Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 14, 1904

—A Russian paper says the secret of the British move into Tibet is that much gold has been found to exist in that country.

—A property loss of $300,000 was inflicted on West Tampa, Fla., by fire on the afternoon of April 4. One thousand people were made homeless.

—Report comes by way of Vienna of an earthquake in Macedonia, April 5, which destroyed 1,500 houses, and occasioned considerable loss of life.

—It is reported from Vienna that Russian officials at Warsaw are apprehensive of an uprising in Poland, rumors of a movement having this aim having been current there for some time.

—A Mormon official declaration against polygamy was issued by President Smith at the closing session of the seventy-fourth annual session of the Mormon Church at Salt Lake City, April 6. It denies that any plural marriages have been sanctioned by the church since the manifesto of President Woodruff in 1890, and declares all such marriages to be prohibited under pain of excommunication by the church. Prominent Mormons present at the session adopted a resolution promising to aid the church and the courts in carrying the declaration into effect.

—News has been received at Berlin of a terrible plague of locusts in German East Africa. The report says: “Fabulous swarms of locusts have devastated the valley of the Usambara, in German East Africa. They were first noticed coming from Womba on February 22. It is semiofficially stated that the most terrible snowstorm would not give any idea of the numbers of the locusts. The trees on which they settled have broken down, and bananas and mulberry trees have been stripped, even the bark of the mulberry trees being eaten. Scarcely a green blade or leaf has been left in the forests or on the farms, except in the case of coffee plants, which the locusts tried but disliked.”

—There are unconfirmed rumors of battles both on land and on sea between the Russian and Japanese forces, but the strict censorship on both sides still prevents the press agencies from obtaining reliable news. The steamship “Furst Bismarck” of the Hamburg American line, has been sold to a Russian company, presumably for the use of the Russian government. The Russian soldiers and sailors have been granted a special dispensation by the church, relieving them from the necessity of the orthodox three days’ fast which began in Russia, April 7, for fear the fast might impair their fighting abilities. King Edward of England is reported to be engaged in an endeavor to bring about peace between the belligerent nations.