SECULAR | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1893

SECULAR.

—Secretary of War Herbert will ask Congress to appropriate money to build one more battle ship and four torpedo boats.

—It is said that one of the first bills to come before Congress will be an appropriation of $50,000 to carry out the work of Chinese registration.

—Prominent citizens and business men of Utah have decided that that Territory shall be well represented at the San Francisco Midwinter Fair.

—The two Minneapolis bank embezzlers, Scheig and Floyd, have turned up in London, and want to return. They admit having swindled the bank out of $90,000.

—As Mexico has secured a new loan, it is now asserted that the completion of the government railroad across the isthmus of Tehuantepec is assured.

—Above 650 packers employed at the World’s Fair grounds, Chicago, were discharged on the 2d inst., and it was understood that Italians would take their places at reduced wages.

—A heavy snowstorm prevailed throughout Illinois, Southern Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Eastern Kansas, and Oklahoma. New York and the New England States had a like experience.

—Piracy on the high seas between China and Japan is reported to be rife of late, the special prey being rice junks. Eleven cargoes are known to have been seized during the past month.

—Russia and France are pressing Turkey for a free passage of the Dardanelles, and will win if the other powers do not interfere. The mastery of the Mediterranean Sea is involved in the issue.

—At Baltimore, on the 2d inst., fire destroyed property to the value of $700,000. As several of the buildings were manufacturing establishments, about 500 people are left without employment.

—An express train ran into a freight train at Theviglio, Italy, on the 29th ult., causing the death of forty-three persons and the injury of 183. Most of the killed and injured were emigrants to America.

—The National Civil Service Reform League has adopted a resolution earnestly remonstrating against the bestowal by the President of high offices of State in return for the contribution of large campaign funds.

—Estabon Dorame, who has been in the Arizona penitentiary two and a half years on a charge of manslaughter, has been pardoned by the governor because another man has confessed the crime for which Dorame was tried.

—The last steamer from San Francisco for Hongkong took 300 Chinese who are going home to celebrate their New Year festivals. Two others were deported by order of the government, as they belonged to a proscribed class.

—At Corsicana, Texas, on the 3d inst., a grain elevator, 25,000 bushels of wheat, two livery stables, thirty-five horses, three freight cars, electric plant, and six other buildings were destroyed by fire, the loss being estimated at $100,000.

—At Swainsborough, Ga., on the 1st inst., Rev. Charles Johnson was hung for the murder of Rev. Wm. Shilds. Both were colored, and the murder was caused by jealousy in regard to a woman. Johnson preached his own funeral sermon.

—Late advices from Japan state that floods have caused great destruction of life and property in and around the harbor of Nagasaki. In Okayarua prefecture 167 lives were lost and 2,400 houses destroyed. In Yamaguchi 320 fishermen were drowned.

—J. J. Van Alen, of Rhode Island, whose appointment as ambassador to Italy caused so much adverse criticism because it was supposed to have been the reward of a large donation to the Cleveland campaign fund, has at last declined the position.

—An Afro-American Convention assembled at Cincinnati last week. A resolution was adopted urging a memorial to Congress asking for the passage of measures for the prevention of lynching and for otherwise protecting the colored people of the South.

—The Credito Mobiliare, one of the strongest banks in Italy, has asked for an extension of time to meet its obligations. In consequence, the general financial situation there has been rendered critical, and the whole country is said to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

—There is said to be extensive trouble in the coal mining region of Snowden and Gastonville, Pa., because of a reduction of wages, which the workmen refuse to accept. All the mines are reported closed, and the miners are determined to resist their opening with non-union men.

—It was expected that the Grand Jury at Buffalo, N. Y., would return indictments against members of the American Protective Association, the new anti-Catholic association, on charges of criminal conspiracy; but the district attorney has decided that such charges could not be sustained.

—A press correspondent who has visited the city of Kuchau, Persia, the scene of the recent destructive earthquake, says the place is a heap of ruins, with not a house standing. Bodies are still being recovered, in a decaying condition. Shocks continue in the hills, preceded by loud reports.

—The members of the Grand Army of the Republic at Boise, Idaho, object to the Ellis History of the United States, placed in the Idaho public schools under the Free Text-book Law. The objection is on the ground that it inculcates no lesson of patriotism in its tender treatment of the Rebellion, which carries no suggestion of a wrong having been committed. It is safe to say that no history of a nation would please all the people living during any period covered by the history.

—A convention of citizens in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, has resolved to again request Congress to admit that Territory and Indian Territory as one State. It was also decided to advocate the abolishment of all Indian tribal governments and the division of their common domain among the citizens of each nation.

—When the San Francisco Midwinter Fair was first suggested, it was estimated to be a $500,000 affair; but it is now certain that California’s expenditure alone will be over $1,000,000. Besides this, the expenditures of other States, Territories, nations, and concessionaires will aggregate a very large amount.

—Two snowslides from the side of Lion Mountain, Mont., occurred last week, in which six persons lost their lives, and others were only saved by hard work on the part of rescuers. The people of Lion City and Hecla have all abandoned their homes from fear of other disasters, and the mines are to be closed.

—The latest report from Rio Janeiro is that the rebel fleet has left the harbor for the purpose of intercepting the new government fleet en route from New York. A hot fire was poured into the vessels as they ran the gauntlet of the forts at the entrance to the harbor, and considerable damage is said to have been done to the flagship.

—The Ways and Means Committee of the lower house of Congress has received over 1,000 petitions, telegrams, and memorials from temperance societies asking that the whisky tax be raised. Thus they seek to enlarge the government’s profit from an acknowledged bad industry, knowing that governments, like individuals, are prone to encourage that which pays them financially.

—It is said that the governor of Chihuahua, Mexico, on the authority of President Diaz, has forbidden the circulation of the El Paso (Texas) Daily Times on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, and has also forbidden any merchant doing business in Mexico to advertise in the Times. The paper is owned by John S. Hart, who has had considerable trouble in one way or another with the Mexican authorities.

—The trial of rich cattle men in Wyoming charged with murder of so-called “rustlers” (small farmers who were settling on the great public ranges) has failed for want of jurymen. There were forty-six of them, and their attorney secured their trial en masse; so when it came to selecting jurymen, the privilege of objection allowed each defendant consumed the county jury list, and the trial was blocked. The people are not sorry to be relieved of the enormous expense of the trials.

—It seems hard for certain classes of laborers to stand the temptations incident to pay day. A press dispatch says that near Eckman, W. Va., last week, three white and three colored men were killed and four colored men wounded. Another dispatch says that near Rekhan, in the same State, ten colored men had fallen in drunken fights, six of whom would die. Still another dispatch says that following pay day at some of the largest mines on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, four were killed and several others fatally wounded as a result of too much whisky.