ITEMS OF NEWS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 2.

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ITEMS OF NEWS.

—It will take $600 to pay Oakland's vaccination bill for the past five months.

—There are in the two insane asylums, at Napa and Stockton, Cal., 1,955 patients.

—Walla Walla Indians are endeavoring to compete with chinamen in cutting wood.

—The price of a seat in the New York Stock Exchange has advanced to $30,000.

—A man long suspected of selling whisky to Indians has been at last detected in Nevada City.

—A woman in Pomeroy, W. T., one night recently, completely routed a cougar with a broom.

—A Dublin dispatch says gun-makers are doing an enormous business, especially in revolvers.

—Last week a grizzly bear killed thirty fat hogs belonging to one man in Waldo Hills, Oregon.

—Vallejo calkers are indignant because San Francisco calkers are employed in the Navy Yard.

—A lot of counterfeit silver dollars have been found in the water at the foot of Florida street, Vallejo.

—Russia has ordered 10,000 soldiers withdrawn from the Chinese frontier to operate against Turkman.

—The Baptists in Brooklyn, N. Y., contemplate building a church which is intended to rival Spurgeon's famous Tabernacle in London.

—It is said that when the Land League arose in Ireland, Fenianism in a great measure collapsed, the Fenians taking up with the new movement.

—Notwithstanding the Prussian tirade against the Jews, an Israelite has been elected President of the Municipal Council of Berlin, by a large majority.

—A petition to the Governor and Legislature is being numerously signed at Downey, Los Angeles county, praying the enactment of a local option law.

—Gen. John F. Miller, of San Francisco, has been nominated by the Republican caucus for United States Senator from California, to succeed Hon. Newton Booth.

—The United States frigate Wabash, while at Gluckstadt, Germany, recently lost over 200 out of 500 men by desertion, owing to the tyranny and abuse of the officers.

—Senator Sharon, his daughter, new son-in-law, and party, went from San Francisco to New York in a special car, for which they were taxed $1,620—about 50 cents per mile.

—The Chino ranch, San Bernardino county, has been sold to Richard Gird, an Arizona millionaire, for $225,000. He proposes to stock it with fine cattle. The ranch covers 35,000 acres.

—On the 8th inst., a four-year old child of Mr. John Robertson, in Santa Clara county, was burned to death by her clothing taking fire from a spark, while playing in a field where stubble was burning.

—A Fort Buford special says: The braggart Sioux who were so insolent lately, are now abject beggars before the advancing columns of troops, and cry for peace, annuity, and provisions. They are fast surrendering.

—It is quite generally understood that Senator Blaine will be Secretary of State under the Garfield administration, and knowing ones are quite certain that D. O. Mills, of California, will be Secretary of the Interior.

—The Pacific, speaking of Gen. Howard's appointment to the command of West Point, says: "While Howard is in charge, every cadet will have a fair show and his just dues, no matter what his color or previous condition."

—Counterfeit silver dollars dated 1879 are in circulation in this State. They are lighter than the genuine coin. Spurious $5 and $20 pieces have recently been put in circulation in Sacramento, together with bogus ten-cent pieces of the year 1877.

—A bill introduced in the House by Representative Townsend, of Illinois, proposes as follows: "When any officer has served fifty years as a commissioned officer, or is seventy years old, he may be retired from active service at the discretion of the President."

—The A. O. U. W., of California, is waking up to the necessity of clearing the rolls of liquor-drinking members, as a matter of self-preservation. They drop off so fast that temperance men don't like to carry such shaky risks, as every death calls for $2,000.

—The London publishers paid Lord Beaconsfield $60,000 for the manuscript of "Endymion," and the price of the English edition is thirty-one shillings. There being no international copyright, an American has issued the work in the shape of a dime novel, and sells it for ten cents. The critics say it is dear at that.

—The exodus of negroes from the south is revived. Efforts are making to divert them towards New Mexico or other western Territories. Gen. Conway says they are bound to leave the Southern States.

—There are over 7,000 Americans studying in the German schools and universities. The American Consul at Wartenburg estimates that $4,500,000 are thus annually expended by Americans in Germany.

—About 7,500 miles of railway track were laid in the United States in 1880. These figures are greater by 54 per cent than in 1879. The total mileage in the country now is about 94,000. A large portion of the year's increase is west of the Mississippi river.

—Mr. Farley has introduced a bill in the U. S. Senate, providing for the payment of $5,777 to the holders of coupons of 36 specified California Indian war bonds, issued in 1852, the Congressional appropriation for which has lapsed into the Treasury.

—Preparations for the coming census of 1881 in London are being actively pushed. It is anticipated that the returns will reveal a striking increase in the population of the metropolis, which cannot now be far short of 4,000,000. The census will be taken simultaneously in every district of the United Kingdom on the same day.

—Representative Page is notified by the Post-office Department that the office at Alameda, Cal., owing to the growth of its business, will shortly be placed on the list of Presidential offices, and he is requested to recommend some one for nomination to the Senate. The present incumbent holds office under the appointment of the Postmaster-General.

—A preparatory expedition, composed of engineers and skilled mechanics, have left Havre for Panama direct, to commence a survey and operations upon the ship canal immediately. A large number of mechanics and laborers, a quantity of machinery, and a large supply of provisions, have been ordered in New York and New Orleans, for immediate shipment to the scene of operations.

—Gov. Fremont's recent annual message thus pictures Arizona's progress: "When I last had the honor to meet the Legislature, Arizona was the most remote and secluded of the Territories. Now one transcontinental road, shortly to be followed by another, connects her with the whole system of the Eastern railroads and the Pacific, and is about to connect her directly with the rich trade of Mexico."

—A high military commissioner to Ireland reports that, if her Majesty's Government at once takes strict measures for the repression of lawlessness, a peaceful solution of the present difficulties, and the cessation of outrages and disturbances may be looked for with confidence. People well acquainted with the intentions of the Land League, state that a rising was never intended, at least not at present.

—The Central Pacific Railroad Company, has made application to become a bonded carrier, under the Aldrich bill, and as soon as the bond is approved, there will be means for sending right along to the East all goods liable to duty from foreign ports via San Francisco, without the old routine of appraisalment and collection at the port of first arrival, which was often a great inconvenience to importers.

—There are 629 savings-banks in the United States with $819,106,973 deposits and about $56,000,000 surplus, nearly one-half of which is loaned on real estate. As the capital stock of all the national banks in the country is only 457 1-2 millions, it will be seen that the real "money power" is the two million depositors in the savings-banks of the country, three-fourths of whom are workingmen and men of small means.

—The United States Government paid Russia seven million dollars for the Territory of Alaska. It has received from the Alaska Commercial Company, alone, since August, 1870, as taxes, $3,134,838.99, or nearly one-half the cost of the purchase of the entire Territory. The franchise has ten years yet to run. This company, by the time its lease expires, will have paid, in taxes, more than the original cost of the purchase by the Government.

—The moccasins, necklace and other barbarous personal property of Don't-Know-How, a member of the Yanktoneas tribe of Sioux, have been received by Secretary Schurz by mail as an intimation that the Indians have no further use for them. The gift is accompanied by a letter, setting forth that two years ago the writer having earned $25 by working, became a trader in a small way at his Agency. He is now worth $2000 to $2500, made in trade, and signs his name D. K. Howe, instead of his former evidently inappropriate title.

—Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, of Malden, Mass., has made her name memorable by contributing the vast sum of $852,500 to educational and missionary purposes. Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Amherst, Wellesley, and Hamilton Colleges have received $285,000; Andover and Chicago Seminaries, $200,000; the American Missionary Association $150,000 for institutions in the South. In addition to all this Mrs. Stone has distributed some $600,000 among relatives and friends, lifting many of them from want to comfort. She has also given $100,000 to struggling churches and students. Such a use of wealth must yield her a pleasure as rare as the act itself. Who will go and do likewise, that they may experience a similar pleasure in seeing their means used in the cause of God during their lifetime?