News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Jun 18, 1914

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A whole library on Mormonism and Utah has just been purchased by Harvard University. It consists of 2,600 books and pamphlets, and complete files of papers regarded as the chief sources of Mormon Church history.

— A new comet is said to have appeared in the skies, visible from various parts of the world. The wonder is said to be traversing millions of miles of space at terrific speed. It has no tail, possesses no name, and its orbit is unknown to astronomers. It was seen for the first time in Russia, from which point the fact of its appearance was cabled around the globe.

— Poverty has advantages such as do not inhere in the possession of great wealth. Nobody will envy John D. Rockefeller the necessity of placing eight armed guards about his home at Pocantico Hills. Here he has installed a system of electric lights, which he can turn on by the touch of a button at the head of his bed. In his wakeful moments the multimillionaire can press this button and ascertain whether his guards are doing their duty. Red, white, and blue lights flash in the rear, front, and on both sides of his house. The moment the guards see these signals it is their duty to push a button nearest the place where they are standing, so that a signal above Mr. Rockefeller’s bed may show that each is at his post. No poor man is ever required to trouble his sleep by seeking to ascertain whether he is being properly protected or not. The city and the State attend to that matter for him.

— In New York State there are 56,185 chauffeurs and 132,220 automobiles.

— Missouri lost last year, according to the Bureau of Vital Statistics, thirty-four men who were over one hundred years of age, and nearly four hundred who were between the ages of ninety and ninety-nine years.

— That the spirit of militarism is fast taking hold of the people of the United States is shown by a recent article in a Washington paper from the pen of the Secretary of War, in which it is maintained that our high schools and other public schools and academies should plan to teach the boys how to handle arms and shoot straight.

— Two hundred and ninety-nine railways of the United States, operating a mileage equal to the combined railways of the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Austria, and Italy, went through the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913, without a single fatality to a passenger in a train accident. The railways, which operate together 120,901 miles of line, constitute more than two thirds of the operating companies making their annual reports to the Bureau of Railway News and Statistics. The New Haven was not among them. During the year the railways thus reporting complete immunity, carried a total of 409,808,488 passengers.

— Here is an item on forest conservation which is of interest to all who have a right view on the subject. In 1894 the forests of Switzerland covered 2,091,000 acres, or 20.2 per cent of the total area of the country. In 1911 the forest acreage was 2,258,000, or 21.86 per cent of the whole country, an increase of 167,000 acres. The importance of forest conservation in Switzerland is realized when one remembers that the forests serve as the only protection against avalanches and landslides, which often destroy whole villages. The Scientific American says: “Only small tracts of forests are denuded at one time, and are immediately replanted.”