Middletown transcript., 1899-03-25
CURRENT EVENTS.

CURRENT EVENTS.
The United States Consul at Tuxpan.
Mexico, says that fortunes are to be made
in the cultivation of the vanilla bean in
Mexico
The output of gold in the United States
in 1898 was more than twice that of 1890.
and the productions of gold in the world
in 1897 at the lowest estimate. was much
more than twice the estimated production
Of 1890.
Rudolph Falb, the Austrian astronomer,
names November IA, 1899. as the date on
which the world will come to an end by
violent contact with -Biela's comet. the
same body which. according to prediction,
was to have annihilated us in 1882.
The Legislature of California after ballot.
ing 104 times adjourned on Saturday with
out electing U. 8. Senator. Utah and Del
aware did the same thing. and it now looks
as If Pennsylvania would be the 4th State
with only one Senator in the next Congress.
Utah's legislature is Democratic, the others
are Republican.
Norway recently enacted law forbidding
the sale of tobacco to youths under 16 years
without signed orders from adults, The
police are empowered to confseate the
pipes, cigars and cigarettes of youths who
smoke in public streets, fine for the of
Tense being likewise imposed, which may
be anywhere from so cents to s25.
Mrs. Martha Place, who murdered her
step-child in Brooklyn, New York, and at.
tempted to kill her husband, died in the
electric chair at Sing Sing last Monday.
Strenuous efforts were made to induce
Governor Roosevelt to commute the sem
tence, but his excellency refused on the
ground that the law knows no sex. She
was the first woman to be legally executed
by means of electricity in the history of the
country.
The burning ofthe Windsor hotel in New
York on Friday, being licked up by the
fame as though it had been hnder box,
naturally produced horror everywhere as
to the safety of hotels. There were over
300 guests in the house, and notwithstandr
ing the fire wasin the afternoon at o'clock,
at least Is persons lost their lives
and 40 or so were injured. It is believed. to
have been the work ofthieves who intend
ed to plumber while the flame existed, but
who did uot expect the hotel to burn down.
Its tendency will be to require that city ho-
tells shall be fire proof.
The death of Benjamin P. Hutchinson at
Chicago, who was familiarly known as
"Old Hutch, removes strange character
from America Hutchinson never appears
to have gained the respect of any one, the
whole theory of his life being ignoble. He
was passionately enamored of the almighty
dollar, and he was never troubled with any
scruples in his manner of pursuing it. That
he possessed business abilities of high.
order is undoubted, but those abilities were
never applied to- noble or worthy ends.
Money was his god, and profit, no matter
how acquired, the scheme of his existence.
As is always the case of such men, when
old age and poverty overlook him he found
himself without friends or sympathy. He
died in poverty.
On the whole the greatest of the curiosities
which saw in the East,s Bishop Foss, is
the working elephant Of Burmah. Every
visitor to Ragoon is told that the two great
sights there are the world-renowned pagoda
and the working elephants. These huge
beasts are employed chiefly in getting
lumber out of the forests and in about the
saWmills. We saw them pull long slabs,
two or three at time, out from the floors
where the saw had dropped them, drag
them long distances and put them into
piles, But by far the most interesting part
Of their work was the piling up of great
timbers sawed square, from, 16 to %
inches on side, and 35 feet long, weighing
two or three tons each. Two elephants
generally worked at one timber, and they
put them into large pile, which, when
completed, was IL feet high.
A. B. Peters, of Cando. Nd, was in ST.
Paul recently en- route to the East says The
Pioneer Press, where he will gather col
ony of between 1000 and 5000 Immigrants,
who viii congregate at Chicago
and leave for their new homes
in North Dakota on March %. This colony
will be the largest that has yet been brought
to the Northwest, and will require four full
trains to transport them, in addition to
perhaps hundred cars to move their eff.
fects. These people are largely composed
Of Dunkards, although there IS q large
sprinkling of other denominations among
them. They come from Virginia, Maryland
Pennsylvania, Ohio. Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan and Wisconsin, and will be locat-
ed along the Great Northern in the Mouse
River Valley, scattering out in the vicinity
Of eando, Rollo, Tower and Willow City,
west of Devils Lake.