p. 463 | News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 28, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 29.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 21.

RELIGIOUS.

—Satolli says there is no occasion for the pope's interference between him and his alleged enemies in this country, and he thinks there is no foundation for the rumors that such a course is contemplated.

—More and more prominently does the subject of the division of the public school funds come before the country. It is a religious question, for it is a religious body (Roman Catholic) that makes the demand. It is clear, however, as declared by Rev. Dr. C. O. Brown (Congregationalist), of San Francisco, that the division of the fund means its destruction. As soon as one sect draws out its share, all others may do the same, and there will soon be little or nothing left for the maintenance of the public school.

—Dr. Dille, of the Central M. E. Church, San Francisco, in a recent discourse on the subject of the condemnation of parts of Myers' History by the School Board of that city, noted some ominous facts. School Superintendent Swett had marked all the passages which are under the ban of the Catholic archbishop, showing that about one-fourth of the book had been expurgated. Dr. Dille is reported to have said that "while we are not under such a government as that of Russia, still the School Board is so far subject to the pope as to permit one of the textbooks in our schools to be mutilated as effectually as the czar's censor did an article in the Century magazine, by George Kennan, exposing certain Siberian atrocities."

—On Sunday, the 20th inst., at St. Michael's Church, Newark, N. J., at the close of mass, as Father Murphy was about to begin his discourse, two able-bodied detectives took hold of him and led him from the church and into the parish home. He had been dismissed from the church by Bishop Wigger, and was attempting to continue in defiance of the bishop's decree.

SECULAR.

—Several failures of large business houses in Valparaiso have been announced.

—Crop reports for the State of Washington forecast the heaviest crop ever harvested in that region.

—Press dispatches announce destructive floods along the principal streams of Western New York and Pennsylvania.

—There is much uneasiness in Arkansas because of reports from all over the State that locusts are appearing in great numbers.

—The government patrol fleet, consisting of six vessels, has gone to the North Pacific sealing grounds to look out for poachers.

—In the Chicago market, on the 19th inst., wheat dropped to fifty-three cents per cental, the lowest point touched in seventy years.

—A Milwaukee dispatch of the 18th inst. reports a "worse snowstorm than any in winter" raging in Wisconsin and part of Michigan.

—The fruit growers of Yolo County, Cal., are said to be fearful of a raid by the "industrials," and are arming their Japanese and Chinese employees for defense.

—Two American pleasure steamers plying on Lake Erie are said to have been confiscated by the Canadian authorities for infringement of the Dominion fishery laws.

—Severe hailstorms are reported at Anderson, Ind., Decatur, Ill., and Port Huron, Mich., on the 17th inst. At Decatur it is said there were hailstones as large as goose eggs.

—Two children, aged 11 and 9 years, committed suicide at Vienna last week, in order to relieve their mother of the burden of their care. They jumped off a bridge into the river Danube.

—Over 100 persons, mostly students, have been arrested in Russia on account of membership in a new organization called Friends of Political Liberty. Many of them are to be sent to Siberia.

—A storm in Peru, Ind., on the night of the 17th, demolished a schoolhouse and five barns and unroofed a large flourmill. Other buildings were damaged, and fruit trees were greatly injured.

—On the 20th inst. twenty-two saloons in Fresno, Cal., were opened in defiance of the Sunday-closing ordinance, the proprietors having determined to test the constitutionality of the ordinance in the courts.

—It is said by astronomers that there is now a stormy time in the sun. Astronomer Larkin, of Galesburg, Ill., reports a "solar cyclone" 86,000 miles in length and from 22,000 to 43,000 miles in width.

—At Roubaix, France, on the 17th inst., a conflict took place between an Anarchist procession and the police, in which several persons were severely injured. Half a dozen prominent persons were arrested.

—A cyclone passed near Kunkle, Williams County, Ohio, on the 17th inst., causing the death of five persons. Two others were seriously injured, and great damage was done to vegetation in the track of the storm.

—The president of Argentina reports that the last revolution cost the government $6,000,000. As revolutions down there are of frequent occurrence, the annual drain on the treasury on that account must be very heavy.

—The inmates of the Wisconsin State prison at Waupun have been given a change of employment from making boots and shoes to knitting woolen goods. An Ohio firm puts in the machinery, and is to take the entire production.

—Brooklyn, N. Y., had a great fire on the 13th inst., which destroyed $1,780,000 worth of property, including the Talmage Tabernacle. The loss on the church is $300,000, and this is the third time the congregation has been deprived of its house of worship by fire.

—An attempted stage robbery on the line between Milton and Angels, Cal., last week, resulted in the wounding of two passengers and the killing of one of the robbers. The other robber escaped. The robbers were foiled by an armed express messenger riding inside with the passengers.

—It has been discovered that an ex-clerk of the district attorney's office of New York City had hidden away over 5,000 criminal indictments against lottery men. He is now dead, and after his death it is stated that an expert burglar was employed by persons interested to open the ex-clerk's private safe and the accumulated mass of indictments were burned.

—"Industrial armies" continue to spring up in all parts of the country, and "General" Frye, whose Southern California "command" at last report was in Indiana, predicts that there will be 200,000 industrials in Washington inside of two months. He says there are thousands of organizers at work.

—Damaging floods are reported along Rush River, Minn., every bridge from source to mouth being carried away; also several mills and farmhouses. A dispatch from Hudson, Wis., notes great damage by flood in that region; and Harrisville, Mich., was the scene of a disastrous storm and flood on the 17th inst.

—Dr. McGlynn, who was deposed from his church by Archbishop Corrigan for publicly advocating the Henry George land tax theory, and was restored by order of Satolli, has again taken the rostrum. He and George recently addressed large audiences in New York, taking the ground that single tax is the only proper remedy for the growing Anarchism.

—A tramp in the city hospital of Knoxville, Tenn., recently sold a piece of property in Edgemont, S. Dakota, to a railroad company's agent for $500, which is said to be worth $100,000. He had bought the property some years ago for a nominal sum and paid no further attention to it, hence did not know its value. The agent had had a long hunt to find the owner.

—On the night of the 15th inst. Detective Len Harris, one of California's oldest and most successful officers, was fatally shot while attempting to arrest a man who was in the act of robbing the railroad station at Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz County. Harris was almost killed two years ago by train robbers. His last assailant has been arrested, and proves to be a Russian named Azoff.

—A band of industrials, who had been camped near Winters, Cal., started out to rid that region of Chinese and Japanese laborers. They followed down Pleasant Valley, raiding houses and driving the occupants before them, continuing on into Vaca Valley. The people of Vacaville gathered a party of armed citizens to resist the progress of the mob, and arrested eighty-seven of them.

—The Prohibition party of California has nominated Henry French, of San Jose, for governor, together with full State and Congressional tickets. The rest-day plank of the platform is as follows: "We declare for the preservation of one day in seven as a day of rest as a civil institution, without oppressing or interfering with any who observe any other day of the week as such a day of rest."

—A curious case is being tried in Buffalo, N. Y. Last January Mrs. Catherine Backus, a resident of the East Side, died, leaving $1,000 in bank and several children. She bequeathed the whole sum in trust to be used to pay for masses for the benefit of the soul of the deceased and her husband. The children have contested the will. The attorney is raising the point that the soul of Mrs. Backus cannot receive any benefit from masses; that even if it could, a soul has no standing in a temporal court, and the trust is illegal because it is not for the benefit of any human being.

—One of the most imposing funeral occasions ever witnessed in this city was that of Captain Paisley, of the "industrial army," on Sunday, the 13th inst. Deceased had been shot by a constable at Rocklin, Placer County, and brought here for burial. The large B. Fay Mills Tabernacle was packed to overflowing. The services were conducted by Dr. Graif, of the English Lutheran Church, and the assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian Church also delivered a short address. Two ladies then spoke in eulogistic terms of the character of the deceased. There was an elaborate song service and a profusion of flowers. The corpse was borne to the grave on the shoulders of comrades, and buried beneath the stars and stripes.

—A press dispatch from Washington says: "An enterprising real-estate man here has offered to set the Coxeyites at work. He has a tract of land about three and a half miles distant from the city which he desires to have cleared of underbrush and made ready for subdivision. It is a pretty spot and much healthier than the seven-month camp now occupied by the Coxeyites. The owner, Dr. P. G. Herring, offered to let the 'army' camp on the ground and to pay them $500 if they would clear the ground. The proposition struck Coxey favorably, but Browne was unwilling to move the camp so far from the city, and the offer was rejected."

—A week ago George Decker was in jail at Yreka, Cal., and the people were talking strongly of lynching him. The finding of some human bones by a shepherd led to the suspicion that Decker had murdered his wife and child, who had disappeared from their home twenty-seven years ago. Suspicion followed suspicion, until he was accused of having murdered ten persons at different times, including a second wife. But the defense succeeded in finding the first wife and child, and, the wife having been identified by old neighbors, Decker has been released, and is now congratulated by his neighbors. The woman who disappeared so long ago states that the separation was by mutual consent, and she has been twice married since that event.