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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Sep 14, 1882

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 8, No. 35.

Read the full edition

News and Notes.

By Editor

-The annual interest on the public debt is about $1.08 to each inhabitant.
-Nearly 5,000 men are employed in the several shipyards in the vicinity of Philadelphia.
-At Troy, N. Y., one of Barnum's elephants got away, and inflicted injuries from which three persons died.
-The cholera scourge in the Philippine Islands is abating, although the deaths still number about 100 daily.
-An engagement is reported near Kairvan, Tunis. The French loss is fifty killed, and the Arabs one hundred and fifty.
-It is reported that gold-bearing quartz has been discovered about fifty miles north of El Paso, Tex., that assays $100,000 to the ton.
-Texas is still suffering from storms. Closely following the terrible flood was a rain-storm of two days' duration. The damage was considerable.
-The annual consumption of quinine in this country is stated at 1,600,000 ounces. Upon each ounce there is a profit to the retailer of from $4.00 to $6.00.
-An exchange says that a man drove through Reno, Nev., the other day, who had come from Mendocino, Cal., intending to drive through to Cambridge, Mass., in his buggy.
-The colored teachers of Louisville, Ky., are hereafter to be paid the same wages as white teachers, on the ground that they pass the same examinations and do the same work.
-Assaults by roughs are becoming so common in Des Moines, Iowa, that the citizens contemplate forming a Vigilance Committee to take the place of the inefficient city authorities.
-An experiment life-saving boat has been successfully completed. This boat is capable of being folded together, and, when expanded and put into use, is kept buoyant by cork and canvas.
-A factory has been started in Brooklyn, N. Y., for the purpose of fusing the precious metals with glass. The discoverer of the method of uniting metals with glass is T. D. Farrell, a Californian.
-Hon. George A. Reeves, Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, was bitten a few weeks ago by a mad dog, and died last week of hydrophobia. He was one of the most prominent men in Texas politics.
-A dispatch from Laredo, Texas, Sept. 10, said that the Rio Grande had risen twenty-two feet at that place, and was still rising. A large part of New Laredo, on the opposite side of the river, was submerged, and houses were being swept away.
-An English lady who sued for damages because of a fall when boarding a steam-boat, has just lost her case. The jury decided that her high-heeled boots had wantonly and willfully contributed to cause the injury of which she complained.
-The Chinese boys who studied in America are not generally looked upon with favor by the Chinese officials, who think that they cannot be trusted, because they have become so much Americanized. They are all anxious to return to America.
-July 22, there was completed at Marine City, Michigan, a well which passed through 115 feet of solid crystal salt. Salt was encountered first at a depth of 1,633 feet, and from that point to the depth of 1,748 feet the material removed was pure salt.
-The S. F. Alta is the only paper we have seen that has denounced Ingersoll's blasphemous insult to Christianity, in his speech before the star-route jury. Ingersoll, like all men of little minds, mistakes vulgarity for wit, and a flashy eloquence for argument.
-A convict says he was sent to prison for being dishonest, and yet he is compelled every day to cut out pieces of pasteboard which are put between the soles of the cheap shoes made there, and palmed off on the innocent public as leather.-Philadelphia News.
-Even the careful Germans have railroad accidents. September 4, an excursion train running between Freiburg and Colman was thrown from the track. The train consisted of twenty-four cars, nineteen of which were smashed. About 100 persons were killed and 300 more or less injured.
-A severe storm raged along the Gulf coast, Sept. 10. The velocity of the wind was fifty-three miles an hour. Much danger was done to shipping, and several lives were lost. The water from the Gulf was driven by the gale entirely over many of the rice fields of Louisiana, and the crops were destroyed where not gathered.
-The New York Sun says: "It is unquestionable true that many of our women of fashionable society are given to drinking champagne, and even spirituous liquors. The practice, also, is growing. Within the last twenty years the freedom with which women drink wines and other liquors has become greater and greater."
-The Democratic Convention of Illinois declared itself in favor of free whisky. It was resolved that "the prohibition by the constitution or by general laws, of the manufacture or sale of vinous, spirituous, or malt liquors would be a violation of individual and personal rights, and contrary to the fundamental principles of free government."
-A severe earthquake shock occurred in Panama, Sept. 7. It was one of the severest ever known on the isthmus. Other shocks have been felt since. Many buildings were damaged, and in some places the railroad track was sunk. But little loss of life is reported, but the people are afraid to stay in their houses, and much sickness from fright and exposure is expected.
-An effort was made in Mt. Vernon, Ind., to close the saloons on Sunday and at 11 o'clock every night. A mob of these law-abiding people was the natural result. The residence of the City Marshal was burned to the ground. The Deputy Marshal was terribly beaten by a gang of roughs. The telegraph and telephones were guarded, to prevent communication with neighboring towns.
-The Italian courts have decided adversely the claims of the heirs of Pius IX., for 15,000,000 lires, which they alleged was due them from the Italian Government. Under the papal guarantees this money was granted to Pius IX. by Italy, but he always refused to accept it. Now the courts declare that the money was granted to Pius as Pope, and not as a private individual, and that his heirs have no legal claim upon it.
-The Scientific American states that during a recent display of the aurora borealis an observer connected the two poles of his telephone, one with the water-pipe leading to a cistern near his dwelling, the other with the gas-pipe leading all over town, and that by so doing he heard the electric crackle, substantially the same as it is heard when the same connection is made during thunder-storms. The only difference was that the auroral crackle was more delicate than that caused by a thunder-storm.
-The Independent is one of the few religious papers that do not advertise quack medicines. Replying to a charge that it has recommended Hop Bitters, it puts itself on record on the temperance question as follows: "We never used nor recommended Hop Bitters, and it is years since we advertised them. We believe not merely in temperance, but total abstinence; and when we learned that these 'Bitters' were nothing else than a private tipple, to be kept and used at home, disguised only as a medicine, we stopped the advertisement. We condemn and detest the whole thing, and will not allow it to be recommended even in our advertising columns to our readers."