The Washington times., 1894-05-03
Department Notes.

The United States steamship Portsmouth has
arrived at New York and the Alert at Port Town
send.
Cn motion of Senator Faulkner the House bill
TO amend an act relating to the sale of ntoxicat-
ing LIQUORS n the District Of Columbia was yes
terday taken up and passed
The Postmaster General has ordered the dis
continuance OF all ten. orary mail service
Minnesota, North and South Dakota, established
on account Of the Great Northern strike. There
was an aggregate of fifteen or twenty Of these.
The agricultural appropriation bill reported
to the House by Chairman Hatch, Of the Com
mittee on Agriculture, appropriates S, ,lSO,G43 for
the iscai year ending June 20, 1895. Compared
with the appropriation for the department for
the present fiscal year this is u decrease of
sl42ys56.
There was another test of Wheeler shells made
by the Sterling Steel Company ct Indian Head
Tuesday. five-inch ermor piercing proIectile
wes fred through a six-incb plain steel plate
and backed without breaking or deforrninG the
shot AS a result. lot of 900 shells was
accepted
report on the valuation Of building stones
produced in the United States during 1893 has
United States Geological Survey. It shows an
aggregate valuation Of almost S2e,0000O0, de-
crease of over SIS, 600 from that Of 1892, owing
to pending government and private contracts
Assistant Astronomer, George A. Hill, OF the
Naval Observatory. Tuesday night, sighted
large bright comet inst above the southwestern
horizon. According 70 Professor HIS calcula-
tions- the come; was three million miles from
sand miles a day. The comet is believed to be
the Gale comet, discovered at Sidney, New
South Wales, a short time ego.
The President has appointed the following
board of visitors to the Military Academy ut
West Point: Rev. Alexanper Mackay Smith,
District Of Columbia: George H. Craig, Alabama;
DR.. VIM W. Keen, Pennsylvania; John D. Grim
Minis, New York: Thomas f. Edwards, Massa-
rhuSotra. .Inbu Il Davis Xast in; ~
c. Wall, Wisconsin. Appointed by the Vice
President: Hen. w. d. Bate, Tennessee; Hon.
ils Redfield Proctor Vermont Appointed BY the
Illinois; Hon Vim. Ii. Hatch, Missouri, and Hon.
Newton h. Custis, New York.
The attention Of the Interior Department has
been called to a restriction placed In the adver-
tisement for bids for supplies for the govern
ment hospital for the insane in this city during
the next fiscal year, One item calls for 30O,OCO
pounds Of fresh beef, home slaughtered This, it
Is complained. practically discriminates against
western beef, unless brought to the District of
Columbia and then slaughtered. The Depart
inent has decided that II may use fresh beef,
without respect to place where dressed, provided
where the beef is to be slaughtered or dressed is
stated in the bids
Transatlantic travellers this month may see
good deal OF fog and some iceberSa The pilot
chart, issued at the photographic office, pre-
diets Tor Mesi fair weather generally over the
North Atlantic, with occasional gales near the
Atlantic coast and along the transatlantic
steamship routes north Of the doth parallel: con-
siderable increase In fog on the Grand Banks
and westward to the American coast; icebergs
between the 10th and 50th degrees west, as far
south as 1S0 degrees north. The northeast
trades will begin to extend further north This
Indicates Ice drift far south as the latitude of
Boston, on the banks Of Newfoundland.
Superintendent Stump, Of the Immigration
Bureau in reply to . letter of inquiry from the
Commissioner Of Immigration at New York,
states that immigrants who have arrived in this
country with orders for tickets for western
points, on the defunct Scandinavian and Fin
land Immigration Company, Of New York, cam
not, In Justice to themselves and the steamship
companies, be dePorted. II is understood that
large number of immigrants have recently ar
rived In New York with orders for transportation
West. and in case they are now found to be un-
able TO provide food and shelter for themselves
Island under he suthorifv of TIE snt of nsrch
5, 1891.