SECULAR | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 27, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 17.

SECULAR.

—The Legislature of Idaho has enacted a law enabling the Mormons of that State to vote.

—Twenty-seven men were suffocated by deadly gases in a mine near Cartagena, Spain, on the 17th inst.

—A Cape of Good Hope dispatch reports heavy rains and high floods in the Transvaal, and many lives lost.

—A heavy flood of the Susquehanna River at Port Deposit, Pennsylvania, has caused considerable damage to property.

—The already ruined island of Zante, in the Mediterranean Sea, was still being shaken by earthquakes up to the 14th inst.

—The strike of union street car employees at Wheeling, West Virginia, is reported to be quite exciting, the mob preventing the running of cars.

—Mr. Gladstone has introduced his Irish Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons, and the battle is on. On its success depends his retention of power.

—Governor McKinley, of Ohio, is said to have been financially ruined by the failure of an old-time friend for whom he had indorsed heavily. His loss is estimated at $60,000.

—Russia has decided to dispatch a large squadron of warships to the United States to take part in the naval display in Hampton Roads to celebrate the opening of the Columbian Exposition.

—An Athens dispatch says that the island of Samothraki, in the Ægean Sea, was shaken by an earthquake on the 14th inst. All the buildings are said to have been destroyed, with the loss of many lives.

—President Harrison has issued a proclamation creating the Sierra forest reserve in the State of California. The reservation comprises approximately 6,000 square miles in the counties of Merced, Fresno, Tulare, and Kern.

—The striking cotton spinners in Lancashire, England, have agreed to accept a two and one-half per cent. reduction in their wages. Their strike was against five per cent. reduction. Employers have not yet agreed to the proposition. In nine cases out of ten strikers come out losers.

—The World's Fair souvenir coins are not going off at a satisfactory rate. Less than $1,000,000 has as yet been realized, and it is evident that the directors made a financial mistake when they accepted them on condition of Sunday closing. Congress would have donated twice the amount without condition, rather than to have allowed the Exposition to fail.

—A St. Petersburg paper quotes the statement published in the United States to the effect that in the recent treaties France and Russia had agreed to assist the United States if attacked by any other power, and says it does not think that France and Russia went to that extent, but that they doubtless are understood not to assist any opponent of the United States.

—A carnival dance at Poreg, Hungary, on the 15th inst., was brought to a sudden and disastrous close by the explosion of a cask of petroleum in the basement of the building. A child playing with a taper caused the accident. It was killed by the explosion, which also shattered the floor above and scattered the burning oil among the dancers. Seventeen of them were burned to death, twelve others will die, and many more received painful burns and bruises.

—The latest advices from Honolulu report the peaceful reign of the new Provisional Government. The U. S. warship Mohican had arrived there from San Francisco, and is to remain there until the question of annexation by the United States is settled. The treaty signed by President Harrison and the envoys of the Hawaiian Provisional Government is now before the Senate for ratification. The representative of the deposed queen asks for a delay until President Cleveland is installed, but the Senate committee has already reported favorably upon the ratification of the treaty.

—Since the conviction of De Lesseps ("Les Grand Francais") of fraudulent operations in connection with the Panama Canal, the authorities of Paris and other French cities are renaming the streets, squares, etc., that were named in his honor. And the disgrace of M. Eiffel, who built the great Eiffel Tower, has moved the wealthy Eiffel Company to take steps toward changing the name of the corporation.

—Three bills providing for female suffrage are now before the California Legislature. It is said that the Sunday-law advocates, having no hope of being successful at this session, are pushing female suffrage in expectation of making that measure auxiliary to a Sunday-law campaign at a future time. It is now too near the close of the session for any merely fanciful measures to get much attention.

—A severe hurricane swept the island of Neifeu, Samoan group, in December, lasting over two days. Thousands of trees and many houses were prostrated. The natives on the island were left destitute of food; the breadfruit trees were all destroyed, and there was no money to buy anything. The political situation on the group is also said to be of a distressing nature. The triple protectorate is represented as being a failure.

—Some very insignificant things are deemed of sufficient importance to be displayed at the World's Fair. For instance, a resident of San Diego County, this State, wants to exhibit a gun which he once loaned to another man for the purpose of killing an Indian. The Indian was afterward made the hero of a novel by Helen Hunt Jackson; hence the would-be exhibiter hopes to make a little cheap notoriety. Such is fame.

—Kansas has two rival houses of representatives—Populist and Republican—and hostilities came to such a pitch on the 14th inst. that a street encounter was the result. Several men on each side were somewhat bruised. Then followed two or three days of intense excitement; the Republican house marched to the capital in a body, and drove the Populists out of their meeting hall. The governor called out the militia to sustain the Populists, and the sheriff of Shawnee County summoned 1,000 men to sustain the Republicans. Finally a compromise was made to the effect that both the sheriff's posse and the troops were withdrawn; the Republicans kept the hall in the capital, and the Populists hired another hall. The Senate and the governor recognized the Populist house, but the Republicans have appealed to the courts. The situation is a sarcastic parody on the claim that "this is a Christian nation."