SECULAR | AdventAI

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

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 10.

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SECULAR.

—Brazil last year acquired 136,000 European immigrants.

—Sir Julian Pauncefort has been appointed British Minister to the United States.

—It is said that nine-tenths of the telegraphic errors are due to poor handwriting.

—The German missionaries held captive by the Arabs were liberated on the 27th ult.

—The 150,000 miles of railroad in the United States furnish employment to 800,000 men, about 5 men per mile.

—Avalanches have destroyed the village of Nivollet, and killed four persons and injured many others in St. Michel, Savoy, France.

—A statistician asserts that twenty princes and princesses of the reigning families of Europe have been treated for mental disorders.

—Statistics show more oranges, lemons, bananas, figs, and raisins consumed in the United States than in any other country in the world.

—Two explosions of natural gas near Pittsburg, Pa., on the 27th ult., wrecked five buildings, and seriously, if not fatally, injured several persons.

—An estimate of the population of New Mexico states the figures as follows: Native Mexicans, 108,000; Pueblo Indians, 10,000; Americans (from the East), 67,000.

—The lantern of Tillamook Light, off the coast of Oregon, is 130 feet above the sea level, yet several times the glass has been broken and the light extinguished by severe storms.

—March 2 Secretary Whitney accepted, on behalf of the Government, the new cruiser Yorktown, built by Cramp Sons, of Philadelphia. In all respects the vessel comes up to the requirements.

—On the 2d inst., Secretary Endicott issued orders placing General Rosecrans on the retired list with the rank of brigadier-general, and Major Wm. F. Smith with the rank of major of engineers.

—February 24 ten girls and one man were killed by an explosion of blasting powder in a squib factory at Plymouth, a few miles from Wilkesbarre, Pa. Squibs are cartridges used by miners in blasting.

—Recent advices from Afghanistan, via London, say that the Ameer is marching upon the Russian frontier, and that a collision with the Russians is imminent. The Ameer persists in committing cruelties.

—According to statistics given in The Engineering and Mining Journal, the output of minerals in the United States during the year 1888 exceeded in value the combined mineral output of the whole of Europe.

—A movement has been started in Norway, says Nature, for the dispatch in the summer of 1890 of an expedition which will try to reach the north pole, and it is proposed that the leadership shall be offered to Dr. Nansen.

—The most remarkable collection of photographs in the world is that now on exhibition at St. Petersburg. One Krassowski has had himself photographed once a month for twenty-two years, in order to note the ravages of age.

—Recent statistics show that the number of steamers existing in the world in 1886, was estimated at 9,969, of an aggregate burden of 10,531,843 tons. In the previous year the number was stated at 6,042, of an aggregate burden of 10,391,241 tons.

—The number of births annually to 1,000 population is 38.7 in the Southern States, 25.7 in New York, 22.1 in New England, 34.2 in England. It appears further that there were 708,061 births in the South, and only 869,112 in the North and Territories.

—Mayor Grant, of New York, gave notice on the 25th ult. that all telegraph and telephone wires in that city must be buried, and all poles removed within thirty days. If the work is not done by the companies it will be by the city at their expense.

—Great success has attended the labors of piano manufacturers on this coast. Over 20,000 instruments made by one firm in San Francisco are now in use. This firm is about to establish agencies in London, Paris, Vienna, and other foreign cities.

—White Caps attempted to murder a Minneapolis editor by shooting, on the 28th ult. The editor, whose name is Smith, had received a number of letters signed "White Caps," threatening him with death unless he left the city. This he failed to do, hence the attempt to murder him.

—Nine persons were killed and several injured by a railroad accident near St. George, Ontario, on the 27th ult. A broken tire on one of the engine wheels caused the rails to spread, and the first passenger car, a Pullman car, and a dining-car went through the middle section of a bridge.

—The Kansas Legislature has enacted a law which provides that all arrangements, contracts, agreements, trusts, or combinations which tend to prevent competition or advance cost to consumers, are declared to be against public policy, unlawful and void. Heavy penalties for violation of the law are provided.

—Robert Sigel, the son and clerk of General Franz Sigel, Pension Agent of New York City, has been arrested by United States Treasury agents from Washington for the defalcation of money obtained by forging pension certificates, and locked up in the Ludlow Street Jail. Young Sigel has confessed his crime.

—Canada is to adopt a policy of hostility toward immigration. All alien laborers, except British, will be prohibited from coming to Canada, and the funds which the Dominion Government has hitherto granted in aid of immigration, amounting in the aggregate to a quarter of a million sterling, will be withdrawn.

—It is stated from Ottawa, that the amendment to the extradition act introduced in Parliament will be supported by the Government. It is a liberal measure, and, if carried, promises to carry dismay into the ranks of the "boodlers," as its provisions will probably make it retro-active, so as to affect American fugitives already in Canada.

—The Railway Age says: "Persia is one of the foreign lands that is attracting the attention of American railway builders. The Legislature of Maine has been asked to charter "The Persian Railway Company," and it is said that citizens of that State have contracted with the Shah to build a road extending from Teheran to the Persian Gulf, 500 miles or more.

—The present population of the United States is estimated at 64,300,000. The total increase is now 100,000 per month, exclusive of immigration, while the total number of immigrants last year was 518,000. If immigration continues at the same rate, and the natural increase is retained, the next census, which will be taken July 1, 1890, will show about 67,000,000 inhabitants.

—A recent cyclone in Banks County, Ga., destroyed a large amount of property, killed considerable stock, and killed and injured some twenty persons. The track of the cyclone extended seventeen miles, and books and papers belonging to one family were found ten miles away. The force of the wind was so great that a horse and buggy were lifted bodily in the air and blown into an adjoining field. Large trees were wrenched off two feet above the ground and a cow was found with a piece of plank driven into her body.

—The ravages of phylloxera are constantly becoming more serious in the European vine-growing regions. A report from Elba states that the whole island is infected, while the efforts to check the plague in Toscana have thus far proved unsuccessful. The dreaded insect has also made its appearance at Parmi, in Calabria, at Novara, and at Cervo in Liguria. Reports from the neighborhood of San Remo and Lombardy are also very discouraging.

—According to the report of the director of the mint the production of gold in the United States for 1888 was 1,644,927 ounces, of the value of $33,175,000. The product of silver for the same time was 45,783,632 fine ounces, having a commercial value of about $43,000,000, and a coining value of $59,195,000. The coinage of the mints for the year was as follows: Gold, $31,380,808; silver, $31,990,833; subsidiary silver, $1,084,773; minor, $912,201; total, $65,518,615.

—Eiffel's tower in Paris will be finished about the last of March. The arrangements for hoisting people to its top—1,000 feet above the earth—are to consist of two lifts to carry fifty to one hundred persons each to the first platform. Two others will ascend from the ground floor to the second platform, 112 meters high, in a minute. They will stop at the first platform to take up or leave passengers. The complete ascent will take four minutes, and it will be possible to take to the top 750 visitors an hour.

—During the coming six months, in three leading States of the Union, the question of prohibition is to be submitted to a vote of the people. In New Hampshire the election will take place on March 12, and in Pennsylvania on June 18. In Massachusetts the date has not been fixed. It is said that the present indications in all of these States are favorable to the success of prohibition. A prohibitory amendment has also been submitted in Nebraska, but a year and a half must elapse before the vote can be taken.

—A walking delegate of the Brooklyn, N. Y., Cab Drivers' Union, recently stopped a funeral procession in the street because one of the carriages was driven by a non-union man. In vain the undertaker expostulated, and entreated, and explained that the carriage was not hired by him, but by its occupants, and that he had no control over it. His reasoning had no effect on the haughty delegate. After half an hour of delay the obnoxious driver solved the problem by withdrawing from the scene, and then the autocrat raised his left hand and the procession went on its way.

—Some months since the London Times made the charge that Parnell, the great Irish leader, was privy to the Phoenix Park murders, and to other crimes which had been committed presumably in the interests of the Irish cause. Parliament created a special commission to investigate the matter, with the result that the whole case against Parnell has collapsed. A man named Pigott, who was the principal witness for the Times, after confessing that he forged the letters published to show Parnell's complicity with the crimes, fled to Madrid, where he was arrested a few days since, and immediately committed suicide.

—The Commissioner of the Department of Labor has given to the public some interesting statistics relative to divorces in the United States. The report shows that the number of divorces granted in the United States increased from 9,937 in 1867 to 25,535 in 1886. The total for twenty years was 328,716. During the last five years of the period of twenty years, the States of Connecticut, Maine, and Vermont are the only ones showing a decrease in divorces. Dakota shows the largest increase of divorces granted; 216,738, or 65 per cent. of the whole, were granted to wives, and 111,983 were granted to husbands. The cause for which the greatest number of divorces were granted is that of desertion, being 126,557, or 38 per cent. of the whole number. The Commissioner says that it is apparent that the divorces granted for drunkenness, 13,843, cannot in any sense of the word represent the total number in which drunkenness or intemperance is a serious factor.