SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jul 4, 1878

SECULAR NEWS.

—Mercedes, the queen of Spain, is dead.

—The national debt was decreased three million dollars in May.

—Pennsylvania supplies one-fifth of the rye produced in this country, or 3,677,641 bushels out of 16,918,795.

—June 29, a portion of a tunnel fell near Schevelin, Germany, burying twenty-seven persons. Seven bodies were recovered.

—The taxable property of the Chinese of Los Angeles county for 1877 amounted to less than $500. They sent out of the county thousands.

—Grasshoppers by the million are reported to be in Sierra Valley. They have damaged the hay somewhat, but will hurt the grain more.

—The daily motion of the Swiss glacier, the Mer de Glace, is from seven to thirty-six inches, depending upon the season and the point of measurement. The motion of its tributary glaciers is less rapid.

—June 29, a destructive fire broke out at Los Angeles, in the Central Hotel, opposite the passenger depot, and was carried by the winds to the Railroad Hotel, adjoining, consuming both buildings completely. Loss, $7000.

—It is estimated that 20,000,000 sheep are slaughtered in England for mutton annually, or more than half the present stock on hand. Canada and the United States are destined to play an important part in contributing to satiate the English palate, especially susceptible to mutton and beef.

—The school census of Oakland shows the number of school children between 5 and 17 years of age to be 6666—3242 boys and 3424 girls, a gain of 77 over the census of 1877. Last year the Chinese children numbered 181; this year there are 394. In 1877 the children under 5 years of age numbered 3599; this year but 3259 are returned—a falling off of 340.

—A comparison made between two Atlantic steamers, one built in 1840, and one of to-day shows that the modern steamship carries fifteen times as much freight as the old one did, at nearly twice the speed. The consumption of coal per ton of cargo was, in 1840, nearly 11 times as much as at present.

—Prof. Leone Levi, of the University of London, says that the wages of the working classes in Great Britain may be taken at £400,000,000, £300,000,000 of which they finger directly in cash. In this case he holds that they ought to save £15,000,000 a year, and yet he cannot make out that the sum they do hoard exceeds £4,000,000. When asked what becomes of the £11,000,000 of surplus which, according to him the workingmen's private budget annually shows, the lecturer opines that it goes in buying more drink than is necessary or wholesome.

—The Newfoundland sealing steamers are built with iron prows and timbers strong enough to resist an immense pressure. The iron prow acts like a huge wedge driven by steam. Saws are used in making a way through thick ice, especially when an approaching iceberg threatens a catastrophe. The long, sloping stems of these vessels are built of solid oak and covered with inch thick iron plates, forming a ram of immense weight and power. The rest of the hull is sheathed four inches thick with a New Zealand wood almost as hard as metal.