ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1908, 25 June 1889, Page 3

ARRIVAL OF THE SAN FRANCISCO MAIL.

A, ■ ArcxiAOT, Jane 22. Arrived—Mariposa at 8 a.m., from San Francisco. She called Tutuilla, and made the run down in 18 days 12 hours. GENERAL SUMMARY. The women employed in tbe rice fialds of Medina, Italy, struck on May 23rd, and pillaged a number of bakers' shops. Troops were ordered out to bring the women under subjection. The Pope issued an order on May 28th that on the day the monument to Guardino Bruno is unveiled all the Papal troops and gensdarmes shall keep within the grounds of the Vatican. Those on furlougk-leave have been ordered to return ' immediately. The formation of the Angle-American Salt Trust has been successfully accomplished. •Lord Salisbury has decided to let William O'Brien's libel suit for £IO,OOO go to trial. In consequence of tbe high price of raw sugar tbe largest refinery in Greenock waa •losed on May lfitb. Bishop Power, of the Catholic diocese of Waterford and Lisnsore, is dead. Deputations from all the municipalities of Ireland, except Belfast and Londonderry, visited London on 23rd May to preseit Mr Parnell with an address of congratulation on the result of l be Piggott disclosures.

The claims for damages arising out ot \bjk Chefoo riots have been settled, and ibcHDnglish and American flags hive been rehoieted, the Chinese saluting them. Christians are being massacred by Turks oq the Montenegrin frontier. Lord Lonsdale arrived in London on the 31st May. He declares his intention of organising an expedition to the North .Pole. His experience in that region has not discouraged him, but only prepared him to do better. Prolonged earthquakes were felt in the English Channel Islands on the SOth May. The will of the lite Mr John Bright was probated on May 25th. It bequeaths the ! estate, valued at £86,184 to his children. There are no public bequests. A com- | mittee has been formed to arrange for a national memorial to the deceased statesman. Mr Parnell will visit Edinburgh next June, when ha will accept the freedom of the city, which the council have already accorded him, Mr Gladstone was knocked down by a oab while crossing Piccadilly street on May 20tb. Ha escaped unhurt, and ran after the cab and arrested the driver. In regard to fhe arrest of several titled gamblers at the Field Club, wh& were arraigned in a London court in May, the Prince ©f Wales was reported to have been in the club jnsfc before the arrests -(fere made, bat had a tip and left. At the hearing of the cases on the 20th May, the public prosecutor announced the intention of tho authorities to suppress all gaming clubs. Hundreds of them exist in London. The village of Deutchnichan, Prussia, was completely destroyed by fire oq the 28tb May. Not a house was left itaqdjng; Op May 7th, before the Commission, \|r Parnell corrected his testimony of the Veek preceding, He aaid that he hat? wigled, fact was that when he said to the Commission (bat Ribbonhaa «nd Ribbon Societies generally were dead, be did not refer to the conspiracies at large. When he addressed tha House of Commons, therefore, his speech, stated only truth, and h,© now by that speech, \V railway train with 800 pilgrim? m f-qute. to wag assailed by a mob at Trieste, and bombarded with Btonea. Many persona were injured, and the railway oarriages * ere badly wrecked. Dhuleap Singh, the Indian prince, was privately married to Miss Ada Wetherel! in Paris on May 20th. The wedding was strictly private. The bride ifl the daughter of the late Mr D, B ; . Weth,arell, of EUmt>Bbire, England. The honeymoon will be tjpent in Russia, for which country tho party left on the day fallowing the xnarrjage,

AMERICAN SUMMARY. 1 Sak Francisco, May 31. While the Rev. J. (J. was preaching in a Christian choroh at New Liberty, Indiana, a thunderstorm broke over tha place. The lightning struck and damaged the church and prostrated the preacher, who found on recovery that his sight was entirely destroyed. Lord Lonsdale "as in Montreal on May 14th, and in answer to ail comers insists vthat during his recent journey north he Jjjfns inside the Arctic Circle, and ha will prove it to tho ltoyal Geographical Society ■ when he arrives in London. The British- American Association of the United States has issued a protest against

the appointment rf Patrick Egan as Minister to Chili, on lbe grounds that he is a fugitive from British justice. Miss Kaio Patten, 23 years of age, at Roxburg, Mass,, supposed dead on May 21st from diphtheria or tonsiiitis, came to life while in the undertaker's hands who was preparing the body for the grave. The Bteel cruiser Charleston, built at San Francisco for the United States Navy (the first built on the Pacific Coast) had a trial trip on May 11th in Santa Barbara Channel, and developel 18£ knots an hour with 5560 horse power. The machinery was not in sufficiently good working order to meet the Government requirements, and sorae few changes will have to be made before the vessel is despatched. While a trial was proceeding at a court

in Kansas City on May 11th, the prisoner, named Smith, jumped on Detective Gilley, who bad arrested him, and with a knife almost severed his bead from his body. He also attacked officer Malone, and cot him severely, und both wounded men are dying. The crowd turned their pistols loose on Smith, who fell dead with five bullets in his body. The Greek Church building in San Francisco, and all piraphernalia therein, as well as the school attached, was destroyed by fire on May 29ib. The priests and scholars narrowly escaped with their lives. The lossss are estimated at 50,000i01. The establishment was maintained in San Franciseo by the Russian Government. Laura Bridgeman, the wonderful deaf mute, made famous in Dickens'" American Notes," died at the Perkins' Institute South Bsston, on May 24th, where she had been an inmate for over fifty years. I She was sixty years of age.

The train on the St. Louis and San Franei co railway was wracked on May I 24th, at midnight, sevonty miles west of St. Louis, owing to the track giving way, and forty-five persons were seriously injured. It is said the spikes and fish plates had been removed from the track, and the supposition is that it was done by

tr»in robbers. A reward of lOOOdol was offered for the detection of those persons who had tampered with the track. A desperate ruoniog fight occurred on the afternoon of May 11th, near Fort Thomas, Arizona, between an escort of eleven United States soldiers (colored), accompanying Paymaster Whan and his assistant Gibson, and a party of ambushed highwaymen. The Major was on his way te pay of the troops at the Fort, and was .attacked in a narrow gorge. After a desperate battle, lasting half an hour, eight of the oleyen soldiers were put I kors dt combat, and the robbers succeeded in away with 29,0001015. Whau cama out of the engagement untouched. Hi&asistant had bis cletkss cut by bullets, but was uninjured bodily. The robbers are supposed to have been organised for this job in Texas sad New Msxico. There were eight to ten of them, commanded, in Major Whau'a opinion, by a man of more than ordinary intelligence. The paymaster's movements are kept quiet, and some one well posted must li4ve informed (he robbers of vVhau's movaruents. The "Jtip" is supposed to have come from a woman. Oq the 19th Ellison (otherwise Cyclone Buli) was arrested near Tyruse on suspicion of being connected with this affair, fie is 6ft 2in in height, with a beayy red beard and moustache, a formidable-looking fellow. Some speculation is indulged in, based upon the fact that the British squadron consisting of Flagship Swiftsure, cruiser Amphion, tbe Icarus, and two torpedo' boats now at Victoria, 8.C., and the warship Champion now on the way from the South, w : ll leave for Alaskan waters as aeon as the latter arrives at Esquimalt, which will be on June 10th. At the latest the vessels were being stocked for a lengthy cruise. It is stated that sealing mastersfittingout atVictoria weare assured* before clearing for BBhring sea, that they would be protected. A number of scalar*, from Nova Scotia will this year be engaged in the business. The American Government will send three cruisers to Behring sea, Replying to some remarks that the movement of war ships means hostility one in authority says " Una object of the presence of British men of war was simply to see that no outrages were committed, and to show tkat tdreat Britain has not given in to the pretensions of the United States." The sensation in Chicago during the latter part of May was the murder ot Dr. Cronin, who was connected with the Clan-na-Gael and other secret Societies' antagonistic to the British Government. Dr. Cronin was lured to a cottage near Lake View and there killed in a shocking manner with a blunt instrument. The impression is that Cronin wsa cognisant of the financial crookedness in the management of some of the Societies he was connectad with, and those implicated conspired to pat him out of the way. Other prominent Irishmen are threateaed, it is said, with a similar fate. THE JOHNSTOWN TRAGEDY. A report was received in Greenaby, Pennsylvania, oo May 31« t, tkat the greater part of Johnstown had been fbodadj and hundreds of lives lost. In orde* to understand the nature of the calamity it is necessary to describe the location of the reservoir at Johnstown. The reservoir lies about two and a-half miles to the north-east of Johnstown, and is the Bite of an old reservoir, which was one of the feeders- of the Pennsylvania cacal. Thiß sheet of water was formerly known as Oonemaugh Lake. It is from 200 to 300 feet above the level of John-

! siown, in the naoontaic side, and is about | §! miles long, and from 1 mila to 1£ miles iV width, and in some places 100 feet deep, it holds more water than any other reservoir, natural or artificial, in the United States. Thia lake bad been quadrupled in size, and we&hefd by a dam 7#o to 1000 feet Beoognising the menace which t>he lake held to the region | i below, the South Pork Club, which Owned ; the reservoir, had the dam inspected once j a month by Pennsylvanian engineers, who reported that nothing but some convulsion of nature would tear the barrie? away. Steady rains of 45 hours duration increased the volume of in the small mountain streams, and t ia evident that something in the rutvw a cloud-burst aust have oocunod, and a sudden freshet occurred in the North fork river, oast of Johnstown, and the latter city was flooded, while all the rivers in the neighborhood rose. The crowning disaster, however, resulted at about 5 o'clock on the evening of May 31st, when the reservoir broke, and an immense volume of water rushed down i into the valley below, carrying with it

death and destruction. Johnstown was submerged and hundreds of lives were lost. The houses were swept away and carried by the rush of viator, with the people clingiog to the roofs. At Camptowu, a village of «everal hundred inhabitants, the houses were almost eßtirely covered, and a great many buildings in Blairsville submerged: It is s«d that four-fifths of the town of South Fork, above Johnstown, containing 2080 inhabitants, were swept away. The following towns also lay between ihe reservoir and Johnstown :—Mineral Point, 800 inhabitants ; Conemaogh, 2000 j Woodville, 2000. The first two were in the valley, and it seems impossible to hops that any of the inhabitants of Mineral Point have escaped. At Conemaugh there was a topographioal possibility of the spreading of tho fbod and breaking of its force, but it is supposed that the towns flooded through the rising of the mora. All the telegraph wires in the locality are down, and the information which had come to hand when the mail steamer left San Frnocisoo was meagre. , Philadelphia, May 31. m

I All the wires on the Pennsylvania rail- [ road west of Vfillmore station, on the I Pittsburg division, are down. Three New J York trains are laid up at Lalonia, unable 'to proceed because of the floods. The bridge at South Fork is washed away, and the telegraph tower and other buildings, with a portion of an east-bound freight traia, were carried away, and several railway employes have been drowned. Despatches received up to midnight at tho office of the Pennsylvania railroad indicate the situation aB hourly growing worse. Landslips «re reported along the line between Harrieburg end Altona. The Now York Limited, eastern bound, had a narrow escape. Immediately after the train passed over the South Fork Bridge that structure was ewept away by water, The tracks ot Johtiatowa are entirely destroyed in some places. The river for some distance is filled with building and driftwood SOf t high, which ia on fire, and likely to damage the bridge. The fire is beyond control. Johnstown literally is wiped out of existence. , Braddoce, Pa., May 31.

A boy was rescued by men in a signal tower of the Railway Company at Sank Hollow/ He said that with his father, mother, brother, and two sisters at Sank Hollow he was swept away. He was washed away from a building, and i other members of the family were swept over the breast stone wall on tha road bridge at Johnstown. It eapsized a few seconds later, and all were drowned. The railroad operators reported that they were able to count 119 persons clinging to buildings. The people of Johnstown had been warned of impending floods early in tbe afternoon, but do person living near the reservoir knew the dam had given way until the flood swept the houses off of their foundations, and escape was impossible. As early as one o'clock the railway officials were notified that there was danger from the dan, and they in a very short time began to carry people to places of safety by the regular trains s and hastily improvised rescuing trains. . Reports from Piedmont, Huntington, Tyrone, Harrisburg, Altona, and Williamß Fort state that great damage waa caused by the flood. The destruction at Piedmont was terriblo, and it is estimated the loss will reach 250,000 dols. Tha crops are ruineri everywhere, bouses, barns, fences and lumber swept away. In one case loss of life is reparted, the victim being a child. Tbe tempest raged with terrific violence throughout Indiana, Weitm&reland, Blair, Huntington, Muffin, Juniata and Perry counties, carrying away telegraph wires, ibodiog and washing cut railways, and converting mountain streams into torrents, carrying death and devastation along its path. A MYSTERIOUS MOVEMENT. There is excitement in Kew York newspaper circles, Bays a despatch of May 17th, over a report that James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald, had gone to Khartoum on an important mission. He left Paris three weeks previously, went to Marseilles, then to Alexandra, and during the week ending 18th May to Cairc. Two stories are given in explanation of this singular journey. One is that at the Club Moreton, in Paris, an officer who had seen service in the Egyptian army said it was impossible for foreigners to enter Khartoum and depart alive. Bennett offered a heavy wager that he would do it within six months. The bet was accepted, and, accompanied by a friend, he started. The otherstory is that Bennett received a despatch from his Cairo correspondent stating that he had had a visit from an envoy of the Madhi with important news regarding Chines© Gordon, that the latter was still alive and kept a close prisoner, that the new Madhi, by reason of his reverse at Kardofan and Bahr El Ghazel, anri loss of the great province of Darftwr, was willing to ransom Gordon for one million francs, The next day Bennett made all arrangements for the journey and for payment of the vast sum mentioned, and with a friend set out for Egypt.