p. 334 | Notes of News

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, May 20, 1880

FromThe Review and Herald, Vol. 55, No. 21

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Notes of News.

—The Afghans are still giving the British trouble.

—There are about 50,000 Chinamen on the Pacific coast.

—Mr. Gladstone, the new English Premier, is a high-church Episcopalian.

—It is said on good authority that 60,000 pagans embraced Christianity during 1878.

—Madrid is greatly excited over rumors of a filibustering expedition to Cuba.

—There are now about one-fifth as many Chinese as native Hawaiians in the Sandwich Islands.

—Terrible and destructive forest fires were, at last accounts, still raging in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

—The population of Jerusalem is summed up as follows: 13,500 Jews, 7,000 Mohammedans, and 5,000 Christians.

—The immigration to this country is so great that several ocean lines have been obliged to put on extra steamers.

—The St. Petersburg Golos thinks that something besides words will be necessary in dealing with the Porte.

—It is believed that the policy of the Gladstone Ministry toward Ireland will be to adopt ameliorative measures.

—The total strength of the German army will exceed 2,000,000 men, when the plans of the War Ministry are fully carried out.

—At Blackburn, England, 25,000 factory hands are on a strike. Many of them are anxious to resume work at the old wages.

—More than 100 pounds of giant powder exploded in a blacksmith shop at Central City, D. T., on the morning of May 11, killing three men.

—San Luis, a village in the neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, has been entirely destroyed by fire. Seven persons perished in the flames, and 3,000 were left without shelter.

—Investigation into the affairs of the First National Bank of Augusta, Me., reveal the fact that the late cashier, who committed suicide Feb. 3, was a defaulter for over $30,000.

—According to the report of the Board of Education, about 20 per cent (over 10,000) of the children in Rhode Island did not attend any school last year.

—Since Jan. 1, about 2,000 tavern-license bonds have been issued in Philadelphia, nearly all of which were forged. Several of the guilty parties have been indicted.

—It is computed that 3,500,000 copies of the 800 daily journals published in this country and Canada, are circulated daily.

—A detachment of the Salvation Army is to be sent to France under the direction of the elder daughter of Wm. Booth, the Commander-in-chief.

—By a recent decision of the British House of Lords, it is practically left with the bishops to decide how far ritualistic vagaries shall be carried.

—The greater part of Western Hungary has been devastated by a severe hailstorm. Towns and villages were destroyed, and vines, fruit-trees, and green corn crushed to the earth.

—On the 10th inst. a destructive storm passed through portions of Illinois. At Arrowsmith it assumed the form of a cyclone, and destroyed much property.

—Serious riots have occurred in France in connection with the strikes. In one instance 30,000 men participated in the disturbances. Danger is apprehended from the communists.

—While some laborers at Baltimore were engaged in breaking up a quantity of condemned shrapnel shells, on the 11th, an explosion occurred which resulted in killing six persons and wounding two others.

—In view of the complications with China, the Russian Government has telegraphed orders to the authorities beyond the Ural Mountains to place all strategical roads in condition for the passage of troops and stores.

—The reduction of the public debt during the month of April was over $12,000,000, and during the last 10 months it has been over $59,000,000. The interest-bearing debt of the country is now over $1,747,000,000.

—It is an evidence of the growing sense of uneasiness in the European capitals that in concluding all extradition treaties with other powers, Germany now insists upon clauses providing for the surrender of regicides.

—The statistics for the year 1876 show that 5,567 Frenchmen committed suicide during that year. It is estimated that not less than 200,000 have perished by their own hands since the beginning of the present century.

—There is a report that the Standard Oil Company, the great American petroleum corporation, has invested $1,000,000 in oil lands on the Caspian Sea, and $250,000 in oil lands in Holstein.

—Mayor Kalloch, of San Francisco, has been obliged, as President of the Board of Supervisors, to listen to and put to vote resolutions pronouncing him unfit for his office, and to declare them passed.

—The Methodist missionaries in China have united in requesting the General Conference to postpone the election of native bishops until the church in China and Japan shall be self-supporting.

—The native Christians of New Hebrides, an island in the Southern Ocean, have recently shipped to London 3,700 pounds of arrowroot. This offering is to make payment for an edition of the Old Testament, as it is now being used in their language.

—Speaking of the cyclones that have recently visited portions of Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois, Harper’s Weekly calls attention to the fact that these tornadoes are becoming annual events, similar storms having occurred in 1877, 1878, and 1879.

—The Chinese children of California are not permitted to attend the public schools, though the parents pay $250,000 of school taxes every year. But in San Francisco 1,500 Chinese boys and girls are attending private schools and receiving instruction in the English language.

—France is discussing a bill to repeal the law of 1814 requiring the celebration of Sundays and holidays. As the penalties of this law are never enforced, it is thought best to remove it from the statute book, and leave the question of observance to individual consciences.

—The Secretary of the English Baptist Missionary Society says that since the beginning of modern missions the Bible has been translated into 212 languages, spoken by 850,000,000 human beings. All this is the work of missionaries; and 39 of the languages referred to never had a written form until the missionaries created it.

—Potter Co., Pa., has this honorable report: At the recent quarter-sessions of the Court, the district attorney had no bills to present to the grand jury, the sheriff had no criminals in charge, and the directors of the poor no paupers to support. We are prepared to anticipate the remainder of the report, viz., that no licenses to sell intoxicating liquor had been granted in this county.

—In the cable dispatches of May 12 a speck of war is clearly discernible, in the announcement that 4,000 horses, 6,000 Martini rifles, and a large quantity of cartridges, have been landed at Scutari for the use of the Albanians. The Albanian forces are reported as holding large territory, and the Turks are everywhere fraternizing with them.

—Italian physicians have been investigating the peculiar condition of the miners who worked in the St. Gothard tunnel, and have found that when they were laboring in remote galleries, animalculæ resembling trichinæ were engendered in their internal organs. The malady produced deplorable effects, and the workmen often became confirmed invalids.

—United States Marshall Poole recently attempted to serve writs of ejectment on settlers in Tulare and Fresno counties, Cal., who occupy lands claimed by the railroad companies. The settlers, who are banded together for mutual protection, and are determined not to give up the land, resisted the execution of the writs, and in the affair four men were killed and two wounded.

—In Germany the practice of smoking has been carried to such excess by the youth, that it is believed to have injured their constitutions and incapacitated them for the defense of their country. Hence the government has taken the matter seriously in hand; and in some towns lads under 16 years of age are forbidden to smoke on the streets, under penalty of fines and imprisonment.

—On the 9th of May, Rixford, a town in the oil regions of Pennsylvania, was destroyed by fire. A tank containing 25,000 barrels of petroleum was burned. On the same day a fire in Allegheny City, Pa., consumed 28 buildings, involving a loss of $125,000, and rendering 20 families homeless. On the 14th inst., the town of Milton, in the same State, was visited by the destroying element; 400 buildings were burned, several persons perished in the flames, and 3,000 people are rendered homeless.

—A pastoral from the Archbishop of Quebec has been read from all the pulpits of that city, expostulating against all excursions, pleasure-parties, and evening walks and drives, on Sundays and feast-days, denouncing them as grievous sins. Commenting on this, the Christian Weekly says, “Why should not Christians of all names now unite in seeking to restore the sanctity of the Lord’s day?” “All honor to the Archbishop for reminding his people that the divine law, with its penalty, has not been abrogated.” How about the feast days? Does the Christian Weekly indorse them, too?