The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1901-01-04
THE CENTURY CLOSED
The Year Nineteen Hundred In
the Record of Time.
A Summary of the Years Notable
Events-Disasters, Politics,
Sports, Obituary.

The last year Of the nineteenth cen
fury has been one of unusual interest
In international affairs. Great Britain
began the year with q succession or
military disasters in South Africa. For
time it seemed possible for the Beers
to maintain their independence in
spite of the heavy odds against them,
but toward the close of February the
capture Of General Cronje with his
army turned the tide, and from that
time on the British gained steadily
upon their clever foe until the union
Jack was raised over johannesburg
and Pretoria. President Kruger's flight
from point to point in the Transvaal
and his final departure for Europe
were taken as indicating that the Boer
resistance was at an end. But the
burghers Of the Orange Free State and
the Transvaal Dutch continued to dis
pute British supremacy by armed re-
sistance. Before completing her con-
quests Great Britain announced the
annexation of the territory of the BOer
republics without eliciting a protest
from other nations, although the people
Of many countries, especially France,
had expressed strong sympathy with
the Boer cause. The progress of the
war in South Africa, owing to its pc
culiar character, was closely studied
by military men.
The assassination of King Humbert
Of Italy gave ground for fear that that
country was on the eve Of social revo-
luton, but the event passed without
local disturbance
In September the miners Of the an
thracite coal fields in Pennsylvania
struck for higher rates and the modi-
fcatiOn of certain rules imposed by the
operators. The struggle promised to
become one of the bitterest in the his
tory of labor troubles in America, but
ended after 80 days duration in a vic
tory for the miners.
The destruction by fire Of the histor-
ic Theatre Francois was loss to dra-
matte art felt by the whole world. A
marine disaster of an unusually dis
tressing character was the burning at
Lloyd's ocean steamers Saale, Bremen
and Main and the loss Of 302 persons
by fire and drowning. In a mine ex-
plosion at Schofield, Utah, 400 lives
were lost, and in an explosion of chem
icals, followed by fire, in down town
New York 43 were killed and over 100
injured. The record of fires and great
calamities during the year was not
large.
Among the notable deaths of the year
to be recounted are Count Muravieff,
the foremost statesman of Russia; John
Sherman, formerly powerful party
leader; Professor Max Muller, the dis
tinguished English philologist; r. D.
Blackmore, the English novelist;
Charles Dudley Warner, noted Amer
lean author; John Clark Ridpath, the
historian; Frank Bicknell Carpenter,
ali artist who won distinction as a
painter of portraits, notably that of
Lincoln, and Munkacsy, the Hungarian
painter.
The total eclipse of the sun in May
was an unusual astronomical event
and attracted the attention of scien-
lists the world over.
The year 1900 closed the twelfth cen
sus period, and the returns were made
to cover the date of June l.
The population of the As states of the
Union, Alaska, Hawaii and the Indians
on reservations is 76,295, 900 as against
63,O69,156 in 1890. The total increase
In inhabitants In the last decade is 49,
225, 464
The census bulletin for cities gives
the population of the 159 cities having
$4,000 inhabitants or more in 1900.
The 159 cities combined have a popu-
lation in 1900 of 1868, 625 as compar-
ed with population for the same cit
les of 1855, 4Sc In 1890 and of $685.
DIT in 1880.
The absolute increase in the popula-
ton of these cities from 1890 to 1900
was 4,S39,136. or S2,426 less than the
absolute Increase from 1880 to 1890.
when it was 1921, $50. The percent
age of increase in population of the
log cities from 1890 to 1900 was 80. as
against 49.5 from 1880 to 1890 A trife
less than one-fourth of the population
OF the whole country dwell in 159 cit
les having $4,000 inhabitants or over.
There are in round numbers $500
oOo separate farms in the United States
and territories and about 100000 man.
ufacturing institutions, an increase in
ten years of 100000 plants. The In
crease of manufactures in the west
and south has been remarkable.
The census shows that IN Rhode Is
land there are less than two acres Of
area TO each inhabitant and in New
York and Pennsylvania about four