SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 31.

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SECULAR.

—About 125,000 elephants are annually killed in Africa to supply the ivory trade.

—A mob to attack Jewish houses in Witepsk, Russia, recently, was led on by a priest.

—It is said that 18,000 homesteads have been entered in Florida during the past year.

—Officials of the Navy Department estimate the cost of the Greely Expedition at $700,000.

—A steamer collision on the Thames River, last week, resulted in the death of seventeen persons.

—Outlaws from Montana are reported to be committing stock depredations on the Canadian border.

—It is said that the debt of the Union Pacific Railroad would more than build the road three times over.

—A house near Marysville, Kansas, was struck by lightning, July 30, and four children were killed and one seriously injured.

—It is said that fifty Canadian newspapers have declared in favor of independence. Annexation finds but few advocates.

—A survey is being made for a narrow-gauge railroad from Antioch up the San Joaquin Valley on the west side of the river.

—In San Francisco, last week, 704 boxes of opium were condemned and forfeited to the U. S. Government, by decree of the District Court.

—About 400 negroes are employed in the cotton-fields about Bakersfield, Cal., who were imported from the Southern States during the past year.

—At Shenandoah, Pa., on the 6th inst., three men were buried under twenty-five tons of coal, which suddenly caved upon them, and all were killed.

—A lady in New York has brought suit against a grocery firm, claiming damage for having her life endangered from eating canned tomatoes put up by the firm.

—The grasshopper plague has been so disastrous to the crops in Yucatan that the main Government has been petitioned to permit American grain to enter free of duty.

—A Chicago woman is afflicted with "lumpy jaw," a disease peculiar to cattle, and it is said to have been contracted by eating meat from cattle suffering with the disease.

—On the night of the 4th inst., a gas explosion in the railroad depot at Jersey City, and the resulting fire, damaged the building and ferry ships to the amount of $100,000.

—The French troops have seized the port of Kelung, Island of Formosa, as security for indemnity claimed from China. France declines mediation in the Chinese difficulty.

—The war articles which General Grant has agreed to write for the Century will number, it is said, eighteen or twenty. He will receive $10,000 for them from the publishers.

—The inhabitants of Foo Chow are fleeing to the interior; foreigners are alarmed, and the natives have become very aggressive. War with France, it is thought, cannot be averted.

—It is claimed that the cow-boys of Montana have, in all, disposed of about twenty horse-thieves. They are also reported to have hung a woman suspected of harboring the thieves.

—The Illinois State Board of Health has begun a war on specialist doctors. Thirteen have been indicted for practicing without license in Chicago, claiming to cure secret diseases.

—A charity society in Philadelphia reports that in six months 185 cases of desertion by men of their families have come under its care. Intemperance was the active cause in 112 of these.

—A destructive cloud-burst occurred in Cajon Pass, near San Bernardino, Cal., on the 3d inst. The flood rose to a height of thirty feet, and destroyed considerable timber and farm property.

—During a thunder-storm in the Sierras, near Loyalton, last week, a barn, a large amount of hay, and two horses were burned by lightning; a number of trees were also ignited by the electric currents.

—"El Mahdi has ordered a force of 50,000 men to reinforce Osman Digna," is the latest news from Soudan. But reports from that country are so contradictory that nothing is reliable until confirmed several times.

—On Monday of last week a destructive fire occurred on Main Street, San Francisco. The Schmidt Lithographing Co., and Tatum & Bowen, lubricating oil manufacturers, were the principal losers. The total loss was over $200,000.

—A letter from Tananarivo, Madagascar, dated July 6, says: "The Hovas are showing great spirit and are determined to resist the French. The Queen has proclaimed negotiations at an end and ordered her subjects to prepare for war."

—On the 5th inst., a cyclone struck the town of Wasco, Oregon, and demolished the Methodist Church, a school-house, Wiesick's mill, and several other buildings. The roof of Barrett's store was carried away, and the owner seriously injured.

—A fire in John Roach's ship-yard at Chester, Pa., on the 8th inst., destroyed buildings and machinery to the value of over $250,000, and threw 500 men out of employment. Work on the Government cruisers will necessarily be suspended for some time.

—The Russian Government has issued a circular to the principals of schools in Russia, holding them responsible for any revolutionary tendencies their scholars may have, and enjoining them to maintain a strict supervision over their pupils, in order to dissipate the slightest nihilistic sentiment.