drove a hole in the steamer's bottom. The severe weather continued throughout the voyage> and yesterday, when Sandy Hook, at the gateway of New York harbour, was reached, the steamer ran into a fog bank which compelled her to lie at anchor for more than nineteen hours. She camo to-day in the harbour and to her dock.