News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 8, 1901

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 2.

Read the full edition

— Rev. Hannibal Goodwin, inventor of the camera film, died in Newark, N. J., December 31.

— It is said that “the Boers celebrated Christmas day by attacking the British at several points.”

— In France hailstorms are often averted from vineyards by the discharge of a cannon into the hail-cloud.

— By the recent burning of the Fox Pressed Steel Car Works at Joliet, Ill., 2,200 men are thrown out of employment.

— Nurses of Bellevue Hospital, New York City, are held in $5,000 bail “for maltreatment of patients in that hospital.”

— Dreyfus has appealed to the French government for a new trial. He intends to keep his case alive until he obtains justice.

— Many of the British soldiers captured recently by the Boers have been released, as the latter have no means of caring for them.

— Much of the Italian macaroni is now made by machinery, 70,000 cases being annually shipped to England, and 500,000 cases to the United States.

— Lord Armstrong, inventor of the Armstrong gun, and writer upon electrical and scientific topics, died at his home near London, England, December 29.

— Jacob Blackman, of Holyoke, Mass., was recently awarded $1,000 damages “against a Polish preacher who, in a sermon, reflected upon his meat business.”

— Owing to a range feud, 3,000 sheep were driven over a precipice by masked men, near Miles City, Mont., January 1. The sheep belonged to R. R. Selway, the largest owner in eastern Montana.

— It is now definitely known that “the American and Danish governments are engaged in direct negotiations for the sale of the Danish West Indies,” and that before long “a proposition will be submitted to the United States Senate.”

— According to statistics “there were 32,559,407 more pennies coined in the year ending June 30, 1900, than in the preceding year; 19,210,260 more nickels; 3,730,735 more dimes; 3,634,860 more quarters; and 4,256,408 more half-dollars.”

— It was arranged to hold a thanksgiving service on January 3, in the St. Paul Cathedral, London, in connection with Lord Roberts’s return from South Africa. The British government, however, “suddenly announced that the services had been abandoned for the reason that it was considered desirable to defer a general thanksgiving until the close of the operations in South Africa.”

— The Russian Diet will meet to-day, January 8.

— The Ashantee rebellion has ended, all the rebel chiefs having surrendered.

— During a severe storm in the English Channel last week, 49 lives were lost, 11 vessels wrecked, and 57 driven ashore.

— G. W. Gibson has succeeded W. D. Coleman as president of Liberia. Mr. Coleman resigned because of disapproval of his interior policy by the legislature.

— In New York, Chicago, and other large cities, efforts of the spasmodic kind are being made, just at present, to suppress vice; committees are in charge of the effort.

— News from England says that “Queen Victoria’s sight has failed to such an extent that she no longer is allowed to read. A regular reader is employed to read to her an hour a day.”

— Herr Krupp, the German manufacturer of cannons, and other business men of that country, have petitioned for the free admission into Germany of mineral oil for motor consumption, in order to economize the coal deposits of the country.

— German reports show that “in the last decade the United States produced more than half of the world’s output of copper, as against one third of the entire output in the preceding decade, and only one sixth in the decade 1871–1880.”

— The Railroad Gazette reports that 4,804 miles of new railroad were constructed in 1900, in this country, against 4,570 in the year 1899. Texas leads, with 313 miles; Iowa follows, with 279; and Minnesota comes third, with 255. The following are the railroad companies leading in construction: Burlington and Quincy, 213 miles; St. Paul, 173; Rock Island, 169; Northern Pacific, 151.

— Since the early part of 1899 there has appeared, in Paris and in Munich, “a noteworthy journal with the double title, Revue franco-allemande [French-German Review], Deutsch-französische Rundschau [German-French Review], edited by M. Henry, of Paris, the purpose of which is to bring about a better understanding between the Germans and the French.”

— Of the 1,217 locomotives built in 1900 by one American locomotive manufacturing company, 363 were for export trade. In 1899 the same company built 901, of which 338 were exported. Again, there were built in the United States last year, “outside of the railroad company’s shops,” 3,153 locomotives, or 27½ per cent more than in 1899; and 505 of these were for export.

— Dispatches from China state that “a question of precedence between Field Marshal Count von Waldersee and Dr. Mumm von Schwarzenstein, the German minister, is creating a considerable stir. The question has been an open one ever since the arrival of the Germans in Peking. Because of its existence, the minister has never invited Count von Waldersee to the public dinners at the German legations, and neither of them has attended the dinners given at the homes of the other ministers.”

— The American Sunday School Union, of Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, offers the sum of $1,000, in two prizes, “for the best books on the subject ‘How is man to be saved? or, God’s Way of Salvation.’” Six hundred dollars will be given for the best book, and $400 for the next best. The society does not desire any technical theological treatise, but rather something of a practical and popular character. Although the authors are given the utmost freedom in the form and style of treatment, it is suggested that each work should contain from 40,000 to 70,000 words. Manuscript should be typewritten, and must reach the committee of publication on or before Nov. 1, 1901.”

— An exchange states that “strenuous efforts are reported as being made by certain interested parties to prevent an exposure of one tremendous item of extravagance which has accumulated from year to year in the work of fortifying the coasts of the United States. There are now in position, or under construction, 372 mortars, and the total number contemplated, under the general coast-defense scheme, is no less than 560. These mortars cost an average of about $12,000 each, so that the cost of the mortars themselves will aggregate fully $6,000,000. To place these guns in position, providing them with the necessary carriages and the usual heavy emplacements, costs more than as much again. It is estimated that the total expenditure on account of twelve-inch mortars, when the present coast-defense scheme is completed, will be not far from $15,000,000. Distinguished ordnance officers admit that there is not a mortar in existence which can be depended upon to drop its shell anywhere within a radius of about ten times the length of any ordinary war-ship.”

— The gross earnings of the Southern Pacific Railway for 1900 were $64,400,725.

— Delegates to the Cuban convention favor “an offensive and defensive treaty with the United States.”

— Upon his return to England, Lord Roberts received the title of Earl, and was also made a Knight of the Garter.

— J. Pierpont Morgan and E. H. Harriman, backed by a syndicate with millions, are reported to be “sure to control the principal railroads of the country in the new century.”

— There are no fewer than 30,000 lepers in the Philippine Archipelago, most of them being in the Vizcayas. Leprosy was introduced in 1633, when the emperor of Japan sent to the Philippines a ship with 150 lepers on board as a present to be cared for by the Catholic priests. No method has been adopted to prevent the disease from spreading. A commission is now engaged in the work of selecting a suitable island, or islands, for the purpose of isolating all the lepers in the archipelago.

— The persons who kidnapped young Cudahy, of Omaha, Neb., have not yet been discovered.

— Several Finland newspapers have been suppressed or suspended for so-called criticism of the Russian government.

— The principal articles of export from Servia are cattle, cereals, and plums. Her chief markets are in Austria-Hungary, Germany, Scandinavia, and Russian Poland.

— When Germany saw that the United States was likely to secure the indemnity money from Turkey, through contract on a battle-ship, she also put in a claim for damages. In order to meet this demand the Turk has contracted “for the reconstruction of an Ottoman battle-ship” at Kiel, Germany.

— The United States minister, Mr. Swenson, it is reported from Copenhagen, has informed the Danish government that the United States will offer 12,000,000 kroner (about $3,240,000) for the Danish West Indies, and no more. It now remains to be seen whether or not Germany will make a higher bid for the islands.