News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 6, 1913

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A Cincinnati paper says that the Russian government has had 60,000,000 trees planted in the deserts in Central Asia in the last fifty years. Many of these are now high, forming groves of incalculable value to the country.

— A young Swiss girl, Anna Rapin, was born without arms. She showed a fondness for painting, which led to her being taught to paint portraits. She holds her brush between the first and second toes of her right foot. She has become famous not merely for her misfortune, but for the superior quality of her work.

— The English language leads all others. More people speak it, as the following figures will show: English is spoken by 160,000,000, German is spoken by 130,000,000, Russian is spoken by 100,000,000, French is spoken by 70,000,000, Spanish is spoken by 50,000,000, Italian is spoken by 50,000,000, Portuguese is spoken by 25,000,000.

— No less than 500 fraudulent cures for consumption have been tried upon thousands of victims in the United States during the last five years, according to an estimate made by the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. This association also estimates that from these nostrums the exploiters have reaped a profit of not less than $50,000,000 upon an investment of $20,000,000.

— The recent presidential election, held in Mexico October 26, is generally considered a farce. It is estimated, judging from the results in Mexico City, where it is believed the vote was up to the average, that less than 10,000 of the 80,000 eligible voters in the federal district went to the polls. It is believed that when the new congress is organized, and the returns revised, the elections will be declared void.

— Persecution of Armenian Christians has once more broken out, and a reign of terrorism is raging among the Armenian villages in Roumelia. A large body of bashi-bazouks have been forcing and entering houses, torturing women and children. Kurds, on October 2, laid a seven-hour siege to the monastery at Bayazid, which nothing but the heroism of the Armenian patriarch saved, preventing a general massacre. Appeal has been made for help, but at latest reports none was given. The great powers are being criticized for not taking advantage of present conditions to oblige the sultan to protect his Christian subjects. War in the Balkans it was hoped might result in religious freedom for Christians, but thus far it has produced nothing of the kind, owing to the jealousies that have been engendered.

— Stag Canon Mine No. 2, near Dawson, N. Mex., was wrecked by an explosion October 22. There were 286 men in the mine at the time of the accident, and the total death-list numbered 263. Every possible effort was made to hasten rescue work, but continuous fires and deadly monoxid gas retarded the relief forces and proved fatal to the entombed miners.

— Secretary of War Garrison has decided to ask Congress for $6,000,000 for reserve field artillery ammunition. This is approximately five times more than Congress has ever allowed for that purpose in one year. Mr. Garrison’s estimates for the army next year are greater than any appropriation in recent years, totaling more than $100,000,000 in the army bill alone, exclusive of the fortifications bill. The army bill last year carried $94,266,145. No reason has been made public for the desired increase in field artillery ammunition.

— Attention is being drawn to the extent to which automobiles have brought a new calling into existence by the fact that in New York City alone there are 55,000 chauffeurs, and that during the last eight months 130,000 automobiles were registered in New York State, a gain of 30,000 over the corresponding period of 1912. The State received no less than $1,235,000 from the registration of chauffeurs’ licenses alone during the past year. During the same period California has issued 80,000 licenses, Pennsylvania 79,000, and Ohio 56,000.

— Women who arrive in this country from Europe wearing or bringing hats trimmed with the aigrettes of the osprey, the heron, or other wild fowl, must remove those plumes and turn them over to customs officers for confiscation. The Secretary of the Treasury has decided that the new tariff law provision, forbidding the importation of aigrettes made from the feathers of wild birds, applies to every such hat decoration and not merely to importations in quantities for sale. The announcement of this decision was made by Secretary McAdoo on October 8, and came as a good deal of a surprise to those who had laughed at the law that left such an easy chance for its evasion. The secretary announced that the law will be politely but none the less rigidly enforced.

— What is believed to be the last discovery of new land which can ever be made was announced recently at St. Petersburg. A Russian government exploring party reported the discovery of a continent 500 miles north of Siberia in the arctic circle, midway between Franz Josef Land and the New Siberia islands, in latitude 77° north, longitude 148° east. Commander Wilkitzky of the Russian navy, who was in charge of the expedition, gave it the name of Nicholas II Land, and took possession in behalf of the czar. The land is uninhabited and mountainous, with a number of volcanic peaks. Walrus, reindeer, and polar bears were reported, and also the presence of scant vegetation. Economically and politically the value of the newly discovered territory is nothing, but geographically it is, of course, most interesting and will make a striking addition to the polar map. Does this complete the conquest of the earth’s exploration?

The Noon-Hour Prayer

“Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice.” “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.”

“CHRIST prayed. Of all the arguments for prayer, that is the best. If he, the Son, had need of constant refuge in prayer, how much the more do the rest of us need the daily replenishing which comes from communion with the Father.”

Requests for Prayer

294. A sister, writing from Texas, tells how the Lord has answered, in part, her request published in this department some time ago, and asks our continued prayers for her family.

295. A sister in Oregon requests prayer for “spiritual, physical, and financial help” for her large family.

296. A Colorado sister desires healing from a serious skin disease.

297. An anxious mother in Kansas asks prayer for the restoration of her daughter who is suffering from an incurable disease.

298. A mother in Florida requests our united prayers for her son who has formed the liquor and tobacco habit.

299. An aged sister in Iowa desires the restoration of her hearing and eyesight, if it is God’s will to answer prayer in her behalf.