p. 527 | News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 25, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 33.

News and Notes.

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JUNE 18.

RELIGIOUS.

—The new mayor of Merrill, Wis., has compelled the saloons to close on Sunday, and the merchants consented to close without compulsion.

—The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has indorsed the American Sabbath Union, thereby upholding religious legislation by the general government and by the various States, which is practically Church and State union.

—That we have a practical Church-and-State Government on hand is evidenced by the fact that in Nebraska City, Neb., a Catholic priest named Corbett is on trial for refusing to obey a court injunction restraining him from holding church services.

—Rev. George Frederick Fisher, formerly pastor of the Methodist Church at Newtown, Long Island, has become a Catholic. And Priest Lambert, who a few months ago withdrew from the Catholic ministry, has united with a Methodist Church in New York City.

—It is said that Editor Phelan, of the Western Watchman, who is also a Roman priest, has been obliged to retract some bold utterances in favor of the public schools. He had received some flattering encomiums from Protestants who were simple enough to suppose that a Catholic priest could be independent and patriotic and still maintain his position.

—There is considerable discussion of the subject of arbitration of disputes between nations, rather than war. The latest suggestion is a standing arbitration tribunal, and a prominent Catholic paper suggests that only one person enjoys the confidence of the nations to a degree that would qualify him for the position of head of such a tribunal, and that is the pope.

—The ministerial associations of the various evangelical churches of Allegheny County, Pa., have appointed representatives to form a general committee to look after the matter of Sunday observance, and this committee have recommended that all the ministers in the county preach on the subject of the Sunday newspaper, on the third Sunday in this month.

—At a recent yearly meeting of the Society of Friends, says the Philadelphia Press, some marked changes in discipline were adopted. It is now permissible for a member to marry outside of the society without permission. Another point is that members must abstain from the use, cultivation, manufacture, and sale of tobacco. The article in relation to slavery is stricken out, and many obsolete expressions are moderated.

—Overtures looking to a union of Northern and Southern Presbyterians were recently made by the General Assembly of the Northern body to that of the Southerners, and rejected by a large majority. One of the reasons given was as follows: "To enter into organic union with the Northern Presbyterian Church involves the surrender of the plan of an independent negro church, which this assembly regards as essential alike to the religious and social welfare of both races."

—The Catholic News says that "as many as 40,000 pilgrims made their way to Argenteuil, near Paris, on Whit Monday, to venerate the sacred tunic of our Lord Jesus Christ, given by Charlemagne to Argenteuil eleven centuries ago. . . . For the first time since 1880 the touching relic, by order of Pope Leo, was exposed to public view. The relic consists of the inner garment of our Divine Lord, worked by the hands of the Blessed Virgin, and stained with the sacred blood of the Redeemer. It is of a brown hue, very much worn, and evidently of great antiquity even to the ordinary observer.

—Professor Garner, who spent some time in Africa, endeavoring to become acquainted with monkey language, recommends that all the Christian missionaries be recalled from that country, alleging that the condition of the natives is worse after the missionary has been with them awhile than before. If this is the case, it is not the fault of the missionary; it is more directly due to the fact that the trader follows in the wake of the missionary, taking advantage of the civilization thus inaugurated to impose the alcohol and firearms curse upon the unsophisticated black man. The latter, having a taste of the good effects of Christianity, is prone to receive whatever the white man brings, and is thus led astray by the wiles of the great deceiver. It was just so in the islands of the Pacific, and in other missionary lands, and Christianity is accredited with the result. If Professor Garner were as zealous for the welfare of the poor African heathen, for whom Christ died, as he is to learn the alleged language of the chimpanzee, he would no doubt see the work of the self-sacrificing missionary in a different light.

SECULAR.

—George Peabody Wetmore has been elected U. S. Senator from Rhode Island.

—A property loss of $250,000 was the result of a fire in New York City on the 14th inst.

—The city of Norfolk, Va., has elected the Prohibition municipal ticket entire, from mayor down.

—A heavy hailstorm on the 15th inst. did much damage to crops in the vicinity of Brighton, Colo.

—A Panama dispatch of the 13th inst. reports that fire had destroyed property to the value of $350,000.

—The Supreme Court of Virginia has decided to admit women to the practice of law in the courts of that State.

—Governor Pennoyer, of Oregon, has pardoned five life-term State prisoners because of a doubt as to their guilt.

—The president of Ecuador in his message to Congress has recommended the adoption of a gold money standard.

—The American yachts seized by the Canadian authorities for illegal fishing on Lake Erie have been released on bonds.

—An extensive body of very rich gold-bearing ore has been discovered in Manitoba, between Rat Portage and Port Arthur.

—On the night of the 16th inst. a very heavy rain prevailed throughout Nebraska, causing the Missouri River to rise rapidly.

—Several explosions of fire damp occurred in a coal mine at Kerwin, Austria, on the 14th inst., causing the death of about 200 miners.

—A London dispatch of the 14th inst. announces the death of Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. It is also announced that Baron Russell will succeed him.

—A boatload of harvest hands about to be shipped from Ireland to Scotland were capsized near Annah Head, on the 14th inst., and about fifty of them drowned.

—Within three months twenty barns have been burned near Stockton, Cal., and although the fires were evidently incendiary, no clue has been found to the culprit.

—It is announced that a great trust has been formed, with $10,000,000 capital, for the consolidation of all the leading gas and gasoline stove manufactories of the country.

—In a recent address of President Brinkerhoff, of the National Prison Commission, he said that "the criminal record is growing greater, it is rising with a continuous swell."

—A Madrid dispatch says that an earthquake shook several districts of Andalusia on the 11th inst. In the towns of Granada and Almeria many houses were destroyed and several persons were killed.

—The plague continues with great severity at Hongkong, China. Eighty-six deaths were reported on the 13th inst. About 100,000 residents had fled from the city, and there had been 1,500 deaths up to that date.

—The color line is becoming so marked in Texas that even the Republicans are enforcing it. In a convention at Fort Worth it was decided that no club composed of blacks and whites was entitled to representation.

—The financial deficit of the government for the year ending the 30th of this month will be $75,000,000. The gold reserve, on the 16th inst., was below $68,000,000, the lowest point reached since the $50,000,000 bond issue of January last.

—A New York paper prints a statement based upon the testimony before an investigating committee, showing that the illegitimate revenue of the Police Department annually is $10,215,000, of which $8,120,000 comes from disorderly houses.

—A drunken saloon keeper at San Jose drove a pair of spirited horses into a Salvation Army procession, striking right and left with his whip, and it was with difficulty that the members kept out of his way. He was arrested and fined $50.

—At Cramp Hill, a suburb of Camden, N. J., on the 14th inst., John Kaufman killed his wife and three children and then committed suicide. He had failed to secure employment, and it is said the family were suffering for the necessaries of life.

—The negro schoolteachers of Indianola, Miss., are said to have been identified with a gang of burglars and thieves who have been infesting the county. One of the black pedagogues was caught with positive evidence of guilt in his possession.

—A great fire occurred in the establishment of the Central Stock and Transit Company, Jersey City, on the 16th inst., the loss being stated at $1,000,000. In addition to buildings and a vast amount of dressed meat, 5,000 head of live sheep were burned.

—The United States Court of Appeals, in the cases against the city of New Orleans wherein damage was claimed for the lynching of Italian prisoners, has decided that municipal corporations are not liable for damage by mobs excepting for damage to property.

—The craze for raising "industrial armies" is still in vogue, although they do not make much progress toward Washington. On the 14th inst. 150 armed deputies left Omaha for Julesburg, Colo., to arrest a crowd who were hindering the progress of trains at that point.

—Muley Hassan, sultan of Morocco, has been assassinated, and his young son, Mulai Abdul Aziz, has been proclaimed sultan by the army and the ministers. Trouble is anticipated, and Spain has asked Italy, France, Great Britain, and Germany to act in concert in the matter of preserving order.

—At St. Johns, Newfoundland, on the 15th inst., a mob of about 5,000 persons gathered about the wharves and tried to take goods without payment of duties. The governor called upon the British ship Buzzard for assistance, when the crowd dispersed. But the city was left practically under martial law.

—The British House of Lords has rejected the bill sanctioning marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The Earl of Selbourne argued that "the House ought to pause a long time before following the example of America, where relaxation of the laws had led to a great increase in the number of divorces and other evils."

—It is said that the government, through Assistant Attorney General Russell, will soon commence suits against the estates of Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, deceased, as original stockholders of the Central Pacific Railroad, for $15,000,000 each, that sum being their proportion of the indebtedness of the company to the government.

—The English combination coal owners have decided to make a general reduction of ten per cent. in wages, and the mines are said to be organizing to resist the cut. Also in Scotland the Scotch Mine Owners' Association have been officially notified that 7,000 men would strike if the association carried out the intention to reduce wages one shilling a day.

—The saloon keepers of San Jose, who, after defeating the city Sunday-closing ordinance at the polls, were arrested for violation of the county ordinance, have agreed to allow one of their number to plead guilty, and will close their saloons until the Supreme Court passes on the case. If defeated there, they will aim to defeat the ordinance at the polls in the next election.

—The czar has caused the issuance of a decree appointing a court of honor to regulate dueling in the Russian army. The court is composed of army officers, whose duty it is to decide whether a duel is necessary. If it decides in the affirmative, any officer refusing to accept a challenge will be dismissed from the army in disgrace. Lawsuits arising out of duels will not be permitted.

—It is said that President Cleveland will surrender the Salvadoran refugees now on board the cruiser Bennington, as soon as he is assured that the new government is sufficiently well established to grant them an impartial trial on the charges preferred. Commander Thomas says that if the refugees were surrendered in the present state of excitement they would be murdered without trial.

—The treaty with Russia provides that Americans are to enjoy the same privileges in that country that Russians do in America. But the Russian Government has recently refused to allow Rabbi Kranskepf, an eminent Hebrew resident of Philadelphia, to enter Russian territory with the purpose of looking into the moral and political condition of his brethren in the Polish provinces. The attention of the administration has been called to the matter.

—Hon. William Walter Phelps died at his home in Englewood, N. J., on the 17th inst., aged 55 years. He was noted in literary circles, as well as in financial and political life. He inherited a large fortune from his father, which has been increased to $10,000,000. Besides serving three terms in Congress, he was appointed minister to Austria by President Garfield, and to Germany by President Harrison. Few if any of our public men have rendered better service, or sustained a more honorable reputation.

—Twenty-three "industrials" have been sentenced to sixty days' imprisonment for capturing a freight train at Fairfield, Ill. In the matter of the 250 "industrials" arrested at Ogallala, Neb., Judge Dundy has ordered that they be taken to Fort Sidney, and, if convicted, serve their sentence there. He is of opinion that they get themselves arrested in order to be taken to Omaha. The officials of Weber County, Utah, have entered suit against the Southern Pacific Railroad Company to recover damages for bringing into that county numerous men without means of support. "General Bennett," of the Kansas City Army, has disappeared, together with $103 donated by the Populist convention. Some Bismarck, North Dakota, deputies had a fight with some "industrials" who had stolen a train, and several persons on both sides were injured. A part of the deputies were disarmed, but sixteen "industrials" were arrested. Kelly's army does not receive a favorable reception in the Ohio River towns. At Evansville, Ind., they scattered through the city, begging from door to door. The mayor of Louisville, Ky., announced that if they should attempt to stop there, they would be arrested as tramps and vagrants.