SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 11, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 14.

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SECULAR NEWS.

—A disastrous famine prevails in Morocco.

—The Russians took Kars in 1828, 1834, 1855, and again in 1877.

—Maine now ranks as the sixth State in lumbering; once she stood first.

—About $1,000 has been raised in New York for the sufferers by the famine in China.

—The thirtieth anniversary of the advent of modern Spiritualism was celebrated at New York.

—The city of Staunton, Va., population about 10,000, consumes 100 pounds of opium a week.

—There are a million and a half of people in the United States engaged in trade and transportation.

—The old Charter Oak at Hartford was said to be at least 950 years old at the time of its destruction.

—The copper product of Michigan for 1877 foots up to 16,000 tons, a little more than the preceding year.

—Two million acres of cultivated land hardly suffice to produce the grain consumed in New York breweries yearly.

—The orders for postal cards the last quarter amounted to fifty-three millions, or at the rate of two hundred and twelve million a year.

—The House Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures, have agreed to report Marsh's bill punishing defacers of gold and silver coin.

—The population of Rome, which in 1857 was 215,573, rose last year to 280,574. From 7000 to 8000 soldiers were included in each enumeration.

—A mass meeting recently held at Buffalo urged the passage by the Legislature of a bill authorizing a general pipe line to connect petroleum wells with the sea-board.

—The drouth is causing alarm in the Hawaiian Islands. The cane crop is partially destroyed on the Island of Maui, and stock are dying for want of feed.

—The Canada government has introduced into Parliament a "Permissive Bill," which in the United States would be called Local Option. It is expected that it will become a law.

—The cholera is sweeping off the pilgrims to Mecca by the hundreds. It is feared that on their return to Constantinople it will break out in that city, where so much misery and filth exist.

—The proprietors of the Philadelphia Press have discharged all members of the Printers' Union from their employ. The men were told that all who left the Union would be re-employed.

—The Chinese Ambassador to England attributes the famine in India to so much land being devoted to the cultivation of the poppy, 1,033,000 acres of the best land in India being devoted to that business.

—Twenty-five thousand war claims are now on file in Washington, and it is stated that eighteen years will be required to adjudicate upon them. Many millions of dollars are called for by these claims, mostly by Southerners.

—The national debt was, on the 1st of March 1869, $2,525,463,000. March 1, 1877, the debt amounted to $2,088,781,000. The decrease had been $436,682,000 in eight years, and the average yearly reduction has been $54,585,000.

—The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has commenced the work of printing silver certificates. Orders have been already received from New York for eight million two hundred thousand dollars of certificates of various denominations.

—The House Committee on Invalid Pensions have agreed to report a bill allowing pensions of $72 per month to soldiers who have lost either both eyes, both hands, or both feet, and $24 to those having lost one eye, one hand, or one foot.

—Diamond digging in South Africa has now settled down into a paid industry. Companies are being formed, dividends are declared monthly when there are any, and there is something like a fixed trade of findings from this claim or that.

—An exchange says: "Hard times continue in the Eastern States. In Massachusetts some of the cotton manufacturers talk of reducing production to make prices better. The frequent suspensions of banks, also, serves to increase the general suspense."

—It is reported that England is spending very large sums of money in war preparation. The £6,000,000 voted by Parliament is a mere drop in the bucket. If she fights, £100,000,000 won't more than foot her bill, and that sum of course will be added to her present enormous public debt.

—In Broadway, between Chambers and Fourteenth Streets, New York, there are to let twenty-seven entire buildings, seventy-seven stores, fifty-three buildings with lots, and twenty-two with offices. Several of the buildings have been vacant for many years, the owners refusing to lower the rents.

—A telegram from Jamaica says: A revolution took place at Port au Prince during the absence of the president. Tanis at the head, with 1,000 followers, attacked the palace, arsenal, and fort, and succeeded in capturing the fort. The Navy remained faithful, and is bombarding the positions of the revolutionists.

—The Agence Russe says: England has not yet replied in regard to the Congress. She still insists upon her demand that all the conditions of peace shall be submitted, notwithstanding the text of the treaty has been communicated to all Cabinets, and Russia has agreed to complete freedom of discussion at the Congress. The chances of the Congress meeting are diminished.

—The Postmaster-General has issued an order amending a regulation of the Department governing the transmission of matter, which is very important in its bearings, inasmuch as it overrules a long established practice in the Department. Any matter in print which may be transmitted within an enclosure may also be transmitted at the same rate if printed on a wrapper on the envelope. This includes business cards, directions for returning, and any printed matter on the outside of a wrapper or envelope. Postmasters are instructed not to regard requests for the return of such matter unless stamps to pay return postage are deposited.