p. 14 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 16, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 48.

SECULAR.

—Congress is again in session. —Cholera scare is subsiding in Buenos Ayres. —It is now thought that the revolution in Ecuador is at an end. —Chicago is about to build an opera house that is to cost $1,500,000. —General Buller denies that he is in sympathy with the Parnellites. —A vein of sixty feet of solid salt has been struck at Port Huron, Mich. —A bill has been introduced into Congress for the redemption of trade dollars. —On the 5th inst. the Sunday law was very generally enforced in New York City. —There has been another outbreak of pleuropneumonia in Lancaster County, Penn. —It is stated that hundreds of bushels of apples are being brought into Los Angeles from Kansas. —The Government has presented a bill in the Spanish Chamber of Deputies providing for trial by jury. —The Dominion Government, it is said, is not at all anxious for the settlement of the fisheries dispute. —Ex-President Soto of Honduras has abandoned politics and will write a history of Central American unity. —It is said that excursion agents have booked over 35,000 people to visit Los Angeles, Cal., this winter. —The Union Pacific has adopted the 24-o'clock system on all its lines, and trains will be operated accordingly.

—It is announced that the Lick telescope will probably be completed ready for observation by January 1, 1887. —A sixteen-year-old boy is to be hanged in Missouri for a murder committed under the influence of novel reading. —The Duke of Manchester has announced a permanent reduction of 25 per cent. in rents on all his estates in Ireland. —The Knights of Labor propose to purchase a hosiery mill in Bristol, Penn., and operate it as a co-operative concern. —Governor Ireland of Texas states that the reports of starvation in Northern Texas are untrue, though want exists. —A dispatch from London says: "Europe is slumbering over a volcano, Russia waiting, France restless, Germany watchful." —John Baker, congressman elect from an Illinois district, was the other day fined five dollars and costs for assault and battery. —On the 12th inst., J. C. Hill, a prominent citizen of Edgewood, Pa., fatally shot his own daughter, whom he mistook for a burglar. —Five persons have already refused the Governorship of Tonquin. It is safe to say that not one of them was an American politician. —Baxter, the recently appointed Governor of Wyoming, has been removed for fencing public land in violation of the act of Congress. —December 8, heavy gales prevailed throughout England and Ireland, and communication by telegraph was seriously interfered with. —The arming of German troops with repeating rifles is being hastened. Five corps have already been armed with the improved weapon. —The defalcations of Treasurer Reed of the South Boston Railway, who was arrested some days since, have been ascertained to be over $340,000. —The steamer Idaho, seized some months since for smuggling, has been declared forfeited to the Government. The vessel is worth $200,000. —The explosion of the boiler of a locomotive at Jersey Shore, Pa., on the 9th inst. instantly killed three men and seriously wounded two others. —The Czar has issued an edict that all the small towns and villages bearing German names shall at the beginning of the new year be given Russian names. —Two life-boats were lost off South Port, England, on the 10th inst., and twenty-seven men were drowned. The boats were attempting to rescue the crew of a stranded vessel. —The order of business in the coming session of Parliament, will open with the introduction of a Coercion bill, including special provisions for the suppression of boycotting. —Late dispatches from Brisbane, Australia, state that the steamers Kielawap and Helen Nicholl came in collision off Queensland, resulting in the drowning of forty-two persons. —Telegrams from Constantinople affirm that the Sultan is discussing a secret convention with the Czar for the withdrawal of the Turkish suzerainty over Bulgaria in favor of Russia. —Recent advices from London state that a European war is now definitely expected. But as the commencement of hostilities is not expected before February the statement is not very alarming. —The employes on two of the cable street-car lines in San Francisco are out on a strike. The demand is for more pay and fewer hours. The strike will probably result only in many of the men losing their positions. —Vast coal deposits have been discovered in the Saskatchewan region. The whole district lying between the Rocky Mountain House and Fort Pitt is one vast series of coal beds, both hard and soft, of the best quality. —December 8, there was another earthquake at Charleston, S. C. It was very perceptible, waking up sound sleepers. The tremors appeared to last fully one minute. Some four hours later a distinct shock was felt at Missouri City, Mo. —At a recent convention of saloon-keepers and brewers it was voted to raise $1,500,000 in the United States to be used in the political campaign of 1888. The money is to be obtained by the levying of a schedule tax on all parties engaged in the business.

—December 5, there was serious rioting at Cork and a number of policemen and citizens were injured, the latter by bayonet thrusts. Twenty-three persons have been treated at the hospital for scalp wounds. One policeman had his skull fractured. —December 5 there was a general and widespread snow-storm which extended from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the lakes to the gulf. Mobile enjoyed the second snow-storm since 1846. The storm was a severe one, accompanied by high winds. The rivers were frozen, railways blocked, and there was much suffering from cold. —A New York dispatch says: "Irish washer-women and American laundry proprietors of Newark, N. J., have declared that the 'Chinese must go.'" It is asserted that they will organize a boycott against the Chinamen. It is said that there is hardly another city in the Union of the same population where Chinese laundries are so numerous. —A recent dispatch to the New York Tribune from Wilkesbarre, Pa., states that a remarkable case of faith cure occurred on Sunday at Ashley, a small town near that city. The subject was a young lady who, for eight years, had been almost speechless; but who, as the story goes, has been miraculously cured by drinking water in which had been soaked some plaster taken from the walls of the chapel of Knuck in Ireland. —During the recent severe storm in Great Britain steamers were delayed in making Queenstown, and all the harbors were filled with shipping. A high tide at Limerick flooded warehouses on the water front, and at Armagh the spinning mills were stopped by the floods. Damage done to property, accidents, and some cases of houses being set on fire by lightning are reported from all parts of the kingdom. A French vessel foundered off Lymechurch and six persons were drowned. On the Danish coast many vessels were wrecked. —It is announced that a company has been formed to lay a cable from Australasia across the Pacific Ocean. The estimated cost of the line is $10,000,000. The first section of the cable will be from Brisbane, or some part of New South Wales, to the North Cape of New Zealand, a distance of 1,500 knots; the second, from the North Cape to Feejee, 1,240 knots; the third, to Fanning Island, 2,270 knots; the fourth, to one of the Sandwich Islands, 1,260 knots; the fifth, to Vancouver Island, 2,730 knots; and the sixth, across the island and the Straits of Georgia to Vancouver City, on the Pacific Coast, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific Railway, 100 miles; total length, 8,000.