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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 27, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 17.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

-When one of the heavy fogs prevails in London, it costs that city $60,000 extra for gas.
-It is reported that the fishermen on the coast of Labrador are in a starving condition.
-A school for the training of horses to be used in the Fire Department, has been opened in New York.
-By the bursting of a sewer in St. Louis, the 23d, property was damaged to the amount of $200,000.
-A steam whaler, one of the largest and most complete ever built, and the first one built in San Francisco, was launched last week.
-Much of the business portion of Lake City, Minn., was destroyed by fire, the morning of the 22d inst. The loss is estimated at $400,000.
-The Mayor of Brownsville, Mo., states that the loss to the town, by the recent cyclone, is $250,000, and that many people are homeless and destitute.
-There has been an extensive robbery from the Paris Post-office. One hundred and eighty registered letters, containing one million francs, have been stolen.
-It is said that fifty of the one hundred Chinese students who were called home from this country by the Chinese Government will return and finish their education.
-The Bible that has been in use in the United States Senate for fifty-three years, and upon which all the Senators during that time have been sworn, was stolen from the Senate Chamber recently.
-The town of Brookhaven, La., was visited by a tornado, the 23d inst. Only three houses were left standing. Out of a population of 150, very few escaped some injury. Ten persons were killed instantly.
-The use of horseflesh as an article of food is rapidly increasing in Paris. In 1875 the butchers disposed of 7,000 horses; in 1880, of 9,000; and in 1881 of 9,300. To this number was added a large number of mules.
-The Russian Ambassador at Constantinople recently announced that he intended to go on a furlough of several weeks. This is generally considered as a warning to the Porte that Russian patience is nearly exhausted by the indemnity negotiations.
-It is stated that in America 100,000 cords of wood are annually converted into shoe-pegs; 300,000,000 cubic feet of the best pine are made into matches; 500,000 cords of birch, beech, and maple are used for shoe lasts; and the same amount is used for handles for tools.
-Professor Charles Darwin, the noted scientist, died at his home in London, of heart disease, on the 20th inst., at the age of seventy-three years. Although he made many valuable contributions to scientific knowledge, he was best known as the virtual author of the evolutionary theory.
-The Mississippi River is rising again, and farmers are making preparations to flee. At Red Wing, Minnesota, the water last week was reported as being forty feet above low water mark, and still rising. The drawbridge at Emerson, worth $70,000, was swept away by the flood.
-The Indians in Arizona Territory are again on the war-path. A band of about 200 Apaches started on a raid last week, killing ranchers and plundering the stock. Over twenty persons are known to have been murdered. As usual, the military is entirely inadequate to check them.
-The persecution of the Jews in Southern Russia still goes on. Whole villages have been destroyed, and 17,000 Jews are rendered homeless. In consequence of recent reports of the Minister of Justice, the Emperor has ordered the trials of all persons accused of outrages against the Jews to be treated as urgent, and to be taken up without regard to their order on the list.
-The Czar of Russia has just given another evidence of despotism. He has issued an order prohibiting military men from publicly delivering political speeches or expressing political opinions. The War Department officials are prohibited from publishing, without the sanction of their superiors, documents referring to the internal and external affairs of foreign countries.
-Cannon, the Mormon delegate to Congress, has been, by unanimous vote, refused admission to that body, on account of his polygamy. As Campbell did not receive a majority of votes, he, of votes, he, of votes, he, was not admitted, and consequently Utah is now without any representative in Congress. Better so, than that the whole nation should be insulted by the presence of a shameless polygamist in its chief legislative assembly.
-A new cable has been laid, between Valentia, Ireland, and Emden, Germany, so that there is now direct telegraphic communication between Germany and the United States. The first dispatch was sent on the 21st inst, being a congratulatory note from the Emperor of Germany, to the President of the United States. Its transmission occupied nine minutes, and the reply, a fraction over ten minutes.
-Some of the heirs of the late Senator Baker, of San Jose, were dissatisfied with his will, and attempted to break it on the ground that he was unsound in mind when he made his will. Although at the time the Senator made his will he was considered one of the keenest men in the California Legislature, and was in the active discharge of his duties, the will was broken on the ground of inability to make a will. The feats that can be performed by some "Courts of Justice" are truly remarkable.
-Mountain forest fires have been raging in Pennsylvania. A very large territory has been burned over, and hundreds of valuable oak, hickory, walnut, pine, maple, ash, spruce, cedar, basswood, and birch trees, have been consumed by the flames. The destruction to sugar-maple trees has been large-so great, in fact, that the sugar-making business in Luzerue, Wayne, and Pike districts, is forever ruined. It is estimated that 15,000,000 feet of timber have been destroyed. Several rows of loggers' huts have been swept away, while a number of portable saw-mills have gone in the general ruin.
-Recent Arctic exploring expeditions, like all their predecessors, have ended disastrously. It is now considered beyond doubt that Lieutenant De Long, of the Jeannette, has perished. The Rodgers, that sailed last summer from San Francisco in search of the Jeannette, took fire and sunk on the coast of Siberia, and now another steamer is to be sent to the relief of her officers and crew. Only one thing of been learned by these expeditions, and that is that any effort to find the North Pole is useless, and results only in the loss of life and property. Whether the lesson will be heeded remains to be seen.
-Hurricanes seem to be the order, (or more properly disorder) of the day in the East. Following immediately after those in Michigan, Kansas, and Texas, we have accounts of a terrible cyclone in Missouri, April 18. The entire business portion of Brownsville was destroyed, seven persons killed, and between twenty and thirty injured. Brick houses were picked up like straws, and twisted into shapeless ruins. At Montrose, twenty dwellings and four churches were demolished. Everything in the track of the storm, which was about 150 yards wide was leveled to the ground. Other towns than those mentioned above were injured to the extent of a few houses being blown down. A cyclone is also reported from Bloomfield, Iowa, which blew down many farm buildings. In Fayette County, Pennsylvania, also, a hurricane destroyed very much property, and killed several persons.
-The saloon-keepers and brewers of Cincinnati, Ohio, have raised a fund to be used in fighting in the Courts a bill to close the saloons on Sunday. It is reported that in Columbus and Toledo the saloons will close on Sundays. The following dispatch from Toledo, of Sunday. April 23, is of interest: "The saloons were all closed, back doors and front, promptly at midnight Saturday, and have remained so. This was the first Sunday on which the Smith law closing saloons was enforced. An attempt had been made, generally regarded as in a spirit of retaliation on the part of the Liquor Dealers' Protective Association, to secure the enforcement of an old law, passed fifty years ago, against common labor on Sunday. This Association had notified the Police Board that they would suspend business, and requested the police authorities to enforce all other Sunday laws. The Board instructed the Chief of Police to this effect, and every one accustomed to do any labor on Sunday, was notified to cease all work. This notice extended to saloons, street-car lines, barber shops, grocers, milk-men, livery stables, butcher shops, and Sunday newspapers, etc. The instructions were to make no arrests to-day, but to take the names of all who should violate the law, and report them to the Police Court on Monday, when warrants will be issued for their arrest."