News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 10, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A hot wave affecting the Middle West and the Southern and Eastern States has caused much suffering, and in Chicago alone forty deaths were reported at the end of the fifth day of continuous heat.

— The estate of Col. John Jacob Astor, who perished in the “Titanic” disaster, has just been officially appraised at close to $88,000,000, of which Vincent Astor receives $68,964,499; Mrs. Madeleine Force Astor, $7,678,896; Muriel Astor, $4,856,758, and John Jacob Astor, son by his second marriage, $2,922,672.

— Governor Tener, of Pennsylvania, has just signed a bill requiring that ten verses of the Bible be read daily in each of the schools of the State. Under the terms of the bill, the reading is compulsory, and must be without comment at the opening of each public-school session by the teacher in charge. Teachers who fail to obey the rule are subject to dismissal if charges are preferred and substantiated.

— At the annual convention of the New York State Music Teachers’ Association it was announced that Americans spend about $600,000,000 a year on music. Some of the items in the report are: Opera, $8,000,000; concerts of all kinds, $30,000,000; church music, about $55,000,000; orchestras, etc., $30,000,000; military and other bands, $30,000,000; conservatories and schools, $175,000,000; musical industries, $230,000,000. The report shows that Americans spend annually about three times as much on music as on the army and navy.

— The “Imperator,” of the Hamburg-American Steamship line, has successfully completed her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. This gigantic steamer, the largest afloat, measures 919 feet in length, or almost one fifth of a mile; 98 feet in width, or that of a great boulevard; and has a tonnage of 50,000. Her quadruple turbines drive her at an average speed of 22½ knots an hour. She is manned by a crew of 1,180, selected for their long service on other ships of the line. There are 83 large life-boats of the most approved type, with seating capacity for every one on board. Two of these are high-powered motor-boats.

— On July 1 a new system went into effect in regard to parcel-post mail. Postmasters are instructed to receive packages “collect on delivery,” the same as express companies have been doing. The charges to be collected must not exceed $100. The fee for collection must be paid in parcel-post stamps at the rate of ten cents for delivery, the stamp to be affixed to the package. This ten-cent-stamp fee goes until the value of the package reaches fifty dollars. The sender will receive a receipt showing the amount collected. The amount will also be stated on a tag attached to the parcel. These packages, however, cannot be mailed to the Philippines or to the Canal Zone.

— Mahogany trees do not attain their full growth till they have reached the age of 200 years.

— Miss Mary L. Jobe, professor of history in the Normal College of New York, will soon start, accompanied by only two Indian guides, into practically unexplored regions of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska, where, as yet, uncivilized Indian tribes have never seen the face of a white woman.

— Eighty girls who had been imported to work on a sugar estate in the district of Piriatin, in southern Russia, were burned to death by laborers who were enraged at their working for low wages. The girls were being housed in a wooden barn, and the laborers secured all the exits to the barn and then set fire to it while the girls were asleep, and they were all burned to death without a chance to escape.