Notes of News | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 15, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 20.

Read the full edition

Notes of News.

—Some parts of India are suffering from a famine.

—Dr. Talmage has been acquitted by a vote of 25 to 20.

—A Belgian physician attributes color-blindness to the excessive use of tobacco.

—The grand jury of New York City demand a more rigid enforcement of the liquor laws.

—It is expected that the Prince of Wales will visit the Australian International Exhibition.

—The government of Japan has appropriated $100,000 for the expenses of General Grant’s entertainment.

—A statue to William Tyndale, the Bible translator, is to be erected on the Thames Embankment, London.

—The Greek Archbishop of Cyprus permits an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society to sell the Scriptures there.

—A Chinese school and mission is to be opened in New York City under the charge of Moy Jin Kee, a converted Chinaman.

—Mr. Henry M. Stanley has arrived at Zanzibar, to act as guide and interpreter to the Belgian Exploring Expedition to Central Africa.

—No less than 13,000 persons have died from hunger at Mogador, Morocco, and the famine still continues; thousands more are starving, and animals of all kinds have perished.

—Official reports of the earthquake at Mearah, Persia, March 22, show that 21 villages were totally destroyed, and 2,660 sheep, 1,125 oxen, 124 horses, and 55 camels killed.

—The balance of trade in favor of America has increased from $200,000,000 for the year ending March 31, 1878, to $284,000,000 for the past year. This is among the better indications of the times.

—General Garibaldi’s scheme for arming Italy has failed. The Italian government assures the other nations that it “will vigorously repress any attempts to disturb the harmony existing between Italy and other nations.”

—Not only has the new government four per cent loan been promptly patronized by Americans, but large sales have been made in London. This is a gratifying evidence of the public confidence in our national credit.

—An exchange states that the poet Longfellow has received a gift of a pen made from the iron fetters of Bonivard, the prisoner of Chillon. The socket is made of gold, set with three rare gems, and the handle is a piece of oak from the old frigate Constitution.

—The Main Building of the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia cost $1,750,000; but it can be bought for $250,000, and could be removed to New York for $100,000; hence there is a proposition to remove it to the latter city, for the world’s fair to be held there in the next decade.

—Large numbers of the police in Moscow have been transported to Siberia for supposed complicity in conspiracies. In many of the chief cities the police force is being continually changed, to prevent any tampering with these officials, who in Russia are peculiarly open to the temptation of a bribe.

—Signor Costanzi, the proprietor of two of the largest hotels in Rome, while excavating for the foundations of a new theater, discovered an ancient street eighteen feet wide, and a noble private palace with rows of columns forming its peristyle, pavements inlaid with the rarest marbles, beautiful frescoes, statues, and other works of art.

—Seven coal-miners working in a mine near Wilkesbarre, Pa., 1,200 feet below the surface, were suddenly entombed, April 22, by the falling in of the roof. By the brave and persistent efforts of their comrades, who worked night and day, forcing a passage through 1,200 feet of rock, slate, and coal, they were safely rescued, after being confined five and a half days.

—It is reported from Rome by a correspondent of the London press, that the progress of Catholicism in the United States has induced the pope to arrange for a complete organization of the hierarchy, and a more intimate union with Rome. New bishoprics will shortly be created, and the establishments of the Society of Jesus will be more satisfactorily organized.

—Counsellor D. H. Wells was imprisoned two days for contempt of court in refusing to answer questions concerning the Mormon marriage ceremony, in the Miles polygamy case. In consequence, the Mormons, who consider Wells a martyr to the oppression of the government, observed the 6th of May as a holiday, and a procession of over 10,000 persons, with bands of music, marched through the streets to do him honor.

—The Christian Weekly says editorially, “As if the wholesale spoliation of our Indian tribes and the violation of sacred treaties were not enough, greedy and unscrupulous speculators, lusting for the 14,000,000 acres in the heart of the Indian Territory, are organizing a movement to take possession of it. The unlawful plans are so nearly matured that President Hayes has been compelled to issue a proclamation warning them to desist.”

—A dispatch from London says, that private letters received by bankers and others in London from correspondents in various parts of Russia contain accounts which would be almost incredible, were not the accuracy of the letters beyond question. The accounts which have been permitted to be transmitted by telegraph give an inadequate idea of the fearful condition of affairs which exists throughout the empire. The terror that prevails is extreme, and cannot be exaggerated.

—Russian life can scarcely be pleasant nowadays. A few weeks ago, as a young nobleman was entertaining a few friends at his home, the door suddenly opened, a handsome young lady came in, politely saluted the visitors, and then, drawing a pistol from her pocket, shot the host through the head. The fair assassin made no attempt to escape, and was, of course, arrested. It is said that the victim had two days previously received a threatening letter from the Executive Committee of the Revolutionary Society, which he had given to the police.

—Henry Kidder, for many years superintendent of public schools in the city of New York, has become a convert to spiritualism, and has published a book entitled, “Spiritual Communications.” There are in the book communications from Judge Edmonds and other deceased friends of Kidder; also from Shakespeare, Bacon, Queen Elizabeth, Sir Isaac Newton, Mozart, Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon, William Cullen Bryant, Byron, Martin Luther, Pio Nono, St. Peter, St. Paul, and a host of others, including Boss Tweed.

—The great metropolis of London has no less than 7,000 miles of streets, while on an average 28 miles of new streets are opened and 9,000 new houses built every year; 1,000 vessels and 9,000 sailors are in port every day. Its crime is also in proportion to its extent, no less than 73,000 persons being annually taken into custody by the police, while more than one-third of all the crime in the country is committed within its borders; 38,000 persons are annually found guilty of drunkenness by its magistrates. The metropolis comprises upwards of 100,000 foreigners from every quarter of the globe.

Harper’s Weekly of May 17 says: “Pope Leo XIII. has again given expression to his dislike of the Protestant schools in the city of Rome. In a letter to the Cardinal Vicar, dated March 25, he discusses the best means of counteracting their influence. He says with much feeling: ‘These schools are increased in number year by year by the work of strangers and by the aid of foreign gold, and that in a city where no teaching was set forth, or, in other words, permitted, but that pure doctrine willed by the Church. That these things exist affords proof how little the dignity and liberty of the Roman pontiff are provided for since the dominion of his states was taken from him.’ Leo has, therefore, appointed a commission of prelates and members of the Roman nobility, who are to assume the direction of Catholic primary schools in the city of Rome, and give unity to Catholic education there. The pope contributes for this purpose 100,000 francs from his own revenues.”

Leprosy in London.—A fearful disease, which has not been heard of in Great Britain for over seventy years, has reappeared in London, but only a single case has become known. A poor woman who had been for nine months an inmate of St. John’s hospital for diseases of the skin, suffering from leprosy in its most horrible form, died there on Saturday. The disease is undoubtedly contagious, and I have heard no particulars as to the isolation of the unfortunate victim, although I suppose that would have been provided for. In Cyprus, which I suppose we must regard as being in Asia, there is a village which is entirely inhabited by lepers. On the first symptom of the disease, the sufferer is driven from his native town, and gradually a colony of pariahs has been formed. A cordon is drawn around the place for miles, and it is to be hoped none of the British troops will wander into its precincts for curiosity.