News and Notes by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 14, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 39.

News and Notes.

By Editor

SECULAR.

—Wilkie Collins, the great English writer, is dead. —Edison returned to New York from Europe the 6th inst. —Hippolyte has carried the presidential election in Hayti. —Two attempts have recently been made to assassinate the czar of Russia. —General Asa P. Blunt died at Manchester, N. H., October 4, aged sixty-two. —A rubber trust, with a capital of $30,000,000, has just been perfected in Boston. —Four men were buried by falling rock in a mine at Ishpeming, Mich., the 4th inst. —Ten men were recently killed in the colliery at Hamburg-on-the-Rhine, by the explosion of mine gas. —A grain elevator, with a capacity for handling 1,000,000 bushels per day, is being built at Portland, Oregon. —The morocco factory of P. Sims & Sons, at Salem, Mass., was destroyed by fire October 4, at a loss of $100,000. —Two hundred persons lost their lives recently by a volcanic eruption in the province of Erzeroum, in Turkey. —Four prominent men of Mississippi were burned to death in their beds in a hotel fire at Winona, Miss., the 6th inst. —The great corner in cotton speculation in England has collapsed, and many of the manipulators are financially ruined. —Eliza Cook, the poetess, whose home songs are familiar to so many households, died at Wimbledon, England, the 25th ult. —The Big Bend Tunnel and Mining Company of California, with its principal office in Buffalo, N. Y., has failed for $2,600,000. —A heavy fire, doing $500,000 damage, occurred in Butte, Mont., the 29th ult. The city was only saved with the greatest effort. —Late dispatches from Crete say that the insurgents have attacked the Turkish troops, and are committing outrages at Canea. —The Prohibition clause in the North Dakota election obtained a clear majority, and the Prohibitionists are correspondingly elated. —Heavy storms were reported from Mexico under date of the 29th ult. Railroad traffic was impeded, and several towns were inundated. —The returns from the recent French elections are such as to show that Boulanger has lost much of his prestige with his countrymen. —The subscriptions raised for the support of the strikers of London in their recent conflict with the dock companies amounts to $200,000. —The Laflin & Rand powder mill at Cressona, Pa., blew up on the 26th ult., killing three men and injuring a number of other workmen. —The latest reports from the Quebec land-slide place the number of bodies recovered at forty-four. Fourteen victims are in a fair way to recover. —The mammoth publishing house of Belford, Clarke & Co., of Chicago, with branches in New York and San Francisco, failed for $400,000 on the 23d ult. —By a collision between passenger and freight trains at Lasswitz, Germany, the 4th inst., four railroad officials were killed, and many passengers injured. —The British ship of war Lily recently ran ashore on the rocky coast of Labrador, and was totally wrecked. Several of her crew perished in the raging waters. —The northern portion of Aitkin County, Minn., is being overrun by wolves, and the villagers and farmers are afraid to venture out of their houses after nightfall. —An attempt was recently made by incendiaries to burn the city of Charleston, West Virginia. The work is attributed to the friends of the Hatfield-McCoy gangs. —By the bursting of a steel furnace at Braddock, Pennsylvania, the 26th ult., five men lost their lives, and several others were horribly burned by the molten metal. —It is thought that the schooner Alpha, with fifteen passengers, has been lost in Alaskan waters, as she is long overdue at Sitka, and no news can be learned of her. —Seven counterfeiters were arrested in Orange County, Indiana, recently. They are leaders of a large gang which has been operating extensively in that section of late. —Three passenger cars and a sleeper were recently wrecked near Palatine Bridge, N. Y., killing four persons instantly, and wounding many others, several of them fatally. —The little town of Cambria, Cal., was completely wiped out by a conflagration the 30th ult., not a single place of business being left. The loss will reach $125,000. —Port Orchard, Washington, has been recommended by the naval commission, as the most suitable place for the new navy yard to be established on the Pacific Coast. —A heavy storm occurred on Lakes Huron and Erie the 6th inst. Many schooners are believed to have been lost, and it is feared there has been considerable loss of life. —The Armstrong Insurance Companies of New York have declared war on the Pacific Insurance Union, and a decided lowering of rates is manifested all over the Pacific Coast. —Russia is preparing for war on a gigantic scale. An internal loan of $45,000,000 is contemplated, and the money thus raised will be expended in strengthening the army and navy. —A terrible hurricane has visited the Island of Sardinia. One hundred persons were buried in the débris of buildings shattered by the storm, and thirty persons were killed. —Gold has gone up to 120 in the Argentine Republic. This means a corresponding depression of the governmental currency. A panic is imminent, and many heavy failures are looked for. —The steamship Alameda, which arrived in the port of San Francisco on the 28th ult., brought $2,250,000 in treasure from the Australian colonies. This is the largest shipment for many years. —Pierre, the new capital of South Dakota, has a boom which rivals that of Oklahoma. Strangers are flocking in by the thousands, and prices of real estate have increased tenfold in the past few days. —Emperor William, of Germany, is about to make an extended trip to Constantinople. This, in connection with the czar's recent visit to Berlin, may mean some fresh complications in the Eastern question. —It now turns out that the government engineers blundered considerably in estimating the horsepower of the new cruiser Baltimore, as she proves not to be even up to the required standard in this particular. —The city of St. John, New Brunswick, was thrown into a state of great excitement on the 4th inst., by an attempt to destroy three leading Protestant clergymen's families, by sending poisoned candy to them through the mail. —Unwonted excitement prevails in Spain over the recent outrages off the coast of Morocco. The Spanish Government has determined to demand satisfaction for the seizure of its vessels and the insults offered to its crews. —In the recent elections, the four new States of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota ratified their respective constitutions, thus formally becoming a part of the United States. Montana alone went Democratic. —Through a system of trickery, Willis N. Fos, a private banker of San Diego, Cal., obtained fraudulent notes to the amount of $300,000, from a prominent family of that city, giving them the impression that they were simply signing receipts. —The Temple of Heaven, in Pekin, China, containing the great dragon throne, was entirely consumed by fire recently. It was the most magnificent building in the forbidden city, and its destruction is regarded as an evil omen by the Celestials. —While the Italian armored war ship Formidable was loading up with cartridges and powder at Shields, England, the 4th inst., a terrific explosion occurred, by which the naval officer in charge of the work, together with several of his men, was instantly killed. —Another medical college scheme for giving diplomas to all who are able to pay for them, has recently been unearthed in Bennington, Vermont. The bogus institution claims to have branches in Cincinnati, New York, and other prominent cities, and has flooded the country with false diplomas. —San Francisco is agitating the question of bonding the city for a system of water works by which water can be brought from Lake Tahoe, 182 miles distant up in the mountains, and delivered within the city limits in quantities of 30,000,000 gallons a day. The plan can be carried into effect for $15,000,000. —The recent cyclone on Carmen Island, off the coast of Campeachy, strewed the shore with wrecks of vessels for miles. Only one vessel out of thirty-five in the harbor was saved. The loss to the city of Carmen is not less than $500,000, while losses to other towns will swell the total to double that amount. —The delegates to the International Congress of American nations are taking a trip over the United States as the guests of the American people. This, together with the Congress itself, will do much toward securing important results to our country in the way of increased commerce and more friendly relations with other American nations. —The famous feud between the Hatfield-McCoy families, living in two border counties of West Virginia and Kentucky, has broken out afresh. A young man and his betrothed were, on the 1st inst., standing before the minister, who was pronouncing the marriage ceremony, when all three were shot to death by a gang of the opposite faction.