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GENERAL NEWS NOTES OF THE DAY. Advices from London yesterday say: The British olTcisivo .was resumed today. The war office announced that at one point the Germans wen; forced back to their third line positions. More than 2,01: prisoners were taken. The statement from the front follows: All continues to go well on the British front and at one point Ave forced the enemy bad: to his third system of defense, more than four miles to the rear of his original front trenches at Fricourt and Mametz. In the last twenty-four hours we have captured over 2,000 prisoners, including a regimental commander of the Third Guards division, and the total number of prisoners taken by the British sine.. the battle began now exceeds 10,000. Large quantities of war material also have fallen into our hands. Heavy German counter attacks marked the new British advance. There was desperate fighting on the Ovillers-Longueval front last night. The British encountered most stubborn resistance after breaking through the German second line, and were met by steady sheets of machine gun fire in the district north of Lon-gneval. Notwithstanding this determined opposition the British troops continued to consolidate their positions and break down small German positions. The newly conquered positions, in some cases on the slopes of rolling hills whose ridges are held by the Germans, are being made ready for defense against even stronger enemy attacks. The Germans poured a hot artillery fire upon the southern fringe of the village of Ovillers after most of the town itself bad fallen into British hands. Correspondents at the British front, reported hundreds of bodies lie buried beneath the ruins of the town. The fighting for Ovillers has been hard, bloody and close, said one dispatch. Many of our men died to gain a yard or two to the earthworks. There have been fights to the death between a handful of English or Irish soldiers and a dozen or more Germans, meeting each other in the darkness of deep cellars quarried out from the chalk subsoil. Ovillers is a place of abominable ruin. There is not a wall standing two feet high or a bit of a wall. The guns have swept it flat, but underground there are still great, cellars quarried out by the inhabitants, and in these the Germans are holding out against our attacks and bombardments. Heavy shells have opened up some of them and filled them with dead and wounded. The ground is pitted with enormous shell holes, in which the men lie buried. Ovillers is perhaps more ghastly than any ruined ground along this front. A distpatch of yesterday from Brownsville. Texas, said the third squadron of the First Illinois Cavalry will begin active border patrol service in about two weeks, according to apparently reliable information obtained today. It will be sent to Eio Grande City, about 10 miles up the river, and will work out of there in conjunction with cavalrymen of the regular army. This squadron which is commanded by Major Walter Fisher, is now practically all mounted and will be ready for service in two weeks, according to the program. It comprises troops I. K, L and M. The other two squadrons of the regiment will not be completely mounted for two weeks, yet, it is believed, and the necessary subsequent training will make it a month before thev are readv to take the field. Bio Grande Citv is close to Fort Ringgold, which, according to present plans, will be the crossing point into Mexico, if war or intervention comes. The ordering of seven new regiments to the Brownsville district, making a total of about 50,000 troops that will be in the immediate negihborhood, confirmed military experts, in their belief tiiat the main drive on Mexico would be made with this city as Its base, and with the first Illinois Cavalry in the vanguard. . Chicagos summer resort reputation will have an awful strain put on it in the next few days unless government weather observers have misread the signs. No relief from the heat is in sight from any quarter, according to C. L. Mitchell, assistant forecaster, and indications point to a, continuance of present conditions well into next- week. At 2 oclock yesterday afternoon the mercury stood at 85 degrees. At 10 a. m. it had registered Ni, but n lake breeze forced it down to 82 at 11. "There will be an occasional breeze from the lake," Mr. Mitchell said, "but I cant promise that they will be either strong or frequent. One helped today for those who were near enough the shore to feel it. reducing the temperature four degrees in an hour and a half. But for those who live inland there will be small comfort until the torrid wave spends itself." The forecast issued from Washington for the great lakes region is for temperatures near or above normal all next week, with occasional thunder showers. The Berlin war office statement of yesterday says: The continuation of the British attack on the German lines between Pozieres and Loiigueval resulted in the penetrating of the German lines and effecting a gain of territory, the war office announced. The British also have occupied Trones wood. The fighting is continuing, although the attack has been stemmed, adds the statement, which says: British attacks which followed the first sanguinary repuse suffered by them north of the Snrainc led to heavy fighting. By his forces massed between Pozieres and J.onguoval the em my, in spite of the most severe loses, succeeded in penetrating our lines and gaining some ground, lie also occupied Trones wood. The attack has been stemmed, but the fighting is being continued. The French official report of yesterday says: A violent artillery duel continues in the Fleury sector. A German attack on a trench northeast of the Avocourt redoubt was repulsed and tier man attempts to attack in the Apremont forest were checked by a curtain fire. On the left bank of .the Mouse a German attack with hand grenades against one of our trenches northeast of the Avocourt redoubt was repulsed. On the right bank of the river the artillery fighting was sustained and intense in the sector of Fleury. We dispersed with infantry fire several re. onnoiter-ing parties of the enemy in Chapitre wood. In the forest of Apremont several attempts of the Germans to make attacks were broken up by our curtain of fire. Prof. Elie Mefchnikoff. the famous bacterioliglst, is dead. Prof. Metchnikoff was world famous as an exponent of theories for the prolongation of human life. lie was popularly known as the great advocate of "sour milk cure" for old age, believing that the principal agent in senile decay was the continuous autointoxication of the body through the putrefaction of matter in the large intestine, and that the bacteria which cause such putr. faction could be effectively combatted by preparations of milk soured by cultures of selected lactic acid bacilli. Later Prof. Metchnikoff went so far as to declare that the large intestine was as useless in the human body as is the appendix, and prophesied that, the .lay would come when it would be a commonplace operation to remove it. Solution of difficulties between the Tnited States and Mexico appeared yesterday to trend more and more toward settlement through an international joint commission. Informal conferences between Acting Secretary of State Polk and Eliseo Aire-diuiilo. Mexican ambassador designate, it was indicated were developing questions for probable sub mission to such a body. General Cnrranza. is said to approve the commission plan of settling differences as provided in the treaty of 1.S4S, and state department officials are believed to be will ing to let negotiations take this course, though preferring that adjustment be made through the present conferences. President Wilson, it is understood, not dissatisified with the direction negotiations are taking. Fiftv-two thousand national guardsmen from the department of the east are now at the Mexican border or approaching the border, Maj. Gen. Leonard Wood announced yesterday. Of these. New York state has contributed 15,178. Pennsylvania is second, with 12.770. General Wood, who returned to his headquarters on Governors island Thursday, after an inspection of the citizens military training camp at Plattsburg, said the camp was a great improvement over the ones at Plattsburg and other places last year, and one of the finest camps ever established in the country. The famous citv of Mecca, the most holy place of the Mohammedan world, has surrendered to the Arabian rebels, according to dispatches received at Cairo. Egypt, yesterday. The Turkish garris. f 10! officers 2,500 men and 150 civil officials laid down their arms. The revolt against Turkish rule in Arabia is making progress. After the fall of Mecca, certain elements of the garrison continued their resistance in forts near the city. In order to avoid bloodshed, the grand sheriff, in command of the Arabian forces, suspended attacks. The forts have now surrendered, according to todays advices. Provision in the naval appropriation bill authorizing the president to take over private ship building, engineering and ordnance plants in time of war. or when war is imminent was eliminated yesterday on a point of order by Senator Borah. I he proposal was held by the vice president to be a matter for special legislation.
