SECULAR | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 17, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 24.

SECULAR.

—Vessels were loading at Hull, England, last week with non-union hands under protection of troops.

—Late reports from Chile say that another revolution is on, and the ministry was out of harmony.

—An extensive fire on Reservoir Mountain, in Pennsylvania, has destroyed much farm property.

—A Paris dispatch of the 4th inst. reports seventy deaths from cholera at L'Orient, near Brest, within two weeks.

—It is reported that a revolution is in progress in Argentine Republic, and that the insurgents have won several victories.

—Four thousand men have been thrown out of employment by the closing of collieries in Rhodda Valley, South Wales.

—The explosion of a kerosene lamp caused a great fire in Florence, South Carolina, on the 3d inst., the loss being estimated at $250,000.

—Tickets are out for the World's Fair. They are handsomely printed on bond paper of double thickness, and 4 1/2 by 2 1/4 inches in size.

—There was a great demonstration of Orangemen at Belfast, Ireland, on the 4th inst., in opposition to Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule proposition.

—The joint protectorate of the United States, Great Britain, and Germany over the Samoan Islands is again declared a farce, and Chief Justice Cedercranz has resigned.

—There are grave suspicions that a filibustering party is being fitted out at Key West, Florida, for operations in Cuba, and the authorities are keeping a sharp lookout.

—New York City had a two-hours snowstorm on the 7th inst. Troy and Syracuse report three inches of snow the same day, and Boston had four inches the day previous.

—A Lima, Peru, dispatch reports an attack by a mob on a Masonic Lodge, and incidentally the American Consulate was invaded and the consular agent shot in the foot.

—A dispatch from Deadwood, South Dakota, of the 7th inst., reports a two days' wind and storm, which caused much damage to property and a stoppage of railroad trains.

—U. S. Commissioner Blount arrived safely in Honolulu, and was royally welcomed by the people, all of whom seem anxious for some kind of a settlement of the muddled political affairs.

—An attempt was made to fire and blow up with dynamite the Emanuel Baptist Church at Little Rock, Arkansas, on the night of the 5th inst., while a number of people were congregated within.

—A Vienna dispatch says that leading Nihilists are arranging a secret meeting in Russia, near the Austrian frontier, to enable refugees from Austria, Poland, Hungary, and Roumania to participate.

—The little Esquimau colony at Chicago is afflicted with measles. The doctor has difficulty in making them keep warm, as they complained of heat even in the winter, when other people were being frost-bitten.

—The latest report from the revolution in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, is that the revolutionary army had taken San Juan and two other towns. Colonel Holgade had deserted the government and joined the revolutionists.

—Justice Brewer, of the U. S. Supreme Court, has expressed the opinion (before a church club, not in court) that the Chinese Exclusion Law is an injustice. His voice may therefore be counted as against the measure when the matter shall have been brought before the court.

—The President is said to have decided to withdraw the discriminating duties on coffee and sugar from Venezuela, Colombia, and Haiti, these being the only Spanish American States which refused to enter into satisfactory reciprocity arrangements under the McKinley law.

—College Hill Sanitarium, Cincinnati, was damaged by fire to the extent of over $100,000, on the 6th inst. There were 200 patients in the building, but all were safely removed. The fire was started by the hot soldering iron of a tin roofer, who carelessly laid it down where it ignited the wood.

—As an indication of the Nihilists' daring activity, the czar recently found in one of the Imperial albums a portrait of the Nihilist who was executed for complicity in the assassination of his father. The strictest inquiry in the household failed to solve the mystery of its appearance there.

—A short but furious wind and hail storm struck a portion of Chicago on the 7th inst., which came so suddenly that many people were caught in the streets, and some were prostrated to the ground. There was considerable damage to property, especially in the breaking of windows and signs.

—The Spanish Government has discovered another Anarchist conspiracy at Heres. It was supposed that the execution of the four Anarchists convicted last year at that place had intimidated the remainder; but another rendezvous was discovered last week, and the conspirators captured, together with arms and documents.

—A flimsy three-story World's Fair hotel was blown down on the 6th inst., when the contractors were about to turn it over to the owners. There are said to be a number of these temporary structures that are decidedly unsafe. But they will all be crowded during the fair. One of them was burned a few days before the catastrophe above mentioned.

—All the machinists, boiler makers, and blacksmiths of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad at Raton, N. M., and La Junta, Colo., went out on strike on the 8th inst. At Topeka, Kansas, 1,100 men of the same classes stopped work, and at Fort Madison, Iowa, 100 men walked out. The cause is a refusal on the part of the company to increase wages.

—The International Printers' Protective Fraternity has sent a memorial to President Cleveland asking the appointment as Public Printer of a citizen not allied with any printers' organization. The fraternity say the Government Printing Office has long been under the domination of the International Typographical Union, and aliens have been employed because they were members of the union.

—The Khan of Kelat, Beloochistan, recently had five of his wives put to death on suspicion of infidelity. He has agreed to deliver to the British Indian government the surviving prisoners whom he was reported as torturing. As a punishment for his cruel conduct, the British agent withholds 40,000 of the 100,000 rupees allowed him as a subsidy, and will devote it to the benefit of the families of those whom he unjustly executed.

—The United States Government has taken vigorous action in regard to outrages on American citizens at Marzovan, in the Turkish dominions of Asia Minor, and for violation of the mails of the United States legation. In February the girls' seminary of the American educational institution at Marzovan was burned, it is alleged with the full knowledge, if not the direct order, of the Turkish officials. The pretext was alleged seditious movements on the part of students.

—A committee of the W. C. T. U. of Rolla, North Dakota, started out recently to make a circuit of the saloons in order to get positive evidence on which to base legal prosecution. They were followed, says a dispatch, by two-thirds of the female population of the town. They entered only one saloon, however, because when they got through with that one "several of them were bleeding from blows, and all were somewhat disfigured." They brought suit for assault against the saloon men, but the prosecuting attorney had it dismissed.

—A Raleigh, North Carolina, dispatch of the 5th inst. says: "One of the greatest forest fires ever known there is raging in the heart of the pine district. Thousands of trees just bored have been destroyed, and many people owning turpentine orchards are ruined. One man lost 2,000 acres of trees. The town of West End was nearly wiped out. Three large stores and contents, the post office, and several dwellings, were burned. At least twelve turpentine distilleries and scores of dwellings scattered in the woods are burned, with great quantities of resin."

—At Ironton, Ohio, on the 7th inst., fire destroyed the Yellow Poplar Lumber Company's plant and thirty dwellings; also, seventeen railroad cars and a lot of trestlework. An invalid woman was burned to death. The property loss was about half a million dollars. On the same day, at Houston, Texas, a large wholesale grocery was burned, causing a loss of $165,000. On the same day, at Owenburg, Kentucky, a distillery warehouse and cottages were burned. About 10,000 barrels of whisky were destroyed. The aggregate loss is placed at $350,000.

—The recent burning of the new Scotch ship King James, in the Pacific Ocean, has a sequel more terrible than the loss of half a million dollars. The captain's lifeboat, in which sixteen men had taken refuge, was upset by a heavy sea, and they were in the water six hours before it could be righted. Their provisions, oars, and rudder were lost, and some of them became crazed from hunger, thirst, and exposure. When picked up by the steamer Los Angeles, all had died but the captain and three men, and they were in a very weak condition. The mate's boat and crew escaped the terrible fate of their companions.