The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 28, 1900, Page 1

i — @all, © ——— 189, " VOLUME LXXXVI—NO SAN FRANCISOO, MONDAY, MAY 28, 1900. PRICE FIVE CENTS_.—- EUROPE READY TO INTERVENE WHEN UNCLE SAM LEADS Boer Commissioners Expect to Gain Sentiment in This Coun- try to Aid Them Abroad. Special Dispatch to The Call. TARTERS, WELILI A diplomat who WASHINGTON, May if the United States with : feeling in HOTEL Africa cquainted t 1o the Sout Af h war said the Boer < « tour of the West s end in a fortnight, will returs . 1 governments by inf g them Boers Hoer Commissioners werr they found the continental na- PPose e §r fear that the United States o = Their brief stay in this country and the the Eu- We them that f intervention by would be willing st it, and double pur- have convine friends throug i British G cles the ment ase strat such a strong ¥ ents, and Europe frica will cause . y satisfaction 1 show conclusively ring present summer. Lord = ) reach Pretoria it is expected 1 election in this coun- hen be precipitated; if ill hold out as long as out the promis Presider war w ssioners, who FARMS OF DELEGATES ARE IN DANGER CROSSED THE VAAL N. May 27.—The Boer en- | LONDON, May 27.—The War Office has rec n at Boston on | received the following from Lord Rob- they proce ed | er v m.- REENIGING, Su We crossed the v, 115 morning g en route w 1 later visit p. s = Jhia on the | and are now encamped on the north bank. 1 s The ich crossed yes- 1 time to save the h this and the other were four. ports that the raflway and Buluwayo has n restored and that supplies are being eking. He say Joined incredible rapidity. bber was taken prisoner few days ago. He went It was not known . been temporarily ra T HOUSE MAY BE RULED BY DEMOCRATS Loss of a Few Districts Would Put the Republicans Into the Minority. 27.—Representative at Heitbron on teleg r troops - m. | r after | e charge that | | | NEW YORK 'TATED FOR SURRENDER. the Ca- | Colonel Plumer | » from being destroyed. | Je \“ W. Babeock of the Third District = £ isconsi hairman of the Repub- S 2. 4:55 a. m.—The Times Cong: Committee, sald to- | = or correspondent at | night that the hills srekeeper n and with | mediate 4. The close. he d be He said that ports had received from s parts of the country indicated the of President McKinley few £ any of the candidates for the Vice Presi- ! nomination. ator Fairbanks is not nomina said, *the candidate will probat ne from the far West. There will be a fight for the control of the House, ave only 13 majority now and we _probably > some districts in the le Wes We expect, how- to make up any losses that we may n y, York, Pennsylvania and usetts ¥ gressman Babcock said he thought ress would not adjourn till June 9, STRIKERS FIRED UPON BY NON-UNION MEN A mith. . MANY RETREATING BOERS. May 28.—The Standard has LONDON W < ams from Vredefort, dated |One Workman Mortally and Two v 24: Seriously Wounded at i Boers are reported to St. Louis, van . s and Patrick nnell, strikers, e paseing through ette Park th were approached from the rear and fired upon by three men said to be the May 27.—President Kruger, | 544 Tra Company’s em- . £ 10 special dispatch from New- | PIo¥. One of the bullets passed through st s tssued a proclamation asking | Phlp Sullivan’s right lung, causing a . mortal wound. James Sullivan Z a ball in the left cheek and O 1‘r‘rnr,;:(l\le(v\\‘§i shot through the left leg. Accounts of the affair differ. Some by- standers claim that it was a deliberate at- | tempt at ination on the part of the | company’s new employes, while others | aver that it was nothing more or less than a pitched battle between the two fa ctions, A riot call was sounded, but the three un- ped and no further dis- owed. A meeting of citizens has been called for to-morrow afternoon for the purpose of discussing plans for the amicable set- tlement of the street car employgs’ strike, Pt o el BRITISH AND ASHANTIS IN DESPERATE BATTLE burghers to notify him to continue the fight ot e D CAPTURED BY COLONIALS. TASERI ¥ utoland, May 26.—Four of colonials captured 150 Boers grain near Ficksburg, ed a Maxim con- ntor. e o TO AID BOER SUFFERERS. LONDON 25.—The Natlonal Ba- nsington, London, last by the Prince of rers from the war, BOERS REOCCU: BARKF PY EKURRUM. May 26.—It is re- reoccupied aagers are lo- Danielskuil. INVADES TEE TRANSVAAL. - D aded Heavy Losses Sustained in an At- tempt to Break the Investing Lines at Kumassie, ACCRA, May 21.—It is reported that three European officers were killed and Captain Aplin and 100 Hausers were wounded in a recent effort by the Lagos Hausers to break the investing lines of tribesmen at Kumassie. The Ashanti loss is reported to have been great, as the Hausers Had three Maxims . engaged, although themselves greatly outnumbered. Three hundred Ashantis are said to have been killed in a previous action. The ris- ing is still spreading. poe. ST Torpedo Flotilla Moving. - % reral Hamil- al, having Paper Mill Destroyed. MILWAUKE Wis., May 27.—The ey Company’'s mill and ho t Park Falle burned to-day, ling a loss of $200,00. The property ed. The town was without ade- protection and at one time it ht it would be totally destroyed. ce from Medford and Abbotsford pr d the spread ofsthe flames bey, t:: paper company’'s plant. h:ncnua.’d“,'fi BERLIN, May -2l7—ik t:rpedo :omln 1s Ose are two paper machines valued | now proceeding slowly down the Rhine &% 340,000 each. land will arrive at Rotterdam June 5, s ilon the contest for | of the next House of Repre- | chance at present of | | MANY WILL OBSERVE THE SOLAR ECLIPSE Largest Cam Be Operated by Astronomers in the “Path of Totality.” [ R O e R SORS SO S SRCR OSSO A e R R ] 8 . * ’ ?: * ‘ £ . b3 P & . . ° P's . . . PS . » . s { ’ R4 > * L4 b B $ ¢ ® & * * s kd ' 3 -3 Camp of the Lick Observatory Party at Thomastcn, Ga. b¢ b (From a photo furnished by Director, James E. Keeler.) ! b¢ @ S B R N A N e R SCS from the various impromptu observatories scattered ma to North Carolina. The observers were in a highly veful mood to-night over the favorable_outlook for propitious conditions. Many of the astronomers, in order that the possibility of accident may be removed, will remain up all night. Everything is in exact order for the morn- ing’s work. The path of the eclipse takes a course across a portion of the globe, starting in the Pacific Ocean at a point southwest of Cape St. Lucas, in Lower California. It wiil first be observed on land on the west coast of Mexico, whence the moon’s shadow travels at a velocity of a thousand miles an hour, being “total” at New Orieans at o’clock in the morning and on the Atlantic coast at or near Norfolk about an hour later. The United States observers have settled upon two points—Pinehurst, N. C., and Barnesville, Ga.—as the very best for observation, owing, in the first place, to their being right in the center of the “path of totalit and in the second, to the probable clearness of the atmosphere there at this season of the year. To these points they have transported several ton of special apparatus and have erected the largest cameras ever used for photographic operations. It fs the special desir of the astronomers to obtain numerous fhotographs, not only of the oseillation and transit of the sun and moon but of the various solar phenomena, such as the corona, the photosphere snd ehromosphere—those vast seas of incandescent gases which™are said to extend 1,000,000 miles on each Side of the suh, while the jets of flame in the chromosphere are thought to rise to a height of 160,000 miles. The second Government party of observation will take its stand at Tripoli, in North Africa. The results of the observa- tion by the Government forces in Georgia will be cabled to Tripoli, where the astronomers will not be called upon to bring their telescopes into play until 5 in the afternoon. The afternoon information wired to North Africa will be used for the guidance of the Government observers there. In Atlanta the eclipse will be almost total. Sclentifically speaking, the de- gree of obscuration will be .96, the sun’s diameter being 1. The principals of all the white schools in the city have given leave of absence to observe the eclipse from any point in the State they may select. The weather bureau here will take observations, principally in the shadow bands. LISBON, May 27.—Crown Prince Louis of Portugal has gone to Ovar to see the eclipse, and Queen Dowager Marie has gone to Serr: rella. Many tourists have left for favorable points of observation. WASHI May 27.—The following special sun eclipse weather bulletin was issued by Chlef Moore to-day: ‘“The weather map this morning gives practically sure indications that the entire line of the eclipse will have.clear weather. The presence of an anti-cyclonic system covering the whole South Atlantic States insures light, variable winds, moderate tem- perature and uniform decreasze In the vertical gradient. Probably no eclipse ever occurred under finer seeing condi- tions than will exist to-morrow The Weather Bureau will secure some data, including the effect on the temperatures during the eclipse throughout much of the region east of the Mississippi River. Special observations are to be taken frequently during the time of the eclipse. At the Naval Observatory observations of the contacts will be made with the twenty-six-inch equatorial telescope and also with the twelve-inch equatorial LONDON. May 25.—Although England is 700 miles north of the line of total eclipse, wich is making every preparation to observe the partial obscuration. NEWPORT NEWS, Va., May 27.—The total eclipse to-morrow morning has attracted more guests to the hotels at 014 Point than they have had at any one time for years. Over a thousand more persons are expected on the boats ar- riving eagly to-morrow from Washington and Baltimore. The President and his party will witness the eclipse from the deck of the dispatch boat Dolphin. Secretary Gage and a party of friends arrived at Old Point this morning on the light- house tender Holly, which tied up at the Government pier near the Hygefa Hotel. Speaker Henderson and several mem- bers of the House reached Old Point last night. \ —Cloudless skies are reported to-nigh ack of to-morrow’s eclipse from Ala the Royal Observatory at Green- At Thomaston Lick Observatory has stationed Professor W. W. Campbell, senior astronomer on the observatory staff, and Professor C. D. Perrine with a quantity of valuable apparatus. The period of totality, when the sun will be entirely in eclipse, will be one minute and twenty-five seconds. During these brief seconds, it the day is a clear one, Professor Camp- bell expects to secure forty valuable photographs showing the different phases of the sun and its corona. About sixteen sci- entists are in Professor Campbell's party, and the entire number will be needed to properly handle the telescopes and other struments. = o Holland astronomers, -Professor A. A. Nyland, director of the Utrecht Observatory, and Dr..J .H. Whitterdink, as- tronomer in the Leyden University, arrived in New York on May 14 and in Thomaston on Thursday, their plain being to visit the various eclipse stations along the path to totality down the Atlantic coast, beginning with the Smithsonian Institution party at Wadesboro, N. C. ROBERTS HAS INVADED THE TERRITORY OF THE TRANSYAAL Boers fo Make a Last Stand on the Gatsrand Mountains, North of Potchefstroom. S President Kruger Has Issued a Proclamation to the Burghers Asking Their Votes For or Against Continwing the War. — fore the Vaal was crossed, but they were too late, The Boer rear guard is at Moyerton, ten miles south of Vreeniging. Their main body is moving toward the Klip River hills that cover the south side of Johan- nesburg. Situation at Pretoria. ‘While Lord Roberts’ 30,00 infantry, 20,- 000 horse and 150 guns are moving on Jo- hannesburg and Pretorla, through a parched and deserted country, the situa- tion at the Transvaal capital as it was last Friday & thus described by an ob- server, who™\nt his message by private hand to Lourenzo Marques yesterday: “The situation, both from a military and a political point of view, has become very critical. President Kruger yesterday admitted that for the first time matters are very grave. The Boer determination is to trust everything to a last stand on the Gatsrand Mountains, to the north of Potchefstroom, where 3000 Kaffirs are dig ging trenches. To that point every avail- able man and gun have been sent. The whole of the western border of the Trans- vaal from end to end is defenseless and General Baden-Powell can march in when he likes. Lord Roberts, on the other hand, will encounter the greatest resist- ance. The Boer endeavor to lure the British into appearing to threaten Johan- ONDON, May 25, 3:20 & m.—When Lord Roberts wrote his first dis- patch on Transvaal territory ves- terday, shortly before 2 o'clock in the afternoon, he was fifty-one miles from Johannesburg and seventy- sefen from Pretoria. His immensely su- perior forces had passed the Vaal River, their last great natural obstacle, at three points. The Vaal forms a curve of eighty miles from Parys on the west to Zand Drift on the east. The concave of the current is toward the Free State. Thus Lord Roberts. advancing along the rail- | way, was in a position to strike any part of the crescent by shorter lines than | those by which the Boers could reinforce the threatened points. The Boers re- treated almost without a show of defense. General French and General Hamilt6n ap- parently did not fire a shot. Of Lord Roberts’ force, eleven men be- longing to the Eighth Mounted Infantry were the first to ford the river. They came upon a Boer patrol looting at Vil- joens Drift and a skirmish lasting ten minutes followed. Two hundred Boers tried feebly to hold the Vreeniging col- lery, but they were dislodged. Major Hunter Weston and Lieutenant Earle rode in advance of Lord Roberts forty miles into a hostile country to try to cut the rafllway behind the Boers be- nesburg with attack. an excuse thus be- ing given them for the destruction of property. The Transvaal Government will not dare destroy the mines and prop- erty without an excuse. Much dynamite has been sent down the line and 160,000 cases lie ready at Zuurfontein, near Jo- hannesburg. General Louis Botha and General Lucas Meyer have pleaded for the preservation of property. Both are large landed proprietors and fear confiscation, but they have not received satisfactory replies from President Kruger. Mean- while many French and German adven turers have come forward with schemes and inventions for blowing up the British troops, and same of these have recefved a tacit permission to experiment. One German invention is for use on a rail- way, where it lies perfectly concealed un. til the weight of a passing train explodes the charge. General Lucas Meyer says surrender would be at once proposed by the Boers. but everybody fears tne ig- nominy of being the one to make the proposition. He declares that he is as- sured that his men will not stand. Prest. dent Steyn and Mr. Reitz, the Transvaal State Secretary, are strongly opposed to peace, but Kruger is not so much against it."" To Vote on Continuance of War. o0 * o0 FOREIGN TROOPS NEEDED AT PEKING TC PROTECT LEGATIONS eras Ever Used to|Fellowing the Defeat of Chinese Forces Anarchy Spreads in Three Provinces. EKING, May Foreign Office to intends to take In d | SHANGHAIL May around Peking ment troops by the *“Boxers.” troops must be sent to of missionaries from the in Large portions of the prov | tle better than | Shan in cc | Dowager define s of ney of the equence .—The diplomatic corps has decided explicitly aling with the “Boxers.” 27.—Reports recelved to-day e extremely critical, owing to the defeat of It is now regarded here as certain Peking to protect t ior 1s consid Pechi solute anarchy and disorder is spreading in the provinge of encouragement to ask the the Chinese the measures which Government indicate that affairs the Governe that foreign while the withdrawal e legations, d fmperative. Shantung are in a state lit- received from the Empress 'READY FOR A RUSSO-JAPANESE CONFLICT WE CALL HEADQUARTERS, American army officers will pert upon them to the War Department tween the two powers named is emergencies of the futt Peking and Tokio and they will be at kostilities come. Lieutenant Colonel been ordered to duty at Pe | & d to proceed to Japan Information in the po: | tions between Russia and Jaj | received by members of the a | a atedly 1g between them igh burghers continuing the war is understood to say | they can now quit with the prospect of | retaining their farms or continue to the bitter end. Rumors are current in Lord render. everal correspondents wire the London papers that there are 10,000 foreigners in | the Boer ranks, but this is hardly credi- | ble. | The indications are that a pitched battle imminent at Laings Nek, where Gen- 1 Buller faces the Boers, reinforced and | seemingly determined, with an estimated | strength of from $000 to 10,000 men. The | reinforcements contain a large party from | Ladybrand and fresh commandos from | Pretor General Buller's officers are | | B doubtful of the ability of the Boers to dis- | play the same tenacity as in the fighting | at Ladysmith. | The British are confident that when the | moment arrives they will be able to force the passes. | Two boxes of dynamite fuse have been found under the. Newcastle City Hall General Builer is causing numerous ar- rests of suspeeted rebels. Forty-two have been sent to Pletermaritzburg. Mr. Gaw- | thorpe, a chemist, and his wife, have been arrested on a charge of high treason. | Two Small Engagements. | With the exception of a few shots ex- "Changr‘d with the retiring Boers at Ve | | two da | field appears to have been two small en- State. At Ficksburg on Saturday the nothing is known regarding casualtie: | The same day General Brabants sc llocated 200 Boers entrenched near ( colan. The scouts advanced within | yards, when the Boers fired heavily. scouts retired and four are missing. General Rundle is slowly sweeping the eastern section of the Free State. Occa- sionall squadrons come across parties of Boers, two or three in number, and usually an foot, who are wearily going to their farms. Some of them carry saddles cn their backs. Wholesale surrenders are expected, but thus far they have not oc- curred in that region. Small commands are described by the correspondent as hurrying to and fro and finding every road barred. Stowe Will Visit Roberts. The British troops at Mafeking have been having some exciting cricket matches. The relieving troops are rest- ing and the defending troops are feeding up. The southern railway has been re- paired to a point within forty-five miles of Mafeking. Some 500 or 600 Boers are operating east of Vryburg, rallying the disaffected and watching an opening to cut the railway and to harass General Hunter’s advancing diyision. Lord Roberts has wired the War Office that there is urgent need of more rolling stock and the Daily Express asserts that contracts have been placed in the United States for fifty locomotives and many cars, the British manufacturers being un- able to fill the orders with requisite speed. Several prominent Uitlanders have joined Lord Roberts as guldes and ad- visors with reference to the country around Johannesburg. A Cape Town correspondent says: “United States Consul General Stowe is about to visit Lord Rbberts, though whether out of personal curiosity or with some official purpose has not been made known here.” AR TRANSVAAL BURGHERS ARE TREKKING HOMEWARD GROOTVIEL (twenty-three miles south of Vereeniging), May 2.—Lord Roberts’ northern advance force steadily continues, and to-day the Transvaal hills were sight- | ed. General French has secured an excel- lent flanking position on the northwest. There is something irresistible about this advance. The troops ahve been splendidly handled and the Boers, completely outmaneuvered, have been forced to gbandon their posi- tions at the first appearance of the Brit- ish flanking force, which has made a de- termined resistance at the Vaal impossi. ble. . Many Transvaal burghers are now trek- king homeward, and it Is safe to say that the most irreconciliable Transvaaler at least recognizes the heopelessness of the struggle. Most of the farms in the north- ern part of the Free State, where the ties of blood with the Transvaal are the strongest, have been deserted. This section has been flooded with false tales of British cruelty, reports of the burning of farmhouses and the eviction of women and children, in the hope of in- ducing the burghers to remain at the com- mandoes, but the evidence all points now to the existence of a permanent feeling of enmity between the Transvaalers and the Free Staters, cach accusing the other of treachery and cowardice. It is regarded as unlikely that the uts 200 The President Kruger's proclamation to the | Transvaal Government will go to Lyden- Roberts’ army that the Boers Intend to | gagements In the eastern part of the Free | Boers attacked the British occupying t.‘ml alo- | | Special Dispatch to The Call. —Should the strained relations between be near the scen e the department John S. Mallory cing and in the 2 plomatic corps. 1ted that Russia de between his Government and J On the other hand Japan has never forgiven R aits of her war with China and at a propitious moment she is ex< sking their votes for or zgainst | reeniging the only fighting during the last | vs with all the great armies In thel town, but they were forced to retire to- | | ward Slabberts Nek. A Maseru corre- spondent confirms the fact, adding that | den-Powell went up to the lookout. LLINGTON HOTEL, WASHINGTON, May Ru Japan culminate in war ities to observe and re- ‘Whil be ved that war be- inevitable, er be prepared for has determined to send officers to ched to the opvosing armies should Forty-first Infantry, has or two an officer will be or- nex respecting the rela= which has been ussian Embassa- loes not see how - no controversies the war feeling in ng from her the s not wa is known th ia for t burg, where food Boers, mostly on ward Vereeniging Heilbron. The condition of the British troops con. tinues excellent, although the cold nights is scarce. A body of is trekking hard td- rom the direction of are very trying. They are able to march three miles an hour. The Boers have destroyed every bridge vert. They are said to regard Klip Riverberg, north of the Vaal, as a position of great strength, and talk of making elves impregnable there. is reported that the population of Johannesburg in a high state of excite- ment. The Boers who are passing through northward threaten to blow up the mines, v of their wanton destruction of everything else it would not be surprising if they carried out the threat. The British are. more interested, how- ever, in grazing and in the water supply than in the min MAFEKING VERY COOL WHEN RELIEF CAME MAFEKING, May 18—This was how Mafeking took the relief. Faintly from the northwest, about 1:30 p. m. May 15, we heard the sound of artillery. Colonel Ba- T women and children were on the house- tops and most of the men were manning the works. Major MacKenzie of the headquarters staff tumbled downstairs at 3 with a pigeon in his hand. In a few seconds the dispatch was on the table and the code books were out. Major Hanbury-Tracey cried out: “They left Masibiti this morn- ing and are coming in.” The fight must have lasted three hours, when through our glasses the Boers could be seen stretching out in retreat, At sun- set the garrison seized the standard and diggers fort and shelled the Boers as they, passed. Darkness was drawing on when Major Karri Davis, with eight horsemen, en- tered Market square. The town took the relief quietly. A trooper stopped a passer- by and said: “Hi! We are the relief cole umn.” “Oh, indeed,” sald the citizen, “‘we hearaq you were outside,” and the citizen pro- ceeded on his errand. “Well, I'm d—d.,” sald the trooper, “but he takes it pretty coolly.” The party dismounted at the staff of- fice, where a crowd gathered and cheered for the first time In several months. Then the troops in the outer forts cheered. ‘When the relieving column marched in at 4 a. m. there was plenty of whisky, WILLC MAKE A STAND AT JOHANNESBURG AND PRETORIA LONDON, May 28.—The Lourenzo Mar- ques correspondent of the Times, in a dis+ patch dated Saturday, says: “During the week the Boers have suc- cessfully deceived even the best informed residents with reference to the probable course of events when Lord Roberts en- tered the Transvaak While one section de- clares that all serious fighting is ended, another is equally convinced that the burghers will make a stand at Johannes- burg and Pretoria. “Men who have been present at the re- cent engagements describe them as Ig- neminious routs, wholly unjustified by the initlal damage inflicted by the British. Such observers are convinced that all operations of a military interest are now at an end. “Captain Allum, the Norwegian mill- tary attache, is returning home. Indeed, so great is the eagerness of Continental residents to quit the Transvaal that both the German and French steamers are un- able to cope with the demand for berths. “It is rumored here that the Cape rebel leaders who are now serving with the Boers are anxious to escape to Europe, and that certain members of the Cape Parliament are waiting on the borders for a favorable opportunity to start.” —_— THE VAAL. TAAIBOSCH, May 26.—General French crossed the Vaal at Lindegues Drift yes- terday, and General Henry with mounted Infantry to-day. They pushed forward and nearly succeeded in saving the bridge, only the northernmost span being ae- stroyed. All the refugees agree that the mines will be destroyed. The Boers are taking a position at Klip River Drift, having left the Vaal. The commandants have assem- bled to discuss the advisability of contin- uing the struggle. Meanwhile there is & force of the enemy at Myrton. RALLIED AT POLFONTEIN. MAFEKING, May 21.—The Boers who were routed here rallied a few miles east, at Polfontein, well within the British bor- der. There is no sign of the enemy to the north. Colonel Plumer’'s linesmen have recelved a wire saying that a train will arrive to-morrow. A system of dally run- ners to the south has been organized.