American News.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 20, 26 November 1874, Page 3

American News.

Brigham Young is dangerously ill. A number of masked burglars robbed the Pennsylvania Bank of Philadelphia and gagged the manager and cashier. The Custom House and eight dwellings at Brazos were swept away by a tornado. The grand trunk railway at Canada has altered its guage from broad to narrow. Messrs Townsend and Co., bankers, of Newhaven, have failed for nearly three million dollars. It is estimated, taking as a basis the growth of the country, that in 1880 there will be 100,000 miles of railroad in the republic. We have already nearly 70,000 miles. Mrs Van Cott, the revivalist, says that in one year she has spent 1766 hours in religious meetings, travelled 7208 miles, written 650 letters, con-, ducted 823 prayer meetings, preached 339 times, and converted 1735 people. We find the following in an Illinois paper : — " Mr , who has been in retirement for a few weeks after marrying and burying three sisters, came up smilingly to ' the altar again yesterday, having begun on a new family." You should have shaken hands and , allowed that it was all a mistake ! said a Detroit Judge. " The lion and the lamb would have lain down together, and white-robed peace would have fanned you with her wings and elevated you with her smiles of approbation. But no ; you went to clawing and biting, and rolling in the mud— and here you are. It's five dollars a-piece.'' Nothing can convey a more impressive idea of the power of water as a general agent than the wonderful canons of Mexico, Texas, and the Rocky Mountains, where the torrents may be seen rushing along, through the incision it has cut for itself in the hard rock, at a depth of several thousand feet between perpendicular walls. The greatest of these canons, that of Colorado, is 298 miles ia length, arid its sides rise perpendicularly to a height of 5000 or 6000 feet. On the 7th June the Rev. J. C. Snow, of San Francisco, chose "how to overcome obstacles" as his theme, and having remarked that prayer was to be the first means, said: — "The grocer should pray that he may give honest weight, the dry goods dealer that he may deal out honest measure, and if a man is so unfortunate as to go to Congress, he shonld pray the Lord would help him against plundering the nations treasury. When a man is far gone in these several directions, we fear that all the prayers of the righteous, much less his own, won't save him worth a cent". The Troy (U.S.) Times tells this for a fact : — A ludicrous scene was witnessed on a Rensselaer and Saratoga train the other day. A newly-married couple entered the car and* took a seat. The husband, wanting to smoke, left his wife and went into the smoking car. The bride began to dose, and while she slept a stranger entered the car, and, as it was crowded, quietly took a seat beside the young wife. Shortly she began to nod, and, doubtless imagining that her husband was still in the seat, gently reclined towards the stranger, and soon her head fondly nestled on his breast. At this juncture the husband returned. He stood in mute astonishment in the aisle until the lady awoke, and, realising the situation, drew back in amazement, suffused with blushes. Stranger explained, husband was satisfied, and wife tried hard to appear unconcerned. A Masonic expedition to the Holy Land, which will include the principal, cities and localities of interest in Europe, Asia, and Africa, was to leave New York on 12th September. The party was to ; consist of at least fifty Master Masons,: -under the leadership of Robert Morris, L.L.D., Past Grand Master of Kentucky. The trip would occupy 114 days, and was to embrace Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. From an outline of the journey, which is published in the New York l Tribune,' it appears that the party were to sail from Constantinople on 22nd October, arriving at Smyrna on the 24th ; then by rail to Ephesus, returning to Smyrna in tiuie to meet in convention with the seven lodges in that place." They were then to go to Beyrout, Syria, where they were to arrive on 29th October. From this point they were to begin their tent life, which was to continue thirty days, during which time the party would visit Gebal, Tyre, Hiram's Tomb, Baalbec, Damascus, Mount Hermon,'tbe Sea of Galilee, Nazareth, Nablus, Bethel, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Dead Sea and River Jordan, Hebron, and Joppa. During this tent life the Lodge was to be opened whenever opportunity occurred, under the travelling warrant of Royal Solomon Mother Lodge of the City of Terusalem. While at Damascus and Beyrout the party were to be received by the Masrins in those places. In Jerusalem it was proposed to lay the corner stone.of th~e new Masonic Htall to be erected' in that, city. When eKe party returns' to New- York next February, "Tbe Most Travelling Lodge " •r'.wilL-bjT dissolved. :