News and Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 15, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 49.

News and Notes.

By Editor

FOR THE WEEK ENDING OCTOBER 8.

RELIGIOUS.

—A dispatch from Rome states that the pope has called Cardinal Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore, to Rome for an interview.

—Prof. Wm. C. Robinson, of the Yale Law School, has been invited to take a like position in the Catholic University at Washington.

—A sermon in the Irish language (Gaelic) was recently preached in the Hedding Methodist Church, New York City, by Rev. Lochlan McLean, of Chicago.

—Of the proposed annexation of Madagascar, the Paris Matin says: “France will allow the people of Madagascar complete religious liberty, but will not permit British missionaries, under cover of religion, to politically influence the ministers of the queen.” Experience in other places gives evidence that the “complete religious liberty” allowed by France is decidedly incomplete.

—The Catholic News says: “From a reliable authority we learn that the Holy Father is preparing an encyclical in which he will treat of the whole church in the United States, the progress religion and education are making here, and the means to be adopted for their development. He will specially dwell on the Apostolic Delegation and the Catholic University at Washington.”

—Dr. Kummer, pastor of the First M. E. Church of this city, is having trouble with his Christian Endeavor Societies, of which his church has three on hand. His aim has been to change them into Epworth Leagues, a strictly Methodist order, but they decline to be changed. The education of the Endeavorers has been to inculcate the idea that they are leaders of the church work, and not subordinates. And this is the fallacious notion imbibed by all these extra church societies,—they almost invariably attempt to usurp the prerogatives of the church.

—The California Christian Advocate asks this pertinent question: “If the pope and the Church of Rome are in favor of religious liberty, if Catholicism is the friend and promoter of personal and religious freedom, why do they not show it in Spain and South America as much as in the United States?” Sure enough, why? But the answer is easy: Rome advocates and demands religious liberty in the United States because that is her suave way of gaining the ascendancy; and she denies religious liberty in Spain and South America because that is her only way of retaining the ascendancy. Protestantism (popularly so called) is working on the same principle. In dominant Catholic countries it sues for religious liberty; in nominal Protestant countries it is persecuting by intolerant Sunday laws those weaker bodies whose doctrines are deemed inimical to its success.

—A Russian Baptist named Foadroff, supposed to be in Siberian exile, has just turned up in Philadelphia. He and his wife were both arrested at Kursh, but she was released and left behind, while he was taken to St. Petersburg and condemned to exile. Three months afterward she procured papers which enabled her to return to this city, where both had resided while he attended the Baptist College to perfect his knowledge of English. She had been here but a few days when she went before the Woman's Baptist Missionary Society in San Francisco to tell her story. She had just finished speaking when Rev. J. Q. A. Henry came in with a letter from her husband announcing his escape and arrival at Philadelphia. He did not know where his wife was. Mr. Foadroff was an ex-officer of the Russian Navy, but had spent nine years in America, two of which were in mission work in Alaska. He had been once before exiled while in the navy for talking unorthodox doctrine to the sailors, and had made his escape.

SECULAR.

—On the 5th inst. property to the value of $80,000 was destroyed by fire at New Haven, Conn.

—The Y. M. C. A. Hall at Nashville, Tenn., was destroyed by fire on the 5th inst.; loss, $60,000.

—Late London advices state that wheat is selling lower than at any other time within 200 years.

—It is reported that 2,000 Chinese soldiers in Corea have deserted on account of their pay being in arrears.

—Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the eminent author, died at his home in Boston on the 7th inst., aged 85 years.

—Mexican papers reject the proposition of “certain American statesmen” that Mexico should assume a protectorate over all Central America. One of them says: “The tortuous, petty, greedy, and tyrannical character of its rulers has reduced it to the worst condition.” The same journal says that the idea of assuming a protectorate is “repugnant.”

—A late dispatch announces that at Sassun, Armenia, the people recently attacked the Kurdish and Turkish soldiers and killed and wounded over 300.

—A Paris paper says that three French cruisers have been ordered to start for China. Three German cruisers have left Yokohama for the Gulf of Pechili.

—The Suez Canal Company is having trouble with striking employes, and French troops have been called upon to protect the company's property at Port Said.

—Three robbers who used dynamite on the Bloomfield, Ind., bank safe on the 3d inst., and secured $5,000, were run down with bloodhounds, and one of them shot.

—At Newark, N. J., on the 6th inst., 200 Italian laborers on strike attacked a lot of men who had taken their places on sewer work, and several persons were badly injured.

—A Hongkong dispatch reports that on the 6th inst. a typhoon swept over that port, doing much damage to shipping. One vessel was sunk and all on board were drowned.

—A dispatch from Hamburg says that Dr. Oretel, of the Hygienic Institute in that city, has died from Asiatic cholera, resulting from an experiment with infected water taken from the Vista River.

—It is reported that Wang Fang Toao, Chinese Minister at Tokio, Japan, has had an audience at Pekin and was severely censured on account of his ignorance of the Japanese designs in Corea.

—Trouble with the Kaffirs near Lourens Marques, South Africa, continues to increase. Other natives agreed to assist the Portuguese, but after securing arms they deserted, taking the weapons with them.

—A late African mail announces desperate fighting between Arabs and Belgians in the Kongo Free State. A great number of Arabs are said to have been killed, and the Belgians captured considerable spoils.

—The effects of the recent hurricane off the coast of Florida is being reiterated in the dead bodies of seamen being washed ashore. Near Key West more than fifty are reported to have been picked up on the reefs and buried.

—An Italian Anarchist has been arrested at Cairo, Egypt, on information from the Italian police which immediately followed him that his errand was to assassinate the khedive. When arrested he was armed with a dagger.

—The extensive trial of members of the Malavita Society, at Lucrecia, Italy, was finished last week. Fourteen of the accused were acquitted, and sixty-eight were sentenced to terms of imprisonment varying from five to ten years.

—At a bullfight at Mosquito, State of Jalisco, Mexico, last week, one of the matadors and three spectators were killed by an infuriated animal which broke out of the inclosure, and several people were trampled down in the excitement and badly injured.

—The latest news from the Eastern war is that a Japanese fleet of seventy ships has entered the Gulf of Pechili en route to Pekin. These are supposed to comprise transports conveying not less than 30,000 soldiers, together with a strong naval escort and support.

—The United States Navy has already more vessels on hand and in course of construction than the legal limit of men can effectively handle. The law limits the number of men in the navy to 9,000, and the present complement of vessels, when all completed, will require 11,000.

—German residents in Japan propose to appeal to the home government against the revision of the Japanese-German treaty on the line of the recent revised treaty between England and Japan. They are opposed to having the consular courts abolished, as they fear to trust the Japanese courts.

—U. S. Marshals have, within the past three months, destroyed thirty-seven stills of the illicit class in the Big Sandy Valley, Kentucky. In addition to this they have destroyed thousands of gallons of “moonshine” whisky, and have now an aggregation of over 100 prisoners ready for trial.

—Work on the Panama Canal was resumed on the 1st inst., at a point thirty-six miles from the Atlantic Ocean and eleven miles from the Pacific. The pay of laborers is from $1.00 to $2.00 a day, and 1,200 men are to be employed at present. The banana raisers are said to be fearful of a stampede of their employees.

—Electric accidents are reported as follows: At Boston an employe of the Electric Light Company was trimming an arc lamp at the top of a pole when he suddenly fell backward and clutched the wires. A companion, seeing him hanging to the wire, attempted to cut him down, when he too was thrown to the ground, fracturing his skull. Both died in a short time. At Newark, N. J., two horses were instantly killed by stepping on an iron drain pipe which had in some way become charged from a faulty power wire. At New York an engineer in an electric power house was suddenly struck dead by a shock while trimming a lamp.

—“General” Kelly, of “industrial army” fame, was knocked down by a policeman in this city one evening last week while talking to a crowd of people at the usual corner. Kelly was unconscious for some time. The officer was afterward arrested and placed under $2,000 bonds, on a charge of “assault with a deadly weapon.”

—The Chicago Inter Ocean calls attention to the unhappy scandals that are beginning to smirch women cyclists. Young women and girls use the evening hours for riding, with supposed immunity from improper associations. The uniform adopted by them is on the one hand a frequent temptation to base men, and on the other hardens the womanly modesty of the wearer.

—A steamer which arrived in New York on the 5th inst., from Havana, brings news of a recent cyclone sweeping over the northern part of Cuba, stating that it lasted forty-eight hours and that over 200 human lives were destroyed. Owing to a sudden rise in the river Sagua la Grande, a large amount of property was destroyed. For miles the plantations had been destroyed, and no bananas were to be had at all in that region.

—The Supreme Court of California has reversed the decision of the Santa Clara County Superior Court in the case of Brewer Sherrer, convicted of keeping his bar open on Sunday. The question hinged on the force of a county ordinance within a city limit. The city ordinance had been repealed, and Sherrer was convicted on the county ordinance. The Supreme Court holds that incorporated cities may regulate the liquor business independent of the county.

—Early in the morning of the 1st inst. the Eastbound Southern Pacific express train was held up at Maricopa Junction, A. T., and robbed of $160. On account of the new time lock system on the express trains on that route, even the messenger cannot unlock the through safe, so the robbers could not get into that without drilling and blowing it open. They took the messenger's watch, and other valuables. Officers afterward captured one robber and part of the plunder, but he refused to give any information.

—Word comes from Bogota that the remains of a prehistoric city in the crater of the volcano of Purace, in the Andes Mountains, have been found. Professor Gutierrez, who has made excavations on the spot, has found the bones of a race of giants which attained the height of from ten to twelve feet. The city covers hundreds of acres and contains the ruins of great buildings with immense granite columns. The remains of an aqueduct in an almost perfect state of preservation have also been found.

—The postmaster of Chicago, on rigging out the letter carriers with new suits, desired to show them off in parade one Sunday. To this there was a protest from the Civic Federation, the Sabbath Association, and finally from the pastors, led by the United Presbyterians. The Cynosure suggests that the postmaster's determination to parade his 1,400 carriers is “backed by the power of Rome” and “this makes him defiant.” As the Sunday holiday is Rome's special protégé, why not render to Rome that which is Rome's, in Rome's own way?

—If skill in the art of killing men, sinking ships, etc., is evidence of civilization, then Japan is advancing toward that goal at a rapid rate. But that a knowledge of warfare and a love for the exercise is a good thing for any people to learn, is decidedly questionable. A conquered China with an accepted Saviour would be far better off than a victorious Japan trusting in her military prowess. The curious feature of the situation is to see “Christian” people flattering Japan and praising her advancement in “Christian” civilization because she has become sufficiently skillful in the art of war to whip a “heathen nation” several times her size.