News and Miscellany

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 29, 1873

News and Miscellany.

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

Greatness of London.

The population of London, according to the last census, is 3,883,000. This vast multitude is more than the combined population of New York, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Buffalo, and Alleghany City, Penn. To lodge these people, 777,000 dwellings are required, and the people consume annually about 4,480,000 barrels of flour, 420,000 bullocks, 2,975,000 sheep, 49,000 calves, 61,250 hogs, and one market alone supplies annually 7,043,750 head of game. This, together with 5,200,000 salmon, irrespective of other fish and flesh, is washed down by 75,600,000 gallons of ale and porter, 3,500,000 gallons of spirits, and 113,750 pipes of wine. To fill its milk and cream jugs, 22,750 cows are kept. To light its streets at night, 680,000 gaslights are required, consuming every 24 hours 22,270,000 cubic feet of gas. Its water system supplies the enormous quantity of 77,670,824 gallons per day, while its sewer system carries off 16,629,770 cubic feet of refuse.

Trial of a Prophet.

Joseph S. Curry, the so-called prophet of the new dispensation, was tried at Oppling, Columbus County, Georgia, last week, on a charge of adultery and fornication, before County Judge Wilson. Curry came from Massachusetts with a colony of about 200 men and women, over a year ago, and bought lands, and settled in Columbus County. They lived in tents and held the property in common. Curry called himself “Elijah” and the “Prophet of Jehovah,” supreme in all things spiritual and temporal. The colony went on swimmingly for a brief period, but the “prophet” took to himself too many wives. Jealousy and insubordination ensued in the colony and many of the colonists returned to Massachusetts, being provided with free passage to the nearest seaports, with free tickets to Charleston or Savannah. Finally, the colony became so demoralized and Curry so licentious, that the grand jury indicted him and his queen-paramour. Curry, robed in white linen, with head and feet bare, in imitation of the Saviour, appeared before the court. His queen appeared in the same attire, with white stockings on her feet and a white bow on her head. Speaking in his own defense, he maintained that men and women could live together as man and wife without cohabiting, and that by mortification and prayer they could become perfect. He repelled the charge of insanity, and displayed much erudition and familiarity with the Scriptures. He said he had revelation after revelation that a new era had dawned, when men and women should come out of the natural order of things to a higher state of purity. After speeches from the prosecutors and defendant, the jury retired, and after half an hour’s absence returned and gave a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. Sentence has been deferred for a few weeks. It is thought that the “prophet” and his followers will be given an opportunity to find another Canaan far away to pitch their tents.—Detroit Post, Apr. 1, 1873.

Railways in Russia.

The new railway and telegraph chart of the Russian empire, just published, seems to have taken the German general staff by surprise. Russia is shown by this chart to possess railways and telegraph lines actually in operation of which the world outside had not the slightest notice, or even suspicion. There is a complete system of strategical railways, radiating from the three principal lines uniting at St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kieff, and extending even to the Asiatic frontier in no less than ten lines. All the military centers, even Novo Tcherkask, the headquarters of the Don Cossacks, are accessible by rail; and in a short time, if not at this moment, Russia can move large bodies of troops and concentrate them within a few days at any desired spot. In view of these facts, the German journals urge their government to hasten forward the construction of railways on their own eastern frontier, which they will need for their own safety in case of war.

THE SPANISH republic appears to be in a very bad way, and “getting no better very fast.” The Spanish army is insubordinate, as might be expected where the soldiers are some of them Carlists, some Communists, some Republicans, some Federalists, and all ignorant, badly paid, and not well disciplined. Under these circumstances, the Carlists have won important advantages, which they appear to have cruelly abused. Spain is a bigoted Roman Catholic country, and the priests are nearly all Carlists; hence, discontent, superstition, insubordination, and other evils in the army are natural, and the wonder is that the army is not entirely disorganized. A republic cannot long succeed upon any other basis than free popular education, free religion, and popular equality. Spain must get rid of her grandees, abolish the rule of priestcraft, educate her masses, and become thrifty and intelligent, before she can expect quiet and good order. It will require a long and arduous struggle to bring this about against the opposition of the nobles, the priests, and the superstition and ignorance of the peasantry. If Don Carlos succeeds, his success will only be the beginning of a long and bloody struggle, probably. If he fails, he will not be the last enemy the republic will have to conquer.