News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Aug 29, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— A prosperous farmer of Marysville, Ohio, eighty-one years old, took his first ride on a railroad train several weeks ago.

— There is one public library in Peking. It is the library of the Kuo Tze Chien, or School for the Sons of the Empire, an ancient university that existed 1,000 years before the Christian era. This library is of stone. On 182 tablets of stone composing it are carved all the "Thirteen Classics," the summary and essence of all Chinese culture. This stone library itself is not of the age of the School of the Sons of the Empire, but probably dates from some time late in the Mongol or early in the Ming dynasty, about 500 years ago.

— Gaston Odin, a Paris physician, recently announced that he has discovered the microbe of cancer, and has succeeded in isolating and cultivating it. He also declared that he has found an anticancer serum which, whether or not it leads to a permanent prevention or a cure, will show with certainty if the cancer parasite is present in the blood.

— The voluntary abdication of Mulai Hafid, sultan of Morocco, was officially announced last week. The latest news from that country is disquieting, and indicates fear of a general rising in the south. The tribes in the Spanish zone refuse to recognize the new sultan, Mulai Youssef, and this action on the part of the Moors in that territory is also attributed to Spanish influence.

— The rack-railroad up Mt. Pilatus, one of the loftiest peaks of the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland, is said to have the steepest grade of any road in the world not operated by cables. Rising from the western shore of Lake Lucerne, the rails ascend the precipitous side of the mountain 6,998 feet to its summit. When the road was being constructed, it was necessary to fasten spikes into the rock, against which the construction gang could brace their feet while laying the road-bed.

— From London comes this report: The crowds of Americans who came abroad hoping to escape the heat, and leaving their overcoats behind, forgot that if it were not for the Gulf Stream, England would be an ice-bound, uninhabited arctic region. The present season is almost as bad as that, for, on account of so much ice in the middle Atlantic, according to scientists, the Gulf Stream is so chilled by the time it reaches these shores that it has caused a summer such as even the oldest inhabitant can not remember.

— General William Booth, commander-in-chief and founder of the Salvation Army, died in London on the evening of Aug. 20, 1912, at the age of eighty-three years. He had been in poor health since early spring, at which time he underwent an unsuccessful operation for the removal of a cataract from his left eye. General Booth, who founded what has been termed "the greatest organized movement since the beginning of Christianity for the saving of human souls," was born in Nottingham, England, April 10, 1829. At the age of thirty-two he entered the ministry, but was not formally ordained until six years later. In the meantime he was appointed to do circuit work, and while traveling through the country was greatly pained to see the wretched condition of the poor, especially in London's slums. He could not shake off the burden that it was his duty to do what he could to remedy these conditions, and to this end he organized what became known as the Salvation Army, July 5, 1865. From a humble beginning in London, this great organization, fighting against sin and extreme poverty, has grown until it has 8,972 corps, circles, and societies established in fifty-six countries and colonies, with about 21,203 officers and employees. A concrete example of the work of the Salvation Army is found in the fact that during one year 6,327,249 persons were supplied with beds, and 12,000,000 fed. Bramwell Booth now becomes head of the army.

— Former President Diaz, of Mexico, is reported as being anxious to return to his country. If he can not do that, he may take up his residence in New York City.

— Dr. Belisario Porras has been elected president of the Republic of Panama for the term running from 1912 to 1916. He had no opposition, General Diaz, the candidate of the administration, having withdrawn.

— The State Department of the United States government, answering inquiries, has announced that it will not recognize the new Chinese government until it has demonstrated its stability. While this position is taken as to recognition, the department nevertheless is dealing officially with the republic.

— The importation of absinthe into the United States, and its sale in interstate commerce, has been prohibited after October 1 next by a pure-food decision signed by Secretary Wilson. "It is generally recognized," says the decision, "that this beverage is dangerous to health."

— Dr. Griffith John, missionary of the London Missionary Society at Hankow, China, recently died in London. Altogether he had passed more than fifty-five years in China. He was the first Christian missionary to reach Central China, and also was the pioneer in a number of Chinese provinces.

— Maj.-Gen. Lum Hing Wei, of the Chinese army, who is expected in New York from Chicago this week, is here to study municipal affairs and the American army. General Lum commands a division of the Chinese army, and is one of the chief advisers to the president of the Chinese republic. General Lum will spend a week in Washington, and go to West Point. He wishes to study the governments of several of the larger cities, and to inspect American soldiers.

— Acting on complaints from prominent Mexican citizens in El Paso and San Antonio that American officials at those places are in league with agents of President Madero of Mexico to impress Mexican refugees into the Madero army, the executive committee of the revolutionary party of Mexico, through Senor Juan P. Diddap, their representative at Washington, issued on August 19 a statement to the American people to the effect that any intervention by the American government to restore order in Mexico will be treated by the revolutionary party as an open declaration of war against people who are fighting their own internal troubles.

— The Senate has yielded to the demands of the House for the abolition of the pension agencies throughout the United States, and passed the $150,000,000 pension appropriation bill, with a provision for the abolishment of the agencies Jan. 31, 1913. Under the present provision, the payment of all pensions will, after the date named, be made directly from the Pension Bureau at Washington. At present the bureau has nothing to do with the actual payment to veterans, the checks going out through the hands of the eighteen district pension agencies. The change will abolish eighteen $4,000 jobs. A saving of about $250,000 in administration of the pension laws will follow.

— The Danish citizens of the United States have presented to the government of Denmark a fine park in the Rebild Hills of Jutland. The first of this month the park was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies, and is to be known as the Danish-American National Park. Several thousand Danish-American citizens were present to witness the ceremonies.

— President Taft, in a special message to Congress, recently urged the appropriation of $253,350 to strengthen the Indian medical corps, and stamp out tuberculosis, trachoma, and other contagious diseases. The death-rate in the Indian country is 35 per 1,000, and millions of white people, Mr. Taft declared, are endangered by disease among the nation's wards.

— The size of all United States currency and national bank-notes probably will be reduced by one third, and their designs revolutionized by Secretary of the Treasury MacVeagh for the sake of economics to the government, convenience to the public, and safety against counterfeiting. It is proposed to make the dimensions 6 x 2½ inches. The paper money now in circulation measures 7.28 x 3.04 inches.

— Facing a steadily rising market, the Chicago packers and the officials of the Live Stock Exchange have announced that something definite must be done officially to foster and protect the cattle-raising industry. Cattle have reached the highest prices in forty years, with no sign of reduction in sight. It is the opinion of these men that laws must be enacted by either Congress or the State legislatures to encourage the raising of cattle.

— The colored people of the country are watching most carefully the work of the last days of this session of Congress; for there is a bill now before the House calling for an appropriation of $250,000 for a national exposition, to be held next year, celebrating fifty years of Negro progress since the emancipation of the slaves by President Lincoln in 1863. The bill passed the Senate in April, and since that time has been in the hands of the House appropriations committee.

— Among its many peculiarities, South Africa includes the sneezewood tree, which takes its name from the fact that one can not cut it with a saw without sneezing, as the fine dust has exactly the effect of snuff. Even in planing the wood, it will sometimes cause sneezing. No insect, worm, nor barnacle will touch it. It is very bitter to the taste, and its specific gravity is heavier than water. The color is light brown, the grain very close and hard. It is nice-looking wood, and takes a good polish.

— Leading aural experts of the world, attendants at the closing session of the International Congress of Otologists recently held in Boston, Mass., listened to an address from the lips of Miss Helen Keller, the deaf and blind young woman who has learned to talk. Miss Keller spoke first in English, making a plea for the education of the deaf, and later gave toasts in French and German. As a further demonstration of her abilities, she sang, giving the specialists the benefits of some lessons in vocal culture which she has recently undertaken.