p. 14 | News and Notes

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 29, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 29.

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News and Notes.

SECULAR.

—There are 10,000 telephones in Berlin.

—A water-spout destroyed the town of Chilapa, Mexico, July 15.

—There are 140,825 people on the Government pay-rolls, in addition to those in the army and navy.

—One-half of the town of Djarkend, in Semiretchinsk, Russia, has been destroyed by an earthquake.

—The National Grange, or Patrons of Husbandry, will meet in Sacramento, Cal., sometime during the coming fall.

—The latest thing in the way of trusts is a salt trust recently formed in New York, with a capital of $15,000,000.

—Two severe earthquake shocks were felt July 19 in Covington, Ky. Memphis, Tenn., also experienced a similar sensation.

—Asahel M. Cole, the founder of the Republican party, died at his home in Wellsville, N. Y., July 15, aged sixty-eight years.

—A regular line of sailing vessels has been established to run direct between the ports of San Francisco and Genoa, Italy.

—The street car stables of Lowell, Mass., burned July 17, at a loss of $150,000. Forty cars and 120 horses were consumed.

—Two men were killed and twenty seriously injured on a miner's train which was wrecked near Shamokin, Pa., July 17.

—The Grand Duke Constantine, uncle of the Czar of Russia, has been stricken with paralysis, and has lost the power of speech.

—The Governor of Tripoli has issued a decree abolishing the slave trade. Violation of the decree is attended by severe penalties.

—Owing to a collision between a freight and passenger train at Grenoble, France, on the 15th inst., 20 persons were killed or injured.

—A still exploded in a chemical laboratory in Jersey City, N. Y., July 20, wrecking the building and causing $300,000 worth of damage.

—A cigar seller in Brooklyn, N. Y., was recently fined fifty dollars under the new law prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to children. Good.

—A girl in Maitland, Pa., recently attempted to start a fire by using coal oil. The can exploded as usual, fatally burning her and two of her sisters.

—Recent advices from Constantinople stated that the Porte would send several battalions of troops to Crete, on account of the threatened uprising there.

—John E. Burton of Gogebic, Wisconsin, sometimes known as the "iron king" of that section, has made an assignment to Milwaukee parties for $825,000.

—Four children were poisoned near Star City, Ark., July 16, by arsenic placed in their food by some unknown person. Three of them died from its effects.

—During the first seventy years of the Government but fifty-five patents were allowed to women; but in 1887 alone, 188 were issued, and the total is over 2,000.

—The Supreme Court of California has reversed the decision of the lower courts in the celebrated Sharon-Terry case, and has denied the validity of the marriage.

—Fire broke out in the jail at Jacksonville, Oregon, July 12, and through the neglect of the prison officials, all of the prisoners, three in number, perished in the flames.

—Forty women armed with horsewhips, switches, etc., assaulted a saloon keeper named Lewis, at Fossil, Colorado, July 16, and gave him a terrible flogging for beating his wife.

—After a struggle of eight years the French law has sanctioned cremation. The advocates of this method for disposing of the dead are to hold a Congress on the 4th of August.

—The prospects for anything like a reasonable crop of wheat in foreign countries this year is decidedly discouraging, and the market bids fair to be controlled by the United States.

—King Charles of Wurtemburg was prostrated by lightning while watching a thunder-storm on the 14th inst. He remained unconscious for several minutes, but was not seriously injured.

—There are 15,000 photographic establishments in the United States, furnishing employment to about 50,000 people. Less than fifty years ago there was not a photographic camera in the world.

—Heavy thunder-storms accompanied by much destruction were reported from Dakota, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan, July 16. Several deaths occurred and many dwellings were burned by lightning.

—A new steamship mail line from New York to Brazil is being arranged for. A company has been formed in New York City, having this object in view, and $1,000,000 has already been paid in.

—William Burnley, a Pennsylvania farmer, has just been awarded a patent on a combined telegraph and telephone instrument which enables both operations to be carried on over one wire at the same time.

—Fourteen criminals under the age of twenty-one were all arraigned in one day before a court in San Francisco recently. There may be some cities which can beat this, but it is an unenviable record at the best.

—The total length of the submarine cables at present in use is given by an Austrian paper as 113,051 miles. Of this length, 102,531 miles belong to the various cable companies, and 10,500 miles are Government property.

—Walla Walla, W. T., was visited by an army of grasshoppers on the night of the 20th inst. They flew through the city by millions during the night, but by morning all had gone in the direction of Puget Sound.

—The New York anarchists have been denouncing Herr Most for his mild utterances through his paper, the Freiheit. They declare against his controlling the sheet any longer, and claim that he is a traitor to the cause.

—At a colored camp-meeting near Ripley, Ohio, recently, the minister stopped his discourse long enough to chastise a drunken rough who was making things unpleasant in the vicinity. He then went on with his sermon as usual.

—The Veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic are very indignant over the refusal of the railroads to allow them a rate of one cent per mile, and threaten to refrain from attending the grand annual encampment soon to be held at Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

—The National Educational Association at Nashville, Tenn., held its final session the 19th inst. A marked feature of this year's meeting was the unusual interest taken in kindergarten work. It was voted to hold the meeting next year at St. Paul, Minn.

—A steamer with five hundred colored excursionists aboard ran into a closed drawbridge near Savannah, Ga., the night of the 20th inst., killing two women and injuring twenty-eight other persons, some of whom were expected to die at last accounts.

—The entire town of Princeton, Ohio, consisting of 28 houses, a sawmill, and the public school building, was swept away by a terrific wind-storm July 14. No lives were lost, but considerable damage was done to property by the storm, which extended over a large territory.

—An aeronaut named Hogan went up from New York City, July 16, in an air-ship of new construction, which became unmanageable at an elevation of 5,000 feet, and he was carried out into the open ocean. It is probable that he was drowned, as nothing has since been heard from him.

—Lord Salisbury, of England, in a recent speech, took a very pessimistic view of the Irish question, and seemed to think it was no nearer solution than formerly. He also expressed himself as believing that the colonies would never become a distinct federation like the United States.

—London is much agitated over the renewal of the Whitechapel murders. The latest victim, the eighth in number, was found weltering in her own blood early in the morning of the 16th inst. It is thought Jack the Ripper is the author of the crime. The police have no clue to his identity.

—One of the most remarkable men in the country is Sydney Bartlett of Boston, who though ninety years old, is still in active practice as a lawyer, and is almost daily engaged in complicated cases, showing all the mental alertness of a young and vigorous man. His practice is said to be worth $10,000 a year.

—Five war ships of the German navy landed at Tonga on the Zanzibar coast the 10th inst., and bombarded the town fiercely for several hours. The town of Pangani was similarly treated a day or two before. Inasmuch as no Germans were killed during the recent outbreak there, it seems as if such ruthless destruction was unwarranted.

—Minnesota has a new law providing that all legal executions shall take place between the hours of midnight and daylight, that no person representing a newspaper shall be present, and that publication in any newspaper of anything more than the general statement that the execution was performed according to law shall be a misdemeanor.

—Grand Master Powderly, of the Knights of Labor, has issued an address to that organization through the columns of its official journal, in which he makes a strong plea for reform through the ballot and not by violence. He is much in favor of a secret ballot law, as this will prohibit corporations from controlling the votes of their employes.

—Parnell, the Irish leader, has withdrawn from the Commission of Inquiry appointed some time ago in London to examine into certain affairs connected with the Irish question, and virtually declines to make any further presentation of his case. He of course, however, will remain subject to the jurisdiction of the court. The investigation, meantime, will continue.

—Several large snow-sheds have been recently burned on the Union Pacific Railroad. The brakemen are compelled to stand on the top of the cars while passing through the snow-sheds on the road, and several have met their death by being knocked off the cars recently. They petitioned for a reversal of this rule, but were refused, and it is thought they fired the sheds out of retaliation.

—Manual training, as a part of the course of instruction in public schools, is steadily growing in favor. New York has been making some experiments in this direction, and they have been so well received that a committee of the Board of Education of that city has recommended the extension of the system to nearly all its schools. Boston, Chicago, and other cities have been experimenting with the same end in view.

—The most disastrous calamity that ever befell West Virginia occurred on the 18th inst., when the Little Kanawha Valley was completely flooded by a cloud burst. Several counties were included in the area swept by the destroying elements, and bridges, mills and steamboats shared in the general destruction. Some villages were almost entirely swept away, and scores of dwellings in other places were wrecked. It is not definitely known at the date of this writing just how many lives were lost. Nearly twenty victims are already included in the list and others will doubtless be found. The damage to property is immense, and it is stated that the losses will run up into the millions.

—July 4 constitutional conventions assembled in North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington Territories, and at this writing have not yet completed their work in either of the soon-to-be new States. It is said that in Washington Territory the Committee on Bill of Rights has agreed upon a report. The preamble is the briefest on record. The name of God does not appear in it. Absolute freedom of conscience in all religious matters is guaranteed, but polygamy is prohibited. There are to be no religious exercises whatever in the public schools, and no public money can be used for religious purposes. In Montana a representative of the National Reformers asked that God be recognized as the source of all authority in civil government. A memorial was also presented asking that no legislation be enacted enforcing the observance of a Sabbath, but that everybody be left free to choose their own day for worship. It seems probable that in both North and South Dakota the fullest religious liberty will be guaranteed.