News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 17, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 38.

Read the full edition

—The great steel strike has been settled, upon terms dictated by the steel trust.

—The Grand Army Reunion opened in Cleveland, Ohio, the 10th inst., with a very large attendance.

—The Third Ecumenical Methodist Conference began in City Road Chapel, London, the 4th inst.

—Russia will buy “all private quay property in Sebastopol, and convert the port into a naval harbor.”

—The United States transport “Dix” recently arrived at San Francisco, from the Philippines, with the bodies of 520 soldiers on board.

—Arch Rock, in San Francisco Bay, was recently destroyed, to insure safe navigation. Over thirty tons of nitroglycerin were used to blast the rock.

—An American woman missionary and her companion, laboring in the district of Djumabala, European Turkey, were recently carried off by brigands.

—Dispatches from Katanga, Central Africa, report “the defeat of a body of slave traders by Congo Free State troops, and the capture of an immense quantity of merchandise.”

—Commandant Lotter and his commando near Pietersburg were recently captured by Lord Kitchener. The Boers lost 15 killed and 114 wounded and captured. The British, 10 killed and 8 wounded.

—A report from Madrid states that Spain is preparing for war with Morocco, the cause being the stealing of two children by some Moors and the refusal to pay an indemnity therefor. An army of 80,000 men is being assembled by Spain.

—The German Emperor communicated to the Sultan his refusal to intervene in the latter’s dispute with France, and advised the Turk to “come to an understanding with that country.” It is understood that the Sultan and the Kaiser are on very friendly terms.

—A great law and order crusade has been started in London. Above one thousand prominent persons have associated themselves to repress public immorality of language, pernicious pictures, publications, and plays. Out of one thousand three hundred and forty-nine borough councilors six hundred and forty-two are pledged to support the crusade. The sympathy of magistrates has been enlisted, the police have modified their attitude toward vice under scrutiny, and the law is to be enforced with inflexible severity.

—King Edward has appointed a commission to investigate Professor Koch’s theory, expressed at the recent tuberculosis congress in London, that human and bovine consumption are essentially different, and that human beings and animals cannot be reciprocally affected. The commission consists of Sir Michael Foster, Secretary of the Royal Society; Dr. Sims Woodhead, Professor of pathology, Cambridge University; Dr. Harris Cox Martin; Prof. J. McFadyen; and Prof. R. W. Boyce. They have been granted the fullest powers and facilities, and have been urged to make a prompt report.

—An autopsy to determine the exact cause of death was held on the body of President McKinley by the doctors who had been in attendance, of which the following is given as an official report: “The bullet which struck over the breastbone did not pass through the skin, and did little harm. The other bullet passed through both walls of the stomach near its lower border. Both holes were found to be perfectly closed by the stitches, but the tissue around each hole had become gangrenous. After passing through the stomach, the bullet passed into the back walls of the abdomen, hitting and tearing the upper part of the kidney. This portion of the bullet’s track was also gangrenous, the gangrene involving the pancreas. The bullet has not yet been found.”

—A new Russian post-office has been opened with great pomp in Jerusalem.

—A gambling mania is reported to be prevalent in London and throughout England.

—Hugo Jones, a Chicago chemist, claims to have discovered how to develop electricity from coal.

—Satisfaction will be demanded of Turkey by Holland, for “the violation of the Dutch legation in Constantinople by Turkish police.”

—Dispatches from Manila, P. I., state that the newly arrived American teachers are complaining that it costs much more to live there than they had expected.

—England desires to model a federal city in Australia after the plan of Washington, D. C., and has requested the necessary information from the district commissioners of the city of Washington.

—The newspapers of Russia are not allowed to refer to the famine conditions existing in that country. It seems that hundreds are dying daily, and that “hunger-typhus and scurvy have broken out in many districts.”

—The “Columbia,” and not the new boat “Constitution,” will defend America’s cup in the coming yacht race at New York. The British yacht “Shamrock II” will thus meet the same yacht that defeated its predecessor, “Shamrock I.”

—London was recently shocked by the action of certain American delegates to the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, in objecting to the presence of some negro delegates. In England and on the Continent there exists no social distinction between whites and negroes.

—Wm. Burns, a Prairie du Chien, Wis., clam-digger, found, on the 5th inst., “the finest pearl yet taken from the Mississippi River. It is perfectly egg-shaped, and of the finest quality. It weighs forty-two grains,” and was purchased by D. J. Lenehan, for $1,000.

—Endeavors are still being made by various organizations in this country to have the United States interfere, by physical force, if necessary, in the South African situation, in behalf of the Boer reconcentrado prisoners held by England. So far this government has wisely refused to meddle in England’s affairs.

—The peace protocol between China and the Powers was signed at Peking the 7th inst.; and by the agreement the troops were to “evacuate public places, including the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, before September 17; and all the expeditionary troops in the provinces, except the permanent garrisons, must be withdrawn by September 22.”

—During the past few weeks there have been held five national or international assemblies of young people’s societies; namely, that of the Christian Endeavorers, in Cincinnati; the Epworth Leaguers, in San Francisco; the Baptist Young People’s Union, in Chicago; the Young People’s Christian Union (of the United Presbyterian Church), in Warsaw, Ind.; and the Episcopalians, in Detroit.

—The Salvation Army has made arrangements with the municipal authorities of Stockholm, Sweden, whereby it “looks after the poor and destitute, and cares for the tramps and others who appeal for aid. The city makes a regular allowance for the work. Sweden is the only country of Europe that has thus officially recognized the Salvation Army and utilized its machinery for charitable and benevolent work; but similar arrangements have been made in some Australian cities.” The plan is said to have the active support and sympathy of the royal family of Sweden.

—The Japanese Times is responsible for the statement that “all the living inhabitants of Konoh-Mura, in the Igusa district of Miyagi Prefecture, and the vicinity, remember the Kiowa-Yama, a hill which rose 130 feet skyward, and covered an area of twenty acres in the outskirts of the village, and which, for all they knew, had stood there from time immemorial. But it is no more. About ten o’clock on July 16 a tremendous thundering noise was heard in the direction of the hill. When the villagers assembled on the spot, attracted by the mysterious sound, they found that the hill had disappeared, nobody knew whither. Instead of the hill, they saw level ground grown over with grass and shrubs, stretching out over where it had stood. A closer examination of the spot showed the hill had bodily sunk into the ground, leaving its top on a level with the surrounding land. It is thought the phenomenon was the result of subterranean action.”

—Dr. Raymon B. Luco is Premier of the new Chilean government.

—Portions of Newfoundland are being ravaged by destructive forest fires.

—One of Kruger’s sons has surrendered to Lord Kitchener, in South Africa.

—The British authorities are now perplexed over the question of Boer prisoners.

—The sessions of the Universal Peace Conference opened at Glasgow, Scotland, the 10th inst.

—The strike at the Joliet, Ill., steel mills ended Friday, the 13th inst., 2,500 men returning to work.

—Governor Schroeder, of Guam Island, says that the natives of that island make “splendid citizens.”

—On the 8th inst., Edward VII of England met the Czar at Copenhagen, and journeyed with him to Fredensborg.

—As the result of a recent storm on Lake Huron, six vessels were wrecked on the beach near Port Huron, Mich.

—The Czar of Russia and the German Kaiser recently met on the high seas, near Hela, off the Prussian coast.

—The Mussulman quarter of the town of Mush, Turkey, was recently burned by Armenians. Massacres will probably follow.

—Joseph Hush, a farmer living near Laporte, Ind., celebrated his 108th birthday, Sunday, the 15th inst. He was born in New Jersey in 1793.

—Dispatches state that, in order to prevent the wrecking of trains by the Boers, the authorities at Pretoria are “compelling prominent burghers to accompany the trains on the Pietersburg Railroad.”

—South American affairs are growing more serious. La Hacha, a Colombian town, has been bombarded by the Venezuelan fleet. Colombia has refused, and Venezuela has rejected, “the kindly offices of this country” to adjust their differences.

—Since the shooting of President McKinley, messages of sympathy have been received at Washington from almost every government in the world; personal communications having also been received from nearly every ruler of Europe.

—Senator George L. Wellington, of Maryland, was expelled from the Union League Club of Baltimore the 11th inst., for countenancing the assassination of President McKinley “by repeated and public expressions of indifference to the act or its results.” The Senate may be asked to expel him from that body for the same reasons.

—Shortly after the shooting of President McKinley the police began to arrest a number of anarchists throughout the country, holding them on accusation of being parties to a plot to assassinate the President. Emma Goldman is one of the leading anarchists of the land. Czolgosz attributes his action to the influence of her writings and speeches.

—At a recent meeting of ministers in San Francisco, it was “resolved not to invite an evangelist to come to the city this season,” the reason being that “the people were so much engrossed in the exciting circumstances of the time that they would not come to hear the gospel preached.” When rightly presented, the gospel gives the true meaning of these “exciting circumstances,” and therefore cannot fail to rivet the attention of the common people, even as it did in the days of Christ.

—When asked his opinion of America, Mr. Frank T. Bullen, a noted author just arrived, replied: “There are four things that I want to say about America, and they are these: First, the streets in the American cities are very bad. Second, I want to remark about the great number of old-young men. Third, I can’t understand why, in a country where everything is a big rush, the business people will go into a restaurant and wait from fifteen to thirty minutes for a luncheon, and then bolt it in six minutes. Fourth, the bracing air.”

—In an interview with a New York Herald representative, Major-General MacArthur, recently returned from the Philippines, said: “Everything is going smoothly there at present. There are less than 1,000 men under arms against us. They are divided into two groups, one in the southern part of the island of Luzon, under Melvar, and the other under Lucban, on the island of Samar. There is some disorder on the island of Bohol, but otherwise the islands are comparatively quiet.” However, in spite of all this, “he thought that the military force should not be allowed to fall below 40,000,” since “the Filipinos have retired to the fastnesses of the mountains, and it is only by cutting off their source of supplies, as we have done, that we can finally overcome them.” But how long will that take?