SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 14, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 7.

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SECULAR.

—A cloudburst inundated the C. P. Railroad track in San Joaquin Valley, last week.

—A very heavy snow-fall is reported in the Sierra Nevada within the past two weeks.

—Wendell Phillips, the once great anti-slavery orator, died in Boston, on the 2d inst.

—The temperance ticket won the day at the town election at Chico, Cal., on the 4th inst.

—A Corunna, Spain, dispatch reports the loss, last week, of a vessel and crew of nineteen men.

—Seven large meetings of socialistic workingmen were held on Sunday, the 3d inst., in Berlin.

—It has been discovered that there is a connection between Russian nihilists and Austrian socialists.

—Five firemen were killed and eleven wounded by falling walls at Allentown, Pa., on the 6th inst.

—Five persons were wounded in an Orangemen and Nationalists riot at Ballymore, Ireland, on the 3d inst.

—Placards were recently displayed in Paris inciting unemployed workingmen and disaffected police to arms.

—Both American and British companies are insuring Florida orange groves against damage by ice and frost.

—Letters purporting to disclose a plot against the life of the Sultan, have been received at the palace in Constantinople.

—The Legislature of Texas has placed $50,000 in the hands of the Governor to assist in putting down lawlessness in the State.

—A strike among the Fall River, Mass., mills stops the labor of 7,000 employés and the distribution of $25,000 a week as wages.

—Vigilantes in northern Nebraska are pursuing outlaws in a determined manner. It is said they have disposed of a dozen or more.

—On the 7th inst. two children were stolen from Madison, Fla., and the next day the kidnapper was killed and the children recovered.

—The European powers are endeavoring to agree upon a plan for carrying on the work of civilization in central Africa begun by Belgium.

—A delegation from Richmond, Va., is making a tour of the Eastern cities in quest of means to build a home for indigent Confederate soldiers.

—The Egyptian troops at Sinkat, Soudan, are said to have eaten all their camels, dogs, and cats, and at last report were eating leaves of trees.

—In this city, on the 6th inst., a mother gave her little boy, aged 7 years, a dose of carbolic acid in mistake for castor oil. It died in half an hour afterward.

—The Board of Trade of Sacramento, Cal., has memorialized the U. S. Senate remonstrating against forfeiture of the land grant of the California and Oregon Railroad.

—On the 3d inst., two Mexicans at Colton, Cal., quarreled about a dollar and decided to settle the matter with pistols. One was mortally wounded, and the other is in jail.

—Plots for the assassination of the Emperor of Austria, and several prominent officials and citizens, have been discovered in Vienna. There is great excitement among all classes.

—On the 6th inst. a fire occurred in San Francisco, among the lumber yards and mills in the vicinity of Mission, Steuart, and Spear Streets, which resulted in a loss of property valued at $100,000.

—At Prosser Creek, six miles from Truckee, in the Sierra Nevada, mercury was frozen on the 8th inst., and snow was from nine to ten feet deep. This is one extreme of California climate.

—The timbers of a coal mine under the village of Hazletown, Pa., gave way on the 7th inst., and a whole block of the town suddenly dropped about three feet. Several houses were wrecked, but no person injured.

—New York capitalists are offering to take the Canadian Pacific Railroad and complete it without further aid from the Government; agreeing also to give up the monopoly privileges and pay duty on the materials to be used.

—The French are reported to have gained a decided victory over Tonquin rebels, and are going ahead with aggressive operations. Material for six gunboats has been forwarded. China is as yet undecided what course to pursue.

—A “cowboy” rode into Denver, Col., one day last week, and meeting the police judge and city marshal, commenced firing at them. The judge was mortally wounded, and the marshal shot in the leg. They returned shots but the culprit escaped.

—It is again asserted that an extensive and organized business is being carried on in smuggling contraband Chinamen from British Columbia across the line into Washington Territory. They are run over in canoes, during the night, from Victoria.

—“The use of money to influence elections is a growing and alarming evil in American politics.”—Christian Statesman. Too true. It is appalling to contemplate the vast sums that will eventually be employed by the “National Reform” party, in carrying through the “Religious” Amendment to the Constitution.

—A company is being organized at San Rafael, to construct a telephone line from San Francisco across the bay to Saucelito, and thence to Cloverdale in Lake County, connecting intermediate points. Other extended lines will probably follow.

—A woman of bad repute recently came to Warrenton, Ga., and attempted to pass in respectable society. Her true character being discovered, she was publicly flogged in the street, and ordered to leave town, which she did as soon as possible.

—A petition of the Legislature of British Columbia to the Dominion Government asks a restriction upon the importation of Chinese, and that a tax of $100 per annum be imposed upon each Chinaman coming into the province. The petition sets forth that there are about 18,000 now there, and that most of them are destitute.

—The new management of the Northern Pacific Railroad is making itself popular along the line of the Blue Mountain, Or., extension, by reducing freight rates, and giving a rebate on previous charges. The Portland Board of Trade have petitioned Congress against the forfeiture of the company’s land grant.

—Baker Pasha’s army in Soudan has met with disastrous defeat near Tokar. He lost 2,000 men and all his camels and baggage. Many of his Egyptian troops fled in confusion, deserting their guns; others threw themselves on the ground and cried for mercy. Although mainly officered by Europeans, the army was beaten by inferior numbers.

—The State of Maine is to have another contest over prohibition. The question comes up in the form of a Constitutional amendment to be submitted to the people. Mr. Josiah H. Drummond, of Portland, one of the Vice-Presidents of the National Reform Association, says, “Strange as it may seem, the success of the amendment is by no means assured.”

—A tragedy at Hot Springs, Ark., last week, grew out of a man named Flynn endeavoring to prevent a gambler from opening a den in the town. The latter gathered some friends and set about revenge, which resulted in the death of Flynn’s brother and two others, and the wounding of himself, another brother, and a bystander. The gambler and his six companions are in jail, with strong threats of lynching.

—Southern California has had an unusually heavy rain-fall this year. The cry of too much water from that region is an alarm seldom heard. The San Gabriel River railroad bridge is gone, and nearly fifty miles of track on the Colorado Desert was washed out on the 4th and 5th insts. Extensive washouts are also reported in San Diego County, on the California Southern road. As a consequence of the storm, the city of Santa Barbara was twelve days without a mail.

—It has been discovered that Miss Anna Hockwalt, of Dayton, O., supposed to be dead, was really buried alive, Jan. 11. At the funeral, some of her friends remarked the freshness of her appearance, and could not afterwards clear their minds of the impression. Finally it was determined to take up the corpse, when it was discovered that the body was turned over on the side, the hair torn from the head in handfuls, and the fingers bitten to the bones.

—High water and destructive floods are reported “all along the line” from the Allegheny to the Arkansas River. In and around Pittsburg, Pa., the loss of property is estimated at $3,000,000. At Wheeling, Va., 10,000 people are said to be homeless and unprovided for; and the loss of property in that vicinity is estimated at $6,000,000. Newport, Ky., presents the appearance of a lake; and at Cincinnati many people are left in want, as also along the Indiana and Illinois borders. At Memphis, Tenn., there is not much loss, but at points below there was great danger at last reports.