News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 40.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING AUGUST 6.

RELIGIOUS.

—A new Sunday-closing ordinance has been promulgated in Fresno, the old one having been found defective.

—It is said that since the passage of the act to enable Utah to become a State, there is increased activity in Mormon missionary effort. Missionaries in large numbers are being sent throughout this country and to foreign lands. The Mormons are determined to maintain political control of the State.

—Bishop Alphonse W. Wilson, of the Southern Methodist Church, who spent many years in mission work in China and Japan, says: "There is much reason for fear for the safety of the missionaries, both men and women, now stationed in China and Corea. The natives are always ready to visit the responsibility of trouble on foreigners, no matter how remote they may be from the cause of the trouble."

—That old Sunday law of the reign of Charles II., recently resurrected in Australia for the purpose of punishing Seventh-day Adventists, is also liable to make trouble in England. The mayor of Leeds was recently arraigned, at the instance of the Sunday Observance Society, for granting permits to deliver public lectures on Sunday. Fidelity to the law prompted the jury to find a verdict against the defendant. They added the opinion, however, that the "obsolete law should be repealed," in which opinion the judge concurred.

—The Catholic Total Abstainers' Association, in session last week, at St. Paul, Minn., received the following telegram from Frances E. Willard, president of the World W. C. T. U.: "Please give sisterly greeting to the convention. The Catholic Church sets a great example in Satolli's decision. Send us fraternal delegates." Fraternal delegates were chosen. It is now declared that, as Leo XIII. has already urged all priests to enter the temperance reform, and the clergy are committed against the saloons, "the day of the vindication of the church in America will be near at hand." Papal artifice is just now posing for Protestant admiration with a remarkable degree of success.

—The General Conference of the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church, recently in session at Sydney, adopted resolutions in favor of union with the other branches of Methodism in Australasia. The constitutional basis upon which the church is prepared to unite with other Methodist Churches of like faith and practice, is the plan agreed upon by the Methodist bodies held in Melbourne in 1892. The resolutions provide for a standing committee on Methodist union who shall have power to act in the matter during the interval between the present and the succeeding General Conference. The Conference directs each of its annual conferences to ask the other Methodist bodies to join in creating within its own bounds a federal council of Methodist Churches. A resolution was carried unanimously that when all the Methodist bodies are united they shall bear the title "The Methodist Church of Australasia."

SECULAR.

—The business part of Lakeview, Mich., was burned on the 3d inst.; loss estimated at $130,000.

—Santos, the assassin of the French President Carnot, has been sentenced to death by the guillotine.

—At Provo, Utah, on the 1st inst., Judge Smith sentenced Enoch Davis, a wife murderer, to be shot to death.

—The telegraph reports that crops were considerably damaged by frost in some parts of Nebraska on the 4th inst.

—The Lincoln Institute, near Jefferson City, Mo., was struck by lightning on the 2d inst., and burned to the ground.

—A destructive fire occurred in Chicago on the 1st inst., the loss being estimated at $1,500,000. The principal damage was in the lumber yards district.

—Omaha, Neb., butchers, to the number of 1,500, are reported to be on a strike, to the great inconvenience of the packing houses and meat consumers.

—The republic of Peru is represented as being in a state of ferment on account of active rebellion. The rebels are said to be gaining strength, although some prisoners taken by the government forces were promptly shot.

—In a high school of Providence, R. I., the year has been begun with the formation of classes of girls for instruction in dressmaking and housekeeping. At the end of the year the diploma will depend, not upon an essay on the subjects usually selected by girl graduates, but upon the gowns the pupils have made for themselves, and upon the good dinner which they can cook.

—The Spanish Government, on account of misgivings regarding the possible results to the Philippine Islands in the event of Japan becoming the dominant power in the East, has purchased three cruisers from English firms.

—An investigation of the affairs of the Perris Indian School, in San Diego County, Cal., has resulted in charges of gross fraud upon the government by Rev. B. F. Savage, former superintendent of the school, who is now supposed to be in Mexico.

—About 200 traveling "industrials" entered Connellsville, Pa., on the 3d inst., and, after demanding food from house to house, boarded an East-bound freight train. After a desperate fight with railroad men, about 100 of the industrials were landed in jail.

—Mayor Stephens, of East St. Louis, at the request of the business men, has addressed a letter to the managers of the various railroads which center in East St. Louis, asking them to take back their old employees who lost their positions during the strike.

—The Japanese residents of San Francisco have determined to raise a fund of $10,000 to assist the authorities of their native country to carry on the war with China. They also propose to raise a force of 4,000 men. The Japs of Tacoma, Wash., are talking in a like strain.

—A protest to Congress will soon be entered from the Oklahoma and Indian Territories against Indian dances. These dances, it is claimed, have become so vulgar that some of the more modest white people and the best Indians believe that the national government should interfere.

—The revolt of the followers of Tamasese in Samoa seems to hold out beyond all expectation, and it is now surmised that they are secretly assisted by the Germans, who are at present trying to secure a protectorate on the ground that the present tripartite arrangement is inadequate.

—The Russian newspapers are unanimous in saying that, whatever the results are between China and Japan, Russia will not tolerate any diminishment of Korean territory or alienation of Korean independence upon the part of Great Britain or any other power if such interference endangers Russian interests.

—An experimental lot of ten car loads of California pears and plums shipped in refrigerator cars was started eastward on the 4th inst., destined to London. It was expected that the fruit would be landed in London in twelve days. A car load is 480 fifty-pound boxes, the expense to London being $750 per car load.

—Brazil is still far from being tranquil. A plot to assassinate or abduct the newly elected president, Prudente Jose de Moraes, has just been discovered. It was the design to prevent his assuming the duties of the office. It is also stated that 3,000 insurgent troops are marching on Port Alegre, the capital of the State of Rio Grande do Sul.

—Internal revenue collectors have discovered that numerous certificates of registration for Chinamen were fraudulently obtained at Rock Springs, Wyo., being accompanied with photographs taken at that place from pictures sent from China. It is also stated that a Chinese merchant of Portland, Oregon, is offering $300 apiece for certificates, as he is engaged in bringing in his countrymen from British Columbia.

—The Navy Department proposes to preserve the old Hartford, Admiral Farragut's flagship during the Rebellion. The old relic lies at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, and Congress has appropriated $150,000 for her restoration. England still preserves Nelson's flagship, and our government does not want to be outdone in patriotism. Navy yard employees are rejoicing over the opportunity of a good job.

—Fame is too often "an empty bubble," especially when gained in an in-famous calling. A young California "feather-weight" prize fighter, who a few months ago was the subject of flattering telegrams in all the newspapers, was brought up last week in a Chicago Police Court on a charge of vagrancy. It is better to "fight the good fight of faith." There is, of course, less present notoriety, but the prize is a "high calling" and an "incorruptible crown."

—Japan and China are warring in earnest. Last week it was stated that Japan had sunk a transport drowning nearly 1,000 Chinese. Since then a Japanese vessel has been sunk by a Chinese war ship, the Chinese have won a land battle near Seoul, Corea, and the Japs subsequently won a counter victory. It is said that, while the Chinese greatly outnumber the Japs, the latter are better prepared for war. It is probable that England and Russia will eventually keep either of the contestants from absorbing Corea. It looks as though this land of ancient ideas would be propped up something after the manner of Turkey and Siam, and preserved as a "buffer" to keep stronger nations from coming too close together. Our own government is also under some treaty obligations to the Korean Government, and her attitude is now described as one of "benevolent neutrality."

—A press correspondent cables from London that it is already apparent in London that Lord Rosebery's government will be sternly called to account by the English people for having allowed the peace of the world to be broken by the ominous war between China and Japan. But if England's shipyards should be filled with orders for battle ships for both contestants, and her armories find market for extensive sales, as is likely to be the case, there will be a division of opinion.

—The steamer that conveyed the Wellman Arctic exploring expedition was crushed in the ice, May 24, in latitude 80 degrees north and 87 degrees east. Wellman and some of the men endeavored to go ahead over the ice, having rescued provisions, instruments, etc. The captain of the steamer and others of the party returned over the ice 230 miles, amid great suffering and many perils, until they met a sealing vessel which brought them to Norway. The captain is now fitting out a relief expedition at Copenhagen.

—It is announced that the Tehuantepec Railroad is finished. By this route, ocean travel from San Francisco to New York is 1,173 miles shorter than by Panama; but the line of railroad travel is greater—the distance from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean being 205 miles, while the Panama line from ocean to ocean is but 47 miles. An advantage in favor of the Tehuantepec route is that it belongs to the Mexican Government, and will not be subject to the vicissitudes of speculation, or the greed of monopoly, as the Panama road has been in the past. Commercial interests will no doubt be greatly benefited by the new line.

—On the night of the 3d inst., at Eureka, Mo., an express train ran onto some dynamite bombs, which had been placed on the track, and a terrific explosion followed. The engine was wrecked, the track torn up, a great hole torn in the earth, and the whole train terribly shaken. The dynamite had been stolen from a car load of explosives standing on a side track, and it is deemed miraculous that the whole lot was not exploded by the shock. The deed is supposed to have been done for the purpose of robbery, as a masked man with a drawn revolver ordered the express messenger to hold up his hands. The messenger replied with a shot, when the robber returned the fire, twice wounding the messenger. He then ran away, and it was thought he was wounded.