State Ledger

KANSAS ITEMS OF INTEREST. Ned Larimer, of Wichita is appointed ensign in the navy. New hay is coming to Norton and selling at $4.50 to $5 a ton. The Civic League of Fort Scott has all the joints there corked up. Some farmers propose to sow corn fields in wheat to provide pasturage. Colin H. Ball, of Kansas, is made a second lieutenant in the regular army. Shawnee county returned to the assessors the most money on hand, with Crawford county second. The controlling interest in the Wellington National bank has passed from John T. Stewart by way of sale. The buffalo grass ranges in Scott county are reported to be in fine condition, with plenty of feed for stock. One hundred and twenty-three people took examinations at the close of the Sedgwick county teachers' institute. It is decided that the Central Kansas fair at Hutchinson will come off on schedule time the first week in September. The commercial club of Anthony is wide awake in connection with the northern extension of the Choctaw railroad. Some fellow figures that the crop loss in Kansas this year will reach $250,000,000, but Kansas is rich enough to stand it. The influx of slot machines from Missouri, since they were prohibited over there, is causing Kansas towns much pilakea. A well-fixed Douglas county farmer took his first ride on a railroad train along with a bunch of cattle he was taking to market. Scio, Graham county, reports 7.4 inches of rain since harvest up to July 25. Crops there are reported all right and everybody happy. A Santa Fe detective found several stolen lanterns at Hutchinson and secured evidence which may land thieves where they cannot steal. Eleven years before Joe Bristow became assistant postmaster general he was a candidate for clerk of the district court of Douglas county. The Fort Scott sorghum syrup works has 60,000 gallons of it on hand. Thirty days ago it was worth 15 cents a gallon; now it is worth 30 cents, and is being held for another rise. A threshing crew spent Sunday at Colwich and kept the place in an uproar, during the 30 or 40 hours they were there. They insulted ladies, fought among themselves and with the men of Colwich. The Rock Island purchased 500 acres at McFarland and is building hay barns, sheds and corrals, also a water tank 20 feet wide and 60 feet tall; all for a place to give sheep a rest an their journey to market. Evening dress suits fooled both Governor Stanley and Lieutenant Governor Richter. They attended a wedding and when they were on the trolley car going home they both found that their pockets wouldn't give down a nickle. Red tape killed a man in a coal mine near Topeka. He fell down a shaft and a long course of rigarole among the county health officers caused him to lie there five hours before the county relief authorities sent out to bring him to town. Henry and Eliza Foreman, of Montgomery county, have been man and wife for 67 years. They were born in the same county, attended the same school and were members of the same church. They are the parents of 13 children. A man calling himself S. L. Duff, telling that he represented a St. Louis millinery firm, proposed to install a department of millinery in a Quenemo store, collecting an advance of $27. He nor the goods have never been heard from. John B. Sims, five miles from Topeka, lost 35 cattle from eating green sorghum fodder. More were expected to die. The neighborhood turned out to skin the cattle. The adjustment of the loss to the Dold Packing company from the burning of their Wichita plant was promptly made. There were twelve adjustors present, with Edmund Fitzgerald, of Buffalo, representing the Dold company. The total insurance was $225,000 and the total loss about $300,000. Rev. Richard Cordley, of Lawrence, married a couple by the name of Bacon in 1859, in that city. Twelve years ago Rev. Mr. Cordley attended the funeral of Mr. Bacon and has now attended that of Mrs. Bacon. Charles Hoffman, of Lyon county, an ex-Confederate soldier, had a brother in the Union army. He attempted to personate his brother in an application for a pension and is now in jail, with a prospect of five years in the penitentiary. Uncle Sam shows no leniency to such frau ls. Junction City is shipping its ice from Wyoming. Kansas boomers took 184 of the first 1,000 numbers drawn at El Reno. Premium lists have been issued for a fair at Sterling on September 11-14. A contract has been made at $5 a ton to put up hay on the Fort Riley reservation. Farmers in Southern Kansas have commenced plowing for wheat since the rains. The Kansas railroad commissioners have asked for lower rates on forage and feed. J. M. Brooks, an early settler, died at Beattie. Marshall county, leaving a fortune of $80,000. Crib Johnson, of McPherson county, was at work among high weeds and died from the heat. Two McPherson county girls shocked their father's wheat crop. Men could not be found to do it. The rains have been the most general in the eastern part of the state where it was most needed. The floods injured the foundation of a new building in Topeka, being erected for a wholesale grocery firm. Boys made small fortunes in Wichita selling sandwiches to boomers. One little fellow cleared $12 in three days. E. Kirby, who has been running the Park hotel at Dodge City, shot and killed his wife, during a dispute about property. Farmers are planting forage crops extensively; so much so that they call upon the state employment agency to send them men. Orders which the stockmen had made for cars to move Kansas cattle have been quite generally countermanded since the heavy rains. The manager of the Harvey eating house at Dodge City, has been arrested charged with having prairie chickens in his possession out of season. Norman F. Ramsey, of Topeka, and Calvin Titus, of Wichita, have passed examination and have been appointed cadets and admitted to the military academy. Governor Stanley has offered a reward of $300 for the arrest of the man who assaulted a young woman at Colby. The county commissioners have offered $800. The wretch was trailed by bloodhounds toward Atwood where all trace was lost. Governor Stanley does not believe that the Benders were killed near Cherryvale, and almost everybody else believes that they were. It is true, however, that their disappearance was not discovered until they had been gone for three days. M. A. Low, of the Rock Island, says: "There is no foundation in fact for the report that we are going to build a track from Kansas City to Topeka. Our present arrangement is satisfactory, and there is no necessity for a new track. The local business does not justify it." The contractors who have been making gumbo ballast for the Union Pacific having finished their undertaking under their first contract, have entered into another which will require two years more to complete. There is still plenty of gumbo on the land west of Solomon which the contracting company owns. Kansans who were injured on the wrecked Rock Island train in Oklahoma are: K. Raub, North Topeka; E. L. and W. H. and J. T. Kelsey, Jewell; C. W. Kimmell, Morrill; Chas. Schmidt, Topeka; W. E. Copeland, S. W. George and Link Mills, Wichita; J. E. Tagg, Clearwater, and E. J. Hanett, Caldwell. The shale pit men at the Coffeyville vitrified brick plant struck for a raise of 25 cents a day. Labor Commissioner Johnson went there to smooth things. The Missouri Pacific paid the state of Kansas, the other day, a charter fee of $9,200 for filing an amendment to its charter to increase its capital stock to $45,000,000. The slops at the Osawatomie asylum amount to about seven barrels a day. There was a spirited contest among bidders to get it and it was sold for four months ahead at $56 a month. Russell T. Congdon rode all the way from Ripon, Wisconsin, to Wichita on his wheel, and started again going to Woodward, O. T. It is said that Miss Beals, who drew second choice in the Lawton district, is engaged to marry Charles V. Akerland, head porter at the Savoy hotel in Kansas City. Farmers flocked to towns to buy garden seeds almost before the first shower was over. They also bought large quantities of turnip seed, rye and sorghum seed. A. P. Clark, an old time Kansan, noticed an increased flow from springs and predicted the recent heavy rains 24 hours in advance. Nice law, that Kansas statute, requiring a diploma before a man can advise his friend to use arnica on a hurt. The doctors' trust is the biggest of all. The state board of equalization cut down the assessed valuation of Sedgwick county property $329,622, leaving the amount to pay taxes on only $10,-008,364. The Right to File Will Come in The Same Order. IF THE DRAWER IS PRESENT. El Reno, Okla., July 31.—The first name drawn at the El Reno district wheel was that of Stephen A. Holcomb of Pauls Valley, Indian Territory, for a homestead in the El Reno district and the second Leonard Lamb of Augusta, Okla. These two may select the choiceest claims in this district. The capital prize winners drawn from the Lawton district wheel were James R. Wood of Weatherford, Okla., whose name was the first to come out and Miss Mattie H. Beals of Wichita, Kas., who drew the second number. They will have the privilege of making the first filings in the Lawton district and will undoubtedly choose the two quarter sections adjoining that town. These are considered the most valuable in the territory and are, it is estimated, worth from $20,000 to $40,000 each. The day was one of excitement but the crowd was a good natured one. Each name, as it was announced was met with cheers started by friends or relatives of the winner, and joined in by many of the 50,000 spectators. There were no quarrels. It was found that many hundreds of applicants repeated and lose their rights. Over this there was discord with threats to appeal to the courts. Five hundred names were drawn from each wheel, which contained the names of applicants of the two districts separately. The eighteenth winner in the Lawton district was Minerva McGintock aged 25 years of Oklahoma City. She was married on the day before and by that act forfeited her right to file on a claim. For about an hour a strong gale blew dust in every direction and when it was over everybody was of the same color; all dark. There was a much greater number of applicants for claims in the Lawton district than in the El Reno district. Colonel Dyer, just before the drawing commenced, said in part: "I never saw a better crowd assembled together. You are all here with equal rights as American citizens. We have selected young men not having chances in this lottery, to draw out the names. We have selected them, knowing the families they represent are the foremost in the territory. Twenty-five names will be drawn from the El Reno box first and then twenty-five names from the Lawton box. "This is to be absolutely fair and every person interested is to have an equal chance. We rely upon every citizen assembled here to see fair play and justice done to every man." James R. Wood, who drew the first prize is a country school teacher. Mattie H. Beals, who took the second prize is a "hello girl" in the Wachita telephone exchange. A Boer Victory. Durban, Natal, Aug. 1.—Details received here of what at first seemed an ordinary skirmish between a British column and a Boer commando near Nqua. July 28, shows that a hard all day fight occurred, in which the British narrowly escaped the loss of a gun of the sixty-seventh field battery. Four hundred Boers repeatedly rushed the British position, killing Major Edwards and Gunner Carpenter. The gun was limbered up and taken at a gallop for three miles under a heavy fire. Five British were killed. El Reyo's Bake Off. El Reno, July 30.—A conservative estimate made by a local banker puts the amount of money left by home-seekers in El Reno during the registration at $1,400,000. This is $280 per capita for the population of the town. This banker figures that there have been 140,000 strangers here and that they have left an average of $10 each, staying two days each and spending $5 a day. Indians Jump Prize Claims. Oklahoma City, Ok., July 31.—Keo, Tuck, a Sac Indian, has given notice through Sub-Agent Bentley, of his intention to file upon the quarter section of land adjoining the townsite of Lawton. His application will be filed just as soon as the land office there is open for business. The application is made under x section of the United States statutes passed in 1887, which gives to every homeless Indian the right to go to any part of the public domain and to make entry for any tract of land that is not in the possession of a homesteader. To Rescue Relics. London, Aug. 1.—J. Pierpont Morgan, says a correspondent, left a check for $50,000 with General Horace Porter to be paid on delivery at the United States embassy of certain valuable relics of Lafayette, said to be in a pawnbroker's shop in London. How they got there is not known, but the story is that among them is the sculptured gold jug and sword carried throughout the American campaign, which Lafayette left to his heirs. COMPLETE MARKET REPORTS Kansas City. CATTLE—Heap. $ 4 90 @ 5 90 HOGS—Choice to heavy. $ 5 50 @ 5 90 WHEAT—No. 2 hard. 64 @ 64% CORN—No. 2 Mixed. 59 @ 59% HAY—Choice timothy. 14 50 @ 14 50 CHOICE prairie. 16 10 @ 19 BUTTER. 10 @ 10 EGGS. 10 @ 10 Chicago. WHEAT—No. 2 hard. $ @ 67% CORN—No. 2. 54% @ 54% OATS—No. 2. 34% @ 34% St. Louis Live Stock. BEEVES. 4 10 @ 5 85 STOCKERS & FEEDERS. 2 6) @ 4 20 SOUTHERN STEERS. 3 25 @ 3 45 Cotton. Uplands. Gulf. LIVERPOOL. 4 13-32M NEW YORK. 8%o @ 8%o GALVESTON. @ 8%o Wichita Grain. Open High Low Today Closa Closa Y'day. WHEAT July 63% @ 69 68% @ 68% Sept. 63% @ 69 68% @ 68% CORN July 55% 55% 54% 55% @ 53% Sept. 55% 55% 54% 55% @ 53% OATS July 34% 34% 33% 34-1% 33% @ 34% Sept. 34% 34% 33% 34-1% 33% @ 34% Wichita Live Stock. HOGS. $ 5 10 @ 5 65 Chicago Live Stock. GOOD TOWN. $ 5 20 @ 6 30 COWS & HEIFERS. 2 20 @ 5 00 STOCKERS & FEEDERS. 4 45 TEXAS FED BEEVES. 3 00 @ 4 50 HOGS. 5 75 @ 5 93 THE LATEST NEWS IN BRIEF. The telegraph line to Dawson will be completed on August 1. Rear Admiral John Irwin, retired, died July 29, aged 69 years. The uniform temperature in Mammoth cave is 55 degrees. Think of it. Six deaths and nineteen prostrations from heat occurred in Kansas City on July 24. The Columbia has sailed the Constitution out of any chance to meet Shamrock II. The strike of the steel workers has raised the price of the plate from 20 to 30 per cent. A Kanass City firm bought 100,000 bushels of oats on the market at Minneapolis, Minnesota. A heavy general rain fell in the Mississippi valley in Minnesota and relieved the heated spell. During a heavy rainstorm at Chillisothe, Mo, several buildings were damaged by lightning. Fruit and produce dealers of Philadelphia receive many orders from sections of the middle west. Up to July 1 the number of Boers made prisoners or who had surrendered during the war, was 33,000. Secretary Long cautions naval officers against giving any public utterance of their sentiments regarding the Schley-Sampson investigation. An oil company, with a paid up capital of $1,500,000, has incorporated in Utah. The company has 3,000 acres in the Green River, Utah, oil fields. The next congress will be asked to abrogate the treaty with Great Britain which forbids the building of warships on the great lakes. This is in the interest of ship yards in the lake cities. Striking ice wagon drivers at Columbus, Ohio, would not permit people to go to the ice houses to buy ice and carry it home. They beat one man terribly who was taking a piece of ice to his sick wife. "General" Jacob S. Coxey, apostle of labor, is at the head of a new steel corporation, being the chief stockholder of a plant just starting at Mount Vernon, Ohio. He says he supposes he will have trouble with the unions. The Frendenblatt, the organ of the Austro-Hungarian foreign office, commenting on the proposed German tariff law, says: "If Germany wishes a tariff war. Austria, Russia and the United States will be ready to undertake it." Probably a majority of the people of Kansas have believed for 25 years that the Benders were killed and buried near Cherryvale. A prehistoric city has been found on the Navajo reservation between Durango, Col., and Farmington, N. M., in which is a palace of a thousand rooms, older than the Aztecs. The American Forestry association will hold a summer meeting at Denver August 27-29. It is expected that James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, will preside. A big dry goods store in Sioux City, Iowa, was burned by a fire started by the sun in a show window. There were several people injured. A water spout at Cisco, Texas, washed away ten miles of the Texas Central railroad. An engine went through a bridge and engineer Thos. Beene was killed. London streets were flooded by rain and hail with incessant lightning. The water entered buildings over sidewalks and the underground railroad trains were stopped by water. In the U. S. court at Omaha the city of Beatrice is held for the payment of bonds which were issued in excess of the statutory percentage limit. The striking machinists and car builders of railroad shops in New Jersey want to return to work in a body but are told that they must apply as individuals. The appellate division of the New York supreme court declares the law invalid which forbids parties other than authorized agents to buy and sell railroad tickets. HAVE ALL AGREED AT LAST. Russian and British Ministers Satisfied With Arrangements. FINAL PROTOCOL IN SIGHT. Pekin, July 30.—A complete and full agreement has been reached by the representatives of the powers. The Russian government has signified its intention of not further pressing the question at present of the eventual increase of the import customs duties beyond five per cent (the present figures). It is agreed that in case the revenues of China are not sufficient for the payment of interest and principal, the powers are to examine the revenues and determine what changes are necessary in order to supply the deficiency. The imperial maritime customs are to be included in this arrangement. The British minister is satisfied with this arrangement and the whole question of finance measures is therefore settled. The 450,000,000 tales, constituting the indemnity are to be converted into gold at the equivalent of the tael value on the first of last April. In case the import duties are subsequently increased the free list will have to be abolished except for cereals, but it is understood that that compensation will in that case, will be asked for, probably for the financial participation of China in improving the water approaches of Shanghai and Tien Tsin. All the other principal points of the negotiations are now settled and it is expected that the results will be summarized in the final protocol within two weeks and that all of the powers will become signatories. In connection with the indemnity payments a question has arisen whether the United States government will take its share of the bonds to be issued by China in American gold or pounds sterling. The disposition of this government is to take the money in the form that will be the least burdensome to the Chinese government and in the interest of uniformity it is probable that the payments will be made in pounds sterling. Wreck on Rock Island. Wichita, Aug. 1.—A Rock Island train wrecked two miles north of Kremlin, Okla., loaded with returning boomers resulted in the death of C. L. McLean, of Enid and the injury of about thirty passengers who were brought here and placed in hospitals. The heavy rain of Monday night had washed the dirt from under the timers, which, as the engine struck it, gave down. The weight of the engine broke one of the rails on the east side and went down. Owing to the speed with which the train was going the engine and mail car passed over safely. The baggage car struck the broken rail and veered to the right or east. This disconnected the train and put on the air brakes, which to a great extent, slowed the balance of the train, somewhat. The baggage car, smoker and day coach ran a short distance in the mud and fell on their sides. The three cars formed a V. The chair car, sleeper and day coach, which had been attached to the rear, left the track and ran alongside the track and stopped right side up, the rear car being a few feet north of the broken rail. Lulu Kennedy Gives Bond. Kansas City, Aug. 1.—Lulu Kennedy, under sentence of ten years for killing her husband, Philip H. Kennedy, on January 10 last, has been released from jail on bond of $10,000 pending her appeal of her case to the state supreme court. Secretary Ryan Denies. Washington, July 31.—Assistant Secretary Ryan, of the interior department, whose name was mentioned among the prominent men who made application for homestead entry in the two Oklahoma reservations, positively denies the truth of the statement. He says his son, who served in the Spanish-American war, filed a soldier's declaratory, but did so only for himself and his own name, and was not even present as erroneously stated. Chaffee Says Button Up. Manila, July 31. General Chaffee has issued an order that the troops whenever outside of barracks shall wear their coats buttoned. The order dispenses with the use of flannel shirts. Officers are ordered to wear khaki for all duty and swords always when actively commanding. White or dress suits are permitted to be worn on social occasions. Upon visiting the posts General Chaffee found an astonishing variety in the uniforms and a great laxness regarding the clothing of the troops. Irrigation Works Wonders Washington, Aug. 1.—Prof. Meade, irrigation expert of the agricultural bureau told the industrial commission that if the rich soil of the prairie state of Kansas, with its 82,000 square miles of area, could be wholly and reliably irrigated and thoroughly cultivated it would produce sufficient to feed the whole world the year round. Well watered and cultivated, that soil, from the Missouri border to Colorado, will easily produce 100 bushels of corn and 40 bushels of wheat to an acre. Says That There Will be a Surplus Instead of a Deficiency. Topeka, Ks., Aug. 1.—John Francis, times treasurer and chairman of the Ways and Means committee in the last legislature declares false the published statement that the last legislature appropriated more money than is provided for in fixing the limit of taxation. He supports this with statements of revenues from all sources, adding thereto the surplus in the treasury at the end of the last fiscal year, after charging against that item the appropriations for bringing home the Twentieth Kansas $50,000; Quantrell raid claims, $80,000; Governor's mansion, $35,000; State house heating $7,500; miscellaneous appropriations and various deficiencies approximately, $100,000. Mr. Francis predicts a surplus in the treasury at the end of the two years, of from $400,000 to $650,000. Mr. Francis closes with "the matter of ways and means was never more carefully considered by any legislature, and the charge that it possess its nerve," and did no dare to provide sufficient revenue, is absurd, in the face of the facts in the case." Fall Back on School Lands. El Reno, July 27.—Many of the homeseekers are preparing to lease school land if they are not successful in the drawing. There are hundreds of farmers in Oklahoma who have made good money in leasing school land and this has inspired the prospective settler to try for a lease in case he is not successful in the drawing. There will be opportunities of leasing Indian lands and the settlers will be numerous in the new country outside of those who do not secure homes in the drawing. Beaumont Fuel Oil. Austin, Texas, Aug. 1.—W. G. Van Vleck, manager of the Southern Pacific, said that arrangements are being perfected as rapidly as possible for the use of Beamum oil as fuel in all the locomotives of the Southern Pacific system, a division at a time. The company is also constructing four large oil storage tanks, each with a capacity of more than 1,250,000 gallons. Heavy Rails—Some Hall Larned, Kan., July 29.—Pawnee county has been visited by a heavy rain accompanied by a high wind and severe electrical disturbance, leaving the city in total darkness. At 8:35 o'clock p. m., on Friday it was estimated at least an inch of water had fallen within an hour. At Garfield a station eleven miles west of here, two and a half inches of water fell together with a hail storm. Important Liquor Decision. Fort Scott, Kan., July 26.—Hudge Walter L. Simons, of the district court, rendered a decision of great importance to the people of Kansas. He held that the law of 1887 providing for injunctions in liquor cases, has not been repealed by the Hurrell law of 1901, and that a private citizen can verify the petition, it not being necessary for the county attorney or attorney general to join in the action. Effects Seattle Business Seattle, Wash., Aug. 1.—As a result of the longshoremen's strike in San Francisco the business of the California metropolis has been entirely stopped. The loss to this city and to numerous steamship companies will mean thousands of dollars a month. The merchants here are already heavy losers on account of the teamsters' strike there and the local strike. Stamp Tax on Large Deeds Washington, July 29. — Commissioner of Internal Revenue Yerkes has decided in the matter of the rate of tax on conveyances of real property that conveyances, where the consideration or value is $3,500 or less are exempt from tax and that amount is to be deducted from the value of all conveyances where the consideration or value exceeds $2,500. Trade With Germany Washington, July 31.—Ambassador White has made the subject of United States trade with Germany the basis of a special report to the state department. He shows that in the course of ten years the United States has advanced from fourth to first place on the basis of goods shipped to Germany the total value of such goods and natural products in 1900 being $296,750,400. On the other hand, in the matter of goods imported from Germany, the United States has stood in third place without change for the ten years, the value of the imports in 1900 being $184,482,000. Faith And Generosity Chicago, Aug. 1.—Rushing forward with money in their outstretched hands hundreds of Italians jostled each other in their eagerness to pin donations of from $1 to $50 to the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which was carried in a procession through the streets of Melrose Park. Before the statue, with its retinue of priests, brass bands and communists had reached the church, over $2,000 had been pinned to the garments wrapped about the image.