PERHAPS there is no other country among the civilized nations of the earth to-day concerning which there is so little general knowledge as the empire of Russia. This is all the more strange when we consider the prominent position it occupies in political affairs. For several years past we have read that the "Eastern Question" was troubling Europe, and that all the prominent powers of the Old World were concerned for the welfare and perpetuation of their respective Governments. In connection with this, we would read that Russia was a disturbing element, but beyond this our interest ceased; and it is doubtless safe to say that with the great majority of Americans, the investigation of Russian matters has been largely left to diplomats and statesmen, until the appearance of the recent articles in the Century magazine stimulated the minds of some others to turn in this direction. Even now, however, it is probable that we do not understand a tithe of what we might readily know concerning the diversified interests, resources, people, customs, laws, and religion of this great country. Yes, Russia is a great country, and the important part it is evidently destined to act in the great and closing drama of the history of nations should naturally turn the attention of all thoughtful minds toward it. But the readers of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES will doubtless find an additional reason for desiring information on this subject in the fact that the contributions for the present quarter from the Seventh-day Adventist Sabbath-schools of the entire world are to be used in opening up our work in Russia and establishing missions in that field.
So it becomes a matter of personal interest to us to know where and to what kind of people we are sending our means and men.
European Russia includes all the empire lying west of the Ural Mountains, while Asiatic Russia takes in Siberia, Caucasus, and Turkistan. Taken as a whole, it is the largest political division of the world, and contains one-sixth of the land surface of the entire globe, or more than eight million square miles. In point of population it also stands higher than any other of the so-called civilized nations, as its inhabitants in 1880 numbered 100,372,562, or about twice as many as our own country. More than one-half of this population belongs to the established Greek Church, of which we will speak in the future.
The subdivisions of the empire are called governments, and number over ninety, some of them populated with people speaking entirely different languages than others, and holding to entirely different customs. This peculiar combination of people so diverse from each other, and who naturally should be separated, and yet are united under one general Government, makes it a difficult task for the Czar to keep peace inside his own dominions.
As we shall consider Siberia in a separate article hereafter, it may be well for us to turn our attention for a time to Russia proper, or rather Russia in Europe. Here the principal population of the empire is located, and it is here that the most civilization is seen. In this district alone there are six cities with a population of over 100,000 each, and three others which contain over half a million each. Of these, St. Petersburg, the capital of the empire, is the largest, having a population of 875,000, or nearly one million people. None of these cities as yet have so much as been entered by the Third Angel's Message, and but little has been done in the surrounding provinces. Surely, is it not time for us to begin to realize the responsibility God has laid upon us in this direction, and to enter these fields of labor to gather sheaves for the Master's garner?
In regard to the physical features of European Russia, but little perhaps is necessary to be said. The country consists largely of a vast plain, most of which is low land, especially the northern portion, which is nothing but a swamp in summer and a vast frozen waste in winter, which in these northern latitudes lasts from eight to nine months of the year. It is said that there is not a mountain in all of this part of Russia, the highest land between the Baltic and the Black Sea being in the vicinity of Kremeneits, which is only 1,328 feet above the ocean level.
Russia is traversed by the largest rivers in Europe, and the northern portion contains numerous and extensive lakes, that of Ladoga being the most important, and ranking in point of size as the largest lake on the continent. In the southeastern part, north of the Caucasus, the country is but little short of a desert. The entire scope between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains, containing seven times as much territory as the State of Pennsylvania, is nothing but a barren waste, called a steppe, affording tolerable pasturage12perhaps in a few places, but for the most part a desolate plain. This steppe is exposed to great extremes of temperature, the cold being intense during the winter, while hot winds and oppressive heat prevail in the summer months.
Central Russia and the upper basin of the Volga, embracing hundreds of thousands of square miles, are very fertile. While several other portions of the empire produce articles suitable for food and clothing, the countries just referred to are known as the granary of Russia, and produce more grain than is used for home consumption. Rye and barley are the principal grain crops grown, but agriculture is of a very crude character. The forests yield valuable produce, and building timber, tar, pitch, and potash are largely exported. Cattle and sheep are raised in different parts of the empire in varying numbers, tallow and hides being exported in considerable quantities. In some localities sheep-skins form the dress of many of the peasantry.
Coal beds of immense extent are found near the Ural Range of mountains, and salt and other minerals exist in abundance in these and some other localities, the two governments of Orenboorg and Perm having numerous mines of gold, platinum, and copper, some of which are very rich. Petroleum is also found in large quantities, and of late years is being exported to all the principal markets of the world. Russian petroleum has even found its way to our country, and has been sold in competition with our own coal-oil at New York recently.
The commercial interests of Russia are greatly enhanced by the numerous rivers and canals with which the country abounds, and manufacturing has been greatly stimulated on this account. Woolens, silks, cotton goods, leather, metal wares, paper, glass, jewelry, etc., are all manufactured with great skill. In short, it seems strange that a country of such vast resource, and such large population, should remain so comparatively unknown. And were the laws governing the people different, the people themselves would be different and a closer acquaintance would exist between them and other nations of the world. But of the people themselves, with their peculiar customs, and of the Government under which they live, with its religious and other arbitrary exactions, we must defer writing until another time.
J. W. SCOLES.
DOROTHY'S KEY.
By Minnie E. Kenney
"I WANT that book. Give me that book, Jack," exclaimed Dorothy.
"Well, so do I want it, too," responded her brother. "You've got to wait till I've finished with it."
Dorothy's face wrinkled up as if she was about to cry, but just then she saw her aunt coming downstairs in her outdoor costume, and a new thought diverted her mind.
"Oh, I'm going down street, too, Aunt Gracie. You've got to take me, too, so you have. Now you just wait till I get ready."
"No, I can't," answered Aunt Grace, opening the street-door and passing out.
Dorothy threw herself down on the stairs in a perfect passion of tears.
"Oh, dear, everybody is ugly and cross to me!" she fretted. "They never will do as I want them to, and I think it's mean."
Nobody noticed her tears, so after a little while she dried her eyes and went down into the kitchen to see what she could find to amuse her there.
Cook was making a pie for dessert, and rolling out the crust in delicate layers.
"Oh, I want to make me a little pie," exclaimed Dorothy. "Bridget, give me a little piece of dough to roll out with my little rolling-pin."
"I can't just now," answered Bridget. "The oven's hot and I must make haste. Wait till I'm done and I'll save ye a bit."
"No, I won't wait. I've got to have it right away, this minute," fretted Dorothy. "Give it to me now, Bridget. I want it."
"Well, you shan't have it at all if you can't have a little patience," answered Bridget, and so Dorothy began to snatch at the dough in an effort to break off a piece for herself. Bridget picked her up in her strong hands and carried her out into the hall, where she put her down, returning into the kitchen quickly and locking the door behind her.
"Let me in! Let me in!" screamed Dorothy, pounding at the door, but Bridget began to sing and would not pay any attention to the little girl.
"Dorothy! come upstairs!" called her mother, "I have something nice to tell you."
Dorothy ran eagerly upstairs to hear what her mother had to tell her, and when she heard what it was she was so glad that all the frowns on her face vanished as suddenly as if a fairy flat-iron had been smoothed over it, and she began to clap her hands and jump up and down in delight.
Dorothy was an only daughter, and she had always longed for a little sister, so she was very happy when she heard that her little Cousin May was coming the next morning to pass a month with her.
May had not been there many days before Dorothy noticed that it was very seldom her little cousin was refused anything, and she wondered why even Bridget was always willing to stop, no matter how busy she might be, to give May anything she might ask for.
"May, what makes people so good to you?" she asked abruptly one day. "When I want anything everybody is always too busy to give it to me, yet they will do anything for you."
"I suppose it's because I've got a little key," May answered.
"A little key?" Dorothy asked in surprise.
"Yes," answered May, smiling at her little cousin's bewildered face. "Mamma told me about a little key to use whenever I want a favor, and it almost always makes people do it for me."
"How funny!" exclaimed Dorothy. "Won't you lend me your little key, May?"
"Always say 'please,' and that is the key to win favors," May answered.
"Is that all it is?" asked Dorothy rather scornfully, but she tried it nevertheless, and she found it was just as May had said.
A little girl who said "please" politely when she wanted a favor was far more apt to be gratified than a child who cried fretfully, "I want that. Give me this."
Won't some of my little readers try Dorothy's key?—Minnie E. Kenney, in Occident.
A MARKED BOY.
YEARS ago there lived in the interior of New York a boy, the son of a farmer, who also worked at the trade of a potter. The boy was a marked youth, because he did with might whatever he undertook. He was a leader in the ordinary sports of boyhood, and, whenever the farm or the pottery relaxed their hold upon him, he would be found repairing some damaged article or devising a new implement.
His father was poor, the farm was small and could only be enlarged by clearing up the primeval forest. The boy was anxious to acquire knowledge, but his services were so necessary to his father that he could not be spared to attend the winter term of the common school. But the boy was in earnest. With the aid of his brother, one year his junior, he chopped and cleared four acres of birch and maple woodland, plowed it, planted it with corn, harvested the corn, and then asked, as his compensation, to be allowed to attend school during winter. Of course the father granted the wish.
When the boy was seventeen the father's pottery business had so increased as to demand a more extensive factory. A carpenter was hired to build the new building, and the boy assisted him. So familiar did he become with the tools and trade that he determined, with the aid of the younger brother, to erect a two-story frame dwelling-house for his father's family.
The two boys cut the timber from the forest, planned and framed the structure, and then invited the neighbors to assist at the "raising." They came from far and near to see what a lad of seventeen had done. When every mortise and tenon was found to fit in its place and the frame was seen to stand perfect and secure, the veterans cheered the young architect and builder. From that day he was in demand as a master-carpenter.
That boy was Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University.—Evangelical Messenger.
PATRICK HENRY'S DEATH.
IN an age when it was fashionable to avow skeptical sentiments, Patrick Henry was always ready to defend the Christian faith. A member of the Episcopal Church, according to his latest biographer, Professor Tyler, he not infrequently received the communion. On such occasion his habit was to fast until he had been at the Lord's table, and then to spend the day in retirement.
One hour, at the close of the day, he spent in private prayer and meditation, and during it no one was suffered to intrude upon his privacy.
While he was Governor of Virginia, he was so alarmed at the spread of infidel sentiments among the young men of the State that he printed, at his own expense, an edition of Soame Jenyns' "View of the Internal Evidence of Christian Religion," and an edition of Butler's "Analogy." When he met a young man of skeptical tendencies he would give him one of these books. Doubtless the fact that the book was presented by the Governor of his State secured it an attention from the young Virginian which he might not have paid had it been distributed by a more humble colporter.
Patrick Henry wrote out an elaborate answer to Paine's "Age of Reason," but, being impressed by the replies to Paine then appearing in England, he directed his wife, shortly before his death, to destroy the manuscript, which she did.
In his last will, written by his own hand, he concluded thus: "This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed."
On June 6, 1799, his kindred being sent for, found him sitting in a large, old-fashioned arm-chair. He was dying from an incurable internal disease.
His physician, Dr. Cabell, was about to administer a preparation of mercury. Taking the vial in his hand, the dying man said, "I suppose, doctor, this is your last resort?"
"I am sorry to say, Governor, that it is," replied the doctor. "Acute inflammation of the intestine has already taken place; and unless it is removed, mortification will ensue, if it has not already commenced, which I fear."
"What will be the effect of this medicine, doctor?"
"It will give you immediate relief, or—" the doctor could not finish the sentence.301"You mean, doctor," said the sick man, "that it will give relief, or will prove fatal immediately."
"You can only live a short time without it, and it may relieve you."
"Excuse me, doctor, for a few moments," said Patrick Henry, drawing over his eyes the silk cap he wore. Holding the vial, he prayed aloud for his family, his country, and for his own soul. "Amen!" said he, and swallowed the medicine.
Dr. Cabell, who greatly loved the old patriot, had gone out upon the lawn, where, throwing himself under a tree, he wept bitterly. Mastering himself, he returned to the house and found his patient calmly watching the blood congealing under his finger-nails. The old orator fixed his eyes on Dr. Cabell, with whom he had held many discussions about the Christian religion.
"Doctor," said he, with great tenderness, "I wish you to observe how real and beneficial the religion of Christ is to a man about to die."
He then breathed so gently for a few minutes that those around him knew not when he breathed out his spirit.—Youth’s Companion.
The Home Circle.
ABIDING WITH GOD.
Let everyone, whate'er his calling be,
Therein abide with God; so wrote of old
Saint Paul to them at Corinth, and to me,
With loving lips, to-night, that truth was told.
I had grown weary with my strifes and cares,
And murmured o'er the service of the day,
Wherein I had forgotten, unawares,
That thus I still might honor and obey.
Therein abide with God; would I might ne'er forget
That evermore I might with him abide;
What matters how or where the stamp is set,
Or what the furnace where the gold is tried,
So that the metal has the sterling ring,
So that the likeness of the King is shown;
God's coinage still, that to the soul may bring
Such wealth as merchant princes have not known.
So let me see and serve, and thus abide;
Not simply patient, or at best content,
Not with eye service, wherein, love denied,
In rounds of duty solemn days are spent;
Give me, O Lord, a joy that is divine;
Touch thou my lips with constant themes of praise;
Since, having thee, all things I need are mine,
Whate'er my lot, whate'er my length of days.
—New York Observer.
SAND-BAG IN SICK-ROOM.
ONE of the most convenient articles to be used in a sick-room is a sand-bag. Get some clean, fine sand; dry it thoroughly in a kettle on the stove. Make a bag about eight inches square of flannel; fill it with the dry sand, sew the opening carefully together, and cover the bag with cotton or linen. This will prevent the sand from sifting out, and will also enable you to heat the bag quickly by placing it in the oven or even on top of the stove. After once using this, you will never again attempt to warm the feet or hands of a sick person with a bottle of hot water or a brick. The sand holds the heat a long time, and the bag can be tucked up to the back without hurting the invalid. It is a good plan to make two or three of the bags, and keep them on hand, ready for use at any time when needed.—Annals of Hygiene.
A NEW EMPLOYMENT FOR THE BLIND.
By J. W. Scoles
FOR years it has been a leading thought with philanthropists as to what vocations could be most profitably engaged in by the blind. Various occupations have been suggested, and tried, some of them with a fair measure of success; others have proved sorry failures. Recently, however, an avenue of employment has been opened which bids fair to prove unusually successful in placing the blind upon something like an equal footing with their more fortunate neighbors.
A short time ago the Legislature of California appropriated $500 with which to purchase type-writers for the blind in the State asylum at Berkeley. And although confronted by a host of incredulous objectors and critics, Superintendent Wilkinson has demonstrated that the blind can be educated and prepared for the most practical duties of life by this very means. Some of the results already obtained are but little short of the marvelous. A stenographic machine is employed very similar to the one already in use by reporters, in which, by the combination of a few keys, the short-hand characters at present used can be duplicated in the form of dots and dashes and curves deeply indented in the paper. These indentations, after a little practice, can be read as easily as the raised letters used in blind schools at present. Equipped with a machine of this kind, it is possible for a blind person to take down any dictation of an ordinary character, and afterwards reproduce it in the usual manner upon an ordinary type-writer, to which, by the way, the blind seem to take with remarkable aptness.
Not only this, but a phonograph has been ordered for the asylum, which, with the other appliances already mentioned, will not only open up a new channel of education, but will be the means of placing remunerative employment readily within the reach of those who belong to this class of our afflicted fellow-beings. J. W. SCOLES.
Health and Temperance.
A CURIOUS THING.
“HERE is a curious thing,” said a doctor, as he walked through an Erie railroad train the other day. “This smoking-car seats fifty persons, and yet there is seldom a chance for a seat after the train starts out of New York. The men in this car have gone into the country at considerable expense and disadvantage for the sake of their health. The only time they spend at home is at night, and most of it in their bedrooms, in heated houses, where the air is very little different from that in a city bedroom. They spend from two to four hours of the only leisure they have in this car, where the air is so vitiated with tobacco that, though I am an old smoker, it makes me as sick in fifteen minutes as did my first cigar. It is safe to say that the health of these men would have been better guarded had they stayed in town.”—N. Y. Sun.
SIMPLE HEALTH SUGGESTIONS.
By American Magazine
SLEEPING-ROOMS should have a plentiful supply of pure air, which is best obtained by opening windows. “But night air is not wholesome this damp weather,” said a gentleman, lately. “My dear sir, what other kind of air is there in the night but night air?” was the reply. After a winter’s depression of vital tone and exposure to Arctic blizzards, a plentiful supply of oxygen is doubly necessary, and there should be no hindrance to free circulation of air while voluntary life is still.
If everyone would take half a dozen deep inhalations twice or three times daily, beginning with the arms hanging down and an empty chest, and gradually raising the arms until, when the lungs are full, they are stretched directly upwards, there would soon develop a sturdy power of resistance to cold that would add much to our comfort.—American Magazine.
WHAT ALCOHOL WILL DO.
The Sanitarian tells what alcohol will do, thus: “It may seem strange, but is nevertheless true, that alcohol, regularly applied to a thrifty farmer’s stomach, will remove the boards from the fence, let the cattle into his crops, kill his fruit trees, mortgage his farm, and sow his fields with wild oats and thistles. It will take the paint off his building, break the glass out of the windows, and fill them with rags, take the gloss off his clothes and polish from his manners, subdue his reason, arouse his passions, bring sorrow and disgrace upon his family, and topple him into a drunkard’s grave. It will do this to the artisan and capitalist, the matron and the maiden.”
TOSSING THE BABY.
By Harper's Bazaar
THE throwing of a baby into the air and catching him again is always a risky practice—certain though the tosser may be of his quickness of eye and sureness of hand. A sudden and unexpected movement of the child in his mid-air flight may result in a cruel fall.
A gay young father snatched up his baby boy one morning and tossed him to the ceiling. Twice the little fellow went flying through the air and came down safely into the waiting arms. The third time the excited child gave a spring of delight as his father’s hands released him, plunged forward, and, pitching over the father’s shoulder, fell head downward to the floor. When the poor baby came out of the stupor in which he lay for hours it was found that, although no bones had been broken, the brain had sustained an injury that would, in all probability, render the child an imbecile.
Another baby snatched from the floor and tossed into the air received a fatal wound in the top of the head from the pointed ornament of a chandelier. Still another child slipped between the father’s hands as he caught her in her downward flight, and, although his frenzied grasp on the baby’s arm saved her from falling to the ground, it wrenched muscles and sinews so cruelly that the girl’s arm was shrunken and practically useless to her all her life. These are extreme cases, but the fact of their occurring at all should be enough to warn one from the habit of relinquishing one’s hold on a child when tossing it.—Harper’s Bazaar.
Adulterating Spices with Cocoanut Shells
A BUSINESS item in a Philadelphia paper frankly discloses a system of adulteration of food. It states that the large factory which has been standing idle near Makefield Station, Bucks County, has been leased by Philadelphia parties, who will establish a plant for roasting and grinding cocoanut shells. These shells are in much demand, and are shipped to Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and other cities for use in adulterating spices.
Saloons and Churches in Illinois
A TEMPERANCE speaker in Evanston recently said that one sin-cursed town in Illinois has 3,000 inhabitants, 800 children of school age, 30 saloons, and not one Protestant or Catholic Church spire. The forces of evil in this town pay $25,000 for the privilege of ruining souls, while the Christian church sends one young man to preach the gospel once a week, paying only his car fare.
SECULAR.
—Col. Fred Grant, the new Minister to Austria, arrived at Vienna the 9th inst.
—Ten thousand weavers in the cotton factories of Thizy, France, struck for higher wages on the 11th inst.
—Ten men were killed by a falling car in the shaft of a coal mine near Middleport, Pa., the 9th inst.
—Duornovo, Director of Charities, will succeed the late Count Tolstoi, of Russia, as Minister of the Interior.
—Justice Temple, of the California Supreme Court, has tendered his resignation, to take effect June 1. Ill health is the cause.
—An unsuccessful attempt was made upon the life of President Carnot, of France, recently, by Nicholas Perrin, a steward of one of the French cruisers.
—Four Zuni Indians who were resisting a theft upon their cattle by cowboys, were killed at Wingate, N. M., the 8th inst. The murderers were captured.
—Retired General William S. Harney died May 9th at Orlando, Florida, at the age of eighty-nine. He was the oldest officer in the United States Army.
—James D. Fish, ex-president of the Marine Bank, was released from the penitentiary at Auburn, N. Y., the 11th inst., having served out his four years' sentence.
—Dave Walker, William Walker, his son, and John Matthews, the three Baldknobbers condemned to death for murder, were executed at Ozark, Mo., May 10.
—The three-ton boat in which Captain Slocum and his family left Brazil last June arrived at Staten Island the 10th inst., after a voyage of more than 7,000 miles.
—The oldest house in Boston, a two-story building on Hanover Street, collapsed on the 9th inst., killing one person and injuring another. The house was 236 years old.
—In a fire near Cynthiana, Ky., the 6th inst., Moore's stables were burned, and fifteen thoroughbred horses, valued at $52,000 in the aggregate, were lost in the flames.
—A young man named Maroney was killed by coming in contact with the electric light wires, while working in the tunnel under Hudson River between New York and Jersey City recently.
—A furious cyclone swept over the northern part of Pratt County, Kansas, May 7, and more than one hundred families are left homeless, and destitute of food or clothing. Some loss of life is reported.
—Asa Matthews, of Illinois, was appointed to be First Controller of the Treasury the 9th inst. He is the present Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, which office he has held for several terms.
—The Standard Oil Company is said to have in contemplation a gigantic deal which involves the absorption of the white lead interests of the country and the formation of an immense trust in this direction.
—A crowd of passengers issuing from a railway station at Bochum, Germany, the 9th inst., was mistaken for a mob of striking miners, and was fired upon by the militia. Two men were killed and a number injured.
—A recent fight between Abyssinians and Dervishes resulted in the beheading of 2,000 men in the presence of Negus, the victorious Abyssinian king. The following day another conflict occurred, in which he was defeated and his army routed, leaving 30,000 dead on the field.
—Edison, the inventor, claims that he is the victim of misplaced confidence, and has been swindled out of $250,000 by certain men whom he employed to negotiate the sale of his phonograph rights. He has entered a suit in equity in the United States Court for the recovery of the above amount.
—Captain Wissman, with a force of 200 Germans and 700 black troops, had a severe engagement at Zanzibar May 8, with Chief Bushire's forces. Eighty of Bushire's men were killed and twenty captured. Bushire fled.
—A heavy suit in the United States Circuit Court has just been decided against the city of New Orleans, by which she becomes liable for $700,000 outstanding drainage warrants, besides twenty years' accrued interest, the whole amount reaching $2,000,000.
—A new national patriotic club, to be known as the George Washington Club, was organized in New York May 4. It has been encouraged already by letters from ex-President Cleveland, Senator Evarts, George William Curtis, John G. Whittier, and others.
—A letter recently received by the New York World discloses the fact that there are at the present time three Americans who are unjustly confined in Chiriqui Prison, Panama, South America. Two of the men have been imprisoned ever since last December, and have not yet been allowed a trial.
—A Constantinople dispatch of May 5 says that a Kurdish chief who had just escaped from prison gathered a number of his followers recently, and, attacking an Armenian village, seized the prominent men, poured petroleum over them, and, setting it on fire, watched his victims slowly burn to death.
—The steamer City of Paris, of the Inman line from Liverpool, arrived at Sandy Hook on the 8th inst., having made the trip in five days, twenty-three hours, and seven minutes. This eclipses all previous records, and is the first voyage ever made across the Atlantic in less than six days. What will come next?
—Admiral Porter and Gen. B. F. Butler are engaged in a wordy contest as to which of the two showed the more courage during certain engagements in the late civil war. When old men like these get to indulging in personalities over such a subject at this late day, it looks a trifle as though they were verging toward second childhood.
—Dispatches from Tucson, Arizona, give particulars of a desperate fight and robbery which occurred near Fort Thomas the 11th inst., in which Major Wham, a Government paymaster, was robbed of $29,000 by a gang of men hidden in ambush. Eight of the eleven soldiers comprising his escort were wounded, five of them seriously. The robbers escaped to the mountains.
—The new cruiser Charleston recently completed at San Francisco was given a partial trial the 11th inst. The results proved quite a surprise, and were very satisfactory in most respects. The boilers developed the required 7,000 horse-power, while the vessel showed her capacity to make eighteen knots an hour. It is generally admitted that she is a better ship than the Government called for.
—At latest accounts the miners' strike at Essen, Germany, was assuming serious proportions. The ranks of the strikers included 100,000 men the 11th inst., with fresh accessions each day. The emperor is deeply concerned over the labor movements now pervading his country, and does not conceal his sympathy with the workingmen, although he is determined to suppress the disorder at present prevailing.
—On the 10th inst. a terrific gale swept over the Middle and Eastern States, doing an almost unlimited amount of damage. Old residents in some sections say it was the worst storm that has occurred in thirty years. Throughout the entire country the effects were noticeable. Buildings were demolished, cars blown from the tracks, trees leveled to the ground, farms washed out, and general damage done. Many lives were lost and hundreds were injured. Much destruction was caused by lightning, and great numbers of animals are reported killed. New York City suffered severely from the storm.
News and Notes.
By Editor
RELIGIOUS.
—The Southern Baptist Convention was in session at Memphis, Tenn., the 11th inst.
—At the World's Quadrennial Conference of the United Brethren Church being held at York, Pa., the committee to whom was referred the matter of a new constitution and confession of faith reported affirmatively May 11.
—The Examiner (Baptist) mentions as noteworthy the fact that upon a recent Sunday two Hebrew weddings, at which there was dancing, were allowed in New York. It says: "The Sunday law was enforced according to the wide spirit of that law."
—It is thought about eighteen and a half million persons pursue the scheme of study laid down by the International Sunday-school Lesson Committee. That committee recently met at Saratoga for its nineteenth yearly session, and mapped out the work for 1891.
—Joseph Damien, a Catholic priest, died of leprosy, at Kalawao, Sandwich Islands, April 15. It is well known that the island of Molokai has been set apart by the Hawaiian Government as a leprosy hospital, where all who are in any way infected with the disease are sent. Once there, it is impossible to leave. And yet, in the full vigor of early manhood, Father Damien resolutely volunteered to take up his abode there in order to console and help the miserable outcasts in their affliction. Knowing that he was dooming himself to one of the most horrible of deaths, he shrank not at what he considered his duty. However much we may differ with him in faith, we are bound to recognize something peculiarly noble in the character of such a man.
Obituary.
Kelley.—Died, April 14, at Banning, Cal., of consumption, Mrs. Almira Kelley, aged 35 years. Mrs. Kelley was a resident of Pike County, Ill., and had come to Banning for the benefit of her health. She was a believer in present truth and had expressed a wish to unite with those who are looking for the soon coming of the Lord, but owing to her delicate health she was not baptized. She died upheld by a strong Christian faith. C. P. B.
Wheeler.—Died at Banning, Cal., on the morning of April 23, of consumption, Mr. Wm. E. Wheeler, aged 28 years. Deceased was born in Chicago, where his early life was spent. After leaving that city he was for some years connected with various banks in Minnesota, Dakota, and Wisconsin. Some two years since, he came to California for his health but received only temporary benefit. He was a most exemplary young man and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. C. P. B.