p. 20 | News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 27, 1910

News and Miscellany

— About 75,000 persons have died of cholera in Russia during the last six weeks.

— Senator Jonathan P. Dolliver died suddenly at his home at Fort Dodge, Iowa, October 15.

— The first heavy snow-storms of the season were reported from Wyoming, Colorado, and other Western points, October 19.

— Julia Ward Howe, noted literary woman and lecturer, and author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” died at her summer home at Middletown, L. I., October 17, at the advanced age of 91 years.

— Luigi Luccheni, who stabbed Elizabeth, empress of Austria, in September, 1898, at Lake Geneva, Switzerland, and was sentenced to solitary confinement for life, committed suicide in his cell last week.

— Henri Wynmalen, a youthful recruit among the airmen, established a new world’s record for altitude on October 1, when he rose 9,186 feet—almost two miles—in a biplane. His motor failing, he descended in thirteen minutes. He declares that he suffered greatly from cold.

— Thousands of Portuguese monks and nuns, expelled from their country in the recent revolution, have taken refuge in Spain. Here they are being so distributed among the convents and monasteries as to render very difficult their expulsion from Spanish territory. It is stated that the Spanish orders in the various provinces “are strengthening the convents and monasteries with iron doors and shutters, and are laying in stores of arms and ammunition.” How sharp the contrast between such a spirit and that of Him who said, “Put up thy sword”!

— A two-track tunnel for the Michigan Central Railroad has been completed under the Detroit River, between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, and opened for service. This tunnel will supplant the large railroad-car ferries heretofore in use at that point.

— October 3, the imperial Chinese Senate was opened in Peking by the regent, Prince Chun. “The new senate has 200 members, half being chosen by the provincial assemblies and approved by the provincial viceroys. The other half were selected by the throne, and included Manchu princes and nobles, distinguished scholars, and representatives of the official class and of the high taxpayers.”

— The long list of injuries and fatalities attending the Vanderbilt automobile cup race, run recently over the country roads of Long Island, leads the Scientific American to call this event “a gross reflection on modern civilization,” and to ask “whether, after all, our much-vaunted civilization is not shallow veneer, which, if it be peeled off, would reveal below something of the same old brutality which led the multitudes of Rome to the Colosseum to witness its unspeakable cruelties.”

— October 16 a French dirigible balloon crossed the English Channel, passed over the heart of London, twice circled St. Paul’s Cathedral, and made a safe landing. This is the first time that the Channel has been crossed by a dirigible. The 195 miles of the route was easily covered in six hours—one hour less than is required by the fastest express-trains and boats. Seven persons were carried, though the dirigible is built to accommodate 39 passengers in addition to the crew.

— An investigation conducted by the Census Bureau of the enormous growth of a number of Western cities, has led to the discovery of frauds in the census returns, the lists of certain cities being greatly padded. Tacoma and Seattle, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Boise, Idaho; and Minneapolis, Minn., are mentioned as participating in the frauds. In a letter to the secretary of the Census Bureau, President Taft declares that “the instances cited are sufficient to require the utmost vigilance to bring those who have violated the law to justice and proper punishment.”

— In an attempt to cross the Atlantic by balloon, Walter Wellman, with a crew of five men, left Atlantic City, N. J., October 15, in the immense cigar-shaped dirigible, “America.” A large amount of gasoline, and food supplies for thirty days, were taken. Wireless messages were received for several hours, indicating that all was well; but when the messages ceased, considerable anxiety was felt for the voyagers, in view of the serious storms prevailing. On the morning of the eighteenth, word was received from the Royal Mail steamer “Trent,” Bermuda to New York, that she had rescued the crew of the “America” off Cape Hatteras. It was soon learned that the large balloon had been driven far from her course by adverse winds, and had become almost unmanageable. When the crew was rescued, the “America” was abandoned. It is already stated that another attempt to cross the Atlantic by dirigible will be made next year.

— The evil results of the popular moving-picture show are shockingly revealed in the case of a fourteen-year-old boy of New York City. Arraigned before the juvenile court, he pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary, grand larceny, assault, and receiving stolen property, and declared that he was moved to his crimes by seeing moving pictures representing such deeds.

— The art store of Duveen Brothers, of New York City, was seized by federal officers on October 13, and the members of the firm in this country were placed under arrest, charged with conspiracy to defraud the government out of customs dues. It is said that duties aggregating more than $1,000,000 have been withheld by the firm, whose members, if the charges are proved, face heavy fines and long terms of imprisonment.

— Postmaster General Hitchcock announced, on October 18, that the deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, amounted to only $5,881,482, as compared with $17,479,770 for the preceding year. These are the final figures as reported by the auditor for the department, and show a saving of $11,598,288 during the course of the year. In view of the saving already accomplished, it is predicted that the long-desired penny post will soon be an accomplished fact.

— What is declared to be the most destructive hurricane recorded in the history of Cuba occurred last week. The storm began with light rains, Thursday morning, October 13, and developed into a heavy cyclone, which abated somewhat on Sunday night. Suddenly the wind changed, and a second storm of still greater fury swept over the island, completing the destruction begun by the first. The residence section of Havana was flooded, buildings were destroyed, lighters sunk, and the dredge and apparatus for raising the “Maine” wrecked. The wind blew at the rate of 90 miles an hour. On the nineteenth, Tampa, Fla., and all points south of Jacksonville, were cut off by the storm, which passed slowly up the coast. A heavy downpour of rain accompanied the high winds. The property loss is believed to amount to millions of dollars, and a heavy loss of life is feared.

— More than 700 cases await the consideration of the Supreme Court, the present session of which opened October 10. A few of the more important cases to be brought before the court are: “The rehearing of the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trust cases, made necessary by the death of Chief Justice Fuller and Justice Brewer, which will be postponed until the other justices are appointed; the Gompers’s contempt case; the employers’ liability cases; the New York World Panama libel case; the two-cent passenger-rate cases from Missouri; and the claim of Virginia against West Virginia for $11,000,000, which the former declares is the latter’s share of the State debt incurred before West Virginia separated from Virginia. The case of importance that has already been taken up by the court is the suit of the American Anti-Boycott Association, which objects to the ‘we don’t patronize’ list of the American Federation of Labor.” The present sitting of the court is regarded as the most momentous since the Civil War.