The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 29, 1901, Page 17

1 i | LIX ST T T TS H I VOLUME XCI—NO 29, P70, @y SROTPRGROR SROTO NG/ PROROROROK OGP SAN FRANCISCO, SUND. O all. i 3 Pages [ e sad 020 PHORIRORO NS EOROAGXOROE & % DECEMBER 29, 1901—-THIRTY-SIX PAGES PRICE FIVE CE TWENTY-TWO LIVES ARE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN LOST IN THE STORM WHICH RAGED WITH UNPARALLELED FURY ALONG THE NORTHWEST COAST LORD KITCHENER R EPORTS THE BRITISH LOSS IN ZEEFONTEIN ENGAGEMENT TO BE MORE THAN TWO HUNDRED KILLED AND WOUNDED Boer Force Under General Dewet Surprises Firman’s Camp and Its Suddenly Awakened Defenders Are Shot Down as They Rush Y. Out of Their Tents to Resist the Fierce Attack of the Enem 3 “BOER FOX" WHO HAS REPEAT- EDLY OUTMANEUVERED THE BRITISH IN SOUTH AFRICA. ~ e o The list Dewet's men were wounded and is presumed that tho e taken along with r of the non-com- d men wounded and been received, but es to make the Zee- orable disaster to the Dewet. the foregoing news e gave out a dispatch from ner noting a minor success of n constabulary, who raid- thirty-six ed Bothaville Boers. Boers Surprise the Camp. sbsequent message Lord Kitch- g account of the fight- showing that the must number He says that in the absence nel Firman, Major Williams, who was in command. The column on the slope of a kopje, , side of which was precip- the edge of the pe, on which the camp was gentle. The outposts The northern slo as ¥ v e well pushed out and the position, wrally strong, had been entrenched. It was & moonlight night. The Boers eppear to have climbed the precipice, end, mustering near the top et 2 & m., suddenly et acked the picket on the sum- wit. Before the men could get clear of their tents the Boers swooped through the camp, shooting the soldiers as they came out. Most of the British ofllcers‘ were shot while trying to stem the rush, | Lieutenant Harwich himself opened fire | | with the “pompcms” and was shot through the heart while fighting. Lieu- | tenant Watney was killed while leading | a charge. There was no panic and all engaged did | their best; but once the picket was over- | whelmed the superior force of the Boers | had all the advantage. | Gun’s Defenders All Slain. | Including the killed and wounded, about | haif the column is now at Elands River | bridge. The remainder are prisoners. A | fifteen-pounder after two rounds became jammed. The men composing the detach- |ment stood by the gun and were shot down around ft. Lieutenant Scarlett, who was wounded, was overlooked by the Boers and left be- hind. He saw two wagon loads of dead and wounded Boers carried off. Most of them were hit during the first attack on the picket, The Boers, who apparently numbered about 1200, under General Dewet, behaved well, leaving men to look after the wounded. The Imperial Light Horse were four- teen miles distant. They heard of the fighting at 4:30 o’clock and arrived on the scene at 6:30 o'clock. After breathing their horses they galloped after the Boers, who, however, succeeded in reach- ing the broken country, where the Light Horse were useless against superior num- bers. ADMITS KILLING OF A SPY. Captive Boer Commandant Scheepers Testifies in His Own Behalf. GRAAFE REINET, Cape Colony, Dec. 28.—Commandant Scheepers, who is prob- | ings were reprisals ol ably the most hated of all the prisoners now in the hands of the British and whose trial was recently suspended owing to his physical collapse, testified in his own be- half to-day. He made a vigorous defense and denied six of the seven murders with which he is charged. He declared that in the seventh case the man killed was a native spy who had been regularly tried and convicted. Scheepers admitted having whipped na- tives who had been found guilty of con- veying information to the enemy, so- called unarmed native scouts being, in his opinion, simply spies. He sald that he had had them whipped frequently, and justi- fied their being shot. He declared that the looting and burning of Government build- in accordance with Dewet's proclamation. Scheepers assert- ed that he always fed and treated his prisoners as well as he was able. CARNEGIE’S TEN-MILLION GIFT TO BE ACCEPTED | Government Is to Receive Cash or Securities Drawing Annual Interest. WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—President Roosevelt has received information from Andrew Carnegle that is expected to en- able him to submit to Congress a form of gift of $10,000,000 to the United States for higher education. This offer will not be in bonds of the United States Steel Corporation, as formerly proposed, but will be in a form expected to be generally _satls!acwn‘. The gift is likely to be in cash or in securities drawing annual in- terest. —— RUSSIANS BATTLE WITH MANCHURIAN BANDITTI Lose Three Men in the Fighting and Slay Forty-One of the Natives. ST. PETERSBURG, Dec. 2.—General Grodekoff reports that a Tongueses chief, with thirty-six men, surrendered at Ba- jansusu, Eastern Manchuria, on Decem- ber 15. Other bands, on refusing to sur- render, were attacked by the Russians and forty-one of the natives were killed. Three Russians were killed during the fighting. ——— POPE LEO IS TOO ILL TO GIVE RECEPTION New Year’s Function in Honor of the Diplomatic Corps Is Post- poned. LONDON, Dec. 28.—A dispatch from Rome says the Pope is il. The New year's reception to the displomatic corps has therefore been postponed. Counterfeit Gold Certificates. ‘WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—Chlef Wilkis of the secret service has issued a circular stating that a counterfeit $20 gold certifi- cate is in circulation. He says it is an untinted photograph and would not de- ceive any one who is accustomed to hand- ling money. ‘ CRIM DEATH RULES DVER WRECKAGE Numerous Disasters the Result of the Vio- lent Gale. Many Japanese Supposed to Have Perished in the Flood. — . — Indian Village Is Swept Out Into the Shipwrecking Sea and An- other Vessel Has Disap- peared Suddenly. Special Dispatch to The Call. VANCOUVER, B. C., Dec. 28.—Twenty Japanese were drowned or buried inex- tricably under a mass of debris, one man was killed in the logging woods up the coast, while a Lulu Island farmer dled from exposure. These are additional fatalities recorded to-day as the result of one of the great- est storms in the history of the coast. A reckoning of the Japanese residents of Steveston was taken to-day to estimate the number who must have perished in the wreck of a large boarding-house at the mouth of the Fraser River near the Cleeve Company’s fishing station. It is certain that there were at least twenty men in the bullding and perhaps more and not one escapéed. The boarding-hou#e in which the men were was built on high piles a mile and a half from shore. One by one the sup- ports were knocked from under it and at 8 o'clock Thursday morning the build- ing ‘went down and. entirely collapsed, The waves weré running very high over the flats at that time and the house, when it dropped, was engulfed. Japanese Surely Lost. The falling of the house was observed from Point Roberts, to which place tel- ephonic communication was established to-day. Nothing but kindling wood is left of the main building and there is not a possible chance of one of the score or | more of inmates reaching shore. The only fatality up the coast was the killing of George Clark, a logger. He was in a small cabin in the woods with two men named Crockford and Cooper. The fury of the gale at 2 o'clock in the morning caused Cooper to leave the shack for higher ground, out of the reach of the trees, but the others stayed behind. After he had gone Clark arose and com- menced to lay a fire in the stove. At the time Crockford still remained in bed. While Clark was on his knees before the fire there was a tremendous crash and without a moment's warning the roof of the cabin fell in. Others in the camp heard the noise, and when they reached the scene they found the cabin smashed to kindling wood and Clark dead, while Crockford was pinned down in his bed by a limb of a tree which had fallen on the hut. The tree was a monster and it had two forks. One of these had crushed Clark to death and the other had pinned Crockford down, but, luckily for him, he was uninjured. It took some time to extricate Crackford, and those who rescued him state that it is a miracle that he, too, was not killed. Had the fork of the tree gone gnother three inches lower his body would have been crushed to a pulp. Caught by the Tide. This morning the body of a farmer named Theodore Hewitt of Lulu Island was found in a pool of water half a mile away from the river. He had evidently been going home when he found that the incoming tide which broke over the dykes had surrounded, him with water. He probably laid dewn, and becoming be- numbed went to sleep and died either from exposure or from drowning by the foot or two of water which surrounded him. An entire Indian village and the build- ings and plant adjacent to the Hadding- ton Island stone quarry were blown into the gulf, according to news brought by the steamship Tees. The isiand is a mile in extent and was formerly covered with a growth of fir trees clinging to the rocky sides. There is not now even a tree re- maining and everything above the face of the rock was stripped clean. Fifty natives who lived in a little village all camped under the lee side of the island and saw their tepees carried away and some of them blown bodily a . hundred yards from the shore. The quarry build- ings were on the exposed side and they were demolished. The whole vicinity is strewn with lumber and uncut logs and navigation is difficult for that reason. The Tees put into Alert Bay, a short distance away, and there found the steamer Edith of Seattle. The Edith tried to tie up at the cannery wharf, but only succeeded in tearing off a corner of the building with a few piles and was finally compelled to start away for Seattle. Smashing of Log Booms. Captain Moosy, master of the steamer Casslar, stated to-day that a great deal of damage was caused up the coast by the gale. The float and standing boom at Bear River belonging to the Hastings Mill camp were carried away and have not been found yet. There are many re- ports at different places that booms of logs were smashed, and many logs are to Continued on Page Eighteen. | BATTLESHIP MISSO URI SLIDES FROM WAYS AT NEWPORT NEWS SHIPYARD WHILE CHEERS OF FIFTEEN THOUSAND SPECTATORS RESOUND Miss Marion Cockrell Breaks the Traditional Bottle of Cham- page and at the Post-Launching Banquet Secretary Long Urges the Need of Increasing the Navy of the United States EWPORT NBWS, Va., Dec. 28.— The battleship Missouri was | launched at the shipyard here to-day at 11:12 o'clock. Fifteen thousand persons, it is estimat- ed, saw the defender go into the water. The launching passed off without a hitch and none prettier or more successful was ever accomplished here. Miss Marion Cockrell, daughter of Senator F. M. Cock- | rell of Missouri, was sponsor for the ship and she performed the duty assigned her with the traditional bottle of champagne, using a bottle of Missouri product for the purpose. The number of distinguished guests | gathered around the sponsor on the christening platform was larger than | ever seen here before. Among them were Secretary of the Navy Long, Secretary of the Interlor Hitchcock; Rear Admiral Melville, U. 8. N., chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering; Rear Admiral O'Neill, U. 8. N., chief of ordnance; Judge Ad-| vocate Lemly, U. S. N.; Lieutenant Gov- ernor J. A. Lee of Missouri, acting for | Governor Dockery; Governor Tyler of | Virginia; Corwin H. Spencer of St. Louls, | representing the Louisiana Purchase Ex- | position Company; Congressman Rixey, representing the House Committee on Naval Affairs; Senator Cockrell, and a number of army and navy officers. Mrs. Roosevelt, wife of President | Roosevelt, came up from Old Point Com- | fort on the United States dispatch boat | Dolphin, with her guests, and viewed the launching from the steamer’s deck. | Cheers for Battleship’s Sponsor. When the big ship had glided off the | ways into the water the crowd on the} guests’ platform gave three cheers for | Miss Cockrell, three for the army and navy, three for Secretary Long and three for the shipyard. After inspecting the various depart- | ments of the plant the guests repaired to the shipyard wharf, where they boarded the steamer Washington, going to Old Point Comfort. At the Chamberiain Hotel this afternoon the customary post- launching banquet was given, the guests heretofore mentioned being on the pro- gramme as the principal speakers. Hon. John D. Long spoke in part as follows: “I have been interested in the circular signed by many eminent citizens, my be- loved friend E. E. Hale at the head, in which they regret the estimate of $100,- 000,000 for the increase of the navy. The size of the navy, If there is to be a navy at all, is a question, like the tariff, of ad- justment rather than of principle. Of course, it is rather a taking thing to say as a matter of theory, as this circular says, that $100,000,000 for the navy means a tax of $6 on every family in the United States. And yet, on the other hand, as a matter of fact, if that sum is spent there is probably not a family in the United States whose future income could be shown to be $ less, and there are a good many families whose income would be $6 more, and still more families whose income would be many. times $6 less if it were not spent._ It is also rather a taking thing to say that $199,000,000 could be bet- ter spent for education or charity. And yet, on the other hand, $100,000,000 spent in the employment of labor is the very best use to which it could be put. Tax Returns to the People. “The great question of the day as to wealth is its distribution. While few would say that the community should be taxed for the sole purpose of distributing the proceeds of taxation, yet it is some comfort to know of a tax which, when it is lald on the community, all returns again to it. If $100,000,000 should be appro- priated for the navy by the present Con- gress a small part will go for the pur- chase of raw material and something for salarles, but the great bulk of it for labor in every part of the Union. “Somehow it just now happens that with larger revenues than we have ever had before in time of peace, and there- fore with more direct and indirect taxa- tion, there is more prosperity and more money in the pocket of the citizen than ever before. Students may speculate over the economic causes, but this is the ‘demnition total.’ ‘“‘Undoubtedly Uncle Sam ought to re- duce taxation wherever he can. On the other hand, it is shrewd and wise in 2im to run things so as to keep business good, and if as a result his income is large he | confers much more benefit by spending it than he would by hiding it. Whenever the interests of the country require he should reduce his receipts, but as they are now excessive, the great question seems to be how he shall get the proceeds back among the people. - But if this year, having a surplus, he spends $100,000,000 for the navy, let us remember that while it is spent under that name it is really spent, as I said before, in the employ- ment of the people’s labor and in the pur- chase of the material they have to sell, and the people get rather more out of it than the navy does, for they get it all back again. “Nor is it true, as suggested in the cir- cular, that a great navy necessarily in- flames the fighting spirit and leads to war. II my recollection serves me right, while Great Britain has had troubles in Egypt and Africa and elsewhere, she has had no conflict on sea for many years, and yet her navy has been twice as large as that of any other power. The recent increase in our navy did not induce the war with Spain, which seems to have been inevitable. On the other hand, it is more than likely that if in the begin- ning of 1898 we had even as large a navy as we have now, certainly as large a one as now proposed, there would have been no war with Spain and that country would have come to terms, he was very near coming without battle, At that time, how- o+ NEW FIGHTING CRAFT AND THE SPONSOR AT HER LAUNCHING. |+ - ever, it was the general impression among forelgn powers, and probably in Spain, that her navy would blow us out of the water. “In determining the question what shall be the size of our navy there are a great many things to be considered, some of which I have referred to. “For instance, our world relations have expanded vastly in the last three years in territorial extent, and vastly more in in- ternational extent. It has not been an expanslon upon the continent, but upon the ocean Itself and the islands of the sea in both hemispheres. Our commerce has greatly increased in volume and area and our American marine is likely to follow suit. As on land, so on ocean, as you ex- tend your commerce so you must expand your police force. If there is to be a navy at all it should be commensurate with all these extended relations and demands. “We are the richest nation in the world, with a larger income than any other. If, then, the size of our navy should corres- pond to our national and international size, and we have the cash on hand, it would seem the simplest good business sense, the simplest good business care of our own interests, to increase our navy, and whether this shall cost $20,000,000 or $75,000,000 or $100,000,000, it is not an extrav- agance to cut our garment according to our cloth, especially as last year there was no appropriation for such an in- crease. It is lke the rich man grading his expenditures to his income and thus making it serve the general welfare as well as his own. It is like having police- men enough Instead of having a number so limited that the rough are tempted to riot.” A toast to the President was drunk standing. It was responded to by Secre- tary Hitchcock, who bore to the gather- ing the greetings of President Roosevelt and his regrets at not being present. Applause greeted Senator Francis M. Cockrell as he arose to respond to the toast, “Missourl.” The Senator said Mis- souri’s rank in the Union entitled the l:t';te to have a battleship after