p. 21 | Current Mention

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 2, 1902

Current Mention

— There is friction between the United States and Turkey, arising from the failure of Turkey to execute agreements made long ago respecting the interests of certain American citizens.

— A new discovery of gold made at the Tonopah mines in Nevada, says a dispatch from Carson City, makes the Tonopah mining camp the richest in the world. The gold-bearing ledges are over two miles in length.

— The cholera outbreak in the Orient has extended to Japan. According to a dispatch from that country, the disease came to Japan early in the summer, by way of Manila and China. A total of 230 cases, with 133 deaths, was reported up to July 15.

— Chicago is now the fourth in size of the shipping ports of the world, the latest figures showing a yearly tonnage of 14,186,100, as compared with 16,529,095 for London, and 16,445,320 for New York. With a deep waterway to the Atlantic, it is probable that Chicago would in a short time become the foremost shipping port in the world.

— A prediction is current among Jews in this country and elsewhere, that the millennium is to arrive in about three years, to be preceded by a great war between the world powers. The prediction is professedly based on the Torah, a Jewish sacred book, and also on the alleged utterance of an infant prodigy in Warsaw, Russia.

— The running down of an unusually bold gang of negro burglars at Pensacola, Fla., developed the fact that the negroes had provided themselves with “hoodoo bags,” which they believed would render them invisible to the police, and prevent their capture. They purchased the bags from a negro, paying as high as $125 apiece for them, the negro who sold them reaping a small fortune.

— The diamonds in Queen Alexandra’s crown are to be sold, as it is said that the king and queen can scarcely afford to keep in their possession a bauble worth several hundred thousand pounds. The crown contains 3,688 stones, which will be replaced with paste diamonds when the crown is placed among the regalia of royalty in the Tower of London. Each stone will be sold under a guaranty that it came from the queen’s crown. Doubtless there will be a rush for the jewels on the part of wives of American millionaires.

— The popularity of the automobile, says a New York City dispatch, appears to have reached its limit, and to have entered on a decline. W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., on his return from Europe recently announced that he had sold all his automobiles, and had given up the sport; and it is announced that many others in New York City and Newport have reached a like decision. It will be no misfortune if the use of the automobile for reckless sport should come to an end; but undoubtedly the automobile as a vehicle supplanting the horse and carriage for general purposes has come to stay.

— Four girls were drowned near Pawling, N. Y., while bathing in Pearce Lake, August 27.

— Six persons were killed and several others fatally injured in a collision of trolley cars near Norfolk, Va., August 25.

— A meat trust is forming in Argentina which contemplates uniting with the Chicago Packing Trust to control the meat supply of the world.

— News comes from Barcelona, Spain, of a terrible cyclone on the island of Majorca, off the Spanish Mediterranean coast, resulting in great destruction of property and the loss of many lives.

— New reports of great mineral wealth are coming from Alaska, the Nazine silver district being mentioned as particularly rich, while mountains of tin are affirmed to exist near Mount Wrangel.

— The city water of Chicago is badly polluted by sewage, and no means having been found for securing pure water in the public schools, the pupils will be required to bring their drinking water with them in bottles.

— At Crane Creek, W. Va., August 28, striking miners fired on nonunion men who were at work in a coal mine, and a fight followed, in which two guards and two miners were killed. A regiment of the State national guard has been ordered to the scene.

— A suit has been begun in New York City against St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which the instigator of the suit alleges to be partly situated on land belonging to the government. The interesting point in the case is that Pope Leo XIII is named as defendant in the suit.

— The superintendent of the Park Avenue Baptist church Sunday school of Plainfield, N. J., says a Plainfield dispatch, presents each youth who attends with a check good for an ice-cream soda at one of the local drug stores, his purpose being “to sustain an active interest in the school.”

— The largest known tree in the world was only recently discovered in California, near Converse Basin, far up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Six feet from the ground the trunk is one hundred and fifty-four feet eight inches in circumference, corresponding to a diameter of over fifty-one feet. The tree stands on government land.

— A decision was recently made by the board of appraisers at the port of New York, which admits “holy water” into this country free of duty. The water is brought from Lourdes, France, and was heretofore classed as “natural mineral water,” and assessed at the rate of twenty-four cents a gallon. The water is now admitted free because it is not used as a beverage, and contains no mineral or medicinal properties.

— The cholera scourge is now general all along the Pacific coast of Asia from Japan and Manchuria to the southern Philippine Islands and the East Indies. The plague has assumed the most formidable proportions known within recent times. In the Philippines alone, according to official cholera statistics, there have been 25,664 cases and 18,040 deaths; and these figures, says a Manila dispatch, fall far below the actual number that have occurred.

— The amount paid for pensions by the government during the year ending June 30 last, was $137,400,741.

— A recent visit of the Russian Black Sea fleet to Turkish waters has created much uneasiness in Constantinople.

— The percentage of illiteracy in the United States, as shown by the latest census figures, is 12.8 per cent in the country and 5.8 per cent in the cities.

— The anthracite coal mine owners in Pennsylvania have declared that they will not submit the points of contention with the miners to arbitration, and that they will tolerate no interference from any source.

— A Chicago young lady recently bought at a drug store in that city a “harmless” complexion powder, and after using the same required the services of two physicians to counteract its effects. She is now suing the proprietor of the store for $5,000 damages.

— The Navajo Indians in southern Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona, are reported to be at the point of starvation, and it is thought there will be a serious uprising against the government unless they are speedily relieved. Nine years of drought have prevailed in that region.

— There is a growing demand in Europe for immediate action on the part of the powers, particularly the United States, to curb the tendency to frequent revolution in the Central American republics. This demand is stimulated at this time by the civil war in Venezuela.

— Several automobile accidents occurred in New York City and vicinity, August 26, the most serious being at Elberon, N. J., where a machine ran off a bridge over some railway tracks, plunging down thirty-five feet, killing two of the five occupants and seriously injuring the others. “Speed madness” on the part of the driver was the cause of the catastrophe.

— Two steamships, one just completing a transatlantic voyage, with 1,100 passengers on board, were in collision in New York harbor August 27, and a serious disaster was averted only by the presence of mind of the captain of the passenger-laden ship, who forced the passengers to one side of the ship, by which means he kept the water from entering a large hole made by the collision in the other side of the vessel.

— A law has recently been passed in Iowa which makes it possible for any person’s child in that State to be seized and turned over to the care of a charitable organization on a charge of immorality or incompetency being preferred against the parents, and then, should the parents be acquitted of the charge, their child can still be kept from them pending a series of appeals to the higher courts.

— On a big ranch in central California a harvester is used which is said to be the largest in the world. It is combined with a 60-horsepower traction engine, and has a mowing machine attachment which cuts a swath thirty-six feet wide. The machine can cut and thrash 100 acres of grain a day. This giant automobile is sixty-six feet long and about half as wide, and weighs over 100 tons. Eight men are required to operate it.

— Another famine is feared in the Bombay district of India, owing to lack of rain.

— A census of church attendance in Chicago shows that 204,567 adults attend church on Sunday, of which number 123,723 are women.

— An electric railway, the Aurora, Elgin & Chicago, is now in operation in this country, regular service on the road having been begun on August 25.

— A Minneapolis post-office clerk who is now in the custody of the police is believed to have intercepted during the past three years 10,000 letters containing money.

— General Miles, the chief officer in the army, is going to the Philippines, and army circles are reported to be much exercised over the question of the probable outcome of his visit.

— Reports of tidal waves which have overwhelmed villages and caused great loss of life, have lately been received from the city of Atleta and vicinity, on the Pacific coast of Mexico.

— A rumor that the Lehigh Valley coal mine near Hazelton, Pa., would be set in operation with nonunion men, precipitated a serious riot at the mine, August 25, in which several persons received serious injuries.

— News from London states that the present British government no longer commands the confidence of the British public, and it is expected that a new ministry will come into office in deference to the popular demand for a change.

— The largest steamship in the world is now the “Cedric” of the White Star Line, launched at Belfast, August 21. This new leviathan is 700 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 49 feet deep. Her carrying capacity is 18,400 tons, and she has accommodations for 3,000 passengers.

— A case is now before the United States Supreme Court which calls for a decision on the question of the right of Congress to prohibit interstate commerce in lottery tickets, the interesting point in the case being that the decision will, it is believed, be equally applicable to interstate commerce in the articles handled by the trusts.

— Papers from Manila report that the Manila health board officers are aroused over the sale of prayers by certain of the friars as a cure or preventive of the cholera now raging in the Philippines. The friars are reaping a harvest through the alleged cure, which is interfering with the efforts of the health officials to stamp out the plague, as possession of the prayers influences the natives against the practical efforts of the officials. The fraud is printed on paper with a loud border having the design of a cross, on the base of which is inscribed “Jesus y Maria.” Above the cross is the caption of the cure, “Saludable remedio contra la peste.” The “cure” is sold for two and one-half cents Mexican, and thousands of copies have been bought by the natives. Dr. Sherman, of the board of health, is quoted as stating that the influence of the priests on the superstitious Catholics is a decided impediment to the health officials in carrying on their work against the plague.

— Four hundred distinct earthquake shocks have been noted in the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, since August 21.

— The Chinese government has ordered the punishment of Chinese who recently murdered two missionaries near Chen-chau.

— Recent reports from Martinique state that Mont Pelée is again active, a violent eruption having been noted on August 21.

— A new fad in London, says a report from the English metropolis, is the carrying of “lucky boxes” made in the style worn by the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Each box is made of ebony, and is about the size of an ordinary draughtsman. There is a trick opening inside, which contains an Egyptian eye. The wearers of these lucky boxes are supposed to be free from all disasters, and to prosper in affairs of love and business.

— It is reported from Rome that strong pressure is being exerted at the Vatican to secure the elevation of Archbishop Ireland to the rank of cardinal, in recognition of his service in negotiating the Taft mission to Rome. The plan is to give Ireland jurisdiction over the western part of the United States, Cardinal Gibbons retaining the rule over the eastern part. The pope, however, says the report, is reluctant to give this country more than one cardinal.

— At Lynn, Mass., machinery for an electric train is being built which its constructors say will run 100 miles an hour, and will revolutionize the railway transportation of the world. The train is to run in Illinois, on a railway about 150 miles in length, and now nearly completed. The first trials will be made with a train of three cars. Each train will be equipped with twelve motors of 120 horsepower each. It is claimed the train will be held fast to the rails like a piece of iron to a magnet when the power is on.