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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 6.

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SECULAR.

—There were 323 suicides in Vienna in 1885.

—Many fatal landslides have been reported of late.

—The Apaches are committing depredations in Sonora, Mexico.

—Last year there were over two thousand fires in London, and sixty lives were lost by them.

—The demand for iron-working tools is so great that within two months the price has been twice raised.

—Spain has been called upon to arbitrate in an unpleasantness between Italy and the United States of Colombia.

—The silk manufacturers of the United States have decided to make a rise of ten per cent. in the price of silk thread and twist.

—Mrs. Bayard, wife of the Secretary of State, died in Washington, January 31. His daughter, Miss Kate Bayard, died two weeks before.

—A bill appropriating $400,000 for the erection of a post office in San Francisco will probably soon be introduced into the House of Representatives.

—If the military force of Europe were drawn up in line, the distance from right to left would be six thousand miles, as the force would consist of 9,000,000 soldiers.

—Ex-Senator Henry W. Corbett, of Oregon, thinks that in a few years the salmon in the Columbia River will disappear, if the Government does not establish hatcheries.

—The Detroit, Grand Haven, and Milwaukee Railway freight-house at Grand Haven, Mich., was partially destroyed by fire, February 1. The loss is estimated at $250,000.

—Telegrams of January 31, from various towns in New Hampshire, state that a severe storm of sleet has done incalculable damage to the garden and fruit trees in that State.

—A volcanic disturbance in Central America has resulted in the total destruction of the village of San Vincente de Pacaya. Further trouble is feared from the Pacaya volcano.

—Work will soon be commenced on the Simplon Tunnel, the fourth and longest cut through the Alps. The new tunnel will be twelve and a half miles long, and will cost about $20,000,000.

—The weavers in five cotton mills in St. Quentin, Department of Aisne, France, are on a strike. On the 3d inst., they engaged in such riotous demonstrations that it was necessary to call out a military force to subdue them.

—The Bill to divide Dakota, to admit the southern portion into the Union as a State under the title of Dakota, and to organize the northern portion into a Territory under the name of "Lincoln," has passed the Senate.

—A man in Birmingham, Conn., recently had his front teeth loosened, his mustache and eyebrows burned off, and his eyes completely blinded, by the explosion of a cigar he was smoking. It is supposed that the cigar was loaded as a "joke."

—As a result of Bismarck’s policy in expelling the Poles from Germany, some of the largest estates in Prussia will be offered for sale. Bismarck’s policy is to purchase for the crown, at fair prices, all real estate owned by Polish nobles and gentry, and sell the land to German colonists.

—Several engagements have taken place between the Dacoits and British troops in Burmah. In every instance the Dacoits have been defeated, and it is believed that order will soon be restored. Lord Dufferin, Viceroy of India, has gone to Burmah to arrange for an extension of the British Indian administration to include that kingdom.

—About fifty persons have been arrested in Guatemala for complicity in a treasonable and fiendish plot to overthrow the Government. Their plan was to set fire to the Grand Hotel and theater, and in the panic that would ensue, take possession of the barracks and murder President Barillas and his family; they would then attack the foreigners and sack the city.

The British steamer Castle Craig started out on a trip from New Orleans to Liverpool, February 6. The pilot soon discovered that she would not obey her rudder, and gave orders to reverse the engine. But before she could be securely anchored, she had run into three other British ships and the Norwegian bark Ophir, some of them twice. The damage to the Castle Craig is not known; but the damage to the other vessels foots up $60,000.

—Anarchy prevails in the Mexican State Tamaulipas.

—Governor Murray has vetoed a joint resolution of the Utah Legislature providing for the compilation of the laws of Utah at a cost of $10,000. The Governor objects to the compilation, because it would perpetuate on the statute book many obsolete laws, and some which are in direct conflict with the laws of Congress, and hence would be misleading to the people.

—Greece and Servia still refuse to disarm, as requested by the Powers of Europe. The Powers have a naval squadron in the Mediterranean, charged with the duty of keeping peace among the belligerent nations. But even here there is not complete harmony. Russia refuses to take part in the naval demonstration, and German ironclads are ordered to remain at Malta. With the exception of Russia, the Powers have verbally sanctioned the Turco-Bulgarian agreement.

—The new method of sending telegraphic messages from railway trains while in motion was exhibited on the Staten Island Railway, February 1, in the presence of several prominent railway officials. From wires on the car roofs, the messages were transmitted, by induction, to the permanent wires on poles along the line of the railroad. In this way messages were sent with perfect facility to and from New York and other points, while the cars were running at the rate of thirty miles an hour.

—The report of the New York Charity Organization, which recently held its fifth annual meeting, shows that that city annually expends in charity the sum of $7,360,000. The statistics prove that one family alone has, in five generations, cost the State $1,500,000. It has been demonstrated that begging is a profession, followed, like any other, just as far as it can be made profitable. Through the instrumentality of the society, nearly one thousand professional beggars have been arrested, and during the past year nearly nine hundred families have been reformed from pauperism.