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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 12, 1902

— An immense waterspout was seen in Lake Michigan a few miles off shore by residents of St. Joseph, Mich., on the morning of August 6.

— Rear-Admiral Taylor, chief of the bureau of navigation, declares that a naval force of 40,000 men will be necessary properly to man this arm of the military service in the near future.

— All but about 400 of the 6,000 religious schools in France voluntarily complied with the law directing them to close. The nuns who taught in the schools are reported to be flocking into Belgium.

— A serious state of affairs is reported from Macedonia, where many of the peasants are in revolt against the Turkish authority. Recently a battle was fought at the village of Monastir, in which 1,000 Turkish regulars, after a prolonged struggle, put the villagers to flight, and followed up their success with the usual program of pillage and massacre.

— The great Nile dam at Assouan, Egypt, was completed July 30. By the building of this dam a reservoir for irrigation is formed which will give an annual supply of 1,000,000,000 cubic meters of water. The dam is one and one-half miles long, and is pierced by 180 openings, each twenty-three feet high and seven feet wide, with steel sluice gates. The work was begun early in 1898, and for the last eighteen months 16,000 workmen have been continuously employed upon it. The cost is £4,800,000. It is estimated that the reservoir adds $400,000,000 to the wealth of Egypt.

— Certain articles covering the matter of missionary privileges in China are to be embodied in a new commercial treaty about to be made between that country and the United States, says a dispatch from Shanghai. The articles illustrate the grounds for the Chinese complaints against the missionaries who have been in China. The dispatch says: “The first of these is that no bad characters will be admitted into the church; second, that lawsuits shall be settled by the officials without interference by the missionaries; third, that missionaries may report cases of persecution; fourth, that converts shall be exempt only from contributions to festivities in honor of idols, they must pay other government taxes; fifth, the missionaries shall not conceal bad characters from justice; and, sixth, property must be held in the name of the church. If it is not so held, the Chinese, in case of damages, will only pay indemnity for goods duly registered by local officials.”

— Sheep herders and cattle men are at war in Wyoming, the latter having taken the initiative by killing large flocks of sheep.

— King Edward VII has returned to London, and is seemingly much improved in health. The coronation ceremonies are expected to take place on the date announced.

— A dispatch from Rome says that the report is current in Vatican circles that the lands of the friars in the Philippines have mostly passed into the hands of an American syndicate of New York capitalists.

— Fifteen men were killed and many others injured in a railway wreck near Marshalltown, Iowa, August 6. Two trains, one of which was running contrary to orders, collided on a sharp curve, the train men having no time to jump after discovering their peril.

— The subject of international disarmament is still occupying the mind of the czar, according to a report from Italy, whither the czar went recently to visit King Victor Emmanuel. It is said this was one of the principal topics of conversation between the two monarchs during their interview.

— Explorer De Windt, who has returned from Siberia, tells of finding a village in that country near the arctic circle whose inhabitants had received no news of outside events for the last thirty years. The people had no industries or pursuits beyond what was necessary to supply themselves with food and clothing.

— A mine inspector in the anthracite district of Pennsylvania states that the strike has already caused such damage to five large collieries by flooding that they will have to be abandoned, and even though the strike were settled at once, it would be months before operations could be fully resumed, since all but fourteen of the fifty-six collieries involved will have to be repaired and cleared of water.

— It is estimated, says a dispatch from Winnipeg, that in the first seven months of the present year 5,000,000 acres of land in Manitoba and the Northwest Territories has been sold to citizens of the United States. The greater part of this land has been bought by land syndicates, who are selling it to settlers and smaller speculators. There is an unprecedented rush of farmers into this portion of Canada from Minnesota, Iowa, and the Dakotas.

— The ordnance department of the United States is now in possession of a new time fuse for use in armor-piercing shells, which will not explode the shell until the projectile has penetrated the target to the limit of its power. Fired from a twelve-inch gun, one of these shells will penetrate the thickest armor on any ironclad ship now afloat, and exploding afterward, will be capable of working the most complete destruction on board an enemy’s ship, the shell being filled with a very powerful explosive compound manufactured by a secret process. To offset this advantage on the part of the guns, naval experts have come forward with a new electrical process for hardening armor plate, which they claim is superior to any process previously known.

— Earthquake shocks were felt August 5 at Genoa and Pisa, Italy, and in central Portugal.

— Affairs in Hayti are more quiet, and the formation of a new government is announced, with M. Firmin at its head.

— News of a three days’ battle in Colombia was received at Panama, August 1. The government forces were reported to have won a victory.

— Strange movements of the ocean waters about Hawaii have been noticed for the past three months, supposedly due to some subterranean convulsion.

— Missoula, Clinton, and Bonner, Montana towns, were shaken by an earthquake, August 4, each place sustaining considerable damage to buildings.

— Sixteen convicts in the Tennessee penitentiary at Nashville escaped, August 4, by blowing a hole in the prison wall with dynamite. Several were afterward recaptured.

— Fears are entertained at Venice that the church of St. John and St. Paul, which is one of the most noted in the city, is about to collapse after the manner of the Campanile tower.

— An uneasy feeling prevails at the Vatican with regard to the situation in France. The pope fears that the French premier has not yet reached the limit of his opposition to the papacy in the French republic.

— The circuit court in Cleveland, Ohio, has by a recent decision cleared the way for the granting of franchises for the building of street railways in that city to be operated on a three-cent fare basis.

— It seems probable that the next congress of the United States will seriously consider the question of the annexation of Cuba, the present ruinous conditions which prevail in the island being used as the basis of the annexation argument.

— The Baldwin-Zeigler polar expedition, of which much was expected in the way of arctic exploration, has returned without having achieved anything of note, a quarrel among the members of the expedition being the reason alleged for the failure.

— The launching of a new giant ocean liner, the “Kaiser Wilhelm II,” which is to take place August 12 at Stettin, Germany, is an event of note in marine affairs. The new liner is 707 feet in length, with a displacement of 19,500 tons, and is expected to be the fastest steamship in the world.

— From La Grange, Ind., comes information of a gigantic farmers’ trust which is to be formed to control the price of grain in the United States. According to the prospectus which the organizers have gotten out, the trust will take in every farmer in the country, and will bring an annual gain to the farmers of $500,000,000.

— Heavy rains, in some places amounting to a cloud-burst, fell in Colorado, August 6, doing considerable damage to property, but greatly benefiting growing crops. Near Florence a railway train was compelled to race with a torrent of water which rushed suddenly down a ravine wrecking two rear coaches of the train, the passengers in which had by timely warning escaped into the forward part of the train.

— Recent French naval maneuvers at Toulon tend strongly to demonstrate the efficiency of submarine torpedo boats in an attack on battle ships.

— The Cuban government is endeavoring to float a loan of $35,000,000 to relieve the financial crisis in that country, $5,000,000 of this sum being for agricultural relief, and the remainder for the payment of the troops which fought in the late war.

— How much money would you guess is spent in this country every year on theater going? The Chicago Inter Ocean quotes an authority in theatrical matters who affirms that $25,000,000 was so spent in the United States in 1901. Attendance at the theater has come to be regarded by many almost in the light of a necessity, and reputable physicians in many instances prescribe it to patients who need “something to quiet their nerves.”

— A New York telegram announces that conclusive proof has come to light of “an air-tight book trust” in the United States, taking in publishers and booksellers. There are two branches of the trust, one known as the “American Publishers’ Association,” and the other the “American Booksellers’ Association.” Every firm which refuses to join the trust is either to be forced to come into the trust or forced to go out of business.

— Among the latest devices for raising money for church purposes we note the engagement of a noted pugilist to give an exhibition of the slugging art at an entertainment under the management of the “young men’s club” of the Prospect Avenue Congregational church of Kansas City. The pastor was consulted, and “could not see where any harm could come from it” (to quote one member of the club), and besides, “the church needs money, and needs it badly.”

— There is a clash between Archbishop Ireland and some other prelates of the Catholic Church in this country over the matter of the government’s attitude on the question of the Philippine friars. Opinions intimating that Archbishop Ireland is seeking to dominate Catholic affairs in the United States are being heard at the convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies, now in progress in Chicago, together with criticisms of the treatment of the friars by the United States.

— If we may credit the statements of the Civilta Cattolica, an official organ of the Vatican, good reason has been given the latter to regard the recent negotiations with Governor Taft as being truly diplomatic, contrary to the assertion sent out from Washington. The Cardinal Secretary of State, says that journal, had a “special audience” with Governor Taft, at which the latter delivered to the papal secretary “a cabinet letter in the name of His Excellency Mr. John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States.” This, if it took place, constituted an official recognition of the pope’s claim to be a temporal sovereign.