—The National Reformers are persistent in their claim that this is a Christian nation, and are, at the same time, loud in their complaints that it does not acknowledge God in its fundamental law. What would be thought of the Christianity of an individual who did not acknowledge God?
—Bishop Foster, of the M. E. Church, who recently returned from a tour in the Orient, says: "The Catholic missions are more numerous than those of the Protestant churches, and are conspicuously strong. I can give no personal judgment as to the work, but I know that they are very widely extended and have great influence."
—A St. Paul dispatch announces a great sensation because Mrs. Frances B. Clarke, the wealthiest woman in Minnesota, has left the Episcopal Church to become a Catholic. There is no occasion for a sensation about the change—it was only a step, and many others are doing likewise, especially in England, the cradle of Episcopalianism.
—A bill is now before the South Carolina Legislature which provides for the prohibition of railway trains on Sunday. It is said to have the sanction of the governor. Just how the State will manage to stop the running of trains carrying the U. S. mails remains to be seen. Interference by an individual with the transmission of the mails is a serious offense against federal law.
—Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts has resigned the editorship of the Christian Statesman, in the expectation of a resident pastorate in or near Washington, D. C., where he hopes to be able to establish a Bureau of Reforms. He deems such a bureau essential in order "to focus the Christian sentiment of the land by petitions, letters, and hearings against the Catholic and Liquor Bureaus already established and effective at the capital, and other un-American elements in the lobby."
—A recent pastoral letter of the Hungarian bishop invokes the authority of the apostles in contending that obedience is due to God rather than men, and declares that the government bills in regard to mixed marriages, civil marriages, etc., are breaches of Catholic dogma, and counteract the fundamental principles of Christianity. It calls upon all Catholics to support the pastors and jointly defend the rights of the church, and says that their actions in public affairs must be governed by this object.
—An ex-convict has been imposing upon the Protestant ministers of St. Louis, representing himself as an ex-priest desirous of doing missionary work among the Catholics. He presented forged letters of recommendation from prominent ministers elsewhere. When at last he was confronted with evidences of his fraudulent representations, he confessed and was arrested. He had in his pocket a list of all the city ministers. He also confessed to being wanted in Chicago for grave robbery.
—The Union Signal (W. C. T. U. organ) says "the State should recognize the sovereignty of Christ in its fundamental law." This sentiment is also indorsed by all the other elements in the so-called National Reform combination. Yet they all unite in demands for compulsory recognition of religious institutions, a principle which Christ never inculcated either by precept or example. If Christ be the sovereign of this nation, then all Sunday laws and kindred enactments are rebellions in their nature; for Christ did not encourage a compulsory Sabbath observance on the part of the Gentiles, or compulsory religious action of any kind. He did not enjoin the compulsory observance even of the Sabbath which he himself kept, much less of the counterfeit institution set up as a rival of the day which he had sanctioned.
—Some of our most strenuous workers in the cause of enforced Sunday observance are also making a show of great hostility to the Catholics. It seems like trying to kill a tree by lopping off a few branches while carefully cultivating the roots.
—A Fargo, N. D., dispatch says that Bishop Shanley, of the diocese of Jamestown, has issued a circular in which he says: "Rev. Jerome Hunt, O.S.B., missionary among the Sioux Indians at Fort Totten, N. D., is one of the best living authorities in matters pertaining to the Sioux language. He has written and published a catechism, a prayer book, and hymn book in Sioux, and is editor and publisher of a monthly periodical in the same language, entitled Sina Sapa Wokicuye Taeyanpaha, that is, 'The Herald of the Black Gowns (Catholic Church)." The bishop calls for financial aid for a proposed translation and publication of a Bible history in the Sioux language.
—The Occident speaks of Monsignor Satolli, the papal delegate, as "an Italian gentleman by courtesy residing at Washington." This is simply another specimen of the tendency toward intolerance on the part of professed Protestantism. If Satolli is an Italian gentleman, he is residing in Washington by right, and not by courtesy. We do not agree with Satolli, any more than does the Occident, when he says, "The more public opinion and the government favor the Catholic schools, more and more will the welfare of the commonwealth be advanced." But when Protestants assume that allowing the advocacy of any religion in a legal manner, by whomsoever its adherents may choose, is a mere matter of courtesy on the part of the government, they assume a position that has long been condemned by Protestants as Catholic ground.
—On New Year's day there was unveiled in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, a large stone cross fifty-seven feet high, including the pedestal of seven feet. It is composed of sixty-eight pieces of stone, whose aggregate weight is 600,000 pounds. The monument is the gift of George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, and is "a memorial of the services held on the shore of Drake's Bay, about St. John the Baptist's day, June 24, 1579, by Francis Fletcher, priest of the Church of England, chaplain of Sir Francis Drake, chronicler of the services." Drake's Bay is a slight indenture in the Pacific shore, a few miles north of the entrance to San Francisco Harbor. The occasion, on the inscription says, was the "first Christian service in the English tongue on our coast, first use of the Book of Common Prayer in our country, and one of the first recorded missionary prayers on our continent."
SECULAR.
—Fire destroyed about $750,000 worth of property in Toledo, Ohio, on the night of the 3d inst.
—The Joliet, Ill., branch of the Consolidated Steel and Wire Company has closed, and as a consequence 900 men are idle.
—Reports from the Samoan Islands say that since the departure of the war ships from Apia the natives are manifesting their old-time restlessness.
—The banking house of Porty and Bressy, at Saluzzo, Italy, has failed for $1,000,000, and the senior member of the house has committed suicide.
—The government of Austria has decided to make the manufacture of dynamite and other explosives a State regulated monopoly under control of the War Department.
—A member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, who has returned to the capital from Sicily, says it is famine and not politics that has induced the masses to revolt.
—At Ottumwa, Iowa, the citizens have decided to buy standing timber and give their unemployed male population work at cutting it down and converting it into cordwood.
—Congressman Maguire, of California, has introduced a bill for the establishment of a postal telegraph system, under the supervision of the Post Office Department.
—London dispatches report very cold weather in Great Britain and on the Continent, and in Vienna it is said that many people are in the hospitals suffering from being frostbitten.
—The offer of the pope to mediate in the trouble between the governments of Peru and Ecuador has been accepted, but it is stated that both countries continue military preparations.
—A Baptist evangelist at Sanger, Cal., took occasion last week to speak very harshly of a leading citizen. The next evening, on his way from church, he was greeted with a shower of rotten eggs.
—The latest news from Honolulu indicates political unrest and uncertainty, constantly increased by the indefinite action of the United States Government. The acknowledged power of this government is no doubt the means of keeping the two parties in Hawaii from open war, but the influence is being wielded at an immense expense—not only of money, but of political harmony at home.
—A Victoria dispatch states that large quantities of Chinese silver and Straits Settlements dimes, which had been bought up at thirty cents on the dollar, have been distributed in various parts of British Columbia.
—Dr. West, who is charged with the murder of Ada Gilmore, in San Francisco, last fall, has been swindled out of nearly all his money by one of his lawyers, and now has next to nothing left wherewith to defend himself.
—At Ashland, Oregon, on New Year's day, 1,000 children were each given a slice of mince pie with a half dollar inside of it. The pie was twenty-two feet in circumference, four inches thick, and weighed nearly five hundred pounds.
—Advices from Shanghai state that while the emperor of China was proceeding to his winter palace bandits attacked the procession and secured a large quantity of valuables. They are also said to have kidnapped several imperial officials.
—Ten Spanish Anarchists arrested at Barcelona have been turned over to the military authorities for trial. The pretext for the transfer is injury of General Campos by one of their explosives. It is deemed probable that they will all be shot.
—A Lansing, Mich., dispatch announces a new secret political order, whose national committee met in that city last week. It is said to be non-partisan and non-sectarian, is entitled the Order of Loyal Americans, and is conducted in a semi-military style.
—Chihuahua, Mexico, advices state that heavy snows in the Sierra Madre have caused such privations among the Temochic Indians as to almost exterminate them. For years this tribe has been at war with the government, and their resources had been greatly reduced.
—On the 3d inst. numerous arrests of Anarchists were effected in the French cities of Paris, Argenteuil, Bondeville, Lyons, Bourges, and Montpelier. At Havre all Anarchist newspapers and almanacs were seized. Three men arrested at Brest were employed in the government arsenal.
—It is stated by officials that in Montreal there are not less than 100 noted gambling resorts, more than twice as many as there were two years ago. A court prosecutor states that under the new criminal code it is just as hard to get a warrant to raid a suspected gambling house as to search a private residence.
—On New Year's day the French police raided the quarters of Anarchists in several of the principal towns and seized large quantities of incendiary literature. In and around Paris thirty-four arrests were made, twenty-four at Lyons, and many more in various other places. At Allier 450 charged cartridges were found, and at Havre a lot of stolen bonds were recovered.
—Late advices from Honolulu state that U. S. Minister Willis had written to the Provisional Government requesting the surrender of the offices, as the United States had decided in favor of restoring the queen. The queen, it was said, had promised to ratify all the obligations of the Provisional Government, and to govern faithfully under the present constitution. The surrender will not be made for the mere asking.
—At Cleveland, Ohio, on the 2d inst., a large crowd of unemployed men, accompanied by women, many carrying children in their arms, marched to the City Hall and demanded work from the city. They were informed there was no work, and thereupon made many threats. One leader said, "We will have work, or tear down the City Hall; our families are suffering; we must have employment or bread." The police dispersed them.
—Notwithstanding the hard times, a new evening paper, The Citizen, has been started in this city. It is a six-column quarto, devoted principally to local news. It is supposed to be on the line of moral reform in the newspaper field, but the few copies that we have seen display about the usual range of vocabulary, personality, etc. It is hard for old hands to get out of the rut, even if they do change vehicles. It is a question whether the handling of a third evening paper in this city, amid such financial depression, is bravery or presumption; and it is a question which only time can answer.
—Great excitement has been created in France and Great Britain by an engagement between their respective forces in Senegambia, West Africa. It appears that a British force of 500 native troops had been sent out against the native Sofas, and while in camp were attacked early in the morning by a French force composed of Benguists and natives. The result was that one British officer and twenty-six soldiers were killed. The French commanding officer was wounded and taken prisoner. Before he died he explained that he mistook the white service uniforms of the British for the dress of the Arab chiefs. Whether it was a mistake or not, it is a question for diplomatic solution, and there will necessarily come into the inquiry an explanation of how the French troops happened to be within the territory over which Great Britain claims control.