SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 4, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 46.

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SECULAR.

—Siberia, with a population of 4,000,000, has only two newspapers.

—Siam has signified its wish to be admitted to the Universal Postal Union.

—Lapland and Northern Sweden are soon to be opened up by a line of railway.

—The St. Louis Grand Opera House was burned on the afternoon of the 23d ult. Loss, about $150,000.

—The latest reports from the plague-stricken districts of Virginia, place the number of deaths at 2,000.

—A storm, accompanied by heavy wind, visited the region of Wilkesbarre, Pa., Nov. 23. The rain was so severe that dwellings on the low lands were flooded, and the occupants were forced to flee.

—It is estimated that 100,000 persons left Paris during the cholera epidemic. The danger is now thought to be past.

—Shocks of earthquake were felt in various parts of New Hampshire on the 23d ult. At Concord, buildings were quite perceptibly shaken.

—A lump of coal weighing nine tons has been sent from Birmingham, Ala., to the New Orleans exposition. It is claimed to be the largest single piece ever mined.

—A cyclone passed over the parish of St. John, La., about forty miles from New Orleans, Nov. 23. The village of Edgard was destroyed, and several persons were killed.

—Forty years ago there was only one daguerreotype gallery in New York City. Now within three miles of Union Square there is not less than 500 photograph galleries.

—A dispatch from Paris to the Exchange Telegraph Company says the French Government has resolved to send two more cruisers to the west coast of Africa in view of possible results from the Congo Conference.

—The engineers of the International Bell Telephone Company lately carried on a conversation between St. Petersburg and Boulogne, a distance of over 2,400 miles. The experiments were carried on in the night, when the telegraph wires were not at work.

—Peter J. Christofferson, one of the most prominent Mormons of Arizona, has been convicted on a charge of polygamy. The verdict gives general satisfaction, except among the Mormons, who threaten vengeance against the court.

—A daily paper says: "A curious fact in relation to the Greely Arctic expedition is not generally known. According to Lieut. Greely's account, of the nineteen men who perished, all but one were smokers, and the one was the last to die. The seven survivors were non-smoking men. This is an important argument for the anti-tobacconists."

—A "magnetic healer," in Cleveland, O., is under trial for the murder of one of his patients. On the stand he testified that his "spirit control" was an Indian chief, and that he himself knew nothing of disease, unless it was very simple. Said he: "I am not responsible for what I do when under the control of the spirit of this chief; I could not be responsible."

—At a demonstration of workingmen and socialists, in Paris, on the 23d ult., several advocated massacre and robbery of the rich. Two speakers who advocated moderation were kicked into the street. Shopkeepers in the vicinity of the meeting closed their places, fearing violence and pillage. The police were unable to disperse the assemblage and were obliged to call on the military.

—Four hundred and fourteen thousand immigrants arrived in the United States during the ten months ending October 31. Of these 48,000 were from England, 55,000 from Austria, 141,000 from Germany, 12,000 from Italy, 35,000 from Norway and Sweden, 40,000 from Canada, and 62,000 from miscellaneous localities. Five hundred and one thousand arrived during the same period last year.

—New Zealand, with 532,000 population, exclusive of aborigines, reports about 87,000 pupils enrolled, and 66,000 in average attendance, under about 2,000 teachers, and about 1,000 children in industrial schools. Provision is made for normal instruction in four schools, with 147 students; for secondary instruction, in twenty schools; and for superior instruction in four colleges, the last established in 1882.

—A little over two weeks ago a party of Harvard students daubed the bronze statue of John Harvard, which was recently presented to the University, with tar paint, thus doing it more injury than would result from many years exposure to the weather. It was an act of vandalism that one would scarcely expect of savages, and proves that the East has nothing whereof to boast over the West, in the line of civilization.

—The man who attempted to kill Mr. De Young, in San Francisco, was required by the judge to furnish $5,000 bail. Just one week later, a man who was captured with two hams in his possession, which he had stolen, was required to furnish $2,000 bail. It was no idle fancy of the ancients to represent Justice as blind. According to our calculation, five hams are considered in court as equal in value to a man. We dare not contemplate the awful fate that would have befallen the poor fellow if he had stolen a whole hog.