SECULAR

Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 31, 1884

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 5

—Furious gales are reported from England and Ireland, and much damage to property.

—A new monthly magazine for the blind has been started in Philadelphia by N. B. Keass, Jr.

—A petroleum well in the Baku District, Russia, is said to be yielding 8,000 barrels of oil daily.

—Canada is raising a standing army of 1,200 men, to serve for three years. The full number applied at the recruiting office in Montreal, where the quota was only 100.

—There is a great mining excitement in the Cour d’Alene country, W. T., and men are crowding in from every direction.

—A terrible gas explosion occurred in Crested Butte Coal Mine, Col., last week, and fifty-two miners lost their lives.

—A man named Caddigan and his wife were lynched last week, at Ouray, Col., for murdering their adopted daughter.

—Seven hundred black recruits for the Egyptian army had to be driven by the cavalry to the train waiting to transport them to the front.

—The Minnesota penitentiary, at Minneapolis was entirely destroyed by fire on the 26th inst. Loss, $500,000. The prisoners were all saved.

—Last year is said to have been the hardest that insurance companies have ever experienced in this country, and there is talk of a rise in rates.

—The latest accounts say that ninety-seven lives were lost by the wreck of the steamer City of Columbus, off New Bedford, Mass., on the 18th inst.

—The National Temperance Society has issued an address to both national parties urging the nomination of prohibition candidates for President and Vice-President.

—It is reported that several prominent bankers in China have committed suicide on account of the decline of securities, and a business dearth growing out of the prospect of war with France.

—Alaska is promised a Territorial Government at an early day. It is said to be rich in fish, fur, coal, iron, copper, gold, and timber. The population is estimated at 33,000, only 430 being Americans.

—The German style of type is giving way. Bismarck has had the “Manual of the Empire” printed in Roman type, and the Ministers of War and the Navy have followed his example in their reports.

—The Houston, Texas, Post, on the strength of a rumor that the Mormon authorities were about sending some missionaries to that State, advises them “not to send any men who cannot be permanently spared.”

—During a riot at Enniskillen, Ireland, last week, the police charged the mob and were met by the Nationalists with a shower of stones. The Orangemen also stoned the police, and afterward stoned the Catholic school-house.

—Considerable quantities of California fruit in tins have found the way to India via China, and commands a good price. A Consular Agent suggests that it would sell even better if packed in glass, as is the English and French fruit.

—A prominent physician who has practiced on the Cumberland River plateau, Tenn., throughout a generation, says he has never known of a case of consumption in all that region; and his testimony is supported by several other practitioners.

—A bill has been introduced in the Mississippi Legislature to abolish the municipal government of the city of Jackson, the capital of the State, on the ground that it represents only the disreputable elements in the place—gamblers, rum-sellers, and worse.

—At the request of leading capitalists, a Chicago engineer has presented an estimate of $1,000,000 for the construction of an island in Lake Michigan containing fifteen acres, the material to be dredged from the sand-bar off Fifty-first street, and surrounded by a crib breakwater.

—A special examiner is to be sent on authority of Congress to look into the Judiciary affairs of Arizona, which are reported in a demoralized condition. Charges of fraud and other outrages have been preferred by a large number of citizens, headed by ex-Indian Agent Tiffany.

—The republic of Chili having secularized all cemeteries, the Catholic bishops have declared them desecrated, and forbidden their priests to conduct burial services in them. In turn the republic forbids Catholics to bury in private cemeteries where communal cemeteries exist.

—It has long been a query how so many quack doctors came in possession of diplomas. It has been discovered in New York that a traffic exists in the diplomas of deceased physicians, which are procured from their widows who may need money more than the relics. Dates and names are altered.

—The tendency of the age is indicated by the growing popularity of pugilists, wrestlers, pedestrians, and other notables of that class. More people congregated at San Francisco ferry wharf to greet the arrival of the champion pugilist, than turned out to meet Gen. Hancock, who was supposed to be one of the most popular men in the country. The hero of this ovation is a Boston saloon-keeper.