p. 750 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Dec 8, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 47.

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SECULAR.

—It is said that forty tons of chewing-gum are consumed annually in Boston.

—December 2, successful experiments with dynamite shells were made at Sandy Hook.

—It is predicted that 200,000 Eastern people will visit California during the present winter.

—Raspberries and strawberries are daily coming to the San Francisco market from Watsonville, Cal.

—The town of Eminence, Ky., was partially destroyed by fire on the morning of the 2d inst.

—Ninety valuable horses were burned in a livery stable at Los Angeles, Cal., on the morning of the 3d inst.

—A shock of earthquake was felt at Chorley, county of Lancaster, England, at 7 o'clock on the 1st inst.

—An earthquake a few days since at Besignane, Calabria, destroyed twenty houses and killed several persons.

—More than 3,500,000 passengers are carried annually in this country by street-cars moved by electric motors.

—Prohibition in Georgia was defeated at an election held in that State November 26. The contest is said to have been a peculiarly bitter one.

—Ninety-five cigar factories in Havana, Cuba, shut down last week owing to the demands of cigar-makers for an increase in wages. Some 12,000 operatives are idle.

—Congress will be asked to appropriate $12,000,000 to provide 742 twelve-inch mortars for coast defenses. These guns are capable of throwing shells weighing 265 pounds a distance of five miles. It is proposed to place 128 of these mortars at San Francisco.

—All the newspaper editors in St. Petersburg were summoned before the press censor one day last week, and instructed to adopt a moderate tone regarding Germany.

—Russia has increased her debt tenfold since the Crimean war. Since the close of the Russo-Turkish war, the Czar's Government has borrowed nearly $100,000,000 per annum.

—The governor of Sinaloa, Mexico, has recently issued a proclamation offering a reward of $10,000 for the capture of Eraclio Bernal, the most desperate character known in the history of Mexico.

—It is stated by the Electric Review that in Montgomery, Ala., electricity is used on eleven miles of road, and the cost is reported by the general manager to be only one-half the cost of horse-power.

—A school in the village of Werchobistritzkivi, Russia, was destroyed by fire a few nights ago. A large number of girls were sleeping on the upper floors and sixteen of them were burned to death.

—Gladstone's physicians have advised him to take an ocean voyage, and it is stated upon good authority that he will visit this country early next spring. If he should do so, he will no doubt be well received.

—December 1, about 6,000 men were thrown out of work in New York City, principally by order of the Commissioner of Public Works, the Board of Electrical Control, and the Standard Gas Light Company.

—The American Consul at Melbourne, Australia, has applied to the commission having charge of the arrangements for the exhibition to be held there, for 100,000 square feet of space for American exhibitors.

—Slush ice stopped running in the Mississippi River at La Crosse, Wis., on the night of November 27. The thermometer marked twenty degrees below zero, and the river was closed by ice the earliest ever known.

—The Cologne Gazette announces that in accordance with an agreement of the Central European Alliance, restoring the equilibrium of the Mediterranean with the approval of England, Turkey is to be protected and inviolable.

—The Pope has conferred the title of Count upon John Goode, of New York. Goode is a native of Ireland, has an income of $150,000 per year, and it is said is thus honored by "his holiness" for his adherence to "the church."

—On the 26th ult., a wind-storm blew down a hall in Mineola, Texas, in which some colored people were having a dance. Of seventy in the building five were killed and about twenty injured. Six of the injured had legs or arms broken.

—The statement is made that Tennessee has an area of 5,100 square miles of coal, which covers twenty-two counties. During the past six years the output of coal in the State has grown from 494,000 tons to 1,700,000 tons, an increase of 400 per cent.

—During the month of October the Southern Pacific Railroad shipped East over 24,000,000 pounds of California fruits. The shipments were made up of 10,524,970 pounds canned goods, 4,041,490 pounds dried fruits, 6,534,430 pounds green deciduous fruits, and 3,012,130 pounds of raisins.

—The London police claim to have evidence of a new conspiracy hatched in America for the assassination of Balfour and the destruction of public buildings in London. They say that they have men in every dynamite organization in America who keep them thoroughly advised of every movement planned in that direction.

—Jake Sharp, the rich New York street railroad magnate who furnished the money to bribe several aldermen, who are now behind the bars of Sing Sing, and who was himself convicted of bribery, and sentenced to a long term in the same prison, has been granted a new trial by the weak-kneed judges of the Court of Appeals.

—December 3, Sadi-Carnot was elected President of the French Republic, instead of President Grevy, who resigned on the previous day. The name Carnot is a historic and honorable one in France, and the new President, though not looked upon as a particularly able or brilliant man, commands the respect and confidence of the people.

—The other day while the trial of Most, the anarchist, was in progress in New York City, Judge Cowing announced that he had received a threatening letter. The letter read: "If you charge against Herr Most you will die. Death for all officers is their due. Liberty." The same day Paul Wolf, an anarchist, was arrested in Chicago for making threats against the peace and good order of that city. He preached anarchy and foretold the violent deaths of Grinnell and Gary and all the jurors in the anarchist trial. Wolf was sober at the time.

—The Italian Government has decided to ignore the action of the Pope's partisans who have recently been demanding the restoration of "his holiness" to temporal power. Their action renders them liable to prosecution under the law, but Minister Zanarddelli thinks that no greater service could be rendered them than to bring them into prominence through a public trial.

—It now transpires that, though not in the dictionaries, the word "boodle," which first came into general use to describe certain corrupt New York officials, is not a slang word, but is derived from the Dutch word "boedel," and means property or valuables in general. As applied to the dishonest New York, and later to certain Chicago officials, it means that they acquired property dishonestly.

—A meeting called by the Trades Federation and in behalf of the widows and orphans of the anarchists recently executed in Chicago, was held in Cooper Union, New York City, November 28. It was an anarchist meeting pure and simple. Red flags, ribbons, feathers, neckties, and hat bands were numerous, and the speeches were of an incendiary character. The police were present in force, but the meeting was not interrupted.