SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 23.

SECULAR.

—The English language contains 114,000 words. —Several cases of small-pox have been discovered in Chicago. —It is said that cable-cars are to be introduced into London. —Owing to cold wet weather, the crop outlook in Great Britain is very bad. —An abundant supply of natural gas has been obtained at Findlay, Ohio. —Another large war vessel was launched at Chatham, England, on the 7th inst. —The Czar of Russia receives the largest salary of any ruler—$10,000,000 annually. —Eight men were killed by a dynamite explosion near Altoona, Penn., on the 4th inst. —Lord Lansdowne, Governor-General of Canada, owns, it is said, 120,616 acres of land in Ireland. —A teamster and nine horses were burned to death in a stable at Redwood City, one day last week. —Pennsylvania has paid $90,000 for the destruction of 180,000 hawks and owls in the past two years. —An explosion of fire-damp on the 7th inst. in a German coal mine, caused the death of fifty-three persons. —Queen Victoria’s jubilee is to be celebrated with imposing ceremonies in Westminster Abbey on the 20th inst.

—It is said that there are 20,000 homeless people in Michigan on account of the recent destructive fires in that State. —The great gale of May 7–10 on the New Zealand coast resulted in several disastrous wrecks. Several lives were lost. —Sixty-five thousand elephants are destroyed in Africa annually. The amount of ivory obtained from them is 1,875,000 pounds. —It is computed that the annual birth rate of the world exceeds the death rate by about 1,100,000. Sixty-seven persons die every minute. —A cyclone swept the country thirty miles north of Jamestown, Dakota Territory, a few days since, doing considerable damage to crops and houses. —A water-spout in Somerset County, Pa., a few days since, destroyed property to the value of $150,000 and rendered at least 200 people temporarily homeless. —The Executive Committee of the Prohibition party of New York has decided to hold a State convention in Syracuse, August 25 and 26, and will nominate a full ticket. —Last week, severe earthquake shocks in Turkistan destroyed several towns and killed a great number of the inhabitants. The telegraph wires were broken in many places. —News was recently received at Des Moines, Iowa, that Rev. Dr. Reid, who left that place last winter to become a missionary in Central Africa, has been killed and eaten by cannibals. —The cost of training, maintaining, and furnishing the 9,847,084 soldiers of the standing armies of European Continental Powers amounts to the enormous sum of $3,240,000,000 yearly. —In the case of an American fishing schooner, the Admiralty Court at Halifax decided a few days since that an American vessel is entitled to buy bait, the same as to repair damages, and to procure ice, the same as water. —It is estimated that there are in this country 10,000,000 families, and that the number of males over the age of 21 years is 13,000,000; females of like age, about 12,000,000; children of both sexes number about 25,000,000. —The number of passengers annually carried between different points in the city of London, is stated to be 310,520,000. Of these 70,000,000 ride in omnibuses, 115,520,000 on underground railways, and 120,000,000 on street-cars. —Recent violent hail-storms have done immense damage in the Temesvar and Bazias districts in Hungary. Thunder-storms on the 4th inst. in South-western Germany resulted in the loss of several lives and great damage to crops. —There is no longer any doubt that the steamer Sir John Lawrence, with 730 passengers, has been lost. The larger part of the passengers were native ladies, on route to the Juggernaut in Orissa, to celebrate the Juggernaut festival. —The largest vineyard in the world is owned by Senator Stanford, of California. On a 30,000-acre ranch he has 3,500 acres planted in bearing vines. The vineyard is divided into 500-acre tracts, and most of the work is done by Chinese. —Another Indian outbreak is reported in Arizona. Several persons have been killed and a number of horses stolen. There is great excitement in some parts of the Territory and the people threaten to rise en masse and rid the county of the murderous Apaches. —The manufactories of Birmingham, England, which hold the first rank in the pin industry, are said to produce about 37,000,000 pins per day. The output of other pin factories in this country is about 17,000,000 per day, thus making a grand total of 54,000,000 pins for England alone. —The Kentucky distillers have decided to produce no more whisky till October 1, 1888. There is now in bond in the State, whisky to the amount of 39,000,000 gallons, besides 5,000,000 gallons in foreign ports owned by Kentucky men. This quantity is said to be sufficient to last three years. —A mill for the production of Russian iron is soon to be built at Freeport, Penn. It is said that there are only three people outside of Russia who know the secret of manufacturing this superior quality of iron. Men in the mills in Russia who understand the process are never allowed to quit the mills. —Mrs. Annie Boyd, of Grand Rapids, Mich., has secured a $9,500 verdict against the saloon-keeper who sold liquor to her husband before he committed a murder. If saloon-keepers were required to pay this roundly for all the crimes which are caused by their traffic, their profits would not be nearly so large as they are, and there would be fewer men engaged in the business.

—It now appears that the Hungarian floods have been even more disastrous than at first reported. One dispatch says that fully 50,000 people have been ruined by the flood. Quite a number of lives have been lost, whole herds of cattle have perished, and thousands of acres of agricultural lands have been inundated and the crops ruined. —It seems that the shameless traffic in young girls carried on in London, has not yet been fully suppressed. One man and three women were arrested the other day, charged with keeping a house of ill-repute and with having procured for their patrons scores of girls from 10 to 15 years of age. That such things are possible in a civilized country, is a shame that can be wiped out only in the fires of the last day. —Five boys, whose ages range from nine to sixteen, were drowned in the Maquoketa River, Iowa, one day last week. Three of them, while in bathing, plunged off a sand bar into the water beyond their depth, when another boy, seeing that they were drowning, plunged in to rescue them. Another boy who had his clothes on, noticing the failure of the first boy, also plunged in and all were drowned together. —During a circus performance at Neschtin, Austria, June 4, a storm arose and a portion of the roof of the circus structure was blown off. The lamps hanging from the roof were broken, and the blazing petroleum poured down upon the heads of the people below. There were 2,000 spectators, and a fearful panic arose. In the midst of the tumult one of the lightly-built walls of the structure fell in, and the whole building immediately collapsed and a large number of persons were burned and many trampled to death, and 300 others were more or less injured.