SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Mar 4, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 9.

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SECULAR.

—It is reported that Otto, king of Bavaria, is hopelessly insane.

—Small-pox exists to an alarming extent in Richardson County, Neb.

—Dr. W. W. Bliss, one of the Garfield physicians, died on the 21st inst.

—Cardinal Newman celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday on the 21st inst.

—James C. Flood, a wealthy Californian, died at Heidelberg, Germany, on the 21st inst.

—Editor O'Brien has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for violation of the Crimes Act.

—Joseph Cook is authority for the statement that $75,000,000 is employed in the liquor business in Boston.

—The wealth of the Vanderbilt family aggregates $274,000,000, from which they derive an income of $13,864,400.

—A new Cabinet has been formed in France with M. Tirard at its head. The Cabinet is decidedly anti-Boulangist.

—It is claimed that considerable numbers of Chinese are coming into the United States through British Columbia.

—It is said that £100,000,000 will be appropriated at the coming session of Parliament for the increase of the British navy.

—Numerous and very disastrous fires are reported from Japan. One conflagration at Ichibancho destroyed 1,000 buildings.

—A large portion of the town of Guerneville, this State, was destroyed by fire on the 21st inst. The loss was over $6,000.

—It is estimated that the cotton crop of 1888-89 will approximate, if it does not reach, the magnificent total of 7,500,000 bales.

—The potato crop of this country is estimated at 210,000,000 bushels, the largest ever harvested; hence the small shipments from abroad.

—The London Times has the figures to show that Spain has degenerated faster than any nation on earth—even faster than Patagonia.

—The British Parliament is again in session, having met on the 21st ult. The session promises to be one of the stormiest for many years.

—Prince Rupert, eldest son of Prince Ludwig, of Bavaria, heir to the Bavarian throne, is insane.

—One woman was fatally and several other persons seriously injured in Chicago on the 20th inst. by a locomotive running into a cable car.

—Horace Chase, superintendent of the Indian schools at Genoa, Neb., denies that he has been robbing the government, and challenges the proof.

—Twenty years ago there were ninety-two lightning rod factories in the United States. To-day there are but three, and those doing a trifling business.

—It is positively stated that three more German men-of-war—iron clads—have been ordered to Samoa. The Germans already have four vessels in Samoa waters.

—The Nova Scotian bark, Josie Troop, with a crew of seventeen men, was wrecked off Chicamicomico, N. C., on the 22d ult. Eleven of the crew were drowned.

—Twenty years ago, there was no Japanese public journal; now there are more than 500 periodicals—daily and weekly papers and monthly magazines and reviews.

—February 21, there was a heavy fall of snow followed by rain and sleet in several of the Southern States. The storm was especially severe in South Carolina and Georgia.

—Brooklyn, Ill., has recently had two well developed cases of hydrophobia. One of the victims, a boy of 16 years, was bitten by a dog, and while in convulsions hit his mother.

—The employés of the various canning houses in the State of Maryland receive $10,500,000 annually in wages. In all 35,000 persons are employed in this industry, including boatmen and dredgers.

—Ex-President Cleveland, on retiring from the Presidency, will make his home in New York City, and will resume the practice of law as partner in the firm of Bangs, Stetson, Tracy & Mac Veagh.

—It is stated that there are in the Chesapeake Bay 578,224,000 square yards of oyster beds, yielding about 10,000,000 bushels of oysters annually, and distributing about $2,000,000 among 50,000 people.

—The latest news from Hayti is to the effect that a serious conflict has taken place in which the army under Hippolyte was completely routed and 200 or 300 killed. It is also stated that Hippolyte has been killed.

—It is stated that famine prevails in the interior of Russia. The distress is greatest in Grenburg, where many persons are dying of starvation. Crops have been bad in the afflicted districts for the past four years.

—Coatesville, Penn., will soon have the largest steel-plate mill in the world. The rolls will be 34 by 120 inches, driven by a 36 by 60 Corliss engine. The fly-wheel will weigh 100,000 pounds, with a steel shaft eighteen feet in diameter.

—Water-gas is being used instead of coal for driving the machinery at the Leeds Forge Works, England. The cost of the gas delivered into the furnaces is eight cents a thousand feet, and the saving effected at this one mill is £10,000 a year.

—February 19, property valued at $1,000,000 was destroyed by fire in Philadelphia, Pa. The same day the machine shops, car shops, and locomotive house of the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago Railway, were burned in Cincinnati.

—The American Consul at Seoul, has written to New York that a terrible famine prevails in the southern portion of Corea. The people are reduced to the last extremity and many are starving. Need of assistance is urgent and relief funds should be called for.

—The bill for the admission of the States of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington Territory, has passed both houses of Congress. Dakota is to be divided on the line of the seventh parallel, proceeding due west to the western boundary of the Territory.

—An Ottawa dispatch of the 20th ult. says that the Dominion Government has been advised of the sale by the American authorities at Sitka, Alaska, of three British schooners—the Onward, Caroline, and Thornton—seized over two years ago for fishing in the Behring sea.

—Samoa, about which so much is said just now, is not the name of a single island, but is the native name applied to the islands that form the Navigators' group, about six hundred miles northeast of the Fiji Islands. The leading islands are Sawaii, Upolu, and Tutuila. The area of the islands is over 1,100 square miles, and the population is estimated at about 35,000. The Samoans are all nominally Christian.

—February 23 welcome showers began falling in different parts of California, and at this writing (the 24th), the prospects are good for copious rains. Thus far crops have suffered little if any in most places, but a few weeks more dry weather would have proved disastrous.

—The Chilian Government is to undertake the building of about 2,500 miles of railroad next autumn. A corps of American engineers are to superintend the surveying and construction of the road. The railway lines will extend from coast cities to the interior, where the silver mines are located.

—The reports of famine in China are most alarming. The destitution is said to be frightful to contemplate. According to the statements of missionaries, over a million and a half of people in Northern China are on the verge of starvation. Cold, stormy weather adds to the horrors of the situation.

—The Chicago Anarchists have selected Albert Currlin and Mrs. Lucy Parsons as delegates to the Paris Labor Congress. Before going abroad, Currlin proposes to travel through the United States, nominally to lecture on the eight-hour movement, but really to organize Anarchist Groups on the basis of the Chicago Arbeiter Bund.

—The boilers in the basement of the Park Central Hotel, Hartford, Conn., exploded early on the morning of the 18th ult., causing the complete collapse of the entire building, which immediately took fire, thus adding to the horrors of the catastrophe. The fire department was on hand promptly and the work of subduing the flames and rescuing the injured and imprisoned people began at once. Twenty-three lives were lost.

—News has recently been received at New York of an attempted revolution in San Domingo. The natives are dissatisfied with President Hereaux's rule, and organized an army, but a traitor informed Hereaux, who quickly suppressed the rebellion. The insurgents were surprised, surrounded, and routed with considerable loss in killed and wounded. Many rebels were cut down while trying to escape. The ringleaders were condemned to death, and the deluded followers were pardoned.

—America for February 14, contains a post-card in fac-simile from the Hon. W. E. Gladstone, testifying to his study of Washington "40 years ago with love and admiration." A singular fact in connection with this card is, that although mailed in Chester, England, November 30, and received at Chicago December 12, it was not delivered until January 29, thus bearing testimony, under the signature of England's greatest statesman, to the defective service in the second most important post-office in the United States.

—It seems that at last a means has been devised by which elevators can be rendered perfectly safe. The bottom of the shaft is so arranged that it is air tight and the elevator is made to fit it as closely as possible, thus forming an air-cushion. The Scientific American tells of an experiment where an elevator, weighing 2300 pounds, equipped with plate-glass mirrors and loaded with baskets of eggs and goblets, was cut loose and allowed to shoot down 80 feet. The air cushion received the elevator with so much ease that not a drop of water was spilled or an egg broken. The pressure at the point of concussion was 60,000 pounds.