Newport weekly independent., 1902-08-01

Floods in the western part of Tex as did considerable damage to crops, and several lives were lost.
 Chas. M. Schwab, president of the United States Steel company, is dangerously ill from a stroke of apoplexy.
 A colony of fifteen Filipinos have taken up their residence in Caldwell county, Texas. These colonists are direct from the Philippines, and af- ter establishing homes will send for other members of the race.
 John Dortsch, alias Gene Sykes, claiming to be minister of the Christian faith, was arrested at Austin, Tex, last week on the charge of bigamy. It is claimed Sykes, or whatever his real name may be, has five living wives, two in Arkansas, one in Mississippi and two in the state of Washington.
 In a four handed fight at Green vile, Miss, Neal Conley was shot through the heart. Officer Burns received a fatal wound, Ed Schraw- Der was shot through the left should CT, and Chief of Police Quinn re- ceived bullet in the right hand The fight was the result of an old feud between Schrawber and Con- ley.
 Mrs. Ellen Wright, of LaSalle, Ill.,, lost her life in an attempt to protect her pet dog. She was walk ing along the railroad track with her pet dog, and a passenger train was almost upon the dog when Mrs. Wright leaped to its rescue. She tossed the animal to safety, but was unable to avoid the train, which crushed her to death.
 The largest annual seed distribu- tion ever made by the government will be begun early this fall. Some important changes in the plan of conducting this distribution will be established by the department of agriculture. With a view of hand ling the seed to better advantage, the country has been divided into six districts, and seeds and plants particularly adapted to each district will be distributed therein. In years past much complaint has been made that the seed is received too late in the season, and this fault is to be overcome by starting the distribu- tion this year September 1.
 The annual report of the coal pro- duction shows that there are twenty eight states in which coal was pro- duced in 1901. The greatest in crease in 1901 was in anthracite coal in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is also credited with the largest in crease in the bituminous product, followed by Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia and Maryland ill the order named, each of these states increas- ing its output over 1900 by more than 1,000,000 tons. The entire gain for the United States was 23,- O26,659 short tons, valued at $41,- 871, ,675, an increase in value of 13.6 per cent. The total production for the year was 292,908,4S6 short tons, valued at $34S,763,O39. The production in 1881, twenty years pre- vious, was S5,SS1.03O short tons, valued at $124,349,1SO. The pro- duction for 1901 was 269,9S1, ,S27 short tons, valued at $306,S91,364.
 The case of Gen. Clayton, ambas- sador to Mexico, charged with own ing stock in Mexican mining com pany, and failing in his official ca- pacity to properly protect the inter ests of one MT. Mealy, has been re- opened. The above allegations were made sometime ago, and caused Gen. Clayton to visit Washington by direction of the president. The ambassador made an explanation, which was accented hv MT. Rnnse-