Secular News | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 20, 1879

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 44.

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Secular News.

—The Emperor and Crown Prince of Germany have left the Free Masons.

—Abd-el Kader, the famous Algerian chief, recently died at Damascus, aged 72.

—Pennsylvania has at length passed a law which is ridding the State of tramps.

—A heavy gale, Nov. 3, caused damage to shipping in Liverpool, Dundee, and at other ports.

—The diphtheria amounts to an epidemic in several districts of Russia. The fatality is dreadful.

—Five wrecks of freight trains were reported on the Pennsylvania Railroad on the night of Nov. 11.

—The north span of the bridge across the Kansas at Lawrence, was carried away by a flood, Nov. 12.

—Three spans of a bridge of the Wabash Railroad, at Meredosia, Ill., were blown down by a hurricane, Nov. 12.

—The balance of trade between this country and other nations was $269,000,000 in our favor for the last fiscal year.

—The schooner C. G. Breed, with 24,000 bushels of wheat, from Detroit, was lost, Nov. 14, together with her crew.

—The Peace Congress in Naples broke up in great confusion. Illustrating the condition of the world, against their delusive hopes.

—A treaty has been formed between Servia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro to raise an allied army, to resist encroachments of Austria.

—Contrary to the calculations of both parties, the Republicans in New York have elected their entire State ticket except the Surveyor.

—A fire at Frarbach, Prussia, between Frier and Coblentz, destroyed 60 houses, among them the town hall building, dating from the sixteenth century.

—Russia continues to make heavy arrests of Nihilists. The severity with which they are punished does not decrease their numbers or determination.

—A St. Petersburg letter to the Vienna Abend Post says: If the new British Parliament sustains Lord Beaconsfield's policy, Russia will occupy northern Afghanistan.

—A dispatch from Malta says the British fleet is ready to sail at a moment's notice. The Porte is troubled about it, and, as usual, promises any number of reforms.

—The ship Lady Octavia struck the steamer Champion, off Cape May, the morning of Nov. 8, when the steamer sunk in four minutes; thirty of the passengers and crew were lost.

—The London Times' despatch from Calcutta, says that there seems to be little doubt of the Ameer's treachery. The general opinion is that he will be sent as a State prisoner to India.

—Turkey is manifesting much distrust of England, and seeming more friendly to Russia. It is evident that the great powers have no confidence in each other, and those who look for peace are like to be disappointed.

—Mr. Morgan Brown, an Englishman, has invented a machine that will fire 300 shots a minute, and they will pierce an iron-plated vessel a distance of 1,000 yards. The French Government has ordered 500 of the machines.

—One span of a bridge across the Missouri River at St. Charles, Mo., fell on the night of Nov. 8, precipitating cars, and killing several persons. It is supposed the bridge was struck with lightning, as a heavy storm had just passed over.

—A desperate fight took place in Mexico, not from the Texas line, Nov. 9, between a party of fifty men from New Mexico and a band of 200 Indians. It lasted all day. Thirty-two of the whites were killed, and the others wounded.

—A tornado visited Western Missouri, Nov. 9, destroying a railroad bridge at Pageville, and several buildings. At Strasburg one church and three dwellings were swept entirely away, and four stores and three dwellings leveled to the ground.

—The Turkish newspapers are very violent against England. They declare that her demands are more unjust than the attempts of Russia to interfere in the Turkish administration, in resistance to which Turkey waged a great war. But an order has been issued suppressing all such newspaper expressions.

—Among the telegrams received at the Chicago reception, was the following: "Present my personal congratulations to Gen. Grant on his safe arrival to his country. I fought for his country honorably and won. I fought for mine and lost. I am ready to try it again. Death to the Union. R. TOOMBS."

—Beaconsfield's knowledge is very limited for a great statesman. Sir John A. Macdonald told him that there was a large movement from "the western provinces" into Manitoba, and he thought these provinces were our Western States, and accordingly asserted that there were thousands of our Western farmers moving into Manitoba.

—A heavy and destructive tornado passed through Crawford county, in North-western Arkansas, Nov. 8. The track of the storm was half a mile wide, and a clean sweep was made of everything in its path. Trees were twirled like straws, houses unroofed and overturned, and in places not even a sapling was left standing. One house was lifted and transported out of sight.