News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 20, 1911

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A disastrous fire in the city of Tokyo, April 9, left homeless 6,000 persons, and caused destruction of life to 300.

— A $400,000 fire occurred at Dayton, Tenn., April 9, wiping out a large portion of the business section and many homes.

— The Illinois Central Railroad claims the record of no deaths by accident to passengers carried over this line during the past year.

— The chairman of the China famine committee claims that three million persons are starving in the northern provinces of that country.

— Four battle-ships of the Atlantic fleet are to make a special cruise to the Baltic next month, making courtesy calls at Russian, Danish, Swedish, and German ports.

— Two hundred men, women, and children were burned to death at Bombay, British India, April 9, in a fire which destroyed a thatched structure in which they were gathered for a festival.

— April 5, the President transmitted to Congress his message. It deals wholly with the reciprocity pact between the United States and Canada, urging early and favorable action upon this measure.

— A huge airship intended for trans-Atlantic travel has been projected at Berlin, and a company capitalized at $2,000,000 has been formed to finance the scheme. The proposed dirigible will be built to carry more than 200 passengers.

— The parsonage property owned by the First Presbyterian church, Caldwell, N. J., has been purchased by the Cleveland Memorial Association. The parsonage was the birthplace of Grover Cleveland, and is to be preserved in his memory.

— Congress convened in extra session April 5. Many new faces are seen in both chambers, particularly the House of Representatives. A large number of bills have been introduced. While it is probable that Congress will give its first attention to the reciprocity measure, time will also be given to the consideration of other bills.

— April 7 one of the most serious mine disasters that ever occurred in Pennsylvania took place at the little village of Throop, a short distance from Scranton, when the lives of sixty men and boys were snuffed out in the Pan-coast colliery. As a result of a blaze which started at the engine-house of the stope, the miners were entrapped before they were aware of their danger.

— A commission of Americans, with the unique contract of reorganizing the finances of the Persian government, left New York for Persia on April 8. The party will go direct to Teheran, and begin their task, which must be completed within five years. The finances of Persia have been in a chaotic state for years. The commission, including wives and children, numbers seventeen.

— According to its recent census, Russia now has a population of 160,095,200, only four per cent of whom are Protestants. Only 13·5 per cent of the people live in cities.

— The steamer “Iroquois,” plying between Sydney, Vancouver Islands, and the islands of the Gulf of Georgia, capsized after leaving Sydney, April 10. Twenty lives were lost.

— Ex-Mayor Tom L. Johnson, of Cleveland, Ohio, died April 10, after an illness of many months. He was noted as the apostle of the three-cent fare on street-cars, and on this issue was elected mayor of Cleveland.

— As a result of a great explosion following the discharge of a powder blast, 118 men were entombed at Banner mine, Littleton, Ala., April 8. Forty-five men made their escape after the explosion, but the others died through suffocation from fire-damp.

— The extraordinary high tide along the Suffolk coast, England, April 3, washed up hundreds of gold, silver, and bronze coins of early Saxon times in the neighborhood of Aldeburgh. Large quantities of antique bronze rings and ornaments, supposed to be relics of the submerged city of Dunwich, also were cast up by the sea.

— As showing the great increase of the population of South America, it is stated that the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has doubled in population in the last eleven years. This city is the tenth city in the world in size. Every railroad, with one exception, in the Argentine Republic was financed and built by Englishmen. There are more than 40,000 English residents in the republic.

— The trial of the Black Hand, or Camorrists’ Society, at Viterbo, about fifty miles from Rome, is proceeding amid many sensational and dramatic developments. It is necessary to maintain a strong military guard both for the protection of the prisoners and to prevent their rescue by their friends. This secret organization seems to have gained a strong foothold in Italy, and its influence is felt throughout the world wherever Italians are found.

— As a part of the national campaign for health, the United States Department of Agriculture and the American Civic Association are co-operating in a nationwide assault upon the house-fly. The campaign includes the dissemination of instruction on the fly evil, in daily and weekly newspapers in every city and town in the country, the organization of campaigns of instruction, the establishment of a lecture bureau in various sections of the country, and other salutary measures to destroy the pest.

— After studying the death-rate in various occupations, Dr. Casper, a German physician, shows by his researches that the clergy are the longest lived. Of those who attain the threescore years and ten allotted to man, clergymen show 42 per cent. Dr. Casper gives the other occupations in the following order: agriculturists, 40 per cent; the trading and working class, 35 per cent; soldiers, 32 per cent; lawyers, 29 per cent; actors and other professionals, 28 per cent; teachers, 27 per cent; and doctors, 24 per cent.