Notes of News | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 10, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 15.

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Notes of News.

—CHILI is preparing to go to war with Bolivia.

—IN the Charkoff (Russian) prison, 200 of the 500 inmates have died within four months.

—THE ex-Vice-president of the Southern Confederacy is a member of the United States Congress.

—THERE are now 350 churches in Burmah, and nine-tenths of the work is done by native teachers.

—THE work of tunnelling the Detroit River for railroad purposes is to be commenced early this month.

—THE English language will be the medium of instruction at the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut after next September.

—THE natives of Burmah believe their king is about to form an alliance with China. The English are sending troops to British Burmah.

—PRINCE LEOPOLD, one of Queen Victoria’s sons, has a strong leaning to clericalism, and wishes to adopt the church as a profession.

—TRINITY College, London, is to be opened to women as well as young men, and the first public examination will be held at midsummer.

—IN the House of Commons, the motion censuring the English government’s Zulu war policy, which has been before the House for some time, was defeated by a vote of 306 to 246.

—A BILL has been introduced into the Illinois Legislature, providing that any person who “treats” another in a liquor saloon shall be fined not less than $5, and not over $15, for every offense.

—AT a recent Sunday evening meeting in the Methodist church in Rome, Bishop Bowman preached, and among his hearers was a Canon of St. Peter’s, who is a friend of Dr. Vernon, the pastor.

—THE Virginia House of Delegates celebrated St. Patrick’s day by inviting Bishop Keane, of that Catholic diocese, to open their session with prayer. The bishop officiated in his canonical robes.

—AN Indian campaign, it would appear from the military preparations that are making in Washington, is expected by the War Department this spring. Montana is the seat of trouble this time.

—IT is proposed to organize in the city of New York, at an early date, a society, limited in number to about a dozen energetic workers, lay and clerical, for the diffusion of Jewish knowledge among the Jewish working classes.

—FEARFUL tempests are reported from Algeria. During one storm, the hailstones killed a woman working in the fields. A flight of pigeons were also killed, and after the tempest a great number of hares and partridges were found dead on the ground.

—THE Moravians report 323 missionaries, occupying 95 stations in Greenland, Labrador, among our Indians, in the West Indies, Surinam, South Africa, Australia, and Central Asia, at which have been gathered 70,646 adherents, including 23,185 communicants.

—THE largest Sunday-school in the world is probably at Stockport, Chester county, England. The school-building cost $100,000, and has between 80 and 90 teaching-rooms. Since the institution was opened, 5,085 teachers have been employed and 90,804 scholars registered.

—EUROPEAN naturalists are investigating the possibility of re-stocking the Alps with the ibex, or wild goat, that disappeared about two hundred years ago. A few still remain in the Tyrol, and Victor Emmanuel had a flock of about 500 in the Piedmont mountains, but they will not bear removal.

—A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian Weekly, writing from Valparaiso, South America, says that the Jesuit Redemptionists are going about the country planting crosses in high places, urging the people to more devout worship of Mary as the “Redentora,” and destroying copies of the New Testament wherever they can.

—AMONG the English-speaking people of the world, Episcopalians, with their 17,750,000 communicants, rank first in point of numbers; Methodists are next, numbering 14,000,000; then come Roman Catholics, numbering 12,500,000; Presbyterians, 10,000,000; Baptists, 8,000,000; Congregationalists, 7,000,000; Unitarians, 1,000,000.

—THE number of men actually engaged in fishing in the four provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario is 42,000. It is estimated that about 200,000 persons are supported by the various branches of this industry on the shores of those provinces. One thousand decked vessels are employed in this British North American fishery, and 17,000 open boats.

—THE total receipts of the British government, from various sources of revenue, for the financial year now closed, are £83,115,972, which is £114,028 below the estimate. The receipts from customs show a deficiency of £184,000; from excise £200,000, and from stamps £200,000. Other branches of the revenue show increased receipts. The net increase of revenue, compared with the last financial year, is £3,352,673.

—TERRIBLE prairie fires have been raging along the Big Sioux Valley and in Southern Dakota. The poles on the telegraph line on the Sioux City and Pembina Railroad have been burned, and many farmers have lost their houses, barns, hay, seed-grain, etc. The telegraph office and government stables at White Swan, and a large church, are among the buildings destroyed by the fire. The damage is immense. Five persons have been fatally injured.

—A SUPPOSED advantage of the electric light was, that, giving out neither carbonic acid nor sulphurous acid, it would not damage gilding, books, furniture, etc. The discovery has been made, however, that the intense heat of the electric arc causes the oxygen and nitrogen of the air to combine, and produces nitric acid, a far more destructive agent than carbonic acid. It is stated that an electric light will produce at least ten grains of this acid per hour.

—A RARE meteorological phenomenon has been observed in Switzerland. While the temperature in the valleys and plains has been low, the waters covered with ice, and snow resting on the ground, a warm south wind has prevailed in the uplands and among the higher Alps, where the streams remain unfrozen, and the snow has almost disappeared. This has been especially the case in Uri, Schwytz, the Grisons, Neuchâtel, and the Bernese Oberland.

—IN the House of Lords, Lord Beaconsfield acknowledged that the depression in the agricultural interest was unprecedented, but a depression was anticipated when protection was abolished. It was estimated that the public wealth had diminished £80,000,000, and the area of land under cultivation had diminished 1,000,000 acres. English industry and commerce, however, kept well on a level with those of foreign countries. They suffered only from low prices, the cause of which was, partly, the depreciation of silver.

—SINCE 1873 scarcely any new lines of railway have been built, property of that kind having failed to enlist the enterprise of capitalists. All at once, however, there seems to have come an extraordinary revival. Not long since Mr. Oliver Garrison, vice-president of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and brother of Commodore Garrison, stated that 12,000 miles of new railroad are to be built in the United States during the coming summer, all to be laid with steel rails. Most of these roads will be constructed in the West and Northwest.

—THE new social, scientific and religious resort of the Northwest, Minnetonka Lake Park, lies fifteen miles southwest from Minneapolis, between the arms of an inland lake covering 16,000 acres and navigable for small steamers. The Camp-meeting Association has platted its 225 acres of rolling timber land, and is erecting buildings and other improvements at a cost of $40,000. The Association is undenominational, claims to be free from speculation, putting all profits into park improvements, and is engaging many prominent people of both sexes for its Sunday-school Assembly through the first half of August.

—NEW YORK, March 28.—A letter received here from Brazil says that 18,000 people, one-fourth of the population, died in Fortaleza in December; that 27,000 recorded interments were made in two months, while a number of bodies were sunk in the bay. In the villages round about, poor people were dying like sheep. A horrible stench arises from the cemeteries, and the black plague is feared. Starving refugees clamored at the barracks for food. The commandant attempted to arrest the ringleaders, but was shot down. Four soldiers and several rioters were killed in the struggle that ensued. Finally, the military were driven out of the town, and the provision houses sacked.