Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 7, 1909

— The city of Roanoke, Va., has voted out its saloons, by a very close vote at the close of a vigorous campaign by both the temperance and the liquor element.

— The gold output of the United States for the year ended June 30, 1908, amounted to $90,435,700, and the silver production for the same period amounted to $37,299,700.

— A report from Paris states that the coldest weather experienced in fifty years was prevalent there on December 30. Nineteen deaths occurred, due to the freezing weather, while the streets were blocked with snow.

— It is reported from Rome that the pope has recently had a visit from Saint Joan of Arc, when she is said to have addressed to him solemn words of encouragement, exhorting him to continue his present policy, which she promised would shortly be crowned with triumph.

— As a result of an explosion of fire-damp in the Maybury mine, at Bluefield, W. Va., on December 29, eighty men are believed to have lost their lives. There were one hundred ten men in the mine when the explosion occurred. Of these, less than thirty have been taken out alive, and many of these will die from their injuries.

— Abraham Ruef, a former political boss of San Francisco, who for a long time has been on trial on the charge of bribery in that city, was sentenced, on December 29, to fourteen years in the State penitentiary at San Quentin. The trial has lasted for many weeks, and the defendants have filed a bill of probable cause, which, it is said, may extend the trial for three years.

— The national Bureau of Equipment at Washington, D. C., opened bids on January 5 for a long-distance, high-power, wireless telegraph station, which is to be erected near Washington. The station must be able to transmit messages over a radius of three thousand miles, and must also be equipped with a wireless telephone system, sending to the distance of one hundred miles.

— Prof. Percival Lowell announces that spectroscopic proof has been obtained of the presence of water on the planet Mars.

— During a battle between supporters of the deposed President Castro of Venezuela and the soldiers of the new governor, at Macuro, Venezuela, on December 29, twenty men were killed, and fifty wounded.

— Martial law has been in force at Stearns, Ky., since December 25, and soldiers are patrolling the town. This condition was brought about because of riots and bloodshed following a strike of miners and lumbermen.

— It is reported that Austria now has a force of one hundred fifty-five thousand men in Bosnia and Herzegovina ready to invade Servia at a moment's notice. The troops are said to be suffering greatly from typhus as well as from cold and exposure.

— In order to obtain still further expert opinion as to the correct method of constructing the Panama Canal, President Roosevelt has invited six civil engineers to visit the scene of operations with President-Elect Taft, make critical examination of the course of the proposed canal, and give a report of their findings.

— The commissioner of education reports that nineteen million pupils of all grades and classes were enrolled in the public and private schools of the United States one year ago. He reports that the amount of money spent in this country during that year for education of all grades, both public and private, is approximately four hundred forty-two million dollars.

— The new apparatus to prevent ships rolling at sea has been given an official test on the mail steamer “Lochiel.” This apparatus consists of a gyroscope suspended amidships and driven by electricity. The motion of the gyroscope reduces the roll of the ship so that even in moderately heavy seas very little roll is experienced. During this trial, the rolling of the vessel was reduced from thirty degrees to three degrees.

— In view of the certainty of air-ships being used in the next great war, the German war office is conducting experiments with guns specially constructed to aim upward at air-ships. Automobiles of high power are being armored and equipped with quick-firing guns, to be used as air-ship destroyers. These will be able to travel over rough country at a rapid speed, and follow the course taken by air-ships so long as they are near the highways.

— In addition to the arrests reported last week in Pittsburg, Pa., as a result of investigation of graft in the city council, seventeen others have been put under arrest on the same charges. One of the leaders in this investigation has made the following declaration: “This city is rotten to the core, and we are going to clean it up. We have the names and data, and when we get down to arresting those who gave bribes, it will create a bigger surprise than the arrest of the councilmen.” It is proposed to arrest every man in the city against whom the charge of bribe-giving or bribe-taking can be made to stand.