p. 78 | Notes of News

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, January 29, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 5

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Notes of News.

—One of Brigham Young’s sons is studying law in Paris.

—The centenary of the establishment of Sunday-schools is to be celebrated June 28 to July 4, 1880.

—Germany used more than $5,000,000 worth of tobacco last year.

—The pope’s new paper, the Aurora, is really under the control of the Jesuits.

—Queen Victoria’s full baptismal and family name is Victoria Alexandrina Guelph.

—The Russians intend to build another ice palace this winter. They built one in 1740.

—The famine in Ireland grows more formidable. One death from starvation is reported.

—A recent fire in Hakodadi, Japan, destroyed about half of the city, and made 15,000 people homeless.

—The longest reign recorded in modern history is that of Louis XIV. of France, which was 72 years.

—The religion of the Mohammedans requires them to drink no whisky, and enjoins personal cleanliness. So far, good.

—A proposition is to be submitted to Congress, for the establishment of an experimental tea-farm, probably in South Carolina.

—Emperor William of Germany is the oldest reigning sovereign. He was born in 1797, became King of Prussia in 1861, and Emperor of Germany in 1871.

—As centennial celebrations are the fashion, an exchange proposes for consideration a commemorative meeting on the one-hundredth anniversary of the dark day, May 19.

—Messrs. Tiffany & Co., of this country, have been appointed “Jewelers and Silversmiths to H. R. H., the Prince of Wales.” This is a tribute to American taste and skill.

—The English National Lifeboat Association saved 21 vessels and 637 lives last year. Since its formation, it has contributed to the saving of 26,906 shipwrecked persons.

—A Presbyterian church in Philadelphia burned last December, entailing a loss of $100,000. A fair was being held to raise money to pay for an organ, and the evergreens caught fire.

—A statistician gives the number of ministers in Great Britain as follows: Protestant Episcopal, 25,163; Congregational, 5,266; Presbyterian, 4,951; Methodist, 3,969; total, 39,349.

—A correspondent of the Evangelist asserts that there were added to the Presbyterian churches of this country in 1876, 70,500 members; in 1877, 61,700; in 1878, 53,000; and in 1879, 49,000.

—The Cunard Company intend to start a line of steamers between Liverpool and Bombay and Calcutta. A great saving of time will thus be gained between New York and Bombay and Calcutta.

—Mohammed Jan, the leader of the latest insurrection in Afghanistan, is advancing on Cabul with 25,000 warriors; another chief, with 20,000 more, is moving in the same direction to co-operate with him.

—With the exception of the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Sweden, Edward III. of England was the common ancestor of all the present sovereigns of Europe, and also of the Emperor of Brazil, the only emperor in the Western Continent.

—An educated Japanese can acquire a competent knowledge of the English language in one or two years, while to learn his own language takes 10 years; hence there is a report that the Japanese intend to adopt the English language in place of their own.

—Religious liberty is making progress even in Spain. The Governor-General of Fernando Po issued an order closing the Protestant schools there, and expelling the missionaries; and this led to a royal order, not only disapproving of the Governor-General’s action, but even suppressing the allowance of public money made for the support of the Roman Catholic missions.

—A dispatch dated Jan. 21 gives the particulars of a terrible explosion in the Lovett colliery, near Newcastle, Eng. There were 77 men in the pit, nearly all of whom, it is believed, will perish. Some have been taken out of the pit alive, but burned and mangled in a horrible manner. A fire is raging in the mine, and another explosion is feared.

—According to Professor Egleston, of the Columbia College School of mines, the annual production of gold has decreased about 44 per cent during the past 30 years, and is now about $100,000,000 worth annually. All the gold in the world would make a pile only 45 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 25 feet high.

—Havana was agitated Friday night, Jan. 23, by an earthquake, the first experienced there since the settlement by the Spanish. The shocks are reported to have been quite severe, causing great alarm, although lasting only two seconds. No loss of life or damage to property at Havana is reported, but a few miles distant a number of buildings were destroyed.

—The first American patent was issued to Samuel Hopkins, at New York, July 31, 1790, for an improved process of making potash and pearlash. The document is now in the possession of a gentleman in Ohio; it is signed by George Washington, and certified by Attorney-General Randolph. The whole number of patents issued up to the close of 1879, is over 223,000.

—The Boston Herald of Jan. 10 contains an account of a “milkman’s ring” in the city of Cambridge. Some preparation is used by which the milk is adulterated, and made to appear much better in quality than it really is; and yet the work of adulteration is so skillfully done that no chemist can detect it. These milkmen combine, and have just been defeated in an attempt to drive an honest dealer from the field.

—At one time it appeared that the question of supremacy in Maine was settled, and that peace reigned; but last Friday a Fusionist plot to seize the capitol was discovered, and several companies of soldiers were ordered to Augusta to protect that building. Men are drilling all over the State; but the Republicans hope, by being prepared for any emergency, to preserve public quiet.

—An exchange credits the Boston Journal with the story that a wealthy family in New York City recently buried a favorite dog in a rich, cloth-covered casket, with velvet trimmings and solid silver plate and handles. The dead animal was wrapped in white satin, with white ribbons around the neck. It was buried in the family vault, six carriages containing the friends of the dog following the remains to the cemetery. We are led to ask, What next in the line of infatuation and folly?

—On the 26th of December, a terrible conflagration—the third in 7 years—occurred in Tokio, Japan. The flames swept over miles of ground, and rendered 50,000 persons homeless and destitute. The actual loss of life cannot be ascertained, but it is supposed to be not less than 100. Many died from exposure and cold, as the night succeeding the fire was exceptionally bitter. The people have been prejudiced against fire-brigades, but it is hoped measures will now be taken to organize one.

—The “Year Book of the Methodist Episcopal Church,” just published, gives the following statement of the strength of that church on July 1, 1879: Conferences, 96; itinerant preachers, 11,453; local preachers, 12,492; lay members, 1,696,837; church edifices, 16,721; parsonages, 5,599; value of church edifices, $66,639,990; value of parsonages, $8,603,293; Sunday-schools, 19,925; Sunday-school teachers and officers, 214,698; Sunday-school scholars, 1,543,386; infant baptisms during the year, 55,076; adult baptisms, 64,531; presiding elders, 444.

—The following is from the Christian at Work of Jan. 15: “The Freeman’s Journal—no slight misnomer, by the way—is shocked that one Roman Catholic priest of the archdiocese of Boston should have ‘publicly thanked a batch of infidel preachers’ for promoting his election to a public-school board, and that another priest of the same Archdiocese should have referred to Leo XIII. as ‘the old gentleman in the Vatican.’ The Boston Pilot, the accredited organ of Archbishop Williams, is politely referred to as formerly having been ‘under less infidel direction,’ and it wants to know if more must be said to stop this scandal. What a pity our amiable contemporary couldn’t have his own way, and work out his own sweet will on such abominable sinners!”