SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 34.

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SECULAR.

—Civil war again threatens Madagascar.

—The new Chinese Exclusion Bill has passed the House.

—Henry Villard is said to be interested in an expedition to the south pole.

—Forest fires have recently destroyed a number of villages on the Italian frontier.

—A bill appropriating $200,000 for the suppression of yellow fever has passed the United States Senate.

—Three prominent citizens of Ogdensburg, N. Y., were arrested on the 23d inst. for smuggling opium.

—The much-talked-of Fisheries Treaty, from which so much was expected, has been rejected by the Senate.

—It is expected that the wheat crop of India will reach 260,000,000 bushels, of 62 pounds each. This is a large yield.

—There is said to be a marked falling off in the volume of objectionable immigration on several of the steamship lines noticed at New York. It is attributed in great part to the congressional inquiry which is now in progress there.

—Eight car loads of raisins were sold from a ranch near Woodland, Cal., on the 25th, at an advance on last year's prices.

—One of the periodic powder mill explosions occurred near Oakland, on the 24th inst. Five men were blown to atoms.

—A storm on the night of the 21st inst. caused damage in the upper Ohio Valley, to an amount exceeding a million dollars.

—August 20 exceedingly heavy rains were reported in various parts of the South. Considerable damage was done, especially at New Orleans.

—In a late type-writing match at Cincinnati the winner wrote 8,700 words in ninety minutes, an average of over ninety-six words per minute.

—A Vienna correspondent of the London Daily News writes that King Otto, of Bavaria, is sinking fast, his fits of insanity having become much more frequent.

—It seems not improbable that the rejection of the Fisheries Treaty by the Senate may result in considerable friction between this Government and Great Britain.

—General Boulanger has been re-elected to the French Chamber of Deputies in three several districts. It is thought that he will sit for the Department of the Nord.

—At a recent meeting of the shareholders of the Panama Canal Company in Paris, M. de Lesseps promised, on behalf of the directors, that the canal will be opened in 1890.

—At the recent competition for the Graham prize, Fredrick Ireland, a Detroit stenographer, wrote, on an average, 261 words per minute for five consecutive minutes. Others followed closely, at 257 and 253.

—It is asserted that the treasury surplus of $100,000,000, which only a few months ago seemed to trouble our statesmen so much, has dwindled to about $13,000,000. Just how it has all been used is not stated.

—The joint statement of the United States Senate and House Committees on appropriations, up to August 15, shows the grand total of appropriations to be $482,269,520.55, an excess of $64,054,730.81 over last year.

—It is reported that a syndicate, backed by Berlin capital, is secretly buying up all available timber lands in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Already vast tracts have been secured and others are being steadily absorbed.

—August 22 the steamers Oceanic and City of Chester collided in the Golden Gate, San Francisco, and the latter vessel sunk in about seven minutes from the time of the collision. The Oceanic was uninjured. Fifteen lives were lost.

—Governor Ross, of New Mexico, has called out a special force of fifty armed men, to appear at the sitting of the District Court, in Colfax County, next month. Many cases of ejectment against squatters are to be tried at that term, and serious trouble is expected.

—A vendetta has been declared between the Lea and John Good factions in the eastern part of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. One man has been killed on each side, and it is thought that an appeal will be made to Governor Ross to call out the militia, in order to still the disturbance.

—August 23 a large paper mill at Neenah, Wis., was destroyed by fire. When cold water was thrown on the boilers by the firemen they exploded with terrific force. Eighteen persons were killed by the flying debris, seven were fatally injured, and a number of others were injured less seriously.

—An irrigating reservoir, a magnificent engineering work of the fifth century, which had been partially destroyed, has been restored in Ceylon. It covers an area of 4,425 acres, or about seven square miles, from which water is taken to smaller distributing tanks more than fifty miles away.

—It is stated that the beautiful farm of the late Henry Ward Beecher at Peekskill is going to waste, none of his heirs having the means wherewith to carry on fancy farming the way Mr. Beecher used to do. This farm cost the great preacher about $300,000, and his executors would like to sell it for $80,000.

—August 21 the Atlantic Coast was swept by a most destructive rain and wind-storm, amounting in some sections almost to a cyclone. At Wilmington one person was killed and seven were seriously wounded; houses were blown down and trees were uprooted. Many other places also suffered severely. At Morgan City a steamer was wrecked. At Salem, N. J., a large number of buildings were destroyed. Damage was done as far west as Pittsburgh and Wheeling.

—President Cleveland has sent a message to Congress, asking for power to retaliate because of Canadian discrimination against American fishermen. He says that he wishes to close all American ports to Canadian vessels, and to prohibit the free transportation of Canadian goods in bond, through the United States.

—Dr. Gatling, the inventor of the gun which bears his name, has, it is claimed, invented a new method of making heavy ordnance, which will entirely revolutionize the entire system of manufacturing heavy missile-projectors now in vogue. Dr. Gatling's new invention is stated to be the casting of the heaviest ordnance in solid steel around a central core. The result is the production of a very much better gun at a reduction of about fifty per cent. over the old method.

—A dispatch from Trinidad, Col., August 25, says: "What may prove a long and bloody struggle opened to-day on the Maxwell grant at Stonewall, forty miles west of Trinidad. A sheriff's posse sent to keep the peace was met by armed settlers in numbers estimated at 200 to 500 men. The settlers demanded the arms of the posse, which demand was refused. The posse took up quarters in the Pooler Hotel, a large frame building. The settlers endeavored to force an entrance, when the posse opened fire. R. D. Russell, one of the oldest settlers, fell dead, and two or three other settlers were wounded." The settlers were both Mexicans and Americans, and the Mexicans were painted as if for war.

—A woman was recently arrested in San Francisco for procuring, by means of deceptive advertisements, innocent girls, for the basest purposes. The evidence against her seems to have been very strong, but for some unaccountable reason she was allowed to plead guilty to a minor charge, and thus escape with a fine. It is openly charged that her trial would have implicated a number of prominent men in San Francisco, and that is the reason why the case was disposed of as it was. A prominent paper published in that city says: "Evidently there was strong political influence back of her, which paralyzed the judicial machinery, and prevented the procurers from meeting the fate that she so richly deserved. The case is only one more added to the long roll of defeats of justice due to the vilest influences. Without influential backers this woman would have been sent to jail for six months, as the case against her was strong."