—A heavy thunder-storm visited San Diego the 18th.
—The king and queen of Greece have arrived at St. Petersburg.
—Several shocks of earthquake were experienced at Victoria, B. C., Sunday, Aug. 22.
—The national debt has been reduced ten or twelve million dollars during the month of August.
—Competent authorities say that the Russian harvest is the poorest since the famine of 1873.
—Nine hundred immigrants arrived in New York, Thursday last, and one thousand the day following.
—Efforts to negotiate a treaty with Corea to open her ports to American commerce have proved unsuccessful.
—A new railroad bridge has been constructed over the Missouri river, at Plattsmouth, eighteen miles below Omaha.
—The Central Pacific Railroad are employing all the men they can get, and sending them to work upon the new sheds.
—Three men were killed, and several wounded by a severe storm which swept over Fort Mojave, Arizona, a few days since.
—A Chicago special says: "Twenty-eight cases of suicide were reported from different parts of the county during the past week."
—The warriors of Sitting Bull's tribe are reported as moving south, while the women and children are going north—an ominous sign.
—Fifty-three Chinese were arrested in San Francisco a few nights since for gambling. What about the American gamblers?
—Several cases of poisoning have been reported in Concord, N. H., caused by eating potatoes from vines upon which Paris green had been used.
—Princess Eugenia, of Sweden, sister to the king, is endeavoring to form an association of ladies to promote missionary work among the Lapps.
—Preparations are being made throughout northern Mexico for a revolution. All the Mexican troops on the border expect to be ordered to the interior.
—The quarantine recently placed over the jute mills near Oakland, Cal., on account of small-pox, has been raised. All danger is pronounced at an end.
—The Prussian government will immediately take measures for the relief of the distress in West Prussia, and will at once begin the construction of a railway.
—Within two weeks 110 young ladies have taken the vows of the "sisterhood" in the convent of Notre Dame at Milwaukee, Wis. They were from all parts of this country, and some from Canada.
—A special from Portland, Aug. 21, states that heavy fires are raging in both the Cascade and Coast Range mountains, and that the whole Willamette valley is shrouded in dense clouds of smoke.
—The steamer, Marine City, running from Detroit to Mackinac, Mich., was burned to the water's edge on Sunday afternoon. A large number of passengers was on board, some of whom are known to be lost.
—The greater portion of Castle & Mayor's paper mill at South Lawrence, Mass., has been destroyed by fire. Loss, $100,000; insurance $75,000. Spontaneous combustion is supposed to have been the cause.
—Secretary Schurz is making an extensive tour among the Indian agencies, and expects to effect many new arrangements with the Indians, among them the surrender of the Crows of a part of their reservation containing mines.
—Precautions are being taken against expected resistance to evictions in the west of Ireland. Iron huts for the police are constructing near Clare Morris, in Mayo county, and other places where trouble is thought likely to occur.
—Ouray, the Indian chief who accompanied the U. S. Commission to the Southern Ute Agency to assist in prevailing upon that tribe to sign the treaty, is dead. The treaty is not signed, and it is feared that matters will be much complicated by his death.
—Holding conventions seems to be becoming a popular way of advancing almost every cause. The deaf mutes of America recently held a convention in Cincinnati, and a mass convention of infidels has just closed at Marshalltown, Iowa, after a three days' session.
—During the week ending with the 21st there were issued from the mints by the Treasurer of the United States, 331,994 standard silver dollars; for the week ending the 28th, 369,493. The amount issued by the mints in the corresponding fortnight of last year was 443,054.
—The number of emigrants who have left Germany for the United States since January 1, is over 13,000, or 191 per cent more than during the corresponding period of last year. This is exclusive of those who have sailed from Havre, Rotterdam, Liverpool, Glasgow and London.
—A large aerolite passed over Cleveland, Ohio, about three o'clock Sunday morning, brilliantly illuminating everything. When over the lake it exploded with such force as to severely jar many buildings in the northern part of the city, the fragments shooting off in different directions. —Active preparations are being made in Oakland for the celebration, on the 9th, of the thirtieth anniversary of the admission of the State of California to the Union. It is expected that President Hayes and party, and Governor Perkins and staff will honor the occasion by their presence.
—The American Baptist Flag says, "The Butler Creek church, Benton county, Arkansas, has expelled fifteen of its members because of their connection with the Murphy temperance movement;" and adds that "such a foolish action by a church is a disgrace to religion." In this opinion we heartily concur.
—The Cuban government has decided that within ten days all Chinese detained by the government for being runaways, or for being without contract for work, or any other criminal cause, shall be set free. Henceforth all Chinese shall enjoy the same rights as other individuals belonging to friendly nations.
—The new Viceroy of India, the Marquis of Ripon, has ordered all official Sunday work to be discontinued. Heretofore, little attention has been given to Sunday in the offices. "This Viceroy," says the Methodist, "is the Roman Catholic lord whose appointment many over-zealous English Protestants considered scandalous and fraught with danger to the Protestantism of the empire."
—A disastrous hurricane is reported to have passed over Jamaica the 19th, leaving thousands of people houseless. Crops, fruit-trees, and farm produce generally, were destroyed. Colossal trees were uprooted and churches demolished. Three wharves are gone, and eight large and thirty-two small vessels were wrecked in the harbor. Famine is imminent, and help is required for starving thousands.
—As the result of a recent trial of different American reaping machines on the grounds of the Agricultural College at Bucharest, one agent took orders for forty machines. "From a merely industrial point of view," says the Advance, "such a fact as this is of interest; but another fact is that machinery of this sort represents ideas—American ideas, which will certainly prove to be self-sowing wherever these self-binding reapers may go."
—The directors of the California State prison have made a contract with a firm in Leeds, England, for one hundred looms which will give employment to 400 convicts. The machinery is to be used in the manufacture of grain sacks, and will, it is estimated, turn out in the first year 5,000,000 sacks, one-sixth of the number annually required for our grain produce. The factory will be in operation early next year, and will help to make the prison self-supporting.
—The statistics gathered at the late Sunday-school Centennial show that at the present time there are over fourteen million persons in the world attending Sunday-schools. They are divided as follows: North America, 7,906,194; Europe, 5,882,814; Asia, 39,772; Africa, 15,300; South America, 153,000; Oceanica, 187,800. The United States has more than all the rest in the world, or 7,509,452. Of the above, about one-tenth are teachers, and the rest scholars.
—A Bucharest dispatch dated Aug. 27, says: "The Roumanian politicians are somewhat excited over the alliance question. One faction, led by Borescoe, Minister of Foreign Affairs, favors making common cause with Austria. Another party, under the leadership of Prince Gregory Stourdza, leans toward Russia as the only power which has ever really befriended Roumania. A third party is opposed to all foreign allies, desiring Roumania to become the Belgium of the East."
—Aug 10, a burning vessel floated against a pier at Hunter's Point, Brooklyn, N. Y., occupied by a lumber company, where a large number of vessels were unloading. The fire immediately communicated to the lumber-yard, and spread in every direction with lightning rapidity. From the lumber-yard the fire spread to the vessels, and notwithstanding the efforts made by several tugs which hastened to their assistance, six barges, one schooner, and one ship were soon in flames. Over ten acres of fire was soon raging wildly. After great labor the fire was checked. The loss is heavy.
—In India, which has been, perhaps, the hardest missionary field of all, there are about 95,000 native Christian communicants; in Africa, 80,000; in Polynesia and Australasia, 73,000; in Madagascar, 68,000; in China and Japan, 18,000; in Burmah, 20,000. In these fields alone there are upward of 350,000 communicants. The total in all fields is, perhaps, over half a million, besides the adherents (those who have renounced heathenism or other untrue religions and accepted Christianity), who are more than twice as numerous. There must be fully 1,700,000 souls who, as members and adherents, own and glorify the name of Christ.