News and Miscellany

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1876

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 2, No. 14.

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News and Miscellany.

—E. D. Winslow, the Boston forger, was arrested in London on the 15th ult.

—The steamer Gaelic, which arrived in San Francisco on Monday last, brought 531 Chinese.

—The Spanish government has purchased six Krupp guns and 6,000 rounds of ammunition to be sent to Cuba.

—An ice house at Rondout, N. Y., containing six thousand tons of ice, was burned Sunday morning, Feb. 6.

—In the House of Commons Mr. Disraeli moved a bill enabling the Queen to take the style and title of Empress of India.

—The Keeley Motor proved that it was something more than a myth by producing an explosion on Friday evening, in the building in Philadelphia put up for conducting experiments with the “new force.”

According to a telegram from Denver, Rt. Rev. J. P. Machebeuf, Catholic Bishop, has threatened that his constituency will oppose the proposed new Constitution for Colorado if it shall contain an article prohibiting a division of the school fund.

—When elected President, Washington was 57; John Adams was 62; Jefferson, 54; Madison, 60; Monroe, 59; John Quincy Adams, 58; Jackson, 61; Van Buren, 54; Harrison, 67; Taylor, 64; Polk, 49; Pierce, 48; Buchanan, 65; Lincoln, 51; Grant, 46.

—It is understood that parties are now in New York making arrangements to contract for a good many thousand barrels of lager beer, in anticipation that the breweries in and about Philadelphia will not be able to supply all that will be required for consumption.

Mr. John Jacob Astor has announced to the trustees of the Astor Library his intention of personally giving $10,000 for the purchase of additional books. It is estimated by the trustees that the value of the property belonging to the library, after the payment of the late William B. Astor’s bequest, will exceed $1,000,000.

—The last proposed change in the postal law, is to divide third-class matter into two classes, one containing transient newspapers and periodicals and all articles which are not strictly merchandise, to be carried at the present rate, and the other containing proper merchandise, to be carried according to weight and distance.

MARCH 6.—A snow-storm, the heaviest of the season, has again blockaded the eastern bound trains. Slides are frequent, having carried away the snow-sheds at five different places. Between Truckee and the Summit two slides are reported as carrying away the sheds for a distance of five hundred feet. No mail train has arrived for four days.

A Chinese riot occurred in San Francisco at 5 o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, at the Chinese drug-store of See Chy Lung & Co., on Dupont street, resulting in a bloody and exciting fight, in which hatchets, iron bars and knives were freely used. Six were wounded, one fatally. During the fight the street was filled with Chinese, who urged the combatants on with wild yells.

On Monday, the 28th, at half-past four o’clock, news was received from San Quentin that the State Prison in that place was on fire. Immediate assistance was sent from San Francisco, and by eight o’clock the fire was well under control. Among the 1100 prisoners all responded to their names at roll call on the following morning. The loss to the State is estimated at about $75,000.

—The news that came from Washington yesterday of the resignation of General Belknap, the Secretary of War, with the circumstances which led to the act, cannot fail to cause pain and mortification to every honorable American citizen at home or abroad. According to the dispatch the cause of General Belknap’s resignation was the testimony of a witness before one of the Committees of the House of Representatives, to the effect that the Secretary’s wife had accepted a present of $10,000, in consideration of which the witness had obtained the position of a post trader, which he had retained by paying the lady $6,000 a year ever since his appointment.

—Slavery is not by any means extinct. According to statements just published by the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, slaves are now being bought and sold in Egypt, Turkey, Persia, Madagascar, Cuba, and in other countries. To meet the demand for slaves, traders are depopulating whole districts in Central Africa, Abyssinia, etc. The East African slave-trade is now actively carried on both by sea and by land routes. The cooly contract system, as it exists in many countries, is merely a modified form of slavery. It is stated that an attempt was recently made by the British Admiralty to revive the fugitive slave law in the British navy under the national flag.

SIR ANTHONY ROTHSCHILD, Baronet, who died January 3d, at Southampton, England, was one of the chief partners in the great firm of N. M. de Rothschild & Sons. He was the second son of Baron Nathan Meyer de Rothschild, and was born in 1810. He married in 1840, and had two daughters, but no sons, so that the baronetcy descends to his nephew, N. M. de Rothschild, M. P. for Aylesbury. The late baronet was a baron of the Austrian Empire, had been Austrian Consul General in London since 1858, and was a Commissioner of Lieutenancy for London. He will be best remembered for the munificent aid which he rendered to many charities throughout the world, without regard to nationality or creed.

—The St. Louis Dispatch states that the Freemasons of St. Louis came to the United States Marshal and asked him to allow them to bring McDonald, a U. S. official, and a member of the whisky ring, before their order for trial. As this was a novel and unheard-of request, the Marshal informed the committee that he had no authority for the removal of the prisoner, and if they desired to arraign McDonald they would have to hold court in jail. This was not the ultimate design of the lodge-men, and they left the dispensation of justice to the courts which soon landed McDonald in the penitentiary. This is the boldest attempt yet on record to use Masonic influence for the perversion of justice.—Christian Statesman.

A NEW DANGER-SIGNAL BUOY.

Mr. Edgar M. Mann, of Lawrence, Mass., has received a patent upon his souffleur, or “blower,” an invention for the better protection of life and property on the dangerous portions of our seacoast. It is in the shape of an inverted balloon, and is to sit in the water, secured by an anchorage. The upper and tapering portion comprises a signal-horn. It is intended to hold a certain quantity of liquid in the bottom, and within it is a system of pipes, admitting air from the outside, and conveying the same to the signal-horn above. The vessel filled with water and air, is caused to undulate by the motion of the waves, and as the liquid within the vessel is thrown from side to side, the air is forced up, sounding the horn. This signal is continuous, as the pipes or valves lead from each side of the buoy, and the amount of the sound will depend upon the size of the buoy and the arrangement of reeds or whistles producing the signal. The Government is about constructing a buoy from this patent, eight feet high, and it is believed the signal can be heard for a distance of ten miles.