Woodruff County news., 1903-01-01

mission adjourned on the 21st, and will reconvene January 6.
 Twenty-seven people lost their , lives in a rear end collision near Byron Hot Springs, Cal.
 Countess Castellane, formerly Anna Gould, arrived in New York December 21 to spend the holidays with relatives.
 Four hundred thousand persons are reported to be destitute and starving as result of the crop fail ure in Finland.
 Demands for an increase of 20 per cent in wages for passenger and freight conductors and brakemen have been submitted to officials of forty systems of railroads west of Chicago and St. Louis. Accompa- nying the demands was notifca- tion that an answer must be return ed by January 5. The increase will affect 150,000 conductors and brake men.
 The war department has issued an order to the effect that in the future persons under the age of 21 years will not be enlisted, and ex- treme caution must be exercised in the cases of young men applying for enlistment who claim to be 21 years of age or a few months over that age. The unsupported statements of such applicants must not be ac- cepted, but to be eligible for enlist ment they must furnish competent proof to remove any doubt regard ing age.
 Fire at Knoxville, Tenn, which destroyed half a million dollars worth of property, started in the building occupied by the Knoxville Pants Company. The buildings ad- joining it on Commerce avenue, oc- cupied by Broyles, McClollen & Lackey, agricultural implement dealers; the l.. Davis Commission Company, the establishment of the George Brown Hardware Company on Gay street; the Shanllin Grain Company and the R. V. Cate & Go. building on the same street, were completely gutted.
 Dun's commercial agency reports that the holiday trade has exceeded even the most sanguine expectations and retail dealers in all staple lines of merchandise are well maintain ed, with the better grades of goods in brisk demand. Wholesome con ditions prevail in most sections of the country, although in parts of the southwest the season has fallen behind the average Even in these cases reports are encouraging for the future. Industrial plants are we'll employed, orders running far into the future, and labor contro- versies are rare. The only adv feature of the situation is the fact that supplies of fuel are utterly in- adequate, both for household and manufacturing uses, snow increas- ing the delay of deliveries. The annual report of Porto Rico's commissioner of education shows that an American free public school now exists in every municipality in Porto Rico. The school year closed last June, with 674 schools open, 40,993 pupils enrolled and 923 teachers employed, an increase of 19 per cent in the number of schools, 21 per cent in enrolment and 20l per cent in number of teachers over the previous year. The high-water mark during the year in the enroll ment was, In the ordinary public schools, 59,096, to which should be added S,767 pupils enrolled in the high, normal and special schools, giving grand total of 61,S63, or 19 per cent of the total population of school age, and over 6 per cent of the total population of the island. The report says that these figures show that, under American civil government, the educational ad- vantages offered free to the masses of the people, as compared with the maximum facilities provided by the Spanish government, have nearly