p. 175 | Notes of News

The Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · November 27, 1879

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 54, No. 22

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Notes of News.

—Mr. Spurgeon has preached and published his 1500th sermon.

—Nearly a hundred lives have been lost by recent floods in Jamaica.

—Pope Leo’s new paper is to be called The Aurora, and is to appear Jan. 1.

—The distress in Montenegro is very great; one sixth of the population is almost starving.

—The rabbi of the Jewish synagogue at Strasburg has become a convert to Christianity.

—New York is to have an obelisk. It will be shipped from Alexandria, Egypt, in December.

—The Mexican government is engaged in the not unfamiliar occupation of putting down a rebellion.

—About one-half of the Boston of to-day is built upon made land, reclaimed from the tide-waters of the ocean.

—The British government has caused the arrest of three Irishmen on a charge of using seditious language.

—Forty-nine Afghans have been hanged for complicity in the massacre of Major Cavagnari and his party.

—A native Japanese publisher has received permission from the government to print an edition of Genesis in Chinese.

—In the recent terrible gale on Lake Ontario, three scows and eight tugs were lost, and 31 persons found a watery grave.

—The Belcher mine of the Comstock lode, Virginia City, Nevada, has now reached the great and remarkable depth of 2,920 feet.

—During the year ending Sept. 30, 1879, there were 843 railroad accidents in the United States, in which 182 persons were killed, and 725 injured.

—Arrangements have been made between France and the United States for the exchange of postal money orders between the two countries.

—The papal Minister of State has censured the Belgian bishops for their attacks on the constitution regarding the subject of education.

—The Chinese are about to run a line of steamers to the Sandwich Islands, with the idea of extending the route to the United States.

—A tunnel, which it is estimated will cost $2,500,000, is projected under the river Mersey between Liverpool and Birkenhead.

—The Western Michigan Methodist Conference has passed a resolution prohibiting the admission of any one into the Conference who uses tobacco in any form.

—A recent telegram states that an agreement has been reached between Germany and the Vatican. It is said that Bismarck has made important concessions.

—The steamer Faraday, with the new French telegraph cable from Brest to St. Pierre, has reached Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is laying a connecting cable to Cape Cod.

—Explorers in Alaska have discovered that the Yukon River is navigable for steamers a distance of 2,500 miles. This places it among the largest rivers in the world.

—The deepest well in the world is an artesian well near Buda Pesth, Hungary. The total depth is 3,200 feet, and the temperature of the water it yields is 165° Fahr.

—The report of the Treasurer of the United States states that the amount of bullion in the treasury has increased from $61,000,000 in 1876 to $222,807,368 in 1879.

—Of the 2,996,513 letters sent last year to the dead-letter office, 13,755 contained drafts or checks aggregating $1,100,000, and about 64,000 had $34,000 in money or stamps.

—Forty-two years ago Gov. Porter concluded the Pottawatomie treaty upon the present site of Chicago, in an Indian tent; now the city has a population of considerably over 300,000.

—It is said that the ex-Empress Carlotta is engaged in transcribing her diary of the disastrous events which culminated in her husband’s death and the dethronement of her own reason.

—In some parts of Russia, diphtheria has destroyed so large a proportion of the children, that the government has appointed a special commission to investigate the causes of the disease.

—The Romanists, with their usual wisdom, are sending missionaries into Afghanistan, three having left the Roman Catholic college near London for this “arduous and untried field of apostolic labor.”

—Under the new rule of the Post-master General that all letters not bearing the State address shall be sent to the dead-letter office, thousands of letters bearing the address, “New York City,” are lost.

—The Archduchess Christine has formally renounced her right of succession to the throne of Austria, in view of her approaching marriage with Alphonso, King of Spain, which is to take place Nov. 29.

—The Methodists are making arrangements for a mammoth national camp-meeting to be held at Old Orchard Beach, N. H., in July, 1880. It is proposed to make this a gathering of all Methodists in this country.

—The Abbe Meigne, of Paris, wants 300,000 francs as capital with which to start an expedition in search of the remains of Pharaoh’s army. The Christian at Work considers this an unprofitable and hopeless undertaking.

—The annual report of the Secretary of War shows that the expenses of the army of the United States have now reached an ante-bellum basis, and are proportionately smaller than ever before in the history of the government.

—J. V. McNamara, formerly a Romish priest, has been installed bishop of the independent Catholic church at New York. In his address he said the Romish church was a fraud and a sham, and a means of getting money from the poor.

—An Englishman, Baker Pasha, has been appointed to superintend the introduction of reforms throughout the whole of Asia Minor. His appointment seems significant of a restoration of British influence in the councils of the Porte.

—A correspondent of the Christian Weekly, writing from China, Sept. 1, said that news had come to Peking of a great earthquake in the Province of Kansuh. It was said that ten cities sank into the earth, and that water flowed in, making a great lake.

—French engineers favor the project of a tunnel under Mont Blanc, rather than the proposed Simplon tunnel, as it would be on French territory, would greatly shorten the distance between Paris and Italian cities, and would be much less costly, the estimates requiring only 75,000,000 francs against 136,000,000 for the Simplon tunnel.

—Fifty years ago, Kothah-byu, the first convert among the Karens, was baptized in Burmah. His wife was present at the 50th anniversary of his baptism, which was celebrated by the dedication of a large memorial hall for public worship. She was the first Karen woman who was baptized, yet the mission has now 438 churches, and a membership of nearly 20,000.

—Bishop Borgess, of the diocese of Detroit, has issued an appeal in behalf of the people of Ireland, in which he says that every mail from that country confirms the increasing terrors of the crisis throughout its length and breadth; that the horrors of starvation are at the door; and that a repetition of the frightful scenes of the years of famine, is not feared without reason.

—Portugal has heretofore been numbered among the most intensely Roman Catholic countries. But a decree has been issued providing for the civil registration of Protestants, and conferring upon such as shall register all civil rights and freedom from all disabilities. Since the decree was issued, there have been occasional outbreaks against Protestant missionaries, but the police have never failed, it is said, to give them help when needed.

—A rich American now residing at Rome, desiring to possess the bust of Leo XIII., engaged the services of the celebrated sculptor Tadolini. The latter, not content with a simple portrait of the holy father, went to the Vatican and asked permission of Leo XIII. to reproduce his features from the original. The pope consented. When the work was finished, Leo congratulated the artist, who asked him to trace a word on the still fresh clay. His Holiness took the burin from the sculptor, and wrote with a smile, “Leo de tribu Juda.”

—Nov. 18, a series of three terrible explosions occurred in a tunnel on the narrow-gauge railroad between San Jose and Santa Cruz, Cal., in which about 30 Chinamen were killed, and others, both white men and Chinamen, were seriously injured. There is a terrible scene of suffering and ruin all around the mouth of the tunnel. The scene of the disaster is almost on the top of the Santa Cruz Mountains; and the accident was caused by the presence of coal oil, which is very abundant in that vicinity.

—The order to the British squadron to proceed to Turkish waters has again been countermanded. There could be no more significant admission that the threat which the movement of the fleet would imply is one which Great Britain dare not make. It is an acknowledgment that the action of the Porte in opening the Sea of Marmora to the war vessels of nations inimical to British designs completely checkmated the contemplated movement, and that England shrinks from the contest which the order challenged.

—The suit which, it is announced, has been commenced by the lottery dealers against Postmaster James, of New York, is of national interest. Pursuant to the instructions of the Postmaster General, the New York postmaster stopped the mail matter of the lottery agents, and for recovery of damages thus occasioned them the suit is brought. It involves directly the question whether the Post-office Department is, by the laws and Constitution, required to furnish the lottery dealers the facilities for carrying on their business, without which that business would be hardly possible.