Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 24, 1902

— There is danger of a race war in southern Indiana, around West Baden and Frenchlick.

— Grain and fruit crops in France and Austria are reported to have suffered enormous damage from cold and rainy weather.

— Five railroad employees were killed in a train wreck at Middlesex, Vt., June 15, the accident being due to a washout which followed a cloud-burst.

— The Fort Hall Indian Reservation in Idaho was opened for settlement at noon on June 17, the appointed hour being marked by a rush of 1,300 men and boys, mounted and armed, across the line into the coveted territory.

— Congress has enacted a new pension bill granting twelve dollars a month to all persons who served one year in the Civil War, and thirty dollars a month for disability. This will add $1,313,000 to the yearly pension bill.

— No small disturbance has been caused in London and throughout Great Britain by reports of the illness of King Edward, which were of an uncertain character, the real truth of the situation being known only to a few. One report says that the sudden seclusion of the king was due to the discovery of a plot to assassinate him.

— The revolution in Venezuela still continues, with varying fortune for the opposing forces. The town of La Guaira was bombarded by the revolutionists on June 7, a number of the inhabitants being killed, and the telegraph and cable wires were cut. Later the revolutionists were driven away. It is reported that Caracas is preparing for a siege.

— The bodies of seven United States soldiers who were recently captured by Filipinos in Luzon, were found some time afterward in a dismembered condition, some of them so mutilated as to be unrecognizable. It is argued by some that the soldiers of civilized America are justified in imitating the savagery of the barbarians whom they are sent to conquer.

— The striking miners in the anthracite coal region are resorting to the boycott. A Wilkesbarre lace factory was closed, throwing one thousand persons out of employment, because five girl employees in the factory had relatives who had taken the place of strikers in the mines. There is a prospect of a general strike of miners throughout the country, involving 360,000 men.

— Six young men of Jersey City who were recently brought before Police Justice Murphy in that city, charged with having played baseball on Sunday, were discharged by the justice, who in releasing them made the following observation: “This court will not discriminate against baseball in the matter of Sunday law violations. This alleged violation of the law is no more of a violation than walking the streets for recreation on Sundays. Young men should have a little recreation. It keeps them off the street corners, away from evil resorts, and does them lots of good physically.” The men had been arrested on complaint of members of the Epworth League.

— Earthquake shocks are reported from France along the northern slopes of the Pyrenees.

— The number of Boers who have surrendered since the arrangement of peace terms in South Africa amounts to about 17,000.

— An appeal for 6,000 harvest hands comes from Kansas. The railroads will make a special rate of one-third fare to persons coming to supply this demand.

— Cholera prevails at Shanghai, China. About thirty foreigners have been attacked by the disease, and there is a heavy daily mortality among the natives.

— Mayor Ames, of Minneapolis, and the chief of police and five detectives of that city, are under indictment by the grand jury, charged with attempted bribery.

— Roman Catholics in the United States are protesting against the public school system being introduced by the United States in the Philippine Islands which they declare is under the management of Protestant ministers, who are employing it to the detriment of the Catholic religion.

— A “Christian-nation” government in miniature may now be seen in Zion City, on the lake shore a few miles north of Chicago, according to reports which appear in Chicago papers. Zion City is the community of the adherents of John Alexander Dowie, organized into a municipality, and governed by municipal laws like any other city, the law-making power centering in Dowie. The community is governed strictly according to the “will of God,” Dowie being the sole interpreter and definer of that will. We cannot vouch for all that is reported touching the strange regulations enforced in Zion City, but doubtless an impressive object lesson illustrating the quality of this kind of government can be had by the observer in that place.

— A Cincinnati telegram dated June 16 tells of the vigilance of Rev. W. F. Crafts in behalf of Sunday legislation in connection with the St. Louis world's fair. A meeting of Methodist ministers was in progress there, at which one clergyman, the Rev. E. P. Edmonds, rose and spoke of a telegram having been sent by Mr. Crafts to the secretary of the Reform League of Cincinnati, asking all ministerial associations of that city to send separate telegrams at noon of that day to President Roosevelt, calling upon him to see that none of the money voted by Congress to the exposition was turned over to the managers without an explicit promise from them that the Sunday-closing agreement will be strictly enforced. The Rev. Dr. Young, pastor of the largest M. E. congregation in the city, said he thought such a telegram to the president would be an insult.

— The city of Paterson, N. J., was the scene on June 18 of one of the worst riots that has taken place in this country in recent years. The striking silk mill employees, to the number of 3,000, led on by an avowed anarchist and inflamed with anarchistic sentiments, attacked the mills, waving red flags, hurling stones through the windows, and driving out the employees at work. The police appeared to be powerless to cope with the mob, and a pitched battle was fought in the streets, in which many shots were fired, quite a number of which took effect. Ten persons suffering from bullet wounds were received at the hospital, and as many more are believed to have received injuries. The majority of the rioters were Italians. Paterson is the center of the anarchist element in this country, and the affair appears to have been more an outburst of anarchy than a demonstration by working men. The mills were reopened the following morning under police protection.

— Is the savagery which has been practiced abroad under the imperialist spirit already coming home to make victims of the Anglo-Saxon race? What, if not this, is the meaning of the statements vouched for by soldiers of the Third United States Infantry, telling of the administration of the “water cure” to a civilized white man, a soldier, by the lieutenant of his company, as a means of military discipline? The report, which comes from Cincinnati under date of June 18, also states that a private named Roff was compelled to drill double time on an extremely hot day, as a punishment for not drilling well when he was ill, the result being that he fell unconscious on the drill ground, and was taken to the hospital in a critical condition. Stories of harsh military discipline are common, it is true, but the infliction of the “water cure” torture upon a civilized Anglo-Saxon by another person of the same race, at this time, is an incident full of significance.

— “National reform” effort at the national capital has succeeded in bringing before congress the following proposed Sunday law for the District of Columbia:—

“Be it enacted, etc., That it shall not be lawful for any person to keep open any place of business, or maintain a stand for the sale of any article or articles of profit during Sunday, excepting vendors of books or newspapers, and apothecaries for the dispensing of medicines, and undertakers for the purpose of providing for the dead, or others for the purposes of charity or necessity; nor shall any public playing of football or baseball, or any other kind of playing, sports, pastimes, or diversions, disturbing the peace and quiet of the day, be practiced by any person or persons within the District of Columbia on Sunday; nor shall any building operations or work upon railroad construction be lawful upon said day; and for any violation of this act the person offending shall, for each offense, be liable to a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than fifty dollars, and in the case of corporations there shall be a like fine for every person employed in violation of this act laid upon the corporation offending.

“SECTION 2. That it shall be a sufficient defense to a prosecution for labor on the first day of the week that the defendant uniformly keeps another day of the week as a day of rest, and that the labor complained of was done in such a manner as not to interrupt or disturb other persons in observing the first day of the week as a day of rest. This act shall not be construed to prevent the sale of refreshments other than malt or spirituous liquors, or to prevent the sale of malt and spirituous liquors as now provided for by law, or tobacco, cigars, railroad and steamboat tickets, or the collection and delivery of baggage.”