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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 20, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 3.

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SECULAR.

—John Roach, the great shipbuilder, died January 10.
—All the employes on the Boston street-cars are out on a strike.
—Another slight earthquake occurred at Charleston, January 10.
—It is rumored that Russia now wants to force a Franco-German war.
—The Canadian Ministry has decided to dissolve the Dominion Parliament.
—Lord Iddesleigh, better known as Sir Stafford Northcote, died January 12.
—The spread of cholera in South America is regarded with alarm in New York.
—January 11, earthquake shocks were felt in California at Sonoma, Redwood City, and Petaluma.
—The British Government has decided to purchase 40,000 additional horses, and 500,000 repeating rifles, to be ready March 1.
—The official newspapers state that Prince Bismarck will intervene in the debate of the army bill, insisting on the adoption of the seven years' term.
—The coal miners on strike at Moosic, Pa., indulged in riotous proceedings on the 13th inst. and were fired on by the police.
—Another attempt was made in San Francisco on the 9th inst. to blow up one of the cable-cars with dynamite. The damage was slight.
—A dozen brigands attacked a monastery at Narbonne, France, but were repulsed by the monks, three of whom were severely wounded.
—Official dispatches from Tonquin report that the French troops made an attack on a large rebel force entrenched at Thanhoa, but were repulsed.
—A fire in the Alcazar Palace of Toledo, Spain, on Sunday, totally destroyed the building, and injured twenty men. The palace was recently restored at a cost of $1,000,000.
—Negotiations between the Vatican and Prussia will shortly be concluded, which will enable the Emperor William to announce in the Landtag the revision of the May Laws.
—On January 9, a huge blast of nearly 4,500 pounds of powder was exploded at Easton, Pa. A whole hill-side, 150 feet high, was blown out, and about 200,000 tons of stone loosened.
—About three months ago a man named Samuels, of Chicago, received a slight scratch on his finger while playing with a little dog. On the 15th inst. he died of hydrophobia, in great agony.
—At Uganda, Africa, one hundred negro converts to Christianity have been massacred; most of the victims were burned alive. Mounga, the king, vows that he will destroy all the Christians in his kingdom.
—Riotous demonstrations on the part of the striking employes of the Old Dominion Steamship Company occurred on the 11th inst. at Newport News, Va. Three companies of soldiers have been ordered out.
—A naval system of coast defense has been suggested in England. Instead of invulnerability, invisibility is the principle of the system. The guns will occupy a hole in the ground and only be raised for firing.
—The German Army Bill was defeated January 14. Bismarck immediately read an imperial message dissolving the Reichstag. February 21 is fixed for the holding of the general election for members of the new Reichstag.
—The Chicago Socialists have secured control of the Local Trades Assembly. Every officer in that organization is now a pronounced sympathizer with the cause of the seven men under sentence of death for bomb-throwing.
—The steamer Celtic Monarch, of the Monarch Line, which left Cardiff, Wales, January 2, for Philadelphia, was abandoned at sea in a sinking condition. The crew, who were picked up by a passing vessel, arrived at Liverpool January 13.
—On Wednesday a collision occurred on the elevated railroad at New York. The baggage car and engine of one of the trains were knocked across the track and hung over the edges, to the imminent danger of the people and buildings below.
—On January 13, that part of the bank at Niagara Falls, known as the Upper Table Rock, fell with a deafening crash into the gorge below. Thousands of tons of solid rock were carried away, and the formation of the precipice is now entirely changed.
—An anarchist paper of Chicago, the Arbeiter Zeitung, gives the following advice to the workingmen of that city: "Arm yourselves with the cheapest, the best, the most effective arms, such as can be handled easily, whether Gatling guns, Winchester rifles, or pistols."
—A recent scientific examination shows that much of the milk used in San Francisco contains disease germs of consumption. One of the diseased cows was killed, and the blood, udder, and lungs all showed bacilli; the liver was a perfect mass of germ clusters.
—The anti-Mormon bill, as passed in the House on the 12th inst. makes the lawful husband or wife of any person prosecuted for polygamy, a competent witness against the accused. It also abolishes woman suffrage in Utah, and disfranchises polygamists. If it passes the Senate, it will sound the death-knell of Mormonism in Utah.
—On the night of January 15 a schooner with 140,000 pounds of giant powder on board was wrecked and washed ashore off Point Lobos, near San Francisco. Early next morning a terrific explosion occurred, and the Cliff House, widely known as a place of resort, was badly damaged. Two signal station houses were destroyed. Only three men were injured. The crew escaped in boats before the vessel went ashore.