p. 655 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 21, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 41.

News and Notes.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 14.

RELIGIOUS.

—The State of Nebraska is credited with a foreign Lutheran population of 150,000.

—A “Lord’s Day Union” has been organized at Calcutta, which is expected to wield a powerful influence in favor of Sunday observance in India.

—It is said that the Turkish Government utterly rejects the Christian Endeavor Society, pronouncing it foolish and outrageous, and forbidding the publication of its literature.

—The Minneapolis Worker, speaking of the recent visit of Papal Delegate Satolli to St. Paul, says that the city gave him a reception, and Protestants and Catholics, both clergy and laymen, vied with each other in doing honor to the pope in the person of his representative.

—Among the recent graduates of the Normal Seminary of the Waldensian Church in Florence, Italy, was a young Abyssinian of a noble-priest family, who had been educated there at the expense of the Swedish Missionary Society. He will labor in his native land.

—Cardinal Ledochowski, whom Bismarck immured in prison and then expelled from Germany seventeen years ago, is now to return on a visit to Prussia and Poland as the guest of the German emperor. Vast preparations are being made for popular demonstrations throughout his former archdiocese.

—A stir has been created in the Jesuit ranks by the defection of the Earl of Graf Hoensbruch, who was for many years an ardent defender of Jesuit institutions. He is writing a series of articles in a Prussian journal, in which he arraigns the order on a charge of destroying the individuality of its adherents.

—The New York World says that “a conference has been suggested of leading Congregationalists, Christians, or Disciples, and Free Baptists, to propose a basis for a practical alliance between the three denominations, the proposed basis to be submitted to the representative body of each denomination for discussion.”

—The sixth Interdenominational Seaside Bible Conference was opened on the 11th inst. A circular announces that the contention of the conference is that “the Bible is the word of God.” It also asserts that “the Scriptures are circulated among nearly all the nations of the earth. There are few countries where legal impediments to their circulation now exist.”

—The pope is making considerable headway in the matter of gaining the good will of the workingmen. He has written a letter to De Curtis, chief of the Swiss Catholics and organizer of the International Catholic Workingmen’s Congress, stating that he approves of international legislation to protect working women and children. The letter is designed to be a preparatory step toward holding an international workingmen’s congress without regard to creed.

—A riot occurred at Bombay, India, on the 11th between Mohammedans and Hindus, which had to be quelled by the interference of troops. The Hindus were celebrating a religious festival, when three Mohammedans attempted to capture and desecrate the temple. Hostilities were renewed the next day, when the troops were again called into service, and a regular patrol established. About fifty persons were killed, and 100 or more wounded. About 1,300 arrests have been made.

SECULAR.

—In Minneapolis, on the 13th inst., fire destroyed property of various kinds to the value of over $1,000,000.

—The car works at Terre Haute, Ind., covering several acres of ground, were totally destroyed by fire on the 10th inst.

—It is stated at the Pension Office in Washington that up to the 10th inst. 8,672 pensions issued under the Act of 1890 had been suspended.

—As a result of a conference of foreign Consuls at Apia, Samoa, the rebel chief, Mataafa, recently defeated and captured by the king’s forces, will be exiled to the Union Islands.

—A London dispatch says that the Chinese Government has refused to make reparation for the killing of the two Swedish missionaries by a mob at Macheng a few weeks ago.

—In South Carolina it is said that there are nineteen counties without a place where liquors are sold. And neither Sunday closing nor high license had any part in bringing about the result.

—Late dispatches from the South report that yellow fever is prevalent at Pensacola, Fla., and that people are fleeing to other places. Other Southern cities are quarantining against the afflicted locality.

—The Chinese have been crowding into Vladivostok, Siberia, in such great numbers that the Russians have become alarmed and have forbidden any entrance of Chinese coolies at that port until further orders.

—Heavy thunderstorms are reported throughout Great Britain on the night of the 10th inst., with great damage in the country districts. Many cattle were injured and a number of buildings damaged by lightning.

—A cloudburst in the Eperies district of Hungary, on the 13th inst., caused the death of fifty persons and large numbers of cattle, besides the destruction of a hundred houses, several railroad bridges, and a large area of crops.

—Thirty-six persons who had fled from the yellow fever scourge at Pensacola arrived at Nashville, Tenn., on the 12th ult. They were examined by the health officer and allowed to remain. The disease never yet appeared in that city.

—Repeated shocks of earthquake, on the 12th inst., destroyed half of the town of Mattinatti, on the Adriatic Sea, killing four persons and injuring a number of others. The people are camping in the open air. The Stromboli Volcano is in violent eruption.

—A Rome dispatch of the 12th inst. says: “The pope has received a letter from President Cleveland congratulating him on the occasion of the golden jubilee. He sent the pope a book containing official papers and documents written by him during his first term in office.”

—John Temple Graves, a prominent editor and politician of Atlanta, Ga., proposes that the government set apart a large territory for the purpose of establishing a negro State. He says the ballot in the hands of the negro under the present conditions is an “emasculated mockery.”

—The orange shipping season of Southern California has closed, the number of car loads being 6,600. This is 2,000 car loads more than last year, but owing to expenses of shipping, and opposition to California fruits by certain combinations at Chicago, the profits to producers have been very small.

—An official statement issued by the Sanitary Council of Austria says that the condition of the country with regard to cholera is very precarious, much more serious than last year. The disease has broken out among railway laborers at Marmaros, on the Galician frontier, and many have died.

—The Louisiana Lottery Company’s charter having nearly expired, and the company having been refused a renewal, headquarters will be removed from New Orleans to an island in the Bay of Honduras, where a charter and liberal concessions have been secured from the Hondurian Government.

—The latest dodge of the iniquitous “dives” in San Francisco is to procure theatrical and restaurant licenses. Under these they can keep up their music and dancing, and sell light beverages, sandwiches, etc. The absence of strong liquors and the dangerous accompaniments draws patrons that otherwise would not visit the dens.

—There is more trouble between the free miners in the Coal Creek, Tenn., region and the State soldiers guarding the convict miners. Last week the miners murdered a soldier, and in turn the soldiers lynched a miner who was said to be the murderer. In addition to this trouble, it is said that 1,000 free miners are on a strike because of a proposed reduction in their wages.

—The war of retaliatory customs taxes now being waged between Russia and Germany is stirring up much bad feeling, and unless concessions are made by both governments actual war is probable. Two weeks ago the German emperor was said to be rubbing his hands with joy at the prospect of a war between France and England, but to-day Frenchmen are entertaining joyful anticipations of a collision between Germany and Russia.

—Official reports of the hospital on Swinburne Island, New York Harbor, to the 12th inst., showed twenty-one cases of cholera, with three deaths. It is said that the Italian Government is still endeavoring to suppress the facts concerning the extent of the disease in Naples and other cities. A cable dispatch from Paris, which has been mailed from Naples, says: “Cholera cables for New York are frequently confiscated by the government.”

—Some of the leading newspapers are heroically endeavoring to create the impression that the tension in financial matters is materially slacking, and that the hard times are over, but their telegraphic dispatches and the experiences of the people are decidedly against the theory. So long as wage workers are being thrown out of employment by the thousand, and business men pressed by bills find it impossible to collect their own dues, the editorial assurances of better times are of little weight.

—One lone Chinaman was shipped to his native land on the last steamer that left San Francisco. His name was Won Dep Ken, a cigar maker of Los Angeles, and his offense was failing to register, as required by the Geary Exclusion Act. He is the first Chinaman deported under the provisions of that act. Besides the expenses of his arrest and trial, and of bringing him to San Francisco, his transportation cost the government $35 for fare to China. His case was made a test by the Federated Trades of Southern California.

—Some six months ago the supervisors of Merced County, Cal., passed an ordinance fixing the license for selling liquor at $3,000 per quarter. Since then a score of saloons have been in operation without paying any license. There have been several prosecutions, but the juries always decide for the saloons. Finally, Judge Budd, of San Joaquin, being called to preside in the Merced Court, it has been decided that the ordinance is unconstitutional, on the ground that it is unreasonable, and was levied not for the purpose of regulating the liquor traffic, but of prohibiting it altogether.