ITEMS OF NEWS

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 18, 1880

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 6, No. 43.

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Twenty-six Socialists have sailed from Hamburg for New York.

It is now intimated that General Grant will be made Secretary of State.

Mexico has 665 miles of railroad built, and 1,094 miles under construction.

Three thousand Jews have left Roumania for America by way of Bremen.

The contract of building a new Insane Asylum at Stockton has been let for $70,995.

Thursday, November 25, is recommended by the President of the United States as a day of national thanksgiving.

Last week Thursday, Libby Prison was sold at auction to James T. Quay for $6,725. It is now a tobacco factory.

The expelled French monks are receiving a cordial welcome in Spain, where all classes vie in tendering them hospitality.

Another steamer, the Meifoo, of the China Merchant Steam Navigation Company is on the way from Shanghai, via Honolulu, for this port.

The tables have turned, and now the Persians are plundering Kurdish villages. At Sonjbolak the Kurdish loss was 100 killed, and 150 wounded.

A dispatch from Hongkong states that the Fletcher, from Hongkong for San Francisco, has been totally wrecked at Pratas. The fate of those on board is not known.

An earthquake shock was felt last Thursday throughout Southern Austria. Buildings were greatly damaged, and several persons were killed, and thirty injured.

The total number of letters and parcels registered during the fiscal year ending June 30, was 6,996,513. The actual losses of registered matter was at the rate of one in about every 6,200.

Electricity is now used to light the Mount Vesuvius railway, and some of the lamps are so arranged as to illuminate the sides and crater of the volcano. The effect is said to be magnificent.

The managers of the Cunard steamship line have contracted for three new steamers, each of 7,000 tons burden and 8,000 horse-power. These monsters are intended to ply between New York and Liverpool.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashel has written from Rome to the Lord Mayor of Dublin, stating that the Irish Bishops at Rome desire to subscribe to the fund for Parnell's defense.

Redpath, the American journalist who made himself so conspicuous in connection with the Land League that he was indicted with Parnell and other leaders of the movement, has sailed for New York.

The present season is an exceptional one for California, there having been scarce any rain for six months or more. The rainy season is constantly expected to begin, but at present there are no special signs that it will.

Another production from the pen of Queen Victoria is about to be contributed to English literature. She now proposes to furnish an illustrated, descriptive catalogue of all the presents she has received during her reign, including the most costly gifts of her brother sovereigns, down to the patched bed-quilt and wooden kitchen utensils sent from her poorer subjects.

The recent performances of the Passion Play at Oberammergan have been remarkably successful, the net receipts being $520,000. This amount has been divided equally among the trustees of the new theatre, the householders of the village, the public schools, and the actors.

The city of Lisbon was lately much stirred up by an earthquake. It caused but little damage, but was an unpleasant reminder of the great disaster of 1765 when 60,000 of the inhabitants perished. Severe shocks have occurred recently in several districts of France and Spain.

Some fifty miners are supposed to have been buried by the exploding of a coal mine at Stellarton, Nova Scotia, the 13th. Latest accounts state that the mine is in flames; several explosions have occurred since the first, and there is no longer hope of rescuing those buried.

Since Garfield has been elected President of the United States, he has resigned his office as Representative to Congress from Ohio, and intends to resign his right to a seat in the Senate, in time for his successor to be elected before the meeting of Congress on the first Monday in December.

Ireland is now in a situation of extreme peril. She is on the verge of a conflict with the mightiest empire in the world. She is without material resources, and the courage and genius of her people would be as nothing in a war with an empire whose dominions encircle the globe.

During the month of October, the police of San Francisco made fifty arrests for visiting gambling places, and eighteen for keeping and selling lottery tickets. The entire number were Chinese, and from their fines and forfeitures the city and county treasury realized over a thousand dollars.

The World's London special says that preliminary arrangements have been made for the apprehension of Michael Davitt as soon as he shall set foot on Irish soil. His efforts in America in behalf of the Land League in Ireland. The main points of his farewell address before sailing across the water, and the Government does not propose to have another fire-brand thrust into their midst.

The scheme of importing Chinese from Cuba to work in the cotton and rice fields of Louisiana is likely to fall through. An agent of the New Orleans and Havana steamship line lately visited Washington, and was informed by the Chinese Ambassador that in view of their bad treatment in California and elsewhere, he does not think proper to take any action that will result in bringing any more of his people to this country. And as the United States Government desires a modification of the treaty so as to check immigration of that people to California, the State Department is not at liberty to encourage such immigration to Louisiana.

Intense interest is manifested by all classes in Russia in the coming trials of a large number of Nihilists. Among the prisoners is the alleged author of the plot against the Czar at Alexandrovski last year. The name of the accused has not been disclosed. The supposed authors of the Moscow explosion are also in custody, together with several persons accused of complicity in the Winter Palace blow-up. Apart from these trials of a notable partisan of the revolutionary cause, who gave all his fortune, one hundred and fifty thousand rubles, to the Nihilist Executive Committee. These political trials are the most important that have ever taken place in Russia.

Leading New York papers are advocating a national subscription to provide a perpetual fund whose annual income shall be enjoyed during life and the non-holding of Federal office by the oldest ex-President of the United States. The mutual capital of the fund is to be $250,000, with a probable income not less than $12,500. The details as to the management of such trust are matters for after consideration. Subscriptions to the amount of $50,000 are already guaranteed. It is not considered becoming to the dignity of the American people that those who have filled their highest office should be compelled to labor for their support, nor is it desirable that they ever again into the field of politics and become the antagonists of the statesmen of the rising generation. The English carry this idea to such an extreme that even a tide-waiter can draw a pension for a prescribed period. In every government it has been recognized as just that men who have served the public during the greater part of their lives, should be retired upon a pension, and the same principle is recognized in this country, in its application to officers of the army and navy. Most of the American Presidents have been poor when they entered office and were poor when they retired. Gen. Grant is the only living ex-President, and his private fortune is supposed to be ample. It is therefore deemed a good time to inaugurate such a movement, because it cannot be regarded as a measure in favor of any particular individual.