p. 14 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 10.

SECULAR.

—The estimated value of the diamonds in America is $1,000,000,000.

—The treaty of peace between Servia and Bulgaria was signed March 2.

—On the 1st inst., there was a heavy fall of snow in Maine and New Brunswick, seriously blockading trains.

—Prince Bismarck's bill for expelling the Poles from Germany has been presented to the Cabinet Council. The bill was unanimously opposed by his colleagues, and Bismarck yielded.

—A Washington letter, as quoted in the San Francisco Bulletin, says that the most industrious lobby in Washington is that devoted to the interests of the Mormons. They are doing everything possible to secure the removal of obnoxious Territorial officers in Utah; and Governor Murray and Judge Zane are special objects of their wrath. Rumor says that the gentleman who has charge of the matter has received $30,000 in one sum, as a retainer for his service during the Forty-ninth Congress.

—There was an extensive fire in Akron, Ohio, on the morning of March 6. Loss about $1,000,000.

—Mount Etna is in a state of eruption; slight earthquake shocks have been felt at the base of the mountain.

—It is stated that the jockey clubs in this country last year contributed $973,000 to "stimulate the noble industry of horse-racing!"

—Eight of the leaders in the recent London riots have been tried, and sentenced to penal servitude for terms ranging from one to five years.

—There was a severe snow storm in the northern part of Great Britain, March 1-4. Some trains were imbedded in the drifts for forty-eight hours.

—In beginning its career as a State, Dakota is considering the educational interests of its children. It has 3,279 public schools, 4,145 teachers, and 69,475 enrolled pupils. Its permanent school property is valued at $2,187,850; the receipts for school purposes last year were $2,141,757, and the expenditures $1,214,212.

—A local-option bill has just passed the lower house of the Virginia Legislature. A similar law has been enacted by the Legislature of Washington Territory; and a bill having in view the same object is before the New Jersey Legislature. The principle of local option has worked wonders in Georgia, and is steadily growing in popular favor.

—According to the New York World, a cotton-picking machine which promises to revolutionize the South, and take a place among the greatest inventions of the age, has been exhibited at the Cotton Exchange. It cost $67,000,000 to harvest the crop of 1884-85; and by substituting these machines for manual labor, it is claimed that a saving of $50,000,000 can be effected.

—Governor Martin, of Kansas, says that in that State there is a general and popular readiness to comply with the terms of the amended prohibitory law, and organized opposition is fast disappearing. "He asserts that through the concurrence of all agencies in behalf of law, order, and practical temperance, Kansas last year made greater moral progress than in any other period of its history."

—The California State Horticultural Society has passed a series of resolutions on the Chinese question, in which they vigorously protest against boycotting. While declaring themselves opposed to further Chinese immigration, and expressing their determination to give the preference to white men as laborers, they assert that any man has a right to employ a Chinaman or an Indian to do any work that he may have. "We pledge ourselves," they say, "not to be controlled in the management of our own business."

—According to a London dispatch, there is good authority for the statement that England is treating with China respecting the claims of the Chinese Government to the suzerainty over Burmah. The British Government is also trying to secure a monopoly of the right to build and operate railways in China and Burmah for the transportation of troops, war material, etc. The result of the negotiations is of obvious importance to American manufacturing States, and particularly to those near the Pacific Coast.

—Lieutenant Graydon, of the United States navy, has invented a new system of cable torpedoes for harbor defense. The merit of his invention lies in the fact that the torpedoes can easily be withdrawn to allow the passage of friendly craft, and speedily replaced, ready to deal death and destruction to an enemy's fleet. Lieutenant Graydon is also the inventor of a dynamite cartridge, which is sure death to every man hit by it. The Lieutenant says that when 54 pounds of dynamite are used in a 2,100-pound projectile from a 110-ton gun, there is nothing on sea or land that can sustain the shock.

—The latest scheme of the Mormon church is said to be a plan to gain control of a State; and their choice seems to have fallen upon Nevada. They hope to secure their object by a Mormon immigration into the State in sufficient numbers to command a majority at the polls. Such colonization can be effected without weakening their hold on Utah or any of the outlying Territories. The Mormons would then be free from the interference of Congress. In dealing with them under a State organization, constitutional questions will arise as grave as those settled by the civil war of 1861-65, "with the perpetual difficulty that in dealing with this particular case, precedents may be established which in after time could be quoted in justification of the repression of civil and religious liberty, and the impairment of the integrity of duly invested Statehood."