The Forrest City times., 1900-03-23

 as one of the highest officials of the road.
 The president has amended the civil service rules so as to provide that a person who has been transferred from a classified position to an unclassified position in the insular possessions un- der the control of the United States may return to the classified service at my time.
 The Berlin papers discuss the pro- ceedings in the British parliament with reference to the proclamation of the English church in Dresden by Bocr sympathizers, expressing their regret and attributing the act to street row dies, but denying Great Britain's right to complain.
 It is learned that the purpose of the government to acquire the Island of St. Thomas, D. W. l., for a reasonable consideration from Denmark, has not been abandoned. notwithstanding the statements attributed to the Danish minister indicating decision not to part with the island.
 Mrs. Lida Greycraft, the largest woman in Indiana, died suddenly at her home in Russiaville, on the 18th, aged 32 years. She was sitting at a table with her husband, Joseph Grey craft, playing dominoes. when she fell from her chair dead. Her weight was about five hundred and fifty pounds.
 The foreign mission board of the Reformed Church in the United States, at meeting in Allentown, Pa. on the 14th, elected Miss s. l.. Wiedner, of Flatrock, O.. teacher in the girls school at Ssndai, Japan. She will sail in May. The election of other mis sionaries was postponed until April
 The Railway Age, of the 16th, says: "Although more miles of new rail aoad were built in the United States East year than in any year since 1s9o there is every indication that the pres ent year will witness even greater ac- tivity. In the aggregate there are nearly 59,000 miles of road projected"
 In official and diplomatic circles in Washington denial is authorized of published reports that there have been conferences with view to the dis patch of additional war ships and United States soldiers to China, and that news of the gravest character had been received from the United States minister to China.
 Prof. Chas. Young, of Princeton, \. J., announces that preparations are now being made by him to observe the total eclipse of the sun which will take place on May 2s. The work will be mainly spectroscopic, including particularly a determination, both visual and photographic, of the posi- ton of the corona line.
 After prolonged deliberation upon the Russian demands for exclusive railroad rights in Asia Minor, the sublime porte has proposed compro- mise whereby the railways would be constructed by Turkey and Russia in
 
 -sists upon the original demands, which the Turkish military commission strenuously opposes.
 The state department has been noti- fled that the Persian government is about to send a minister to Washing ton. For ten years this post has been vacant, the incumbent having left in dudgeon, owing to the merciless ridi- cule heaped on him by the American paragrapher on account of his queer name-HadI Hassan Gooli Khan, with a half dozen additional syllables.
 Representative Ray, of New York, chairman of the house committee on judiciary and at the head of special subcommittee on trusts, introduced a joint resolution, on the 18th, propos- ing an amendment to the constitution giving congress the power to regulate and repress monopolies and combiu:.- lions and to create and dissolve cor porations and dispose of their propcf- ty.
 The delegation of Creek Indians which had been in Washington for some time comforting with the Dawes commits sion, signed new agreement, on the 18th, which will be transmitted to the senate. They protested against pro vision eliminating the tribal courts be- ing inserted in the agreement, au1 hope to prevail upon the congressional committees to permit these courts 10 yemain.