p. 684 | ITEMS OF INTEREST by A. J. B.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 22, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 43.

Read the full edition

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

By A. J. B.

— Boston, Mass., is a Catholic city, Romanists predominating.

— According to Paris statistics 1,684 persons were bitten by mad dogs last year.

— Sir Joseph Dimsdale, M. P., is now Lord Mayor of London, succeeding Frank Green.

— The final census reports indicate that the males in this country outnumber the females.

— Insurance men complain that too many of the recent large fires have resulted in total loss.

— President Roosevelt is urged by Indianapolis financiers to reform the present banking system of the country.

— During the past year the United States received 487,918 immigrants — over 100,000 more than the preceding year.

— A petition has come to light, requesting the United States to stop sending supplies to the British in South Africa.

— Dean Lung, a Chinaman, gives $12,000 to the Department of Chinese Literature, of Columbia University, New York City.

— The public debt of the United States is now $1,031,524,365, having decreased $4,825,401 during the month of September.

— Before long Leo XIII will begin the twenty-fifth year of his pontificate. A grand pilgrimage is planned for the celebration of the event.

— Senator Dietrich, recently returned from the Philippines, says that the Samar massacre was “a result of establishing civil government too soon.”

— The residence of the President will not hereafter be called the Executive Mansion, but simply the White House — by orders of Theodore Roosevelt.

— The Russification of Finland still continues to progress rapidly. The Aftonbladet, a Stockholm paper, declares that after Finland Sweden’s turn will come.

— There are nearly 1,000,000 names on the pension rolls of the United States. It is stated that one person out of every seventy-six in the United States is a pensioner.

— An English paper states that smoking, gambling, and drinking are common in the women’s clubs of London. The same is true among the so-called upper classes of this country.

— Of the seventy-seven parishes in the island of Anglesey (off the west coast of Wales), thirty-eight, with a population of 9,414, do not contain a single saloon, or public house.

— Sir Thomas Lipton’s yacht “Shamrock II” will be kept in American waters this winter, in order to enable it to race with the “Columbia” and “Constitution” next summer.

— An exchange says that “cocaine sniffing is on the increase in the South among the negroes. The drug is sniffed up the nose, and the results produced are somewhat the same as those obtained by smoking an opium pipe.”

— The prisons of Italy are now “filled to overflowing with political suspects, big hauls having been made by way of precaution against accidents while the young King Victor Emmanuel III and the Queen are making a tour of the provinces.”

— The native population of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska has greatly decreased. Assistant Surgeon Thornbury, of the Marine Hospital Service, states that “where formerly there were 120 villages on the islands, with a population of from 1,500 to 2,500, there are now only ten villages and 1,000 inhabitants.”

— The names of those who did not pay their taxes last year, in Saxony, have been published in a list which is hung in prominent restaurants. It is said that “those on the list can get neither meat nor drink at these places, under penalty of loss of license” of said restaurants. This reminds one of the treatment which all will receive who refuse to worship the Beast and his Image.

— Owing to the scarcity of labor in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, “an immigration campaign is being inaugurated,” and “twenty thousand dollars is to be spent in advertising the advantages and possibilities of these States.” The agents of the Canadian government have, by this method of advertising, induced between 30,000 and 40,000 people to settle in the Northwest Territory.

— According to A. D. W. Wolmarans, one of the Boer envoys who has been visiting Mr. Kruger at Hilversum, Holland, the mental condition of the latter is “by no means satisfactory.” He seems to be “slowly growing weaker, physically and mentally,” and it is thought that “his slowness in reaching a decision on important questions is a serious hindrance to those working in Europe in behalf of the Boer cause.”

— In the near future the railroads of Sweden will be operated by electricity. The power for making the current may be easily secured through the abundant water power in the falls and rapids of that country’s rivers. It is estimated that 32,000-horsepower would be ample to operate the 7,500 miles of railroads in Sweden. The cost of erecting twelve central power stations, of 3,000-horsepower each, would be about $10,000,000.

— It is stated upon reliable authority that “the combined cost of the United States army and navy maintenance and increase during the four years preceding the war with Spain was $328,362,242, and the same establishments during the following four years down to July 1 last, cost the government $842,193,149. This is a difference of nearly $514,000,000, which fairly represents the cost of the Spanish and Philippine wars; and as the War and Navy department expense in the past two years has been some $397,400,000, compared with $444,600,000 for the previous two fiscal years covering all phases of the Spanish war, the Philippine conquest may be said to have already proved to be the more costly war of the two,” and that war is not over yet. A. J. B.