SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 22, 1885

SECULAR.

—Flaming posters openly advertise gambling houses in New Orleans.

—The Government of Gibraltar has offered 7,000 tents to the earthquake sufferers in Andalusia.

—The number of failures in the United States in 1884 was 10,968. The liabilities amounted to $226,000,000.

—By vote of the Italian Senate, 1,000,000 francs are to be immediately expended for the sanitary improvement of Naples.

—Natural gas is being furnished the inhabitants of Macksburg, West Va., as fuel, at $2 a month, without regard to the quantity used.

—The New York Sun says that the victims of opium indulgence in that city are already very numerous, including old and young.

—A vigilance committee, called the "Sicily Guards," has been formed in Gage County, Neb., to protect horses and mules from thieves.

—A comparison shows that it costs more to feed, clothe, and support the 55,000,000 Americans than to support 100,000,000 people of any other country.

—The steam-tug Mike Dougherty was completely demolished last week, near Elizabeth, Pa., by the explosion of her boiler. Two of the crew were killed, and six others badly hurt.

—Kansas climate is proving too severe on the colored people who settled there one year ago, and many of them are leaving for New Mexico, and other points in the Southwest.

—A terrific shower of stones lasting eighteen minutes, fell at Ushallata, Argentine Republic, last week. It destroyed all grazing and cultivated crops, leaving many persons completely destitute.

—General Butler has brought suit against the Boston Herald in which he claims $25,000 damages for the publication of an article reflecting upon his conduct on a certain occasion during the war.

—The late report of the California Secretary of State shows that the past year was the first one in twenty-five years that the State Department has not asked the Legislature for a deficiency appropriation.

—Five hundred pounds of dynamite exploded last week in the Somerset Chemical Works, two miles east of Somerset, Pa., killing two men. The shock was heavy enough to break glass in houses one-half mile distant.

—The Director-General of Italy reports that country to have 325 prisons, with a constant average population of 40,000 law-breakers. Over 6,000 of these are murderers. No other civilized nation has such a large proportion of criminals.

—The candies known as "chocolate bombs" and "rye-and-rock drops" have been found under investigation to contain large quantities of intoxicants. Chemical analysis shows that the "bombs" are strengthened with fusel oil and alcohol. The sale of these candies has been prohibited in Brooklyn, N. Y.

—An attempt was made the night of the 16th to blow up a hat establishment in South Norwalk, Conn., with dynamite. One end of the structure was completely blown out. Seventeen men were in the building, all of whom escaped without injury. Dissatisfied strikers are supposed to have done the work.

—The British ship Prince of Wales, with a cargo of furs estimated at about $500,000, is frozen in at Hudson's Bay, and it is feared that the vessel, with part of her crew, is lost. Some of the men reached the mainland badly frozen and nearly starved. An expedition has been formed to reach the vessel with sleds.

—The situation in Spain is truly deplorable. Another severe shock of earthquake was experienced in Granada, the night of the 16th. Those who have been driven from the cities to the fields are suffering the rigors of the most severe winter known in that region for years, the fierce winds having blown down their temporary huts. The people are nearly desperate from cold and hunger.

—The Baltimore and Ohio Telegraph Company have opened the new year with a reduction of telegraph rates. Between New York and points within a radius of about 300 miles, rates are reduced to ten cents per ten words. From Chicago to New York and Cincinnati the rates are fifteen cents; to St. Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, twenty cents, and to New England, twenty-five cents. All night messages to all these points are to be fifteen cents, which allow fifteen words. The Mutual Union Company promptly met the reductions of the Baltimore and Ohio with rates in no case higher, and in many still lower.