Secular News by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 3, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 14.

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Secular News.

By Editor

—The forces in Afganistan are preparing for a further struggle.

—A very destructive tornado passed through Georgia on the night of March 23.

—It is rumored that Queen Victoria will visit her daughter in Canada, and the United States.

—Reports from Europe do not show as favorable business prospects as in the United States.

—A convent near Cairo, Ill., was struck by lightning and burned early on the morning of March 26.

—Earthquakes in Persia are reported, March 22 and 23, destroying two villages, and nearly 1100 lives.

—Bismarck is reported to have become more moderate in dealing with the members of the Reichstag.

—A revolution is progressing in Sonora. But a revolution in any part of Mexico can hardly be called "news."

—Two accidents happened on the elevated railways of New York, March 25. About twenty persons were injured.

—The Merchants' Protective Association held a meeting in San Francisco March 25, in opposition to the new constitution.

—The plague has re-appeared in Russia. Vigorous measures are being adopted in hope to prevent its spread in the Spring.

—Eighty saloon keepers, the Mayor, and two Police Commissioners, are reported indicted by the Grand Jury of Rochester, N. Y.

—Boston reports increasing activity in business. The same on the canals in New York. Also among the merchants in San Francisco.

—The Council of the Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool, Eng., has adopted a resolution in favor of an international agreement for the remonetization of silver.

—It is said the death-rate from famine in Cashmere, India, is terrible; at the present rate the province is liable to be depopulated by the end of the present year.

—Andrew D. White, late a Professor in Michigan University, and later President of Cornell College, has been nominated by President Hayes as Minister to Germany.

—Congressman Whiteaker, who made such a hurried ride to Washington, voted for Blackburn for Speaker, who was not elected. And now they are asking, What was the use?

—A recent fire at Akyab, Farther India, which was accidental, destroyed the native portion of the town. The loss is estimated at £500,000. Thousands were rendered homeless.

—Times must be hard in New York—or ought to be. It is said that $50,000 were taken at the doors at the recent walking match, and an unlicensed liquor stand took in money at the rate of five dollars a minute.

—The famine in Upper Egypt causes terrible suffering. In some villages the people, naked like wild beasts, dig for roots. In one town women and children fought over scraps of bread. The inland villages are said to be starving.

—It is thought that the occupancy of most of the offices in the present Congress by Ex-Confederates, and the eulogies pronounced on Jeff Davis in the Senate, have greatly increased the chances of Gen. Grant for the Presidency.

—J. D. Mc-Intire, of Pekin, known as the king of the whisky ring, pleaded guilty in the United States Court to all the indictments against him. He was fined $1000 and his distillery forfeited on two pleas, and sentence was suspended as to the others, on condition that he squeals on the other ringsters.

—Col. Thomas Buford, brother of Gen. Buford, shot Judge Elliott, of the Court of Appeals, in Lexington, Ky., March 26. The reason he assigned was that the Judge had rendered a decision adverse to the Buford family; and he said he would have shot Judge Pryor also had not some children been in the way.

—When Sitting Bull went to Canada, the Dominion authorities endorsed his decision to remain a subject there, and the United States relinquished their efforts to get possession of him. He has lately been committing depredations across the line, and the American Cabinet resolves to notify the Dominion of the trespass of their subject.

—In the English House of Lords, March 28, Lord Beaconsfield acknowledged that the depression of the agricultural interest was unprecedented, but the depression was anticipated when protection was abolished. It was estimated that the public wealth had diminished £80,000,000, and the area of land under cultivation had diminished 1,000,000 acres.

—Renewed floods in Hungary have covered 12,000 acres of land which had already been sown, and the lives of 12,000 people are endangered. The water at Szegedin is again rising. If the rise continues there will be little chance of saving the few remaining houses. Titel will scarcely escape a terrible disaster. The water is breaking over the dykes. The soldiers and laborers strengthening them are exhausted. Other places are threatened. There is not a single boat at Devaounya, and great loss of life is certain if the flood increases.