SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 43.

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SECULAR.

—An earthquake shock was felt at Columbus, Ga., October 31.

—According to recent statistics there are in Europe 4,570,000 more women than men.

—The black measles, said to be as fatal as the small-pox, is raging among the Canadian Indians.

—A boiler explosion at Newcastle, England, on the 4th inst., killed six persons and injured thirty others.

—Thursday, November 25, has been named by President Cleveland as a day of thanksgiving and prayer.

—Two women were arrested last week in Oneida County, New York, for a bold attempt at highway robbery.

—A Police Commissioner and twenty men were surprised and murdered in Burmah recently by a band of rebels.

—New York State owns 1,000,000 acres of timber land and last year thieves stole nearly $150,000 worth of the timber.

—The miners in the Shamokin coal regions of Pennsylvania resolved to go on a strike on the 1st inst. for increased wages.

—A schooner was recently lost off the coast of Newfoundland, and the crew and one passenger, four persons in all, were drowned.

—Revolutionists are still operating in Sonora, Mexico, and fighting occasionally takes place between them and the Government forces.

—Mackerel fishing will probably become an industry at Santa Barbara, Cal. The mackerel caught there are said to be superior to the Eastern fish.

—According to the census of 1880 there were in this country 87,000 miles of railroad. But at the close of September of the present year there were 132,000 miles.

—Jacob Sharp, the notorious head and front of the Broadway, New York, street-railway-franchise scandal, has been arrested for bribery. His bail was fixed at $50,000.

—Heavy storms have prevailed recently throughout Scotland. In Edinburgh the gable of a new building was overthrown, when three workmen were killed and five injured.

—In 1780, the population of Virginia was more than double that of New York State; but now the latter's population is 5,082,211, while that of the former is only 2,131,622.

—Another severe earthquake shock was experienced in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C., on the 5th inst. The shock lasted seventy seconds, though but little damage was done.

—November 1, Surveyor Beattie, of the port of New York, was shot in his office at the Custom House by a discharged inspector, who fired five or six shots. His wounds may prove fatal.

—A jury at New Haven, Conn., has decided that the will of Carrie Wetton, bequeathing $150,000 to Henry Bergh's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, is valid, and the money must be paid.

—Minneapolis, Minn., has evidently taken its place as the leading wheat market of the country. The receipts of wheat at that place for the year ending October 1, were 34,000,000, over 113,000 car loads.

—A fire which broke out in a coal mine in the Connelsville mining district, Pennsylvania, on the 31st ult., threw 600 men out of employment. It will be several months before work can be resumed in the mine.

—November 3, three men lost their lives in a hotel fire at Loogootee, Ind. Two of them were John C. Gates and Michael Tracy, who were the day before elected Treasurer and Auditor respectively of Martin County.

—Nearly 6,000 men in the slaughter houses of Swift and Morris, Chicago, quit work November 1. The trouble is over the resumption of the ten-hour system, the men refusing to work the additional two hours without additional pay.

—Our Government is about to have built a dynamite gun cruiser. The vessel is to make twenty knots an hour and will be armed with three dynamite guns capable of throwing a 200-pound shell at least a mile once in every two minutes.

—In his late report Governor West, of Utah, states that "the Mormons are increasing their numbers by proselyting in other States, and by encouraging immigration from abroad; since 1881, the immigrants from foreign countries amount to 11,200."

—Two unsuccessful attempts have recently been made to stock Australian waters with white-fish; but in both cases the eggs shipped from Michigan were destroyed by changes in temperature while in transit. Another large shipment of eggs will be made in December.

—A recent Berlin dispatch says: "The Building Committee of the Baltic Canal calculate that they will employ 15,000 workmen. Hamburg and Bremen are enlarging their old docks and constructing new ones. There is, however, a continuous outcry of distress from working men."

—It is authoritatively stated that the Czar regards Russian occupation of Bulgaria as inevitable. For once the Czar and the entire Russian Government are of the same opinion. Preparatory measures for the campaign are therefore being pushed forward with as much rapidity as is consistent with the desired secrecy.

—In speaking of a recent Socialistic meeting in New York, the Christian at Work says: "The speeches made at the meeting were inflammatory in the highest degree. Probably such a scene could not have been publicly witnessed in any other country in the world. Society seems resting on a powder mine in these remarkable days."

—On the 2d inst., elections were held in thirty-four States. In eight of these, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Virginia, only members of Congress were elected. In the others, either full or partial State tickets were elected. The election in California was very close and resulted in the election of the Democratic candidate for Governor. The legislature is also Democratic.

—The condition of affairs in cholera-stricken Corea is fearful. Already nearly 1,000,000 people have died; almost as many as there are in the whole State of California. In Seoul, with a population of 200,000, the death rate is 1,000 per day. An Eastern paper says: "The story of the plague in London is beggared by what is going on in Seoul. They are beginning to give over the task of burying their dead, and the city is threatened with positive extinction."

—Lord Randolph Churchill, the leader of the English Tories, has declared in favor of a scheme of Imperial Federation, which means nothing less than the granting of home rule not only to Ireland but also to Scotland and Wales, while England proper would also manage her own local affairs. The Tories are by no means ready for such a movement, and it is said that Lord Salisbury finds much difficulty in restraining the patrician members of the Government from resigning their offices as a protest against the radicalism of Lord Randolph Churchill, and that this difficulty is daily increasing.

—In Brussels, October 31, 500 women dressed in mourning led a procession of 12,000 persons gathered from the surrounding towns in a funeral march to Charleroi. They carried banners inscribed with mottoes in favor of universal suffrage and amnesty for the late rioters. Upon its arrival at Charleroi the procession was augmented by 35,000 persons. The spokesman of the paraders waited upon the Burgomaster and read an address signed by all the workmen's leagues in Belgium, demanding universal suffrage and amnesty. The Burgomaster promised to transmit the address to the Government, which he said was seriously engaged in redressing the grievance of the working classes. The paraders dispersed quietly.