News and Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 7, 1882

News and Notes.

By Editor

The sum of $3,650,000 is now invested in the manufacture of iron in the Birmingham, Alabama, district.

Germany has suffered severely from the overflow of the Rhine and other rivers. The floods have now subsided.

A man in New South Wales has been sentenced to three months' imprisonment for attempting to commit suicide.

The total amount of revenue and tax collections from tobacco for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1882, was $47,391,988.

In the ten years from 1870 to 1880 the value of the silk production of the United States rose from $12,210,662 to $34,410,463.

The steam barge R. G. Peters caught fire and sunk in Lake Michigan, forty miles from Milwaukee, Dec. 2. Thirteen men perished.

The Great Northwestern Telegraph Company have appointed a committee to consider the project of laying a cable in Lake Superior.

The president of the First National Bank, Buffalo, N. Y., has been sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for embezzling the bank funds.

Nearly 60,000 applications have been received by the Irish Land Commission, from persons desirous of taking the benefits of the Arrears-of-Rent Act.

The German Empire has now about 34,000,000 acres of forest, valued at $400,000,000, and appropriates $500,000 every year to increase and maintain the growth of trees.

Of eighteen theaters examined in New York, only two comply with the law in regard to providing escape from fire. Most of them are death-traps in more than one sense.

The bank clearings of the country for the week ending November 25 amounted to $155,400,000, an increase of $3,000,000 over the previous week, probably the largest recorded.

The receipts from internal revenue taxation have increased from $113,000,000 in 1879 to $146,500,000 in the present year. The commissioner recommends a reduction of from $60,000,000 to $70,000,000 per year.

The length of the submarine cables in the whole world is estimated to be 64,000 miles, and their value to be $202,000,000. The length of all the wires in the world would reach forty-eight times around the earth.

A rich and influential German saloon-keeper in Cleveland, Ohio, was convicted, Nov. 20, in the Police Court of violating the Sunday Law. The Judge fined him $100, and sentenced him to ten days in the work-house.

England has ordered the construction of an iron-clad war-ship of 10,000 tons burden, which is to have engines of nearly 1,000 horse-power. She will carry the largest guns. The cost of the vessel will be about $3,000,000.

Judge Dykeman, of the Supreme Court of New York, has decided that telegraph companies have no right to set poles on the highway without equitable compensation to the owners of premises before which they are placed.

Joseph Cook thinks that this government may be preserved pure by making education general, by having an active church membership, and by making it an offense punishable by a fine to stay away from the polls.

The Commissioner of Agriculture estimates the yield for 1882 as follows: Corn, 163,500,000 bushels; wheat, 410,000,000 bushels; oats, 470,000,000 bushels; rye, 20,000,000 bushels; buckwheat, 12,600,000 bushels; barley, 45,000,000.

The municipal bank of Skopin, Russia, in the province of Riazan, has failed for over £2,000,000, ruining the whole town, as well as hundreds of families elsewhere. The chief industry of the town is the manufacture of Russia leather.

Affairs in Ireland are in a dangerous condition and anarchy is threatened. A picked force of one hundred armed men will be sent from England, who will not hesitate to shoot, when they deem it necessary. This, of course, will only add fuel to the flames.

A recent order from the War Department changes the name of Fort Point, San Francisco, to "Fort Winfield Scott," in honor of that general, and Fort San Jose, at Black Point, to "Fort Mason," in honor of the late General Mason, once military governor of California.

Secretary Lincoln has prohibited the use of tobacco at West Point. Why doesn't some one, in the name of humanity, go to Mr. Lincoln and implore him not to deprive the young men of this necessity? If tobacco is the blessing that it is claimed to be, this act is an outrage. But we don't believe it.

Dec. 3, Arabi Pasha pleaded guilty to a charge of rebellion, and the court-martial sentenced him to death. The Khedive, however, commuted the sentence to exile for life. It is thought that he will be sent to some part of the British dominions, probably the Cape of Good Hope. If he should come to America, he could make a fortune lecturing.

It is stated that more vessels were cleared with flour and grain from California during the year ending June 30, 1882, than for any previous year. The whole number thus cleared was 559. All but twelve of these went to Europe. There were 149 under the American flag, 345 under the British flag, and the remainder under various foreign flags.

Carl Johnson, a young man aged twenty-one, is to be hung for the murder of an old man in San Francisco two months ago. Lest any should shake their heads at this, and say that it is impossible that a murderer should be hung in San Francisco, we will add that the young man is a sailor with neither money nor influential friends. Why should he not hang?

A Mr. Morse intends to produce the "Passion Play" in New York some time during the winter. Two years ago Mr. Abbey gave up the attempt in deference to public opinion, but this man is determined to go. There is justly a great deal of indignation over the matter, even the secular papers opposing it. The Herald says that the church ought at once to take measures to stop it.

Clarence Gray, who killed the editor of the Santa Barbara Press, over two years ago, has just been cleared. He has had two trials before; the first resulted in a disagreement of the jury, the second in a conviction of murder in the second degree. The clearing of Gray is universally considered as a travesty of justice, as the assassination was of the most ruffianly and brutal character.

The special census bulletin just issued contains a table of statistics compiled from the census returns of 1880, relating to all manufacturing industries, except gas, in each of the States and Territories. It shows that there are in the United States 253,840 establishments, employing 2,025,279 males above 16 years of age, 531,753 females above the age of 15, and 181,918 children and youths. The capital invested is $2,790,223,506. The value of materials used amounted to $3,340,029,000, and the value of manufactured products amounted to $5,369,667,706. The total amount paid in wages during the year was $947,919,674.