SECULAR by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 10, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 15.

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SECULAR.

By Editor

—More than one-half of the lawyers of Berlin are Hebrews.

—The public debt was reduced $14,238,324 during the month of March.

—Five men were killed by a backing train, at Scranton, Pa., on the 3d inst.

—A Berlin dispatch says the emperor has consented to the retirement of Bismarck.

—The President of the Mormon Church took five wives to the Patti concert at Salt Lake.

—A colony of twenty-five families are booked for Washington Territory from Pittsburg, Pa.

—Rumor says that a Cuban filibustering expedition has been organized at Key West, Fla.

—It is now Austria's turn to complain that her socialism is encouraged by anarchists in America.

—The Bennet-Mackay Atlantic cable is expected to reach Cape Ann, Mass., about the middle of this month.

—The California State Controller is resurrecting deficiencies in the accounts of past officials, going back as far as 1871.

—The number of killed and wounded in the Cincinnati riot is estimated at 200. The latest report is that fifty are dead.

—The steamer Daniel Steinman, from Antwerp, was wrecked off Sambro, Nova Scotia, on the 4th inst., and 129 lives lost.

—The Indians of the United States hold land enough to give each a large farm, and then have as much more as a common patrimony.

—Cremation is gaining favor in England. The city authorities of London have decided to establish a crematory at Ilford, a suburb of the East End.

—The editor of a comic journal in Madrid has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for publishing an offensive caricature of King Alfonso.

—A revolutionary printing office has been discovered at Kieff, Russia. Seven persons were arrested on charges of being connected with the office.

—The Parnell branch of the Irish National League has passed a resolution condemning Michael Davitt for inviting Henry George to lecture at Dublin.

—The latest news from the peace prospects of Europe is to the effect that Germany is enlarging her frontier defenses. A few weeks ago they were to be curtailed.

—The latest reports from the Soudan are discouraging for General Gordon. He has about given up the peace programme, and has not troops enough to adopt any other plan.

—At Laporte, Pa., on the 1st inst., four men engaged in a game of cards which resulted in a quarrel and the death of three of the party, the fourth being badly wounded.

—A steamer and valuable cargo of cotton were burned at Fitzgerald Landing, Ga., on the Chattahoochee River, on the 3d inst. Of thirty passengers, thirteen were missing.

—A number of Chinamen are landing at the Pacific ports in Mexico, and working their way inland. It is expected they will soon begin to enter the United States by way of the frontier.

—The coming presidential campaign is beginning to assume space in the news of the day; in a short time it will be the principal topic, excepting of course the criminal news, which always leads.

—Mormon influence is rapidly gaining ground in Idaho. In the last Legislature they had ten of the thirty-six members. Ten years ago they had one. An effort is being made to have Congress redistrict the Territory so as to neutralize the Mormon strength.

—At Belleville, Ill., last week a switchman left his post and went into a saloon to get a drink. As a result of leaving an open switch, a car of a passing train was thrown down the embankment, killing one man, and injuring twenty-nine others, some of whom will die.

—A raging fire is reported in the pine forests of North Carolina, extending about fifty miles between Raleigh and the South Carolina line. It was carried along by a heavy wind-storm. Turpentine distilleries, as well as large quantities of resin and other stores were destroyed. The Raleigh and Augusta Railroad runs many miles through the burned district.

—A Chinaman serving a term in the San Francisco city prison for keeping an opium den, has petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, on the ground that the offense is not mentioned in the Penal Code of the State, and is therefore not an offense. Of course some sharp lawyer sees money in this plea, if it can be made to stand, and would care nothing for the results otherwise.

—Intelligence has reached St. Paul of great distress among the Indians at the Poplar River Agency, and an outbreak is not improbable. Although money has been appropriated by Congress for their relief, red tape will probably cause a delay of several months in its reaching them. A missionary at Poplar River writes: "From six to eight die every week from starvation. The white people have given them all the spare clothing they have, yet hundreds of them are nearly naked. Scores of them are sick with pneumonia and other diseases brought on by exposure, and with nothing to eat."

—A Rome correspondent reports an archbishop as saying that the pope holds the Vatican only on sufferance, and at any moment might be ejected. He added, "We may yet ask hospitality of the United States." A dispatch of the 3d inst. reports that there was an agreement between the pope and the queen that the papal organ was to cease attacks on the king, and the latter was to procure a favorable judgment in the matter of the Vatican property. Now, considering the adverse judgment, the pope feels that he has been trifled with. There is quite a sensation in Europe on the subject, and strong notes have been sent to the Government from different powers, especially Germany and France, which augur a reaction in favor of the pope.

—The Christian Union presents a suggestive diagram showing the relative annual expenditures in this country for certain articles and purposes, based on the census of 1880. By far the largest amount is for intoxicating liquors—$900,000,000. The next item is bread, $505,000,000. Then follows meat, $305,000,000. After this in regular order is, iron and steel, $290,000,000; woolen goods, $237,000,000; sawed lumber, $232,000,000; cotton goods, $210,000,000; boots and shoes, $196,000,000; sugar and molasses, $155,000,000; public education, $85,000,000; Christian missions, $5,500,000. It takes away the disposition to boast of our "great nation" to reflect that the whisky bill is greater than the expenditure for bread, meat, education, and Christian missions combined. Truly our people are great drinkers, and the missionary spirit seems almost insignificant as compared with other interests.

—Cyclones were reported on the 2d and 3d insts., in various parts of the country. In the Monongahela Valley, Pa., much property was destroyed and several persons injured—four reported killed. Another storm in the vicinity of Reynoldsville, O., blowing down many buildings and killing stock. Another passed through Honey and Blackford Counties, Ind., doing much damage to property, and killing six adults and a babe, as far as heard from. Others were badly injured, some being carried many rods by the wind. A Huntsville, Ala., dispatch also reports a fearful storm in that vicinity, greatly damaging timber and other property. Two women were killed at one house, and a babe was blown so far that it was not found till the next day; but it was still alive. Other parties are reported injured. And the tidings come from South Carolina, of a hurricane wrecking a railroad depot and other buildings at Camden; also that the town of Timmonsville was nearly destroyed, several persons killed, and many injured; also the town of Rockville in another part of the State, was said to be suffering from a violent storm and fire. This is the most extensive storm record of the season.