p. 203 | ITEMS OF NEWS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 5, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 17.

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ITEMS OF NEWS.

—Bishop Merrill lately organized a Methodist Conference in Rome.

—The Germanic, which arrived in New York, April 25, brought $1,000,000 in gold.

—The Philadelphia Mint is exclusively at work on gold, at the rate of $3,000,000 a month.

—Two severe shocks of earthquake occurred at Hollister on the morning of the 25th ult.

—The fund for the relief of the widow of John Brown, as far as heard from, amounts to about $2,500.

—A number of experiments are being made in the Mussel Slough, Cal., district in the planting of sugar-cane and cotton.

—Russia has, by a circular note, invited the Powers to a conference for the purpose of considering measures against the Anarchists.

—A large portion of Greenville, Plumas Co., Cal., was destroyed by fire, April 23. The loss is estimated at not less than $100,000.

—The New York Police Commissioners, it is reported, have been indicted by the Grand Jury, because of their failure to clear the streets.

—A German butcher named Joseph Kenn, residing on 9th street, S. F., while under the influence of liquor, killed his wife, Sunday morning, May 1.

—The Russian executioner, Frohtaff, received 100 lashes for mismanagement in the hanging of the Nihilist, Michaloff, whose rope broke twice.

—In Buenos Ayers the gold value of paper money is four cents on the dollar. And yet the government declared that it is a dollar. A rather weak "fiat."

—The dwelling house of Mayor H. S. Ball, of Salinas, Cal., was burned on the evening of the 22d ult. Mrs. Ball and her two daughters perished in the flames.

—Russia is reduced to a state of anarchy. The Czar has taken up what he considers safe quarters, guarded with great care, but dares not go out. Pity the poor kings!

—Ten cars of coal and four box-cars filled with coal oil were burned yesterday on the New York and Philadelphia Railroad track, near Buffalo, N. Y., April 25.

—The Indians in Dakota are on the war-path. All the hunters have been driven from the vicinity of Buford. Troops have been sent for the protection of the whites.

—The South-Side Street Railway Company, of Chicago, have finally decided to adopt the California system of endless chain cable. Work will be begun immediately.

—The Oneida Community, rooted out of the States with so much difficulty, has established itself, with all its immoral characteristics, on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.

—The New York Assembly has passed a bill fixing the telegraph rates for fifteen words or less to any point in the State at twenty cents, and half this rate to newspapers.

—A Galveston, Texas, dispatch states that both the east and west bound stages were robbed near Sabinal, April 30. The mail sacks were ripped open and all the registered packages extracted.

—The small-pox is epidemic in London. During 28 days in April, 1,500 cases were turned away from the hospitals because they were full, and 300 persons died in their own homes of small-pox.

—James T. Fields died April 24, aged 64 years. He was well known in the literary world in the old publishing firm of Tichnor & Fields, as editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and an author and lecturer.

—April 28, in Louisville, Ky., four boys between 12 and 14 years of age were struck dead by lightning while playing during the noon recess at school. The clothing and bodies of the boys were badly burned. Two other boys were stunned by the shock.

—Nevada City, Cal., has adopted a resolution appropriating $2,000 for the purchase of an electric light of 12,000 candle-power, with which to illuminate the streets of the city. This is the first city on the coast to adopt the electric light for street illuminating purposes.

—A party of Irish land leaguers, armed and masked, recently seized a bailiff and roasted him over a slow fire until they forced him to swear that he would resign his office. His case is reported to be hopeless. Such barbarous cruelty will not be likely to help the Irish cause.

—At Pueblo, Col., on the 22d ult., a passenger car jumped from the track and rolled down an embankment 150 feet. Eight persons were instantly killed, and others seriously injured. The accident was thought to be due to the softening of the ground by the late heavy rains.

—The Baptist papers refer with great satisfaction to the course of Rev. Edward Judson, of Orange, N. J. He resigns his pastorate in a wealthy church to become a missionary in New York City. He begins work in September. Meantime, he is to finish a life of his father, Adoniram Judson, the famous missionary to Burmah.

—On the morning of April 28, a ferry-boat while crossing Fox river at Elgin, Ill., was capsized in mid-stream in 15 feet of water. Forty persons were on board, and of these, 13 are known to have been drowned. All but one of these were children, who, since the destruction of the bridge by the flood, have been obliged to go to school by ferry.

—The new Czar of Russia has received a large number of letters, warning him of the existence of plots against his life. The Ministers and Court officials have received copies of a Nihilist manifesto condemning the Czar to death. The Czar is immured in an unimportant chateau, guarded by six cordons of soldiery, and his palace at the capital is surrounded by three hundred guards.

—The Los Angeles Herald says: "With regard to the Holiness Band, now holding meetings here, there is a growing sentiment in this community that a little less Pharisaism and a little more unobtrusive religion, would be all the better for all concerned. Many well-thinking people also think the 'Perfectionists' display an uncommon and probably disgusting familiarity with the name of the Saviour."

—As a consequence of the accumulated filth in the streets of New York City, great fears are entertained for the safety of that city the coming summer. The Herald says: "We have it on the authority of the most eminent physicians of the city, and their opinion is sustained by the whole profession, that New York is now on the verge of a pestilence; that, in fact, premonitory symptoms of the plague have already appeared."

THE response of the Russian Government to the Senate resolutions on the assassination of the Czar, a copy of which was transmitted by Secretary Blaine to the Senate this afternoon, is in the form of a letter from the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs to Minister Foster, and has the following paragraph: "My august master has been profoundly touched by this mark of respect for his beloved father, and of sympathy for himself, coming from the high assembly of a country for which the deceased Emperor always professed sincere esteem and warm friendship. It is a legacy which he leaves to the Emperor Alexander III., and which his Majesty, in accord with the Russian nation, accepts from the bottom of his heart."

THE Central Methodist, under the head of "The Theater Helping the Church," says: "We clip the following notice from one of our most valued exchanges, the Kentucky Advocate: 'The Somerset Amateur Dramatic Troupe, under the auspices of the Baptist church, this city, will give theatrical entertainments at Owen's Opera House on the 24th and 25th inst., the proceeds to be used for the benefit of the church.' What next? Will we, in less than twenty years, have the theaters in the church of God? It seems very probable, unless there is a change for the better. * There are three evils that are gradually working our ruin: The number of persons who unite with and remain in the churches unconverted; the want of discipline; and the supposed modern progress displacing sober and sensible religious faith and practice. It is a miserable expedient to raise money for the cause of Christ by resorting to the worldly and sensual tastes of the unregenerate. When our church buildings are once taken for tableaux and theaters, from that day not one preacher in forty can satisfy the vulgar demand for show and sense."