The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 28, 1902, Page 27

| g * Paoes 271030 B+ 00090000000 0000600640 [ ] R L e e P 7050 oo 0® SAN FRANCISCO, DECEMBER 28, 1902 GREAT PATHFINDER'S WIDOW PASSES PEACEFULLY AWAY IN THE SOUTHLAND Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont Sinks Into Last Sleep at Her Home in Los Angeles After a Short Illness Following the Merrymaking of a Christmas Reunion P OS ANGELES, Dec. 27.—Mrs. Jessie L Benton Fremont, widow of the fa- mous Pathfinder, General John C. Fremont, died at 8:15 o'clock to- th Sisfome which was pre- ted to her years ago by the women of Los Angeles, in which she had spent the evening of her life. ¥ two years she had been in feeble health because of injuries received by falling down the cel. lar steps at her home, but until to-day her condition w members larm. Mrs. ¥r i been unable to walk without assistance since the accident, but by her dire a Christmas reunion of friends of the family was arranged for the day before Christmas. The excite- ment of the exchange of presents and other festivities on that occasion proved too much for her and Christmas evening she took to her bed seriously ill. At first it was supposed that she was not in dan ger of death and her ph: an prescribed remelies which had brought her out of previous similar attacks of iliness, but this time without result. It was not until this morning that it be- came apparent that she in a critical condition. Wbhen her daughter went to attend her scious and al The o revive her failed. ns in the city were sum- moned, b they could do nothing. She lingered until to-night, when she dled | without having reg consciousness, The members of the consolation of = famous wom B n th Commander were denied ting with the e day telegrams were sent to Fremont of the now egram is with ppines, and man Fremont mer New York, now t before any replies . Fremont bre: to ast. EVENTFUL LIFE HISTORY. Jessie Benton Fremont was born Rockbridge County, Va., May 31, 1825. She of the Hon. Thomas H. (McDowell) Benton, and ter of Colonel James and ah (Preston) McDowell, on whose es- many of her days were spent. Her father, -one years a United States Sen- er home in St. Louis, g made by post coach , each journey consuming . 9-40 she was @& student at Miss nary, Georgetown, D. C. Lieutena: John Charles A., and in 1941 they were met . 8. Fremont remained e while an her inmate of husband the sobriquet of Not till 1849 did she share ploneer life in the new "hey then made their y, and her influence to the State constitu- which sat at Mont rd excluding slavery residence at Mg with the delegate tional conventior nator, and in 1 where they St. Jagnes eries with distinction. She the national pand was Republican a woman, the new for President, and, as party born in Virginia, the daughter of a Mi souri Senator, she became a prominent figure in the canva: The champlons of “free speech, free soil, Iree press and "remont” added to their political slogan “and Jessle.” WARMLY RECEIVED IN EUROPE 12, served York City & of the Soldiers’ Home, the Sant riotic soldiers of the rk, where 1 Queen, and he King a Austria e General Fremont w Governor of Arizona, she gave her per: sonal attention to advancing the educa- 1 interests of the Territory. In sne aided her husband. re- g 1 ington, in preparing his Memolrs” for publication. To thi work ) . Fremont contributed a bio- sketch of her father, Senator 7d the introductory chapt ome Accounts of the Plates.” meral Fremont removed th to California for health, and temporary visit to New York 1890, he died before his wife h him. He left mo property, = widow received from Congress in special pension as widow of a re- ajor general in the United States army, ne year the women of California purchased for her a tract of jand In Los Angeles, here, in a grove n ed the last vears lly of large took after her distin- T ator Benton, who was and of powerful physique. me, aristocratic expressive eountenance. > of head and mien so the effect of 3 ing in state. it th of the her, for this grande d and did not partic jy in the genera to-date woman s e of the word, with a keen and international airs; thoroughly in touch with current te: which she greatly enioyed discuss- The late President McKinley spent ing a delightful hour with her during his Cali- fornia visit last year, and her cottage had Jong been the mecca toward which footsteps of distinguished visitors have turned. The tourist, plain and simple, do- ing the town of Los Angeles, always made e found her mother uncon- | in Wash- | in | eurned to Washington | nd, who had been | the | £ | 1 1 . a pilgrimage past the house, frequently stopping before the gate to comment on; histor: par- the {llustrious woman and her Often these remarks were amusing, ticularly when they were made by carriage drivers onally parties. Alway pe: they were heard by Mrs. but open window. Having a keen sense of humor, she enjoyed these comments, par- | ticularly when they described her as the | mother of the “Pathfinder.” | PETTED BY OLD HICKORY. One_of her first political friends was President Jackson, and one of her earli- est recollections was belng taken to the | White House by her father and remain- |ing with him and the President while | | they had their talks. It pleased Jackson | | to have her near him, where he could put | | his hand on her head, and sometimes, in | { the 1 terest of discussion, he would for- | | get what he was doing and take an un- | c ious grip on the pretty curls, but | the little lady never winced. To have shown pain or displeasure would have | leased her father, who always praised | her afterward when she was brave, and i managed to have her rewarded at the! time by a pk i y with the children of the who lived with him. Mrs. Fremont made her social debut at | the White House at the age of 13, when | President Van Buren gave a_dinner for { his son, and at 14 she attended a great state dinner given by the President in] “honor of the Russian Minister, Bodisco, | the Splendid, and his 16-year-old bride. This remarkable marriage of May December (the bridegroom was the most gorgeous ceremony | ton had ever seen. The bridal party w composed of the most beautiful youthful girl friends of the bride and men President’s ece, | of about the age of the groom. Jessie | Benton, then 14, was one of the brides maids, with Mr. Buchanan, afterward | sident, as her groomsman. The other groomsmen were distinguished men in of- | | ficial life, and the bride was given away | by Henry Clay. | In this way began a brilliant social career which brought her in contact with such women of the past as Mrs. Alex- | ander Hamilton and Mrs. Dolly Madison all the prominent people of her fath- | day and generation. HELPS TO WIN CALIFORNIA. Though Mrs. Fremont did not accom- pany her husband on any of his exploring | expeditions the continent, she | made the most important of them pos- sible, and it happened in this way: The Government had given him his first sep- | arate command and equipped him for an expedition to the Pacific Coast, but there | was much jealousy and opposition in | Washington, and while Fremont was on | the frontier preparing o start an order | was sent to St. Louis recalling him to ! | the national capital. Mrs, Fremont re- | ceived and read this order, but she had no intention of allowing her husband's ition to be ruined, so instead of for- g it to him she sent instead, by wiftest messenger she could find, a letter telling him to start west without | a moment’s delay and not ask why. He d her instructions to the letter. The returning messenger brought her the as- surance that he had seen her husband | and the party off. She then wrote the | official in Washington that she - had | | neither forwarded his order nor informed Fremont of it and that the expedition was well under way. | To defy official orders was a good deal of a responsibility for an 18-year-old. girl, | but she had inherited her father's cour- ageous spirit and did not hesitate 'to act | for what she thought were the best inter- | ests of her husband and the country. Her | father, when later he joined her in St. Louis and she told him what she had Gone, approved her act, and every Ameri- can owes her a debt of gratitude for per- mitting nothing to interfere with . plans which eventually not only explored, but developed the Pacific and led io the conquest of California. { OPPOSED TO SLAVERY. Mrs. Fremont's influence was instru- mental in’ bringing California into the Union as a free State. Her husband was oppesed to slavery and her people, though | Virginians and large landed proprietors, | | with hundreds of negroes on their estates, | were not slaveholders, having given free. | | dora to tBeir people in the hope-of put- | titig slavery to an end. *We did not own | our negroes; they owned us,” recently said Mrs, Fremont, who recalled many of | them with great affection and smiled at | the remembrance of the proprietory airs they assumed toward the families so fajthfully ser When Mrs. Fremont decided to join her | husband in California in 1848 she made ! the | conducting | Fremont, invisible through the curtained | | exeit - ¥ WIDOW OF THE GREAT “PATHFINDER,” WHO DIED YESTERDAY. 9 o the difficult journey ¥y way of Panama, salling from New York. The trip was one of bardship and extreme peril from be- ginning to end. Every'sort of unexpected nusfortune overtook her, but with splen- | did courage she held to her purpose of | going to her husband, though she had had | o news from him for months and did not | krow if he were alive or dead. She was | : dead than alive herself when finally | she made the long sea voyage up the Pa- | cific_coast and was rewarded by reach- | ing "San Francisco, with her husband | there to greet her. | Of California as she found it in those | ng days, when the gold fever was bringing the new country to the notice | of the world she tells most entertainingly | in a little volume entitled “A Year of | American Travel.” Other of her well | tmown works are: “Souvenirs of My Time,” “A Sketch of Senator Fremont,” “Story of the Guard” and “Will and Way Storfes.” s RIS George D. Fiske. WOODLAND, * Dec. *2l.—George D. Fiske, a pioneer and one of the earliest | ttlers of Yolo County, died this morn- s, after an illness of ten weeks. He was a native of Fiskedale, Worcester County, Massachusetts, and 75 years 4 months and 2§ days. He was one of the ploneers of Woodland, and one of the additions to the town and a business block bear his name. In 18%0 he founded the town of Esparto and was thereafter largely interested in property in that town. He was an active, public-spirited and influential man, and identified with every movement having for its purpose the development of the resources of the county. The funeral will take place on Sunday, at 2 p. m. | Benjamin F. Myers. AUBURN, Dec. 27.—Benjamin F. Myers, a ploneer resident and for many years Superior Judge of Placer County, died in Auburn yesterday at the advanced age of 81 years. TWO GRISLY STORIES I FROM LOVELY JAPAN One Family Murders Three Hundred Children and Groom Is Mar- ried to Corpse. VICTORIA, B. C., Dec. 27.—Corre- epondence of the Assoclated Press from Yckohama by the steamer Tartar to-night ! inctude detafls of a horrible baby farm- ing conspiracy in Osaka. An elderly woman, her married daughter, husband | and two others have been arrested for infanticide and it is learned that since | they started operations they have killed 300 children. X The Japan Times has an account of | how a Japanese of Kochi was married to | a ccrpse. His bride-elect committed sui- ' cide on the eve of her marriage. The' Tody was recovered and at the request of the dead woman's parents the ceremony took place between the living and the dead. 5 d MILL VALLEY BAKER FOUND DEAD IN SHOP He Is Thought to Have Been Electro- cuted by Contact With Live Wire. MILL VALLEY, Dec. 21.—John F. Bunn was found dead in his bakery at 10 o’clock | to-night. It is thought he was electro- cuted by contact with®a live wire. LIVERNASH HEAVY LOSER BY DECISION Ballots With Cross After Name in Two Places Thrown Out. Hebbard Rules the Double Stamp Is Means of Identification. Opinion Will Probably Result in Congressional Contest by Julius Kahn. Superlor Judge Hebbard rendered a de- cistor. yesterday in the Langdon-Webster election contest that puts a new phase on | the fight of Julius Kahn and E. J. Liver- | nash for a seat i@ Congress. He decided | that ballots beariWg the name of a candl- | aate twice, as occurs when the same man | 1= nominated by two political partles, ! were fllegal if a cross appeared after the pame in each place and therefore should not be counted. Under this decision 164 ballots in which Livernash was voted for as the candidate of the Union Labor party and the Democratic party by the stamp- ing ‘of a cross opposite his name in both cclumns, were thrown out. The loss of these votes, with the others he has lost sifice the commencement of the recount, shows that Livernash, though the of- ficlal count declared him elected by 141 votes, was really defeated by Kahn. When the court closed yesterday at noon Kahn led Livernash by 135 votes. This decision, of course, does not re- turn Kahn to his seat in the House, the members of Congress having the sole right to determine that issue. It does, however, give Kahn a bdsis for a con- {est, which no doubt he will commence. It will practically end the Langdon-Web- ster contest, for it is a well known and acmitted fact that the contest was brought simply to enable friends of the candidates for Congress to take a snap tally to enable them to determine whether | a Congressional contest might be waged | witl any show of success. 1 MANY DISFRANCHISED. The question of the legality of the | doubly marked. ballots was argued at length by the attorneys for the contest- | auts, B. J. Livernash appearing for Lang- | auts | | don and H. C. Dibble for Webster. The of Langdon is identical with that of Livernash, In that he received the nomi- nat'on of the Democratic and Union La- bor parties and his name was printed in twe places on the ‘hallot. Livernash based his argument on the fact that the Supreme Court had riled:that the name rame in each place did not invalidate the vote. a manner was to violate the election law out on the ground that they contained a distinguishing mark. 3 Judge Hebbard’s ruling was delivered | crally and from the bench. His opinion | and the reasons for giving it are as fol- lows: I am ready to make a ruling now, gentlemen. 1 have made a particular study of the Cali- fornia cases and 1 have listened to ‘your for- eign cases and your criticisms thereon, and I am ready to decide the point. Prior fo the adoption of the Australlan ballot system, in passing upon objections as to ballots produced at a recount. it was a comparatively easy task and called only = for the ‘exercise of ordinary judgment and discretion in determin- ing the intention of the voter. After the adoption of the Australian ballot sys- tem, although certain restrictions were placed easy, and it was left largely with the discre- tion 'of the court to determine the intention of the voter; but that discretion has been grad- ually weakened and lessened by the amend ments to the ballot law and the decisions of i3 seen by the ballots which have been thrown out here in this recount, many of them without from 15 to 20 ver eent of the voters of this city have been disfranchised, unintentionally, by the statute as. amended and by the de- cisions of the Supreme Court of this State. CITES MICHIGAN CASE. these ballots are invdlid, in the case of Mur- phy vs, Curry, decided by the Supreme Court on the 14th of October, 1902, there are sev- eral dissenting opinions, buf the prevailing opinion of the court is based upon the fact that the name may §o upon the ballot twice, because 1f not two. parties might nominate the some man for the same offico and his name would appear but once under one or the other party designation, which he must elect to 2o under, and the words ‘no nomination” made in the corresponding place in the other column; and® the Supreme Court said that was a false statement to the voter, that it was untrue, that as @ maticr of fact he had both nomi- nations, and for that reason they said that bis name might go upon the ballot twice. Tut it seemed to me, in reading that case— and T have read it several times—I have it here—the court was very loth to make that ruling, and that it made it solely upon the "ground that with the law as it stood and the ballot as framed under it, it would be a false representation to the voter, and that was the reasoning in the case cited this morning from Michigan, ‘the case of the Attorney General vs. Glaser, reported in the 102 Michigan' Re ports at page 405, where the Supreme Court, after deciding that whero the name had been voted twice it. was invalid, took It back, be- cause they sald that prior to_the. election it appeared that the Attorney General- advised the people that they might o vote. That is the reasoning in that case, and it followed the reasoning in the Curry case. b INTENT OF VOTER. Now, since the Curry case (to say nothing of Farnham vs. Boland, 134 Cal. 151, and Paterson vs, Hanley, 136 Cal 265). in which the Supreme Court decided that nimes could £0 on the ballot twice, is the case of the peo- ple at the relation of Bledsoe vs. Campbell, as reported in Californfa decisions of. Decem: ber 8, 1902, in which they have almost abso- lutely eliminated the inguirye into the inten- tion of the voter if the bailot contains any- thing that is or may be an identifying mark; and thisecourt is bound by that opinion, which scems. (o b a gradual evolution {rom the Jaw as it origifaily stood down to the condition of affairs now. I am not criticizing the Su- preme Court, or intending to.. I am only speaking of the law as I.find it, and in the face of that decision and all the statutes as they stand now upon the subject, I cannot take upon myself, though I wish T could, the responsibility of saying whero a_ballot- con- tains an {dentifying mark, ~whether it be & blot, for which fault many of them have been thrown out, wheter it be o name written om, or @ cross outside of-a square, or ony of the other prohibited things, that T cum 20 behind them and inquire into-the intention Gf the voter, because in Bledsoe vs, Campbell they say you cannot do it. SECRECY OF BALLOT. Now, as to the possibility. of violating tne secrecy of the ballot, I have here a tabulated Statement of the thirty precincts already founted. The ballots. upon which the ruling has been reserved amount of 164 in those thiriy precinets, running from one to seven or eight, most of them four or five and one of them six- teen, the average being flve and a half ballots for each precinct. There are ninety-six ballots thrown out about' which no contest was made by reasen of a cross heing placed opposite the Bunn formerly owned a bakery at the | corner of Ellis and Leavenworth utreets,l San Francisco. designation of the titles to certain offices, for instance, Judges of the ‘Superior .Court and Justices of the Peace. Now, those in propor- tion are very small as compared with the bal- « and that all such votes should be thrown | upon the voter, it still, for a long while, was | the Supreme Court of this State until now, ‘as | any objection, many of them conceded, about | Speaking now of the larger objection that | {SENATOR PERKINS FIGHTS NO CANDIDATE FOR SPEAKERSHIP OF NEXT ASSEMBLY He Writes a Letter to A. W. Davidson of San Joaquin in Whiech He Defines His Position With Reference to the Organization of the Ineoming Legislature 1 of o candidate could appear twice on.the | ballot and that a cross stampeéd after the Dibble, claimed that to vote in such | | g Wrated Blates $¢naie, A. W. Davidson, Esq. 12th inst., your kindness, and successor in the U. part whatever. son. make. -of the Season, merit your good opinion. Referring to your remarks relative to the Speakership, I beg to say that you are misinformed as to my taking any part in the election of Speaker of the Assembly. WASHINGTON.DS Deec. 19th, 1902. El 120 South East St., Stockton, California. My dear Mr. Davidson:— ¥ I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the and note your remarks relative to your being a Delegate to the County and State COnventién, and that you were my friend during the Convention. trust that my future S. therefore I greatly appreciate conduct may always The election of Speaker can in no way be connected with the election of my Senate, and I certainly have taken no I have no one in California representing me but Mr. Hatton, and he informs me that he has not taken any part in the contest excepting to say that Mr. Martin Kelly, who is sirongly championing the cause of some one of the candidates, is opposed to my re-election, the inference that you draw from that fact—that I have requested my friends to take part in the contest—is without foundation, as I do not think it would be proper for me to do so. three thousand miles away, Indeed, being . I dd not know anything about the } relative strength or influence of the respective candidates, there being, as I understand, four or five for the Speaker- ship, and two or three at least for President Pro Tem. of the Senate, but in neither case have I requested any friend @f mine to oppose or defeat the electicn of any particular per. Of course you can readily understand that newspapers generally, and especially those who like to create a sensa- tion, do not hesitate to make charges that it would be pos- sible for them to sustain; but I make it a rule not even to ‘read their criticisms, especially when I know, as in this case, that I am entirely innocent of any charges that they might | | With best wishes for your success, and the Compliments I remain, Very truly yours, LETTER from United States Sen- ator George C. Perkins to a dele- gate to the recent Republican con- vention of San Joaquin County is A published herewith, and it will : be ely read and closely studied, as it contains a denial of reports that the Senator is taking part in the contest for organization of the incoming Legislature. The Senator understands that there are several candidates for the speakership of - the several aspirants for tempore of the Senate. He avows that he is not opposing or seeking to defeat Assembly, and also | the presidency pro | any candidate for either position. The language of tbe letter implies that he has been apprised that. newspapers in Califor- nia have been publishing pelitical gossip to the effect that he is favoring one of the candidates for the speakership and is not in sympathy with the aspirations of one of the other candidates. The Sen- ator’s opinion of the sensational press is cxpressed with a vigor and frankness that will surely surprise his fellow states- men in Washington. Reading the letter between the lines one is invited to the conclusion that the Senator himself has no candidate. Yet at the same time he suspects, from what George Hatton tells ;e him, that Martin Kelly has expressed a preference.in the premises that has met received the unqualified indersement of Hatton, who is the only person author= ized to represent the Senator. LETTER IS A DENIAL. The letter in its entirety must be ac- cepted as a denlal upon the part of Sen- ator Perkins of all statements to the effect that he has any candidate for Speaker of the Assembly or President pro tem. of the Senate. If this view of the situation shall be generally accepted as fair and just to all, every candidate must hereafter be judged according’ to the de- gree of his own merit and fitness. b @il felefeleefo ettt el el e et bbb hat have been thrown out for other de- }2?&:,":&& as the double cross, the blot with ink and other objectionable reatures. This particular objection thus far covers but 163 Yotes, which is a small percentage of the some- thing 1ike 1000, 1200 or 1500 votes that have been thrown out altogether, and it certainly appears to the court that it might be and may be in some cases the result of an understanding of a few voters in every precinct to earmark their ballots by voting twice for the same nom- inee, and the fact that there are so few of them, considering the precincts counted and the number of votes in each, that out of 200 in one precinct, for instance, only one shouid be thrown out, in another one six, in another one two and that the greatest number in any procinet was sixteen, it certalnly could be Inade the ldentifying mark of a ballot and it could be thus marked with better design than by marking a cross opposite the title of the offices or making e blot with ink or anything of that sort. 1f several people or a club should sit down and say, we wiil vote for a particular man and identify our ballots in that manner. when the ballots were opened they could watch the count and see that each man voted as he agreed and that the contract was carried out. DISTINGUISHING MARK. The future life of a party depends upon a percentage of votes received by such party at the preceding election—that used to be the law and it is the law now—and upon that de- pends’ the life of that party and its right to a place upor the ballot at the next election. If you vote for a man having the Union Labor and the Democratic nominations or the Union Labor and the Republican nominations under both of the headings you swell the percentage of votes of one or the other of those parties falsely. That is only an incidental argument, 0. be sure, but I'must hoid, and particularly under’ the case of Bledsoe ys. Camobell, that the marking of the names, in this case Mr. Livernash or Mr. Langdon, or both of them, twice, once in the Democratic column and once in the Union Labor column, is a distinguishing mark and tends to identify the ballot and is just as invalld as any of the others which have been thrown out in this contest. Therefore the objection is sustained and the 164 ballots, the, ruling as to which has been heretofore re- served, are ordercd counted as no_vote. Tourist Dies Suddenly. Frederick Garratt, a young Englishman who was making a tour of the world, died, suddenly yesterday afternoon at the Wals deck Sanatorium. Garratt das stopping at the Palace Hotel and was suddenly taken sick on Christmas day. He was re- moved to the Waldeck, but rapidly be- came worse and died yesterday afternoon. The Coroner has been notified and will in- vestigate the case. JAPAN HONORS ~ DEAD MINISTER Impressive Rites Held Over Late Colonel Buck. TOKIO, Dec. 8, (via Victoria, B. C., Dec. 2.)—Cold and ralny weather prevafled this morning, the time appointed for the funeral ceremony over the remains of Cclonel A. E. Buck, United States Min- ister to Japan. A worthy representation of Americans and officials of the Japan- ese and other nationalitles attended the sad rites in Tokio and the remains were afterward escorted Dy mourners to Yo- kchama, where they were deposited pend- ing their conveyance to the United States. The funeral service took place at Trin- ity Cathedral, Tokio, which was filled with what but for the solemn nature of the occasion might be described as a bril- liant assemblage of diplomats and state cificials in- state costume, together with a guard of honor. The remains were in- closed in a handsome casket, draped in an American flag and surrounded by numerous floral tributes. At the close of the service the casket was carried from the cathedral on the shoulders of a de- tachment of men from the United States steamer Princeton to a | , by which it was conveyed to Shim] station, es- corted by the.imperial body guard. A special train conveged the remains to Yokohama, where they were met by members of the American Asiatic Soci- ety and escorted by American and Japan- ese marines they were taken to the mor- tuary vault attached to the institution. Mrs. Buck, who is prostrated, was not present at the impressive ceremonies. Among the special mourners were Sam- uel Lyon, Consul at Kobe; Charles B. Harris, Consul at Nagasaki; James W. Davidson, Consul at Formosa, and of- ficers from the U. S..S. Princeton. The body will remain in the mortuary vault until the sailing of the steamer Korea, by which it will be taken by Mrs. Buek to the United States. JAPANESE CABINET IS’ FACING DEFEAT Naval Increase and Land Tax Bills Make It Un- ! popular. ' TOKIO, Dec. 13 (via Victoria, B. C., Dec. 27).—The Katsura Cabinet is thought to be on the eve of defeat over the naval increment and land tax bills, but some lucky chance may yet save it. If defeat- ed' by the combination of political parties the Diet will be dissolved and a new elec- “tion held. The situation is being watched with keenest interest. : Apropos of the naval increment bill, a rumor emanating- from San Franeisco that Japan was preparing to send perma- nent squadrons to Esquimalt and Europe is without foundation. The ‘ Japanese Foreign Office denies that Japan has any ambitions that way and says her only o Ject in increasing her navy is to main the status guo in the Far East, in whi¢h all commercial nations are Interested. . ELEVATOR STAGE FALLS WITH CARDINAL GIBBONS Party of Noted Cathdlic Prelates Have Narrow Escape From Injury or Death. B PITTSBURG, Pa.. Déc. .—While Car- dinal Gibbons, Archbishop Ryan of Phila- delphia and other leading churchmen ‘were descending in an elevator at the 4 ‘tel Schenley to-night to meet about Pittsburg citizens, the cage suddenly gave way and the occupants shot downward at a rapid speed. Fortunately the drop was but twenty feet and none of those in the cage were injured. ! i ————————— SPRINGFIELD, Il Dec. 27.—Eben of the Illinols State Mining at his home in this city to-day.