SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 30.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

—The coal fields of China cover about 400,000 square miles.

—The cholera is developing alarmingly in Marseilles, Lyons, and elsewhere in the south of France.

—A building is now being erected for the International Exhibition to be held at Athens in 1887.

—The San Francisco coroner reports that during the past year there were eighty-three suicides in that city.

—Riel, the leader of the half-breed rebellion in Manitoba, has been sentenced to be hanged on the 18th of September.

—July 27, a band of armed highwaymen stopped a stage two miles from Nevada City, Cal., and robbed the passengers of several hundred dollars.

—Reform is rampant nowadays. The Oxford, Miss., Eagle of July 2, says: "No more ballot-box stuffing, except in cases of absolute necessity."

—Sir Moses Montefiore, the well-known Hebrew philanthropist, whose one-hundredth birthday was celebrated last October, died in London, July 28.

—It is now definitely ascertained that El Mahdi is dead. Before his death he enjoined upon his successor to continue to wage war with the Christians.

—Terrible storms of rain and lightning have prevailed in the southern provinces of France. Many farm-houses have been destroyed, and many persons killed.

—The S. F. Bulletin says: "Experiments at Merced in the cultivation of the opium poppy have proved successful." One would suppose that California has been cursed enough with opium, without raising it.

—In 1840 the total quantity of opium consumed in the United States was about 20,000 pounds. In 1880 it had increased to 533,450 pounds. In 1868 it was estimated that there were from 80,000 to 100,000 victims of the opium habit in this country; now they number over 500,000.

—The harvest in India is now completed, and the yield is reported to be about 7,713,000 tons, more than half a million tons in excess of the average of late years.

—The beet-sugar factory, at Alvarado, near Oakland, has this season turned out 1,250 tons of refined beet-sugar. The factory pays out about $90,000 a year for beets.

—The people of Huesca, Spain, have risen in revolt against the execution of the excise law. They attacked the house of the excise collector, and burned it to the ground.

—The Chicago Tribune has collected statistics which show that since January 1 there have been ninety-nine lynchings in the United States, and only forty legal executions.

—Since the Fourth of July fifteen persons have died in Chicago from wounds received from toy pistols, the paper caps of which contain poison that is fatal, producing lock-jaw and death.

—One of the prisoners confined in the jail at Baker City, Or., set fire to the building, July 29. Five prisoners perished in the flames, the only one rescued being the incendiary, who was badly burned.

—A cable dispatch announces the total loss, on the 18th of July, off Cooktown, Australia, of the ship John Decosta. The ship was bound for California, from Melbourne, with a cargo of valuable horses. The fate of the crew has not been ascertained.

—The committee, consisting of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning, the Bishop of London, and others, to investigate the charges of immorality made by the Pall Mall Gazette, report that the statements made by that paper are substantially true.

—A collision occurred July 29, ten miles from Victoria, B. C., between the steamers Enterprise and R. P. Rithet. The Enterprise was totally wrecked, everything being lost except the mail and express. Many persons were thrown into the water, but all were rescued except two Chinamen.

—It cost $8,400 to remove the ice from the wharves in Montreal. Work was begun May 4th with 500 men and 100 horses and carts, and by the 26th of the same month the removal was completed. From a rough calculation it is shown that about 292,500 tons of ice were lodged on the wharves.

—General Sheridan says that there need be no fear on the part of settlers of Southern Kansas, from hostilities by the Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians. He says: "I have gone down to the bottom of the affairs here, and know that the irritation was the result of bad control and oppressive measures."

—The Panama Canal directors have asked the French Government to sanction a new issue of 500,000,000 francs' worth of bonds. Premier Brisson opposes the demand on the ground that there is a deficit in the budget and the country cannot take other responsibilities. De Lesseps maintains that the canal will be completed in 1888.

—The San Francisco Chronicle says: "Steamer rates to and from Stockton have fallen to merely nominal figures. Chinese are carried by the competing lines at 10 cents a head, and large numbers of white passengers are carried free. The freight rates on grain, which were four months ago $1.50 a ton, are now 25 to 40 cents, and still lower rates are taken on large shipments."

—The cholera is raging with increased fury in Spain. In the village of Montagudo, 100 miles north of Madrid, there have been 210 deaths in eight days. Great excitement prevails. The troops stationed in the city of Sargossa, where the disease is raging, have been supplied with guitars to keep up their spirits, and it is said that the sound of the instruments can be heard day and night.

—George W. Hibbard, general agent for the Union Pacific and connecting lines, says that neither the Union Pacific nor any of the transcontinental lines are feeling any anxiety over the reported intention of the Pacific Mail to withdraw its Australian steamers. The business, he says, is too valuable to lose, and if the Pacific Mail retires there will be no difficulty in organizing a company to take its place.

—Severe floods, very destructive to life and property, have been experienced in Denver, Col., and vicinity. At Colorado Springs, July 26, a cloud-burst carried away railroad and wagon bridges, and houses with their occupants. There were a number of summer campers on the banks of a stream near town, their tents have been seen floating in the streams, and as the flood came in the night, it is supposed that they all perished.