SECULAR by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 26.

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SECULAR.

By Editor

—About 1,700 cases of small-pox have been reported in England.

—A young man, aged 25 years, died of leprosy at New Orleans, on the 22d ult.

—A large planing-mill at Red Bluff, Cal., was burned June 29; loss, $70,000.

—The Pigeon Indians, in northern Montana, are said to be rapidly dying for lack of food.

—The socialists in Vienna, Austria, are reported to be openly threatening the Government.

—The United States Cremation Company has purchased a site in New York for a crematory.

—Work has been commenced in earnest, at Berkeley, on the California and Nevada Narrow Gauge Railroad.

—A car load of new wheat from Texas, in good milling order, was sold at auction last week, in St. Louis, for $1.21 per bushel.

—The Dominion Government has granted the Canadian Pacific Railroad permission to carry Montana cattle over its line in bond.

—A cholera epidemic is reported at Toulon, France. The Spanish and Italian Governments have ordered strict quarantine against French vessels.

—Baltimore is improving in some respects; a man there was recently sentenced to three months' imprisonment and $25 fine for lying in a horse-trade.

—Twenty-five Mormon missionaries, with 501 converts, comprising 401 Scandinavians and 100 English, arrived at New York on the 23d ult., en route for Utah.

—The tenth annual Sunday-school festival and picnic took place at Woodward's Garden, San Francisco, on the 26th of June. The crowd was estimated at 15,000.

—Lewis Keckley, who was supposed to have been burned to death in his dwelling at Cornelius, Or., has been arrested in Ashland, for attempting to swindle life insurance companies.

—Recent advices from Queretaro state that eighteen men engaged in placing obstructions on the track of the Mexican Central Railroad were captured and shot within two days.

—A colored men's national convention for the purpose of considering the material, educational, and political interests of the colored people of the United States of America, will meet at Richmond, Va., on July 8.

—A severe hail-storm occurred in the southern part of Russia June 25. Hailstones fell as large as goose-eggs, damming rivers, and flooding the country. Many houses were destroyed, and as far as heard from forty persons were killed.

—By the breaking of the levees around Union and Roberts Islands, San Joaquin County, Cal., several thousand acres of excellent grain, ready for harvest, have been destroyed by overflow. This is the second destructive break this season.

—Steamer racing across the Atlantic Ocean is coming in vogue. It is in the memory of men not very old, when that kind of contestant gambling on the Western rivers became so destructive to life and property as to demand suppression by law.

—While sawing a log recently in a Mississippi mill, the workmen were astonished to see the log suddenly take fire and the machinery stop. Examining the saw, they discovered that every tooth was gone, and on splitting the log a cannon-ball was found buried in the heart.

—Gov. Stoneman and other prominent citizens of this State have issued an appeal for aid in the work of restoring the old adobe church of the Mission San Carlos at Monterey, to be preserved as a monument to its founder, Father Junipero Serra. The mission was established August 28, 1784.

—Thomas Walling recently met his wife at Muncie, Ind., for the first time since 1849. At that time he left her and three small children, and departed for California. She did not hear from him after 1852. Supposing him dead, she has since been married twice, and is now a widow.

—A number of Jews who had fled from Russia to the island of Cyprus to avoid persecution, have been returned to Odessa, as destitute subjects, and are being sent to the interior.

—There is a promise of better days in Ireland. The Land Commission has agreed upon a reduction in rentals, which will amount to about $15,000,000 this year. This amount distributed amongst the people will be considerable relief.

—Taintor and Holt, bankers of New York City, have given a careful analysis of the decline in speculative securities of the country, beginning with the assassination of Garfield in 1881. They show that there has been an aggregate depreciation of about $1,500,000,000—and still the tendency is downward.

—Last week, as the usual crowd of boys gathered around a circus tent in this city, and became, as usual, somewhat annoying, a performer, known as "the man with the iron jaw," threw an iron bar into the crowd. The missile struck one little fellow on the head, and fractured his skull. He will probably die; in the meantime the circus man is in jail, and refused bail.

—A most destructive rain-storm occurred throughout western Maryland and the Cumberland Valley on the night of June 25. A telegraphic dispatch says: "For several hours the rain poured as though hundreds of cloud-bursts had let their torrents out upon the earth." The loss in houses, crops, farm implements, live stock, etc., is said to be immense, together with some loss of human life, but to what extent is not yet known.

—Secretary Chandler has written a caustic letter to the members of the court-martial who recently acquitted Lieutenant Field of the navy, charged with drunkenness. He says no head of the department would ever venture to send Field to sea; that they have failed in their duty; and if officers will not condemn those of their own corps for drunkenness, the Legislative branch of the Government will in some way "stamp out the vice of alcoholism among officers of the navy."

—A young man at Vincennes, Ind., two weeks ago shot and killed a young married woman who refused to marry him because she had not yet procured her divorce. A few days afterward citizens congregated at the jail and took him out and hanged him to a telegraph pole. He requested them to hang him on the spot where he had committed the deed. He said he was sorry for the crime, and, strangely enough, asked that his mother be told that he could not meet her in Heaven.

—Sacramento is just agitated over the question of licensing houses of ill-fame. This is in direct line with the predictions of the Mail. It is now nearly a year since faro was recognized by the municipal authorities of that town as a legitimate industry, and was taxed the same as meat markets and drug stores. We foresaw then the coming of a time when all other social evils would be fostered with a view to revenue.—Stockton Mail. How long will it be before murder is thus "regulated"?

—The brig Morning Star, the missionary vessel of the American Board, which has done duty in the Pacific waters for about twenty years, has been totally wrecked on the island of Kusac. A new and larger vessel is being built, intended to take her place, but until that is finished, another will have to be chartered, as many of the Pacific mission stations depend for supplies upon the regular trips of the missionary brig. The new vessel is to be provided with steam apparatus as well as sails.

—A correspondent of the San Francisco Bulletin, writing from Constantinople, says: "The Turkish Government does not fear America, and it does not care to please those whom it does not fear. For a time our people, when they wanted any favors of the Government here, would apply to the English officials, who are backed by iron-clads, and, as a matter of courtesy, they would act for them. But the Turk is finding this out and the artifice no longer succeeds. Gen. Wallace, our Minister, has tried to protect the rights of American citizens, but he finds his position so embarrassed in trying to do this, and having nothing back of him—no cannon or bayonets close at hand to make his efforts effective—that he has asked permission to return to Washington. It is said, to have an interview with the home Government. It is to be hoped that our country will adopt a more vigorous policy in the East, and that American citizens may not be compelled to seek the aid of foreign powers that make themselves respected by the Turk." A recent dispatch, however, of a later date than the above, represents the Porte as disposed to be very friendly to this Government, and full of liberal promises.