p. 30 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 14, 1886

SECULAR.

—Dakota and Montana are anxious to be admitted into the Union as States.

—Han Qua, a Chinese banker of Canton, is said to be worth $1,400,000,000.

—The steamer W. D. Chipley sunk in the Chattahoochie River, January 2; six lives were lost.

—It is stated that 60,000,000 people speak the German language; 45,000,000 the French; and 100,000,000 the English.

—The committee which has been trying to find out how so many millions are spent every year in running the city government of New York, found that in one department it has cost the city $7,000 a year to keep the records of two weekly meetings of the commissioners. In other places the same waste of money has been discovered.

—January 3 was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of Emperor William to the throne of Prussia.

—A company in Manchester, England, have a contract for building a railway from the Upper to the Lower Congo.

—January 9, a severe storm was raging along the coast of Great Britain. Many wrecks are reported, with serious loss of life.

—The Greek Government has sent a note to the Powers, vigorously protesting against the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia.

—A telegram from Mandalay, Burmah, dated January 6, states that 10,000 rebels are scouring the country within a radius of twenty miles of the capital.

—Floods in Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania have done much damage to property. Near Harrisburg a train was wrecked by the giving way of a bridge, and two men were drowned.

—David Stuart, a prominent Mormon bishop, thinks he can be a polygamist and a good, law-abiding citizen too. Judge Powers thinks differently, and has sentenced him to six months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of $300.

—About one o'clock in the morning, January 9, a fire broke out in Ladies' Hall, a brick building connected with Oberlin College, in which 250 students were sleeping. No lives were lost; but the hall was completely destroyed. The loss is estimated at $50,000.

—Postmaster-General Vilas is making himself very unpopular in the West by his sweeping reductions in the mail service to the small towns. Many frontier towns that have been receiving a daily mail have been reduced to a tri-weekly or semi-weekly mail. The most prominent men in the West are protesting against the change.

—The striking miners in the Monongahela Valley, Pa., have resumed work. An operator estimates their loss in wages at fully $1,500,000. The operators also have lost, but how much they will not say. The strike lasted four months, and was the most stubbornly contested struggle ever known on the river. Fully six thousand men were engaged in it.

—Advices from Cairo, Egypt, state that the Arabs lost six thousand men in their recent battle with the British. It is reported that some Mahdist fanatics have since penetrated the British lines at Saukin, and attacked the soldiers in the town. Furious fighting followed, in which a number of English soldiers were killed or wounded.

—The authorities of Chattanooga, Tenn., are enforcing the Sunday law against the saloon-keepers. The whisky men say that they have been discriminated against, and they will test the law to its full scope. So they have sworn out nearly one hundred warrants against those engaged in all the trades and professions that do business on Sunday.

—The bishop of the Galway diocese, Ireland, says that in Galway all labor has practically ceased. Between 400 and 500 laborers are absolutely destitute, and are only kept alive by charity, or by the pawning of a few personal effects. A meeting of 5,000 unemployed workingmen was held January 8, at which speeches of a socialistic character were made.

—German financiers are taking an interest in the development of railroads in China. It has been publicly announced that the Deutsch Bank, the Discount Company of Berlin, and the Krupp Iron Works Company will immediately send delegates to China with a view to negotiating with that Government in the matter of establishing a system of railroads in the empire.

—A terrific storm, wider in extent and more fierce of character than has been known before for years, raged throughout the Eastern States, January 6-9. The cold was intense; throughout Dakota the thermometer ranged from 20 to 40 degrees below zero. Trains were blocked, and telegraphic communication was interrupted. Many wrecks on the Atlantic coast are reported, with considerable loss of life.

—There is a project on foot for the construction of a ship canal from Liverpool to Manchester. The plan is to make Manchester a port of entry for every cotton ship having freight for that city, as the cost of transporting cotton from Liverpool to Manchester is about as great as the cost of freight from American ports to Liverpool. The distance is thirty-five miles, and the estimated cost of the canal is $50,

000,000.

—Sixteen convicts who were employed in the mines at Coal Hill, Ark., effected their escape, January 6. Two of them were captured.

—The British Empire, with an area of 8,557,658 square miles—more than a sixth of all the land on the globe—and embracing under its rule a sixth part of the inhabitants of the world, is the largest and most populous empire in the world. Russia ranks second in territorial extent, embracing 8,352,930 square miles. The United States is third, containing 3,580,242 square miles, including Alaska.