News and Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 1, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 41.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

—A plowman recently turned up $30,000 on the old Bender farm in Kansas.

—The printers of New York have made a successful strike for uniform rates.

—The recent rain-storm is reported as quite general from Shasta to Monterey.

—Provincetown, Mass., has taken in about 10,000,000 pounds of codfish this year.

—Port Antonio, Jamaica, was nearly annihilated by fire Oct. 18. Loss, over $1,000,000.

—A Chinaman in the Oroville jail, under sentence of death, died last week of consumption.

—The Naval Advisory Board has recommended the construction of seven new naval vessels.

—The fire losses in the United States during the month of August amounted to $10,000,000.

—Belva Lockwood, a female pension attorney, has been debarred from practice in Washington on account of irregularities.

—An explosion in a squib factory at Kingston, Pa., last week, caused the death of five children, and the severe injury of three others.

—On Tuesday of last week Albert Fitzer, at Newcomerstown, Ohio, cut the throats of his wife and three children, and then committed suicide.

—The battalion guarding the Ministerial building at Madrid, has been suddenly replaced, and subsequently disarmed. The battalion is suspected of being infected with revolutionary principles.

—The Czar has decided to grant Russia more freedom, and such reforms as are suited to the spirit of the people. He has intrusted to Count Tolstoi and Count Kajoff the task of preparing a constitution.

—Cholera has reappeared at Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt, causing a panic. At the former place passengers are returned without landing.

—By the upsetting of a circus car at Bridgeport, Conn., two elephants were injured, a panther escaped and killed a horse and four bloodhounds.

—A single highwayman robbed two stages almost in sight of each other, as they successively passed up a hill, near Meahama, Oregon, on the 23d ult.

—It is now reported that Chiefs Juh and Geronimo, of the marauding Apaches, have outwitted the Mexican military, and escaped from a supposed trap.

—Canada is rejoicing in the acquisition of a new Governor-General, the Marquis of Lansdowne, who recently arrived and was sworn in amid great pomp.

—A broken rail caused a disaster on the Louisville Railroad, six miles from East St. Louis, a few days ago. Thirty-seven persons were injured, but only one killed.

—The Central Pacific has joined the overland freight cutting move, and announces a reduction of forty-three cents a hundred between Salt Lake and San Francisco.

—David Rich, son of the Mormon apostle of that name, has been convicted of robbing Zion's Savings Bank, and sentenced to eighteen months in the penitentiary.

—The large medicine factory of Dr. J. H. McLean, St. Louis, Mo., was burned on the night of Oct. 23. The loss on this and adjoining buildings amounts to $100,000.

—A Paris dispatch says the general impression is that all negotiations for the peace of France and China are exhausted. War, unless mediation intervenes, is inevitable.

—During a fire which broke out in a Japanese prison not long since, no less than sixty-one prisoners were burnt to death, while 150 others were more or less severely injured.

—Thirteen business houses were burned at Mills City, M. T., Oct. 23. The remainder of the town was saved by blowing up buildings in the range of the fire, with blasting powder.

—The steamer Rio Janeiro, which sailed from San Francisco for China on the 24th ult., took 605 Chinese passengers who had procured return certificates from the Custom House.

—A man named John S. Murray, of Port Costa, endeavoured to board a moving train at Oakland, last week, but, being somewhat intoxicated, he missed his footing and fell under the wheels of the car, and was instantly killed.

—At Carmi, Ill., Oct. 23, a young negro lad killed himself with a "didn't-know-it-was-loaded." He had snapped it at other members of the family and laughed at their protests. He then placed it to his own head, when it went off, killing him instantly.

—The new Atlantic and Pacific route across the continent runs through sleepers from San Francisco to St. Louis. Representatives of other routes, however, claim that it is better for passengers to have a change on the way, with freshly dusted and aired bunks.

—Duke Johann Albrecht, of Mechlenberg-Schwerin, grandson of the Emperor of Germany, and two other German noblemen, were passengers on the China steamer Tokio, which arrived in San Francisco last week. These notables are on a trip around the world.

—As the result of gambling speculations, two notable failures are reported—that of John L. Gliddon, Secretary of the Republican Iron Company, Cleveland, O., for $111,000; and that of Wm. Young, President of the Commercial Bank, Redding, Pa., for $72,000.

—Morton G. Clark, and Charles W. Stone have been arrested at Jamaica, Vt., on a charge of counterfeiting. They belonged to an organization of twenty-three young persons, with a complete counterfeiting outfit, which was seized, with a quantity of spurious coins.

—A band of six embryo bank and train robbers was broken up in Kansas, recently, by taking into their confidence a seventh party from Missouri, who proved to be one of Governor Crittenden's detectives. He spoiled their plans before they had accomplished any depredations.

—The Banks County, Ga., kuklux trials began Oct. 23. Calvin Bush testified that the mob stripped him and gave him 175 lashes. The witness undressed and showed the scars. Ben Sanders testified that he was shot three times and left for dead. Eight persons have been convicted.

—Two boys, each eleven years old, were convicted, Oct. 24, by an Oakland Justice, of trying to fire a car that was standing on a side-track at the Sixteenth-street depot. They were sentenced, respectively, to four and two days in the county jail. The sentence was rather disciplinary than punitive.

—Early on the morning of Oct. 23, an earthquake threw down a section of the bluff on the Merced River, just below the falls. The mass entirely filled the river bed, and turned the current into an adjacent slough. Large quantities of fish were collected from the deserted channel, below the newly-made dam.

—The latest nihilist proclamation is being extensively circulated. It demands of the Czar to summon representatives of the Russian people, and asks for full amnesty, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to hold public meetings as the only means of preventing revolution. Pitiless vengeance is threatened if the demands of the nihilists are disregarded.

—Henry Ward Beecher advices young men to go to the Northwest. He says "there will be great cities built on Puget Sound, and large towns, depots and trade centers in Oregon, Washington Territory, Idaho, Montana and Dakota—an expanse of country which in agriculture, mineral and grazing resources scarcely yet feels the effect of emigration." All of which is no doubt true.

—Many inhabitants of Smyrna are fleeing from the city on account of fear of further earthquakes. The Government has sent a sufficient quantity of lumber to construct 3,000 sheds for the shelter of those rendered homeless by the catastrophe. The editors of the local papers here have formed a committee for aiding the sufferers. Slight shocks are still occurring at long intervals, but are doing no damage.

—A Mexican implicated in the murder of four men at Deane, near Gardner, Col., a few nights ago, was overtaken by a band of armed citizens soon after. A rope was placed around his neck, and the other end made fast to the horn of a saddle. The horse was then frightened into a run, dragging the poor culprit over rocks and stumps until life was extinct. When captured he stated that he, with his companions, had been hired to commit the murder.

—The Railroad Commission of this State has decided to reduce freight rates on the Central and Southern Pacific Railroads, by transferring certain kinds of material and goods from one class to another, thus giving present first-class goods the benefit of second-class rates, and so on. Such a process, it is claimed, would reduce rates of freight charges on the two railroads to which the order applies, from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent on the present schedule tariff.

—A colonization company has been organized in San Francisco for operations in Honduras. They have obtained a conditional grant of 500,000 acres of land. President Soto, of Honduras, has been visiting California and showing up the advantages of his country for all kinds of industry. Great public enterprises in process and in contemplation, it is thought, will create permanent markets for all manner of productions. Our advice to friends is, don't all go at once.

—The country of Corea is virtually a revivified fossil. But a few years ago it would have nothing whatever to do with foreigners, now it is getting up an industrial exhibition, and invites the United States to participate and send samples of machinery, agricultural implements, etc. Our Government was the first to conclude a treaty of amity and commerce with that exclusive people, as it was also with Japan, and the Coreans are manifesting a readiness to acknowledge an intimate relationship.

—In the German Reichstag, Bismarck has introduced a bill prohibiting the emigration to foreign countries of persons whose obligations to country, families, creditors, and employers, are unsettled. The bill is especially directed against a class of men who have hitherto found in emigration easy and effectual methods of severing onerous or disagreeable family ties, breaking contracts with employers, and evading the payment of debts, etc. It is believed that, should the bill become a law, which it undoubtedly will, there will be a very perceptible decrease in the number of Germans who seek homes in foreign lands.

—The European style of preparing for peace is illustrated on the part of Russia in this way. Official reports show that 150 regiments of Cossacks of the Don are being placed on a war footing. It is certain that orders have been given to restore Sebastopol immediately as a first-class fortress, and that a standing garrison of 5,000 men is to be stationed there. Dock-yards capable of floating the largest iron-clads are to be built. Six new gun-boats and twelve sea-going torpedo vessels are in course of construction for the Black Sea fleet. Forty Russian naval officers have been drafted to form a Bulgarian flotilla and more officers will join the contingent.

—The Mount Hermon School for boys, at Gill, Mass., was opened by Mr. Moody just previous to his departure for Europe. These schools have been opened without any trumpet-blowing or newspaper notoriety. They cost, including land, $200,000. Several individuals gave $5,000 each for the new buildings for the boys, and it was proposed at first to name each after the donor; but Mr. Moody did not approve of it, as is shown by the following characteristic note: "Brother Lee, I don't believe it will be for the glory of God to name the buildings after any man. D. L. Moody." So it was decided to call the school Mount Hermon. The buildings are erected away from villages, and are enclosed by hills. This was done according to a theory of Mr. Moody's that it was better to keep children away from temptation until their minds were fully matured.