Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-02-26
FROM WASHINGTON.
Correspondence Of the Alexandria Gazette
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26.

0ntlClpaClOu Is llaG Simlidi HoeiuCo-
ton has been cabled to Acting Captain
General Ahumeda at Havana and that
Sauguilly will leave Havana for the
United States on the steamer which
leaves Havana tomorrow, having first
given his parole to participate no fur
Their in the Cuban Instruction.
The Perrine grant involving $4,000
acres of land in Florida, which has
been under investigation for the past
week by the Senate committee on pub.
lie lands, is found by this committee to
be regular in every respect. None OF
the charges made by those attacking
the grant are sustained. The commit
tee report that the testimony shows
that the grant was issued in the regu-
lar course of business in accordance
with the laws and that the evidence
upon which the patents issued had not
the faintest suspicion of fraud attached
to it. The evidence further showed
that the Perrine heirs had expended
something like $40 900 in improvements
upon the property in order to protect
their grant and that at fair valuation
the whole property was, possibly, worth
no more than that sum. The attack
against the validity OF the grant came
from people who had entered into con-
tracts with the heirs, and who, the COM
mittee say, pursued this policy in or
der to force better bargain with the
owners of the land.
Senator Hoar to-day offered a reso
luton to pay Henry A. Dupont 81, 500
70 reimburse him for expenses incurred
in prosecuting his claim to a seat in the
Senate from the State of Delaware.
A bill was offered to-day by Senator
Gear to pay to the Columbia Iron
Works and Dry Dock Company OF
Baltimore, $215,90G for damages sus-
tanned and extra work done by change
of plans in the cruisers Detroit and
Montgomery built by them.
The House committee on judiciary
to-day favorably reported bill which
makes it misdemeanor for any person
to transmit by any telegraph or tele-
phone company any despatch from one
State or Territory into another State or
Territory relating to lotteries, pcol-sel-
ling, bookmaking or gambling.
Official cablegrams from Madrid, re-
ceived at the Spanish legation, regard
Jog the death of Ruiz, show that the
government is aroused to most ener
getic action, and that orders have gone
forward to Cuba to have most thor
ough investigation into the affair. This
is regardless of the question of Ruizs
nationality, for whether he is an Ameri
40, ~ not tba novarpmapt hos datar
mined that if crime has been commit
ted those guilty shall be punished. In
the meantime no efforts are being
spared to determine whether Ruiz was
an American citizen or not, and under
both the State Department and the
legation authorities the records are
being searched. So far it can only be
found that Ruiz, then dental student,
took out his first papers declaring in
tention 10 Philadelphia December 10,
1877. This was near the close of the
last revolution. He soon graduated as
dentist and returned to Guanabacoa
in 1880 where he practiced ever since.
1t cannot be learned that he ever re
turned to the United States, nor does it
appear that he lived here long enough
to acquire naturalization. However,
the Madrid government will push the
investigation of his death just as forci-
bly, as possible, and if General Lees
charges are correct, that the doctor
was killed or driven to suicide by his
jailers, the severest punishment of mill
tary law will be executed on those re-
sponsible.
Though the House has passed the
bill to authorize the national banks to
take out circulation equal to the par
value of the bonds they deposit in
the Treasury, members of the Senate
finance committee seem to think there
is little or no chance of its passing that
body at this session.
The House com mittee on the election
of President and Vice. President, to
whom was referred the famous protest
of Representative Murray, the negro
congressman from South Carolina,
against counting the Presidential cleo
toral vote of that State, for the alleged
reason that the government there has
not republican form, have decided
that the only way by which Congress
can act in the matter is in cases of con
tested congressional elections, as under
the Constitution the States make their
own election laws.
The election of Mrs. A. D. Brockett
of Alexandria as vice president general
of the Daughters of the American Rev
olution, by the general convention of
that organization, now in session at
this city, was received with loud APP
plause.
The last meeting but one of the
Cleveland Cabinet was held to-day. 1t
is said that personal affairs incident to
the close of the administration formed
m9ch of the subject matter discussed.
At any rate the President asked Secre-
tary Herbert about the portrait Charles
Aver Whipple has just finished for the
Secretary, which is to be placed in the
Navy Department, and the Secretary
sent word to the department to have
it sent over to the White House. Four
men bore the big canvas, surrounded
by a heavy frame, into the Cabinet
room where it was inspected and com.
mented on by the official associates Of
the subject. The President is endeav.
oring to decide ON an artist to paint his
portrait for the White Hovse collection
and is examining the work of a mum
Der of artists.
If the reform bureau, of which the
Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts of this city, is