SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · May 4, 1876

SECULAR NEWS.

—Fresh Indian troubles in the Big Horn country by the Cheyennes are reported.

—A proclamation has been recently issued by the Sultan of Zanzibar, forbidding the passage through his territory of slave caravans on their way to the Somali coast.

—A bill has passed the California Legislature allowing each Board of Education to select text books for the schools in its own district, and providing that the books selected shall continue in use for six years.

—Foreign languages and instrumental music are to be taught in no public schools in this State except in the University, the Normal and High Schools, and the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind.

—The American publishes a statement of one of the passengers of the Hibernian, which arrived April 24, to the effect that among the passengers who landed at Halifax were Don Carlos of Spain and three of his Generals. It is said they are to make a tour of the United States incognito.

—The Grand Jury in Washington on Saturday indicted Babcock, Harrington, Whitley, Benton, Miles, Nettleship and Somerville for complicity in the “safe burglary conspiracy.” Warrants were issued for the arrest of each, excepting General Babcock, who appeared and gave bail in the sum of $10,000.

—The fact that the emigration from Ireland is much less than it was 10 or 15 years ago, shows that their situation in the old country must be improving, and that the evils of overpopulation have been alleviated by the vast emigration of the past quarter of a century. Only a little more than 50,000 persons emigrated last year.

—The third wife of the Khedive of Egypt recently bought a large house in a thickly peopled locality, erected around it a quadrangle of spacious buildings, and gave them into the hands of the Educational Department, in which they were to open a free school for girls, herself to defray all the expenses. The school thus far is a grand success. When it had been opened only four months there were 206 boarders, and 100 day pupils, all Arabs or slaves. It is said that they dress somewhat in English fashion, and sit, not squatting upon the ground, but at desks.

STRANGELY WONDERFUL.

—Several weeks since a statement was going the rounds of the papers that the people of North Chili, Monroe Co., N. Y., were getting quite superstitious over an unaccountable sound like music in the air. It was thus described:

“About 7 o’clock every morning there can be heard a soft, soughing sound in the air, like the music of an Æolian harp, but of greater volume. This weird music seems to pervade the air for miles. Families living widely apart have heard it at the same hour. At first it was noted with simple curiosity, but its recurrence with such regularity when the air is not disturbed by violent storms has given it a romantic interest. Various theories have been presented, such as the vibration of the telegraph wires, or the sound of a far-distant locomotive whistle toned down and mellowed by distance, or some peculiar condition of the atmosphere, or formation of the ground. But these do not satisfactorily account for it. It is unlike the sound of wires, and too akin to music to be caused by an engine. Some people have averred that the sounds proceed from a certain spot of ground about a mile from the station of North Chili. They describe that the earth vibrates, and that the sound seems to rise and float away skyward.”

This week an exchange comes out with an explanation of the whole affair, and says: “The unaccountable strains of music which seemed to float in the air were produced by a new bell which had been put into one of the manufacturing establishments in Spencerport, some six miles distant. It isn’t best to make too much of sensational rumors.”