p. 511 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 32.

News and Notes.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JUNE 12.

RELIGIOUS.

—Enthusiastic Sunday-closing advocates urged President Cleveland to close the World's Fair gates on Sundays and have them barred with the Stars and Stripes and guarded by soldiers.

—The Christian Statesman says: "The mayor of Everett, Mass., is compelling druggists to stop their Sunday sales of candy to sabbath school children, who are thus led to embezzle missionary money."

—A noted Missouri highwayman and train robber named Sam Wilson, now in jail at St. Louis, has declared his intention to reform, and to join some church as soon as his term of imprisonment is over.

—The National Committee on Sunday Closing of the World's Fair proposes to raise a large fund to fight the battle in the courts and through the press. A national conference is to be held in Indianapolis on the 13th and 14th insts.

—The latest: "The Ben Hur League of the New York Avenue Methodist Church would like to hear from all church baseball teams in Brooklyn who would like to join an inter-church league and play scheduled games for a pennant." What next?

—A New York dispatch of the 6th inst. says: "Notwithstanding the many assertions that Dr. McGlynn has sailed for Rome, it is known by his closest friends that he is in a retreat in a monastery near Lexington, Ky., and will stay there some time, doing penance. After this he will probably go to Rome."

—The Polish Archbishop Sembratowicz, (Greek Church) was recently mobbed by forty students at Lemberg. He recently visited the pope at Rome, and the Poles deemed this action treason to the Greek Church. A bishop who attempted to defend the archbishop was also severely bruised. After a lively skirmish with the police, nineteen of the students were arrested.

—The Missionary Review of the World says: "In spite of the emphatic protests of the papal nuncio, the bishop of Madrid, and thousands of aristocratic Catholics, a Protestant church at Madrid has been consecrated with the consent of Premier Sagasta. The consecration ceremony had been postponed repeatedly because the approval of the conservative premier, just succeeded by Sagasta, could not be obtained."

—The "Christian nation" theory becomes more and more absurd in the light of the admissions of the church lights themselves. A prominent Presbyterian minister, in a discourse recently delivered in Washington City, said that seventy-five per cent of the people of this country manifested no interest whatever in religious affairs. We have the same testimony from ministers and religious papers regarding many localities.

—Professor C. A. Briggs, who has been the cause of so much turmoil in the Presbyterian Church, has written a letter to the New York Evangelist, in which he takes the ground that the majorities which have ruled against himself and Professor Smith, of Cincinnati, are the enemies of Presbyterian liberty. He expresses hope that the Assembly of 1894 will blot out the action of the past three Assemblies with reference to the questions in dispute.

—The Christian Statesman says: "A six-day law similar to that of France and California, decreeing a weekly rest day but not specifying the day, is pending in Illinois. We fear it is only a disguised attempt to repeal the Sabbath law." But let us go back a little. When that California law was enacted a few months ago, the Statesman called it a "Sabbath law," and the American Sabbath Union and W. C. T. U. representatives claimed it as a victory.

—The arrival of the Baptist mission car "Emanuel" in San Francisco, last week, calls out the fact that while this one and the "Evangel" are the only chapel cars in use, two others are being built at Dayton, Ohio. The "Emanuel" is seventy feet long, will seat 140 people, and cost $7,500. Rev. Wheeler, who is in charge, was formerly a railroad man and is now acting as conductor and brakeman. He has permission to hitch onto any train and go where he pleases.

—A Columbus, Ohio, dispatch of the 11th inst. says: "For the first Sunday in a great many years Columbus ceased to-day to be a 'wide-open' town. Yesterday the new Chief of Police, Pagets, issued an order to the police that hereafter saloons must be closed at midnight on Saturday night and remain closed until 5 o'clock Monday morning. Not only the front but the back doors must be locked Sundays, and policemen who winked at the disobedience of this ordinance would be summarily discharged. Gamblers and poolroom keepers were notified to quit business, and billiard halls are also closed. The Sunday theater must go, too; no performances will be allowed. An edict has also gone forth that baseball will not hereafter be permitted."

—Prof. Charles A. Briggs was, for heresy, indefinitely suspended as a minister in the Presbyterian Church, by the General Assembly. The report adopted found that "Charles A. Briggs uttered, taught, and propagated views, doctrines, and teachings contrary to the essential doctrine of the Holy Scripture and the standards of said Presbyterian Church, and in violation of the ordination vows of said appellee, which said erroneous views and doctrines strike at the vitals of religion, and have been industriously spread [and this General Assembly] does hereby suspend Charles A. Briggs, said appellee, from the office of minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America until such time as he shall give satisfactory evidence of repentance to the General Assembly of violation by him of said ordination vows as herein and heretofore found."

SECULAR.

—The Mataafa and Malietoa factions in Samoa are again at war.

—Edwin Booth, the world-famous tragedian, died in New York City on the 7th inst.

—A new discovery of very rich gold deposits is reported in Fremont County, Wyoming.

—A San Francisco court has decided that no more than five dollars can be collected on retail liquor accounts.

—Three firemen were killed and one seriously injured by a falling chimney at a fire in San Francisco on the 7th inst.

—The Marine Hospital service at Washington has received information that yellow fever prevails at Limon, Costa Rica.

—Governor McKinley, of Ohio, has been renominated by the Republicans. There was no opposition, and the nomination was by acclamation.

—Official notice has been received at Washington that the Russian Government intends to raise its mission to this country to the rank of an embassy.

—A recent press dispatch from Guthrie, Oklahoma, relates the fact that a police judge left the bench to assault an attorney, and a fierce fight was the result.

—Six men held up an express train eight miles from Columbia, Illinois, on the 8th inst., and secured $10,000 in money besides other valuables of considerable worth.

—Fifty convicts employed in quarries near Cairo, Egypt, revolted against their guards, last week, and attempted to escape. As a result thirty-nine of them were killed.

—A representative of the Associated Press reports President Cleveland as stating that Congress will be convened early in September to consider the financial situation.

—The Spanish Government has declared a quarantine of five days against all vessels arriving from Cette, on the Mediterranean coast of France, and from Hamburg.

—A Vienna dispatch says that over 2,000 iron and coal mines at Kladne, Bohemia, have quit work, and the strike is spreading. Troops have been ordered out to the mines.

—The river Czeremosz, in Austria, last week submerged Wischnitsa. The town has a population of 4,000 and many were drowned. Scores of houses were demolished.

—It is officially stated that cholera has broken out at Bagdad, and is spreading amongst the Arab settlements and also at Red Sea ports. Twenty deaths a day are reported at Bassorath.

—The Great Northern Railroad has greatly reduced freights on merchandise between Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and North Pacific Coast points. So much for competition.

—Spanish Camp, Wharton Co., Texas, was wrecked by a cyclone June 4. Six reported killed, and many injured. The cyclone at Hope, Ark., May 30 left 5,000 people homeless and destitute.

—There seems to be a good prospect for a midwinter commercial exposition in San Francisco the coming winter, the principal materials for the exhibition to be furnished by the exhibitors at Chicago.

—A fire in the Lackawana Steel Company's establishment at Scranton, Pennsylvania, on the 29th ult., caused a loss of $125,000. The works will necessarily be idle several months, and 1,200 men are thrown out of employment.

—Striking workmen on the drainage canal at Lemont, Illinois, attacked the contractors and laborers at work, last week, and a general fight ensued. Two of the attacking party were killed, twenty wounded, and thirty-two taken prisoners.

—Ville Marie Convent, at Notre Dame de Grace, two miles north of Montreal, the largest establishment of its kind in America, was almost totally destroyed by fire this afternoon. The total loss will amount to more than $1,000,000.

—Peace has been established in Nicaragua, and Salvador Machado selected to head the new government. United States Minister Baker was instrumental in opening and conducting the negotiations through which peace was secured.

—The premier of Austria recently expressed such sanguine hopes regarding the amicable relations between his government and Russia that the German papers accuse him of designing to cut loose from the alliance with Germany and Italy and to join with Russia.

—A large amount of treasure has been found in the City of Mexico which had been hidden by the Emperor Maximilian. Certain old documents were discovered which revealed the place of hiding. The value of gold and jewelry is said to approximate $2,000,000.

—A bank at Bentonville, Arkansas, was robbed of $12,000 last week, and the sheriff's posse, which pursued the bandits, had five horses killed and six wounded in the fight which ensued. One of the robbers was afterward found dead, while the others escaped to Indian Territory.

—It is said that in the University of Oklahoma the students are taught that civil government is based on the ten commandments. Reference is made to the Justinian Code and to the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that this is a Christian nation.

—A disastrous fire occurred at Fargo, North Dakota, on the 7th inst. The result was an estimated property loss of $3,000,000 and 3,000 people left homeless. The fire was caused by someone carelessly throwing hot ashes on some loose paper in the rear of a store. Report says that six persons were burned to death.

—The new fast train on the Southern Pacific, the Del Monte Limited, between San Francisco and Monterey, broke all Pacific Coast records in her maiden trip, June 3. Her fastest speed was at the rate of seventy-two miles an hour. The fastest on the New York Central is one hundred twelve and one-half miles an hour.

—Official reports show that not more than 13,000 Chinese have registered under the Geary Exclusion Law. The total Chinese population is considerably over 100,000. Secretary Gresham denies the published statement of a prominent attorney for the Chinese Government, that notice of retaliation had been formally given by the emperor.

—The route finally selected as the most feasible for a submarine cable between California and the Hawaiian Islands has its termini at Monterey, Cal., and Honolulu, H. I. This route comprises the advantages of minimum length, even bottom, and favorable soil. The length of cable required is 2,107 miles, estimated to cost, for manufacturing and laying, $1,200 per mile.

—An express train is now run daily between Chicago and New York, which makes the trip in twenty hours. It is called the Exposition Flyer, and on some sections of the route has attained a speed of ninety-one miles per hour. Fifty years ago scientific men would have argued that it was impossible for human beings to survive such rapid transit, even were it possible to acquire it.

—A Visalia, Cal., dispatch of the 11th inst. announces that officers had another fight with Evans and Sontag, the noted bandits, who have been at bay in the Sierra Nevada for nearly a year. One officer was wounded in the leg, and it was thought that Evans was killed or mortally wounded. Only Sontag was seen to escape, but close search for Evans had not been made when the report was sent out.

—The four floors of the old Ford's Theater building, in Washington, where President Lincoln was assassinated, fell through to the ground on the 9th inst., carrying down some 400 government employees. The building was occupied by the Records and Pensions Division of the Surgeon General's office, and had been officially pronounced unsafe for a long time. Twenty-two are reported killed, and twice as many more or less injured.

—After one death from cholera in Hamburg the disease shows no signs of spreading. In the department of Morbihan, France, there have been 40 cases, 23 of which were fatal. From May 21 to June 1 there were 14 cases and 11 deaths in Marseilles. Throughout all Russia there is reported 2,288 cases and 733 deaths. The great remedies against the spread of the disease are absolute cleanliness, and the use of freshly boiled water and cooked food.

—A facsimile of the style of ship used by the old Norsemen vikings (pirates) has just crossed the Atlantic from Norway on voyage to the World's Fair at Chicago. This particular specimen carries a crew of twelve, and is no doubt more comfortably arranged than the ancient specimens. The viking ship has one mast, and is in part propelled by oars. It is claimed that one Lief Ericsson, with a crew of thirty-five, crossed over to America in one of these ships 500 years before Columbus' time.