Vesuvius, which has recently wrought such fearful destruction over 300 square miles of adjacent territory, is the only active volcano on the continent of Europe, although there are several other volcanoes on islands in the Mediterranean. It is nine miles southeast of Naples and until the present eruption had two summits, the highest of which reached an altitude of 4,200 feet. At the middle of the first century of our era it was regarded as extinct. In 63 A. D. there were a number of severe earthquakes in its vicinity, and in 79 it suddenly broke forth into a terrible eruption that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum. The accompanying photograph is that of the eruption of 1872. On that occasion, as in the case of the present eruption, the column of smoke reached approximately a height of 25,000 feet. The Horror of the Moment Yet Naples itself at the time of writing is in serious danger. The showers of ashes which fall upon it are already several inches deep in the streets and are piling up a tremendous weight upon the roofs of the buildings. The one huge market has collapsed, killing and injuring something like two hundred people. The air is filled with ashes and sulphurous gases, and breathing is difficult. For hours at a time the darkness has been so intense that it is impossible for trains to run. Filled as the city is with two hundred thousand refugees, with the railroad communication badly crippled, it is face to face with famine as well as earthquake and eruption. Vesuvius con Sicilian volcanoes are beginning to show activity. Altogether the loss in property is estimated at $20,000,000, while hundreds have been killed. There has been no such tragedy since the days of Pompeii. The Hungarian Crisis An end to the long conflict between the Emperor Francis Joseph and the Coalition party in Hungary has at length been reached. The threat of the aged monarch to forbid the elections on April 9 as prescribed by the constitution and a consequent period of absolutism impelled the leaders of the Coalition to seek a plan of agreement in regard to the points at issue. Count Andrassy and Francis Kossuth presented the matter to the Emperor and the outcome appears to be satisfactory. A new cabinet has been formed by the Coalitionists with Alexander Wekerle as prime minister. The elections under the limited law are to be held in April and a session of Parliament in May. The government guaranteed to pass the budget of 1905-6 and also the recruiting, military and investment bills, and to approve the international commercial treaties. It promised to maintain the status quo between Austria and Hungary. Parliament will be asked to adopt a bill providing for universal suffrage, and having done it, will be dissolved to allow the election of a new Parliament under the universal franchise system, to deal with the military demands and rights of the Crown under the constitution. It is understood that neither Kossuth nor Apponyi would enter the new cabinet, the former preferring to remain leader of the Independence party. Count Andrassy, however, has accepted the ministry of the interior and has already reversed the absolutist policy. Wide-spread sympathy was evoked by the terrible disaster in the Courrieres coal Germans Aid mines at Lens, where some French Mine eleven hundred persons Sufferers lost their lives. But considering the national antipathy which has so long existed between Germany and France, the assistance rendered by the German firemen from the Westphalian mines excited a thrill of unusual interest. Old differences and the fierce wars of other days were forgotten, and at a spot where probably their fathers met in battle, these brave men came to help rescue the entombed miners. Great indignation and resentment have been aroused by the inefficiency of the work of salvage in the mine after the explosion. Two weeks after all attempts at rescue had been abandoned, thirteen miners, in a starving and almost blind condition, found their way to a shaft where men were at work. of their number, Nemy by name, constituted himself their leader, and by his hopefulness and cheery courage kept them from despair and at work. Although without food and water for many days, and consequently ill from emaciation and exposure, it is believed they will all recover. The further discovery of bodies which indicated that starvation and exhaustion had caused death rather than the explosion, aroused intense anger against the mine operators, and the ministry of justice has ordered the public prosecutor One THE MINE DISASTER AT COURRIERES, IN FRANCE The friends of the entombed miners, indignant at the inefficiency of the Salvage Corps, endeavored to break down the barriers around the pits at Douai to investigate the methods employed with a view to prosecution for criminal negligence and manslaughter. The forty thousand miners in the Pas-deCalais district have been on strike since the disaster at the Courrieres mines and riots have occurred at various points, although M. Clemenceau, the new Minister of the Interior, in an unprecedented manner went, without escort, to the strikers' headquarters and addressed them. He remarked that for the first time in a strike not a single soldier had been sent to maintain order and therefore he hoped there would be no disturbance of the peace. The demands of the strikers are for fifteen per cent increase in wages, better protection, recognition of their unions, and pensions for long service. The mines in this district have paid dividends from fifty per cent in 1863 to several hundred per cent last year. JEAN MARIE FERDINAND SARRIEN colleges in 28 out of 51 provinces in European Russia elected 178 members to the National Assembly, constituting about one-third of the membership, thus scoring a decided triumph for the Liberals. Just what will happen when the douma meets no man can foresee. Russia is passing through a "white terror," a reaction in which the excesses of the government are declared to be frightful. While it is impossible to get at the figures accurately, it would appear as if the white terror after the French Revolution was as nothing compared with the horrors now being poured out upon those who shared in revolutionary violence in Russia. In view of this general attitude of the imperial government it does not seem probable that the douma will be allowed to accomplish very much in the way of reform. Revolution seems now impossible. At the same time we can not believe that the events of the last few months have been without results. The Emperor has not yet revoked the most important of his proposed reforms. That he is ready to grant a constitution has never been true; that he will grant it now is even less true. The danger is that he may. Pan-American The third International Conference of American States to be held at Rio de Janeiro, beginning July 21, will undoubtedly be one of great interest. During the five years which have elapsed since the last conference, questions of grave moment have arisen which will properly be representing the United States comprises Wm. I. Buchanan, chairman, formerly a member of the diplomatic service, and recently director-general of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo; Dr. Edmund J. James, president of the University of Illinois; Dr. L. Rowe, professor of political science, University of Pennsylvania; Copyright, 1906, by the National Press Association, Washington, D. C. THE UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN STATES Seated from left to right: Dr. Edmund J. James, President of University of Illinois; William J. Buchanan, Chairman: Federico Degetau, Porto Rico. Standing from left to right: Charles R. Dean, State Department; James S. Harlan, Chicago; Dr. L. Rowe, University of Pennsylvania brought before this conference for an expression of opinion or the adoption of some resolution looking to a satisfactory solution of such differences as may exist. The question of the enforced collection. of claims by stronger nations will probably be brought forward, although doubt in regard to this being included in the program has caused Argentina, Peru, Bolivar, Uruguay and Paraguay to refuse to be represented in the conference unless some action on the matter is taken. That the United States government regards the convention as being an important one is shown by the fact that the Secretary of State will be present. The delegation Hon. Chas. R. Dean, of the state department; James S. Harlan, a prominent attorney at Chicago, recognized as an authority on international law, and Federico Degetau, delegate from Porto Rico. The convention, among other important subjects, will undertake to frame codes of public and private international law to govern the relations between the American nations; a provision on literary and artistic copyrights, providing for the international recognition and protection of the rights of official, scientific, literary and industrial publications; a treaty on patents, industrial drawings and models, and a convention on the rights of aliens. |