Your ShelfYour Projects

SECULAR

5%

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 28, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 4.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

-The damage to the vegetable crop in Florida by the recent cold snap is estimated at $500,000.
-Kossuth thinks that a war between Austria and Russia for supremacy in the Balkan Peninsula is impending.
-Marie Augustine, a colored woman, died in New Orleans, January 15, at the age of 125 years. She was born in Africa, and was brought to this country as a slave when she was twenty years old.
-Five persons, members of one family, have died recently from trichinosis, in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, Pa., and fears are entertained for the lives of the three remaining members of the family.
-The French vintage returns, which have just been published, show that the vintage of 1885 is 20 per cent. below that of 1884.
-The Government of Madagascar has consented to have a French Minister Resident at the capital attended by a French guard.
-Over three thousand new buildings were erected in Minneapolis, Minn., during the past year, the entire cost aggregating nearly $10,000,000.
-The Edmunds Anti-Mormon bill has passed the Senate. The Mormons have employed a strong lobby to defeat it in the House if possible.
-The farmers and peasants of Germany are petitioning the Government for the restoration of silver currency, and against the single gold standard.
-Quite a sharp rivalry exists between German and English capitalists as to which shall have the construction of the new railroads to be built in China.
-English papers state that $1,000,000,000 of Irish property, and $500,000,000 of Irish mortgage bonds are substantially owned by Englishmen. This fact greatly complicates the difficulties of the Irish question.
-An explosion in a coal mine at Newburg, W. Va., January 21, imprisoned thirty-nine miners. Three of the bodies have been recovered. Explosive gas is still present in the mine in large volume, and there is danger of another explosion.
-During the last thirty years, wars among "Christian nations" have cost the lives of two million men, and the expenditure of $15,000,000,000, a sum too great to be fully realized. The yearly expenditure of these nations on standing armies is $2,500,000,000.
-A writer in the Overland Monthly states that there are now in this country about five thousand public libraries of three thousand volumes or more. These contain in the aggregate, at least thirteen million books, and are maintained at an annual cost of not less than $1,500,000.
-When the French invaded Madagascar, they probably expected an easy triumph over a weak and helpless country. But a letter from Antananarivo, the capital city, to an English paper, gives an account of two battles in which the French were utterly defeated, and compelled to retreat before the victorious Hovas.
-A gentleman connected with the National Bureau of Statistics, on returning from a visit to the Western Territories, said that the Mormons of Utah regard the United States as their greatest enemy, and the smouldering fire of an armed conflict between them and the Government is held in check only by the troops at Camp Duglass.
-An enormous haystack at Lemberg, Bavaria, which had been the resort of homeless wanderers, burned down recently while an unusually large number were sleeping beneath its shelter. Twenty dead bodies have been taken from the ruins, and it is believed that many others perished. The haystack probably took fire from the ashes of a pipe.
-An insurrectionary movement under native princes in Burmah is daily gaining in strength. A son of the king has ten thousand armed men under his command. British troops sent out to reconnoiter have returned to Mandalay with the loss of several men killed or wounded in a skirmish with the Dacoits. Much uneasiness prevails regarding the situation.
-The Mormons residing in Pima County, Southern Arizona, are asking the Governor for arms on the ground that they want to defend themselves from the Apaches. As the Mormon colony is known to have always been friendly to the Apaches, frequently supplying them with food and horses, it is believed that their design is to secure the arms for the hostile Indians.
-Last week was a week of storms throughout a large part of California. On Wednesday, in San Francisco, the storm became a hurricane. Much damage was done in the way of unroofing and demolishing houses, etc., and all day telegraphic communication was entirely cut off. In many localities destructive floods are reported, and in some cases, persons have been killed or seriously injured.
-A telegram from Truckee, Nev., January 19, states that for two days a furious storm had been raging there. The snow was nearly six feet deep on the plaza, and was still falling. The wind was high, and in some places the drifts were twenty-five feet deep. January 21, 22, one of the worst blizzards known among the railroads for years was raging in Minnesota. At St. Vincent the thermometer was 57 degrees below zero.