Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-08-20
STORIES OF THE DAY.
Interesting Notes on nrattcrs That Are
 Talked Of In Rnrnre.

1t will doubtless ke news to many people to learn that whereas all work has been stopped for a considerable time past on the Nicaragua canal it is in full operation upon that of Panama. According to the report read at the an. nual general meeting of the new Pana, ma Canal company, just held in Paris. more than 2,000 workmen were em- ployed ill pushing forward the excaya. ton on the Emperado and the Culebra Ill the year 1895, while during the pres- ent year the force has been almost dou- hled The report states that the more tne directors advance in the accomplish ment of the task they undertook the more their confidence increases in the final result.
 Considerable excitement has been caused at Athens by the publication in the official gazette of proclamation calling out the reserves and decreeing the immediate formation of a camp of exercise and instruction. The conviction IS generally entertained that the king, who has recently returned from Vienna. would l.f have done this had he not acquired there the knowledge that grave events gre imminent in the southeast of Europe.
 A sentence of divorce has just been pronounced at Munich against the en- press Of Austria s niece, Countess George Larisch, who played so prominent and so questionable role in the scandal that culminated in the tragic death of Crown Prince Rudolph at Meyerling. The trial took place "in camera" but it is generally understood that the grounds upon which the count based his demand fer a dissolution of the mar riage rested on the behavior of the countess in connection with tho affair, which, 1t may be remembered, resulted in her punishment from Austria.
 The agitation which has recently taken place in France regarding ex- Oap- tain Dreyfus, condemned to imprison. ment for life for betrayal of military state secrets, has had the effect of caus. ing the government to institute addi- tional measures for the prevention of any escape of the captive. According to 8 circular just issued by the minister of the colonies at Paris, the governor of Guiana is ordered to change every three months the guards charged with the duty of keeping watch on Dreyfus on the He du Diable, where he is confined. 
 The report of the Russian prisons de- partment has just appeared in St. Pe- tetsburg and contains some remarkable statistics. It appears that there are gro prisons in Asiatie and European Rus sia, with the total number of 100, 913 prisoners. The maintenance of this vast army of criminals, many of whom are merely political offenders, involves an enormous cost, for which adequate pro- vision is not made by the state. The consequence is that ill the majority of cases the inmates of the prison have to endure tho worst conceivable sanitary conditions, and the official figures, which are invariably optimistic show that no less than 30 per cent of the pris on population suffer during the year from typhoid fever and kindred epidem- ics.
 A statue of the late Count Ferdinand dc Lesseps is about to be erected at Port Said, at point overlooking the harbor and the entrance to the Suez canal.
 The commercial treaty between Aus. tria and Bulgaria which was on the point of being negotiated at the time when Prinoo Ferdinand made his hum. ble submission to the czar, and which has hung fire ever since, is finally about to receive signature and ratification. Bulgaria has only obtained this by means of sacrificing number of de- mands which Austria had formerly con. sented to eoncede, but which she now refuses to grant. Inasmuch, however, az most other countries had declined to ratify their new treaties of commerce. with Bulgaria until that with Austria had been arranged, there was practical ly no other course open to Prince Ferdi- nand. The treaty with Austria provides for q general Bulgarian duty of IA per cent ad valorem, while a6 specified ar tieles are excepted. These include tim Der and agricultural machines, which pay per cent; glassware, 1S per cent. and sugar, IS per cent
 It is reported at Brussels that Baron Dhanis. in command of the Kongo Free State troops in the Nile valley, has been killed by the Mahdists to the north of Lado
 Ex-Cabinet Minister Baihaut, recent ly liberated at the conclusion of the term of imprisonment for which he was