News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 22, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 28.

FOREIGN.

—An English syndicate has purchased for £100,000 the entire pearl fisheries of the Gulf of California.

—Moslems in Teheran, Persia, have attacked the Jewish quarters in that city, and threaten to exterminate the Jews unless they embrace Mohammedanism.

—The Hawaiian Government has reiterated its proposal to arbitrate its differences with the Japanese Government, but so far Japan has not consented to this method of settling her claims.

—The king of Siam, who is now making a tour of Europe, on account of not receiving an official invitation to visit the United States, has decided to return home without passing through this country.

—General Quentin Bandera, who commanded the insurgents in an engagement with the Spaniards on July 5, is reported among the killed. His loss is considered second only to that of General Maceo.

—The Spanish mail steamer left Havana on July 10 with 1,000 sick Spanish soldiers, many of whom will die on the way. This makes 11,000 who have been returned to the mother country thus disabled since January 1.

—The Spanish papers of Havana are protesting against the Mexican immigration agents visiting Cuban towns and offering to contract with reconcentrados to migrate to Mexico, to work in the coffee and tobacco fields of Yucatan.

—The strike of engineers in England bids fair to be a long-continued one. The lockout began on the morning of July 13, and the engineers’ union has called out all its members. It is now estimated that 12,000 engineers are idle throughout the empire.

—The Parliamentary South African Commission which has been inquiring into the Transvaal raid has completed its labors, laying the principal blame for the raid upon Cecil Rhodes, and designating it as one of the most disgraceful episodes of England’s history.

—In a recent encounter between Bashi Bazouks and “Christians” in the island of Crete, the British force on the island intervened, and were attacked by the former, losing eighteen of their number. The admirals of the foreign fleets have sent five war-ships to the island to prevent any further Mohammedan demonstrations.

—A Constantinople correspondent for the Frankfort Zeitung states that a treaty has been completed between the Roumanian and Turkish Governments by which the sultan will secure military assistance from Roumania in case Bulgaria develops warlike designs. It is reported that one of the great powers helped to arrange the treaty.

—The Turkish Government has sent an ultimatum to Persia demanding the withdrawal of the Persian troops from Turkish territory near Kerbela. The ultimatum states that a refusal to comply with this demand will be accepted as a declaration of war. It is stated that Persia will disregard the ultimatum and will be backed by Russia.

—General Weyler has issued an order forbidding the catching of fish at the mouth of the Sagua River, in Cuba, or along the seacoast in that vicinity, the pacificos and reconcentrados having subsisted exclusively upon the fish caught at that place. It was almost impossible to starve them to death while this avenue for obtaining food remained open.

—The Greater Republic of Central America has not yet become an established fact so far as including all the Central American Republics is concerned. Guatemala and Costa Rica have decided not to go into the confederation unless certain demands of theirs are acceded to. It is believed that the other republics will not accept the propositions of the two named.

—Advices from Constantinople indicate that the sultan has refused to yield to the demands of the powers set forth in their recent collective note in regard to the evacuation of Thessaly and the rectification of the frontier. Edhem Pasha is reported to be hurrying back to Dhomoko, and the furloughs of all Turkish officers have been canceled in readiness for a renewal of hostilities.

—It is estimated that 25,000,000 sheep have died in Australia on account of the prevalent and long-continued drought there, or been slaughtered by their owners to save the pelts. Lack of rain on the ranges has destroyed all vegetation, and all this season’s lambs have died in most districts. It is declared that one-fifth of the finest wool sheep in the world have perished.

—The sultan’s grand vizier is reported to have had a stormy interview with the Russian minister on July 12. The minister is said to have threatened that if Turkey did not evacuate Thessaly, Russia would retaliate in Asia Minor. The vizier replied that Turkey would evacuate Thessaly when Russia evacuated Kars and Batoum. The ambassadors of the powers are said to have planned for the coercion of Turkey by having Russia blockade the Bosphorus and England the Dardanelles, while Austria would seize the railway to Salonica.

—Reports from Armenia state that Turkish atrocities have not abated there, but are carried on more quietly. The people are killed in a clandestine manner, and in the most remote provinces terrible persecutions are carried on. The highways are guarded to prevent emigration, and also to prevent reports of these misdeeds reaching civilization. It is said the Turkish army boasts of having sworn to wipe out the whole Armenian race.

—The Japanese students and thinkers, in studying why the Occident has gone so far ahead of the Orient in civilization, have decided that it is due to the influences of religion, and are now considering the various religious beliefs and philosophies, with the serious idea of getting up a new religion. This some of them expect to accomplish by adopting the best doctrines and principles of various religions, Christianity included, and forming them into a new system.

—A race of wild people has been discovered by the Russian Geographical Society in the heart of Tibet. They are known as the Kyz-Kiyik. Their stature is about the normal stature of mankind, but their bodies are covered with a thick growth of hair resembling that of a camel. They feed on vegetable roots, are swift runners, appear impatient of the steady gaze of strangers, and give expression to many wild cries indicative of either fright or astonishment.

—Grave fears are entertained of a massacre of foreigners in the city of Tien-Tsin, China. Twenty-seven years ago the French Catholic cathedral at that place was burned, the French consul assassinated, and the priest and Sisters of Mercy in the Catholic hospital were murdered. The building was then set on fire, and its 100 inmates consumed. That incident had its origin in the same rumors that are now circulated by the superstitious Chinese in regard to the abduction of children.

—Efforts are now being put forth to unite England, France, Germany, and the United States in the completion and control of the Panama Canal. The estimated cost of completing that waterway is placed at $100,000,000. The four nations having control of the canal would represent a marine tonnage of 18,388,956, as compared with about 7,000,000 for all the rest of the world. England and France have arrived at an understanding in regard to the matter, and the proposition is now before the emperor of Germany and the president of the United States. If such a union of effort is agreed to, the Nicaragua Canal project would be dropped.

—The rolls of papyri recently discovered in Egypt by the Egyptian Exploration Society have been partially translated, and seem to bear evidence of being an authentic record of some of the sayings of Christ. The date of these writings is placed at about 150 to 200 A.D. Some of the sentences translated are as follows: “Jesus saith, And then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.” “Jesus saith, Except ye fast to the world ye shall in nowise find the kingdom of God, and except ye keep the Sabbath ye shall not see the Father.” “No prophet is accepted in his own country; neither doth the physician work cures upon them that know him.” One writer suggests that the saying in regard to the keeping of the Sabbath being at variance with the accepted teachings of Christ, may be a Jewish forgery. An attempt to prove the variance referred to will help to bring before the world Christ’s real teaching and example on that question.

DOMESTIC.

—Captain W. L. Merry, of San Francisco, has been appointed minister to Nicaragua, Honduras, and Salvador.

—The United States battle-ship Oregon has been ordered to Honolulu to relieve the cruiser Philadelphia, which is stationed there for the present.

—Of the 12,000 Canadian Indians on the Pacific Coast, 8,000 have been baptized or attend Christian worship. The Gospels have been printed for them in four languages.

—Five laborers at Lexington, Kentucky, were blown to pieces on July 9 by accidentally striking a dynamite cartridge which they encountered while excavating for a street railway.

—The Transmississippi Congress opened its session at Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 14, and William J. Bryan was chosen president of the Congress. The principal business of this organization is to consider the commercial interests of the States west of the Mississippi River.

—Reports from the State of Washington state that the 250 shingle mills in that State are running now to their full capacity to supply the increasing demands from the east. The number of shingles shipped from the State during the month of June was 320,000,000, which is 32,000,000 more than during the previous month.

—Theodora Salas, an old lady eighty years of age, living near Las Vegas, N. M., was dragged to death recently by two horsemen at the end of their lariats. She was accused of being a witch, and causing the ill health of a young belle of that place. One of the murderers was a brother of the young woman.

—At Olean, New York, on July 11, lightning struck a 4,000-barrel oil tank and set the contents on fire. A cannon-ball was fired into the other tanks to allow the oil to escape and prevent the tanks exploding. The escaping oil spread out over twenty acres, and at once became ignited over the entire surface. The loss will be very large.

—The two reservoirs supplying water to the villages of Mattewan and Fishkill, New York, burst their restraining walls on the morning of July 14, leaving death and destruction of property in their wake. Houses were completely demolished, railway tracks washed out, and many trains delayed in that section. Seven persons are reported drowned.

—A small tidal wave was experienced at New York and on the Jersey coast on July 13. On the beach at Coney Island the waves carried away everything they struck. The damage at this place will reach, it is estimated, a quarter of a million. At Brighton beach the damage is said to be still greater, while on the Jersey coast it will reach over a hundred thousand.

—The Foreign Relations Committee, to which had been referred the annexation treaty signed by the representatives of the Hawaiian Republic and the U. S. Secretary of State, have sent in to the Senate a favorable report, and, tho it is not expected that decisive action will be taken during the present session of Congress, it is reported that there is a feeling in both the House and Senate that it may be taken up and acted upon at an early date.

—During the International Christian Endeavor Convention at San Francisco, the members of the German Lutheran churches around the bay took occasion at a special meeting to place themselves on record as opposed to the Christian Endeavor movement, especially the Endeavorers’ work in behalf of woman suffrage and total abstinence, and their efforts “to Christianize the State by demanding recognition of Christ in the Constitution.”

—The terrible heat plague which has visited the central States during the twelve days ending July 11 has finally given place to a cooler temperature, but not until after 324 deaths had been occasioned by it, and 1,316 additional sunstrokes had occurred. Many of the deaths were suicides, the victims having been driven to desperation by the blasting heat. Besides this fearful record a great many persons have been driven insane as the result of the scorching plague.

—The great strike of coal miners in the central and eastern States is growing in proportions, and from the stand taken by most of the operators, it bids fair to be a long-continued struggle between labor and capital. Various plans have been proposed for arbitrating the differences between the employers and employees, and prominent persons have been requested to assist in bringing about a settlement. Even President McKinley has been asked to act as arbitrator, and has signified his willingness to do so if both parties would bind themselves to abide by the decision reached.