News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Germany has declared war on Portugal. This makes the thirteenth nation involved, not counting San Marino. Portugal has a potential army of 870,000 men.

— The thirty-ninth international convention of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America will assemble at Cleveland, Ohio, May 12, 1916, and continue in session until May 16.

— The experience of French soldiers in the European war has demonstrated that milk is one of the most powerful stimulants known. So beneficial have been the results obtained from its use that the government has urged the sale of milk instead of soft drinks to soldiers off duty for rest and recreation behind the trenches.

— Organization of the Great Lakes Transit Company, to control eighty-five per cent of the passenger, packet freight, and grain steamships navigating the Great Lakes, has been announced by Levy Mayer, of Chicago, general counsel of the company. The company’s fleet will comprise thirty-five vessels, with a freight capacity of 150,000 tons. These are steamers that six railroad companies were compelled to relinquish under the section of the Panama Canal act forbidding rail lines to own competing water routes. The capitalization of the company will be $20,000,000.

— Proposals for reclaiming the Zuyder Zee will be laid before the second chamber of the Dutch parliament. The carrying into effect of the scheme would mean the reclamation of 815 square miles of the Zuyder Zee and the conversion of the remaining 557 square miles into a freshwater lake. The cost is now estimated at about $105,000,000. The time required to do the work is thirty-three years. The land will be reclaimed by the construction of an embankment 18.3 miles long from Ewijckshuis across the Amstel Channel to the southwest corner of the island of Wieringen, and from the northeast corner of the island to Piaam, in Friesland.

— The Queen of Roumania, famous to the world under the pen name of Carmen Sylva, died at Bucharest on March 2, according to the London dispatches. Carmen Sylva was regarded as the most charming figure in the courts of Europe, and was the only one in recent generations to gain fame as a writer of verse. She was born in the little principality of Wied, Dec. 29, 1843. In 1869 she was married to Prince Charles, of Roumania, who died in October, 1914. Because of her philanthropies and the love which her people had for her, she was known as “the Little Mother of Roumania.” Out of her own private purse she founded schools, hospitals, and art galleries, and devoted practically her whole life to philanthropy. She translated into German the favorite Roumanian folk songs, and wrote some short novels and dramas.

— Bank resources in the United States at the close of the past year totaled $13,467,000,000, an increase of $2,110,000,000 over those of 1914. The increase in deposits during the year was $2,163,000,000.

— Statistics recently compiled by a drug publication in New York show that there are 150,000 physicians practicing in the United States, and 50,000 drug stores operating. Estimating the population of this country to be 100,000,000, this gives a doctor for every 667 inhabitants, and a drug store for every 2,000.

— Even in the midst of revolutionary movements and monarchical preparations which hark back 2,000 years, there are some progressive Chinese leaders endeavoring to work out the betterment of China and the Chinese in a quiet, scientific manner. One of the most important of the recent movements is an effort to standardize and simplify the Chinese language. This effort has been approved by President Yuan Shi-kai, and is under general discussion in the Chinese press. The simplification and standardizing of textbooks for general use is regarded as imperative before general progress can be made.

— The State Department at Washington has concluded with Haiti the drafting of a treaty which virtually makes the Negro republic a protectorate of the United States. The treaty provides for American supervision of the finances and collection of customs on the island, supervision of the public debt, inquiry into the validity of existing debts, and regulation of the contracting of future debts. American officers at first will command a constabulary of the republic, and the United States will intervene to preserve order or to guarantee the territorial integrity and independence of Haiti. Resources will be developed under American control.

— What is described as the greatest disaster in the history of ocean travel occurred on February 26, when the French auxiliary cruiser “La Provence” was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea. It is not announced whether she was the victim of a mine, a submarine, or an internal explosion. She was loaded with French troops to the number of 4,000. It is officially stated that but 870 were rescued. The great ship, previous to the war, had been employed in the transatlantic trade, and was one of the fastest, largest, and most luxuriously equipped of the liners. She had been converted into an auxiliary cruiser, and was transporting reenforcements to Saloniki.

— Tiryns, legendary birthplace of Hercules, has yielded most important archeological discoveries, news of which has just been given to the public. Copper fragments, evidently of a very early age, among others a caldron found near the ruins of huts dating from the twelfth century before Christ, were unearthed. A number of workmen were digging at the Greek Agricultural School about fifty yards behind the walls of the ancient city when they came upon these precious relics of other days. The ruins of a temple of the sixth or fifth century before Christ, and a tomb in the form of a vault, have also been uncovered. Thus constantly the days referred to as prehistoric are being brought to light, and gradually the record of the life then lived is coming to our knowledge.

— The Three Pigeons, a famous ancient inn of London, said to be the only existing tavern of Elizabethan times, was closed some time ago in accordance with a temperance movement to restrict the number of licensed inns. It is believed that this inn has had more literary associations than any other in England, having been used as a background for the low comedy scenes in “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist,” and Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer.” It is also alluded to in Dickens’s “Our Mutual Friend.”

— Usually the phrase, “dogs of war,” has a significance radically different from the sense in which it is employed in the European war. The Germans have in their employ 2,500 trained dogs which do hospital service for them. They make no distinction between friend and foe when on their search for wounded soldiers left on the field. Reports emphasize the work of the Sanitätshunde in distinguishing between dead and wounded men. At a recent meeting of the German Society for Hospital Dogs, held in Berlin, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, the head of the society, described how the service had been begun with eight dogs shortly after the outbreak of the war, and estimated that up to date at least 8,000 wounded men had been picked up on the battle field through the aid of the war dogs.