p. 21 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 7, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

—A grain of fine musk will scent a room for twenty years.

—The National Woman’s Christian Temperance Union will hold its 1913 convention in Washington, D. C.

—The waiters in several of the leading hotels and cafés of Washington, D. C., struck for higher wages and better working conditions, Wednesday night, October 23.

—The plant of the Energetic Explosive Company, at Harleybury, Ontario, was blown up by an explosion October 23. Five persons were killed and three seriously injured.

—Nineteen persons are reported to have been stricken blind at Anderson, Ind., on October 27, as the result of gazing at a light caused by a workman welding with an electrical process on a trolley-wire.

—The large wireless towers at Fort Myer, Va., have been completed, and on the evening of October 28 sent out calls for Colon and Key West. The radius of the new plant will be about three thousand miles. This range is said to be the probable acme of wireless operations.

—Katmai volcano, which caused great damage on the Alaskan peninsula and adjacent islands last June, is believed to be in violent eruption again. The mail-steamer “Dora” reported by wireless October 25, that she is anchored off Whale Island, unable to proceed farther westward on her voyage to Dutch Harbor because of darkness caused by falling volcanic ashes.

—Another of Uncle Sam’s monster battle-ships was launched in Brooklyn October 30. The “New York” has a displacement of twenty-seven thousand tons. She will be armed with ten fourteen-inch guns, larger than those carried by any other war-ship. The work of building this huge vessel was begun May 1, 1911. When in commission she will be manned by sixty-three officers and a crew of more than one thousand men.

—There are five million more Mohammedans in India to-day than ten years ago.

—The custom of women smoking tobacco in various forms, especially in cigarettes, has grown to such an extent that there is discussion of the need and propriety of providing smoking-rooms exclusively for women.

—The revolt of Gen. Felix Diaz, nephew of the former Mexican president, has been short-lived. The town of Vera Cruz, which for several days he occupied with two thousand adherents, was taken by federal forces on October 23. General Diaz, together with thirty-eight other rebel prisoners, was captured and condemned by court martial to be shot.

—The steamship “Asiatic Prince,” arriving at New York, October 28, from Brazilian ports, brought details of the rescue of thirteen men from the burning steamship “Fagundes Varella,” sighted off the Brazilian coast on the morning of October 7. The ship had caught fire from chemicals in her hold. There were forty hands all told aboard, eighteen of whom were drowned, and nine of whom were picked up by another vessel unidentified.

—Determined to be fully prepared for whatever may happen in Latin America, the Navy Department has ordered the cruiser “Baltimore,” commanded by Lieut. B. Y. Rhodes, to be prepared to steam on a few hours’ notice. A conference between State and Navy Department officials decided that another American ship or two in Mexican waters would be advisable, and consequently it is expected that some eastern port of Mexico will be the ultimate destination of the “Baltimore.”

—Independence day was celebrated for the first time in China on October 10. The day marked the anniversary of the outbreak of the revolution. President Yuan Shi Kai reviewed the troops at Peking, and also sent a greeting to the Chinese in America, thanking them for money contributions. The president stated that the government has set before itself the goal of universal education, and he urged the emigrants to acquire knowledge as well as wealth, so as to benefit their native land. In Canton ten thousand soldiers and schoolchildren saluted the year-old flag of the republic, and there was a naval review of nineteen ships. Women and girls were given a public reception under the auspices of the government bureau of education—a new treatment for women in China.

—On October 29, it was reported from Europe that the long-awaited battle that may decide the fate of Turkey was being fought. The army under Nazim Pasha, minister of war and commander-in-chief, was engaged, and according to Constantinople official despatches the operations were favorable to the Ottomans. The despatches, however, did not indicate where the chief action was taking place or how the opposing forces compare. It is Turkey’s last chance to retrieve an almost hopeless campaign. Nazim Pasha is fighting with his back to the wall; his communications have been cut, and it is impossible for him to get fresh supplies or reinforcements. It is said that Turkey has approached Servia with a view to peace negotiations, as that country has taken possession of the most important territory.

—The woods of New South Wales are so varied as to meet the world’s requirements.

—Sweden’s canals are frozen up on an average of one hundred fifty-five days in each year.

—The world’s record for the greatest number of divorce cases is held by the Hungarian city of Arad.

—J. Pierpont Morgan recently presented Trinity College with two hundred thousand dollars to cover the expenses of erecting a library and administration building, to be known as Williams Hall.

—The trade of the United States with Russia in 1911 showed a marked increase over that of the previous year, the imports from the United States, according to customs figures, rising from $29,827,255 in 1909 and $38,055,410 in 1910 to $51,918,695 in 1911.

—The phonograph has now been adapted for use on aeroplanes, especially for purposes of military reconnaissance. The observer, who may have no chance to make notes in writing, simply speaks into the machine, describing whatever he sees that is important. When a record is completed, it is thrown down to the ground and run through a reproducer.

—The Folsom Penitentiary in California is undertaking to educate, train, and develop the manhood of the convicts. The administration of the prison has been changed recently, and now the convicts are to be given a chance to attend school. Free text-books will be provided and every opportunity furnished those who wish to avail themselves of this privilege. An educational and reform policy on a large scale is being wrought out, and the convicts will be given every chance for self-improvement. It is hoped to send many of them out in a condition to police themselves. Sociological experts in criminology are much interested in this effort, and are giving it special attention.

—The suicide of General Nogi came as a shock to those who believed that Japan had absorbed a large portion of the modern spirit along with her adoption of Western civilization. The suicides of forty more within a week, and the placing of a military guard at the general’s grave to prevent his soldiers from following his example, accentuated that shock, and yet there was the feeling on the part of many that the thing was only the last gasp of an old custom. According to a recent report, the physician who attended the late emperor in his last sickness is being ostracized by his fellow countrymen because he has not followed the example of General Nogi. It is urged that he should commit suicide, not simply as an act of devotion, but because he failed to save his master’s life. The physician is apparently one of those who have actually imbibed Western ideas along with his Western learning, though whether he is a Christian or not is not stated. At any rate, he finds the Western teaching that there is no need for him to end his life wholly to his notion, and is bold enough to say that the etiquette of the court and the wilfulness of his royal patient so hampered him in the treatment of the case that he is not to be blamed for the fatal termination of the illness.