i I Ha- Yargo fiistcr J Ar- I'iiitc to rc- lifc. Nel 1; oil the own Mcth I Burlington, Vt Jloinr Viscontcnt the I the XTily hurt as Vcar accident Vrnpany has pur l properly of the fll Company, the Vis extcrjded iu- h tlic 1'lllVlT- ulvaflaijc i)f Y'i of the lvho was to 1 l.i- llnnd Valley A., resulted in mil the injury Tlic fire in Chi fof John C. I'iit- j ui v-na i iwi 11.3- j 1 tenth lloors of yw York, ic Iprnpcrty. I riiilc Mooily "i Avenue fi man (I and .Jobbers. (known as liter, died ijr a con t express rdoncd by 24 years in " f tlie Ediiar have-'accepted a years old. confessed icity in the Youngblood murder at , Lot. . Fred Tabst. head of the Pabst trewing Company, died at li is home in iilwatikee. Three men are in the Newark City Hospital as the result of a tire in their ime. The Morning Star Thresher Factory, apoicon. t). was humeri down. be National Kollmsf Mills, at Mc- esport, have resumed oncrations. The Clyde Stcainshin Cor.inanv has lemanded in New York $105,000 for images sustained bv the Kiowa when he) was rammed bv thi Admir:i! I)iwrv rjf. Ihe American Steamship Company. jraers nave hecn received to lmmrrii- rately put in operation Mast (urnace No. ?at Duquesne and furnace II, of the Cdgar Thomson Steel Woiks, at Brad- aoctc f cicign. i Leonard Seyboth, a member of the rrman Reichstag, was sentenced to nonths iinprisonnicnt and the loss civil rights for five years for forg bills of exchange. lieneral Piitaluga, of the Italian iy. will probably be appointed to inland the gendarmes in Macc- Irua, in accordance with the Russo- kstnan reform scheme. Maron Ilayashi, the Japanese minis- Uondon, says lie has received no intended dispatch of a 11 to Ma San I'lio. port. ylc marine engineers Mianesc government leccivcd cable orders ately to Japan. ld and the other Ivcdifh Antarctic ex- Vigo, Spain, and kholm. has delivered to the decoration of gion of i louor. ptnr Lucchctti the late Pope 1 of the new was put out ncc. contemplates ng station at :s( Indies, is o be as mi nis reports, 'iiieta touched nd then sailed 1. reception was Americans in cruised King I'orlsmoulh lor send the state Louis Lxposi- 'soon nublish a llpaign in Cuba. an official re- is tipped by lo go to 60 this Continues to be bearish on lock and is selling steadily. tiounccd that Union l'acitic ted 130.000 shares ol Atcbi- f Pac.'fic's grots earnings in n November $402,000, and the Va $207,000. uld'f output of gold in 1903 cd at $ tiouo.ooo. which is jo nioro than in iom. 1 I than ij.ooo ions of copper Jporied in Uecrmlier. oods importt at New York this c il,f7V: last week, v "OkvCaiiaclian pa. t yt fin is lied !elivered ich it Lng- Am en I r iiauc I It 1 VL. 1 1 I ..onper people r J VER 500 FIRE VICTIMS Men, Women and Children Burned and Suffocated inChicago Fire. PANIC IS CAUSED BY- FLAMES IN THE SCENERY. Many of theJZictims Overcome By Gas Which Filled The A V ium Others Were Trampled to DeatftsJScenes of Indescribable Distress Attend the Great Catastrophe. Cssli ago (Special). Chicago is stun - ncd by the worst theatre catastrophe in the history of the country. Five hundred and thirty-six men, I women and children, according to the count of tlic police and 562 according , , . ,., . to the estimates of the Chicago news- papers, met death by fire, smoke and panic at the matinee performance of "Mr. llluebcard" at the beautiful new frotiois Theatre. Most of the dead arc women and children. In addition to the d ad, 55 persons are missing; H6 of the dead have been identified. Scores were burned, while hundreds were suffocated by smoke and Ras and crushed into pulp by one another while struynliiiR to escape the impending doom. Still other hundreds are lying between life and death, with limbs broken and burned, at their homes and in hospitals. (ihouls mingling with those who were risking their lives in the cause of humanity robbed the bodies right and eft. Two men were caught with their pockets bulging with pockelbooks. The articles were taken from them by the police and they were allowed to go. The police themeles gathered up val uable inrs. pockelbooks and many arti cles of value, which were taken to the station. There was little attempt on the part of police to keep any track of the property fikcn and men were seen go ing along t'Aje streets robbing the bodies that were' fjs-ing on the sidewalks under the very eyes ol'-he officers. From pit to clonic thc'-.Jiousc was packed. Mothers and their l"t(flc ones had laughed themselves hoarse atthc antics of hdilie Toy, the chief coifK- dian of the piece. It was in the middle milinii " of the play, and the chorus, s and frolicsome, had just concluded singing a moonlight song. "There is the moon now!" cried a little chap in the front row as a curl of smoke and a tiny bit of flame shot out from the wings to the right of the stage. The children clapped their hands in glee. Mothers laughed a bit and the whole audience was in a fine humor. Hut the flame reached out and caught a piece of inflammable scenery that hung over the center of the stage. ' Instantly there was a large ribbon of flame. A calcium light on a stand six feet above the level 01 the stage had exploded and in a moment everything back of the footlights was a broad wave of fire that lighted the half-illuminated house with weird effects. "Eddie" Foy stood out from the panic-stricken group on the stage to assure the audience that there was no danger. Iiy his orders the great as bestos curtain was let down, but it caught on one side and failed to work fully. In another instant smoke burst out from the top arch of the stage and from under the bottom of the cur tain. Before a man or woman in the seats could arise the whole roof of the audi torium was in a blaze. The gas tanks exploded in the flics on the east side of the theatre, and black, choking fumes beat down in a cloud of death from every wall. Fear, uncontrollable ai:d terrible, reigned. Men and women fought like wild beasts, li Med only with the desire for self-protection. Babies slipped from their mother's uplifted arms and in an instant their lives were crushed underfoot. Girls threw themselves from the balconies and lay crushed and dying until suffocation ended their misery. Ma uy in the orchestra seats, with easier access to the doors, gradually made their way to safety, but most of them threw aside wraps, pockelbooks, hats everything that seemed 10 bur. den them in their rush for life and the open air. But in the balcony and the gallery the demon of destruction ,h, hi. frightful work at will. The flames and smoke gathering on these upper floors caught the people before they realized mc hiii cmciu 01 tne danger. It seem ed incredible that the little rush of fire could lap the walls so quickly and reach out after them like a stroke of light ning. Then when the full meanincr of iVi. disaster came to frightened ones they Coal lor Jupta'i Sblps. Norlolk, Va. (Special). The British steamship Knight Errant it loading 11,500 Ions of coal here for the Japa nese Government to be delivered at Yokohama. It it the same kind of coal as that used by the United States war ships and there is no secret of the des tination of the coal and of the inference that it it hurried because of the pros pect of war between Japan and Russia. I he Knight Errant is expected to leave here this week 011 her two months' voy age. Meictary Staaa'ara' lor Ma ilea. Mexico City (Special), A plan for re forming the currency has been prepared by the fifth subcommittee of the Na tional Monetary Commission. The com mittee advises that in order to obtain stability or fixity of international ex change the government should be ad vised by a monetary commission to adopt a monetary system phased on the gold standr.rd. The committee docs not rec mnivund th itiitiilLt a. I.. -1 t. old standard, bat rathrr creating a sys--i similar to that which the United V sfovernment has put in operation ''nlippinc. (with, the smoke curling about them, everything plunged in absolute dark ncss, not even a friendly lantern to show them tlic way out of this dance of death. The theatre, with its classic outline. beautiful plii-h hangings, the arched -.'.1 ... -.1. . I l .1 winnows, wuii ineir siaincu glass, anu ... st.lt.,iv ...ii-.r, 1,,.,-aine a nmrirtic in five minutes alter the first little flame made its way along the stage. Women who had managed by strength or terror to get into the aisles found their awful ending in a mingled doom of smoke and fire and tearing of limbs in the aisles and in the open space back of the seats. Dozens of others, swept, carried, dragged or thrown out lo the stairways and even beyond them to the landings in actual sight o( the da light that streamed through the big front doors in sight of the throngs outside, with fire wagons and the smoking horses, died in great masses 10 and u feet high, limbs min gled fearfully together, clothing burn ed off and faces caught in their last agonies all turned toward the doors they could not reach. From windows at the north and west end of the building they streamed, blinded by the smoke and crazed beyond any possibility of helping themselves farther or of taking advantage of the aid extended to them from the upper lloors of the buildings facing the the atre. Ladders, plank, ropes, poles, every thing that. could possibly serve to as sist these poor creatures in their battle for life were rigged and turned into bridges, but few got across alive. Rap idly one blackened corpse after another was passed along until every building on the north and west side was tilled with them. Barely live minutes after the first alarm was turned in firemen were strug gling into the theatre, making their way in some miraculous manner, though the maddened mob was pouring out of the auditorium, doing what little they could not only to check the lire, which was fast turning the whole in terior shell into a cauldron, but to res cue the frantic hundreds in the tinner f A'ckom'!' ,jy ladders stretched from the ttittd llrw,r A icv ;3p at most were rescued in this way, aiiu' ,'Jien the firemen after con rolling the dailies abandoned their lengths of hose to go 'vvith the gather ing police and make thcM" way to the horrors that waited for the.vj on the upper stairways and in the balcony seats. Here was no more struggling, no more frantic haste. Hundreds ivith homes in every part of the city still showing at their windows Christmas wreaths, still filled with the decora tions of the holiday season, lay be- yond all thought of worldly things in silent heaps oi death. And still outside the main entrance to the building many passersby at tracted by the presence of the fire en gines had no knowledge of the fearful disaster- inside. Tens of thousands passed and repassed within a block without knowing it. Hundreds of po lice officers stationed in the roadway were asking one another if there had been any among the audience badly hurt. But when from the inside began to stream a procession of tircnun carrying between them the charred bodies of those who a little while before had been happy in the enjoyment of an af ternoon's pleasure the scene without changed as if by magic. From every business street of the city men whose wives and families had gone to the mat inee, came with white faces and eyes blinded with tears to the theatre and screamed like madmen the names of those they were seeking. Many of them found their loved ones safe but still half crazed in surrounding stores and hotels. Others discovered . them among the dead by some particle of dress, a half-charred hair ribbon, a shoe or a locket.- Eyewitnesses of the Iroquois fire de clare that no words can begin to de scribe the pandemonium that occurred nor the frenzy of the men and women. Among the hundreds of persons who rushed to the rescue when the call of fire was heard on the streets was Bish op Samuel Fallows, who happened to be passing the theatre. Without fear or hesitation he made his way through the darkness that was intensified by the volume of smoke which filled the audi torium to the top gallery and assisted in carrying out the victims. "God forbid that I ever again see such a heartrending sight!" said the Bishop later. "I have been in wars and upon the bloody field of battle, bm in all my experience I have never seen ! :J,',n" P "a" s" Kruesome. as he sight . 1. : . . ) .L "7. rf nS?A,r?. . " a,U of i Zt " ' X' nkJ I" "1 7 ' ".V" CI etrate the inky blackness of that bal cony. There was a pile of twisted and bleeding bodies 10 feet high, with blackened laces and remnants of char red clothing clinging to them. Some were alive and moaning in their agony. Others, and by far the ureater number I were dead. I assisted in carrying many Balltl la Mis Brala. Portchester, N. Y; (Special). Al though Charles Braun, the 16-year-old son of a prominent grocer of Williams bridge, was found shot through the brain on Wednesday afternoon, he is still alive Ihe physicians in the Ladies' Hospital have probed for the bullet, but they have been unable to locate it. Braun has been unconscious ever since the shooting and the hospital surgeent will use the X-ray to locate the bullet as soon at his condi tion will warrant. The chief of police feels certain that the boy was shot through his own carelessness. Bralal la Their Olltarlag. New York (Special). Because of the affidavit of Dr. W. Travit Gibb that he had found 65 abrasions, contusions and burns on the body and bead of 5-year, old Lawrence Bateman, Magistrate Barlow, in Yorkville Court, held in $1000 bail John F. Bateman, 30 years old, and bis wife, Nellie, the parents of the child, charged with inflicting the injuries. That it was the most in human case th Society for the Tre veution of Cruelty o Children ever had, was the statetntnt the society's agents made in court ALL CHICAQO THEATRES CLOSED. Proprietors of Iroquois Theatrt Under Arrest Also a Building Inspector. Chicago ( Special) . Every theater in the City of Chicago is dark and with doors locked. Not one of them will be open to the public until their managers have complied in the fhllest manner with every section of the ordinances regulating playhouses. 'flie total number of dead in the Iro ouois Theater disaster has Ucn definitely established at 587, of which but 13 remain unidciitfiicd. The order compelling the theaters to close was issued by Mayor Harrison after a conference with Corporation Counsel Tolman, who assured the Mayor that ample legal ground existed for hit action. Will J. Davis and Harry Powers, pro prietors of the Iroquois Theater, and Building Commissioner Williams are un der arrest, charged with manslaughter. 1'hey have been released on $10,000 bonds, and their hearing is set for Janu ary 13. The warrants for their' arrest were sworn out by Arthur E. Hull, who lost his wife and three children in the fire. Mr. Hull explained that bis action was not inspired by any motive of ven geance, but simply to make it certain that the owners of the theater should not es cape any chance of punishment that was rightfully theirs while stage hands and electricians and other employes were compelled to suffer. ft is a noteworthy fact that Building Commissioner Williams, who is now charged with manslaughter in connec tion with the greatest fire horror the country has ever experienced, owes his appointment to a tragedy of similar na ture, but of much less extent, which oc curred two year? ago. Mr. Williams' predecessor vacated his office af'er the burning of the St. Luke's Sanitarium, at Twentieth street and Wa bash avenue. This was the institution in which a score of men suffering from de lirium tremens were burned to death while strapped to their beds. Mr. Wil liams was selected with the idea that he was the proper man to sec that no such catastrophe could happen again. CAUSED BV HEAT FROM FLOODLIGHT. Important Testimony at the Investlf ntloa By the Coroner. Chicago (Special). Fire Inspector Monroe Fulkcrson renewed bis investi gation into the causes of the disaster. Two stage hands were questioned for two hours. Then W. A. Mcrriam, man ager for the George A. Fuller Construc tion Company, builders of the theater, was called into the office. The company's attorney was with him. William McMulleth manager of the spot light, which is alleged to have caused the fire in the Iroquois Theater, testified before the investigation hearing that the spot light had nothing to do with it. He said the fire was caused by the heat from the floodlight used to "flood" the theater. McMullcn said his floodlight was turned out when the fire started. He said he was looking at the floodlight and saw the flimsy border blow directly over the floodlight. The heat from this light, he alleges, caused the fire. The city electrician followed with tes timony that the heat from the floodlight waV.sufficicnt to cause the fire. McMullen is considered by the police to be oi1 of the most important wit nesses. He War? fai charge of the spot light which seT tire to the .f4lryand re sulted in the large loss of life""" James J. Hamilton, a scenery shifter, explained what seemed to many at the lire to be an explosion. rive minutes after the hre started. said he, "the big set piece in the shape of a fan used as a finale in the second act fell 40 feet to the stage. The piece was studded with ISO incandescent lamps and weighed several hundred pounds. 1 he noise of its tall and the breaking lamps gave forth the sound of an explo sion." Hamilton said he was in the stage hands' room below the stage when someone came downstairs, saying: "Come upstairs quietly. There's a fire up there." "When I reached the stage," said Hamilton, "the fire curtain was com ing down very slowly. I stepped un der it and joined others in urging the audience to keep quiet. The curtain should have dropped quickly, and I was surprised to see it stick. I stayed on the stage until my clothing was scorched. When I first came up, the orchestra was playing, and the dou ble octet was singing, with sparks falling all around them. Not a musi cian nor player moved until it was a matter of life and death." Hamilton denied that it was the cus tom to have the cables controlling the ventilators above the stage blocked so as to make it impossible to open the ventilators. "The ventilators were opened, I be lieve, at every performance," he said. "Many times the draft from them was so strong that it was uncomfortably cool on the stage." Coroner Traeger has learned that each of the 180 drop scenes in the the ater was hung with new, oily, manila rope. It is estimated that there were 75.000 lineal feet of this inflammable material used in suporting live drop scenes and that it added fuel to the flames in the rigging loft. Dreadful Family Tragedy. Grundy Center, la. (Special). As a result of the suicide of Miss Lizzie Lynch by taking strychnine her sister became hysterical and is lying dead at their home. Their mother is insane as a consequence of the two deaths and her life is despaired of. Crated By Hlrt Horror. Giicago (Special). Her brain weak ened from pondering over the Iroquois fire horror, Mrs. Marie Hopkins seiz ed her two children, threw them vio lently under a bed, and securing ait ax commenced breaking up a stove which stood in the room. The crazed wo man's frantic shrieks of "Fire! They're burning save my children," attracted the attention of policemen, who ar rested her and rescued the children. Mrs. Hopkins had suffered no per sonal loss by the theater fire. SPARKS t-KOM TUB WIRES. confirmed the sentence of death im posed on tour natives who butchered three marines in September, 1902. 1 ncrc were great anu rapid fluctua tions in the cotton market in New York and klew Orleans and something akin to a panic on the exchanges. Frank Whit pimA un . cuted 111 the State prison in Auburn, N. Y., for the murder of George Gar, a farmer of Oswego county. A Penntylvania limited collided with a freight train at Larwill, Ind. One man wai killed mil m les seriously injured. ANOTHER INVESTIGATION Treasury Department Experts Are Id Charge. THE SAFE IN THE OFFICE SEALED At th: Request ol Acting Chairman Clements ot the Interstate Comnterct Couimltsion, the Persistent Rumors That There Have Been Irregularities on the Part of Elward A. Motley, Ihe Secretary. Washington, D. C. (Special). Treas ury Department experts instituted an investigation of the accounts of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The action is taken at the instance of Act ing Chairman Clements, of the com mission, as a result of persistent ru mors of irregularities in the drawing of vouchers, etc. When the expert ac countants, Nathaniel M. Ambrose and Richard H. Taylor and James L. Chase, the latter of the office of the auditor for the State and other departments, reached the commission they scaled the safe and examined Secretary Edward A. Moseley, H. S. Milstead, the cash ier, and other employes. Milstead has not been suspended. Acting Commis sioner Clements stated that he did not know that anything was wrong, but that the rumors had become so per sistent that they could no longer be ig nored and the Treasury Department was. therefore, asked to take charge of the accounts. Mr. Moseley is un der $J3,ooo bonds as disbursing officer. It is understood that the rumors in clude allegations' of payments made for service at one place while the payee was engaged elsewhere, and similar ir regular methods. The investigation will be thorough, and every phase of the accounting work of the commis sion will be thoroughly overhauled. The commission handles about $J"5, 000 annually, the bulk of this being for salaries, traveling expenses, etc. The payments arc by warrants on the Treas ury. II. S. Milstead performs the du ties of cashier, but Edward A. Mose ley, the secretary nf the commission, is in charge of all the accounting work. Acting Commissioner Clements, who is head of the commission, in the ab sence of Chairman Knapp in New York city, said that he did not regard the situation as startling, and that he did not believe any wrongful conduct would be found, but that it was the unanimous opinion of the commission that the rumors should be inquired in to by experts to ascertain the exact facts. JAPANESE WARSHIPS ORDERED TO KOREA. Unconfirmed Rumors That Selrure of Ihe Port of Ma San Pbo is Contemplated. Tokio (By Cable). A powerful squadron, consisting of six armored cruisers and Admiral Kamimura, is expected to leave Sascho for Ma San Pho, Korea. Sascho is a Japanese port, 25 miles to the west of Nagasaki. The report is current that the squad ron will seize the port of Ma San l'ho, Korea, and that its departure has been fixed for January 4. In well-informed circles, however, it is doubted that Japan would seize Ma San Pho or any Korean port, except to forestall Russia in the event of the latter showing evidences of any in tention to take a step or in the event of the negotiations between the two coun tries finally ending in failure. Great activity prevails and the force of workmen has been increased at the Osaka arsenal. The holidays of the arsenal operatives have been curtailed in order to hurry up the work in hand. On A Coral Reef. Pensacola, Fla. (Special). The Nor wegian steamer Ilydria, from Belize, brought to this port the captain and five members of the crew of the Ameri can schooner Richard A. Bingham, of Pensacola. The Bingham went on the coral reef 20 miles from Belize at mid night December 18, and was a total wreck. The crew launched one of the lifeboats, which was crushed in the waves. Later they succeeded in launch ing the other boat, and after spending the night on the water, tossed by the waves, they reached Belize, from which place they were brought here. The schooner bad a cargo of mahogany from Belize for Pensacola. She was owned here and was launched .about 8 months agi uui.tu Ihe MillUa. Cripple Creek, Col. (Special). Ex citement was occasioned here by the action of Attorney John M. Clover, formerly a Congressman Irom Mis souri, in defying the military, barricad ing himself m his office, and only sur rendering after receiving a bullet wound in the arm. Colonel Verdeckberg, commanding the militia, received a let ter from Mr. Glover, denying the le gality of the recent order for the sur render of arms by citizens. In his. let te, Glover referred to Governor Pea body as "a cheap anarchist." He de clared that he had two revolvers in his office and defied the military to take them from him. Ship aod SI Men Missing. Taris (By Cable). It is feared that the collier Viennc, of Jhc French Navy, with st officers and men, which left Rochefort for Toulon, has been lost. The Minister of Marine has sent war ships in search of the missing vessel, now 19 days out, which, though in the track of steamers, has not been re ported. It is believed that wreckage cast upon the coast of Spain confirms the apprehensions in regard to the safe ty of the collier. Aaatatr Fire Horror. Chicago (Special). Three prrwins were killed and four others injured in a fire that destroyed the Louvre Hotel, 3l!-302j Lake avenue. Nearly too guests were in the hotel at the time the fire broke out, several of whom had re tired for the night. With the remem brance of the Iroquois Theater horror froth in their minds, everyone in the place became panic-stricken and rushed madly for the streets at toon as it be came .nowu that the hotel was on fire. talqat Way lo Commit Salclde. Salt Lake Gty, Utah (Special), T. Russell Griffith, a portrait artist, com mitted suicide in his cell in the county jail. He first tried to sever the arte ries in hit wrists and throat with a key. Failing in this, lie picked a quantity of wool from hit blankets, with which he plugged up his nostrils, and then lie stullcd his handkerchief down his throat and slowly strangled. The other prison ers hard hiinct''"s ''---i to at tract the atten' ,rs b pemnf ' think' 1 1 car toil It was partmcnt D. J. Hug burg, Gem! the Preside" ), Saylor bad le va- rancy. Mr. S t Uniteil Stales Consul ty, Yukon I erritory. His at that post li;-s not vet been Mr. Saylor is ative of rcnnsyl-. vania and was splinted Consul at Dawson City in iJccmber, 1901. He was Consul at Mtanzas for a few months in the springof 1898. Mr. Hughes was Lrn of American parents in the Argcntie Republic and entered the consular sevice in Febru ary, 1808, as Consul at Snncburg. He was appointed Consul Coburg in May, 1898, and Cnnsul-Gneral at the same place in April, 1901., The State Department alsv announces the appointment of Prof. Jihn Todd Hill to be Consul-General at treytown, Nicaragua. " Awiiling Smool't Reply. , .Senator Julius C. Burrows, 01 Mich igan, who is chairman of the ',"nate Cotnmittce on Privileges and Fictions, which is conducting the investigation of the charges against Senator iced Smoot, of I'tah, said that the cin. miltee probably will meet SaturGiy, January 9, for the continuation of iif inquiry. Before going to Salt Lake City M.. Smoot said he probably will deny sonu of ihe charges and admit others, but nothing regarding his course has been heard since tlic adjournment of Con gress for the holidays. If Mr. Smoot'i denial shall be such as to challenge the .iii'hentu-ity of the information upon which 1 he accusations are based, it ii the opinion of some of the members oi the committee that the authors ol the charges will be given i.n oppor tunity to prove them, and in that event there probably would be a o .iite genera! investigation into the prcsf.ht day prac tices of the Mormon Ch'Jrch with ref erence both to marriage and politics Army Lleutena-t Disgraced. The President ha', approved the pro ceedings, findings and sentence of the court-martial in the case of Second Lieu tenant Paul B. MacLanc, Thirteenth Cavalry. Lieutenant MacLanc was tried at Manila on the charge of embezzling about $700 of subsistence funds while serving as commissary of the Maraquinn River expedition. He was convicted and sentenced to be dismissed and to be im prisoner" .or a period of one year. That portion A the sentence providing for im prisorient probably will be executed at the Bilidad Prison, Manila. Lieutenant MacLanc is a native of Pennsylvania. Patents QranteJ This Year. The last issue of patents for the cal endar year 1903 was granted by til! Patent Office Wednesday. The patent! granted in the United States to date number 748,566: those for 1903, 31,699; trademarks, 2186; labels, 990, an in crease of 223 over the previous year; prints, 270, an increase of 112 ovei 1902. The total number of certificate? of registration of trademarks, labeli and prints was 3449, an increase of 515 over the previous year. Good Price tor Standing Timber. Commissioner Richards, of the Gen eral Land Office, received detailed in formation concerning the sale of the timber on the Chippewa Indian reser vation, in Minnesota. The bids ran as high as $12 per 1000 for white pine lumber in the tree and $10 for Norwaj pine. The aggregate of the bids on the Land Office estimate of timber wa $1,250,000. The timber 011 one section of 640 acres brought $105,000. Preparing to House Troops. All the supply departments of the Army have made arrangements for the transportation of troops and supplies from New York and San Francisco to the Isthmus in case such a movement is determined upon. Plans have also been considered for jhc construction of large storehouses and temporary barracks on Panama territory, and it is estimated that $.iii().0'K) may be required for such con struction. The Friar Laads Loan. Announcement is made that bids for the new Philippine friars' lands loan of $7,200,000 will be received up to 3 P. hi. January 11, and allotments will be made February 1, 1904. In the Departments. At the instance of Acting Secretary Clements, of the Interstate Commerce Commission, an investigation was be gun of persistent rumors that then have been irregularities in the conducl of Secretary Edward A. Moseley. The president approved the sentence of dismissal and imprisonment impos cd on Second Lieutenant Paul'B. M MacLanc, of the Thirteenth Cavalry convicted of embezzlement. The Comptroller of the Currency ha; directed the closing of the Fijrsr Na tional Bank of Storm Luke. Ia. President and Mrs. Roosevelt inaugu rated the official social season in the na tion's capital with a brilliant reception at the White House. The President mid his Cabinet dis cussed the Panama situation at length. On account of the illness of Secretary Hay the negotiations with General Reyes, the Colombian .commissioner, will be conducted by Secretary Root. Tltc year book of the Carnegie In stitution makes announcements of the work and plans laid out for scientific research throughout the world. Minister Lyon, of Liberia, report (he massacre of J. G. Tate, a mission ary, and 18 of his following by Doo tribesmen. Preparations hnve been made to hurry Governor Taft across the Con tinent immediately upon ,his arrival al San Francisco and put him in his po sition as secretary of war by the first of February. Col. Robert L. Meade, of the Marine Corps, was placed on the retired list two years iu advance of the date to which he might have served on the ac tive list. The Comptroller of the Currency ao- -. it. t r . " poiuicu is. l- van .anit, 01 for Worth, lex., receiver of the rami' National Bank of Henrietta, Tex. A naval court-martial was fo try Gunner 1'ries and Brooks on account of the (he naval magazine at lo Col. Henry L. lliom; translator in the S; died at his residcui The executive of the Climb members of corps. secretary ville, Ga., his bron Unlei the iic lom"' wb' J t .si jliKirATC st Nes of Peaosytvnla . Told in Short Order. Farmer in Schuylkill 'and Carbon counties and the upper end of Berks admit that a tacit trust was formed lome time ago to control the turkey nd chicken markets, and that prices lire set by agreement. It also devel ops that, the turkey scarcity in this sec '.ion was a myth and that almost as many were sold for the holidays as in my previous year. The impression that 'urkcys were scarce gave the farmers a :hance to dispose of chickens at high prices also, many being sold at from 12 to 15 cents a pound, while the price should have been from 10 to !J cents. Each farmer was allowed to sell but a certain number each week. The prices charged here have caused much in dignation, and a curbstone market is bciiifr talked of. Stanley Pollock, a railroader of Elizabeth, N. J., began proceedings at Wilkcs-Barre to recover $50 he says he gave the girl who was to be hi brida and who changed her mind. She is Miss Sophia Shupinski, of Ashley, and they were to have been married on No vember 4. Previous to that time Pol lock says he had given her $50 to buy t wedding dress and had bought fur niture for a house. A few days be fore the date of the wedding, he al leges, she threw him over. Now n wants his money back. "The State closed the year on s sound financial basis and with a nice sum in the general fund," said Cashief Pearcc, of the State 'Treasury. "W dose the last day of December with $10,372,970.51, a larger sum for general purposes than held by any other StaW in the Union," he continued, "and dur ing the month we paid out $1,618,266.82, The collections during the year were the greatest in the State's history, ag gregating over $21,000,000." The congregation of the old Menon ite Church at Mt. Ville met and select ed a pastor by lot by drawing tin names from Bibles, as is the custom in the denomination. There were nina candidates and the one selected wai Peter Ebcrsolc, a tenant farmer fof Deputy Auditor General . Sam Matl FiJdy. toroner Scheirer held an inquest in to (the death oi Mrs. Agnes Minerva Lciby, of Allcntown. whose death the police regarded as mysterious. Trie bottom was knocked out of the fou) play theory by the testimony given, and the jury rendered a verdict that death was due to cerebral hemorrhage, due to a fall and weakness aggravated by ' her physical condition. After tha verdict was rendered Coroner Scheirer ordered the release of ex-Policeman Wiiliam J. Kunkle, Mrs. William Cla dcr, with whom Mrs. Lciby lived, and Frank Tobias, Mrs. Clader's brother, who were detained as witnesses. It clearly proved that the cuts on the face were the result 01 lain ihen she attempted to she being too weak to p P irW and BaltV SOOffl dent able. a aster, the P operates igan. It certained from the ca William T. elect, has decifl tice of law. ship with H. J. County Solicitor. offices in Media. tire as ProthonoJ week. When h.! urer, in May in! least three days office. Auditor Gene? ask Attorney Generan opinion as to whether Judges' salary law applii at present in office. It is Judges now in office are to the increase under the Cons? which says that the salaries of no i lie officer can be increased or reduced during the term for which he was elect ed. Abraham Thompson, of Brooklyn, and Lawrence Golderman, of Reading, who were arrested for an attempt to enter the tower on the Pennsylvania Railroad, at Linwood, were given a further hearing at Chester and sent to jail for thirty days for vagrancy. The operator at the tower did not testify against the men. While coming down from his breast into -the gangway at the Pine Hill Col liery, Pottsville, Daniel Williams, a miner, slipped. To keep himself from falling he grasped the timbering, but in doing so he shook down a large rock which crushed him to death. . The trustees of the West Chester State Normal School have elected Fred erick A. Carpenter assistant to Prof. C. B. Cochran, in the Deoartment of Sciences. Prof. Cochran dutiet ai chemist to the State Pure Food De partment occupies much of his time Mrs. tdwin Iroxell, aged 60 y 01 Aiientown, leu - downstairs lighted kerosene lamp in her Ihe blazing oil was scattered Airs, iroxell s dress. She. In the house, but she mar tinguish the hre by roll, carpet. . Gasoline in bottle that John Hohman, mester, used near ploded and threw all over Iiohman td and is now iu William Jei bers who w door of in Po ihe. 1 -HJtlW ' Vy. Duer, of the iiUimore & I l a. 1 vV a. r 1 iX a. nbw f f M r y r r