News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 7, 1897

FOREIGN.

—It is said that an occult temple is soon to be erected in San Francisco by the Theosophists, all the necessary funds having been already subscribed.

—A disastrous explosion occurred in the Maule coal mine, near Princeton, Ind., on the 26th ult., in which six men were killed and eight severely injured.

—Julio Sanguilly, a citizen of the United States resident in Cuba, has been convicted of conspiracy against the Spanish Government, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

—That the desperate feud between the Chinese tongs in San Francisco is not yet allayed, is evidenced by the finding of two murdered Chinamen in that city on the 29th ult.

—A Rome despatch of the 28th ult. says that a landslide has entirely destroyed the village of Santa Ana de Pelago, demolishing 118 houses, leaving 150 families homeless. No lives were lost.

—U. S. Consul Bell, at Sydney, N. S. W., noting the new Japanese steamship line between Yokohama and Australian ports, says that “Japan now has a larger carrying trade on the Pacific Ocean than the United States.”

—A press correspondent reports that the bubonic plague is spreading in Bombay. Two hundred thousand natives have fled from the city, and the panic is said to be increasing. The European residents have remained, altho showing much anxiety.

—Within seven weeks ending December 27, seven Chicago banks closed their doors, and others are expected to follow in the near future. A despatch dated the 28th ult. says, “The bank failures of the past two months are the largest in point of volume since the panic of 1872, immediately following the great fire.”

—A severe famine is reported in Western China, province of Szechuen, where there have been prolonged rains. Heavy floods have spread over vast areas of country, destroying the rice and vegetable crops. In addition to deaths by starvation, a landslide carried a large section of the city of Chuantung into the river Kin-Sha, causing the death of about 3,000 people.

—A late despatch from Cuba states that fifteen Texas sharpshooters, known as the Lone Star Company of the Patriot Army of West Cuba, perished to a man, after a heroic battle of over five hours with a much larger force of Spanish troops. They killed double their number, and wounded many more, before being overcome. They refused to surrender, and all died fighting, as did Col. Davie Crockett’s men at the famous battle of the Alamo.

—The steamer Peru, which arrived at San Francisco December 28, brought news that, in addition to the smallpox epidemic in Japanese ports, there is also danger of cholera being introduced by oriental steamers. Cholera has revived at Hongkong, and serious results are expected. The disease has made much headway in Chinese cities and on the island of Formosa. Japanese ports have declared a quarantine against all cholera-infected districts.

—A letter from the secretary of the late General Maceo, the Cuban patriot leader, gives undoubted evidence of the general’s death. In company with thirty of his officers, he was making a journey with the intention of concentrating the forces of Havana Province, and taking some advantage of Captain-General Weyler’s absence from the city. His plans were betrayed to the Spaniards, it is thought by his physician, Zertucha, and he was waylaid and shot.

—We are told by “reliable advices from Constantinople” that the agreement of the powers for the enforcement of reforms in Turkey is complete, with the exception of the matter of methods to be pursued and the time of putting the measures of the coercion agreed upon into operation. But that is just what has been the matter all the time. The powers have for years been agreed upon everything but action. The sultan continues obdurate, and says he will never yield.

—A Dublin despatch of December 29 reports the progress of a great bog-slide on Castle Island, County Kerry, Ireland. The mass is said to be a mile and a half wide, carrying whole farms and all that can not be removed into Lake Killarney. People are fleeing from the path of the slide as fast as possible. Hundreds of homes are being destroyed. It seems that the movement is not a precipitous rush, but it is terrible in its uncontrollable progress, roaring like the ocean.

—Not only in the devastated country regions, but in all the principal cities of Cuba, not excepting the capital, famine is said to be following the war. Starving refugees parade the streets crying for bread or work, and many die unheeded. Men, women, and children wander about by day and huddle together at night. All the charitable institutions are turned into army hospitals, and the poor civilians have no resort but beggary, and the most opulent have little to give. Many who were wealthy before are now destitute wanderers. Such is war, even among “Christian nations.”

—The Portuguese consul in Boston has received a strong plea from the island of St. Michael’s, in the Azores, for aid to sufferers by the bursting of a water-spout over the city of Povacao, on the 2nd of November. The torrent rushed through nine miles of country, carrying with it the homes of the people. The town of Rivera, having 3,000 inhabitants, was also destroyed. It is said the seashore was strewn with the corpses of persons who had perished in the flood, and there is great suffering on the part of survivors.

—Great jealousy is said to exist between Colombia and the states forming the Greater Republic of Central America, because of the rival isthmian canal schemes. The old Panama Canal enterprise lies within the territory of Colombia, while the Nicaragua project is in the territory of Nicaragua, now a part of the Greater Republic combination. The latter claims that Colombia, backed by some interested European powers, is scheming to get control of territory comprising the proposed eastern terminus of the Nicaragua Canal, and thus prevent the completion of that enterprise.

DOMESTIC.

—Brooklyn, N. Y., had a $100,000 fire on the 27th ult. The catastrophe originated in the repair shops of the Brooklyn Heights Railroad.

—On Christmas day fire in New York City destroyed property of the value of nearly a million dollars, leaving about one hundred people homeless.

—At Wichita, Kansas, on the night of the 26th ult., tramps set fire to a circus train, and five cars containing animals were consumed. A tramp was also fatally burned.

—It is said that the Attorney-General is making all preparation to foreclose the government’s lien on the Union and Central Pacific Railroads as soon as due, unless the Funding Bills are passed by Congress.

—In Chicago, on Christmas eve, as Mr. and Mrs. Alverson were out visiting a sick friend, a man entered the house in the guise of Santa Claus, played with the children a while, ate all he wanted, and went off with some $300 worth of valuables.

—The old printing house of Francis & Valentine, San Francisco, was damaged by fire to the extent of $30,000, on Christmas day. Just three years before it was almost entirely destroyed by fire. A fireman fell two stories to the stone sidewalk, and is thought to be fatally injured.

—Still another of our great war-ships—the Boston—is said to be seriously injured by accident. The cruiser ran aground recently near Chemulpo, Korea, and is obliged to come home for repairs. If these great engines of battle are so easily crippled by slight accidents, it would seem that they are not very reliable in case of actual engagement with an enemy’s guns.

—A despatch from El Reno, I. T., says: “Cuban sympathizers here have formed an oath-bound organization which contemplates fighting for the insurgents without violating the United States neutrality laws. The men are to go to Cuba as colonizers, and to purchase or lease lands for the cultivation, manufacture, and sale of tobacco; and other civic enterprises, to be decided upon later, may be entered into. The number of members may not be less than 100 nor more than 200.”

—It was recently reported that the famine in India was greatly relieved, and would be materially shortened by copious rains. But the latest reports are still bad enough. A prominent correspondent of a Calcutta paper states that every day thousands of persons are dying from starvation in the Central provinces. He states under date of December 25, that the government arrangements to cope with the situation are entirely inadequate, and that the famine is beyond control.

—A terrible railroad disaster occurred near Blocton, Ala., on the 27th ult., in which twenty-six persons were killed and ten injured, two fatally. The train crashed through a bridge 110 feet high, plunging into the Cahaba River. A rail had been removed from the track, it is supposed by robbers, and when the engine struck this part of the track the bridge broke and the train went down. The water being shallow, the train caught fire. Some of the victims were burned to death, and others were crushed.

—Everything goes to show that the “wave of prosperity” of which we have heard so much lately, is a wave that bears up the interests of capital while it bears down the poorer classes, especially employees. A number of large manufacturing concerns are reported to have cut wages within the past few weeks. The latest instance on the Pacific Coast is the reduction in the Pacific Rolling Mills, San Francisco, where a cut was made ranging from twenty cents a day for boys to something over a dollar a day for the higher grades of work. As a result 150 employees went out on a strike. After two days, however, a compromise was effected, the strikers agreeing to a cut of ten per cent. If the people would believe the word of God, which plainly indicates that the culmination of the conflict between capital and labor is at hand, and the coming of the Lord is “near, even at the doors,” there would not be so much dependence upon the gilded promises of better times.

—The collector of the port at Jacksonville, Fla., has received instructions to grant clearance papers to the Dauntless with a cargo of munitions of war for Nuevitas, Cuba, requiring of the master and owners the usual oath of masters and owners of vessels carrying general cargoes. Of course other vessels will enter the same trade. This is in harmony with the recent decision of a U. S. Court that, as war is not recognized, there is no law or treaty to hinder trade between the United States and any ports under Spanish jurisdiction.

—A man named W. J. Jackson was pardoned out of the Kansas penitentiary by Governor Morrill, on Christmas day. He had been in prison sixteen years on a life sentence for murder, of which it is claimed he was innocent, a man who died some time ago having confessed the murder. All this time his wife, who resides on a farm in Texas, has been rearing their five children, who are now all grown. She has always believed he was innocent, and has done all in her power to secure his release. He started for his home as soon as released.

—A terrific boiler explosion occurred at the insane asylum near Medical Lake, Wash., on the 28th ult. Four boilers exploded, demolishing the boiler house and doing considerable damage to the main building. There was wild excitement among the inmates, in their mad endeavors to break through the doors and windows. Many of them were more or less injured in the panic, but none fatally. It took considerable time and strenuous efforts on the part of the keepers to quiet the unfortunate inmates. The fireman was the only person injured by the explosion, and he will probably die.

—Some leading financiers are trying to palliate the force of the numerous bank failures in the country, in the face of the siren song of “Good times coming,” by saying that it is “only a weeding out of weak institutions.” Whether that be an encouraging explanation or not, depends upon how many more of such institutions shall prove to be “weak.” From the standpoint of the prophetic word and the outlook upon the “times and seasons,” we may safely conclude that we are past all prospect of anything like permanent good times in this world. There may be temporary and limited spurts of what men call prosperity in this world, but the end of this world’s history is at hand, and the “coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Just now the all-important thing is, “Prepare to meet thy God.”