Notes of News | AdventAI

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 1, 1880

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 1

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Notes of News.

—In the recent floods in Spain about 3,000 people perished.

—In Upper Silesia 85,000 people are said to be destitute.

—March 2, 1880, will be the 25th anniversary of the Czar’s reign.

—The winter in France and Switzerland has been unusually severe, thus far.

—A bill providing for new forts on the Mexican frontier has passed the Senate.

—Atrocities in Burmah still continue. Five princesses have recently been murdered.

—California has 60,000 acres covered by vineyards, in which $30,000,000 are invested.

—In 1880 the Free-will Baptists will celebrate the centenary of the existence of their denomination.

—A paper recently started in Vermont announces that its “tone will be moral, though not severely so.”

—Bismarck has for some time been unable to attend to his official duties on account of severe indisposition.

—The wife of the Lord Lieutenant has appealed for subscriptions for the relief of the suffering in Ireland.

—Dispatches dated Dec. 25 indicate that the Peru-Chilian war is practically over. The Chilians are victorious.

—One quarter of the whole little army of the United States in service has been killed or wounded during this year.

—The Egyptian obelisk at Alexandria has been successfully lowered, and will soon be shipped for New York.

—Under the law allowing women in Massachusetts to vote on school matters, only 3,000 women registered in the entire State.

—A lady of Great Barrington, Mass., 88 years of age, recently attended the golden wedding of her daughter in Chicago.

—A memorial proposing the establishment of a confederation of all the governments on this continent has been presented to Congress.

—The N. Y. Tribune suggests an amendment to the National Constitution, prohibiting polygamy throughout the United States.

—An extensive bed of emery has been discovered near Peekskill, N. Y. The only other pure and marketable bed is at Chester, Mass.

—The largest library in the world is the National Library at Paris, which in 1874 contained 2,000,000 printed books and 150,000 manuscripts.

—The friends of National Reform (the religious Constitutional Amendment) held a spirited and successful convention at Mansfield, Ohio, Dec. 2 and 3.

—The Chinese have begun to leave California. For the year ending Nov. 1, 1879, the excess of departures over arrivals was 2,618. These returned to China.

—A special school of diplomacy is to be opened at the Vatican. Original documents preserved in the archives of the Vatican will form the basis of the instruction.

—France is passing through another ministerial crisis. The ministers have tendered their resignations, and De Freycinet has undertaken the task of forming a new cabinet.

—Since women paying taxes can vote for school directors in Massachusetts, smoking has been forbidden at the voting places in Boston during the morning. Why not all day?

—Several of the Reformed Dutch churches in Michigan are divided into warring factions on the subject of Freemasonry, and an extensive secession will probably take place.

—On the 24th of December the cold was very severe in Minnesota and Utah, and on the Pacific slope. In some places the spirit thermometer ranged from 40 to 58 degrees below zero.

—The “Waste-Not Society” of Brighton, Eng., composed of about a hundred young people, during the year collected £28 worth of waste paper, sufficient to support two little girls at the Orphanage.

—The railway up Mount Vesuvius has been completed, and travelers now ascend by it to the crater. “Vesuvius is grumbling at the invasion, and threatens to throw up,” says the Christian at Work.

—The public clocks in Paris are all connected, and their time verified, being set by the observatory time. It is proposed, also, to connect the clocks in private houses, so that time can be supplied like gas and water.

—The Alliance of Dec. 20, 1879, says that scarlet fever and other children’s diseases are alarmingly on the increase in Chicago. On the North Side there is scarcely a block that is not closely sprinkled with cases of diphtheria and scarlet fever.

—On one day, Dec. 18, no less than 71 vessels received grain cargoes, and the charters for wheat for Europe aggregated about 50,000 tons. Besides these, about a hundred other vessels were waiting their turn at the docks to take on grain cargoes.

—Last March an old woman was burned in a Russian village, by peasants who believed she was a witch. Recently the persons who committed the outrage were brought to trial, and three of them were convicted and sentenced to perform a small penance in church.

—The most terrible railroad accident on record is just reported from Scotland. The bridge over the firth at Tay gave way, precipitating an entire train with 300 passengers into the deep water below. It was night, and in the midst of a terrific gale. Not one was saved.

—One of the Independent’s French exchanges states that the Emperor of Austria, in response to the memorial presented by the Evangelical Alliance deputation, has caused an order to be issued giving the Protestants of Bohemia full liberty to conduct religious worship in their houses.

—The income of the Emperor of Russia is $25,000 a day; that of the Sultan of Turkey, $18,000; of the Emperor of Austria, $10,000; of the Emperor of Germany, $8,200; of the King of Italy, $6,400; of the King of the Belgians, $1,643; and of the President of the United States, $136.98.

—Nearly 1,000,000 cwt. of palm oil valued at $7,500,000 is annually exported to Great Britain from the west coast of Africa. It is used in the manufacture of soaps, perfumery, candles, and similar articles. The natives use it in the place of butter, and for cooking and lighting purposes.

—St. Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, erected at a cost of $600,000, by funds bequeathed for the purpose by the Misses Walker, has recently been consecrated by the Bishop of Edinburgh. About 300 of the clergy were present, besides a number of bishops, including all the Scotch bishops.

—The King of Holland has the largest private conservatory in the world. It contains two immense palm trees, the smaller of which weighs two and a half tons, besides a wonderful collection of tropical plants. The glass dome is ninety feet high and one hundred and eighty feet in diameter.

—Spain recently showed her jealousy of republicanism, and her distrust of the military, by refusing to let the military and their bands share in the manifestation prepared by the Murcian Relief Committee, in testimony of the gratitude of Spain to France for aid sent to sufferers by the floods.

—Edison claims that he has succeeded in producing an electric light—soft, mellow, but brilliant—which can be utilized for all purposes of illumination at a cost no greater than that of the cheapest oil. An Inter-Ocean correspondent thinks his invention “sounds the knell of the gas monopolies.”

—The political situation in Russia does not improve. The Revolutionary Committee threaten that the Czar will be removed from the throne unless their demand for a Constitution is acceded to. A feeling of insecurity and alarm is general. The police at Kieff recently surprised a secret Nihilist meeting, and captured 98 men.

—The steamer Borussia from Liverpool for New Orleans, sprang a leak on the 1st of December and was abandoned on the 2d. Nearly 200, passengers and crew, are supposed to have perished. The owners of the Borussia are confident that the steamer is still afloat, as it had water-tight compartments.

—The conquest of the restless, hardy, freedom-loving mountaineers of Afghanistan proves a very difficult task. There is a possibility, if not a probability, that the British may be compelled to meet the fanatical fury of a religious war. Gen. Roberts is receiving reinforcements; but the Inter-Ocean thinks it more probable that he will be captured than that he will retake Cabul.

—The young British Province of Queensland occupies the northeastern quarter of the Australian continent, and stretches from the northern boundary of New South Wales to the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is twelve times the size of England, twice the size of Canada, and half as large again as England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, and Spain combined. It is rich in gold.

—The discovery by the British, of Yakoob Khan’s buried treasure, at Cabul, tends to throw some light upon the inwardness of the situation in Afghanistan. The hidden treasure consisted of Russian gold, which goes to confirm the suspicions of the British, and discloses from whence came the sinews of war which have enabled the natives to repulse the forces of England at every point.

—The Michigan State Association of Spiritualists and Liberalists have purchased 80 acres of land on Goguac Lake, near Battle Creek, which they intend to fit up as a campground and summer resort. The grounds will be artistically laid out by a professional landscape gardener. A large, commodious and handsome hotel will be erected immediately, and eventually a college. It is the design to hold a camp-meeting every summer, to continue six weeks. These meetings will be attended by leading spiritualists and liberalists from all sections of the United States.

—The Illustrated Christian Weekly of Dec. 20, 1879, says: “Republicanism does not suffer as tested by the balance-sheets of the principal governments of Europe. While the Prussian deficit amounts to 62,500,000 francs, the Austrian to 32,000,000, that of Hungary to 45,000,000, that of Holland to 17,000,000, and the English floating debt has been increased by 238,000,000, France will have a surplus this year of not less than 100,000,000 francs.”

—According to a carefully prepared report, the loss of men engaged in the fisheries from the port of Gloucester, Mass., and the number of vessels wrecked, during the past year, presents a fearful record. The loss of life is unprecedented in the history of the business. In a single February gale 13 vessels went down, 143 men were drowned, 56 women were made widows, and 150 children were rendered fatherless. During the year, 30 vessels, comprising over one-tenth of the fishing tonnage of this port, valued at $118,780, sailed to return no more; and 240 lives were lost, leaving 88 widows and 219 fatherless children. There are also two vessels now absent, for the safety of which grave fears are entertained. If these do not soon return, it will add 22 more to the number lost, swelling the fearful aggregate to 264 lives.

—The clearing house returns for the week ending Dec. 19 show that at the leading commercial centers the immense volume of trade continues without any material abatement, and general activity is indicated by the figures. As compared with the corresponding week of last year, the returns show a gain at New York of 89.8 per cent; Chicago, 62.6; Boston, 55; Philadelphia, 76; Cincinnati, 21.1; St. Louis, 30.6; Baltimore, 37.9. The large increase at Philadelphia is attributed to the rapid advance in iron and renewed activity in that trade. For the week ending Dec. 26, the returns show a continuance of the extraordinary volume of business which marks the renewed prosperity of the country.