Sunday Observance and China’s Troubles
Sunday observance is a feature of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, notwithstanding the determination of the directors to keep the gates open. The most significant point, however, is the closing of the government exhibit on that day. A press correspondent says:— “A person visiting the fair on Sunday sees the grounds, the buildings, the people, the plants, the flowers, and not much besides. . . . No religious services are allowed on the grounds on Sundays. I suppose this is done to prevent complications between denominations, and to save the directors from conflict with the ‘Midway’ concessionaries. The Hawaiian people, however, have a religious service of their own, and among the 400 Indians there are frequent services.” CHINA is not thru with her troubles yet. One report states that the entire province of Shantung is overrun by the Chinese rebels, and that neither the Russian forces nor the Chinese troops are able to maintain order. It is reported that in the vicinity of Moukden all the villages are being burned, and that hundreds of the inhabitants have been killed. One prominent missionary states that unless China is completely reorganized within a few years, the whole country will be menaced by 20,000,000 Boxers. The Chinese, he asserts, will never forget that the Boxer movement had the sanction of the Chinese court. By a peculiar discrepancy, it has developed that the Chinese have promised to pay $24,500,000 more than the total indemnity which the powers demanded. A despatch from Shanghai states that the empress dowager, fearing a plot to capture her, has refused to return to Peking, and has declared Kai-feng-fu to be the capital of the empire. The powers are now puzzled over the question of whether to recognize the civil administrator whom Russia has placed in the province of Manchuria. Some of the powers have done so, and others are still awaiting instructions from their governments. THE War Department has ordered the commanders at the different military posts throughout the country to take exact memoranda of what occurs during and after each pay-day, including the number of arrests, the number of absentees, and the number of desertions. This is to be done at each of the next four pay-days, and the results placed before Congress at its next session. The department has been stirred up to this action by unofficial reports which have come in from the various posts from men who have always been opposed to the anti-canteen law. It is known that the department itself is opposed to the new law, and that the liquor element is doing all it can against the law in the circulation of false reports. These different elements appear to be working together to the end that the anti-canteen law shall be repealed. THE fifth international convention of the Epworth League will be held in San Francisco, July 18 to 21. The grand opening concert will be given in Mechanics Pavilion on the evening of July 16. On the evening following, prayer-meeting receptions will be given to the visiting delegates. ACCORDING to Zeal, the organ of the Federation of Young People’s Societies, the growth of cigaret-smoking among girls and women is becoming a dangerous menace. A New York manufacturer is quoted as saying: “In New York City, for instance, I have 1,000 ladies of the highest class of society as my regular patrons. While the use of cigarets among women of the better class is growing steadily in Chicago, it still does not compare in extent to the condition in this respect in other States.” According to the general statement made by another man, there are 100,000 women in New York City alone who smoke, and the practise is rapidly growing in all the other large cities. It is said to be the rule rather than the exception for women of “high society” to indulge in the use of the cigaret—a condition which is the direct result of idleness and luxury. THE Navy League, an influential body of Englishmen, has begun an agitation which has for its purpose the strengthening of the English navy. The League’s members declare that there is a great deficiency in the English fleet; that it is not ready for war; that it is lacking in many things now considered necessary in the perfect equipment of a fleet, such as smokeless powder and telescopic sights. The League declares that the navy is supreme no longer, and that the contrast between what the navy really is and what the people suppose it to be is a dramatic one. The result, of course, will be greater expenditures both for increasing the navy and for bettering the condition of the ships already in service. NOTWITHSTANDING the sharp set-back of Spain in her military and naval career, she is now making vigorous efforts to repair the depletion of her armament caused by the recent war. A special navy commission has placed with the Vickers-Maxim concern a large order for the finest make of high-power guns. These heavy guns are capable of firing 200-pound projectiles at the rate of eight per minute, the striking energy of which is six times as great as the same size guns now in use in the English navy. The spirit of preparing war will not down. THE national debt of France at the present time has reached the enormous sum of $5,829,742,000, or about $151 for each person, man, woman and child, in that country. This probably has something to do with the fact that within the last six months French capitalists have drawn from their own banks and sent abroad more than $121,000,000. A panic seems to have seized the capitalists, and they are hurrying their wealth into other countries as fast as possible. THE white fishermen on the Fraser River in British Columbia are on strike, having refused to furnish fish to the companies at 10 cents each. The Japanese, however, continue to fish. This has stirred up much bitter feeling between the rival fishers, and as each side numbers several thousand, it is feared there will be serious trouble before the matter is settled. The white fishermen and the Indians are preparing to patrol the river and prevent the Japanese from fishing. A mob of anti-clericals in Valencia, Spain, on June 26, surrounded a church, broke all the windows, and fastened the congregation on the inside, to prevent the departure of a religious procession. The police dispersed the mob, which then proceeded to the residence of the archbishop and the convent, and broke all the windows in those buildings. The wrath of these mobs in Spain is directed principally against the Jesuits. ON June 28 there came up for passage in the French Chamber of Deputies the famous Bill of Associations, aimed at the Catholic orders in France. The bill passed by a vote of 313 to 249, and only awaits the signature of the President to become a law. The Catholic members of the Chamber consider this bill to be the beginning of a war on Catholicism. ONE hundred and fifty-five automobiles left Paris on June 27 in a race which was to terminate at Berlin. Many of these, thru one cause or another, fell out by the way; but a great many of them completed the race in remarkably fast time. The race was won by M. Fournier, a Frenchman, the speed of whose automobile averaged more than 45 miles an hour. ON June 30, 4,000 soldiers from the Philippines were mustered out of the service at the Presidio in San Francisco. There are still three regiments on the way across the Pacific, and these will be mustered out of the service on arrival at San Francisco. This will complete the muster-out of the volunteers, leaving only the regulars in active service. ON July 1 many of the special taxes levied on account of the war were repealed. These include the tax on bank checks, bills of lading, certificates of deposit, drafts, express receipts, insurance, custom-house manifests, leases, mortgages, promissory notes, telegraph messages, telephone messages, and warehouse receipts. ACCORDING to the Vienna correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, a conflict has occurred on the border between Albania and Montenegro between Mussulmans and “Christians,” in which a considerable number were killed and wounded. THE president of the Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers’ Association is planning to call out all the laborers in those trades. He says that this strike will be one of the greatest importance, and will involve 50,000 men. THE Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, in the course of their excavations in the island of Crete, have uncovered a large palace with extensive wings, stone staircases, and beautifully decorated halls and rooms. Many specimens have been secured of ancient Mycenaean, Egyptian, Nubian, and Italian work. THE Earl of Dunmore, who recently came to America for the purpose of making a deeper study into Christian Science, and then returning to England to teach it, reports that this doctrine is making sweeping strides in the British Empire; that it is spreading rapidly in England, and is reaching all classes. THE new tariff imposed upon the poor inhabitants of the island of Guam has driven from the island the most of what little trade it had, and the conditions there are reported to be distressing. It is reported that the people will starve unless they shall receive aid from the government. DURING the past year more than $75,000,000 have been added to the cash in the Treasury of the United States. The aggregate amount of cash in the United States Treasury at the present time is $1,181,868,911. The national debt was reduced during the month of June $17,737,374. A SALT trust, said to comprise 68 per cent. of the American salt manufacturers, has been organized for the purpose of “fighting the salt trust.” When the “fighting” is over, the two trusts will combine, and the trust will have a firmer hold on the people than it did before. IT was announced by President Eliot, of Harvard University, at an alumni dinner on June 26, that J. Pierpont Morgan had given to the institution more than $1,000,000 for the erection of three of the five buildings planned for the Harvard Medical School in Boston. A GENERAL order for a strike of all the union sheet-steel workers was issued by the president of the union on June 29. There are over 20,000 men affected by this order. The officials of the companies refuse to discuss the grievances of the strikers. A REPORT from Korea states that about 300 native Catholics attacked a town mass-meeting at Quelpart, Korea, recently, and killed a number of the villagers. The latter returned to the scene, dispersed the Catholics, and finally massacred the whole company. THE statue of Napoleon, which was removed from its pedestal during the reign of the commune, was found recently by accident in the Seine River. It will be taken in charge by the State Commission for the Preservation of Historical Landmarks. IT is reported that martial law has been proclaimed in Panama, owing to the re-organization of the rebel forces. It appears that considerable fighting is in progress in the interior, and that the government is despatching re-enforcements. THE amount of gold taken out of the Cripple Creek mining region since gold was discovered there in 1891, is $104,365,210, including the output of the month of June. The mining area is about five miles square. AT the San Francisco mint, during the fiscal year just closed, there have been coined $80,000,000, of which $70,000,000 was in gold. This is the largest amount ever produced by any mint in the country. THE oldest woman in California, Mrs. Ramona Garcia Barones Munos, died at Bolinas on June 24, at the age of 107 years. There are living now five generations of her descendants. A DECREE has been issued in Cuba making the vaccination of all Cubans obligatory, and providing for the appointment of a commission to see to the carrying out of the decree. A SMALL riot was caused in the town of Skagway, Alaska, on June 22, by the hauling down of the British flag over the Canadian custom house at that place. THE recent census of Paris shows that the city has grown in population 177,234 during the last five years. The present population is 2,714,968. IN three counties of California, namely, Stanislaus, San Joaquin, and Tulare, fire recently destroyed an aggregate of 23,000 acres of standing grain. TWO UNITED STATES transports, bearing about 1,500 soldiers each, arrived in San Francisco harbor on June 26, direct from the Philippines. THE discussion in the House of Commons on June 25 brought out the information that the war in South Africa is still costing $1,250,000 weekly. IN the wreck of a passenger train near Peru, Indiana, on June 26, thirteen persons were killed and about fifty injured, many fatally. THE labor riots in the St. Petersburg iron and cloth factories have been renewed, and have been again suppressed by the military. DURING a severe thunder-storm in Chicago on July 1, lightning killed 11 boys and men who had taken refuge in a small building. THE total value of the entire mineral output of the United States for the year 1900 amounted to $1,365,608,583. JOSEPH COOK, the noted lecturer and author, died at his home in Ticonderoga, N.Y., on June 25, at the age of 53. THE Leipziger Bank, of Leipzig, Germany, failed on June 25 for $22,000,000.