News and Miscellany

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 13, 1871

News and Miscellany.

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

LONDON, Wednesday, May 31, 1871.—Paris is still under military jurisdiction, but communication with the city is now unrestricted, and entrance and exit are free to all. It is said that the number of prisoners now in the hands of the Government exceeds 40,000, and that many of them will be sent to the seaports for trial.—N. Y. Tribune.

ALGIERS.—The London Times says: Accounts from Algiers to the 6th of May state that the insurrection continues to rage as fiercely as ever, and some dreadful massacres had been perpetrated by the Arabs at Delly, Bougie and Palestro. At the last-mentioned village the whole male population, consisting of 46 individuals, were murdered with the greatest brutality and the women and children carried off into the interior. It is satisfactory to learn, however, that in almost every engagement with the French forces the Kabyles have been driven back with loss.

CHINA.—Our minister in China, Gov. Lowe, has forwarded to the Secretary of State a translation of a report of a terrible earthquake, from the Chinese Governor-General of the province in which it occurred. The place of the calamity was Bathang, which lies on a very elevated spot beyond the borders of the province, about 260 miles west from Li T'ang, and more than 30 post stations from the district town of Ta-tsien, on the high road to Thibet. The earthquake commenced on the 11th of April, and continued at intervals for ten days. As nearly as is ascertained, there were destroyed two large temples, the offices of the collector of grain tax, the local magistrate, and the colonel, the Ting-lin temple, and nearly 700 fathoms of wall around it, and 351 rooms in all inside; six smaller temples, numbering 221 rooms, beside 1,849 rooms and houses of the common people. The number of people, soldiers, and lamas killed by the crash was 2,298! among whom were the local magistrate and his second in office. The earthquake extended from Bathang eastward to Pang C'bahmeuh, westward to Nantun; on the south to Lin-tsah-shih, and on the north to the salt wells of Atimtz, a circuit of over 400 miles. It occurred simultaneously over the whole of this region.—N. Y. Tribune of June 7, 1871.

A TERRIBLE cyclone devastated a narrow strip of country near Mason City, Ill., last Friday morning. The storm-cloud was first observed gathering on an open prairie, six miles from Mason City, and from this cloud soon shot out three narrower and spire-like cloud columns, which continued to ascend rapidly, until they reached and seemed to amalgamate with a passing cloud above. This startling phenomenon then moved slowly toward Mason City, but finally changed its course, much to the relief of the people of that place. A mile from its track, an odor, much like that of burning sulphur, was inhaled by several persons. A gentleman, who was within a hundred yards of the cyclone when it passed, says that small flashes of electricity were constantly visible in the storm column, passing from the earth to the clouds above, and that rapid, crackling reports were heard, reminding him most forcibly of volleys of musketry. The pathway of the cyclone was nearly three miles in length, and from 20 to 80 feet in width, and in that pathway not a spear of grass, not a stalk of corn or wheat, not a shrub, and not a particle of vegetation, was left alive. For some distance the earth was literally plowed up to the depth of six inches. The column of whirling air must have been intensely hot, as every green thing in its path was dried to a crisp. Another feature of the cyclone was that, while its rotary motion must have been of inconceivably great velocity, its forward motion was only about six miles an hour. The outlines of its pathway were so well defined that five feet from the outer line of total destruction of vegetation of every kind, not a vestige of its effects could be seen. Fortunately, no house stood in the line of the tornado.—N. Y. Tribune, of June 7, 1871.

The recent papers report matters in France as being more settled. The rebellion is quelched, and the German troops are marching homeward.