SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 28, 1877

SECULAR NEWS.

—Some three hundred new papers were started in the United States during 1876, and about five hundred suspended publication.

—The highest railroad bridge in the world is that over the Kentucky river which the Cincinnati Southern road has just completed.

—In the last three hundred years there have been one hundred and forty-six Arctic Expeditions, and full one thousand books written on the subject.

—Official reports show a large increase in the number of passengers from the East passing over the isthmus of Darien, as compared with the corresponding period last year.

—The town of Williams, Colusa county, was partially destroyed by fire on the night of the 12th. The total loss of property is estimated at $35,000; total insurance, $19,000.

—June 14, was the centennial anniversary of the formal adoption of the stars and stripes as the flag of the United States, by resolution of the Continental Congress, June 14, 1777.

—A Cincinnati Gazette special from Vanceburg, Ky., states that a fight occurred there between a vigilance committee and a band of horse thieves. There were between 50 and 70 men engaged, and four are reported killed.

—There have been between 15,000 and 16,000 head of sheep killed on the Rancho Casmalia, Santa Barbara county, this season, for their hide and tallow. There is no feed for the stock in that vicinity, and the few head of sheep and cattle which remain are not expected to live through.

—It is estimated that the sea holds 60,000,000,000,000,000 tons of salt. Should the sea be dried up, there would be a deposit of salt over the entire bottom of the ocean 450 feet deep, and if the salt were taken and spread on the land it would cover it to a depth of 900 feet.

—New Jersey is again visited with the plague of the “seventeen year” locusts. They appeared in great numbers on the first day of June, just seventeen years from their last former appearance. Their term of life is brief, but they leave sad marks behind when they disappear.

—The Calaveras Chronicle says: “We were shown several stalks of oats this week, grown on Hoskinson’s ranch, Lower Rich gulch, that measured eight feet nine inches, the tallest grain we ever saw or heard of. Some alfalfa grown on the same place measured six feet and three inches.”

—A grove of the great trees of the Yosemite has just been explored. It is of an altitude similar to that of the other groves, 6,000 feet. Instead, however, of being only a cluster of forty trees, it is a six-mile-square collection of ten thousand. There are trees in it estimated to be from 100 to 4,000 years old.

—The European demand for American produce is indicated by the fact that recently the steamers from San Francisco took full cargoes, including 104,000 bushels of grain, 1,100 boxes bacon, 2,300 boxes cheese, 3,000 packages and 4,460 boxes butter, and 1,600 quarters of fresh beef. The steamship Chester took 4,400 boxes fresh butter, packed in the refrigerating room, in place of fresh beef.

—An apparently well authenticated report has been published announcing the appearance among the vineyards of Spain of the dreaded phylloxera, which has caused such deplorable ravages among the fairest vineyards of France. Chiefly owing to the attacks of this destructive insect the wine production of the latter country has decreased from nearly two thousand millions of gallons, in 1875, to less than one thousand million gallons in 1876.

—By the timely and Providential appearance of the monsoon, the dreadful famine in India has been arrested, and news from the famine districts is more cheerful. A Calcutta dispatch says the south-west monsoon burst at Colombo, Ceylon, on the 14th of last month, and may therefore be expected at Bombay early in June. If it comes in good time, and brings sufficient rain, the government will be able to congratulate itself on having passed the crisis of the famine. Already official reports from both Bombay and Madras anticipate the commencement of agricultural operations in consequence of rain which has already fallen. There have been showers also throughout Mysore.

The Humboldt Times says that an Indian belonging to one of the tribes at or near the mouth of the Klamath river was killed lately, the Indians say, by a white man, or white men. As a result of this the Indians, headed by “Spot,” chief of the tribe to which the murdered Indian belonged, have driven the fishermen and all the white men from the mouth of the river, and announced that they will kill the first four white men who appear on the trail at that point. A meeting of the citizens was held at Crescent City on the 10th to consider the matter, and it was finally decided to send the Sheriff of Del Norte county with four citizens to take “Spot” into custody. These went to the habitation of the chief, but could not find him.

—June 20, a destructive fire broke out in St. John, N. B. A strong north wind was blowing at the time, and in an incredibly short space of time the flames burst out, carrying with them hundreds of houses, stores and lumber yards. The loss of hotels, churches, school-houses, banks, etc., was made a thousand times more painful and lamentable by the destruction of life accompanying it. Of the 810 acres in the city boundaries, 400 are burned over, and over 15,000 residents are homeless. The loss is estimated at $20,000,000, and insurance at $8,000,000. Measures are being taken to send speedy relief to the sufferers. June 23, attempts were made by incendiaries to burn the remainder of the town, but they were discovered and the fire extinguished.