Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Over Uncle Sam’s Property on Isthmus of Panama. TRANSFER IS PERFECTED Stars and Stripes Wave Over Canal Zone and All Property Therein Contained—Comm/ssion Meets in Wachington. Adviceg from Panaina state _that the United States canal commission Wed nesday took formal pos.sessio'n of the canal route aund of the property of the Panama Canal Company. William W. Russell, the retiring minister to Panama (recently appoint ed United States minister to Coiom bia); Secretary Lee, of the United States legation, and Dr. Pierce, su perintendent of the sanitation work, were among those present, From date the canal works will .be under the direction of Major Bark Brooke, of the engineer corps of the United States army, who represeated the canal commisgion at the ceremony of the transfer, Immediately after the transfer the United States flag was hoisted over the legation and over the canal of fices in the cathedral plaza. Knox Reports on Transfer. A Wiashington special says: The president has received a lengthy re port {rom Attorney General Knox on the Panama canal transfer. This re port gives the details of the arrange ments made with Morgan & Co., to - nance the deal in Paris and make the payments for the canal propertics. In connection with these payments, it is said at the treasury department, that Morgan & Co. wili be designated as dishursing agents of the govern ment and following the invariable rule in such cases, they will be required to deposit $40,000,000 bonds as seenrity to the government. The payment wil] be made as soon as the bonds have been received,waich vrobably will be in a day or two. Canal Commission Meats. There was an informal executive conference of the members of the isthmus canal commission at Wash ington Wednesday at which a number of matters of interest were discussed. It had been intended to elect a sec retary, but this action was not :taken at the forenoon session. It was stated that *no matters of interest to the public were in shape to be given out. RUSSIA CLAIMS VICTORY. Great Slaughter of Japs Offsets Rout of Czar'’s Forces. The gloom which prevailed in St. Petersburg Tuesday says an Associa ted Press dispatch, was almost com pletely dispelled Wednesday morning when the people read the story of the glorious fight made by General Zassalitch’s handful of rough regl ments against the flower of the mikar do’s legions at the Yalu and of the utr ter defeat of Vice Admiral Togo’s new attempt to seal the entrance to Port Arthur. It is now plain that not more than 8,000 Russians were actually engaged in the fighting at the Yalu against the Japanese army, of a total strength of between 30,000 and 40,000. The losses on both sides, which are ex pected to reach 1,000 and possibly 1,200 in the Russian force and twice that number for the Japanese make it one of the bloodiest fights in history. At the river crossing the Japanese dead lie piled up literally in heaps, ana General Kuroki’'s success was pur chased at such a heavy cost that the Russians are disposed to regard it as rather a defeat than a victory for him. General Kuropatkin's dispatch gshows that the Russians fought with guch bull-dog tenacity and bravery agalnst nverwhelming superiority of enemy that the latter's nominal vie tory was eclipsed Ly the prowess of the czar’s soldiers. FIRST SUICIDE RECORDED. For New Wiiliamsburg Bridge Across East River, in New York. The first suicide frcm the new wil liamsburz bridge which spans the East river, a mile above the old Brooklyn bridge, was recorded Thurs day when an unknown woman leaped to death in the river, 135 feet below. As she descended feet foremost, her skirts filled, forming a sort of para chute, and just before reaching the water her body turned and she went into the water head first. SHIP MAKES INITIAL TRIP. New “City of Columbus” Arrives at Savannah on First Voyage. The City of Columbus, the new steamship of the Ocean Steamsiip Company, arrived at Savannah Friday morning at 11 o'clock on her initiai voyage. She was under command of Captain W. H. Fisher, who for scv eral years has brought out every new ship of the company. The City of to lumbus is a sister ship of the Civy of Memphis and is a magnificent vie sel. FOUR CUBANS GARROTED. First Legal Execution in Island Since the Spanish Regime. Four bandits convicted of murder were garroted Wednesday in the pro vincial jzil at Santiago, Cuba. It was the first legal execution since the Spanish regime. Two execution ers who came from Havana were al most mobbed on their way to the jail. President Paima was petitioned to comriute the sentences, bput he dc clined to interfere. ENTOMBED IN BURNING MINE. Five Coal Diggers Buried Beyond All Hope of Rescue. A special from Shamokin, Pa., zays: Rescuing parties are still at work in the Locust Gap colliery, where five men are entombed as a result of the fire in one of the slopes. The miners have been in the mine many hours, and all hope of iinding them alive has been abandoned. The fire Is burning as fiercely as ever, making it impossible to pene trate the forgings. CONNECTICUT FOR PARKER. After Boisterous Convention, Demo. crats of State, Instruct Delegates. In one of the. stormiest gatherings the party has ever heid the dzmo cratic state conventicn at Hartford, Conn., chose delegates to the =i, Louis convention and instructed the:n to vote as a unit and for Alton B. Parker, of New York, as a presidentizl nominee. The climax came at the end of two hours of angry dehate between Hearst and Parker delegates. RALLY OF MISSIONARIES. Preiates of Southern Methodist Churches Gather in Waco, Texas. The great missionary rally of South ern Methodist workers, together with tie heads of all missionary depart ments in Nashville and other parts of the south, formeily opened at Waco, Texas, Mcnday night and continned Tuesday. All of the bishops of the chnrch, south, except three, were on hand. Several thousand delegates and risitors were in attendance. DEADLY TEXAS TORNADO State Is Visited by Three Destructive wiid Storms, Which Play | Frightful Havoc, A special from QGoldthwaite, Tex., says: A tornadn, accompanied by s - vere rainfall, resulted in the death of Mrs. Allen Dennis, George W. Ma son and a child of S. E. Harper, of this vicinity. Luther Reed, Allen Den nis, Mrs. S. Harper, Joe Griffith and a child of S. F. Harper were seriously injured. Twelve or more homes were totally destroyed. Fuil particuiars are not obtaimable. A ternado in the section of cowun try about Star Mountain, located about 25 miles southwest of Hamilton, in Mills county, destroyed five houses, killing George Mascn and blowing away one of his children. The child is alive, but is not expected to live. C. E. Behooksr had his house blown away, and one child kiiled and other members of his family slightly injured. The house of Mr. Rayburn was aiso destroyed, injuring four of the. fam ily. A tornado at Holliday station, in the Wichita valley, about 12 miles from Wichita Falls, entirely demolished the school house and many other build ings. The teacher, Sam Horton, of the public school, was fatally injured, and a boy, Henry Riggs, had his arm broken, The elevator and grain house of Wilson & Nolan was totally destroyed. The Davis grain house was wrecked and the hotel blown from its founda tion and wrecked. At Ruby, John Mullen’s house was wrecked and Nir. and Mrs. Mullen were carried nearly 100 yards by the wind. Mrs. Mullen is believed to be fatally hurt. Wesley Spurlock, 14 years old, was Kkilled. At Sunset nearly tweniy buildings were wrecked, but no person was fa tally burt, . ’ NO LIBERTY HERE. Bishop Turner Refuses to Sing “My Country, 'Tis of Thee.” “] am unwilling to sing ‘America, until this country is what it claims to be, ‘Sweet Land of Liberty,’” de clared Bishop H. M. Turner, of At lanta, at Friday night’s session of the African Methodist Episcopal Con ference in Chicago, “The Negro In Science,” was the subject of the address delivered by Bishop Turner, which caused him to take up every phase of the negro question in this country, and led him to say that this was not the negro’s bome, but on the contrary, that Ged had allowed the negro to come to this country, to be enslaved in order that he could be (raired and go back to his native land and make it what it should be. In concluding Lis address Bishop Turner said: . “The supreme court of the United States is against us. We fiave gooc friends in this country, yet they are comparatively few snd the only thing left for us to do is to leave. Let us be men, let us go where we can be men. The negro is here, some declare that he is here to stay, but I doubt it very much, unless he is to stay under the ground.” CLOTHES OF WENTZ FOUND. Two Mountaineers Held for Complic ity in D.sappearance. A special from Knoxville, Tenn., gpays: There is a strong. suspicion that Silas Ison and Thomas Wr:ight, the mountaineers who were capiured at Cumberland {ap, Tenn., rccently, after having been shot and wounded by officers, had a hand in the myste rous disappearatcce¢ of Edward L. Wentz, th> young mtilionaire who aas ' been missing since last October. Three |garments discovered in a house at fGlamorgan, whicn Ison and Wrigit formerly occupied are believed to have been the property of Wentz. One of these ,a pair of *riding trousers, nas on it wha: appears to be hlood I stains. The women of the family now ' oce:pying the house declare the trousers are identically the same in appearance as thogse worn by Weilz The other gar.cents are tailor-made, but unfinished, and bear a tag which shows that the cluth came from Louis ville, The men suspected in this cor ncction are now i 1 jail at Tazewcll Tean. ¢ JOHNSON GRASS BARRED. United States Supreme Court Sustarns Law of Lone Star State. The United States supreme court, in | an opinion by Justice Holmes, in the case of the Missouri, Kansas and ['exe as Railway Company vs. Clay May, sustained the wvalidity of the Texas statute prescribing a penalty against railroads in that state which permit Johnson grass to go to seed on their . lines. The law was attacked as un- ] constitutional, but the court upheld it as a measure for the protection of the people of the state against an ime jurious plant. EX-CONVICT FILES SUIT. Wantsg DamM Alleged lliegal Detention Overtime. g Timothy Goings, an ex-convict, will fila suit against the Chattahoochae Brick Company, of Atlanta, Ga., for-” $30,000 damages. The suit is a most unique one and nrobably the firs: one of its kind in the state. The suit grows out of the clalh made by Goings that he was unlaw fully held as a prisoner by the brick company for a period of eleven and a half months. COSTLY BELAZE AT INDIANAPOLIS. Union Stock Yards Burned, Entailing - a Loss of $300,000, Fire at the Union stock yards in Indianapolis Tuesday resulted in a loss of $300,000 te the Belt Rai'road and Union Stock Y.rds Company. Thir ty-five head of cattle were burned and forty acres of cattle sheds and iive stock pens were totally destrcyed ‘fo gether with about five hundred tons of hay and 10,000 bushels of corn. The !nsura.n-ce’flis . 8440.000. BOSTON BAKERS ON STRI!KE. Town Is Without Pies and Baked Beans Cut from Bill of Fare, A new feature of the bakers’ strike at Boston, Mass.. Wednesday was the diminution in the supply of pie 3, a number of restaurants being compell ed to sirike this ilem from the bill cf fare. The principal master bakers ‘of the city manifest no tendency to consider any pronosition of a gettle ment from the unionsg, JAPANESE ALSO THREW ROCKS. Russian General Was Put Qut of Ac ticn in Contact with Stone. A St. Petersburg dispatch says: Ihe emperor has received a dispatch from General Kuropatkin giving the report of Lieutenant General Zassalitch of the Russian losses in the battle ¢f Klu lien Cheng. The report states “uhat Major General Kashtalinsky was '\ jured in the head by a stone. There are sfaid to be about 200,000 of the surviving sold.ers of the civil war who have not vet applied for pen sions. These, as rapidly as they reach the age of 62, if the recent order stands, will be entitled to pensions, upen simple application.