SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 9, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 15.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

—Michigan has 6,000 Indians.

—Kansas is $16,000,000 in debt.

—The U. S. Senate adjourned, sine die, April 2.

—Oregon is receiving more immigration than for the past two years.

—Philadelphians claim their city exceeds 1,000,000 in population.

—The Russian Government has just bought two vessels from an American firm.

—The receipts of the New Orleans Exhibition now reach about $6,000 per day.

—A number of British war vessels have been ordered to prepare for commission.

—The annual cost of maintaining the reading-room of the British Museum is $125,000.

—A report from London says that Russian troops are being massed at Urush Tashan, near Pendejah.

—The Act for Constitutional Prohibition has passed both houses of the Rhode Island Legislature.

—A test well at East Aurora, N. Y., at the depth of 1,350 feet, struck a solid bed of salt 78 feet thick.

—There are 5,000,000 colonies of bees in the United States, which annually yield 120,000,000 pounds of honey.

—The Alabama Legislature has enacted a law fining a man $100 if he gets drunk outside of his own house.

—General Barrios, the would be dictator of Central America, is reported dead, which as yet appears doubtful.

—The severest earthquake shocks known in California for some years, were felt Monday night, March 30, in various parts of the State.

—A party of sixteen persons will start in about a month on an exploring expedition to Alaska. They expect to be absent about two years.

—Twenty-three citizens of Wichita Falls, Tex. have been arrested on a charge of murder. They are said to belong to a league of assassins.

—Fire destroyed Schumacher & Ettlinger's lithographic art establishment, in Bleecker Street, New York, March 29. Total loss, $350,000.

—The Constantinople Government has issued orders to its officials to prosecute all magicians, denouncing them as common cheats and rogues.

—A perfect skeleton, to which was attached a ball and chain, was lately unearthed twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth near Savannah.

—A rival prophet named El Makki has arisen in the Soudan, which greatly alarms the followers of El Mahdi. His adherents are constantly increasing.

—The rebellion in Manitoba still continues. A battle was lately fought near Crozier, in which forty of the rebels were killed and as many more wounded.

—The British steamer Orestes, from Liverpool for Penang, came in collision with and sunk a Chinese steamer on March 30, and seventy persons were drowned.

—The American steamer Colon was seized March 30, at Aspinwall, by the revolutionists. The city, a place of 2,500 inhabitants, has since been burned by the insurgents.

—Parisians ate 13,000 donkeys, mules, and horses last year. The Academie de Medecine has awarded a prize to an essayist who strongly recommends a more general use of such diet.

—The sheriff of Cameron County, Louisiana, reports that there is no place in his county where intoxicating liquor is sold. As a result the county jail has been utilized as a corn-crib.

—The constitutional amendment providing for the submission to the people of Texas the question of prohibition, passed the house of representatives Monday, without discussion, by a vote of 72 to 16.

—Late advices from Tonquin state that the French have been badly beaten in their recent battles with the Chinese. The French commander entreats the War Office to send him re-enforcements immediately.

—Inhabitants on the banks of the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers are now living in fear of damage by freshet, as the warm weather advances. A great break-up is expected soon. Some are moving to higher points.

—A machine is in use at Melbourne, Australia, for sheering sheep by steam. It operates in the same manner as the ordinary shears, but cuts much quicker and cleaner, without the least danger of injuring the fleece or the sheep.

—The past winter has been one of destructive severity to feathered game in Illinois. Many prairie chickens have been frozen to death, and quails have been almost exterminated.

—The officers of the Manville, R. I., cotton mill, which employs 1,500 hands, have voluntarily advanced the pay of the employes five per cent., believing that the financial outlook will warrant it.

—The president appointed the following ministers last week: Thomas J. Jarvis, of North Carolina, to Brazil; Alexander Lawton, of Georgia, to Russia; Anthony M. Kelly, of Virginia, to Italy; Richard B. Hubbard, of Texas, to Japan.

—Kuhlow's German Trade Review reports that a firm of extensive iron workers in Essen, Prussia, are making gas out of water and that they are using this water gas in their works both for welding and for lights. What is coming next?

—A counterfeit twenty-dollar gold piece of the date of 1880 has made its appearance. It looks all right, and has a metallic ring, but may be readily detected by its light weight. It is the first counterfeit of the double eagle ever reported.

—A wretch committed an outrage in Merced, this State, was arrested, tried, received a thirty years' sentence in San Quentin Prison, and was safely lodged in that institution all within one week. The wheels of justice in that section have evidently been oiled recently.

—One of the industries of San Francisco is a match manufactory. With the improved machinery now in use a log of cedar can be taken to the factory, and in thirty minutes be sawed, split, glued, dipped in the sulphurous mixture, and boxed and labeled ready for shipment.

—Rowan County, Kentucky, is experiencing a reign of lawlessness. A political quarrel last year over the election of sheriff has grown into a bitter feud, until one side or the other has been espoused by nearly every citizen of the county. Several tragedies have already taken place.

—A literal fashion of “picking up a language” has been adopted by a recent traveler in Central Africa. He carries a phonograph with him, and makes a point of persuading the native chiefs to talk into the instrument. Thus he gets a lasting record of the tribal dialects, which he can bring back and submit to European philologists.

—The Retailer, a whisky organ, publishes a petition to Congress, in which it states that these petitioners are suffering greatly from the enforcement of the State laws which make it “unlawful for citizens to sell certain articles of diet on the seventh day of the week,” &c. It appears that these fellows have their theology about as badly mixed, as they have their whisky.