p. 494 | SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 31.

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SECULAR.

—The debt of New York City is now $132,000,000 and the legal limit is $157,000,000.

—George S. Ladd, a prominent electrician of San Francisco, died in London July 29.

—There are 150,000 carbons burned daily in the electric lights used in the United States.

—Of 26,000 criminals arrested in Paris during the past year, 16,000 had not attained the age of twenty.

—Work on the Nicaragua canal is going steadily forward, and two thousand men are at present actively employed there.

—Evareste Carazo, the President of the Nicaraguan Republic, died the 1st inst. Doctor Sacasa will succeed to the presidency.

—Grain fires in the vicinity of Santa Barbara, Cal., recently destroyed buildings, fencing, orchards, etc., to the extent of $100,000.

—It is officially stated that smallpox is raging in Lower Egypt. All foreign rags will be excluded from this country unless disinfected.

—The street-car stables of Richmond, Va., were fired by lightning and completely destroyed the 1st inst. Sixty horses were burned.

—Fire on the morning of the 2d inst., at Ripley, Ohio, destroyed every manufacturing establishment in the city. The loss is $200,000.

—A machine gun exploded on board the training frigate Couronne, near Paris, the 31st ult. Eight persons were killed and seventeen injured.

—Five persons were instantly killed by an explosion of giant powder in a mine at Marquette, Mich., the 2d inst. All the victims were torn to shreds.

—Scheppers Brothers, of Philadelphia, doing a business of $750,000 annually, failed on the 1st inst., on account of the recent failure of Lewis Brothers.

—Advices from South America report that half the population of Belijoke, Venezuela, are dead from yellow fever, and the isolated survivors are starving.

—Two trains collided with each other near Odessa, in Russia, the 1st inst., and as the result, eight coaches were demolished, and many persons killed or injured.

—A gigantic trust has been formed in Hungary, by the heirs of the great Leidesdorff estate in San Francisco. The amount in litigation is estimated at $100,000,000.

—The Navy Department has been notified that the new war cruiser Baltimore will be ready for her official trial the 15th inst. She will be of 10,500 horse-power.

—Five hundred men have recently been discharged from the shops of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Sacramento City, Cal., an account of a lack of work.

—The Standard Oil Company of New York has bought up all of the white lead companies in the United States. Their estimated value amounts to $60,000,000.

—The treasure of $200,000 recently lost on the Steamer Granada, which went ashore near Manzanillo, Mexico, has been recovered. The vessel, however, is a total loss.

—An epidemic of dysentery prevails at Warsaw, Ill. One hundred and eighty cases are reported, of whom fifteen have already died. The people of the vicinity are terror-stricken.

—The owners of the Conemaugh dam at Johnstown, Pa., have been sued for $50,000 damages by one of the survivors of the Johnstown disaster. Other suits will undoubtedly follow.

—The German gun-boat Wulf left Samoa, June 27, for the Marshall Islands, for the purpose of bringing King Malietoa and three chiefs who were deported there by the Germans two years ago.

—It is reported that the flow of naphtha from the Russian oil wells at Baku is diminishing, and it is feared that the supply will soon be exhausted. These are the largest oil wells in the world.

—The great Cheng Chou dyke of the Yellow River, which recently gave way, cost 12,000,000 taels (about $18,000,000) and the labor of 70,000 men; it was one and one-third miles long and 335 feet wide.

—Destructive storms, accompanied by lightning and heavy rains, swept over Arkansas, July 29. Several residences were struck by lightning, and railroad tracks and bridges were badly damaged.

—The Prince of Wales is head over heels in debt, despite the fact that he receives from the English people about $250,000 a year. London bankers, it is said, quietly fight shy of his paper, even when proffered by him.

—The Ute Indians are again off their reservation in Colorado, and are creating havoc in the western part of the State. Settlers threaten a war of extermination unless the marauders are kept upon their own territory.

—In New York the savings-bank continues to lead as the medium of accumulation of the savings of the masses. There are 125 savings-banks in the State, with 1,362,852 depositors, and deposits to the amount of $523,677,515.

—The Grand National Monument in memory of the Pilgrim Fathers was dedicated at Plymouth, Mass., the 1st inst. Elaborate ceremonies, in which thousands of visitors took part, made the occasion one of unusual interest.

—A London paper states that all the people now living in the world, or about 1,400,000,000, could find standing room within the limits of a field ten miles square, and by aid of a telephone could be addressed by a single speaker.

—A cyclone swept over several thousand square miles of territory in Hungary, Transylvania, and Bukovina, July 28. Hundreds of persons were killed, crops were destroyed, and enormous damage was done to houses and churches.

—Recent dispatches from Yokohama, Japan, state that a terrible earthquake has recently occurred on the western portion of the Island of Kinshiu. One town was completely destroyed, thirty people being killed and over eighty injured.

—Major A. P. Patrick, a Canadian land surveyor, has discovered rich deposits of coal oil in the Rocky Mountains, near Crow's Nest Pass. Samples show 96 per cent. of pure oil. The field of the discovery lies principally in British Columbia.

—A severe earthquake shock lasting several seconds occurred throughout central California on the morning of the 1st inst., followed a few minutes later by a lighter shock. No special damage, however, was done, although the earthquake was the heaviest known for many years.

—Much surprise has been created by the announcement that the National Bureau of Engraving, one of the most extensive lithographing and engraving establishments in the country, is on the brink of failure. The plant is advertised to be sold to satisfy the claims of the creditors.

—After a lapse of fifty-eight years since the death of Stephen Girard, the Philadelphia millionaire, his will is to be contested by French heirs, on the ground of alleged infraction of some of its provisions.

—Woman suffrage is rapidly becoming a vital issue in British statesmanship, and women are more engaged in politics in Great Britain than in any other constitutional country. Mrs. Gladstone, Lady Salisbury, and Lady Randolph, are devoting considerable attention to the subject.

—Hostilities in Egypt still continue. The latest report is to the effect that the Egyptian cavalry have just defeated the dervishes near Toski. After seven hours of hard fighting, the dervishes were completely routed, with a loss of over fifteen hundred killed, and many wounded.

—Citizens of St. Louis, Mo., have entered a protest against the prospective World's Fair being held in either New York or Chicago, and have decided to put forth every effort possible, to secure it for their own city. A committee of one hundred has been appointed to engage in effective work on the subject at once.

—The gas well at Ruthven, Ont., with a flow of ten million feet per day, was fired recently by incendiaries. The heat was so great that no one was able to approach nearer than two hundred feet, until a man named C. H. Marvin, clothed himself in asbestos and performed such work at the mouth of the well as enabled the owners to extinguish the fire.

—The most destructive storm ever experienced in New Jersey, passed over the cities of Newark and Plainfield, the 30th ult. On account of the giving away of several dams, the latter city has been inundated. The country above, for a distance of five miles, has been swept by the rushing waters and damage has been done to the extent of at least $250,000.

—Intense excitement exists in Canada, over the seizure of the British sealer Black Diamond by the United States revenue cutter Rush, while cruising in the Behring Sea, recently. Considerable war talk has been indulged in by prominent citizens of the Canadian Government, but it is probable that the matter will be settled by arbitration without further trouble.

—A contractor who furnished ice for the Mare Island, Navy Yard, California, was compelled recently to have his bill accompanied by 168 vouchers and the signatures of 744 heads of the different departments of the Government. This clearly shows that the circumlocution required by some of the rules and regulations of our Government is fully equal to that of the most approved foreign methods.

—King William of Germany, landed in England the 2d inst., for the first time since his accession to the throne. He was saluted very impressively by all the vessels in the harbor, and was cordially welcomed by Queen Victoria, with whom he dined the same evening. Unfortunately, however, the great naval review which was to have occurred the next day in honor of the Kaiser's visit, was prevented by a heavy storm and had to be postponed.

—Prince Bismarck's scheme to bring about a meeting between the three emperors of Russia, Austria, and Germany, bids fair to be foiled by the sullen reticence which the Czar of Russia manifests in regard to the matter. The ominous outlook on the Servian-Bulgarian frontier, where both Governments are massing their troops, the rising of insurgents in Crete, and the concentration of Russians around Kais, all go to show that the visit of the Czar would be nothing but formality at any rate, and it is probable that he desires to avoid this as much as possible under the circumstances.

—There is a sudden revival of war rumors from Southeastern Europe. From Belgrade we are told that all three of the military classes of Servia have been ordered to muster on Monday, the reason assigned being that the Bulgarian troops have been ordered to mass on the frontier on that day and that Servia desires to be prepared. From Constantinople comes the report that 80,000 Turkish reserves have been called out, that work is proceeding at the dock-yards with feverish activity, that Crete is in anarchy and that the Sultan is determined to put down the insurrection there at any cost.

All this may not be the beginning of the great war, but it is precisely the way in which the war is likely to break out when it comes. There are not likely to be long public diplomatic debates. The trains were laid years ago. When they are fired it will be done in a flash. If Servia is arming against Bulgaria it is by Russian instigation. If Turkey is calling out troops it is because she sees a life and death struggle ahead. The situation in Crete is serious enough, but it is not such as to call for 80,000 Turkish reserves. Undoubtedly, if Turkey should interfere actively in Crete she would need an army to keep Greece in order, but it is likely she has knowledge of something more dangerous to the northward.—S. F. Examiner.