AMERICAN NEWS SUMMARY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 105, 7 May 1907, Page 6

AMERICAN NEWS SUMMARY.

The ti'.ivel!er3 of America have organised a penny fund, with the object: of buying Mrs Thaw a liialul, wiiicb, it is intended, shall mark thoir appreciation of the heroism she has displayed while testifying in tbu defence of her hus- ! band. Boxes for the collection r.f contribution are to bu placed in every hotel in the United states. The extent to which American hosts carry thoir search for novelty in-their entercaiuinents was recently illustrated with much embarrassment to a number of guests at a ball in 'Philadelphia During the dance the lights of the ru'in were dimmed, and soon a payer suowatorm was raging. Suddenly the lights were extinguished, and the paper storm resolved itself into a genuine snowfall, icy flakes falling upon the guests. It wes discovered afterwards that from 1-30,000 to 50,000301. worth of handsome gowns had been ruined.

The death is announced of Mr Archibald Gunter, the well-known author and playwright. His best known books a e "Barnes of New York," and "Potter of Texas." The interest taken by Americans in the really aboriginal American people i 3 intensified by the entrance for the first time into the United States Senate of a blood descendant of the race of North American Indians. Senator Curtis, of Kansas, is a membar of the Kaw tribe, and in features and complexion Bhowa marked traces of his descent. Hio skin is more swarthy than that of a Southern Spaniard, while the g'eam of his eye suggests the Arabian ardor. He is a man of dignified appearance, and is both mentally alert and widely read. He served fourteen years in the House of Representatives.

Senator La Follette, who is one of the mo?t Radical of Republicans, in an address declared that if Mr Bryce, the British Mnbassador, who had devoted one chapter of the " American Commonwealth " to the corruption of American politics, were to revise that work, he would have to give an entire volume to the subject. Mr La Follette said that the development of corporations had brought about a situation permitting seventy-six men to control the country's industries. They represent 1600 corporations and directorates, eight of which owned or controlled £1,800,000,000 of the £2,600,000,000 invested in railroads. These men, he said, stood together against the country, and surrounded Congress at Washington with mercenary lobbyists. A curious example of the manner in which citzen* are sometimes affected by the problem of the rights of individual States is shown in the case of Mr John Armstrong Chanler, the divorced husband of Princess Trobetskoi, nee Amelie Rives, the novelist. Mr Chanjer h a millionsire, who is related to several prominent American families. His Brothers ate Mr Winthrop Astor Chanler and Mr Lewis Btuyvesant Chanler, the Lieutenant-Governor of New York. He was confined for several years in an asylum for the insane in New York. Thence he made his escape, | and thereupon instituted an action to ( recovet the control of Irs estate. The Virginia Courts declared him sane, but tbe New York judicial authorities held him to be still of unsound mind. Mr Chanler, who is temporarily residing in North Carolina, has just filed a petition in the United Supreme Court for a writ prohibit* ing the States of New York, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, besides the District of Columbia, from arresting him. He desires to return to New York in order to conduot his suit to recover his estate, but fears to take a railway journey through tbe above mentioned States. Mr Ohinler alleges that the late Mr Stanford White conspired to have him placed in the asylum.