News and Miscellany

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

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—A severe earthquake shook the city of Constantinople on January 25. No loss of life has been reported.

—During the last week seven men have been killed by avalanches on the Burlington-Great Northern Railroad while fighting snow in the far northwest.

—The practical operation of the parcel-post system for the first fifteen days shows a saving to shippers, in forty-five of the leading cities of the United States, of $547,508.12.

—The salary at Yale for Prof. William H. Taft as Kent professor of law will be $5,000, which is the maximum salary now paid to the upper grade of full professors.

—At Lockport, N. Y., one man was killed and twenty persons were seriously injured in a collision between a trolley passenger-train and a freight on the International Railway, January 25.

—In the presence of a distinguished group of senators, representatives, and government officials, the body of John Paul Jones, “father of the American Navy,” was placed in a crypt of the Naval Academy Chapel at Annapolis, Md., on January 26. The crypt is circular, and ninety-six feet in diameter. It has just been completed at the cost of $75,000.

—The decision of the English Parliament to drop the franchise bill providing voting privileges for the women of that country, is likely to lead to serious consequences. Reports from London on January 27 state that England is on the brink of another campaign by the suffragettes in comparison with which former outbreaks of the militant women will appear insignificant. That evening 2,000 policemen were engaged in dispersing huge crowds gathered near the Parliament buildings, shopkeepers were boarding up show-windows, and excited women were making incendiary speeches in several halls.

—On January 22 the Grand Council of the Ottoman Empire decided in favor of accepting the proposals of the European powers for a peace settlement between Turkey and the Balkan allies. The Porte’s reply to the joint note of the powers was to be handed to the ambassadors on the twenty-third, but that day a crisis came with dramatic suddenness. Nazim Pasha, former war minister and commander of the Turkish army, was killed during a demonstration in Constantinople. The cabinet resigned, and officers from the Young Turk party came into power. Vast crowds clamored for a continuation of the war. The new rulers declare that they will save national honor or perish in the attempt; also that they are determined to keep Adrianople at all costs. Diplomats believe that Russia will actively intervene in case of a renewal of hostilities, and that complete dismemberment of Turkey will result. Peace negotiations that do not bring peace are more costly to the Balkan allies than war. Greece alone must spend $1,000,000 a day for the maintenance of her army.

—The Union, published at Lima, Peru, in an alarming editorial, declares that war seems inevitable between Peru and Bolivia. This conclusion is drawn from Bolivia’s recent warlike preparations. Her ambition is said to be a port on the Pacific.

—From McKinney, Tex., comes the report that on January 23 eight persons were killed and fifteen hurt when walls of a building occupied by a farming implement firm, fell and crashed into a department-store, causing that building to collapse. Fire broke out in the ruins.

—The first producing oil-well in England has just been discovered in the county of Nottingham. Boring operations have been going on there four years, but until now nothing of value has been found. The new well opens a field of excellent oil, 2,440 feet below the surface.

—The French Parliament recently elected Raymond Nicholas Landry Poincare president of the French Republic. The newly elected president has been premier and minister of foreign affairs for a year past. When quite young, he entered public life as a member of the Chamber of Deputies.

—The largest and most powerful battle-ship afloat, the Brazilian superdreadnought “Rio de Janeiro,” was launched from the slips at Elswick, England, January 22. She displaces 27,500 tons, and is to be armed with fourteen twelve-inch and twenty six-inch guns. Her speed is twenty-two knots an hour.

—One man was killed and a dozen persons were injured in a spectacular rear-end collision between two south-bound Third Avenue elevated trains in New York City on the afternoon of January 25. Both trains took fire, and for a time it was feared they would topple into the street. The injured were taken out with much difficulty.

—The newspaper called King Bao, undoubtedly the oldest periodical in the world, was recently suppressed by Yuan Shi Kai, president of the Chinese Republic. We are told that for 1,500 years this paper has published the important news of China and of foreign countries. The first edition was printed in 400 A. D. on ten sheets of yellow silk neatly tied together, and sent to all the high officials of the Chinese Empire.

—Illegal trafficking the country over in stolen postage-stamps, aggregating several millions of dollars annually, has just been disclosed by post-office inspectors. So-called stamp brokers and confidential employees of large business concerns throughout the United States are involved. The inspectors learned that stamps of all classes and denominations stolen by burglars from post-offices and embezzled by employees from great business houses and manufacturing establishments are purchased and resold by the brokers at prices far below their face value. The postal laws make it a crime punishable by imprisonment to sell any stamp issued by the government for less than its face value. Investigations disclosed the fact that, in addition to selling the stamps for less than a price they could have been purchased for from the government, the brokers in many cases knew that the stamps were stolen when they bought them.

—As a result of the recent cold wave, fruit shippers in California have canceled orders for 30,500 cars in which to ship their fruit. The loss to the growers will be $19,169,880, to the shippers $4,792,000, and to the railroads $9,705,000.

—At last China has been able to negotiate with the bankers of six nations for a loan of $125,000,000. The new republic has had a hard time securing funds. The details of the loan, according to recent data from Peking, were finally agreed upon by representatives of bankers at a meeting in London.

—It is claimed that cheese is saving Adrianople from falling. The principal industry in that city is cheese-making, and the product is exported once a year. This year the war prevented the exportation, and by the stored-up supply, according to press reports, the population has been saved from starvation, and the city has been able to resist the siege.

—In Russia intemperance often begins at a very early age. The British consul in Moscow reports that, as the result of a municipal inquiry into the causes of drunkenness, it was ascertained that of the adults addicted to alcoholic excess, ninety per cent contracted the habit in their school-days. “Out of 18,134 schoolboys in the Moscow province from the ages of eight to thirteen years, 12,152, or sixty-six per cent, have taken to drink, and out of 10,404 girls of the same ages, 4,733, or forty-five per cent, also take intoxicating liquor too freely.”

—The formidable problem of finding accommodation for 120,000 persons who are to be evicted from their dwellings, owing to the sale of antiquated fortifications of Paris to the city authorities by the French government, is now before the municipal council for solution. The space occupied by the twenty-one-mile wall encircling Paris, and the “firing zone” 500 yards in width facing it, is to be converted into public parks. This space is now covered by many thousand ramshackle houses, occupied by the poorest class of work people and ragpickers, and in many instances turned into resorts for criminals and tramps. The amount of money expended on these old fortifications, erected in 1840, exceeded $200,000,000.

—Illinois is to have a new State penitentiary, and it will contain the best features known in modern architecture for buildings of this kind, such as sunshine in every cell, circular cell houses connecting with a general dining-hall, constant supervision of all prisoners from one central point, outside cells for each prisoner, with such separate heating and ventilating arrangements as will be best for the health of the prisoners, and all the buildings will be connected within the walls by corridors. The circular arrangement of cells is the European plan, and is considered much more healthful than the American inside-cell policy. The circular plan also makes escape much more difficult. Mr. Zimmerman, the State architect, and his son Ralph have spent years in studying the best prison plans of Europe and America, and the new Illinois penitentiary will have some entirely new features in it, as well as a combination of best European and American ideas. The cost will be about $3,500,000.

—The third Hague Court of Arbitration is to meet in 1915. There is an international committee of preparation to which the United States sends three delegates. Much surprise and grief and wrath have been excited by the President’s choice for this committee to the Court of Peace. He sends General Crowder, Admiral Wainwright, and J. R. Clarke.

—Dr. Lewis Swift, one of the leading astronomers of the world, died recently in Marathon, Ky., aged ninety-two years. He came into prominence in 1862 when he discovered the comet which bears his name. He has discovered eighteen comets and a large number of nebulae. For three years in succession the Imperial Academy in Vienna awarded him its medal as having contributed most to astronomy.

—It will help to appreciate the anticipated magnitude of the parcel-post business to learn that the Post-office Department at Washington has sent out to 60,000 postmasters and 45,000 rural-mail carriers, supplies of the various kinds which will be required. There were provided 70,000 scales, 110,000 rubber stamps, 10,000,000 insurance tags, over 153,000,000 parcel-post stamps, over 12,000,000 “postage due” stamps. There was also sent out tons of printed matter relating to the system.