FRENCH REACHING OUT FOR GE[RAN RAILROAD PROGRESS IS BEING MADE TO WARD IMPORTANT RAILROAD LINE USED BY GERMAN ARMY. TURKS IN FULL RETREAT The Turks Are in Full Rc.reat Along the Tigris River Toward Bagdad With the British in Pursuit-At titude of Bulgaria, Etc. Latest War News From the Front. The G(; rmian second line of defense I in the ( ' a:,,n:l;ane region and the im portal' , ailoay lying behind it are still Ithe objecti es of the French arnl, and it is fighting tlenlaciously dav and night for a. sccesfi;l issue of the gr-,it offensive begiun last we,'ii. With their twelve-mile front running from Auberive to Ville Sur Tourbe al ready at distances ranging flront two and on,-half to three miles from thele railway, the Freneh are still battling, and although they are meeting with fierce resistance, have made further progress. Three small sections of the front in the western zone are the central points around which the battles be tween the allied French and British and the Germans continue to rage. These lie between Souchez and Vimy; in the regions of Loos and Labassee canal, and around Mesnil and Mas siges, on the southern bend of the line. Farther east, in the forests of Apremont and La Petite, the big guns of both sides are booming, and vio lent artillery duels are in progress. "We have maintained all the new positions conquered," says the French report in dealing with the fighting between Souchez and Vimy, in the Artois region, where artillery and in fantry fighting is in progress in the hills. The British are driving hard against the German third line of de fense to the east of Loos, while the French in the Champagne district, where early in the battle they carried many miles of trenches, are directing their efforts in the neighborhood of Massiges toward gaining control of the railroad constituting the chief line of communication of the German army on that front. It is expected that the weather will soon put an end to the operations in the east, as with the continued rains the rivers can not be forded, and the Russians, wherever possible, are get ting behind them. The British have inflicted another serious defeat on the Turks in Meso potamia. The Tigris army, after suf fering heavy losses, is in flight toward Bagdad. Thus the three armies which the Turks sent to Mesopotamia against the Anglo-Indian invaders have been scattered. In May the Tigris army was driven back from Kurna to north of Amara; the ariny of Kasun was driven from Ahwaz and the army 'of the Euphrates was last heard of as fugitive on the river somewhere north of Nairie. It is again reported that an Austro German army 300,000 strong is as sembling for an offensive against Ser bia. Furious fighting still characterizes the united efforts of French and Brit ish to break through the German lines on the western front. The allied forces, the French war office an nounces, continue to make gains of -ground and add to their captures of men, guns and stores. Foot by foot, as the official com fmunication reads, the French are making progress east of Souchez, im portant territory from a startegical point of view, and have likewise con tinued their advance in Champagne. It contains the significant statement that among the Germans taken prison er were pien who had been brought back from the Russian front a few days ago. That would seem to indi cate that the Austro-Germans have been compelled to weaken to some ex tent their eastern battle front in or der to reinforce those sections of the western line which the allies are at tacking with heavy guns, rapid-firers and the bayonet. Field Marshal Sir John French re ports the capture of powerful German defenses around Loos, where the num ber of prisoners taken by the British has now reached three thousand, for- I ty machine guns being taken and many destroyed. The British have captured the first and second lines and are heavily engaged in an attack on the third. The allied trenches in the Argonne are being violently bombarded by the guns of the German crown prince, but no attack' by infantry has been at tempted. Some of the first line trenches taken from the French by the Germans on this front Monday have been retaken by means of hand gre nades. Twenty thousand unwounded Ger man prisoners, and dead and wounded on both si~e in numbers of which as yet there is no estimate, is the toll taken in the first two days' drive of the Anglo-French forces, which have begun a great offensive movement against the German intrenchments along the line in the western war zone Sfrom the North Sea to the Swiss fron tier. C Two distinctive operations are un der way, one north of Arras and the E other in the Champagne region, while i there has been an incessant bombard- t nent almost most of the entire froni. i TROPICAL HURRICANE DOS GREAT DAMAGE LOUISIANA-MISSISSIPPI COAL, Io SWEPT BY SEVERE STORM. MANY L1VES LOST. DAMAGE TO SHIPPING GREAT Damage Done at New Orleans Will Total Around $2,000,000-Lowest Barometer Reaping Ever Record ed-Reports From Other Towns New Orleans, La., vial Raton IRouge. Fourteen known dead: si-t 11 scores of injured treated at the' C.'aritiy hos pital: property damage raclii per haps $2,0I0,u000; no street car:. in op eration; river front strewnl with w at\ie wreI'c ka , !the dock ho:rd(! alone slit fetrinl many tiousands of dollars dai, age: outlying sectionl flooded, alnd i loephone, telegratl' a1ndl train : ervit-e paralyzed-this is the gist of t he Nv w tirleans storm situlation at Iprtsiit. New Orleans and the surrounldin:t territory are beginning to reccover from the \vorst hurricane ever experi enced in that section, according to weather bureau amnd other records. Scarcely a large e late glai:s window remains intact in the downtown se(c tion and many stocks of good: were damaged by wind and rain. Signs, telegraph, telephone and electric light poles and wires and debris from dam aged buildings littered the streets and hundreds of structures were unroofed or demolished in various parts of the city. Early unofficial statements placed the property damage at nearly $2,000,000. In the Cumberland Telephone Com pany's exchange fifteen persons, most ly girls, were injured when all the windows on the floor where they were working crashed in. The maximum velocity of the wind, according to the local weather bureau, was between 120 and 130 miles an hour. The wind blow at this rate for one minute between 5:30 and 6 o'clock Wednesday night. The highest sus tained velocity was eighty-six miles, about 5:40 p. m. Reports From Mobile. Mobile, Ala.-The West Indian hur ricane that spent its force Wednesday t night against New Orleans and vicin- v ity took a toll of at least a score of lives and did extensive property dam- t age at smaller cities and resorts along i the Louisiana-Mississippi gulf coast, I according to advices coming in slowly i over crippled lines of communication. Most of the loss of life reported was a in Frenier, La. The railroad agent 1 at that town telegraphed that eight e white persons and seventeen negroes had been drowned and many injured I when the wind drove the waters of a Lake Ponchartrain into the streets. Two children lost their lives in PIsca- t goula, Miss., when a house was de- I molished, and two men were electro- V cuted by wires torn down by the b storm. Several other deaths were re- s ported in isolated sections.. t Low districts of a number of other cities and villages along the coast were flooded. Three feet of water was reported at Slidell, La., near the east bank of Lake Ponchartrain, and e property damage there from wind is said to be great. Water is said to have been two feet deep in the streets of Coden, Miss., and the bay front shell road there inundated to a depth of six feet. Three miles of railroad track near Ruddock, La., have been washed b away. At Gulfport, Miss., four steamers, in- a eluding the British steamer Birchwood g of 1,800 to-s, were washed over the wharves an:l are fast aground. Reports From Morgan City. Morgan City, La.-Morgan City 9 passed safely through one of the worst storms since 1889. A wind that at tained a velocity of eighty-five miles di at intervals began blowing Tuesday night shortly after 11 o'clock and con tinued throughout Wednesday until midnight. Damage that will probably s total $100,000 has been wrought in ti Morgan City, Berwick and vicinity. Steamboats were sunk and gasboats fl were crushed as though built of B "papier mache." The storm broke from a northerly direction. New Orleans, La., via Wireless of Steamers Exceleior and Creole to Mo bile.-Ten persons are known to b t dead, many people injured and prop- fa erty loss reaching into the millions, st including the partial wrecking of the t, famous French market section, was w caused Wednesday night by the most i severe gulf storm in the history of New Orleans. A gale with a velocity of eighty-six miles an hour swept the city at 6 o o'clock Wednesday night, demolishing gi many buildings, stripping the roofs m from hundreds of other structures and hi strewing the streets with broken glass e and debris. A special bulletin issued Wednesday night by the weather bureau at Wash ington follows: "The tropical cyclone first observed th on the 22d over the Eastern Caribbean dl Sea, whence it traveled westward, passing near the soith of Ja:maica to the Yucatan channel, where it t changed its course and moved north ward, reaching the gulf coast near the mouth of the Mississippi Wednesday H morning. During Wednesday its cen- al ter advanced northward, and at 2 p. m. fo it was near the south of New Orleans. ic TURN OF THE SEASON rL'T 1 LltA C/ H, fBOOTOAc'lL! ~ \ Ic MEXICAN SOLDiERS AID BANDITS ON RIO GRANDE U. S. Troops Engaje in Battle With Entrenched Mexicans While Chas ing Bandits From Texas Soil. Brownsville, Tex.-'An international crisis of grave possibilities arose Fri day when two to three hundred Car ranza soldiers, led by a Carranza of ficer in full uniform, covered from in trenchments on the Mexican si(le the retreat of sevtenty to eight Mexicans who early Friday raided the town of Progreso, thirty-five mites above Brownsville, sacked and attempted to burn the unguarded store of Florencio Saenz, a Mexican, and killed one American soldier, Private Henry Stubblefield of Troop C, Twelfth cav a!ry. Stubblefield was shot twice in the body when li he and his detachment. of twelve mien approached the build ing, unaware that it was occupied .by the Mexicans. The unsuspecting Americans were just preparing for their day's rest, after an all nighc of patrol duty, when the two shots that started the trouble were fired. The Mexicans did not wait to fight, but fled on their horses down the old military highway. After go ing some distance they headed for the Rio Grande, under fire from the Amer lcans. Smelling smoke, the troopers began an investigation of the interior of the building. The Mexicans had attempt ed to burn the building after looting it, but in their haste to get away the loot was left behind. The troopers also discovered an unexploded bomb. In the meantime the message had gone out and American troops from Donna, Mercedes and Santa Maria, all within range of six to eight miles, began closing in. Reinforcements of sixty men arrived, and the chase of the Mexicans, led by what seemed a Carranza army officer, began. The Americans reached the river to find that the band had scattered in the brush up and down the river. Sev eral were spied crossing the Rio Grande in a boat, and the Americans, who up to this time had not been seen from the Mexican side, opened fire and killed two men in the boat. Thereupon firing began from the Mexi can side from behind perhaps a half mile of intrenchments that were dug by the Mexicans at the time of the! across-the-Rio Grande battle in Au gust. The Mexicans kept up this fire for two hours, during which time it was estimated by the American army men that 3,000 shots were fired. The Amer icans, in the face of this fire from Mexico, coutd not approach the bank of the river to obtain a better .view of the fleeing bandits crossing up and down the stream. Postpone Mexican Quarantine. El Paso, Tex.-Upon receiving as surances from the local health authori ties that they were fully able to cope with the rituation caused by the in flux of refugees from Mexico, Dr. W.I B. Collins, Texas state health officer, has decided to postpone the proclama tion of a quarantine against Mexico. Famous Racing Dog Team Sold. Nome, Alaska.-The Allan Darling team of racing dogs, winners of the famous 412-mile all-Alaska sweep stake race, was sold Saturday to Lieu tenant Haas of the French army, who will take the dogs to France for use in Alpine service. Kidnaped Ranchman is Released. El Paso, Tex.-E. P. Fuller, manager of the Cudahy ranch at Santo Domi-p go, near Villa Ahumada, who was kit i naped recently for a ransom said to< have been equivalent to $2,000 in Unit ed States currency, has been released I and has reached Villa Ahumada. < Twelve-Cent Cotton. Houston, Tex.-Twelve cents was the official quotation for cotton, mid- t dling grade, on the Houston Cotton a Exchange Tuesday, and when that t point was reached Houston became i the highest spot market in the South. 7 f Haltiens Killed by Americans. Cape Haitien,--In an attack by Haitian rebels on an American force about two miles from Cape Haitien I forty Haitians were killed. Ten Amer- r icans were wounded. U. S. PAID $5,000,000,000 E IN PENSIONS SINCE 1790 i Veterans of Civil War Get $4,500,000, 000 From Uncle Sam-$1,000,000 Sent to Foreign Countries. S Washington.-The government has pair nearly $5,(00,000,000 in pensions since 1790, according to the annual report of the commissioner of pen sions, just issued, and of this amount more than $4,590,000.000 has gone for veterans of the civil war. During the e fiscal year the civil war pension rolls Swere reduced 33,255, or about 400 more than during 1914. When the civil war came the standing army was small. The Northern enlistments, including the draft, numbered 2,213,365 men. There are today 396,370 survivors drawing pensions. The total number on the pension rolls, including all wars and the causes arising therefrom, at the close of the fiscal year was 748,147. Of these, nearly 700,000, including all classes beirn taken care of, are accredited to the civil war. The war with Spain and the Philippines insurrection, which has already cost the govern ment nearly $50,000,000, is paid to about 29,000 pensioners. It is esti mated that for the full period $70,000, 000 was paid on account of the revolu tionary war, $46,000,000 on account of the war of 1812, to which are now ac credited 134 claimants, and to claim ants on account of the Mexican war e bout $49,500,000 There are nearly 5,000 of these on the rolls. New Fourth Class Postmasters. Washington.-The following Texas fourth-class postmasters were named: Hall, San Saba county, Louis N. Gooch; Noonan, Medina county, Jas. E. Seay; Pandale, Val Verde county, Ed Smith; Mercy, San.Jacinto county, Barney B. Carnes; Dentonio, Dimmit county, Everett J. Vesey; Pipe Creek, ' Bandera county, Mrs. Maggie A. Das kin; Ander, Goliad county, Jesse W. Watson; James, Upshur county, Mts. Hazel Cobb (postoffice formerly call ed Jameson); Westminister, Collin county, Mrs. Ella C. Johnsey; Choice, Shelby county, Mrs. Lizzie Cook; Ray ford, Montgomery county, Mrs. Mamle C. Stothart; Steeles Store, Brazos county, Joseph Scanlin; Tordia, Wil. son county, Joseph A. Wassenich. Historic Will Be Returned. Richmond, Va.-J. P. Morgan of New York has sent to Justice James Keith, president of the Virginia court of ap peals, to be disposed of by him at his own discretion, the will of Martha Washington, taken from the records of Fairfax court house by a federal sol dier during the civil war and bought by the late Pierpont Morgan for his 11 brary. Conditions Along Border Bad. Washington.-Conditions along the Mexican border in the Brownsville dis trict again have become acute, accord ing to messages to the war depart ment Tuesday from Major General Funston. A battery of moptain artil lery has been d spatched to Progreso, Texas, to prevent a raid by 500 ban dits who threaten to cross into Ameri can 4erritory, advicet said. - -- Passengers Burned by Indians. San Diego, Cal.-Eighty passengers of a Southern Pacific Mexican train were thrown Into a car containing hay and the car set on .fire by' a bard of Yaqui Indians Friday near Torres, So. nora, according to radio advices re ceived Saturday from Hermosillo via Guaymas. Only twenty passengers have been accounted for thus far, the others having been burned to death. New Subm'arine Type Pleases. Provincetown, Mass.- Representa. tives of the navy department were gratified Wednesday by a satisfactory test of the new giant submarine M-l, which completed an underwater cruise. The M-1 is said to be larger than the famous German U boats. Lake Charles Fire Costly. Lake Charles, La.-The mill of the Peavy Byrnes Lqmber Company, two miles from Kinder, was partly destroy- I ed by fire Wednesday. Loss $754~00. EXPLOSION CLAIMS MAWI LIVES AT ARDMORE, E' A. Spark From Workman's Hammer Ig nites a Car of Gasoline and Sets Town Afire. Ardmore, Okla.----A spark fromi a worktLn's hammer ignited a 25l)-bar rel tank car of gasoline Monday and from the ruin: of two city blocks razed by the resulting explosion and the fires which 'flloýwed thirty-one bodies have been recovered. Fitty persons were believed to have been crushed to death under falling walls or burned to death while pin ned in the debris of stores, wholr,sale houses and the Ardmore railroad sta tion. Seach among the ruins is pro ceeding. The property damage was estimated at $5(, 'r)' The explosion of the gasoline wr-ek ed an entire block of buiidings in the heart of the town and preciirated a scene of panic and disas c-r. '- car, owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway, was standing near the railroad station. Along Main street, from the station to the VWhit tington hotel, every building was de molished and on the opposite side of the street the plant of Swift & Co.. a two-story rooming house and cafe and other business buildings were razed. Over the splintered rooms of these buildings and for blocks around the flaming gasolina was thrown, starting a score of fires. Not a window in thre city escaped the force of the explosion and the en tire population, sensing the disaster, poured terrified into the streets. "Ardmore was a hideous inferno of smoke and flame, of pungent odors and blood and groans," said one wit ness, telling of conditions which fol lowed the explosion. In spite of the confusion and uncer tainty, the smoke which filled the air and the jumbled brick and timber " which blocked the streets, there were many instances of heroism and self control, which doubtless reduced the death list. Rescue teams quickly were organized. Private houses were open ; ed to the injured, women and girls volunteering as nurses while hus bands and brothers fought the flames which threatened the town or search ed for injured imprisoned in the ruins. Telegraph and telephone com munication was severed for five hours and it was impossible to secure aid from the outside world. Two hundred injured are being cared for. United States Cavalry Fired On. Brownsville, Tex.-A patrol of the Twelfth United States cavalry was fired on three times Wednesday in the vicinity of the La Feria pumping plant, twenty-five miles above Browns ville, and on the bank of the Rio Grande. Two of the shots came from the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, the noncommissioned officer in com mand reported, while one shot was fired from the American side. In re ply, the troopers, twenty in all, fired three rounds each into the surrounding brush, but failed to locate persons re sponsible for the shots. Sentences Passed in Nueces Cases. Corpus Christi, Tex.-August Ueh linger, Lee Riggs, Tom Dunn, Ed Cas tleberry and Henry Stevens, recently convicted in the federal court of con spiracy against the United States in corrupting an election at which con gressmefti were voted for, were taken to the Victoria county jail Friday, where they will remain pending the ac tion of their attorneys 'in appealing the cases. Uehlinger, Castleberry and Stevens were each given a year and a day at Leayenworth (Kan.). prison; Riggs and Dunn were given six months in the Victoria county jail. Kills Twenty-One Doves in One Shot. San Antonio, Tex.--District Judge W. S. Anderson and Sheriff John W. Tobin were confronted with a knotty problem Saturday when a deputy sher iff reported to them that a hunter had killed twenty-one doves at one shot. Whether the hunter violated the state game law, which forbids any one per. son to kill more than fifteen doves in one day, was a question upon which both Judge Anderson and Sheriff To bin declined to rule. The incident was reported to the attorney genera' for a ruling. Mother of Texas Governor Dead. Salado, Tex. - Within a stone's throw of the home to which fifty years ago she came to Bell County with her husband, Rev. James E. Fer guson, Methodist preacher, soldier and flour miller, all that was mortal of Mrs. Fannie Fitzpatrick Ferguson, mother of the governor of Texas, was consigned to its last rest Tuesday in historic Salado cemetery, near the town which by one vote missed the distinction of being chosen as the cap ital of the State. Great Storm Rages in Italy. Rome., via Paris.--A great storm has been raging throughout Italy, caus ing floods and landslides. Trees have 1 been uprooted by the wind and the wide overflow of rivers has drowned cattle. Calls 400,000 to the Colors. Paris. - Mobilization of twentS classes of Greek troops will call tc the colors 400,000 men. This is thf i I official figure given by the Greek war ministry. OPINION CF IMPRT GIVER GEN 1VEM Y TERNE O n l y 2 r' ,e B i r d s C- ` pe- I and Lab Lien U1. Lahor's Prod'rers" an opin,on lii " me, fish an4n atttorney d , ' hat the feu wii' : tat arte at hte ity fli perr due;, .or.-five marl D quir. ' s 'l of the pes! The c',rn)i!;;:: inr r of 1asUt hankin';* ;,: ised that mfg aind ; h 'rr Ierforming any in tht i I'Il'I ;' ,tion and uIan of lulm r ien a statuta ulo li i:,, roducts of their and t i, !::! inery, tools, etc., lsF, ,, ,I rl 0 1 er tion withj fot man, ,, (;: i t:iir labor. This ho(,~.ir, :. for the wages labo,'r. ' i, ;ij I does not a1pt supeTrit)ll ;n,'I,t or manager. G to fix a ii,.n for labor it m t that thit lir"son claiming enc within thA elasses named in til ute. The c(oulty attorney at was advised that where a pajy application for or opposes the ment of a guardian for a drunkard, and on the trial the Is defeated, the cost shoul~d jud:cd against him; that wt person is found to be a drunkard thrý cost should be his estate, if sufficient; and,a ficient, the cost should be pakl county. If the defendant b charged, the person at whos the proceeding was had shall cost, unless such proceeding stituted by an officer actingi ficial capacity, in which casel. shall be paid by the county. The county attorney at Springs was advised that the appropriated by chapter 47, adt legislature, is not apportion0l different counties; that in * the commissioners court ct ie counties to ascertain when'" propriation is, or about to hausted they .hould with the controller; that e pressly provides the state shall liable after the appropr1at t exhausted. Therefore, whea propriation has been exhauds,' will be no law authorizing the by the state and future would have no authority to propriations .o pay deflcidg+ The board of water eautc advised that the'irrigation acid undertakes to give to any p poration, irrigation district,." structing or operating an canal the right to acquire ! nation a right of way ovfr lands and also lands fpri plants, etc., and, also, that the taking of the land of o right of way and for a in order to irrigate private public 'use or not is as ilui determined by the courtsplI development of all the 1si particular case, and.hat h t irrigation law which give the right of..emia such purpose should plicable until theepa the case have beeno passed upon by t'ti4 The assistant atto the court of criminallu vised that cattle shipped into Texas, the death is beyond the boundsar which are unloaded Nld state, are not subject to county inspectors. : Heavy Hailstorm in..W. Ei Paso, Tex.-ThE storm in the history of fell in the vicinity of and Sierra Blanca Wed of the hailstones weighl and broke windows, killed chickens and Mi animals, and stripped fru Formal Recall of P Washington. - Dr. Dumba, Austrian am United States, has beeili called by his governm state department is a British and French em safe conduct on a s from New York Oct. 5. M., K. & T. in Hands St. Louis, Mo.-The system, embracing the sas & Texas, a Kansi and the Missouri,' Railway of Texas, Mon the hands of a recetvter Road Bond Issue Cleveland. 'Pex.--In th determine whether or trict No. 3 of Liberty issue bonds in the sum ol building shell or grsV votes were cast for and' Arms and CartridBb Laredo, Tex.--United toms officials Sunday million rounds of cart large number of army for use by the ('arransM ders said to have e Washington. Nash"ille, 'TIenn.--Tbh nessee Thursday estab antine against the State no shipmenuL of cattle, will be permitted to