SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 19.

SECULAR.

—Col. Fred Grant, the new Minister to Austria, arrived at Vienna the 9th inst.

—Ten thousand weavers in the cotton factories of Thizy, France, struck for higher wages on the 11th inst.

—Ten men were killed by a falling car in the shaft of a coal mine near Middleport, Pa., the 9th inst.

—Duornovo, Director of Charities, will succeed the late Count Tolstoi, of Russia, as Minister of the Interior.

—Justice Temple, of the California Supreme Court, has tendered his resignation, to take effect June 1. Ill health is the cause.

—An unsuccessful attempt was made upon the life of President Carnot, of France, recently, by Nicholas Perrin, a steward of one of the French cruisers.

—Four Zuni Indians who were resisting a theft upon their cattle by cowboys, were killed at Wingate, N. M., the 8th inst. The murderers were captured.

—Retired General William S. Harney died May 9th at Orlando, Florida, at the age of eighty-nine. He was the oldest officer in the United States Army.

—James D. Fish, ex-president of the Marine Bank, was released from the penitentiary at Auburn, N. Y., the 11th inst., having served out his four years' sentence.

—Dave Walker, William Walker, his son, and John Matthews, the three Baldknobbers condemned to death for murder, were executed at Ozark, Mo., May 10.

—The three-ton boat in which Captain Slocum and his family left Brazil last June arrived at Staten Island the 10th inst., after a voyage of more than 7,000 miles.

—The oldest house in Boston, a two-story building on Hanover Street, collapsed on the 9th inst., killing one person and injuring another. The house was 236 years old.

—In a fire near Cynthiana, Ky., the 6th inst., Moore's stables were burned, and fifteen thoroughbred horses, valued at $52,000 in the aggregate, were lost in the flames.

—A young man named Maroney was killed by coming in contact with the electric light wires, while working in the tunnel under Hudson River between New York and Jersey City recently.

—A furious cyclone swept over the northern part of Pratt County, Kansas, May 7, and more than one hundred families are left homeless, and destitute of food or clothing. Some loss of life is reported.

—Asa Matthews, of Illinois, was appointed to be First Controller of the Treasury the 9th inst. He is the present Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, which office he has held for several terms.

—The Standard Oil Company is said to have in contemplation a gigantic deal which involves the absorption of the white lead interests of the country and the formation of an immense trust in this direction.

—A crowd of passengers issuing from a railway station at Bochum, Germany, the 9th inst., was mistaken for a mob of striking miners, and was fired upon by the militia. Two men were killed and a number injured.

—A recent fight between Abyssinians and Dervishes resulted in the beheading of 2,000 men in the presence of Negus, the victorious Abyssinian king. The following day another conflict occurred, in which he was defeated and his army routed, leaving 30,000 dead on the field.

—Edison, the inventor, claims that he is the victim of misplaced confidence, and has been swindled out of $250,000 by certain men whom he employed to negotiate the sale of his phonograph rights. He has entered a suit in equity in the United States Court for the recovery of the above amount.

—Captain Wissman, with a force of 200 Germans and 700 black troops, had a severe engagement at Zanzibar May 8, with Chief Bushire's forces. Eighty of Bushire's men were killed and twenty captured. Bushire fled.

—A heavy suit in the United States Circuit Court has just been decided against the city of New Orleans, by which she becomes liable for $700,000 outstanding drainage warrants, besides twenty years' accrued interest, the whole amount reaching $2,000,000.

—A new national patriotic club, to be known as the George Washington Club, was organized in New York May 4. It has been encouraged already by letters from ex-President Cleveland, Senator Evarts, George William Curtis, John G. Whittier, and others.

—A letter recently received by the New York World discloses the fact that there are at the present time three Americans who are unjustly confined in Chiriqui Prison, Panama, South America. Two of the men have been imprisoned ever since last December, and have not yet been allowed a trial.

—A Constantinople dispatch of May 5 says that a Kurdish chief who had just escaped from prison gathered a number of his followers recently, and, attacking an Armenian village, seized the prominent men, poured petroleum over them, and, setting it on fire, watched his victims slowly burn to death.

—The steamer City of Paris, of the Inman line from Liverpool, arrived at Sandy Hook on the 8th inst., having made the trip in five days, twenty-three hours, and seven minutes. This eclipses all previous records, and is the first voyage ever made across the Atlantic in less than six days. What will come next?

—Admiral Porter and Gen. B. F. Butler are engaged in a wordy contest as to which of the two showed the more courage during certain engagements in the late civil war. When old men like these get to indulging in personalities over such a subject at this late day, it looks a trifle as though they were verging toward second childhood.

—Dispatches from Tucson, Arizona, give particulars of a desperate fight and robbery which occurred near Fort Thomas the 11th inst., in which Major Wham, a Government paymaster, was robbed of $29,000 by a gang of men hidden in ambush. Eight of the eleven soldiers comprising his escort were wounded, five of them seriously. The robbers escaped to the mountains.

—The new cruiser Charleston recently completed at San Francisco was given a partial trial the 11th inst. The results proved quite a surprise, and were very satisfactory in most respects. The boilers developed the required 7,000 horse-power, while the vessel showed her capacity to make eighteen knots an hour. It is generally admitted that she is a better ship than the Government called for.

—At latest accounts the miners' strike at Essen, Germany, was assuming serious proportions. The ranks of the strikers included 100,000 men the 11th inst., with fresh accessions each day. The emperor is deeply concerned over the labor movements now pervading his country, and does not conceal his sympathy with the workingmen, although he is determined to suppress the disorder at present prevailing.

—On the 10th inst. a terrific gale swept over the Middle and Eastern States, doing an almost unlimited amount of damage. Old residents in some sections say it was the worst storm that has occurred in thirty years. Throughout the entire country the effects were noticeable. Buildings were demolished, cars blown from the tracks, trees leveled to the ground, farms washed out, and general damage done. Many lives were lost and hundreds were injured. Much destruction was caused by lightning, and great numbers of animals are reported killed. New York City suffered severely from the storm.