Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 1, 1908

—A recent despatch from the Pacific Coast says that the bark "Star of Bengal," with 135 aboard, was wrecked off Coronation Island, Southeastern Alaska, and 119 lost their lives. Of these, nine were white men, the others Chinamen. The ship had a cargo of 54,000 cases of salmon in her hold when she started on her last voyage.

—Through the collapsing of a span of nearly 600 feet of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad bridge over the Susquehanna, at Havre de Grace, Md., on September 23, twelve loaded coal cars were dropped into the river, and the span was totally demolished. A watchman went down with the wreckage, and received injuries which may prove fatal. There were no other casualties. According to the best estimate from the bridge officials, the damage to the work will reach $400,000. It is thought that the bridge had been dynamited.

—St. Petersburg is in the grasp of the Asiatic cholera. As the city is in a very unsanitary condition, the disease finds here the conditions most suitable for its propagation, and is spreading daily at an alarming rate. It has already invaded the aristocratic precincts of St. Petersburg, one case having been discovered in the servants' quarters of the palace of the czar. The public schools have been transformed into hospital wards, the department of war has opened stores to supply immediate needs, and army field kitchens have been despatched to the poorer quarter to dispense free food. From Saturday noon until Sunday noon last week there were 398 cases and 141 deaths. Germany has become alarmed over the spread of the disease, and the German authorities have taken precautions to prevent its crossing the frontier. Austria, Sweden, and other near-by countries have declared a quarantine against Russia; and France is ready to meet any exigency that may arise. Cholera conditions in Manila are materially improving, according to Governor General Smith's despatch to the War Department on September 22.

—There is still much apprehension felt in Europe over the attitude of the German emperor toward the course of France and Spain in Morocco.

—Four men lost their lives and about twenty persons were injured, several of them seriously, in a fire that destroyed the Belmont Hotel at Denver, Colo., on September 8.

—Twenty-seven persons were injured in a railroad wreck at Geneva, Pa., on September 13. Some maliciously disposed person had unlocked the switch, compelling the train to leave the track at that place.

—Germany and Italy have united in asking for a world conference at The Hague, over the question of an international regulation of exchange. The date of the proposed conference is not yet decided upon.

—Wilbur Wright, in France, on Monday, September 21, established another world's record by flying for one hour, 31 minutes, and 25 4-5 seconds. He covered in that time an actual distance of 98 kilometers, or nearly 61 miles.

—The American fleet of battle-ships, after a thirteen-hundred-mile voyage from Melbourne, Australia, dropped anchor at Albany, West Australia, on September 11, and were greeted most cordially by the officials of the latter province.

—At Sedalia, Mo., on September 16, the explosion of a car of powder resulted in the death of twelve persons. It is stated that the conductor of the train had thrown a match into some loose powder escaping from a keg, to frighten negroes. The conductor himself is numbered among the dead.

—On October 12 representatives from the various South African colonies are to meet in convention at Durban, Natal, for the purpose of drawing up a plan of union similar to that now existing between the Australian States. If this union is brought about, it will be the consummation of the hopes of Cecil Rhodes.

—Previously to the time of the convening of the Catholic Congress in London, there was much apprehension on the part of a large portion of the English people over the prospect that King Edward would receive the papal envoy officially at that time. The public feeling was so stirred over this matter that the king felt it wise not to be in London at the time of the congress, and spent the week at Doncaster, where a race meeting was being held.

—Instances are becoming more frequent of the closing of schools in the North against colored persons. At Des Moines, Iowa, on September 12, Highland Park College drew the color line against a number of prospective colored students. This is the first Iowa educational institution to exclude negroes. The Negro Baptist Association of Iowa and Nebraska, in session at Des Moines at the time, condemned the action, and declared it the greatest set-back the race has had in Iowa. The president of the college stated that he had nothing personally against the colored race; but that the white students compelled the action by refusing to attend chapel, or to walk into class, with the negroes.