Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 11, 1906

— Three hundred government inspectors began work at the Chicago packing-houses on October 3.

— A boat containing 200 persons was overturned while crossing the River Indus, on September 24, and 170 of the passengers were drowned.

— The new State capitol building at Harrisburg, Pa., was dedicated on October 3, President Roosevelt delivering the principal speech of the occasion.

— President Joseph Smith, of the Mormon Church, has been arrested. The warrant for President Smith’s arrest was sworn out after the alleged birth of his forty-third child by his fifth wife.

— The chairman of the Panama Canal Commission is arranging specifications covering the work of excavating the canal ditch, and will soon advertise for competitive bids for doing the work.

— The trustees of the Peabody Education Fund for the education of Southern blacks and whites, held their annual meeting at New York on October 3. The report of the general agent showed a distribution of $78,000 for that purpose.

— At Pocahontas, W. Va., on October 3, an explosion occurred in one of the coal-mines of the Pocahontas Colliery Company, entombing 100 miners. Nineteen of the dead had been taken from the mine up to the morning of the following day.

— Sunday, October 21, is to be observed in all the churches of the District of Columbia as Temperance Sunday, and all pastors are expected to address their congregations upon the subject of opposition to the liquor traffic on that day. This arrangement is made under direction of the Anti-Saloon League.

— Eight steamers of the Baltimore, Chesapeake, and Atlantic, and the Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia Railways are now tied up at Baltimore on account of a strike of all the licensed officers of those vessels. The men are striking for more pay. A meeting has been called between the directors of the companies and a committee of the steamboat officers.

— A severe earthquake shock was felt throughout the island of Porto Rico on September 27. The shock lasted thirty seconds, and seemed to increase in intensity. No serious damage was done, and no lives were lost, though there was much excitement among the people, and serious panics were narrowly averted in crowded buildings. The shock was also felt on the island of St. Thomas.

— In a rear-end collision between a regular passenger-train and a military special at Lansingburg, N. Y., on October 4, five persons were killed and thirty injured. The passenger-train was stalled by a faulty air brake, and the engineer of the military special was unable to operate the brakes of his train.

— Anarchy has become well-nigh supreme in Morocco during the past few weeks, and the sultan seems powerless to control the situation. The United States is pressing its demands for the settlement of the Perdicaris case, and it is reported that war-ships now at Gibraltar are to proceed to Morocco to enforce the demand.

— Germany has sent an energetic warning to Russia concerning the protection of the lives and property of Germans living in Russia. There is no doubt that Russia would heed the warning if she could; but just now even the czar would be glad of some plan by which he could guarantee the protection of his own life. It is reported that his recent yachting trip was superinduced by the information that the terrorists had purchased two air-ships from which they were planning to drop bombs upon the imperial palace.

— Further details of the storm along the Gulf Coast and through the Southern States, reported last week, indicate that about 125 persons lost their lives. Thirty vessels were wrecked, and property to the value of about $8,000,000 was destroyed. At times the velocity of the wind was said to have been as high as 100 miles an hour. Heavy vessels were forced up out of the water and carried considerable distances inland, trees and houses were leveled, fortifications destroyed or seriously damaged, and towns flooded to a depth of six to eight feet by the water driven up out of the Gulf by the fierce wind.

— At a special session of the Cuban Congress on September 28, President Palma and the members of his cabinet resigned, and American marines were landed to guard the treasury. As President Palma refused to reconsider his resignation, Secretary Taft, on the following day, proclaimed himself military governor of Cuba. Further detachments of marines were landed both at Havana and Cienfuegos, and orders for the mobilization of the American army of invasion were given. Secretary Taft issued a proclamation, setting forth the purpose of the United States to restore order in the island, protect lives and property, establish a provisional government, and supervise the holding of elections for officers of the future government of Cuba. He declared it to be the purpose of the United States to hold control of the island only long enough to restore order, peace, and public confidence. The work of disarming the soldiers of the Cuban government and the forces of the insurrectionists is going on slowly, but satisfactorily, under direction of American officers, and the disbanded troops are being sent to their homes. Mr. Charles E. Magoon, recently governor of Panama, has been appointed to take the place of Governor Taft as provisional governor of Cuba, and will soon sail for his post.