SECULAR NEWS | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 3, 1878

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 4, No. 37.

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SECULAR NEWS.

—Pennsylvania reports 174,041 farms.

—Great Britain has 72,000 acres of hops.

—Cholera has appeared and is increasing in Spain.

—The annual death rate in San Francisco is 16.59 per 1,000.

—Seven million people are said to have died from the famine in China.

—During the first three months of this year 2,341 horses were killed in Paris for food.

—Great Britain imported in '57 nearly 34,000,000 bushels of wheat, and in '77 100,000,000 bushels.

—Entire flocks of sheep have been destroyed in Mexico, by the action of swarms of venomous flies.

—Georgia has 2,396 miles of railroad completed and in operation, or about one mile of road to 488 inhabitants.

—The Chicago distillers paid $417,856 tax during the month of July, or at the rate of about $5,000,000 per year.

—It is estimated that 40,000 acres of new ground will be broken and cultivated in northern Minnesota the present season.

—The Egyptian obelisk was brought into an upright position and lowered on the pedestal, recently, on the Thames embankment.

—In 1855 the population of Nebraska was 4,494; in 1860, 28,831; in 1870, 122,993; in 1876, 257,847; and in a census just taken, 313,748.

—A Japanese paper says that Japan has already 38 banks, and that 64 others are being established, while other finance companies are applicants for official license.

—The first boat ever moved by steam in the United States was a small experimental skiff rigged with a model steam engine and screw paddles by John Fitch, July or August 1786, upon the Delaware.

—Turkey, as the result of the late war and the congress at Berlin, has lost territory to the extent of 71,000 square miles, an area equal to England and Wales, and Scotland as far up as Edinburgh and Glasgow.

—A dispatch from Airola, Switzerland, at the southern mouth of St. Gothard Tunnel, reports that three cases of gunpowder for blasting in the tunnel exploded September 25. Ten workmen were instantly killed and several terribly injured.

—The increase in the export of live stock from the United States to England in the year ending June 30, was 30,800 head of cattle, and 4,000 head of sheep. The actual numbers exported were 80,040 cattle and 183,995 sheep. In addition thereto, 54,000,000 pounds of beef went over, an increase of 5,000,000 pounds.

—An exchange says, The Paris Exposition is said to be a financial failure, and further more great fault is found by a large number of people with the various details of the Exhibition—want of light and air; the heat is intense, there is no shade, no method of cooling, no amusements; dirty corners exist in abundance; in open kitchens cooks are seen at work in an unfastidious state of dirt; there are no means of locomotion. It is magnificent, but no business.

—Kansas is growing more rapidly than any other State in the Union. A census taken in 1855 showed a population of but 8,601; in 1860 of 107,206, and in 1865 of only 140,179. Since then it has had a growth more rapid than any State of the Union. Thus, in 1870 its population was 364,389; the rate of increase from 1860 to 1870, although largely made from 1865 to 1870, was three times the rate of increase of Oregon, Iowa, or Wisconsin, five times that of California, Missouri, or Illinois, and seven times that of Florida or Texas. The census of 1875 showed the population of the State to be 533,372, and at present it is estimated to be 650,000. Large accessions to the population have been made from the cities by people seeking employment. The increase has thus been nearly 30,000 a year since the first census was taken in 1855.