p. 799 | News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 22, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 50.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 15.

RELIGIOUS.

—The Hungarian House of Magnates has rejected by a vote of 109 to 103 the government bill providing for the legal recognition of the Jewish religion.

—The New York Observer says that a German Catholic convention was recently held in that city, at which it was resolved that “the temporal sovereignty of the holy see is indispensable for the true government of the church.”

—Here is a specimen of modern success as a minister of the gospel: A certain minister of a popular denomination has risen to the rank of bishop. On set occasions he delivers a lecture on “Abraham Lincoln,” which a denominational organ says “is his largest effort.”

—It is said that the Liquor Dealers’ Association of St. Louis recently called upon the mayor of the city to suppress a camp meeting because of its menace to public morals. Some of the preachers had denounced the liquor traffic, and that constituted immorality, in the minds of the liquor dealers.

—That all is not harmony within the ranks of the Roman Catholic Church is indicated by a Washington dispatch which says that Satolli, the papal legate, has been in this country less than two years, yet he has had over 700 cases of disagreement between priests and bishops brought before him for decision. It is claimed, however, that an enormous saving of time and money has been the result of having a tribunal of appeal on this side of the ocean.

—Occasionally a representative of the class popularly denominated Protestant arouses from the sleep of fancied security long enough to utter an exclamation of alarm. Thus the California Christian Advocate says: “The power of the Jesuits in Washington is astounding. Congress this year voted $400,000 of public money to the support of Roman Catholic schools. The Methodist Episcopal Church receives for all her educational work not one dollar of money raised by public taxation. And yet we must pay our share to support the schools run by Jesuitism.” What a blessing it would be to Protestantism if, when her leaders do temporarily wake up, they would stay awake long enough to see that Protestant lethargy, Protestant compromise, Protestant credulity, Protestant patronage, Protestant fawning, and Protestant acceptance and promulgation of Catholic institutions, are responsible for the “power of the Jesuits in Washington”!

—“Dr. Carroll, estimates that twenty million religious services, not counting the Sunday schools, are held every year in the United States, and that ten million sermons are preached in 165,000 places of worship. This does not look as if Christianity is ‘dying out.’”—Occident. And on a little closer scrutiny it does not look as though Christianity is making much headway. Hundreds of thousands of those sermons and religious services are by men who believe that their church has a right to and has changed the law of God; and in addition to this they exalt the Virgin Mary above the Saviour. Millions more are by men and women who indorse and practically sustain the unauthorized attempt to change the law of God. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of those sermons and services are by men and women who teach that the law of God has been abolished. As the word of God gives the “law and the testimony” as the test of the truthfulness of all teaching (Isa. 8:20), a large discount must be made in the foregoing numbers before they are credited to Christian advancement.

SECULAR.

—Earthquake shocks were felt throughout the central part of Italy on the 10th inst.

—A late dispatch from Shanghai confirms the report of a rebellion in the vicinity of Hankow.

—Fire in Omaha on the 13th inst. damaged the Morse-Coe Shoe Company’s establishment to the extent of $80,000.

—Hon. Andrew G. Curtin, Pennsylvania’s war governor, was buried with military honors at Bellefonte on the 10th inst.

—A great fire is reported to have destroyed much property belonging to Americans at Bocas del Toro, Colombia, on the 8th inst.

—On the night of the 11th inst. a gale swept Lake Erie, doing great damage to shipping. So says a dispatch from Erie, Pa.

—It is said that the Japanese are fortifying Seoul, the capital of Corea, and reënforcing the garrison, in anticipation of hostilities from Corean insurgents.

—The Kaffir uprising is still causing consternation at Lourenço Marques, South Africa. The rebels attacked the town on the 14th inst., but were repulsed. The country is said to be in open revolt, and the authorities contemplated asking aid from the Transvaal Government.

—Juan Coja, a desperate bandit chief, who has kept the Pacific Coast of Mexico in a state of uneasiness for fifteen years, has been captured at Mazatlan.

—An Oaxaca, Mexico, dispatch says, “There is much excitement in the State of Campeche and on the island of Carmen over yellow fever, which is causing many deaths.”

—The Argentine Republic, South America, has proclaimed the 12th of November, the anniversary of the discovery of America, a public holiday, and will celebrate with a naval display.

—Advices from Chemulpo, Corea, state that the Chinese have crucified two Japanese prisoners and beheaded two soldiers found in an outpost hospital which had been hurriedly abandoned.

—A terrible explosion of a powder magazine is reported to have occurred at Granada, Nicaragua, last week. The military barracks and one-fourth of the city are said to have been destroyed, and 200 people killed.

—The earth near the little town of Horneck, twenty miles from Sioux City, Ia., is burning, and an area of 320 acres is covered with from six inches to six feet of ashes. Five years ago this land was the bed of a swamp.

—The Paris Journal says that a number of government and municipal officers in that city have received threatening letters from Anarchists in London. The letters also defend Santo, the murderer of President Carnot.

—As a result of a heavy windstorm on the 10th inst., a new eight-story building, 74 Monroe Street, New York, was thrown down. Adjoining buildings were somewhat damaged, eight persons were killed, and a large number injured.

—Seventy packages of freight, purporting to be furniture, from Southampton, England, were recently landed at Havre. On being opened the stuff proved to be Anarchist weapons, such as bombs, arms, ammunition, skeleton keys, and burglars’ tools.

—At Grass Valley, Cal., two railroad men, a night watchman named Kennedy, and a section boss named Scanlon, were foully treated on the night of the 11th inst. Kennedy, who was not on duty that night, was assaulted by masked men, robbed and bound. Scanlon was murdered and cast into the cellar of the section house.

—Miss Ada Mitchell, who recently made a balloon ascension from Rutland, Vt., reports passing through a cyclone at a height of 4,000 feet. She says the wind came suddenly from several directions at once. The balloon lurched so suddenly that the last bag of ballast was pitched out, and she suddenly shot up to a clear atmosphere.

—Newfoundland experienced a severe storm last week. At St. Pierre thirty lives were lost and there was great damage to property. In the harbor were nearly 300 vessels, fifty of which were wrecked, and all were more or less damaged. Also from Boston, Newport, R. I., and Cape Charles, Va., come reports of heavy windstorms on the 10th inst.

—A. J. Howard, Debs’ chief lieutenant in the recent A. R. U. strike, advertises in a Chicago paper for a lost book containing railroad passes. It is a query if the thousands of dupes of industrial unions will ever learn the selfish and deceptive character of most of their leaders. Howard admitted having passes on forty roads, and also Pullman passes.

—A prisoner at San Quentin, Cal., has been detected in making burglars’ tools to exchange for opium on the outside. He was detected by suspicion of an ordinary letter to an acquaintance written in lead pencil. All letters are inspected by the authorities, and on submitting this one to a test of heat, the invisible ink with which the business portion was written was made legible.

—The czar of Russia, on account of ill health, is to pass the winter at Corfu, one of the Ionian Islands of Greece. He will sail from the Crimea in a war vessel, and will have to pass through the Dardanelles. Treaty stipulations forbid Russian war ships passing the strait, but it is said the sultan of Turkey will pay a friendly visit to the czar on board his vessel as it passes Constantinople.

—It is said that there is a division in the Chinese imperial palace in regard to the trouble with Japan, one faction being for continuing the war and the other in favor of overtures for peace. It is also rumored that the European powers most interested in oriental affairs are contemplating interference between China and Japan by enforced arbitration. It is hardly probable that they will allow Japan to gain the prestige of a complete victory and dictation of terms of peace, should the prospect of such a consummation appear inevitable.

—Count Hermann Zichy, a member of the lower house of the Hungarian Diet, has emigrated to America because his family have renounced him. The cause of their rejection is that the count had adopted the Unitarian faith so that he could marry the mother of his children. He had previously procured a divorce from his wife, who had no children.

Such social customs are not uncommon in the upper circles of the Old World. Illicit cohabitation passes all right; but marrying beneath one’s rank is terribly degrading.

—A Chinese employed for the past ten years at the El Pinal Vineyard, Stockton, Cal., was asphyxiated one day last week, and died at once. He entered a large wine tank, against the warnings of two other employes, who knew there was deadly carbonic acid gas in the tank. As soon as his head entered the gas, he fell to the bottom, and was dead before help could reach him. He had been frequently told to lower a candle into old tanks before entering them, but neglected the warning. This is symbolical of the influence of alcohol everywhere, whether in fermented or distilled liquors.

—Together with other ailments that threaten the life of the czar, his physician says the worst feature of his case is worry. His son, the czarowitz, persistently refuses to marry the English princess Alix, which is deemed an important political arrangement, and the time had been fixed. It is said that his refusal is on account of his infatuation with his young Jewish mistress. Another son of the czar is expected to die in a very short time. Then more plots against the life of the czar himself have been discovered, in which several army officers are involved.

—The International Typographical Union, in session last week at Louisville, Ky., indorsed the boycott of the Rand-McNally Company, of Chicago, and Buckner & Skinner, of St. Louis. The printing art has been called the “art preservative of arts,” and as such its votaries are supposed to be leaders in the march of progress; but the tenacity with which their unions cling to that barbarous weapon of monopoly, the boycott, virtually relegates them to rear rank. People who believe that others have rights as well as themselves have in various ways expressed the opinion that the boycott is a selfish, and therefore unchristian, principle.

—The west coast of Florida was visited by a disastrous storm on the night of the 8th inst. At Cedar Keys the main business street was filled with debris from the wharves. The railroads were extensively damaged, boats were wrecked, bridges were destroyed, buildings damaged, and 45,000 cedar logs were carried away from the mills. Five vessels were driven seven miles inland. At Appalachicola several streets were filled with logs, boats, and general debris. Two persons were drowned. Two residences were carried a mile and left in the marsh. The docks were destroyed, and many houses were unroofed. Five barges were carried into the marsh. At Pensacola five fishing smacks out in the gulf had entirely disappeared.

—In the State convention of the W. C. T. U., held last week at Sacramento, Cal., a prominent speaker said that there could be no genuine temperance movement without prohibition. This is the theory of the Union and of Prohibitionists everywhere. Yet they persistently advocate Sunday closing as a temperance movement. We have always held that Sunday closing was simply a Sunday movement, and not a temperance measure, and here we have the emphatic acknowledgment in a leading body that our position is correct. If Sunday closing is not a “genuine temperance movement,” then why do they call it under false colors? It is because the whole Sunday business is a deception, and can be enforced upon the people only through deception.

—A Dayton, Ohio, dispatch of the 9th inst. gives this harrowing intelligence: “The police search for the perpetrators of the two recent murders of veterans of the Soldiers’ Home on pension day, develops a situation more horrible than the famous Bender crimes in the West. Many other soldiers have been robbed and murdered at the Soldiers’ Home, and only passing notice has been taken of the crimes. The Grand Army of the Republic is taking hold of the matter, and the feeling runs high. The government has placed detectives here to collect evidence against the murderers, who have grown rich by robbing the veterans. The local police authorities can go no further than to give points that will surely lead to the arrest and conviction of the guilty ones.”

—On the evening of the 11th inst. an East-bound express train was held up by two men six miles from Sacramento, Cal., and over $50,000 in money was secured by the robbers. The trainmen believe that the robbers were ex-railroad hands, judging from their knowledge of regulation flagging, and the manner in which they managed the engine, which was uncoupled and taken off some distance and then sent back without anyone on board. Another hold-up is reported on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad, forty miles south of Washington City, on the 13th inst. Seven men were concerned in this affair, and their actions and apparent knowledge of railroad matters indicated that some of them had been railroad men. They secured some $25,000, but it is said that some of the booty was in bonds, which will not be of use to them. Another robbery occurred at The Dalles, Oregon, on the night of the 13th inst., when the office of the Pacific Express was entered and about $14,000 in cash was carried away. The strong box had just been brought in from a train that night.