p. 39 | Secular News

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 30, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 5.

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Secular News.

—The Missouri Lunatic Asylum at St. Joseph was burned January 25.

—Four democratic United States Representatives have died within a month.

—Great alarm prevails in Europe concerning the rapid spread of the black plague.

—The winter continues excessively severe in Europe. Paris has been blockaded with snow.

—The gold mines of Georgia are said to produce not less than $1,000,000 per annum.

—Mayor Doyle was inaugurated last week as Mayor of Providence, R. I., for the 14th time.

—South Carolina has abolished her only divorce law, thus leaving no way at all open to secure a divorce.

—The valuable library of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, numbering 80,000 volumes, has been burned.

—General Trevino, a Mexican, is successfully moving against the "Texas raiders." Peace on the border seems to be assured.

—The best thing ever said about drink was said recently in England, when one of the speakers styled it "the Devil in solution."

—A gang of ex-county officials at Belvidere, N. J., have been sentenced to imprisonment at hard labor for stealing the public funds.

—The Cubans have ratified a treaty by which the Chinese are to be allowed all the privileges, rights and immunities of other foreigners as soon as they land on the island.

—The total Republican majority in the French Senate proves to be 55—which exceeds what the Republicans dreamed of; Gambetta himself claiming only 25 majority.

—Two planing mills near the foot of Castro street, Oakland, were burned the morning of the 23d. The abundance of dry material rendered the labors of the firemen unavailing. Loss about $40,000.

—Governor Fremont is making himself very busy in Arizona. He goes about visiting all parts of the Territory, by personal inspection ascertaining the extent and character of its natural wealth and the immediate needs of its people.

—A man in Fountain county, Indiana, was killed by a meteoric stone, January 13. The aerolite came through the roof, striking him in the breast, he being in bed. It passed through the bed, and floor, and buried itself five feet in the earth beneath. It weighed twenty pounds.

—The chief of the Chinese Legation in this country was asked, it is stated, what would become of those of his countrymen who wished to live and work away from China, in case of the United States deciding not to receive them. "They will all go to Ireland," is the reply he is said to have given; "that is the only country that the Irish do not rule."

—There is now in construction at Oakland, the Central Pacific Railroad, the largest steam ferry boat in the world. Length, 425 feet; width, 116; depth of hold, 18 feet. It is designed for transportation of trains across the Straits to Benicia; it will have four tracks its entire length, and will carry entire trains, locomotives and all. This route materially lessens the distance from San Francisco to Sacramento.

—The jury in the case of the Brevard County, Florida, Canvassing Board for making false returns of the late Congressional election, brought in a verdict of guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. The Sheriff, a Justice of the Peace, the County Canvassing board and two Inspectors of the late election from Alachua county were arrested to-day on a charge of violation of the election laws. Much crime is also developed in the South Carolina election.

—In Germany, as in our own country, it is evident that since her late war there has been a vast augmentation of crime. In Prussia alone the convictions have risen from 6,403, in 1871, to 12,807, in 1878. Assassinations, maimings, forgeries and fraudulent bankruptcies have all greatly increased. This is largely to be attributed to the more expensive mode of life and the dissipation, which have prevailed since the French indemnity flooded Germany with money.

—Earl Derby made a speech in Liverpool on the 2d inst., in which he told the people there was no remedy for the present distress in England except through wholesale emigration to America and Australia. This means that the statesmen of England, looking over the whole field, realize that it is no temporary distress which has come upon their countrymen, but that the causes which have brought affairs to their present condition are steadily gaining in menace, and that England, with all her power, cannot buy food and successfully combat the terrible competition of the United States.