Evening star., 1941-07-27
Fifty Years Ago
In The Stur

Fifty years ago was the silver or 25th
anniversary Of the Grand Army of the
Republics annual encamp-
inviting ments. That year the rally
G AR was scheduled to take place
in Detroit, but before it oc-
CURED there was. as usual, much dis
cussion and many plans laid as to where
to hold the next one. Washington put
in a bid, and The Star of July 81 1891
tells something about it: Saturday night
there was an informal meeting at Will
lard's of the general committee of citi-
zens and tonight the executive commit
tee in charge of the campaign TO secure
the G.. A. R. encampment for this city
in 1892 will meet. together with the
members of the committee on invitation.
All the reports received are of the most
encouraging character Today Mr.. Fish
secretary of the citizens committee, re-
ceived the following letter from Col
Veazey, the commander IN chief of the
G. A. R: Dear Comrade: I shall be
pleased to meet you and the committee
at Detroit. as you suggest. My impress
sion is you will have an easy job if you
, clearly show that Washington desires the
| next encampment and will be in a Situa-
ton to carry it out as other cities have
done"
Col. Veazey was quite right The 1892
encampment took place in Washington
in September of that year.
~
The Star of July q, 1891 also reports
on the question of the location of the
tomb of Christopher Colum-
Columbus bus: The press of San Do
Mystery mingo is urging convention
Of representatives of all the
historical societies in the world to be held
in that city, in order to discuss and settle
definitely the vexed question of the place
where rest the earthly remains of Chris
topher Columbus. Havana claims to have
the only genuine bones, and this is in
dignantly denied by the Dominicans"
But to this day the question is not really
settled.
Outstanding in the news from Europe
is the account of a fearful accident on a
French railroad The Star,
French K. K. in a dispatch from Paris,
Disaster says: The latest reports
from ST Mande, near Vim
cennes, the scene of the collision be-
tween two excursion trains loaded with
passengers returning from musical
festival at Fontenoy, show that 200 peo-
pie were either killed or injured. -" The
collision was the most terrible affair.
The engine of one of the excursion trains
telescoped three carriages loaded with
eXcursionists and at the same time the
reservoir of gas on the damaged train
exploded and set fire to the wreckage,
while scores of people were pinioned
down, wounded and helpless. beneath the
ruins of the three carriages"
The civil war in Chile, begun in 1888,
was gradually drawing to climax Sup
plementing the reports of
troubles war correspondents, The
In Chile Star printed, on July %,
1891, extracts from a private
letter from Chile, as follows: The op-
position trebels) is dependent entirely
upon Bolivia and the United States for
provisions. The government of Bal
maceda has succeeded in nearly control
ling the southern ports, but loads of
flour and hay come from San Francisco,
I am sorry to say. We ought not to
foster this opposition party. They rep
resent elements totally antagonistic to
our notions of a republic"
Just the same, Balmaceda was defeat
ed later in the year, and committed
suicide.