News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1901

—The plague epidemic is spreading at Hong-kong, China.

—Senator Clarke will be obliged to pay a $240,000 tax on the United Verde Mine (Arizona), which is assessed at $6,000,000.

—Prof. Geo. D. Herron, the noted socialist from whom his wife recently divorced herself, married Miss Rand—“his affinity”—in New York, the 25th ult.

—Morocco has now complied with “all the demands of France in regard to the Algerian-Morocco frontier dispute and the outrages inflicted on French subjects.”

—A recent edict of China’s ruler declares his willingness to have China pay four-per-cent interest on the great indemnity. However, he desires the period of payment to be made forty instead of thirty years.

—The Michigan Legislature adjourned the 29th ult.

—The Poets’ Congress began its sessions in Paris, France, the 28th ult.

—The national conference of Dunkards is now in session at Lincoln, Neb.

—The amount paid by Chicago for liquor, per annum, is seventy-two dollars per capita.

—Aguinaldo is still confined under guard, it being explained that this is “principally for his own protection.” His correspondence is censored.

—The late British census reports show the present population of Ireland to be 4,456,546—a decrease of 5.3 per cent since the previous census.

—The transportation companies of Paris, France, including the omnibus, tramways, metropolitan and underground lines, are to be merged into one large concern.

—President Charles M. Schwab, of the United States Steel Company—the billion-dollar trust—has given orders for the construction of a $35,000 private Pullman palace car.

—The Taft Commission has decided to “delay the establishment of provincial rule in the island of Mindanao, because the people are not yet capable of self-government.”

—In his efforts to “Germanize Alsace,” Emperor William of Germany is endeavoring to put Strasburg University under government control. However, in this he is opposed by the clergy.

—Two heavily loaded electric cars of the largest size collided near Albany, N. Y., while racing for a switch. Number killed, five; number wounded, over forty. Both conductors were killed.

—The trip from San Francisco to New York was recently made by Dr. W. Seward Webb, first vice-president of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, in seventy-nine hours.

—The Boston and Maine Railroad has issued a regulation which forbids the playing of cards by its employees “in all places owned by the company.” This action was taken by “hard-headed business men.”

—Prof. Arthur C. Lovejoy is another professor who has resigned from the faculty of Stanford University, Cal., because of the dismissal of Professor Ross. Prof. Charles B. Reiber, of Harvard, will take his place.

—An exchange states that since poultry manure is highly nitrogenous, it is “valuable for corn, giving it a quick, vigorous start and good color,” and also that “it is most efficient when distributed in the hill and mixed with earth.”

—The New York Produce Exchange states the number of bushels of grain requisite to constitute a car lot, as follows: “Oats, 1,500; corn, 900; wheat, 800; barley, 1,000; rye, 800; of mill feed in sacks, 40,000 lbs.; mill feed in bulk, 30,000 lbs.”

—The Bank of New York (National Banking Association) recently celebrated its 117th anniversary. It is the oldest bank in the State of New York, and also “the oldest, with one exception, in the United States.” Alexander Hamilton was a member of its first board of directors, and wrote its constitution.

—Although Marconi, inventor of wireless telegraphy, will soon be subject to military duty in Italy, the king “has promised to assign him to duty on a naval vessel, where he can continue his experiments looking toward the perfection of his system.” The conscript law knows no exception, and in most European states compulsory military service prevents the young men from learning any trade save that of shooting their fellow men.

—The dividend received by the stockholders of the Cunard Steamship Company, for 1900, was eight per cent. In 1899 the dividend was only five per cent; and in 1898, three and one-half per cent. “The increase of profits last year was due chiefly to the transportation of troops to South Africa, and to the advance in freight rates caused by the withdrawal of ships from general trade for the use of the War Department.”

—Speaking of the possibility of the establishment of compulsory military service in Great Britain, an exchange states that the “veiled hints” of Secretary of War Broderick and other members of the government in this regard, “were surpassed by a speech made at the United Services Club by Lord Raglan, Under-Secretary of the War Office. He defined the government’s army reforms as the best that could be achieved under the present system, and, in answering the frequent criticism that men could not be obtained for the army, he said ‘if this proved to be the case, compulsion must be used.’”

—The Moravians have one foreign missionary for every fifty-eight communicants.

—Thursday, May 30, was celebrated throughout the United States as Decoration day.

—The United States Supreme Court adjourned the 27th ult., for the summer vacation.

—The Presbyterian General Assembly has practically recommended a revision of its church creed.

—A statue in honor of the great violinist, Ole Bull, has been unveiled in Bergen, Norway, his native place.

—The General Assembly of United Presbyterians recently “voted to bar Masons and Oddfellows from membership in the church.”

—The Michigan Legislature has passed the Chandler bill, which provides for the “taxation of railroads on ad valorem basis.”

—Six French war-ships now threaten the capital of Morocco, and some French troops are about to be sent from Marseilles to Algiers.

—The German Catholic societies of Illinois have voted, in convention, to “contest school laws passed by the last legislature” of that State.

—The Rockefeller-Gould-Harriman syndicate on the one hand, and the Vanderbilts on the other, are trying to secure control of the Lackawanna Railway.

—It is reported that “the British have sent Zulus to raid the Vryheid district,” South Africa. A protest to the Powers against this action is contemplated.

—The authorities of the late Paris Exposition have sold a concession making it possible for any person to buy “exact duplicates of all the medals awarded.” This utterly destroys the value of the actual medals awarded at the exposition.

—The following decision was handed down May 27, by the Supreme Court of the United States: “First—That the constitution did follow the flag, that Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands became parts of the United States as soon as the treaty of peace [at Paris] was ratified, and that all duties collected on merchandise passing between the mainland and the islands under the Dingley law were illegal and must be refunded. Second, That the Foraker act is constitutional, and that Congress has the right to legislate for the Territories, without regard to the provision of the Constitution which requires all duties, imposts, and excises to be uniform throughout the United States.”

—The United States troops have withdrawn from China, and Russia is seemingly confining herself to Manchuria. France will soon withdraw her troops; and, according to latest dispatches, “this leaves Germany and England alone in the fight against China.” It seems that, owing to her agreement with Germany, England is unable to withdraw; and “Germany cannot withdraw, because the policy of interference in China is the emperor’s own policy, strongly disproved by the bulk of the nation, and to retire without recovering the millions that have been spent, would go far to ruin his reputation for political sagacity.” It is possible that the most serious complications in China are yet to come.

—According to the Mexican Herald of the 17th ult., the City of Mexico has, with the exception of the city of Bombay, India, “the highest mortality of any city in the world;” for during the year 1900, “out of a population of 368,777, the death rate was 18,438, or an average of 49.99 persons per thousand. The following table shows the number of deaths per thousand inhabitants, in the following leading cities of the world: Bombay (India), 69; City of Mexico, 49.99; Madras (India), 38.1; Cairo (Egypt), 36.4; Alexandria (Egypt), 31.2; Dublin, 30.8; Liverpool, 26.4; Manchester, 24.6; Vienna, 20.6; Paris, 20.2; Boston, 20.1; London, 19.8; Edinburgh, 19.6; Berlin, 18.7; Greater New York, 18.4; Rome, 17.4; Cincinnati, 14.8; Chicago, 14.6.”

—A dispatch from Havana, dated the 28th ult., says: “The constitutional convention to-day, by a vote of fifteen to fourteen, accepted the majority report of the Committee on Relations. This report accepts the Platt amendment. With the exception of a few American and Cuban newspaper men and half a dozen politicians, nobody but the delegates were present to hear the result announced. The people of Cuba long ago made up their minds that the Platt amendment was either desirable or inevitable.” Still later dispatches state that, by secret action, the convention “materially changed the terms of the Platt amendment, before voting to accept it,” and that the acceptance of their action “will be rejected, on the ground that it is not in substantial harmony with the conditions imposed by Congress.” The changes made are in the third clause of the Platt amendment, or the paragraph relating to intervention by the United States.

—Aguinaldo expects to visit the United States in the fall.

—Rumania has at present 1,932 miles of railway open to traffic.

—President Erazuriz, of Chile, is seriously ill, not being expected to live.

—The Keloet volcano, in Java, is now in eruption, and the loss of many lives is reported.

—A British post near Maraisberg has been captured by the Boers, forty-one British soldiers surrendering.

—An explosion at Senghenydd, Wales, buried eighty coal-miners on the 24th ult. None of them can be rescued.

—The Powers have rejected the plan of the United States for “a modification of the demands for indemnity from China.”

—A New York syndicate has the option on the Hidalgo Northern Railroad of Mexico, which is to be extended to the American border.

—The recent elections to the Spanish Senate have resulted in the return of 120 Ministerialists and thirty members of the Opposition.

—To celebrate the surrender of the Filipino generals Mascardo and Lacuna, General MacArthur released a thousand Filipino prisoners on the 20th ult.

—The British War Office contemplate buying Dr. Barton’s cigar-shaped war balloon, capable of carrying three persons at the rate of twelve miles an hour.

—In a recent speech before the naval congress in Madrid, Admiral Cervera expressed “the fear that Spain will break up into a number of small States.”

—Hazers of the Batavia, N. Y., high school recently waylaid a student in a lonely place, and “painted his cheeks with acid.” He will be marked for life.

—A terrible explosion occurred at the Richland mine, two miles from Dayton, Ohio, the 29th ult. Twenty-one men were killed, and many others were seriously injured.

—On the 23d ult. a British convoy was attacked by Boers near Ventersdorp, South Africa. The Boers were driven off; but the loss of the British was four killed and thirty wounded.

—The extract made from the pine needles of the Oregon yellow pine is said to possess “real efficacy in complaints of a pulmonary character,” and its manufacture is becoming “an industry of considerable importance” on the Pacific coast.

—M. Loubet, the president of France, and two of his ministers recently made a trip in the “Gustave Zede” submarine boat, at Toulon. The party remained in the boat for an hour and a half, during which time it traveled on the surface and beneath the water.

—In his first annual report, Governor Charles H. Allen, of Porto Rico, suggests “a scheme of colonial administration for the island, such as is followed in the Danish, French, and English West Indies, with variations dependent on the future policy of the home government.”

—On the 25th ult. an American sentry on guard near the United States legation in Peking, China, “fired on a German soldier who refused to obey the sentry. The bullet missed, but hit another German soldier some distance off. The wound was trifling. An investigation will be made.”

—The most conspicuous object in the sky during the short June nights, says the Scientific American, will be Jupiter, low in the southeast and south, with Saturn, much less bright, a short distance to the east. The two planets are now moving slowly to the west among the stars in their retrograde motion.

—The reports of the United States Weather Bureau show that “the number of buildings damaged or destroyed by lightning in 1899 was 5,527. In addition to these, 729 buildings caught fire as a result of the proximity to other structures that were fired by lightning. The approximate loss in 2,825 cases was $3,016,000.” Most of the buildings struck were not provided with lightning rods.

—The London Chronicle is authority for the statement that “three British officers and nearly a hundred non-commissioned officers and men, who were sent back from South Africa for various misdemeanors, are now in Portland prison. A majority of the prisoners are apparently ordinary offenders, but the officers, it is said, were convicted of treasonably siding with the Boers. One of them is sufficiently influential to procure the suppression of the names of all three.”

—A total eclipse of the sun was observed from the island of Sumatra, the 20th inst.

—The labor riots in Italy are causing “an exodus of the comfortable classes from Milan.”

—A new Wisconsin law imposes a tax of ten cents a ton on all ice shipped out of the State.

—The Olympian games, revived in 1896 by the king of Greece, are to be held in Chicago in 1904.

—Dispatches state that “three Russian officers at Yokohama, Japan, have been sentenced to six-months’ imprisonment for mapping Nagasaki harbor in the vicinity of the fortifications.”

—By a vote of nineteen to thirteen, the upper house of the Norwegian Parliament has “rejected the bill of the lower house allowing communal suffrage to women who pay taxes on an income of 300 crowns—about $70.”

—The French minister of finance states that “the great decrease in the taxes on wines and ciders has caused the consumption thereof to increase fifty per cent, since the first of the year, while the use of absinthe has been largely reduced.”

—The United States government is planning to build a larger, more powerful, and faster battleship than has ever been constructed. Its displacement will be one of 16,000 tons, or “1,000 tons more than the displacement of the most recent additions to the British navy, and of the ‘Georgia’ and ‘Virginia’ battleships recently ordered for our own navy.” These vessels once completed, the United States navy will rank fifth among the navies of the world.

—Russia is meeting with some opposition in her schemes with reference to the governing of Finland. It is reported that the Finland Senate recently “refused to agree to provide for the proposed political police force of Finland, in the budget of the grand duchy, on the ground that this branch of the administration often makes causeless accusations against innocent persons, and that this institution is in no wise Finnish, and is unnecessary. The hope is expressed that the imperial government [of Russia] will not insist upon the establishment of the gendarmerie in Finland. It is urged it would only provoke discontent and friction.” Of course, Russia cares nothing for Finnish feelings.