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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. The sundry civil bill carrying total appropriations of 27,237,221 was reported to the house yesterday. The bill carries great increases for Panama canal fortifications, for armories and arsenals, and for barrack in the Hawaiian island. The sum of 6,800,000 is appropriated for continuing the construction and operation of the canal and ,535,000 is appropriated for the canal fortifications, which is ,895,000 more than last vear. The war department, however, had asked for ,234,100. The money appropriated will be spent us follows: Sea coast batteries. 00,000; twelve-inch mortars, 20,000; ammunition, 60.-000: installation of sen coust cannon, 8,000; submarine mines, 40,000; barracks and other building, ,000,000. For armories and arsenals, a total of ,470,625 is set aside, nn increase of ,817,000. The sum of 00,000 is allowed for increased facilities at the Rock Island arsenal, and the secretury of war is authorized to contract for nn additional outlay of 50,000 for the manufacture of field artillery at that arsenal. The construction of infantry barracks at Hawaii will cost ,127,000, an increase of ,000,000. For the government railroad, now being built in Alaska, ,-247,000 is appropriated. German troops took the offensive along the Yser canal between Steenstraete and Het Sas Friday night, the French war office announced yesterday. An attempt to cross the canal failed. The Germans also attacked in the Champagne. The war office announcement says that asphyxiating gas was used, but that the assault was repulsed. Trainloads of men und munitions have been moving from Germany toward the Belgian front for the last three days, according to dispatches from Holland. Heavy guns nre reported to have been concentrated on the line from the coast to Ypres. ns if for a renewal of the attempt to reach Calais. On the Verdun front there were no important developments. French positions at Avocourt and at Dead Mans hill were bombarded violently. A rumor was in circulation at Washington yesterday afternoon that Koumanin is near a break with the allies as the result of her recently negotiated commercial treaties with Germany and Austriu. One report, unconfirmed, suid that the French minister to Roumania had been recalled. Orson Smith, chairman of the board of directors of the Merchants Loan and Trust Company, is in St. Lukes Hospital as a result of a fall in the North-Western railway terminal Thursday afternoon. Mr. Smith suffered a severe bruise on the head and both wrists were broken. Jeremiuh C. Lynch, the naturalized American of New York who was convicted in connection with the Irish revolt, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. This rei ort was made to Ambassador Page yesterday afternoon by American Consul Adams in Dublin. The Hay-Chamberlain army bill was passed by the House yesterday by a vote of 348 to 25. It will go to the President immediately for his signature. Leader Mann and other Republicans who demanded an army of 250,000 men voted uguinst the meusure. A dispatch to the London Daily Express from Amsterdam says a general shakeup is expected in the German cabinet, and that Herr von Rath-enaut will succeed Dr. Karl Telfferich, the imperial treasurer, who is slated for a new post.
