SECULAR by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 17, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 3.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

By Editor

—There were 4,000 suicides in Paris last year.

—A cargo of 9,000,000 cartridges comes overland for shipment to China.

—In London, 2,000 steel workers have refused to work at reduced wages.

—The Legislature of British Columbia is discussing a Chinese Restriction Bill.

—Forty Apache children have been sent to the Indian training school at Carlisle, Penn.

—There were 670 new bills introduced in the House of Representatives of Congress on the 6th inst.

—Capt. Eads has gone to London to get aid toward his project of a ship canal across the isthmus of Tehuantepec.

—Unusually cold weather is reported in Georgia, and there is considerable suffering amongst the poor in consequence.

—The Apaches on San Carlos reservation raised about 3,000,000 lbs. of corn last year, besides large quantities of vegetables.

—There are cheering reports regarding the crop prospects of this State. We are glad to hear them, but it is yet a good while till harvest.

—The temperance women of Springfield, Mass., are making efforts to establish coffee stands in the vicinity of the lowest rum-holes in the city.

—A lot of speculators who have been buying up trade dollars at considerable discount, are now asking Congress to have the Government redeem them at par.

—Joseph Cook says there are not over five leading newspapers in the United States that a self-respecting American would recommend to a visitor to read.

—The pope has consigned to the "secret archives," a statement of the secret conversation between himself and the German Crown Prince, for the benefit of posterity.

—Japanese currency is approaching par. It has been depreciated for more than five years, and at one time the premium of silver over paper was more than 80 per cent.

—The cartmen of Havana have struck against increased taxation, and refused to work. In consequence goods are crowding the wharves, and business almost stopped.

—There are only six men in the U. S. Senate who are not very wealthy; these are Blair, Logan, Cullom, Lapham, Vest, and Mitchell. A large number are millionaires.

—Brazil is working toward the emancipation of slavery. A law has been passed taxing owners $100 a year for each slave. Many of them are not worth that much to their masters.

—Minister Lowell has decided to resign the Lord Rectorship of St. Andrews, London, the technical objections to the office being held by a foreign minister being greater than he anticipated.

—Chinese immigration, public lands, railroad matters, and the tariff are prominent questions in Congress. Of course all these will be manipulated with reference to the next Presidential campaign.

—Judge Sawyer, of the U. S. District Court, has decided against the hydraulic miners in the celebrated debris case. Those miners, however, who can take care of their own debris, are exempt from the injunction.

—Captain Cox, the slayer of Chas. McLaughlin, in San Francisco, was discharged, on examination before Police Judge Lawler, on the plea of self-defense. There was no direct evidence but that of the defendant himself.

—The Indian school at Forest Grove, Oregon, is to have increased capacity the coming year, and will have 200 pupils. Government aid to the amount of $25,000 has been promised, to purchase land and erect buildings.

—Gen. Crook says the Chiricahua Indians are highly intelligent, and are specially shrewd in making treaties; they quickly discern an advantage for or against themselves, as also any act of bad faith on the part of the whites.

—A great fire at Stillwater, Minn., on the 9th inst., caused a loss of $100,000. The town of Baird, Texas, was almost entirely burned down on the 8th. And in New York, on the 9th, a coffin factory was destroyed, involving a loss of $90,000.

—Reports are rife as to the condition of contract laborers on the Hawaiian plantations. The situation is said to be one of absolute slavery during the three years of servitude, and that foreigners are induced to migrate thither under gross misrepresentations.

—The Board of Supervisors of San Francisco have formally petitioned the U. S. Senate for an appropriation to build a new post-office. The building is much needed; the city's population has more than trebled since the present facilities were provided.

—As the English Government declines to support Egypt outside of Egypt proper, or to allow Turkey to do so, the Egyptian troops have been ordered to evacuate Khartoum, which is in Soudan. It is said this exposes 11,000 Christians to the mercy of El Mahdi.

—The perplexity of nations in Europe is again aroused by recent Nihilistic moves. It is now alleged that this whole element is Slavonic as against the German, of which the royal family is largely composed; and that the menace is toward the German as well as the Russian Government.

—Secretary Frelinghuysen, upon investigation, is of the opinion that O'Donnell was not a citizen of the United States. He was a teamster in the army, and not a soldier; and his papers are said to have been "irregular" (mildly speaking). We must give the English Government credit for being very patient and forbearing with American interference in this matter.

—A prominent French official scouts the idea of the United States maintaining the supremacy of republican ideas in America with her present military and naval defenses. He says every great power in Europe is menaced by our prosperity; that they are aware of our defenseless condition, and would gladly see the nation humbled. And further, that all our great cities could be laid under tribute before we could raise a respectable navy.

—The body of A. T. Stewart, which was stolen from its tomb in 1881, has been recovered. A ransom of $50,000 was paid to the robbers, and the body returned. Judge Hilton, executor of the estate of deceased, and Mrs. Stewart, became convinced that the robbers would probably never be caught, and that the body would not be recovered by any other means than by a compromise; and there were threats of further depredations on the property and persons concerned, if a ransom were not paid. A single unarmed servant had to carry the money to a designated country place in the night, where a party of masked men received it, and delivered up the body.

—When Peter Cooper of New York died, it was supposed that nearly everybody would want to donate something, though but little, toward building a monument to the memory of the great philanthropist. He had spent tens of thousands in money, and much time, in various benevolent enterprises. So boxes were placed at several convenient places to receive contributions. Recently the boxes were opened, and found to be full—of buttons, counterfeit coins, tin disks, and other trash, with hardly any money. There is much just indignation at this ingratitude on the part of the community; but the great Benefactor of the whole race has been treated in the same way by the masses for nineteen centuries, notwithstanding his benevolence is good for time and eternity.