SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 29, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 21.

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SECULAR.

—The trial of 160 nihilists is soon to begin in St. Petersburg.

—The Spanish king, Alfonso, promises great reforms in taxation, pay of soldiers, etc.

—Ten train-wreckers on the Mexican National Railroad have been shot by the soldiers.

—The Grand Lodge of A. O. U. W. of Utah have resolved to exclude polygamists from the order.

—It is said that nearly a score of suicides have resulted from the failure of the Oriental Bank of London.

—Excitement increases regarding the rich developments of tin in the mines of Dakota, in the vicinity of Custer.

—The first patent refrigerator car of Oregon salmon arrived in New York last week in good condition, after a journey of nine days.

—Last year the oil wells of California produced 5,000,000 gallons of oil, and the prospect is said to be good for double that amount the present year.

—A French brig was sunk off the coast of New Brunswick, on the 23d inst., and, together with her fifty-three passengers and crew of nine, was a total loss.

—The paying teller of the West Side Bank, New York, has absconded with $96,000. He has held the position fifteen years, and was regarded as a man of rigid integrity.

—Dr. Samuel D. Gross, the eminent surgeon, died at Philadelphia on the 6th inst., at the age of seventy-nine. He was the author of several well-known professional works.

—Extremely warm weather in Oregon is causing the Willamette and Columbia Rivers to rise quite rapidly. Should the hot weather continue, very high water is anticipated.

—On account of the late riotous conduct at the hanging of two criminals at Ashland, Ohio, there is a move to have a State executioner appointed, and to have all executions take place in the penitentiary.

—At Bei-Bazar, a city of Asia Minor, on the 19th inst., 950 dwellings, 544 warehouses and shops, 11 mosques, 15 schools, 9 khans, and 146 other buildings, were burned. Eleven persons lost their lives.

—By the use of a preparation to darken her eyelashes a well-known young married lady has become nearly blind, and now she sits all day long in a darkened room wondering why she was so foolish.—New York Paper.

—It is reported that a new railroad line—the Nebraska Central—is to be constructed from the Missouri River, through the State of Nebraska toward Ogden by way of Denver. The money, it is said, is to be provided by English capitalists.

—A youth of nineteen years of age passed through Palmyra, Mo., recently en route to New York to join his parents, claiming to be the long-lost Charley Ross. He stated that he had been the captive of a band of Gypsies, from whom he had just escaped.

—Specials to the Galveston News from all parts of the State indicate that the recent rains were the heaviest known in Texas. It is thought that 150 miles of the Houston and Texas Central track is under water of an average depth of nearly two feet.

—John F. Slater, who is best known throughout the United States for his large donations to various religious and educational institutions, died at his residence in Norwich, Conn., on the 17th inst. His largest gift was $1,000,000 for the education of the South.

—Mr. Carlisle presents this phase of the tariff situation: "Since the war, the tariff on the vice and luxuries of the people have been greatly reduced; while the tax upon the necessaries of life, tools, and implements of labor, have been retained, and in some instances increased."

—The "boom" in the Cour d'Alene country, W. T., that ran so high all winter when no work could be done to test the value of the mines, has entirely collapsed, and the parties who headed the swindle have judiciously left. A great many sorry victims were left in a manner destitute.

—Two woman, named Orr and Cavanaugh, were arrested last week, in squalid apartments in Naudain Street, Philadelphia, for drunkenness and neglect of their children. When the officers entered the house a pitiful sight met their eyes. Upon the floor lay a pretty boy, not more than seven years of age, so drunk as to be insensible, his feet curled around a large bottle, and one tiny hand grasping a battered tin cup into which the liquor had been poured—

Christian at Work.

—Charles Taylor, a colored brakeman on the Texas Central Railroad, who has been conspicuous in the movement to secure negroes admission to first-class coaches, was shot and instantly killed on the 18th inst., by an unknown person, who fired through the window of a car, striking him in the middle of the forehead.

—Reports of Indian troubles in the Winnipeg country are published, to the effect that Chief Piapot has called a big sun-dance with all the tribes, and will demand to be given land where he can get fresh meat, to counteract the effects of the bacon, which has spread scurvy throughout the camps, causing fifty of his people to die in three months.

—The residence of Geo. Peters, at Shariboo Lake, Ont., was burned on the 19th inst., and with it six persons were burned to death. Peters and some workman were dissipating until a late hour, when he started upstairs with a lamp which fell from his hand and was broken. The burning oil spread the flames rapidly, with the result here mentioned.

—There is a strong move being made by citizens of Shasta County, Cal., to have Amos P. Gibson pardoned out of the penitentiary, where he has been for the past four years, on a charge of murdering John Schroder. On the confession of the real murderer, J. Q. A. Hildebrandt, it turned out that Gibson is entirely innocent of the crime. His brother, Thomas Gibson, was pardoned one year ago, after it having been discovered in some way that he was innocent.

—A San Francisco paper says: “Heretofore the number of Chinese females leaving here for their homes averaged from two to three by each steamer, and the departure of twelve females recently on the City of Peking for China seemed somewhat surprising, considering the value of such human chattels for immoral purposes. On a reporter’s inquiry, a custom-house official explained that though the influx of new-comers is restricted by the law, the old women who return to their homes send back on their certificates young sisters of iniquity to take their places here.”

—In the testimony before the Swaim Court of Inquiry, at Washington, the other day, Paymaster-General Rochester, in his testimony, said that he had found, after coming to Washington, that a great many officers were drawing on their pay accounts twice, and that when called upon for an explanation they would send the money to meet the second account as an answer. In civil life performance of that sort is not always accepted as a sufficient explanation of dishonest dealing. The very fact that a great many officers were in the habit of duplicating their pay accounts for the same period indicates the prevalence of strange ideas as to what is honorable conduct in matters of money.—Alameda Encinal.

—Quite recently the police of Los Angeles, Cal., arrested a gang of young robbers who had been committing depredations in that city for some time. The oldest of the gang was fifteen, and the youngest but eight. They were organized after the most approved dime-novel style, calling themselves the “Red-handed Robbers.” They had their “cave,” in which were found cigarettes, wine, and various other articles of stolen property. Their last act was to plunder the missionary box of the Methodist Church. Each member of the gang slept with a string attached to his person, one end of which hung outside the window. When the leader wished to engage in a midnight raid, he would pull the string, and awaken the sleeping bandit. These boys were all the children of respectable parents, who, no doubt, like hundreds of others, were too busy to bother themselves about what their boys were reading.

—Majors, the villain who planned and helped to perform the double murder near San Jose, a year ago, was hanged in Oakland, Friday, May 23. He was a man of considerable education, and of some repute in the place where he lived, but was a most hardened villain. Of course he made the customary profession of faith, and claimed to be ready for a blessed immortality. But when, after the execution, Dr. Ackerley, of the Episcopal Church, who attended the culprit in his last hours, was asked if he thought Majors’ repentance was genuine, he replied that the eleventh hour was a poor time for repentance, and that Majors’ profession could not be received as being of much value. We are glad to record this as a rare instance of good sense on the part of a condemned man’s spiritual adviser. The Dr. did not go to the scaffold with the prisoner, but performed the last offices in the cell, and there was no maudlin exhibition at the close to bring religion into disrepute.