SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 11, 1878

SECULAR NEWS.

—An unknown Philadelphia friend has given Andover Seminary $25,000.

—It costs the Czar some $1,000,000 every day to keep up his present military establishment.

—The British army in India is composed of 146,000 infantry, 23,000 cavalry, 3600 engineers, 13,000 artillery and 400 field pieces.

—It is figured that 4,000 acres of wheat in San Bernardino county will be lost from rust, representing 120,000 bushels, or, at current prices, $140,000.

—Russia preserves eight crowns of provinces conquered at various times and joined to the empire—Siberia, the Crimea, Kiew, Astrakan, Kasan, Finland, Poland, Krussinia.

—The decline in rents at New York, this year, makes a difference of $1,000 a day in the income of the Astor property and of about $100,000 a year on the Stewart property.

—The total expense of the deportation, salvage and erection of Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames embankment will be about $80,000, all of which is defrayed by Dr. Erasmus Wilson. The removal of the obelisk of Luxor from Thebes to France, and its erection in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, cost the French Government $400,000.

—According to the new Directory there are 1,507 saloons in Cincinnati, 400 more than there are groceries.

—The railroad station at Lomo, near Marysville, Cal., was entirely destroyed by fire on Thursday, July 4.

—The works of a plow company on Passaic river, New Jersey, have been burned, throwing many men out of employment; loss $100,000.

—A large steam sawmill at Hood River, on the Columbia, Oregon, was destroyed by fire. Several adjoining houses were also destroyed. Total loss, $20,000; no insurance.

—It is ascertained that 2,748,000 sheep perished in New South Wales last year from want of food and water, caused by the protracted drouths, involving a loss of £2,250,000.

—Four large boilers in the mills of the Chesapeake Nail Works, at Harrisburg, Pa., exploded on June 25 with tremendous force, killing one man, wounding badly four others and tearing the mills to pieces.

—Some one estimates that 20,000 Americans will visit Europe this summer; and, supposing that they spend an average of $1,000 each, the tidy little sum of $20,000,000 of American money will be diverted to the enrichment of the "effete despotisms."

—The telephone is now firmly established in England. A company of capitalists, whose fortunes aggregate $10,000,000, have bought the right of manufacture and sale. In Germany it is even more popular than in America, and it is thought that in less than five years it will be in universal use.

—The earth's population according to statistics is as follows: Total population of the earth, 1,396,752,000; under Christian governments, 685,559,411; under non-Christian, 711,383,589; total area of the earth's square miles, 52,062,470; area of Christian governments, 32,419,915; area of non-Christian lands, 19,642,555.

—There are 79,000 miles of telegraph wire in the United States, and 5,880 offices, or one mile of line to every thirty-six square miles of area. England has 75,000 miles of line and 5,500 offices, or one mile of line to every one and a half miles of area. Russia has 31,500 miles of land and 900 offices, or one mile of line to every 330 square miles of area.

—A Norwegian, according to the Moniteur Industrial Belge, has just invented an ice breaker, to be used in northern harbors to keep them open during the winter months. It resembles a huge plow-share and is driven by two engines. Two streams thrown backward by means of centrifugal pumps, force the broken ice back into the channel formed. The machine may be converted into a dredge for summer use.

—The largest bell in the world is in the temple of Clars, in Kioto, Japan. Unlike the great bells in Pekin and Moscow, it is whole, and its tone is as perfect and as sweet as when first suspended. Where and by whom it was cast is not known. Chinese and Sanscrit characters completely cover it; but they are not translated by Japanese scholars. It is twenty-four feet high and sixteen inches thick at the rim. It has no clapper, but is struck by a sort of wooden battering-ram on the outside.

—It is officially stated that the bonanza mines produced up to July 4, one hundred millions of dollars. A few people have made a good deal of money out of these mines, and a few hundred men have been kept in employment in Virginia city. The thousands who have been ruined by speculation in these stocks, the many who have found a suicide's grave or a maniac's cell through the influence of stock speculation—what of them? The fortunate few are ever heralded to the skies, the many who fail are left to reflect upon their ruined hopes.—Oakland Daily Times.

—The whole number of immigrants, from all countries, arriving in the United States during 1877, was 130,503. Of these, not quite one-half, 66,281 landed at New York; and 10,098 at San Francisco, these being Chinese. Of the whole number only 13,791 came from Ireland; 18,122 from England; and 3,641 from Scotland and Wales. Germany and Austria sent by far the largest contingents—Germany sending 35,554 and Austria 27,417. The Catholic Review estimates the Catholic immigrants in the above numbers at 74,000, the pagans at 10,379, and the non-Catholic and nominal Christians at 46,124. It is quite sure that its estimate of Catholic immigrants is not exaggerated, and adds, "The future of the Republic is certainly in our hands."