p. 143 | Secular News by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, Cal. · May 1, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 18.

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Secular News.

By Editor

—Turkey is improving its alphabet.

—Persian troops from Meshed are marching toward the Afghan frontier.

—Reports to April 26 says every industry seems to be killed by poverty and famine in Bolivia.

—During the week ending April 22, there were 36,720 pounds of quicksilver shipped from Calistoga, Cal.

—Of the twenty-four deputies elected in Cuba to the Spanish Cortes, sixteen are Liberal Conservatives.

—An ill feeling is growing with all the tribes interested in the Khyber Pass in Afghanistan, against the English.

—The first women clerks employed in the National Treasury were appointed in 1862. There are now over 1,300.

—Report from Wilksbarre, Pa., says seven persons were buried alive by the caving of a mine at Sugar Notch, April 23.

—Representative Lowe has challenged Senator Logan. The latter refused to accept the challenge; difficulty is anticipated.

—Work was commenced April 23, on the Canada Southern Railroad tunnel, to be built under the Detroit river at Grosse Island.

—The "frontier" in Texas has advanced a hundred miles in two years, and 40,000,000 acres of good land reclaimed for settlement.

—A Texas jury arose after the evidence was all in and requested that the case go to them without "any lawyers' speeches," and it did.

—Governor Howard of Dakota Territory is in San Francisco. He speaks enthusiastically of the resources and recent growth of Dakota.

—Disastrous floods have recently occurred in Russia. Rivers have overflowed their banks; some rising twenty feet above the ordinary level.

—A Russian scientific expedition will proceed to Central Asia in the summer under the leadership of Grand Duke Nicholas Constantinovich.

—John Bright, addressing his constituents in Birmingham, April 15, said, The government is imbecile at home, and turbulent and wicked abroad.

—Whitelaw Reid, editor of the N. Y. Tribune, was offered the German mission, but refused it, believing his position as editor to be more in the line of duty to his country.

—An attempt was made to assassinate Edwin Booth at McVicker's theatre in Chicago on the night of the 23d. A man in the gallery fired a pistol at him, the ball passing by him on the stage.

—April 20, the steamer Great Republic was wrecked on Sand Island at the mouth of the Columbia River. Thirteen men were drowned. The destitute survivors are receiving aid in Astoria.

—Advices up to April 25 show that the floods are still very damaging in Hungary. A late rise in the river Theiss prevents the recovery of Szegedin, and some villages are nearly destroyed.

—Two thousand persons have been arrested at St. Petersburg during the last few days. Persons suspected of complicity in the murder of the Governor of Krapatkine and the attempt on General Dreutelm have been arrested in Warsaw and Pleosk, respectively.

—It is claimed that the evidence already obtained shows conclusively that the Government has been defrauded out of at least $3,000,000 a year by under valuation of silk for several years, and that in many cases there have been corrupt practices by Government examiners and other employes.

—An attempt has been made by a German, Herr Kreusler, to invent a simple method of recording and measuring the variations of daylight throughout the day. The results are considered highly satisfactory. This will render the weather record more complete, and it has also a special bearing on plant physiology.

—In no country is Communism, or Nihilism as it is there called, more determined than it is in Russia. The officers who have executed the laws with despotic power, are becoming afraid to act, as assassination threatens them at every step. Of late the life of the Czar has been in danger, and special precautions have been observed. An attempt on his life was made April 14.

—Secretary Sherman has ordered the revenue steamer Rush to take on board sufficient supplies for a five-months' cruise; to leave San Francisco not later than May 15th, and to proceed to the waters of Alaska for the purpose of enforcing the provisions of the law and for the protection of the interests of the Government in the seal islands, the sea-otter hunting grounds, and Alaska generally.