p. 135 | SECULAR NEWS

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 26, 1877

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 3, No. 17.

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SECULAR NEWS.

—The various New England colleges have 120 Chinese students.

—There are twelve miles of shelving for the books in the British Museum.

—Ex-Mayor Hall is in London, and admits that he is himself, and not Mr. Sutliff.

—Four hundred employees in the printing and engraving department at Washington will be dismissed this month.

—A school-house in the Norwegian village of Ellengso was lately burned and sixteen children perished in the flames.

—Five of the Rothschild family have been appointed members of committees for the organization of the Paris Exposition.

—It is now certain that the grasshopper eggs in Kansas are unproductive, none having hatched out, though circumstances are favorable.

—Sunday, April 15, an entire block of buildings was destroyed by fire in Ashland, Ohio. The loss is estimated at $60,000. The insurance is $20,000.

—The State of North Carolina has recently appropriated $20,000 for an insane asylum for colored people, and $2,000 for the education of colored school-teachers.

—It is stated that President Hayes received over 4,000 applications for office last month. Becoming tired of the throngs of office-seekers, he now leaves his office before 12 o’clock each day.

—The Emperor has declined to accept the resignation of Prince Bismarck of the imperial chancellorship, but has granted him a year’s leave of absence. The prince has left Berlin for Varzin.

—The San Francisco Mail of April 9, speaking of hard times, says: “Working men who think of coming here had better stay away, and those who are here, and have money enough to go away had better go.”

—A Berlin special says: “Two hundred thousand German colonists in Southern Russia intend to migrate to Brazil and other parts of America, to avoid draft into the army. The emigration has already begun.”

—The Chinese Empire contains 600,000,000 people, while the United States contain only about 50,000,000. China could spare a population equal to that of this country, and be benefited rather than impoverished by the loss.

—The Post-office Department has prepared advertisements inviting proposals for mail service on about 600 routes, in all parts of the country, for terms ranging from one to four years, from the first of next September. Bids received until June 9, and awards made by June 20.

—President Hayes does not use tobacco in any form, and is said to be a strict teetotaler. His fair, healthful, fresh countenance would indicate this. He and Mrs. Hayes attend the Foundry Methodist Church, Washington, of which Rev. B. Peyton Brown is pastor.

—Paris is one of the most heavily-taxed cities in the world. It is stated that the average share per head of the national tax paid by the Parisians is $15, and that in addition to this their municipal taxes amount to $22 per head. The interest on the debt alone is $8,400,000.

—Mr. Abner Huntly, of Cuba, Alleghany county, New York, died a short time ago at the age of 109 years. He is said to have become of age just in time to vote for George Washington for President at his first election in 1788, and has voted at every Presidential election since.

—Mr. Edward Martin, of N. Y., has donated one hundred and sixty acres of land just outside the city limits of Chicago, to be held in trust by a committee, for the foundation of a college to be under the auspices of the Reformed Episcopal Church. The land is valued at $150,000.

—The last British balance-sheet shows the receipts over expenditures for the year to be $25,000,000. The English debt is within a fraction of four thousand millions of dollars. The government has barely kept even with the interest during the last ten years, and now slips behind the amount of the deficit on that.

—The south-western portion of the city of Chicago was recently flooded by the falling rain and melting snow. In some cases the water rose to the first story of the houses, driving the people from their homes and obliging them to make their way on rafts improvised from floating timbers and sidewalks. The damage is great.

—April 11, nine men were imprisoned behind a column of coal 40 yards thick, at Pontypridd, Wales, by an explosion and inundation in a colliery. After continued effort for their rescue, a communication was opened with them, April 19. Five of them were found alive. The other four had wandered to other parts of the mine and perished.

—The London Spectator says: “A curious rumor is afloat, for which we do not vouch, that the Porte, in its eagerness for money, has offered to sell the hereditary Pashalic of the Holy Land to any candidate accepted by the Jews, in return for a loan. The transaction would be one of the most singular in history, but it is not beyond the range of possibility.”

—In the steamship Wyoming, which arrived in New York, April 21, were several prominent Turks, most of whom have been engaged in the government armories of Turkey. The avowed object of their visit to this country is to inspect the arms ordered from here, and ascertain their capacity and fitness for the service required, and also to learn our method of manufacturing arms.

—Information was received in New York, April 21, of the terrible slaughter of a Moravian missionary and his family at Lance, a camp on the Labrador coast, during the absence of the young ministers from the mission. The bodies were frightfully mangled, and a large quantity of English and Canadian money stolen. The murder is believed to be traceable to four Esquimaux, who had been refused rum at the mission.

—On Saturday night after the adjournment of Congress the Washington police made a raid on the most prominent gambling house in the city and arrested those who were gambling. Among the number was an ex-Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, a prominent Judge of South Carolina, an ex-United States Senator and several members of Congress. They were taken to the station-house, where they passed the night and were allowed to go home in the morning.

—One of the largest cultivated ranches in the State is said to be in Kern county, near Bakersfield. It consists of 30,000,000 acres. The crops this season are 2,000 acres of barley, 1,000 acres wheat, 175 acres corn and 3,000,000 acres alfalfa. The stock consists of 10,000 head of cattle, 20,000 sheep, 500 horses and 1,000 hogs. The working force at the present time is 625 men. All the crops are irrigated by an extensive and costly system of canals, which, with the other improvements on the place, added to the cost of the land, brings the total investment up to $1,400,000.