News and Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 28, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 25.

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News and Notes.

—A $70,000 fire occurred at Salt Lake, on the 21st.

—The cost of the star-route trials to the Government is placed at $261,318.

—Severe damage was done by a tornado at Chatham, Ont., on the 18th inst.

—An Oakland hoodlum, sixteen years old, is under arrest for brutally beating his mother.

—Reports show that 250 persons have been killed by tornadoes in this country since January 1.

—There were fifty-two deaths from yellow fever at Havana, during the week ending June 23.

—Sixteen persons have been drowned in one county in southern Nebraska, by the recent floods.

—A late dispatch from London states that seventy persons were drowned in the floods of Silesia.

—An incendiary fire at Fresno, Cal., on the morning of the 20th inst., destroyed $70,000 worth of property.

—A fire in San Francisco, on the morning of the 22d inst., destroyed property to the extent of half a million dollars.

—It is now declared that Arabi Pasha had absolutely nothing to do with the massacre at Alexandria, or the burning of the city.

—A fire in the royal dockyard at Amsterdam, on the 20th, destroyed two men-of-war, and did other damage. Loss about 4,000,000 florins.

—The Court House, university, Christian college, and several residences, at Columbia, Mo., were partially unroofed by a storm on the 22d inst.

—A large portion of the country in the vicinity of Helena, Ark., is under water, in consequence of a break in the Mississippi. The crops will be ruined.

—It is stated that yellow fever is making fearful ravages among the Europeans and Americans at Vera Cruz. There have been 100 deaths from this cause within two months.

—It is stated that an employment office in Los Angeles had an order the other day for twelve woodchoppers at $3 per day, but no laborers could be found to take the job.

—Serious riots against the Jews have occurred at St. Gall, Switzerland. A number of Jewish shops have been pillaged and the police stoned while endeavoring to stop the excesses.

—Placards have been posted in the different parts of the city of Athens, by anarchists, which contain a threat to destroy the royal palace and the ancient monuments, by explosives.

—A recent examination of the younger children of the Boston schools revealed the curious fact that 18 per cent. of the little ones had no knowledge of a cow further than that gained by pictures.

—It is reported that a battle was fought on the 15th between the Turks and Albanians in the Hatti district. It is said the killed and wounded on the Turkish side number 250 and that the Albanians also suffered heavily.

—The Tribune at Xeres, Spain, has sentenced one member of the Black Hand Society to lifelong servitude, and another member to seventeen years' imprisonment, for having murdered a man who had declined to join the society.

—The passenger vessels Hurunui and Waitara, of the New Zealand Shipping Company, came into collision off Portland, Eng., on the 23d, resulting in the sinking of the latter vessel, and the drowning of twenty-five persons.

—A paper steamboat, 20 ft. in length, has been made in Lansingburg, N. Y., to hold 25 persons and carry 3 tons. Its sheathing is solid paper, ⅜ of an inch thick, on which a bullet fired from a distance of four feet made no impression.

—The Home Secretary has given orders to reduce the guards protecting the public buildings in London, believing that the recent hangings, and the decided expressions of public opinion in America, will prevent any further action by the dynamiters.

—A Berlin dispatch of the 21st says: "The floods in Silesia were attended by water-spouts. A large part of the town of Hirschberg was submerged and houses and adjacent villages flooded." Disastrous floods are also reported in Bohemia and Moravia.

—On the 19th inst., a storm devastated a section of country near Chillicothe, Mo., six miles in length, and from one-half to three-fourths of a mile in width. All farm-houses, crops, and fences were destroyed. Several persons were killed, and many were injured.

—The Hill investigation in Washington explains the great cost of Government buildings. A foreman in a stone-cutting yard in Philadelphia, testified that the orders were for the men to spend as much time as possible on their work. An ambitious or conscientious man was reproved if he finished his work too quickly.

—Ohio has enacted a law making it an offense for any one to sell or give a toy pistol to a child under fourteen years of age. Any person who violates the law is liable for all damages resulting. It would be well if such a law were in force in all the States. We may expect the usual quota of accidents from this toy on the coming Fourth.

—The strife has so culminated between the High and Low church parties in the Episcopal Church of the Evangelist, Philadelphia, that the Low church members are going to bring the matter before the courts on the ground that they have been defrauded of their place of worship by the ritualists. Several policemen were present at a recent service where trouble was expected.

—A cyclone struck Steubenville, O., on the 18th, doing damage to the amount of $150,000. On the same day a cyclone did great damage in southwestern Pennsylvania. Its track was from 100 to 400 feet wide, and everything was swept before it. It was accompanied by severe rain and hail. Millersburg, O., was also visited, and buildings, and crops in the vicinity were greatly damaged.

—At the coronation festivities, the Mayor of Moscow ventured to express the hope that Russia would soon enjoy the benefits of a constitutional government, and for the utterance of this thought he was doomed by the Czar to permanent exile. Such an act of despotism goes far toward explaining why there is so much nihilism in that country. It will doubtless add nothing to the Czar's popularity.

—There is great excitement in Hungary over the trial of Jews charged with murdering a Christian girl and using her blood to mix with their passover blood. The charge is a most absurd one, but that does not prevent race prejudice boiling over. The audiences in court openly threatened the witnesses for the defense. Witnesses for the prosecution contradicted themselves and each other, and a Catholic priest admitted that he was the author of an anonymous attack on the Jews, accusing them of the murder of the girl.

—On the 18th inst., the central section of the English dam, where water is stored for use in hydraulic mining, gave way flooding the country below. The dam is situated on the head waters of the Yuba River, about forty miles from Nevada City, Cal.; its capacity was 650,000,000 cubic feet, and it was full when it broke. The damage to life and property was considerable. Four days before it was swept away, the dam had been carefully examined and pronounced in safe condition. There is a strong suspicion that the brake was started by the explosion of powder.

—A Chicago dispatch of June 20, says: "The rush for saloon licenses under the new city ordinance, in order to evade the operation of the new State high-license law, continued to-day. When the Clerk's office opened this morning the line of expectant dram-sellers extended through the hall-way and half a block along the street. Preparations for speed had been made, however, and by noon the jam was practically over. The result of two days' work is the issuance of 3,000 licenses. There are about 4,000 saloon-keepers in the city. It is alleged that many notaries winked at glaring irregularities in furnishing sureties."