Secular News by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jun 19, 1879

Secular News.

By Editor

A committee of the British Parliament has reported in favor of the electric light.

Wind and hailstorms of great severity are reported from various parts of the country.

The inundation of Mantua by the river Po is reported on the increase. Great suffering is the result.

By recent act of Congress silver is made legal tender in payment of debts to the amount of ten dollars.

The Isthmus Canal Congress decided upon a route, and it is expected the work will soon be undertaken.

Denis Kearney is having great difficulty in finding candidates to accept the nominations of his party.

A very destructive storm passed over Southern Ohio and Indiana, extending into Kentucky, June 11.

The foundation of the famous Eddystone Lighthouse, England, is weakened, and a new one is to be constructed.

The African or Zulu war is likely to be much more expensive to England, in time and money, than Baconsfield promised.

For the better protection of travelers, the New York Legislature has given Railroad Conductors the powers of police officers.

At Conshohocken, Montgomery Co., Pa., the night of June 10, lightning struck a cotton mill, which was burned; loss $125,000.

Mr. James Grant, one of the most noted of London publishers, died recently. Dickens' first sketches were published in his magazine.

The yellow fever prevailed in Hayti the first of June, the French Minister and members of the legation having been among its victims.

Two City Water Works Commissioners in Brooklyn, N. Y., were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the city of $50,000, and were fined $250!

Investigations of Louisiana elections show an amount of political corruption perhaps without parallel. It is a sad burlesque on our form of government.

Germany has made a demand on Peru for the release of a German vessel which was detained at Callao under the pretense of having carried contraband articles.

Mr. G. W. Childs, of Philadelphia, denies that the reception of Gen. Grant in July has any political significance, and that the General has any political ambition.

News from Cheyenne, Wy. T., says, "The present term of the court has been the most severe on criminals of any ever known in the Territory." Strong justice was much needed there.

There is a prospect now that the Northern Pacific Railroad will be pushed toward completion. Large contracts for rails have been made, and several cargoes are now on the way by Cape Horn.

Judge Packer, of Mauch Chunk, Pa., lately deceased, was one of America's notable men. He commenced life in poverty, and worked his way up to eminent positions. He gave steadily and largely to educational and benevolent causes, and yet left an estate valued at $12,000,000.

A writer in the Oldham Chronicle, England, speaking of England's present war policy, says : "We regard ourselves as forming a part of the strongest nation in the world. Upon the Afghans we look with something like a feeling of contempt. They are savages, we are civilized; they are weak, we are powerful. Therefore, it is courageous to meet them in battle, and rob them of their territory."

Of the severe storms of recent occurrence, one in Northern Kansas and Southern Nebraska, May 30, was the most destructive. It passed over nearly the entire northern tier of counties in Kansas, and extended into Missouri. More than forty people were killed; a much larger number severely injured. The destruction in buildings and other property was immense.

During a thunder storm the morning of June 11, lightning struck the pump house of the Atlantic Refining Company, Philadelphia, on the Schuylkill River. This Company, with the Atlantic Storage Company, occupied 25 acres along the river front, on which were stored 25,000 cases of oil, which, with all the buildings and the Superintendent's Office and residence, were consumed. Five ships at the wharves were also destroyed. The heat of the fire was so intense that the firemen could do but little. The property of the Companies is valued at $2,000,000. The fire was rekindled by a strong wind, June 13, causing much additional damage.