News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 24, 1900

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 17.

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— Boxing will be prevented by the French police, at the Paris Exposition.

— The New York Times will be published daily on the grounds of the Paris Exposition.

— The United States squadron in Chinese waters will have its headquarters at Hong-Kong.

— An orchid from Venezuela, valued at $5,000, is being exhibited in London, England.

— Arrangements have been made to secure a complete census of the Chinese in the United States.

— A consignment of 1,000,000 pounds of meat has left Chicago for United States soldiers in the Philippines.

— It is claimed that there are, in the United States, more than 5,000 theaters, of which 2,000 may be classed as legitimate.

— The editorial staff of El Cubano Libre has been imprisoned by the mayor of Santiago, Cuba, for publishing an offensive article against the present government there.

— The Ohio statute prohibiting an employer from discharging a workman because of membership in a labor union, has been declared unconstitutional by a common pleas court judge.

— It is estimated that almost a third of humanity speak the Chinese language, that the Hindu language is spoken by more than 100,000,000, the Russian by 89,000,000, while the German is spoken by 57,000,000, the Spanish by 48,000,000.

— Attorney James R. Dill, of New York City, is said to have received $1,000,000 in return for his services in bringing about an amicable settlement in the Frick-Carnegie lawsuit. This is said to be the highest lawyer’s fee ever received for a single case.

— The general freight agent of one of the largest railways in the country gives the following statements: “Among the 200 clerks in my office, thirty-two are cigarette-smokers. Eighty-five per cent of the mistakes occurring in the office are made by the thirty-two. The cigarette-smokers average two days off each month, while others but half a day off.”

— The Burlington Railroad officials think that “when the present war in South Africa is ended, in the subjugation of the Boers, thousands of the people of the Transvaal will be desirous of getting away.” Accordingly, they are preparing to send agents to induce them to come to the United States, settle in the undeveloped portions, and engage in stock raising or farming.

— The temperance people of Aurora, Ill., are planning to rid their city of the saloons by paying into the city treasury the amount usually paid into the treasury by the saloon keepers for their licenses. The question is to be submitted to the popular vote at the annual city election in 1901, the money to be raised before that time. There are at present thirty-seven saloons in the city, each paying a license tax of $1,000.

— Official reports show that there are now in Siberia 300,000 ex-convicts. Of these 30,000 are settled as peasants, 70,000 are laborers without permanent residence, and 100,000 are paupers, while 100,000 more are gathered in camps, awaiting return to Russia or other disposition. “This,” says the Northeastern Christian Advocate, “represents the last chapter in the Russian system of penal deportation, which has been in operation since about the year 1600.”

— A new device has been invented by a Frenchman, whereby the entry and departure of employees in large establishments is automatically registered. Each employee, upon entering the establishment, steps up to a camera fitted with a time-clock arrangement, presses the button, and the result is a photograph in miniature of the employee, together with a small clock dial showing the exact time of entry or departure. Only one half a second is required for the taking of the photograph. Although the price of the apparatus is relatively high, it costs much less than a timekeeper of flesh and blood, and guarantees much greater impartiality and exactness.

— Chief Willis L. Moore, of the United States Weather Bureau, has issued an order prohibiting employees of the service from using cigarettes during hours of duty, and warning them that those who smoke them at all will be mentioned in the confidential reports made to him by the heads of the several offices and departments. Replying to criticism of his action in this matter, he said: “Some of our men who were regarded as the most reliable and competent, became careless and lax. I sent inspectors to investigate, and in almost every case it was found that this state of affairs was directly attributable to excessive cigarette-smoking. Men who use cigarettes appear to become deadened to the fact that neglect of duty means removal, suspension, or dismissal. In a word, these investigations convinced me that cigarette-smokers are not to be trusted with important work.”

— A well-defined earthquake occurred in Berea, Ohio, April 11.

— The wharfs at Victoria, British Columbia, were recently destroyed by a tidal wave.

— Because of the limited supply of yellow pine, Georgia mills will run only two-thirds time.

— The Boers are reported to have succeeded in getting at least thirty large guns through Portuguese territory.

— Canada has been asked to send fifty more officers, with men, to fill vacancies in the British army in South Africa.

— President Steyn, of the late Orange Free State, prophesies that foreign powers will stop the South African war.

— Costa Rica and Nicaragua will cede territory ten miles wide, between Greytown and Brito, to the United States, for canal purposes.

— Ann Arbor, Mich., has a fine flowing well, from which the purest water gushes forth in umbrella shape, at an estimate of 400,000 gallons a day.

— Eleven places in Mindanao, and three in Jolo Archipelago, Philippine Islands, have been occupied by United States troops without firing a shot.

— Because of the small audience, Paderewski recently refused to appear in Sacramento, Cal., and his piano was attached for rent of the opera house.

— By a recent fire in Greenpoint, Greater New York, nearly 1,500 men are idle; lumber factories, iron foundries, and the Church soda plant were destroyed.

— Post office clerks will hereafter not be held responsible for delay in transmission of mail when stamps are in any position except the upper right-hand corner.

— The Michigan Central Railroad shops will be moved from Michigan City, Ind., to Niles, Mich., forty acres of land having been purchased by the company.

— For the second time within three years, the fine dry-goods store of Joseph Horne and Company in Pittsburg, was destroyed by fire, April 9, at a loss of $1,000,000.

— The annexation law has passed both branches of the Ohio Legislature, by which Cincinnati will be able to annex twenty-six villages, increasing its population to over 500,000.

— William Booth, general of the Salvation Army, was presented on his seventieth birthday, April 10, with a purse of $200,000 from the army, as the result of the self-denial week just concluded.

— By a new and secret combination of chemicals, an iron wrench six inches long and one-half inch thick, was melted in five seconds, in Thomas A. Edison’s laboratory. The inventor of the powder is an American.

— By order of the emperor of Korea, the members of the Korean legation in Washington, D. C., must hereafter wear clothing required by the custom of this country. Hitherto they have appeared in Oriental garb.

— The bark “Ancona,” laden with 18,300 bales of hemp, reached Boston from Cebu, Philippine Islands, April 9, after a nine-months’ voyage. The delay, however, doubled the value of the cargo, which is now worth $8,000,000.

— The United States Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections voted unanimously that Senator-elect Clark, of Montana, is not entitled to occupy his seat, owing to the prevalence of corrupt methods in Montana that tainted the election.

— The Paris Exposition will be open on Sunday, the French authorities having decided that all exhibits are to be open to the public on all First-days. The United States pavilion is not thus regulated, the question of its being opened or closed on Sunday being left “entirely to Commissioner Peck’s desire.”

— It is reported that “Mayor Maybury, of Detroit, Mich., has announced a proposal that he thinks will prove effective in suppressing improper dramatic entertainments in the leading cities of the United States. It is to have a decision by the American league of municipalities to prohibit all such plays in the 200 cities represented by the league.”

— The weight of the great Atlantic steamer “Oceanic” is equal to the weight of two trains, each of 433 cars and three miles in length. It would take eight mammoth railroad locomotives, such as are used on the Illinois Central Railroad, to haul the steamer on the level, on rails, at twenty-two miles an hour; and it would take sixteen such locomotives to develop the horse-power developed by the “Oceanic” when steaming at twenty-two miles an hour.

— A gigantic coal trust, which will virtually control the transportation and production of coal in this country, is said to have been completed by the great Eastern railroad magnates, W. K. Vanderbilt, J. Pierpont Morgan, and A. J. Cassatt. This brings into the combine the New York Central, with its allied roads, also the Reading, Erie, and Lehigh Valley, together with the Pennsylvania and its recent acquisition, the Norfolk and Western. It will constitute one of the most formidable monopolies in existence, and one which menaces the public interest in many ways, by its ability to control the price of a product so essential to domestic use and to the maintenance of many kinds of industry.