NEWS AND NOTES

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 29, 1895

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 34.

SINCE OUR LAST ISSUE.

FOREIGN.

—A despatch says that since the breaking out of cholera in Japan there have been 25,000 cases of the disease, and 16,000 deaths.

—A despatch states that a mine under a Russian fort at Toola, Russia, was exploded August 19, killing 300 soldiers. The catastrophe is supposed to be the work of Nihilists.

—Various schools and societies in Hawaii have just been made happy by the gift of $800,000 from C. R. Bishop, first vice president of the Bank of California, San Francisco.

—The income of the see of Winchester (Episcopal), which was formerly £20,000 a year, is now reduced to £7,000. With even this amount the good bishop ought not to suffer for the necessities of life.

—On August 20 the freight steamer Lyon collided with the passenger steamer Seaford, both of the New Haven and Dieppe line, in New Haven harbor, Eng., the latter sinking in twenty minutes. All the passengers, 255 in number, and the crew, were fortunately taken off on the Lyon.

—Hawaii is now hopefully confident of securing a cable with this country. A contract has been signed by that government and Col. Z. S. Spaulding, the promoter of the enterprise, and the accomplishment of the project hinges upon aid from the U. S. Government to the amount of $250,000. If this appropriation can be secured by act of Congress, the cable is assured.

—Bishop Tugwell, of Western Africa, has sounded a cry of alarm concerning the ravages of rum among the natives of western equatorial Africa. He says that gin and rum are being poured into that country in alarming quantities, and in some places where there is a rich trade in native products, European manufactures are hardly to be seen. They have been driven out by the traffic in strong drink. Its effect upon the people is disastrous in the last degree; in some cases it is actually destroying the work of missions.

—The Dominion Government has voted a bonus to the first section of a railroad from Winnipeg to Fort Churchill, on the west shore of Hudson's Bay, a distance of 700 miles. The object of this road is to open a route from its northern terminus by boat to the markets of Europe for the produce of the north and west. The distance by this route is 1,000 miles shorter for Dakota farm products than by the way of New York, but offers some disadvantages, as the water way through Hudson's Strait is open only from three to five months of the year.

DOMESTIC.

—Seven men were drowned in Buffalo harbor by the capsizing of a yacht, August 20.

—George Q. Cannon has translated the books of Mormon into the Hawaiian language.

—The Salvation Army, backed by a millionaire convert, is preparing a campaign against Japan, which country it has not yet entered.

—Mrs. Catherine O'Leary, the owner of the cow whose untimely kick upset the lantern that started the great Chicago fire of 1871, died recently in that city.

—The Legislature of New York has recently passed a law providing for the committal of intemperate women to the care of the Sisters of Good Shepherd, a Roman Catholic institution.

—Over twelve hundred delegates, representing 864 societies, attended the twenty-fifth annual convention of the Roman Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, at New York, recently.

—A terrific explosion occurred in one of the furnaces at the Carnegie Steel Company's works at Braddock, Penn., on August 20, killing six men and wounding about a dozen others. It is feared more will die.

—The great coliseum which was nearly completed in Chicago collapsed on the night of August 21. Fortunately, the wreck occurred during a change of the 300 workmen, and no lives were lost. The building was entirely wrecked, at a loss of over $160,000.

—The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports that of the 247,000 red people within the United States, 30,000 are engaged in farming, stock raising, or other civilized pursuits. Last year they raised 11,722,656 bushels of wheat, 1,373,230 bushels of corn, marketed 30,233,000 feet of lumber, owned 205,844 head of cattle and 1,283,633 sheep, and the value of their products sold was $1,220,517.

—A despatch states that the Methodists of Ohio are being urged, by circulars to all members of that denomination, sent out by their state officers, to enter upon a vigorous campaign in the fall political contests for the purpose of electing men to office who will pledge themselves to work against the saloons.

—It is now stated, and doubtless truly, that the recent trouble with the Bannock Indians in Wyoming was brought on by the whites, who have never failed to take every advantage possible of the red men. The Indians are permitted by their treaty to kill game for meat. The whites objected, and killed the Indians. And so the trouble brewed.

—Bishop Vincent has granted the use of the college hall at Chautauqua for the celebration of mass on Sunday mornings until such time as the Roman Catholics of that place will be able to construct a chapel. Would the Roman Catholics grant the university hall at Washington to Methodists? We opine not. Which is compromising? Which is the more consistent?

—On the night of August 18 the boiler in the basement of the Gumry Hotel, at Denver, Colo., blew up, wrecking the building and setting it on fire. In the flames and collapse of walls twenty-two persons lost their lives. The engineer, who fled from the scene, but has just been found, admits that he was drunk at the time, and it was through his carelessness that the disaster occurred.