News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jan 8, 1914

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—It is reported that Enrique Gerostieta, minister of justice, will become president of Mexico early in 1914, and that General Huerta will take the field against the rebels.

—Real estate has reached a record price in Philadelphia, Pa. A lot in the city, 74 x 100 feet in size, was recently sold for $2,350,000, making the price paid equivalent to $307 a square foot.

—Nine lives and a property loss amounting to millions of dollars were the toll taken by a great wind-and-rain storm which swept the Atlantic coast and the region about New York City on December 26.

—Nearly half a hundred cities in the United States had community Christmas trees by way of celebrating December 25, last year. Washington, D. C., was included in this list for the first time. The celebration was held on the plaza in front of the Capitol building.

—Seventy-two persons, mostly children, were killed on Christmas eve in Calumet, Mich., when a cry of fire caused a panic in a crowded hall where the wives and daughters of the copper mine strikers had arranged a Christmas celebration. Seven hundred miners and their wives were there to see the children receive their presents.

—On Tuesday of the week ending December 27, an American reporter, Frederick Burlingham, descended to the floor of the crater of the volcano Vesuvius. At a depth of 1,212 feet in the heart of the mountain, he took motion pictures of boiling lava while the volcano was active. Scientists had declared this feat impossible, so great is the danger from sulphur and acid fumes.

—The British are choice of their historic monuments, and correspondingly expert in their preservation. Sir Isaac Newton's house, which had been condemned to demolition, commended itself to the preservation societies; and, being unable to save the house on its site, they took it to pieces, brick by brick, and board by board, to rebuild elsewhere when a suitable place can be chosen. Every detail of its construction, from the tiles to the floor boards, was marked and numbered, and a plan of the structure was recorded by a prominent firm of London architects. The building has thus been packed away, and it is announced that its more important rooms will be set up again at the manor house in 1914 for a special Newton and Burney exhibition.

—The death of Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia was officially reported from Addis Abeba on December 22. He has been reported dead on many occasions, but this is the first time an official announcement has been published. Emperor Menelik was born at Ankober on July 17, 1844. He was a son of Haeli Melicoth, king of Shoa, and was reputed a direct descendant of the queen of Sheba and King Solomon. Menelik became famous chiefly in connection with the war between Abyssinia and Italy, when he organized an army of 70,000 men and defeated the Italians, dictating his own terms of peace. The heir to the throne, Prince Lidj Jeassu, is only twenty-one years of age. He is said to possess great intelligence, and speaks English, French, and German. He was chosen several years ago by Menelik himself as heir apparent. The late monarch is said to have possessed a private fortune of $25,000,000.

—French eruptions have caused further destruction of life among the natives of the island of Ambrim, in the New Hebrides group. Dip Point, on the western coast of the island, has been buried beneath a heavy fall of cinders, and many of its inhabitants are missing. Two local steamers rescued 1,300 natives. No Europeans nor Americans have been injured or killed.