News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 28, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 47.

Since Our Last Issue.

Foreign.

—Rustem Pasha, formerly minister from Turkey to England, and a man of great ability and note in Turkey, died on November 19.

—According to figures presented by the Union Signal, the drinking of intoxicating liquors in New Zealand has decreased materially since 1878. The consumption of tea and coffee has also decreased, while an increase per capita is noted for sugar. Tobacco in cigars and cigarettes has increased, but is used less in other forms.

—A boycott has been ordered by the Knights of Labor against the Wanamaker establishments in Philadelphia; also against the output of breweries controlled by English syndicates in several large cities, and all breweries employing non-union men; also against Kane, McCaffrey & Co., of New York. The mercantile establishments are boycotted for alleged unfair treatment of labor.

—It is reported from Cuba that Gomez, the insurgent leader, has ordered the devastation of all plantations whose owners attempt to harvest the sugar crop the coming winter. It is claimed that the Cuban cause will suffer if this industry is allowed to be pursued at present. As the majority of this business is said to be in the hands of foreigners, a pretty claim for damages is liable to be presented to Spain if she is successful in putting down the rebellion.

—At a late meeting of the Methodist General Missionary Society at Denver, Colo., it was shown that the labors of that denomination in Bulgaria had brought out 280 converts, after an expenditure of $400,000. The work was established in that country in 1857, and sixteen years were necessary for gaining the first 50 members. Much discussion was had as to the advisability of continuing the work, but it was decided eventually to do so. At present there is only one American laborer in that field.

Domestic.

—The Christian Scientist reports 200 incorporated churches in the United States.

—Over five hundred thousand acres in the Nez Perces reservation in Idaho have been opened up for settlement, by the government.

—The Supreme Court of Minnesota has denied an appeal in the case of Harry Hayward, the murderer of Miss Ging; consequently another murderer will meet his just deserts.

—There are said to be 236,426 schoolhouses in the United States, valued at nearly four hundred million dollars. In these schools are 260,954 women teachers and 122,056 men teachers.

—John Bennett and wife, faith curists, of Anderson, Ind., refused to employ physicians for their child in a case of diphtheria. The child died, and they have been arrested for criminal neglect.

—Five firemen lost their lives by the collapse of a burning building in Chicago on November 22. Two persons besides were fatally injured, and several others received severe bruises. The loss on property was $375,000.

—Two large buildings, containing thirteen valuable manufacturing plants, were burned in Chicago on November 21, involving a loss of $600,000. On the sixth floor of one building 400 girls were employed, but were rescued without loss of life.

—On Tuesday morning, November 19, a fast mail train on the New York Central Railroad was wrecked by four boys near Rome, N. Y. Besides the mail cars, there were three sleepers attached to the train, but only two persons, the engineer and one other, were killed. Three of the boys have confessed, and the object assigned for the dastardly deed was robbery.

—The increase of counterfeiting is shown by the reports of the Treasury Department Secret Service Bureaus, which state that 803 arrests were made during the past year, with very few exceptions for violation of the statutes against counterfeiting. Altered and counterfeit notes, counterfeit coins, etc., were captured during the year, representing an aggregate face value of almost $5,000,000.

—William Shoemaker, one of the attorneys for H. H. Holmes, the murderer of Pitzel, has been held by Judge Arnold for subornation of perjury. By a clever scheme he secured a false affidavit favoring the defense, but was outdone by the District Attorney, who, hearing of the plot, supplied the party who swore to the affidavit. The plot was revealed in court, and the young attorney’s career in Philadelphia, which had opened with the trial of this case, is probably at a close.

—A horrible tragedy is reported from Brownsville, Or., where a sixteen-year-old son of John Montgomery is accused of killing his father and mother and a visitor on the 19th inst., apparently for no other cause than a rebuke. The visitor was killed to prevent detection. A similar case of depravity occurred a day later in Indiana. A boy thirteen years old killed his brother, two years younger, because the latter reported him for playing truant. The murderer then committed suicide.

—An item in the New York World says that the average mission debt of the churches for the year seems to be about ten per cent of the expenditure. The American Missionary Association follows the rule, and, with an expenditure of $307,000, reports about $30,000 indebtedness. And yet the present rate of annual expenditure is $50,000 less than it was three years ago. Not only have schools and missions been closed, but many of those which remain are suffering in efficiency and power and in the compass of their work through the lessened number of faithful missionaries.

—The United States Supreme Court has rendered an opinion declaring void the contract between the Union Pacific Railroad and the Western Union Telegraph Company, by which the latter has been given exclusive right, as against any other telegraph company, of maintaining a telegraph system on the line of that road. The reason given is that any or all companies have equal rights of establishing systems over any post road in the United States. The decision further makes it obligatory upon the railroad to establish and maintain its own lines of wires, for private, public, and government use.

—In a recent lecture in San Francisco, Rev. Father Yorke told why the Catholic Church opposes the teaching of religion in the public schools. He said: “Education consists not only in training the mind, but also in training the heart. The only way to train the heart is by a system of religious morals. There are 242 different religions in this country; so, because we can do nothing else, we keep religion out of the public schools.” That is, briefly stated, because the Roman Catholic religion can not be imposed on the people to the exclusion of the 241 religions, it is policy to keep them all out. This is good logic, but the “nothing else” means that Rome would be glad enough to have her religion taught in the public schools as the only one in the curriculum, if that were possible. The present and past history of other countries proves this, and shows that the logical argument of no religion by civil law is urged not from a desire to insure exact and equal justice to all men, of whatever religious beliefs, and to respect their rights to such beliefs, but for policy’s sake, and under compulsion.

—Utah will come into the Union under a limitation not applying to any other state. This is the act of Congress passed in 1894 that any action taken by the people of the new state to restore polygamy or to establish a state religion will be void without the consent of Congress. This will not be necessary in a legal way, for the Mormon Church already exercises wide control by its influence, the chief officers of the state and the two United States senators belonging to that church. That the church may be expected to be heard in politics is evidenced by the words of President Cannon at a secret meeting of the priesthood, during the recent campaign, denouncing Messrs. Thatcher and Roberts, Mormon candidates of the Democratic party, for acting without consulting the church, a course which he is said to have described as “contrary to the rules of the church and subversion of good discipline.” The feeling produced by these words threatened for a time to retard the entry of the state into the Union, and shows the power of that church, notwithstanding the increase of “gentile” population.

—Last week we noted in this column the agitation caused by the decision of Judge Gibbons, of Chicago, regarding the Barbers’ Sunday Law. Many barbers took advantage of the decision, and opened their places on last Sunday, arousing the wrath of the Barbers’ Protective Association, which promises through its attorney to make such transgressors smart under the lash of the law. The object of the law secured by this association is stated to be to secure a breathing spell for the overworked barber, just as though any barber could not close his place of business one day in a week if he chose, whether others did or not. But the real object is a selfish one. Those who favor the law do so because it stops the other man from making money on the day on which they wish to rest, thus totally ignoring his wishes or his rights. Just how much the barbers want protection by law, is shown by the childish and really amusing complaint of the association that, although the law was passed for their protection from long hours and seven days’ work, just as soon as Judge Gibbons’ decision became known, a great many barbers at once opened their shops for trade on Sunday. Such is the selfishness and inconsistency behind all rest-day laws. Other unions are assisting the barbers in their fight, and it is announced that clothing merchants, street-car companies, and restaurant keepers, who do business on Sunday, will receive attention in the near future.