News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 18, 1893

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 11.

RELIGIOUS.

—It has been decided that the Texas Sunday law is unconstitutional because of a technical flaw in the caption.

—Official statistics give the number of native Roman Catholic priests in the Orient as follows: India, 1,401; Burmah, Siam, and Malay, 383; China, 375; Japan, 15.

—It is said that two Buddhist missionaries have begun the work of propagating their faith in Chicago. The applause accorded to the Buddhist champions at the recent Congress of Religions in that city was certainly enough to encourage missionary effort of that character.

—It is authoritatively stated that an anti-Catholic lecturer desiring to speak in Quincy, Ill., found it impossible to do so. The city authorities would not grant him a license, the newspapers declined his advertisement, and the manager of the hall which he most desired to secure refused to allow him to use it.

—The Christian Statesman says: "County after county is being captured for temperance in California." The editor evidently means captured for Sunday closing. Those counties are just as intemperate as ever. These are simply Sunday victories in the seductive name of temperance, and that is all they were ever intended for by the instigators.

—A Detroit dispatch of the 7th inst. says: "On the doors of nearly every prominent saloon and retail house in the heart of the city, between the hours of 3 and 6 o'clock, was found this startling notice: 'Closed to attend Dr. Chapman's revival meeting.'" It is also stated that over 5,000 were in attendance, among them "prominent brewers, saloonists, and rounders of the town."

—Cardinal Gibbons has issued a circular on the subject of the school question. It is said to be designed to agitate the question prior to the assembling of the Maryland Legislature, when the State will be asked to give the parochial schools a share of the school fund. The circular closes thus: "We only desire such a modification of the present common school system so that the conscience of the parents be respected, and that the State see that even-handed justice be dealt to all."

—Rev. Carroll, of this city, in espousing the cause of the workingmen, says: "They must have the right to a sabbath of rest. This right is due them under the Constitution." The trouble with most of these ministerial champions of the workingmen's rights to a sabbath of rest is that the right must be guaranteed provided they take it on a certain day. And they would secure this right to the workingman by a law compelling him to take it whether he wants to or not,—compelling him to exercise the right to rest on that certain day although he may have exercised it the day previous.

—Presbyterians are proverbially very sedate in church. A few years ago anyone who would have said "Amen" out loud in a Presbyterian Church would have been deemed very discourteous. But times (or, rather, Presbyterians) are changing. On Thanksgiving day Dr. Phraner, of Philadelphia, preached in Calvary Presbyterian Church, San Francisco. Of the sermon Dr. Hemphill, pastor of Calvary, says: "Dr. Phraner played upon the emotions of his hearers with such masterly touch that he called forth round after round of applause, and the applause was as worshipful as any part of the service." Of course it was. Pastor Hemphill further urges that every Presbyterian pulpit on the coast should be open to Dr. Phraner.

—Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, the New York railroad magnate and orator, has been visiting the pope, and according to his report the interview was quite a mutual admiration affair. However, it really represents Leo as more of a Jesuit than he is generally supposed to be. Of his flattering compliments Mr. Depew says: "The impression he intended to convey was that he knew who I was, and all about me, and had long watched with interest my career. He did it so tactfully and gracefully that I was almost convinced it was true. This same tact and courtesy predominated all through the interview." Mr. Depew's part in the play was to say that he had once lectured before Catholic students on the theme of the Papal Encyclical on the subject of capital and labor; that there are many Catholics in the employ of his company; and in his published report to draw a comparison with Mr. Gladstone favorable to Leo. But, as most other people are under the impression that the pope is tottering on the grave, both mentally and physically, it is especially flattering to have his distinguished American visitor publish to the world that the "nervous intensity, which might be casually mistaken for feebleness, indicated rather strength and vigor of mind, as well as of body."

—The Catholic News says: "Protestantism is declining to an alarming extent in France, and, to judge from the reports of Mr. Sabatier, who holds the official position of Professor of Protestant Theology at the University of Paris, there will soon be no members of the Reformed Church left in that country. The actual number of Protestants in France does not exceed 650,000, and among these the annual number of deaths exceeds that of births to the extent of 2,350. Meanwhile Catholicity is steadily advancing in the French republic."

—Thanksgiving day has been accorded a new significance. The Occident says it is "an annual reminder to all our people that this is a Christian nation." Inasmuch as gluttony and drunkenness are the principal features of the day, the so-called Christianity of the nation thus commemorated must be that which is described in Rom. 16:18: "They that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." The apostle warns us to "mark" such professed Christians and "avoid them."

—"The power of Christian sentiment is felt all over the land on this [Thanksgiving] day, just as the power of Christian sentiment was recognized by Congress when, backed by the petition of 200,000 people, that body voted to close the gates of the World's Fair on Sunday."—The Occident. It was not the petition of 200,000 people that affected Congress, but the exaggerated representation that the petition expressed the sentiment of forty millions of the people. After the work was done, one of the leading champions of the Sunday-closing movement publicly boasted that "by writing letters twenty ministers in Kentucky made the Congressmen from that State believe that the whole State was in favor of the Sunday closing of the World's Fair." It was not the "Christian sentiment" of the country that beguiled Congress in the matter of Sunday closing; it was the bland deception practiced by men claiming to be Christians. And Congressmen were so goaded by fear of defeat at the polls that they did not dare to look the facts in the face.

SECULAR.

—The Northern Pacific Railroad Company has ordered a general reduction of wages, and a general strike is threatened if the order is enforced.

—A Philadelphia dispatch says a strike of carpet weavers in the Kensington district includes between 8,000 and 10,000 employees, with a probability of spreading further.

—California's new insane asylum (the fifth) at Ukiah is now completed, and sixty patients from Stockton and sixty from Napa have been transferred to the new institution.

—A member of the British House of Commons has called the attention of the government to the fact that Germans won a very large proportion of awards at the World's Fair.

—A conference of the Michigan Federation of Labor has passed a resolution favoring the coinage of both gold and silver at a ratio of 16 to 1. It was adopted by a unanimous vote.

—Eighteen contraband Chinese, smuggled into Florida on a Spanish vessel, were arrested last week by government officials and taken to Key West. Six others evaded the officials.

—Practical measures for relieving hunger among the 117,000 destitute people of Chicago were inaugurated on the 5th inst. A leading clothing house distributed 600 loaves of bread and about 3,000 cups of coffee.

—A Socialistic riot occurred at Partinico, Italy, last week, on account of an increase in taxes. Some 4,000 men and women engaged in the demonstration, burning the municipal registers and sentry boxes. The rioters were dispersed by troops.

—About 200 Moorish Jews, expelled from Melilla recently by order of the Spanish general, arrived at Nemours, Algeria, last week, in a destitute condition. As a result an order has been issued forbidding Moorish Jews landing in Algeria.

—A dispatch from Deming, N. M., reports that last week a company of Mexican soldiers were met and attacked by a rebel force between Chihuahua and Ascension. One regular officer was killed, and twenty-five soldiers went over to the rebels.

—The fence around the Midwinter Fair ground in San Francisco has been completed, and it now costs twenty-five cents to get inside the inclosure. On Sunday last, the first paid-admission day, about 4,000 people viewed the unfinished improvements.

—Anarchy is growing bolder in Europe. On the 9th inst. an explosive bomb was thrown into the French Chamber of Deputies from the galleries, and over fifty persons were injured, but only one fatally. The bomb exploded before striking the floor, else it is thought the damage would have been much greater. A noted Anarchist named Vaillant was arrested and has confessed the deed.

—All the Spanish army, and the loyal populace generally, are said to have gone into ecstasy because the little boy king said he would go to war, if he could have a horse, and kill the Moors. Thus may a great people be moved by a childish whim.

—Judge Harris, of Fresno, Cal., in whose court a noted bandit is being tried for murder, has received an anonymous letter stating that if the defendant is convicted the judge will be murdered, but in case of acquittal, $10,000 reward will be given him.

—The Danish Consul at Kansas City is trying to interest Western millers in the new Gulf of Mexico transportation project. He is said to have secured the pledges of at least forty of them to ship their export flour by the new gulf steamers to Copenhagen.

—The British Secretary of the Admiralty has informed the House of Commons that four cruisers, two sloops of war, two battle ships, and a number of torpedo destroyers, in addition to several other war vessels, will be pushed forward with the utmost possible dispatch.

—Governor Waite, of Colorado, will call an extra session of the Legislature to convene January 10, 1894, to consider some measures proposed by him for making silver dollars of any country, if of full weight, legal tender in the State. There is bitter opposition to the call.

—In the U. S. Circuit Court at New Orleans the friends of the Italian Mafia members who were lynched three years ago are suing for damages. Last week the jury in one case rendered a verdict of $5,000 against the city. There are six other cases to be tried before the same jury.

—The proprietor and the business manager of the San Francisco Examiner have been indicted by the Federal Grand Jury at Boise, Idaho, for violation of the Anti Lottery Law. The offense consists of sending through the mails their paper containing advertisements of prizes offered to subscribers.

—The smelter men throughout Colorado are complaining that the supply of silver ore has gradually decreased since the closing of the mines in June to such an extent that, unless there is a rise in the price of lead and silver soon, which will permit resumption of the low-grade mines, there will be a famine in the ore market, which will compel most of the smelters to close down.

—The government of Chile wants $225,772 from the United States as a compensation for the capture of the Itata during the Chilean rebellion. It will be remembered that the present government of Chile was then a revolutionary power, and the Itata was trying to secure arms and ammunition in the United States to aid the revolutionist cause. At least that was the view our government took of the matter; hence the capture.

—After all the talk about restoring the Hawaiian queen to the throne, it seems that she is not yet restored. The latest news is that she will decline the throne unless by the consent of the provincial government or the assurance of the positive support of the United States. It is safe to say that she will never be restored on either of those conditions. It is generally understood that Minister Willis was instructed by President Cleveland to restore the queen's government, but it was on the supposition that the provincial government would not make any armed resistance to the President's dictum. This supposition seems to have been a mistake, and the Minister, not being empowered to employ force, was unable to carry out the program. Now that Congress is in session, that body is taking a hand in the matter, and there is likely to be a warm discussion of the whole question.