Political Events.

State Senator William Goebel, contestant for the office of Governor of Kentucky, was shot down on the State House grounds at Frankfort, January 30, by a hidden foe. The following day, when Goebel was thought to be dying, the Democratic members of the Legislature, who comprise a quorum, decided the contest for Governor in favor of Goebel, and he was sworn in as Governor by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He died February 3, and J. C. W. Beckham, Lieutenant-Governor under Goebel, was sworn in as Governor. Taylor, the de facto Governor, holds the State House by force, having the entire National Guard under arms and on duty. On the face of the returns Taylor, the Republican candidate, was declared elected and assumed office. Goebel contested the right of Taylor to the office, and the Democratic majority of the Legislature favored Goebel and declared him elected.

William J. Bryan opened the preliminary presidential canvass for the Democratic party in New England at a great mass meeting held in Boston, January 30. He then started on a speech-maing tour of the New England states.

President McKinley has decided to leave to the new philippine commission the question of the disposition of the property of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines and Porto Rico.

It is said that President McKinley intends to issue a proclamation to the Philippine Insurgents within thirty days, offering amnesty to all who will lay down their arms.

At a recent meeting of the Cabinet it was decided to increase the army in Alaska.

Foreign News.

Since the retirement of the British forces under General Buller to the south of the Tugela River after the fight on Spion Kop, no authentic information regarding the situation of the opposing armies in South Africa has filtered through, owing to the strict censorship; but it has been persistently rumored that General Buller has begun a new movement in the direction of Ladysmith for the relief of the beleagured forces under General White.

Including the casualties in the battle of Spion Kop and engagements at Venter's Spruit, the total loss of the British since the beginning of the war, up to January 31, is placed at 9,658. On the arrival of 18,000 troops now afloat, Lord Roberts will have at his command 213,000, the largest army Great Britain has ever put in the field.

The British Parliament re-assembled January 30. The Queen in her speech announced that the provisions for military expenditure must be very largely increased. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, leading the opposition, attacked the government on its conduct of the war, but it seems to be clearly the disposition of the members to sustain the government in spite of the popular dissatisfaction with the results of the campaign.

It is reported that business is stagnant in Porto Rico, and in consequence a great many laboring people of the island are in distress. The cause is said to be the uncertainty in regard to the tariff. It seems likely now that Congress will soon adopt a tariff for Porto Rico that shall be 25 per cent of the existing tariff levied on foreign goods.

The authorities of Honolulu set fire to a block of dwellings in the district condemned by the health officers, January 20, and the flames spread to other blocks sweeping everything before them until the Chinese and Japanese quarters of the town were burned out, leaving about 4,500 people shelterless.

The national library in Paris has just acquired the forty thousand volumes that formed the famous collection of books of M. Ristelhuber, the Austrian author. The testator was a rich man, and spent nearly all his fortune on his library.

Hamburg, Germany's first seaport, has adopted the overhead American trolley on its street lines. Eighty German cities are supplied with electric railways, and American appliances are admitted to be beyond comparison the best.

There are large furniture stores in Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the better class of Boers have their houses furnished in the most modern style. In 1898 the imports of wooden furniture alone were valued at SJ.112,000.

The meteorological department of the government of India has four first class observatories, 174 general stations, and 2,280 rainfall stations, from which regular monthly statements are received.

St. Paul's cathedral is the most heavily insured building in Great Britain. It is insured in ten companies and the policies aggregate nearly five million dollars.

There are in the English army seven hundred Jews, one hundred and forty-four of them being officers. France has three hundred Jewish officers.

Recent cable reports have spread a rumor that Emperor Kwang Sur of China has been deposed, but the rumor has not been confirmed.

The sugar crop of the Hawaiian Islands for this season amounts to 282,807 tons.

Industry and Commerce.

Solicitor Dodd of the Standard Oil Company is reported to have made the following statement in regard to the dividends paid by that company. The quarterly dividends of the company aggregated 5 per cent in 1882; 6 per cent in 1883 and 1887, 11 J per cent in 1888, 12 per cent in 1889, 1890, and 1891, 12.21 per cent in 1892, 31 per cent in 1896, 31 per cent in 1897 and 33 per cent in 1898, and that a stock dividend was made in May, 1887.

A movement to amalgamate all automobile and bicycle interests has progressed so far in this country that Eleazer Kempshall of Boston has sailed to Europe to perfect matters in Great Britain and continental Europe. The outcome, it is said, will be a $200,000,000 trust, which is intended to embrace the manufacture of every article entering into the construction of a bicycle or an automobile.

Chicago's down-town streets are cleaned and repaired under the supervision of a woman. About seventy-five laborers are employed and the work is done between seven o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning. About one hundred and twenty thousand dollars is expended annually under her direction.

The Agricultural Department reports that our trade with Japan and China, including the port of Hong Kong, amounted to $87,305,688 for the fiscal year 1899. The trade in 1889 amounted to $46,294,167. The gain in exports during ten years was 256 per cent, while the gain in imports was 36 per cent.

There are 37,000,000 sheep in the United States. Each annually averages 6 1/2 pounds of wool. The total wool clip is, therefore, two hundred and forty million pounds. When pulled, scoured, and fleeced these figures are reduced to one hundred and fourteen million pounds.

Official figures on the pig iron production in Alabama and Tennessee during 1899, show that the output was an increase of twenty per cent over the highest previous year. The two states produced 1,571,570 tons during the year. Of this amount 1,257,256 tons were from Alabama.

The mints of the United States made an exceptional record in 1899. The gold coinage was $111,344,220, the silver coinage $26,061519, and the minor coinage $1,837,451. The total coinage was 152,939,465 pieces, representing a value of $139,243,190.

Sioux City, Ia., will soon have the largest creamery in the world It will have two hundred and fifty stations, while the largest creamery now in existence, that at St. Albans, Vt., has one hundred stations.

The total number of vessels built and numbered by the Bureau of Navigation during the year 1899 was 954, of 267,642 gross tons, compared with 955 of 237,600 gross tons for the year 1898.

It is reported that the progits of the Carnegie Steel Company for 1899 will be forty million dollars. The aggregate properties of the concern are valued at three hundred million dollars.

The first aluminum telephone system is in operation between Pittsburg, Pa., and New Kensington, a distance of eighteen miles. It is a success in every respect.

In the year 1899 the exports of iron and steel products from the United States amounted in value to $105,089,645 against $27,000,000 in 1889.

The Illinois anti-trust law has been declared unconstitutional by Judge Kohlsaat of the United States District Court.

General News.

Until the widow of the late General Lawton arrived at San Francisco from Manila recently, she knew nothing of the fortune which had been raised for her by popular subscription. She was deeply touched by the unusual mark of esteem for her husband and care for his survivors.

The colored waiters employed in the hotels in Hyde Park, a suburb of Chicago, are to have a school of their own. A room in the Hyde Park High School will be set aside for their use. The hours will be from three to five daily, and an attendance of one hundred is assured.

The regalia worn by Washington as a Mason is owned in Goodland, Kan. It consists of an apron and baldric, and is the property of J. T. Smith. He inherited it from an ancestor, to whom it was given by John Robin MacDonald.

The will of the late Henry B. Plant, recently filed for probate at New Haven, Conn., shows that the great railroad and steamship owner left $16,952,546 besides a large amount of real estate in Florida.