National.

Acting Secretary Loomis has been notified by the Russian Charge d' Affaires that hereafter passports issued to American citizens who expect to visit Russia will be vised only at the Russian embassy in Washington and the consulates in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. This cuts off Savannah, Mobile, Pensacola, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., Galveston, and Manila, at all of which ports passports have heretofore been indorsed by the Russian consuls or agents. This results from the requirement that the vise must be in Russian, which is not used by the agents at the latter places.

A statement prepared by the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department shows the customs revenues in the Philipines for the first four months of 1903 to have been $2,931,782, against $2,901,011 in the same period in 1902, and $1,215,657 in 1899. A comparison of the customs revenues under Spanish administration during the ten years from 1885 to 1895, with the period from August 20, 1898, to April 30, 1903, under American occupation, shows the volume of business to have increased about fourfold.

Judge George Gray has accepted his appointment as the fifth member of the Alabama Coal Strike Commission, and has so telegraphed to the other members of the commission at Atlantic City. He makes his acceptance conditional, however, upon the commission's work being done during August, as he will have to preside over a session of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals beginning the second week in September.

King Charles of Portugal visited the United States squadron on the 1st. A most cordial reception was accorded Rear-Admiral Cotton and his officers earlier in the week by the King and Queen Amelia at the royal castle at Cintra. The Admira, also visited Queen Maria Pia, mother of the King, and the Duke of Oporto, brother of the King.

The Reliance has been officially announced as the new America Cup defender.

Foreign.

The text of what purports to be an agreement between Russia and Japan signed at the time of the visit of the Russian Minister of War to Tokio last June has been published at Berlin. The agreement stiprlates lates that Russia shall effect the evacuation of Manchuria at the earliest possible date, may retain a police force there to protect her railway and other legally acquired interests without threatening the independence of China or prejudicing the trade of Japan; Russia shall offer no objection to the opening of free ports at Fengtien, Yenkon, and Tatakong, and the establishment of Japanese consulates at these places; Manchurian administration for the present shall remain unchanged, the legal liberty and interests of Japan shall be respected, and Japanese immigration within certain limits be unchecked.

A despatch from Constantinople to a German paper from Vienna says that Russia has asked Turkey to allow her warships to pass through the Dardanelles en route to China. The Porte hesitates giving permission, fearing that the Powers will protest. A large vessel belonging to the Russian volunteer fleet carrying arms to Port Arthur, is expected to pass through the Straits in a few days.

King Menelik of Abyssinia is to have a mint of his own at the capital city, Addis-Abeba. It will probably be in operation by the first of the year. It is understood that he has a very large amount of gold bullion on hand besides a large amount of silver. His coinage has hitherto been minted in France.

Ratifications of the Anglo-Chinese commercial treaty have been exchanged. This treaty was signed by Sir James T. Mackay and the Chinese commissioners at Shanghai September 5, 1902.

Cardinal Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, was elected Pope of the Church of Rome August 4 on the seventh ballot. He assumed the title of Plus X.

Industrial and Commercial.

According to estimates made by the agents of the trans-continental railway lines, the total number of settlers passing through St. Paul for the Northwest was 130,000. Of these 85,000 went to points in Minnesota, North Dakota, Idaho, and Washington, and the rest to the Canadian Northwest.

The land department of the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Company has just sold three thousand acres of richly timbered hardwood property to a Memphis firm, hardwood manufacturers. The sale is the largest ever closed by the land department of the Illinois Central road.

A merger of ten car wheel companies, including plants in Buffalo, Wilmington, Baltimore, and several western cities, is said to be nearing completion. It is stated that the combination will not include any of the New England concerns.

The National Novelty Corporation, a new five million dollar concern incorporated in New Jersey, expects by August 1 to have completed the combination of some thirty toy concerns located in different sections of the country.

The Knickerbocker Sugar Refining Company, a new plant being erected at Edge-water on the Hudson, expects to be producing six hundred barrels of sugar per day before the end of the year.

A hundred carloads of fruit, a thousand tons a day, are now coming East from Sacramento, according to reports.

The wheat yield of Canada is estimated at over sixty million bushels.

General.

"At the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the American Library Association at Niagara Falls recently, Mr. J. L. Harrison, of the Providence Athenaeum," says Public Opinion,"presented a report of the library gifts and bequests from June 1, 1902, to May 31, 1903. A significant part of the report showing some of the effects of the Carnegie gifts, is commented on by the New York Nation. The year has seen 158 Carnegie libraries added to a list which has probably passed one thousand and increases with almost daily rapidity. In other words, Mr. Carnegie, in the year ending last May, provided three library buildings for every one furnished at the public expense or by private beneficence. Or, if one chooses to regard Mr. Carnegie's gifts from the viewpoint of expense, he has given during the year $6,679,000 out of total library gifts (excluding, however, 96,247 volumes) of $10,306,407. In fine, Mr. Carnegie contributes two-thirds of the money and three-quarters of the buildings."

At a sale at Christie's, London, a set of Henry VIII, silver apostle spoons, 7 3/4 inches long, and the rarest known to connoisseurs, sold for $24,500, a record price. They were the property of a gentleman in whose family they had descended as heirlooms for many generations. The handle of each spoon is surmounted by an image of Christ or one of the apostles. The set weighs thirty-two ounces and nineteen drams. Each spoon bears the London Hall mark date, with the letter of the year 1536, and the maker's mark, a sheaf of arrows.

The trip from San Francisco to New York has just been completed by an automobile party which left the Coast May 23. The party speeded up the coast eighteen hundred miles and then turned eastward through Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. In the sixty-three days a distance of more than six thousand miles was covered; an average of 110 miles a day was maintained to Chicago, thirty-six days travel. The only accidents to the machine were the breaking of the stud bolt of the connecting rod and one broken axle.

The ruins of a large city are reported to have been found in a dense forest in a remote part of the State of Pueblo in Mexico by an archaeologist who has reported his find to the authorities at Mexico City. The city contains large pyramids and extensive fortifications and a large amount of excavation will be necessary to disclose its true extent and importance.

At the International Chemical Congress held in Berlin not long ago, Dr. A. Haarman, of Osnabruck, stated that about two hundred and forty-seven thousand tons of steel fly away in dust from the railroads of the world every year. Of this amount, he says, nineteen thousand tons is lost through friction on the German railways alone.

The Cape-to-Cairo Railway is progressing. Twenty-five hundred men have just begun work on the section between Wankie and the Zambesi at Victoria Falls. The branch line between Bulawayo and Guanda has been built one-third of the total distance of 104 miles.

An explorer recently returned from Unimak Island, one of the Aleutian group, says the island contains thousands of tons of carbonate of iron, pronounced practically pure and worth $20 a ton. The only other deposits are said to be in Bavaria.

The North German Lloyd line steamer Kaiser Wilhelm II, recently made the trip from New York to Plymouth in 5 days, 15 hours, and 55 minutes, thus lowering her best previous eastern record by one hour and thirty-five minutes.