News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 21, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 46.

SINCE OUR LAST ISSUE.

FOREIGN.

—A famine is reported in Jamaica, owing to the destruction of crops by caterpillars, in certain districts.

—A despatch from Granada, Mexico, states that over thirty schoolchildren lost their lives in a burning school building at that place recently.

—Mr. A. R. Colquhoun, representative of the London Times, who was present in Central America when the United States Commission made its investigation of the Nicaragua Canal, strongly urges that this enterprise be carried through by this government. He estimates the cost at between $100,000,000 and $150,000,000. Concerning the Panama Canal he has no words of commendation, as there appear almost insurmountable obstacles, while the cost would be above $200,000,000. The report of the U. S. Commission will be given to Congress when it meets.

—Matters in Turkey still retain their hold on public interest. Added to the disquieting rumors that have come from day to day of uprisings and riots here and there, comes the report, substantiated by a second despatch from another source, of the killing of 800 persons by Mussulmans at Kharput, 200 miles southwest of Erzeroum, the scene of recent massacres. From the various reports, stripped of newspaper sensationalism, it is safe to say that the Armenians themselves have provoked many of these assaults. They are nominally Christians, but among them are turbulent elements, perhaps capable of disposing of the Turk much in the same manner that the Turk deals with them, if they had the power. While one's sympathies are aroused over deeds of wanton murder, and one may decry religious persecution wherever it manifests itself, it is well to be cautious in denouncing all that comes from southeastern Europe as such. It will be well, also, to consider the relations of earthly powers to religious matters when tempted to ask their interference on such grounds. No one should be led to violate a vital principle by a popular cry.

DOMESTIC.

—Over $3,000,000 in gold were shipped from this country to Europe during the past week.

—By the burning of a match factory at Detroit, Mich., on November 16, three employees lost their lives.

—The Chicago Tribune, Times-Herald, and Inter-Ocean have all reduced the price of their week-day issues to one cent per copy.

—Four men were killed near Warwick, N. Y., on November 10 by the explosion of a locomotive boiler while the train was running.

—The thirteen miners at Spring Valley, Ill., who drove out the colored population some time ago, have all received penitentiary punishments.

—A shower of black bugs fell near Doolittle, Ind., on November 10, covering an area of about two miles square to a depth, it is reported, of one or two inches.

—It is reported that the Florida orange crop will not be more than 100,000 boxes this year, as against the average crop of 5,000,000 boxes. The frost last January killed the trees.

—The author of the words of the well-known song “America,” Dr. S. F. Smith, died at Boston on the 16th inst. at the age of eighty-seven. The song was written and first sung in 1832.

—The missionary schooner Robert W. Logan, of the American Board of Missions, sailed from San Francisco for the Caroline group of islands on November 15, with a party of missionaries.

—The government has taken action in the cases of the murder of Bannock Indians at Jackson’s Hole, Mont., and has arrested a number of the murderers. It is hoped that these parties, who are of the rough element, will have justice meted out to them.

—The residents of Denver, and especially the devotees of Schlatter, the alleged Christ and healer, are shocked and troubled over his disappearance, which occurred on the night of the 15th inst. He is reported to have been seen tramping the roads forty miles east of that city.

—Two robbers at Colorado Springs, Colo., secured a package containing $20,000 from the Wells Fargo Express agent on the night of November 11. By closing the safe doors immediately after being forced to deliver up the package, the agent saved $35,000 for the company, the robbers believing the money they had secured to be all in the safe.

—The Atlanta Exposition, in spite of protests, has had its bullfight. The scene was not bloody, but all the elements were ready for whatever might have happened,—the actors and the spectators. That it received no greater plaudits as a success was probably owing to a lack of what the people wanted to see.

—Yale University has established a course in “modern novels,” and, as evidence of its popularity, it is stated that over two hundred and fifty students have entered it. Its object is said to be to assist the rising generations to correctly estimate literature of that class, with the view to avoiding the bad and defining what shall be called good.

—On the 16th inst. a trolley car plunged through an open draw of an iron bridge over the Cuyahoga River, at Cleveland, Ohio, taking to their death, in its drop of 100 feet, over twenty-five persons. The motor man escaped before the fall, and is held for manslaughter, as, although it was at night, it is claimed by the bridge men that all signals were in position.

—An opinion has been given by Judge Gibbon, of the Superior Court of Cook County, at Chicago, which may open the way to test the validity of the Sunday law for barbers. The judge believes that business to be conducive to the good of a community, but, aside from this, as to the law itself, defines the province of the courts in moral questions, thus: “The courts can not take cognizance of the moral aspect of the case, even though a seventh day of rest seems to be established by divine or natural necessity.” His concluding words are these: “When the Legislature of this state shall, in its wisdom, enact a law based upon a wise public policy to promote rest from labor on Sunday, a law applicable alike to all classes of citizens and operating upon all business and vocations, then it shall be upheld; otherwise it must receive the seal of judicial disapproval as partial and arbitrary in its nature, and an unwarrantable exercise of legislative power.” It is precisely because no law can be enacted by civil Legislatures that will apply alike to all classes of citizens and businesses concerning a rest day, which is by nature of a religious character, that Legislatures have no right to make or attempt to make such laws. Somebody’s rights will necessarily be infringed upon, and the right judgment of all such laws is made by Judge Gibbon in his closing words, that such laws are “partial,” that is, class legislation, and “arbitrary,” and “unwarrantable exercise of legislative power,” because outside of the realm of civil government. Although defining the principle so fully and accurately, it is evident that the judge does not fully appreciate it, as it is implied that he stands ready, as many others do, to enforce such laws, as he did enforce the Sunday law in the case under consideration, when they are on the statute books, or placed there by voices that shall announce them for the public good.