p. 126 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1885

SECULAR.

—Thousands of iron-workers at Troy, N. Y., are returning to work.

—An explosion occurred at the Vale Colliery, in New Glasgow, N. S., Feb. 11, killing thirteen men.

—The fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the first German railway is about to be celebrated in that country.

—Ex-Mayor Edson, of New York, was recently sentenced to be confined in jail fifteen days and pay, in addition, a fine of $250, for contempt of court.

—Last Thursday evening, Feb. 12, the insane department of the Blockley Almshouse, at Philadelphia was burned. Eighteen of the sixty patients in the building were burned to death.

—A Law and Order League was formed in Philadelphia, Feb. 10, to enforce the existing laws against selling liquor to minors, and habitual drunkards, and for the closing of saloons on Sunday.

—Queen Victoria has been confined to her bed for some days, with sickness caused, it is said, by overanxiety in regard to affairs of Government, and especially as to the outcome of the Soudan expedition.

—The town of Alta, U. T., was nearly destroyed Feb. 13, by a snow-slide. Only two buildings entirely escaped. Twenty-eight persons were buried under the snow, twelve of whom have been taken out alive.

—A fire the evening of Feb. 7, in the annex to the Signal Service Department at Washington, destroyed and damaged a number of valuable meteorological records and almost ruined some of the finest instruments in the office.

—Two coaches and a sleeper occupied by twenty or more passengers went through a bridge on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, near Creston, Iowa, Feb. 8. Three of the passengers were killed and seven wounded.

—The Samoan group of islands in the Pacific has been annexed by Germany. These islands lie directly in the path of steamers plying between San Francisco and Australia. The United States Government has a naval station on the islands.

—Late reports from New York say that nearly 200 vessels bound for that port are overdue. Great anxiety is manifested there on the part of those who were expecting friends on these vessels. Five of the overdue crafts have been given up as lost by their agents in New York and by their owners on the other side of the Atlantic.

—News from Khartoum on the 10th were to the effect that the city had been taken by the Mahdi's troops, and the garrison, including General Gordon, had been massacred. The reports however are of so unreliable a nature that all the details cannot be relied upon.

—At the rolling mill in Brazil, Ind., Feb. 10, the boiler exploded, burying four men under the puddling furnaces, and killing two others outright. The four men buried under the furnace were all taken out dead. Fifteen were seriously injured, some of whom will die.

—The State University of Texas has a permanent fund of over half a million dollars, and also two million acres of land. Its total resources are estimated by the Regents to amount to $5,000,000. The State has also set apart 30,000,000 acres of land to provide for general education.

—Round-trip passage between New York and Hamburg can now be made in the steerage for $20. It is said that many foreigners are taking advantage of the cheap fare, to visit their friends in the old country and remain till spring. In this way many expect to bridge over the hard times.

—Five men engaged in cleaning a sewer on Kinsey Street, Chicago, were asphyxiated by foul gas Feb. 12. When their dangerous situation was learned, help was immediately rendered, but four were already dead when taken out, and one died shortly after. Four others who were with them escaped.

—While the Salvation Army was parading the streets of Fall River, Mass., Sunday, Feb. 8, it was attacked by a crowd of roughs. Many in the procession beat a hasty retreat, but were followed and severely pelted with stones. A number were seriously injured, and one it is thought fatally. No arrests followed.

—Last week's United Irishman, Rossa's paper, contains the following from Dublin: "It has been decreed to offer a reward of $10,000 for the body, dead or alive, of Albert Edward Guelph, nicknamed the Prince of Wales. England has offered a reward for the assassination of Osman Digna, and we may profit by the example."

—Nearly all the leading officials of the Mormon Church have scattered from Salt Lake to evade the Government officers. On the 8th not a single prominent official was to be seen in the Tabernacle, and the services were tamely conducted by two of the common bishops. Ten indictments against polygamists were reported by the Grand Jury for the preceding week.

—Probably as curious an article of export as is often carried in an ocean steamer was lately taken out to New Zealand. It consisted of a consignment of "bumble-bees." At present, though it grows readily, clover does not "seed" in that country, because there are no bumble-bees to fertilize the flowers. The importer hopes that the bumble-bees will save him $5,000 a year in clover seed.

—The House of Representatives is gaining a reputation in the way of theatricals. Another sensational scene occurred there Feb. 9, the central figure of which was White, of Kentucky. He engaged in a wordy war with the temporary speaker, Blackburn,—who it appears is as untamable as himself—about a question of personal privilege. The contest finally became so heated that the sergeant-at-arms was obliged to restore order, which he succeeded in doing with considerable difficulty.

—Dispatches from the East last week reported one of the heaviest storms of the winter, which extended throughout the entire country. In some places snow-drifts were reported from fifteen to eighteen feet deep. Immediately following the storm, the mercury dropped as low as 22 degrees below zero in Chicago, while at some points in the Northwest it was much lower. Later reports from Alabama and Mississippi say the storm has been the most severe ever known in those regions, the snow reaching a depth of nine inches.

—One of the latest feats in telegraphy is to communicate with a railroad train while in motion. This has lately been successfully accomplished on a New York railroad. It was done by having covered wires laid between the rails and fastened to the ties. Another bunch of insulated wires passes under the car, inclosed in a hollow iron tube. This tube passes over the first-named wires about one foot above them. The communication is kept up between these by the use of a "double pointed" Morse instrument in the car, which is connected with the wires under the car.