Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 8, 1908

— Twenty persons were killed, and nineteen seriously injured, as the result of a collision between elevated trains in Berlin, Germany, on September 26.

— Twenty persons were killed, and as many seriously injured, in a train wreck on the Northern Pacific Railroad at Youngs Point, Mont., on September 25.

— The advent of cold weather in Russia seems to have removed the likelihood of the spread of the plague from St. Petersburg, or a much longer continuance of it in that city.

— During the night of September 27 a band of night riders set fire to and totally destroyed thirteen negro churches and schoolhouses in portions of Calhoun, Baker, and Miller counties in Georgia.

— Reports received at New York on September 25 indicate that the captain and crew of fifteen men of the Norwegian bark “Fox” perished as a result of a collision in mid-ocean between that vessel and some other.

— Mr. Wilbur Wright of Ohio, who has been demonstrating the powers of his aeroplane in France, has won the one-thousand-dollar prize offered by a French aeronautical society for the longest flight with a heavier-than-air machine.

— The American battle-ship fleet arrived in the harbor of Manila on October 2, but the formal reception to the fleet will not be given at this time on account of the presence of the plague in Manila. The fleet will return to Manila after its visit to Japan.

— On Tuesday of last week, during gunnery drill, one of the big turret guns on the French armored cruiser “Latouche Treville” exploded with terrific violence, completely wrecking the after-turret and killing outright the entire gun crew of thirteen. Several others were seriously injured.

— As a result of the controversy between President Roosevelt and Mr. Bryan concerning the matter of affiliation of party leaders with the trusts, Mr. T. C. Du Pont, director of the Republican bureau of campaign speakers, and Gov. C. N. Haskell, of Oklahoma, treasurer of the Democratic national committee, have resigned. Mr. Du Pont was connected with the powder trust and Governor Haskell was accused of favoring a branch of the Standard Oil Company in evading the law.

— The towns of Dagan and Woodboro, in Wisconsin, were totally destroyed by forest fires on September 19. Men, women, and children fought valiantly to save their homes, but without avail. Each of these towns had about 2,000 residents. The towns of Thomas, Davis, and Parsons, in West Virginia, were also in great danger of destruction from the same cause. Many families have been rendered homeless, and thousands of dollars of damage has resulted to standing timber. Forest fires are also raging in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and in the New England States, and because of the dry condition of the woods, threaten great damage. The drought which had spread over the country brought much anxiety to the farmers, especially in New England, where it caused considerable suffering to people, cattle, and crops.

— The chairman of the Prohibition Party declares that during the past year there has been a decrease of nearly one million dollars a day in the production and sale of intoxicating beverages in the United States. He claims that these figures are based on official figures received from the Internal Revenue Department at Washington.

— Reports from Hyderabad, India, dated September 30, state that a terrible flood has overwhelmed that city, and left in its trail thousands of dead. One estimate places the number of dead at 10,000. The flood destroyed a portion of the city a mile long and half a mile wide. The cause of the disaster was the sudden rise of water in a number of lakes, which, overflowing into the river, caused it to burst its banks.

— A fire in the Central Telephone building of Paris, France, on September 20, believed to have been due to a short circuit, spread with such rapidity that the twelve hundred telephone employees were forced to flee to the streets. The entire building was soon in flames, and, with the post-office, was totally destroyed. The loss is estimated at $5,000,000, but a much greater loss is likely to be involved through the complete interruption of all telephonic communication in the center of Paris, as well as communication with the provinces and abroad.

— On September 28 the sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis was opened at Washington, D. C., with delegates from thirty-three nations in attendance. It is generally felt that real progress has been made during the last few years in the struggle against this disease. A great deal of the attention of the congress is being centered upon the demonstrations of Dr. Von Pirquet of Vienna, and Dr. D. L. Detre of Budapest, in the matter of diagnosing cases of tuberculosis. Tests have been made on children in a Washington hospital who were afflicted with tuberculosis, and these tests have demonstrated the claims of these physicians in the matter of correct diagnosis.