AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1866, 26 August 1887, Page 15

AMERICA.

The Pope refuses to interfere in any way with the American 6'rder of Knights of Labour*-an order, it may be Admitted, that is showing a remarkably rapid decrease in membership. German citizens arc wroth about the Sunday blue laws of New York, which for&id trading in drinking beer on the first day of the .week. They propose to cast their votes for the Kep'ablicau party instead of the Democratic. A twelve-year-old coloured child was sentenced to be hanged in Chrftteston for^ poisoning a white baby she was tired of attending/ The town of Hanford, in Touiu' eoonty, California, was partially destroyed by fire oft i?uly 13. The loss is about £160,000. H. P. Gregory and Co., of San Francisco, have issued circulars to the mercantile community of that city calling attention to the Centennial Exhibition to bo held in Melbourne in August 1888. The forwarding of exhibits is urged, as American manufacturers will thus be enabled to introduce their goods into the Australian colonies; Returns show this year's vintage in California to be oniy two-thirds of that in 1886. j The Pacific Maft Steamship Company threaten) to build their new steamships abroad and sail under the English flag unless the United States Government increases the pay for KJail transportation . fiuilt at Chester, Pennsylvania,' each steamer will tost 1,000,000d01, and on the Clyde 750,000d01. An association is abortS to' be formed iv Sullivan county, New York, to tfe known as the Emure Sheep and Land Company of North America. Tho object is to clear up timber lands iv several New York' counties and seed them down in permanent grasses in order to breed sheep superior in Quality for both wool and mutton. Sergeant Super, of Troop A, Second United States Cavalry, in garrison at San FrSnSisco, Presido, was shot and instantly killed, by Trooper Bateman on July 25. Bateman fancied Super had wronged him in exercise authority. On the same evening, two brothers named Kelly were shot down by Roundsman Thomas Glen in the Chinese quarter of the city. The trouble grew out of disputed rights to a watchman's beat.

The celebration of the 4th of July in San Francisco was the most perfect thing of the kind seen in the city for 10 years. Among the incidents of the anniversary on the coast was the igniting of 1001b of red fire on top of Mount Hood, the highest peak in Oregon. The Earl of Aberdeen was feasted by 200 Irish- Americans and other citissens on July 7, at St. Paul, Minnesota. He evaded -with great tast all efforts to draw him out on the Irish question. The counsel of Hugh M. Brooks alias Maxwell, sentenced at St. Louis, to be hanged on August 26 for the murder of O. A. Preller, have refused to carry his case to the higher court, and he will therefore be hanged at the time stated.

Matthew Gurnee, a wealthy manufacturer at Haverstraw, New York, died on June 18 in terrible agony from hydrophobia, caused by the bite of a pet terrier. Oscar J. Harvey, treasury chief of division, Washington, was arrested on July 9 for a series of brilliant and audacious forgeries. The investigation following the arrest showed that t,ho auditing officers had not the slightest idea of how the disbursing officials of the Government stand to-day were it not lor a single disbursing clerk, upon whom there is no check placed by auy of the present systems of doing business. Among the arrivals at San Francisco by the Mariposa, from Australia on July 9, were Sir John Thurston, Lieutenant-governor of Fiji and Assistant High Commissioner of the Pacific, who, it is reported, will proceed to Washington to interview British. Ministers on matters connected with the Hawaiian trouble. P. Comisky, a New Zealand capitalist, interested in the frozen meat industry, and A. G. Horton, of the New Zealand Herald, Auckland, also arrived. The gentlemen last named have left for London, via New York.

The proposition to make San Diego, in South California, the port of call for Australian mail steamers is being favourably entertained by J. D. Spreckles and Co., contractors and owners of the line. Spreckles and party visited San Diego recently in relation to the matter. W. H. W. Markham, assistant paymaster of the navy, was^'.arrested in Kansas city on July 14, charged with forging the name of his superior officer for amounts aggregating about £3000. The crime was committed over a year ago, when his ship was cruising off the coast of China. He left the vessel ostensibly for Yukatan, and all clue to bira had been lot>t before his misdeeds had come to light. The case was formally handed over to the Scotland Yard detectives, who have been seeking .him exer since. Markham went to Shanghai, where he left the service and spent' the money liberally with a San Francisco adventuress named Gussie Bland, travelling as Mrs and Dr Forest. When he found out incidentally that search was being made for hi"i he fled to California. He was eveutually brought up in Kansas, where he was arrested, and where, under the assumed name of Graylor, he was acting as agent for a well-known insurance company. His Delilah returned to California from China on the 6teamer following the one in which he took passage, and it was through her the detectives found their man.

Frank Taite, one of the oldest pioneers in California, died on July 15, aged 69. At one time he was rich in landed property, and owned most of what is known now as Nob Hill. He died in the City and County Almshouse. A railroad accident occurred on July 28 on the Atlantic and Pacific line, near a .place called the Medles, in New Mexico. The engine of a freight train plunged full-speed into a dry creek, and fireman Sparks was killed and his body burned in the blazing train. Gibson, the brakesman, was also fatally injured, The loss to tfee company

was abotft OO,OOOdoI. An engineer, a, fireman, and a brakesman were Mlled the same day in a collision on the Missouri railroady where. thes orders werft mistake».B"

Barri's Hirsch, familiarly called Rabb? Hirsch,, a Polish Jew, died in New If ork, July 28, art theadvanced age of 109 years. He was' born near Warsaw, and trith eight of his brothers servetß under Napoleon through the conscription. Just as the steamship Alameda was about to> leave San Francisco for New Zealand and Sydney t OD July 1, she was by a woman known as Mrs Mary Hammersmith, and mor recently as Miss Mary Van, whe after a few words with George Vestley Bishop, a» intending passenger^ shot him so that he died "next day. The affair took place in tho after pait of the flSfift/age. Bishop was an elderly person, and said in be a druggist and chemist by profession, doing btfujness in Canterbury, or Christchurcb, and born an .American. He arrived here on the* 20th of last Matth, and during his stay in the city became acquainted with Mrs Van through the medium of a shee* called the Matrimonial Gazette.

R. P. Clement, president of the Citizens-" Savings Bank, Leavenworth. Kansas, has defaulted to the tune of 5000dol, and Jevanted oa July 27. Two railway accidents occurred otf July 27. A construction train ran into another on the> Chicago and Alton railway, killing i»any Tabourers. A misplaced switch on the Baltimore line at York, Indiana, caused the death of tlito engineer and fireman of the express and mortally wounded tire engineer of a freight trtfia.

Jacob Sharpe, a millionaire, belonging to what is known in New York as the Brooklyn Gang, whose alleged business it is" to pass private thieving bills, has had a searching trial and has been convicted. He was sentenced on July 14th to p#7 a fine of 5000dol and to be imprisoned forfour yea*s at hard labour. The culprit is nearly 70 years o^age. New York jomrnals express great satisfaction with the result of the trial. A movement is on foot in Boston by th& various English and Scottish associations to naturalise their members and all British subjec'So residing in the city who may be eligible for Americas citizenship. Those interested in tho movement s"ajr the proposed action 38 necessary for their own ptfoieetion, and f urtheruiore, it is a. duty too long negleotsd. It is calculated by careful estimate that thefo are at least 27,000 unnaturalised British-born'nien in Massachusetts. This is one of the outgrowths of the recent demonstration by Irish Americans against the nse of Fnnuel Hall for the Queen's jubilee. A man named Lee Sheelenherquery who murdered his little daughter in Nebraska city, washanged by lynch Jaw on July 24. The n:an wae strung up while a curse was on his lips, .'Uid a threat to the crowd, " I'll haunt you if I ca.n." The lynchers were mostly German farmers living in the vicinity of the murderer's home. James Bnssell Eads, a young man of fine acquirements but unfortunate associations m San Francisco, committed suicide there on July 12. He is said to have been well connected in Adelsiiiej' South Australia, from which place he came some litae ago to California. A tragedy occurred on the Erie railway track on July 21, ahtffli 33 miles north of Jersey city, when a belated Chicago express suddenly rushed around a curve without warning on a gang of railroad labourers, killing 12 or 15 at once and wounding many others. The scene of slaughter is described as horribly sickening. The order oj? United American Mechanics have petitioned Congress to restrict foreign immigration, and that a, per capita tax be imposed. John Taylor, who succeeded Brigham Young as president of the Mormon Church, died at 8 o'clock p.m. on July 25 in Utah. The exact place is not given, as he was hiding from the law on account of polygamous practices.. Taylor was in his 79th year, and joined the Mormon Church in 1839. He was made one of the Twelve in 1848, and was a missionary for 20 years. He afterwards edited various chursh papers and publications. When BrighamT Young died in 1880, Taylor, who was then president of the Twelve, became president of the church. He embraced polygamy among the first, but denied its practice after continuing in it for years, and was indicted for the offence early in 1&8#. He went into hiding in February of that year, and has not shown up since. Taylor was an Englishman. G. M'Connor, a Mormon magnate, charges the president's blood on the " persecutors " who have " hounded him to his death."

Sir John Thurston, Governor of Fiji, whose "supposed" mission to the United States Government has been so freely commented on by the American papors, was in Washington on July 26. The State department officials say they have no knowledge of the diplomatic purpose which tho Governor has to accomplish by being here, and therefore are compelled to credit his own statement that he has come fl imply on his way to Europe to see the country and for pleasure. From the United States an expedition" te» witness the coming solar eclipse will be despatched to Japan in charge of Professor Davis H. Todd, and another under direction of Charles A. Young, astronomer of Princeton, N.J., who will co-operate with Dr Otto yon Strewe, director of the Imperial Observatory at Pulkawa. In the vicinity of Moscow, Joseph Kennedy, one of the oldest residents of Washington, was deliberately butchered by a man named Daly on July 30. Daly accused him of having wronged his father.

The celebration of the anniversary of the Fall of the Bastille on July 14 by the French colony in San Francisco was a brilliant affair.

A small riot grew out of the celebration of the Orange anniversary on July 12 at Paterson, New Jersey. Several celebrants were knocked down by brickbats, and one had his face pounded out of shape by some stout Catholic women. In Toronto, Canada, the demonstration was a great success. There were 53 lodges and between 3000 and 4000 in the procession. The admission of Utah into the Union is steadily opposed by the influential portion of the press until the Mormon Church formally renounces the doctriucof polygamy. Once in tho Union, Utah as a state could re-establish polygamy and defy the power of Congress and the nation.

Oscar M. Kilton, living at Polk county, Oregon, was lynched on July 7 for the murder of his wife.

The question of dividing California into, two states is being strongly agitated by the Southern counties. The headquarters of the movement are at Los Angeles. It is bitterly opposed by the Northern section. The barque Lizzie Iredale, out about 150 days at date from Newcastle, N.S.W., for San Diego, has been given up for lost. It appears now the late Samuel J. Tilden, who contested the presidency of the United States with Rutherford B. Hayes, had large investments in English consols. The property is valued at from 600,000 to 80,000dol.

The manner in which Mrs Langtry (the English actress) made her declaration during the late visit to San Francisco to become a citizen of the United States has been declared irregular by the court, and the proceedings are annulled. She will have to commence de now.

At an exhibition at Sello Bros.' circus at Davenport, lowa, on July 20, and daring % ; .

*" Wild West " act, the cowboys pursuing Indians were drunk, and fired the ammunition from their pistols right and left. Four of the spectators were wounded, two mortally, and one of the circus Indians was killed. One hundred and twenty-five horses belonging to the Third avenue New York Railroad Company were poisoned fon July 20 by the malicious introduction of cyanide of potassium into their feed. A fire broke out at the Standard Oilworks »ear Jersey cm July 19, which involved a loss of 100,000dol to 500,000d01. Two large waref™ 68 ) three tanks, four big docks, and over 10,00,0 barrels of oil were destroyed. -Jennie Collins, the famous founder of the Charitable Institution of working girls in Boston, Massachusetts, died in that city on July 21. The bad feeling engendered between President Cleveland and the Grand Army of the Republic organisation by his willingness to returnjthe Confederate battle flags to the respective Southern States has assumed such a shape that he has withdrawn his pledge to attend the army's encampment at St. Louis. The matter is likely to lead to disorganisation, as the Democrats included in it take sides with the President.