Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, March 2, 1873, Page 6

6 THE CHICAGO DAILY TRIBUNE: SUNDAY, MARCH 2, 1873. the time. When Wohlcbe was arrested, Dr. | however, - is more scrious. “If they -are ORIGINALITY IN LITERATURE. °~" 7 ~"| mathema! m‘-h“; discovered th e.h{' P TERMS OF THE -TRIBUNE.. .. - - _TERMS OP SUBECRIPTION (PAYABLE IN ADVANCE). | Daily, by mail.....8 12 Sun $g.3 & 00| & 08| iy Partsof a yearat the simerate, © i To prevent delsy and mtstzkes, bo sure and glve Post ©Eco rddress in fall, includirg State and County. E “Remittances may be mado cither by draft, express, Post Dtice arder, or in registered lotters, ot onrrisk. - TEs 70 ey gvosin & - delivercd, Sunday ezcepted, 3 il Golivered: Buncay factudon: 5 conrs ber week: Address TLE TRIBUNE COMPANY, . Corner Medison cud Dearbora-sta., Chicago, 1il. The Chicago Tbuns, @sibuns, “’Bunde¥ Morning, Merch 2, 1873, 1t is not surprising to find that the abdication of Eing'Amadeus, of Spzin, was largely owing t6 the good sense and womsaly influence of his .. wife. Bat suppose the Queen bad been a woman ° of'the Miss Anthony stamp, can any ono imagine that she wonld have had somuch good sense, orcould have excrted so much influence over . her husband? As for that, would she ever havo beenthe wife of the King of Bpain at all? The Pope, who declines to havo anything todo with . the 'Government of Victor Emazuol In temporal matters, does not hesitatd to ask favorsin spiritual concerne, and has recently | rdqueé!ed the Government to Buppress & serics of articles on “Tho Life of Christ,” now ap- pearing in one of tho redical pspers. Tho Atiorney-General has made reply that, althongh he regrets the artidles, yet, in a free govern- ment, it is impossible, by soquestrations and prosecntions, to silence those who choose to promote discussions which the law does not forbid. He also calls attention to the fact that the Iaw of, May 13, 1871, proclaims fall liberty of discusgion on religions matters, and therefore declines to interfer i H The Honse did well in defeating Gen. Butler’s ‘project for raising the ealarics of Cengressmen In glaring disproportion to the pay of the: Ju- diiciary Department of the -Government. . It wias thought that the retiring: Congressmen would all favor the scheme, s .they would do- yive tho benefit of tho increaso, and that the mneasure would pass. This might - haye been the case if Congress Ead not become wlarmed st its own boldness in defying Ihe sentiment of the peoplo o fer daring thie- \present session of Congress. The defeat of .the Ealary bill looks very much as though it wore'a #op thrown to appezse an angry people,—and this view is confirmed, because Afr. Bargent ex- erted himself in opposition to the measure. M. - Job Btevenson incidentally hit -upon the truth ‘when he stated that most, Congressmen were re- zoiving more pay now than they could ern any-, Where else. * &, o SR ol the Credit Mo- The Congressional . verdict i * bilier case'was all that was-mecessary,to prove that it was & “campnign csrd” and a:“ Greeloy . lie." The acquittal of ‘most of the” honorable gentleran ‘concerned, and the mild consure for - the. mistakon' patriotism’ of one- or twb, _ Beémonstrate ~ conclasively to” what lemgths the infamous party press of -the op- position' ‘will go to make .-their - point, " Tt will now be'in order for Messrs. 'Colfax, Pat- Zerson, Dawes, Garfeld, Bingbam, und the others, %o nstitute Liiel &uits against all newspapers - hat have assisted in the circnlation of this gros scandal against the unimpeschable virt Credit Mobilior: Congressmen. The verdict © over 200 of the leading men of thie country. would preseut & wall of. defense_that twelve --gnodest jurymen would ecarcely dare -to attack. Retiring Congressmen, of Credit Mobilicr at~ rates-not exceeding £1 po: mile per querter. As some formalities in making tho application woro neglected, none of ‘the companios have mado the experiment except the Eastern Road. This Com- pany established & morning and evening train betweén Boston and Lynn, a distance of thirteen miles, selling tickets at a uniform price between anyandall the stations at the rateof twenty tickets for §1. Tho experiment has beenin operation sinco Nov. 1, and the Railroad Com- missioners report that, &g tho result of a trial for only one month, }t hss been largely succesefal. Tho trains ot first avoraged sixty- fivo passesgers, but by the'1st of Deccmber the number rose to 200, and the prospects are now that this number will speedily bo doubled. Tho experiment is certainly worth consideration in every largo Tailroad ceatro:” ‘Tho profits from fares, of cousse, would not be large, but the in- crease of population in the suburba must nec- éesarily increase the business of the ronds, and hundreds of worlamen, for instancs, in Chicago, would undoubtedly eeéure suburban homes in caso such an afrangement wero mado. A GOOD YEAR FOR MURDERERS. ‘The report comes from New York that o con- corted and combined appoal has been mada by Hamilton Tish, theRev. MorganDix, and a large number of véry respectable people, to Gov. Dix, for the commautation of the sentence of Fos- ter, the car-hook murderer, from hanging to im- prisonment for life. A'large number of ladics ubitc in the prayor, including, it is eaid, Mrs. Puinam, the widow of the murdered man. Itis to be.seen whether Gor. Dixhas tho cour- age and firmness to resist this appeal. He bas, within thirty days, refused to change the sen- tence of a man convicted in Buffalo for murder- ing a gambler in a drunken ealoon-fight, And now to intorfere to save Foster would be an incon- sistency ‘of the most glaring character. Tho . 'sons accused of murder, some of wiom have crimo of Foster was pocaliarly atrocions. If was deliberato. " It was wholly unprovoked. ~Ho lnid in wait on the front platform of tho car, armed with s heavy iron book. Ho had alreedy threstened to Lill Putnam. When ho saw Putnain loave the car, he jumped down, fol- lowed him, striick him-on the head, and killed him. Tt'wisa .cnld-blnudcd, villainous 'murder. There was not & redéeming circumstance nbout Jit. . Foster was bhimself « noted ruftian. He was the discarded member-of a wealthy family—pos- &ibly” moriliefs of the Rev. M. Dix's congrega- tion. “They cared nothing for Lim or his wife until his crimé rondered it probsblo. that tho ‘family woiild be disgraced by his banging. To sava the family from this sapposed disgrace, it is now proposed to oxémpt him from the lawful conmequences of his crime. g - Tho Néw York prisons contain gcores of por- boen convicted. The death-peralty has becn suspended for many years in Now York City, aad theeo-men afe “all opposed - {0 “any 'préce: .dent _for the restorstion’ of , hanging.. ‘Bo far they. have succeeded. Foster .whs convicied over -two - years ago, -and has ’been-ablg Ly dilatory appoeels to stava off tho'cx: ecution.’ Al legal menns for further dolay bay- ing been exhausted, o hag now to ba'harged, unlees Gov. Dix interferes. Gov. Dix was elect~ &d, & fow, months 8o, upori ths ery of reform in the administration of justico and-in the ex- -ecution’of tholaws. Stokes, suother convietr bes just begun his system of legal delay. -Ho “was to have been executed on Friday last, for a murder committed fnore than a year previonsly. But the result in the case of Foster hss a deep interest for all the other murderers. “If Foster be not hanged, under the atrocious circumstances of bis casé, why should Stokes,”Simmons, and Scannell, or any other of the, twenty murderers fachments, are welcome to tho suggestion.” " Yoisintimated as probable that there will be: i no genuine petion in the matter of the Pacific _'Pfail Subiidy, becauso the " investigation is car- :- ried on with closed doors. Such s result is ex- * ‘gromely probable. The Credit Mobilier investi .igation has taught that all Congressional investi- 'gations should be ‘conducted openly. Had tho ¥Poland Commities sat with closad doors, its re- * port would undoubtedly heve impressed firm 7 artybelievers with the conviction that thore beentio criminal or shameful connection ‘with Credit Mobilior frauds ontsido of Mosrs. Bmes and Brooks. Indeed, it is doubtful “whether these two gentiemen would have been “gecommended for expulsion, or "actually con- ‘eured. Had the New York Custom-House or the “French Arms investigations of the preceding ‘winter been open to_the public, the popular im- pression might have been different from what it 'was. Henceforth, the American people will have no confidence in secret Congressional invostiga- Sincs the Senate has declined to take any a0 tion in Lomsians affairs becsuse of its i %o conform its constitutional convictions party interests, it fomains for Goneral Grant to carry ont the threat of recognizing the Kellogg Government -at New Orleans. This means.an: indorsement of Durell, in oppozition to tho robuke of the Senate, and the continnation of Federal wmilitary ‘role:. . One . Scnator expressed a wish that Copgressional action might bo defeated, in order that, Gen, Grant ghould tako the responsi- Dility of interférence npon himself. We do not sympathize with this spint. ' If Gen. ‘Grant puts histhreat into execution, the misfortune would ot be 80 much his a3 that of Louisiana and of : the entire country. We want no such procodents established. “We must look forward with gerious apprehensions to the results that this proclaim-- ©d_-interfercnce” would bring' “about:”” We' see in it rather another reason why an extra ses- wion of Congress should be copvened. The Sen- 2fe came 80 near the proper ground in the Louis- Ians matter, and tho' rulifz sentiment of .that | £his last evil has dofeatod the ends of fustico in’ . bodyis so ‘evidently opposed to Fedoral inter- ference, that another and moro mature consider- ntion would probably lead to o consititutional . séttlement of the- difficulty. : Affairs in’ Louis- isna are without partisan - value ‘to-day, and en extra session of Congress would, therefore, bo . ‘more ready to establish a constitutional prec- vdent. : E Cheap travel for workingmen has becoms & successfell fact in Massachusetts. In 1671, Josish Quincy began to agitate this question before the Bfasaachusetts Legislature, and, as the resuit of his efforts, an act was passed designed to lead to the introduction of choap trains on the roads running from Boston ; bat, 28 the act was simply permissive, none of tho- railroad : companies availed themselves of its provisions. Last year & low was passed providing that, upon the appli- cation of not less than two hundred persons, 6v- ery railroad company running traics out of Boston ehould farnishy esch dsy »’ morning andievening train, running for distances not exceeding fiftcen miles, and that they.should sail- yearly sesson tickets for such traina at ratés not’excdsding 3 permile per yoar,and -quarterly ticketaat :| - with, of eoursé, inoreased chaaces of ‘an acquit-. now waiting their turn: at the gellows ? The-| fuct that tho , widow = of the murderer has . béen induced . to sign: the. me- morial _in favor’ of Fostér’ should not :-have . .the slightest woight. ‘A widow. in deep afitiction™is the last person on- earth to whom the officers of the law shoald resort tofor advice. If" shid be tho Christian woman sl is represented, ber sorrow has natdrally inclined her to charity and forgivencss. But the law was made to protect socioty; mot” to rovenge .widows, nor to afford tlom opportunities to for- givo their enemies. © Ee - At-homé, the season for murderers has been equally auspicious. ~ Gregory. Peri, who, without" any provocation, stabbed two men to death and tried to do- the samo to another, 'though under &entonce of death, has boonspared to bis sdopted country by esecutive clemency. [Pertcot, the wifo-murdercr, though twicq convicted and sen- tenced, : has escaped throngh® thke., igno. rance-‘or carclesaness ‘of tho State's Attor- .mey. He will bave to bLe +tried again, tal. Rafferty, whosg inhuman murder ‘of an officer soomed hardly to require tho"lumali:iéu of o convictiof, hagin like manner ‘been twice convicted and sentenced, and, in Dboth cages,’ owing to tho ignorance or ‘careléssneds of-the officer-of rthe law, has eccaped execution. ~He cannot nowbo tried again untilnext winter, when, ‘perhaps; Soma ingenions defenso will enable him- to be.acquitted. The mon Driver has been con- victed of wife-murdor, but-his casowill be:an extraordinary one indced if-‘thoe rocord bo not foud 8o defective that he, tog, must bo set freo.. Thé long exemplion of murder -fom; ade- quate " punishmont has finally -aroused pub-.:- lio indignation, and all over tho. country’ the courts mmd jurics have faithfclly acd - honestly porformed their duty. They havofear- Teésly deslt with crimo ps the law required. But “public opinionhes ailed in overcoming the weak- ness of cxective authiority, 28 it has been gi ing character, sbility, and logal knowledge to, the prosecuting officors. Tho_feilitro to femédy thia locality, and murder carries its red, flog]as defiantly as ever. . Novortheless, much has boen done, .and the outraged public eentiment which hes mado murder unpopuler will, if it peree- veres, overcome 'all obstacles, and bring mur- derers to the gallows they havo earned. Wo ‘counsel fl_:u juries.of the country to be not weary in well ‘doing.” If it is worth while to protect society by one.verdict, it is worth while to do £0 by s bundred. 4 — . THE OPERATIC OUTLOOK.. - 'The season of Lent is frirly upon ug, and wo 76 now presumed to give ouraelves up to modi- tations suitable to the time; to reflect npon our past follies and resolvo that, when Esster comes, we will commence being more foolish than ever; to)put on fgarments of an zshen hue ‘und lay aside the sinfnl foathers of finary. in which we went to bear’ Lucca; to mortify the' flesh with . fish and lentils bafore the world, and behindit, to . get some chiojce bits from the cupboard when tho world s not Tooking., In this gray andmelancho- ly. ugkon_ itis an accepted fact that m\i;ioin carnal and of “the earth, earthy, and that the dulcet ] strains of fife,” and trombone, and kettle-drum, tho whailings of ZLeonora and the heroics- of Fernardo must not disturb the sombre current of our refloctions, which are now introspective, and on that account peculiarly dismal. Tho rest of the year being exclusively devoted to the con- sideration of our neighbors, it is difficult and dizcouraging to concentrate our reflections upon ourselves, especially when that operation in- variably results in the discovery that we.aro not much better then our neighbors after all. But becatse music is_ostracized, excopt for those unregenorate beings who ‘will go, in tho veory heart of Leni, to Lear tho unregencrato Thomas and Rubinstein, who will bo here short~ 1y, it doss not follow that wo may not project our. thoughts beyond Lont, and see whatis coming in the futare. Tho present opera gcason may bo said to be over. There was o prospect that the Lucca troupe would roturn here in Alay, but the littlo quarrel in which Jarrctt and Marotzek are engaged Lins disconcerted evorything, and nothing is now certain, This jangling of the sweet operatic bolls has sot the whole troupo by tho ears. Laucea and Kellogg bite their nails at cach other, and the agent and the manager aro spending their time concocting fresh stories for the in- terviowers, instead of scttling their little griov- ances with pistols and coffee for two. In all their interviews, Jiowever, Montagn Maretzek and Capulet Jarreti have failed to divulgo the roal cause of the quarrel between them. Per- haps thoy don't want to, for it is a story which wouldn't eound well, and it wounld give Italian opera and its management such & shorw- ing up that no ono would caro to patronizo it much. Jarrott is right in his declaration that the dirty linon should havo beon cleaned at home. ITow badly soiled that linen is the pub- lic may never know. This, however, is neither Lere nor there. Our advice to the belligerent improssarios is that, if they cannot tell the real truth about tho disagreement between them, they had better keep their mouths closed. Meanwhile, it will be pleasant to intruda upon the Lenten meditations an outlook at the oper- atic prospects for noxt sonson._ They aro al- ready outlined with sufficient distinctness to warrant a deficite statement ‘of what will take place.” First, thoss who have placed relianco upon the return of Adalina Patti to this country miny meke up their minds io be disappointed. She will not come, and, what is more, she will never leavo Europe sslong asthere is any money to bo made there. The fair diva bas a love for thalors, francs, and kopecks, and, as long 8s tho financial . stream keops runmning, there is no danger that she will stop singing to it. - It does not follow, however, that Italian opers will- be deserted in this country on that account. Per contra, Strakosch has organizéd & very strong troupe, which will bo headed by Christine Nilsson-Rouzaud, and he has secured the Acade-’ my of Music at New York for the opening of the sceson, which looks like business. In addition to Nilsson, he Lias under contract Mme. Torri- o, Campanini (tenor robusto), Capoul (tenor di grazia), and Delafonte (basso). Arditi will be tho conductor. This sectires a troupe which is equally strong in - all ita leading parts; which will be a novelly in the operatic business. Ttis eafo to assumo that & conductor of such world-wide cclebrity as Arditi will not tolerate a poGr orchestra or chorus, and, ‘theroforo, if Strakosch does not chargoe a year's income for admission, the public will have a thoroughly-en- joszblo ecazon of opera. Tho only rival which tho Nilsson troupe will have will bo the Lucea troupe, -and .if the organization of the latter remains as it is now, it is clear to see that it will bo no rival at all. Lucea romains in this country another year. She will spend the summer. in the White Mountzing, in order'to bo refreshed fortho fall seazon, and will then open in New York ‘just beforo the Nilsson season, for, a short engagement only, ~ after which she will go immodiately to Havana to'capture the Hidal- gos, and Irom thero will go to Now Orleans and thenco throngh tho West. By that time, prob- ably; Marotzok and Jarrett will havo settled their griovances, bo bosom friends, and eat mac- caroni out of the-same dish, and clean tho dirty linon at homo. There was 2t one time a prospect ‘of a third troupe, with® Wachtel end Pareps at the heed of it, and Carl Rosa for conductor, but this project has been abandoned. by tha action of Wachtel, who has backed out. AMeanwhile, it is not impossible that ?uepn,who‘ is now in Egypt, singing to the Sphynx, Khe- dive, and Pyramids, maycome hers and give English opera. ; Sk Thisis the operatic prospect for next fall. Aftor that, what ?, We have been announcing facts. Wo =ndw venture "upon a pre- diction. Noxt yoar, Richard Wagner produces his- Nibelungen-Trilogy a$ Baireuth. After 1874, we predict that Wagner's operas will bo produced in America, and will supplant Tialian opern. Whon Mr. Wachtel finds it ncces- Bary to_commencs ‘studying Wagner's operas, “when Adalina Patti evén bas to stndy Lohen- | grin” and “ Dor Fliegende Hollander,” to main- tain her prestigo in Europe, tho indications are pretty conclusive that this star of Wagner, juat now coming up from thoe horizon, will soon'be at the zenith. Tho music of the futuzois close at hand.. * TEE DETECTIVE SYSTEM. ; Tz TorsuNe kas already referred to the good - results that sro roported from Boston as follow- ing the abolition of the regular detective sjs- tem. This was ono of the first steps in the now | preventive policy inauguratod by the .Chiof of Police of that city. There has been an arrest of recent occurrenco, and of peculiar hardship, in England, which has drawn tho attention of the British Government and people to the samo sub- joct, and which may lead to a reform that may well bo imitated elsewhero. Tiw incidonts of this case will illustrate one of tho most com- | 1mon abuses of the Dotective Police Systemnowin vogueinalmost alllarge cities. Some monthsago, amurder was committed in London under myste- rious circumstances.- A woman of the town was found dead in Ler bod in the morning. - All that ‘was known about the case wis, tialshe had been zccompanied the evening before by a foreigner, # description ‘of whom' was given by the keepor of the lodging-house. Tho noxt morning, at an early bhour, a foreigner coming from the same -house stopped near by to gel something to eat and then passed on. It was concluded that ho was the man who committed the murder. The caso was placed in tho hands of the detectives. .From that time, it was their duty,to find somebody who wonld answer the do- scription given to them. At last, they arrested 8 German named Wohlebe as the man. He was ore of _L'colany of Germans on their way to Brazil in o vessel which had put into Ramegato for repairs. _Several of the passengers, includ- ing tho ‘Rev. Dr. Hessel and ‘& néwly- married wife, had . gane on shore to pass Hessol, who, slong with the. other colonists, | knew the man to bs innocent, resalved to prove it by o simple stratagem. He had some twenty of the omigrants dressed liko Wohlebe, him- self among' the number, procceded to the place of the preliminary examination with his compsny, drew them up in line, and re- quested the two detectives who had made the arrest to again fetch out their alleged criminal. They walked up and down the line, and finally selected tboir man, who, this time, turned out to bo Dr. Heasel = himself. While the colony thought that the selec- tion of the wrong man would be sufficient proof of the innocence of oll parties present, the detoctives were of difforent mind. They de- termined to hold Dr. Hesscl as the criminal, He twas prepared to zubmit proof that he was lying sick in London at the time the murder was com- mitted, but this would not be received except on » public trial. He wastaken to London, sub- fected to frequent oxaminations, stripped of his clothing, Jabolod “No. 8, and consigned to a dark cell in Bow street, When he was finally permitted to bring in his. proofs, his complote innocence was established, of which the police might have convinced themeclves tho first day; bub it was only after seversl weeks of great personal an- noyance and almost fatal fright to his wife. Now the Government offars to pay the costs of Dr. Hessol's defenso and the passage of himself and wife to Brazil; but the people and press are demanding a change in the police system when an outrago of this kind is possible. Itisnotin London alono that abuses of this nature are possiblo. They are apt to occur ‘wherever a regular dotective police system pro- vails. The idca of duty that governs the av- erage dotective is that he must arrost some- body. = Somebody having been arrestod, it then becomes a duty to convict him, as the only means of maintaining the reputation of the detectivo corps for infallibility of judg- ment. As in the London case cited, a man was first arrested because he had & foreign look and & foroign mccent. Subsequently, ‘still another men was arrested because ho resembled in gen-- oral appearance the man of foreign look and accent. Then it becamo the duty of tho detec- tives, according to their education and practices, to justify their own folly. There is a notable case in Chicago, in which the persistent wrong- headedneéss of a dotective has brought still ‘greater suffering upon an innocent and sorrowful tamily. This persistoncy, howover, is singularly wanting in cases where huge robbories are com- mitted. It is almost of daily occurrence that men robbed of their watches, or other ob- jects not roadily convertible, roceive them in re- turn for a reward. "A bank-robbery is almost in< variably settled by & return of a portion of ‘the stolen proporty, brought sbout by the inferfer- ence of detectives, Paris bas thoroughly ox- ploded the idea that Foucho applied of “setting a thief to catch a thief.” Boston’ has goze still further, and has dispensed with - the services of professional detectives altogather. It is said that the results thus far ara good. ) THE COMMON LAW AND BLIGHTED AFFEC~ TIONS. There has evidently been a new departure in the treatmont of Breach-of-Promiso cazes. The advance is in tho interests of woman's rights. Thore have been soveral cases, of late, deter- mining the right of women' to be sued for dam- ages, as well as to sue, in cagces of blighted affec- tion, Thers hasbeen onein Connecticut, one in Canads, and one in Denmark, showing that the movement is making its way simultaneously inremote quarters of the globe. In Cansda, & fow weeks eince, s Mr. Edmond Mathien recovered from’ Miss Ermalinde Lafiamme the munificent sum of £400 becanse the young lady had jilted him. The suitor had expended valu- able time ; had squandercd money for railroad tickets ; had purchased a wedding-ring and other knick-knacks ; had caught cold in watch-. ‘ing.the window of his beloved ; had suffered ths usual pangs of unrequited love ; and, as a sori of soothing. syrup or strengthening plaster, asked the Court for a judgment of 85,000. The Court and jury admitted, the principle, but ev- idently - concluded tbat the interest was usnrious. . The sum of £400 was finally allowed, but whether it was for tho railroad travel, the catching of & cold, tho prico of the ring, or the. mental sufferings of & lover, it is impossible to say.’ The Connccticut case is not dissimilar, though a trifle. more practical, as becomes a Yankeo. There ia no estiziaté of blasted hopes, ruined affections, permanent melancholia, and the distrust of womankind in general ; but there is a list of sctual exponses, incurred by the plaintiff in traveling to and from the house of his Iate adored. The modest sum of $600 is demanded. If this caso also brings about o verdict in favor of thediscarded lover, it will sottle the principle, at .least, that a._man is entitled to mileage in an unsuccessful court- ship. Lovers contemplating suits shotld con- snltsergoants-at-arms as to themannerof making up the charges. In Denmark, an American lady of fortune s to be taught the ead lesson that the heretofore innocent pastime of flirtation is no longer to bo tolerated. Tho -defendant in this case fook up her residence in Copenhagen with a marriod sister, and soon found herself sur-. rounded with a tempting array of titled suitors. Shesecmatohave favored ono Count in particular. 85 he claims, ¢ loast. Exercising the wiles which. young American Iadies aro supposed to under- stand, she secured the unreserved adoration of . the unsophisticated Danish Count. When she had fairly baited him, she allowed him to dangle in torture on her hook, and finally threw him away with tho mental observation that there are-| just as good fish in the sea as ever were caught, and porhaps botter. Danish Counts are evi- dently unaccustomed to this sort of treatment, and the jilted ono has resolved .to submit-his pufferings to o jury. Ho has brought = euit for damages, and thinks that ho is entitled ‘to half the young lady's fortune if ho cannot ehare her -aflecticns. This now departure isa serious imatter. It throatens to overturn the cstablished usages of gociety. - Instead of mancenvering mammas and guileless daughters, of whom the * catches " of fashidnable life have learned to be afraid, we shall bo introduced to a maltitndo of profession- al match-makers, 6r match-breakers, of the male persnasion. A new field of industry is thusopen- ed to dead-beats, who will now go around with broken hearte, ‘claiming dnmsages from young heiresses or well-endowed widowa. The man who can succeed in making an impression and securing a love-letter, will henceforth have o cause of action. The destruction of masculine . affections may not rate as high as that of female desolation, but there will bo a liberal allowance for the expenses of courtship. This is some- ‘thing—a good deal more than most unsuccessful lovers receive. Tho effect- on . young' women, to forego the pleasures of flirtation,-if they cannot occasionally change besux, withont sabjecting themselves to a suit for damages, then things have como to a pretty pass. The new order of things is hard, but it is only to bo regarded as one of the inevitable consequences of tho Women's Bights agitation, which' cannot but bring about a good many responibilities of which the fair sex is now relisved. Their liabil- ity to damages for breech of promise scoms to e been already established. The strong-minded woman of the period has just beea before an English magistrate. Her name is Amelia Green, housekeoper for a Lon- don gontloman, who kad her arrested for sundry zacts of violence. His testimony showed that she was in tho Labit of getting tipsy twice a day,—a foat which, of itself, shows her superiority to ordinary beings of the other sex, who have to content themselves with one incbriation por diem. When intoxicated, the gentle Mra. Green, housckooper, was accustomed to fear up the plaintiff’s garments, to the detriment of his per- sonal appesrance, 8s well as the elongation of his tailor's bills. 8he had also frequently pursued him with a carving-kmife, and, at one time, threatened “to do for him” with & revolver. The persecuted plaintiff then or- dered her to leave, which she steadfestly refused to do. Hebore his persecutions man- fully, until one day when the tyrant beat him about the head with & boofsteak. This aroused ‘his true British bile, and he brought her beforo tho magistrate. She produced such an impros- sion upon that functionary,- however, that ho advised the plaintiff not to take out a summons against her for assault, but to try and live with her, whercupon Amelia Greon, housckeeper, led him away in triumph to endure beefstenk broils of a different sort from what he wanted, a8 woll a8 her littlo carving-kmife, revolver, and garment-rendering eccentricitios, while on her daily dual drunk. Wo commend, the heroism and persistence of Afrs. Amelin Green, house- Leepor, to all strong-minded women desirous of sobduing the male porson, ——— A prototype of Oakos Ames has been dis- coverod.. - He lived in Rhode Island about sixty years ago. His namo was Dexter. Mr. Dexter started a bank on €19,000, which had o circula~ tion of 2600,000 before six months. The notes wers Andrew Dextor's promise to pay the Direc~ tors of the bank at the ond of two years, *‘it being understood that said Dextor shall not bo called upon to make payment until ho thinke proper.” The basis of this convenient proviso was, that Mr. Dexter was the principal stock- holder, and, of course, knew best when it would be proper to pay the notes. Tho main rulé of the baak was as followa: The general rule shoald undoubtedly be to pay punc- tually, but to tkis there ore important exceptions, such a4 when we are run upon by brokers, or oy persons whatsver, mercly for the purpose, making a proft out of the injury and loss of the bank; thess cught to bo pald only by drafts on_the exchange oflice {in Boston) at forty daya’sight. The Providenco banks should be plagued as much a8 possible, by detaining them sa long ag it will naturally tako to count all kinda of specie change fntermixed in the most deliberate manner. The change is very fmportant, and ought to bo hus- ‘banded a8 much s possible, never to pay it away ex- cept whero the intention is fo plague znd delay the person. 8 Ar. Doxter's bank had a single employs, paid by tho bank for his day-work, and paid by ALr. Doxter for secretly signing bank-notos at night. When this clerk got eick, Mr. Dextor wrote him anote consoling him, ¢nd telling him that his “natural piety ” would soon enable him to re- cover. If Mr, Oakes Ames is ‘‘the honestest man in Congress,” it is probably because tho merits of Mr. Dexter were nover properly recog- nized, and because he was never sent to Wash- ington. - PR SN — The revised roturns of the English census of 1871 have just been published, which show that the total populition of the United Kingdom =t that date was 81,623,333. Of this number 21,495,131 belong to England, 1,271,135 to Wales, 8,360,018 to Scotland, 5,411,416 to Ireland, and the remainder, 144,638, to tho adjacent isl- ands in the British eoas. A comparative state- ‘ment shows that the inbabitants of Englacd 2nd Wales have boen increasing at tho rato. of 13.19 per cent during the past ten years. In Irclind thero has been a material decrease, tho inhabitants being 387,551 fewor in 1871 than in 1861. In Scotland, the popnlation has multiplied at tho rate of 9.72 per cent, the numbers having risen from 8,062,294 in 1861, to 3,860,018 in 1871, Botween the yeara 1861 and 1871 the total num-. ber of emigrants waa 1,975,577, of whom 301,983 were-of foreign extraction. The total num- ber of inhabited houses in the United KEingdom is 05,656,513, showing =2n average of 559 persons to every 100 houses, and there are also 246 acros to every 100 persons, showing that the United Kicgdom ia not yet densely pop- ulated. Of the total number of inhabitants 15,368,125 are males, and 16,260,213 fomales, be- ing an averago of 949 males to every 1,000 feminlés in the country. = The work of adjusting "the Northwestern dividing lino between the British and American territory is by no means an easy one. Thors is’ & joint commission of the two Governments in charge of it. Last wintor, the American Com- mission ran a lino fifty miles cast from.the Red River; thia winter, the English party, under charge of "Capt. Anderson, of the Royal Engi- neers, cre continuing this line to the Loke of tho Woods. The party consists’ of about 100 persons,—enginecrs, astronomers, surveyors, axmen, teamsters, &c. - Though the woather has been frightfolly cold, somotimes reaching fifty degrecs below zero, the work hag been continued without interruption, as the country is of & swampy character, which' would not admit of doing the work after the thaw. A strip of twenty feot in width is cleared, fiags arc put up at distances of five miles, and several monuments (built of wood and iron, as no stone can be obtained), are to be erccted. Tke work wost of the Bed River will be begun by both parties in May, and it is estimatod that it will roquire three years to complete the wholo survey. —_——— Tho Darvinian theory of Natural Selection has been applied in France to sociaty, with men like Sainte-Beuve, Taine, Renan, and the younger Dumas for disciplee. Dumas believes that there aro types of the Simien age emong all clasacs of society. His “ Femme do Claude,” tho title and the heroine of his new play, is one of these. Bhe robs her hunband of a secret invention'in order to sell it for the benefit of herseif and par- amonr. Dumas’ idea'of virtue and vice, on the Darwinian plan, is_accompanied by rather sum- maryprocesses of justice. Heholdsthat the crea~ tures of Simian morality aromot to be converted. or reformed. The only way is to kill thom. This is what he does -with the “* Femmoe de Claude.” It is also what ho recommended in his pamphlet, entitled *Tne-la.”” This is what the French call scientific. morality, and it Is on this principle that the younger Dumas hes advanced from the sugar-coated vice of the “ Dame aux Camelisa™ | to the repulsive theory of Simian women like the * Femme de Clsude.” ‘The Boston Globe has undertaken to decide what constitutes & newspaper. It first informs the world what a newspaper should not be, and wo learn that it should not be “an abstract of mero politics and -businoss, & balance-sheet of | items reduced to their briefest terms,” aa ““life does not consist of business entirely,” nor does- * g gifted analysis of univereal politics supply the mental wants of struggling humanity.” Tho Globe then settles the matter by stating that s live newspaper is one which publishes the news in every branch of buman industry, which hes fine writing, is not humorous, haa high aims," and states its theorics in well-sclocted words and smooth sentences. It is a plexdant thing to have an anthoritative statement of what consti- tutes a livenowspaper in Boston and cl=ewhere, It would be still more pleasant now for the Boa- ton authorities to show us a szmplo of one. BY PROP. WILLIAM MATHEWS, OF THE UNIVER- BITY OF CHICAGO. Among the complaints made against the literaturo of our day, one of the commonest is that it lacks originality. Not only tho poets, a8 Tonnyson, Lengfellow, and Aloxander Bmith, are accused of stricging their Iyres fo the old tunes, and singing songs which have been sung substantially a thousand times before, but our philosophets and historians, our novelists, . essayists, and theclogians, aro included in tha same sweeping condomnation. There are somo gynical crities who not orly claim that originality i3 rare,—almost a3 rarc as honesty in Congress- menj—but contend thet it is nearly, if notquite, impossible, If en eathusiastio resder goes into- raptures over what ho fancics o be somo fresh, unique, and suggestive work, full of seed- thoughts, and which positively gives him s new sensation, theso critical Velpeans wil proceed to dissect it, and show that overy thought and illustration is tracaable to somo preceding writer who flourished a hundred or a thousand yeers' novels are mado is limited, they sy, in quanti- ty, and speedily exbausted. The number of human paseions upon which the changes can be to which thoir play -gives rise may be ‘| ples, they quickly digested and assimilated | ence between ancient Greece.and modern Eu-- . fish up anew.” Photography, which the nine- counted on the fingers. Love returned and love wunrequited, jealousy end eavy, anger, pride, avarice, generosity, end revenge, aro the hinges upon which all poems and ro- mances turn, and these passions have been the |- same ever since Adam. In Homer, Virgil, Plau- tus, and Terence, we have an epitome of all the men and women onthe planet; and thereis nothing new in thoworld except tho costumes of men, and the cut of their hair and whiskers. Even in invention, it is wvrged, thero is nothing now. Tho moderns L'ave utized many old ideas, but they havo originated nothing. Frank- lin stole the thunder, if mnot the lightning, of somebody else ; Colt's revolver is as old ss Cromwell's troopers ; and it is quite certaig that neither Fulton nor Watt, nor the Margais of Worcester, nor Blasco de Garay, but some countryman of Confucius, living centuries 2go, invented that wondrous engine through which the lawless winds have been made to cowor before the mightier powers of steam. In short, in literature and in science it is alike true that thors is nothing of which it may. bo snid, “See, this ia now !” but, as Chsucer com- plained, five hundred yeara ago, 7 Qut of the olde-fields, as mer: saithe, Comoth all this new corn fro year to year; And out of olde books, in good fzithe, Cometh all this newe science thas men lere, Is this o just statement of the case? 2Xfust we admit that every domain of thought was pre- empted before the moderns appeared,—that the ancients stole all their ideas before they had _them,—and that to seek for originality in our doy is to chase a will-othe wisp? | To answer this question, it is necsssary to understand cleatly what “originelity® * is. If by originality is meant the invention of something absolately new, whother in science, art, action, reflaction, method, or application,— it is hard to believe in its existence now or at any time sinca the gorms of thought firat began to shoot forth in the prehistoric ages. No peo- ple on the earth can claim, independently of |’ others, to heve struck out any thoughis for tho good of mankind. Of all the nations of antiquity, the Phernicians might most plausibly make this boast. The first known metallurgists, they also displsyed a brilliant genins for navigation and trado, and introduced the letters of the alphabey into Europe. But 2s to originality, they had .| nono, except *“ariginal sin.” Possessing a powerfully recoptive nature, largely from earlier and more Oriental peo- thoir borrowod knowledge, and, as the great middlemen between the East and Weat, plased animportant part. Bat, though admirable liter- ary merchants,. they were not .producers of thonght. Bo, too, the Arabs, with ail their won-. dorful quickness and muscularity of intellect, wero “the hieropharts, and not the oracle.” They were the purveyors and exponnders of zci- rope ; but they gave to the world nothing un- thought of before. Nearly all the great discoverios and original inventions of modarn times kaveo been shown to have existed in their gorms, if not in fall bloom, thousands of years ego. Disracli believes that the Romans knew the secret of mova- ble types, but would not let it be known, for fear of the spread of knowledge, and the loss of tho aristocratic monopoly of enlightened thonght. DeQuincey holds that printing was | long known to tho ancients, but made no prog- ress for want of paper. Gunpowder wasa pyrotechnic plaything long beforae it was used to kill men. = Telescopes, some scientists tell ‘us, must have been directed to the stars of tlie an- tique heavens, or ita astronomy could not have existed. Alexander’s copy of the Iliad, inclosed in a nuishell, could bardly have becn written withont ‘& microscope; -and the gem throngh which Nero looked st the distant gladiators way essentially an opera-glass. ‘ The mallea- bility of glass, the indelibility of col- ors, and fifty other things of importance, dropped by. tho ancients into the stream- of time,” says & well-informed writer, * wo have to. teenth century claims as beyond all cavil i invention, is described by & French writer in 1760 with even greater perfection of detail than we' can now attain to,—photography producing color sswell a8 form; snd 3. Fournier has shown' that the magnetio telegraph was invented more than two centuries ago. . What shall we eay, then ? : That originality in our day is an impossibility >—that Parnassus bas been robbed of its richest laurels, and tho unhappy writer of this century can only pick up what bygone explorers have left behind? Yes, if by originality is meant an absolute creation of new material,—an isolsted act of bare im- itation, instead of an act of adaptation - ox mold-’ ing so as to resemble & mew creation, and, in-. decd, tobe one. . But if by originality is meant & just seloction and vitalizing of materials that already exist, a fresh and novel combination’ of idess, imparting new life to what is combined,— and this is the only originality that is or ever was possible in any age,—then the writers of"| to-day are s original as any that ever held & stile or dipped their'pens in ink. Tobe a liter- ary creator, it is not necessary that a. man should make & {abularasa of his brain. Genius would soon starve and pine .away, if not cesselessly -fed by .tho memory. As Burko justly says, “there ‘iz no faculty of .the mind which can bring its energy into effect, unless the memory be stored with idess for it to work mpon;” to which we may add that - the very bést pumps will not play till yon pour’ in water to start them. Originality in tho croa- tive arts, a8 well a3 in science, may be displayed a8 gignally in method as in subject-matter. To reproduce is, in fact, to produce again.’. The process 18 the same, provided that it is carricd out with equal energy; andit is simply non- sonse to sy that vigor ceaes to. be vigor becauss it starts upon beaten track. -All of tho great poets have st some timo been accused of boing great thieves; but noth- | ing can be more foolish than most of these aitempts to rob them of their famo. Every great writer i3 necessarily indebted both to his’ con- temporaries and to his predecessors. The finest paseages in proso and poetry are often but.em- bellished recollections ‘of other” men's produe- - tions. Thought and memory, it has beed'no lees finoly than justly snid, <ro the Alpheus. and | tho Arothusa of mectaphysics; commit any ma- terial to the-laiter, and after s long period of forgettnlness, by some subterranean transition, it will appear floating on the surface of the for- mor, as though it had beon thrown up from no other sources than those of purs invention. Had Bhakspeare, thousand-souled as he was, been con- finod from childhood to & desert island, could he _have written ths poorest of his matchless dra- mas; or conld Newton, unaided by the proceding iron, gravitation? What, indeed, is ov ¢ but a compendium z'r the imng‘ln:tgng:? ci::\: ries? Whatthe masterpieces of Ppainting, byt 5 combmation of tho fiuest lines sy the ' most exquisite touches of earlier and inferior artists,—or the mnoblest Works of “statuary, but 2 blending into ono forg of angelic besuty of the loveliest features ang the most graceful lineaments wrougist by hangs and chisels long ago crimblad into dust? In all ages, the grestest Literary geniuses hary boen the greatest borrowers. Ominiveroas devour. ers of books, with memories liko Liooks of steel, they have not scrupled to scize and to tum o 2ccount every good thought they could pick up in their readings. Milton boldly plagiarizeq from Dante and Tasso, and all of them from Homer; and who belioves that Homer had po reseivoirof learning to draw from, no mysteri. ous Icko of knowledge, into which he coald agy end then throw a bu ? _Goethe laughed thy idea of absolute originality to scorn, and ds. clarad that it was an sathor’s duty to uso ai thay was suggested to him fram any q . %What ago. Theraw material out of which poems and | isa great man,” aiks Emerson, “but oze gf great affinities, who takes up into himself 3 arts, scionces, all knowables, o his food ? Every book is o quotation; and eer rung is very emall; and the situations | house i§ & quotation- out of all forosts, and mines, and - stohe quarries; and every man is o quotation from all his ancestors Occasional accidental coincidences of thought and expression will not detract from a writers just famo. It is onlythe habitual and conscious thief, the man who lizes by plunder, and whe thus ghows himself to be both weal and wicked, that merits tho pillory. Literal, bald borrowing, whethor of the plan or treatmont—the.subssancs or form—the thonghis or oxpressions—of 3 work, ia absolutely indafensible; but ho is not 3 thief who borrows the ideas of a hundred cther men and ropays them with compoand inteest, Itis one thing to purloin fincly-tempered szeel, and another to take a pound of literary old and convert ‘it in the furnaca of ono's mind into s hundred watch-springs, worth each- a thousand times as muca as the iron. When genius borrows, it bor- rows grandly, gising to the borrowed matter 3 life and beauty illscked before. When Bhak. “speare is accused of pilfering, Laz<lor replies: #Yet ho was more original than his originals, He breathed upon dead bodies, and brought them into life.” It has boen said of Pope that, what- ever jewol he appropriated, he eot it in gold "Perhaps the best definition of legitimate appro- printion was given by Hegel, when Cousin ‘was accused of steeling his ideas. * Consin,” said ho, “has canght somo small fishes in my pond, but-he has drowned them in his own sance.” This was quite different from the caso of a patch- work sermon preached by & 3Ir. Fish, of which an old lady complained tbab it was “ so fall of pollywogs thel she couldn’t see the Fish.” For these reasons, abont the meanest business 2 literary man can engage in is that of amaign. ing antbors for theft on the score of peity parallelisms and coincidences. The small critics who stogp to this are liko constebles who thrive by catching thioves ; they hunt- down the cul- ‘prits, not becanso their moral sense.is ontraged, ‘but bocause they got afee for hengingthe offend- er. When MMoliere was isunted with having plagiarized a scene hero, a situation thers, a character elsewhero, he replied :- “Je reprends mon bien ou je le troute—I recover my, property wherever I find it.” The whole philosophy of Plagiarism lies in that scntence. A man of genius takes unhesitatmgly whatever ho can organize; a vulgar plagiarist is & valgar thief, a liar, 2und o braggert, calling. on men to admire the peacock splendor of ;his and imbibing | sretched daw pature. Niue-tenths of what is denounced as plagiarism is only euch as tha plants exercigo upon the earth. and air,—orths bee upon the flowers and honeysuckles,—to oz- ganizo the stolen material into higher forms, and make it suitable for the food of man. iy -The fact is, our literature, and 21l litoraturs, abounds with those sumilarities of thonght and expression which aro eo hastily denounced as larcenies. Roman literaturo was one immense plagiarism. Milton has been called ** the celea- tizl thief.” Paley, Butlar, Coleridge, Southey, Gray, Helped themsclves. freely to other men't thonghts. * Garth did not write his own Die- pensary.” Ben Jonson got the materials of his mosaics from the clsssics; Mirabeau got the ablest of his speeches from Dumont. Fox wes often primed by Burke, and Purke by Bolingbroke. _Critics with provokingly tens cious memories- have declared that many of Robert Hall's gems of iiinstration were *con- ” from Burke, Grzttan, and Warburton; and that'some of them have been reconveyed by Macaulay from Hall. It has been asserted that all the thinking in"Chalmors’ astronomical dis- courses. is cribbed from Andrew Fuller's The Gospel Its Own Witness. John Foster hes truly said that it -is the mark and the prerogative of geniusto be capable of lighting its own firs; butit is no mark of slavish imitation if it some- times kindle its flame by an electric spark caught from some kindred mind. Ovid com- pleins of the early writors for having “stolen all the good things;” the early writers stole from 'the Greeks; the Greeks cribbed . from the Egyptiaus;. the Egrpiisns filched from the anetdiluvians; and they, wo suppose, purloined from-the Prometheus who stole the fire directly from heaven. It is easyto raise 'the hue-snd-cry of plagiarism; but, in ‘many cases, the similarities upon which the literary tipstaff puts his fingor are nomore thefts than a chemical compound, the result of mysterions -affinitics, is identical with the elements that .enter into it, - * Thore is all the difference between suggestion and plagiarism,” says Honry Rogers; ‘‘that thero 18 botween malking blood from blood, and receiving it into the veins by transfusion.” 7 An interesting decision was mado in the New New York courts a day or two ago, which is ez actly antagonisticto & decision made in the sams caso by the French courts. Some years since, ono Gaston de Brimont wes marrled, in Paris; to Paulino, the datighter of James F. Penniman, s “weéalthy American. * In 1869, Mrs. Brimont died, and, after her death, Mons. Brimont brought enit against the father-in-law to. compel him to poy him an annuity of 18,000 francs, under s French statuto which compels: wealthy parents to support ' needy daughters-in-law ~“and sons-in-law. Brimont obtained judgment, and the- Imperial Court affirmed the judgment, whereupon Mr. Penniman left France and came to this conntry withont satisfying the judgment. Brimont followed him, and institnted s suitis the United States Circuit Court, in New York, ¢ recover the judgment which had been obtained in France. The Court has given a decizion it favor of Penniman, on the ground that the French jndgment was obtained under an obliga- tion not existing in thia country, and not xnows to our Iawa nor to the common law. = BSenator Henry Wilson has done & very sen- sible and very manly thing in signing the peti tion to the Massachusetts Legislature to reecind and annul the resolution, passed at the recent extrs session, condemning Mr. Sumner's conrsé in relation to the battle-flags. Mr. Wilson,:in his letter to the gentlemen who addressed Bim upon the subject, says that he conld not vote {oz Mr. Sumner’s resolution, and still regrets tis “he presented it, but he has no doubt that 3z Sumner acted from a high sense of duty. He regrots still more, however, the passsgé o the resolution of censure, and can see no other purpose in its passago then to wound the fosl- inga of ilr. Sumner. 1ir. Wilson's letter i8 timely and fitting rebuko to the bigoted and ix- ‘tolerant partisan spirit which inspired this-3t- tompt to disgrace MMr. Sumnor. ¥ v el e 2 —The Rev. George B. Darrow has nwgl‘d‘ eall to the’ Wests Boylston (Mass.) .pfifi Church, under the novel theory that thero 8l be in tho church no stipulated reating of ¥ priviloges, and as'the complemont of L:l“ii should be no stipulaed compersation for pulpit secvice. Ho il depend upon -voluntary offer inga. ; !