Secular News by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 9, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 2.

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Secular News.

By Editor

—The finding of rich gold deposits in East Tennessee is attracting much attention.

—Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, died Jan. 3, aged 78 years. He has held many important public positions.

—The Supreme Court of the United States has affirmed the constitutionality of the anti-polygamy laws.

—A man on his way to Rawlins, Wyoming, to be tried for murder, was lynched at Carbon, January 5.

—The men who burned two men in Nebraska have been arrested, are in Kearney awaiting trial.

—The thermometer showed 6° at Mobile the morning of January 6. A snow storm on the 4th lasted all day.

—Ex-Chief-Justice McKean of Utah died the 5th at Salt Lake city, aged 57. He was the Judge who imprisoned Brigham Young.

—A colored justice in Virginia has sentenced a wealthy white man to be whipped for larceny. The machine does not seem to work as it was intended.

—In four days from Dec. 27 to Jan. 1, six inches of rain fell in San Buenaventura, Cal. Both mail and telegraphic communication were suspended by the storm.

—The oil well of the Los Angeles Company, in the Sespe district, from a depth of 1500 feet is spouting oil to a hight of fifteen feet, and in such quantities as to be uncontrolled.

—A 38-ton gun burst Jan. 2, during practice on the British man-of-war Thunderer. The vessel's turret was destroyed, seven men were killed, and forty wounded.

—Several parties in Calistoga who employ Chinamen have been warned that the Mongolians must go. If they are suffered to remain the torch is threatened.

—Gen. Kauffman of the Russian army says England has gained but little in territory in the Afghan war, and has met with reverses which have been concealed by the papers.

—Distress is on the increase in England. Many thousands are supported by relief funds, and thousands more are in danger of starvation; 6,500 in Manchester alone.

—Up to the 2d ult., there had been suppressed under the Anti-Socialist law in the larger German States 153 clubs, and forty periodicals and 135 other publications had been blacklisted.

—The immense establishment of Wanamaker in Philadelphia is lighted with the electric light. The Times says his gas bill has amounted to $200 each Saturday night; electric light bill, $10,60. No wonder gas stock is depreciating.

—A heavy locomotive exploded Jan. 2, about two miles from Summit, on the Central Pacific railroad. The engineer was killed instantly; others fatally or seriously injured. The explosion was terrific, spreading ruin all around.

—Upwards of 150 failures in Glasgow and the west of Scotland are directly or indirectly traceable to the stoppage of the City of Glasgow Bank. The total liabilities of the Scotch firms who have been dragged down are $125,000,000.

—On the day of resumption the treasurer in New York city paid out $125,000 in gold, and took in $500,000. The gold brokers closed their shops in disappointment. The people did not want to carry specie when notes were just as good as specie.

—Denis Kearney recently said in a meeting in San Francisco, "When a man is elected to office in the Workingmen's party, his independence ceased." A pitiable condition for American citizens. Denis, however, remains supremely independent.

—The following letter has been received by School Director Sullivan, one of the special committe in San Francisco, to investigate the frauds in teachers' certificates: "So far I have not been molested, but if I am I shall certainly inform on your sisters, who passed a fraudulent examination, and I can prove it."

—Captain Howard, of the Pacific Mail Steamship Georgia, which was wrecked September 29, 1878, on her way from Panama to San Francisco, has been suspended for two years; the United States Inspectors deciding from testimony, that he did not navigate the vessel with proper care.

—Kentucky legalizes lotteries, and has one conducted by her own State officials, for the benefit of her State Library. Five drawings have taken place, from which $6,250,000 have realized, of which sum the library received $424,396 32. Five and three quarter millions gobbled by the managers. Shame for Kentucky.

—We are credibly informed that a gentleman whose ranch extends into a canyon on the west side of Napa Valley, four miles south of St. Helena, put up fifteen tons of ice on the last day of December. Had he commenced a day earlier, or had the rain held off a day, he might have secured fifty tons. This is probably the first ice crop of Napa Valley.

—The New Year's of 1879 was a cold one. Reports Jan. 2 give the thermometer below zero, as follows:—Omaha, nineteen; Yankton, D. T., twenty-five; St. Paul, Minn., thirty; Springfield, Ill., twenty; Chicago, twenty-three; Cleveland seven. At New York it fell twenty-five degrees from five o'clock to twelve; Louisville, navigation suspended. Reports from Watertown, Oswego, and Buffalo, say that roads were blocked and trains suspended, and in some places abandoned.