The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1905-03-10
Tho Record Ct the Year 1904.

Tho Record Ct the Year 1904.
Sermon delivered by Rev. j. H. Coult-
ard at the Church of Christ. Pub
lished by request of members.)
The record of the year of our Lord
1904 has been made up. 1t is an I'M
nsual one in some respects. For our
own land it has been period of great
prosperity. The st. Louis Exposition
will be date from which to reckon
things. The extraordinary presidential
election will also make it remarkable.
The war in the east with its fearful
bloodshed is feature that will stamp
it as unusual. The scandals and
disasters that mark its progress will
not soon fade from our vision. The
mercies that one can see in every one of
its 500 days stand out in its story as
surprising all else in their claim upon
our attention.
The weather had its extraordinary
features. Winter was severe, January
was the coolest day of that date on
record. Jan. 10 the thermometer was As
degrees below zero in many parts of New
York state and Canada, and for the
country generally the north was the
coolest in 80 years. March came in
with blizzard and great ice gorges
caused disastrous floods in Pennsylvania,
and there We're earthquake tremors in
New England, and severe floods in
Michigan. April Is saw fierce bliz-
xard of snow, with the thermometer
nearly down to zero. Santiago had its
hurricane, and Manila its cloudburst,
at Vesuvius its eruptions, and San
Francisco its unprecedented heat, and
September Is brought terrific wind
and rain storm along the whole At
lantic coast.
A German scientist found many spots
on the sun and the calamities of the
year have seemed to suggest that either
Sol or Sirius was interfering over
much in mundane affairs. There was
small pox epidemic in Pennsylvania to
begin with, and an epidemic of pneu-
monia in the Empire state The Iro-
quois theater horror with its 600 vic
tims came only two days before the
year was ushered in, and a terrific
colliery explosion entombing 200 men
On January %. Baltimore had it's
great fire February and s. loosing
f75,000,0 600 and $500 buildings.
Rochester had SO, 600, 900 blaze, Hobo
ken another prairie fires swept Okla
homa and Nebraska and earthquakes
visited Peru. Strikes cause world of
trouble and loss of $23,000,000 in
Colorado; AMI the burning of the
general Slocum June Is with nearly
thousand women and children brings
universal sorrow.
Then the Norge from Copenhagen to
New York goes down June rs off the
Scottish coast drowning over 600 and
Abe Missouri Pacific Flyer is wrecked
August near Pueblo, Colorado, and 100
lives lost; and statistics show nearly
10000 killed by railroad accidents. dur
ing the year.
All these, however, are as child's play
compared to the terrible butcheries
about Port Arthur and New Chwang,
Lao Yang and the Shake.
The Anniversary of the Prince Of
Peace just past, still found war bust
ness of Christian Nations and the
United States trusting in God and
building up its navy, spending $780,,
100000 on the public schools and
$500, 000, 600 for its army and its vet
Grams, having bishop who during the
year "dedicates" a saloon, and rolling
mp drink bill of $1,451, G33,379 or
an average of SIS apiece.
Death claimed its own in 1904; Parke
Goodwin, author and editor; John L.
Gordon, the soldier; Charles Foster, the
former cabinet officer; Van Hoist, the
historian; VIM. c. Whitney. ex-secre-
harry of the navy; Senator Hanna; VIM.
e. Grace, twice mayor of New York;
Sir Edwin Arnold, author of Light of
the World Samuel Smiles, whose
''Selt Helps" has been so great a helper;
Edgar Fawcett, the author; Henry M.
Stanley the last Of the great explorers;
Senator Matthew S. Quay, the politi-
elan, and Paul Kruger, the old Roman;