SECULAR | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 19, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 16.

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SECULAR.

—A fire in Montgomery, Mo., on the 7th inst. destroyed property to the value of $130,000.

—The sixth convention of the Trans-Mississippi Congress is now in session in San Francisco.

—It is said that a German syndicate is coming to the rescue of the Italian financial embarrassment.

—The Brazilian revolutionists have sought recognition by the Government of Italy, but have been refused.

—The bill repealing all Federal laws for the control of congressional elections has been passed by Congress.

—The old Godey Publishing Company, of New York, publishers of Godey's Magazine and other works, has failed.

—A. J. McLaurin (Democrat) has been elected U. S. Senator from Mississippi to succeed Senator Walthall, resigned.

—A recent dispatch from Calcutta says the money market is rapidly approaching a state of panic, even government securities having fallen below par.

—A Russian company with a large capital is being formed for the purpose of running a line of steamers between Odessa and the United States.

—The contractor for the Tehauntepec Railroad, which is to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacific Ocean, says that the road will be in operation by next September.

—A cyclone struck Port Hudson, La., on the 8th inst., demolishing several houses, leveling fences, and uprooting many trees. One child was killed and several persons injured.

—A contract to build a bridge across the Mississippi River at New Orleans, for the Southern Pacific Company, has been let to the Phoenixville (Pa.) Bridge Company, the cost to be $5,000,000.

—On the next steamer for China from San Francisco two Chinese burglars will be deported, under the felon clause of the McCreary Extension Law. They go at the expense of the U. S. Government.

—There are, according to report of persons in a position to know, 5,000 unemployed Chinese in San Francisco, and many of those who have employment in shoe and cigar factories are working on half time.

—A real fight is said to have occurred at Nictheroy, harbor of Rio Janeiro, last week. The insurgents did great damage to the forts and town, but were finally repulsed. Heavy loss on both sides is reported.

—The Secretary of the Treasury asks Congress for $450,000 for enforcing the Chinese Exclusion Act. The main item of expenditure will be for policing the borders, to prevent illegal entrance to the country.

—The police of New York City are calling attention to the alleged system of slavery practiced all over the United States by Italian padrones, the traffic being in Italian boys. It is said to be a flourishing trade.

—Stormy weather and heavy snowfall are reported throughout the States between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains, on the 11th inst., causing much suffering and extensive blockades of travel and business.

—The Northern Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads have declared a limited first-class passenger rate of $49.50 between Chicago and Portland, Ore. A brisk railroad war in the Northwest is expected to follow this action.

—The new commercial treaty between Russia and Germany is of quite a liberal nature and is to last ten years. Its consummation is said to be the source of great disappointment in France, as the latter had counted on Russia's exclusive friendship and alliance.

—France's aim to extend her colonial possessions in northern Central Africa has received a check, one which necessitates a back out from her recent occupation of Timbactoo, or an enormously expensive campaign to subdue the Tuaregs, a tribe of Arabs who occupy that desert region. An entire command, said to number some 300 men, was recently ambushed and massacred by the retaliatory natives. The small command in possession of Timbactoo is reported to be in imminent danger.

—The people of Stockton, Cal., a city of about 15,000 inhabitants, make a good showing considering the hard times. A recent procession of the unemployed could not muster quite 200 persons, and those were mostly persons who had recently come to the place.

—The coal operators of the Massillon district, Ohio, have submitted a proposition to the miners to reduce wages 12½ per cent. It is said they do not expect the offer to be accepted, but expect, on its refusal, to declare a lockout, which will throw 4,000 men out of employment.

—On the 3d inst. a procession of German Jewish unemployed men attempted to hold a meeting in the old St. Paul's Church yard, London, but were clubbed away by the police. The procession then went to Trafalgar Square and held an excited meeting, which was closely watched by the police.

—A strikers' riot at the large iron works in Nizhnee Taghilsk, Russia, participated in by 5,000 workmen, is said to have proved too much for the local authorities, and troops were called on the 7th inst. to restore order. The rioters were not subdued until a large number had been killed and wounded.

—President Peixoto, of Brazil, has ordered an election for president and members of Congress to be held March 1. It is thought this move will end the revolution, as opposition to Peixoto has been the principal excuse for the revolt, and it is supposed that Moraes, who is not objectionable to the insurgents, will be elected.

—Some of the Balmacedan adherents, who were the government in the late Chilean civil war, are now playing in the role of revolutionists, and the territory between the Coquimbo and Bobio Rivers has been declared in a state of siege. A number of persons, among them two of Balmaceda's brothers, have been arrested.

—The 11th inst. was a day of fires. At Hartford, Conn., the Colt firearms factory was damaged to the extent of $150,000. At Duluth, Minn., the Board of Trade building was destroyed, causing a loss of $120,000. At Wapakoweta, Ohio, property to the value of $80,000 was destroyed. At Henderson, Ky., two tobacco factories were destroyed, the loss being $150,000.

—On the 8th inst. several of the rich men of New York City found on their doors threatening notices written in Latin. Chauncey M. Depew's door contained a placard which read as follows: "Brothers, remember the glorious example of Vaillant. Death to the rich man. This is a marked man. Warn all. By the will of the common people." Underneath was a picture of a bomb.

—A Utah Mormon, who has been trying to support two families in this city in the double capacity of grocery clerk and larcenist, is to be sent back to the Mormon Territory for trial for violation of the law against polygamy. He has just served a short term in jail in this city for stealing from his employers. One of the wives and her children have been returned to her friends in Utah by charitable ladies.

—The brutal murder of a blind woman occurred near Petaluma, Cal., last week, and the assailants thought to murder her husband also. They left him for dead, but he recovered. He could give no other clue to the murderers than the recognition of the voices of two of his wife's sisters after they supposed he was dead. He was shot through a window. The two sisters and a son of one of them have been arrested. It is supposed the deed was done in order to secure possession of the property.

—The French headsman Deibler, who recently executed Anarchist Vaillant, has been sent to England under the watchcare of two detectives in order that he may escape the threats of the Anarchist element. He is also an extra burden to the London police, who are charged with the duty of protecting him from the same element in that city. Any injury to his person would be likely to precipitate international complications. Just now he is not wanted anywhere.

—Another collision has recently occurred between English and French forces on the frontier border of Sierra Leone, Africa, in which several persons were killed on both sides. As in the affair of December last, the French made the attack. That assault was explained as a mistake; the last one has not yet been explained. Some of these small occurrences on the part of isolated small commands, most of whose rank and file are natives of the country where they operate, may yet imbroil the home governments in general warfare.

—The old U. S. sloop-of-war Kearsarge ran onto Roncador Reef, about 200 miles from the Mosquito Coast, Central America, on the 2d inst., and was broken to pieces. There were about 220 officers, sailors, and marines aboard, all of whom escaped—after severe battles with wind, fire, and waves—to a small island. From there a picked boat's crew succeeded in reaching the island of Old Providence, ninety miles distant; thence they secured passage on a schooner to Colon, and telegraphed to Washington for relief. The party had saved some provision, but were short of water. The Kearsarge was made famous in 1864 by her defeat of the Confederate steamer Alabama, which was sunk in the English Channel, off Cherbourg, France.