Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 24, 1910

— At Cairo, Ill., on the night of February 17, a mob of about five hundred persons attacked the jail in which a Negro was confined who had been arrested for purse snatching. The sheriff, with five deputies, fired upon the mob, injuring, more or less seriously, about fifteen of their number.

— The strike at the Bethlehem Steel Works, Pa., continues to grow in numbers.

— The number of men who lost their lives in the coal-mine disaster at Browder, Ky., on February 1, is now placed at thirty-five.

— The National Sugar Refining Company has paid into the United States treasury recently, $604,304.37, which the government has proved was owed in duties on unweighed sugar imported by that company between 1898 and 1907.

— On February 9 the Iowa Supreme Court handed down a decision upholding the constitutionality of the Carson law, which provides that public officers may be removed for intoxication. This decision confirms the ouster of A. H. Handerson as mayor of the city of Marengo.

— The Andrew Carnegie proposition to grant a pension to college professors on retirement on the condition that these colleges must sever all their legal relations with religious denominations is looked upon as being a daring and subtle temptation to the colleges and a blow at the church.

— Officers of the United States government have recently gone to Panama, to determine proper sites for the erection of fortifications guarding the Panama Canal.

— A detachment of French troops in the Ouadia region, Senegal, was completely wiped out through an ambuscade of the natives recently. The detachment consisted of 110 men.

— The navy tug “Nina,” which left Norfolk, Va., February 6, for Boston, with thirty-two men on board, has been given up as lost. A number of warships have been hunting for the tug for several days, but fail to find her.

— A violent earthquake shock occurred at Potenza, Italy, on February 15. No lives were lost, but the terrified people rushed out of their houses into the street, expecting some such calamity as that which befell Reggio and Messina.

— The French steamer “General Chanzy,” rendered helpless by a fierce storm on the Mediterranean on February 11, was driven at full speed at night on the treacherous reefs near the Island of Minorca, and all but one of her 157 passengers and crew perished.

— At the present time there is a legislative bribery scandal being investigated at Albany, N. Y. Several of the State legislators, besides Senator J. P. Allds, whose conduct particularly is being investigated, are believed to be guilty of bribe taking.

— A prehistoric Aztec city has been discovered in the district of Peten, Guatemala, near the town of Benque Viejo. The discoverer of this ancient ruin, Count de Perigny, is conferring with the Guatemalan government with a view to excavating these ruins in the interests of historical research.

— Twenty-three Japanese were arrested on Laysan and Lisianski islands recently for the violation of the United States regulations against the killing of birds of plumage. These Japanese arrived in Honolulu, February 2, on the revenue cutter “Thetis,” together with 250,000 pairs of wings, which were seized at the time of the arrest.

— On the fifth of February the British steamer “Lima” was wrecked in the Strait of Magellan. Two hundred five of her passengers were taken off by the steamer “Hatumet.” On account of the storm raging at the time, however, she was unable to take off all the passengers, and eighty-eight were left on the wreck. The Chilean cruiser “Ministre Zenteno,” on February 15, took all the remaining passengers, so that none were lost. These had been clinging to the wreck for ten days.

— The National Geographic Society of the United States, and the Peary Arctic Club are uniting their forces for an expedition to discover the south pole. The steamer “Roosevelt,” in which Commander Peary sailed to the North on his last expedition, has been offered as the vessel to carry the expedition, and has been accepted as such. This expedition will sail during the present year for the South, as will also the English expedition under Captain Robert F. Scott. It is understood that the two expeditions will start from opposite points in the Antarctic Continent in their race for the south pole.