News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— The old Cruces road, built in 1530 across the Isthmus of Panama, is to be repaired and put in first-class condition. This probably is the oldest road in the western hemisphere.

— A special train carrying war-scarred Confederate veterans to their annual reunion at Macon, Ga., plunged over an embankment near Estabutchie, Miss., on May 6. Nine persons were killed and fifty-five injured.

— It is estimated that there are 4,000 evangelists, men and women, who give their time to rescue mission work in the United States. They come in contact annually with as many as 300,000 persons of all degrees of wretchedness.

— An exchange states that the extra day in leap-year is not without its practical consequences. This year it brought to the British government an extra $1,800,000 in revenue, and will add $17,000,000 to the foreign trade for the year 1912.

— The State of Kansas, according to the American Medical Association, has shown a marked decrease in the percentage of insane persons to population in the last few years. The association significantly adds that the “State is a dry State.” This is scientific testimony for temperance which is most valuable.

— The MacAll Mission in France recently completed its fortieth year of evangelistic activity among the dechristianized population in the working men’s quarters in Paris. After forty years of quiet, persistent Inner Mission work the MacAlls and their helpers have halls all over the city. They labor among the depraved populace at Marseilles, Lille, and Rouen; have two boats plying on the Seine, and automobiles visiting the country fairs.

— Since 1909 archeologists have been busy in excavating the eastern slope of Mount Ophel, in Jerusalem. The explorers, in search of the tombs of David and Solomon, have cleaned out and carefully investigated the so-called Virgin’s Well and the tunnel that runs from it to the Pool of Siloam. One of the most interesting discoveries was an Israelitish lamp found near the bottom of the Virgin’s Well. The lamp, which is in excellent condition, is believed to date from the eleventh century before Christ; that is to say, from the time of King David. The excavators have definitely ascertained the site of David’s Jerusalem and of the Jebusite city that preceded it, and have obtained evidence of Jebusite occupation for 2,000 years before David’s conquest.

— The large transatlantic steamship lines are arranging a sailing schedule by which a steamer will sail from New York and also from the European side at least every day in the year.

— According to census figures there are 5,500,000 children over ten years of age in the United States who can not read nor write. Of this number, forty per cent are Negroes. There are, however, 1,535,000 illiterate white children.

— The “Washington Irving,” now being built, will be the largest river steamer in the world, and will ply between New York and Albany. She will carry passengers only, and will accommodate 6,000 persons. She will have six decks above her water-line.

— The ninth international Red Cross conference convened in Washington, D. C., May 7-17. More than two hundred delegates, representing thirty-two nations, were in attendance. This is the first conference of its kind ever held outside of Europe.

— More than 1,000,000 square miles of the continent of Africa — an eleventh of its total area — still remains unexplored. About three fourths of the unknown country lies within the desert of Sahara, but there are also many fertile regions that have never been visited by a European.

— A bill for the construction and equipment of 1,000 miles of railroad in Alaska has been introduced in Congress, and is now under the consideration of the Senate Committee on Territories. Its declared purpose is to develop the natural resources of Alaska, and to secure a supply of coal for the navy.

— China now has the Scriptures translated into about twenty of her languages and dialects. Just recently two new versions were brought out, one in Lisu, the other in Laka, spoken in Yun-nan, a province in southwestern China adjoining Tibet and Upper Burma. The Gospels of Matthew and Mark only have as yet been printed.

— A notable gift from the French nation to the people of the United States was brought to this country recently when a delegation of distinguished Frenchmen arrived in charge of the bust of “La France,” by the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin, which is to be placed at the foot of the Champlain memorial lighthouse, at Crown Point, Lake Champlain.

— Chicago is the second largest Polish town in the world; Warsaw in Russian Poland is the first. There are living and increasing 350,000 Poles in Chicago. Next comes New York with 260,000, and Buffalo with 100,000. There are 60,000 of them in Philadelphia, and 50,000 in Pittsburgh. All in all, there are 4,500,000 Poles living in our country, more than in Germany.

— Reports from Mexico City tell of a victory for the federal forces on May 6, as the result of a battle in which six hundred insurgents were slain. There seems to be a growing spirit of hostility against Americans, and army posts throughout the United States have been ordered to hold their men in readiness to move on to the Mexican border at a moment’s notice.