News and Notes

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1900

— Women nurses on the hospital ship “Maine” will be replaced by men.

— Fifty per cent of the schoolboys of the District of Columbia use tobacco in some form.

— Great Britain is responsible for 70,000 chests of opium annually sent from India to China.

— San Francisco papers urge the burning of Chinatown, to avoid the possibility of an outbreak of the plague.

— Five hundred inmates of the penitentiary at San Juan, Porto Rico, mutinied, but were subdued by the presence of troops.

— Congress agreed to give $5,000,000 to the St. Louis fair, on condition that the city and State spend $10,000,000 on the same.

— Señor Francisco Vasquez, minister from the Dominican republic, has presented his credentials to President McKinley.

— Paderewski is at present at work upon what is to be known as “The Century Library of Music,” soon to be published by the Century Company.

— Richard S. Storrs, D. D., one of the most widely known ministers of the Congregational Church in the United States, died in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 5.

— The American mission buildings at Tung Chao, China, abandoned by missionaries, were looted and burned by the Chinese soldiers sent to protect them.

— In the French Senate the Amnesty bill has been adopted by a vote of 238 to 24, after the adoption of an amendment extending the amnesty to Captain Dreyfus.

— In Philadelphia recently, 679 new saloon licenses were granted in seven days.

— France has 21,277,582 sheep, each of which produces only sixty cents’ worth of wool annually, or a total of $12,766,549.20.

— The experience of many growers, and the experiments of several professors, show that there is money in thinning the fruit on overloaded trees.

— A commission of three American clergymen is preparing to leave for China, under Presbyterian auspices, to investigate the situation in that country.

— It is said that “the important discovery has been made at the Hygienic Institute of the University of Wurzburg (Germany) that bacteria can be destroyed with electric currents.”

— Governor Mount, of Indiana, has refused to honor a requisition for the return of ex-governor W. S. Taylor, to Kentucky, where he is wanted to stand trial for alleged complicity in the Goebel assassination plot.

— Twenty-five thousand eight hundred and sixteen vessels passed through the Baltic Canal during the year ending March 31, 1899, the aggregate tonnage being 3,117,840; the total receipts amounted to $388,000.

— The Scientific American says that it has been proved, by experiments, that on bad roads a horse can pull only four times as much weight as he can carry; while on a good, macadamized road he can pull ten times as much.

— Miss Anna B. Hasbrouck, an instructor in history in the Holyoke, Mass., high school, was dismissed by the school committee for the statement, before a class studying medieval history, that “Christ was one of a family of ten brothers and sisters.”

— Lord Roberts has gained a victory over General Botha, near Pretoria. General Buller is pursuing 8,000 Boers under General De Wet. Mr. Schreiner, the Cape premier, and his colleagues, have resigned, and Mr. Alfred Milner has accepted the resignations.

— The oldest newspaper in the world is said to be the Kin Pan, of Peking, China. It first appeared in A. D., 911, but was issued only at irregular intervals. Since the year 1351, however, it has been published weekly, and in uniform size. Now it appears in three editions daily.

— The recent fire in the New York Tribune building, though a fierce one, was soon put out, the building being a really fireproof one. The fire was confined to two rooms, and the employees on the upper floors escaped by means of the rear elevator, which runs between fireproof walls, without exits except at the top and the bottom.

— Commenting upon diplomas, the Detroit Christian Herald truthfully says, in its issue of June 14: “The graduate’s diploma has its greatest value the day it is received. From that time forward it dwindles in importance, and that is as it should be; for either the achievements of life eclipse it, or the failure to achieve anything proves it worthless.”

— Captain Francis Martin, a retired naval and revenue officer, recently celebrated his one hundredth birthday in Detroit, receiving many guests, who cordially congratulated him on his health. He entered the government service when thirty-one years of age, his commission being signed by President Andrew Jackson, and commanded the revenue cutter “Fessenden” for twenty-five years.

— A three-year-old boy was recently taken to Governor Hospital, New York City, in a state of unconsciousness from drinking a cupful of whisky. When questioned by physicians, the mother said her husband worked so hard in a foundry that he had to take a drop every morning, and she supposed the baby thought he could too. The mother admitted that the baby had been drinking whisky for six months.

— A dispatch from London, dated June 15, states that “while Admiral Seymour, with the international relief column, is forcing his way to Peking, several of the powers are arranging largely to re-enforce their details at Tien-tsin. Germany purposes sending 1,200 men. Great Britain sent 600 from Hong-Kong yesterday, and 400 will go Sunday. Italy has ordered 1,000 to hold themselves in readiness. Russia has decided to bring her force at Tien-tsin up to 6,000. Thus, the combined forces at Tien-tsin will probably soon be about 10,000 men.”

— Mrs. W. E. Gladstone, widow of the late “Grand Old Man” of England, died at 5:40 P. M., June 14. She had been unconscious for about seventy-two hours, and died without recovering consciousness. Her maiden name was Catherine Glynne. Once, when some one asked Mr. Gladstone to what he most owed his success in life, he replied, “To my wife.” They were married in 1838. Of her it is said: “She did no great things from the standpoint of public fame; she introduced no reforms, and won no victories; she neither made speeches on the platform nor wrote a book. She was too busy to be a light in society. But she cared for her husband, protected him from all little annoyances, forbade him to overwork, lightened the sorrows of defeat, and made sweeter the pleasures of victory. Once, when asked to assist in the woman’s suffrage movement, she said: ‘Woman’s influence in politics lies in the home—her natural sphere. In the home alone can she leave her stamp on the destiny of nations. On the platform she is not herself.’” The funeral will be held in Westminster Abbey, June 19.

— Congress adjourned on Thursday, June 7.

— There are 1,799 census enumerators at work in the State of Michigan.

— An oil well recently discovered near Alexandria, Ind., is giving 700 barrels a day.

— Within a month, the India Relief Committee of New York has sent nearly $60,000 to Bombay.

— In the automobile race from Paris to Roubaix, France, the winner averaged forty-two miles an hour.

— The chancellor of the Japanese legation was murdered at Peking, China, by the queen’s bodyguard, June 13.

— The Roman Catholic chapel at West Point, N. Y., over the erection of which there was much controversy, was dedicated June 10.

— Edwin G. Cooley was unanimously elected to succeed Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, as superintendent of the Chicago public schools.

— Dr. Henry Wade Rogers has resigned the presidency of Northwestern University, Chicago, and his resignation has been accepted.

— The German public school teachers’ congress at Cologne, has declared in favor of a separation of the schools from both church and state.

— Irving M. Scott, builder of the famous battleship “Oregon,” is being enthusiastically supported for the Republican vice-presidency by all the Pacific Coast Republicans.

— The United States gunboat “Nashville,” with a force of marines, has left Cavite for Taku, China; also, the “Monocacy” has been ordered from Shanghai, to join Admiral Kempff.

— A St. Petersburg dispatch says that “the ships of the Russian Pacific squadron on the active list, as well as those at Vladivostok, have been ordered to proceed with all haste to Chinese waters.”

— General Pio del Pilar, one of the Filipino leaders, has been captured near Manila. He is Aguinaldo’s right-hand man, and is credited with having more influence than any Filipino, except Aguinaldo himself.

— Recently Judge Tuthill, of Chicago, decided that the Cook County board of commissioners should not insert a clause in contracts that only union labor should be employed, stating that such discrimination is illegal.

— The St. Louis, Mo., strike, which has been going on for six weeks, is still in progress. So far, thirteen persons have been killed in the tumult, sixty-five wounded by bullets, and ninety otherwise injured. The estimated business loss per day, is $100,000. The number of union men on strike is 4,000. There are 1,000 regular policemen, and 500 special police.

— Secretary of War Root has ordered that “ministers designated for appointment as chaplains in the army, shall pass a rigid examination, physically and mentally, before being commissioned. The physical examination is the same that applicants for lieutenants’ commissions are required to pass. The mental examination has been especially prepared, and deals largely with history, sacred and profane, ancient and modern.”

— It is said that “500,000 symmetrical, straight-limbed young trees, from three to twenty feet tall, a vast incipient forest, were chopped down to supply the Christmas trade of New York. Of this number seventy-two carloads, with an average of 1,500 trees to the car, came from the Adirondacks, an aggregate of 108,000 trees. Over four fifths of the trees used, however, came by boat from Maine, New Jersey, and Connecticut.”

— A Berlin (Germany) dispatch, dated June 13, says: “The Bundesrath to-day approved the navy bill and the measures providing means to carry out the projected plans as already passed by the Reichstag. Emperor William, who is said to be delighted at the result, will to-morrow sign the bill, and the Reichsanzeiger will immediately thereafter publish it, thus making it law.” Upon receiving the telegram that the bill had passed, the emperor exclaimed: “Now we know where we stand. At last there is solid bottom under one’s feet.”

— Recently an application for a writ of habeas corpus was made to the United States Supreme Court, involving the vexed question of whether or not the Constitution extends to the island possessions of the United States. The writ was asked for in behalf of a Porto Rican, who claims to have been sent to prison without process provided for by the United States Constitution, which he claims was extended over Porto Rico when the island became the property of the United States. Commenting upon this, a Washington news correspondent says: “It is hoped that the court, in passing upon the application, will settle this Constitutional dispute.”

— It is said that American Minister Conger, at Peking, has asked for 2,000 United States troops, to protect the United States missions. Dispatches from London, dated June 14, state that “the news from Peking is still vague. The marines are compelled to fight their way into the capital with rifle and Maxim. British marines have been in action with the Boxers in clearing the railways, but eight nations are represented on the fighting line. There are persistent rumors that Russian troops are under orders to invade northern China, but it is not yet clear that either Britain or Japan has consented to this exclusive movement by a single power.”