p. 14 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 32.

News and Notes

FOREIGN.

—Renewed nihilist activity in Russia has thrown the czar into a condition bordering on nervous prostration.

—A disastrous fire occurred in Port-au-Prince on July 22, resulting in a damage to property estimated at $1,000,000.

—Li Hung Chang is now the guest of the British Government. On August 5 he visited the queen at her summer residence.

—The third international congress of physiologists opened in Munich on August 4, with 500 delegates from all nations present.

—Dr. J. J. Henna, a former resident of Porto Rico, is calling on the inhabitants of that island to take up arms against Spain.

—The republic of Uruguay has given official notice of its intention to terminate its treaty of commerce and navigation with Germany.

—An explosion in a coal mine at Neath, England, on August 4, entombed forty miners, and it is feared that at least twenty-five of them are dead.

—A committee has been formed to inaugurate an international memorial to commemorate the inception and extension of submarine telegraphy.

—The Government of Peru has succeeded in effecting a loan of 80,000,000 francs, for the purpose of ransoming the provinces of Tacna and Arica.

—The revolt in Ecuador is fast nearing a climax. The opposing forces are rapidly approaching each other, and a decisive battle may be fought at any time.

—The heavy taxes which Spain is levying on her subjects to enable her to carry on the war in Cuba are causing numerous insurrections in Spanish villages.

—A serious fire occurred in Christiania, Norway, on August 7, in which six men and three children lost their lives, and thirteen others were seriously injured.

—An American company has obtained a concession to build a railroad from Seoul to Chemulpo, in Corea, and to work any gold or silver mines along the line.

—Sir Martin Conway, the Arctic explorer, has succeeded in making a trip across the island of Spitzbergen from east to west, an undertaking never before accomplished.

—The English Education Bill is meeting with a furious storm of opposition, on account of a clause which is intended to increase the influence of the clergy in educational affairs.

—A government organ of Colombia declares that unless Nicaragua relinquishes Islas Mangla, which she seized contrary to the wishes of the inhabitants, the Colombian Government will declare war.

—On and after January 1, 1897, the city of Glasgow will levy no taxes of any kind, all public expenditures being met from the earnings of street-car companies, light companies, and water plants.

—Advices from Hungary state that much damage was done there on August 7 by a hurricane, accompanied by rain and hail. Serious loss of life is also reported, but definite reports could not be obtained.

—Through the efforts of Hughes' “rescue” laborers in West End, London, eighty-four girls have been saved from a wretched life. The “Sisters of the People” say that not one of these girls had a good mother.

—Portugal, the arbiter between England and Brazil in their controversy over the ownership of the island of Trinidad, has decided that England has no claim to the island, and that Brazil is the rightful owner.

—A fifty-foot freshet came down the Rama River in Nicaragua on August 4, destroying all the plantations along that river, sweeping away houses, and drowning men, women, and children. The flood came without warning, and few in its path escaped.

—A serious uprising is reported from the northern provinces of China, led on by two secret societies, known as the “Golden Dragon Rebels” and the “Brethren of the Great Sword.” Some of the missionaries in that locality have been murdered and the mission houses torn down.

—An anti-Semite society of Hagen, Prussia, recently issued a circular warning the people against trading with the Jews. The latter brought suit for libel and won the case, the judge deciding that to regard the religious convictions of a citizen as likely to influence his business integrity was gross libel.

—The Spaniards and insurgents met on August 3 in a fiercely contested battle, in which the former were routed with heavy loss. Captain General Weyler offers large rewards to the captains of vessels conveying filibustering expeditions if they will so arrange as to have their cargoes and passengers fall into the hands of the Spaniards.

—On August 5, 700 British troops under Colonel Plummer met 7,000 Matabeles in the most decisive battle yet fought in Matabeleland. The black warriors left about five hundred of their number dead on the field, while the British sustained a loss of forty-two killed and sixty wounded. The engagement lasted from early morning until noon, and the savages must have been victorious had it not been for the machine guns of the British, which literally mowed down the ranks of the black warriors at every onset.

—Advices from Damascus state that the Druses, in the province of Hauran, Syria, have taken up arms against the Turks. A doubtful battle has been fought, there being heavy losses on both sides. The “sick man” has abundant cause for anxiety at present. The Cretan rebellion is not quenched, the Macedonians are harassing him, the mute appeal of the perishing Armenians is arousing the indignation of the world against him, and even the czar of Russia has begun to investigate the sultan's course in a manner that must be very trying to him. Truly, the sultan is paving the path that will lead to the planting of “the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain,” where “he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.”

—A band of Mohammedans broke through a cordon of Turkish troops in the island of Crete on August 3, and attacked a company of the Cretan insurgents. The Mohammedans were repulsed with heavy loss, leaving their arms and ammunition in the hands of the insurgents. A number of war ships of different nations are arriving at Crete, and it is rumored that the king of Greece has decided to abdicate in favor of the crown prince, because of the demand which the powers have made on him to keep out of the Cretan controversy. Reports from Crete, received at Constantinople, state that 1,500 Mussulmans have been killed by the Cretan insurgents. The former have burned 200 houses belonging to the Cretans, and the latter are retaliating by setting fire to Mussulman villages.

DOMESTIC.

—A new beetle has been discovered in Idaho, which is playing havoc with crops of all kinds.

—Four persons were shot at an election in Opelika, Georgia, on August 4, two of whom may recover.

—A street car has been constructed in Chicago for a New York firm, which is to be run by compressed air.

—The new 800-foot canal lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., the largest in the world, was officially opened on August 3.

—A water famine exists over a large portion of Arkansas. In some localities people are actually suffering of thirst.

—Four of Idaho's largest mountains are said to be settling into the earth at the rate of a little less than two feet a year.

—The Spanish consul at New York has issued a proclamation urging the registration of all Spanish subjects residing in that city.

—Cuban sympathizers in New York have succeeded in raising a fund of $375,000 to assist the rebels in their struggle for liberty.

—A company has been incorporated in New York, with a capital of $1,000,000, for the purpose of erecting improved dwellings for the poor.

—The rolling mills at Niles, Ohio, and the Allen Print Works, at Providence, R. I., have resumed work, giving employment to 2,300 hands.

—While resisting arrest on August 4, “Bill Doolin,” the famous outlaw, killed two deputy sheriffs at Wewoka, O. T., and then made his escape.

—The strike at the Brown Hoisting Works at Cleveland is still on, and non-union workmen have to be constantly guarded by police and militia.

—It now turns out that the Oklahoma stage, which was reported robbed several days ago, was not held up by the “Doolin” gang, but by the driver himself.

—An insane man entered the Baptist Church at Thomasville, Ga., on August 2, and shot to death Col. J. F. Lilly, who was teaching a Sunday school class at the time.

—A severe electrical storm accompanied by hail visited Winona, Minn., on August 3. Telephone connections were destroyed, and a number of buildings struck by lightning.

—A “professor” of hypnotism buried his hypnotic subject, in Indianapolis, Ind., on August 4, and three days later he was exhumed and restored to consciousness. Doctors present declared the hypnotic sleep a fraud, although the subject was able to maintain it for seventy-two hours while four feet underground.

—Serious forest fires were reported from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., on August 4. Several villages had been wiped out by the flames, the inhabitants barely escaping with their lives.

—The banks of Montreal are charging a discount of ten per cent on all American money, and are warning the people of all classes not to accept it, under any considerations.

—Two young men thirsting for fame and adventure left New York on July 6 in a rowboat, and arrived at Scilly, Ireland, on August 4, having capsized only once on the trip.

—Two attempts at train wrecking were made near Reno, Nevada, on August 7, neither of which proved successful. It is believed in both instances to have been the work of tramps.

—A white tramp who violated and murdered a respectable white domestic in St. Joseph, La., recently, was captured, bound, and riddled with bullets by the party of searchers who ran him down.

—A cattle train was wrecked on the Rock Island road near Leighton, Iowa, on August 7, in which six men lost their lives. Nine cars were completely destroyed, entailing the loss of a large number of cattle and sheep.

—A monument costing $50,000, designed to represent Erin, Patriotism, and Poetry, has been erected in Boston in memory of John Boyle O'Reilly, the Irish exile poet. It is said to be the most artistic group American sculpture has yet produced.

—Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, the well-known Presbyterian missionary, is about to have his name stricken from the roll of fellowship in that church, on account of having been immersed a few months ago, and having later renounced the rite of infant baptism.

—A cyclone-proof house has recently been invented, which is so arranged as to turn on a pivot and face the storm, automatically discharging a highly explosive shell into the center of the “cyclone twister,” thus scattering its electrical energy and destroying it.

—At an animal show in Chillicothe, Ohio, August 5, Fitzsimmons' “tame” lion seized a baby's head between his powerful jaws, and crushed it into a shapeless mass. The father of the child, who was the proprietor of the show, was unable to rescue the infant until life was extinct.

—A remarkable case of suspended animation is reported from Portland, Oregon, where a lady remained in a state of coma for seven days, and was finally revived by the use of an electric battery. She had been declared dead, and preparations had been made for her burial previous to the application of the electric test.

—Much excitement prevails at New Pittsburg, a mining camp in Ohio, over the teachings of three brothers who claim to be in personal communication with the Lord. Families have been broken up, fights have occurred, and the efforts of the people to quell the disturbance have failed. One of the leaders has been sent to an asylum, and the others are in jail, while mutterings of bloodshed are heard from the followers.

—The hot wave in the central states still continues. In Chicago, on August 5, thirty persons were prostrated by the heat. St. Louis, on the same day, reports twenty prostrations. Weather officials state that it is very unusual for the temperature to reach such a height over such an extensive area of country. The severe heat has damaged the Texas cotton crop from twenty-five to thirty per cent. A few days of hot winds in Oregon have damaged the wheat crop of that section twenty-five per cent.