SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 6.

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SECULAR.

—Serious floods are reported on the lower Mississippi River.

—The number of sheep in the world is estimated at 517,000,000.

—It is said there are only forty first-class stenographers in the United States.

—There now seems to be little doubt that Blaine will be President Harrison's Secretary of State.

—Nine towns in Michigan have cases of small-pox. Thirty-one persons are ill from that disease in the State.

—It is reported that thirty days of rain and floods have destroyed the entire sugar crop of San Domingo.

—California's wheat crop for 1888 was about 27,750,000 bushels, as against a yield of nearly 28,000,000 in 1887.

—On the 28th ult., a woman was sentenced to be hanged, at Philadelphia, for the murder of her husband.

—Sixteen men and twenty horses were drowned while crossing the ice on Lake Rideau, Ontario, on the 27th ult.

—January 25, two children in Dakota were lost on their way home from school, and perished in the blinding storm.

—It is said that very few Republicans in Congress doubt that there will be an extra session of the Fifty-first Congress.

—A London dispatch of the 2d inst., says that the steamer Lymington was wrecked off Ilfracombe and ten persons drowned.

—A bill has been introduced into the New Jersey Legislature to abolish the High-license and Local-option law of that State.

—January 28, a memorial was presented to the United States Senate protesting against the admission of New Mexico as a State.

—The Japan Gazette says that the quantity of rice exported from that country is about one million piculs yearly, realizing $3,000,000.

—By a vote of 23 to 1 the School Board of Louisville, Ky., has decided that German shall not be taught in the public schools of that city.

—Germany has made a formal declaration of war against Samoa, and all vessels arriving there are searched for arms and munitions of war.

—Buffalo, N. Y., was the scene of a most disastrous fire on the morning of the 2d inst. Fully $2,000,000 worth of property was destroyed. The same day a fire in Denver, Col., destroyed property valued at $130,000.

—Advices from Alaska say the winter there has so far been a very discouraging one to the people of the Territory, owing to the severe storms.

—A bill is before the Pennsylvania Legislature to make the penalty for writing "White Cap" letters three years' imprisonment and $1,000 fine.

—January 30, one thousand Clyde firemen and sailors struck for an increase of 3 shillings per week, which the Allan Company at once conceded.

—England is alarmed by the reports of the strengthening of the French navy; the Admiralty estimates propose the increase of the marine force by 3500 men.

—The rice prospects of the South are not good. Bad service and floods have done great damage, and fear of the reduction of the duty discourages growers.

—On the 1st inst., the Senate, in secret session, repudiated, by a vote of 38 to 15, the extradition treaty with England, which Bayard negotiated two years ago.

—The walls of a burned building in Duluth, Minn., collapsed on the 29th ult., and one man was buried beneath the ruins. His sister has since become insane.

—A Boston inventor claims to be able to produce aluminium for less than seventeen cents per pound. This metal is stronger than iron, and very much lighter.

—Archduke Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, is dead. It is asserted by some that he was shot by a man whose wife he had seduced. Others say it is a case of suicide.

—The downfall of the present French ministry, is confidently predicted as one result of the election of General Boulanger to a seat in the chamber from the Department of the Seine.

—On the 31st ult., a receiver was appointed by Judge Barrett, of the Supreme Court, for the North River Sugar Refining Company. This is another decision against the sugar trust.

—A prohibition colony is to be founded in Los Angeles County, this State. Every deed will contain a clause "forbidding the manufacture, sale, or storage of intoxicants," upon the lands of the colony.

—The annual expenditures for school purposes in the State of South Carolina amount to about $600,000. This is about one-third the sum which the city of Boston expends annually upon its schools.

—January 31 John O'Connor and Thomas Condon, members of Parliament for Tipperary, were sentenced to imprisonment for four months, without hard labor, for inciting tenants not to pay rent.

—Near the town of Fillmore, Millard County, Utah, is located a clever-sized mountain of salt; it is blocked out similar to limestone in a quarry, and thousands of tons are sent annually to different reduction works.

—The census of children, of school age, between six and eighteen years, in Utah, shows that there are in the Territory 941 boys and 3,841 girls of non-Mormon parents, and 34,082 boys and 23,289 girls of Mormon parentage.

—Captain Zalinski's new dynamite gun was tested again at Fort Lafayette, New York, on the 31st ult., and shells were thrown nearly two miles. The tests were satisfactory to the Examining Board, who will recommend the adoption of the gun to the Government.

—It is asserted that a prominent architect of Kansas City is reported to have discovered a method of producing sterilized air. The value of this air is stated to be that all surgical operations can be performed by its use without danger of subsequent inflammation.

—A millionaire, named Tagliabel, who died recently at Milan, bequeathed the sum of 50,000 francs to the street-sweepers of that town, on condition that they would all go to his funeral in their working clothes. In his youth he had himself been a street-sweeper.

—January 31, the Nebraska Legislature passed a resolution, for the submission to the people of a prohibitory amendment to the Constitution. The same day the Governor of Pennsylvania signed a similar resolution, which had been adopted by the Legislature of that State.

—A late London dispatch says that the naval committee appointed to inquire into the late maneuvers, states that the English ships, with few exceptions, are unsuitable for modern warfare—indeed, deficient—and that the existing fleet is unfit to command the seas against an enemy.

—The Federal Council of Australia has adopted an address to the Crown, viewing with deep anxiety the recent events in Samoa, and favoring treaties guaranteeing independence in those islands, and also expressing the opinion that foreign dominion there endangers the safety of Australia.

—A New York dispatch of the 29th ult., says: "With two exceptions every line of street cars in this city is tied up. When the last night trip was made, each car was run into the stables and at 4 A. M. the great strike commenced." Two days later however, the lines were all running again and at this writing, February 3, the strike is regarded as a failure.

—Since May 5, 1883, the killing of deer on Cape Cod has been forbidden by law, under a heavy penalty, and the result is, that the 500,000 acres of woodland between Sandwich, Falmouth, and Plymouth, are thronged with deer, now quite tame. When the law was not in force, about 200 deer were killed yearly. For over 200 years that region has been a favorite hunting ground.

—A late financial report of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, covers the period of the great strike on that road, and shows a remarkable decrease in the earnings, as compared with those of 1887. The decrease in gross earnings was $1,741,493, and in net earnings, $1,719,225. The company estimates that it lost from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 by the strike, necessitating a quarterly dividend of only one per cent.

—A strange disease is raging in Webster County, Ky. Up to February 1, twenty-four persons, mostly children, have died. The disease is not understood by the physicians, and they are unable to name it. Death usually occurs from six to twelve hours after the attack. Those dying rapidly turn black after death. Three physicians have fled, not being able to be of any service, and not wishing to jeopardise their lives without hope of doing good.

—The Columbian Government, while announcing its ability and determination to preserve order on the isthmus in case of suspension of work on the canal, advises the consuls of foreign countries to take steps for returning discharged laborers to their homes, as the fact is recognized that the howling mob of tough characters who would be turned loose from the cuts would be a difficult element to manage. Troops were being concentrated on the isthmus to be in readiness for any emergency.

—January 29, Stanhope, the British Secretary of War, delivered an address to a meeting in Lincolnshire, England, in which he said that a thundercloud was hanging over Europe, and that sooner or later it would burst, bringing the fiercest and most horrible war ever known. It was impossible, he said, to view the preparations for war now being made throughout Europe, without feeling that war was approaching. He hoped, however, that the wisdom of England's statesmen would prevent that nation from becoming involved.

—A festival and ball given in Chicago, Sunday evening, January 27, for the benefit of the families of the executed and imprisoned Anarchists, was attended by some 3,000 persons. The walls of the hall were covered with caricatures, such as policemen blown up by a dynamite bomb, allegorical figures representing Christianity and Judaism falling dead, and others of a more revolting type. Editor Christensen, of the Arbeiter Zeitung, delivered a eulogy on the "heroes" and "sacred martyrs" who were sleeping their dreamless sleep in Waldheim. The speaker predicted that a cyclone would yet sweep over the land and wipe the capitalistic robbers from the face of the earth.