p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 18, 1908

Current Mention

— On June 8 the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railroad went into the hands of a receiver with an indebtedness of about $28,000,000.

— The International convention of Good Templars, convened in Washington, adjourned on June 9, to meet three years hence in Hamburg, Germany.

— A registered mail pouch in transit between Los Angeles, Cal., and New York City, and containing a large sum in currency, has been lost or stolen somewhere within the jurisdiction of the Kansas City post-office. The pouch is said to contain between $50,000 and $100,000.

— The Treasury Department at Washington, on June 10, paid over to three Indians from Oklahoma and Mexico, two hundred fifteen thousand dollars. This goes to two tribes of the Kickapoo Indians, whom the government has owed for many years on account of a treaty made with them concerning land released to the government.

— The battleships “Maine” and “Alabama” left San Francisco, Cal., on June 8, for New York by way of the Suez Canal, a voyage of 18,795 miles.

— During a fire in the Gold King mine at Gladstone, Colo., on June 7, six men lost their lives, eight were critically poisoned by gases, and thirty others more or less seriously poisoned.

— The crop-reporting board of the Agricultural Department reports a larger acreage sown to cereals this year than ever before. The excess over last year in the United States is 631,000 acres.

— The police of Portugal have discovered another plot against the lives of the members of the royal family. Several anarchists have been arrested, and bombs have been found that were to have been used to cause the death of the young king and his widowed mother.

— The Cincinnati health department, in its examination of dairy milk, has been putting red ink in milk which it has condemned, in order to prevent the sale of such milk to the milkmen’s customers. It has been ascertained, however, that the red milk was being used for making “strawberry ice-cream.”

— By the bursting of a steampipe on the new armored cruiser “Tennessee” at San Pedro, Cal., on June 4, seven men lost their lives, and a number were painfully scalded by the escaping steam. Rear Admiral Sebree barely escaped death, having left the boiler-room but a moment before the explosion occurred.

— The government of Chile has accepted the offer of a French and English syndicate to construct extensive harbor works at Valparaiso. The work will begin at once, and be completed in 1913. The improvements are to cost in the neighborhood of twenty million dollars. The completion of this contract will convert Valparaiso into a first-class port. The syndicate is to have the management of the port for thirty-two years.

— President Roosevelt and Secretary Taft have warned the president of Panama that the United States government will be compelled to interfere in Panama unless the authorities guarantee an honest election. There have been indications of a purpose on the part of those now in power in Panama so to manipulate the registry list as to insure their control of the coming election. As a result of the communication an electoral commission has been appointed to investigate the complaints of all parties.

— On June 9 King Edward of England and Czar Nicholas of Russia met at Reval, Finland. A royal welcome was given the British ruler, and after formal greetings the two sovereigns with their cabinet officers entered into conference over affairs of interest to the two nations. The press reports indicate a marked degree of cordiality between these two rulers, and it is felt that this imperial conference will have a molding influence upon the questions that are now absorbing European attention, notably the Macedonian question, the question of spheres of influence in Persia, and the disturbances on the Afghan frontier. At the close of the conference the king and czar made each other admirals in their respective navies. This meeting is commanding considerable attention in Germany. It is reported that the German government has made “serious representations” to the Russian government over the matter, indicating Germany’s great displeasure at the possible regrouping of the nations of Europe.

— Captain Christian Aamdt, of the steamship “Joseph J. Cueno,” reports a singular experience on the voyage from Jamaica to New York. While the sea was calm, his ship was suddenly lifted about thirty feet on the top of a great wave which formed under her bow. The next moment the ship was in a trough of the sea, and the next on the crest of another similar wave. The captain believes he passed directly over a submarine volcano.

— Thus far during the month of June, storms have been frequent and destructive in the Middle States. On June 7 a tornado destroyed two hundred houses and killed two persons at Charles City, Iowa, and another did considerable damage at Manston, Kan. There were dangerous floods at North Topeka, Kan., and at Kansas City, Mo.; and reports from Helena, Mont., state that great damage has been done by floods in that State, and at least eight persons have been drowned.

— After a long and vigorous contest in which a special session of the New York Legislature figured, an anti-race-track gambling law was passed on June 11, penalizing race-track gambling in the State of New York. It is to the honor of Governor Hughes that he worked most untiringly for the enactment of this law. It was signed immediately on its passage, and the special session of the legislature adjourned at once. There was a majority of but one vote in the Senate in favor of the measure.

— There seems to be much excitement in Paris just now over the mysterious murder of a well-known artist and his mother-in-law in their home. Enemies of the government assert that the victims were strangled at the behest of the government, and openly assert that Parisians are menaced by a government of assassination. The inability of the police and detectives to apprehend the murderers, or find any likely clue to their identity, naturally gives some color to these bold charges, and helps to excite the populace against the present government.

— Two facts may give some conception of the vastness of the problem of the evangelization of China. In the United Free Church of Scotland there are some 1,600 ministers. That is about equal to, if not more than, the total number of male missionaries in China. Suppose that the ministers of the United Free Church were the only trained forces to supply the spiritual needs of Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy, and Spain, when could they overtake the task? But the population of China is equal to the population of all these lands. Here is another fact: If all the Bibles, testaments, and Scripture portions that have ever been published by the British and Foreign, American, and Scottish National Bible Societies, could be put into the hands of the Chinese people, a single copy to each, one fourth of the population would still be left without a copy.

— Missionary Review.