p. 111 | Notes of News

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 3, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 14.

Read the full edition

Notes of News.

—Gen. T. W. Sherman died March 16.

—A lively little revolution is in progress in Mexico.

—Complete anarchy prevails in Mandelay, Burmah.

—A fresh case of the plague is reported from Russia.

—Utah, with a population of 130,000, is knocking for admission into the Union.

—A Russian countess has been arrested for sympathizing with the Nihilists.

—Chicago has a Chinese school of twenty-six scholars, with a teacher for each.

—A French ironclad sunk March 21, off Hyeres; 47 men were drowned, out of a crew of 122.

—A recent fire in Akyab, Farther India, rendered 1,000 people homeless.

—The Presse, of Vienna, states that 7,000 men have risen in insurrection in Macedonia.

—Upward of 100 arrests have been made in Moscow in consequence of the assassination of a government spy.

—There is a little misunderstanding between Turkey and Greece, and the Turks are making warlike preparations.

—There is in Boston a Chinese Sunday-school, under the supervision of two missionaries, who are assisted by volunteer teachers.

—Rev. W. McAll, whose work among the workmen in Paris has been so successful, is urged to commence a branch mission in Toulouse.

—The 22d of March was Emperor William’s 82d birthday. The occasion was celebrated by a banquet given by the German residents of Berlin.

—The poet Cowper is to have a memorial church built in his honor at Olney, Eng. His only monument now is a memorial window at Barkhampstead.

—Connecticut proposes to register the drinks of its thirsty citizens by the bell punch, a bill to the effect having passed the lower House of the Legislature.

—An international exhibition is announced for next year in the City of Mexico. It is to be opened on January 14, if no revolution happens to be in progress at that time.

—The French Minister of Finance, Leon Say, has been able to clear himself from the charges recently brought against him. There is quiet in France again.

—The opening of T. De Witt Talmage’s trial in Brooklyn on the 24th of March was attended with considerable excitement. Talmage has bitter enemies and warm friends.

—A few days ago, a prairie fire occurred in Lincoln Co., Kan. A little boy 12 years of age perished in the flames, and two men were so badly burned that they died in a few hours.

—The celebration of St. Patrick’s day in Belfast, Ireland, March 17, was attended with riots, in which several persons were wounded. There was great excitement.

—Fears are entertained that there will be a still greater loss of life by the floods in Hungary. Renewed floods have covered 12,000 acres of land which had already been sown.

—On time,—a North Carolinian who has sent a $1000 Confederate note to Secretary Sherman, requesting him to put it on file for redemption at some future day.

—A submarine cable is to be laid to South Africa, connecting England with the whole Eastern system of telegraphy, extending to India, China, and Australia.

—29,000 spinners and weavers have sent a deputation to Paris to represent to the government the destitution in consequence of the reduction of wages, and, in some cases, the complete stoppage of work.

—The town of Minah, in Persia, was much damaged by an earthquake which occurred March 22 and 23, and two adjacent villages were totally destroyed. Out of 1,100 inhabitants, only a few escaped death.

—Terrible reports come of the sufferings of the fugitives from Bosnia, who have been driven back in the past winter to their devastated country, and are dying by hundreds and thousands from hunger and exposure.

—The distress for food among the Jews in Jerusalem, owing to a protracted drought, still continues. There is also apprehension that the locusts, that have come in enormous flights from the Jordan, may destroy the spring crops.

—The British have gained another victory in Afghanistan. General Kaufman says that “as regards any plans that may have been entertained by Russia with respect to Afghanistan, they have, for the present, been given up.”

—A saddening glimpse behind the scenes in the homes of the Gloucester (Mass.) fishermen is given in the announcement that the thirteen vessels lost in the gale last month carried 143 men, who, if lost, will leave 53 widows and 137 orphans.

—Some unknown party has destroyed a great portion of the monuments and tombstones in Evansville, Wis., by chipping them with a sharp instrument. The inhabitants are indignant, and will endeavor to ferret out the guilty ones.

—The subject of an autonomous government for Alsace and Lorraine is up for discussion in the German Reichstag. Bismarck expresses himself willing to grant these provinces the highest measure of independence consistent with the safety of the empire.

—The Christian Union asks: “Who will invent an undecipherable cipher for political use in the coming presidential contest? It must be capable of transmission by telegraph and telephone, and must be susceptible of at least three different interpretations, all of which shall be correct.”

—A dispatch dated London, March 26, says that the famine in Upper Egypt causes terrible suffering. In some villages, the people, naked like wild beasts, dig for roots. In one town women and children fought over scraps of bread. The inhabitants of the inland villages are said to be starving like dogs.

—The forthcoming Baptist Year for 1879 will show that the total number of baptisms for 1878 was 102,736; and that the total number of members in the Baptist churches is 2,102,034, being an increase of nearly 78,000 on the preceding year. Complete reports from all the associations in the United States would, no doubt, increase these figures.

—A telegraph has been invented by an English mechanical engineer. A writer in London moves his pen, and simultaneously at Brighton another pen is moved in precisely similar curves and motions. The writer writes in London, the ink marks in Brighton. The pen at the receiving end has all the appearance of being guided by a spirit hand. The apparatus is shortly to be made public before the Society of Telegraph Engineers.

—One more discovery in telegraphy! The Boston Post announces that the American Cable Company of New York has closed a contract which gives it the exclusive right to an invention by means of which it can send twenty messages of ten words each, per minute, and at a moderate expense telegraph the entire contents of a newspaper, so that it can be published simultaneously everywhere. There, now, is a chance for journalistic enterprise.

—St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York, is rapidly approaching completion, and it is expected that everything will be in readiness for the dedication, which will take place May 25, and in which it is expected that representatives of the Roman Catholic Church from all quarters of the United States and Canada will participate. The main altar at the east end of the cathedral will have a central spire fifty feet in height, and the reredos will be thirty-two feet wide. In the cardinal’s throne the material employed is English oak, richly carved; and in the reredos, marble from Italy and France, where it has been preparing. It is estimated that the cost of the altars will be about $100,000.

—It was a notable occasion which brought together the representatives of the Catholic press throughout the world to Rome to pay their homage to the pope. Seven hundred journalists were present, representing Italy, France, Spain, Austria, America, etc. It was a gala-day—February 22—many cardinals, archbishops, and bishops being present. Leo XIII. delivered an elaborate address, in which he counseled “a moderate tone of writing, which does not offend readers by an excessive or inopportune acerbity of style.” The most striking passage of the address, however, was that in which the pope avowed his determination to contend unflinchingly for the restoration of his temporal power. “The Roman pontiffs,” said he, “have ever felt it their sacred duty to defend this civil sovereignty from violation or disturbance, and to preserve intact the sacred rights of the Church of Rome; and we ourselves, following the example of our predecessors, have not failed, nor will we ever fail, to assert and vindicate those rights.” This gathering of journalists shows a purpose to unite them in the common advocacy of a papal policy, and to influence and guide them from the Vatican.