News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 26.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

—Bees stung a cow to death at Haywards, Cal., recently.

—The coming crop of oranges in Florida is estimated at 1,000,000 boxes.

—Small-pox in virulent form is reported to have broken out at Fort Davis, Texas.

—The use of the German language has been made obligatory in the German Parliament.

—The average longevity of newspapers in France is said to be the same as that of man.

—By the explosion of fire-damp in a mine near Saarbruck, Germany, recently eighteen miners were killed.

—At Salt Lake, June 26, the grand jury presented nine indictments for polygamy and unlawful cohabitation.

—The Chinese are in quandary, as some of the torpedoes submerged near some of the ports have gone adrift.

—The American steamer, City of Tokio, has stranded near Yokohama, Japan, and is a total wreck. Loss, about 1,500,000.

—Mrs. Carl Myers, of Mohawk, N. Y., has invented a flying-machine upon which she has recently obtained letters patent.

—It is said that a rudimentary toy illustrating the principles of the modern telephone has been used in China for the past 2,000 years.

—In Persia, no Christian is permitted to enter the public baths; but in Turkey they can visit the baths but not bathe with the followers of the prophet.

—A valuable mine of gold has been found in Shasta Co., Cal. A seventy-dollar chunk was taken out of the rock, and a panful of the rock contained fully $2,000.

—Among the so-called “insanities,” bad spelling is now classed by an Eastern writer. If the kinds of insanity are extended much farther we shall all be “insane.”

—Sir Charles Dilke, of the new English Ministry, announces that he proposes to devise a plan for the establishment of State Governments in Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

—The depopulation of France has been receiving considerable attention of late. M. Levant proposes that parents having more than two children be exempted from taxation.

—Parnell has succeeded in getting his candidate, Dr. Walsh, appointed archbishop of Dublin. This appointment has caused almost unbounded joy among the nationalists.

—As a result of the recent explosion of the powder mill at Luca, Italy, very few of the employees escaped death. Up to June 24, twelve bodies were recovered from the ruins.

—A posse of officers and citizens on the border of Indian Territory and Texas recently gave chase to a large gang of horse thieves and succeeded in capturing and hanging fifteen of the gang.

—Before Gladstone retired from office, he raised Sir Nathan Rothschild to the dignity of a peer. The Jews are much elated in having a representative of their race in the House of Lords.

—Mrs. Emily C. Jump, who six years ago was the leading soprano in Mapleson’s Italian Opera Company, was committed to jail by a New York City police court for being a common drunkard.

—Rebecca Samuels, in Barnesville, S. C., who is but twelve years old, has been convicted of the murder of a six-week’s old infant she was nursing. This is the second child she has killed in two years.

—Charles A. Buddensick, the builder, whose row of buildings in New York fell in a heap and killed many people, April 25, has been justly sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment and to pay a fine of $500.

—An Italian ship has been sheathed with glass to take the place of copper sheathings. The advantages claimed for glass over copper are its insensibility to oxidation and its exemption from incrustation.

—The British House of Commons has voted 6,000 pounds sterling (about $30,000) a year to Princess Beatrice while she lives. This makes about $4,298,145 that Great Britain now pays each year for the support of the royal family. That looks like a very expensive luxury to the people, but probably they enjoy it, and there can be no shadow of doubt that royalty enjoys it hugely.

—Balfour, chief secretary of Ireland, who has been permitted by the present premier, Salisbury, to speak for him, in a recent speech, said: “He [Salisbury] desires to see Ireland governed by equal laws with England.”

—The German Government has discharged all women who were employed in its postal, telegraph, and railway service, and much suffering has ensued. The motive alleged is that women are unfit for such public service.”

—A Syrian, who claims to have passed three months at the residence of the Mahdi after the fall of Khartoum, says that General Gordon was wounded, but that he has recovered and is held by the Mahdi as a prisoner.

—The Chronicle (S. F.) of June 27, says: “Whales are quite numerous off this port, and their spouting is plainly visible from Point Lobos, on a clear day. On Thursday last, several very large ones were bold enough to come inside the heads.”

—A gentleman who remonstrated with the conductor on an Alabama train for expelling a colored clergyman and his wife from the train when they had paid full fare, was threatened with a revolver and finally beaten nearly to death.

—The San Francisco Chronicle, of June 23, gives a sketch, taken from the New York Sun, showing that the eucalyptus, the large tree of Australia, far exceeds in height our largest tree, the sequoia, some of the first being about 500 feet high.

—It is said of the cholera in Spain that, “while Madrid politicians are upsetting the ministers and squabbling over King Alfonso’s wish to visit Murcia, loyal Spaniards are dying like flies, in the plague-stricken plains between Alicante and Castillon.”

—June 22, a silk-reeling school was formally opened, at No. 21 Montgomery Avenue, San Francisco. The instruction is free for an eight weeks’ course. All who prove to be adepts by the end of the term will be employed by the State Board of Silk Culture.

—The police of San Francisco recently gave chase to a couple of house thieves and succeeded in capturing one, but the other escaped to a room where they afterwards found eight ex-convicts, some of whom were smoking opium. The police took charge of the gang.

—June 22, Thomas Knott jumped from the middle of the Newport and Cincinnati Railroad bridge to the water, 105 feet below. He was unhurt and commenced immediately to swim for shore. He says he did not do it with intent to commit suicide, but from a sudden impulse.

—A circular issued by the Law and Order League of Portland, Me., where the Grand Army hold an encampment, has created considerable opposition from members of the Grand Army. The circular was to the effect that all liquors consigned to members of the Grand Army would be seized.

—The cholera scourge is working fearful havoc in parts of Spain. Already about 4,200 deaths have been reported, and the mortality is said to be about four out of every nine attacked. It has commenced so early that we may expect some parts of the country will be nearly depopulated by the plague before the summer passes.

—The Maxwell-Preller murder case of St. Louis, is exciting a good deal of comment. It seems that Preller’s life was insured for a large sum of money in an English life insurance company, which sum the company refuses to pay until a thorough examination is had to determine whether or not the body found in the St. Louis coffin was a fraud.

—An extraordinary case of mistaken identity occurred in Paris, last month. A body at the morgue was identified by four children, two sons and two daughters, as their father. The children, after signing the papers of identification, went home, to find when he had been last seen, and behold, to their great surprise he was there, alive and well.

—Dr. Max Busch has just won a prize of 40,000 francs for discovering the following test for ascertaining whether a person is really dead: Hold the hand of the supposed dead person up to a strong light and if a scarlet tinge is observed between the fingers, the blood still circulates and the person is alive; but if the scarlet tinge does not appear, life is extinct.

—It is proposed to send forth an International Commission that will undertake the thorough examination of the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The Khedive has given permission to make all needed excavations that will not injure the pyramid, and also to preserve and carry away a portion of whatever relics may be discovered. Twenty thousand dollars has already been offered to the Commission.