p. 94 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 10, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 6.

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SECULAR.

—The appearance of cholera in Chili has caused great consternation.

—It is said that the Catholics in Germany are now in favor of Bismarck's Army Bill.

—Mr. Francis Smith, one of the proprietors of the New York Weekly, died January 30.

—An extensive warehouse in St. Louis was burned February 3, entailing a loss of $250,000.

—A boy has been arrested for placing an obstruction on one of the cable-car tracks in San Francisco.

—The British steamer Blair Athol foundered in the Black Sea, January 30. Twenty persons were drowned.

—A disastrous fire occurred February 3 in Rochester, N. Y. The loss is said to be $60,000, and no insurance.

—The House Committee on Foreign Affairs has decided not to call up Morrison's Anti-Chinese Bill this session.

—February 2 the House passed the bill appropriating $100,000 for the construction of a soldiers' home west of the Rockies.

—On February 3 a waterspout rushed through the country about ten miles from Nashville, Tenn., and did considerable damage.

—H. M. Brooks, alias Maxwell, who was to have been executed on the 3d inst., has been granted a stay of execution till April 1.

—The jury in the case of ex-Alderman O'Neill, of New York, who was charged with receiving a bribe, has returned a verdict of guilty.

—The Ohio River rose at Cincinnati on the 3d inst. at the rate of an inch an hour, causing all access to the Central Passenger Depot to be cut off.

—January 30 there was serious rioting in Belfast, Ireland. The mob and police exchanged shots. Nobody was killed, but several persons were wounded.

—The British emigrant-ship Kapunda came into collision with an unknown vessel off the Brazilian coast, and was sunk. Three hundred of those on board were drowned.

—In Alabama the Senate passed a vote last week providing for submitting to the people at the next general election a constitutional amendment prohibiting the liquor traffic.

—There has been fighting in the Soudan between Italians and Abyssinians. The Italians were almost annihilated. When the news reached Rome it caused great excitement.

—A recent statement read in the United States Senate shows that India will soon be exporting 74,000,000 bushels of wheat; this will compete with American wheat growers.

—The Berlin correspondent of the London Daily News says that the whole German army is to be called out in sections of 72,000 men, to be drilled in the use of the repeating rifle.

—August Spies, one of the condemned Chicago Anarchists, was married by proxy a few days ago to Miss Van Zandt. It remains to be seen if the laws of Illinois sanction such an infamous proceeding.

—The Yokohama Gazette of January 19 says: "An earthquake of more than ordinary severity took place in Yokohama on Saturday night, which caused much damage to property, though, as far as we have yet heard, no loss of life."

—January 29 an explosion occurred on the steamer Guyandotte while off Long Branch, wounding the captain and one seaman. The explosion is said to have been caused by dynamite, which was smuggled on board in a hand-satchel.

—A terrible wind-storm occurred in the Stampede Pass, Cascade Mountains, Oregon. Nine Chinamen were killed and at least thirty crushed in the snow. A tree was also blown into a white man's camp and four men were seriously injured.

—Senator Ingalls has declared himself in favor of the annexation of not only Canada but the entire Central American States. Speaking on this he said: "My dream, and I believe the settled conviction of the American people, is a continental republic."

—A Catholic priest, Father F. C. Jean, who was deposed about fifteen years ago by Bishop Hennessy, of Dubuque, brought suit against the latter for damages because of such action. He has just been awarded $100,000 damage by the District Court.

—John de Leon, the astrologer, who was convicted of inducing young girls to go to Panama for immoral purposes, under the pretext of furnishing employment for them, has been sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment with hard labor,—the maximum punishment of the law.

—A company has been formed in San Francisco for decorticating the Ramie, a nettle-like plant. They are supplied with machinery that can defiberize 3,000 to 4,000 pounds a day. The Ramie fiber is soft, white, and silky, and will be a formidable rival to cotton, silk, and flax.

—A dynamite steel cruiser is to be constructed for the navy by June 1. This vessel is to carry three dynamite guns, which are promised to be so constructed that they can throw 400 pounds of dynamite; this is said to be sufficient to blow up the largest vessel known to modern navies.

—While an oil well was in process of drilling near Los Angeles, Cal., a few days ago, the oil suddenly commenced to flow, and coming in contact with a gas jet, was instantly converted into a column of flame, causing considerable excitement and some damage. The owners feel satisfied that the new well will prove a great success.

—A Californian has invented an automatic fireproof elevator shutter, which will effectually stop the draft of fire through the shaft. The invention consists of two sheet-iron covered shutters on a level with each floor, which when the elevator ascends open automatically and allow it to pass through, and then close up and lock themselves after it.

—A terrible railroad accident occurred February 5, near Woodstock, N. H. Part of the train while passing over a bridge was thrown off the track by a broken rail, and two day coaches and two sleepers were thrown over the abutment onto the frozen river some fifty feet below. The cars then took fire and it is reported that some sixty lives were lost.

—There has been a letter sent to the London Times by some of the passengers of a transatlantic steamer, protesting against the way the smoking-room was used during the voyage. They say the room was a regular "gambling-hell," and the resort of decoys for the unwary. The passengers were often disturbed at night by the profanity and threats of murder arising from gambling disputes.

—It is reported that a cargo of Australian rabbits is at sea, bound for the United States. The Hon. C. M. Clay, calling attention to this, says that he has made domestic live stock of all kinds a study, and that it would be better to have pleuro-pneumonia, small-pox, and the cholera spread over the United States, than to suffer the ravages that will result from the importation of these rabbits.

—The committee of the German National Liberal party has issued a manifesto to the electors. They say: "Never since the Franco-German war has the danger of a great conflict been so near. No statesman can form any certain conclusion as to the future, even for a few weeks. The peace of Europe rests at this moment solely upon the strength of readiness of action and the moral trustworthiness of the German army."