p. 191 | Notes of News

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 24.

Read the full edition

Notes of News.

—A HEAVY SHOCK of earthquake was felt in Bermuda May 28. There was no loss of life.

—The River Po has made a breach in the embankment between Sermide and Revere, doing serious damage.

—The Amur River and the tributaries in Eastern Asia have overflowed, and it is thought a famine will ensue.

—Several females of the royal family of Burmah have been placed in irons, and will probably be starved.

—An avalanche at Fontana, Switzerland, has destroyed a church and several houses, and killed six persons.

—A plot to blow up the court in which the despotic military tribunal at Kief, Russia, is sitting has been discovered and frustrated.

—Ferd Delessers is about to issue a prospectus inviting subscriptions to the Panama canal project. He goes to the Isthmus in September.

—The Russian towns of Walnike and Gbojet, and four large villages in various districts, have been burned, and thousands of peasants reduced to beggary.

—Dean Stanley says that the total contributions of the whole Roman Catholic church do not equal one-third of the contributions of the Protestant churches of Great Britain.

—An Italian government grant of $100,000 has been proposed for the relief of the sufferers by the Alexandria floods and the Mt. Ætna eruption. The sum is wholly insufficient.

—At Newark, Vt., nine children have died from drinking the water of a stream poisoned by the decaying carcasses of animals which had been thrown into it. Five of these were from one family.

—Mantua, Italy, is inundated, and Rovigo is seriously threatened. At the latter place 2,000 men are at work strengthening the embankments of the river Mincio. The river Adige has also risen.

—Owing to the continued increasing eruption of Mt. Ætna, the village of Majo has been abandoned. The bed of the Alcantara river is covered with lava, and agriculture has been seriously damaged.

—Four revolutionists, named Endelmann, Ossynuke, Brandtner, who was a Prussian subject, and an unknown man, who is believed to have been the conspirator Antonoff, were hanged at Kief June 2.

—The democrats swept everything in the late judicial election at Chicago, giving such large majorities to their candidates that the republican majorities in the townships of Cook county cannot overcome them.

—At Salt Lake, recently, Judge Emerson sentenced Miles, convicted of polygamy, to pay a fine of $100 and imprisonment for five years. An appeal has been taken to the Utah supreme court, and the bond fixed at $5,000.

—The Ohio Democrats have nominated Gen. Tom Ewing for governor, and Gen. A. V. Rice for lieutenant-governor. The greenbackers nominated Gen. A. Saunders Piatt for governor, and Hugo Preyor for lieutenant-governor.

—If the puddler’s lockout continues at Pittsburgh, Pa., nearly 50,000 men and boys will be thrown out of employment. A meeting is to be held between representatives of the employers and employes, to endeavor to agree upon arbitration.

—Later reports of the naval battle off the Peruvian coast show that the Peruvian ironclad turret ship Huascar sunk the Chilian wooden ship Esmeralda, and the Peruvian armor-plated ship Independencia, in pursuing the Chilian wooden ship Covadonga, ran on a reef and was wrecked.

—Official reports from Cashmere say that it is impossible to exaggerate the distress the famine is causing there. The Maharajah of this province, at the urgent request of the Viceroy of India, is proceeding to Seringapur to superintend the organization of relief. Three thousand five hundred tons of grain are in transit to the Valley of Cashmere.

—London, June 4.—The Vienna correspondent of the Times says the relations between Russia and Turkey have become cooler in consequence of the events attending the installation of Aleko Pasha. The Sultan particularly begins to doubt Russia’s sincerity, because of the discovery of correspondence between Slav committees in Russia and branches throughout Turkey, showing a design for the union of all Bulgarians in accordance with the treaty of San Stefano.

—Madrid, June 1.—King Alphonso opened the Cortes to-day. In his speech he declared that the ministry will continue the practice of liberal principles. Relations with foreign powers are satisfactory. The budget will contain no new changes.

The government will submit measures to alleviate the effects of the ten years’ war in Cuba, and with the Cortes will endeavor to assimilate the position of the colony to that of a province of Spain, and hasten the complete abolition of slavery.

—It is said that the late Portugal ministry, before its retirement, concluded a treaty with Great Britain, looking to the suppression of the slave trade, the development of commerce, and the civilization of Africa. The treaty provides for the freedom of commerce and navigation between adjoining British and Portuguese colonies, declares the Zambeze River free to the commerce of the world, and grants Great Britain facilities for the passage of troops and munitions of war across Portuguese territory to South Africa.

—Recent dispatches from Kansas show that the loss of life caused by the cyclone is much greater than at first reported, reaching appalling figures. At Irving and Frankfort 20 deaths are certain, and 65 people are badly injured. The dead are all buried, and the wounded are being tenderly cared for by a committee of relief of surgeons and citizens.

In the vicinity of Delphos, Ottawa county, 15 deaths are reported and many wounded, while accounts are coming in of casualties in other parts of the county traversed by the storm. It is certain that no less than 40 have been killed and 70 or 80 wounded, all the latter very severely.

There is much distress at Irving among people whose houses have been wrecked, and they want money for immediate necessities which are at hand. Fifty to sixty families are houseless and destitute at Frankfort, and more aid is needed. At Sabettua 85 to 100 persons are destitute, and bedding is badly wanted at Beattie. The destruction of property will foot up very largely, but no reliable estimates can be made. Hundreds of houses have been destroyed, and the crops in the path of the cyclone utterly ruined. Its track varied from three-quarters of a mile to a mile in width, and wherever it touched the ground it swept everything of houses, trees, and crops. It lifted every drop of water out of the Blue River where it crossed, and in passing a well at Irving scooped it dry.

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY.

Saratoga, N. Y., May 28.—The American Baptist Publication Society held its fifty-fifth anniversary this afternoon. An abstract of the annual report was read. At the close of last year the society had a debt of $25,000. By earnest efforts in January $19,420 was collected, and the balance had been covered by reliable subscriptions. The total receipts of the business and missionary departments were $335,413, being $30,800 over last year; $57,000 was donated by churches and received from invested funds for missionary work. The total issues of the society since 1824 foot up 107,500,000 books, tracts, and periodicals. During the year the society’s colporteurs visited 650,000 families. All the missionaries appointed since 1867 are strictly missionary, and have organized 4,000 Sunday-schools. Among the wants are $10,000, to be invested, the income to be used in the distribution of Bibles among colored people, and a like sum for a permanent fund.

Messina, Italy, May 30.—The eruption of Mount Ætna which is now in progress is the 79th eruption of this volcano of which there is record. It promises to be one of the most memorable of this long list of eruptions. It is continually increasing and assuming vast proportions. Enormous showers of ashes have fallen in Messina, which is forty-five miles northeast of the mountain, and they have also reached Reggio, in Calabria, nine miles southeast of Messina. Showers of ashes and clouds of smoke issuing from the volcano obscure the sun, and give to the scene an indescribably somber and lugubrious aspect. Vast streams of lava are flowing down the sides of the mountain and threatening destruction to Santa Maria and other villages at the base. The craters have thrown out immense fire balls, which burst with great brilliancy and tremendous reports. The scene is impressively and terribly grand. Several severe shocks of earthquake have been felt at Messina, and the apprehensions of citizens are excited to a very high pitch. A stream of lava flowing down the mountain side is already 280 feet wide and four miles long. The three new craters are very active.