Worlds of Note

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1901

In these days the spirit of taking the law in hand and executing a culprit on the spot is gaining ground. From all parts of the country the reports keep coming to us of the men who are lynched by the mob. It is said that these things will so terrify the evil-doer that he will desist from his evil ways. But is such the case? Is it not perfectly apparent to any one that the lawlessness is on the increase? Both observation and the published statistics show that this is the case. This condition of lawlessness will increase and continue, till all the earth will be filled with violence. God has foretold it in His Word, and we see it coming. But do not let this fill you with gloominess. The Lord is soon coming, and that will put an end to it all. Get ready to meet the Saviour of the world at His coming, and all this gloom is consumed by the joy of that great hope.

The Galveston News of January 1 in presenting its annual statement of the trade and commerce of that port for 1900, gives a concise résumé of the damage done by the September storm, and an outline of what has been accomplished in the way of rehabilitation. Notwithstanding the terrible devastation of the hurricane, Galveston's exports for the months of October, November, and December show an increase over the corresponding months of last year. The property loss in the city from the storm amounted to $17,058,275; but since the storm $2,258,600 have been expended in new buildings, and the city is rapidly rising from the terrible stroke received in September.

The sultan has appointed the Moslem brigand, Hadschi Nilich, the notorious murderer of Christians, to be commander-in-chief in the northern provinces of Turkey. His first act on receiving his appointment was to purchase the arms of his old comrades at a high price, and supply them with new firearms free. Nilich then put the Greek bishop of Prisrend in irons and plundered seventeen Christian churches. The Christians in the country are fleeing in terror to the towns.

A report from Odessa, Russia, states that 120 persons have been frozen to death in Southern Russia, while the trains in which they were traveling were stalled and buried in snow. Some of the trains had been blocked for five or six days, the passengers suffering the greatest hardship on account of the cold and lack of food. An army of 18,000 troops is now at work shoveling out the buried trains and clearing the railroads.

The celebrated burning mine at Summit Hill, Pa., which has been burning for forty-two years, is now practically under control, after having consumed many acres of the finest coal in the world. Great holes have been drilled into the earth in front of the burning section, and these have been filled with non-burning coal refuse, which is expected to stop the progress of the fire.

Prof. Robert L. Garner, who has been making a study of the monkey language for several years past, is believed to have perished in the wilds of Africa. The professor claimed to have discovered a few words of the monkey language, but it is safe to say that the simian tongue will remain a sealed language for all time, along with the language of the elephant and the cony.

A missionary of the Mormon Church who has recently returned from the Hawaiian Islands, and who has spent many years among the natives, reports that the native Hawaiian race is dying out. This he attributes to a low idea of maternity, with a consequent large infant death rate, and to the fact that the natives have added to their own vices those of the whites.

Four hundred contract laborers from Porto Rico arrived in San Francisco on January 8, and took steerage passage at once for Honolulu, to work on the sugar plantations there. This company of Porto Ricans was brought in after nightfall in order to avoid the trouble experienced in getting the other band of Porto Ricans to take ship for the islands.

The Senate, on January 9, by a decisive vote, declared for the abolition of the army canteen. In this regard the bill remains as it passed the House. The Senate Committee, to which the bill had been referred, recommended that the canteen be continued in the army, but that it be allowed to sell only beer. The Senate's vote against the canteen stood 34 to 15.

The first school-teachers' union in Canada was formed in British Columbia recently, at the annual meeting of the teachers' institute of the province. The purpose of the organization was to oppose certain regulations of the educational department. It is reported that if the educational department refuses to grant their wishes, they will go on a strike.

Congress is being urged to take some action to save the lives of the starving Indians in the southern part of California. The lands of these Indians have been laid waste by drought, and the river which they formerly used to irrigate their land has been turned from its channel into irrigation ditches by white settlers farther up the stream.

Observations made at the Harvard University upon the planet Eros, indicate that this little planet is only about 20 miles in diameter, and that at times it approaches nearer to the earth than any other planet. Its orbit lies between those of Mars and Jupiter, but at times Eros comes inside the orbit of Mars.

By the Burleigh Bill, passed by the House of Representatives on January 8, the membership of the House is increased from 357, the present membership, to 386. Under this reapportionment plan, no State loses a representative, and twenty States make a gain of from one to three representatives.

The most severe storm of the winter came down upon the Middle West on January 9, extending from Texas to the Great Lakes and the Dakotas, and from the Rockies to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Railway traffic was seriously impeded, and telegraph and telephone lines were down everywhere.

The American commission which has been investigating the propagation of yellow fever in Cuba, declares that the experiments show beyond a doubt that there is no contagion from an infected person or from infected clothing, but that the mosquitoes alone are responsible for the spread of the disease.

Twenty-six Filipino leaders are to be exiled to the island of Guam, and will be detained there until peace is established. The Filipinos are still active in different parts of Luzon. On January 3 the Americans captured 9 Filipino officers and 48 privates during an attack on Old Cavite.

The Colombian rebels are again threatening Panama and Colon, and British and American war ships have been ordered to these places. There was heavy fighting around Panama on January 10 and 11, and the losses on both sides were reported to be considerable.

Alfred Mace, son of pugilist Jem Mace, is making an evangelistic tour of the world. He began services in Chicago on January 12. Mr. Mace, tho the son of a pugilist, is one of England's most eloquent ministers, and has been engaged in ministerial work for 24 years.

Several tribes of Alaska Indians who have been wrangling over their totem poles and threatening tribal war, have agreed, according to report, to put aside their differences and adopt the American flag as their united tribal emblem in place of the totem.

Five professors of the Helsingfors University, Finland, are to be removed for having criticized the Russian Government, and the governor-general of Finland has demanded more stringent censure laws to prevent all such criticisms in the future.

Fifteen hundred miners of the Fremont County coal mines, Colorado, went on a strike January 13, for the purpose of helping the miners at Erie, Colorado, and Gallup, N. M., in attaining the object for which they are striking.

A new oil region was tapped at Beaumont, Texas, on January 10. Oil was reached at a depth of about 1,000 feet, and the well is reported to be spouting to a height of 175 feet, throwing up about 12,000 barrels of oil per day.

Several cases have been reported recently in the daily press in which life has been saved by the injection into the circulatory system of pure salt water which had been raised to the temperature of the blood.

The Alaska Exploration Company is planning a system of electric railways for the Klondike country, and it is expected that a portion of the system will be in operation before the close of the coming summer.

Seven persons were crushed to death during a panic in a Jewish theater in Chicago, on January 12. A false alarm of fire had been raised, and the exits at once became jammed in the rush to escape.

Twenty persons were killed and 312 wounded in a panic during a Japanese festival in Tokyo recently.

The bubonic plague has appeared at Constantinople, and all arrivals are being medically examined.

Three German cadets who recently applied for commissions in the German Army, were blackballed because of their opposition to dueling. The minister of war canceled the vote, but the board of officers again blackballed the applicants, tho the cadets were fully qualified. The affair is to be taken to the Reichstag.

One not overly-large town in Pennsylvania, Lebanon, has not less than twenty-four religious denominations represented, ranging all the way from 3,500 in number down to one. This is one of the many evidences that our Lord's prayer for unity is not yet answered, and that Babylon is still well represented.

Cardinal Gibbons recently made a speech in Baltimore against the increasing craze for war that is spreading over the world. One statement that he made is, “It must be confessed that we are, as yet, far removed from the millennium of peace.”

A troop of 2,000 Venezuelans and revolutionary Colombians have invaded Colombia and attempted to capture a town. It is feared this may lead to trouble between these two South American States.

Wireless telegraph stations have been installed on the principal islands of the Hawaiian group, and the system will soon be ready for regular telegraph service.

A report from Honolulu states that the anti-trust law has been so vigorously enforced there that all trusts or combinations have dissolved.

A number of expeditions are arranging to make a dash for the north pole during the present year. Among these are the Peary expedition, which is now wintering north of Greenland; the Zeigler expedition; the joint expedition of Nansen and Duke Abruzzi; the Sverdrup-Stein expedition; a Russian expedition with the ice-breaking ship Ermack; a Canadian expedition, and a German expedition. The Russian Vice-Admiral Makaroff expects to drive the ice-breaking ship thru the pack ice straight to the pole.

Of the great droves of bison (American buffalo) which swarmed over the prairies of the Western States, but little more than a memory exists at the present time. By a census of the animal made eleven years ago, it was found that there were in the whole of North America only 1,091 bison, of which 256 were in captivity in parks. A census recently completed gives the number as 1,024, including both those running wild and those in parks and zoological gardens.

According to reports from Washington, the government is much worried over the currency question in the Philippines. The plan has been proposed of placing the islands on the same financial basis as this country, and making the currency of the United States the currency of the islands; but to do this, it is said, would be to admit that the Constitution does follow the flag, and this is farther than the administration now desires to go.

A Russian sect known as the Molokanen, and numbering about 40,000 persons, is making arrangements to emigrate to Canada. The increase of land rent to support Russia's military operations is the cause of their migration.

A statistician has discovered that $15,000,000 is expended annually in the United States for incidentals in playing the game of golf. This does not include the expenditures for club-houses and grounds.