SECULAR by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 28, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 21.

SECULAR.

By Editor

—Grant's night-rests are improving. —Grasshoppers are nearing Calistoga, Cal. —Stockton, Cal., is warring the opium dens. —The small-pox is spreading in Montreal. —Ex-Secretary Frelinghuysen died at 5:30 o'clock, May 20. —The prospect for a large crop of peaches in Maryland is said to be very good. —The New Orleans Exposition, which closes the 31st inst., is to be opened again in November. —A check that was drawn in 1832 was presented for payment at a Hartford, Conn., bank recently. —France is anxious for peace with the Hovas of Madagascar, where she has been raiding for some time. —Cubans report the probability of an uprising in Cuba that will free the island from the dominion of Spain. —Over $6,000 was paid into the land office at Stockton, May 19, for timbered land in Tuolumne County. —The Immigration Association reports the arrival of 1,062 immigrants in the State of California last week. —Ex-President Hayes has been drawn to serve on the grand jury of the United States Circuit Court at Toledo, Ohio. —The aggregate loss of property by fire throughout the United States and Canada during the month of April, was $7,750,000. —A. P. Swineford, of Michigan, who has been appointed Governor of Alaska Territory, is said to be "the right man in the right place." —A death-dealing cyclone passed over Rooke County, Kansas, May 15, injuring about fifty persons and destroying much property. —The Spanish Government has asked the French Government for an explanation of the hoisting of the French flag on Spanish territory in Africa. —A Frenchman, carrying a sack on his back, in New York City, was arrested the other day. The sack proved to contain the dead body of a woman. —The death of a man found dead at the foot of his bed in San Francisco is explained by the fact that nine empty liquor bottles were found in his room. —Several of the most important posts on the North Saskatchewan, belonging to the Hudson Bay Company, have been plundered and destroyed by hostile Indians. —One of the most severe rain-storms ever known in this country passed over southern Kansas, May 15, drowning six persons and doing a great deal of damage to property. —The English combined naval reserve squadron are to meet in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to participate in the grandest sham battle and torpedo experiments ever witnessed. —May 13, Brands' lager beer brewery in Chicago, was burned. Loss $250,000; no insurance. We extend to them the comfort that their loss is the world's eternal gain. —A water-spout descended upon a ravine near Kearney, Neb., in daylight, washing a family of emigrants named Scott from their wagon and drowning two of their children. —Wheeling is no longer the capital of West Virginia. On May 9, the capital was moved to Charleston, West Va., which is now the permanent seat of government for that State. —May 15, John A. Logan was re-elected United States Senator from Illinois. Blaine, in congratulating Logan, says: "Your contest is unprecedented; your victory is memorable." —It seems that Director-General Burke's resignation is now accounted for in that he became personally responsible for debts contracted in behalf of the New Orleans Exposition to the amount of $150,000. —Just to show how easy it could be done, Captain Boyton swam out to the British war vessel, the Garnet, lying off Tomkinsville, Staten Island, and successfully attached an uncharged torpedo to her bottom. —James J. Ayres, Superintendent of the California State Printing Office, has gone to Chicago for the purpose of purchasing presses and machinery for printing the text-books for the public schools of California. —Grasshoppers in great numbers are reported as having crossed the mountains between the Santa Clara and San Joaquin Valleys, and being at their destructive work near Calaveras Valley, thirteen miles from San Jose. —"In a German grist-mill recently a sack of flour fell down stairs, opened, and scattered the contents in a burning gas flame, set fire to the dust, causing an explosion which lifted a part of the roof of the mill and broke almost all the windows." —May 19, Prof. Robert E. Odlum jumped from the Brooklyn bridge into East River, a distance of 135 feet, and lived after being rescued and resuscitated only long enough to ask in a whisper: "What kind of a jump did I make?" Are the fools all dead now? —The jury of inquest who were trying to ascertain the cause of the death of First Sergeant Hake, who was assassinated at Whipple Barracks, A. T., received an anonymous letter, warning them that if the efforts to find the murderer did not cease, more deaths would occur. —In a discussion of the use of superfluous words, by David Dudley Field, at Columbia College, N. Y., he cited two passages from our Constitution where superfluous words are claimed to have been used; he further said that in our ordinary deeds of transfer 860 words out of 950 are superfluous. —A terrible sight was witnessed on the Columbia River, at Fort Spokane, W. T., May 19, by the giving away of a cable a large barge was set loose, which drifted rapidly toward the rapids until it struck a huge rock severing it in twain. All were rescued but three, who perished in the rapids. One of those rescued, afterwards died from injuries received.