SECULAR

S. D. A. Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 10, 1884

FromThe Signs of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 2

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—A Chinaman in Santa Rosa is said to be 114 years old.

—Premier Gladstone of England celebrated his 74th birthday Dec. 29.

—The pope has received a letter containing threats against his life.

—A new theater was burned at Cleveland, on the 5th inst.; loss $200,000.

—Four men charged with murder at Yazoo, Miss., were lynched on the 29th ult.

—A new committee, on Alcoholic Liquor Traffic, has been created in Congress.

—The old St. Nicholas Hotel, at St. Louis, was burned last week; loss, $100,000.

—P. T. Barnum, the great showman, has made his will, bequeathing $10,000,000.

—Two negro murderers were taken from jail at Brookville, Ala., and shot, Dec. 28.

—The Supervisors of Butte County, Cal., have levied a tax of $50 a month on saloons.

—The English Government has determined to crush the “False Prophet” in Egypt.

—The rain-storm of the 5th inst. was quite general throughout the interior of California.

—The Balmoral estate, Queen Victoria’s favorite residence, covers 25,350 acres of land.

—The railroad companies in London are guarding their tracks against Fenian depredations.

—The Egyptian insurrectionary movement is spreading along the coast of the Red Sea.

—Gen. Hancock has returned to the East. His reception in California was very flattering.

—The estimated reduction of the public debt of the United States for December, is $12,000,000.

—The earnings of the Central Pacific Railroad for eleven months ending Nov. 30, were $27,353,779.

—A State Prison labor contractor, at Pine Bluff, Ark., is on trial for whipping a prisoner to death.

—A railroad is to be commenced at once to connect Cheyenne, Wy. T., with the Black Hills region.

—There is some alarm in Canada regarding supposed Fenian plots to avenge the death of O’Donnell.

—Saylor, the California express robber, has been arrested in Baltimore, and will be returned to this State.

—Small and insignificant as Portugal may appear, it is exercising a wonderful influence upon civilization in Africa.

—A Nihilist printing office was recently discovered in a back street in the city of Warsaw, but the compositors escaped.

—The average of life in England is eleven years longer than in France, although the latter is supposed to have a superior climate.

—Sixteen persons were poisoned in a convent at Montreal, last week, by eating pies which the doctors allege were made of tainted meat.

—Robert A. Murray, a Boston broker, has absconded, leaving liabilities to the amount of $400,000, mostly raised on forged mortgages.

—The French have taken Sontay, in Tonquin, and are jubilant all over the world, wherever there is a Frenchman that has heard the news.

—A man named James W. Cooke, living near Cove Springs, Mo., has been sentenced to ninety-nine years’ imprisonment for killing his wife.

—A heavy sand-storm is reported on Mohave desert, Jan. 1; the same thing occurred last New Year’s day—in fact, is liable to occur at any time.

—A wave of cold weather was experienced throughout the East, West, North and Northwest, last week. Heavy storms and cold are also reported from Canada.

—Four children, named Garner, aged from 1 to 6 years, were burned to death at Pittsburg on the 4th inst. The house caught fire in the absence of the parents.

—French Commercial circles are becoming alarmed lest the United States will retaliate upon French wines, for the prohibition of American pork by that Government.

—The Canadian Government is making inquiry into the statement that two deserters from the U. S. Army were seized upon Canadian soil and taken into Minnesota.

—A Washington dispatch says that six U. S. Army officers and a skillful bridge-builder have gone to China to assist the army of that Government against France.

—Frank R. Sherwin, the millionaire stock man of the West, has been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and $500 fine for contempt of Court in a defalcation suit at Albany, N. Y.

—Henry Villard has resigned the Presidency of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and is said to be financially wrecked. Not long ago he was reckoned to be worth $10,000,000, all made in five years.

—A serious fight between Orangemen and Nationalists occurred at Dromore, N. F., on New Year’s day. The military charged the Orangemen, wounding several, and escorted the Nationalists away.

—The Secretary of the Treasury has decided, in the case of some Chinamen recently brought to New York, that they cannot be landed, but may be transferred to any vessel going to some foreign country.

—The leper hospital at Honolulu, where suspected cases from all parts of the kingdom are brought for examination before being sent to the leper island, has accommodation for 120 patients, and it is filled every two months. A writer says: “Once declared a leper, the person is civilly dead, and is incapable of suing or being sued.”

—Thomas Flaherty, a prisoner in the Marysville, Cal., jail, is said to have fasted forty days. He then acknowledged that he had been feigning sickness in order to get into the hospital. He lost forty pounds in flesh.

—Another Nihilist movement is reported from Russia, alleging the wounding of the Czar, while returning from a shooting excursion; also the murder of a Lieutenant-Colonel. Two assailants of the latter have died from wounds received.

—The Argentine Republic is about to issue a loan of $4,000,000 for the purpose of establishing 300 schools throughout the realm. That Government is beginning to realize that ignorance is the great bane of the Spanish-American countries.

—There are hundreds of farm-houses in Arkansas that have not yet had a cooking-stove. Many farmers in the southern part of the State have set their faces resolutely against railroads, on the ground that they would scare game out of the country.

—A syndicate of stock men is engaged in fencing into ranges a tract of 6,000,000 acres, leased from the Cherokees for five years, at an annual rental of $100,000. It is believed that 1,000,000 head of cattle will be placed on the inclosed grounds by April 1st.

—A pugilistic match between two “society gentlemen” was part of the proceedings in the back parlor of an aristocratic dwelling in Baltimore on New Year’s day. Large bets were made, and some blood flowed; but friendly relations were maintained. What next?

—The railroad bridge over the St. Lawrence from Morrisburg to Waddington is to be two and one-half miles long, and will cross the St. Lawrence canal with a swinging bridge 338 feet long. The city of Ottawa agrees to pay $350,000 of the cost, if the Railroad Company will make a wagon-road on the bridge.

—In accordance with resolutions of the Western Nail Association, all factories in the West were shut down Dec. 29. The Jefferson Iron Works of Steubenville, O., did not close, and this is said to be the only case of rebellion in the history of the association. The hope of the manufacturers was to improve trade by a restriction of production for six weeks. The move affects 5,000 employes.