SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 26.

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SECULAR.

—The funded debt of the city of Philadelphia is $60,525,120.

—The Fitz-John Porter bill has been signed by the President.

—"Will Gladstone win?" is the question which is now agitating Great Britain.

—June 29, four men were drowned near Boston, Mass., by the capsizing of a yacht.

—The cholera is greatly increasing in Brindisi, Italy, and the surrounding villages.

—It is estimated that there was a decrease of $9,000,000 in the public debt during June.

—The English elections, so far as they have been held, are rather unfavorable to home rule.

—The Troy, N. Y., foundrymen, after a strike of four months, have returned to work at old prices.

—July 2, three more fishing vessels owned in this country were seized by the Dominion authorities.

—The Tem and Bega Rivers, in Hungary, have again risen, flooding the surrounding country. Two villages have been destroyed by floods.

—San Luis Obispo County, Cal., comes forward with some oats measuring over ten feet in height, and challenges the State to make a better showing.

—June 29, the business portion of the town of Independence, the county seat of Inyo County, Cal., was totally destroyed by fire. The loss is about $400,000.

—At Santa Barbara, Cal., June 27, an infant was poisoned by sucking a green veil that was used for the purpose of screening the cradle. Remedies were applied and the child may recover.

—A hail-storm in the Pecos Valley, N. M., is reported to have killed 2,000 head of sheep belonging to one man. A number of cattle were destroyed, the fruit beaten from the trees, and corn and wheat laid low.

—It is stated that the "Act repealing the pre-emption and timber-culture laws will without doubt become a law at this session of Congress, and the Desert Land Law will be either partially or wholly repealed."

—The sewerage system of the House of Commons, London, is so bad that an explosion occurred there a few days since, caused by pent-up sewer gas. A workman who happened to be near at the time was injured by the explosion.

—Now that French princes have been expelled from the country, "concealment is thrown aside, and the intention to overthrow the republic is publicly acknowledged by the Royalists at clubs and hotels, and in the streets and newspaper offices."

—A strip of country, twenty miles long by two miles wide, around Inkster, Dakota, was pounded by a terrible hail-storm on the 26th ult. A Norwegian church near Grafton was blown into kindling-wood. The damage to crops is estimated at $50,000.

—A most disgraceful affair occurred recently at Bogota, United States of Colombia, being nothing less than a street fight between Minister Charles D. Jacob and Dr. King, the new consul-general and secretary of legation, both representatives of this Government.

—An order has been issued at Madrid, directed to the Governor-General of Cuba, that the American flag in direct commerce with Cuba and Porto Rico shall be in every respect placed on an equal basis with the Spanish in the conduct of articles that are the products of or proceed from the United States.

—At Chicago, July 2, District Assembly 24 of the Knights of Labor passed a series of resolutions calling upon all local assemblies of the district to expel Anarchists who may now belong to them, and ordering them to admit none of the ilk hereafter. The Assembly has over 110 local assemblies on its roll.

—A San Francisco paper says: "The Chinese Government evidently puts no faith in the cry, 'The Chinese must go.' It is to have permanent quarters for its legation in Washington, having arranged to build a Mandarin's palace on a block of ground there, the whole property costing half a million dollars."

—Affairs in Ireland are assuming an alarming phase. Evictions continue to be enforced, and agrarian crimes continue in the south and west, while the recent fatal riots at the north have revived the most bitter feelings between the Orangemen and Nationalists, that will, it is feared, lead to more bloodshed.

—Spurgeon's tabernacle, in London, has a membership of 5,214.

—J. A. L. Wilson, of Philadelphia, Pa., secretary and treasurer of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, is said to be a defaulter to the extent of $500,000.

—Five of the recently convicted New York boycotters were sentenced July 2, to terms of imprisonment varying from two years and ten months to three years and eight months.

—July 2, an explosion at the Atlantic Giant Powder Works, situated between McKainesville and Drakesville, N. J., resulted in the loss of ten lives and injury to ten or twelve others. The loss is very heavy. The concussion was felt distinctly for twenty miles around, and the glass in houses five miles away was shattered.

—It is announced in New York that Drs. Valentine Mott and A. F. Baldwin, of the Carnegie Laboratory, will soon be prepared to inoculate hydrophobia patients according to the Pasteur system. The first patient will be the seven-year-old son of Dr. Newell, of Jersey City. Dr. Mott will shortly inoculate himself, to prove the harmlessness of the method for a healthy man.

—It was thought last week that, under instructions from England, the Canadian Government would abandon its offensive claims, and that the fisheries trouble would be speedily and amicably settled; but it is now officially stated that no change has taken place in the policy of the Dominion Government, and that "it is now, as it has always been, the policy of the Government that any United States fishing vessel found fishing or preparing to fish, or known to have fished, in Canadian waters, shall be seized at once and without warning. The twenty-four hours' warning is applicable solely to United States fishing vessels found hovering within the limits."

—In consequence of the recent decision of the New York courts that boycotting is conspiracy and therefore illegal, the Knights of Labor of that city "have decided that in future all boycotts must be carried on secretly, and there must be no further parading of men up and down the sidewalks in front of places of business, nor will the open distribution of circulars announcing the boycott be countenanced. When a boycott is declared, a notification to that effect will be quietly forwarded to the several unions and local assemblies. Meantime, money will be raised as a defense fund to protect those against whom proceedings may be instituted. Caution is enjoined in all future attempts, even by the secret boycott, to break up the business of any firm or corporation. It is also determined to elect men to the next Legislature who will pledge themselves to procure amendments to the existing conspiracy laws so that boycotting may be conducted publicly."