The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, July 26, 1900, Image 3
MINISTER CONGi
Reports the Legation I
of the Ch
* NEWS REGARDED AS AUTHENTIC.
The Message Came to .Minister Wu
and Stated That Minister Conger V.. s
Still'Alive -Department Inclined to
to Beli.ve the .News
Washington. B. C.. Special.?The
State Department Friday morning received
the following cablegram from
Minister Conger, at Pekin:
'"In Britsh legation. Under continued
shot and shell from Chinese troops.
Quick relief only can prevent general
massacre."
The message is not dated, but it is
understood was sent from Pekin on
the 18th.
Washington. D. C., Special.?Lik" a
flash of sunlight out of a dark sky can)"
the intelligence at an early hour Suit
United States Minister Conger i.ad
gent a cipher cable dispatch from IVkin
to the State Department at Washington.
making known that two d:?>s
ago he was alive and that the t'? re'gners
were fighting for their iives. The
message was received by the Chinese
minister. Wu Ting Fung, at 8:30 a. m.
Within an hour the welcome intelligence
that Conger had been heaid
from, after weeks of silence and evil
report, was flashed through the conn*?
A ?/ .,! tKvAxo-ViAnt tKr? a*nrltl
ur > , llliu IUUVCI * LMV nv.
dispelling the gioom which had prevailed
everywhere and bringing to officials
and to the public, generally, a
sense of profound relief. The dispatch
was in reply to Secretary Hay's cable
inq hary to Minister Conger on July
11. and as both messages were in the
American cipher code they were rega-ded
by the officials as above the
suspicion i f having been tampered
with in the < oxvse of transmission
through Chfhr.se channels. Mr. Wu
promptly < orr.unicutcd the dispatch
to the State Department, where the
ti.:nsla*:cn was made from ;.:e cipher
fig ire? and .-on all Washington was
astir with <he inttlligon o. It was
^telegraphed by Secretary H..y to the
^ President who responded with a wholesome
expre.-.-ior. of gratification, and
word of it was sent to the various
oei-inef officers. They gathered in
Secretary Hay s office and an impromptu
cabinet conference was held
in the diplomatic chamber, mainly for
the purpose of exchanging congratulations
and of taking a survey of the
situation to see if it had been materially
changed by this important dovrlopment.
First of all. from the
standpoint of the administration officials.
the most welcome feature of the
nic-sago was the assurance that the
American minister himself was alive
two days ago. But with this cheering
news came the ominous statement of
Minister Conger that the besieged
foreigners were in the British legation
under continuous shot and shell
from Chinese troops, and that only
quick relief could avert a general massacre.
After the first flush of thankfulnoac
thtc vrot'or fna htro nf tho
nussage began to impress itself upon
cabinet officials most deeply. As one
of them remarked: "There are the
poor creatures, penned up under Are
of shot and shell, appealing to us for
help."
The consultation brought about no
pronounced change of policy, for it was
felt that already absolutely every enVictory
for Dubois.
Poiatello. Ida.. Special.?The Democratic
State convention reconsidered
the vote by which it voted against the
nomination of a Senator and instructed
the conference committee to consider
the Senator one of the officers to
be apportioned in the fusion arrangements.
This is a complete victory for
Dubois, and the result will be in little
doubt.
The Blue and the Grav.
Atlanta. Special.?A genuine Georgia
barbecue Friday afternoon closed
the re-union in this city of the Blue
and the Gray. Although it was given
^' out at its inception that the re-union
m was for the benefit only of those who
* participated in the battles around Atlanta,
and the city's invited gutsts,
veterans from all parts of the South
were present, swelling the crowds to
large proportions. General John B.
Gordon, commander-in-chief of the
United CConfederate Veterans, disobeying
bis physician's order, was
present with the other distinguished
guests.
ER HEARD FROM
L'nder the Constant Fire
sinese Guns.
e:gv had been lent toward meeting the
situation, and there was absolutely
nothing more that could be done. After
.'11. the cabinet officials felt, and so
I stated, that the message was an evijdc-me
of friendliness an good faith of
4 jJiu-iuieiKU eieuiriu ui liitr ^liiue^e,
j**ud that wisdom dictated a coarse
I which would continue to utilize this
; friendsnip.
The government accepted the mes'
.-as,e as authentic, and Secretary Hay
transmitted it to all our ambassadors
and ministers abroad, with instructions
to lay it before the respective governments
to which they are accredited
j and urge upon them the necessity of
' co-operation for the immediate relief
of the foreigners at Pekin. A me sage
| was sent by Secretary Ixjng to Admiral
! Remey conveying the intelligence of
the desperate situation in Pekin. and
I instructing him to "iv-e and urge every
| i?c3-ible endeavor for rslief."
This message. Secretary i^ong explained,
meant for Admiral Romey to
: himself "use" and to "urge" upon the
commanding officers of the other powi
ers the use of every endeavor for the
relief of Pekin. Secretary Root s?nt a
.-S-Vktl..,. n/At t A 1 Prtfilwlcro
: siuiiiui itviiiiLaiiuu iw V/i/i.
the senior American officer ashore at j
Tien-T: in, but without injunction. This
action was the result of the conference
of Secretaries Hay, Long and Root. It
was realized that the land and naval
for< es of the Knited States now in
China could not single handed push 0:1
, to Pekin. and the other powers, accordingly
were appealed to. on the basis of
Minister Conger's message, to co-oper-1
ate for instant relief. Secretary Hay
! oxnlained his reasons for niacins re
dance in the authenticity of Minister
Conger's dispatch, saying that it was
! a complete reply in code to the <ode
nitsage sent to him. and that its au
tiionticity was vouched for by the
Tsung Li Yamen.
"Of course, said Secretary Hay
j smiling, "I am not omniscient and may
be foaled, but I can not see how the
authenticity o.' Minister Conger's cable
c.?n he questioned."
Secretary Hay said he attathed no
; significance to the use of the words
i "Chinese trocps." in the message. They
! did not, in his opinion, mean that the
Chinese government trc.ops were be- i
sieging the foreigners. He seemed to
entertain little doubt that the Chinese
government itself was doing all in its
power to suppress the Boxers' insurrection.
In this c;nnection the message
from Consul Fowler that General
| f'uan Shih Kai, governor of Shen Tung
province, reported that the Chinese an- !
' :horities were doing all in their power
. o put down the insurrection, is exceedingly
welcome intelligence. It not
only confirms the theory of the State
Department that the position of the
Chinese government is correct, but it
is assumed to indicate that Yuan Shih
Kai has thrown the weight of his influ. 1
ence on the side of the government. I
Yuan is considered one of the ablest,
if not the ablest, general, in China. He
has. according to a statement matfe by
Lord Charles Beresford to a prominent
State Department official, when he was
here last fall, the best drilled and
equipped army in China under his command.
Some doubt was entertained as
to which side he would ally him;elf
in iho nrcsunt insurrection and
the fact that he appeared to have come
out on the side of the government is 1
eepted as evidence that his best judgment
is that Prince Tuan'a rebellion is
destined to fall.
Sixty Missionaries Killed.
London, By Cable.?A dispatch from
I Shanghai, received here Saturday, reports
that 60 missionaries and 100 native
converts have been massacred by
Boxers at Tai Yuan. Tai Yuan is a
fortified and populous city in the
province of Shan Si, on the Fuen Ho,
an affluent of the Hoang Ho, 250 miles
southwest of Pekin.
Fire in the Dismal Swamp.
| Norfolk, Special?Weeks of drought
' have put a large portion of the Dismal
j Swamp in a highly inflammable condi
tion. and fires are eating into the timber
undergrowth and peaty grounu at
several points along the Norfolk and
Western Railroad. Fires are supposed
to have been started from locomotives.
If no heavy rain comes soon, there
may be heavy losses in the destruction
of standing timber. The drought has
effected the depth of water in both the
Dismal Swamp and Albemarle and
Chesapeake Canals, and some vessels
of deep draft have not been able to get
through.
WHY THIS DELAY?
Probable Reasons Why th? Advarc? ol
the Allied Forces is Not Med..
Washington. D. C., Special.?Two
dispatches from Chinese officials ana
one from Admiral Remey at Taku
represented the news developments of
Saturday so far as the Chinese situation
was concerned. The Chinese dispatches
were corroborative or were intended
to be. of the important news of
Friday relative to the state of the
legationers. Admir;* Remey's disI
patch aside from a list of casualties
I was most important. It conveyed the <
i disagreeable news that the interna- 1
I tional column would not begin its ad!
vance upon Pekin before the middle of j
I August. This notice was received1
| here with consternation, in view of j
I Mr. Conger's advice of the desperate j
! postion the legationers were in on the j
i 1C.U T?u? ^l..in/./xmn..ARnno;R1/> I
13111. lilt- ut'iav is nu uiiiinojRiioit/ic |
to the officials here. It is known that .
an army, already formidable in nura- j
hers and of veteran soldiers is at Tien j
Tsin and Taku. and with a courageous ;
leader, it was expected that this would '
push on at once; cutting loose from !
its base if need be. and forcing its j
way to Pekir., leaving the re-enforce, j
meats now steaming toward Taku j
from every quarter of the globe to re- |
establish the base and to reopen com-!
munication.
It is possible to draw two conclu-.
i sions from a failure of the foreign
commanders to do this. First, the
| European governments have allowed
j their skepticism as to the authenticity
! of .Mr. Conger's dispatch to carry them
j to the point of proceeding coolly and
j deliberately upon the first supposition,
i namely that there are no foreigners '
! alive to be saved; consequently there
| is no need for haste.
The'other conclusion is that friction
! is developing among the internationals
I ' .1 f ,
1 1Q SjJJIie Ul lUf caiurai cuucaiuio ui mC
I powers whose motives as to China are
so far unimpeached to prevent it. Col- j
! or is lent to this latter theory by the !
fact that fhe governments have so far i
i been unable to agree upon an interna-'
tional commander for the expedition ;
1 to Pekin, and this too, in spite of the
fact that Admiral Remey, acting by the
; instructions of his government is ex-!
| haustlng every effort to induce the |
; other commanders at Taku and Tien
Tsin to hasten their movements.
The text of Admiral Remey's statement
relative to the movement 01 the
1 international column was not made
public; in fact it was not intended that
! the news should get out. and there
was a feeling of annoyance exhibited
' at the publication, because of its possible
effect upon the international
negotiations now under wav. Mean- (
while to secure an accurate statement
of the exact conditions at Taku and
Tien Tsin ar.J the resources which
?.!H 1,a * 4Ua .1 innnpa 1 f\f inrDrnM.
Will uc at me uiopuoai wi vtiv ?.?
j tional commander, whoever he may be i
Secretary Ixmg to-day cabled Admiral
Remov to send him a statement of the
number of international troops now
ashore in China, separating different
nationalities.
Gen. Chaffee is due at Nagasaki in
a day or two. He will tranship at that
point and arrive at Taku in about a
week from this time. It has been sub-:
gested here that Gen. Chaffee will, if j
need be. leave the other commanders i
to their own devices and lead the way |
to Pekin himself. His brother offi- j
j cers in the war department say. that j
he is quite competent to undertake j
this task. Others declare that with
the small force of Americans at his j
command, the attempt would be sui-j
| cidal. even if Chaffee were supported ,
by the British.
A notable feature is the inclusion of j
Lieut. Col. Heistand, now United j
States military attache to the Paris
exposition commission.
The troops movements ordered con-'
horning the First infantry, had been '
anticipated. It is presumed that one '
effective battalion will be made Out of |
the two battalions of that regiment returning
from Cuba, excluding the j
short term men, who will remain at
Leavenworth, as the home battalion '
of the First regiment.
This new battalion with a battalion ;
now at Iyeavenworth will proceed to
China. The consolidation into two of i
the original six military departments j
of Cuba, announced to-day, is nothing ,
more than the logical result of the j
withdrawals of troops from that island j
already directed.
Sale
of Georgia Peachea.
New York, Special.?Nearly $600 !
was realized from the sale of crated
[ peaches auctioned at tne pier or ine 1
Pennsylvania railroad. North river,
for the benefit of the Georgia Industrial
Home at Macon, oa. A carload of
?^)Oi:t 700 crates was contributed by
the fruit growers of Georgia for this
purpose.
Norrow Escape.
New York, Special.?Capt. Burg of
I the Savannah, Line steamship City ot
Birmingham, reports that when pass
I lllg ^UUU) nuUK Miui U> auci uuuu
Saturday, bound for Savannah, a shell !
j which was fired from tue Sandy Hook !
proving grounds struck the water be- 1
j tween his vessel and the shore, about 1
[ 150 feet from the vessel and ricochet
ting passed over his vessel about midship.
There was great excitement
aboard the vessel at what was considered
a very narrow escape, and
many of the passengers were very
much frightened.
f
%
TilE GOEBEL MURDER TRIAL.
Startling Testimony From a Republican
Witness.
Georgetown, Ky., Special.?In the <
trial of Caleb Powers, charged with <
complicity in the Goebel shooting. 1
Jno. A. Glade, of Barbourville, a banker
and a Republican of prominence,
was the first witness. He said Powers 1
*-?o r>> ri t /\ 4? i TY^ In Tonnnrv t r\ Ivtti
as to the pro.Viety of the mountain '<
organization which he said Powers
was getting up. "I asked Powers,"
said,the witness, "what sort of a
cfjv.d he was p.-tting up, and he said
lie was organized an armed mob to
go o Frankfort. I discouraged this
and told him it would injure the Re;
ab.iean party; would be a stigma on
;.u:- end of the State and ought to be
abandoned. Powers, however, insisted
.hat the mob should be formed. His
idea was that it would intimidate the
legislature."
Black, continuing, said; "I saw
Powers later and again remonstrated
against the mountain mob going to
Frankfort. Powers told me it was
being formed with the approval of
Governor Taylor, Charles Finley and
other Republican leaders at Frankfort.
Finley also came to me and endeavored
to get me to co-operate with them.
I protested bitterly. Powers became
very angry with me on account of the
position I took. I tried to disuade
them from the dirty band and to send
people of influence, if any."
A check from Charles Finley, to the
Louisville and Nashville Railroad for
$1,000 for transportation of the men to
Frankfort was produced by Black in
response to a queston from the prosecution.
W. H. Culton, who is under indictment
as an accessory to the killing of
Governor Goebel, was called next.
Cuiton said he attended a conference
at Frankfort in January at which the i
Powers brothers were present and the I
matter of bringing mountain men to I
Frankfort was being discussed. Hamp j
Howard, Frank Cecil and other moun- j
tain men were asked by Powers how ,
many they could bring from Harlan, ,
Belle and other counties. They promised
to bring from 50 to 200 from each
of the counties. Powers said, according
to the witness, that when the m u
arrived at Frankfort they would give '
the Democratic legislators 30 minutes
in which to settle the contests and "if i
they did not settle it in that time th'.y :
would kill every one of them."
Culton continued: "The mountain
men arrived in Frankfort January Ji.
They numbered from 1,000 to 1,200)
men. These who carried guns had
them stacked in the office of the Commissioner
of Agriculture and each
man was given a tag corresponding
with a number on his gun. After holding
the meeting m the State house yard
the larger part of the crowd was sent j
home."
Culton said Henry Youtsey told him I
? I""! e nnnlrl Ka '
I1C I1UU 1UUUU a naji utcuci v.vuiu ?/v
killed and no one find out who did L
Youtsey said it could be done from the
Secretary of State's office, and showed
some steel bullets. The witness told i
Youtsey such a thing should not be j
done. Ex-Governor Bradley had told J
witness of hearing that Goebel was to
be killed and said it must not be done.
Witness saw Youtse/ again and the lit
ter said the idea had been abandoned.
Powers, the witness alleged, distributed
money among the various captains
who were to bring the mountaineers
to Frankfort. He did not know whence
the money came.
He declared Governor Taylpr furnished
him (Cultoa) trie money to bring
the Jackson county crowd. Witness
said Governor Taylor did not want the
mountain men to go home. He went to
Berry Howard and others, at Taylor's
instance, and told them the Governor
wanted them to lemain and not go
home as Powers wished.
On the day of the VanMeter-Berry
contest in the legislature the witness
said Taylor sent orders by him to Assistant
Adjutant General Dixon to have
the troops in the arsenal ready to be i
called out at a moment's notice. The
court adjourned with Culton on the
stand.
Notes.
In St. Louis Attorney General Crow
filed in the State supreme court quo
warranto proceedings against the St
Louis Transit Company and United
Railways Company and the National .
Railway Company, to revoke the charters.
Latest dispatches give what purports
to be details of a massacre of foreigners
in Pekin. ;
Many Die From Heat.
New York, Special.?The hot weather
Wednesdey caused or contributed toward
the death of more than seventy
persons in this city and vicinity. A3
many more stricken ones are in the
hospitals and some of them will succumb
before the night is over. More \
than half the fatalities were among babies
and little children and there are
now about forty bodies of the litti*
ones lying at the morgue at Bellevue.
This is the third day of the spell of intense
heat. Late at night the heat 1
moderated. On the streets the temperature
ranged from 98 to 105. and the
official record from the weather bureau '
high above ground was 94 degrees
shortly before ? o'clock in the aitc-r- ,
noon.
throughout the county.
f
The South.
In consequence of the atrocities of
die Albanians who recently raided old
:!ervia, numerous bandc of Christians
iiave lied into Servia and Montenegro.
In a three-cornered fight at Hawesrille.
Ky., Jack Hesson and Allen Pulliam
were killed.
TVio Qnnthorn lr.rfu?trinl T.^acilP met
it Atlanta, Ga., last week.
W. H. Culton, as a witness fct the
trial of Caleb Powers, accused of the
murder of William Goebel, revealed a
plot to bring armed men to Frankfort
to kill legislators. *
At the trial of Caleb Powers, charged
with complicity in the murder of William
Goebel. a witness testified t?
threats by Powers against Goebel'S
life.
Arthur Bailly B]anehard, of Ixrnisiana,
has been appointed third secretary
of the Embassy at Paris.
The North.
John Matthews, of Columbia College,
New York, is the American delegate
to the general meeting of th Society
of Chemical Industry, at London.
Two hundred fishing vessels are
caught in the ice off the Labrador
coast, and it is feared some of tbem
".-ill he lost.
Fifty bathers, powerless to r,escue
her, saw t3-ycar-old Margaret O'Brien
drown at Lighthouse Point, Conn., on
Tuesday.
Professor J. M. Meneek, a distinguished
scientist of the Smithsonian
Institution, at Washington, D. C., was
lost several days ago in the desert of
Southern Utah, and is beleved to have
perished.
The National League of Republican
Clubs elected Isaac Miller Hamilton.
of Chicago, president.
Stockholders ot the National Wallpaper
Company decided at a "meeting
in New York' to wind up its affairs.
Curtis Guild, Jr.. of Boston, has declined
the appointment of First Assistant
Postmaster General, tendered
him in succession to Perry S. Heath.
The President has appointed IL Percival
Dodge and Samuel Morrill, of
Massachusetts, respectively as second
and third secretary of the Embassy at
Berlin.
Nicholas Pierson. a prominent Democrat
of New York State, was killed by
a train at Ithaca.
11 Allicnn /iirjinlr
Five-year-om .nanmm
a probably fatal dram of gin careless,
ly left on a table at Brooklyn, N. Y.
Joseph A. Donnell, a New York letter
carrier with eight years of service,
is alleged to have been caught robbing
the mails.
The steamer Colorado, from New
York for Brunswick, Ga., is achore at
Doboy, Ga.
William Waldorf As tor will build a
hotel to cost $3,000 000 between Fortyfourth
and Forty-fifth streets, on
Broadway, New York.
John G. Woolley, Prohibitionist can.
dwidate for President, is to make a
tour of the country in a special train,
to be known as the ' Prohibition train.
A formidable Ice Trust, in which
nearly all the shareholders are Republicans,
is crushing small dealers in
Syracuse, N. Y.
General Lew Wallace will probably
preside over the meeting of the National
Anti-Imperialist League, at Indianapolis,
Ind., August 13 to 17.
Foretjn.
Lieutenant Colonel Perisse, a
French officer, was accidentally suffocated
by gas in India.
Additional details are made public
of an alleged invasion of Siberia by
Chinese.
Boers made a spirited attack on Pole?
?'? "/.nitUii nnt far frnm Pra
trtiew o jjvsoi irvsu, uvt, &M4 ?. v
toria.
The Shah of Persia called upon the
Czar of Russia at Petersburg.
The Canadian Parliament was prorogued
Thursday.
The immigration authorities are investigating;
the proposed large influx
of Roumanians, who are said to be
undesirable, into this country.
Governor General Wood, of Cuba,
who is in Washington, spoke enthusiastically
of the improved conditions on
the island.
Spanish Consuls in Cuba have protested
against a death sentence for
Jose Garcia for alleged murder of Cuban
prisoners in the revolution.
Miscellaneous.
Lieutenant Richard Hobson is at
Tokio, Japan, to be treated for Oriental
opthalmia.
Dispatches from Chinese sources
tend to confirm earlier dispatches that
foreign Ministers in Pekin were still
alive July 9.
According to the reports sent to th?
Adjutant General the organized militia
force of the several States 1s placed
at 133,771 and the men unorganized
but liable for military duty at 9.348,056.
Governor General Wood, of Cuba, in
an interview, says the islands are contented
and happy.