Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 14, 1910

—July 9, at Atlantic City, N. J., Walter Brookins, in a Wright biplane, reached an altitude of 6,175 feet, thus breaking all records.

—A head-on collision between a freight- and passenger-train on the Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton Railroad occurred at Middletown, Ohio, on July 4. Nineteen persons were killed outright, three fatally hurt, and many others severely injured.

—Some days ago, Paris time was transmitted from the Eiffel Tower by wireless apparatus within a radius of 2,500 and 3,000 miles. These time-signals are to be continued, and will be sent out at midnight, also at two minutes and four minutes after midnight.

—A material decrease in deaths and injuries is noted as a result of the movement for a “safe and sane” observance of the Fourth of July. So far as reported, 28 deaths occurred this year, as against 44 last year. The number of injured last year was 2,361; this year it was 1,785.

—The annual report of the appraiser of the port of New York shows that merchandise of an appraised value of $961,962,392 entered that port during the fiscal year ending June 30, as against $798,303,729 in 1909. Precious stones and pearls at an appraised value of above $44,000,000 were received; also 1,821 automobiles at an appraised value of $4,440,000.

—The excursion steamer “Grand Republic,” sister ship of the “Slocum,” which burned in East River six years ago, causing the death of 938 persons, caught fire on the afternoon of July 6, while passing through the Narrows on her way to New York City after an excursion to a pleasure resort. There were few passengers on board, and they were all landed safely.

—Chief Justice Fuller, of the United States Supreme Court, died very suddenly, of heart failure, on July 4, at his summer home at Sorrento, Maine. He had been in apparently good health, and had attended church service on Sunday. Within sixteen months President Taft has named two associate justices of the Supreme Court; and the death of Chief Justice Fuller now places upon him the responsibility of naming a chief justice. Since the creation of the Supreme Court, only eight men have held this important place, while during the same time there have been 27 presidents. The opinion is widely expressed that Governor Charles E. Hughes, recently appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court, will be chosen to fill this important position; but it is not expected that the appointment will be made until late in the fall.

—All the ticket offices in the Union Station at Washington, D. C., were closed for an hour on July 5, while the Terminal Company discharged the entire force of ticket-sellers, and installed a new staff of men in their places. Passengers were instructed to buy their tickets on trains while the change was made. The discovery of irregularities on the part of the ticket sellers was the cause of the drastic measures taken.

—At midnight on June 30 the White Star Line steamship “Baltic,” while 1,000 miles off Fire Island, on her way to New York, collided with the “Standard,” an oil-tank steamer. A T-shaped hole 6 feet in diameter was stove in the bow of the “Baltic” just above the water-line. Repairs were made by the ship’s carpenters and crew, and after a wait of two hours the disabled vessel proceeded on her course. Immediately after the collision, wireless messages were sent out, but no response was received. It will be remembered that the “Baltic” was the first liner to come to the help of the wrecked “Republic” and “Florida,” saving 1,650 shipwrecked passengers, when these two ships collided near Nantucket Shoals in January, 1909.

—An aftermath of the fight for the world’s heavyweight championship, which occurred in Reno, Nev., July 4, is given by the daily papers in all parts of the country. Thirty cities show a list of 357 persons hurt, the injuries to 21 of them resulting in death. In the city of Washington alone there were 231 arrests growing out of brawls over the results of the “battle,” and 50 injured persons were treated at the local hospitals. As an offset to this record, Washington was the first city to place a ban on the proposed exhibition of the pictures of the fight. Many other large cities and several States, following her example, have also barred their exhibition.

The matter of the demonstrations against a group of Baptist missionaries working in Italy at the time of the earthquake in the Avellino district early in June, has been formally brought before the foreign office at Rome by the American ambassador, John G. A. Leishman. At the time of the earthquake, Mr. James P. Stuart, of St. Louis, representative of the American Board of Baptist Missions in Italy, and other missionaries were attacked by a mob, and rescued by a band of soldiers, who escorted them out of the district. Later, acting on the advice of Premier Luzzatti, at Rome, Mr. Stuart, accompanied by three workers, returned to the province. On the outskirts of the city of Avellino he and his companions were met by the local chief of police and a company of soldiers, and were at once surrounded by an angry mob, who stoned the carriage, and cried, “Down with the Baptists!” The soldiers protected the missionaries, and escorted them to the Baptist church, where they took refuge until rescued the next day by a detachment of 400 troops sent from Rome for the purpose. The mob continued to stone the church until late at night, but did no serious damage. Both the premier and the foreign minister declare that measures will be taken to prevent the recurrence of similar disturbances in the future.