p. 95 | News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Feb 23, 1882

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

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News and Notes

News and Notes.

—Bellevue, Mich., was nearly destroyed by fire, on the 19th inst.

—President Angell, of Michigan University, has returned from China.

—The mercury stood at zero at Yreka, Shasta Co., Cal., on the 19th inst.

—Nearly 480 tons of meat unfit for food were seized in the London markets last year.

—California wheat is being shipped to St. Louis via the Southern and Texas Pacific Railroads.

—The largest steam-ship ever built in California, was recently launched in San Francisco, to be used in the Mexican trade.

—By an explosion in a coal-mine in Durham County, England, the 16th inst., 120 persons were entombed. Thirty of the miners were rescued.

—Ko Kun Hua, the Professor of Chinese at Harvard University, died of pneumonia, on the 14th inst. He held the Chinese rank of Mandarin.

—One thousand of the workmen on the Panama Canal have died of fever. Out of a party of thirty Belgian mechanics, eighteen have died.

—A dispatch from Paris, last week, said that failures were occurring in all parts of the country, and the markets would be depressed for at least sixty days.

—It is estimated that as the result of the persecution of Jews in Russia, 100,000 Jewish families have been reduced to poverty, and property has been destroyed to the extent of £16,000,000.

—New York has only one acre in public parks to every 1,371 inhabitants, Chicago has one to every 252, Philadelphia one to every 282, and San Francisco has one to every 198 inhabitants.

—An eight-year-old boy has died at Point St. Charles, Canada, from the excessive use of liquor. The Coroner's jury brought in a verdict of wilful murder against the persons who gave him the liquor.

—A dispatch from Ione, Amador Co., Cal., Feb. 19, says: "The weather has been capricious for a whole week. We have had rain, hail, sleet, thunder, lightning, snow, frost, and ice, besides balmy spring airs."

—It is reported that the coronation of the Czar has been postponed until September. Until the coronation takes place, he cannot be considered as really Emperor, but his fear of the nihilists evidently outweighs his desire for the coronation.

—Kaleidoscopes are useful as well as amusing. They are made by New York opticians, with very expensive lenses, and are used by architects and carpet designers, to furnish models for designs. They also furnish many designs for round stained glass windows.

—The Supreme Court of Kansas has decided unconstitutional so much of the prohibitory law as prescribes punishment for drunkenness, on the ground that the provision was not expressed in the title of the bill. The Court holds that persons legally possessing liquor can drink it or give it away.

—The business center of Haverhill, Mass., was destroyed by fire, the 17th inst. The territory burned embraces the largest part of the boot and shoe manufacturers. Over one hundred shoe factories, representing about 200 firms, are destroyed, and 2,000 people are thrown out of employment. The loss is $2,700,000.

—The old homestead of Admiral Porter, at Chester, Pa., was burned February 17. A portion of it was occupied by a Professor Jackson, as a manufactory of fireworks. While the firemen were playing on the flames, an explosion occurred, killing seventeen instantly, and wounding twenty-one others, some of them fatally.

—The citizens of Greenwood, Steuben County, N. Y., having resisted the sale of town property, levied on under judgment for interest on the town bonds issued in aid of a railroad never built, the government has issued a proclamation declaring Greenwood in a state of insurrection, and warning the people to desist from opposition to the execution of the law.

—The most horrible outrages are still being perpetrated upon inoffensive Jews in Russia. At Odessa, petroleum was poured on a man's head and set on fire, and the man died in great agony. Subsequently many children were mercilessly killed. The General commanding the troops, when appealed to for assistance, said it was not worth while to risk the soldiers' lives.

—Great loss is suffered by the farmers in the Mississippi Valley, on account of the overflow of the river. For three weeks it has rained almost constantly, and the river has been steadily rising. Helena, Ark., is flooded. The report says that now there is but a dreary watery waste, extending fully fifteen miles inland from either bank. The destruction to dwellings, stock, and lands cannot now be estimated.

—The Russian General Skobeloff, in a recent speech to some Servian students, said that Russia had hitherto been held in check by Germany, and that the sword was the only means which the Russians had of ridding themselves of the incubus. He declared that the struggle between the Slavs and Teutons was inevitable, and it would be long, sanguinary, and terrible, but that the Slavs would triumph; that safety lay in the union of the Slavs with France, against their common enemy. The German papers are very indignant. The Fremdenblatt says the speech is significant because thousands of Russians hold the same views.

—After some discussion, the Anti-Polygamy Bill passed the Senate, February 16, by a viva voce vote in which no negative responses were heard. The Bill provides that "Every person who has a husband or wife living, who, in a Territory or other place over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter marries another, whether married or single, and any man who hereafter simultaneously, or on the same day, marries more than one woman in a Territory or other place over which the United States has exclusive jurisdiction, is guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $500 and by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years. It also provides that no polygamist or bigamist shall be entitled to vote at any election, or be eligible to election to, or entitled to hold, any office or place of public trust"