SECULAR by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 42.

Read the full edition

SECULAR.

By Editor

—Florida expects to raise 3,000,000 boxes of oranges this season.

—The reduction in the national debt for October was $8,250,000.

—Professor Nordenskjold is organizing an expedition to the South Pole.

—Twenty-five men were killed by an explosion in a coal mine near Uniontown, Pa., Oct. 27.

—Wilbur F. Storey, proprietor of the Chicago Times, died at his residence in Chicago on the 27th ult.

—Four thousand barrels of apples were recently shipped on one steamer from Boston for English markets.

—The cholera epidemic has already cost the continent of Europe $25,000,000 by the absence of the ordinary summer tourist.

—A factory at Hueta, Spain, was burned Oct. 31. Twenty-seven persons perished in the flames and twelve were seriously injured.

—The President has appointed Hugh McCulloch to be Secretary of the Treasury, and Walter Q. Gresham to be Circuit Judge.

—The value of the products of the various industries of the United States is seven times the total value of our foreign commerce.

—Eleven pupils of the School of Agriculture at Bordeaux have died from the effects of eating mushrooms gathered in a wood near the school.

—There are over 407,000 persons employed by railway companies in this country, not including the officers, clerks, or book-keepers.

—The number of visitors at the late Electrical Exhibition at Philadelphia was 300,000. The receipts were $100,000, and the profits $10,000.

—The Surgeon-General of the Marine Hospital reports that yellow fever has again broken out on the west coast of Mexico in a most malignant form.

—On the 30th ult., a passenger train on the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, was fired into about four miles from Socorro, N. M., by a party of masked men.

—A false alarm of fire was raised in a theater in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 1st inst., in which 2,000 persons were assembled. In the panic which ensued sixteen persons were killed, and twelve badly injured.

—In the event of the failure of the present active overtures of England in the direction of mediation between France and China, 20,000 French troops will be sent to China, with a view of occupying Canton.

—An unusually fatal outbreak of cholera has occurred at Madras, which is aggravated by the difficulty of procuring provisions, as the terror-stricken villagers refuse to bring to the city the customary supplies.

—A hurricane swept the eastern part of the Bahamas from the 10th to the 16th of October, doing great damage on land and sea. Many vessels were lost, among them two American schooners and their crews.

—On the 29th ult., a passenger train on the Wilmington and Northern Railroad, fell through a bridge into the Schuylkill River, near Reading, Pa. The engineer and fireman and several passengers were killed.

—A counterfeit five-dollar piece has been sent to the San Francisco Mint, which is so perfectly executed as to be scarcely distinguishable from the genuine. It is thought to be one of a large number. The weight and ring are perfect.

—Over 900 pounds of obscene books and 165,900 pamphlets, circulars, and cards were seized and destroyed last year by the Cincinnati branch of the western society for the suppression of vice. Eleven hundred obscene photographs and 137 negatives were seized, and four lewd newspapers were sup-

pressed.

—The Scott liquor law has been declared unconstitutional by three of the five judges of the Supreme Court of Ohio. The effect will be, not only to stop the collection of the tax imposed in consequence of it, but to make it necessary to pay back all that has been collected in the past.

—Last week we noticed the case of a young man in San Francisco, who, after pleading guilty to a charge of burglary, was acquitted by the jury. On the second charge, for a similar offense, he pleaded not guilty, no doubt thinking that since he was acquitted after pleading guilty, he would receive a pension if he pleaded not guilty, but the jury convicted him.

—The Conelly polygamy case at Salt Lake was dismissed on the 31st ult., because the testimony showed that the marriage occurred so long before the indictment as to be outlawed. The judge told the jury that they must acquit according to the evidence, although there was no doubt but that the evidence was the result of persistent false swearing. Said he: "I am of the opinion and have an abiding conviction, to a moral certainty, that the ends of justice have been defeated in this case by false swearing."

—Judge Hoffman, of San Francisco, in sentencing a man last week for false registration, said: "In my opinion, he who falsely votes commits a higher crime than the counterfeiter or forger. I therefore feel called upon in these cases to inflict the highest punishment allowed by law, and were it in my power, I would make the sentence twice as much, not as a vindictive measure, but to put a stop to fraud. The judgment of this Court is that you pay a fine of $500 and the costs of the prosecution, and that you be imprisoned for the term of three years in the State prison."

—The representative of a syndicate of European distillers has proposed to the Mexican National Railroad Company to advance sufficient capital to complete and equip the road, under the condition that the syndicate control the management and receive certain freight rates for the transportation of corn over the road to Corpus Christi. The syndicate will contract with the farmers along the railroad who wish to double or triple their production of corn, to purchase annually not less than 1,500,000 or more than 3,000,000 tons, to be shipped to Europe, for use in their distilleries. The object of the syndicate is to procure a sure supply of corn at a fixed price, and to be independent of corn speculators. Great is the power of whisky!