The evening times., 1899-01-05
The Dark Side of 1898.

The bright side of the year just closed
has been dwelt on first and at length
America having uncommon reason for re-
joicing over its achievements. Besides the
incalcuable benefits TO humanity and to
ourselves growing out of the overthrow of
Spanish authority in this hemisphere, the
prosperity of the country. largely due TO
our progress in foreign markets, will COM
pare favorabiy with any year in our his
tory. But the year brought its causes of
sadness in the way of deaths, accidents
fires business disasters and crimes, that
are less pleasant to consider. 1t was partic-
ularly noteworthy for the death of the two
oldest and most conspicuous statesmen and
diplomats of Europe. Gladstone and Bis
marck. who had done their work in the
world and were ready TO go In our own
country Thomas T. Bayard was the most
conspicuous of the public men TO die.
Among those prominent in official life to
be included in the roll were Judge Cooley,
the jurst and member of the Interstate
Commerce Commission; ex-senator Brice.
Senator WaIthall, Senator Morrill,, Com
missioner Butterworth, Robert II. McLane
and William II. Trescot. Other persons of
prominence in this country to die We're
Senior Romero. the Mexican ambassador;
Miss Frances Willard. the head Of the ".
c. T L: General Garcia, the Cuban pa
tr-ot. and Gen. Don Carlos Buell., VINO was
at one time expected to be the great com
mander in the Civil War.
The army retired list was reduced by a
great many deaths. Among the regular
army generals 10 so were Generals Anger,
Sweitzsr. Mason. Love. Benton, Miner.
Roberts and West. In the navy death re-
moved Rear Admirals Braine. kirkland and
Ammcn. the latter retired and Admiral
Febiger. retired.
journalism suffered the loss of William
H. Singerly of Philadelphia; Moses p.
Handy. commissioner TO the Paris EXposi-
ton. and Richard Smith. the oldest of Gin
cinnati newspaper men.
That the army OF writer's has grown to
vast proportions in recent years is shown
by The death Of more than a hundred pro-
fessional authors last year. This death
roll includes Georg Ebers, William Black.
Harold Frederic, Mrs Lynn Linton. Mary
Cowden Clark. Edward Bellamy. H. c.
Dodgscn or Lewis Carroll" George Par
sons Lathrop and Richard Malcolm john
ston.
The stage lest its Oldest actor, C. W.
Couldcck. Fanny Davenport. Thomas W.
Keene. Margaret Mather and several
others. The music world surrendered,
among many others. Anton Seidl,
the popular director; Max AIvary, at one
time the idol of the music lovers of
New York; Edouard Remenyi, the violin
isi. and S b. Mills. the composer. The
art circles miss two eccentrics, Arthur
! Beardsley. the inventor of the poster fad,
and Burne-Jones. and decorative paint
er 10 whom popularity came late-Pierre
Puvis de Chavannes. Among the inven-
tors who have benefited the world was Sir
Henry Bessemer. who died during the
year. Two men Of science in England.
Sir Lyon Playfair and Sir William Jenner,
also passed away in 1898
Because we forget easily. each year
seems 10 have an unprecedented number
/ OF casualties. In recounting the disas'
trcus storms Of last year it is hard TO
/ think that they were not exceptional in
number and violence. There were more
! than seven thousand deaths due to acci-
/ dent. including fires. in this country, as
! follows:
/ Drowning ........3.1l0 Storms ............ .57
Fires Other accidents. SOS
! The deaths from famine and the plague
| in all the world are estimated at twenty
/ five thousand. or only one-tenth of the
number CT the year before, when the
| plague was at its worst in India. For
| the entire world, judging from the reports
! in the newspaper columns, there were less
than a hundred and thirty thousand
I deaths as casualties from all causes, or
! less than half the number stated for the
preceding year. OF deaths from war the
total is estimated at about siXty-five thou
sand one third Of which were the work
| of the British and Egyptian troops in the
! Soudan. About seven thousand are charged
| TO the Spanish war but this is probably be-
! low the fact. More than twenty thousand
| lives were lost in the Chinese strife. Of
/ course not all suicides are reported in
the newspapers. The telegraph and other