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Worthwhile Notes

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 6, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 10.

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Worthwhile Notes

THE agitation over the liquor question in Kansas is still unabated. As a result the State Legislature has passed a bill making the possession of liquor an evidence of the guilt of the possessor, and the district court has allowed many injunctions to prevent owners of buildings from renting them to liquor men. The State Temperance Union has taken up the fight, and is calling upon the people of every part of the State to follow the example of Topeka, Kansas City, Wichita, and other cities, and many ministers are throwing their influence with the crusaders. Many joints have been closed up. In Winfield, Kansas, shotguns and revolvers have been purchased on both sides, and trouble is feared if the saloons should attempt to open again. Several wells belonging to temperance people have been poisoned, but thus far no deaths have been reported. Vigilance committees are being formed, and the people seem determined to continue the war on the saloons. On February 18 Mrs. Nation was again arrested, and, refusing to give bonds to keep the peace, is still in jail.
THE powers in China are still insisting upon the execution of the death penalty upon the Chinese officials named in their joint note, and China, notwithstanding her promise to comply, has still refrained from carrying out the promise. These officials, who have been ordered by the government to commit suicide, have refused to do so. Thus the Peking situation grows more tangled and more threatening. The German field marshal is preparing to send out a large expedition of the allied forces to the new capital, where the empress dowager is now residing with her court. The President has ordered the Americans in China to take no part in the expedition, and it is thought that both Russia and England will decline to join in the undertaking.
THE great Fairmount coal regions of West Virginia are being bought up by the Morgan-Rockefeller syndicate. Already, it is reported, about $14,000,000 worth of these coal fields have been purchased, and the rest of the region will come into the syndicate at a proportionate price. The purchase of this coal region is for the purpose of making the syndicate's hold upon the steel interests of the country more secure. The consummation of this mammoth deal marks a long step in the aggressive warfare of the trust.
PROFESSOR D'ARSONVAL, of Paris, declares that French engineers have solved the problem of the submarine boat, and that before the year is closed France will have submarine torpedo-boats which will be able to cross the ocean without emerging for the entire distance. The coast of France, he claims, will then be safe from attack by battle-ships or cruisers, and will not be dependent upon large war vessels for that safety.
TO-DAY the stars visible from the first to the thirteenth magnitude aggregate 43,000,000, of which nearly 10,000,000 have been photographed. It is suspected that there are 100,000 stars belonging to the fifteenth magnitude. In the milky-way alone there are about 10,000 stars, separated by vast distances. To the eye at the telescope the sky seems no longer dotted with constellations, but powdered with gold-dust."
REPORTS from South Africa indicate that the Boers are being hard pressed by the various columns that have been in pursuit. Several small engagements have taken place, and the Boers have been pressed back toward the border, losing many wagons loaded with ammunition, a Maxim gun, and many horses. General Kitchener has taken the field in person to superintend the capture of De Wett's forces.
In a large cave in the mountains near Alpine, Texas, 26 skeletons were discovered recently, lying side by side, and on one of the stone jars found was the name Narvaez and the figures 1526. This is supposed to be a portion of the Narvaez expedition which was shipwrecked on Galveston Island about 1535, and started to cross the continent, four of whose members finally reached California.
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY GAGE recently declared an additional duty on Russian sugar equal to the remitted excise duty which Russia allows on sugar exportations. The Russian Government retaliated at once by declaring a duty of 30 per cent. upon importations of American hardware, including structural steel and iron and various kinds of tools and machinery.
THE 30th Volunteer Infantry sailed from Manila for San Francisco on February 17. When the regiment sailed from San Francisco it had 1,338 men, including officers, of which 777 officers and men are returning, and 88 remain on duty in the island, leaving 436 who have been killed or have died of wounds or disease, or deserted from the service.
THE first division of the first Parliament of King Edward VII., which took place February 19, resulted in a marked cutting down of the government's majority. The test came over the matter of the government's policy in South Africa, and the vote showed a government majority of only 45 in place of the normal majority of about 130.
A FLOURISHING Mormon colony has been discovered in Paris, the male members numbering sixteen and the wives fifty-eight. No prosecution is expected, as the marriages are regarded as religious instead of civil, the polygamous wives being viewed by the State as having no legal status.
AN attempt was made recently in the Chicago council to repeal the midnight saloon-closing ordinance. It was defeated by a vote of 35 to 33. A resolution extending the time limit to 1 o'clock A.M. was also defeated; and Mayor Harrison promises the strict enforcement of the law.
A BILL authorizing the appropriation of $5,000,000 toward the expenses of the International Exposition to be held at St. Louis, Mo., in 1903, to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the Louisiana purchase, passed the House on February 18.
A TERRIBLE explosion occurred in the mines of the Union Colliery Company on Vancouver Island, February 15, entombing sixty miners and destroying a great amount of property. It is believed that all the entombed miners have perished.
INCORPORATION papers are now being drawn up for the giant steel combine, which is to take in all the leading steel-making concerns of the United States. The amount of capital involved in this great trust is placed at $800,000,000.
Six persons were killed and six more or less seriously injured by the wrecking of the East-bound overland train near Winnemucca, Nevada, on February 17, a cloudburst having washed away a portion of the road-bed.
TWO BILLS have been introduced in the California Legislature providing for the suppression of the slave traffic in Chinese and Japanese girls and women that has gone so long unchecked in various cities of this State.
THE result of the first Italian census in twenty years shows a population of 35,000,000. The ratio of increase is greater, according to this census, than in any other European country. The birth-rate continues high.
LONDON'S city chemist has testified that the beer drunk in the city of London each week contains on an average 300 pounds of arsenic, enough to kill a million persons if administered in equal doses and at one time.
THE Presbyterian committee on creed revision has unanimously agreed that some change in the creed is necessary. The committee will, however, present majority and minority reports as to what the changes shall be.
A DESPATCH from St. Petersburg, Russia, states that 336 students of Moscow have been arrested, and a Moscow newspaper has been suppressed by the government for publishing the university bulletins.
THE spread of the plague in Bombay is increasing, there having been 923 deaths from the plague in that city during the past week. Reports from Cape Town indicate the continuance of the plague there.
On February 7 the Delaware Legislature passed, by unanimous vote, a bill making the kidnapping of children a crime punishable by hanging. A similar law has been enacted by the Legislature of Missouri.
A MARKED increase has been noted in the number of suicides in Paris since the closing of the World's Fair, due, it is thought, to the necessity of stricter economy in living and retrenchment in expenses.
ANDREW CARNEGIE is planning the building of the greatest shipbuilding yards in the world, on Staten Island, New York, alongside the largest iron and steel plant ever projected.
THE Ship Subsidy Bill has been side-tracked in the Senate, and it is not expected that it will be brought up again at this session.
THE first Parliament under the reign of King Edward VII. was opened by the king in person on February 14.
THE city of Madrid, Spain, is under martial law, and rioting and attacks on Jesuit institutions continue.
A TIN-CAN trust is being organized at the present time, the object of its promoters being to control the entire output of tin cans in the United States. The few concerns which have not been taken into the trust will be dependent upon the tin trust for their material, and can thus be forced out of business at any time.
The Virginia Legislature, during the session just closed, adopted plans for a convention to revise the State constitution, the main object in view being the elimination of the negro vote.
Many thousands are reported to have died in the steppes of Western Siberia from the true bubonic plague. The malady was at first thought to be “hunger typhus.”
ANOTHER battle between Mexican troops and Maya Indians has resulted in the Indians losing all their fortified places.
THE work of closing the canteens at the different army posts began on February 18.
As a result of the rioting and unrest in Spain, the cabinet resigned on February 17.