Current Events

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 3, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 14.

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—In Cleveland, Ohio, 1,500 machinists are out on a strike.

—A body of 800 Yaqui Indians are surrounded by Mexican troops.

—Winston Churchill, the British correspondent, asks for mercy for the Boers.

—German shipyards are overcrowded with war-vessels in course of construction.

—Great floods are interfering with the movements of the British troops in South Africa.

—Reports are afloat that the United States has purchased the Danish Antilles Islands.

—Two hundred Finns have reached Philadelphia. They are refugees from Russia’s power and cruelty to them.

—General Otis has suppressed a Manila paper, for publishing articles unfriendly to the present military government.

—England is becoming alarmed at Russian war preparations in southern Russia, 250,000 troops having been recently mobilized.

—The Japanese are uneasy over the arrival of a Russian squadron at Chemulpo, Corea, and fear a demand for a Russian harbor.

—A raft of 14,000,000 feet of lumber is about to leave Seattle, Wash., for Japan. If successful, the venture will be very profitable.

—The Merchants’ National Bank, of Rutland, Vt., has closed its doors, and the cashier is under arrest for misappropriation of funds.

—The largest blast furnace in the world was recently lighted at Youngstown, Ohio, its capacity being 600 tons every twenty-four hours.

—Enormous shipments of agricultural machinery and implements are going to Russia for the development of the vast wheat fields of Siberia.

—Transvaal agents recently offered Portugal funds with which to pay the Delagoa Bay award, which was decided in favor of Great Britain.

—A severe fight is in progress between the society of “boxers” and the imperial troops, at Yen Chin, China, each force numbering about 15,000.

—Work has begun on the $36,000,000 tunnel in New York City, for the underground rapid railway. Employment will be given to 10,000 men.

—General Cronje and his men have been deported by the British to the Island of St. Helena, the place to which Napoleon I was exiled.

—The Wedemosti, a St. Petersburg paper, contains a communication from Oman, the province of Arabia bordering on the Gulf of Oman, to the effect that “the Indo-British government is worried over the rapid increase in the smuggling of guns into the Persian Gulf territory. The British agent in Muscat demanded from the sultan the prohibition of the importing of arms into Oman, but the sultan called attention to the contract between Turkey and France, giving the latter free trade rights in Oman.” The value of the weapons imported into the province last year amounted to over half a million dollars; and, the Wedemosti continues, “the interesting part is that nine tenths of the weapons are of English manufacture.”

—It is announced that “the Paris exposition will be opened with great ceremonials on Easter Sunday, April 15, when the French government expects all national pavilions to be decorated and illuminated, and all foreign commissioners to be present with their retinues to participate.” The Northwestern Christian Advocate, commenting upon the situation, says: “We are told that, at the same time, President McKinley has ordered the American commission to observe an American sabbath, and to close the United States pavilion on that day. We are still further assured that ‘in deference to the French government it is probable that an exception will be made of the opening ceremonies.’” The exposition will close Nov. 15, 1900.

—With an overflowing treasury, President Dole, of Hawaii, and his cabinet find themselves confronted with “an absolute legal inability to use a dollar of the public money for the public service, after the end of this month.” This is because “there is no legislation to make the necessary appropriations.” Mr. Dole issued orders for the election of a new legislature, in September, 1899, but President McKinley ordered such election not to be held. Speaking of the situation, in the Independent, Dr. Bishop, of Honolulu, says: “We have a most capable government, but it has been made subject to Washington, and Washington has cut off our legislative arm, and with it the power to draw upon our treasury. In fact, we shall in a few days become incapable of paying our teachers, our police, our post-office, and our customhouse.”

—Italy’s ex-premier Crispi is seriously ill with influenza.

—A corps of 2,000 Boer women has been formed at Pretoria, fully armed.

—General Sir William Lockhart, commander-in-chief of the British army in India, is dead.

—Five hundred miners at Wilkesbarre, Pa., have struck on account of excessive docking.

—A general strike among machinists is talked of, because of union troubles in Chicago.

—The sheet steel interests of the country have consolidated, with a capital of $52,000,000.

—Eighteen hundred Free State Boers are reported to have given up their arms to the British.

—Robbers recently secured a valise containing 400,000 francs, from the Bank of France, Paris.

—General Davis cables that the situation in Puerto Rico is distressing, and asks for 500 tons of food each week.

—Seven thousand dollars has been subscribed for decorating Dublin, Ireland, during Queen Victoria’s visit.

—Commander Richard Wainwright has assumed charge of the United States naval academy at Annapolis.

—The American Bell Telephone Company and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company have combined.

—There exists a partial suspense in the war operations in South Africa. The Boer cause seems to be weakening.

—Queen Victoria discharged a groom from her stables for having the tail of a newly purchased saddle horse docked.

—The Carlisle (Ind.) Indian school band played at the White House, Washington, previously to sailing for the Paris Exposition.

—The United States district court judge of New York has refused to declare the corporation of Harper and Brothers bankrupt.

—Sixty acres of land, recently dislodged by an earthquake, on San Jacinto Mountain (California) slipped 150 feet down the mountain.

—Germany has conceded the right of the United States to send a war-ship to Taku, China, to look after the interests of American citizens.

—The principal chair manufacturers of this country are combining, with a capital of $3,000,000, and will be known as the Standard Chair Company.

—The British high commissioner of South Africa has stated that “Great Britain will repudiate all property trades of the Free Staters and Transvaalers.”

—It is said that Dr. Jameson, of the famous Jameson raid incident, is not welcome in Ladysmith, and for political reasons is excluded from service in the British army.

—By the burning of the wagon works at Flint, Mich., recently, over 500 men will be thrown out of employment. This, coupled with the destruction of the Armstrong steel works, is a severe blow to that city.

—In granting a part of their reservation to be used for the Illinois-Michigan canal, the Indians did so with the express understanding that they were forever to have the privilege of navigating it with their canoes.

—It is said that “Dr. J. M. Selfridge, of Oakland, Cal., has cured himself of a cancer of the face by the use of the X-ray, covering his face with thin sheets of lead, leaving only the cancerous growth exposed to the effects of the X-ray.”

—Ex-Congressman Springer says that “an acquaintance of his, a Creek Indian among our volunteers in the Philippines, found a tribe of Malays whose dialect was almost the same as that of the Creek nation. He could understand them, and they him.”

—A dispatch from Washington, D. C., says that “Admiral and Mrs. Dewey are going to make an extensive tour of Europe. They may be gone a year. They are to sail May 25. The Admiral will be in Paris to head the American delegates to the congress of navigation. Admiral Dewey will also have an audience with the pope. The date for this event has not been absolutely fixed. ‘Cardinal Gibbons has opened correspondence with the Vatican on the subject.’” It is said that Mr. Dewey is one of the few persons “of whom Leo XIII is one of the warmest admirers.”

—The Detroit religious weekly, the Christian Herald, is authority for the statement that “when the [late] vice-president and Mrs. Hobart signified to the Belgian minister at Washington their desire to entertain Prince Albert, the crown prince of Belgium, they were informed that Sunday evening would be an agreeable date for their royal guest to attend the proposed dinner party. To this proposal Mrs. Hobart returned a prompt refusal, giving even royalty to understand that on the Lord’s day Americans are engaged in something higher than giving dinners, a custom which she did not propose to infringe upon.”

—A fathom is understood to be about six feet, or the distance indicated by the stretch of a man’s arms.

—Four hundred farmers of Japan have demanded compensation from their government for the destruction of their crops by the poisonous exhalations from the great Ashio copper mines near Tokio.

—It is said that “the greatest known ocean depth is midway between the Island of Tristan d’Acunha and the mouth of the Rio de la Plata. The bottom was there reached at a depth of 40,236 feet, or nearly eight miles.”

—It is said, on good authority, that “in 1,300 places in Chicago, five eighths of a bushel of coal is sold to poor persons, for a bushel. Two hundred dealers give three quarters of a bushel, and three give honest weight. Inspector Quinn asked that new ordinances be adopted.”