News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 19, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 12.

FOREIGN.

—Returns of the Ministry of Finance, in France, show that there is an absinthe seller to every three houses in Paris.

—Four men were killed and four fatally wounded by an explosion of giant powder in a mine at Rossland, B. C., on March 14.

—A man named Lapointe, said to be insane, ran amuck with a shotgun, March 9, at Brockville, Ont., shooting 8 men. One was killed outright, and one seriously wounded.

—News comes from Hawaii that Princess Kaiulani has been awarded a pension of $2,000 a year by the government. The princess, who was named by Liliuokalani as her successor, is now in Scotland with her father, A. S. Cleghorn.

—Recently published statistics in Germany show that not less than 105,327 persons committed suicide in that country between the years 1881 and 1893. This number would make a large city, and the rate of extermination would be 8,777 a year, or 24 each day.

—Late advices from Japan state that that government, acting upon the advice of the powers, will pursue a course in relation to Korean affairs calculated to avoid any conflict with Russia. How this will affect the Japanese people, who are very patriotic, remains to be seen.

—England is said to be contemplating a move on the Soudan from Egypt. So far as appearances go, it was designed to coöperate with Italy, the latter country’s forces to proceed from Kassala in Abyssinia. This concerted plan may have to be altered, now that Italy has met with such overwhelming defeat in the east of Africa.

—Three men have just received sentence in Berlin on conviction of furnishing information to France of German war matters. They were all Germans. The terms of imprisonment are seven years, two years, and one year. The chief spy, a Frenchman, who received orders from the war office in Paris, escaped. His instructions, it seems, were to obtain samples and detailed knowledge of German arms.

—The blue books of England and Venezuela have now been issued, setting forth the relative claims and proof for same regarding the British Guiana boundary. Both books are volumes of about five hundred pages. As to the Venezuelan book, it is stated no new facts besides those already presented are shown, while some severe criticism is made of the English blue book. The London Chronicle comes out with a review, in which it shows that many points adduced as proof in the general argument do not appear in the places from which they are supposed to be quoted. As a document for a court of law it is declared to be inadequate, which seems strange in view of the importance of the matter in hand.

—A note in the Literary Digest calls attention to a society recently formed in India under the title of the “Lord’s Day Union.” The purpose of the union is to secure a better observance of Sunday, and, as originally constituted, was composed of European residents and Christian natives, “who, seeing about them a constant violation of the Christian sabbath by Hindus and Mohammedans, determined to do what they could in order to secure more respect for the sabbath as an institution.” Quite probably their efforts will be persuasive, tho similar organizations in our own country are resorting chiefly to civil power to accomplish the end desired. It is the testimony of foreign missionaries that the hardest point to get native converts to accept is the first-day sabbath. We should think it would be difficult, seeing that the whole Scripture testimony sets forth only one day as the Sabbath, and that the seventh day of the week. The physician in such cases should first heal himself.

—The committee sent by the American Board of Foreign Missions to investigate the condition of their work in Japan has completed its labors, and advises that the board shall continue the work in that country, but not to send new laborers there except under extraordinary circumstances. This would look towards a withdrawal of the missionaries after a term of years. The control of the missions in Japan is largely in the hands of the native Christians, who by law hold the property in their own names, and they are said to object in a measure to being taught in all matters by foreign teachers. The committee states that all the native pastors and teachers who have departed from the orthodox faith,—and it says there are not many,—have been partly educated in Europe and America. This is hardly a high estimate of the influences exerted by these countries upon those who come to their shores for light. But how can it be otherwise when skepticism and infidelity characterize so much of the popular theology?

—Recent news from Hongkong state that three Russian officers from the gunboat Vladimir, then in the harbor, were caught making sketches of the fortifications. They were arrested, the plans confiscated, and the gentlemen fined $50 each.

—Advices from Abyssinia say that King Menelek has offered to conclude terms of peace with Italy on the same grounds as before the battle of Adowa. This is a decidedly generous offer, in view of the success of the natives. Nevertheless, it is reported that the Italians are not ready to withdraw from the conquest, inasmuch as it is announced that Emperor William of Germany and Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria will soon visit King Humbert on a friendly mission. This would look as though Italy is assured of her position in the Dreibund, and would be backed by Germany and Austria. The war spirit, however, does not seem to rest upon all of Italy’s sons, as hundreds of deserters are said to be crossing the frontier into Austria and Switzerland. Rudini is the successor of Crispi as prime minister. Latest statistics of the losses at Adowa are 12,500 for the Italians, and from 10,000 to 15,000 for the Shoans. The Italians are now housed at Adigrat, which place is slowly being advanced upon by the native troops.

DOMESTIC.

—The factory of the Pope Manufacturing Company, of Boston, Mass., was burned on March 12. The loss was $400,000.

—Commissioner Booth-Tucker and wife have been appointed by General Booth to take charge of the Salvation Army in America. They formerly had charge of the Army in India.

—A clothing manufacturer of Cincinnati has invented an electrical machine for cutting cloth which is capable of cutting 250 suits a day. Twenty-five suits a day can be cut by hand, so this will be another in the long list of inventions which take the place of hand labor.

—By a series of more than a thousand tests the chemist of the machine tool works of Wm. Sellers & Co., in Philadelphia, has conclusively shown that the molecules of cast iron, while the casting is in a solid, rigid state, are capable of movement, and under the influence of repeated blows or shocks rearrange themselves and assume a new state, materially strengthening the casting. The theory of the movability or precipitation of molecules in metal has also been advanced to account for the weakening of steel rails under the heavy pounding of locomotive drivers.

—The coast defense monitor Monadnock, begun twenty-one years ago, is now completed, and made her first trip on San Francisco Bay March 9. The vessel was designed on the lines of the original Monitor and the hull partly constructed, when Congress lost interest in the preparation of a navy, and work was stopped. But the renewed interest of the last few years, with the necessary appropriations, set things moving again. In the meantime, the first plans had grown old. These were consequently discarded and new ones adopted, the vessel now ranking with the Monterey.

—During the past week an attack was made on the floor of the Senate against Senor Dupuy de Lome, the Spanish minister of this country, because of remarks that gentleman has made in the newspapers to the proposed action of Congress in Cuban matters. It was claimed that the minister spoke too freely for one in his position, and his dismissal was urged. In an interview Senor De Lome justified his course by the reply that Congress proclaims its proposed actions and its ideas in the most public manner through the newspapers, and that to represent his country on the other side he had to resort to the same medium to reach the people, as otherwise his refutation of his country’s position, which of course he does officially present, would not be made public. It is not probable at this stage that his course will be seriously considered. In the meantime the country at large is pleased with a free setting forth of all sides of the question.

—The field of experiment and investigation opened up by the discovery of the “X” rays of Professor Roentgen is being most diligently explored by scientists the world over, and remarkable results are being obtained. No less remarkable than the use of the cathode rays and the Crookes’s tube in the new photography, or radiography,—a name suggested for the process,—are the results obtained by the use of the horseshoe magnet, without electricity. Two or three experimenters in this line have already obtained radiographs equal to the process with the Crookes’s tube, the emanations from the magnet penetrating opaque substances apparently in the same manner as the cathode ray. Working on the lines pursued by the Italian, Salvioni, Mr. Edison has exhibited a contrivance whereby the fingers of the hand can be seen by the eye without the aid of the sensitive plate, through a block of wood eight inches thick. The investigations thus far give evidence that marvelous results may be looked for as knowledge of the newly discovered medium progresses. “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”