NEWS AND NOTES

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 25, 1900

— In the Lackawanna region 15,000 miners are out on a strike.

— Americans in Paris raised $10,000 in fifteen minutes for Galveston sufferers.

— The first Greek war-ship that has ever visited the United States is anchored off Philadelphia.

— Dispatches state that, “Minister Conger received reliable news that all Americans at Pao-Ting-Fu have been killed.”

— Japanese troops are holding Prince Ching prisoner, near Peking, in hopes of establishing communication with the dowager empress.

— The merchants’ and planters’ oil mill, one of the largest cottonseed-oil establishments of the South, recently burned, at Houston, Tex. Loss is about $400,000.

— The national decennial census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain will be taken March 31, 1901. It is estimated that the population will reach 41,000,000.

— A Philadelphia syndicate proposes to build the necessary conduits, reservoirs, and pumping stations to furnish Grand Rapids, Mich., with pure water from Lake Michigan, at a cost of from $3,000,000 to $4,000,000.

— On the last trip of the steamer “Deutschland,” an American paid $1,250 for passage for himself and wife. So great is the demand for cabins that all the officers’ rooms are booked. Six trips will be made in the next two months.

— Alfred Beit, of South Africa, is conceded to be the richest man in the world. He went to Kimberley at the age of twenty-two, twenty-four years ago, and, with Cecil Rhodes, formed the great diamond trust, which, under the name of DeBeers, practically controls the output of precious stones in the world. His fortune is estimated at a billion dollars.

— David Whipple, of Traverse City, Mich., who attended the recent reunion in Chicago, is the oldest member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Mr. Whipple was 100 years old March 1. The greater part of his life has been spent in the far West, as scout, guide, and hunter, and, though he has had enough excitement to wear out almost any man, he is still hale and hearty.

— A Baltimore paper has information from Rome to the effect that a rule is to be made to have the order of the Knights of Columbus, a popular new Catholic organization, suppressed by the Vatican. The order is charged with being a secret organization, and for that reason it is to be brought under the ban. As is well known, the Vatican has an inveterate hatred of all secret societies except its own and the Jesuit society.

— Chicago has contributed $97,000 to Galveston sufferers.

— Heavy frost in North Dakota has damaged the late corn and flax.

— Jan. 1, 1901, the twenty-four-o’clock system is to be introduced throughout Spain.

— The police guard at the Chinese legation in Washington, D. C., has been withdrawn.

— Prince Albert, of Saxony, was killed the 18th inst., in a carriage accident, near Dresden.

— The mackerel fishing on the south and southwest coasts of Ireland, has been a failure this year.

— Germany has negotiated a loan of $20,000,000 in the United States, to help her over the Chinese crisis.

— Two hundred men have deserted from the United States battle-ships “Kearsarge” and “Kentucky.”

— An English and American syndicate has purchased the Camp Bird mine at Ouray, Colo., for $13,000,000.

— General Chaffee has asked for 5,000 American flags for Chinese houses, to show United States protection.

— Skagway printers have formed a printers’ union, with seventeen members—the first union in Alaska.

— Autocars proved highly successful in the grand maneuvers of the French army recently held at La Beauce.

— Of seventy telegraph operators employed by both companies in Galveston, only three escaped death in the flood.

— September 22 twenty-one thousand municipal mayors of France were entertained by President Loubet, in the gardens of the Tuileries.

— The old Bible House, New York City, the home of the American Bible Society for nearly fifty years, is to be sold. The great printing establishment of the society will be given up, and Bibles will be printed hereafter by contract.

— The Galveston postmaster, Henry Griffin, took his wife to the government building about thirty minutes before the storm reached its dangerous stage, and she was saved. Those in the house from which she was taken, perished. All the post-office employees escaped.

— September 5 the Russo-Chinese bank at Peking closed, and removed to Shanghai. It confiscated, as part of the indemnity to be paid to Russia, the Imperial University fund of 5,000,000 taels deposited with it, against which the Chinese drew for the payment of their troops.

— Latest reports would seem to indicate that at least 5,000 persons were killed in the Galveston (Tex.) disaster. It is stated that, although the storm “had been raging in the Gulf for several hours, and although warnings had been sent from Washington to Galveston the day before, by the officials of the United States Weather Bureau, no attention was paid to them.”

— It is now suspected that Russia and Germany have “some prearranged plan for the settlement of the Chinese problem, in which the other Powers are not to have a hand.” The Russians, it is asserted, practice their usual methods in Peking. Not only have they been filling the city with their troops, but have further sought to hoodwink the other Powers, and to ingratiate themselves with the Chinese by secretly agreeing to treat with Prince Ching, who has arrived at the capital.

— The state of the public mind in Rome was well illustrated, says the Christian Advocate, when the news was published there of the safe return of the expedition from the search for the north pole. A crowd gathered in the Place Colonna, sang the royal hymn, and cried, “Long live Savoy!” The duke’s name is Prince Luigi Amedeo, of Savoy-Aosta. They also cried, “Long live the king!” Some clerical students, who were passing from a church meeting, cried, “Long live the pope-king!” The crowd replied, “Long live the king!” and, “Down with the priests!” A fight followed, in which several of the students were wounded.

— Poggenpohl, a member of the Russian Geographical Society, accompanied by two officers and a number of soldiers, ascended the Great Ararat Mountain, September 2. “The Ararat Mountains, consisting of the Great Ararat and the Little Ararat, whose summits are about seven miles apart, are situated in Armenia, and form the point of contact of Russia with Turkey and Persia, to each of which they partly belong.” The summit of the Great Ararat is 17,260 feet above sea level, and 14,320 feet above the plain of Arras. The upper three miles of the mountain are covered with perpetual snow and ice. The top of the Great Ararat was first reached Oct. 9, 1829, by Professor Parrot.

— President Kruger, “Oom Paul,” has “resigned the presidency and fled from the Transvaal.” A dispatch to the London Times, dated at Lorenzo Marquez, September 12, says: “President Kruger, of the Transvaal Republic, together with Auditor-General Marais and staff, with the archives, and Grobler, under-secretary for foreign affairs, arrived here last night. They came in a special train, which did not enter the station, but was shunted to a siding adjacent to the house of G. Potts, the Transvaal consul. Treasurer General Malherbe is expected to-night. President Steyn is reported to be returning to the Orange River Colony.” Kruger, it seems, has “obtained a six-months’ leave of absence, Schalkburger acting in his stead.”

— The Peking correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says: “As the allies were leaving the forbidden city, August 28, bands of Russians and other civilians, with soldiers, overran the imperial apartments, forced drawers and doors, and looted everything portable. The British officers compelled several civilians to disgorge.”