ITEMS OF NEWS
3%Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1881
FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 33.
Read the full editionITEMS OF NEWS.
- Seventeen counties in the southern part of Illinois have not a single saloon within their bounds.
- The steamer Altemania sailed from Havre on the 24th ult., with 1,000,000 francs in specie for New York.
- A land-slide recently occurred at Tataram, Moldavia, carrying away sixty-five houses. No lives were lost.
- The steamer City of Peking arrived in San Francisco from Hongkong, Aug. 27, with 835 Chinese steerage passengers.
- An earthquake has occurred at Tchesme, Asia Minor, opposite the island of Scio, causing great damage to property.
- The benevolent gifts of Mr. Seney, the Christian banker, have averaged $1,000 a day for the past two and a half years.
- Cattle are dying off rapidly from some unknown disease in the vicinity of the mouth of the Little Humboldt river, Nevada.
- Seth Green has this season superintended the distribution of more than a million small California trout in New York ponds and streams.
- It is reported from Tunis that the French camp at Hammamet was attacked by several thousand Arabs, who were repulsed, with heavy loss.
- The proposition to open the London city library and museum on Sundays, has been refused by the Common Council, by a vote of 97 to 26.
- Several Scotch landlords have recently made important rent reductions, and now it is learned that reductions have taken place on three of the best-known estates in England.
- Out of four and one-half millions of people in London, not more than 200,000 are regular attendants at any place of worship, and not more than 60,000 are regular communicants.
- Brodt, principal of the Durant school, Oakland, has been arrested on two charges of cruelty to children. He has been suspended from his position, to await the result of the trial.
- The ministers of San Francisco, and some of Oakland, met last week to consult in regard to making a united action in favor of the enforcement of the Sunday law. No definite plan was laid.
- The police are making vigorous raids on the Chinese opium and gambling dens. By and by somebody will begin to wonder why it is so much worse for Chinese to gamble than it is for Americans.
- A rich vein has been struck in the silver mine at Iron Mountain, near Shasta, Cal. The mineral belt is said to be at least thirty feet thick. Some ore taken from the mine assayed $5,000 to the ton.
- A telegram from Galveston, Texas, August 27, says: The city of Plano is in ashes. Fifty-one buildings have been burned in two hours. Nearly every business house has been destroyed. Total loss, $100,000.
- August 27, the house of Mr. Kimball, near Stockton, Utah, was destroyed by fire, and five children perished in the flames. The fire was caused by a kerosene lamp falling to the floor and exploding.
- A fire in a Chicago pork-packing establishment, August 27, resulted in the roasting of several thousand pounds of bacon, the destruction of the buildings and machinery, and a loss to the owners of a million dollars.
- A letter from Bangkok, Siam, says: Asiatic cholera is raging here. It is variously estimated that from 100 to 300 natives are dying daily. Very few foreigners have died, but several have fled to Singapore and Hongkong.
- The people of Alaska recently met at Sitka and have drawn up a memorial to Congress, praying for a Territorial Government. At the meeting it was resolved to call an election on September 5 for the election of a delegate.
- A terrible accident occurred in Oakland last week, which ought to serve as a warning to boys, and men too. A boy fourteen years old jumped off from a moving train on Seventh street, and fell under the wheels. Both legs were crushed and had to be amputated.
- In a hot, dry valley in New South Wales, the bees suffered last year from a long-continued drought. It is said that this year they have made provision against another like trouble by filling a large number of external cells in each hive with pure water instead of honey.
- Four white boys in Fresno county threw a Chinese boy into a slough and drowned him. The boys were arrested but were soon discharged and the matter was dropped. Shortly after, however, a Chinese boy near Stockton set fire to a hay-stack, and narrowly escaped lynching.
- Since 1834, according to the Belfast Witness, the Roman Catholic population in Ireland has declined nearly two and a half millions; Episcopalians have lost 216,394; whilst Presbyterians are only 156,853 less numerous than they were 47 years ago. This decrease is doubtless due solely to emigration
- Private advices to the City of Mexico from Mazatlan give the following details of the explosion there. The first day thirty corpses were removed, and the following days four or five daily, until the authorities interdicted further removals, considering the work dangerous. All the windows in town were demolished.
- The first consignment of petroleum (twenty-six barrels) from the Tunitas Creek oil wells in San Mateo county was received in San Francisco, August 23. The well from which this shipment of oil was taken is 300 feet in depth, and readily yields fifty barrels a day, although its full capacity has not been tested. A company has incorporated for the purpose of sinking wells, building refineries, etc.
- A remarkable financial phenomenon has attracted attention in Egypt. There is a surplus in the national treasury equivalent to five million dollars. It is unusual for any country under Turkish control to show anything but a deficit that the event is worth recording. Egypt has for a long time been upon the verge of bankruptcy, the Viceroy being extravagant in his expenses, spending large sums on the erection of new palaces, and on his harem. Since his deposition these expenses have been cut down, and his successor has followed the advice of England and France, to which nations his creditors chiefly belong. The result has been that the national income has more than sufficed to cover the expenditure, and the army and civil servants have been punctually paid. Another gratifying result of foreign intervention has been the partial suppression of the slave-trade with the interior. It is still carried on to a grievous extent, but it is done with difficulty, and only by purchasing the connivance of corrupt pashas.—Christian Herald.