Notes of News | AdventAI

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 6, 1880

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 55, No. 19

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Notes of News.

—Newark, N. J., has over 1,200 saloons.

—There are 269 life-boats on the coast of the British Isles.

—The new British Parliament was formally opened April 29.

—It is said that 62,000,000 people speak the German language.

—Benson J. Lossing is at work on a cyclopedia of American history.

—There are 26,050 Sisters of Charity in the different parts of the world.

—April 29, the Czar’s 62d birthday, was celebrated by releasing 6,000 prisoners.

—The Russian districts of Volsk and Don are suffering from plague and famine.

—The Salvation Army is now at Newark, N. J., where it has enrolled 70 converts.

—Our Canadian neighbors propose to tunnel the St. Lawrence River at Montreal.

—Over 300 families have been made utterly destitute by the forest fires in New Jersey.

—It is said that Bismarck deeply and sincerely regrets the Liberal triumphs in England.

—There is a rumor that the Roman Catholics are to have four more cardinals in this country.

—The annual interest on the national debt has diminished from $143,000,000 annually to less than $82,000,000.

—A successful Sunday-school which was in operation in Vienna has been stopped by the public-school authorities of Austria.

—A late exchange states that there are now about 1,200 reliable converts to Christianity among the Chinamen on the Pacific coast.

—During the past year, 130 Indians were confirmed by Bishop Hare, of the Episcopal Church, and 73 Indian adults were baptized.

—A sod church in Kansas—one with walls of sod, roof covered with sod, and a floor of earth—costs about $10 and a few days’ work.

—Spain is troubled with revolutionary juntas, which threaten to rival the Nihilists of Russia. The government is taking measures to suppress them.

—An anchor has been fished up off the Island of Trinidad, stamped 1497, which is believed to have belonged to Columbus’s third expedition to America.

—At a recent fete held in the Vatican, Pope Leo was extolled in poems in 49 different languages, recited by scholars of the College of the Propaganda.

—Russia has removed her interdict upon the worship of Old Believers; and the churches of that faith may now be reopened, after having been closed for 40 years.

—We learn from the Advance that the authorities of Stamford (probably Stamford, Ct.) have ordered the arrest of any one selling newspapers on the streets Sundays.

—April 24, a tornado passed through Central Illinois, killing seven or eight persons, and seriously injuring many more. An immense amount of property was destroyed.

—In England and Wales, the various branches of the Methodist church provide for the spiritual wants of 3,138,000 people, about one-eighth of the entire population.

—There is a report (an official one, this time) that the King of Burmah is endeavoring to propitiate the “gods,” and secure his restoration to health, by sacrificing virgins.

—Japan is making rapid strides toward civilization. Schools are being multiplied and local elections held, to prepare the people for a representative, Parliamentary government.

—A new law has been passed in Germany, by which only one postal delivery will take place on Sundays in Berlin. A most strenuous opposition is being made by the merchants against this law.

—Later news from the storm that passed over portions of Missouri, Kansas, and Arkansas, the 18th, gives the loss of life at over 125, and the number of the seriously injured as considerably over 100.

—The city of Rochester, N. Y., has five public libraries, with an aggregate of 75,000 volumes. The union of these libraries in one general building is now urged as a measure of public convenience.

—A colored woman reputed to be 110 years old, the widow of a soldier in the war of 1812, has died recently. She was the oldest pensioner on the rolls, and had been in receipt of a pension over 60 years.

—Mr. Moody has closed the meetings he has been holding in St. Louis, and now goes to Leadville, Col., for a month’s campaign among the miners and speculators of that city. Mr. Sankey accompanies him.

—The Christian Committee at Bagdad telegraphs that a terrible famine is raging throughout Kurdistan and Mesopotamia. Immense numbers of starving Christians are seeking aid at the hands of the committee.

—There is a bill before Congress appropriating $500,000 to commemorate in suitable paintings, upon the walls of the National Capitol, the birth, life, and death of our Saviour. The paintings are to be by the great living artists of our country.

—At a recent religious service held in a theater in Florence, Italy, 3,000 people were present. A portion of the word of God was offered to any one who cared to ask for it at the door, and 1,700 copies were gone long before the crowd had dispersed.

—An artesian well near Buda-Pesth, Hungary, has been completed, which was commenced in 1868. The total depth is 3,200 ft., and the temperature of the water it yields is nearly 165° Fahr., the yield in 24 hours being from 9,500 to 44,000 gallons.

—It is said that 135,000 foreigners landed at the port of New York alone during the first three months of the year. And on all hands it is admitted that the new-comers are, as a class, an improvement on much that Europe has hitherto sent to our shores.

—In Madras, India, there is a weekly paper, published in both English and Tamil, whose object is to disseminate the ideas and philosophy of Bradlaugh, Mrs. Besant, and others of the same school. Its tone toward Christianity is that of outrageous misrepresentation and abuse.

—Dr. Hassel, of England, discovers that one may acquire disease by licking postage stamps which contain red lead in the coloring. He says that sage-green and dull red wall-papers contain arsenic as well as green ones do. The penny stamps of England are very poisonous.

—The Crown Princess of Germany has just become an honorary member of the English Institute of Painters in Water Colors, and has expressed her willingness to show her own work at the exhibitions of the society. And Karl Theodor, Duke of Bavaria, having passed a strict medical examination, has taken the degree of M. D. at a German University, and will thus be the first royal physician. Perhaps these royal personages find more pleasure in the honors they earn than in those they inherit.

—The Mennonites have introduced into Kansas a new cereal from Southern Russia, which is unaffected by drought, worms, grasshoppers, and other enemies of grain. It is said to be very fruitful, yielding 60 bushels to the acre, and for nutritive qualities to compare favorably with Indian corn, wheat, and rye; while its stalk furnishes not only fodder, but also fuel. If the statements concerning this wonderful cereal are confirmed, it will not be necessary for the government to supply the artesian wells that have been called for for irrigating the arid plains of the great West.

—April 25, a severe storm visited Macon, Miss. Two currents of air, bearing clouds charged with electricity, met over the northern part of this place. Besides the lightning, balls of fire, some of them as large as a man’s hand, were seen whirling across the clouds. The storms met near the railroad station, and that part of the town was soon in ruins. More than 20 were killed, many were wounded, and the loss of property was very great. Two bodies were found 100 yards from the house; and bolt goods were carried eight miles, and lodged in tree tops.