News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 30, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 38.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JULY 23.

RELIGIOUS.

—General Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, and the man who it is said never reads a newspaper, is to visit America this fall.

—A committee of cardinals recently appointed by the pope to consider certain matters pertaining to America, have made a report said to be in every way favorable to Satolli.

—The Baptist Examiner, it is said, does not recognize as ministers the eight women of the denomination who have at different times been ordained to the work of the ministry.

—The new administration of Peoria, Ill., has undertaken to strictly enforce the Sunday closing ordinance, which includes all stores and ice cream saloons, and even forbids the sale of Sunday papers.

—The Present Truth, of London, says: "It is stated that the names of three bishops of the Church of England were signed to the letter sent by Anglican clergymen to the pope, begging for closer union with Rome."

—Rev. J. B. Stewart, D.D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Los Angeles, Cal., was stricken with apoplexy while delivering a dedicatory sermon at a new house of worship on the 22d inst., and died three hours afterward.

—Bishop Paret, of the Episcopal diocese of Maryland, having for nine years tried persuasion to keep the use of incense out of the churches, has at last decided to use his authority and forbid its use by the ministry. But it is permitted in some other dioceses, and the leaven is working.

—Citizens of Frankford, Del., have burned a small church where a notorious colored preacher, head of a small body whom he styled the Sanctified People, held forth. He had formerly conducted his operations on Chincoteague Island, where he enforced rules which he claimed to have received in a dream, and also walked on the water. But it was discovered that he walked on planks laid beneath the surface, when he received a severe beating, and was compelled to leave.

—A new labor organization has been started in Chicago, which is designed to swallow up everything else in that line. It is called the American Labor Union, and begins with a local union at the stock yards having a membership of over 1,500. It is designed to coöperate with the American Railway Union. And so the work of "confederacy" organization goes on, the whole world trusting in human orders, societies, unions, institutes, associations, etc., for relief from the prevailing evils. There is but one source of true reform and refuge from the evil that is sure to come upon all the world, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed." Ps. 37:3.

—The colonel of an Illinois militia regiment, recently called out to quell the riots engendered by coal miners, thus commends his Catholic chaplain: "I wish to say a word of Father E. A. Kelly, the chaplain of the regiment. He is the first chaplain thus far who has responded to the call and gone to the front with the troops. He was notified at 2 o'clock in the morning, and at 2:30 he was at the armory. He remained at camp and performed his duty and underwent all the hardships with the rest of us." Such readiness on the part of a professed Christian minister to fly to arms will of course be commended by the world, and by a church element that believes in the use of carnal weapons by the disciples of Christ. But it does not manifest the Spirit of Christ, which, through an inspired writer, says that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal." What business has the disciple of Christ engaging in any other warfare than that indorsed by his Master?

—The San Francisco Call says that the majority of the ministers of the gospel sympathize with the strikers. And the Harbinger (Disciple) says, "We do not doubt the statement; they are, or ought to be, the followers of Him of whom it is written, 'The common people heard him gladly.'" There is truth in this statement, yet it is one thing to be in sympathy with the "strikers," and another thing to be in sympathy with the "strike." The strike has been and will yet be the cause of untold suffering on the part of many who engaged in it, as well as of thousands of other poor people directly and indirectly affected by it. And it would be hard to find any who have been in any wise benefited by it. The question has been asked, "If Christ should come to California, would he indorse the strike?" The answer is easy: "But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matt. 5:39. Again: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." Rom. 12:19.

SECULAR.

—Nineteen companies of regular troops are guarding railroad property at Butte, Mont.

—Labor day (the first Monday in September) has been made a national holiday by act of Congress.

—A new census of Chicago gives the city a population of 1,700,000, an increase of 100,000 in two years.

—The Anarchist who recently attempted to murder Premier Crispi, of Italy, has been sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment.

—The Pullman Palace Car Company pays an annual revenue tax of $25 on each of its 500 buffet cars on which liquors are sold.

—A cyclone swept a portion of Elk County, Idaho, one day last week, leveling large tracts of timber and destroying thousands of sheep and cattle.

—The Secretary of the Interior has officially decided that the natives of Alaska are not Indians, and therefore Alaska is not an Indian country.

—The Edgar Thompson Steel Works, at Braddock, Pa., owned by the Carnegie Company, have resumed operations in full, giving employment to 1,500 men.

—It is said that the Industrial Army demonstrations in the several States affected have cost the government over $50,000 for expenses of deputy marshals.

—Ogden, Utah, was considerably shaken by an earthquake shock on the 10th inst. Cracks were made in the walls of some large blocks, and people were frightened from their houses.

—A republican government was proclaimed in the Hawaiian Islands July 4, Sanford G. Dole, president of the provisional government, becoming first president of the republic by constitutional provision.

—The Constantinople correspondent of the London Standard says that, notwithstanding the attempts at concealment, it is certain that over 1,000 persons lost their lives in the recent earthquakes in that vicinity.

—An excursion train was partially thrown from the track at La Otto, Ind., on the 22d inst., and several passengers were severely bruised. The track had been tampered with by someone designing mischief.

—It is said that the authorities of Lima and Callao have discovered plots to blow up public buildings with bombs, and many arrests have been made. The spirit of anarchy seems to be cropping out everywhere.

—As the result of the burning of a Union Pacific Railroad bridge, near Lima, Mont., the managers of the company have offered a reward of $1,000 for the conviction of anyone destroying any of its property in that State.

—Of the "black plague," recently so prevalent and so fatal in certain localities in China, the Medical Examiner says, "It is a filth disease." Cleanliness is an important factor in the prevention of epidemic diseases of all kinds.

—The Mount Clare repair shops of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company were closed last week without previous notice to the 1,000 employees. The reason assigned is general business depression, augmented by the strike of coal miners.

—The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad shops at Albuquerque, N. M., have been closed for an indefinite length of time, owing to the financial depression occasioned by the great strike. About 400 men are consequently thrown out of employment.

—At Virginia City, Nev., the Miners' Union and the Mechanics' Union have appropriated sums amounting to $1,500 for the benefit of the American Railway Union, and have undertaken to raise by subscription enough to increase the amount to $3,000.

—The cholera epidemic is said to be assuming alarming proportions in Russia. St. Petersburg alone reports 200 new cases and many deaths daily. A week's report from different parts of the empire summed up on the 21st inst. aggregated over 800 deaths.

—Fourteen strikers, arrested at Raton, N. M., for contempt of court, have been sentenced by Judge Seeley to terms of imprisonment varying from fifteen to sixty days. The judge also approved the action of the receivers of the Santa Fe Railroad in discharging striking employees and putting new men in their places.

—At Sacramento, Cal., where the A. R. U. has manifested its principal strength and most stubborn resistance, the strike has been declared off, officially and unconditionally. It is claimed, however, that, in order to be recognized by the order, it must have the indorsement of the other unions on the Southern Pacific system. At Los Angeles it is reported by telegraph that "the strike is completely dead; not an indication of it is to be noted." In this city the spirit of the contest is kept alive by a popular animosity to the railroad company, and by the sympathy of political partisans, who evidently hope for the support of the strikers and their sympathizers at the polls.

—"Whitecappers" are at work in Brown County, Ind. Perry E. Bloomfield, his wife and father, three brothers named Stephen, and their wives, have recently been severely beaten. The youngest of the Stephen brothers attempted to escape, and was shot through the leg. Other persons in the neighborhood have been warned to leave the county.

—We have heretofore noted the court-martial of Private Cedarquist, of the regular army, at Omaha, for disobedience of orders in refusing to engage in target practice on Sunday. On account of the peculiarity of the case, the department commander mitigated the sentence, with a warning that clemency need not again be expected. It is, however, stated that the War department is likely to call to account the officer who ordered the Sunday target practice.

—At El Dorado, Ark., last week a leading minister and a man with whom he had trouble repaired to a designated spot to settle the difficulty. Each was accompanied by friends. The fact that all were armed showed that there was a suspicion that the settlement would not be amicable. And it was not, the result being that the minister was shot dead, one man was mortally wounded, and two others received severe injuries. The minister had accused his antagonist of circulating scandalous rumors about him.

—"The strike is still on," say the principal leaders; but practically it makes very little difference what the situation is called. The railroads, in the main, are running, with some petty annoyances, which it is expected will be continued. The strikers are learning that the roads can run without them, so far as the work is concerned. No labor strike ever stands any show to win a long contest if stripped of the usual violence that accompanies it. With most men necessity will ever wield a stronger influence than sentimental patriotism, or even a just resentment to arbitrary demands. If men, through fear of their fellow-strikers, cannot work in one locality, they will seek employment where they are not known. The long range of such opportunity is especially favorable to the railroad men, and many of them are not slow to take advantage of it. That the roads can be operated without the strikers is being demonstrated even in California, where the situation was for a time more embarrassing to the railroad company than anywhere else. But the spirit of the strike, at least the spirit that always takes advantage of such demonstrations, is still on, and will continue to be on, and in waiting for every like opportunity. The railroad companies have so far recovered equanimity, but the spirit of unrest is at work in every department of industry, especially among the more dependent classes, and we "know not what a day may bring forth."