Secular News
4%Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Jan 2, 1879
FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 5, No. 1.
Read the full editionSecular News
- Bids have been received and work is to be revived on the Northern Pacific Railroad.
- L. O. Emerson's piano manufactory in Boston has been burned.
- Hard times and great destitution are reported in England.
- December 17 greenbacks were at par in New York city. This practically antedated resumption.
- Bayard Taylor, United States minister at Berlin, celebrated as a traveler and writer, died December 19 in the 54th year of his age.
- The steamer Byzantine, from Marseilles for Constantinople, was recently lost in a collision. One hundred and fifty lives were lost.
- Chief Moses of the Umatillas, and some of his tribe, have arrested two Indians, murderers, and are assisting the whites to find others.
- Very heavy failures continue to be reported from Europe; from Wales, Sweden, etc., as well as England.
- A report dated December 19 states that an unprecedented gale had prostrated a large number of houses in Constantinople.
- Dr. Reed of Stockton has a tree of ripe oranges which are some two months earlier than the Los Angeles variety.
- Cold is said to be extremely severe in the North of England, with an unusual amount of snow. The same report comes from Switzerland.
- The steamer Emily B. Souder, an unseaworthy vessel, foundered on her way from New York to the West Indies. Passengers and crew reported lost, except two persons.
- The women were allowed to vote on the lager-beer-option question at Plymouth, N. H., the other day, and the sale of the liquor was prohibited by a vote of three to one.
- A terrible storm at Aspinwall greatly damaged the Pacific Mail Company's wharf, and four vessels were lost. The water stood ten feet deep on the railroad track.
- The directors of a suspended Savings Bank of Jersey City have been threatened with death, by anonymous letters, if they do not refund to the poor depositors.
- We have seen the electric light—beautiful and bounteous. The Palace Hotel in San Francisco has it introduced at a cost of $3,500; much stronger than gas, at about one-tenth the cost per night.
- The Southern Pacific Railroad is now completed to Gila City. The first station east of Yuma will be established at a point distant twenty-six miles, and called Oroville, where side tracks, switches, and a temporary depot will be established.
- L. O. Hall, note clerk of the London and San Francisco Bank, recently stole $13,000 and decamped. Examination shows a loss of about $50,000. The old story: young man with moderate salary—spent money freely—attended theatres and other amusements—bought stocks—gone to Honolulu.
- The cold weather of the last eight or ten days, in southern California, is wholly unprecedented. None of the oldest inhabitants remember anything like it in their twenty-five or thirty-five years experience. In Sacramento, as at other places, hydrants have been frozen up, and in some places water pipes have been burst by freezing.
- Charles F. Markely, the boy who was caught robbing a store in Jersey City, said that he obtained a knowledge of the "duties" of a burglar by reading the weekly boys' papers. He was sent to the State Reform School. There ought certainly to be some way to reach the writers for and the publishers of these detestable sheets.
- A singular disaster befell the British bark Bel Stuart, off New Foundland. November 14 she was struck with a "white squall" on a quiet sea on a clear day which swept her decks. The same day, without any indications of foul weather, either by sight or barometer, a waterspout rose immediately before her, and swept across her bows, leaving her nearly a wreck.
- A woman in Springfield, Ohio, died from some mysterious disease located in the head. The symptoms had long been manifested, but no treatment had permanent effect. After her death there was an examination made, resulting in the unanimous decision that death was caused by the use, for a long period, of chemical compounds for dyeing the hair. A coating was formed over the brain, causing something like paralysis of that organ.