ITEMS OF NEWS by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 18, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 31.

Read the full edition

ITEMS OF NEWS.

By Editor

—A SHOCK of earthquake was felt in Bangor, Maine, August 1.

—Matthew Vassar, founder of Vassar College, died August 10.

—Sparks from a locomotive started a fire which destroyed the whole village of Trafalgar, O., Aug. 10.

—A dispatch from Geneva says: A large village in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland, has been destroyed by fire.

—The law taxing saloons $500 to $1,000 has been declared constitutional by the Supreme Court of Nebraska.

—A fire at Puera Plata, San Domingo, destroyed the fortress, twenty-five men being killed by the explosion of the magazine.

—The steamer Cortez, with a cargo of flour and beef from New York to St. Johns, N. F., was totally wrecked in the harbor of Halifax, N. S., August 8.

—August 13, a train on the Grand Trunk railroad ran off the track near Prescott, Ont., killing four train officials, and severely injuring many passengers.

—As the steamer Hardy was approaching Portsmouth, O., recently, fourteen shots were fired into her from a wagon on the shore. One shot entered the cabin, and one the engineer's room.

—A Nihilist of noble birth has been arrested at Belgrade, with documents on him which prove that the Nihilists and Socialists have designs on the lives of the Czar and the Emperor William.

—A meeting was held in Boston, August 12, for the purpose of sympathizing with Hartmann, the nihilist. A committee was appointed to invite Hartmann to address a public meeting in Fanueil Hall.

—Liverpool is again alarmed over some rifles that were deposited in the cotton bales on Nelson Dock. The Fenians and Land Leaguers intend to keep the English frightened if they can do no more.

—De Lesseps' Panama canal is liable to come to naught. But little has been done, and the men he has there are dying off very rapidly from fevers. Five deaths a day has been the average for some time.

—England pays annually for missions, $6,000,000, and for liquor, $750,000,000. The United States pays $3,000,000 for missions, and $600,000,000 for liquor. "Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also."

—The Atlantic flouring mills in St. Louis were struck by lightning Aug. 12, and completely demolished. An explosion almost instantly followed the stroke, and fire completed the ruin. Several men were severely injured.

—A most destructive flood recently occurred at Central City, Colo. The storm lasted less than half an hour, but a torrent swept through the streets, carrying everything before it. Several lives were lost, and much property damaged.

—It is reported that the Pope threatens to leave Rome and go to Malta unless greater respect is shown to his household in the Italian capital. The Italian government would probably interpose no objections. Some have advised the Pope to come to America.

—August 13, a boy eleven years old attempted to jump on a moving truck in San Francisco. He slipped and the hind wheel passed over his breast, producing injuries from which he died in a very short time. Another warning to small boys, that will be unheeded.

—Complaints are made that much valuable timber is being stolen from government land in Arizona and New Mexico. It is said that one firm has undertaken to furnish 3,000,000 ties for the use of the Mexican Central railroad, which are being cut on government land.

—Edison's representatives at Paris have obtained from the Courts an injunction restraining Hiram Maxim of the United States Electric Lighting Company from exhibiting his light in France, on the ground that the light used by Maxim is substantially the same as Edison's and is covered by his patents.

—The floods in Arizona still continue. The remaining section of the bridge east of Tucson was swept away on the 13th, and the water was reported to be rising three feet an hour. At Casa Grande, the water is four feet over the track, and 1,200 feet of railroad has been carried away. Maricopa is reported flooded.

—A dispatch from Hollister, Cal., August 13, says: "A fire started by careless hunters has been raging in the Gabilan mountains, fifteen miles south of here, for three or four days. It burned over 3,000 acres of Government land, and 350 acres belonging to Jesse D. Carr, destroying a great amount of valuable timber."

—The number of deaths in Chicago for the week ending August 9, was 527, the largest number ever recorded. The extreme heat was the prime cause. The death record for one day in New York showed 148. The heat in California has been intense, also. We are informed that it has been 100° in Los Angeles.

—Reports say that Switzerland is beginning to suffer seriously from drought, which, except for a few showers, has lasted two months. Grass is burned, and there is no chance of making the usual second hay crop. There is great scarcity of water in most parts of the country in mountain pastures. In several cantons, beasts are perishing from lack of water and from heat.

—Two men were recently killed by the locomotive, while crossing the track of the Central Pacific railroad near Haywards, Cal. The jury exonerated the train employes, but censured the company for setting rows of Eucalyptus trees so close to the road as to shut off all view. The same verdict was rendered last spring when five children were killed under similar circumstances. Who'll be the next?

—The action of the House of Lords, practically condemning the Land Bill, is denounced throughout England. The Pall Mall Gazette says "the situation is serious, but it is difficult to credit the Peers with sufficient folly to persist in precipitating a constitutional crisis. If they persist in a resolute hostility, the whole work of the session will be sacrificed. Ireland will be convulsed with civil war, and an agitation will be started in favor of the revision of the Constitution, which will have stronger consequences than they possibly imagine." It favors a monster mass-meeting to teach the Peers public opinion.