SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 7484, 31 March 1888, Page 2

SAN FRANCISCO MAIL NEWS.

The Duke of Leinster was appointed Irish Privy Councillor on March 5. Count Herbert Bismarck is betrothed to a relative of the Marquis of Londonderry, LordLieutenant of Ireland. Lord Herschel, at a dinner of the National Liberal Club on March 7, predicted that the Conservatives before' long would propose a Home Rule scheme representing probably more advanced views than those of Mr Gladstone. Green's cotton mill at Blackburn, containing' 12,000 spindles, has been destroyed by fire. Loss, 100,000dol. Advices were received at London on March 2 that the French schooner Fleur-de-Lys had foundered off the island of Cayenne. Sixty passengers were drowned, A sculling match at Lake Weir, Florida, on February 28, between Teemer, Hamm, and Mackay, resulted in favor of the first-named. Teemer is now champion of America. The "Temps' reports that Great Britain is negotiating with Turkey for the cessation to England of the Salonica Island commanding the Dardanelles, England guaranteeing to the Sultan possession of Stamboul with the immediate district about the Bosphorus, Dardanelles, and all his Asiatic provinces. The British steamer Excellent was sunk on February 28, at Gibraltar, on her passage from Philadelphia to Messina, by collision with the British Bteamer Mending. The crew were saved. The Admiralty issued on February 28 to commanders of the Home squadrons full instructions regarding their positions for defence in time of war, including the mode of victualling and coaling their ships, and the method of communication. It is reported that the plan will be tried early in the spring. The instructions apply to the squadrons at Portsmouth, Holyhead, Queenatown, Sheerness, Hull, Leith, and Clyde. The Channel squadron also received instructions, but itu position is kept secret. Mrs Langtry, London actress, now in New York, iB reported to be seriously ill from neuralgia of the heart. The execution of sentence of death pronounced by the State Court of Missouri on Maxwell (alias Brooks), the murderer of Preller, has again been stayed. A petition for rehearing is now before the United States Supreme Court. A Bill was introduced in Congress on February 20 providing for the payment to the Oceanio Steamship Company of 60,000d0l for services rendered in carrying mails between San Francisco and Honolulu, Auckland, Sydney, and other ports in the Pacific Ocean. Several Alpine villages were destroyed by an avalanche on February 28, and many lives were lost. The village of Stirlane (Nev Jreia) was covered, and thirty personß perished. In the valley of Manebbio (Switzerland) a ereat number of houses were overwhelmed. Ten persons were killed and many cattle destroyed. Many villages near the Lake of Como Buffered from want of food, communication being obstructed. Troops were despatched to aid the sufferers, and the soldiers cut a way through to relieve the Custom-house near Revere. The village was entirely overwhelmed. Three guards and four other persons were killed. A despatch from Rome (March 4) says that over 200 bodies, victims to these disasters, have been recovered. The Hospital of St. Bernard was buried on March 6, but there was no loss of life. A collection of Emir Pasha's letters and geographical records from Africa, which have been translated into English and edited under the auspices of Dr Teldir and Dr Schweinfurth, was published on March 2. The book, though dealing with events which are several years old and not bearing directly on Emir's position at Wadeti, is not without special interest in connection with the relief expedition of Stanley. In the meantime Stanley's friends are becoming exceedingly nervous owing to the prolonged absenoe of news from the explorer or his party. There is a great deal of talk in the Belgian capital of despatching another expedition by the Congo route. A terrible cyclone visited Mount Vernon, Illinois, on February 19, resulting in the killing of thirty persons and the wounding of 200 others, and the almost total destruction of the town. Fires broke out in the rains, and many of the wounded were burned alive. No less than 600,000d0l worth of property wbb destroyed by the cyclone and fire. Rum shops

were started amid the ruins; but the people, becoming disgusted at seeing so many intoxicated men lying about the streets, compelled the owners to close them up. A father and son, farmers, near Bargo, Dakota territory, were eaten up by a pack of sixteen wolves fon March 6, in sight of the wife and mother, who was looking through the window of the farm-house. The men had gone out with shovels to clear snow from the haystacks, and were not more than fifteen or twenty roods distant when they were attacked and devoured. ——■^—— —