The record-union., 1897-09-05
His Tour Has Become a TriumphaI
Procession.
Received With the Greatest Enthusiasm by
the People.
The Failure Of Crops in Ireland
Results in a Gloomy Outlook
for the Winter--The Country on
the Verge of an Agricultural
Crisis

INC verge OF an AGRICULTURAL
Crisis.
LONDON, Sept. 4-(Copyrighted.
1897, by the Associated Press s.)-The
bad weather and cycIonic disturbances
show no signs of abating. The rainfall
for the month of August was greatly
III excess of the average, and in some
places was greater than in the case of
any August of the past twenty-eight
years.
The Duke and Duchess of York con-
tinue their triumphal visit to Ireland.
| They have spent the last two days at
Barons Court, the Duke of Abercorn's
place. Their spontaneous popularity
among the Irish is in sharp contrast
with the servile adulation of the Eng
lish. The Irish peasantry have shown
themselves especially anxious to see the
Duke and Duchess. The correspondent
of the Graphic" who his paper says
is a prominent Parnellite, who has suf-
fered for the nationalist cause, sent the
! following private telegram to the editor:
THE tour has become a triumphal pro-
| cession. At Castletown and Dunraven,
l was simply astonished. You cannot
magnify its significance"
The castle clique at Dublin is so de-
termined to make political capital out
of the visit of the Duke and Duchess
of York to Ireland that the Lord Lieu
tenant, Earl Cadogan, has been obliged
to set his foot down firmly to prevent
it from being turned into a Protestant
ascendancy demonstration. and he has
ordered expunged several instances, in
this sense, from addresses sent to their
royal highnesses by Orange societies.
The failure of the potato, corn and
hay in most of the districts in Ireland
has resulted in the gloomiest outlook for
the winter. The Chairman of the Mich
aeltOwn Board of Guardians, at a
meeting held by that body an Thursday
last, declared that Ireland is on the
verge of a great agricultural crisis, and
that numbers of rentpayers would be
compelled to go to the workhouse.
The price of bread is rising slowly in
London, and the outlook for the winter
is of the gloomiest kind. This city re-
quires 10000 quarters of foreign wheat
weekly, independent of flour, and during
August less than 80, 900 quarters arrived
per week. Not one-tenth of London's
bread is made from English flour, and
the bakers assert that with flour at the
present figure, a loaf of bread at 512d
Q1 cents will send them into bank
ruptcy
The hop crop is below the average.
The picking, which is in full swing, has
produced the usual pauper invasion of
Kent, and has been marked by greater
distress than usual. The warehouses
and police stations of that county are
filed. and there have been several
deaths from exposure in the fields and
hedges during the recent storms.
Court circles are enjoying a sixteen
page booklet, written entirely in cipher
by a minor royal parsonage, in which
amusing stories and facts connected
with the inner life of members of the
royal circle are set out in the most un-
vanished manner Most of the mat
ter in this publication concerns EN-
peror William of Germany, and the
writer asserts that 5000 people are Ian
gushing in the German state prisons
on charge of 1ese majestic. The booklet
| is in great demand. 1t is said to be
like pages from '"The Pickwick Papers"
The Pope's attending physician de-
clares that Leo XIII. will see the twen-
tieth century The announcement has
been decidedly unpleasant to the papal
imitators of changes in Rome, who are
in complete state of stagnation. One
Cardinal said this week: "If you want
to be correct in statements about the
Vatican, you must say and impress
upon the people that the present COM
plete stagnation in everything initiative
does not project any changes. No one,
however, wishes to undertake anything
now, for if DR.. Tappon is wrong in his
change may arrive at any moment and
all fear to find themselves the main
springs of some enterprise which might
be displeasing to the new Pope"
Paderewski, while on his Polish estate
near that of the De Reszkes, has cut his
hair short, and is practicing bicycle
riding.
The strike in the engineering trades
has grown more serious within the past
week 1t has now extended to the vari-
Gus trades connected with engineering.
over 5000 molders, boilermakers, fin
ishers, etc. at Newcastle Sheffield and
other centers have received notices that
their services will not be required after
this week Many of the firms affected
declare they are preparing to move their
establishments to the Continent, and
they add the question of eight hours
work per day is by no means the most
important thing involved in the dispute.
The strikers are opposed to the intro
duction of new machinery, and are try
ing artifcially to stop production.
In Connection with the engineering
strike, the employers of the federation
have issued statement regarding the
hours of work in the case of engineers
in America, based on official statistics
from the Government Labor Bureau,
showing that wages are not higher and
with fewer holidays.
Naval circles continue to make much
of the docking of the United States bat
tleship Indiana at Halifax, and it is rec
| commended that the predicament must
be taken into account in estimating her
| fighting power.
| Andrew Carnegie, the American IRON
| master, has purchased Sl1ibo Castle, an
estate which comprises 2S000 acres of
/ the best shooting and fishing district of
Sutherlandshire. Mr.. and Mrs. Andrew
Carnegie, with a party of friends, Ian
| Maclaren'' (Dr. John Watson) have
| just completed long cruise among the
Hebrides in the screw schooner yacht
! Columbia.