News and Miscellany by Editor

California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists · OAKLAND, CAL. · Dec 31, 1874

News and Miscellany.

By Editor

"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Luke 21 : 26.

FIRES.

THE extensive manner in which fires are raging is truly remarkable. From the numerous reports we clip the following: Fire at New York, Dec. 7 : loss $50,000. Same date, Portland, Oregon: loss $12,000. At Milwaukee, Wis., Dec. 8 : loss $10,000. At Lillie, France, same date: loss $300,000. In Bridgeport, Ct., Dec. 9 : loss $60,000. In Montreal, Canada, same date: loss $80,000. In Belmont, Cal., Dec. 10 : loss $60,000. At Charlestown, West Va., Dec. 11 : loss $200,000. In Baltimore, Md., Dec. 14 : loss $25,000. Near Collegeville, Cal., same date, with heavy loss. A fire raged Dec. 14 and 15, at Charlestown, Mass., destroying $150,000 worth of property. A fire was raging in Charlestown, S. C., at the same time: loss $200,000. At Hartford, Ct., Dec. 16 : loss $100,000. At the same date, a fire in Forest City, Ark. : loss $30,000. In Cincinnati, O., Dec. 20 : loss $70,000. Here is a summary of fires in thirteen days, summing up $1,347,000, and most of them reported as the work of incendiaries.

—THE new United States' steam ship Japan was burned last week in Chinese waters. There was a heavy loss of treasure and merchandise beside the loss of the ship; and it is feared many lives were lost. Full particulars not yet received.

STORM AND FLOODS.

ST. PETERSBURG, Dec. 8. A violent storm here last night caused great damage. The tide rose nine feet above high-water mark, partially inundating the lower portions of the city, and driving many poor persons from the houses. Over a thousand persons have been sheltered by the police, and public kitchens have been opened to feed the sufferers.

At the same time the telegraph reported from Rome: It is feared that the river Tiber, in Italy, will overflow. It is rising rapidly.

LONDON, Dec. 10. The storm yesterday was very disastrous to the shipping. A dozen vessels are ashore at Whiteby. One is reported sunk, with all on board. The mails from France are several hours behind time. Heavy damage is done to works in the harbors. At Jersey 200 yards of pier was swept away, and blocks of concrete weighing several tons were displaced and broken.

SANTANDER, Spain, Dec. 13. Two vessels have been wrecked off this coast. Eight lives were lost.

EARTHQUAKES.

THE S. F. Chronicle of Dec. 14, gives a brief summary of earthquakes for the last six years, concluding that San Francisco's physical geography was so well settled that earthquakes had transferred their operations to other parts. While it is predicted "there shall be earthquakes in divers places," it will not do to boast; even the night of Dec. 14, many citizens remarked a distinct shock of earthquake in San Francisco and Oakland.

—December 10, a very severe shock of earthquake was felt in the south-eastern counties of the State of New York. Houses shook, windows rattled, ceilings cracked, and people were thrown violently out of their beds. From later dispatches it appears that this shock of earthquake reached as far as Stamford, Ct.

SUFFERINGS IN KANSAS.

CHICAGO, Dec. 18. Governor Osborn of Kansas telegraphs to the Tribune of this city that he estimates the number of people in Western Kansas who will require assistance during the winter at twenty thousand.

—Of the grasshopper plague the S. F. Chronicle says: "The locusts of Egypt have been discounted. An amount of territory larger than that of ancient Egypt has been ravaged, and over twenty thousand people have been impoverished.

FAMINE.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Dec. 8. The Sultan has given $100,000 for the relief of the famine-stricken people of Angora. Prospects there, however, are improving; prices of provisions are reduced and agriculture is reviving. December 18, the Levant Herald publishes an account of the famine in Asia Minor, and says the prospect is appalling.

—AN explosion occurred in the Bengal Hill colliery, North Staffordshire, to-day. Twenty miners were killed.

LONDON, England, Dec. 24. An express train was thrown from the track of the Great Western R. R., near Oxford, to-day, by a broken rail. Over one hundred persons killed or wounded.

—December 25. A fearful R. R. accident near Round Hill, Va. Forty-two persons reported killed.

THE NATIONS.

MADRID, Spain, Dec. 18. It is reported that the dissention at the Carlist camp is increasing.

LONDON, Dec. 21. The Morning Standard has a dispatch from Spain, reporting the total defeat and rout of the Republican General Lopez Demoniquez in Catalonia, by the Carlists under Fniestany, with a heavy loss in killed and wounded.

HAVANA, Cuba, Dec. 20. Carlos Garcia, the noted bandit, and all his followers, have laid down their arms and thrown themselves on the mercy of the Government.

—The coming sugar crop is expected to be the largest ever produced in Cuba.

CITY OF MEXICO, Dec. 2. The amendments to the Constitution making changes in Congress, and creating a Senate, having passed Congress, have been solemnly promulgated as the law of the land, with the usual ceremonies. Congress is now discussing a bill restricting the power of the Roman Catholic Church. One clause provides for the complete separation of Church and State, and another for the expulsion of Sisters of Charity from the Republic.

NEW YORK, Dec. 23. A Constantinople special says: The Porte is pressing forward the work of strengthening the defenses. The numerical strength of the army is to be increased. No cause is assigned for the present warlike activity of the Porte.

VICKSBURG, MISS. WAR. 700 armed negroes made an attack upon Vicksburg. A dispatch from Memphis, Dec. 8, says: "30 negroes and one white were killed in the fight the day before. The disturbances are all quelled now."

—At a recent meeting of the Roman Catholic Unions in London, resolutions were passed declaring that the loyalty of Catholics was not affected by the Papal Infallibility dogma, and that Lords Acton and Camoys and Mr. Peters were not representatives of the Catholic laity.

—TURKEY is about to construct a railroad from Kerbola to Bagdad, thus connecting the two great central Asiatic trade points.

—According to the military survey of the Russian empire the monarchy extends over 400,000 miles, or one-sixth of the inhabited globe.

OUR POSTAL BUSINESS.—Our Post office Department is an establishment the magnitude of which few can form any idea. During the last fiscal year the number of postage stamps, wrappers, cards, etc., sold reached the enormous figure of 905,451,305, bringing in a revenue of nearly twenty-four millions of dollars. Of these, 633 millions were postage stamps; 117 millions stamped envelopes; 19 millions newspaper wrappers; 91 millions postal cards, and 45 million official stamps envelopes and wrappers.

MODERN CHURCH UNITY.—A recent San Francisco paper says: "The growth of religious liberality was strikingly exemplified in this city yesterday, in the installation of a new Universalist minister, by clergymen of the Presbyterian, Unitarian and Congregationalist denominations, assisted by a Hebrew rabbi."

CRIMES.—The S. F. Chronicle, of Dec. 18, says: "Crimes of violence seem to be on the increase in this community. It is feared where the police is not stimulated by the offer of rewards no earnest exertions are made to secure the arrest and conviction of the parties."