p. 15 | Items of General News

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 10, 1878

Items of General News

—The internal Revenue receipts during 1877 amounted in San Francisco to $1,933,752.46. The Custom duties were $6,692,432.56.

—It is reported that a cave has been discovered near Wytheville, Va., which is said to rival the mammoth cave of Kentucky in extent and beauty.

—The recent flooding of Libby Prison, in Richmond, Va., swept away the plastering on which were cut many inscriptions by Federal officers, while they were prisoners of war.

—Minnesota claims to be the banner wheat State of the Union, with its crop of 40,000,000 bushels, being 5,000,000 more than any other State, and an eighth of the entire crop of the United States.

—A terrible explosion recently occurred in Barclay street, New York, by which several buildings were wrecked, and ten persons were killed and forty-two wounded. Fire set in after the explosion. The property destroyed amounts to $428,000.

—The North German States expend annually on the twenty universities belonging to them more than $2,500,000. The imperial government in one year expended $350,000 on the University of Strasburg. The University of Leipzig (Saxony) receives over $250,000 a year from the State. In North Germany there is a university to every two million inhabitants; in Austria, one to every five million; in Switzerland, one in each million; in England, one in seven million.

—An exchange says: "December 26, a cave occurred on Taylor street, between Summit and Stewart, Virginia City, Nevada, leaving a hole about ten feet square and eight feet deep. A frozen crust about fifteen inches thick still remains of the surface, and there is nothing to indicate danger to passing teams, beyond a break on the northern ledge of the roadway, which contracts its width by a couple of feet. It is right over the site of the old Sides tunnel, which was run into Mount Davidson in 1860-61. This is the second cave that has occurred at that place—the first having occurred six or seven years ago."

—Senator Porter, of Alameda, died very suddenly of paralysis of the heart, at Sacramento, Sunday morning, January 6. Mr. Porter arrived in California in 1854. Returning from the East in 1858 he removed to San Francisco where he practiced law five or six years. Afterward he was elected District Attorney, to which office he was twice re-elected, serving three consecutive terms. About twelve years ago he settled in Alameda, and since that time has been closely identified with the interests of that place and Oakland. At the Republican Convention last year he was nominated State Senator, and elected by a complimentary majority. On account of his death, both houses adjourned over until the following Wednesday.

—Napoleon estimated that the population of Egypt proper in 1790 was only one-fourth of what it had been in ancient times. Lane, in his modern Egyptians, gives the ancient population at 6,000,000, or 7,000,000, and quotes Diodorus Siculus to the effect that it was 7,000,000 in the times of the ancient kings, and not less than 3,000,000 in his own day. Lane estimated the whole population of Egypt proper in 1835 as not more than 2,500,000; he was of the opinion that the products of the soil, if nothing was exported, would suffice for a population of 4,000,000; and if all soil fit for cultivation were sown, for 8,000,000. The above estimates probably referred only to what is now called Lower Egypt, for the population of Egypt proper is now estimated at more than 5,000,000.

—During the year 1877, just closed, 78 vessels have loaded with grain at this port for Europe as follows: For Cork, 44; Liverpool, 7; Queenstown, 23; Falmouth, 2; Hull, 1; Dublin, 1; total amount of grain, 2,341,210 centals; total valuation, $4,954,475. Shipments of flour during the year to European ports, 59,389 barrels; valuation, $355,669. The following are the total shipments of leading domestic products to San Francisco during the past year; 504,836 centals wheat, 113,782 barrels flour, 146,050 centals oats, 558 centals barley, 2,834 sacks middlings, 19,418 sacks bran, 2,569 sacks shorts, 73,282 boxes apples, 3,296 packages dried fruit, 37,081 sacks potatoes, 12,792 sacks flaxseed, 15,759 bales wool, 37,090 hides, 19,612 cases canned beef, 2,064 packages butter, 1,030 cases bacon, 307 packages lard, 253 packages hams, 272 barrels pork, 2,006 bales hops, 729 cases cheese. During the year 246,892 cases of salmon were shipped to San Francisco, and 184,800 to England. The total wool clip for 1877 aggregates 5,000,000 pounds.