News and Notes | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 24, 1882

News and Notes.

—Senator Ben Hill, of Georgia, died at Atlanta, Aug. 16, in his sixtieth year.

—San Francisco has a "Woman's Protective League," the object of which is to furnish employment to working girls.

—The British are now occupying Port Said, and have forbidden entry to merchant vessels at both ends of the Suez Canal.

—The twentieth session of the State Normal School at San Jose, Cal., opened last week with 459 students in attendance.

—The Iowa State Register is very severe on those prohibition advocates who are grossly intemperate in the use of tobacco.

—Governor Foster says it costs Ohio $3,000,000 a year to support its poor, and that $2,500,000 of that is directly chargeable to the liquor traffic.

—Engineer Melville, of the lost Jeanette, has succeeded in finding the dead bodies of DeLong and his companions, and will return to this country in a few weeks.

—News from Peru states that the war is becoming one of extermination. The excesses of Chilean troops in the interior has excited the populace, who are rising against the troops.

—The Northern Pacific Railway has completed two additional sections of its road. One is in Idaho, and the other in Montana. The two sections cover about 140 miles.

—A masked man stopped three little boys in Oakland, one night last week, and presenting a pistol, demanded their money. He received one dime as the reward of his courageous act.

—The village of Lindeburden, West Prussia, has been burned, and 200 persons rendered homeless. Only one house was saved, and the crops, which had just been harvested, were destroyed.

—The First National Bank of Kewanee, Ill., was robbed in open day, Aug. 14, by two men, who locked the cashier and his assistant into the vault while they secured $20,000 and walked off.

—Agricultural distress is assuming alarming proportions in Andalusia, Spain, in consequence of the poor harvest and want of labor. Frequent collisions occur between the peasantry and the police.

—Persons found guilty of outrageous assaults in Ireland, are given heavy punishment. Three men were sentenced ten, fifteen, and twenty years' imprisonment, respectively, and another to imprisonment for life.

—The great scarcity of corn is causing serious trouble in Nicaragua. The dryness of the season threatens a famine. The September crop, upon which the people are entirely dependent for food, it is feared will be a total failure.

—The Western Distillers' Association passed a resolution at Chicago favoring the enforcement of Sunday observance laws and judicious license laws, and opposing the policy of the saloon men in uniting with political parties for the purpose of advancing their interests.

—Private telegrams received in London say that the troubles in Corea have culminated in a general insurrection, and the king and queen have been assassinated. The Japanese Legation was attacked by natives belonging to the anti-foreign party. A Japanese man-of-war has been dispatched to Seoul River.

—An attempt was made, Aug. 13, to wreck a passenger train on the Pittsburg and Lake Erie Railroad. Over a thousand men, women, and children were on board, returning from a picnic. A large beam was discovered on the track just in time to prevent the train from being thrown down a bank forty feet high.

—A destructive tornado visited Bangor, Me., Aug. 15. The rain fell in sheets, and was accompanied by incessant thunder and lightning. Buildings were blown down; roofs taken off; chimneys demolished, and signs and awnings carried away. A vast amount of damage was done to orchards. The loss is between $50,000 and $100,000.

—The National News states that petitions are increasing from Chambers of Commerce throughout Germany to Bismarck in regard to the indemnification of German merchants who suffered by the riots in Alexandria, and the National Zeitung adds that the question of the amount of the compensation may form the subject of discussion between the German and Egyptian Cabinets hereafter.

—In 1872 not less than 53,000 Government schools were established in Japan, conducted on European principles, the average of schools being one to every 640 inhabitants. In two years the number of schools was augmented until the pupils exceeded 400,000. Two years ago there were 2,319,000 pupils, and, from such accounts as may be gathered, last year the total number was near 3,000,000. The number of girls attending school is very small in proportion to the boys.

—The certified copy of the amended law giving the Government power to fill vacancies in county and territorial offices in Utah has been received. The county officers of twenty-four counties, from Probate Judge to Justices of the Peace, are to be appointed. The church organ, after receiving instructions from John Taylor, advocates vigorous resistance to this law. The Mormons have employed four of the leading lawyers of Salt Lake City, and have raised $10,000 for the purpose of fighting the law.

—E. Dwyer Gray, of Dublin, member of Parliament, and proprietor of the Freeman's Journal, was sentenced, on the 16th, to three months' imprisonment and £500 fine for publishing a letter accusing a jury of being drunk on the night when they found a certain prisoner guilty of murder. No time was given him to prove the truth of the charges, and the sentence is quite generally denounced as an outrage. It has aroused the indignation of the people against the Government. Gray was Lord Mayor of Dublin for 1880.

—Western Texas has been visited by heavy rains that have done much damage. The rain fall is estimated at six feet. The plains, where it is supposed never to rain, have the appearance of a sea. The flooded section begins near Abilene and extends west for nearly 300 miles, including the country from the Brazos to the Pecos River. Miles of the track of the Texas and Pacific road have been damaged, and in several places serious wash-outs have occurred. Four miles of the track west of Abilene were washed away, and trains cannot cross. Transfers have to be made. In one spot 400 yards of track and embankment were washed away and will have to be entirely rebuilt.

—The new law restricting Chinese immigration is giving the officials some trouble. The following is a specimen: The Collector of Port Townsend, W. T., asks what he shall do in the case where a Chinaman, who had enlisted in an American port as a sailor, and who has served out his term of enlistment, wants to land where he enlisted. Under the provisions of the new law, the Collector says it is clear that he shall not be allowed to land; but there is a conflict as between the new and the former law in regard to sailors. Under the shipping agreement with the Chinaman, the Captain of the vessel bound himself to land the Chinaman in an American port. If he fails to do so, he is subject to a fine under the Maritime Law. If he does land the Chinaman, he will be subject to a heavier fine under the Chinese Restrictive Act. Judge French, acting Secretary of the Treasury, says that this case is the most complicated that has been presented to him. He says he intends to refer the entire point to the next session of Congress. In the meantime he is not exactly certain what shall be done with the Chinaman in this particular case.