News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 3, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 22.

FOREIGN.

—A bill for the better observance of Sunday is pending in the House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada.

—The University of Cambridge, England, has refused by an overwhelming majority to grant degrees to women.

—The annual meeting of the British Women's Temperance Association will open May 30, in St. Martin's Town Hall, London.

—General de Azriga, Spanish minister of war, has introduced in the cortes a bill providing for an increase in the army of Spain to 100,000.

—During a display of fireworks at Nantez, France, on the evening of May 24, five persons were killed and a score injured by the explosion of a bomb.

—The entire edition of the Munich Free Press of May 21 was confiscated on account of an editorial satirizing the emperor, and the editor of that journal was arrested.

—Queen Victoria celebrated her seventy-eighth birthday on May 24, and was the recipient of many congratulatory telegrams, President McKinley's being among the number.

—Advices from Montevideo state that fierce fighting has been going on near the Brazilian frontier for four days, both the State troops and the rebels sustaining heavy losses.

—The British sailing vessel Buckhurst was burned at sea recently, off the coast of Panama. Twenty-one of her crew were picked up, but many of her company are still missing.

—A Rome correspondent of the London Times states that King Menelik of Abyssinia has arranged to assist the Dervishes in repelling the advance of the Anglo-Egyptian expedition in the Soudan.

—It is announced that by the end of the present summer it will be possible to reach the summit of the Jungfrau (Switzerland) by electric cars. This will be one of the most gigantic engineering feats of the century.

—An attempt was made recently to assassinate President Borda, of Uruguay. A bomb was sent to him inclosed in a box, so arranged that it would explode when the box was opened. The suspicious missive was turned over to the police.

—A despatch from Cape Town, South Africa, states that the natives of Portuguese East Africa are defeating the Portuguese troops in various directions, and that the governor of Delagoa has urgently requested the home government to send him reënforcements.

—The committee of the lower house of the Prussian Diet have rejected a clause of a pending bill, which gave the police the power to dissolve meetings or associations which might be considered to contravene the criminal law, or endanger the safety of the State.

—The four-hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the mainland of North America by John Cabot, will be celebrated at Halifax, N. S., on June 24. The municipal authorities of Bristol, England, the port from which Cabot sailed, will also participate in the celebration.

—A rumor was recently circulated in Guanabacoa, Cuba, to the effect that U. S. Consul-General Lee would distribute money to the poor. A large number gathered together in anticipation of receiving relief, and for a time resisted the attempts of the police to disperse them.

—An alarming famine prevails in Szechuen and an adjoining province in China. Foreign aid has been requested. Supplies from the government and from foreign merchants are being sent into the famine-stricken districts. Towns near the river are being relieved, but farther inland great distress prevails.

—Notwithstanding the two weeks' armistice to which Turkey has agreed, the negotiations for permanent peace are very unsatisfactory. Turkey is continuing to mobilize her troops, and within the past week has sent 50,000 additional soldiers into Thessaly. It is also reported that the Turkish Government is making active preparations for the administration of the province. The Grand Vizier has reported to the sultan that the whole of Islam is ready to support him in retaining Thessaly, and urging him not to allow his affairs to be dictated by European powers. This official tenders his resignation in case his views are not acceptable. Great Britain has stated her intention of withdrawing from the concert if Turkey is allowed to hold Thessaly until the Greek war indemnity is paid. The Greek army of 50,000 men has fallen back on historic Thermopyle, where Leonidas held at bay the hosts of Persia, and here awaits the onslaught of the Turks, for they expect to fight again at the close of the term of armistice.

—A serious election riot took place at Bosnyaczi, Hungary, on May 23. The militia were ordered to fire upon the crowd, with the result that fourteen were killed and thirty wounded. The Catholic clergy are accused of causing the riots by asserting that the government intended to introduce civil marriage.

—The rebellion in the Philippines is still progressing. The Spanish authorities fear that the rebels may yet take Manila, as their numbers are increasing and they seem determined to advance. Fever is rapidly thinning the ranks of the Spanish conscripts, and their condition is said to be pitiable in the extreme.

—Recent statistics of the German Government in regard to religious matters show that within the four years from 1890 to 1894 there were 2,088 converts from Judaism to Christianity, and 17,002 converts from Roman Catholicism to the Protestant faith. In Prussia during the same time 14,045 Catholics became Protestants.

—The New York Herald's correspondent at Guatemala cables that the Guatemalan Government has issued a decree suspending specie payments for six months. The decree caused considerable excitement and a run on the banks, which was stopped only by the assurances of the president that no financial crisis was at hand.

—The Canadian Government is sending an expedition into the Hudson Bay for the purpose of making extensive explorations of the bay and straits, and ascertaining the length of time during which the straits are not blocked with ice. It is proposed to build a railroad from Manitoba to some point on Hudson Bay, and send shipments of western grain through the bay and straits to England.

—In Athens the torrents of denunciation and bitter invective, which were temporarily lulled by the dread of a Turkish advance on the city, have broken out again. The authors of the war policy, and those who are held accountable for the disasters of the army in the field, are being held up to the condemnation of the public. It is believed that the government will take measures to punish the guilty.

—A revival of religious interests is taking place among the Jews of the southern provinces of Russia. Associations are being established for the reading and study of the Scriptures, and the investigation of the claims of Christians that Jesus is the Christ and has fulfilled many of the utterances of the prophets which have been stumbling-blocks to the Jews for so long. The Kariam Jews of the Crimea are also manifesting a similar spirit.

—A Spanish military train, which was conveying troops to reënforce the garrison at Songo, was attacked by the Cubans and captured. A lieutenant and twelve Spanish privates were killed, and a large number wounded, by the explosion of a dynamite bomb under the train. The soldiers were taken prisoners by the Cubans, but finally released. A large supply of munitions of war and provisions for the garrison thus fell into the hands of the patriots.

—The Duke of Tetuan, Spanish minister of foreign affairs, resigned his position on May 21 as a result of a personal encounter in the lobby of the Senate, in which he boxed the ears of Senator Comas. The premier refused to accept the resignation; but the Senate minority have refused to participate in the deliberations of that body, in view of existing circumstances. On May 24 a similar scene was witnessed in the Austrian Reichsrath, in which the president became so excited that he fainted, and in the melée which followed desks were overturned, and books and inkstands flung in the faces of the speakers. Many of the members came to blows, and a general riot was indulged in.

DOMESTIC.

—The total number of blind in the United States is nearly 49,000, or 1,400 to each million of the population.

—John D. Rockefeller has issued an edict to the effect that no work shall be performed on Sunday at his ore works.

—On Sunday, May 23, Mayor Harrison, of Chicago, led an annual Sunday bicycle run in which 3,000 cyclists participated.

—It is reported from Havana that the American consulate has been threatened by a mob. The Spanish officials have placed a guard of troops around the building.

—Twice on the night of May 20 large fires occurred in the city of Hoboken, N. J., by which 140 families were rendered homeless and property to the amount of $650,000 was destroyed.

—Governor Black's signature to the Greater New York charter gives that city a population of 3,200,000, making it second to London in size and population, and therefore the second largest in the world.

—At the Presbyterian General Assembly, which is now convened at Eagle Lake, Indiana, Dr. Sheldon Jackson, in speaking of the condition of affairs in Alaska, stated that infanticide, witchcraft, polygamy, the murder of parents, and other practices of benighted and degraded paganism, prevailed to a terrible extent among three or four native Alaskan races. Mothers killed their babies, and children took the lives of their own parents when they got old. This

custom, he said, had become firmly established. During a recent severe epidemic of the grip, scores of persons were burned or buried alive, on suspicion that their witchcraft was responsible for the epidemic.

—Miss Elizabeth M. Dean, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, left New York on May 24 on her way to Alaska, where she will have charge of the hospital work connected with the missions of that denomination.

—The Baptist Assembly, at its recent meeting in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, adopted a resolution urging upon President McKinley the necessity of taking some measures to relieve the present situation in Cuba.

—It is reported that an international bicycle tube trust has been formed by the consolidation of the four largest tube manufacturers in England and the two tube plants in Elwood and Greenville, Pennsylvania.

—A flood in the valley of Asotin Creek, Washington, on May 20 resulted in a great destruction of property and considerable stock. No lives were lost, but a rough estimate of the damage to property places it at $100,000.

—The great lens of the Yerkes telescope, at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, has been officially tested by the astronomers in charge, and has been declared eminently satisfactory. Great things are expected of this greatest of telescopes.

—The number of Americans in Cuba who are in need of assistance from the American Government has been found to be much larger than was at first supposed. It is now stated that there will be 1,200 who will require government relief.

—Eugene V. Debbs, president of the American Railway Union, is planning the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth in some one of the large western States, the members of this new State to be drawn from the idle men of the country.

—Three Quaker pioneer missionaries started from San Francisco on May 27 to establish a mission in Alaska, on the Arctic circle. The journey from the coast of Alaska will be made in Indian canoes far into the interior, among the Kake Indians.

—The debate on the Dingley Tariff Bill was begun in the Senate on May 25, with crowded galleries and a large attendance of senators and members of the House of Representatives. The opening speech in its favor was made by Senator Aldrich, of Rhode Island.

—The great electric power plant of the Pioneer Electric Power Company, at Ogden, Utah, was put in operation on May 24, thus starting a power system second in size only to that of Niagara. The dynamos are operated by a column of water seven miles long, with a fall of 460 feet.

—A powerful combine of telephone companies is being perfected in Chicago to operate against and compete with the Bell Telephone Company. It is stated that there are now in the United States 1,000 independent telephone companies, whose combined forces will be pitted against the Bell Company.

—The directors of the New York Elevated Railroad have decided to abolish the steam locomotive and substitute electricity for propelling the cars on that road. The change will necessitate an outlay of $7,000,000, but the saving in operating this electric third-rail system is estimated at $1,000,000 a year.

—The strike of tailors in New York City is still on, and it is estimated that 21,000 operators have stopped work. The strikers demand that they shall not be expected to work more than fifty-nine hours a week, that they shall be paid weekly, and that their wages shall be increased fifteen per cent over what they received during the last year.

—Early on the morning of May 25 the Rio Grande River broke its banks at El Paso, Texas, and flooded the city. It is reported that 120 houses were swept away. A timely fire alarm saved the lives of the people in the flooded section. Floods are reported at other places along the river, and the damage to orchards and growing crops is enormous.

—Superintendent Skinner, of the New York Department of Public Instruction, has decided that teachers of the public schools in the State must not wear the distinctive garb of any religious denomination, order, sect, or society; and the Board of Education has been instructed to see that this regulation is carried out, and to dismiss those who refuse to comply with it.

—Professor Hallock, of Columbia College, is planning to produce power from the internal heat of the earth. He has bored into the earth one mile, and finds the heat increasing as the shaft grows deeper. He expects to find, at a certain depth, such a temperature that he can force water into the shaft and have it instantly converted into steam, to be used for operating machinery.

—The Catholic Church in America has received instructions from the Vatican to make the English language the language of Catholics in the United States. Parishes in which a foreign language is used will be tolerated as a temporary necessity, which will disappear as soon as the conditions making their erection expedient shall have passed away. Catholic children will not be required to join the parish to which their parents belong, if the language therein employed is not the English.