p. 447 | News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 14, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 28.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 7.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Los Angeles, Cal., Union Ministerial Alliance has recommended "a uniform change of weekly prayer meeting to Wednesday evening."

—The Occident of the 3d inst. says: "Sixteen Mormon missionaries—fourteen men and two women—are in San Francisco, en route to Hawaii, New Zealand, Samoa, and New South Wales."

—The Ministerial Union of Lexington, Ky., have passed resolutions condemning Congressman Breckenridge, and declaring that "his canvass for renomination and election is an open defiance of all personal chastity, domestic purity, and religious integrity."

—In the House of Representatives on the 31st ult. there were introduced protests from the Immanuel Lutheran Church of Decatur, Ind., and the evangelical Lutheran Churches of Gibson and Whitley Counties, same State, against the proposed religious amendment to the Constitution.

—April 26, petitions were received in Congress from the Lutheran Churches in Ashford, N. Y., Mankato, Minn., and Pigeon Falls, Wis., against the adoption of the proposed religious amendment to the national Constitution. A general remonstrance was also introduced by Mr. Somers, of Wisconsin.

—Venuillot, a celebrated Catholic editor, is credited with this significant utterance: "When Protestants are in the ascendancy, we demand religious liberty, because that is their doctrine; but when Catholicism is in the ascendancy, we deny religious liberty because that is our doctrine."

—The pope, through his "delegate apostolic," assumes to influence the public school policy of the United States; yet in Italy, where the people have been directly under the shadow of his wing for centuries, four-fifths of the populace can neither read nor write. Do we want such an influence here?

—The pope's confessor is dead! Rev. Father Daniele di Bassano, of the Franciscan Order, is dead. It is not surprising that a monk should die, but it does seem rather mysterious that the "infallible" head of the church should need a confessor. But then that whole system is a "mystery—of iniquity."

—People who are wedded to Sunday observance are imbued with the kindred delusion that wickedness is worse on Sunday than on any other day. For instance, a religious exchange says: "Someone has said the best way to read bad books is to burn them. The advice would have been complete if the bad papers, especially Sunday papers, had been included." The idea that "bad papers" are "especially bad" on Sunday is virtually an apology for them on other days.

—The tendency of the modern church is thus indicated by an item in the "official organ" of the Y. M. C. A. of Stockton, Cal.: "What is the matter with our chess and checker players? The columns of this paper are open to all our members, and we would be pleased to record the games and by whom. This king of games should not be allowed to die a natural death in our rooms. This is the kind of royalty we should encourage. Send in an account of your interesting games."

—The Sunday question is still being agitated in Australia. In Ballarat, the Fine Art Public Gallery Association recently took a vote without discussion on the question of opening the gallery on Sunday, and the vote was favorable to the opening. But on petition of the minority, it was decided to hold a future meeting of subscribers and have the subject fully discussed. The Trades and Labor Council adopted a resolution declaring that "to open the galleries is against the best interests of the workers."

—The evangelical ministers of Stockton, Cal., have taken the initiative in the organization of a non-partisan municipal league. The object is to secure the closing of the saloons after 11 or 12 o'clock at night and altogether on Sundays; also to enforce the removal of immoral houses from a certain street, and to secure a more economical administration of the municipal government. Reform, moral and political, is good; but the idea that crime is worse at one time than it is at another, or that immorality is worse on one street than on another, is characteristic of political religion.

—When Evangelist B. Fay Mills was in this city, a commodious "tabernacle" was built for his meetings by the united action of the leading evangelical churches. After his meetings were closed, the tabernacle was held as a kind of sacred edifice that must not be used for common purposes, especially for such purposes as would in any way divert from attendance at the churches to which it belongs. Even Francis Murphy was denied the privilege of holding a union temperance meeting in it on a prayer meeting evening. But lo! a change has come. It is announced that a dog show will be held in the tabernacle May 30 to June 2 inclusive, taking in the principal prayer meeting evenings of the week.

—The title of the Northwestern Congregationalist, published at Minneapolis, Minn., has been changed to The Kingdom. In its explanation of the reasons for the change there occurs this significant expression: "Every generation emphasizes in its own way some particular phase of religious truth. The emphasis of to-day is unquestionably upon the kingdom of Jesus Christ—not as including merely the future state of the redeemed, but as relating predominantly to this present world." This is the "particular phase of religious truth" to which The Kingdom will hereafter be devoted. It is true that the tendency of the religious sentiment of to-day is for a so-called kingdom of Christ in "this present world," regardless of the express declaration of Christ that his kingdom "is not of this world."

SECULAR.

—The town of Nanaimo, B. C., suffered a loss of $100,000 by fire on the 6th inst.

—The Southern Pacific Railroad Company has completed its coast line to San Luis Obispo, Cal.

—Secretary of the Navy Herbert is now on a tour of inspection of the naval stations and vessels of the Pacific Coast.

—Thirteen Anarchists have been arrested at Leige, France, for connection with an explosion from which four men were injured.

—At the recent election in Nova Scotia it is stated that every county in the province gave a majority in favor of prohibition of the liquor traffic.

—A dispatch from Athens says it is learned that during the earthquake shocks of the 27th ult. some villages on the islands of Euboea were destroyed.

—Two Anarchists, Guiseppi Perard and Francisco Polti, have been sentenced, the first to twenty and the second to ten years' imprisonment, by a London Court.

—A Baltimore woman has been stricken blind by a flash of electricity from the trolley wire of a street car line, which she was watching from her window as a car was passing.

—Lieutenant Maney, U. S. A., who has been acquitted by a Chicago court of the charge of murdering Captain Hedberg, will now be tried by a military court at Fort Snelling.

—The Canadian Pacific Railroad Company, whose dependence for trade is largely based upon American traffic, evidently does not deem the outlook good, as it has laid off 1,000 employees.

—A Dallas, Texas, dispatch says: "The Court of Appeals has decided that the laws against prize fighting are null and void. The only penalty is a small fine for assault and battery."

—It is said that nearly all the Chinese in Southern California have registered. The few who have not done so desire to return to China, and by refusing to register they will be sent at government expense.

—Striking brick moulders undertook to drive away non-union workmen from the yards at Blue Island, Chicago, on the 4th inst., but they were turned back by the deputy sheriffs, who were armed with rifles.

—Mrs. Etta Roberts, a materializing medium, was thoroughly exposed while trying to play spirit at Watertown, N. Y., on the night of the 2d inst. She then acknowledged that she had been practicing the fraud for nine years.

—The estimated cost of the proposed Southern Pacific Railroad Company's new steel bridge across the Mississippi River at New Orleans is $50,000,000. It will be about 10,000 feet long, with double track, and the largest steel railroad bridge in the world.

—The uncertainty of jury trials was lately illustrated in Los Angeles, Cal. Two Chinamen, says a press dispatch, were tried before the same jury for the same offense, with precisely the same evidence against both, and one was convicted while the other was acquitted.

—A dynamite bomb was exploded on the 4th inst., near Valenciennes, France, which shook the entire village, and broke many windows. It is said that one woman died of fright, and another was thought to be fatally shocked. The editor of a Socialist paper was arrested on suspicion.

—The keeping of a faro bank is illegal in California, and the "business" has a heavy penalty attached to it. Yet at a recent political meeting in San Francisco it was noted that a Supreme Court justice shook hands very cordially with a well-known faro bank operator.

—The advance of the great "industrial army" made its début in Washington last week, and complaint is made that the police unnecessarily made heroes of the leaders by arresting them; that if let alone the affair would have proved a ridiculous farce. Be this as it may, the concentration of capital in the hands of a few will yet bring serious conflict with the defrauded masses. But the coming uprising, of which the present bands are but the forerunners, will yet be an "army" indeed, divested of all peaceful emblems or pretensions.

—On the 6th inst., at Cleveland, Ohio, about 2,000 idle men attacked the Standard Foundry, where non-union men are employed. Guards inside fired about 100 shots at the mob, which was finally dispersed by the police. No one was killed, and it could not be found that any were injured.

—The great strike on the Great Northern Railroad is at an end, and it is set down as a victory for the strikers. But it is safe to say it was quite an expensive one; and the worst of it is, many other strikes will be encouraged by this success which will prove ruinous to those who participate.

—An international bimetallic conference is now in session in London. Although not an official body, it is an aggregation of representative business men from the leading countries, whose object is to devise means to overcome the present financial stringency, and also to provide against like crises in the future.

—April 22 the German ship Cleopatra, bound for New York from Bremen, took fire and had to be abandoned by the crew. They had barely reached a distance of safety when the eighty cases of dynamite on board the burning ship exploded. The crew were picked up by a vessel whose watch had sighted the fire.

—The Yaqui Indians, of Sonora, Mexico, are again making trouble, and government troops recently sent out to chastise them were waylaid in a narrow canyon, where great bowlders were rolled upon them from the steep cliffs. It is reported that 200 soldiers and a large number of horses were either killed or badly wounded.

—Another revolution is in blast in Central America. This time it is in San Salvador, and it is thought that Dictator Ezeta's position is decidedly precarious, as his rule has been very tyrannical toward opponents of his measures. It is also asserted that he secured the presidency by having the former president, who was his benefactor, put to death.

—The workmen at two mines in Tazewell County, Ill., were compelled to quit work on the 4th inst., by a force of 800 strikers. In the district of Brazil, Ind., it is said that not a single block coal mine is in operation. The members of the United Mine Workers' organization say that every miner in the country must join them. In some places men have refused to work even where a large advance in wages was offered.

—In Cleveland, Ohio, threatening disorders on May day culminated in open rioting the day following. There were three desperate conflicts with the police. The windows of the Variety Iron Works were broken, and the workmen were driven off. The workmen were also driven away from the United States Salt Works. The police dispersed the mob in every instance of conflict, and many men were severely clubbed.

—The grand jury of San Francisco has indicted R. H. McDonald, Jr., on various charges connected with his criminal mismanagement of the two banks which have been built up under the McDonald name. His brother Frank is also under indictment, and it is expected that others connected with the management will also be indicted. The two banks have been utterly looted, and there appears to be little hope that depositors will get more than a very small percentage of their deposits. All the assets that may be found will most likely be absorbed by the lawyers and courts.

—Postmaster General Bissell has declared that liquor dealers are disqualified to act as postmasters, and gives the explanation: "It is not a temperance question, nor a moral question; it is a business question particularly, and the Post Office Department is a business institution. From my observation and experience I am convinced that any man directly or indirectly interested in the liquor business is in a measure unfitted by his occupation, and that his interest in that business necessarily interferes with a full discharge of such official duties in any branch of the postal service."

—The strike of coal miners in the various prominent coal regions of the country has become so general as to seriously affect the supply, and large manufacturing establishments are being embarrassed by the scarcity. About 1,500 Finnish miners on the Masaba Range, Minn., broke into a magazine on the 2d inst., and seized fourteen kegs of powder. The strike ordered by the miners' convention at Ottumwa, Iowa, last week, affects about 9,000 men. The Fort Hill, Pa., coke works were assaulted on the 3d inst., and the workmen forced to flee. Mobs of men and women are said to be marching through the country.