News and Miscellany

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Jul 25, 1912

News and Miscellany

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— The recent death of Rev. J. R. Miller, the well-known writer, brought sorrow to many throughout the English-speaking world.

— On Saturday, July 13, the United States Senate, by vote of fifty-five against twenty-eight, unseated William Lorimer, junior senator from Illinois, declaring that his election was unconstitutional.

— Michael Whalen, the only American leper on the island of Culion, in the Philippines, has been elected chief executive of the republic which the Philippine government has organized to manage the affairs of the leper colony. He is the first man to attain this distinction in the first leper republic organized in the world.

— One of Oxford University's most coveted distinctions, the Newdigate prize for an English poem, has been won by an American Rhodes scholar, William C. Greene, of Massachusetts.

— The third duma has just voted $645,000,000 to be expended in over five years on the imperial navy, which will place Russia next to England in order of expenditure, and ahead of the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and Italy.

— Again "the largest locomotive in the world" is to be built by an American locomotive company. This one will weigh 540,000 pounds, will have sixteen driving-wheels, and will push freight-cars up a steep grade in West Virginia, permitting the use of much heavier trains than at present.

— Horrible atrocities marked the recent capture of the city of Litang, in the province of Szechuen, China, by Tibetans. Many women and children were burned alive or otherwise slaughtered. The garrison defended the city for an hour, and then fled, leaving seventy dead lying in the streets.

— Robert Barrett Widemann Browning, son of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, died on July 8, at his home in Asolo, Italy. He was born in Florence in 1849. His mother is buried there, while his father sleeps in Westminster Abbey. He was an artist and poet, and made his summer home in Venice.

— The unruly Colorado River, which a few years ago broke away from its channel and put the Salton Sea on the maps, but was afterward induced to return to its accustomed bed, now threatens a new outbreak in the old direction. A national appropriation will be needed to check the river's vagaries, by strengthening the restraining dikes.

— Serious uprisings have taken place in Portugal, which are believed to be part of the organized attempt on the part of the royalists to overthrow the republic. In northern Portugal the situation is causing the government grave concern. Fighting has taken place, the royalists being well armed. It is believed that the movement is being financed in Spain by the Carlists.

— The executive order which will completely change the design of the United States five-cent piece probably will be issued by President Taft within a few weeks. The figure of a buffalo has been selected for the nickel's face, to displace the goddess of liberty, because, it is explained, the buffalo is peculiarly an American animal. The goddess of liberty is on several other United States coins. The thought of the buffalo suggests the Indian, and for that reason an artistic head of a red man will adorn the reverse side of the new piece of money.

— On July 16 the United States Senate passed the following resolution as a rebuke to presidential influence in controlling votes of the members of that body: "Resolved, That any attempt on the part of a president of the United States to exercise the powers and influence of his great office for the purpose of controlling the vote of any senator upon a question involving a right to a seat in the Senate, or upon any other matter within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Senate, would violate the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution, and invade the rights of the Senate."

— The country was again disgraced by a prize-fight at Las Vegas, N. Mex., July 4, between Jack Johnson, colored, and Jim Flynn, the victory being given to Johnson.

— The ice-cream season being now at its height, caution, according to a United States Public Health Bulletin, should be exercised in seeing that only a pure, fresh article of this kind is purchased. Ice-cream cones and hokey-pokey especially should be severely scrutinized. The bulletin states that insanitary conditions prevail in most of the ice-cream factories; of nearly fifty investigated in Washington, only three were pronounced "clean," the rest varying from "fair" to "filthy."

— It appears that as a nation we are at last learning to be sane in our patriotic celebrations. According to the most reliable statistics available at the time of going to press concerning casualties incidental to the fourth of July, there were 24 deaths and 983 injuries on that day. If we place this beside the record of previous years, the contrast is seen to be remarkable. The figures since 1908 are as follows: 1908, 163 dead, 5,406 injured; 1909, 215 dead, 5,093 injured; 1910, 131 dead, 2,792 injured; 1911, 57 dead, 1,546 injured. These are the official figures compiled by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

— Every effort is being made by the public health officials to stamp out the bubonic plague, which appeared about a month ago in Porto Rico, and later in Cuba. War on bubonic plague means war on rats, and so the resources of the men who have conquered the diseases of the tropics were at once directed in a scientific campaign against rats in Porto Rico, Cuba, and the seaports of the United States. Seventy men and four officers are fighting the plague in Porto Rico, and twenty-five men and five officers are guarding the exits of the island, that the disease may not be carried to the United States. Two officers of the public health service are at Havana, inspecting vessels, ordering fumigation, and examining passengers and freights. All passengers from the plague zone to the United States must be seven days on the way, or be held that long for observation. Every port on the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean is protected against infection.

— Nine of the accused Camorrists, who have been on trial at Viterbo, Italy, for nearly a year and a half, were declared guilty of murder, on July 8, while the remainder of the band were found guilty of belonging to a criminal association. The condemned men were sentenced to imprisonment varying from thirty years to three. Wild scenes accompanied the pronouncing of sentence. Few have believed that the Italian jury and court would have the courage to condemn the criminals. It was on March 11, 1911, that the examination of witnesses began. This was preceded by a preliminary investigation of five years. The cause of the trial was the murder of Gennaro Cuocolo, a Camorrist, and of his wife. Their killing was said to have been a Camorrist execution. An entire regiment of infantry was sent to Viterbo to surround the court. During the trial two companies of infantry, 150 carbineers, and 50 detectives have been constantly on duty. The trial has cost the state more than $500,000. In all, over 700 witnesses were heard.