NEWS AND NOTES

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 6, 1900

For Week Ending February 3, 1900.

— The British Foreign Bible Society prints five tons of Bibles every day.

— It is reported that Russia will lend Corea $5,000,000 immediately, Corea having applied unsuccessfully to Japan for a loan.

— The British have 113,868 men, 19,784 horses, 85 machine guns, and 242 field guns in South Africa, and 17,309 men at sea.

— Honolulu, Hawaii, is now isolated, on account of the bubonic plague. Steamers refuse to call. There have been thirty-nine deaths from the plague, including a white woman.

— The British advance toward Ladysmith has been checked by the Boer capture of Spion Kop. The British have recrossed the Tugela River, in retreat; and the fall of Ladysmith is now imminent, as provisions are short.

— All the bridges on the Natal railway, the Laing’s Nek tunnel, and the bridges on the Orange Free State line have been undermined by the Boers, so that they can be destroyed at a moment’s notice, if retreat becomes necessary.

— The British casualties at Spion Kop amounted to forty per cent of the force engaged. This, it is said, “is greater than any British force ever suffered, except possibly at Albuera, Spain, in 1811.” The London Daily Chronicle estimates the loss at over 2,000 men. The Boer losses at Spion Kop were 53 men killed and 120 wounded.

— In his attempts to stamp out socialism in his empire, the emperor of Germany has declared that no man who holds a government position should be a member of the Social Democratic party. Also the most active socialists among railroad employees will be discharged at once, and, if the lesson proves unavailing, further discharges will follow.

— Seventy-five thousand Russian soldiers have left Tiflis, Transcaucasia, for Baku. They will cross at once to Krasnovodsk, whence they will proceed to Koushka, the frontier station on the border of Afghanistan. They will soon advance to a place even nearer to Herat, the occupation of which town now depends only on events in Afghanistan and on the movements of British troops in India.

— Senator William E. Goebel, democratic contestant for the governorship of Kentucky, was shot at Frankfort, Ky., January 30, as he was walking through the Capitol grounds, in broad daylight. State troops have been called out. The assassin, who shot from the Capitol building, has disappeared. Latest dispatches say that, “propped up in bed, Mr. Goebel took the oath of office,” January 31, and “immediately signed a proclamation disbanding the militia gathered” by republican Governor Taylor’s orders. Thus Kentucky now has two governors, each claiming the full powers of office. Excitement runs high, and President McKinley may have to send federal troops to preserve the peace.

— Latest dispatches state that “Russia’s preparations for war are all taken. In Siberia, as close to the frontier of British India as is possible, 250,000 men are now assembled. The Russian squadrons at Port Arthur and in the Persian Gulf are being increased daily. A dispatch from St. Petersburg, credited to a diplomatic source, says that, on rush orders from Paris, the troops in the local French garrisons are being concentrated on the frontier. Among diplomats at the capital, it is declared that the opinion prevails that the international situation as regards Germany and France in their relations with Great Britain, is more dangerous than appears on the surface, and that existing differences may yet lead to war.” And thus the “peace movement” progresses.

— A special dispatch to the Chicago Inter Ocean says that “the Filipino clergy gave a reception this afternoon (January 23) to Archbishop Chapelle, the apostolic delegate, which resulted in a disgraceful demonstration. Five hundred of the most prominent citizens and their families attended the reception.” The function attracted a crowd of 2,000 persons. Archbishop Nozaleda, and many of the representatives of foreign powers, also attended the reception. The lady principal of the municipal school was also one of the guests, and during the proceedings she “started to read a petition praying for the withdrawal of the friars from the islands, but Archbishop Chapelle stopped her, saying that that question would be regulated by the pope, General Otis, and himself. The statement caused the crowd to hiss him, and there were many cries of ‘Out with the friars!’ ‘Down with Nozaleda!’ and ‘No friars in any capacity!’ When General Otis appeared, he was greeted with loud and prolonged cheering, though some of the crowd in the street hissed him.” “When Archbishop Nozaleda entered his carriage to return to his home, the crowd, which had been considerably augmented, hissed him again and again.”

— The Austrian cabinet resigned January 22.

— The street cars in Troy, N. Y., are tied up on account of striking motormen.

— On account of frequent thaws, the Rhine district of Germany is in danger of a flood.

— The Dean of Westminster has offered a grave in the Abbey, for the remains of John Ruskin.

— The death-rate from the bubonic plague in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, is a dozen persons a day.

— Danish farmers have sent to the Princess of Wales 12,000 boxes of choice butter for the soldiers in South Africa.

— Five hundred men belonging to the battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, now in the Transvaal, are said to be stanch teetotalers.

— The Virginia House of Delegates has passed the “Jim Crow” Car bill, a measure requiring separate cars for colored persons on railways.

— Ten thousand persons starve to death each year in Greater New York, while nearly $400,000 a day passes over the saloon counters of that city.

— A delegation from New York City has called on President McKinley, inviting him to attend the ecumenical conference of foreign missions, to be held in that city in April.

— The public prosecutor of Paris, France, has demanded the dissolution of the Assumptionist Fathers, contending that the existence of the order is a menace to the social system of France.

— In this country there are from 100,000 to 150,000 regular users of opium, including from six to ten per cent of all medical men. From thirty to sixty per cent of the insanity is due to this habit.

— A train-load of beef, 750,000 pounds, has been purchased in Chicago, by agents of the Transvaal army. The packers refuse to deliver beyond New York, because of recent seizures by British war-vessels.

— A dispatch says that John Alexander Dowie, the alleged great healer, has suffered a stroke of paralysis, and that his recovery is considered doubtful. The fact of his illness is being studiously withheld from his adherents.

— The President of the United States, through Secretary of State Hay, “has sustained the decision of the United States Board on Geographical Names in regard to the spelling of the new island possession in the West Indies. It is to be spelled Puerto Rico.”

— British war-ships will escort the mule transports from New Orleans to South Africa, it being rumored that American sympathizers with the Boers will make an attempt to sink the transports on their way across the Atlantic, to prevent the mules from reaching the British army.

— An English gentleman who has resided in Constantinople for twenty years, and who employs a large number of men, says: “If I wish a reliable watchman, or a boatman to row me down the Golden Horn to my house at Pera, I employ a Turk in preference to a Christian, because of the Turk’s being sober.”

— United States pension officials say that the percentage of applications for pensions on account of the Spanish war, is greater than it was in consequence of the War of the Rebellion, though the recent war was a short one, and comparatively few troops were engaged, with no large battles, nor great losses of life.

— In pronouncing sentence on two boys for assaulting and reviling a Hebrew peddler, Judge Phelan, of Detroit, Mich., stated that “the practice of hounding, insulting, and calling names to a class of citizens, simply because they happen to be of foreign birth, must stop, if persons guilty of it have to be put in the house of correction. A man is entitled to go along the streets of Detroit without being called a Mick, a Dutchman, a Polack, or a Jew. He has a right to be respected as long as he is not interfering with any one nor violating the laws.”

— The present struggle in the Transvaal has served to discover the bitter feeling of French-Canadians against England. An English-Canadian writer, discussing the question in last week’s Outlook, says, among other things: “When the first Transvaal contingent left Toronto, a half-holiday was proclaimed. Every window that overlooked the main streets of the city was occupied, and the sidewalks were crowded with excited, enthusiastic citizens, who cheered again and again as the soldiers passed through the streets.” On the other hand, “in the city of Montreal a few dejected stragglers marched to the railway station amid dead silence; scarce fifty persons turned out to see them off.” The writer then quotes the following editorial in a recent issue of the Semaine Religieuse as a sample of French-Canadian sentiment at the present time: “Lift up your eyes, French-Canadians, for the day of your redemption is at hand. You were beaten and conquered by England, ever hated and oppressed by the race unfriendly to you. You shall at length see the star of liberty rise for you, and your rights respected by those who have so long violated them. This revenge will be the more complete if the United States is involved in the same punishment with England; and if the English race be stricken both in Europe and in America by the justice of God and man, its people will be less overbearing and insolent toward the rest of the world, and will leave at last to the French race the right to develop freely their country of Canada.”