SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 21, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 49.

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SECULAR.

—Harper, the Cincinnati bank wrecker, is insane.

—Two skaters were drowned at Ithaca, N. Y., on the 12th inst.

—Corea has made a treaty granting exclusive privileges to Russian traders.

—Rear Admiral Leroy, of the U. S. Navy, died on the afternoon of the 10th inst.

—Four men were killed by a boiler explosion near Evergreen, Ala., on the 12th inst.

—Russia imports annually 360,000,000 pounds of cotton, chiefly from America and Egypt.

—Two men were instantly killed by a boiler explosion at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 10th inst.

—December 9 the banks of New York City held $7,200,000 in excess of the legal requirement.

—Late advices from East Africa report active hostilities between the natives and the Germans.

—December 12 a barn was burned near San Diego, Cal., and twelve horses perished in the flames.

—The State Central School building at Lockhaven, Pa., was burned on the 9th inst. Loss, $1,500,000.

—The French have recently broken up a band of pirates in Tonquin. Eleven of the pirates were shot.

—Two men were killed and several others injured by an explosion in a Colorado coal mine on the 10th inst.

—The roof of a large steel mill at Newark, N. J., collapsed on the 10th inst., seriously injuring ten workmen.

—A family residence was burned near Cookville, Texas, on the 11th inst., and eight persons perished in the flames.

—Count Herbert Bismarck, who is looked upon as the probable successor of the Iron Chancellor, delivered his maiden speech in the Reichstag on the 15th inst.

—The explosion of a gun on a French iron-clad during target practice near Paris on the 13th inst. instantly killed six men.

—Seventeen bridges now span the Missouri River. The last one erected was formally opened and tested at Sioux City on the 5th inst.

—Senator Butler has introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment enlarging the presidential term to six years.

—The White Caps have invaded Watertown, N. Y., and propose to regulate social affairs there after the same fashion followed in Indiana and Ohio.

—The police officers at Niagara Falls have been instructed to arrest all persons who may hereafter visit there for the purpose of performing daring feats.

—At Pomona, Cal., a few days since a ten-year-old-boy fatally wounded his sister, aged seventeen years, with a gun which he supposed was not loaded.

—The Boston school election held on the 11th inst. resulted in a victory for the Anti-Catholic School Committee ticket. Over 17,000 women voted.

—M. Hammer has been chosen President of Switzerland. The President of that republic is elected for only one year and cannot hold office two terms in succession.

—The Belgian king, as head of the Congo Free State, has prohibited the introduction, transport, and sale of fire-arms and ammunitions within the territories of the State.

—Mad wolves have recently bitten thirty persons near the villages in the neighborhood of Orsov, Hungary. A number of the victims have already died in great agony.

—The Standard Oil Company will soon lay a pipe line from Lima, Ohio, to St. Louis, for the transportation of oil for distribution over the Southern and Southwestern States.

—December 11 a veterinary surgeon of Taylorsville, Ill., was sentenced to twenty-eight years in the penitentiary for torturing forty-five horses with sulphuric acid and croton oil.

—Two battalions of troops have been ordered to the scene of the great Belgium strike. A large number of strikers have been arrested, charged with attempts at dynamite outrages.

—A late dispatch to the London Standard from Rome is to the effect that the Pope has appointed a commission, headed by Cardinal Monaco, to consider the encouragement of Catholics voting in Italy.

—The postmaster at Alameda, Cal., was appointed in March, 1855, and has held the office continuously ever since. His term of service has been longer than that of any other postmaster in the United States.

—Three men were fatally burned by the explosion of naphtha at Providence, R. I., on the 13th inst. The same day one white man and two negroes were killed by the explosion of a boiler at Montgomery, Ala.

—The German hospital in New York has received from Prince William, of Wurtemberg, 16,640 marks (about $4,000). This money is part of a legacy of $50,000 left to the hospital by Gustave Adolph Meyer, a rich German-American who died in Stuttgart two years ago.

—England is building a 200-ton gun, which will throw a 4,000-pound shrapnel fifteen miles, and can be fired once every five minutes. A single shot from such a gun would sink any ship afloat. The weapon is designed for coast defense.

—A new route, it is stated, has been discovered for the proposed Nicaragua Canal, by which the total length of the excavation from Ochoa to Greytown will not exceed nineteen miles, and will consist of several short embankments instead of one long one. The cost will be greatly reduced.

—The type on the Hartford (Conn.) Evening Post is all set and distributed by machinery. The type is set in one continuous line, and is broken into lines of the proper length and justified by hand. Three hands are required to operate one machine, which can do the work of six rapid compositors.

—December 9 a mob of Socialists attacked a Catholic meeting in Amsterdam and prevented the orator of the occasion from making the address. A riot ensued, and before it could be quelled, the police were compelled to fire upon the warring factions. Several were wounded, and a large number of arrests were made.

—Chauncey M. Depew estimates that the recent presidential election cost the country not less than $506,000,000, as follows: Loss of ten per cent. on $5,000,000,000 representing the business of the country during the campaign, $500,000,000; expended by the national committees of the great parties, $1,000,000; by individuals, $1,000,000; uniformed companies, $4,000,000; total, $506,000,000.

—Congressman Butterworth, of Ohio, has introduced a resolution authorizing the President to invite negotiations looking to assimilation and unity of the Dominion of Canada and the United States under one Government.

—A Cape Breton dispatch of the 13th inst. reports a furious storm in that quarter. The wind, blowing at the rate of seventy miles per hour, unroofed houses and wrecked vessels. The weather was intensely cold, and probably the loss of life was considerable.

—The London Standard expresses the belief, founded upon recent advices from Suakin, that Stanley succeeded in joining Emin, and that the latter held out against the Arab forces until his men mutinied and delivered both himself and Stanley over to the Mahdi. Their subsequent fate is unknown.

—The Canadian Minister of Marine has requested the Knights of Labor to take hold of the prosecution of several vessel owners who are known to have sent unseaworthy vessels to sea during the last season, thus recognizing the order on behalf of the Government, which the Knights believe is a big point gained.

—Two years ago the Knights of Labor had a membership of 723,000; its treasury was full and its assemblies united. Its present membership is probably less than 200,000, while its treasury is worse than empty. Reckless strikes, and bickering among its officials, are the causes assigned by members of the order for its rapid decline.

—The National Executive Committee of the Prohibition party met in Pittsburg on the 11th inst. to lay plans for work during the winter. It was resolved that members of the committee should visit various parts of the South as soon as possible, as that section of the country seems to demand most urgently immediate attention.

—The White Caps of Northern Illinois have demanded the resignation of a member of the common council of Rockford, who has been active in passing an ordinance prohibiting liquor selling in that city. A few days after serving the notice they emphasized their request by depositing a dynamite bomb at the door of the objectional official.

—The total number of post-offices in the United States is 57,376, an increase over 1885 of 6,124. The number of postmasters appointed during the year ending June 30, 1888, was 12,288, of which 6,521 were upon resignation and commissions expired, 4,344 upon removals, 639 to fill vacancies by death, and 3,864 on the establishment of new post-offices.

—Senator Stewart has introduced a bill authorizing the Secretary of War, Secretary of the Navy, and the General of the army, acting as a board, to have constructed 250 pneumatic torpedo throwers of the highest power, capable of throwing steel torpedoes charged with not less than 500 pounds of dynamite or other explosives, a distance of five miles.

—The great Panama Canal Company is on the verge of failure, in fact has failed, and unless the French Government comes to its rescue its collapse must be final. That Government has granted the company three months' time in which to dispose of additional bonds, with permission to defer the payment of its debts for the same period, but it is not at all likely that it can recover its lost prestige.

—A Democratic Congressional caucus has agreed on an omnibus bill to admit as States the Territories of Dakota, Montana, Washington, and New Mexico. The question of the division of Dakota is to be left to a vote of the people. Quite a number expressed themselves in favor of the admission of Utah, and it is likely that a separate bill for the admission of that Territory will be introduced at an early day.

—The Maryland authorities are waging war against the oyster pirates on Chesapeake Bay. On the 11th inst. the State steamer Governor McLain encountered a fleet of pirate dredgers, when a sharp fight ensued, in which two of the dredgers were sunk and another captured. Probably more than a dozen lives were lost. The cook from one of the vessels reported that he was the only man who escaped out of a crew of eleven.

—White Caps have recently perpetrated most cruel outrages in the vicinity of Toledo, Ohio. As a rule their victims are not good citizens, but their methods are nevertheless utterly unjustifiable. One of their notices, served at Napoleon, Ohio, contained the words: "God hates liars and perjurers and adulterers. The White Cappers are the Lord's chosen people to wreak his vengeance on the wicked and the unjust."

—One of the leading papers of Chicago in its issue of December 12 published a long article relative to child murder in that city. It says: "Horrible crimes are being perpetrated here daily, and no coroner's inquests are held. The victims are so quietly disposed of that not a ripple is caused in the social stream. Prominent physicians and well-known midwives are engaged to commit murders, and commit them without compunction of conscience."