News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 25, 1902

— Secretary of the Navy Long has announced his intention of resigning from President Roosevelt’s cabinet.

— Secretary of State Hay has sent notice to Russia and China that any agreement giving any corporation exclusive right in the development of Manchuria will be considered a breach of the treaties between China and the United States.

— President Roosevelt has given his decision on the Schley-Sampson controversy, and expresses the hope that it will now be ended. He finds that Schley was not in command at the battle of Santiago, and condemns the “loop” made by the “Brooklyn” at the beginning of the fight.

— A coroner’s jury, which made a thorough inquiry into the causes of the gas explosion in Chicago, February 5, by which several buildings were wrecked and eleven lives lost, holds the People’s Gas Light and Coke Company of Chicago responsible for the disaster.

— Smallpox continues to spread over Iowa and Illinois.

— Serious railway wrecks occurred on Sunday, February 16, at Gifford, Iowa, and Shop Creek Siding, Ill., resulting in the loss of six lives.

— One thousand dollars is offered by a wine company for the privilege of serving a particular brand of champagne at the banquet to be given Prince Henry in Chicago.

— President Angell, of Michigan University, has prohibited “smokers” among the undergraduates at that institution. Organized orgies, he declares, cannot be permitted there.

— Another actress gone insane, is the report that comes from Theresa Vaughan, who is now in the Worcester, Mass., insane asylum. A stage life rarely has a happy ending.

— Details which have been received regarding a recent great earthquake at Shamaka, in Transcaucasia, show that 2,000 persons, mostly women and children, perished in the disaster, and that 4,000 houses were destroyed.

— Inhabitants of Chilpancingo, Mexico, are in great alarm because of several openings in the earth near by, of recent origin, from which smoke is issuing. An earthquake in the night of February 16, which was severe enough to wake the entire city from slumber, seems to give good ground for their fears.

— New York City was the scene of another terrible disaster Saturday morning, the Park Avenue hotel and Seventy-first Regiment armory being destroyed by fire. A panic occurred in the hotel, and many persons were injured by jumping from windows. Thirteen are reported dead, and the list of injured totals about one hundred.

— A new locomotive headlight has recently been tested on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, the purpose of the invention being to insure the safety of trains by means of a very powerful electric illuminator, capable of lighting up from eight to ten miles of straight track, or of being projected on the sky where the track is curved. It promises to be a success.

— “Short-circuiting a nerve,” is a phrase now used to describe the theory of a new discovery in surgery, based on the theory of Marconi’s wireless telegraphy. By means of electrical vibrations set up between the branches of a nerve, producing an electric current which has certain points of similarity to the nerve current, the latter is shut off from reaching the brain, and there is no sensation of pain. It is thought this theory may provide a substitute for anaesthetics.

— The Boers are again heard from in South Africa. February 12, near Johannesburg, a British force of 150 mounted infantry was led into an ambuscade and attacked on several sides at once, losing heavily before they could retire to a safe position. A British constabulary force was defeated with severe loss near Witevale River, February 10. On February 18 a British force under General Hamilton was defeated at Klippan, a detachment of the same being surrounded and captured.

— A general strike of the trades unions of Spain is reported, and that country seems to be almost on the brink of civil war. The young boy king of Spain is about to succeed to the throne, and an uprising has been looked for on the part of those opposed to the royal family. Rioting has occurred in many places, the most serious being at Barcelona, where the rioters were attacked by the troops, and forty persons were killed. Martial law was proclaimed in the provinces of Saragossa and Tarragona. General Weyler is in command of the military forces, and the most rigorous measures have been taken to prevent any attempt at revolution.

— Insurance rates are to be advanced. The statement comes from New York City that “as a result of the enormous losses sustained by them in 1901 and in the opening months of the present year, a decision has been reached by the leading fire insurance companies to advance rates in all territory east of the Rocky Mountains, except in and near this city. The advance, which it is planned to put into effect immediately, will amount to at least twenty-five per cent on mercantile stocks in all buildings except such as are occupied as dwellings above the grade floor, and on frame store buildings; also on all manufacturing risks and other special hazards which have not been rated under revised and approved schedules within one year.” The further statement comes that “since Jan. 1, 1901, thirty well-known fire insurance companies have either retired from business or have greatly curtailed the field of their operations.”