SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 44.

SECULAR.

—A patent has been granted for making flour barrels out of cotton ducking.

—Froude, the historian, is collecting material for a "Life of Lord Beaconsfield."

—The President's final proclamation admitting Montana into the Union of States was issued on the 8th instant.

—The great Paris exposition closed on the 6th inst. with a grand fête. The attendance was estimated at 400,000.

—A fire at Petersburg, Va., on the 7th inst., destroyed property valued at $750,000, and a police officer was burned to death.

—The increasing production of raisins in California is materially reducing the importation from Malaga to the United States.

—The vicinity of Chattanooga, Tenn., is said to be "flooded with counterfeiters," six arrests having been made within two weeks.

—On the 2d inst., the President signed the final proclamations admitting the States of North Dakota and South Dakota into the Union.

—Eight Chinamen, accused of having crossed the line from Mexico, in violation of the Exclusion act, were recently arrested in San Diego.

—It is reported that an agent of Krupp, the German heavy gun maker, is in the United States, looking up a site for a branch establishment.

—The Russian Government offers a prize of 2,000 francs for the best essay on "The Part Taken by John Howard in the History of Prison Reform."

—The Pillsbury and Washburn mills, water-power, and grain elevators, at Minneapolis, Minn., have been sold to an English company for $8,000,000.

—City of Mexico advices say that Chinese in great numbers are arriving at Mazatlan, intending to make their way overland to Arizona and California.

—Governor Waterman has selected twenty delegates to represent California in the great silver convention, to be held in St. Louis on the 24th inst.

—A Chinaman has confided to Judge Sawyer, of San Francisco, the fact that after marrying and living with a woman one month he sold her for $1,545.

—The young emperor of Germany seems to be making friends with the neighboring powers by visiting them. His last call has been on the Turkish powers.

—The secretary of the National Prison Association estimates that the census of 1890 will show a prison population of nearly 100,000, an increase of about 30,000 in ten years.

—The volcano of Colima, Mexico, is in a state of active eruption. It is reported that many houses in the vicinity have fallen, and the woods for miles around are on fire.

—The Cotton Oil Trust, after running behind over half a million dollars, has resolved to reorganize as a corporate company. The loss was owing to the delinquency of officials.

—The Democratic victories in Ohio and Iowa are generally attributed to popular aversion in the large cities to a stringent Sunday law in the former State, and to prohibition in the latter.

—The National Maritime Exhibition was opened in Boston on the 4th inst. There are seven acres of models of yachts, steamers, life-boats, and everything pertaining to ships and shipping.

—The High School building in Oakland, Cal., suffered a second disastrous fire on the night of the 6th inst. It had just been rebuilt, and occupied but a few weeks. The fire was no doubt incendiary.

—At Glasgow, on the 2d instant, a great disaster was created by the falling of the walls of a large carpet factory. The latest report is that fifty persons were killed. The loss of property is set at $750,000.

—Severe snow-storms are reported in Southwestern Kansas, New Mexico, and the Texas Panhandle. Cow-boys and their herds have suffered terribly, several deaths being known, and other parties missing.

—The Board of Trustees of Tulare, Cal., raised the saloon license to $100 per quarter. In retaliation for this act, the saloons have all closed up. It is now a question of who can hold out the longer, the Board or the saloon men.

—The Russian ambassador at Berlin recently gave a dinner in honor of the American Minister, at which the Russian spoke of the United States as standing alone among the great powers, wanting nothing and fearing nothing.

—The man-of-war Charleston, recently constructed by the Union Iron Works, San Francisco, has been accepted by the government. This is the first war vessel built on the Pacific Coast, and San Francisco especially are jubilant over the success.

—The appeal case of Sheriff Cunningham, of San Joaquin County, Cal., against Deputy Marshal Neagle, the slayer of Judge Terry, will be heard by a full bench of the U. S. Supreme Court as soon as the President fills the vacancy occasioned by the death of Justice Matthews.

—A recent decision in a New York court virtually breaks up the great Sugar Trust; but it is expected that some other scheme will soon be devised to take its place. Spreckels has done a good work in holding a check on the extortions of the Trust, and now something will be necessary to stand off Spreckels' monopoly.

—Dr. Peters and party of German explorers, in the wilds of Africa, have been massacred by the Massais or Somalis. One European and one native of the party escaped. Stanley, who has been making another long voyage in hitherto unknown regions, is reported safe, and is expected to arrive on the coast of Zanzibar about January.

—An aged couple at Jackson Crossroads, Bates County, Mo., named James, were horribly tortured by burglars on the 3d inst. The husband fainted, and the wife, supposing he was dead, told where the money ($400) was kept. The woman succeeded in resuscitating Mr. James, but soon afterward died from the effect of her injuries.

—Sir Samuel Baker, who conquered the equatorial provinces for Egypt, and governed them for a long time, thinks that England is losing her hold in that region, and that the late massacre of Dr. Peters and party is evidence that "the Arab slave-traders will wave their blood-stained banners over our abandoned stations." He thinks Stanley ought to be sent to the Soudan with absolute powers.

—A mysterious murder has come to light at St. Paul. The mangled body of a young Virginian named Charles Kemper was found on the 7th inst., in a tar barrel. Last June he was a sojourner in the city in quest of health, and mysteriously disappeared, since which time nothing has been heard from him. It is said he received $400 from his friends the day previous to his disappearance. The barrel in which the body was found was labeled, "A traitor."

—About fifty new laws went into effect in Missouri November 2. Among them is the law excluding from saloons all gambling devices and forms of amusement. Also a law to prevent the introduction into the State of armed bodies of men by railroad and other corporations to act as police officers, the Anti-trust or Pool law, the Australian system of voting, and the Anti-grain Gambling law, which prohibits dealing in futures unless it be the intention of dealers to actually take the grain bought or sold.

—Another accident occurred in connection with the electric wires in New York City on the 4th inst. A telephone wire had fallen to the ground and lay across a car track. A horse attached to a vehicle stepped on the wire and was thrown to the ground. On taking hold of the horse to help him up, the driver was prostrated; a second effort produced a like effect. The horse was roasted in presence of a large crowd of people, who watched the blue flames emitted from the animal, but dared not touch him. A policeman who came in contact with the wire was thrown senseless to the ground, and a by-stander undertaking to assist him was severely shocked.