SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 4, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 42.

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SECULAR.

—The salary of the king of Samoa is twenty dollars per month.

—About one-quarter of all the registered bonds of the U. S. Government are held in Massachusetts.

—Secretary Proctor proposes to induce enlistments for the regular army from the State militia forces.

—Grand Duke Nicholas, uncle of the czar of Russia, is said to be dying of cancerous affection of the ear.

—Two men, said to be Americans, have been arrested at Odessa, charged with circulating counterfeit Russian money.

—The International and Mortgage Bank of Mexico has been incorporated by American capitalists, with a capital stock of $5,000,000.

—It is stated that Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, will become a naturalized Italian citizen and be nominated for the Senate.

—The New York World publishes a list of wealthy men in that city, showing that there are 125 whose yearly income is $50,000 or over.

—Claus Spreckels, the Sugar King, has purchased a large tract of land in Algiers, opposite New Orleans, and will erect another sugar refinery.

—Cornell College, at Ithaca, N. Y., follows Harvard’s example and elects C. C. Cook, a colored student, as orator of the graduating class.

—Peru is moving in the matter of building a railroad across the Andes, to connect with some of the navigable rivers emptying into the Atlantic.

—The trial of the parties accused of the murder of Dr. Cronin, began in Chicago on the 24th inst. Seven weeks were consumed in obtaining a jury.

—As the outcome of a feud in Hancock County, Ky., five men are sentenced to be hanged December 23. The Supreme Court has affirmed the verdict.

—The work in the San Francisco post-office has increased fifty per cent. in three years, and Postmaster Bryan is promised a larger working force than at present employed.

—The authorities of Seattle, Washington, have been following up and fining the gamblers to such an extent lately that the business has been almost entirely run out.

—The recent election in Portugal for members of the Chamber of Deputies resulted in a return of 102 supporters of the government and thirty-three members of the opposition.

—A movement is on foot for a Canadian Atlantic telegraph cable, to extend from Greeny Island, in the Straits of Bell Isle, to Clom Bay, in Ireland; the length will be 1,900 miles.

The telegraph announces that a New York syndicate has purchased the San Diego electric light plant for $650,000. They expect to add $300,000 in extending the system to National City and Coronado.

—The State Department has just been informed that Chile has removed the duties from agricultural implements, iron and steel rails, telephones, mining machinery, wire, railway materials, and similar articles.

—A New Orleans grand jury has reported several indictments against persons who were connected with the treasury department in 1881-82, for having issued fraudulent bonds to the amount of about $400,000.

—It turns out that the $2,250,000 worth of bonds recently stolen from the treasury of Mexico, bore only the treasurer’s signature, and had not received the treasury seal, which is necessary to make them of any value.

—The Archduke John Salvator, of Austria, has expressed a desire to resign all his titles and appointments, and lead the life of a private citizen. And there are so many private citizens who would like to be archdukes!

—The month just past has been the rainiest October that California has experienced in many years. It has been especially severe on the ungathered portion of the grape crop, amounting to about one-third the entire yield.

—In 1891 all the Canadian bank charters will expire, and the Dominion Legislature will have to settle the question of terms upon which they may be renewed. Some of the journals advocate the United States national bank system.

—The U. S. war-ship Pensacola has sailed from New York for Africa, with 400 persons of various professions, who go to witness the total eclipse of the sun, which will occur December 22, and will be visible within a belt of 5,000 miles east and west, and 100 north and south.

—Of Col. J. D. Stevenson’s regiment of New York Volunteers, raised for the Mexican War and sent to California in 1846, there are 144 survivors. The colonel resides in San Francisco, and is 90 years old.

—The U. S. cruiser San Francisco, being built at the city after which it is named, was successfully launched on the 26th of October. Notwithstanding a drenching rain and mud in the vicinity, there was an immense crowd of men, women, and children out to witness the scene.

—Captain Wissman, the German Imperial Commissioner for East Africa, has had an engagement with a force of natives under the command of Chief Bushire, and defeated them. Three hundred of Bushire’s men were killed or wounded. The German forces lost seven men.

—The two sons of Craig Tolliver, the notorious Kentucky desperado, recently beat their mother almost to death because she attempted to correct them. They were aged 11 and 14 years. They have been sent to a reform school, while the mother is hopelessly insane. Since Tolliver’s death, the family have lived at Montgomery, Ohio.

—It is reported that the election of Morgan (colored) as orator of the senior class of Harvard University, was a hasty hoax in retaliation for some Democratic sentiments expressed by the President, and that some who voted for Morgan now concede that they went too far. Vigorous protests are received from Harvard clubs throughout the country.

—A man named Klaiber attempted to assassinate Prince William of Wurtemberg, while the latter was riding to church at Ludwig on the 20th inst. The would-be assassin is a member of an Anarchist society, the members of which have sworn to kill all princes. The society recently drew lots to decide which of the members should kill Prince William. The choice fell upon Klaiber.

—The sacred edifice in Peking, China, known as the Temple of Heaven, was entirely destroyed by fire October 18. The building was regarded as the most important structure in the capital, its cost being so lavish that it is said no one knows the amount. The emperor and leading officials are reported as being "scared out of their wits," at the supposed manifestation of the anger of Heaven.

—A Mr. Reddington, of New York State, recently visited a Grand Army Post in this city, and addressed the comrades. He said that General Grant had made Oakland famous after his visit to California in 1879, by relating that one of the incidents in his life which he never could forget was that of the school-children surrounding the carriage and singing, "My Country 'Tis of Thee," while they almost smothered him in flowers.

—Advices from Zanzibar state that weekly slave markets are held, at which slaves are publicly exposed for sale. The merchants who carry on the traffic are all Arabs, but it appears to be well understood in Zanzibar that rich firms of English traders furnish all the capital to conduct the business. All the local officials in Zanzibar are said to be in the pay of this firm, who purchase immunity by bribing the authorities, from the highest to the lowest, and so complete is their influence that complaints receive little attention.

—Notwithstanding all that has been said of the overwhelming defeat sustained by Boulangists in the late election in France, their enemies have still much to fear from them. In the last Assembly they had twenty seats, in the one just chosen they will have fifty. A few more such "defeats" would put the friends of the irrepressible general in a position to make not a little mischief in the republic. The New Assembly will consist of 576 members, as follows: Moderate Republicans, 238; Radical Republicans, 126; Imperialists and Monarchists, 162; Boulangists, 50.