The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-01-09
News Of the World

opinion mat all Europe viii De
come involved in the Russian an(
japanese trouble.
Gen. James Longstreet, soldier
statesman and diplomat, and tht
last acknowledgement Of the Con.
federate army, with the exception o
Gen. Gordon, died in Gainesville
Ga, on the End inst, from an at.
tack of acute pneumonia. Gen
Longstreet was born in EdgefelC
district, South Carolina, January s
1921. His family removed to Ala.
bama in 1881, and from that STATE
he was appointed to the military
academy at West Point, where he
graduated in 1912. Early in hi,
career he served in the Mexican war
participating in eight important bat.
ties. For gallant conduct in thai
service he was brevetcd captain and
major successfully. He was severe,
" wounded at the storming of Che,
pultepec in 1871. He joined the
Confederate army in 1861, and was
Immediately made brigadier general.
and won distinction at the battle OF
Bull Run.
The Iroquois theatcr disaster in
Chicago was vastly more destruct-
i've to human life than any other
play house fire III the history Of the
world. The fire next to it in point
of lives lost occurred December 5,
1876, in Conway's Brooklyn thea
ter, Brooklyn, \. Y. Here 295 of
the audience persisted in fierce
flames. The day after Christmas
in 1911, while the play The Bleed
ing Nun, was being performed in
a theater at Richmond, Va, a fire
started that burned seventy per
sons to death. among them the
governor Of the state, George W.
Smith. The old world supplies no
instance Of fires in theaters that
may be classed with the three men
toned. The most recent theater
fire in Chicago before this was the
one that destroyed the Columbia
theater in Monroe street four years
ago and which did its work in
practically twenty minutes. This
fire occurred during a Rogers
brothers rehearsal and the players
on the stage were protected by the
fire curtain. While there was no
loss Of life, more property damage
was done than will probably result
from the Iroquois fire, and the re-
suits if the house had been filled,
as the lroquois was, can only
be imagined. Occasionally pan
les have occurred from time to
time in Chicago theaters. started
by false alarms in the theatcr by
fires near by, but they have caused
no loss of life. In the great Chica-
go fire of 1871, the largest conflag-
ration of modern times. in which
2,124 acres were devastated, but
200 lives were lost, so far as the
most reliable information showed.
Among the historical fires in which
there has been heavy loss Of life the
following are the most important
1910, London destroyed by fire and
thousands burned; 1866, London
again destroyed with similar loss
of life; 1929, confagration in Con-
stantinoplc burned 1000 persons
1925, forest fires in New Bruins
wick killed 100 persons; 1888.
scores burned at Charleston. S. c.:
1912, fire burned 100 people at
Hamburg, Germany; 1915, forty
five killed by fire in business part
of New York 1915, fire destroyed
seventy in Quebec; 1850, thirty
lost in Philadelphia 1851,
twenty-five hundred buildings
at San Francisco
with scores of people killed; 1862,
n. Y, destroyed with large
of life; 1868, two thousand
persons persisted by fire at Santa
90, South America 1866. Port
Ne, partly destroyed with
scores burned; 1871, forest fires in
Wisconsin and Michigan killed
200; 1882. Newhall house fire in
Milwaukee, 40 killed; 1900, Wind
sor hotel fire in New York burned
persons: 1900, fire at Hobo
Ken, n. j., killed 300 persons,
The monthly coinage statement
ssued by the director of the mint
that the coinage executed at
he minis of the United States dur
ng December, 1908, amounted to
S12, 561, 494, exclusive of 1,740,S95
pieces executed for the Philippine
government and 10000 pieces exc
for the Costa Rican govern
nent. Coinage for the United States
5 given as follows: Gold, S10,043,-
l