Connecticut western news., 1884-04-09
NEWS OF THE DAY
GENERAL ITEMS.


 The forest fires of North Carolina have spread into South Carolina. A dozen turpentine distilleries were ruined and great areas of country are blackened The number of homeless is very great.
 The responsibility for the disaster in the Poeahontas mine, Virginia, IS placed by the miners upon the manage ment. They demand that the authorities take cognizance of their charge of crim- inal neglect.
 The experiment of widening Gen. Buffers Dutch Gap Canal, in Virginia, by means of the hydraulic process, has been pronounced a success by the en- gineers in charge of the work.
 The cotton mill owners of the South, in convention at Augusta, Ga, repre- sented 383, ,570 spindles, 8,305 looms and BIO, LOCO, GOO capital, showing the growth # that industry since 1865.
 The steamer Rebecca Everingham, of the Central line, plying between Columbus, Ga, and Apalachicola, Fla, on the Chattahoochee River, was burned to the waters edge at Fritzgerald's Landing, four miles above Florence, Ga, at four o'clock Thursday morning. Besides thirty passengers and crew of eleven men, the steamer carried 300 bales of cotton and 'miscel- lancous cargo of freight. The fire spread so rapidly that many of the passengers, awakened from sleep, jumped over board to escape the flames. Ten persons are known to be lost, and @ number of others are missing. The passengers who reached shore were al- most nude, but were provided with what clothing the needy people of Fitz- gerald Landing could furnish them. The steamer was built about two years ago and was the newest and handsomest craft on the Chattahoochee river.
 Bishop Ryan, of St. Louis, it is reported, has been appointed Arch bishop of Philadelphia.
 A dispatch from Lexington, Ga, 'ays that five prisoners escaped from the iail. When the jailer went to give them breakfast one of them knocked him down with chair and all five regained their liberty.
 It is proposed in Canada to notify farmers of weather forecasts by means of discs on all railroad stations and locomo- tive engines.
 Il. A. Philips, one of the Berner jurymen, was caught in St. Louis by a reporter, and confessed that the verdict rendered in the notorious murder trial was reached by compromise.
 The N. '. Assembly passed the Howe Prison Labor Commission bill, the commission to report next year.
 MT. Daly's bill providing that elec- iric wires in New York and Brooklyn shall be placed underground was passed by the N. Y. State Senate.
 A bill providing additional water supply for Brooklyn was passed by the N. Y. Assembly.
 The Connecticut House of Repre- ,entatives passed the constitutional amendment providing for biennial ses- ,ions of the Legislature.
 The Typographical Union of To- ronto has petitioned Parliament to enact law restricting Chinese immigra- lion into Canada.
 Information received at the head quarters of the army tends to strengthen the belief that little Charley McComas was killed by his captors, the Apaohes.
 Henry Shelly, for marrying Ids Morrill, at Zanestown, Pa., was so badly beaten by her two brothers that he re- taliated with revolver and killed them both. He was twice wounded by their return shots during the flu sillade.
 The editor of the Mangano, N. M., GTir1go and Greaser was assassinated in his office by unknown parties.
 By decision of the courts, declar- ing the last license ordinance valid, Chi cago loses $1, ,000, 900 in license fees.
 There was formal exchange of the treaties between Peru and Chili, Satur. day.
 Extraordinary stories of the pro- mines in Idaho reach us. Miners are taking out large quantities even with heavy snow on the ground. Thousands of people are going into the regions and many disturbances take place.
 The dynamite works of the Repaunc Chemical Company at Thompson Point, opposite Chester, Pa., blew up Saturday morning, killing six men. The noise oi the explosion shook the houses for miles around, and it took only short while to draw to the place thousands of people, out their presence was of no avail, for fl seemed as if the buildings disappeared in one sheet of flame.
 A violent gale coming from the lake region reached the Atlantic coast on Saturday night. There were wrecks on thn leland gI, were sunk in the Hudson, between Hay erstraw and Sing Sing and two men were lost. Wreeks, without loss of life, are also reported from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
 In the New Jersey House of As. sembly a joint resolution proposing al amendment to the constitution in favol of woman suffrage was defeated.
 WASHINGTON NOTES.
 A statement prepared in the General LanC Office shows that the number of acres of pubi land patented to settlers under the Homestead laws during the six months ended December 31 1883, exceeded by PCT, ,227 acres the number O acres patented during the corresponding period in 1882. The receipts from cash sales during the same period exceeded those of 1882 bI $1. .438,214.
 The Senate Post Office Committee voted to re port favorably the bill to provide for posta telegraph system and the House committe, agreed to report unfavorably on the same mat ter
 In letter to the President, Secretary Folgel explains the evil effect of the repeal of tht moiety law in rendering it impossible to con vict and punish those guilty of the undervalua ton of imported merchandise.
 Ex-Governor Hendricks, of Indiana, being interviewed in Paris, said he did not believe that any organized effort existed to establish vigilance committees in American cities.
 The public debt statement for the month o March shows a reduction of the q, bt for tha
 eriod of S14, ,250,0OO, making for three-quar ters of the year jast closed a total reduction O S82, 100000 This is an average monthly re duction for the current year of over S9, 000,00O while the monthly average for. last year wa over 512,000,000.