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International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 5, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 42.

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SECULAR.

—Small-pox is still raging in Montreal.

—The Roumelian trouble is still unsettled.

—It is estimated that the decrease in the public debt during October will amount to $12,000,000.

—Ferdinand Ward received at New York, October 31, a sentence of ten years' hard labor in Sing Sing.

—A heavy rain during October 30, caused the greatest flood known in Virginia in the past five years.

—The largest steamship in the world, the Great Eastern, was sold, October 28, at public auction for £26,200.

—Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Coon bought a seat in the Stock Exchange, New York, October 26, for $34,000.

—Two-thirds of the Swiss nation have voted in favor of cantonal local option. Many citizens abstained from voting on the question.

—Over seventy vessels were recently wrecked, and over 300 lives were lost, in the most fearful hurricane that ever visited the coast of Labrador.

—It is estimated that the strike of the Albany, N. Y., moulders, recently, has cost the workmen and manufacturers in the neighborhood of $200,000.

—The Pacific Coast Holiness Association owns about eight acres of land in East Oakland, upon which they intend to build a Home of Refuge for Fallen Women.

—President Cleveland has become tired of office-seekers, and he has informed the public that he will consume no more time in receiving calls from that class of pilgrims.

—October 25, a water-spout burst in the vicinity of Carrara, Italy, and was followed by heavy floods. Roads and railways were torn up, and much property was destroyed.

—Geo. B. McClellan, ex-commander of the Union army, died October 29, at his home in New Jersey, from exhaustion produced by repeated attacks of neuralgia of the heart.

—Jacob P. Leese, who first came to this coast in 1833, and who, in 1836, built the first house in Yerba Buena (now San Francisco), has recently returned to spend the rest of his days where he was the pioneer.

—It is now thought that the rumor that the Apaches were doing damage in northern Mexico was false; that instead of Apaches it was a band of "rustlers," disguised as Indians, whom Major Sumner is now after.

—General De Courcey, commander of the French forces in Anam, recently met, and in a three days' fight defeated, a detachment of the Black Flags, which resulted in the capture of the strongly fortified town of Thanmai.

—The debris-restraining dam in Shady Creek, between Nevada City and North San Juan, Cal., has been destroyed by an incendiary fire. The mining company estimate that it has been damaged to the extent of between $100,000 and $200,000.

—While a large body of workmen were taking out stone from the Chancelade quarries, near Dordogne, France, "the quarries suddenly fell in, destroying a village situated on the ground above the stone pits, and killing a large number of persons" and burying many others in the ruins.

—An arrangement has just been concluded by which the ports of Acapulco, Manzanillo, and Mazatlan, Mexico, are to have direct steamship communication with China. The steamers are to be built or bought in England, but are to sail under the Chinese flag and are to have a subsidy from both the Mexican and the Chinese Government.

—Secretary Endicott, when asked to aid Engineer Melville in fitting out another Arctic exploring expedition, very sensibly replied: "So far as my observation extends, Arctic explorations principally result in breeding lectures on Arctic subjects, flooding the country with Arctic literature, and furnishing curiosities for dime museums. Holding these opinions, I cannot conscientiously aid Mr. Melville in his desires."

—The breaking out of a fire on the tug McDonald, East Saginaw, Mich., October 28, was the incentive for a large number of people to congregate upon a bridge, a part of which gave way, precipitating sixty people into the river, where, on account of the depth of the water, the swiftness of the current, and the darkness of the night, a number are supposed to have perished; the greater number, however, were rescued.