ITEMS OF INTEREST by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 29, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 44.

Read the full edition

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

By A. J. B.

— Paul Kruger's visit to Holland has cost that government about $80,000.

— Mrs. Roosevelt will attend service at St. John's Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C.

— The president of Venezuela “desires peace, but wishes overtures to come from Colombia.”

— Lansing Warren, editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, died the 13th inst., in Milwaukee, Wis.

— President Roosevelt has appointed Charles Hartzell, of Colorado, Secretary of Porto Rico.

— Joseph F. Smith is elected president of the Mormon Church, to succeed the late Lorenzo Snow.

— The State Department denies that this country has offered to arbitrate between Venezuela and Colombia.

— The revenues of France showed a deficit of about $27,000,000 for the first nine months of the present year.

— Don Carlos, the Spanish pretender, is ordered to leave Italy “for fear of compromising the government with Spain.”

— French, the British general who so far has not made a blunder in his campaign in South Africa, recently captured the Boer commandant Scheeper.

— The Boer commander Lotter has been executed, by order of Kitchener, and “two farmers who had twice joined the Boers have been hung at Vyburg; and eighteen Boer officers captured since September 15 have been permanently banished.”

— A dispatch from Albany, N. Y., dated the 15th inst., states that Warden Mead, of Auburn prison, has received over 1,000 requests for permission to witness the electrocution of Czolgosz. Only twenty-six persons will be allowed to see the sentence executed.

— Herr Rosenthal, a German, was kidnapped by Bulgarian brigands the 16th inst. Rumania has sent a protest to Sofia, and Bulgarian troops are in pursuit of the brigands. It is declared that “the Macedonian committee has decided to capture every foreigner within reach, in order to attract European attention to the bad state of public security in Macedonia.”

— In a recent letter to the ministers of the Powers, Prince Ching requests “a withdrawal from Peking of the foreign business establishments, on the ground that Peking is not a treaty port, that foreign business houses have been illegally established there, and that all such should be moved to treaty ports.” Unquestionably China has the right to make such a demand, if she sees fit.

— A dispatch from Manchester, England, dated the 15th, states that Dr. Joseph Parker, chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales, “proposed to-day the establishment of a federation of Congregationalism throughout the world, under the title of the United Congregationalist Church. The assembly voted that a committee should take steps immediately to bring the subject before the subordinate unions.”

— Florida's orange season began last week. Steven Powers, secretary of the State Agricultural Society, estimates that 1,100,000 boxes will cover the crop. It is thought that “the rehabilitation of the orange industry in Florida since the fatal freeze of 1896 has shown more progress in the last year than in the five years previous.” Mr. Powers says that “this year the trees have made a wonderful growth. The crop is fine, and there is wide-spread encouragement. Probably 1,000,000 trees were sold last winter, largely for planting in Florida. There is little fear of any effective West Indian competition. The Florida orange, backed by American will and energy, cannot be displaced.”

— The meaning of the phrase “the pacification of the islands” (Philippines), according to the Christian Advocate, of New York, “may be obtained from the dictionary, but not from a study of the islands themselves.” To support this statement it states that “a new branch of the Katipunan, a Filipino secret society, has been discovered at Tarlac, capital of the province of that name. The object of the society is the slaughter of the whites. The president of Banoang is the chief of the new branch, and an alarming element in the situation is that it includes numbers of the native constables who were recently armed. A policeman admits that he was taxed a dollar, and was ordered to make bolos. Besides this, the conditions in Tayabas and Batangas are not reassuring. The worst form of guerrilla warfare prevails there. The insurgent forces are hovering under cover along every road and trail. Caballos, who formerly belonged to the command of General Cailles, but who would not surrender with him, is retreating to the mountains. Rifles have been buried all over the province, and whenever the insurgents find an opportunity to use them, they dig them up. The assassination at Balangiga is the worst thing that has happened, but all that has occurred should have been expected.”

— On the 18th inst. the steamship “Commonwealth” arrived at Boston; the “Augusta Victoria” at Cherbourg; the “Corean” at Glasgow; the “Belgravia” at Hamburg; the “Rhynland” and the “Cufic” at Liverpool; the “Furst Bismarck,” “Patria,” and “Sicilia” at New York; and the “Miowera” at Sydney. On the same day the “Furnessia” and “Pretorian” sailed from Moville; and the “Deutschland” from Southampton.

— The land and buildings of the Ruskin Commonwealth Colony, Commonwealth, Ga., were recently sold by the sheriff. At the time of its founding, two years ago, there were in the colony 300 souls. At the time of the break-up there were but twenty left. The printing plant of the Coming Nation, the organ of the colony, was sold to satisfy a mortgage of $300. There are many excellent and devoted Christians connected with these Christian Socialist colonies in various parts of the country, and some of their ideas and ideals are most commendable.

A. J. B.