p. 174 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 17, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 11.

SECULAR.

—London consumes 250,000 tons of coal weekly. —Henry Ward Beecher died March 8, of apoplexy. —Captain Eads, the great American engineer, died March 6. —The Mormons are said to be again recruiting in the South. —A widespread Nihilist plot has been discovered in Finland. —The cholera has been officially declared epidemic at Montevideo. —The dynamite factory at Barchester, L. I., exploded March 6. —A $100,000 fire occurred in a flouring mill at Hudson, Wis., March 6. —Sir Michael Hicks-Beach has abandoned his post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. —The manuscript of a sermon of John Knox, preached in Edinburgh, 1565, has been sold for $1,046. —It is reported that the Soudanese rebels are advancing in force from Dongola upon Wady Halfa, on the Nile. —A severe shock of earthquake again visited Menton and Nice, March 11, causing dismay among the inhabitants. —Two formidable cruisers have been launched by the British Government. One is named the Galatea and the other the Serpent. —The steamer Yazoo Valley was burned on the Red River near Grand Ecore March 8. Three colored deck hands were burned to death. —Some of the Silistrian rebels who were captured were punished by being whipped through the whole of one night; in the morning they died. —An Atlanta liquor-seller, who was fined $50 in the Police Court, took an appeal to the City Court, was convicted in that tribunal, and his fine raised to $1,000. —In the French arsenal at Belfort a serious accident occurred March 10 by an explosion of melinite, the new explosive. Six men were killed and eleven wounded. —An agricultural paper figures it that "when land is worth $20 an acre, one glass of beer at 5 cents would represent a piece of land nine feet wide and twelve feet long." —A very rich gold field has been discovered in the Transvaal, causing a great rush of capitalists, miners, and adventurers, and a city of 8,000 inhabitants has already sprung up. —The present Arizona Legislature is said to be the most corrupt body that has ever been known there. We know of several States that make the same claim for their Legislatures. —The Radical clubs of London are about to issue an address on the Queen's Jubilee, protesting against the cost of supporting royalty which they estimate reaches the sum of $4,000,000 a year. —German photographers have succeeded in photographing a projectile in the course of its flight, and some of the photographers show the head of condensed air which precedes every shot. —The Septennate bill passed without debate in the German Reichstag, March 11, by a vote of 227 to 31. This bill is to provide for an increase in the army and make appropriations for seven years. —In five States thus far this season constitutional prohibitory amendments have been favorably voted upon by the Legislatures. The States are Michigan, Tennessee, Oregon, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. —It is reported that Italy has made a treaty with Germany and Austria. If France and Russia attack Germany, Italy will move on France. If Austria and Russia have a conflict, Italy will aid Austria with her fleet. —The Papal Nuncio at Paris has been summoned to Rome to be charged with a special mission from the Pope on the basis of the understanding already concluded with the French Bishops by the French Government. —Professor Baird says that as a fish has no maturity there is nothing to prevent it from living indefinitely and growing continually. In the Royal Aquarium at St. Petersburg there are fish that have been there 140 years. —The report from Shanghai that China has given the Chusan Islands to Germany has revived the dissatisfaction in Paris with the Government's colonial schemes. The late French exploits in China have cost 20,000,000 francs and 20,000 men, but Germany has taken the best picking at no cost, while France has little to show for her trouble. —A remarkable railroad accident occurred on the Iron Mountain Railroad at Victoria, some thirty miles south of St. Louis, March 5. While the train was passing over a trestle the whole structure suddenly gave way, and the engine and baggage, mail, express, and smoking cars were precipitated into the raging torrent below, carrying with them all on board. The cars were carried down the stream some distance and most of the mail and express was lost, but only one life, although many persons were very badly bruised. —A large tailoring establishment in New York was destroyed by fire March 8. The fire caused a blockade on the elevated railroad, and a number of the passengers left one of the trains and started to walk to the nearest station along a narrow foot-path at the side of the track. While doing so, the blockade was relieved and the train began to move. The motion shook the pathway to such an extent that a number of the passengers were thrown down into the street below. Three persons were killed and seven very badly injured.