ITEMS OF NEWS | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 23, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 24.

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ITEMS OF NEWS.

—There are 124 theological seminaries in the United States.

—There are 385 missionaries of all denominations now laboring in Africa.

—Niagara county, N. Y., has shipped 1,500,000 barrels of apples to Europe during the past year.

—It is estimated that Iowa farmers will lose $2,000,000 this year, in consequence of using bad seed.

—In the three days ending June 18, there were ten cases of sunstroke in New Orleans, six of them fatal.

—On Friday, June 17, the steamer Rodgers left San Francisco for the Arctic regions, in search of the Jeannette.

—A Havana dispatch says that the Home Government will send $1,000,000 for the relief of the Cuban Treasury.

—There are now 50,000 tons of wheat at Mission Rock, S. F., and 30,000 have been loaded from there since January 1st.

—Twenty-six Frenchmen, belonging to the department of the Inspection of Telegraphs, have been massacred in Algeria.

—In the Chamber of Deputies recently, a grant of 14,000,000 francs for the Tunisian expedition, was unanimously voted.

—Forty persons were injured, thirteen of them dangerously, by an explosion of gasoline, at Springfield, Mass., on the 1st of June.

—On the 15th, a fire in a bonded warehouse in Brooklyn, N. Y., resulted in the loss of two lives and $300,000 worth of property.

—A Catholic school building in Honolulu recently fell, killing one boy. The priest and the architect were both charged with manslaughter.

—Since the local option law went into effect in Massachusetts, 46 towns have voted not to grant liquor licenses, and eight towns to license sales.

—By the recent fire in Quebec, 642 houses were burned, 1,211 families and 6,025 individuals rendered homeless, and mostly without provisions.

—The number of persons engaged in the fisheries of the Pacific States and Territories, is 16,745. The total value of boats, outfits, etc., is $1,788,383.

—James H. Marr, chief clerk in the post-office department in Washington, celebrated his 50th anniversary of service in that department, June 1.

—The exports of domestic breadstuffs for the 11 months ending May, 1881, were $244,955,370, against $253,876,826 for a corresponding period last year.

—The South Dublin guardians have resolved to send 37 able-bodied paupers to America. They have been in the work-house from three to twenty years.

—In Urugua a decree has been issued, forbidding newspapers to discuss politics, under penalty of a heavy fine. Two printing-offices have suspended publication.

—A cotton-mill in North Carolina, containing 4,000 spindles, 100 looms, and employing 200 hands, was burned June 16. The fire was caused by the explosion of a lamp.

—A telegram states that 100 persons have been killed, and 60 injured, by an earthquake which recently devastated a number of villages in the Pashalic of Van, Armenia.

—The German Government, having prohibited the use of tobacco to boys under sixteen years of age, is now considering the matter of interdicting the use of beer in the army.

—The ex-president of the First National Bank of Brattleboro, Vt., has been sentenced to six years imprisonment in the House of Correction, for making false returns to the government.

—According to the report of the special census agent on wealth, debt, and taxation, the net debt of the 309 cities of the U. S., exclusive of Washington, having a population of 7,500 and upwards, is $570,471,373.

—The bill imposing a tax of one dollar a head on immigrants arriving in New York, has become a law. The tax is to be collected from the steamship companies, who deny the constitutionality of such a law.

—H. F. Nebas, father of the five children who were run over and killed at the railroad crossing, near San Lorenzo, on the 2d day of May last, has filed a complaint in the Superior Court to recover the sum of $101,100 as damages.

—Sixty thousand Jews talk of emigrating from Russia to Spain. The king of Spain has sent word to the Spanish minister at Constantinople that he will gladly receive in his dominions all the persecuted Hebrews who desire to leave Russia.

—It is estimated that the number of mission schools at present exceeds 12,000, and that the Bible has been translated into 226 languages and dialects, while its circulation during the past eighty years has reached an aggregate of 148,000,000 copies.

—A number of dead bodies, many of them bearing marks of violence, have lately, at intervals of a few days, been discovered in the Missouri river at Kansas City. It is suspected that there is an organized band of desperadoes at some point above.

—The pneumatic tube system is being well developed in Paris, and giving satisfactory results. Fifty miles of tubing are now being operated from six central stations, and about 400,000 packages a month are being sent at an average cost of less than ten cents.

—The “Salvation Army” in Great Britain and Ireland, has now 6,180 trained speakers, and 3,770 services are held every week. The number of buildings occupied is 224, having accommodations for 141,900. The number of people reached in the open-air gatherings, is 3,000,000.

—A North-western Canal Convention has just been held in Iowa, in the interest of a proposed canal from the Mississippi to Lake Michigan, starting at Rock Island, and joining the present Illinois and Michigan Canal at its terminus, La Salle. The cost of this water-route is estimated at $4,500,000.

—An Italian mob recently broke into the Protestant church at Marsala, carried out the books and furniture, and made a bonfire of them on the piazza, and tried to kill the minister. They afterwards entered the Roman Catholic cathedral, and received the solemn benediction of the archbishop and clergy.

—The London Religious Tract Society recently held its eighty-second annual meeting. The total circulation of books, tracts, and periodicals, during the year was 81,089,460. Total, since the formation of the Society, 2,012,047,900. The tracts, and other publications, were printed in about 150 different languages.

—Morillo, Dictator of San Domingo, says that every citizen attempting to disturb the actual order of the political institutions legally established, shall be tried by Court-martial as a conspirator. Also, that every citizen apprehended with arms in his hands shall be condemned to death after identification and proof of guilt.

—Several States have lately been visited by severe hurricanes. Of one in southern Kansas, which resulted in the loss of several lives and a great deal of property, the dispatch says: “During the cyclone, large hailstones fell in immense quantities and a hot wind prevailed, making it difficult to breathe, and turning the leaves of corn as black as dirt.”

—During the four years from July 1, 1873, to June 30, 1877, the number of postal cards issued was 550,619,500; from July 1, 1877, to June 30, 1881, the number will reach about 990,000,000; and for the four years commencing July 1, 1881, it is estimated that the number required will be 2,000,000,000. The contract for supplying them for the next four years has just been awarded to a New York firm.

—Russia has fallen upon a period of great financial depression. The cotton mills have nearly all been compelled to close, the imports of raw cotton have largely decreased in consequence, the cloth and iron trades are at a stand-still, and many English merchants, after enduring for five years bad trade and political uncertainty, are closing up their affairs preparatory to removal from the country.