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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 9, 1881

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 7, No. 22.

Read the full edition

ITEMS OF NEWS.

By Editor

-The total French forces now in Tunis, number 30,700 men.
-According to the recent census, the population of London is 3,814,571.
-The Police Captain reports 162 arrests in Oakland for the month of May.
-The church books of Mr. Spurgeon's church show a membership of 5,284.
-There are 500,000 persons in the city of London who never enter any place of worship.
-The consumption of sugar in the United States during the year 1880, was 900,000 tons.
-The shipment of wheat this season from Long Wharf, Oakland, amounts to 41,944 tons.
-A Brazilian agent is in the United States, trying to secure 3000 Chinese for work in Brazil.
-The last census shows that in the United States there are 1,000,000 more males than females.
-The Roman Catholics of Cochin recently burned publicly a large number of copies of the Bible.
-Prof. Denton has concluded his lectures in San Francisco, and gone to Australia. Poor Australia!
-Three hundred men, women, and children, arrived in New York, June 2, from Europe, bound for Utah.
-There is a strong sentiment in favor of making Moscow, instead of St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian empire.
-A bill to permit clergymen to sit in the House of Commons has been defeated on its second reading by a vote of 110 to 101.
-The British Government, through Sir Edward Thornton, has paid the £15,000 of the fishery award due to the United States.
-The business of paper making in the United States is estimated to employ over $100,000,000 of capital, and forty thousand persons.
-Santa Cruz has passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor to sell or give a cigarette, cigar, or any tobacco to any person under 16 years of age.
-Two Leadville, Col., boys were killed June 2, by the explosion of a giant cartridge which they were attempting to break open to see what was inside.
-The Turkish Premier has written to the Khedive of Egypt, declaring that the Porte cannot tolerate a continuance of the attacks published in the Egyptian press upon Turkey.
-The late Stephen Paxson, Sunday-school missionary in the West, established fourteen hundred schools, their aggregate numbering 70,000, besides 11,000 teachers.
-May 31, various parts of the State of Texas suffered from tornadoes, accompanied by severe hail. Several persons were killed at Taylor, and nearly every house in town was damaged.
-A dispatch from Naples says slight shocks of earthquake at Mount Vesuvius have been followed by strong eruptions. Broad and active streams of lava were flowing down the north-east side of the mountain.
-Oakland was visited by a heavy thunder shower, May 31. There was also quite heavy rain the 2d and 3d inst. Reports show that the rain in the interior was not sufficient to damage grain to any extent.
-At a meeting of the Anti-Slave Trade Society, held in Madrid, Spain, June 2, a resolution was passed demanding the abolition of capital punishment and the immediate liberation of all slaves in the Antilles.
-Director Burchard, of the Mint, has authorized the coinage of standard silver dollars for the present month as follows: San Francisco Mint, $1,300,000; Philadelphia Mint, $600,000; New Orleans Mint, $400,000.
-The people of England spend for intoxicating liquor two hundred times as much money as they give for missions. In the United States about two hundred and forty times as much is given for intoxicating liquor as is given for missions.
-The ringleader of the anti-Jewish rioters at Kieff, Russia, has been sentenced to three and one-half years' penal servitude and the loss of his civil rights. His most active accomplices have been sentenced to 18 months, and twelve others to short terms of imprisonment.
-The frontier men anticipate Indian troubles. The North Cheyennes have notified agent Miller that they must be permitted to depart in peace within twenty days, or they will go forcibly. They say they cannot live in the country allotted to them, and will return to their old home.
-The total production of the iron and steel works of the United States in the census year 1880, was 7,265,140 tons, an increase of 3,609,925 tons over the production in the year 1870. Thirty States were concerned in its manufacture, and the amount of capital invested was $230,971,884.
-Mexico has a good prospect of being soon known to the outside world. She is waking up to the necessity of improvement. There are now twenty lines of railroad in construction, and as many more in contemplation. The government has already paid out more than $12,000,000 for subsidies.
-The total yield from the culture of the grape in California last year, was $3,500,000. The sale of grapes for table use yielded $150,000, and that of raisins, $100,000. There were 10,000,000 gallons of wine made, and 450,000 gallons of brandy. Over 10,000 acres of land were planted to grapes last year.
-A few days since, a woman was arrested in New York for deliberately setting fire to a house in which many persons were asleep. The floor of the basement, and a heap of straw and rags collected there, were saturated with kerosene. The object of the fiendish act was to obtain the insurance, which was $4,500.
-A London dispatch says, "Nearly all the cattle by the steamer Phoenician, which arrived at Glasgow from Boston, were found to be affected with the foot and mouth disease, and were slaughtered." Very vague. That's what they do with them all. The question is, What did they do with them afterward?
-The total number of sentences for crime, in Boston, for the past year was 16,897. Of these, 72 per cent. were directly traceable to intoxicating liquors. Twelve per cent. more were given to persons under the influence of liquor at the time the crimes were committed, thus making a total of eighty-four per cent. due to liquor.
-The Missouri Legislature has passed a law making gambling a felony, and the gamblers are planning to circumvent it. The law, they say, does not reach to the middle of the river, and they propose to charter a boat for short trips up and down the river. As soon as the boat leaves the wharf, gambling will commence, and continue all night.
-Postmaster-General James is doing effective work in the P. O. department. In unearthing the star-route frauds, he has already saved the country several hundred thousand dollars. On one of the star-route lines the average cost to the country of carrying the few letters was $700 per letter, while on another, the mail bag traveled back and forth regularly with nothing but a circular for contents.
-Superintendent Seaver, of Boston, says that the practice of reading trashy, sensational novels, is a much more grave and rapidly spreading evil than is generally supposed. The pupils of the public schools draw from the public library a literature that wastes their time and injures their mental tone. It is proposed that the trustees of the library shall take some action toward remedying the evil.
-The immigration for the month of May exceeds that of the same month last year by 21,000, and the number is larger than for any month previous in the history of Castle Garden. The total number of arrivals for the first five months of 1880, is 135,336. The number of arrivals for the same period of 1881, is 482,108. The number of immigrants arriving at Montreal during the month of May, was 6,600.
-A company of New York capitalists, interested in a railway project in Newfoundland, have recently closed a contract by which that government indefeasibly cedes to them 2,000,000 acres of land, and guarantees them an annual subsidy of $180,000. The 2,000,000 acres contain copper in almost unlimited quantity, and comprise nearly all the known mineral wealth of the country. That country will thus be virtually controlled by citizens of the United States.
-The law requiring saloon-keepers in cities with over ten thousand people to pay a license of $1,000 a year, and those in smaller towns to pay $500, also requiring a bond of $5,000, and that all screens be taken down, went into effect in Nebraska, June 1. It was entirely ignored by the Omaha liquor men, who propose to fight the law on the ground of unconstitutionality. The liquor men throughout the State have organized, and raised a large sum of money to pay legal expenses, and have secured the best legal talent.
-The trouble in Ireland increases every day. Parnell advises the tenants to refuse to pay their rents, and the police, assisted by the military, are daily making evictions, but meet with severe resistance. Serious riots are occurring, and many outrages are committed. Men who have been witnesses of the three great agitations in Ireland during the past 40 years, say that this is by far the most formidable. It is believed from the universality of the movement, its widespread ramifications, and its perfect organization, that the mere suppression of the Land League as a means of public meeting would not stop the agitation. The climax must certainly be reached soon.