p. 231 | SECULAR NEWS

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 29, 1876

SECULAR NEWS.

—A large gang of Fenian convicts have been rescued from Western Australia by an American Whaler.

—The French Chamber of Deputies, on the 7th, passed the University Education Bill, giving the State the exclusive right to confer degrees. The final vote was 388 to 228.

—An exploring expedition to north-western Africa, has just left England. Its main object is to ascertain the feasibility of admitting the waters of the Atlantic into a portion of the Desert of Sahara.

—Russia is now the principal competitor with the United States in the supply of grain to the rest of Europe. Should Russia drift into war, the event would have a greater effect on the grain market than war in any other country.

—The Gibraltar Chronicle reports that on the 5th instant, at Alessar, a Moor stabbed eleven Jews with a dagger. Among the wounded are a British subject and the son of the Vice-Consul of the United States at Larache, Morocco. The Moor has been arrested and severely bastinadoed.

—Heavy rains have fallen in the south-western States during the last week, and several tributaries of the Ohio are flooding their bottoms. The Missouri is over its banks, and the upper Tennessee is doing damage along its valley. Almost the entire crops on the French and Broad have been destroyed.

—Garibaldi, it is said, will soon resign his seat in the Italian Parliament. He recently sent a letter to his constituents expressing his regret at being no longer useful to them, and stating that declining health unfitted him to discharge the duties devolving upon their representative. He intends to return to his home in Caprera, from which he has been absent about a year.

—In Connecticut the House of Representatives has made a very fine distinction, in passing, on June 20, a bill allowing women over 21 years of age who hold property to the amount of $500, to vote in school, borough and town elections. If women should vote why should property be made a test with them, more than with the men?

—There seems now to be some prospect of checking the slave trade in Central Africa. A telegram from Zanzibar to the House of Commons states that the Sultan has agreed to abolish all slave routes by land, to seize all caravans for slave dealing in the interior, to confiscate all slaves, and to imprison all slave-dealers. This stringent treaty, if faithfully carried out, is exactly what is needed to put down the traffic.

New York, June 24.—A special from General Crook's camp on Goose creek, via Fort Fetterman, to-day gives details of the big fight between the troops and the Sioux. The latter were about 2500 strong, under Sitting Bull, and the troops 1300 strong, under General Crook. The fight lasted nearly five hours. At the end of which time the Sioux sounded the retreat having suffered quite a loss in numbers. They are now practically surrounded by the troops.

—The news from Mexico is favorable to the success of the government. The State election for presidential electors takes place on the 15th of July, and there is little doubt of the choice of a majority favorable to the re-election of Lerdo de Tejada, who has proved himself honest, competent and liberal, a friend of education, the defender of religious liberty, and a reformer in every respect equal to Juarez, who was the most popular ruler Mexico ever had.

—The practical value of the Signal Service to the farmer and agriculturist is shown by the statement that the usual damages by rain in the case of hay crops have been very greatly reduced in Indiana and Illinois during the past year by the prevailing custom of consulting the Farmer's Bulletin before cutting the hay. The importance of a knowledge of the weather to be anticipated in connection with interests of this kind is illustrated by the statement that a single severe storm in the cotton belt has been known to cause fluctuation in the total value of the annual crop amounting to $20,000,000.

—One year since, Mrs. Lincoln, widow of President Lincoln, was adjudged insane by the Cook County Court, and Robert Lincoln appointed conservator of the estate. The afflicted lady was taken first to a private asylum at Batavia, Illinois, and afterward to her brother-in-law, Hon. N. W. Edwards, Springfield. June 15, that gentleman appeared in court with the petition that she be restored to the management of her property. He testified that Mrs. Lincoln has been living with him some time, and he was satisfied she was in proper condition to manage her own estate. No other witness was examined, and the jury gave a verdict in accordance with Edwards' prayer.

—Tuesday morning, June 20, the Bay Sugar Refinery, on the corner of Battery and Union sts., San Francisco, was almost entirely destroyed by fire. This building which, with the exception of the Palace Hotel, was the highest in the city, was seven stories high. The fire originated in the seventh story, and in spite of the prompt action of the firemen only the two lower floors, in which were stored about 30,000 pounds of sugar which was much damaged, was saved. 95,000 pounds of sugar were destroyed in the upper stories. The loss is variously estimated from $300,000 to $400,000. Insurance, $225,000. The company intends to rebuild immediately.

—It is reported that several farmers in Kern County will lose heavily by the destruction of their grain by the tule rats.

These rats live in the tule along the margin of the lakes, feeding on the roots of that plant. The spring rise in the river has filled the lakes and caused them to extend their margins a great distance, driving the rats back until they found the wheat fields, which as a new article of diet they appeared to relish better than the tule roots. Their plan of operation is to cut the stalk near the ground, and when it falls to eat the head. They totally destroyed a field of one hundred acres nearest the lake, and then advanced and begun on another field of 400 acres, but Mr. Souther determined to dispute this with the rats, and immediately threw his mowers into the field and proceeded to cut the wheat for hay. He will probably by this means save half of his crop for hay.