SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 6, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 17.

SECULAR.

—San Luis Obispo, Cal., has recently had a $150,000 dollar fire.

—Ice floods at Montreal have recently done damage to the amount of $1,750,000.

—The New York Assembly passed the bill to wind up the Broadway Surface Railroad Corporation by a vote of 97 to 9.

—The amount of standard silver dollars in circulation on April 10, out of a total coinage of $226,946,121, was $52,264,396.

—News of wholesale conflagrations comes from several parts of Austria. Several towns have been completely destroyed by fire.

—The value of what is strictly known as hardware in this country last year amounted to nearly $60,000,000, of which nearly half was made in Connecticut.

—Levuka, the capital of the Fiji Islands, was almost destroyed by a hurricane on the night of the 3d and the morning of the 4th of March.

—Cardinal Taschereau, of Canada, has issued a pastoral letter condemning the Knights of Labor as a secret organization, inimical to the interests of religion.

—April 23, a strike of watch-makers at Grammont, Belgium, resulted in a serious riot. Several persons were injured, and a large number of the rioters were arrested.

—April 20, Burmese New Year, fifty followers of Myingzaing, the rebel prince, set fire to the city of Mandalay in several places. About one-third of the walled city was destroyed.

—The American bark Paul Jones, Captain Winn, which sailed from Boston for Australia on September 17, 1884, was burned to the water’s edge on March 19 last, off Lorne, Victoria.

—The Bishop of Madrid was shot and fatally wounded by an ex-priest, April 18, on the steps of the cathedral in that city. The motive for the murder was revenge, the bishop having deposed the priest.

—April 23, an attempt was made to destroy the church of San Luis in the city of Madrid. The explosive was placed in an enormous candle. The building was much damaged, and the two sextons seriously injured.

—At Bradford, Pa., April 24, a small frame building, erected on posts and used as sleeping quarters by thirty-eight Italian railroad laborers, toppled over and immediately took fire. Six of the men were burned to death, and three others were badly injured.

—The Powers of Europe have made a demand that Greece disarm immediately. But that Government declares that the work must be done gradually, and not in eight days as required in the ultimatum. Further action on the part of the Powers may be necessary.

—News received from Mexico confirms the reports of bloody municipal riots at Chihuahua. The riots occurred April 25. A number of Mexicans were killed, together with seven American residents. The Government has sent a large body of troops to the place to keep order.

—Zach. Montgomery, of California, has been confirmed as Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department, by a majority of only one vote. The opposition to Mr. Montgomery was on account of his published views on educational matters, he being very much opposed to the public school system.

—Recent advices from Burmah state that the British expedition sent against the Kchyen tribe has been defeated by the rebels. Re-enforcements have been ordered from Mandalay. The rebels captured Pagandet, a police station, bound the garrison with cords, and massacred twenty-three persons.

—Private and trustworthy cable dispatches say that the native malcontents in India are becoming expectant of a break-up of British rule. European officials, civil and military, state that never, since the great mutiny was crushed, were the natives, and especially the Brahmin classes, so insolent and threatening as now.

—In a recent speech before what is known as the Workingmen’s Rifle Corps, in New York, Editor Sewitch, of the Volkes Zeitung, advised his hearers to arm themselves as rapidly as possible, and prepare for future trouble. Rifles, he said, could be had for $6.00 each, and ammunition was cheap. The crowd cheered the sentiments.

—A dangerous state of excitement exists among the peasantry of Galicia, Austro-Hungary, owing to a rumor that the Government intends to restore the forced labor laws, and that the aristocrats are organizing a massacre of Polish peasants in revenge for the atrocities which the peasants committed upon the nobles in 1846. Secret meetings are being held by peasants, a majority of whom are armed. The nobles are taking refuge in the cities.

—April 18, the town of Stry, in Galicia, was almost completely destroyed by fire. The number of houses burned is about 600. Many persons were killed. The inhabitants are destitute. A high wind was blowing, and the fire started in several parts of the town about the same time. One hundred persons were killed in one street by falling walls. Hundreds of persons are missing. The lack of water rendered aid by the military futile.

—Geronimo and his band are again committing depredations on the frontier between Arizona and Sonora. From April 22-27 inclusive, ten persons are known to have been killed; others have been taken prisoners, and still others are missing. Eyewitnesses to some of the outrages say that the Indians wore the uniform of General Crook's scouts.

—Judge Zane, of Utah, has given a decision in the contested Territorial election cases, ousting the Mormon incumbents, who hold offices under an old law making them elective. The Judge holds that they are appointive, and that Governor Murray's appointees are entitled to the positions. An appeal will be taken to the Territorial Supreme Court, which meets in June.

—At 6 o'clock on the morning of April 20, the village of East Lee, Mass., was inundated and devastated by the breaking away of the dam at Mud Pond Reservoir, Mountain Lake, about two and a half miles from the village. East Lee, a village where half a dozen paper mills are situated, is on the stream, and received its first news of the accident when the flood came pouring down the streets.

—The past two weeks have been very fruitful of labor difficulties, and strikes of greater or less magnitude are reported from almost all parts of this country, and some in Europe. At midnight, April 21, 6,000 employés of the sugar refineries of the eastern district of Brooklyn went out on a strike. Afterwards, orders were issued to stop work in all the Brooklyn refineries except one, thus throwing 20,000 persons out of employment. Space forbids more than a bare mention of the "tie up" on the New York street-car lines, the continued trouble on the Missouri Pacific Railway, the strike by 950 men in the car foundry, zinc works, and water works at St. Louis, the strike on the Lake Shore Railroad, the tailors' strike in Boston, the street-car "tie up" in Baltimore, the strike of the 35,000 men at Chicago, the strike of the yardmen and plasterers at Houston and San Antonio, Texas, or on the 250,000 men at important centers, who, according to Bradstreet's, are demanding shorter hours. By the time this paper reaches our readers it is probable that at least 105,000 of these will have struck.

—Herr Most addressed a large meeting of Anarchists and Socialists in New York, April 24. He said: "I can furnish you with 10,000 fine breechloaders, with bayonets, at $10 apiece. You waste your money buying gold watches and jewelry. Better buy muskets, revolvers, and cartridges. When you have enough shooting-irons, then rise and take what belongs to us. We have not got artillery as yet, but we will have it in time. You can make bombs out of glass tubes and iron pipe, which you can load with dynamite or gun-powder, and when you see any of the rascals throw them under their feet and kill them. Let your women use bombs also, and learn how to use petroleum. Petroleum is cheap and burns well. Then, when we are all armed, we can rise at a given moment and take possession of all the armories and arsenals in the city. Then we would seize the capitalists by the throat. We will take all the meat, wine, vegetables, and champagne for ourselves. We will make war upon all capitalists, and State, and Church; for they are all our enemies."