p. 29 | News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 24, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.

French Expeditionary Corps.—The staff officers of the French Expeditionary Corps have all left Rome.

—There is an alarming and increasing hostility to religion in France. The liberal party are about erecting a statue to Voltaire, which gives the greatest indignation to the church.

—Savory, Mass., is so healthy a town that the single doctor there can hardly live on his practice, and lately had a $100 donation from the citizens.

—The Chicago Advance says: Nine tons of tracts have been sent by Henry Buley, Esq., of London, to the Y. M. C. A. of Chicago. It is said that this gift is the result of a vow made by Mr. Buley when the success of the Atlantic telegraph cable—of which he is a large stockholder—seemed doubtful, that he would devote all his dividends from it to religious uses.

—People grumble nowadays at our hydra-headed system of taxation. Well, it is a vexatious evil; every body will rejoice when it is so modified as to be less annoying, and still more when the necessity for so much taxation ceases. But after all we are by no means so badly off as many nations have been. At the commencement of the Christian Era the Roman provinces were cruelly taxed. “These provinces,” remarked a recent lecturer in this city, “were called tributary, since they did little else than contribute to the already plethoric treasury of the luxurious Roman capital. Every thing in a Roman province was taxed. Every article exported paid for the privilege of going out. Every article imported paid for the privilege of coming in. Every article sold paid a tax of one per cent. of the purchase-money; every slave, twice that amount. To manumit him cost the owner five per cent. additional. Every house paid one tax, every door in it another, every column which adorned it a third. Every man of property paid for its peaceable possession a tax ranging sometimes as high as twelve per cent. Every poor man paid for the privilege of living, a tax practically determined by the greed of the gatherer and the poverty of the victim. And finally, every old bachelor paid a special tax for the privilege of his independence.”

—Many foolish things are done every day by persons who think themselves wise. Perhaps no follies are more common than these: To think that the more a man eats the fatter and stronger he will become. To believe that the more hours children study the faster they learn. To conclude that if exercise is good the more violent it is the more good is done. To imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained. To act on the presumption that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in. To argue that whatever remedy causes one to feel immediately better is good for the system, without regard to more ulterior effects. To eat without an appetite, or to continue to eat after it has been satisfied, merely to gratify the taste. To eat a hearty supper for the pleasure experienced during the brief time it is passing down the throat, at the expense of a whole night of disturbed sleep and a weary waking in the morning.

—A most terrible and fatal kerosene-lamp explosion recently occurred in St. Paul, Minnesota. It is well that the details of such accidents, which have become fearfully common, be made public as possible as a warning to others. All who use kerosene oil should understand and realize that the first principle of safety is to burn only the pure article—the cheap mixtures which are palmed off upon the public are often exceedingly dangerous. In the second place, every individual who ever has occasion to touch a kerosene lamp, or to use kerosene in any way, should know something of its nature—at least so much as to refrain from blowing down the chimney of the lamp to extinguish it, from filling it or putting it in order in any way when lighted, from setting a can of oil on a hot stove, or near a fire, and from pouring the fluid over wood to hasten the kindling of a fire. Accidents may occur in other ways, but the means above mentioned should never be adopted except when the special object is to blow up the lamp, or to produce an explosion of some kind.

The explosion already referred to was caused by a servant attempting to trim a lighted kerosene-lamp. The servant herself and the entire room were almost instantly wrapped in flames, caused by the sudden explosion. Those who attempted to extinguish the fire were severely injured, and the unfortunate servant-girl died soon after from the effects of the burns she received.

The shocking nitro-glycerine explosion which took place at Bergen Hill last week, and which caused the death of nine persons, was the result of gross carelessness, ignorance, or fool-hardiness. There was a can of damp glycerine, and the drying process by ordinary means becoming tedious, one of the men thrust a red-hot poker into the explosive material. Poor fellow! he was absolutely blown into fragments in an instant. The building was scattered in all directions, and eight other persons, some in the building, and some without, were killed.

Cuba for Sale.—New York, Dec. 14.—A Havana special to the Telegram says: Authentic information has been received from Spain with the important intelligence that the Spanish government has made a formal offer to the American Minister at Madrid, to sell Cuba and Porto Rico to the American government for one hundred and fifty million dollars in gold. The terms of the sales are $50,000,000, to be paid in cash on the signing of the treaty and the formal delivery of the islands to the authorities of the United States; a second $50,000,000 to be paid one year thereafter; the third installment of $50,000,000 to be paid at the end of six years. Great excitement prevails over the news of the extinction of slavery being one of the consequences of the sales. The national pride is disposed to grumble a little over the transfer, but the general feeling, except among the oldest families, is one of satisfaction. It is of course known that the owners of slave property will be fully compensated out of the purchase money. An American company has already purchased an island near Neuvitas, for the purpose of colonizing 30,000 acres. With the sale of Cuba, and the abolishment of human servitude on the island, the slave traders’ last hopes are gone. It is regarded here as a bargain certain to be completed forthwith.

Canada.—MONTREAL, Dec. 20. A number of officers belonging to the Canadian volunteer service leave here for Rome to join the Papal army.

The Fenians in England.—For the purpose of rescuing one of their number, the Fenians recently mined and blew up a prison where some of them were confined. About twenty houses in the vicinity of the explosion were demolished, and forty persons more or less injured, some fatally.

The whole city of London is terribly excited by the fact of this sudden and daring attempt. Everybody feels alarmed, for the serious reason that no one can foretell where the next blow of this description may fall. The government is becoming exceedingly active.

Fenianism—or the reaction of two centuries of oppression and national neglect—has assumed a guise, which however unmilitary and ungallant it may be, is terrible and ominous. A national hatred, repressed and disregarded, is coming to the surface, as the disturbances and disorders of nature come to the surface from the crater of Vesuvius, and in the fatal rocking of the earthquake. England has treated this hatred as a deadly crime. It has banished and imprisoned, and its officers were shot down. It has hung, and hundreds and thousands of Irishmen have publicly defied it, and exalted the men on the gallows to a saintly martyrdom, and with powder and match blown up a prison. One of these days England may believe that Fenianism means something.

Fenianism.—London, December 20—Evening.—The alarm caused by the recent Fenian outrages here continues. Magistrates are still swearing in special policemen. Guards around prisons have been strengthened, and warehouses in the city are carefully watched during the night. Troops were suddenly ordered to Portsmouth to-day, and left on a special train.

In view of the recent outrage committed, or attempted, by Fenians in this country, and to prevent by summary measures their repetition, the cabinet has determined to ask parliament to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in England.

Volcanic Eruption in Nicaragua.—Interesting is the news of a volcanic eruption in Nicaragua, which took place on the 14th of this month, and was undoubtedly connected with the series of similar phenomena witnessed all through the West Indies. Rising from the plains on which Leon, the capital, is situated is a long range of volcanoes, stretching from the Lake of Managua to the prominent cone of El Viejo. In the center of that range is the old volcano, Rota (i. e., burst), with two peaks, remains of its long silent crater. Near the base of this volcano the earth suddenly opened in several places on the afternoon of the 14th, with a loud noise, first low and rumbling, then sharp, like violent claps of thunder. The noise frightened the people at Leon, which is only ten miles distant, out of their houses, and was even distinctly heard at the port of Corinto. As soon as night set in a beautiful sight was revealed to the surrounding country. Two immense columns of fire were seen issuing from the plains, in the midst of several little ones. The glare was so strong as to light up the towers of the cathedral in Leon, like the reflex from a fire close by. Lava and ashes were rapidly accumulating around the craters of the new volcanoes, building up some new addition to innumerable volcanoes scattered over the country.—N. Y. Herald.

A Sunday Scrimmage in an English Church.—On Sunday, November 24, All Saints Church, Lambeth, was the scene of a great uproar. Immediately the procession of clergy and choristers entered the church, a large number of those present hissed and hooted them, and during the lessons for the day the same noise, accompanied with groans, took place; but when the man appeared with a long taper to light the candles of the altar, the uproar became general, and there were cries of “no popery in our English churches.” Mr. Mackonochie commenced his sermon in the midst of a storm of hisses, and evidently with great nervousness, occupying only six minutes in the delivery. When the Eucharistic service commenced the riot became general, and three cheers were proposed, and responded to by a portion of the audience. A rush was then made to the altar, and one of the crosses broken and kicked about the aisle. The beautiful font within the communion rails was thrown down and broken, the water running down the steps. A general fight then ensued with some who desired to protect the church from injury. Soon after the people retired, shouting “down with ritualism!” “Shame, shame!” “God eaters?” “Traitors?” &c.