Significant Items by F. A. Buzzell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 4, 1872

Significant Items.

By F. A. Buzzell

The following items have been compiled for the Review by Bro. F. A. Buzzell, of New Ipswich, N. H.:—

Prof. Young, the Dartmouth College Astronomer, witnessed a grand solar outburst April 2. The height to which matter was ejected was set at only 135,000 miles.

Smith & Wesson, of Springfield, are running their pistol factory over time, rapidly filling orders for the Russian Government. Alexander evidently doesn’t mean to have “peace.”

Great destitution and distress prevail among the people of the Russian city of Schemacka, recently destroyed by an earthquake. There is a dearth of provisions amounting to famine, and bitter cold, and more lives are lost from these causes than were destroyed by the earthquake.—Boston Journal.

PAGAN, CATHOLIC, AND PROTESTANT.

The great Christian festival, which is a continuation of the pagan rejoicings in honor of the Goddess Eastor, has been celebrated here to-day in the most jubilant manner by Protestants and Catholics.—Washington Correspondent, Boston Journal.

THE END, AS VIEWED BY AN ORTHODOX IN 1831.

The downfall of papal superstition, of Mohammedanism and of the Turkish Empire, are predicted events which must take place before the end can arrive; and that these events are not very far distant, who can doubt?—Extract from Sermon by Rev. Edward Payson, 1831.

A letter from Shiraz, Persia, says of the famine in that locality: “You can form no idea of the distress here. The people in the villages eat the grass when they can get it, and at the slaughter-houses every drop of blood is lapped up or carried away by the starving poor.”

Yokohama, Japan, July 22. A heavy typhoon at Kohl on the 4th inst. caused a loss of 400 lives. Several vessels also were wrecked, including the Pride of the Thames, and the captain, two mates, and steward, drowned. The damage to property is estimated at half a million of dollars.—Boston Journal.

The thirteen new Woolwich “infants,” guns of thirty-five tons, now completed, are said to be the most powerful pieces of ordnance in existence in England or any other country. The guns are intended for the three large iron-clads now in course of completion—the “Thunderer,” “Devastation,” and “Fury.” Each of these vessels will carry four of the thirty-five ton guns.

There is said to have been a steady increase through the centuries in the number of earthquakes. According to the best authorities there were in the fourth century, 21; in the fifth, 25; in the sixth, 31; in the seventh, 10; in the eighth, 11; in the ninth, 36; in the tenth, 17; in the eleventh, 51; in the twelfth, 68; in the thirteenth, 55; in the fourteenth, 58; in the fifteenth, 41; in the sixteenth, 110; in the seventeenth, 180; in the eighteenth, 680; in the nineteenth, 925.

A new religion has appeared in India, and the person who professes to teach it declares himself an incarnation of Christ. He proscribes caste and teaches a higher code of life than that now in existence, but thus far has not had many followers. The Sikhs, it is said, are very favorably inclined toward Christianity, and their leaders have some idea of embracing it if they receive any encouragement from the Government.

London, May 8. A telegram from Bombay brings intelligence of most disastrous floods in the southern part of British India. The town of Vellore, in the Presidency of Madras, suffered terribly, and many of the inhabitants were drowned. The number of lives lost is given at one thousand. Fifteen thousand inhabitants of the town lost everything they possessed, the water having washed away their houses and left them in a perfectly destitute condition. The dispatch of yesterday, stating that there had been a flood in Melbourne, whereby four hundred persons perished, is an error. It undoubtedly referred to the above-mentioned disaster.

PARTICULARS OF THE RECENT EARTHQUAKE—TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE KILLED.

London, April 29. Particulars of the late earthquake in Syria show that the fatalities were not greatest in Antioch, but heavier in the country in the vicinity. A letter from Antioch, April 4th, says: “The American Protestant Church was severely injured and four Americans were killed. All the members of the families of the Missionaries are safe. The number of persons killed in Antioch is less than three hundred, but sixteen hundred people in the surrounding towns and country where the shocks were as severe, if not greater than here, were killed, and this number may be increased. The distress of the people will be only temporary, as the crop prospects are good. The supply of provisions on hand is moderate. Correspondents of London papers praise Rev. Mr. Powers, the American missionary, for assiduity in administering to the relief of the afflicted people.”—Boston Journal.