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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · January 7, 1868

News and Miscellany.

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

Close following upon the terrible massacre on the Lake Shore Railroad, comes a frightful sacrifice of passengers at sea. The steamship Raleigh, a well-known coastwise steamship, was burned on the 24th ult. on her trip from this city to New Orleans, while off Charleston. Eighteen persons were picked up and landed at Charleston by a tug; thirteen lives were believed to be lost, but twenty-four of the passengers and crew were still missing, who were last seen in the boat, or clinging to pieces of the wreck.

A new insurrection in favor of Santa Anna has broken out in Yucatan, and appears to be supported by many former officers of the Empire. It seems almost incredible that the ex-Dictator, who but a few weeks ago barely escaped with his life, should once more disturb the peace of his native country. There is, we believe, not the least chance of the success of the movement; and if the old General is caught alive on Mexican territory, he will probably not be let off as easily as the last time. Santa Anna himself, however, denies that he is going to Mexico.

Madness of the Liquor Traffic.—From one of our exchanges we clip the following: "The Liquor Dealers' Association of New York lately held a meeting and resolved to sell in defiance of law. They formed a pledge to that effect, and agreed to stand by each other to the bitter end. The better to secure this object, the following resolution was passed: "Resolved, That the pledge be printed on Bristol board in colors and gold, with a medallion of Christ blessing the wine, at the top, that dealers may hang them up beside their licenses." They can be made and sold for twenty-five cents each. A committee consisting of Henry Archerleries, Christopher O'Connor and Theodore Allen, was appointed to carry out the above resolution. Capt. Rynders briefly addressed the meeting, after which it adjourned.

Beware of Cod Fish.—A gentleman in this city reports to the Post the discovery in a sound cod fish, apparently, a multitude of little snake-like worms, some of them more than an inch and a half long, and what is particularly observable, these reptiles were alive even after the fish had been boiled for an hour and served up for dinner, and lived, some of them, for hours afterward. We believe it is not uncommon for worms to be found in all living animals, even to beetles and bugs as well as the human body. But worms that can stand boiling for an hour and still be lively, are rather rare phenomena; though if they can bear being cut up in little pieces and still live, we do not see why they may not outlive other harsh usage. Be cautious and get fresh and sound fish.—Traveler.

Earthquake in N. Y.—The occurrence of distinct shocks of earthquake in the Northern parts of the United States, though an unusual, is not an unprecedented event. The great earthquake which destroyed the City of Lisbon in 1755 was felt along the coast of Massachusetts, where it knocked down chimneys, disrupted houses, and opened great fissures in the ground. The motion lasted about 15 minutes. The waters of Lake Ontario at the same time were severely agitated. In 1812 there was a violent earthquake along the Mississippi, extending all through the country between the mouths of the St. Francis and Ohio Rivers, which are 500 miles apart, and repeated at short intervals during two or three months. The ground rose and sank, lakes were formed, and drained, chasms opened and belched forth jets of mud and water as high as the tree tops, and fissures were left which are still visible. The great internal convulsion of which these phenomena were the preliminary signs, culminated in the destruction of the City of Caracas in Venezuela, on the 26th of March, 1812. In various parts of the country there are indications of the action of earthquakes during forgotten periods, and at Ellenville, Ulster County, in this state, there are some very remarkable ones. The earthquake of Wednesday last, which appears to have been felt from Western New-York to New-Brunswick, is described as traveling from West to East. Whether this account of it is correct or not, we have little opportunity of judging, no scientific record of the movement having thus far been made public; but there can be little doubt that it was part of the same terrible commotion in the hidden forces of the earth which has wrought so much destruction in the West Indies.

France and Italy.—"The Pope needs Rome for his independence. Italy aspires to the possession of Rome, which she considers as an imperative requisite of her unity. Well, we declare, in the name of French Government, Italy shall not take possession of Rome! Never!" These were the words uttered by Rouher, Napoleon's Minister of State, that have had such an effect on the Italian people as to make them almost willing to risk a war with France, even though it be a Monte Rotondo on a large scale, where their bodies will only serve to show "the admirable effect," as Napoleon's chief of ordnance puts it, of the Chassepot rifles. Rouher emphatically described Rome to be all the territory now ruled by the Pope. Menabrea's ministry having been defeated in the Italian Parliament, by a majority of two, he threatens to dissolve the Parliament should he meet with another defeat, and appeal to the people. The question will then come directly up for popular settlement whether Italy shall consent or not to be snubbed and buffeted by Napoleon, who is afraid of Bismarck, and has not even dared to resent the insult of Maximilian's death at the hand of a Mexican Indian.

Fenianism.—It is rapidly becoming as much as one's life is worth to be an Englishman. Fenianism is pursuing more closely and threatens to interfere more constantly with all the acts and conditions of his daily life than Sidney Smith's tax-gatherer. He can scarcely go into the street and feel sure that he is not walking over a mine that shall blow him into eternity. "Were I not a madman," says Sir Roger L'Estrange, "to be putting of nice and impertinent questions when the enemy are mining the tower under my feet and laying the train that is to blow me up?" Yet Englishmen are forced to ask and answer all sorts of questions with a constant apprehension of being interrupted by a keg of gunpowder or a barrel of nitro-glycerine. The latest attempt to call the attention of the English Government to the wrongs of Ireland, consists in sending letters to them through the mail, which explode on opening. One policeman has already been burned, but though several exploded, no government officer has yet been seriously injured. Such a state of things is formidable. Because, if only one in a thousand of these different details for getting a hearing from Ireland fails, yet the ignorance as to what form they may take next and whom they will strike, creates a terrible curiosity and awful excitement on the part of each individual, as to whether or not he will be the next victim. We can think of nothing like it, in this country, except the unpleasant consciousness of danger attendant upon railroad traveling. But the traveling community is but a small portion of the whole people, while in England every man, woman and child are more or less exposed, and the officers of government especially, to the desperate assaults of Fenianism. They may look for torpedoes in their hash and strychnine in their coffee. The English people are evidently looking at the affair in a more serious light than ever before. As is frequently the case, where there is a discontented people, oppressed and deprived of their rights, the festival day was regarded as a probable occasion for a demonstration; and government was armed at every point (except in the post-office department, as it appears) on Christmas. "Ireland for the Irish" will prove a disagreeable cry, if it is to include the explosion of torpedoes, and the detonation of innocent looking billet-doux.—Detroit Post.

Resources of California.—Eighteen years ago, the wealth of California was stated in thousands of dollars; now it is over $200,000,000. Then, little land was cultivated; now, over six millions of acres. Then, the state imported her breadstuffs; in 1866 she raised 12,000,000 bushels of wheat, and 4,000,000 of barley,—shipping large quantities of wheat and flour to New York and to Liverpool. The estimated value of her agricultural yield for 1866 was $54,000,000, exceeding that of her gold crop by several millions. The soil and climate are finely adapted for the culture of the grape, and there are over 25,000,000 of vines now in the state. Besides the inexhaustible gold mines, minerals and metals of almost every kind are found, some of them in abundance. From its sunny valleys to its snow-clad peaks, it has a wide range of temperature, but its climate is everywhere salubrious, and it has already a population of over half a million. Seeds from her giant trees over 300 feet high and 25 feet in diameter, have been planted and have germinated in our eastern soil, and by their rapid growth, promise to become as large as the parent trees—a process which will occupy 2,225 years!

Photograph of a Cannon Ball.—The photographic art is now so perfected, that it is possible to take a picture of a cannon ball as it emerges from the cannon, and to ascertain with precision its path through the air, and the time it occupies in passing from one given point to another. In one picture taken, the front edge of the emerging ball was a little clouded, while the mouth of the cannon, the recoil not yet having commenced, was sharp and distinct.