SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 25, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 28.

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SECULAR NEWS.

—There is a great flood in the Missouri river.

—The grape crop in Sonoma county promises to be large.

—There are over 80,000 children in San Francisco under the age of 18.

—Calistoga experienced a slight shock of earthquake on Saturday, July 20.

—The army worm has appeared in the vicinity of Woodland, Yolo county.

—Sweden has sold the island of St. Bartholomew, in the West Indies, to France.

—Dr. James Ayer, the patent medicine man, recently died, in Massachusetts, worth several millions.

—The wheat crop the present year in the United States will reach the large sum of 400,000,000 bushels.

—It is estimated that over 100,000 persons in New England have signed the total abstinence pledge since December 1.

—The harvest of Nebraska this year, will be the most bountiful in its history. The wheat crop will not fall short of 15,000,000 bushels.

—Yellow fever has broken out at the Brooklyn Navy Yards, N. Y. Measures have been taken to stay the spread of the dreaded disease.

—It is stated that in the well-to-do classes of England, 8,000 children out of every 100,000 die in the first year of their lives; but in the poorer classes, 32,000 in every 100,000.

—Over eleven hundred French Communists have received either a remission or a commutation of their sentences in honor of the Paris Exhibition fete. Forty thousand francs were also distributed among the poor of Paris.

—The ancient tower of Aspermont in Switzerland, which crowned a mass of high rocks, and which had withstood the tempests of ages, fell lately with a tremendous crash, and crushed a number of goats which were browsing in its shadow. The castle, with which it was connected, was built by the Roman Emperor Valentinian, in the year 368. It had long since crumbled away.

—The net value of bullion product of the United States and Territories west of the Missouri river, for the year 1877, according to the more reliable statistics on this subject, which it is possible to produce, were: gold, $44,870,223; silver, $45,846,109; lead, $5,085,250; being a total of $95,801,582. This is the largest ever turned out in this country in any one year. The amount produced during the same year in British Columbia and Mexico was $2,610,172.

—July 17, a freight train of twenty-eight cars, bound west, was thrown from the track while crossing the bridge over Tippecanoe river, near Monticello, Ind. All the cars except the caboose tumbled into the stream, a distance of ninety feet. The caboose, with six passengers, was saved by the presence of mind of a brakeman, who uncoupled it just before the inevitable plunge. The engineer was crushed to death, and the bridge tender was instantly killed. Four tramps stealing a ride on the under side of a car were miraculously saved by the car falling bottom up in the water.

—A new Pompeii has been discovered in Italy. At the foot of mount Gargango a buried town has been laid bare, the houses being twenty feet below the surface. A temple of Diana was first brought to light, then a portico composed of columns without capitals, and, finally, a necropolis covering nearly four acres. The Italian government has taken measures to continue the excavations on a large scale, and has already discovered a monument erected in honor of Pompey after his victory over the pirates. The town is the ancient Sipontum, of which Strabo and Levy speak, and which was buried by an earthquake.

—A cyclone struck North Albany, N. Y., July 21, sweeping through West Albany, unroofing houses, scattering the contents of lumber yards, and damaging the gas works. Loss, $100,000.

—The cost of our alcoholic drinks in this land is $700,000,000, and in great Britain $765,000,000. The number of cigars made here in 1877 was 18,000,000, besides 149,000,000 cigarettes.

—According to the latest returns, the cultivated land of France is divided into 5,500,000 properties. Five millions are under six acres. Belgium has a like subdivision of property. In Ireland, on the other hand, 110 owners hold more than one-fifth of the soil.

—The foundation schools of England are Eaton, Winchester, Westminster, Shrewsbury, Rugby, Harrow, Charterhouse, St. Paul's School, and Merchant Taylors' School, the "sacred nine," as they have been not inaptly designated. They were founded within a period ranging from the close of the fourteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth.

—The value of fruit crops in the United States is estimated by the Government statistician at $140,000,000 annually, or about the value of the wheat crop. The value of the annual crop of Michigan is put down at $4,000,000. California has 60,000 acres of vineyards, producing 10,000,000 gallons of wine annually, besides vinegar, raisins, brandy and fresh grapes. The other States produce 5,000,000 gallons of wine annually. The single port of Norfolk, Va., reported 3,000,000 quarts of strawberries. Illinois, whose fruit growing is of recent origin, now has 320,000 acres of orchards.