News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 2, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.

Religious Amendments to the National Constitution.—A Convention is announced to be held in Pittsburgh on the 9th of April, to secure certain amendments to the National Constitution. The place of meeting has not yet been stated. The proposed amendment is as follows, the amendment being in brackets: “We, the people of the United States [humbly acknowledging Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government, the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler among the nations, and his revealed will as of supreme authority, in order to constitute a Christian Government, and] in order to form a more perfect Union, etc., do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

—A prominent Georgia statesman, in a letter to Governor Brownlow, received yesterday, announces that a remarkable change in public sentiment has taken place in Georgia within a few weeks, and that without doubt the Congressional policy of reconstruction will be heartily adopted by the people.

—General Sheridan yesterday issued an order, under authority of the Reconstruction act, removing from office John T. Munroe, Mayor of the city of New Orleans; Andrew J. Herron, Attorney General of Louisiana; and Judge Abell, of the First District Court of New Orleans—all arrant rebels, and especially instrumental in encouraging the massacre of the 30th July. Other persons were appointed to fill their places. The thanks of loyal men throughout the country are due to General Sheridan for this righteous act.

—The great desert of Sahara is in process of transformation into a garden. Every day new oases are produced by the multiplication of artesian wells, which supply vast quantities of water.

—Right Rev. J. M. Henni, D. D., Bishop of Milwaukee, visited Cincinnati a few days last week. He has built more than 300 churches in Wisconsin within the last 20 years. The Roman Catholic church is a marvel of growth in that State, and much of its success is attributable to the untiring zeal of Bishop Henni.

—There are in France upwards of two thousand prisons and houses of correction, and the average number of people of both sexes confined in them is fifty-five thousand. The cost of the maintenance of these establishments is fourteen million four hundred thousand francs.

—There was a severe shock of an earthquake at Snellings, in Mariposa Co., Cal. March 8.

—The parable of the prodigal son has often been used to illustrate the situation of the South. A letter from a gentleman in the Sumter district, South Carolina, shows how literal the application may be. He says of over three hundred persons from whom he has heard directly: “The most of them are now without bread, and are actually subsisting on corn husks, and whatever they can get to preserve life upon, while there are others who have one and two bushels of corn yet, but without any means to get more.”

—The Famine Relief Commission of New York sent to South Carolina last week twenty-five thousand bushels of corn by the barque Purveyor, of which the free use has been granted them by the Government for that purpose.

—Fashionable crinoline in Paris now measures round the largest place only two yards or two yards and a half.

CONGRESS, on Saturday, passed the Supplementary Reconstruction bill over the President’s veto—the Senate by 40 yeas to 7 nays, the House by 114 yeas to 25 nays—and it is now the law of the land. This makes the twelfth veto of President Johnson which Congress has overruled.

A WOMAN'S letter from Paris in the Louisville Courier, in speaking of the late fashions, says:—Neither looped dresses nor large hoops are worn here much, indeed, the large crinoline not at all. Mine just brought in, is covered with a thick material to the waist. It is a regular skirt with four wooden hoops at the bottom, very small, balmoral, all wool, of pretty French merino, plain color. A deep plaited full piece, a quarter of a yard wide, is round the skirt. This comes to the top of the boot which is very high. The dress skirt falls a little below the knee, and the underskirt of a suitable color is bought with it. The hose are long, reaching far above the skirt. This is the walking dress. Of others, more anon.

—Advices from North Alabama state that the inhabitants living at a distance from the railroad are dying from starvation, and that unless relief reaches them, the whole range of counties in the Sand Mountain section will be depopulated. The recent floods destroyed over three thousand bushels of corn and a large amount of food sent by relief associations to the sufferers.

—A great and singular religious revival is in progress at Louisville, Ky. Scores of prominent citizens are joining the church. It is not confined to any sect, but is general, from Methodists to Catholics.

—At a meeting at Augusta, Ga., on Saturday night to nominate a candidate for the Mayorship, a resolution was adopted that colored citizens be allowed to register their names and vote at the election in April.

—The use of horse-flesh as food is becoming more and more general, says a Paris paper. The Observateur d’Avesne says that the horse butchery of Haumont becomes daily of greater extension. Three horses are killed there weekly, a fact which has cheapened the price of meat. The horse-flesh for food is sold as cheap as from 2d. to 3d. English per pound, according to quality and cut.

Where Does the Day Begin?—The first beginning of the day is somewhere between America and Asia. The precise locality of that somewhere has not been determined. If the Pacific Ocean were thickly populated with men, the place of the beginning of the day would be a matter of great consequence, and would probably be settled by statute. The day would start from a meridian line extending from pole to pole, and the longitude of this day line would be so accurately fixed that a man might stand astride it and realize the paradox of having one foot in Monday and the other in Tuesday. Many of the readers of this will live long enough to hear this subject discussed in national councils.—Springfield Republican.

Prevalence of Crime.—Our daily papers show a fearful list of murders, robberies, thefts, and wrongs of all kinds as now occurring in our cities, and to some extent spreading throughout the rural districts. We cannot doubt that there has been a large increase in flagrant crime within a few months, and it becomes good citizens to look the sad facts in the face, and set themselves in good earnest to check the growing iniquities.

The causes of this startling increase of desperate crimes are evident. War, in its immediate results, is always a demoralizer. Human life loses its sanctity when thousands of men are put to the business of destroying as much of it as possible. And the pillage ever accompanying marching and foraging armies weakens respect for law and regard for private rights. It was to be expected, upon the disbanding of large armies North and South, that the peaceful communities would suffer. While it is cause of rejoicing that the vast body of our citizen soldiery quietly resumed their places in the ranks of civil society, it must be admitted that many dangerous characters are abroad, who at least increased their disposition and power for evil in the school of war. Nor can it be doubted that, among large bodies of peaceable and law-abiding immigrants from Europe, amounting to about one thousand per day the year through, there are not a few of the worst men the old world can produce. These criminals add to the carnival of crime among us.

What can be done to stay the desolating scourge? Law must be executed surely, swiftly, sternly. Where moral principle is wanting, the severities of righteous and inexorable law are the only safeguard. Intemperance, the prolific parent of nearly all violent and reckless crime, must be resisted with a new and intensified earnestness. Such vicious and demoralizing amusements as gambling, horse-racing, and theater-going, must be contended against, and every good citizen should set his face as a flint against lawlessness and vice in every form.

Nor is this enough. Our safety for the future depends much upon the rising generation. These must be cared for in advance. The right kind of moral and religious education must prevent them from becoming criminals. The spread of the blessed Bible, the diffusion of evangelical literature, the increase of gospel churches, the gathering of all the youth into Sabbath-schools, the prevalence of mighty and wide-spread revivals of pure religion all over the land, these will save us, and these alone. The gospel of Christ, in its purity and power, is the only sure defence against the prevalence of crime. He is the best citizen, as well as the best Christian, who most faithfully labors for the diffusion of pure, elevating, saving truth.—Am. Messenger.