p. 382 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 24.

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SECULAR.

—The public debt of Mexico is $151,020,000.

—The Sunday law is to be rigidly enforced in St. Louis.

—Of the 6,000,000 women in Brazil, only 500,000 can read or write.

—There are more than 60,000 persons confined in penal institutions in the United States.

—Cadet Alexander (colored) graduated second in his class at West Point on the 11th inst.

—The gauge of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad is being changed to the standard gauge.

—There was serious rioting in Dublin on the 13th inst. Several houses were wrecked by the mob.

—June 14, 315 mules were burned in the stables of the Mound City Street-car Company, St. Louis, Mo.

—The police of Berlin have prohibited the circulation in that city of the Chicago Workmen's Gazette.

—A tornado in Dakota one day last week destroyed considerable property, and killed and injured several persons.

—The great coke strike in Pennsylvania is over and the iron-masters are preparing to put their works in operation.

—Ex-President Mark Hopkins, of Williams College, died at North Adams, Mass., on the morning of the 17th inst.

—Lompoc, Cal., produced 25,000 centals of English mustard last year, and it is said that the yield will be greater this year.

—The United States national debt, less cash in the treasury, is now about $1,000,000,000, or $20 per capita of our population.

—The jury in the Jake Sharp case, New York City, was completed on the 15th inst. The whole number of jurors examined was 1,196.

—Victoria, B. C., is overrun with caterpillars, which have appeared in large numbers and are doing a great deal of damage to fruit trees.

—It is stated that during the last three years 6,000 foreigners, more than half of whom were Germans, have applied for Russian naturalization.

—Some twenty-seven persons were drowned on the 16th inst., while attempting to escape from a burning steamer off Charlevoix, Michigan.

—The Irish members of Parliament, though urged to do so, refused to attend thanksgiving jubilee services at Westminster Abbey, on the 21st inst.

—Nearly 250 pilgrims were lost a few days since in Hungary while crossing the Danube River. The boats were caught in a hurricane and capsized.

—The director of the Mint, estimates the production of precious metals in the United States for 1886 to have been: gold, $35,000,000; silver, $51,000,000.

—The floods in Hungary are subsiding, but there is great distress among the inhabitants of the inundated regions. Fifteen hundred farmers are totally ruined.

—Two of the Chicago boodlers have been found guilty of official corruption, and will be required to atone for their crime by spending three years each in the penitentiary.

—The Pope in his letter of congratulation to Queen Victoria, expressed, it is said, a wish for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Her Majesty's Government and the Vatican.

—Seventy-one immigrants whose fares were paid by the British Government, were allowed to land the other day at New York, on habeas corpus proceedings had before Judge Brown.

—The work of civilizing Burmah is being steadily carried forward by the English, who have conquered that country. Late advices state that 195 of the natives were killed at Kyoup Sidoung on the 12th inst.

—The Holland Parliament has passed a bill providing for the temporary extension of the electoral franchise, pending a complete revision of the constitution. The bill raises the number of voters from 130,000 to 300,000.

—Owing to a heavy wind which continued in one direction for four days, the rice fields along the east side of the Mississippi for thirty miles from the gulf were submerged with salt water a few days since, and the crop was ruined.

—A heavy wind did considerable damage at Grand Forks, Dakota, one day last week. The Grand Forks roundhouse was blown down and much damage done. The wires were all down, and a passenger train was blown from the track near that place. Four persons were killed and six seriously injured.

—Prince Victor Albert, who may some day be king of England, will attend the grand jubilee thanksgiving service to be held in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on June 28, and will on that occasion be decorated with the order of St. Patrick.

—Mulhall, the British statistician, is authority for the statement that during the Victorian reign Ireland has lost by famine 1,225,000 people; by eviction, 3,668,000; by emigration, 4,186,000. The evicted constituted 75 per cent. of the whole population.

—It is stated that the death rate among laborers on the Panama canal is about 60 per cent. among the colored workmen and 80 per cent. among white laborers per annum. Owing to this fact, the company has great trouble in obtaining workmen.

—The Grand Jury at Denver, Col., returned six indictments against the sheriff of that county for false pretenses and malfeasance in office. Indictments were also returned against the under-sheriff and two other deputies, charging them with perjury.

—Emperor William is very feeble and his death at almost any time would not be a matter of surprise. The Crown Prince is also in rather delicate health on account of an abnormal growth in his throat, supposed by some to be a cancer, though this is denied by his physician, Dr. McKenzie, of London.

—Hailstones, strangely shaped, pointed, and weighing over one pound each, fell, a few days since, between Adrianople and Shumla, on the south slope of the Balkan Mountains, East Roumelia. They destroyed harvests, killed many laborers and cattle in the fields, and pierced the roofs of houses like bullets.

—President Cleveland caused quite a sensation and a perfect storm of indignation throughout the North, some days since, by issuing an order for the return to the several Southern States of all the flags captured from the Confederate forces during the war of the Rebellion. The order was however rescinded on the 16th inst. It is a matter of surprise that such an order was ever issued, and it is no less surprising that such a man as Cleveland should have revoked the order after it was issued.

—In Russia it is said suicides are increasing in number every year. The proportion to the population is now greater in St. Petersburg than in any other European capital. Of late years even boys and girls from eight to sixteen take their own lives, generally on the idea of the cruel treatment of their parents. The causes assigned for that state of things are the wretched social conditions of modern Russian life and the pessimist views and Anarchist tendencies embraced by many in early years.