Secular News by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 6, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 42.

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Secular News.

By Editor

—A $200,000 fire has occurred at Parker, Pa.

—The tax rate at Virginia City, Nev., is $4.55.

—Yellow fever has not entirely disappeared in Memphis.

—Heavy shipments of bullion continue to be made from London to New York.

—As late as Oct. 30 further floods were reported in Spain, with loss of property and life.

—Jacob Abbott, the well-known author, died at his residence in Farmington, Maine, Oct. 31.

—It is said that Cleopatra’s Needle, lately given to the United States, has been seized by the creditors of Egypt!

—Chief Ouray of the Utes has a well-stocked farm, and cultivates one hundred acres. He lives in civilized style and rides in a carriage.

—Gen. Hooker, who won the title of “fighting Joe Hooker,” in the late war, died very suddenly at his residence in Long Island on the 31st of October.

—A report from Napa says of the Insane Asylum: This institution is overcrowded with 770 inmates at present, and appropriations are not sufficient to have enough attendants.

—Philadelphia’s new city hall, which has been in process of construction for several years, has already cost $7,500,000, and the commissioners ask for $1,250,000 more this year.

—A very severe wind storm is reported in New England, Oct. 29, doing damage from Rhode Island to Maine. On Mount Washington the wind attained a velocity of 132 miles an hour.

—Circulars giving teachers practical instructions in regard to the ventilating and lighting of their school rooms have been issued in St. Louis. No certificate should be issued to a teacher who does not understand this subject.

—An official decree has been issued in France annulling the resolution passed by the Council-General of the Seine in favor of plenary amnesty to Communists. Other decrees dismiss twenty-six Mayors for participating in factious manifestations.

—A dispatch from Cabul says: The population of Cabul is quiet, but it is a sudden calm. There can be no doubt that beneath it there is a deep dread of British dominion. The Cabulese are kept down simply by fear, and would rise if they saw a chance of success.

—The complete cost of the Michigan State Capitol, a noble building, was $1,502,298.23. Of the appropriations there is left unexpended $2,731.77. Probably the only case in the country where a public building has been completed for less than the appropriation.

—The fort at Wingate, New Mexico, is reported reduced to ashes by the Navajoe Indians. Another dispatch announces the total destruction by Apaches of Martin’s Ranch, on the Tornado del Muerto, thirteen people being killed, and all the stock stolen, including that of the Mail Company there.

—Two important orders have been issued by the Post Office Department. The post-office and State must be put on all letter addresses. A letter will not be sent to a town, if the name of the post office is not the name of the town. A letter will not be sent to “New York” unless the State is added. And mail matter is not to be carried for or delivered to lottery dealers.

—Advices received at Port Townsend, W. T., state that the weather at Inverness, on the Skeena river, has recently been extremely severe. Early on the morning of the 15th of Oct., a landslide occurred, commencing at the summit of the mountain at the rear of the cannery, and, in its downward course, swept into the sea seven buildings occupied by men employed at the establishment.

—The recent storm was more destructive in New Brunswick than in New England. A St. John’s despatch says: Further particulars of Wednesday’s storm are at hand, showing that the damage was greater than first reported. In addition to the losses before mentioned, many wharves were destroyed, barns and out-buildings blown down, bridges blown away, and vessels wrecked. And a report from Halifax says: Reports of the disasters by the storm continue to reach here. It is computed that seventy vessels are ashore in the Straits of Canso.

—A New York paper, giving statistics of business compared with previous years, says: “It is now just one year since the first symptoms of a revival of business appeared with the extinguishment of the premium on gold. What marvelous improvement has been effected within that year, and what wonderful power of recuperation the country has displayed, comparison of exchanges shows most forcibly. In a single year the country has gained as much as it lost in five years of unparalleled prostration and disaster.” San Francisco is excepted from the favorable report.