SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 9, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 38.

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SECULAR.

—There are 119,682 acres of artificial forests in Kansas.

—The wheat crop of the country is estimated at 500,000,000 bushels.

—The coinage of the various mints during September was $4,613,363.

—The corn crop this year is said to be the largest ever known. It is estimated at 1,800,000,000 bushels.

—The penitentiary at Michigan City, Ind., has earned, in the last three months, $5,516 above expenses.

—The decrease in the public debt during September was $12,040,000. The decrease since June 30, is $24,583,000.

—A Pittsburg dealer says that there is enough lumber now stacked up in the country to supply the trade for from three to six years.

—An order has been issued to the students of the Odessa University forbidding them from assembling in groups, upon pain of instant dismissal.

—The royal palace at Copenhagen was destroyed by fire on the 3d inst. Ten soldiers were burned to death while attempting to save property.

—A Chicago firm is to furnish 5,000,000 pounds of compressed beef to the English Government for the expedition sent to relieve General Gordon.

—Twenty-two dishonest milkmen were fined from $10 to $100 each last week in the New York Court of General Sessions for watering their milk.

—A construction train having a crew of twenty-two men, ran through a bridge near Bayfield, Minn., on the 3d inst. Twelve men were killed, and the others badly injured.

—Thirty persons were killed by a cloudburst at Pachuca, Mexico, on the afternoon of the 27th ult. A great deal of property was destroyed, and many cattle were drowned.

—Pulmonary consumption is the cause of one death in twelve in New York State, and the State Board of Health has laid the cause to the bad ventilation of school-rooms.

—As Governor St. John was on his way from Carlisle to Terra Haute, Ind., Oct. 2, some villain fired at him through the car window, the bullet passing just in front of him.

—The village of Alton, sixteen miles south of Bradford, Penn., was visited by a cyclone, on the 29th ult. The storm demolished everything in its path, which was only five rods in width.

—Seventeen car loads of tobacco were shipped last week from Lancaster, Penn., to San Francisco. It is estimated that each car contains over twelve tons, and the whole is valued at $180,000.

—The authorities at Woolwich, England, are displaying much activity in forwarding war material to Hongkong. Six hundred tons of shot, shell, and ordnance were shipped thence on the 1st inst.

—An attempt was made Sept. 29 to blow up the Council-house at Salisbury, England. A number of windows were smashed by the explosion, but otherwise no damage was done. No arrests have been made.

—A man in Victoria, B. C., has on foot a project to build an electric railway from Port Simpson, on the Pacific, to Hudson Bay, on the Atlantic. It is said that the scheme attracts considerable attention, and is considered feasible.

—A Minneapolis street-car was recently stopped by highwaymen, who demanded the cash box. When the driver refused to give it up, they fired two shots, one of which instantly killed the only passenger that the car contained.

—England has 27,050 breweries and brewed 990,000,000 gallons of beer last year. Germany has 25,902 breweries and brewed 900,000,000 gallons of beer during the same period. These two countries lead Europe in the manufacture of this article.

—As a consequence of the numerous attempts at incendiarism in Cleveland, several insurance companies have withdrawn their risks on property in the lumber districts, and others have doubled the premium. Fifty men have been added to the police force.

—Hog cholera has been quite prevalent in Maryland and Virginia, and thousands of dead carcasses have been thrown into the Potomac. The citizens of Washington, whose water supply comes from the Potomac, have naturally become alarmed, and have petitioned the Governors of those States to stop the nuisance.

—A six-story building in Philadelphia, known as Peacock's storage warehouse, was destroyed by fire on the 5th inst. Every floor was filled with household goods, some 600 families having their effects stored there. The loss is $500,000.

—The closing of all the cotton factories in Petersburg, Va., and vicinity, in consequence of the scarcity of water, throws out of employment over 700 men, women, and children, nearly all of whom are suffering for want of the necessaries of life.

—A London cable special says that the French statesmen are becoming afraid of Germany and are urging the establishment of the old relations between France and England. Also that complications between England and Russia are thought to be imminent.

—Intelligence has just been received of a terrible and disastrous hurricane on the coast of Iceland, on the 11th of September. Accounts thus far received show that nineteen trading vessels and sixty fishing boats were lost and thirty-two vessels disabled. The exact number of those who perished has not been ascertained, but it is known to be very great.

—The alcalde of the little town of Salinas, on the Mexican National Railway, having rendered himself obnoxious to the people by certain arbitrary acts, a mob gathered around the municipal court on the morning of the 2d, overpowered the police, and killed the judge, the chief of police, and twenty others. The principal offense of the alcalde was that he had caused the arrest of a train robber.

—A recent typhoon in the south of Japan has done much damage, and caused great loss of life. Towns on the coast were inundated by the sea. At Tamashima, in Bitchiu, the sea embankments were carried away; 100 persons were drowned and 120 are missing, 430 houses having been swept away. Imabari and Matsuyama, Iyo, met with similar disaster; 30 lives were lost, 170 persons missing, and 151 houses and 112 junks were destroyed.

—A Hongkong dispatch of Sept. 28, says: The French stopped and searched the English regular trading steamers at Frehkien and Hai Loong, in the channel of Formosa. There is great irritation in consequence of this high-handed proceeding, and neutral steamers conveying soldiers and munitions to the various quarters in this section of the world are all alarmed at their prospects if this shall not be resented, and it is regarded as likely to be a source of possible complications with foreign powers.