SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 1, 1877

SECULAR NEWS.

—The Library of Congress contains 315,000 volumes.

—Two severe shocks of earthquake were felt at Lisbon, Portugal, October 25.

—The breakers at San Buenaventura destroyed 400 feet of the wharf on the 22d.

—An exchange says that opium smoking will be prohibited in China by an edict of the emperor at the end of three years.

—It is stated that Miller and Lux have 700,000 acres of land in California, an area nearly as great as the State of Rhode Island.

—It is estimated that there are not less than 80,000 head of sheep belonging to Los Angeles owners, on pasturage in San Diego county at the present time.

—An explosion recently occurred in a colliery at Hight Blantyre, near Glasgow, Scotland. A large number of men were in the mine at the time of the explosion. Many lives were lost.

—Diphtheria is raging in its most malignant form in Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nev., and the public school authorities, as a precautionary measure, refuse to allow any child in whose family the disease has appeared to attend school.

—M. Thiers' entire fortune is valued at $3,200,000. He made 400,000 by his “History.” He left nearly everything to his widow.

—Queen Marie Anne Leopoldine Wilhelmine, of Saxony, widow of King Frederick Augustus II, died on the 13th ult., aged seventy-two.

—The amount estimated for carrying inland mails the coming fiscal year is $20,889,270, an increase over the estimates for the current year of $2,030,297.

—The United States treasury now has on hand an accumulation of over $119,000,000 in coin, being twice the amount it had at this time last year.

—It is reported that Pomare, queen regent of the Society Islands, died suddenly of heart disease at Tahiti, on the 17th of September. Her eldest son, Anane, was proclaimed king of the islands.

—The famine of the year 1877 is at least the eighteenth of those which have affected India since the commencement of the British rule, and the fourteenth during the present century.

—On the morning of October 20, a destructive fire occurred in Portland, N. B., leaving 2,000 people homeless, 700 of whom were sufferers by the great fire of June 20, at St. John.

—There were one hundred and two deaths in San Francisco last week, sixty-seven being of males. Diphtheria caused fifteen deaths—a larger number than any week for several months.

—The world's annual production of sugar aggregates 2,150,000 tons of cane sugar, 1,320,000 tons of beet root sugar, 450,000 tons of date sugar, 20,000 tons of maple sugar and 20,000 tons of sorghum sugar.

—The cultivation of tobacco in Germany occupies some 54,000 acres, principally in the southern States. The crop is worth about $45,000,000, and, in spite of the enormous home consumption, a considerable quantity is exported every year.

—The large woollen mill of Evans & Seagrave, at Waterford, Mass., was recently destroyed by fire. The mill ran twelve sets of machinery on fancy cassimeres, employing over 250 hands. The loss is estimated at $100,000.

—An exchange states that a riot broke out on Blackwell's Island recently. The convicts were enraged because their tobacco ration was cut off. The Warden states that of 936 male prisoners there are scarcely a dozen who do not chew tobacco. An average of 162 pounds of the weed is consumed every two weeks.

—A tunnel is talked about between Spain and Africa under the straits of Gibraltar. It would be about fifteen miles in length. This, with the tunnel between Dover and Calais, which is seriously contemplated, would give an uninterrupted railroad route from England to Tangier of about 1,200 miles in length.

—It is stated that a safety envelope has been invented. On the flap of the envelope the words “Attempt to open” are printed with a double set of chemicals, the first impression containing nut-galls and the second green vitriol. If the flap be steamed or moistened in any way the magic printing will appear, to betray the attempt to open.

—The Chinese Government has sent to this country 120 boys, of the most intelligent in their country, to receive a thorough education. They have erected a $25,000 building at Hartford, Conn., for head-quarters, where the students spend two weeks every three months studying their own language. They are expected to advance science and art in their own country when they return.

—Wood's Museum, Chicago, caught fire on the morning of the 23d, and the interior of the portion containing the theater was completely destroyed. The animals all died of suffocation. A liquor establishment beneath was damaged by water used in the museum. The entire loss estimated to be about $40,000. The insurance on all the property injured is two or three times the amount of the loss.

—An exchange says that during the last twenty years England has paid to foreign countries for food, $10,000,000,000, and that each member of the community now consumes to the value of two and one-half times as much foreign food as he did twenty years ago. With this immense drain upon her resources, England would in a few years be reduced to penury, were it not for the immense sums of money paid her as interest.