THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Evening Star, Issue 9472, 17 August 1894, Page 4

THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

AMERICAN NEWS,

William Melville, brother of Emily Melville, known in Australia and the United States as a priina donna, was arrested on July 22 for embezzlement from the Bank of California. The amount of his thefts was 32,000d01, covering a period of thirteen years. He had fled from the city, and was arrested as a fugitive as Reno, Nevada. Surprise is expressed in business circles at the lax discipline in banking management that could render such a thing possible.

Information reached San Francisco on July 20 of the loss of the British barque William Lechner, Captain Reynell. The vessel left Singapore for Hongkong on May 4, to load at the latter port for San Francisco, and was driven on a reef off Cape St. James. Out of a crew of seventeen not one was left to tell the tale. Now that the strike is over, local politics agitate the minds of the people of San Francisco. The moving cause is the fact that the corrupt “boss” Buckley, now famous all over the United States, and who was compelled a short time ago to fly to London in order to escape punishment for his misdeeds, has returned, and everything indicates that he will assume control of the Democratic party in San Francisco and sell it out to Republicans, body and soul, as he did before.

Divorce proceedings were instituted in the Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia, on July 22, by Mrs Speight against the millionaire Joseph Speight for cruel treatment. The whole trouble grew out of the machinations of a bogus English peer—Dr Grandy Staunton Howard, according to himself a man of many titles, the descendant of thirty barons, and the high priest of the Occidental Order of Sat Bal Kooha. He alienated Mrs Speight’s affection from her liege lord and promised to make her a high priestess of the occult order of which he was the supreme head. Mrs Speight loaded Howard with money favors, and when Speight employed a detective to find out who the man really was, the “Sage of Am,” fearing exposure, fled. General Booth is to visit the United States next fall.

The official closing of the Californian Midwinter Fair took place on July 4, when the holiday festivities of the anniversary of the birth of the United States took place on the fair grounds. The final closing was held on Sunday, July 9, and was marked by a carnival. Gambling was carried on in every direction, and arrests for indecent exhibitions in some show buildings were made by the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Financially the administration of the fair has been a success, but a great number of the concessionaries curse loud and deep at the loss of their time and money. At a great mass meeting held in New York on July 12 to discuss the railroad tieup and labor question generally, Mr Henry George was the speaker of the evening. When he entered into a lengthy condemnation of President Cleveland and his employment of Federal troops in the West against the railroad strikers, and asked the question: “ What are you going to do about it?” a shout went up “Impeach him,” and “Hang him up.” Nearly everybody followed with suggestions how to dispose of the obnoxious President, till the hall was in an uproar. What remained of the “ White City,” as the great Chicago Fair was called, was destroyed by fire on July 5. The conflagration started in a terminal station, and swept over the entire part. It was the work of an incendiary. Arnold S. Clements, of Springfield, Mass., has been notified, according to a despatch of July 17, that by the death of an uncle, William Edward Clements, of Studley, Brisloe, England, he had become heir to a great Fpgliah estate, known as Silvey Hall, valued at £500,000. The New York Press on July 18 stated that Monseignor Satolli had rendered a decision condemning the liquor traffic. He approves of the expulsion of liquor dealers from Catholic societies.

Late news from Alaska indicates a poor season for the capture of fur-bearing animateScarcely a sea otter has been taken even m j places that heretofore have beeumoet prolific in these animals. Up to within a lew years it was usual for Alaska to. yield a? m*Py : 6,00<) sea otter’s skins; but if the catch thisj

season yirida-(KKUkinfl ikyml ,fuUy ; 4neet all wjfcdnfcr of Alaskan fur-bearing animals is due to the manyimprovements in! firearms and the surprising skill of American marksmen. The typographical unions, wherever sessions have been held recently in. .the United States, endorsed the strike by the American Railroad Union, and contributed liberally to the support of the strikers. The new State Territory of Utah was, on July 16, admitted to the Union on an equal footing with the original States. Delegate Rawlins, of the Territory, was largely instrumental in bringing about this result. It is provided iu the Constitution of the new State that polygamy must be forever for-’ bidden. A gold pen set in a silver holder was preparetf for, the President to sign the enabling document. At first it was intended to have a solid gold pen and holder, but as Utah comes in as a bimetallic Slate, and the Westerners, who are making the silver fight iu politics, attach some sentiment to the white metal, silver was allowed to share the honors at the accepted ratio. After the pen has done its work it will be dipped in ink but once, and Mr Rawlins will take possession of it, and when it has been suitably engraved it will be enthroned iu the State capital with other historical souvenirs. An important issue has been made between the federal authorities of the United States and Governor Stone of Mississippi on the right of a State to issue Treasury warrants for general circulation. The issue was limited to “ 200,000 in 5dol” warrants, the Bse being to tide over a financial crisis, notes were made by the St. Louis Bank Note Company to the order of the Governor of Mississippi, as authorised by the Legislature, and a portion were signed and put in circulation, when Mr W. W. Ha/.en, the chief of the United States Secret Service at Washington, demanded that Governor Stone send to him all the unsigned warrants not in circulation, and he also telegraphed the Note Company to turn the plates over to the United States Government. Governor Stone refuses to comply with Hazen’s demand iu any particular, and the Note Company has been telegraphed to hold the plates and finish the order. In his action the Governor is fully sustained by the Legislature and the best legal advice in the State.

Governor Hogg, of Texas, in a recent speech made to the officers of the State militia, took a gloomy view of the future. He predicted that within six weeks, dating from July 18, martial law would be declared in California, Kansas, Colorado, Illinois, and that the Anarchists of Chicago would use dynamite, and spatter the lofty buildings of the city, with the hearts, lungs, and livers of the citizens. He alluded to Governor Cleveland having ordered the troops there and Judge Cooley’s letter in commendation of the act, and said he felt humiliated over it, as it was a dangerous invasion over State rights, and had not been done before since 1860. The Governor predicted a great revolution soon, and a possible dismemberment of the great Republic, unless a foreign act diverted attention from the national dissatisfaction.

Patrick Eugene Prendergast, the murderer of Mayor Carter Harrison, of Chicago, on October 28, 1893, was hanged within the gloomy walls of Cook County Gaol on July 31. As the hour for the execution drew near he showed signs of slightly increasing nervousness, but on the whole he was remarkably calm and collected. Just before he left the cell for the gallows he said, with some bravado: “I’ll die game, and set a great and shining example to my country.” Sheriff Gilbert dissuaded him from making a speech before he was turned off. Prendergast was evidently insane, judged by a confession found in his pocket after death, and ought to have been consigned to a madhouse instead of the gallows. In the course of his confession he says: “It was the spirit of Christ in my character of Christ as embodied in me that made me kill. . . .

1 was as little responsible as the gun that did the woik. The gun was the tool in my hand; I was the tool in the hands of Christ.”