Items of General News

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 29, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 50.

Items of General News

—A railroad accident in New Brunswick, a few days since, caused the death of ten men. Three others were more or less injured.

—A New York paper recently published a list of nineteen Hebrews in that city, whose fortunes range from $1,000,000 up to $8,000,000 each.

—The “boomers” are organizing for another raid into Oklahoma, Indian Territory. The movement will probably not take place till April, 1888.

—A cave has recently been discovered in Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie, which is said to rival in extent the great Mammoth Cave of Kentucky.

—The results of the survey and last census of India are that the area of the peninsula of Hindoostan is 1,382,624 square miles, and the population 253,891,821.

—A young woman was sentenced to one month's imprisonment in the penitentiary in New York City the other day for maliciously killing two canary birds.

—Advices from Presa Aldama, Tamaulipas, Mexico, state that extensive deposits of gold and cinnabar, or quick-silver bearing ore, have been discovered near there.

—Thirteen thousand dollars is the sum of money which Herman Stricker, of Reading, Pa., recently refused for his collection of butterflies, said to be the largest in the world.

—Lack of fuel and extreme cold weather have recently caused great suffering in some of the prairie States. In Kansas quite a number of people have been frozen to death.

—Late advices from Syria report an engagement between Bedouins and Druses, in which the latter had 160 killed and 300 wounded. The loss of the Bedouins is not stated.

—The fastest trip ever made by an east-bound vessel, between New York and Queenstown, was completed by the steamer Etruria, on the 17th inst. in six days and two hours.

—The Audubon Society for the protection of birds, founded in February, 1886, has attained a membership roll of 40,000, representing all parts of the United States and Canada.

—On the 21st inst. a small coasting steamer from San Francisco bound to Santa Cruz was burned to the water's edge off Pigeon Point, fifty miles from San Francisco. Twelve men were lost.

—In a speech to his regiment on the evening of the 19th inst. Prince William, of Germany, said: "Since we celebrated Christmas last year times have changed. They have become very serious."

—A funeral-reform association has been organized in New York, with Bishop Potter as president. The object is to abolish ostentatious display and secure a simple and impressive observance of funeral rites.

—Under date of December 19, a report was telegraphed from London that a revolt had, a few days previously, broken out on the convict ship Orne, bound for Cayenne, and that eleven leaders were shot.

—Recent advices received from the West Indies state that December 6, 7, and 8, a heavy norther swept the islands, doing considerable damage to shipping. Thirteen mariners drowned from one vessel.

—Recent experiments in England with Nordenfeldt torpedo boats are said to be a perfect demonstration of the value of these crafts in attacking ironclads from beneath the surface, and in running blockades.

—A leak in a gas pipe at Findlay, Ohio, the other day, caused a disastrous explosion, wrecking a house, injuring seriously an entire family, and killing one child outright. A few hours later the mother died a raving maniac.

—A colored man near Cincinnati, put some frozen dynamite cartridges in the oven of his stove, a few days since, to thaw them out. Two of his children were killed and himself and wife were seriously injured.

—It is an interesting and suggestive fact that Kansas, with 100,000 more population than Texas, has one penitentiary with 996 prisoners, while Texas has two large prisons with 5,000 convicts. Kansas has prohibition, Texas has not.

—It may not be generally known that as a copper-producing country Arizona ranks next to the Lake Superior district. Its copper is also regarded second in favor with workers. The mines, however, are too far from railroads to be worked at very large profit.

—Delegate Gifford, of Dakota, has expressed the opinion that the people of that Territory will refuse admission to the Union unless the Territory be divided. He says that there is no sympathy between the northern and southern portions of the Territory.

—The largest cotton crop ever grown by slave labor was in 1860, when the production reached 4,669,770 bales; in 1883 there were produced 6,992,234 bales; and this year's crop is estimated at 7,500,000 bales, an increase of 2,830,230 bales over the crop of 1860.

—The Keeley Brewing Company, of Chicago, has resolved to buy no barley grown in or shipped from Iowa or Kansas. The company's secretary says: "If they won't buy our beer, it's quite proper that we should refuse to buy their barley." Other brewers will, it is thought, join in the boycott.

—At Rochester, N. Y., December 21, Poole's large flouring mills were destroyed by a succession of naphtha gas explosions and by the fire which resulted from them. The naphtha was being pumped through leaky pipes to the gas works. Some of it found its way into the sewers and thence into the mills; hence the explosions. Several lives were lost.

—A bomb containing enough giant powder to have blown the entire house to atoms and killed all the inmates, was thrown into the house of a Canadian bailiff a few days since. The fuse was, however, promptly extinguished by the official's wife. The bailiff had been threatened with violence for his efforts to enforce the liquor laws of the Dominion.

—For years, five brothers named Terry have defied the laws in Stone County, Mo., committing various crimes from time to time, and successfully resisting arrest. A few days since a vigilant committee was organized to arrest the brothers, or drive them from the country. Thus far ten men have been killed, and the outlaws are still master of the situation. The Governor has been appealed to for aid.

—The officials of the Post-office Department say that they have found the Mormon postmasters in Utah and Idaho uniformly dishonest. The opinion is freely expressed that no honest officials can be found among the Mormons; and special agents of the department have been instructed to put the offices in these Territories in the hands of Gentiles; if in any case this is not possible, the office is to be closed.

—A monster cigar-shaped raft containing timber enough to load a hundred vessels, longer than any vessel afloat, and drawing more water than a large ocean steamer, is adrift in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere in the track of European steamers. Ship captains are much excited and say that the huge mass must be secured or blown up. The raft, which was from Nova Scotia, was abandoned in a storm by the vessel which was towing it to New York.

—In Russia there are 32,000 schools, having an average of 36 scholars each. This is one school for 2,300 inhabitants. In Austria there are 29,000 schools, or one school for 1,275 inhabitants, with an average attendance at each of 104. Germany has one school for every 700 inhabitants, and England, Italy, and Spain have each one school for every 600 inhabitants. France is better provided with schools than any other European country, having 71,000, or one for every 500 inhabitants.