p. 21 | Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 2, 1910

Current Mention

— A gift of $10,000,000, left to Princeton University as a memorial of his “lasting affection,” was made in the will of Isaac C. Wyman, who died recently in Salem, Mass.

— On Friday, May 20, the final ceremonies in the funeral of King Edward VII occurred, and his body was entombed in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor, where also rest the bones of Edward IV, the sixth and eighth Henrys, Charles I, the third and fourth Georges, and William IV.

— May 22, 23, a series of severe storms, accompanied by terrific winds, swept over France. Several lives were lost, buildings were washed away, and considerable damage was done to railroads. The famous vineyards of Epernay, in the department of Marne, were destroyed.

— Machines have been installed in the United States Treasury at Washington for the purpose of cleansing soiled silver certificates. These will be placed in sieves, run through water, and thoroughly sterilized. Afterward they will be dried, burnished, and reissued. It is estimated that $1,000,000 a year will be saved to the government by this process.

— May 20-22, earthquake shocks of varying degrees of severity occurred in several places. Sunday morning, May 22, a sharp quake lasting thirty seconds was felt at Salt Lake City. The tremor was confined to a radius of fifty miles. On the same day shocks of considerable violence were felt in southern France, throwing down walls and terrifying the inhabitants.

— On May 25, fire, caused by a short-circuited wire, broke out in the cotton stowed in the lower hold of the North German Lloyd liner “Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm,” lying at her pier in Hoboken, N. J. After a hard fight by the ship’s crew and the local fire company, in which a number of sailors and firemen were overcome by the fumes from the burning cotton, the flames were subdued.

— Rev. Charles Stelzle, superintendent of the department of commerce and labor of the Presbyterian Church, in an address at a mass-meeting for labor held in Atlantic City, May 22, made the statement that 30,000 industrial workers are killed every year in shops, factories, mines, etc. He declared that the railways of America alone kill nearly 12,000 persons annually, and injure 120,000 more.

— A few years ago a widely known millionaire of Chicago built an art gallery in New York City, and filled it with famous and costly pictures and other art treasures drawn from all over the world. After his death, the contents of the gallery were sold at auction; and now the building itself is to be torn down at the whim of another millionaire to make way for an Italian garden adjoining his home.

— May 26, at the aviation meeting at Verona, Italy, a remarkable flight was made by Paulhan, who ascended to a height of 1,463 meters, 200 meters better than his American record. On the same day an aviator was fined twenty marks in Berlin, for flying over that city a few days before. It was held by the authorities that the art of aviation is not yet sufficiently perfected to allow aviators to fly over populated areas.

— May 26 the French submarine “Pluviose,” maneuvering in the English Channel, collided with the Calais-Dover packet “Pas de Calais,” and immediately sank in many fathoms of water. Efforts to reach the submarine were made, with the hope of saving the lives of the twenty-seven men on board; but a strong undercurrent balked the efforts of the divers, and the work had to be abandoned till the following day.

— The last few weeks show a marked increase in foreign immigration. In March there were more than 108,000 arrivals, the majority of whom were Italians, and less than one half of whom could read or write. Second on the list were Austrians, then Russians, Greeks, and Germans. Recently 8,000 immigrants were landed on Ellis Island in one day, 3,000 were compelled to remain on board ship, and word was received that 30,000 more would arrive in a week. The present accommodations on Ellis Island are already inadequate to the demands made upon them. “Surely we are becoming the melting-pot of the nations!” was the involuntary exclamation of one who recently came to view the incoming flood of aspirants to American citizenship.