Mesa free press. [volume] (Mesa, Ariz.) 1892-1901, 1897-11-05
WASHINGTON NOTES.

A. Benziger, a Swiss artist, will
paint portrait of Mckinley.
The excess OF expenditures over re-
ceipts in the postofice department for
the year ended June 80, 1897, was $1l,-
Ali, 779.
J. Pierpont Morgan and ex-Secretary
of the Navy Whitney have left for
Europe. Some big financial scheme is
brewing.
The secretary of the navy will ask
congress to make appropriations for the
purchase of ordnance and equipment
amounting to $8,000.000.
Tom Moore's name was omitted from
the roll of poets in the congressional
library on the ground that he said un-
plimentary things about America
1t has now been discovered that he took
them all back.
The proposed amalgamation of the
Knights of St. John and the Catholic
Knights, the two great Catholic mill
tant bodies of America, has been
abandoned, as neither body would
agree to be merged with the other and
lose it's identity.
Col. Thos. Scharf, Chinese Inspector
for the southern district in New York,
has resigned. He declares the Chinese
exclusion act farce, and says many
government employees are making $751;
600 yearly by importing Chinese.
Startling facts are expected to be dis
covered by an investigating committee.
Silver dollars are missing from the
strong box OF the treasury, and may
number many thousands. Treasurer
Roberts has employed experts to count,
piece by piece, the 100000, 900 which
ought to be in the vaults. Recently
the coin was counted by the weighing
process, but Roberts will not give re-
ceipt to his predecessor, Morgan, until
he knows the full extent of the robbery,
which he expects has been carried on
for some time.
Rumo have been rife for some time
in commercial circles that com bination
of capitalist is trying to secrue con-
trolling interest in the gas industry in
the United States. Greater interest
than usual is attached to these rumors
from the fact that the Standard Oil
company is behind the scheme. This
concern has, for many months, been
quietly purchasing coal deposits and gas
plants, and having no other worlds to
conquer in its own line, is well equipped
with millions to enter new field.
The annual report of W. S. Shallen-
berger, second assistant pastmaster-gen-
eral, made public, gives an interesting
review of the principal developments
in the entire postal transportation SER
vice of the United States and connect
ing foreign mails 1t shows an aggregate
of appropriations for this large part of
the postal service for the current year
of SOL ,O4l, 23S. The probable deficiency
is 5000, 600, making the estimated ex-
penditures this year $51, 541 23S. Tn is
will be 81 per cent more than for the
fiscal year just closed. The estimate
for the fiscal year 1898 is $53, 1897 300,
estimated expenditures.
Inc luea tnat manurlng with stable
manure will rot grapes has been dis
seminated. No doubt it increases the
propagation OF the spores, which cause
the rot, for the manure makes a great
increase in the heterogeneous plant food
which the roots furnish the vine. But
the grape rot does not originate thus.
Years ago it was applied freely and
without any danger OF injury. Now,
however, the spores of grape rot have
been so generally spread in all vineyards
that it is unsafe to use stable mamma :