ITEMS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 160, 26 July 1889, Page 4

ITEMS BY THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

In his evidence beforo the Times-'ParaeU Commission on June 16, Thomas Sexton, Lord Mayor of Dublin, said he was not opposed to Fenianism. Me also said he regarded Alexander Sullivan, now under a cloud in regard to the Chicago Cronin mnrcler oase, in the same favourable light as when he eulogised him in l_is speeoh at tbe Landgaa meeting in Boston in 1884. The witness, having stated that he bad been asked to join a Fenian Sooiety, but refused to give the name, the Attorney eral (Sir R. Webster) pressed him without avail, and an angry soene took place between them. At the request of Mr Parnell, Michael Davitt will not give his testimony until the defence oloses. Sir Oharles Bussell will ask the Court to permit Davitt to mako an address in his own behalf before he gives his testimony. Davitt proposes to show that Government employes planned dynamite outrages and put them into effect. James M'Dermott, residing at Hamburg, has offered to appear before the Commission to disclose the intrigues of Government agents and give proofs of their oonnivance. Mr Parnell, however, is adverse to treating with M'Dermott. The ohief sensation in London for the week ending June 22 was over the Prinoe^of Wales statement about v le. er in London.' Exceptional interest was taken in the circumstances surrounding the death of Father Damien, tbe missionary priest at the leper colony of Molokai, in the Saodwioh Islands. The Prince, in his speeoh at a meeting to conider a schema for the foundation of a leper oapital, declared tbat there was a leper employed ia a London meat market. At this a fearful outory wbb made by the buthers, and columns of protests were orowded into the papers until the identity of the man waa revealed, He proved to be a native Englishmari, who had never been out of the oountry, and wbo made a living by peddling ox tails. He is an undoubted leper. Tha Prinoesa Stephanie, wboae hußband, Arohduke Budolph of Austria, com nutted suicide, will toon be able to leave Vienna (says a London despatoh of June 22_) and tbe Austrian Court, whioh she detests. According to law, she is obliged to remain in the oapital aa long as there is a probability of a posthumous heir being born. At the end of a fixed time she will tak<_ up her . residence in a villa at Lake Lucerne. The house in whioh the young Frinoe killed him- -**- self at Meyerling is being pulled down. Tbe ordera of the Emperor are to make effort's to obliterate the soene of the midnight tragedy and oauß. it to ba forgotten. - Mrs Sarah Jane Whitling was hanged on j June 25 in Moyemonsing Gaol, Philadelphia, I for poisoning her husband and two children to get the insurance on their lives, amounting in all to 500dol. She was quite at oase, and said she did not "mind hanging more than sitting down to breakfast." A lively electric storm on June 15 played havoo in New York and New Jersey. The Churoh of the Immaculate Conception in New York was struok by lightning, also two churches in Newark, flew York. The damage in both oities amounts to 109,000 dole. In this Is included the destruction of .the atandaxd oil tanks at Comm-anepaid, and "• - the national storage dook at the same place. A number of lives were lost, and great damage to property also oaused in Maryland and Kansas. At the State election held ia Pennsylvania ,on June 18 over 75,08© majority was given against an amendment to the constitution prohibiting the geneial sale and use of intoxicating liquors. Great efforts were made by the temperance people to influence the vote in favor of the amendment. ' Brass bands and groups of children Binging hymns could he seen and heard everywhere in the principal cities during polling hours ; while numbers of women argued with, and almost beseeohed, voters to deposit amendment ballots. A tornado struok the cemetery of Middletown, New York, on June 17, and cut its way through it 500 ft wide, tossing and whirling huge granite and marble monuments in all directions, bursting shrubberies and uprooting trees. The tornado spent its fury among the graves. Monuments weighing as much as five tons, and costing many thousands of dollars were ruined. A license was issued at the State capital Chicago, on June 11, to an organisation called the Amerioan Execution Company, the avowed objeot of whioh is to take the burden of all executions off the hands of the sheriffs. Chicago is the headquarters of the company, but the area of operations will be as wide as the United States. The necessary prepara- , tions will be made for using electricity to take the life of the condemned, as ordered by the law of New York State. The oapital is 25,000d01.