p. 142 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 26, 1885

SECULAR.

—A terrific explosion occurred in the powder magazine at Gibraltar, last week, killing seventeen men, besides doing much other damage.

—A very destructive fire on Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, last week, burned nine large business houses, and damaged six others. The loss is very heavy.

—The Government of Mexico is making inquiries relative to the intended settlement of Mormons in Sonora. Public opinion there is said to be very strong against receiving the polygamists.

—The steamship Australia, which sailed from San Francisco Feb. 9, for Australia, took out a thousand tons of freight, including five locomotives for a narrow-gauge railroad in New South Wales.

—A number of planters at Matamoras, Cuba, have determined to use the molasses produced on their estates as manure, the low prices falling short of paying the expenses of freight, storage, etc.

—The sale of real estate in New York week before last amounted to nearly $1,000,000, in fifty parcels. This was about $300,000 in excess of the total sales during the corresponding six days of last year.

—Dynamite threats are being received by authorities in England to the effect that St. Paul's Cathedral and the bank of England will be attacked with dynamite. Leading detectives are threatened with assassination.

—It just comes to light that Kentucky officials have for a long time been stealing public funds. The system adopted by the robbers has been carried on under cover of the law, aided by the State Legislature. The amount filched from the several departments will aggregate $2,000,000.

—A negro lad has just confessed that he set fire to the Blockley Alms House near Philadelphia, wherein eighteen persons were burned to death. He says he was engaged to do the deed by one Peter Schroeder, an attendant. The latter is under arrest.

—The anarchists of New York called a mass meeting, Feb. 18, to commemorate the death of one of the fraternity recently executed in Germany. Many incendious speeches were made, and a resolution was adopted indorsing the use of dynamite to achieve the independence of the Irish people.

—A collision between a passenger train and a freight train on the Virginia Midland Railroad occurred four miles from Alexandria, on the 19th. Both trains were badly wrecked. The cars took fire, and thirty-three of them were burned. Four of the train men were killed, and seven passengers injured.

—Intensely cold weather prevailed last week throughout the East. In some parts heavy snowstorms prevailed, which delayed the mails. On the Atlantic Coast violent rains overflowed the rivers, doing much damage to towns on the river banks. Streets and cellars in some parts of New York were also flooded.

—The residence of John H. Stenger, of Whatcom, W. T., was almost entirely destroyed, the night of the 16th, by an explosion of giant powder. The dastardly deed is supposed to be the outcome of some land troubles between the Stengers and other settlers. Much ill feeling has been manifested between the parties for two years past.

—A protest against permitting the Masonic societies to participate in the dedication of the Washington Monument was received last week by the Congressional Committee of Arrangements. It was, however, received too late for action by the committee, as the dedication ceremonies took place on the Saturday following. The protest had 13,000 signatures.

—Great excitement was occasioned in London last week by the riotous conduct of a large number of unemployed workmen. They paraded the streets with banners bearing mottoes of their grievances. They called at several public buildings and demanded relief, after which they attempted to storm the Admiralty and Home offices, but were finally driven off and dispersed by the police.

—The propeller Michigan left Grand Haven, Feb. 9, in search of another vessel, and became locked in the ice of Lake Michigan twenty-three miles from the eastern shore. Seventeen of the crew walked ashore on the ice and report the lake frozen as far to the west as they could look from the ice-bound steamer. Other reports say that the lake is entirely frozen over, for the first time in its history.

—An unusually large number of accidents were reported last week. Five men were killed the 21st in Wellsburg, West Va., by a natural gas explosion. A railroad accident near Cincinnati the same day injured fifteen persons. A collision on the West Shore Road near Utica, N. Y., resulted in the death of two persons, and another accident near Arrowsmith, Ill., ditched the train, and injured more or less of the passengers.

—A private banking institution was opened in Atlanta, Ga., a year and a half ago, called the National Loan Office. There would have been nothing significant in this fact were it not that some one happened to think that the title used by the firm is in violation of a United States statute, which forbids the use of the word "national" by all banks not organized under the national currency laws. The statute moreover provides that any person violating this prohibition shall be subject to a penalty of fifty dollars for each day during the time he has committed the offense. The proprietor of the Atlanta institution is now called upon to pay over something like $25,000. It is said that more than a hundred other banks are interested in the case.

—The fire record has been unprecedentedly large during the past week. The burning of a dwelling at Beaver and William Streets, New York, occasioned the death of six persons. At Galveston, Texas, a wholesale grocery house burned, causing a loss of $200,000. The house of a colored woman near Raleigh, N. C., burned, with three small children. In New Britain, Conn., the livery stables of Bailey & Bunting were burned; loss, $200,000. A dwelling-house on Pine Street, Philadelphia, was destroyed with its contents. Four persons lost their lives. Another fire on Market Street destroyed business houses valued at over $60,000. The Chappaqua Mountain Institute (New York), a Quaker school for boys and girls, was destroyed by fire the 21st. The State Penitentiary at Baton Rouge was also burned on Saturday last.