p. 526 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1888

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 14, No. 33.

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SECULAR.

—Famine prevails at Epirus, Albania.

—The Pope is said to be in very poor health.

—An American man of war has been ordered to Port-au-Prince, Hayti.

—It is now thought that Stanley is near Suakin, Egypt, with a large force of men.

—It is said that $7,000,000 is annually invested in Florida by the Northern tourists.

—A resident of San Francisco was burned to death on the 10th inst. in White Pine County, Nev.

—Charles Crocker, one of California's millionaires, died at Monterey, this State, on the 14th inst.

—A fire in Cayenne, French Guiana, on the 16th inst. destroyed property to the value of $2,000,000.

—The revolution at Port-au-Prince, Hayti, has been successful, and a new government has been formed.

—Destructive brush fires were reported in the neighborhood of Kingston, Canada, under date of August 16.

—August 16 a Mexican boy aged 14 years shot and fatally wounded another boy, 2 years his junior, near Fresno, Cal.

—A severe wind-storm in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio on the 12th inst. did great damage to telegraph wires.

—Yellow fever is said to be spreading in Florida, and many people are leaving the State, to escape the disease.

—It is stated that the crops in parts of Iowa and Dakota are poor this season, and that farmers are discouraged.

—The picture gallery in the wing of the University of Niagara, N. Y., was destroyed by fire recently.

—The Indian trouble has again broken out in the Territories, and one day recently the troops to the number of 105—45 on one side and 60 on the other—were engaged in a pitched battle, in which 2 were killed and 5 wounded.

—August 13 the Stevens Steel Works, near Swansea, Wales, were suddenly closed, and thousands of men thrown out of work.

—At the beginning of the present century St. Louis was a village of less than a thousand inhabitants, now it has nearly 500,000 souls.

—Ten horses, valued altogether at $100,000, were killed on the 13th inst. by a railway accident on the Erie road at Shohola, N. Y.

—A large petition has been sent to the President from Dakota asking him to favor the admission of that Territory at an early day.

—A woman and two children lost their lives in a burning cottage at the Mount Tabor camp-grounds, near Newark, N. J., on the 15th inst.

—Montreal was visited by a very severe thunderstorm on the 17th inst. The damage to property was very great in both city and country.

—A Dane in Chicago who has been eighteen years in America, has been pronounced a leper. The man came from a leprous section of Denmark.

—August 14, thirty Russian convicts en route to Siberia made a desperate attempt to escape. Eleven were killed, ten wounded, while only six escaped.

—A new Catholic Church at Coleman, Wis., collapsed on the 16th inst., killing one man and injuring seven others so severely that they will probably die.

—An old woman who posed as a witch in a Mexican town was recently murdered by a man whose children she had threatened for the purpose of extorting money.

—Whisky and a loaded revolver killed two men at a dance near Guiderock, Neb., on the 17th inst. As is frequently the case, the whisky hurt the men who did not drink it.

—About 2,000 girls are employed in the silk mills at North Hudson, N. J., and every week some of them are enticed away to a life of shame by flashily dressed women from New York.

—Great excitement was created at the Newport Steel Mills, just across the river from Cincinnati, on the 17th inst., by the discovery of seventeen dynamite bombs in a pile of scrap-iron.

—Owing to the non-receipt of wages the Albanian garrison at Metzers revolted recently and sacked the town. The soldiers burned ten houses, plundered the shops, and killed a number of Christians.

—The Puget Sound fishermen have formed a Salmon Trust, and fixed the price for the season at seventeen cents per fish. Last year the price was ten cents. The fishing season opens September 1.

—A large dynamite bomb, containing enough of the explosive to demolish an entire train, was found on the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad tracks at Sixteenth and Halstead Streets, Chicago, on the morning of the 14th inst.

—August 16 a mob attacked and killed nearly a score of negroes at New Iberia, La. The killing was done, it is claimed, in the interests of good order in the community. Such outbreaks are, however, a disgrace to any community, and the people of the South cannot afford to thus take matters into their own hands and slaughter people by the wholesale, even if they are bad characters.

—Hot weather has seriously injured the grape crop in some parts of California. This will probably not reduce the yield of wine much if any, as grapes are not absolutely necessary for the manufacture of wine in this State. "Cherry juice," an abominable combination of drugs, made in San Francisco, is cheaper and sells nearly as well as the genuine article.

—Sunday, August 12, there was a Hebrew wedding in Fall River, Mass., and in the evening the guests, to the number of over thirty, indulged in dancing; the noise attracted the police, who arrested the entire party for dancing on Sunday. The bail commissioner being absent, the whole party were compelled to spend the night in prison. The affair is very justly regarded by many as an outrage.

—One of the most terrible weapons ever invented is the new French, or "Lebel Rifle." Recent experiments made on dead bodies show that bullets fired from this rifle will pass through bones at a distance of over a mile without making a fracture. Wounds made by bullets from this gun would be very small and exceedingly hard to heal, as it would be impossible in most cases to trace the course of the bullet.

—For some time past a commission appointed by the President under authority of Congress, has been trying to persuade the Indians in Dakota to sign a treaty providing for the sale of millions of acres of their reservation. They refuse absolutely to do anything, and it now looks very much as though the government must steal the land outright or let it stay as it is for the present.

—Wealth in the United States increased during twenty years from 1860 from fourteen billions to forty-four billions. In England something like the same marvelous increase begun with the year 1846, and these two countries are now the wealthiest in the world.

—Cardinal Lavigere, of Brussels, has announced his purpose to form a committee to organize an armed volunteer expedition to the Tanganyika country, Central Africa, for the suppression of the slave trade. The estimated cost is 1,000,000 francs, and the Cardinal invites subscriptions for a fund to defray the expenses.

—About one-half of the vineyards in France have been destroyed by phylloxera, and although many experiments have been made and a large amount of money expended to discover some way of exterminating the pest, the prize of $60,000 offered some years since by the French Government has not yet been awarded.

—The president of the great Western Whisky Trust recently testified before a congressional committee that the output of the trust is 40,000,000 gallons of spirits, of which 15 per cent, or 6,000,000 gallons, is used as a beverage, 8,000,000 in the arts, and the remainder, or 26,000,000 gallons, in manufactures and in wine fortifying.

—According to the report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the strikes and lockouts in this country from 1881 to 1887 caused a loss to employers of $34,000,000, and to employees of $67,000,000, a total of $101,000,000, with a balance of $33,000,000, against the employees. Fifty per cent of the strikes were failures, 10 per cent partially successful and 40 per cent successful.

—Part of the subjects of the emperor of Morocco are in a state of revolt, and not long since sent delegates to the emperor to treat for peace, his majesty promising them safe conduct. The promise was, however, violated, and the delegates were executed. The rebels then desired that Prince Muley be sent to receive their submission. The prince went with an escort of 200 men, and the insurgents ambuscaded and massacred the whole party, including the prince.

—August 14 the steamer Geiser was in collision with the Thingvalla off Sable Island, about 150 miles from Halifax. Five minutes after the collision the Geiser went to the bottom. Out of eighty-six passengers aboard the ill-fated vessel seventy-two were drowned, and of a crew of fifty persons thirty-three shared the fate of the majority of the passengers. The Thingvalla was badly disabled, but was saved from sinking by her water-tight compartments. Later reports put the total number lost at 117.

—There is considerable interest in New York over the question of reducing the time between that port and European ports. The quickest passage on record was made in May by the Etruria, of the Cunard line. The Etruria's time was six days, one hour, and forty-five minutes. So far the Umbria, another Cunard steamer, has been the Etruria's only rival for speed, but now a new vessel, the City of New York, belonging to the Guion line, is to be pitted against the fast Cunard steamer, and the result will be watched with a great deal of interest.