The record-union., 1899-01-01
Bubonic Plague Casts a Shadow
Over Holiday Festivities.
A Case Brought on a Steamer Arriving at
Plymouth From India.
The Imperial Penny Postage In
augurated-The Powers Adding
to Their Armament, Despite the
Cars Proposal for a Disarma-
ment Congress.

ment Congress.
| LONDON, Dec 31-Londoners are
barely recovering from the Christmas
| festivities which have been made to
last as long as possible, many business
houses closing from Friday, December
23d, until Wednesday last.
| The discordant note of the festive
season was struck in the announce
ment that the bubonic plague had ar
rived in England through a passenger
landed at Plymouth from the mail
steamer Golconda, the case having de-
veloped on her homeward voyage from
India, and by the arrival i'm the Thames
of another suspicious case landed at
Gravesend. This startling news caused
a stir. But the Lancet now announces
that the man landed at Plymouth was
only suffering from mild type of the
disease, while the suspicious case at
Gravesend proves to have been sick
ness due to some other cause than the
plague. Both patients, however, have
been isolated and the Golconda has
been disinfected. The rats on board the
steamer, which are accused of spread
ing the plague in India, have been ut
terly exterminated by burning
/ Christmas day saw the Inauguration
of the imperial penny postage. About
SO, 700 letters benefited by it during the
first three days. The majority was
composed Of letters destined for Cam
ada Over 5000 letters paid the old
rates, through the senders' ignorance
The Cars disarmament scheme re-
ceives almost daily hit below the
belt' in the shape of announcements
of the extension of the military and
naval forces of the various powers in
one form or other. After the news that
the German field artillery would be
| definitely armed with the new quick
! firers by the beginning of the new year
comes the announcement that the
French field artillery, before spring,
will be fully armed with the new IS
| German arm.
| Serious attention is being given in
Great Britain to these important
changes, which one authority describes
as being ''the most portentious military
advance in armament since the intro
duction of magazine rifles, or, perhaps,
since the Germans used the breech-
loading needle gun in the Austrian war
of 1866"
| Experts estimate that batteries of the
new guns will be at least three times
| as powerful as the present batteries.
Each new French battery costs $50 CO.,
| The rearming thus costs France S2S,-
| 100000 in guns alone, while the i'm
proved gun will also necessitate the
reorganization OF the ammunition
! transport which will bring the total
expenditures up to nearly $50 600, 900.
British artillerists point out that going
against these new guns the British ar
| tillery would be swept Off the field, and
| they urge that the British field gun be
| brought to the level Of the foreign arm
| Great Britain must thus be prepared
for an early expenditure of So, 500, 900.
| France will have nine Warships build
| ing in 1899.
Interesting details have been pub
lished regarding the French submarine
boat, Gustave Zede, which, it is claim
ed, has just had some successful tests
at Toulon. She is said to have torpe-
decd the French ironclad Magenta
twice, once when the latter was an
chored and the second time when she
was moving. The only drawback, it is
pointed out, is that the eddy caused by
the bbat, betrayed her movements at
1900 yards in broad daylight. The prin-
ciple of the invention is that the boat
is no longer blind, two lieutenants Eav-
| ing invented an eye which facilitates
submarine progress. Another French
submarine boat, the Gymnote, is now
al med with torpedoes, and third, to
be named the Morse, will be ready in
March.
| The Government inquiry into the
causes of the terrible mortality among
railroad men, which during the past ten
years reached 4,746 persons killed,
while 30,211 were injured, shows the
accidents to have occurred chiefly
among those men employed in making
up trains. In consequence of this show
! ing the Board of Trade sent an expert
to study the systems in use in Amer
lea. This expert has just returned here
and brought with him specimens of
| the American automatic couplings
which, he reports, have reduced the
number of accidents in America so per
cent 1t is understood that the Presi-
dent of the Board of Trade, Charles T.
R.tchie, will introduce bill to make
automatic couplings compulsory in
Great Britain. Considerable opposition
is developing against the bill, as the
change will cost 35,O0OOOO.
A singular occurrence is reported
from the Semmering Mountains, near
! Vienna. Two youths and q young
woman assembled the Rax on Monday,
and when they reached a hight of
! 1900 feet the woman was taken ill.
She was carried to shelter house,
where she gave birth to a son. Her
two companions made a fire and
wrapped her in all their spare clothing.
the cold being intense. Then one of
the young men descended the mountain
and fetched a doctor, who at first de-
clined to go, thinking the whole affair
was hoax. The woman, however,
cannot be removed for some time, as a
serious snowfall will compel her to re-
main in the shelter house with her new
born baby for a long time.
The news of uprisings in the Congo
Free State and of massacres of Congo
forces has again brought into promi-
hence the Ubiquitous system of the rub
Der trade, to which three-fourths of
the native uprisings can be traced.
The bright, cold weather of Christ
mastide has given the Pope's health a
decided change for the better. He now