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LATE NEWS ITEMS. In the senate, on the 26th, some time was devoted to the sundry civil appropriation bill without completing it. The resolution for an investigation, by the committee on Cuban affairs, of postal and other irregularities, with authority to visit Cuba, if necessary, to pursue the inquiry, was agreed to. The remainder of the session was given to District of Columbia business, the most important measure considered providing extensive depot and terminal improvements in Washington for the Baltimore & Potomac and Baltimore & Ohio railroads and for the removal of the "Long Bridge," the highway from north to south during the civil war....In the house consideration of the Alaska civil government bill was practically completed, a few paragraphs only being passed over until the 28th. In the midst of flowers, sent in generous quantities by friends from all over the country, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, one of the foremost women of the country, received her friends in Boston, on the 27th, the eighty-first anniversary of her birth. Messages of congratulation also poured in. Mrs. Howe was in excellent health. Lord Roberts has wired the British war office that there is urgent need of more rolling stock, and the London Daily Express asserts that contracts have been placed in the United States for 50 locomotives and many cars, the British manufacturers being unable to fill the orders with requisite speed. A former Corean official has confessed, under torture, the names of those concerned in the murder of the queen. Numerous arrests have been made and it is possible that all implicated will be executed. The illness of Mrs. Gladstone was, on the 28th, reported to be more serious. Her strength was gradually failing, and the members of the family had been summoned to Hawarden. Three officers of the Turkish imperial guard have been placed under arrest because found in possession of plans of the Yildiz kiosk and of the sultan's private apartments. The national bazaar, opened at Kensington, London, on the 24th, by the prince of Wales, in aid of sufferers from the war, netted £50,000. Several prominent Uitlanders have joined Lord Roberts as guides and advisers with reference to the country around Johannesburg. In the senate, on the 28th, Mr. Wellington (Md.) referring to a secret understanding existing between the United States and Great Britain, Mr. Lodge (Mass.) challenged him to the proof. Mr. Wellington said he believed the proof could be found in the secret archives of the state department. Mr. Lodge replied that the secretary of state had emphatically denied that such an agreement existed, and the country believed his statement. The reading of the sundry civil appropriation bill was completed, but not all of the committee's amendments were disposed of. The proposition to continue the life of the industrial commission until October 31, 1901, was, after debate, agreed to....In the house the Alaskan government bill was passed, and some odds and ends of legislation were cleaned up. There was a run on the bank of the Columbus Savings and Loan Society of San Francisco on the 28th. For some time depositors had been taking out money, but on the date named over two hundred and fifty persons withdrew their deposits from the institution. The Portuguese government has informed the committee representing the parties to the Delagoa Bay railway arbitration award that the minister of finance is ready to pay and desires to know where the money will be received. A rumor was current in the lobbies of the house of parliament, on the 28th, which was said to have originated at the Carlton club, that the marquis of Salisbury will retire from politics at the next general election. The Santa Fe Railroad Co. announced, on the 28th, that its first San Francisco-Chicago train would start July 1. Three limited trains between Chicago and San Francisco will be operated weekly. Count Goluchowski, the Austro-Hungarian minister of foreign affairs, in a speech in Buda-Pesth, on the 28th, said: "The driebund is to-day what it was 20 years ago—a peace alliance par excellence." Prof. L. Tobin, who founded colleges at Vinton, Waterloo, Iowa Falls and Fort Dodge, Ia., died, on the 27th, at the last named place. He had a wide reputation and acquaintance. Sir George Grove, former director of the Royal College of Music in London, died on the 28th.
