News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 15, 1889

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

News and Notes.

By Editor

—Savannah, Ga., had a $1,500,000 fire the 6th inst. —The U. S. Senate adjourned sine die, on the 2d inst. —April 1 there was $617,591,090.66 in the public treasury. —Chicago has one hundred Christian Endeavor Societies. —Affairs in Hayti are about settled, and peace will soon be declared. —The decrease in the public debt since June 30, 1888, amounts to $50,900,994. —Heavy snow-storms prevailed throughout Pennsylvania and the Blue Ridge section, April 5 and 6. —Secretary of the Treasury Windom has refused to purchase 4 1/2 per cent. bonds at a higher figure than 108. —It is estimated that 1,000 frogs are consumed in San Francisco daily, at an average cost of fifty cents apiece. —Downs & Co., of New York, leading fancy shirt makers in the United States, failed on the 5th inst., for $400,000. —The liabilities for the first quarter of 1889 are reported at $42,786,000, as against $38,834,000 for the first quarter of 1888. —An English syndicate has purchased Catalina Island, off Los Angeles, Cal., for $6,000,000, and will make it a watering-place. —President Harrison has issued a proclamation appointing an hour of prayer on the Washington Centennial day, April 30. —The Navy Department has dispatched the Adams, Richmond, and Alert to take the place of the vessels recently lost at Apia. —An unsuccessful attempt to wreck the Pennsylvania limited express train was made on the night of the 2d inst., near Canton, Ohio. —The German Government has announced its intention of replacing the vessels lost in the recent Samoan disaster as soon as possible. —Edwin Booth, the actor, was recently stricken down while in the midst of a play, by nervous prostration caused by excessive smoking. —An irrigating canal, thirty-nine miles long, is to be constructed by California capitalists in Colusa County, at a cost of half a million dollars. —An extensive Nihilist printing establishment has been discovered in Warsaw, Russia, and many persons connected with it have been arrested. —The recent proclamation of President Harrison, respecting the closing of the Behring Sea, has provoked considerable discussion in British circles. —Southern Hungary has recently been visited by a terrible storm, destroying many houses, and causing disastrous conflagrations in a number of villages. —A street-car strike at Rochester, N. Y., resulted in a riot April 6. The mob was finally dispersed by the police after twenty-five arrests had been made. —Gold is reported to be found in large quantities in the sand on the beach at Lompoc, near Santa Barbara, Cal. Four men are said to have taken out $1,500 in four weeks. —The failures for the first quarter of 1889, as reported by R. G. Dun & Co.'s mercantile agency, number 3,294, as against 2,948 for the corresponding three months of 1888. —Worn coins are redeemable at their face value at any sub-treasury in the United States, provided they are unmutilated, and are presented in parcels of not less than $5.00. —A large deposit of telluride, a very scarce and valuable mineral, has just been discovered in the Wood River country, Indian Territory. The ore assays $10,000 to the ton. —It is stated that Mrs. Stonewall Jackson, widow of the late Confederate general, has been offered the Richmond, Va., post-office, and will accept the position, which is a lucrative one. —While a terrible famine is prevailing in some districts of North China, and thousands of people are on the verge of starvation, millions of dollars have been spent on the recent marriage festivities of the emperor. —The old frigate Franklin, Farragut's last flag-ship, will be sent to New York to take part in the Centennial celebration of April 30. She will represent the old navy, in striking contrast to the new steel cruisers, Boston and Chicago, which will also be there. —The locomotive and fourteen cars of a Baltimore and Ohio freight train went through a burning bridge, sixty miles east of Wheeling, West Virginia, the 1st inst. The crew escaped unhurt. —President Harrison is said to favor the idea of immediately strengthening the United States navy, until it shall reach the standard of other nations, both in point of excellence and numbers. —The East-bound passenger train, on the Northern Pacific road, ran into a freight train near Helena, Mont., the 2d inst., killing three persons, and seriously injuring three others. A misplaced switch was the cause. —August Belmont, the Vanderbilts, and others, have formed a syndicate for the purpose of obtaining a controlling interest in the gas trusts of St. Louis. It is stated that all the properties will be combined in one gigantic organization, with a capital of $12,000,000. —The American war-ship Nipsic, which was grounded in Apia harbor during the Samoan storm, and was thought to be totally wrecked, has been floated off the reef, and will be saved. The other vessels, however, are too badly damaged to be of further use. —The Oklahoma boomers threaten that, on or before the 21st inst., they will burn the bridges on all railroads leading into the disputed territory, in order to prevent other settlers from coming in and occupying the claims the boomers have staked out for themselves. —General Boulanger, who has been advocating the re-modeling of the French Constitution, is accused by the Ministry of attempting the destruction of the Republic. The Chamber of Deputies, by a vote of 355 to 203, declared him a conspirator, and authorized his prosecution. Boulanger has fled to Brussels. —A half-breed Canadian adventurer named Le Duc is in Chicago asking for funds to back him in an effort to reach the north pole. He proposes to establish a line of communication by means of three hundred supply stations, and says the trip will be made overland by sleds. It is possible that Government aid may also be asked. —Dispatches from South Dakota and Minnesota, bearing date of April 4, stated that for two days previous those sections had been visited by severe wind-storms and prairie fires, doing much damage. Several towns and villages have been consumed, and the loss of life is considerable. The pecuniary damage will reach up into the millions. —Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher, the venerable brother of the late Brooklyn divine, fell under the wheels of a moving train at Brooklyn, N. Y., on the 2d inst., sustaining such injuries that amputation of one of his legs was deemed necessary in order to save his life. Dr. Beecher is one of the oldest clergymen in the United States, being over eighty-five years of age. —Later news from the South Pacific indicate that the recent hurricane, which wrecked the American and German fleets at Samoa, was much more widespread than had been supposed. On the island of Tonga, 500 miles south of Samoa, thirty persons perished, and at Tahiti, 1,250 miles south-east of Samoa, the waves submerged a part of the island, and over 1,000 persons are reported drowned. Taken altogether, in the damage done to shipping and the loss of life, it is reported as being the most disastrous storm that has visited that part of the world for many years. —The President has nominated John Hicks, of Wisconsin, as Minister to Peru, and George B. Loring, of Massachusetts, as Minister to Portugal; Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, Minister to Great Britain; Murat Halstead, editor of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, Minister to Germany; Allen Thorndyke Rice, editor of the North American Review, of New York, Minister to Russia; Patrick Egan, of Nebraska, Minister to Chili, and Thomas Ryan, of Kansas, Minister to Mexico. The above nominations have been confirmed by the Senate, with the exception of Murat Halstead, who was rejected on account of political reasons. —A letter, dated August 28, 1888, has been received from Stanley, the explorer, giving a full account of his travels since his departure in June, 1887. He narrates how his force of 389 men and officers was decimated by disease, starvation, and hostilities, until only 140 remained. He reports Emin Pasha alive, and able to hold his own against any opposing force likely to be brought against him. Stanley has shown his usual perseverance, courage, and leadership, and has again proved his right to be considered the most intrepid explorer that has ever attempted to penetrate the mysteries of the Dark Continent. Emin Pasha will not leave Africa at present, but Stanley is already on his homeward way, with a large band of natives, bearing 6,000 elephants' tusks. —A gigantic smuggling scheme has just been unearthed in New York City, by which it is estimated the Government has been cheated out of duties on imported goods to the amount of $250,000. —The New York weekly bank statement shows a reserve decrease of $4,041,000, and a specie decrease of $3,115,000. The banks now hold $1,410,000 in excess of the twenty-five per cent. rule.