p. 127 | SECULAR | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 26, 1892

SECULAR.

—Of the Russian people who were engaged in the cholera riots last fall, another lot have been convicted and sentenced,—four to suffer death, eight to imprisonment and hard labor, thirty to the house of correction, and forty to imprisonment without labor.

—A man recently arrested in Los Angeles, Cal., is wanted in Joliet, Ill., for a murder committed twenty-five years ago.

—It is said that Senator Hill, of New York, has been tendered the position of Secretary of State by President-elect Cleveland.

—Late advices from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, state that the ravages of typhus fever have caused an alarming increase in the death rate.

—It is reported that smallpox has broken out among the Quilcene Bay Indians, about twenty-five miles from Port Townsend, Wash.

—The latest motor power for street cars is ammonia gas; it is now in use in Manchester, England, in New York City, and at the World's Fair grounds, Chicago.

—A fearful explosion of coal gas occurred in Banfurlong Colliery, Wigan, England, on the 14th inst., and it is said that fifty miners were killed, besides extensive damage to the mines.

—Mauna Loa, the great Hawaiian volcano, is again in active eruption, and it is said some adjacent villages are in great danger. The eruption was preceded by violent earthquake shocks on the 2d inst.

—Moorish pirates captured the Spanish schooner Icod, carried the crew into the mountains, and refused to surrender them till paid $15,000 ransom. It is probable that the government will pay the money.

—P. D. Armour has given to the city of Chicago, as a Christmas present, the Armour Institute, valued at $1,500,000, and an endowment of $1,400,000. It is said to be the best technical institute in this country.

—A Panama dispatch says the Columbian Government has ordered all the ports closed against vessels sailing from Hamburg after the 10th inst., because of official advices that the cholera had again broken out.

—President Hippolite, of Hayti, has executed six guards and imprisoned a lieutenant for allowing a suspicious individual to get past them and approach his residence in the night, presumably bent on assassination.

—The city clerk of Colorado Springs, Colorado, has confessed to having stolen $6,500 of the city's funds. He was a prominent church member, a Mason, an Odd Fellow, and connected with various other lodges and societies.

—All the relics of Columbus that can be secured in Europe will be brought to the exposition early next spring on the United States man-of-war Newark. These relics are scattered through museums in Great Britain, France, Spain, and Italy.

—A press dispatch from El Paso, Texas, states that Mormons have secured 6,000 acres of land in the Concho River Valley, Mexico, and that two elders and 100 men have gone in advance of a contemplated colony to construct an irrigating canal and temporary quarters.

—The U. S. Supreme Court has rendered a decision which relegates about 1,500,000 acres of railroad land in Southern California to the public domain, thus rendering it subject to settlement. The land is situated in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Ventura Counties.

—Health Officer J. W. Prendergast, of Cincinnati, has recently returned from a trip through Mexico. He says that country is one vast hospital, sickness prevailing at so many places. Typhus fever is epidemic in the City of Mexico, and the deaths from smallpox average from forty to fifty a day.

—On account of implication in the now notorious Panama Canal swindles, the French Minister of Finance has been obliged to resign, and it is said the entire ministry is shaky, with strong suspicions even on the president of the republic. He was at least cognizant of the guilt of his Minister of Finance.

—A little surprise is expressed by a Toledo paper at the dimensions and armament of three English vessels that have appeared on the Georgian Bay. It is said they purport to be revenue cutters, but in reality are small though well-equipped men-of-war, capable of destroying all the American armament on the lakes.

—A Cleveland, Ohio, dispatch says that one Arthur Wiullmau, who undertook the task of fasting fifty days, has given it up in disgust, declaring that the people did not appreciate the scientific importance of the feat. It is gratifying to know that at least one foolish freak has failed to captivate the public mind.

—Colorado's "man-eater," Parker, who has been in the penitentiary since 1888, for murdering and eating his traveling companions during a hard winter in the mountains, has petitioned to be released. He was sentenced on eight charges to five years each, and now that the first term is about up, it is claimed that the succeeding ones are illegal. He says human flesh has a better flavor than any other, and has that taste that makes one crave for more. Under such circumstances he is a dangerous man to be at large.

—A cyclone passed near the town of Summit, Mississippi, on the 13th inst., wrecking everything in its path, which was about 300 yards wide. The house of a Baptist minister named Young was thrown down and the whole family was more or less injured. In the neighborhood five persons were killed and a number seriously hurt.

—There will probably be a strong protest from foreign countries against the proposed restriction of immigration to the United States. In some prominent quarters it is characterized as an insult on the part of our government to shut the doors against immigrants at a time when all nations are invited to attend the World's Fair at Chicago.

—San Juan County, Utah, is the scene of a new gold mining sensation. It is a very rough region, and difficult to reach on account of desert surroundings, void of water and timber, although when reached the placers are along the San Juan River for fifty miles above its confluence with the Colorado. There is said to be a great rush to the new mines, especially from Arizona.

—Col. Elliott F. Shepard, president of the American Sabbath Union and proprietor of the New York Mail and Express, is in trouble. His business manager was under contract for five years, but was discharged at the end of two years, and sued for damages. Shepard gave "incompatibility" as the reason for the discharge; but the complainant says that the only incompatibility of which he had any knowledge was due to his refusal to attempt to bribe city officials to advertise in the Mail and Express, as instructed by the colonel to do, and for which purpose the colonel had given him money. Shepard won the suit.

—The revenue cutter Bear arrived in San Francisco on the 12th inst., from Bering Sea, having been absent since April 28. While on this tour 178 domesticated reindeer were purchased in Siberia and transferred to Alaska. A station was established at Port Clarence, about eighty miles below Point Barrow, where corrals were built for the reindeer, and a house for the four Siberian keepers. The Bear also visited the cliff dwellers on King's Island, in Bering Straits, whom it had saved from starvation last year. This year the natives were found to be well supplied, but still grateful for last year's relief.