Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 24, 1907

— A terrible explosion occurred October 5 in a cartridge factory at Osaka, Japan. Sixty-three girls who were sorting condemned shells and cartridges were killed, and more than sixty were injured.

— Twenty-two members of the crew of the new steel freighter “Cypress” were lost when she sank recently in Lake Superior. The sole survivor has explained that the catastrophe was due to the shifting of the cargo during a storm.

— This season’s fatalities resulting from Alpine accidents are the most numerous ever recorded. Eighty persons were killed and twenty-two injured in ninety accidents. Three fourths of the deaths were caused by falls over precipices, and the others by avalanches, snow-storms, and lightning.

— The closing session of the International Peace Conference was held at The Hague, October 18. During the four months of its sitting the conference has passed thirteen specific conventions, but they are couched in such general terms and are of such a nature that much of the press comment is disparaging in reference to any real good in the interests of peace resulting therefrom.

— Wireless communication across the Atlantic for news and business purposes was begun October 17, in accordance with the promise of Marconi, the inventor. For several hours there was a constant exchange of messages between the station at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and the one at Clifden, Ireland. Numerous press dispatches were sent to and fro at a rate of twenty words a minute for each instrument employed.

— Failure to obey the standing rule to slow down for a curve on the railroad, caused the derailment of a passenger train as it entered the station at Shrewsbury, England, October 15. Nineteen persons were killed, and thirty-nine were injured.

— Again the southwest of Europe was deluged with torrential rains last week. One Spanish village near Barcelona was literally washed away, and in France a hill is slipping, and threatens a village 1,000 feet below. There has also been more loss of life.

— The aged emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, has not been in his usual health of late. His illness has occasioned much speculation by the press of the world as to the probable effect his death would have upon the political history of Europe.

— The jury in the case of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railway Company, charged with rebating, brought in a verdict of guilty on all counts enumerated in the indictment. The maximum fine for the offenses charged is $1,100,000 and the minimum is $66,000.

— Violent earthquake shocks were recorded by seismographic instruments in various parts of the earth on October 16, but so far it has been impossible to locate the center of the convulsion. Scientists are somewhat puzzled, but think the chief disturbance may have been in the polar regions, or possibly in mid-ocean.

— The town of Fontanet, Ind., was destroyed October 15 by the explosion of the Dupont powder mills located about a mile from the town. Not a building was left in the town. Thirty-six persons were killed, and 600 of the 1,000 inhabitants were injured, fifty of them seriously. The concussion was felt 200 miles away, and farmhouses miles away were partially wrecked, injuring the occupants.

— Secretary of War William H. Taft, while en route from Japan to Manila, called at Shanghai, where the American and Chinese residents seemed to vie with each other in doing him honor. After dedicating the building of the Young Men’s Christian Association, he was given a reception by prominent Chinese merchants representing forty-five of the guilds formerly in the boycott against American manufactures. Speeches were made by merchants, officials, and the representative of the viceroy, in which they said the friendship of the United States had been evidenced by the relief sent to the famine sufferers, the support of schools and hospitals, and the waiving by the United States of her part of the Boxer indemnity. At this reception Chinese women of aristocratic families were present, and even presided at the tables whence they served refreshments. This is the first time such a thing has happened in China. Throngs of people awaited Secretary Taft on his arrival at Manila, October 15. The next day he formally opened the Philippine Assembly, whose members were elected some months since. In his speech Secretary Taft expressed his confidence in the Filipinos, and his belief that they realized their responsibilities. He expressed the belief, however, that they would not be fitted for self-government for at least a generation.