p. 15 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1896

News and Notes

FOREIGN.

—Ten persons lost their lives as the result of a tenement fire in London, February 16.

—Of the 72,445 inhabitants of Iceland, 72,000 are Lutherans. There are 287 churches on the island, of which 12 are of stone, 246 of wood, and 29 of turf.

—Advices from Hawaii state that the ex-queen, Liliuokalani, has been granted full pardon by President Dole. She can not, however, leave the island.

—A despatch from Lisbon, dated February 19, says that nearly fifty people, nearly all women and girls, lost their lives at a fire the night before at Santarem. A ball was taking place, and on the alarm being given, a panic ensued.

—Modern inventions and discoveries surprise the traveler in most unlooked-for places. The great temple at Kockichaddie, Ceylon, is now lighted by electricity, and the same source of information states that other temples in that island and in India will follow its example.

—The editor of Punch, London, is a Roman Catholic, and complaint is made by a leading archbishop of the Anglican Church that since the present editor’s occupancy of the chair, there has been constant caricaturing of the bishops, clergy, and non-conforming ministers, representing them in some unmanly, cowardly, ridiculous or contemptible aspect.

—From last advices, Italy’s war with Abyssinia appears to be in a bad way. General Baratieri’s native allies are deserting, and King Menelik at present is on the aggressive, with a bright prospect of success. Added to the situation in Africa, there is widespread criticism at home of General Baratieri’s poor moves, and strained relations exist between the prime minister, Crispi, and the ministers of public works and finance. It is believed that Baratieri will be relieved of his command soon.

—A terrible explosion occurred on February 20 at Viedendorp, a suburb of Johannesburg, in the Transvaal. Eight trucks of dynamite exploded, wrecking every building within a radius of half a mile, and breaking windows all over Johannesburg. A hole 200 feet long, 80 wide and 30 deep was torn in the ground at the spot where the car stood. Over one hundred persons were killed, and about three hundred severely injured, while probably another hundred were more or less hurt. Only a few white persons were killed, the residents in the vicinity being mostly Kaffirs. Both Boers and Uitlanders are rendering assistance, and it may be that a common cause of helping the afflicted will patch up some of the ill feeling existing between them.

—According to Shanghai and Vladivostok papers, the late war with Japan has aroused the Government of China to a partial sense at least of her backwardness, and several reforms are in progress. One is a properly constructed highway to Peking from the south, an unheard-of thing in China. Along this will roll heavy wagons, as well as all kinds of vehicles. New railroads are to be built, and those now running made better. The most radical change, however, is the purpose to provide education on the European system. A new university is to be established at Tchan Tsin, in Manchuria, of which European professors will have charge, assisted by Chinese who have received an education in Europe. In these schools, besides usual branches, there will be taught architecture, mining, electrical science, and engineering. This is probably the surest way to effect the beginning of a change in the sleepy old nation.

DOMESTIC.

—Edgar Wilson Nye (“Bill Nye”), the well-known humorist, died at his home, Buck Shoals, near Asheville, N. C., on February 22.

—An explosion of fire-damp in the Vulcan mine at Newcastle, Colo., caused the death of forty-eight miners. Only eight had families.

—The school board of Baltimore, Md., will adopt civil service rules in the public-school system, that is, teachers will hold their position during good behavior and efficiency. They will stand in order of promotion, and vacancies or appointments will be made from high grades, or according to some fixed rule.

—An exchange says that over twenty million copies of “Gospel Hymns” have been sold. Mr. Moody receives twenty per cent of all receipts, and his share has been $1,250,000 already. With this money he sustains much of his school work. He has a board of trustees, who receive and disburse all the money. “Gospel Hymns” No. 1 is still the best seller.

—The first electric engine to be produced by the combination between the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, is now about completed. The motor looks somewhat like an ordinary box car, will weigh sixty tons, and will be used to pull freight trains at a speed of forty miles an hour. By a simple change of gear the machine can make eighty miles an hour, it is said.

—A line of work is to be entered upon next year in the new Veterinary College at Cornell University, N. Y. The most elaborate work will be done in bacteriology, heretofore a somewhat neglected branch at Cornell. Probably the undertaking of the most immediate practical benefit, however, will be the preparation of tuberculin (the test for tuberculosis in cows, etc.), to be supplied at cost to veterinarians of that state. It is something which must be constantly used now, and the high price has been a great inconvenience to veterinary practitioners. Tuition will be free to students from that state.

—A few days since eleven young men making a pleasure trip through Florida on foot, were arrested at Ocala as tramps and sentenced to the convict camp. There they were chained to negroes, forced to hard labor, and because the work was more than they could accomplish, were whipped until blood came. Besides being otherwise tortured, only half enough food was allowed them. They were released finally on writs of habeas corpus, the proceedings being brought by citizens of the place. It is announced that heavy damage suits will be brought by the men. This is neither Russia nor Armenia.

—There is no question but that compulsory means should be taken if necessary to prevent spreading of tuberculosis in cattle. But an exchange doubts the efficiency of the law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, where the state must pay farmers for every cow condemned to be killed. Legislation on the subject is largely controlled by the farmers, and it has been asserted that in many cases the prices paid have been twice as much as the cows were worth. Hence there will not fail to be a supply of diseased cows, and especially as the testimony of experienced farmers is that in the midst of unsanitary surroundings the disease can be developed in three months. A change in the law whereby the farmer could make no profit might deter the dishonest from pursuing such a nefarious business.

—The House of Delegates of the Virginia Legislature is astonished and dumbfounded at the refusal of a minister of Richmond to act as chaplain of that body for a certain week. The astonishment seems to be as much because of the principles set forth by the gentleman in his refusal as because of the refusal itself, it having apparently never suggested itself to the members of that body that there is anything incongruous in the common employment of chaplains by legislative bodies. The reply of Mr. Oelschlaeger, which clearly defines the principle involved, is as follows: “I do not believe in opening a promiscuous political body with prayer. The promiscuous character of the body makes it an abuse of prayer, and the political character of the body makes it an unnatural union of church and state. I, as a Christian, and any member of the body, as a Christian, can privately pray for the session, but the state which that body represents has nothing to do with prayer.” Mr. Oelschlaeger is a Lutheran minister. Such a statement will doubtless be looked upon as a curiosity by those who are bending all their energies to introducing the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ through the gateway of politics. Nevertheless, it is forever true that the spheres of religion and the state have nothing to do with each other, as dependent one upon the other.