p. 126 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 25, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 8.

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SECULAR.

—A family consisting of seven persons were burned to death in Wisconsin on the 16th inst.

—Lord Dufferin has decided that it will take 16,000 British soldiers to maintain order in Burmah.

—Eight sheep-herders were killed by Apaches in Valencia County, N. M., on the 18th inst.

—A new bridge is to be built over the Harlem River, N. Y., at a cost of $2,500,000.

—The Reichstag has expressed its emphatic disapproval of Bismarck's scheme of driving the Poles out of Germany.

—In the State of Sinaloa, Mexico, bandits attacked two American gentlemen, killing one and wounding the other.

—France supports the demand of the Porte that the British army in Egypt be replaced by Turco-Egyptian troops.

—According to the Philadelphia Free Press, the courts of that city recently granted twenty-eight divorces in a single day.

—The citizens of Provincetown, Mass., have instructed the selectmen to issue no licenses to liquor saloons and skating rinks.

—On the 20th inst. a tidal wave at St. John, N. B., submerged all the wharves and covered the floors of many stores and dwellings, doing great damage.

—Servia is now negotiating with Turkey in favor of a union of Bosnia and Servia on conditions similar to those of the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia.

—John B. Gough, the noted temperance lecturer, was stricken with paralysis while lecturing in Frankford, Pa., February 15, and died the next Friday.

—The almost incredible fact is stated that in a single county in Kansas (Graham) 5,153,449 cattle and 4,704 sheep were frozen to death during the two great storms of January.

—The Diston Company, which has a grant of all the land in the Florida Everglades that it can drain, has already reclaimed 4,000,000 acres, and expects to secure 18,000,000 more.

—It is now conceded that the cost of the Panama Canal will be $100,000,000 more than the original estimate. The percolation of water along the whole course of the canal is presenting an almost insurmountable obstacle to its construction.

—At one time during the recent flood in Massachusetts, the water was from two to eight feet deep over two square miles of the city of Boston. The total loss from the floods in the entire State is estimated at $7,000,000.

—The French Chamber of Deputies has decided to sell the Crown jewels, except some of historic interest, which will be placed in the collection in the Louvre gallery, and devote the proceeds to a fund for aged workmen. It is estimated that the sum realized will be about $40,000,000.

—Two of the New York Aldermen who voted for the Broadway-railroad franchise have, it is stated, disclosed the whole conspiracy. The evidence now in the hands of the investigating committee shows that the Broadway-railway ring has ramifications and connections of the most startling nature.

—Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, has given to Wellesley College a sum of money the interest of which is to be used to send every professor connected with the institution to Europe once in seven years, and to give each professor an annuity of $500 a year when she is no longer able to go on with her work.

—The misunderstanding between the Post-office Department at Washington and the Pacific Mail Company is resulting in great irregularity in the mails between the United States and Panama. Mail matter designed for the Isthmus reaches its destination in about three weeks, instead of eight or nine days, as formerly.

—One of the first measures to be considered by Parliament will be that of home-rule for Ireland. But while there is a large party in Ireland that will be satisfied with nothing short of the “completest form of home-rule,” a very respectable minority are opposed. Resolutions denouncing the project have been adopted by 359 Presbyterian congregations, representing more than 328,000 persons.

—George Q. Cannon, leader and apostle among the Mormons, was arrested at Winnemucca, Nev., February 14. Mr. Cannon has made desperate efforts to escape. He attempted to bribe the sheriff to release him by the offer of $1,000, and, failing in this, tried to escape by jumping from the train while in motion. He was required to give bail in the sum of $25,000.

—Earthquake shocks continue to be felt at Amatitlan, Guatemala. The few houses that were not ruined by the first heavy shock are now quite uninhabitable. The distress among the people is heart-rending, and President Barillas and his Cabinet have started a subscription for their relief. In a city still farther south, the cold is considered phenomenal, the mercury having fallen to four degrees below zero.

—Revolutions are impending in Honduras, Guatemala, and San Salvador. All Honduras is like a smoldering volcano, liable at any moment to break forth in an eruption. There are rumors of fillibustering expeditions hovering on the coast, and of risings and plots in the interior. President Bogran has proclaimed martial law and ordered military conscription, and this has greatly increased the general discontent.

—Randolph Rogers, the sculptor, has presented his Roman studio to the Michigan State University at Ann Arbor. The studio contains the works produced during an active career of thirty-five or forty years, including the rough sketches in clay, the original casts completely finished by Mr. Rogers’s own hands, and the tools and implements which he has used. The Lewis gallery, at Coldwater, Mich., of more than six hundred paintings, has recently been bequeathed to the same institution.