News of the Week

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 10, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 23.

—A miner's lamp caused an explosion in a shaft at Shamokin, Pennsylvania, on the 1st inst., which resulted in the death of ten men and thirty mules. The damage to the mine leaves 1,000 men out of employment.

—At Bradford, Pennsylvania, fire destroyed a hotel and the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburg Railroad depot and warehouse. Five persons were killed and twenty-five injured by jumping from windows in the hotel.

—An adverse vote of the French Chamber of Deputies has compelled the ministry to resign. The exciting problem now is, What next? This, on top of the Panama Canal scandal, places the government in a precarious position.

—A typewriter company with a capital of $20,000,000 has been formed and the articles of incorporation filed at Trenton, New Jersey. Among the companies interested are the Remington, Yost, Hammond, Calligraph, and American.

—Prolonged drought is reported in the north of Africa, causing much famine and sickness; one-half of the population of Bengazi, the chief town of Barca, are dead, including the governor and cadi of the district and many Europeans.

—A Vienna physician sent to southeastern Hungary to report on the progress of the cholera, says that the epidemic is spreading rapidly in that region. At Peterwardein it is especially virulent. The villages of Zealucza and Kudryingea, in Galicia, have been isolated.

—A New York dispatch says that about twenty French and Italian Anarchists, who were implicated in the recent bomb explosions in Rome, are expected to arrive in America in a short time. Mathieu, the fugitive Frenchman, is supposed to be in New York City.

—Rev. J. Q. A. Henry is authority for the statement that there are unemployed men in San Francisco to the number of 15,000, and of unemployed women there are 4,000. And as the prevalent mania for city life increases, this unemployed army is destined to increase.

—A Berlin dispatch of the 29th ult. says: "The mining town of Kaernten, near Bleiberg, is burning. Two churches and sixty-five houses have been destroyed, and the fire still spreads. Fifteen persons are known to have died in the flames, and several others are missing."

—A commission appointed by the Legislature of Nebraska to investigate State affairs, has reported serious charges against the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and a Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings. The report is to be followed by impeachment proceedings.

—In order that the czar of Russia may safely travel from St. Petersburg to Sebastopol—the whole distance being in his own country—it is deemed necessary that all other trains be side-tracked for twelve hours prior to the passage of his train, and that the line be guarded by 100,000 troops.

—Leading Chinamen of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, have at last decided to register under the Geary Exclusion Law, which goes into effect May 5. The decision was made after consultation with Rev. E. R. Donehoo, who has been at Washington conferring with the attorney of the Chinese Government.

—The Anti-Semites and Clericals of Austria are greatly agitated over the appointment by President Cleveland of Max Judd, of Missouri, as Consul General of the United States at Vienna. The opposition is based upon the ground that Judd is a Hebrew. The emperor has been petitioned not to accept him.

—At Scranton, Mississippi, March 29, thirteen houses were burned. On the same day, in Baltimore, St. Barnaby's Church (Catholic) was burned. Same date a large portion of the village of Toronto, Kansas, was destroyed by fire. Also the Camden Knitting Company's building, at Camden, New York, was damaged $70,000 by fire.

—A late Chicago dispatch says that nearly every Western President has issued stringent orders against the issuance of free transportation after April 1st. The orders are all alike and forbid the issuance of free transportation and the cancellation of any already issued which by the most liberal construction was issued for the purpose of influencing business.

—Report says that an attack was recently made on American students in Lapaz, Bolivia. The students were attending in a procession the funeral of a Chilean who was being buried according to Masonic rites. Urged by priests, the mob attacked the students. In their fury they smashed the instruments carried by the students. Many of the latter were seriously injured.

—A local taxidermist at Seattle, Wash., is busy in preserving a monster shark, which was caught by fishermen in the bay, with the intention of sending the man eater to the World's Fair. Among other curious things inside the fish was a cuff button on which a portrait of Grover Cleveland had been stamped, and which had evidently been worn by an admirer of the President.

—Advices have been received by the State Department at Washington stating that Taotai Lin, of the Prefecture of Ting Chiang and Laig, adjoining the island of Amoy, China, has issued a proclamation prohibiting the sale or use of kerosene oil by his subjects, as the trade in this oil is almost wholly American. The United States Consul had entered a protest but no reply had been received.

—The Pacific Mail Steamship Company officials claim that the Panama Railroad Company is losing $100,000 a year by not renewing its contract with the Pacific Mail. Also, that the new Columbian Steamship Company, operated by the Panama Railroad Company, is losing $30,000 a month; and it is further stated that the railroad company's stock can be bought in Paris for $50 a share.

—Late advices from Panama state that famine rages in the Cauca Valley, where the price of provisions and the necessities of life has so increased that life has become almost impossible to the poorer classes. The attention of the national government has been called to this sad state of affairs and to the necessity of adopting some means of alleviating the pitiable condition of the half million starving people who inhabit the valley.