Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 19, 1908

— The death of twenty-six men in a coal-mine is reported from Birmingham, England. Following a fire which entombed the men, unceasing efforts for their rescue were kept up nearly a week, but in vain.

— The citizens of San Francisco are raising a bubonic plague fund to be used in exterminating rats, making the city sanitary, and preventing contagion. The Santa Fé and Southern Pacific Railroad Companies have together contributed $45,000 to the fund.

— Although King Alfonso of Spain had been warned that it was not safe for him to do so, he made his two-days' visit to Barcelona. He experienced no untoward incident during his stay; but early in the morning of the last day of his visit an explosion occurred under a pavilion erected at the landing-stage where the king was to embark in his launch to visit the Austrian squadron. Because of the early hour no one was injured.

— Harry Orchard, charged with killing the former governor of Idaho, Frank Steunenberg, was permitted to change his former plea to that of guilty of murder in the first degree. He was to receive sentence on March 18.

— During the year 1907 there were 471 boiler explosions in the United States and the adjacent parts of Canada and Mexico. As a result of the explosions, 300 persons were killed, and 420 others required medical attendance.

— It is reported from Alpine, Tex., that a low mountain near there is composed of petrified fish. The specimens are perfectly preserved, and are said to cover an area more than two miles square in a locality 5,000 feet above sea-level.

— The board of managers of the Swarthmore College have declined to accept coal lands bequeathed to the institution by the late Anna T. Jeanes, of Philadelphia, on condition that the participation in intercollegiate games and sports cease.

— General d'Amade, in command of the French forces in Morocco, has been vigorously attacking the tribesmen, meeting them in three engagements, and driving them from the territory. On March 12 he received a request from Mulai Hafid, the so-called sultan of the south, and the leaders of his army, asking that hostilities be suspended, pending arrangements for peace.

— The negotiations looking to a settlement of the differences between China and Japan, which resulted from the seizure by China of a Japanese steamship, are progressing satisfactorily. The vessel was laden with arms and ammunition evidently destined ultimately for the Chinese insurgents, although consigned to a firm in Macao, a Portuguese island near Hongkong. Whether the vessel was in Chinese or Portuguese waters at the time of seizure is a matter of dispute. By the terms of agreement, China will pay Japan about $10,700 and retain the cargo. China will also pay demurrage on the steamer. Japan agrees to adopt and enforce strict regulations to prevent future traffic in arms and ammunition from Japan into China, although she refuses to include the territory of Macao in this limitation.

— Depredations of the night riders in one day, March 10, were reported from Paducah, Brooksville, Henderson, Ky., and Clarksville, Tenn. Several persons were shot, and much tobacco burned. This condition of anarchy in these two States is also creating international difficulty for the United States. In Italy the sale of tobacco is controlled by the government, which does its purchasing in this country through what is known as the Italian Regie. It is claimed by the farmers of Kentucky and Tennessee that the Regie is acting with the tobacco trust in keeping the prices down, and its property has been destroyed in some of the raids. Already the Italian government has demanded that its interests be protected, and it is understood that this is preliminary to a demand for damages already done its property.