p. 559 | News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 9, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 35.

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News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING JULY 2.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Moravians support one foreign missionary to every seventy-five members of the home church.

—A tract of 570 acres of land has been secured at Woodland, Spokane County, Wash., for a Catholic college.

—It is said that Bishop Wm. Taylor expects soon to visit Mashonaland, traveling inland from the east coast.

—The queen regent of Spain has written a letter to the pope thanking him for his gracious reception of the Spanish pilgrimage.

—The Presbyterian ministers of San Francisco and vicinity at their meeting last week appointed Rev. F. Rhoda and Rev. J. E. Scott a committee to consider the organization of an anti-saloon league, in accordance with the recommendation of the Temperance Congress recently held in that city.

—Rev. Eric Lewis, a minister of the Church of England, who recently connected with the mission of that body in Hawaii, has left its communion because he has become convinced that the seventh day is the true Sabbath, and that the immersion of penitent believers only is true water baptism.

—The Catholic Mirror of recent date has this item: "According to the 'Annals of Lourdes,' there have been, during the past year, seventy attested cures of different diseases through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes, besides the many others not yet proved as miraculous cures by the medical academy established in that town. Most of the cases were desperate, among them being cancers, consumption, paralysis, asthma, and rheumatism."

—A Lincoln, Neb., dispatch says that Priest Corbett, weary of the delay in obtaining a hearing of the charges against Bishop Bonacum, and of the bitter warfare between the bishop and himself, has decided to go to Rome and present his grievances to the Vatican in person. The expenses incurred have almost impoverished the protesting clergyman, and, in order to obtain funds for his mission, Father Corbett has arranged a lecturing tour, taking for his subject "Why It Is So Hard to Be Good."

—The Honolulu Bulletin of June 4 says that the following notice was conspicuously posted in the police office of that city: "Police officers on duty will hereafter see that all shops and stores are closed on Sunday, excepting butcher shops, fruit stores, and barber shops, which may be open until 9 o'clock A.M., when they must close. Restaurants and places where meals are furnished may remain open all day. Drugs and medicines may also be sold on Sunday. All other stores are, however, to be kept closed." Some Chinamen had been arrested for keeping open stores, and some candy store people were about to test the validity of the law.

—"The times are sick in this land on account of the open Sunday theaters, the open Sunday saloons, the open Sunday Midwinter Fair."—Occident. The times are sick because religious teachers apologize for sin on other days by maintaining that it is worse on Sundays. Logically such teaching would wink at theft committed on any day but Sunday. Again that paper says, "The times will no longer be sick if the men and women of this land will come back to the simple and pure gospel of the New Testament." True; then there would be no such thing as compelling people to keep Sunday, for there is no such doctrine intimated in the "gospel of the New Testament." Christ or his apostles never advocated compelling people to observe any religious tenet; and when Sunday-law advocates "come back to the simple and pure gospel of the New Testament," we will hear no more of that travesty on Christianity.

SECULAR.

—President Cleveland has signed the bill making Labor day a national holiday.

—The salmon cannery of the Astoria (Or.) Packing Company was destroyed by fire on the 30th ult.; loss, $70,000.

—On the night of the 27th ult. an attempt was made to blow up the office of the Montreal Witness, an ultra-Protestant and Prohibition daily.

—Judge Colt, of the U. S. Circuit Court for Massachusetts, has decided that a Japanese is not entitled to become a naturalized citizen of the United States.

—An order of the Secretary of the Navy discontinuing work at the New York, Norfolk, and Mare Island Navy Yards leaves 3,500 men without employment.

—The assassination of President Carnot, of France, has put all the European governments on the alert for Anarchism. It is said that 150 arrests have been made in Rome. Another effect of the tragedy has been to bring the various heads of governments into closer sympathy—even those of Germany and France coming into closer bonds.

—The strike of the London cab drivers has cost the owners nearly $500,000. Quite a number of the owners have been driven into bankruptcy, while others have been compelled to sell out.

—At West Union, Ohio, on the night of the 25th inst., Henry Gilly was taken out by fifty masked men and whipped almost to death with hickory switches. It had been reported that he had beaten his wife.

—A French schoolteacher was illustrating to his pupils how President Carnot was assassinated, when a boy pressed forward so eagerly that he fell against the large knife in the teacher's hand and was instantly killed.

—Japan has undertaken to dictate a financial policy to Corea. The debt of Corea is said to be very large, and the collection of indemnity for damages inflicted on Japanese subjects by Coreans is said to be very difficult.

—It is announced from Paris that work will be resumed on the Panama Canal within a short time. But in Panama it is thought the announcement is made for the purpose of securing a renewal of the option, which will soon expire.

—Great damage to a paper factory at Valencia, Spain, was caused by the explosion of a dynamite cartridge on the 30th ult., but no person was injured. The deed was committed by an employe, who gave as a reason that he was an Anarchist.

—For the first time since the first statistics of emigration and immigration were made in 1820, the tide has been from the United States toward Europe during the past six months. The arrivals have been but two-thirds of the number of departures.

—Ex-President Ezeta, of Salvador, whose government was recently overthrown by revolution, has arrived in New York with his family. He says the revolutionists would not have succeeded had they not been assisted by Guatemalans and Hondurans.

—The jury in the case of Azoff, on trial at Santa Cruz, Cal., for the murder of Detective Len Harris, who attempted to arrest him in the act of robbing a railway station office, returned a verdict of murder in the first degree, with the death penalty attached.

—Three Czech youths have been found guilty of lurking around the Hoffburg, in Vienna, last March, for the purpose of assassinating Emperor Francis Joseph. Two of them have been sentenced to twelve years' and one to thirteen months' imprisonment.

—A Denver, Colo., dispatch states that brokers in Central City, and also in Boulder, Summit, and Park Counties, are paying a small premium for gold over the mint price, and the reason for such action is a mystery. Some people think the brokers anticipate a general rise.

—The crusade against Italian residents in Southern France on account of the murder of President Carnot has caused thousands of Italians to flee into Italy. It was found necessary to strengthen the military and police forces in order to protect the refugees in their flight.

—At Holdredge, Neb., on the night of the 30th ult., two masked men took possession of the streets, holding up everyone they met. One man on a bicycle attempted to run from them, when he was shot dead. As they obtained but little booty, they stole a team from a farm near by and escaped.

—A tugboat capsized off Sandy Hook, N. J., on the 24th ult., and over thirty persons were drowned. The accident was occasioned by the passengers crowding to one side to avoid the waves splashing upon the opposite side. The appeals of the captain not to crowd upon one side of the boat were unheeded.

—In San Francisco, on the 1st inst., extensive services were held by the French population in memory of the late President Carnot. In addition to special services in the French churches, there was a civic and military mass meeting in the large Mechanics' Pavilion, which was elaborately draped in mourning.

—Coal miners in the Nanaimo, B. C., district have won and lost. They notified the superintendent that a certain rate of wages must be established or there would be a strike. He conceded the demand, and then closed two mines and reduced the others to half time. This action left 500 men without any employment.

—Two deacons of Yarmouth, Me., have been swindled by "green goods" men of New York. They contracted for a lot of counterfeit money for a certain sum, and received a brick instead. After being victimized twice at the same game, they applied to the Secret Service authorities for revenge on the swindlers.

—About fifty people have joined in a scientific expedition to explore the interior of Labrador. The party includes representatives of Yale, Harvard, Philadelphia, and Michigan Universities, and is under command of Dr. F. A. Cook, who was second in command in the first Peary expedition to Arctic regions. The Esquimaux exhibited at the World's Fair will be sent home with the expedition, which was to sail from New York June 30.

—As a specimen of the spirit of the Industrial Army and other popular uprisings throughout the country, we have the following note sent to U. S. District Judge Ross, of Los Angeles, during the recent trial of 170 "industrials" for stealing a train at Mojave: "You send one of the Industrial Army to jail, and you will get some dynamite. By order of the K." The threat did not, however, have the desired effect, for the whole 170 culprits are now serving four months' sentences in county jails. They are distributed among eight counties.

—The lands in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, Cal., once granted to the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, and afterward claimed by the Southern Pacific Company, have reverted to the government. Although neither company ever earned the lands, both the District and Circuit Courts awarded the title to the S. P. Co. as the successor of the A. & P. But the U. S. Supreme Court reversed the decisions, and ordered the lower court to hear the case anew and enter judgment for the government. This was done on the 25th ult., and the people can score one victory against the great corporation.

—"On the morning of Sunday, May 6, the Industrial Army at Sacramento were without a morsel to eat, and they appealed to the churches on that day to assist them. Not a dollar was raised, and the Brewers' Union donated $36.75 to keep them alive. There is a distinction and difference in this episode."—Saloon Man. Sure enough, there is quite "a distinction and difference." Were it not for the breweries, the distilleries, the saloons, and their kind, most likely there would have been no army of unemployed men begging in Sacramento on that Sunday morning. And, considering the fortunes that these brewers have wrenched from the industrial masses, $36.75 was a paltry sum to return to them in their great want. Men with any sense of shame would not have published the donation as an act of generosity.

—A destructive cyclone struck portions of Minnesota and South Dakota on the 28th ult. At Litchfield, Minn., two women were killed. At Collegeville St. John's University was damaged to the extent of $30,000. At Glencoe a dozen or more people were seriously injured. At Danville the High School and Lutheran Church were blown down, and a woman was killed. In the vicinity of Pipestone a woman was killed, a man injured, a dozen houses wrecked, and crops extensively damaged. At Sleepy Eye a boy was killed, and a house containing a family of six was blown some distance from its foundation. Only one of the family, a girl of 14, was seriously hurt. At Wiimar over thirty buildings were wrecked, and at Roseland a family of seven are reported to have been all killed. At Sisselton Agency, S. D., a store was blown to pieces, Indian tepees were blown away, and a number of persons were injured. Two white men were killed.