News and Miscellany by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 8, 1912

News and Miscellany

By Editor

Notes and clippings from the daily and weekly press

— Congress recently passed the Alaskan Civil Government Bill, establishing a legislature and partial home rule in the Territory.

— American railways carried 997,409,882 passengers during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1912. This is an increase over any previous record, but there was a falling off in the number of tons of freight handled, only 1,781,637,954 tons being recorded.

— The following report comes from Lima, Peru: A destructive earthquake occurred on the morning of July 24 at Piura, capital of the department of Piura, the most northerly of Pacific departments. The shock lasted forty seconds, and the city is said to be almost in ruins.

— On July 27, seven huge gas balloons, manned by the premier pilots of America, ascended from the aviation field at Kansas City, Mo., in a race to determine what three of the number shall compete with foreign sportsmen in the international balloon contest at Stuttgart, Germany, this fall in an effort to regain for America the James Gordon Bennett trophy lost last year.

— In the great German rescue organization for drunkards, the Blue Cross League, there are now 37,876 members, of whom 9,530 were formerly notorious drunkards.

— In the past thirty years more than 3,000 acres of England's coast have slipped away into the sea. The county of Yorkshire has been the chief sufferer, losing about 800 acres.

— A bill restricting the sale of absinth has passed the French senate. If the bill finally becomes a law, France will join Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland in recognizing the demoralizing effects of this beverage. The increase of absinth drinking in France has been paralleled by an increase in crimes of violence. In 1911 it is said that fifty-three per cent of the persons tried for murder were devotees of absinth.

— Eight hundred striking miners, armed with rifles, riddled the mining town of Mucklow, in the Paint Creek valley, in West Virginia, after daybreak on the morning of July 26, killing a Baldwin guard, employed to protect the coal properties, where a strike has been in progress since early in April. Retaliating Baldwin guards combed the mountainsides, where the armed strikers were hidden, with a machine gun. Fleeing residents of Mucklow stated that more than 5,000 shots were fired by the striking miners.

— Great Britain has filed strong protests against the passage of the bill fixing rates for the Panama Canal, now pending in the United States Congress. Two points in the bill seem especially objectionable to the British government. These they claim would, if passed, violate our treaty with that nation. They are the provision for American ships to use the canal free of payment of tolls, and the item forbidding the use of the canal by ships owned by railroads that come within the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

— Mutsuhito, the one hundred twenty-first emperor of Japan, and probably the greatest man the isles of Nippon have produced, died at Tokio, July 30, from acute nephritis. When the end came, he had been unconscious for twenty-four hours. Yoshihito, crown prince of Japan, automatically became emperor immediately on his father's death, and was at once proclaimed as ruling mikado; but he will not be crowned for several months, or not until the period of mourning is passed, the length of which will be decreed by the elder statesmen.

— The indications are that the rebellion in Mexico has practically collapsed, so far as centrally directed control is concerned. The rebels have been beaten at all points where fighting has taken place. It is feared, however, that an era of guerrilla warfare is to take place. Orozco, who has been at the head of the rebel movement, announces that his followers will do what they can in scattered bands to harass the government. General Huerta, commander-in-chief of the federal forces, has issued a proclamation of amnesty to all rebels who surrender within thirty days, the consul at Chihuahua reports. Officials of the Madero government believe that this plan will prove effective in disrupting the forces of Orozco. There are hundreds of disgruntled rebels who are tired of the losing struggle, and dissatisfied with the tactics of the rebel leader.

— Discovery of the bubonic bacilli was made in New Orleans on July 27 by federal and city health authorities. The bacteria of the dread plague was found in a rat caught on the water-front.

— The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad has announced that it expects to electrify 560 miles of its lines within eighteen months. At present about 800 miles of American railways are working electrically.

— Sworn statements showing that the annual graft collected by high police officials in New York City from gambling-houses and other illegal resorts has amounted within the last year to $2,400,000 have recently been made public in connection with the investigation of the murder of Rosenthal, a noted gambler.

— James Thorp, an athlete of the Carlisle Indian School, who went to Sweden to participate in the Marathon Olympic games, has proved himself the greatest all-round athlete in the world. He scored 8,412 points out of a possible 10,000, in ten events, including running, hurdling, throwing the weights, vaulting, and jumping.

— Caught like rats in a trap when water rushed into the manway of Superba No. 2 mines, at Evans station, three miles north of Uniontown, Pa., on the afternoon of July 24, following a cloud-burst, thirteen men were drowned, and thirty-seven escaped after a most harrowing experience. The men were drowned about 4,000 feet from the mouth of the mines, their only avenue of escape. The majority of the victims were married, and had large families.

— After three years of most searching and complete investigation of the methods and rates of the various express companies, the Interstate Commerce Commission has ordered a drastic reform. The report covers 600 printed pages, and involves the examination of more than 600,000,000 express rates in effect in this country, millions of way-bills, financial operations, and business methods of thirteen great companies, and calls for reductions averaging fifteen per cent in rates.

— Five quarts of ice-cream per capita are consumed by the American people each year at present. This is more than double the quantity that sufficed in 1906. Coincidentally with this increase have come inventions for avoiding the economic waste of freezing ice-cream by the ordinary mixture of ice and salt, 3,000 pounds of ice and 800 pounds of salt being required to freeze 100 gallons of ice-cream by this method. Artificial refrigeration and electricity are employed in the new devices.

— It is estimated that over 1,000,000 tons of sulphur are deposited every year in the crater of Mt. Popocatepetl. An English syndicate plans to install machinery within the crater of the volcano, so that the immense deposits can be made available. Engineers declare that an electric railway can be built to the summit of the mountain, and it is announced that such a road will shortly be constructed. The summit of Mt. Popocatepetl is about 17,794 feet above sea-level. The sulphur deposits occur within the bowl of the crater, about 500 feet below the summit. They are formed by the condensation of the vapors constantly rising from vents that lead down into the mountain.