News and Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 14, 1883

News and Notes.

—The Government is considering certain changes in the navy yards, which if made, will result in a saving of nearly $500 daily.

—Advices received from Sierra Leone, under date of May 24, say that fifty persons were roasted alive for witchcraft, in Sheboa district.

—The first case of sunstroke ever recorded in California, occurred in San Jose, on the 7th inst. Another case occurred the same day at Livermore.

—It is announced with some natural surprise that the Brooklyn Bridge was honestly built, and so economically that it could not now be duplicated at the same cost.

—A thunder-storm at Albany, N. Y., on the afternoon of the 6th inst., caused damage amounting to $500,000. Houses were undermined, cellars flooded, and streets torn up.

—Peter Cooper left $100,000 as a permanent endowment to Cooper Union Institute, and the heirs have decided to double the amount. So unusual an occurrence is worthy of note.

—There is a monster orange tree near Fort Harley, Fla., that measures nine feet one inch in circumference. It is over fifty years old, and some seasons has over 9,000 oranges on it.—Ex.

—A young man in Cape Girardeau, Mo., recently died from the effects of a playful bite of a young woman; and in St. Joseph, same State, a man suffers with a poisoned arm from the same cause.

—George M. Willing, of St. Louis, has commenced suit to secure a tract of 2,700 square miles of land along the Gila River, which was deeded to his son in 1874 by a Spaniard. The value of the grant is estimated at $10,000,000.

—The notorious Barber boys were captured on the 7th inst., near Waverly, Iowa, by five unarmed Germans, of whom one was killed, and all the rest wounded. The desperadoes were taken from jail two days later by a mob, and hung.

—The Chinese Minister says his Government is satisfied with the working of the restriction law, adding that the people of California will find before ten years pass that the Chinese are needed and will ask for a repeal of the existing law.

—Much damage was done to small fruit in California by the hot weather of last week. It is stated that the loss to the fruit-raisers in Alameda County, in the single item of currants, will not be less than $60,000. The fruit was literally cooked on the bushes.

—The hot weather last week was unprecedented in California. Even on the bay the thermometer registered as high as 108° in the shade, and in some places it was warmer. In some places flowers were blighted by the hot north wind, as though by a frost.

—In New Haven, Conn., members of the Salvation Army have been notified by the Chief of Police that they must stop street singing in future, under penalty of arrest. Captain Palmer, the chief of the Salvationists, says it is their intention to sing until they are stopped by the Mayor, as that official gave them permission to hold meetings in the city.

—In Pittsburg, Pa., recently, during a performance in the Academy of Music, an unknown man, who was somewhat under the influence of liquor, was mesmerized by Kennedy Brothers, and at the conclusion of their act they were unable to restore him to consciousness. Several physicians were called, but up to midnight all efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

—Preparations for war between France and China are progressing rapidly, and are on a large scale. There is a strong war party in China, who are anxious to demonstrate the great improvements that that country has made in the modern arts and sciences, and in the art of war. China has recently ordered a number of ironclads and steel-plated vessels from England and Germany, and if war ensues, some heavy fighting is expected.

—A recent dispatch from Raleigh, North Carolina, says: “Mormon missionaries are again at work in the western part of the State. They have induced a large number of women to join their church. The ceremony of baptism of the new converts was attended by most horrible orgies. All that was previously known of the abominations of Mormonism was surpassed by the scenes that took place on this occasion. The Mormons will probably be driven out of the State. Public indignation is so great that lynching is feared.”

—Great damage was done by a tornado in the vicinity of Dallas, Texas, on the 2d inst. Near Hutchins’ Station, south of Dallas, the destruction was so complete as to dishearten the people. Some of them have given up farming and turned their attention to working at day labor. Wheat standing in shocks was scattered to the wind; water in huge streams ploughed up the fields and cut jagged ruts through what had been model stands of cotton and grain. Many animals in the fields were killed. Fifteen miles west of Dallas great trees were torn up and carried long distances; orchards were twisted and stripped of their branches and young fruit strewn on the ground. Another cyclone, in Collin County, on the 10th, destroyed everything in its path.