The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 48, October 7, 1897

A day or two after this a carrier-pigeon brought a despatch from the traveller.

The tidings brought by this bird were that Andrée was making a good voyage to the eastward, and that all was going well.

There is no doubt that this message is a genuine one from the explorer. The pigeon bore on its wings the same markings as on those which the adventurer carried with him. Scientists have, however, expressed their opinion that Andrée has failed to reach the Pole. The message of the bird and the direction in which the balloon was seen to be going have convinced them that Andrée has been carried eastward, and not across the Pole, as he had hoped.

It is thought that by this time the gas in the balloon must have become exhausted, and that Andrée and his companions have had to cut loose from it, and are on the ice somewhere near Spitzbergen, and that they may perhaps be so fortunate as to drift near enough to civilization to be picked up and rescued.

Interesting news has reached us about Lieutenant Peary.

He left Boston in July to see if he could not establish a settlement far to the north in Greenland, which should serve him as a base of supplies, or a place where he could leave the main part of his baggage, and to which he could send or return at will.

Lieutenant Peary's plan for reaching the North Pole, when he sets out in 1898, is to establish a number of Esquimau colonies at certain distances apart, and leave supplies with each colony on which he can fall back in case of need.

He reports that he will have no difficulty in carrying out his plan. He met a number of old friends among the Esquimaux, all of whom were eager to help him in his work of exploring the north of Greenland and searching for the North Pole. He has every hope that the new trip which he is about to undertake will be a successful one.

Lieutenant Peary reports that he is bringing with him the great Cape York meteorite, which he intends to place in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

A meteorite is a fallen meteor or star, a mass of metal that has fallen upon the earth from space. It is often called a fallen star.

From the earliest times to the present there is a record of 520 meteorites having fallen upon the earth; 142 of this number fell in the United States; 13 were seen to fall.

Forty-five years ago a traveller visiting Greenland noticed that the natives used some kind of metal with which they put tips and edges on their weapons. On inquiry they told him that they obtained it from some large stones, but they could not or would not show him where the stones were to be found.

Lieutenant Peary determined to find them, as he suspected that they were meteorites, and after a long and careful search he found them on Melville Bay, a little east of Cape York.

There were three rocks, all of uncommonly large size, and on examination they proved to be meteorites, one of them being the largest ever found.

In 1895 the two smaller ones were brought back by Lieutenant Peary; but before he was able to move the larger one, the ice began to form in the bay, and not wishing to be blocked in for the winter, he had to leave the prize where it was.

Last year he made another effort to secure the big stone, but the machinery he was using to raise it got out of order, and he again had to abandon the attempt.

Now a message comes from Sydney, a port on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, which says that he has arrived safely, bringing with him the famous meteorite.

When his vessel, the Hope, steamed into port she was in a very battered condition. She had encountered so many storms and such furious seas that her bulwarks had been washed away.

In addition to this she was burning her last ton of coal as she steamed into port, and so her crew must have been very glad when they sighted land.

We have not yet heard how the big meteorite was wrenched from its icy bed, and it is probable that when the Hope reaches New York we shall have an interesting story to tell you about it.

The news from the Sandwich Islands is of a very pleasant character.

The Hawaiian Senate met in extra session, and agreed to the annexation of the islands to the United States. There was not one vote against it, and so the treaty was ratified by a "unanimous vote" of the Senate.

Every Senator was in his seat as the roll was called, and nearly every one had a good word to say for annexation.

A protest against the treaty was handed to the President, and considered by the Senate before the treaty was ratified.

The Senators did not regard the protest as worthy of much consideration, as it was signed by but fifteen persons, all of whom were friends of the ex-queen. They therefore regarded it as a political scheme arranged by those royalists who still have hopes of restoring the monarchy.

It is said that Liliuokalani has a new plan for the throne of Hawaii. She has come to the conclusion that the people of the Sandwich Islands want neither her nor her rule any longer. She did so many bad things while she was queen that the people who would like to see the monarchy restored would not be willing that she should be queen again.

Liliuokalani has therefore decided to resign the throne in favor of her niece, the Princess Kaiulani.

This young lady is a charming and well-educated person, and the old Queen is wise enough to know that none of the objections which people have to her could apply to Kaiulani.

If the plan is successful, the young Queen is to make ample provision for Liliuokalani.

Meanwhile Japan has agreed to arbitrate the immigration question, but refuses to consider the matter from the Hawaiian point of view.

The complaint which was made against Japan in the first instance was that she evaded the law which provided that every immigrant must have a contract for labor and fifty dollars in cash in his pocket, by giving false contracts and lending the required fifty dollars, which immigrants gave back as soon as they were safely landed.

The Japanese refuse to enter into the question whether this fifty dollars was fraudulently supplied. They say that so long as each man had fifty dollars in his possession, it was nobody's business where or how he got it. They persistently refuse to arbitrate this point, which seems to be the most important of all the questions involved.

The Japanese are continuing to send large numbers of emigrants to Honolulu, and the Hawaiians have become very much alarmed about it.

They insist that the new colonists are Japanese soldiers disguised as laborers, and that the Mikado is sending them over to be in readiness to fight for the possession of the country in case the United States decides to annex it.

The strike in Hazleton is now over, but the settlement has not been made without a good deal of trouble and anxiety.

When the state troops ordered out by the Governor arrived in the town, some of the men decided to go to work under the protection of the troops. The spirit of the strikers had been broken by the firing of the Sheriff and his posse, and many of the men who were peaceably inclined thought the best thing to do was to go back to work.

The women did not agree with them. The wives and mothers of the unfortunate men who had been killed declared that their dear ones should not have been sacrificed for nothing; and as the men refused to continue the strike, the women decided to go on with it for them.

A strike is of no use unless all the men stand together and hold out for their point. The women understood this perfectly, and they determined that the men should stand together.

Arming themselves with sticks, they set out in a body for the mines that were being worked, and under the very noses of the soldiers raided the works and drove the men out.

The next morning the men, still determined to go to work, started out in a body for the mines. On their way they were met by a body of women, who drove them back with threats and scoldings to their homes again.

The general in command of the state troops then decided that it was time for him to interfere, and on the third day, when the women attempted to stop the men, the troops were ordered to disperse them.

To frighten the women the officers ordered their men to fix their bayonets and advance on the women as if they meant to charge them.

The two bodies met—the women brandishing their sticks, and the men with their glittering bayonets pointed at this unusual foe.

The women were, however, not deceived. They refused to believe that the soldiers would charge them, and when they saw the men advancing they began to laugh. This laugh was rapidly taken up by the soldiers; and the two parties facing each other, brandishing their weapons and laughing, must have been a curious sight.

For some time the women stood their ground, but finally became convinced that, though the soldiers were not going to do them any harm, they did not mean to allow them to pass or to do any mischief of their own. They then fell back, and returned to their homes; and the women being disposed of, the miners went peaceably to their work.

The sheriff and the deputies who did the shooting in Hazleton have been arrested.

At the first hearing the judge decided that there was a grave cause of complaint against the men, and so he ordered that they should be tried before a jury to find whether they were guilty of murdering the rioters.

As they were all respectable men, who were not likely to run away, the judge allowed them to furnish bail. That is to say, he said that if they could each find a friend who would give the court $6,000 as a surety that they would come up for trial when their case was called, they might go free in the mean time.

Each of the accused men was able to furnish the required bail, and so they are all at liberty for the present.

Queen Christina of Spain is not the only queen regent in Europe. The Government of Holland is also in the hands of a queen mother, who is guiding the affairs of state for her young daughter, Queen Wilhelmina.

The fact has been brought to our notice by the announcement of Queen Emma that her daughter will be eighteen years old next August, and will then assume the cares of government.

Queen Emma has been Regent of the Netherlands since 1890, when her husband King William III. became insane, and was declared to be incapable of governing.

The little Wilhelmina was then ten years old. She is now a grown-up young lady, and there is quite a stir among the royal families of Europe to find a suitable husband for her.

A marriage has been proposed for her with Prince Alexander of Teck, whose sister is the wife of the Duke of York, and will probably one day be Queen of England. The Duke of York is the son of the Prince of Wales.

The young Prince of Teck has been sent to Holland to visit the young Queen at her castle of Loo, but as yet the Queen has neither refused nor accepted him.

It is rumored that Prince Alexander of Teck hopes that Wilhelmina will refuse him, as he is very anxious to marry a young American of great wealth.

This is a very romantic story, and very pleasing to our national vanity to think that one of the daughters of America may some day be closely related to the Queen of England, but it is a very remote contingency, and not very likely to occur.