SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 24, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 49.

SECULAR.

—The wheat crop of France this year is about 6,000,000 bushels above the average.

—The London Times confirms the statement that a Franco-Burmese treaty was found by the British at Mandalay.

—Several persons were seriously injured, some of them fatally, by an explosion in a coal mine near Wilkesbarre, Pa., December 14.

—The Liberal press in Russia urges an alliance with England, as the only means of settling the Eastern question, and punishing the perfidy of Germany and Austria.

—Congress has voted Mrs. Grant a pension of $5,000 a year. The names of Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, and Mrs. Garfield are on the pension list, each receiving $5,000 a year.

—Gen. Robert Toombs died at his home in Washington, Ga., December 15. He was a prominent Confederate general during the civil war of 1861-5, and one who was always faithful to the "lost cause," as he would never take the oath of allegiance under the amnesty proclamation.

—A project is on foot to colonize about two thousand colored families in Brazoria County, Texas. The plan is to purchase one hundred thousand acres, and divide it into fifty-acre farms.

—The agreement between Germany and Spain with reference to the Caroline Islands was signed in Rome, in the presence of the pope, and with much pomp and ceremony, December 17.

—Eleven persons were killed, and three others so seriously injured that it is thought death will result, by a collision on the Georgia Pacific Railroad which occurred near Atlanta, December 15.

—A dispatch dated December 19 states that a terrible dynamite explosion has occurred in a mine in Siberia. Particulars have not been received as yet, but the number killed is estimated at from four hundred to one thousand.

—A tenement house in Plymouth, England, burned December 13; and when the flames were subdued, the bodies of twelve victims were found among the ruins. One person was killed by jumping from a high window, and two others are missing, who are believed to have perished in the fire.

—Russia has offered to assent to the union of Bulgaria and Roumelia, on condition that the policy of Bulgaria be subordinated to Russia’s policy. A still later dispatch says that the Sultan of Turkey has appointed Prince Alexander Governor for life over Eastern Roumelia, with the right of succession.

—The Servian troops are insufficiently protected from the severe cold, and on an average not less than thirty are frozen daily. They are suffering from typhus fever and small-pox also. Yet Servia is determined to continue the war to the last extremity, rather than yield to the demands of Prince Alexander.

—A part of the roof of a coal mine in Nanticoke, Pa., caved in, December 18, letting into the mine a large quantity of quicksand and surface water. Fifty-two men were working in the mine at the time; of those twenty-eight are believed to have escaped, while the remaining twenty-four are imprisoned in the mine.

—An announcement is made that as an outcome of the striking riots in the Monongahela Valley, Pa., the non-striking miners have organized to defend themselves from the strikers. They declare that they will not be shot down without revenge, but that if any of their number fall while going to their work, they will have life for life.

—During the year ending October 1, the elevated railroads of New York City carried 103,354,729 passengers. They have been in operation nearly fourteen years, and in that time have carried 577,820,287 passengers. The remarkable fact is stated that of this immense number of persons only one lost his life, and that was due to his own carelessness.

—Mr. A. M. Bell, supervising architect of Government buildings, in his annual report to the Secretary of the Treasury, says that there are now in course of construction eighty new United States Government buildings in various parts of the country, ranging in cost from $25,000 to $2,000,000 each, and calling for a total expenditure of over $8,000,000.

—The prohibition party of Georgia have “won a thorough victory in a fair, square fight.” And now Senator Colquitt of that State announces that he intends to introduce a bill into the Senate giving the people of the District of Columbia a chance to vote on the prohibition question. He thinks prohibition is to be one of the great issues of the future, and that it should be decided at the seat of Government.

—A dynamite plot has been unearthed by the San Francisco police, and four of the conspirators were arrested December 15. They had on their “proscription list” the names of over twenty prominent citizens and officials, whom they considered it necessary to arrest and execute before proceeding to carry out their plans. Among these were the names of Senator Stanford, Governor Stoneman, Consul Bee, several judges, the chief of police, the mayor, and several military and naval officers. Having disposed of these obnoxious persons, they proposed to get possession of the municipal Government, and then they declared, “The Chinese must go.” The “Revolutionary Committee,” who seem to have for the chief article of their creed “pillage and plunder,” is believed to number between three and four hundred, with a much larger number of deluded followers. The authorities have in their possession dynamite bombs, giant powder, batteries, etc., as proof positive that these desperate and lawless men fully intended to put their threats of violence into execution.