The Van Buren press., 1900-01-06
NEWS IN BRIEF.
Compiled from Various Sources.
PERSONAL AND GENERAL.

berley on December 27, developed the
fact that the besiegers' guns remain IL
advantageous coigns and that the in
vesting force has not diminished In
strength or mobility. The reconnot-
ering force was compelled to retire.
A dispatch from Rensburg, Cape Col
ony, on the 1st, stated that Gen. French
had routed large force of Beers with
great loss to the latter and few casual
ties on the part of the British, and had
occupied Colesberg, entirely around
which the Beers position had extend
ed for six miles.
The Transvaal government, accord
ing to information supplied by Boer
sympathizers in London, threatens to
'reduce the ration of British prisoners
il Great Britain stops the entry of food
by Delagoa Bay"
Hon. Ferd w. Peck, commissioner
general of the United States to the
Paris exposition of 1900, has name
Sousas band us the official America,
band to play at the exposition. The
engagement will cover eight to ten
weeks.
Mary Reck, AZ years old, was found
by one of her four children dead in
her rocking chair at her home in FL
lcnwood, Kas. her throat cut and her
forehead bruised. One of the children
said he heard his mother say during
the night that she had killed some one
and would kill herself
w. j. Milsap, prominent stockmap
was seized by two men when about to
enter the Klein hotel at Walsenburg,
Col. and robbed Of $4,000. No trace
of the criminals has been found. Mr..
Mlsap was on his way to Mexico TO
buy cattle.
Snlen, Mason, colored, who was born
near Richmond, Va, 106 years ago, and
was the oldest man in Tennessee, died
nt Nashville on the 2sth. lie was
purchased with other slaves for
the corporation of Nashville in 1924.
lie spent 10 years of his life as an EN-.
ploye of the city.
Ilt lOlul tultll VI NtulS w
sealing vessels during the past season
was 35,3l4 compared with n total for
the preceding year Of 2S,552.
Maj. Hammer, chief paymaster Of the
department of the Missouri received
teegraphic orders from Washington,
on the Goth, to proceed 20 Manila for
duty. He expects to sail from Seattle,
Wash, January s. The major only
lacks two years of the retiring age,
and the order, for this reason, came as
surprise, as heretofore officers Of
that age have not generally been or
dered to the Philippines.
Corporal Fair and Private Jockens,
of the regular army, who shot and
killed Private Morgan, deserter, were
arraigned at Papillion, Neb., on the
Goth, ON the charge of murder, before
Judge Edgar Howard. The defendants
plead not guilty, and the preliminary
examination was set for the 2d.
Smallpox has broken out among the
Indians on the south half of the Col
vile reservation in Washington.
A mannfacturer of cartridge belts in
Worcester, Mass, received an order
from the British government, on the
Goth, for $4,000 double bandelier cart
ridge belts. The order was rush one,
and the belts will be shipped to South
Africa in lots of several thousand each
ns soon its manufactured.
A Berlin dispatch says that Kaiser
Wilhelm enacted the role of "Sonta
Claus incogni,o on Christmas eve, taxi
ing II long walk In Sansouci Park and
rotsdnm city, presenting every child
or poor person whom nc met with u
shining silver or gold piece, according
to their apparent needs.
One man wus killed and ia persons
injured by the Cheyenne flyer running
into n freight train on the Union Pa-
ci6c, at Brighton, Col, on the Goth,
The conductor OF the flyer was crazed
blythe accident.
A Cape Town dispatch says, "No
Christmas gift could have been more
welcome TO Tommy Atkins than the
news Of the coming Of "Bobs," while
the officers who have gradually rcai-
iSed thnt the war on the frontier o,
Cape Colony Is largely nm engineering
wdr and war Of organization, are
glad to see 40 brilliant an organizer as
Kitchener
The use OF .he telephone In, war has
been watched with considerable inter-
est by army oifp@, and Gen. Grcely's
corps is probably the hrst in the world
60 demonstrate thatit can be operated
successfully. II has been found Of
great value, when detailed instructions
hid to be sent, and there was not time
to telegraph M fully os the officers in
ch0rgc thought the ease required,
Gov-Gen. Davis Of Puerto Rico and
Lieut.. Battle, his nide-de- camp, sailed
for tho United States, on the 3Oth on
the steamer Ponce, bound for Wash.
ington, orders having arrived, on the
2sth, for the genral to report at Wash.
ington for consultation with the secre.
tary OF war wt
The Seventy.fourth general assem.
bly, Of Ohio met, on the lat, and elected
the republican caucus nominees hy Q
strict party vote.