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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 13, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 26.

Read the full edition

News and Notes.

By Editor

-Several more assassinations are reported from Ireland.
-Two Chinamen in Philadelphia were naturalized a short time ago.
-The prohibition amendment was carried in Iowa by 21,000 majority.
-In Prague, thirteen Socialists have been sentenced to imprisonment.
-Thurlow Weed, the veteran journalist, now eighty-five years old, has become blind.
-One hundred and sixty acres of standing grain were burned on a ranch near Stockton last week.
-During the past fiscal year 46,632 agricultural patents were issued from the General Land Office.
-The United States' debt was diminished more than twelve and a half millions of dollars, during the month of June.
-Hurricanes have been very frequent for the last two weeks. A somewhat detailed account is given in another column.
-The evacuation of the city of Elm, Switzerland, has been ordered, on account of the threatening condition of the mountain.
-It is stated that the orange crop in Florida this year will be very light, owing to the ravages of an insect that is working in many groves.
-The usual list of Fourth-of-July accidents is reported. Toy pistols, bombs, and fire-crackers have maimed very many for life.
-From Bakersfield, Cal., the weather during the first week in July is reported as being the hottest that has been known for several years.
-The city of Tokio, Japan, which is getting to be quite a literary center, has a free library of 80,000 volumes, 15,000 of which are in European languages.
-The Sultan is about to issue a firman, granting the Jewish refugees from Russia, fertile tracts of land in Syria and Mesopotamia. Thus the Sultan shames the Czar.
-The total number of sheep in the United States, as reported by the Census Bureau, is 42,381,389. Of this number, California has about 5,000,000, more than any other State.
-There are 3,197 persons in the United States Internal Revenue Service, and of the $800,000,000 collected during the last six years, not a cent has been lost to the government by defalcation.
-The murderer of President Garfield was hung, according to sentence, June 30. The world would have to be pretty thoroughly searched to find a more hardened, blasphemous villain than he was.
-The Utah, Idaho, and Oregon stage line, John Hailey proprietor, has purchased all the mail contracts through Idaho, Washington Territory, Oregon, and to Shasta in California, a total amount of 2,265 miles.
-Reports from Minnesota say that there is quite an epidemic of small-pox in various parts of the State. Advices from Central Indiana say that twenty cases of small-pox have proved fatal, and the disease is still raging.
-A shock of earthquake was felt quite generally throughout this State, June 27. In several towns in the interior, it is said to have been the heaviest since 1868. No serious damage was done anywhere, but many people were badly frightened.
-The rather surprising report comes from Victoria, B. C., that the Fourth of July was the occasion of a general holiday there. Business was entirely suspended; and the Stars and Stripes, and the Union Jack floated from innumerable flag-staffs.
-A large venire was exhausted in a Police Court in San Francisco last week without a jury being obtained, to try a man charged with violating the Sunday Law. Two jurors only were obtained, and a venire for 175 was issued returnable this week.
-An express train was wrecked on the Central New Jersey Railroad, near Long Branch, June 29. Four passenger-cars were thrown off a bridge into the water. Three men were killed, and many injured. Ex-President Grant was among the injured.
-The authorities of Nevada City, Cal., have increased the license of Chinese laundries by $30 a quarter, and as a consequence there are no laundries in the place now, all having suspended. The object was to drive out the Chinese, that white labor might be substituted.
-The steamer Scioto, with 500 excursionists on board, collided with a tug-boat near Mingo Junction, O., on the night of the 4th. The Scioto sunk almost immediately in fifteen feet of water. The latest reports place the number of persons drowned at seventy. As usual, whisky did it.
-Nihilism is cropping out in high places. It is stated that 9,000 copies of a revolutionary proclamation, printed in secret and signed by Nicholas Constantinovich, cousin of the Czar, have been discovered at the Ministry of Marine. The author of the document anticipated the executioner by committing suicide.
-General Skobeloff, the famous Russian General, whose recent speech caused so much sensation, died suddenly at Moscow, July 7, aged thirty-nine years. His death is attributed to heart disease; but there are rumors of foul play, and it is more than likely that some parties wished to have the zealous General out of their way.
-A discussion has been started in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan, since the great prohibition victory in Iowa, which seems likely to bring the prohibition question to a vote at an early day in each of the States named. Indiana seems to be the next objective point of the temperance people, and they express great confidence in their ability to carry the measure there.
-Complaint is justly made because the liquor dealers of Cincinnati do not pay their share of taxation. The whole amount of taxes paid by those engaged in the liquor traffic in that city is $13,274 of which the eighteen brewers together pay $7,052, and the 3000 saloon-keepers pay $6,229. But a single dry goods house pays more taxes than all the liquor men combined.
-Superintendent Thompson, of the United States Railroad Mail Service, has failed in his efforts to secure a more rapid transmit of mails between Chicago and San Francisco. The Union and Central Pacific Roads were not willing to increase the speed of their mail trains, which is twenty and a half miles an hour. The average time between New York and Chicago is thirty-five miles an hour.
-There were 46,222 post-offices in the United States on the 30th of June, 1882, an increase of 710 over the previous year. For the year ending June 30, over a billion three-cent stamps, and 350,000,000 postal cards were sold. The value of stamped envelopes sold was nearly $40,000,000. The department officials feel warranted in asserting that when the final statement of receipts and expenditures for the year is completed, it will be found that the postal service is self-sustaining.
-A list of the members who have joined the revolutionary party in Russia, since 1872, together with the names of the members of the Executive, have been discovered by the police. The ramifications of the conspiracy extend over eleven governments. There are altogether 680 names on the list. They have also found and destroyed three more bomb and dynamite factories, and have found several secret printing establishments. And yet nihilism is as powerful a force in Russia as ever.
-During the six months just past, there have been 5,000 miles of railroad laid in the United States. These figures show only the main track, and do not include sidings, nor second, third, or fourth tracks. How extraordinary has been the work of the past season in comparison with its predecessor, may be seen by the fact that while it shows 5,000 miles of new road, the aggregate reported for the same period last year, was only a little over 2,000 miles, and during the same period of no previous year has it equaled even that amount. The total railway mileage of the United States is now more than 107,000 miles.
-The situation in Egypt remains practically unchanged, except that it is getting more and more critical. All foreigners have left for safety. There is a large English fleet in the harbor of Alexandria, and General Seymour, the English commander, has threatened to bombard the city if the building of fortifications by Arabi Pasha, and the placing of guns in positions threatening the fleets, were not stopped. The French Mediterranean squadron has been ordered to Alexandria, and more French troops are in readiness. That war is imminent is confidently expected. Troops have been sent to guard the Suez Canal, as it is feared that the Arabs will attempt to destroy it.
-Commodore Shufeldt, who has been recalled as Consul at Shanghai, has just negotiated a treaty between the United States and Corea. Provision is made for the United States to have a Minister, a Consul-General, and Consuls resident in the kingdom, and three ports are to be open to the commerce of this country. Corea has hitherto maintained a policy of almost complete isolation, Japan being the only country enjoying commercial relations with it. Even China, to which Corea is tributary, has had no intercourse with Corea, save on the occasion of the annual embassy which is accomplished by a few privileged traders. The European powers are making preparations to take advantage of the diplomacy of the United States.
-Some months ago it was stated that a Mohammedan prophet in the eastern part of the Soudan, on the Upper Nile, not far from Abyssinia, had collected a band of fanatics, revolted against Egyptian authority, and defeated some of the local forces. His uprising was at the time considered a part of the antichristian movement so popular at present among people of his religion. The Khedive sent some forces against him, and a battle has recently occurred, in which the Egyptians were defeated with a loss of 2,000 men. The victorious prophet and his army of 7,000 men are said to be advancing northward and probably receiving accessions of strength from the Bedouins of the desert as they proceed. Sennar, where the battle took place, is about 2,000 miles south of Alexandria. The troubles have no connection with the revolt of Arabi Pasha, but should they increase, and the prophet's army become powerful, they might lead to a general Mohammedan uprising, or holy war, the consequences of which might be serious. Should Arabi be defeated he might join his forces with those of the prophet, a course which he has vaguely threatened.—Chronicle.