ITEMS OF NEWS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 14, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 15.

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ITEMS OF NEWS.

—Several inches of snow fell in Northern Virginia April 7, being the third snow this month in that State.

—Delaware peach orchards have been severely injured by heavy frosts, and the crop for this year ruined.

—The heaviest snow-storm of the season was reported at Des Moines, Iowa, April 8. It soon turned to slush.

—Hobart Pasha has been ordered to prepare a defense in the Dardanelles against vessels creeping in at night.

—Lord Beaconsfield's health continues to be very precarious. Gladstone has recovered his health and strength.

—At Burlington, Iowa, April 9, an elevator was burned with 17,000 bushels of flax seed and 4,300 bushels of grain.

—Work drags on the Canada Pacific railroad, few hands being employed, and they are dissatisfied with their treatment.

—A fire in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, April 8, destroyed a two-story engine and iron works building with a large stock. Loss, $115,000.

—Notwithstanding the severity of the winter in the North-west, Bradstreet's reports that winter wheat has not been seriously injured.

—A resolution unanimously passed the House of Assembly, at Cape Town, April 5, expressing satisfaction at the conclusion of the Transvaal war.

—April 5, the thermometer was at 28 degrees in Danville, Virginia. Ice covered the streams and ponds and it was feared that the whole fruit crop was ruined.

—The difficulty in Greece is to find a minister who can induce the country to accept the proposed frontier settlement. The position of the King and Cabinet is critical.

—The election, March 9, for a member of the House of Commons from Northampton resulted in the re-election of Bradlaugh, as follows: Bradlaugh, 3378; Corbett, 3253.

—Already since the meeting of the Presbyterian Assembly in May last, over seventy ministers have died, many of them prominent workers and leaders in the denomination.

—The Duke of Argyle has resigned the office of Lord Privy of the Seal, owing to a difference of opinion with his colleagues on some provisions of the land bill. Lord Caird succeeds him.

—It is proposed, at Chicago, to belt the city with a line of railway that will take in every other running in or out of the city, and thus form a connecting link for all the railways centering there.

—The authorities of the Custom House in London have been warned from Liverpool that an attempt to blow up that building will be made shortly. Extraordinary precautions are being taken.

—The authorities of the Oxford and Cambridge University Presses authoritatively announce that the publication of the revised version of the New Testament will take place about the middle of May.

—The perpetrator of a horrible outrage and murder in Santa Barbara county was promptly executed by the citizens, who expressed a determination not to leave him “to the uncertainty of a California jury.”

—The Inter-Ocean's St. Paul special of April 9, says, The St. Paul and Sioux City branch of the Chicago and St. Paul, M. and O. Railroad was opened at noon through to Sioux City, having been blockaded since February 3.

—Employing Chinese has not worked satisfactorily in New Jersey and New York. They seem to have presumed too much on the sympathy for them in the East, and have been guilty of “too muchee foolee.” Sympathy seems to be ebbing.

—An unusual number of Americans are going abroad this season, and the best berths in the Atlantic steamships are already engaged. It is hard to tell what Europe would do but for the money extravagant Americans squander there every year.

—Nearly 3,500,000 letters and packages were received at the Dead Letter Office during the last fiscal year. Of these, 290,000 had no stamp, and over 9000 were not directed at all. The aggregate of checks, notes, etc., was $1,526,217, and of money, $49,463.

—While a dozen policemen were escorting a process server in Ballinamore county, Leitrim, Ireland, April 6, they were attacked by twenty women with stones and sticks. A girl aged twenty was fatally shot, and another wounded. Several police are seriously injured.

—Judge Macomber, of Rochester, N. Y., has rendered an important decision to the effect that a majority of the church Board of Trustees, although sustained by a majority of the congregation, cannot carry the Society and its property over to another denomination.

—A curious cause is assigned for the spread of smallpox in Sullivan county, New York. Physicians there believe the opinion that the disease was carried from one house to another by a cat, and owners of cats have accordingly been notified to keep them from roaming about.

—Brooklyn now has two Chinese Sunday-schools, one having been recently started in the Central Congregational church. The first, opened about eighteen months since with nine scholars, has now an average attendance of twenty-four, with as many teachers, representing six denominations.

—The Prussian Reichstag adopted a motion with only three dissenting votes for requesting an agreement among the Powers to make it a penal offense for either citizens or foreigners to aid in or incite to the assassination of rulers. The motion originated with the representatives of the people.

—Rev. Dr. Cuyler preached his farewell sermon, March 20, and sails on the 23d, in the Cunard steamship Bothnia to visit Norway, Sweden, Russia, Egypt and Palestine. His principle object is to visit the “holy land.” This trip is made at the invitation of his church. Gifts to the amount of $1,700 were made at his last meeting.

—At latest accounts the floods in Spain were doing great damage. At Seville four square miles in the city were flooded, including the St. Elmo palace, the water being in some parts, twenty-seven feet deep. At the mouth of the Guadalquiver about twenty miles of country are under water, and the flood was increasing at last accounts.

—The April Conference of the Mormon church at Salt Lake, after a session of four days, adjourned. The necessity of loving their religion and preaching polygamy was firmly impressed upon the saints, who have been very much encouraged over the decision of the Miles polygamy case in their favor by the supreme Court of the United States. About 100 missionaries were set apart for work in the United States and Europe. Of this number, 25 are to be sent to Arizona, which Territory the Mormon church is determined to control politically.

—On Sunday, April 3, a terrible earthquake shook the island of Scio, off the west coast of Asia Minor, destroying thirty villages. The number of killed is estimated from 5000 to 8000, and the number of injured still greater, while the destitute and homeless are reckoned at 40,000. Kastro, the capital, contained nearly 4000 inhabitants, and only 150 are known to be alive. At latest dates the ground was still trembling so that it was dangerous to go near the ruins, so that the suffering wounded could not be relieved. At some points the stench from the unrecovered dead is so great that pestilence is feared.

—Although some papers have made merry over Edison's electric light, it seems destined to shine, and will probably effect a great change in the lighting of cities. Major S. B. Eaton, Vice-President of the Edison Electric Light Company, said to a Tribune reporter yesterday, in regard to a resolution passed by the Board of Aldermen giving the Company permission to lay wires through the city, if the resolution becomes a law, the Company proposes to go to work at once and light the district bounded by Wall, Spruce and Nassau streets and the East River. The Etna Iron Works building will be lighted in two or three weeks by several hundred electric lights. The system is now absolutely complete. There are eight miles of mains in Menlo Park. We have obtained the right of way in Detroit and Toledo, and arrangements are making for obtaining that privilege in Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Boston.

—The flood of the Missouri river continues with still increasing violence in some places. It would take a full page of our paper to give a fair idea of the situation. Green Island, a town of 30 houses in north-eastern Nebraska, has been entirely swept away. At Yankton the water is receding, but farmers throughout the river country are destitute, not only losing their crops, but their teams and implements. When the gorge gave way at Yankton, the steamer Penina was torn from her moorings and left on the railroad track. The lower part of Council Bluffs is inundated, a strong current moving down Broadway street. The 9th, the water was reported within three inches of the floor of the U. P. Transfer Depot, with deep and swift water on each side of it. No trains could reach Council Bluffs that day. The Kansas City, St. Louis and Council Bluffs branch from Council Bluffs to the Pacific Junction, which is used also by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, and is temporarily by the B. and M. in Nebraska, is under water and washed so badly that trains cannot run over it. Omaha is cut off in every direction except from the west. The damage by this flood is beyond estimate.