ITEMS OF NEWS by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 15, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 35.

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ITEMS OF NEWS.

By Editor

—The United States has fifty per cent. more paper mills than any other country.

—The average daily attendance in the New York city schools is 132,849.

—A boy fourteen years old, of the genus hoodlum, recently murdered a Chinaman, at Tulare, Cal.

—The amount of money embezzled by Capt. Howgate, of the Signal Service department, is about $400,000.

—The eruption of Mauna Loa, Hawaiian Islands, is gradually subsiding, and the town of Hilo, whose destruction seemed imminent, is now considered out of danger.

—A few days since a man was run over by the local train between Oakland and Alameda, and literally torn to pieces. He was lying on the track, and was not discovered until too late to stop the train.

—On the 6th inst. a collision occurred on the Paris and Lyons railroad, France, whereby twenty persons were instantly killed, and many others wounded. This was the third serious accident on that road within one week.

—In consequence of the great number of surgeons that have been sent to Algeria, the military medical service in Paris is very much straitened, and requests have been made through all the districts for civilian assistance.

—Five women and three men, belonging to a notorious gang of robbers, were arrested in Denver, Col., recently. They are mostly from Missouri and Kansas, and are said to have blown open more than fifty safes within two years.

—The papers are reporting a wonderful thing from St. Louis, Mo. That city appropriated upwards of $800,000 for her schools last year. At the close of the year the Board of Education came out with $94,000 unexpended. Such a thing is a rare occurrence.

—A dispatch from Marquette, Mich., Sept. 6, says: "The powder-house exploded here and eleven men were blown to atoms. Small pieces of their bodies were found scattered about. Nothing of the building was left, and nobody was found to tell the cause of the disaster."

—A singular feature of the recent Apache outbreak is that the telegraph wires were cut, and communication between Apache and Wilcox was cut off. Indians have never before ventured to tamper with the "talking wire," deeming it under the especial control of the Great Spirit.

—An entire passenger train tumbled down an embankment ten feet high, near Shenandoah, Iowa, recently. Nineteen persons were injured, some of them fatally. The same day an express train ran into an accommodation train on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Many persons were severely scalded by the escaping steam.

—The President was removed from Washington to Long Branch last week. He stood the journey remarkably well, and for a time seemed much better, but at present writing is in a critical condition. The wretch Guiteau, narrowly escaped death at the hands of one of his guards, who fired into his cell. Guiteau was terribly frightened. He is not so fond of being shot at as he is of shooting at others.

—On the 7th inst. the thermometer stood above 95° in New York. Reports from Boston stated that it was the hottest day of the season. At Milford, Pa., the thermometer stood from 99° to 102°, the hottest weather for many years. Several cases of sunstroke were reported. At the same time a severe snow-storm was raging in the Black Hills in Dakota territory, the snow being from five inches to two feet in depth.

—Another railroad robbery has taken place in Missouri. On the 8th inst., the express train on the Chicago & Alton road was stopped by nine masked men, who had previously placed stones and timbers on the track. The express messenger was fatally beaten, and the safe robbed of its contents. The robbers kept up a continual firing while they were robbing the passengers, nearly all of whom lost something. The notorious James gang are supposed to be the perpetrators.

—The massacre of United States troops in Arizona, proved to be very much less than was at first supposed, but there is a general uprising of the Indians. The people have no doubt but that the troops will subjugate the Indians, and force them back onto their reservations, but think they will commence depredations again as soon as the troops are withdrawn. The cry with the Arizonians is "The Apaches must go." Nothing short of the extermination of the Indians or their removal from the Territory will satisfy them.

—Advices from Panama August 31, say: "In a fight at Matagalpa, between about 5,000 Indians on one side and a detachment of troops and some 150 citizens on the other, the Indians lost 500 in killed and wounded. The other party had 28 killed and a number wounded. Previous to this fight, Indians attacked Esquipulas, killed the Captain in command, the Commissary, and a young telegraph operator named Vegar, who was stricken down while repairing a break in the Government telegraph line. The slaughter of various individuals followed, some of them being Indians who had refused to join the malcontents, and horrible outrages were inflicted upon others."

—Michigan has been visited by one of the most destructive fires ever known there. Saginaw, Tuscola, Lapeer, and Huron counties have suffered terribly but the country along the shore of Lake Huron has suffered the most. The whole country seems to have been swept. The loss of life cannot be definitely stated, but it is known to be very great. The report says: "The approach of the fire was heralded by a dense atmosphere entirely obscuring the light, in the middle of the afternoon of Monday. The high winds had spread the fire, and every avenue had been closed to the fleeing homeless ones, leaving them to death by fire. Large burning masses of inflammables were lifted bodily and carried through the air. The skill and courage of cattle were rendered impotent, and men and cattle were roasted together in natural fire-traps." The report from the Collector at Port Huron, states that more than 10,000 persons are absolutely homeless and destitute. Contributions from all parts of the country are being sent to the aid of the homeless ones.