News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 18, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 24.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

—Cholera has broken out in Madrid, Spain.

—Sorghum is said to be poisonous to grasshoppers.

—The Japanese Government is making copper coins out of old copper cannon.

—A new process of making steel, called the Basic Process, has been invented.

—A cyclone struck Aden in Arabia, June 3, and destroyed property valued at £30,000.

—The capstone on the Washington monument has been slightly damaged by lightning.

—London produces 50,000 tons of soot per annum, which is worth $200,000, used as a fertilizer.

—The present indications are that the wheat crop in Oregon will be much larger than ever before.

—The Mahdi has issued a proclamation to the faithful that he proposes to invade both Egypt and Arabia.

—After an absence of seventeen years, swarms of locusts again appear in the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennessee.

—An artesian well on a desert section of Kern County, Cal., produces 1,575,000 gallons of water in twenty-four hours.

—At last New York has obtained control of the grounds on the United States' side of the Niagara Falls, for a public park.

—At New York City, about 400 new recruits to the Mormon church arrived recently; most of the party were from England.

—Grasshoppers in large swarms are doing much damage to gardens, grain-fields, and orchards near Santa Rosa and St. Helena, Cal.

—Consul Beckford Mackey, of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has been acquitted by a jury, of the charges against him for shooting the editor of a paper there.

—The rivers of Alaska Territory are said to abound in salmon, while the waters of Behring Sea, off the coast of Alaska, are swarming with codfish.

—A fearful storm passed over Iowa, June 12, killing a number of persons, injuring many more, carrying freight cars from the track, and doing much damage generally.

—Gladstone was defeated in the House of Commons, June 8, by twelve votes. He resigned, and the queen has summoned the Marquis of Salisbury to form another cabinet.

—A wild mob vented itself at Springvale, Maine, by breaking windows, and shooting into the buildings of those who had been instrumental in enforcing the prohibitory laws.

—Miss Brackett, who has been testifying in ex-senator Sharon's case, says she was induced to testify to a falsehood by the offer of $10,000 and a trunk full of new dresses.

—The Apaches, recently in Guadalupe Cañon, Arizona Territory, surprised a party of seven soldiers left in charge of provision wagons, scalped four, and helped themselves to provisions.

—General Kelton, of the presidio, near San Francisco, says of the Apaches: "The Indians have all crossed over into Mexico, and are now virtually out of the reach of our military interference."

—About twenty persons, living in and near Branchville, South Carolina, were badly poisoned by eating wild honey impregnated with poison from yellow jasmine. Four of the unfortunates died.

—Joseph Speakman, who now lies in St. Luke's Hospital, San Francisco, receives food through a rubber tube inserted into a hole cut into his stomach—he being unable to take food in any other way.

—A disastrous water-spout burst near Lagos, Mexico, on the 6th inst., destroying much property and drowning over 200 persons. At Pueblo Quarantas, the water rose in a few minutes to the height of twenty-five feet.

—The Catholic Standard, published at Philadelphia, says that O'Connell, when about to die, "sent his heart to Rome, his body to Ireland, and his soul to God." We wonder what O'Connell did with himself.

—On May 10, a keel, bound from Grimsby to Leeds, England, was driven against a sand-bank and capsized. As a steam-tug was passing, a noise of thumping on the cabin end of the keel was heard, and the tug concluded some one must be in there. A hole was made, and the captain's wife, Mrs. Snowden, and one of her children were rescued alive, after an imprisonment of nearly seventeen hours.

—Some peculiar relics of the cave dwellers were lately found in a cave in San Martin Mountains, Los Angeles County, Cal. They consisted of baskets, some kind of a peculiar musical instrument, wedges of horn, and some implements of war.

—James Bee, whom we reported a week ago as having been arrested for incendiarism at and near San Jose, Cal., has confessed to having set fire to the various ware-houses, mills, houses, and the depot, that were fired on the nights of May 31 and June 1.

—A balloon for military use has been constructed, and it has been recommended by the Ordnance Board of the U. S. Army, which is intended to sail over an opposing army, or squadron, and drop huge bombs filled with dynamite. "Destruction upon destruction is cried."

—A colored camp-meeting held near Yorkville, South Carolina, ended in a murderous row between town and country people, in which razors, pistols, and like instruments were used, resulting in one man killed, two mortally wounded, and twenty more or less seriously injured.

—At a banquet of the National Club held in Montreal lately, the toast for the evening was: "The Independence of Canada," to which the mayor of Montreal responded with enthusiasm. Six mayors of the cities in the province were present, and took part in the response.

—Cashmere, a small kingdom situated in a fold of the Himalayas in the northern part of India, has recently experienced another earthquake, diminishing its already declining population. A century ago its population numbered 1,500,000 of people while now it has but about half that number.

—At Theirs, a town in France, as a large crowd were leaving the Court House, the staircase fell, its immense mass of masonry came crashing down upon the struggling people, grinding and mangling them in a fearful manner. The number injured was 163, of whom twenty were taken out dead, and a number have died since.

—Commissioner Sparks of the General Land Office has recently submitted to Secretary Lamar a report of the official proceedings leading to the famous Maxwell land grant in New Mexico and Arizona, whereby nearly 2,000,000 acres of land were given to this one man despite the many actual settlers, Indians, and others, whom it would ruin.

—In Ohio, the Bell Telephone Company has about 12,000 complete sets of instruments in use, the total cost being about $40,000. Yet the company receives over $250,000 a year just for the rent, really receiving $200,000 yearly interest on the investment of $40,000. A committee of the Legislature has recommended that the company be restricted by legislation.

—At the Wine-growers' Convention held in San Jose, Cal., last month, it was claimed that there is no danger of overproduction of wine in California, and France was cited as an example in proof. It was said "that the consumption of wine increases with its production." We do not doubt this last assertion in the least, but we doubt the propriety of following France.

—A lunatic by the name of Louis Reaume, en route from Denver, Colorado, to Detroit, Michigan, took possession of the train, and with a revolver and plenty of ammunition successfully resisted all attempts at capture until he reached Chicago, where, after a desperate struggle in which he shot and killed one policeman, and received two shots in his own body, he was overpowered.

—The French free-thinkers showed their animosity to the cross in preparing the Pantheon for the reception of Victor Hugo's body. By order of the Government the arms of the cross which surmounted the main entrance were sawed off. The San Francisco Chronicle rightly says: "Americans, whatever their opinions may be, will view this operation with contempt. . . . What is the good of following the example of barbarous ages?"

—Postmaster Isaac Hibbs, of Lewiston, Idaho, who left that section of the country last May, has been practicing a rather novel system of robbery. As Lewiston is a mail distributing point, Hibbs took advantage of this to draw money-orders for a fictitious name, payable to a bank selected; he would then mail the order to the banker with the request for the money to be kept on deposit pending his arrival, following this with a second letter, directing that a check for the amount be sent by registered letter to the fictitious name used in the transaction, always giving the address of some office whose mail was distributed there. On the arrival of the registered letter, he took possession of it.