p. 323 | News and Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 19, 1883

News and Notes.

By Editor

—A heavy rain-storm, accompanied by thunder, lightning, and high wind, did great damage in northern Wisconsin, July 10.

—Seven passenger cars fell through a bridge fifty feet high, near Natchez, Miss., on the 10th inst. The conductor was killed, and several passengers were wounded.

—Advices from Venezuela state that locusts are making havoc in many parts of that country. In one night all the vegetation in the neighborhood of Moroon was destroyed.

—The effect of the High-license Law in Ohio has not been to reduce the number of saloons, as was claimed would be the case. In Cincinnati there are as many saloons as before.

—A special from Guaymas, Mexico, says: "A schooner from Trinidad Bay brings the news of a terrible wind-storm there on the 3d and 4th. One schooner and two sloops were lost. The crews were saved.

—Affairs in Crete, owing to the resistance of the people to the payment of taxes, are very grave. Committees are being formed throughout the island to resist the illegal measures of the Porte. An outbreak is expected.

—The steamer Niagara, of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Line, was burned on the morning of the 12th, off the southern coast of Florida. All the passengers were saved, but the vessel and cargo were a total loss.

—Another tornado visited Kansas, July 11. At Soldier Creek many houses were destroyed, and great damage was done to crops. In Parkdale, a suburb of Topeka, nearly all the residences were filled with water. Some loss of life is reported.

—At a meeting held in Marseille, France, July 8, to protest against the sentence recently pronounced upon Louisa Michel, the noted communist, a resolution was adopted pledging those present to murder, at the first opportunity, the jurymen who convicted her.

—London, Ont., was the scene of a terrible flood, July 11. The storm came with scarcely any warning, and continued all night. The area of the storm did not extend over twenty miles, but the damage was over $500,000, and thirty lives were lost. About 200 dwellings were destroyed.

—There is considerable excitement in England over the statement that Admiral Pierre, the French commander in Madagascar, had caused the flags over all the foreign consulates in Tamatav to be hauled down, had ordered the British consul to leave, and had committed other unwarrantable acts.

—The cholera plague in Egypt is still spreading and increasing in severity. The deaths at Damietta average 120 a day. In Mansqurah the average is nearly as great. A physician, writing in the Pall Mall Gazette, predicts that before the close of the year the disease will be making ravages in every quarter of the globe.

—The Florida Legislature has granted a charter to a company which proposes to cut a ship’s canal across the State, to enable vessels to avoid the perils of the Florida Reefs, while gaining time. It grants to the company a strip of land a quarter of a mile wide entirely across the State, its breadth to be doubled at passing stations. The distance is about 160 miles.

—In the trial of the Jews at Nyrreghaza, Hungary, charged with the murder of a Christian girl in order to use her blood in the passover ceremonies, the perjury of the witnesses for the prosecution has been clearly proved. The public prosecutor in the trial intends to withdraw the indictment against the defendants, and the Hungarian Government will prosecute the concoctors of the case with the utmost severity.

—Although the prospect for fruit in California was favorable last spring for an immense crop, there is a scarcity. A retail dealer of twenty-five year’s experience in the business says that the California fruit crop was never so small and inferior. He ascribes as the chief cause of the short crop the extremely hot weather immediately after the earth and all vegetation had been thoroughly drenched by the copious late rains.

—The news of the week is scarce as to variety, but abundant in detail. The principal part could be summed in one word, “Tornadoes.” We cannot enumerate all the cases. Beside those already mentioned, there were destructive storms in Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Dakota Territory. The record in each runs about the same. Dwelling-houses, churches and business-blocks blown down, crops ruined, and people killed. A noticeable item in the reports of the 13th was the number of persons struck by lightning.