SECULAR

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · May 27, 1886

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 20

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—Mount Ætna is in a state of eruption.

—Doctor Dio Lewis died at his home in Yonkers, N. Y., May 21.

—Fears are entertained of an uprising of Indians in Washington Territory.

—May 21 a conflict occurred on the frontier between Greek and Turkish troops.

—May 17, the Royalists of Spain were made glad by the birth of an heir to the Spanish throne.

—Sunday, May 15, five persons were arrested by the police in San Francisco for delivering socialistic harangues and for obstructing the streets.

—The seizure of American fishing vessels by the Canadian authorities has stirred up considerable ill feeling in this country, especially in the New England States.

—An artesian well of six-inch bore, sunk 515 feet, has a good flow of water secured on the barren plains south of Tucson, A. T. This is likely to work a revolution in that locality.

—May 16, an attempt was made to burn the East St. Louis approach to the St. Louis Railroad bridge.

—The Canadian Pacific Railway is making active preparations for opening the line for traffic to British Columbia.

—The Grand Jury at St. Louis has found indictments for conspiracy against fifty-nine of the late railroad strikers.

—Jaehne, the ex-alderman recently convicted of bribery in connection with the Broadway Surface Railway, has been sentenced to nine years and ten months in Sing Sing.

—A bill has been reported by the House Committee on Electoral Count, which provides for an amendment to the Constitution creating the office of second vice-president.

—At Salt Lake City, May 15, Judge Zane denied two applications for naturalization papers because the applicants declined to promise obedience to the laws against polygamy.

—Seventy-five men employed on a canal at Merced, Cal., struck, May 18, for higher wages. They were all paid off and discharged, and the next day new men were employed.

—Mrs. Pendleton, wife of Hon. George H. Pendleton, United States Minister to Germany, was thrown from her carriage in Central Park, New York, May 20, and instantly killed.

—A cyclone at Eagle Rock, Idaho, May 19, demolished the Union Pacific round-houses, and seriously injured several men employed in and around the building. A number of buildings were unroofed.

—May 18, four children, the oldest twelve and the youngest four years of age, perished in a burning building near Akron, Ohio. In attempting to rescue them, their uncle received injuries which may prove fatal.

—The chief of police of St. Louis has been instructed to disperse all assemblages of Anarchists when resistance to the law is advocated, and arrest any and all violators of law who utter incendiary speeches or incite to riot.

—Two dynamite explosions occurred at Orangeville, Ont., May 17. No lives were lost, but the office and residence of Police Magistrate Monroe were wrecked. The cause of the outrage was the strict enforcement of the temperance law.

—May 17, another New England fishing schooner was seized by the Canadian authorities for alleged violation of the fishing laws. There is considerable excitement over the action of the Dominion Government relative to vessels owned in this country.

—Intense excitement still continues in England over the question of home rule for Ireland. It is thought that if Gladstone’s measure is defeated he will dissolve Parliament and appeal to the people. The masses are thought to be favorable to the measure.

—May 17, a desperate fight took place in the streets of Martinsville, Va., in which forty shots were fired. One man was killed, and at least three were fatally wounded. The parties engaged in the shooting were some of the leading business men of the town.

—A little girl six years of age was killed and eaten by hogs near Thomasville, N. C., one day last week. The child was feeding the animals pieces of bread when one of them bit her hand. The smell of blood infuriated the swine, and the little girl was at once attacked and devoured.

—On the 15th inst., Captain Hatfield with a troop of cavalry surprised a party of Apaches in southern Arizona, capturing all their stock and the camp outfit. The next day the Indians surprised Hatfield’s command, killed two of his men, recaptured all their stock, and took all the Government horses.

—May 20, the entire force of planing-mill hands in St. Louis, Mo., went out on a strike, and twenty-two mills are idle. May 1, the men were granted a reduction from ten to eight hours, but were refused a ten per cent. increase in wages, which they also demanded. The present strike is against a return to the ten-hour system.

—In delivering his charge to the Grand Jury at Chicago, May 17, Judge Rogers said: “It is only your province to deal with crime which has been committed. The principles of law inculcate the doctrine that men who teach riot, who incite unlawful gatherings to incendiary acts, are responsible for the effects of these rantings. The red flag is a public menace. It is an emblem that no quarter will be given. The police have a right to suppress these people to prevent the commission of crime.”

—A legislative committee is investigating alleged brutalities committed in Louisiana under the present convict contract system.

—Several Mormon missionaries had a narrow escape from a mob of country people in Washington County, Penn., recently, who objected to their proselyting.

—A dispatch from Tombstone, A. T., under date of May 20, says: “The death roll of persons murdered by Apaches within gunshot of Nogales, A. T., during the past four weeks has now reached forty-two. The boldness and size of the bands committing the recent raid leave no doubt that they have been recruited from the discharged scouts.”

—In Lyons, France, May 9, a mob of glass-factory strikers sacked the house of an artisan who had resumed work, severely beat the man and his wife, and threw their furniture into the Rhone. The mob then made an attack upon the factory, the owner of which kept up a continuous fire with shot-guns upon the rioters until they were forced to withdraw. Thirty were wounded.

—April 12, the German gunboat Albatross arrived at Sydney, Australia, and reported about a dozen engagements with natives of New Britain and New Ireland, in which at least forty-five natives were killed. Eight of the crew of the Albatross were wounded in the first engagement. The attack on the natives was made in punishment for the murder of white traders. And thus the work of Christianizing(?) the islands of the South Pacific goes bravely on.

—At noon, May 17, the remaining property of the New Orleans Exposition was sold at sheriff sale. The property sold very low. The main building, which cost over $500,000, contains 10,000,000 feet of lumber, and has acres of glass roofing, brought only $90,000. This is the largest building in the world, covering an area of 905x1,378 feet, or over 28 acres. The Government building brought $4,100, and sundries, $16,680. A junk dealer was the purchaser. The sale was on one year’s credit at 5 per cent. interest.

—William Weber, a Chicago Socialist, recently stated that on the evening of the bomb throwing in that city, there were twenty Socialists armed with bombs. The bomb throwers were selected by lot. In speaking of it Weber said: “I know that twenty men received their bombs. The meeting was almost through Tuesday night when the police ordered the Anarchists to disperse, and it is presumed that the other nineteen men had started for home or were injured by the discharge of the police revolvers, which immediately followed the throwing of the first bomb. The Anarchists are not subdued yet, and you need not be surprised if another outbreak comes.”