Passing Events

Passing Events

Senator Reed Smcot gave a patriotic address at the annual G. A.

R. memorial meeting at Arlington, on May 30.

Adlai E. Stevenson, former vice president of the United States,

died at Bloomington, Illinois. His funeral services were held June 16.

Mt. Lassen, a volcanic peak in northern California, became active

on June 1. Up to the 20th, the volcano continued. to emit smoke and

debris.

The Panama Canal bill, providing for the opening of the great

waterway, was signed by the President, May 21. The canal was

opened for the passage of freight on May 18 when five barges passed

through from Balboa to Colon.

Cy Warman, a poet and short-story writer, died at Chicago, April

7. He was known as "the poet of the Rockies," and was a pioneer in

the school of railroad literature. His stories about railroad men were

based on his personal experiences at Salida, Colorado, where, in the

early 80s, he worked for the railroad, in turn as wiper, fireman and lo-

comotive engineer.

The Hooper meetinghouse, Weber county, Utah, was dedicated

by President Joseph F. Smith on June 7 Presidents L. W.

last.

Shurtliff and C. W. Middleton, of the stake presidency were in attend-

ance, and seven hundred people listened to the dedicatory prayer and

remarks by President Smith and Elder Joseph F. Smith, Jr., of the

Council of the Twelve.

Madam Lillian (Norton) Ncrdica, the noted American opera

singer, died in Batavia, Java, May 10, 1914, age 57, from the effect of

exposure through a shipwreck off the coast of New

Guinea, some

weeks before. She was born in Farmington, Maine. Her opportunities

were very limited, but she had a good voice and a sound body. The

rest she did for herself by sheer will power, and hard, unremitting

work. Her ripe art was admired the world over.

A municipal market opened near Pioneer Park, Salt Lake City,

about the mdidle of May, being under the;management of the Health

Department. Its establishment is the result of a request from a large

number of citizens to the Board of Commissioners. Everybody will

be free to buy on the market in such quantities as the market affords,

and the use demands. A municipal market has long been wanted in

Salt Lake City. A like market, it is said, -will be opened on the east

side of the city.

Prof. Jacob Bolin, head of the physical department of the Univer-

sity of Utah, widely known, died May 15, at his home in Salt Lake

City. He was born in Stockholm, Sweden, November 5, 1863, being

educated at the university there. He later taught in Brooklyn, and

was the dean of the New York Chautauqua School of Physical Edu-

cation from 1891 until he came to Utah, in 1909. He founded the New

York Physical Education Society, and was one of the leading authori-

ties on the theory of gymnastics. He had a book on this subject nearly

PASSING EVENTS 897

ready for the press.He was one of the organizers and chief promoters

of the Utah Society of Physical Education.

The Hatchtown, Utah, dam on the Sevier river, broke on May 25,

causing a flood that devastated bridges, diversion dams, canals, roads

and crops along the Sevier river between Hatch and Junction, a dis-

tance of sixty miles. There were about seventeen hundred acre-feet of

water held by the dam which is located near Panguitch. The flood

destroyed private property amounting to perhaps in the neighborhood

of one hundred thousand dollars. The Hatchtown dam was the prop-

erty of the state and its loss is not estimated or considered in the

above figure. A number of valuable dwelling houses, farm buildings

and other private ranch property was destroyed.

Samuel H. B. Smith, a nephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith and

cousin of President Joseph F. Smith, died June 12, 1914, in Salt Lake

City. He was the son of Samuel H. and Mary Bailey Smith and was

born in Shady Grove, Clay countv, Missouri, August 1, 1838. His

parents died in his early childhood, and he came to Salt Lake City in

Brigham Young's company, in 1848. When seventeen years of age

he filled a mission to the Eastern States and Great Britain, and a

second mission to Great Britain in 1860. Returning in 1863, he settled

in Bear Lake county, Idaho. In 1877, he filled a mission to California

returning to Salt Lake City where he spent the remainder of his years

engagin g in business enterprises and Church service.

Colonel Theodore Roosevelt arrived in New York, May 19, after

eight months' absence upon an exploring trip through the South Amer-

ican interior. He proceeded to Spain, where he was present at the

marriage of his son Kermit to a daughter of the American ambassador

to Spain. During his stay in the Amazon jungle he discovered a new

river, a tributary of the Amazon, and named it "The River of Doubt."

The stream is as large as the Rhine or the Hudson, and it had never

yet appeared on any map. The rapids of this stream were so swift

and the jungles were so impassable that the party used up forty-two

days traveling through one degree of latitude, at a rate of about a

mile and a half a day. They lost all their food and had to eat monkeys.

British suffragettes continue to burn and destroy churches, to

hack valuable pictures in the various picture galleries of London, and

to do other mischief in a variety of ways. Fresh precautions have been

taken to protect royalty against their attacks. On the first of June

the historic church at Wargrave was burned, and valuable pictures in

the Dore' gallery in London were hacked and ruined. At the Ascot

race course, June 13, extraordinary precautions were taken to guard

members of the royal family against the fury of the suffragettes. A

thousand London policemen and hundreds of detectives from Scotland

Yards were present as reinforcements for the regular Berkshire

mounted police force, and the six-mile road from Windsor Castle to

the historic course was lined all the way by policemen.

The Democratic State ticket was nominated in combination with

the Progressive Party on June 11, as follows:

For United States Senator— James H. Moyle, Democrat, of Salt

For Justice of the Supreme Court— Frank B. Stephens, Demo-

crat, of SaltLake. .

For State Superintendent of Public Instruction— Dr. L. G. Gowans,

Republican, of Ogden.

898 IMPROVEMENT ERA

For Congressman, First Congressional District — Lewis Larson,

Progressive, of Manti.

For Congressman, Second Congressional District — James H.

Mays, Progressive, of Salt Lake.

"The Empress of Ireland," a Canadian-Pacific Railway ocean liner,

on itsway through the River St. Lawrence to England, May 29, encoun-

tered the Danish collier "Storstad," during a fog, and sank in ninety feet

of water. There were 1,476 people ahoard, including the crew, and out of

this number only 449 were saved, 1,027 perished with the ship. The

liner's hull was ripped Open like a tin can, and she sank in fourteen

minutes. The "Empress of Ireland" had no inner skin, or water-tight

hull, otherwise it is conceded she would have remained afloat after the

accident. Nearly all the recent shipwrecks have been the result of col-

lisions, and since the "Titanic" disaster all the latest ships have these

inner water-tight hulls, or skins, which give "seaworthy" a new meaning.

The "Olympic," "Imperator," and the "Acquetania," which latter is the

newest and largest British liner, and which sailed on her maiden voy-

age from Liverpool, May 30, to New York, are provided with these

inner skins, or water-tight hulls. So, likewise, the "Vaterland," which ar-

rived from Germany in New York, May 21, and which is the world's

greatest ship, with carrying capacity of more than 5,000 people.

The Mexican situation still occupies the greatest attention of the

newspapers. On the 21st of April, under direction of President Wilson,

Admiral Fletcher landed one thousand marines and sailors from the

battleships "Utah" and "Florida," and the transport "Prairie," in Vera Cruz,

and seized the custom house and cable offices. On the following day,

Nelson O'Shaughnessy, Charge d'affaires of the United States at Mex-

ico City, prepared to leave the country. Three thousand additional

marines were landed in Vera Cruz, and the combined force took pos-

session of the city. Eight of our sailors lost their lives during the day's

fighting. On the 23rd, Senor Algara, Charge d'affaires of Mexico at

Washington, asked for and received his passports. On the same day

four American sailors were killed by Mexican "snipers" at Vera Cruz.

During the three days, seventeen Americans were killed and seventy

wounded, and one hundred twenty-six Mexicans, and one hundred

ninety-five wounded. On the 25th the United States accepted the ten-

der of the good offices of Argentine, Brazil, and Chili toward the set-

tlement of differences with Mexico, and this mediation proposal was

accepted by the Huerta government on the 27th. On the 30th of April

Vera Cruz passed into the control of the regular army, under Brig-

adier-General Funston, and the sailors took to their ships. The A. B. C.

mediators opened a peace conference, May 20, at which the United

States and the Huerta government were both represented, at Niagara

Falls, Canada. Joseph R. Lamar, associate justice of the Supreme court,

Frederick W. Lehmann, former solicitor-general, and H. Percival

Dodge, were named as representatives of the United States. All

during early June no special incidents occurred to mar the negotia-

tions that were going on at Niagara, except that the revolutionists,

under Villa, continued to act aggressively and at first refused to

join in the mediation. They decided, however, that they would not

oppose the occupation of Mexican territory by the United States, so

long as territory controlled by the revolutionists is not invaded.

Among other cities they captured Tampico. On June 19, it was re-

ported that there was no hope that mediation would succeed. Me-

morial services over the bodies of the seventeen soldiers and marines

killed at Vera Cruz were held in the navy yard at New York, with

appropriate ceremonies, on the 11th of May.