Chase County Courant from Cottonwood Falls, Kansas • 8

WHO PAYS TrlE FREIGHT? CONTEMPT OF COURT. LET US HAVE A CHANGE. FATAL FLAMES. SAGINAW SCORCHED. SALE RATI FED.

i Condition of the sale of the Cherokee Papers Syaed. Washington. May is. A distinct step forward toward the opening of the Cherokee strip to settlement was taken yesterday afternoon, when Secretary Hoke Smith, on the part of the United States, and Chief Harris and the other delegates, on the part of the Cherokee nation, aSixed their signatures to th-s contract which ratifies the cession of the strip to the United States, The exact number of acres ceded is 6. 022.

754. Secretary Smith said that he hoped, by expediting in every possible way the preparation for the opening of the strip, to have everything 'n readiness for the president's proclamation on September 15, but there are few who have given the situation careful study who think the strip can be opened that soon and indeed there are not wanting those who fully believe that the tactics of delay Wing used so successfully by the schemers who are looking for a chance to line their pockets in the deal will prevent the opening until next spring. It was 4 o'clock when Chief Harris. Treasurer Starr, Maj. Lipe and J.

T. Cunningham met by appointment at the oSice of Secretary Smith, and with little delay the contract was signed. All the legislative proceedings with relation to the opening of the strip are set out at length. It is agreed that the 1S95 payment of shall be withheld to wait the adjudication of the claims of Delaware and Shawnee Indians and freedmen. The Cherokee nation is to issue bonds for the remaining four annual payments in the same sum and the United States to guarantee tho payment of principal and interest at 4 Tier eeiiL PATENT OFFICE SCANDALS.

Formal Charges Preferred the Ki-Cominlssioner. Washington. Ma- 1. The rumors which have been in circulation in the interior department during the last several weeks seriously questioning the official integrity of Y. cl.

Symonds, the late commissioner of patents, took tan gible form to-day by the tiling of formal charges against Mr. Symonds and Foster and Freeman, the attorneys in this city for the Uell Telephone alleging improper inspection of the secret files in the celebrated Drawbaugh telephone cases and the unlawful taking of copies thereof for the private use of Mr. Symonds and of the Hell Telephone Co. Collusion in tin? matter, which also involves the otlicial conduct of Chief Clerk I'ennett of the patent orhce, is charged anil the commissioner is requested to issue a rule upon Symonds and Foster and Freeman to show cause why they should not be disbarred from practicing before the patent ortioe. The petitioners are Messrs.

Church Church, who stand high among the patent lawyers of this city. One month ago they sent a communication to Commissioner Seymour embodying these allegations in a general way. without, however, specifying names, and asked that an investigation be had. Up to this time no reply as to the commis sioner's findings had 1een received. FATAL EXPLOSION.

Six l'ersens Killed and Another Fatal'j Sraliied. Gkxkva. May Is. C. I.

Tope's glucose factory was the scene of a most disastrous explosion by which six persons lost their lives and one man waa fatally scalded. The killed are: Victor Anderson. Louis Schultz. Fred Storm. F.

Lund, Alfred Anderson. J. Danielson. Fatally injured: J. Kallerg.

Seriously hurt: William Pratt. The factory was a large four story structure and there were eighty employes in the building at the time, most of whom escaped with only slight injuries. The explosion occurred in a genera tor and scattered things right and lefL The shock was a terrific one and was felt throughout a radius of three miles. That more lives were not lost borders on the miraculous. CHECK RAISING.

Swindlers Defraud Two St. Louis Uanks ia the Same Way They Did Hanks at Kansas City. St. May IS. Both the Fourth National and the Laclede National banks are out each by raised drafts cashed by them the past week.

The method employed is the same as that by which the Kansas City ban were beaten out of 5,000. The St. Louis banks were victimized through their Springfield, correspondents. On April 19 the Springfield bank gave a draft on the Fourt.i National for and one on the Laclede National for the same amount, made payable to bearer. The drafts, it is claimed bv bank ing people, were sight drafts and turned up M.

Louis tnrougn the clearing house a few davs ago, and upon being checked up were found to have been raised to each and the dato changed to April 2S. A Cop Defender Launched. Bristol, K. May is. The cup de fender Colonia, was launched success- fully at o'clock last night.

The event was witnessed by many prominent yaching people. There was no christening. The launching of this boat is important from the fact that she will be the first of the cup defenders to go abroad. She greatl' resembles the lines of the Navahoe. She is a keel boat, fifty tons of lead being bolted on the keel- Will Be Enforced.

Washington, May IS. Congressman Caminetti, of California, had a short conference with the president yesterday morning and left the White house feeling assured that it was the inten tion of the president to see mat we Chinese restriction act was enforced. Mr. Caminetti denied that it would take anything like the sum of money that has been mentioned to enforce the act. for the reason that those Chinese entitled to remain would have to secure their certificates at their own ex pense, and that those against whom the law is really aimeu win ue iiigui- ened out of the country.

All Interact Must Finally I5e raid by Labor, the Creator of All Wealth. During the last fev weeks all the old clap-trap party organs in the country have been loud in bewailing- the fact tha-t gold has been slowly and surely clipping- over to Europe. Austria recently surrendered to the money power by issuing- bonds for 1 125,000,000 of gold, which is to be locked up in the treasury. About 00. 000,000 of this sura is being' drained from the United States.

Some 0.000.000 in interest will have to be squeezed from Austrian workingmen annually to pay for the privilege of pointing- to the treasury and saying-: "Behold, we are a rich country; see the pile of g'old we have!" The first year or two Austria will experience good times; then the reaction sets in. The Shjdock of the money centers will clip their g'old interest-bearing' coupons and receive their pounds of flesh; their organs will blame the increasing- destitution to the tariff and throw dust in the eyes of the people by shouting- patriotism, and sham battles on the tariff question will be fought yearly with ballots; the money king's will smile contribute to campaign expenses, and the subsidized press will continue its Ij'ing, all of which the party idiots will swallow and work, work, work on. And strikes and riots and boycotts and starvation and all the devil's own miseries will soon be multiplied. In ten or twelve j-ears the laborers of Austria, their homes and the largest part of their earnings will be controlled by the holders of g'old by law unless the social revolution shall have taken place, which the foremost thinkers of Europe predict is imminent. "Issue nfore londs," howl the prosti-- tuted org-ans of the money centers "and keep g'old in the Is this a question that should receive tho attention of every member of organized labor, le he politically a democrat, republican or a people's party man? Is it worth while throwing prejudice aside and looking at the facts fairly? What does the issuance of more bonds mean? The president of the United States favors the idea, and it is right that the working people, whose labor must pay all taxes, all interest o.nd all debts of every kind, should know what is going on.

Sixty-five billion dollars" worth of wealth was created by labor in the j-ear 1802 in this country, or alout ftO per day for every man who worked. Average wages received by lalxr was barely one-tenth that sum, according to government statistics. So it would seem that this is a matter of importance to labor, and should be considered at union meetings and outside of union meetings, more so than a question of a five or ten per cent, raise or reduction. And the man who would decry a discussion of this great problem would be better outside of a union, for he is an enemy to himself, to his family, to labor, and on par with a scab. An intelligent, universal understanding of this matter would mean a ninety per cent, increase of wages, and that is what labor reformers are working for.

and that is what no democrat or republican workingman would refuse to accept. To the point: How is labor deprived of nine-tenths of the wealth it creates? One word covers the question: Debt! Debt, public and private! A child is born free from debt, but as soon as it grows old enough to work it commences to pay debts and continues doing so until it reaches the grave. Interest or rent is debt. At the present rate of interest the principal loaned doubles in ten or twelve years or less. Ninety per cent, of the business of the country is done on paper debt.

Labor pays the bill. Why. the gamblers and speculators even build debts upon wheat and corn and other cereals while yet in the ground, upon pork and beef before they reach a market, upon the products of the shop and factory before they are finished. Trusts and combines force prices up on the one hand and wages down on the other, thus crowding labor closer to the wall. Interest, as stated, doubling the principal every ten years, extorts from lalor that amount, for it can come from no other source.

Every new debt created, either public or private, means another burden for labors broad back. If no more debts were created, and we figure on the wages received now, considering the expense of government and for sustaining life, it would take over' 250 years to pay the debts of this country. Common sense and reason should teach us that it is as foolhardy to try to stem this tide of extortion by industrial strikes and boycotts as it would be to expect the law of gravitation to make water run up a hill. This question is deeper; it lies under the surface; it must be treated politically. Cleveland Citizen.

LABOR BEARS THE BURDEN. Demonetize the Precious Metals and Give I'm Paper Money that No Other Nation Wants. With a steady flow of gold to foreign mart liquidate the balance of trade, the natural tendency is toward a stringent-market and a paniey feeling among manufacturers. Capital, in sympathy with a short goid supply, makes a necessity out of an opportunity and takes occasion to drive hat it calls a "safety screw a turn or two deeper into a firm holding place, and demands of employ--ersof labor a higher rate of interest and an increased margin of security for loans advanced. To protect profit margins manufacturers and other employes scale down wages, or shorten hours of labor at less pay, so labor bears the whole burden of increased compensation to capital and reduced compensation for time and skilL What the country needs is a greater consumption of homemade goods, and a decreased importation of foreign goods produced by under-paid laborers and mechanics.

Des Moines Artisan. To Steps are being taken to amalgamate the international association of machinists, the international brotherhood of lyoilcrmakers and the international blacksmiths union. The matter will come up at the convention at Indianapolis early next month. I 1 I If Contempt Were Ipecac the Judge Ara Supplying Knough to Vomit the World. Judge Billings, of the United States court for the eastern district of Louisiana, recently fulminate I a decision against the wurkingmen's amalgamated council of Xew Orleans, of special and vital importance to workinamen throughout the country-.

The case with which tha ermined Billings wrestled grew out of a disagreement as to wages and hours of labor between warehousemen of Xew Orleans and the principal draymen and their subordinates. The facts showed that the wages were degradingly Jow and the hours of work shamefully excessive, and that the employers resisted every peaceable effort on the part of the men to establish justice and fair dealing. Having exhausted all the means at their command to adjust the trouble and failed, they concluded to 6trike. The cause being just, the workingmen of Xew Orleans sympathized with them and therefore the amalgamated council of Xew Orleans issued a call to all union men to stop work and assist with their presence and open support, the purpose being to impress upon all concerned the fact that all the labor unions in Xew Or leans were united. This call on the part of the amalgamated council alarmed merchants and business men, for they saw it would have a seri ous effect on business in a word, that it would put a stop to business but, instead of agreeing to pay fair wages and require a less number of hours for a day's work, they fly to the courts where they find a judge ready and willing to do their bidding, and the judge immediately- finds some sort of a law in the interest of capital and opposed to labor, and in this case the act of congress upon which the judge based his decision was declared "to protect trade and commerce from unlawful restraint and monopolies." being the anti-trust act.

The persons who appealed to the judge made a grand flourish of alarming statements. They "alleged in substance that there was a gigantic and widespread combination of the members of a multitude of separate organizations for the purpose of restraining the commerce among the several states and with foreign nations, and that in consequence thereof the whole business of the city of Xew Orleans was paralyzed." In such statements the alarmed merchants and business men, declare, unwittingly perhaps, a fact of tremendous significance, that it is labor and only labor that carries forward the business enterprises of the country; and yet, when labor.impoverished and oppressed, seeks, by the only means at its command, to secure justice, the courts are called upon to strike it down in the hour of victory and return it to its old conditions of toil and degradation. Such appeals and such decisions are full of danger. They unite workingmen closer in the bonds of union, as does tyranny always and everywhere, while it intensifies their hostility and hatred of despotism; and when the day comes, and it seems to be coming, that workingmen must hold their council in secret places to deliberate upon their rights and the wrongs to which courts or caitiffs of any rank subject them, the time will have come to write the epitaph of the republic. Judge Killings doubtless chuckled over his decision and employ ers took aeiigiit in seeing uieir em ployes intimidated and crushed: but should the time come when an amalga mated council, not of Xew Orleans but of the country, calls out union men to assist with their support" these wronged fellow-workmen.

Judge Kill ings and all other judges will find their orders dethroning the risrhts of work v. i ingmen of as little avail as would be a tin whistle in drowning the roar of Xiagara, or a straw in staying the gulf stream. Counsel for the workingmen pre sented to Judge Billings numerous and cogent reasons why his restraining or ders should not issue, all of which the judge brushed aside, deciding that the provisions ot the anti-trust act sup plied him all the law he wanted, i lie said: I think the congressional debates show that the statute had Its origin in the evils of massed capital, hut when the congress came to formulating the prohibition, which is the yardstick for measuring the complainant's to th9 Injunction, it expressed it in these words: Every contract or combination in the form of trust or otherwise in restraint of trade or com merce among the several states or with foreign nations is hereby declared to be The 6ubject has so broadened in the hands of the legislators that the source of the evil was not regarded as material, and the evil in its entirety is dealt with. They made the interdiction include combinations of labor as well as of capital: in fact all combinations in restraint of commerce without reference to the character of the persons who entered into them. It is true this statute has not been much expounded by judges, but, as it seems to me, its meaning as far as relates to the sort of combinatiots to which it is to apply is manifest, and that it includes combinations which are composed of laborers acting in the interest of laborers.

Here, then, a labor organization becomes a trust within the meaning of the law, and is, therefore, unlawful, and workingmen are capitalists within the meaning of the law, and in combining their capital become law breakers. It is no wonder that judges are sensitive about "contempt" since by all the gods, if contempt were ipecac, the judges are supplying enough to vomit the world. Locomotive Firemen's Magazine. Not Dead. "The eight-hour movement is dead at Cleveland.

Many Exchanges. That's blankety blanked falsehood by ttie nincompoop editor of the tabor column of the Xew York Press from the associated press sources trace-ble to the rat-act ic of the Cleveland Leader, a paper sired by monopoly and damned by old Ben Wade and every union man in the state of Ohio. Cleveland Citizen. fighting Labor's Demand. It is understood that the Ohio mine operators have signed an agreement to resist any demand made for an advance in wages, and the Pittsburgh Labor Tribune wants to know whether this is conspiracy, treason, disorderly con- I duct, or what?" It is neither; only business that" alL 1 Why at Labor Call a Hilt and Kefo.se Work Any Longer for a Bare Subsistence? The first day of May.

1000. should be fixed upon as the time for changing the present industrial sj-stem. Affairs between capital and labor are rushing rapidlv to a destructive crisis, and some definite national policy must be quickly decided upon, toward which all scattered and otherwise dangerous energies can be massed. This policy is for the working classes to determine that on the first of May, 1900, all owning managers of industry shall be changed into managing part ners with the workers, the workers becoming joint owners with the managers and the managers becoming merely their representatives. There are seven years in which to prepare for this change.

The owners and managers should be invited to meet with the workers to organize the details of the new system. Many would immediately and gladly respond, and these in conference with the working leople would frame plans to whicl other managers would consult upon undertaking them. The best of the managers would not wait until the year 1000 before establishing the partnership, and when the movement began many would be converted to it whom paper plans could not. convince. In less than seven years ir ore than half the industries of the country might be partnership industries.

Onlj- one thing is necessary for this result the working people must firmly resolve that after April, 1000, they will not work under the present organiza tion of industry. If they are by tha time united in this purpose selfish cap italists who have not voluntarily ac cepted the partnership plan, will be constrained to yield. If they cannot get men to work for them their plant will spoil. The first step to this end is to form a society embracing as many citizens. men and women, of this country as wi.sli to see the inevitable industrial revolu tion accomplished peaceably.

Every working man and woman will be of this number. They wish their fiir share of the product of their industry; they also wish to obtain it without the shedding of blood. They will, there fore, join in the support of this peaceful method. All intelligent peopla of every class will join it. for they are coming to see that society must be reor ganized from its base to satisfy the modern sense of justice or even to survive.

Society must be saved from chaos by a strong, sufficient effort. Therefore let meetings be held to organize this movement, let societies be everywhere founded with this clear aim in view, to make the working people partners in all industries in the year 1000. Other and further developments of the industrial revolution can be accomplished afterwards or at the same time. This will be a tangible beginning, broad enough not only for all progressive forces thus far organized to unite upon, but broad enough for those unorganized up to this time; sufficiently evolutionary and sufficiently revolutionary for the next seven years. While working for their own specific ends as before, all reformers can co-operate for this common end.

This plan has little machinery. Social leaders can establish societies where they are, over the whole country, and these can afterward be federated with some central direction. To hold the object clearly in mind is all that is necessary for this organization. Hut as many circumstances ara driving labor to frenzy, the time for immediate and universal action has come. Morrison I.

Swift, in Cleveland Citizen. Commenting upon the above the Citizen say-s, editorially: "We call the attention of our readers to an article in this number by Mr. Morrison I. Swift on the question of making workingmen partners in all industries on May 1, 1900. We are not sanguine that all industries will become co-operative on the date mentioned, but Mr.

Morrison's plan has the merit of being definite and a beginning in the right direction. If the working-men of America quit work on April 30, 1000, and refused to work the next day, unless they are made partners in the concerns in which they are employed, the movement would very likely be successful; and it is possible that such a movement, if undertaken in an earnest and vigorous spirit by organized labor, can be consummated in seven years. The one great need of the labor organizations of the country is something definite to struggle for. Half their energies are wasted in struggling for something that is rather obscure even to themselves. Of course they are united in demanding increased wages or resisting a reduction.

But their aims and objects should be broader than this: they should attempt something that promises to settle the social problem, or leads in that direction, instead of hacking away at the branches of the social evil. We, therefore, hope that our readers will give Mr. Morrison's article careful perusal and discuss it earnestly in their Concessions Made. Carpenters at New Orleans. Provr dence.

E. Cincinnati, Chillicothe, Fostoria and Lockland, Wheeling and Clarksburg, W. Santa Cruz and Pasadena. Chicago. Ottawa and Venice, East on.

Eockland, and Manchester. X. recently secured concessions, such as shorter hours, more wages or employment of union men only. Seven new unions were organized during the last month. Favoring Reforms.

Supreme council of Patrons of In dustry met at Detroit and resoluted ia favor of all the reforms advocated bv organized labor relating to land, finance and transportation. A ho want icid dlemcn dispense! with, the govern-; merit control of liquor, the single Uxs system, and other minor reforms." Labor ia Switzerland. The national brotherhood of labor It Switzerland represent ISO. 000 mem-j bers. It held an eight-heu-v demoiiitra, tioa a few days ago.

Destructive Fire at Mich Panto Amonj the People. Sagixaw. May 22. The fire Saturday night started in Sample A Camp's mill plant, thence communicated tohe eastern end of the Bristol street bridge, thence northeast from the corner of Tilden and Bristol streets for a distance of a mile in length and four or five blocks in width. The seena was one of indescribable excitement, people becoming frenzied in their desire to remove their household effects from the devouring element, which rushed madly on its journey of destruction, burning every-thing in its path.

Drays, delivery, wood, iee and coal wagons, buggies, hand carts, cabs and everything in the shape of a vehicle were pressed into service to move household go ds bej-ond the reach of the tire. Vehicles loaded with household goods drawn by horses on a frantic run were rushing in all directions to places beyond the reach of the devastating flames, and vacant lots were soon occupied by household goods. In mam- instances these precautions were unavailing, as property after being removed to places of safety was found by the fire and destroyed. All the hacks in the city were pressed into the service to remove the invalids, old people, ladies and children to places of safety, and the scene was one which no description can do justice to and which will be long remembered by those who witnessed it. Many people became frightened without cause and removed their furniture, only to have the trouble of moving it back when all danger had passed.

The body of the man supposed to be John Clark, who perished, was identified as Robert Turner, aged years. He was feeble and resided with his daughter, Mrs. Charles Holland. Clark is still unaccounted for. Prominent citizens met at the club house last evening at which a plan was formulated for the people of Saginaw to take care of the needy ones and no appeal will be made for outside aid.

A close estimate places the number of buildings destroyed at 275, and the total loss sustained Two of the agents of insurance companies holding risks have not 3-et made out losses of individual companies, and it is im possible as 3-et to give a correct list of the companies represented. The total insurance will aggregate about $000,000. THE PRESIDENT'S POLICY. The Xew York World Claim That It Will Not Be Antagonistic to Democrat. iop.k, 22.

lhe World, in its editorial page, prints the following in double-leaded type from its Wash ington correspondent: The president's civil service policy has not changed since it was announced in the WorlJ. on Saturday, Ma? 13. A malicious report to the contrary was inventeJ by a newspiper openly hostile to Mr. Cleveland and really antagonistic to the democratic party. Mr.

Cleveland has no intention of refusing to make appointments for political reasons. He will not make appointments for political reasons, unless offensive partizenship i-i charged and proved. He will make and countenance, how ever, a jroo3 many removals, and every vacan cy thus made will be tilled by a democrat Mr. Cleveland in 'us last administration ex perienced great trouble from the partisanship of bureau and division chiefs. Men whom lis had retained in office did their utmost to em barrass his administratisn.

They were willing to risk their places for the purpose of discrediting the democratic administration. They were not civil service reformers, laey wera spoilsmen. appointed for partisan rea sons under the spoils system. They hoped for preferment and promotion by aiding the return of a republican president. Some of these men were in oSice when Mr.

Cleveland returned to Washington. A few ot them have been dismissed and others will be There is to be a great reform of this kind in the service. It is based on sound business princi plea The president and the members of his cabinet are determined to haves ubordinates on whom they can rely in confldential positions. Mr. Cleveland has not yet considered any changes in the civil service rules.

That may come later, but no such intention as has been attributed to Mr. Cleveland, of putting all minor appointments under a commission and establishing a permanent tenure is entertained by him. He authorizes the statement that nothing the Xew York Sua says of his inten tions can be accurate. NO SUNDAY OPENING. The Government Prepared to Interfere Necessary.

if Washington, May 21. To John Wil lis-Baer, of Boston, secretary of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, who called upon Attorney-lleneral Ol ney in regard to points in law and the government's relation to the Columbian exnosition, the attorney-general said that as all appropriations made for the world's fair were made upon the condition that the exposition should not be open to the public on Sunday, it would be the duty of the world's Columbian commission, created by congress Amil25. 1S00. to make such rules or modifications of the rules of the Colum bian exposition as should require the closing of the exposition on Sunda'. Fifteen da-s ago, having been led to think by the press dispatches and other reports that the district attorney at Chicago might be waiting for some word from him.

he informed that of ficial that he expected him to act in the matter of restraining the managers from opening Sunday by enforcing the law, if their attitude at any time should reauire such action. The district at torney replied at once that he had ex pected to act promptly and in accord- ance with instructions and would advise the attorney-general of any move on the part of the exposition managers that would make such a step necessary. Nothing had been received from the district attorney since that time, nor had any further word gone from the attorney-general to Chicago in relation to the matter. Kiiied iij a Burglar. St.

Lori-S May 22. At Woodstock, a suburb of this city, just before dawn this morning. Benjamin McCullough. paying teller of the State bank of St. Louis, was shot and killed by a burglar.

He had heard the burglar and arising tc protect his property, secured a shotgun. The burglar left the house and McCullough followed him to the yard, where a scuffle followed, in which the length of the shotgun prevented its use, hile the burglar's revolver came into play and a bullet was scut crashing into Mo Cullough's brain. Hie murderer escaped, but the on his trail and hope to capture him. Ten Men Perish In Attempting to Escape from Forest Fre in Michigan A Farmer's Family Burned. Lake City, May 22.

A forest fire destroyed Louis Sands' lumber ainp near here. Out of a total crew of sixty men forty-nine escaped uninjured. 1 r-w i i une, Duwam ouuivan, was seriously in jured and ten are dead. Of these eight took refuge in a well and were ere mated there by the timber and curbing falling in on them and burning. Two tried to run the gaitntlet and were burned to a crisp.

The dead are: Michael G. Pagen, Charles G. Taylor, James Hugh. Edward Koorbach, mar ried; Samuel Campbell, foreman of camp; John Hill, Fred Sasrer, Hans Jacobson, married; Frank Sangren, Mike Mulholland. The property loss consisted of sixteen horses, forty hogs, camp tools, also eleven cars loaded with hogs owned by the Thayer Lumber Co.

The men were assembled at dinner and the forest fire, which was burning all around, entirely cut off all escape. When the men, realizing their danger, rushed out of the building in which they had been sitting, the smoke so blinded them they became bewildered. They ran hither and thither, unable to find a means of escape, and their horses stampeded, owing to the confusion. Eight of the men jumped into a well to escape the flames and there died of suffocation. Their bodies were brought to the surface to-da3.

Others of the men rushed to the woods and some of them thus escaped, but the bodies of two of them were afterward found, burned to a crisp. One man reached Lake Cit3r terribly- burned and there died in fearful agony. Eight teams of 'horses were cremated. The lodies of the burned have been brought to this city, where they await burial. Most of the unfortunates were strangers here and the bodies will be shipped to friends, where known.

The fire in the timber near the camp of Illodgett. Cummer Dig-gins is under control and no further danger is feared there. Fire broke out near'Tustin, and ran two and a half miles in eight minutes. The farm-house of a man named Anderson was destroyed. Mrs.

Anderson and her two children perished in the house. The saw-mill boarding house belonging to Edgar Morgareidge, on the Toledo Ann Arbor siding, four miles from here, was destroyed by fire. Loss, no insurance. PERISHED. Sad Fate of a Party of Prospectors In Mexi coSuffering in a Desert.

Maxf.li.oa, Mexico, May 22. Francis Banada, a prominent rancher who lives north of here near San Juan Sabinas, has arrived at Manelloa and brings the first news of the terrible fate of a party of five mining prospectors, who left here four weeks ago. the Sierra San Vicente mountains in the north western part of this state near the Texas boundary. There have been many reports circulated in this part of Mexico for several months past of the famous mineral wealth to be found in those mountains, and a party of 3-oung men, consisting of L. 11.

Lorian, B. W. Knapp, both Americans, Cecilia Martinez, Eustacio Lojada and Jesus Guerrera organized themselves into a band to try their luck in the reported Eldorado. The course of their journey' lay through a desert for 150 miles and on the third day after leaving Santa Rosa their water supply gave out and their team of horses was left behind to its fate. For six days the men lived on the juiee of the maguey plant.

On the seventh da- two of the Mexicans were driven crazy by the heat and thirst, broke away from their companions and soon became lost in the desert. Other members of the party gradually lost their strength and were left behind to die. The only man that came out of the terrible ordeal alive was Mr. Knapp, who on the tenth day reached the San Jose Piedras "ranch, where he received water and kind treatment-On regaining his strength he was escorted to San Juan Sabinas by a different route than the one which had Proved fatal to his companions. He is now resting at the ranch ot Mr.

Banada and will soon take his departure for his old home in the United States. Mishap to Women. Chicago, May 21. The close of the great congress of women was marred by a sad mishap in which eight women were seriously and many others slightly hurt. A section of floor, 20x30 feet in extent, forming an entrance to Washington hall in the Art institute suddenly gave way under the crush of women anxious to listen to the addresses on the ethics of dress, and fell to the ground, a distance of 12 feet, and seventy-five panic-strickea women went with it The cries of thousands of women already assembled contributed to the excitement that followed as cries of pain and terror arose from the collapsed section.

After the nearly four score of womer had been extricated it was found that about eight women had been seriously injured, but none of them fatall3'. Steamships Warned Off. Panama, May 22. The government of Xicaragua notified the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. that their vessels mu.4 not stop at San Juan while that port is in the hands of the revolutionists, but it may land passengers, mail and freight at Corinto.

Xo movements of importance are being attempted by the revolutionists, as they are waiting for more arms and ammunition. Watchine the Chinamen. Ftfjdras eg has, May 22. A party of Chinese, numbering 250, arrived here last night from the interior of Mexico, and this morning they divided into squads and left for points up and down the river. It is believed that it is their intention to smuggle themselves into the United States, and that they were brought here by an agent for" that purpose.

The United States authorities will keep a close guard of the river, and. while a few of the Chinese may be successful in getting into the States, the majority of them will be captured if they attempt it..