News and Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 24, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 20.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

—California's gold product last year was $17,000,000.

—Of the population of India but one-nineteenth are able to read and write.

—A second canal is proposed across the Isthmus of Suez, by the old company.

—This year's wheat crop in Dakota Territory is expected to reach 20,000,000 bushels.

—The number of immigrants arriving from the East, during the week ending May 19, was 1,737.

—It is expected that the Northern Pacific Railroad will connect with the Pacific Coast in August.

—Official reports indicate that in several States of Russia crops are a total failure and famine expected.

—The great bridge over East River, between New York and Brooklyn, has been completed, and is now open for travel.

—A party of excursionists, numbering about sixty, from Eastern States, are expected to arrive in California about June 1st.

—The new wheat crop of New Zealand is reported to be very heavy. One field of 380 acres yielded 102 bushels per acre.

—J. Proctor Knott, the humorous Kentucky Congressman, has been nominated by the Democrats for Governor of that State.

—There is great excitement in Guaymas and other Mexican ports over the reported discovery of rich mines in Lower California.

—Of the 180 graduates of the Maine State Agricultural College, only twelve are entered as farmers in the catalogue just issued.

—At a recent bull-fight in Guaymas, Mexico, Fernando Lopez, one of the torreros, was trampled to death by the infuriated beast.

—A snow-storm passed over Milwaukee, Wis., the afternoon of May 20. On the same day, two inches of snow fell in northern Michigan.

—A company of Mormon converts from Australia and the Pacific Islands passed through San Francisco last week, en route to Salt Lake.

—A heavy storm at Deadwood, D. T., May 20, destroyed property to the amount of $700,000. Five persons are known to have been killed.

—An official statement reports that the farmers of Kansas hold over from last year 5,000,000 bushels of wheat and 37,000,000 bushels of corn.

—In Lincoln County, Arkansas, a peculiar caterpillar is destroying the pineries. The worms appear in great numbers and strip the trees of foliage.

—A man named Smith sold a golden brick in Prescott, Arizona, for $1,000, which proved to be gilded lead. He has been arrested at Los Angeles.

—Residents in the vicinity of the Chinese quarters in New York City have become indignant at some of the revolting practices of their heathen neighbors.

—A decree from the Chinese throne has ordered several high officials to cease opium-smoking or forfeit their positions. A good example for "Christian" nations.

—The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad has been completed to Ogden, and connection made with the Central Pacific. This opens another transcontinental line.

—The leader of the "Salvation Army" in Melbourne was recently fined $25 and costs for marching his followers through the streets, to the great annoyance of citizens.

—On the 17th inst., a cyclone passed through the eastern part of Nebraska, touching the suburbs of Omaha. Houses were demolished at different points, and some lives lost.

—A white man named Streeter has been captured by the Mexican authorities, at the head of a band of Apache marauders. Some years ago he was a clerk at one of the Arizona agencies.

—A bill has passed the Illinois House of Representatives requiring railroad companies to build station houses at all points along their lines where the United States mail is delivered.

—Lydia Pinkham, of proprietary medicine fame, died in Lynn, Mass., last week, aged sixty-four. She spent $180,000 a year in advertising, and secured a trade netting her $300,000 a year profit.

—Governor Cleveland has signed the Campbell Penal Code amendments, which practically repeal what are known as the Sunday "blue laws," which have been so obnoxious to a large class of citizens of New York and Brooklyn.

—Another of the cherished traditions of early American history has gone by the board. The New England Historical-Genealogical Society has exploded Longfellow's beautiful story of Paul Revere, which is now declared to be principally fiction.

—The vicinity of Racine, Wis., was the scene of a terrible storm on the 18th inst. Many houses were destroyed, and about a score of people killed and a great many injured and left homeless. Also, from various parts of Illinois, cyclone reports are of a most exciting character. And Missouri has had another visitation, farm-houses and even villages being entirely demolished. The great prairie country of the West is being terribly shaken.

—At Jersey City, on the night of May 19, the cabinet, upholstering, and paint shops of the Pennsylvania Railway Company, in one building, 400x175 feet, located on the meadows between that place and Newark, were totally burned. The loss is estimated at $412,000. Nearly 500 men are thrown out of work. The company will rebuild at once.

—Police Judge Webb, of San Francisco, is coming down a little harder on the opium-smoking nuisance. Heretofore the penalty has been $20 fine; but a few days ago he sent Ah Lung, Daniel Mahoney, and Jessie Wilson to the House of Correction for three months—the Chinaman for keeping a smoking den, and the other two for patronizing the pipe.

—The Princess Winnemucca is reported by the telegraph as having addressed a select audience in Boston recently. She opposed the present system of Indian agencies, and claims that agents from the army are far preferable. She also deprecated the advent among them of certain missionaries, whose practices were far from being in accordance with their preaching.

—A new Republican daily is to be issued in Los Angeles. It is claimed that the prohibition proclivities of the Times, the present organ, "antagonizes the wine interest of the county and does not fully represent Republican sentiment." "Republican sentiment" seems to have undergone a change since the Sunday-law campaign. Then the opposition was classed with the "wine interest," etc.

—Governor Blackburn, of Kentucky, has pardoned James Sizemore, sent to the penitentiary from Clay County in 1880 for six years on a charge of murder. Sizemore made no defense on the trial. His brother, a man with a large family, was the real criminal, but Sizemore voluntarily took the odium and penalty on himself for the sake of his brother and family. The brother dying the other day confessed his guilt.

—A count of the money in the United States Treasury is now going on. So far, over half a billion dollars have been counted and an excess of three cents has been placed to the credit of the Treasurer. A prominent daily says, "It is gratifying to know, in these times when robbery is so common among public officers and men having charge of responsible trusts, that none of our United States Treasurers have been of this number."

—A law passed by the last Congress provides for a postal note by which smaller sums than $5.00 can be transmitted by mail for a fee of three cents. On money orders for larger sums the same law fixes fees as follows: For orders not exceeding $10.00, eight cents; exceeding $10.00 and not exceeding $15.00, ten cents; exceeding $15.00 and not exceeding $30.00, fifteen cents; exceeding $30.00 and not exceeding $40.00, twenty cents; exceeding $40.00 and not exceeding $50.00, twenty-five cents; exceeding $50.00 and not exceeding $60.00, thirty cents; exceeding $60.00 and not exceeding $70.00, thirty-five cents; exceeding $70.00 and not exceeding $80.00, forty cents; exceeding $80.00 and not exceeding $100.00, forty-five cents.