News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 4, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 30.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 28.

RELIGIOUS.

—The annual convention of Dunkards is in session at Myersdale, Pa., with an attendance of 20,000.

—Rev. Dr. E. H. Gray, of this city, president of the Baptist Theological Union, died on the 25th inst., aged 80 years. He was chaplain of the U. S. Senate during the War of the Rebellion, and preached the funeral sermon of President Lincoln.

—The controversy between Bishop Matz and Father Malone, of Denver, Colorado, editor of the Colorado Catholic, growing out of the bishop's charge of dismanagement of parish funds, has been decided by Archbishop Chappelle in favor of Malone, to the great gratification of his congregation.

—The Southern Presbyterian General Assembly has decided that Sadie Means, the girl who was disfellowshipped by a South Carolina church for working in a telephone office on Sunday, was wrongfully disciplined. The Synod had made a similar decision, which is now affirmed by the Assembly.

—Some of the members of the Community of the Servile Sisters of Chicago have brought suit against the Mother Superior to compel her to reconvey property which she had had conveyed to herself. The property is valued at $500,000, and the attorney general says it is within his functions to inquire into alleged abuses of trusts.

—Bishop Bonacum and Priest Corbett have a case in the Nebraska Supreme Court. The court has decided that the priest has a right to withdraw parish funds deposited in a bank by him, although the bishop had removed him from the parish. The question as to whether he was wrongfully removed from the parish is yet to be passed upon by the court.

—Some of the religious papers are protesting against the Sunday exhibitions of the U. S. war ship Monterey at the various coast towns of Southern California. Twenty-five cents admittance is charged to persons who desire to visit the new coast defender, and it is complained that the government is thereby encouraging Sunday exhibitions and Sunday excursions, per consequence, public immorality.

—The New Hope Baptist Church (colored) of this city has voted to discharge the pastor because he preaches "dry and mechanical sermons." There are many churches claiming a higher cultivation that might profit by the example; yet when we remember that the former pastor was wont to settle differences of opinion by display of carnal weapons, it is not surprising that a man of more peaceable manner should appear somewhat "dry."

—A Birmingham, England, paper states that "a meeting, which threatens to spread over the metropolis at least, has broken out in the ranks of the Salvation Army. For some time there has been dissatisfaction on the part of local officers about the peculiar financial arrangements at headquarters." One prominent corps has positively refused to pay any more money to the funds at headquarters until some financial matters are explained, and the disaffection is said to be spreading.

—In the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church, assembled at Nashville, Tenn., a resolution was presented and referred affirming that "sins against the seventh commandment cannot be allowed in the Presbyterian Church." The resolution concluded with this utterance: "We speak our abhorrence and condemnation of such sins and consider the commission of this sin an injury to the church, to society, and the State." Are we to infer that "sins against" the other commandments can "be in the Presbyterian Church"? and are we to infer that other sins are not necessarily "an injury to the church, to society, and the State"? Else why so particular to inveigh against this special line of sins? The assembly evidently has in mind the scandal in which Congressman Breckinridge, of Kentucky, has recently been involved, but that body ought to know that when one professedly married to Christ becomes involved in any way with worldly lust, alienating his affection from his espoused Lord, he is guilty of adultery. "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10.

SECULAR.

—The loss by the late floods in Pennsylvania is estimated at $5,000,000.

—There are said to be nine murderers in the county jail at Des Moines, Iowa.

—A late dispatch says that many districts in the south of France and north of Spain are under snow.

—The Supreme Court of California has sustained the San Francisco ordinance forbidding the selling of liquors by women.

—On the night of the 23d inst. an earthquake shock startled the people along the Mississippi River, from St. Louis to Cairo.

—A colored man from Kansas, named C. H. J. Taylor, has been confirmed by the Senate as recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia.

—The constable who killed Captain Paisley, of the "industrial army," at Rocklin, Cal., was examined before a magistrate and discharged.

—A Knoxville, Tenn., dispatch says that 4,000 coal miners who have been on a strike since April 21 have returned to work on the old terms.

—Seven Spanish Anarchists were executed at the citadel of Monsjuich, near Barcelona, on the 21st inst. They were shot to death by soldiers.

—The city council of El Paso, Texas, has decreed that no women wearing divided skirts shall be allowed to walk or ride in the streets of that city.

—A large detail of Russian secret police have been sent out to guard the czarowitz in the various places he will pass or temporarily stop during his visit to London.

—The strike fever has also reached Alabama, and 1,000 soldiers are said to be encamped at Ensley, near the Pratt mines, where is the abode of 3,000 strikers.

—A late dispatch from Rio Janeiro states that the difference between Brazil and Portugal, resulting from the escape of the rebel Admiral Da Gama, have been settled.

—Lord Roseberry, premier of Great Britain, is reported to have declared that the government is determined to pass the bill for the disestablishment of the Welsh Church.

—An Anarchist editor in Dijon, France, has been sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of 3,000 francs, for publishing an article derogatory to the army.

—The revolution in Salvador, Central America, is no child's play in the matter of fighting. Within a week after the 15th inst. over 3,000 troops were killed and many wounded.

—Two Austrians and an Italian have been arrested in Buenos Ayres because of the discovery of a plot to blow up the Parliament and Bourse buildings. Several bombs were also seized.

—Germany has retaliated upon Spain's imposition of the maximum tariff on German goods, by an increase of 50 per cent in the general custom duty on the chief imports of Spain and her colonies.

—Still another conspiracy has been discovered in Russia, including a plot to undermine a church, and also a mansion which had been selected for the czar's residence during the army maneuvers in the Smolensk district.

—A congressional committee of five has been appointed to investigate alleged frauds in the construction of armor plate for war vessels. They will if necessary examine vessels on which defective plates are said to have been used.

—Two ancient deserted cities have been discovered by American archaeologists in the Sierra Madre Range, Mexico. Although five Spanish leagues apart, the two cities are connected by underground passages hewn out of the solid rock.

—During the celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday at St. Thomas, Ontario, on the 25th inst., an American flag, displayed at the U. S. Consul's office, was torn down by drunken soldiers. The Dominion Government has ordered an investigation.

—A rise in the Missouri River is said to have cut away a point of land that was the main protection of the town of East Atchison against destruction, and the people are hastily moving away, while the land on which their property stands is being rapidly washed out.

—A fight between deputy sheriffs and striking coal miners at Stickle Hollow, on the Monongahela River, Pa., on the 24th inst., resulted in the death of four strikers and the wounding of twice as many more. Sixty-six were arrested. Further conflict was expected.

—Melting snow in the mountains has flooded all the rivers flowing into Puget Sound. A Mount Vernon, Wash., dispatch says the country for miles around is under water, and hundreds of families are homeless and destitute. At Conway the water is reported three feet deep all over town.

—Dispatches smuggled across the Servian frontier tell of a reign of terror in Belgrade and throughout Servia. Any expression of political opinion, either in the press or orally, in public or private, is positively prohibited. Wholesale arrests are of almost hourly occurrence. The arrests thus far include many radical deputies, they being charged with conspiring to overthrow the king and put Prince Karageorpevitch on the throne. This is the stock charge against every objectionable person against whom no other specific accusation can be brought. The telegraph wires are under the exclusive control of the government, whose censors will permit nothing not approved by the king or his representatives to be sent out. This accounts for the official announcement that all is quiet and everybody satisfied, a state of affairs that does not exist.

—The president of the California State Board of Health and a veterinary surgeon have lately tested the health of the cattle at the Stockton Insane Asylum, by the injection of tuberculin. Of eleven animals tested, all apparently healthy, eight were found to be diseased, and were doomed to die.

—The treasurer of the Cherokee Nation has begun the distribution of $6,840,000 among the 24,300 people composing the nation. The money is the proceeds of the sale to the government of the land known as the Cherokee Strip, and the disbursement amounts to about $280 for each individual.

—California's proverbial record of immunity from thunderstorms has been broken. The general rain of the past week was in several localities accompanied by vivid lightning and heavy thunder. Some of the boasting that the climate and topography secure the coast from cyclones may be premature.

—A trial of Herr Dowe's new bullet-proof cloth by British officers proves that it is impenetrable by the bullets of the most effective rifles yet constructed, even at the short distance of six feet. The test incidentally showed that the rifles used in the German army were more effective than those of the British.

—The Governor of Illinois has called out troops to quell disturbances occasioned by coal mine strikers in the counties of La Salle and Marion. The sheriff of La Salle County and several deputies were seriously injured while attempting to arrest strikers who assaulted the guards of the La Salle Coal Company's property.

—A Berlin dispatch says that the people of Cassel have become greatly excited by reports of ill treatment of political prisoners. On the 25th inst. 3,000 people gathered on a public square and mobbed the police and sang the "Marseillaise." The troops finally scattered the rioters, after many persons were injured, and sixty-eight were arrested.

—Rev. George S. V. Howard has been arrested at Chicago and charged with working a confidence game. Howard was ordained a Methodist minister in New York, was once a prohibition candidate for Congress from Indiana, and has preached in several Indiana towns. He was indicted for passing worthless checks and released on bond, and had escaped.

—At Palatka, Fla., on the 27th inst., a Catholic named Kane was shot, it is thought fatally, by a member of the American Protective Association named Wolf. A short time ago two A. P. A. organizers were badly beaten at that place, and the present difficulty is supposed to have grown out of that occurrence. It is said the feeling between the two parties runs high.

—The people of the city of San Jose, Cal., having voted down the Sunday-closing ordinance passed by the city council, the saloon men opened their saloons. But the district attorney has filed complaints against them for violation of the ordinance passed by the supervisors of Santa Clara County, in which San Jose is situated. There is promise of a bitter legal contest.

—A rule of the postal service in England is that postmen must have all unsound teeth extracted. While it is admitted that the rule is absurd, superstitious, and barbarous, yet it is said to be strictly adhered to, and the Postman's Gazette tells of an instance where a man had to have seventeen teeth extracted in order to qualify him for a position worth seventeen shillings a week.

—Thirteen "industrials" lately tried by jury at Los Angeles, Cal., for attempt to defraud the railroad company out of fare, were acquitted. At Cheyenne, Wyo., fifteen men accused of stealing a Union Pacific train were convicted, and three who were supposed to be the leading ones were sentenced to five months' imprisonment. The other twelve were sentenced to four months each.