SECULAR | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 27, 1890

SECULAR.

—It is reported that 30,000 Chicago school-children have the influenza, or complications thereof.

—On the night of the 12th inst., the Girls' High School building, San Francisco, was destroyed by fire; loss, $36,000.

—On the night of January 11, the city building of Lewiston, Me., which cost $250,000, was totally destroyed by fire.

—A rancher living near San Francisco was recently robbed of $1,800 by a Chinaman who had been in his employ three years.

—The burning of high-school buildings seems to be epidemic. The last heard from is that of Colorado Springs, Col.; loss, $30,000.

—Ex-Governor Woods, one of the most prominent political orators of the Pacific Coast, died in Portland, Or., on the 10th inst.

—All the business portion of the town of Flora, Miss., except one small store, was destroyed by fire on the night of the 14th inst.

—A Rome dispatch says that it is the intention of the Anglo-Egyptian army to enter upon a new campaign for reopening the Soudan.

—A Berlin dispatch says: "The total number of cases of influenza in this city is estimated at 400,000. There have been 650 deaths due to this disease."

—It is claimed that the influenza now traversing the civilized world is the same as the epidemic which swept the United States about one hundred years ago.

—It has been decided by Judge Thayer, of the U. S. District Court at St. Louis, that it is unlawful to dun a man through the mails by means of a postal card.

—The newsboys and newsdealers of Buffalo, N. Y., are boycotting the evening papers of that city on account of a new schedule of prices, which they call starvation rates.

—It is said that a Minnesota syndicate, including Secretary Windom, has been formed for the purpose of purchasing California timber lands, and that the venture is backed by $100,000,000.

—Calvin S. Brice was elected U. S. Senator by the Ohio Legislature on the 14th inst. On the same day Ephraim K. Wilson was re-elected by the Maryland Legislature. Both are Democrats.

—In common with the farther west region, but one day later (the 13th), the State of New York, Western Pennsylvania, and the Ohio Valley suffered considerable damage from storms.

—A Cleveland, Ohio, paper claims that there are irregularities in the city's financial affairs aggregating $3,000,000, money paid out without the authority of the council, as required by law.

—January 11, at Versailles, Ky., a stable, including about forty blooded horses, was burned. One, the noted Bell Boy, was valued at $50,000. Others ranged in value from $2,500 to $20,000.

—The camp of captive Apaches which the government has been herding at Mt. Vernon Barracks, Ala., is proving a perplexing prize. What to do with the captives is the question now before the War Department.

—Judge Anderson, of Utah, has decided that an alien who is a member of the Mormon Church is not a fit person to be made a citizen of the United States, because that church is antagonistic to the government.

—The full text of the Samoan treaty, promulgated at Berlin by the representatives of Germany, England, and the United States, has been published. Among other provisions, the sale of fire-arms and liquors to natives is strictly forbidden.

—President Adams, of the Union Pacific, is announced as authority for the statement in Boston that a closer alliance has been effected between that road and the Central Pacific, and that both companies have withdrawn their opposition lines.

—Walker Blaine, son of Secretary James G. Blaine, died at Washington on the 15th inst., of pneumonia, superinduced by an attack of influenza. He was closely related to his father in diplomatic affairs, and for a dozen years has been his almost constant associate in public duties.

—A large grain elevator, valued at $300,000, containing corn worth $280,000, was burned at Baltimore, on the 13th inst. A British steamship lying near the elevator was also destroyed, together with all the rigging of two other vessels. Three sailors are missing, supposed to have been burned.

—It is reported from the city of Mexico that arrangements are completed for a steamship line between the west coast and Asia, and the importation of large numbers of Chinese laborers. This will call for a vigilant watch on the Mexican line, if the United States exclusion law is to be enforced.

—Advices from London say there is danger of another revolution in Hayti; that Legitime is lurking in Jamaica, waiting for opportunity to incite an uprising against President Hippolyte. It is further surmised that the presence of the American squadron works as a temporary check on the scheme.

—There has been a complete snow blockade in the Sierras, on the line of the Central Pacific; 1,500 men have been employed shoveling snow along the track. On the 18th inst., ten feet of snow were reported at Virginia City. Reno cattle-men predict that half the cattle and sheep in the State will be lost.

—The Undertakers' Union of San Francisco and Oakland has carried matters to such an extreme that a non-union undertaker of the latter city was obliged to give up a funeral after all arrangements had been made, because he could not get a hearse. It is said that all the dealers in undertakers' supplies have also joined the union.

—The Chinese Minister at Washington has cut the Gordian knot of his country's social customs in regard to their ladies. He has announced that his wife will receive callers in regular style, and return them in person. Her efforts will no doubt excite much curiosity, as she has always been socially but a prisoner, and cannot speak English.

—In a communication sent to the Senate the Third Auditor of the Treasury recommends that $925,000 be allowed the State of California for money expended in suppressing Indian hostilities prior to 1854. The payment of $38,000 on account of the Humboldt Indian expedition and of $4,444 for expenses incurred in the Modoc war, is also recommended.

—Prime Minister Crispi, of Italy, has succeeded in striking a heavy blow at the financial interests and power of the holy see. He has caused the national Legislature to pass a law secularizing what are known as the "Opere Pie," which consists of some 24,000 charitable foundations of a religious character and possessing an aggregate annual income of $30,000,000.

—A Lisbon dispatch of January 12 says: "A mob composed of students and others, shouting, 'Down with the Ministry,' attacked the British Legation to-day. They demolished the escutcheon on the building, and smashed the windows. The police were powerless. They then broke the windows of the residences of various members of the Ministry, after which they dispersed."

—Portugal acknowledges that she is too weak to contest her African claims against England, and has yielded to the demand to withdraw everything from the banks of the Shire beyond the confluence of the Rus and South Zambesi, and from Mashonaland. The uninterested Austrian explorer, Dr. Emil Kobler, who has been in the country about twenty years, says that England has the better right to the disputed territory.

—General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, founder of the city of that name, died at his home in Sonoma, Cal., on the 18th inst. He was born at Monterey, in 1808, when California was a part of Mexico, under the vice-regal dominion of Spain. From the age of sixteen he was attached to the army until California was acquired by the United States. He was a member of the constitutional convention of the new State, and also of the first Senate.

—On the night of the 11th and during the 12th instants, severe storms are reported extending from Nebraska, through Kansas and Missouri, and down the Mississippi Valley. Railroad travel and traffic in some sections was greatly discommoded, and other property was damaged to a great extent, especially in St. Louis. In the latter place three deaths are reported, besides a large number of persons more or less injured by falling buildings.