SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 1, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 25.

SECULAR.

—The first new wheat of the season was shipped from Port Costa, Cal., June 21.

—The furniture men in St. Louis have all given up the eight-hour fight and returned to the old system.

—The Cuban representatives in the Cortes at Madrid have presented a demand for home rule for their island.

—On the 21st ult. a call was made by the Government for $4,000,000 of its three per cent. bonds, which it now proposes to redeem.

—The Spanish Government is contemplating the immediate construction of a number of swift and powerful cruisers to strengthen the navy.

—Cholera is ravaging the southern provinces and cities of Osaka and Kioto, Japan. The Government is acting with energy to oppose its progress.

—A strike at the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, was inaugurated recently by the various iron-trades unions. About 230 men are out.

—The New England Institute Fair building, in Boston, was destroyed by fire June 21. At least eight lives were lost in the burning building. The property destroyed was worth fully $400,000.

—A fire at Peoria, Ill., June 25, destroyed property to the amount of $200,000.

—Hon. David Davis, of Illinois, died at his home in Bloomington, on the 26th ult.

—The House Bill for the relief of Fitz-John Porter passed the Senate on the 25th ult., and will now go to the President for his signature.

—Twenty-four men were killed and sixteen entombed alive, June 25, by an explosion in a colliery at Rochelle, in the department of Soane, France.

—Japan, according to the new census, has a population of 38,500,000, or about the same as that of the United States in 1870. In area Japan is about three times the size of Pennsylvania.

—An East St. Louis manufacturer of "beef oil" says he doesn't believe the people of that city have eaten butter for three years. It is this industry which is fighting the Oleomargarine bill in Congress.

—A ferry-boat capsized a few days since while crossing the Moldau River, Bohemia, throwing fifty persons into the water. The exact number drowned had not been ascertained; but twenty-five bodies had been recovered.

—At a recent picnic in a New Jersey town, 160 persons were more or less seriously poisoned by eating ice-cream. Only three who tasted the cream escaped poisoning. At last accounts it was thought that two persons would die.

—A deputation of Ulster Protestants, consisting of clergymen, magistrates and merchants, who are in favor of Home Rule, is going to London to address several meetings under the auspices of the British Home Rule Association.

—The Norristown Herald sums up the Socialist platform in this country as follows: Ten hours for sleep, ten hours for drinking beer, four hours for denouncing American manufacturers, and no hours for labor. This they consider a pretty good day's work.

—The Chicago Times of June 15 says: "At the County Hospital in Chicago, the surgeons transferred four ounces of blood into the arm of Policeman Hansen from the veins of his brother-in-law. The officer survived the operation but four hours. He was the eighth victim of the Haymarket massacre.

—Black diphtheria has invaded the towns of Ecorce, Springwells, and Royal Oak, near Detroit, Michigan, and is carrying off large numbers of victims. Children are taken without warning. Their throats swell and in a few hours they die in great agony.

—The Congo State officials have learned that one of their agents in Central Africa has made a grand discovery, that the rivers of Sankauron and Kassai are fully navigable, by which the eastern region of the Congo State can be reached without a long detour to the north.

—F. A. Bee, Chinese consul at San Francisco, has been presented by Emperor Kuang Hsu of China with a medal and accompanying document conferring upon him the order of the third rank, which constitutes him a Knight of the Red Dragon. This is the only instance in which an American citizen has been honored in this way.

—The cases of the six Anarchists charged with the murder of Officer Deegan on the night of the Haymarket massacre, was called in the Criminal Court before Judge Gary at Chicago, June 21. Parsons, the fugitive Anarchist for whom the police have been searching ever since the massacre, also put in an appearance and asked to be tried with the others.

—The British Parliament was prorogued June 25. The Queen's speech was very brief. In reference to the Irish question her majesty says: "I have determined to release you from your high duties before the full accomplishment of the regular work of the session, in order to ascertain the sense of my people on an important proposal to establish a legislative body in Ireland for the management of Irish as distinguished from imperial affairs."

—June 23 the switchmen in the Lake Shore stock yards at Chicago struck for the discharge of eight non-union men. On the 25th an attempt was made to send out a train, but a mob of fully 1,000 men attacked the squad of police who were guarding the cars and ran the train off the track. The next day a conflict occurred between a number of strikers and a large squad of police, and quite a number of the rioters were arrested. It is feared that the strike will become general.

—The lottery laws of New England have compelled the closing of an Odd Fellows' charity fair at Concord, N. H. As nothing is said about church fairs, with their grab-bags and kindred abominations, we suppose that they will continue as usual.

—According to the Victoria Colonist, "one of the most terrible scenes at the burning of the town of Vancouver was witnessed at the opening of the jail by those in charge, followed by a rush of the prisoners into saloons, of which they took complete charge. Becoming crazed with liquor they rushed through the streets doing all the mischief they could, and terrorized everybody with whom they came in contact. It was a veritable carnival of crime, which, added to the other indescribable horrors, made the scene a horrible and revolting one."