SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 12, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 23.

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SECULAR.

—The decrease of the national debt for the month of May was $4,763,241.20.

—Snow is said to be ten feet deep on the Cascade Mountains, near Eugene City, Oregon.

—A woman and three children were found murdered, near Pleasanton, Kansas, on the 2d inst.

—Preparations are said to be under way for extensive copper mining in Yuma County, Arizona.

—A banker of Sherman, Chautauqua County, N. Y., has absconded with $150,000 of depositors' money.

—Reports from British Columbia say that, owing to continued drought, small hope is entertained for the crops.

—A fire in Red Bluff, Cal., on the 3d inst., completely destroyed the post-office and $20,000 worth of other property.

—The personal property roll of San Francisco amounts to $59,398,287—an increase of $3,000,000 over last year's assessment.

—Several "land-grabbers" have been arrested in Umatilla County, Oregon, and held to answer for illegitimate acquirements.

—It is already proposed to celebrate, by a world's fair in 1892, the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

—The Republican National Convention was noted for two new features—a colored man acted as temporary chairman, and a Catholic D. D. opened one of the sessions with prayer.

—A society has been formed in Hartford, Conn., to provide harmless amusements for young men. Among the "harmless" things in which amusement is to be found, are tobacco and billiards.

—Prince Bismarck was publicly insulted by the populace of Friedrichsruhe, on the 4th inst., while on his way from his summer residence to Berlin to attend a dinner in honor of the Russian Czarina.

—Visitors find in some of the older houses of Nantucket, tall Dutch clocks, with holes in the cases where screws had been taken out. This was done in order to banish wicked ornaments of brass and steel.

—A London dispatch reports a violent shock of earthquake, May 19, on the island of Kishm, near the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Twelve villages were destroyed, 200 persons were killed and many wounded.

—A cloudburst on Bridge Creek, in Wasco County, Oregon, on the 5th inst., swept away about twenty houses and as many barns, causing the death of five persons, as far as heard from, and the loss of many horses and cattle.

—A cloudburst occurred in the foot-hills about twenty-five miles from Visalia, Cal., May 21, carrying away the house of a Mr. Stewart, in which were four adults and two children. All were drowned, excepting one man, and he is not expected to recover.

—The oil region in the Caucasus has been found to be of immense extent, covering an area of 1,200 square miles. Wells have been opened in this region which promise to far exceed the Pennsylvania wells in productiveness. The export of oil from Baku has increased at the rate of 1,250,000 barrels in two years.

—In response to Barnum's offer of $500 reward for the best poem on his white elephant, over a thousand specimens were sent to the committee, who decided that three had some merit, but none were good enough to justly claim the prize. There are many journalists hoping that this failure will have the effect to discourage the product of poor poetry.

—The village of Hammonton, New Jersey, is greatly excited over the discovery of the bodies of twenty-one children buried in a small plot of ground attached to a sanitarium called the "Wiveson Home," under the charge of Miss S. S. Wiveson, a middle-aged woman. The coroner's jury found that the children died from natural causes, aggravated by neglect, Miss Wiveson's improper sanitary arrangements, and the gross incompetence of their nurses.

—According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an artist in that city recently opened a studio "on the European plan"—with nude persons as models—the class consisting of ladies and gentlemen. The father of one of the young lady pupils accidentally came in possession of some of his daughter's specimens, and the enterprising art teacher suddenly discovered that "our civilization is not sufficiently advanced for that mode of study," and left the city. Artists say that "in Europe that sort of thing doesn't cause any comment."