We have important announcements next week regarding the American Federation of Catholic Societies. And every one of our readers will wish to know what it is.
This paper is printed on our new Cottrell cylinder press. The outside printers did the best they could for us, but they were not fitted to do the work, and were also full of other work. Consequently we are behind. But we hope soon to be on time.
Our Next Issue.—We had hoped to make our next issue a sixteen-page number, but it takes a little time to install a big cylinder press capable of printing sixteen pages of the Signs. One more eight-page issue; then our sixteen-page, filled to the full of matter of vital importance.
More than $8,000 have come to us in promises and cash since the fire. We hoped to be able to print the names and the amount in this issue, but we have not yet gotten all the names of our Oakland donation. Next week we will give a partial list of names, and continue them from week to week. God's cause needs help here now, and we are sure it will come from our friends.
The pictures which the "Signs" has published on the fire were taken by Francis E. Stafford, the foreman of our photo-engraving department. Providentially his camera had been left at home that night, altho he usually kept it at the office. It was therefore not burned, and he was able to take a picture of the fire when it was burning. He has made prints of these pictures on post cards suitable for either mailing or mounting, and if any readers desire them they will be sent for five cents apiece. Address F. E. Stafford, Box 176, Mountain View, Cal.
Russia's situation is briefly stated in the following extract from a St. Petersburg despatch: "The douma is only one of the many troubles of the czar. His empire is already suffering from numerous calamities and is threatened with more. Industrial paralysis; financial depression; uprisings of the peasants; mutinies in the army and navy; famine in five provinces, with a population of twelve millions of people on the verge of starvation; and thirty-five thousand unemployed workmen in St. Petersburg, most of them armed, and a corresponding number in other cities."
What Is Martial Law?—Answering this question for a subscriber, the San Francisco Call says: "Military and martial law are not one and the same. The former is for the government of the army, equally in peace and war, and is administered by courts martial. Martial law is an arbitrary law that proceeds directly from the military power and has no immediate constitutional or legislative sanction. It is founded on paramount necessity, excludes all matters of civil or criminal jurisdiction, and is never used except in time of war, rebellion, or similar great and serious emergency. Whenever it is imposed on any district or state, all the inhabitants, old and young, and both sexes alike, and all their actions, however trivial, are brought within its dominion."
Progress in San Francisco.—There is no question but what San Francisco's residence parts will build up slowly, very slowly, but in its mass of business the fire seemed hardly to have checked it. As measured by the customs receipts in June, for instance, the amount is more than one thousand dollars greater than last year, $716,812 as against $609,934. The volume of business is also very great. Much of this doubtless has been created by the fire, in the matter of building material and machinery. More than one million dollars' worth of merchandise has been shipped to Alaska, Hawaii, etc. The loss to the schools was about six million dollars. The school board has organized tent schools in the refugee districts, which seem to be prospering well.
Russia and France.—A writer in La Revue of Paris, who signs himself "A Friend of the Franco-Russian Alliance," declares that "if the Russian autocracy continues its heroic exploits for a few months longer, certain leading banks of France, including the Credit Lyonnais, will go to the wall." He accuses France of supporting tyranny and gaining the hatred of the whole Russian people; that even now ladies of society boycott foreign merchants, and the Douma discusses the venality of the French press. The independent papers declare that if France makes another loan to the czar under the same condition she will turn all the feelings of the Russian people into one of resolute hostility to her, including Russia's coming legislature, and then France will forfeit an ally and "can gain in recompense nothing but a vast cemetery for her savings." Certainly this is a warning that France would do well to heed.
Hot Weather.—News comes to us by way of New York and Los Angeles that there has been great suffering from heat in Inyo County goldfields this state. A mining engineer says that during his stay at Panamint six bodies were brought there, all victims of sunstroke. At Ballarat the thermometer registered 135 at noon, and at midnight following had dropped to 114, which was the average for three days. In the desert section south of Redlands the mercury climbed to 160. Reports from New York also tell of the fearful weather in which the deaths have run up to ten or more a day on account of heat prostrations, with the thermometer 106 degrees, with far greater humidity, of course, than we have in California.
Germany.—The Nineteenth Century and After has an article which very clearly points out that Germany has designs upon Holland. She has begun through her merchants to capture Holland's commerce, and it is thought that in a little while she may be taking possession of the very country itself. If Germany can thus gain her desired end, the writer of the article, Mr. J. Ellis-Barker, tells us that France would be reduced to a third-class power, Germany would be much more formidable as an antagonist of England; in fact, she would demand a great part of the English fleet in the Channel to guard her home ports, while France would be at her mercy. Germany's security on the continent of Europe would be absolutely overwhelming. How near or remote this may be will be for time to tell, but certainly history is making in Europe rapidly.
A Dying Fad.—Losing the power of simple, spiritual religion, based on implicit faith in the Word, a few years ago the Institutional Church was advocated as a means of rousing the waning devotion of Protestantism. The Institutional Church combined in itself club room, kitchen, hospital, employment agency, etc. Many pastors in large cities adopted it, but most of them have found it to be of little benefit. One of these is A. C. Dixon, D. D., of the Ruggles Street Baptist Church of Boston, who tells us that "it is easier to reach the bodies of men through their souls than souls of men through their bodies." He thought the International idea a very beautiful one, but he has found that "besides helping to pauperize some it repels the self-respecting poor." Then the employment agency also prejudiced the people against the church. In fact in all the various departments of the Institutional Church he saw no spiritual results after two or three years of faithful work. After the people were cured in a dispensary, they did not like to come back to the church to be reminded of their sickness; after they had spent some time in the church hospital, they did not like to go back to be reminded that they were objects of charity. It got so at last that when a working man was asked to go to the Ruggles Street church he replied, "I am no beggar, why should I go there." Dr. Dixon concludes: "The body is redeemed and Christians should do all they can to help physical want, but the great work of the church is the redemption of the soul, and everything should be made secondary to that."
Socialism and Anarchy.—According to the Literary Digest a writer in the Rassegna Nazionale of Florence, Italy, expresses what is a conclusion to which many have come, and while it can not be said that Socialism is responsible for anarchy and violence, as it continually asserts it is not, yet it is undeniable that all anarchists have one time or another served in the ranks of Socialism. The writer declares that the constant propaganda of hatred for the wealthier classes and institutions carried on by Socialism must instil in the minds of the uneducated and primitive an element of violence which will eventually bear fruit. The quotation closes with these words: "Socialism poisons the mind, perverts the heart, and when it finds a subject well adapted for what it euphemistically calls, 'The Propaganda of Action,' it puts the weapon in his hand. Then it is anarchy that deals the blow."
It seems that carelessness, filthiness, and dishonesty in the preparation of preserved foods is not confined to Chicago, or to America. Philadelphia seems to be troubled as truly as Chicago, though not to the same extent. In London some thorough investigations have been going on in the jam factories, and they furnish plenty of material for startling revelations. Dirty factories, we are told, are commoner than clean ones, and in some of them the most elementary cleaning is neglected. In one factory the jam pots were washed in a tank in which the water was changed about once a week and then left to dry themselves before receiving the contents.
We have received from Mr. Chas. F. Whitford, singing evangelist and Bible worker of Fort Ogden, Fla., two beautiful songs, one entitled, "Footsteps that Never Come," and the other "Homeward." Both of these consist of song and chorus, printed on sheets 7½ by 10½. The poem in each is by L. D. Santee and the music by F. S. Stanton, Mus. Doc. The price of the two is 25 cents post-paid. We are sure that these will bear singing. Those who desire them address all orders to C. F. Whitford, Fort Ogden, Fla.