News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 5, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 35.

SINCE OUR LAST ISSUE.

FOREIGN.

—It is reported that 30,000 pilgrims are now at the Catholic shrine at Lourdes, France.

—Cholera has been introduced into the eastern Russian port of Vladivostok from a steamer from Che-Foo. Twelve deaths are reported.

—It is announced by telegraphic despatch that Li Hung Chang has been appointed imperial chancellor of the empire, in place of Viceroy of Chi Li, which office he has formerly held.

—Said Pasha, grand vizier of Turkey, has again tendered his resignation, refusing to act under present critical conditions. His resignation offered two months ago was refused by the sultan.

—A despatch states that twelve of the leaders in the attack on missionaries at Hwasang have been beheaded by order of the new Viceroy, the old Viceroy having been degraded and removed from office.

—On August 28 a cloudburst in the district of Sidiaich, Turkey, caused fourteen deaths, besides injuring a score of other persons. On the same day a similar occurrence in Huatingo, Mex., killed eight persons.

—Russia and Turkey have just exchanged congratulations on the four hundredth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries by Sultan Bajazet and Ivan III, the first czar of Moscow.

A report from Paris says that the idea of instructing the schoolchildren in military drill has been abandoned by that city. The Municipal Council has disbanded the battalions, and ordered the guns and equipments to be sold at auction.

—At Tashkand, in Russian Turkestan, English has been substituted for German as an obligatory study in the high school, while at Riga, on the Baltic, Lutheran pastors have been ordered to give up German and use Russian in their correspondence.

—A movement is on foot to introduce into the Canadian public schools regular inspections by experts of the teeth of pupils. This seems to be a further development of the principle which governs compulsory vaccination in our own schools.

—An exchange notices the recent death of State Councilor Jermakoff, of Moscow, Russia. This man gave away $5,000,000 in charitable work, and came of a poor family. His first great act was the purchase of freedom for all the serfs in his village, which cost him $120,000.

—It is now announced that the Duke of Orleans, the head of the French Royalist party and claimant to the throne, has become convinced of the stability of the Republic, and has decided to abandon the fight, cease subsidizing Royalist periodicals, and throw up the offices of the committee. A wise decision, no doubt.

—The Mexican Government is said to have offered to give outright to all Irishmen who will emigrate to that country all the land they can cultivate, and will also pay their traveling expenses to the spot. Former Irish colonists have done well in Mexico, and their countrymen are wanted because they make good farmers. The land offered is as good as any in the country.

—Mexico is moving along the lines of progress. The law in that country forbids dueling, but the first case is now on record for a conviction. The convicted party is Colonel Romero. His victim was Colonel Verastegui, both prominent men. The trial brought out the fact that the affair was nothing short of murder, as Romero was skilled in the use of weapons beyond the other, and sought the battle. He was sentenced to three years and four months’ imprisonment, with a fine of $1,800, and must also pay $4,500 annually to the widow of Verastegui, in monthly installments, for eighteen years, besides standing the cost of the funeral and the trial.

—It is now officially announced that Spain has agreed to pay the long-delayed Mora claim, without interest, in September. Antonio M. Mora, a citizen and resident of the United States, owning extensive sugar plantations in Cuba, was unjustly accused by the Spanish authorities, condemned while absent, and his estate confiscated, the Spanish Treasury getting $2,317,000 out of it. This was in 1877, although the trouble began about twenty-five years ago. Our government protested, and Spain acknowledged her error, and ordered the estate restored. This was not done, however, and an offer of $1,500,000 was at last accepted by Congress, but this was not paid. The last Congress instructed the President to press the claim, with interest for nine years. It remains to be seen if Spain is acting in good faith, and whether this government will accept the amount without interest.

—How little the population of France moves about is shown by the last census. Out of 38,000,000 inhabitants 21,000,000 live in the town or village in which they were born, and 30,500,000 have not moved out of their native departments. Only 1,500,000 have emigrated to France from colonies or foreign countries.

—It is announced that 100 German Baptists recently left the provinces of Kherson and Volhynia, Russia, to seek an asylum in America from religious persecution. Let them beware how they conduct themselves in the sight of their religious friends in this country. The spirit of persecution is not in deep slumber here.

DOMESTIC.

—Seventeen buildings were burned in the village of Rosendale, N. Y., on August 25, at a loss of $75,000.

—Heber M. Wells, Republican nominee for governor of Utah, is a member of an old and prominent Mormon family.

—The wheat crop of the world for the present year is estimated at 2,402,671,000 bushels. The three leading producers are Russia, United States, and India.

—An order has been issued by Secretary Morton requiring the inspection and stamping of all meats exported. No clearance can be made by vessels having on board uninspected cases.

—To what straits the pastor of a Chicago church is reduced for subject matter is illustrated by a recent “sermon” on the “Ethics of Bicycling.” His text was from Jer. 18:3: “Behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.”

—California is well known for its fruit industry. An idea of the yield in this line may be had from the statement that the shipments of prunes from one county, Santa Clara, will reach the extraordinary figure of 35,000,000 pounds this season.

—On August 26 a passenger train on the Great Northern Railroad ran into a landslide near Richmond Beach, Wash. The engine was turned completely over and thrown down an embankment, killing the engineer. The cars fortunately remained on the track.

—A party of temperance crusaders and Salvation Army people entered a saloon, at Harvey, Ill., recently, to pray for the proprietor. The latter recognized in one of his visitors a former chief of police, and at once attacked him, fighting the whole party out of his place.

—The record of lynching now includes California. On the night of August 25 four men accused of murder, two of them guilty beyond a doubt, were taken from the Yreka jail, in Siskiyou County, by a quiet but determined band of men, and hanged from a rail placed between two trees over the sidewalk.

—Heretofore high-grade grindstones have been obtainable only from Bavaria, France, and one or two other countries. Now, however, an extensive quarry has been opened up in South Dakota, which produces a much finer grade than the best imported article, and will of course in a short time cut off the foreign supply.

—Eleven Salvationists were thrown into jail in Pontiac, Mich., on August 25, on the charge of obstructing the street. They look upon this as persecution, but it can hardly be such. No natural rights or conscientious belief can be pleaded for violating the regulation in question, as the statute is entirely civil in its nature.

—A monster scheme for defrauding railroads has just been unearthed in New Orleans. For some time travel has far exceeded cash returns on one or two large lines, and it has just been discovered that a prominent firm of ticket brokers has been printing original tickets and doing a first-hand business. Ten thousand bogus tickets ready for shipment were seized in New York.

—The eagerness of some people, and those a large class in these degenerate days, for the sight of blood, has met its longing at Cripple Creek, Colo., in a series of exhibitions, the drawing feature of which has been the bullfight. Reports of the affair state that 8,000 people, mostly miners, witnessed the cruel goading of the frightened animals, which, manifesting only beast sense, refused to fight. The torture which was displayed for several days in succession is said to have shocked even the feelings of the “better” class present.

—A Roman Catholic in the Melbourne (Australia) Age, of May 5, makes the following challenge to the English bishop of Ballarat, Dr. Thornton: “I challenge him to name 12 clerical converts from Catholicism to Anglicanism for every 300 clerical converts from Anglicanism to Catholicism that I shall name. If he can name 12 converts, I shall contribute £50 to the Palace Fair, of which his lordship spoke the other day. But if he fails, then I take leave to propose that he pay £50 to any nonsectarian charities in Melbourne you, Mr. Editor, may suggest.” Nevertheless, neither numbers nor pounds sterling are evidences of truth.

—The last Congress appropriated $630,000 to the Nez Perces Indians, and it is now being paid out at Lewiston, Idaho. It is usual on such occasions for hard characters to flock to the vicinity, and this is no exception. Already three Indians have been held up and relieved of $2,300. The dispensers of liquors are reported doing a brisk trade, in spite of the law forbidding the sale of the article to Indians.

—“Dry Sunday” has become a stock phrase in the daily press since the fight against the saloon in New York. Now it is announced that that city will actually have dry Sundays after September 1. The liquor dealers have met, and, after looking the matter squarely in the face, decided to surrender unconditionally and close their barrooms on Sunday. The severe punishment and fines imposed by the courts caused this action.

—Some time ago leading newspapers of the country gave over the management and preparation of matter for a day to the women, the proceeds to go to charitable objects. The latest development of this idea has found expression in Bay City, Mich., where the electric car systems were conducted by women for a day, a percentage of the receipts going to the Masonic Temple Association. Other cities are on the program for similar manifestations.

—At the great conclave of the Knights Templar, recently held in Boston, 30,000 delegates were present from different parts of the United States. The display and demonstration is reported to have far exceeded that of the Christian Endeavorers held in the same city a few weeks previous. Applauders of that convention referred to the presence of such a concourse of young Christians as the conquest of the city for Christ. We wonder how such would characterize the later demonstration.

—There has just been arrested in New York a person by the name of William Brockway, who, it is said, has caused the government more anxiety over counterfeit money than any other man or set of men. He is seventy years old, and in his forty years of operation has put in circulation bogus notes aggregating millions—notes, if possible, of finer workmanship than the government’s own. In all this time he has served but four years in jail, but his career is probably now near the end.

—During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1895, the U. S. Patent Office received 36,972 applications for patents, 1,453 for designs, 77 for reissues, 2,183 for trademarks, 318 for labels, and 2,314 caveats were filed. The office granted 20,745 applications for patents, reissues, and designs, and registered 1,804 trademarks and 6 prints. During the year 12,906 patents expired, and 3,208 allowed certificates were forfeited for nonpayment of final fees. The total receipts were $1,353,947; expenditures, $1,195,557.