SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Mar 14, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 11.

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SECULAR NEWS.

—The low rates of coal have forced many of the large mine owners into bankruptcy.

—This country maintains forty thousand postmasters; and only twenty thousand soldiers.

—There are ninety-seven young ladies in Wellesly College, Mass., who are now studying Greek.

—The latest internal revenue receipts of the month show a decrease of $500,000 since last year.

—General Grant and wife were formally presented to the king and queen of Greece on Saturday, the 9th.

—Ten Centenarians died in New York city last year, the oldest of whom was one hundred and eleven years old.

—During the month of February, twenty-three persons were examined by the Commissioners of Insanity of San Francisco.

—March 9, the great railroad bridge over the Raritan river at New Brunswick, N. J., was burned, and railroad travel and traffic are temporarily suspended.

—March 7, a fire, in the small town of Spar-tenburg, Pennsylvania, destroyed every business house in the place including the Masonic lodge, postoffice and depot. Loss, $50,000; insurance $25,000.

—A dispatch from Trieste, March 9, says: The Austrian steamer Sphinx from Cavallo, with 2,500 Circassians on board, caught fire and went ashore near Cape Elia. Five hundred lives were lost.

—Since July 1, San Francisco has exported 82 cargoes of wheat, embracing 3,131,000 centals, valued at $7,257,000. During the corresponding period in the previous season 277 cargoes of wheat and flour were exported.

—There are fears of a famine in certain parts of Peru, owing to a failure of the cereal crops for want of rains in the interior, while on the coast, where rains have been almost unknown, there have been disastrous floods.

—During the year 1877, books and pictures to the value of $254,935.07 were exported from the Consular District of Leipzig to North America, with music to the value of $8,983.23, the total amount being less by $17,800.52 than the year previous.

—Boston University now has 670 students, and is reported to be prosperous in every way. It is proposed to endow a professorship, to be filled by a woman, and several ladies of high standing are endeavoring to collect the necessary fund $40,000.

—Atlanta, Georgia, was visited by a tornado on Sunday. The Episcopal church was blown down during service. With great presence of mind, the rector told the congregation to throw themselves under the seats. Eighteen were more or less severely injured. The City Hall was unroofed and several other churches were injured.

—A New York paper says salary reduction has begun with the school teachers, who are obliged to give up $152,000 of their salaries to the cause of economy and reform. This is the work of the board of education, who have a $5,000 clerk, a $5,000 auditor, a $5,500 superintendent, a $4,500 assistant superintendent, and a $5,500 president of the Normal school.

—The number of immigrants who arrived at New York during December was 3,067 of whom 1,026 were females. Germany sent 974, England 699, Ireland 396 and Italy 247. The total number of immigrants arriving during the three months ending December 31, was 13,020, of whom 5,264 were females. During the corresponding quarter of 1876, the total arrivals were 13,903.

—There are 79,000 miles of telegraph wire in the United States and 6,850 offices, or one mile of line to every thirty-six square miles of area. England has 75,000 miles of line and 5,600 offices, or one mile of line to every one and a half miles of area. Russia has 31,500 miles of line and 900 offices, or one mile of line to every 330 square miles of area.

—The Southern Pacific Railroad Company has filed with the Secretary of State its annual report for the year 1877, from which it appears that its capital stock is $90,000,000; amount subscribed, $38,122,000; amount paid in, $36,763,900. The amount received from transportation of passengers and freight during the year is $3,961,606.61; the expense of running the road for the same time has been $2,005,358.65. The indebtedness of the company is $30,488,622.62; $20,300,000 on the first mortgage bonds; the amount due the company is $67,067.14.