SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 9, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 10.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

—Bessemer’s steel patents have brought him $35,385,000 in royalties.

—The bill incorporating the Nicaragua Canal Company has passed Congress.

—It is reported that the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great has been found at Saida.

—Vanderbilt has secured the service of a French cook, Joseph Real, at $10,000 per annum.

—A fire in New York the 1st inst. destroyed nearly an entire block. Loss about $800,000.

—The celebrated Union Square Theater of New York was burned, with all its contents, February 28. Loss $150,000.

—The Oregon Fish Commissioners are having five million salmon trout placed in the streams along the coast.

—Newton, Kansas, was visited by a severe cyclone March 1, which destroyed several buildings, and killed two persons.

—A hurricane devastated the town of Tamatav, Madagascar, about the 1st inst. Eleven vessels were wrecked, and twenty persons were killed.

—A mail carrier in Tacoma, W. T., was arrested on February 26 for destroying third-class mail. He said he was tired and did not want to deliver it.

—The grand jury of King County, W. T., recommended the indictment of the city officers of Seattle for neglecting the sanitary condition of their city.

—The Italian village of Valtorta has been half buried by an avalanche. Many houses were wrecked and at last accounts 23 dead bodies had been uncovered.

—The fire record of 1887 is said to be the worst ever known except in the years of the great Chicago and Boston fires. But the record this year promises to be fully as bad.

—The relations of France and Italy are further strained by the refusal of the former to modify the proposed treaty of commerce, and further negotiations are broken off.

—Old Libby Prison will be removed from Richmond, Va., to Chicago, where it will be erected and used as a war museum to contain articles of interest to the North and South.

—The Signal Service report for February showed the highest temperature at San Francisco to be 76 degrees and the lowest 46, with an average for the month of 52 degrees.

—The imports of the United States from Brazil in 1886 were over $41,000,000 of which $26,000,000 worth of coffee was the principal item. The exports to the same country were about $6,500,000.

—The Italian, Austrian, and English Governments have concurred in Russia’s opinion that Prince Ferdinand’s occupancy of the Bulgarian throne is illegal, but they decline to disturb the peace of his kingdom.

—The Iowa Legislature has a bill which will probably become a law, making it an offense punishable with three years’ imprisonment, extreme penalty, to buy any cereal at more than four times the market value of the same grain.

—The United States paid $7,500,000 for Alaska, which many thought an exorbitant price. Last year the products of the country were $7,000,000. And the Government has received $5,000,000 for the rent of St. Paul and St. George Islands alone.

—The charges of misappropriation of funds preferred against Russel Sage and Jay Gould have been dismissed by the New York Grand Jury, they being debarred by the lapse of the years of limitation. The culpability of these men was not considered by the jury.

—The monthly debt statement for March 1 showed the reduction of the public debt in February to have been $7,756,366. Total cash in treasury $572,390,989.

—Three men were descending into a mine at Walkerville, M. T., March 2, when the cable broke and they were plunged to the bottom of the shaft and killed.

—M. Wilson, son-in-law to ex-President Grevy of France, has been convicted of speculating in Government decorations and sentenced to two years in the penitentiary and to pay a fine of 3,000 francs and the loss of his civil rights for five years.

—The anniversary of the coronation of the Pope was celebrated the 2d inst. The Pope made a speech which was full of bitterness toward the Italian Government. He said there could be no arrangements with the Government until the independence of the Papacy was restored.

—At Spanish Camp, Texas, a settlement of negroes, Mexicans, and desperadoes, a negro cabin was set on fire early on the 26th ult., and as the inmates ran out they were murdered. Six were shot down, and two burned with the cabin. A land suit having been decided in favor of the negroes, caused the massacre.

—The great strike of engineers on the Burlington Railroad was inaugurated the 27th ult. and still continues; both sides are confident of final victory and are making every effort to secure it. The movement of freight trains is almost wholly interrupted. Passenger trains are running but irregularly.

—Although the physicians continue to publish favorable reports of the condition of the Crown Prince, there is but little doubt that his days are few, and preparations are being made for his removal to German soil before his death. The royal family seem to have lost hope of his recovery, as late examinations show evident signs of cancer.

—A so-called sacred concert was held in Denver Sunday evening, February 26, and the holding of it caused the arrest of ex-Senator Tabor, owner of the opera house, and W. T. Carlton, manager of the concert. The city ordinances forbid public performances where acting is done. Public sentiment is said to favor the mayor, who ordered the arrests.

—Negotiations between Russia and the Vatican have been going on for some time, looking to a compromise between the Greek and the Roman Churches for mutual toleration. These negotiations have been broken off by the extravagant demands of the Czar, who claimed that all Catholic bishops in Russia should be appointed by himself, and that the Russian language should be exclusively used in the services and catechisms.

—The Anti-saloon Republican National Committee has called a conference to assemble in New York, April 18, 1888. An invitation is extended to all Republicans who sympathize with this movement, and to all members of other parties, and independent voters who are willing to act with the Republican party if it will favor the anti-saloon principles. The object of the movement is to induce the Republican party to unequivocally declare its antagonism to the saloon power.

—The United States is rapidly catching up with Great Britain in the production of pig-iron. In 1876 the English product was three and a half times our own, in 1882 it was almost twice as large, but in 1887 our product was 6,417,148 tons, a gain of about 800,000 tons over the year previous, and only about 400,000 tons short of the English product for 1886. A large part of this increase is in the new Southern fields, and it is not singular that the protection sentiment is strong in those sections.

—A terrible catastrophe occurred at Vallejo, Cal., on the morning of February 27, by which over thirty lives were lost. The steamer Julia, which plied between Vallejo and the junction across the bay, had taken aboard forty-nine workmen for the other side of the bay and was just leaving the dock when her boilers exploded with great force. Everyone on board was either killed or injured. The petroleum used as fuel took fire and this soon spread to the wharves, resulting in a conflagration which destroyed $250,000 worth of property. The boat was old, and considerable blame is attached to the owners, as the boilers were known to be unsafe.