Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, April 18, 1875, Page 4

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE: SUNDAY. APRIL 18, 1é75.f,SIXTEEN PAGES. i 5 e e e = modiousnest. It is o Aginal and unique,—a of Wealth,” whose especial mission it is to puff and praiss. that book It is for the Board of Education to consider how far the adoption of this change—the consideration of which has been laid over for a month— would be to the true interests of the city and its schools, and how Tar to the pecuniary in- terests of anybody else. . ot B TERMS OF THE TRIBUNE. ATXS OF SURSCRIFTION (PATADLE IN ADVAECK). Pestage Frepaid =t this Ofilce. Parts of & yearat the same rate. “WASTED—Une active agent in each town and villags. arrargements made with such. “Epacimen coples sent fre. 2 To preveat delay and mistakes, be sure and givo Post- ©ffco address in full, including State and County. Yiomittancesmay bemade eithar by draft, expreas, Post- Oftca erder, or in registered letters, At onr risk. TERMS TO CITY SUBECRIDERS. Drily, delivered,pfunday excedted, 25 cents perweek. Daily, delisered, Sunday fncluded. 30 cents par week. THE TRIBUNE COMPANY, Carne: Madison and Dearborn-sts., Chicago, Dl Competent architects state that the court- rooms in the City-Hall can be ventilated as well as those ifi any private building, and can be put info good ¢pndition by the expendi- ture of a few thousand dollars, after which they will be preferable to any that can be obtained in'the fourth and fifth stories of any private building which any one will construct for such purpose; The Courts will then have ample room on 'the first and second floors, instead of climbing up into the upper stories of & new building. They will have.as high ceilings and as good ventilation as in any business block. The arrangement, safety, and gize of the vaults are superior to any of usual construction. Now, it is a singular and significant fact that, notwith- standing thess things were first pointed out some weeks ago, the Committee of the TO-MORROW'S AMUSEMENTS: 'S THEATRP-—Randoinh girest, betwses e LRt B Davia Gamma™ ; ADPCPHI THEATRE—Dearborn strest, osrner Mon- wes. Varioty entertalnment. ACADEVY OF MUSIC—Halsted strest. between Mad. and . o] of G. M. Clprico. 53 a3 Honros. Bugageme 5 jask stroot, opposite SRAXD OPERA HOUSE—Cler % g Madison strect, between EM'YICKKR'S THRATRE-Madison Dearbern and Stets. hon." Dt ey County Commissioners have never called up- A Tt p B faot o | 0 the Board of Public ‘Works, who have e ——y SOCIETY MEETINGS. charge of the City-Hall, to ascertain whether the statement is correct or not. They have LAFPAYETTE CHAVTER, Ko, SR. A. M.~] proceeded just a8 if it were not, and as if the e D e B~k Dogsss. Vis. | Present quarters of the Courts are not sus- laryeardually furitod toatieni rosderof eI P | ceptible of being put into a proper condition. The Board of Public Works confirm the statements made.: in Tez Trmsuse, and Al “URBANDALE" COLONY OF express their inguess to proceed e vk e Fabls Tibrar craes of aimes over e Libras, cox Bt av and Macison sty o Togedar, Avri 0, 175, 2 st R 'cluck . m., for the papose of completiag i or: | to make o the mecessary improvemerits et d‘l&’wmmmu“‘-‘f Tariiad ta atioad. ‘whenaver &e County Commissioners shall TTEN: SIR ENIGHTS I—Stated Gonolave of | 3PProve the same, und furnish the cfiufl- o dory, N:%?K-'TA. oy evenig, necessary funds for msking them. The April 13, 1635, All members arenotified to be present, ai baunoss of imwmi-an doms botare the Command- | whole work may be dons for a few thonsand r. Hyedesol e G o WILLLAMS, Recorder. | dollars, after which the Courts will bu better located and housed than they would be in any private building. It is fiot unreasonable to ask,, therefors, that the County Board shall fully examine the proposition to make altera~ tions in the present City-Hall, and consult with the Board of Public Works, before bur- dening the tax-payers with an expenditure of from $100,000 to $150,000 f8r the rent of a private building and the expense they will have to put on it ¢ RXCRLSIOR LODGE. KO, ior Lodge No. 23 The Chicage Tribune, Sunday Morning, April 18, 1875. ' One hundred years ago to-morrow the first real battle of the American Revolution was fought at Concord, Manss. A large smount of military stores and provisions_had beefi collected at this point by the Provifial Con- gress, and Gen. (Gagg, in command of the British troops at Boston, conceived a plan of making a rapid msrch on the town and destroying the the property. This fact coming to the ears of the patriots, the most valuable portion of the goods were se- creted in the neighborhood, and a Committes of Safety was sppointed to keep the inhab- itants informed of the movements of the enemy. On the 16th of April the British commander started out a force of some 800 men, with orders to meke all haste by forced ‘march to the rebellious Yan- kee town, and upon arsival there to burn and destroy all the class ef property before described that conld be found in the village. The invading troops met some littls opposi- tion at Lexington, where the Minute Men collected to the nmmber of 200 or 800. In the skirmish that ensued seven of the cblon- ists were killed and a dozen or more wounded, Meanwhile the whole country round sbout had been alarmed, and the patriots flocked to Concord, and upon the arrival of the British at the outskirts of the town they wers met by some 400 Sons of Liberty in position on 8 hill commanding the place. The British troops had hardly begun their work of destruction when the colonists moved down the hill and were received by a fire from the regulars, from which two of the Americang fell dead. The Yankees then re- turned the fire, Lilling one English soldier and wounding several. The invaders fell back, and after raiding through the town for £ few hours, commenced their return march ts Boston. It was on this march that fell disaster overtook them. Along the whole line, from every fence-cormer, ravine, and defile came Yankee bullets, and the red-cdats were picked off so rapidly that before their arrival in Boston 273 of them had been killed. Concord and Lexington will to-morrow celebrate the centennial an- niversary of this stirringevent with the burn- ing of much gunpowder. A monument to the * Minute-Men ” will be dedicated, =nd speeches and dinners will grace the occasion. President GraxT and several members of his Cabinet will be present. TEE CHARTER VOTE NEXT FRIDAY. Those who have not paid particnlar atter- tion to the progress of the movement in favor of arcform of the City Charter, may not un- derstand why it is that, six or seven months 880, the Citizens' Association should have solicited and obtained 10,000 sigraturestos petition asking the Common Council to sub- mit to the people, for adoption or rejection, the General Municipal Charter of 187% and that now the ssme Associstion desires that charter to be rejected. The explanation is'a simple one. At the time that petition was prepared the Legislatare was not in session. The legal prohibition of any amendment of the existing cherter cut off all hope of relief in that direction. The insufficiency of the ‘general charter of 1872, and its special inapplicability to a city like Chicago, was understood ; but , the conclusion was reached: that it would be best to adopt the charter of 1872, and then, before it went int3 operation on the second ‘Tueedsy of April, 1875, to appeal to the Leg- islature to amend it 50 as to- adapt it fo the wants of the city.. The Common Council, however, delayed sotion on the subject, and finally fixed the time for ,the vote on the sdoption or rejection of the charter at a date 9o remote that, if adopted, no general elec- tion could be held under it fntil April, 1677, and at a date so remote that the Legislature would bave in the meantime adjourned. ‘When the Legislature met it was discovered that the act of 1872 could not be amended so s to adapt it 16 Chicago, without at the same time amending the cherters of all the other cities which hnd organized under that act, or ‘were about to do s0. i It wog then, after full consideration and consultation with the Cook County delega- tion and members of the Legislature, deter- mined to have that bédy enact snother generel charier, suitable for & class of cities not provided for in the act of 1572, and containing features which those other cities might not want. Thus, the new chartes provides for two Boards of Common Council insteed of one, which is highly important for a great city; provides for the division of the exscutive labor among & number of officers, —a provision which, however appropriate for largo cities, would be unnecessary in_smaller ones. It sleo contains a limitation on the rate of taxation to 15 mills, which' is exceed- We wish to remind the public:that on Fri- day pext there will be an election to decide npon adopting the genersl charter of 1872. As this charter is conceded on all hands to be inapplicable to Chicago, it would ordinarily £all to the ground for the want of votes. But there are those who, for mischievous pur- poses, would like to throw the whole City Government into confusion, and who may quietly vote for the charter on Friday next. If no cae votes against the charter, fifty votes for it would be as eflectusl for its adoption as 50,000. It will be necessary, therefore, for voters o take the trsuble of depositing a bal- 1ot “ Againet tho Charter of 1872.” The English Post-Ofice Department yields = profit of over §20,000,000 8 year. The in- trodnetion of the postal money-order system was expected to swell this profit to a con- siderabledegree. Toeverybody'ssurprise, the business seems to be done at 2 loss. In }873, the amount yemitted through postal orders was £108,150,000. The commission of 1 per cent charged upon this gave the Government £1,081,500. And yet this large sum was ab- sorbed, end perhaps more than absorbed, by the cost. of extra printing, extra clerk-hire, ete. Ttis sughested that somebody has been extravagant. The Spectator seys: “It is very difficult to believe that a private banking firm would not contrive somehow to mekea profit out of an overturn of £21,000,000 & year.” ‘We bave received 8 circular from the Ili- nois Associction of Natursl History, which falls so exactly into line with the recom- mendetion, mads in last Sanday’s TrisuxE, of field-lectures, that we are glad to call pub- lic ettention to it The Asséciation pro- posss to meke iie museum st Normal, 1L, a centre of scientific study, from July 14 to Aug. 11. Only fifty scholars can bereceived. The ranning expenses of the enterprise are sglready provided for, so that the only ex- pense, outside of board and lodging, will be instruction. For this a fee of not over §10 will be charged Profs. T. J. Bursmn eod S. A Fomses will be . among the teachers. The studies pursmed - are to be botany, zoology, and comparative anat- omy, and perhaps others. * Excursions to the sdjacent rivers and forests will be made, to collect specimens and give cpportunity for field work” In making up the classes, pref- erence will be given to teschers. Rersons wishing to enroll themselves should send their names to E. A. Gasruax, Normal, or S. Y. Warre, Principal of Pedria County Normal School, or C. C. BxypEm, Superintendent of Schools, Freeport. The Harvard Scientific School has organized something like this, on & larger scale and with more field work. A ““camp of jnstruction” will be held in the Tennesses Mountains, during the summer, If these experiments succsed, they will prob- bly be generally repeated, throughout the soantry, hereafter. There is something before the Chicago Board of Educstion which looks like a job. At the Board mesting last Tuesday, the Comnittee on Text-Books snd Courss of In- sruction submitted s report, recommending = uoaeber of changes in the books used in the gutlic schools of this city. Such & sweeping policy is in itself suspicious. It increases the expenses of thousands of families, and gives very profitable conirsets to several besvy book-firme. One recommendation de- seTves especial sitention. Bowzx's and Pee- % books on political economy are to be repisced by Awasa Warxxe's “Science of Wealth.” In briefly reviewing this Intter work, some weeks ago, we pointed out its unfitness for uss as a text-book. That opinion was formed after a careful resd- ing of the book, and remaing unchanged. Prof. Walxer writes in a stilted, pompous ~iyle, and his book is profuse, confused, and xa-orranged. It is tiresome resding for an vdult, and can be xelied upon to put auy nun:ber of boys and girls to sleep. There is \o comparison between it and Perey's & Po- litic? Economy™; and the latter could be substantially improved. It is difficnlt to be- licve that the Commitiee on Text-Books can Lave carefully reviewed the two works, It is probable that they havo been misled by uc arrey of recommendations of Wazxsn's book, which has been circulated indus- triously. It i3 one of the essiest things in the world to get a recom- mendstion for anybody snd snything. In the long list given here there is only one certificate from & tescher of any espocial note. ‘The more potent csuse of the change, how- ever, is undoubtadly the prassnce in this city ©f 23 agent of the publishers of the * Soienco of salaries,—a provision that is important in Chicago, but not nacessary in smaller towns ‘which have nof yet reached the financial con- dition of this city. o The Legislaturg concurred in this viow, and by an almost unanimonus vote of both parties in both Houses, there was enacted a ¢ General Charter of 1875,” whih is to be adopted or rejected by a vote of .the peopls of Cliicago'on the 15th day of August next. In the meantime, the Legislature also rem- edied many of the evils of the old charter of Chicago by re-enacting a large portion of the law known as the Mayor's bill,—so that at the present time the ptople of Chicago have before them for their acceptance three sev- eral charters, ag follows : 3 1. The present charter of 1863, with amend- ments, iccluding the recently-enccted May- or's bill,~the whole constituting the present City Charter. . 2. The general charter of 1872, conceded to be wholly inapplicable to the City of Chi- cago unless amended, and not capable of amendment withoul ainending the charters of other cities in the State. This charter is to be accepted or rejected next . Fruday, April 23, It should be voted down. - - - 8. The general charter of 4875, which in- cludes the.existing charter, with the various improvemmehts made necessary because of the growth and peculiar circumstances of the city. 'This charter has to be voted on by the people in August, 1875, and, if adopted, will go into operation in November next. It is necessary, however, to understand that if, next Friday, there should be a major- ity of votes for the charter of 1872, then the' present charter will be wholly repealed ; and, as the charter of 1872 is comparatively a skeleton, it will strip the city of many essen- tial powers of government, providing no equivalents therefor, and will practically overturn the present Government, without providing & proper substitute therefor. It will not only repeal wholly the present char- ter, but will, by anticipation, prevent the adoptign of the charter of 1875 at the elsc- tion in Aungust, and prevent any vote upon that or any other charter until November, 1877. It will leave the city involved in utter confusion, with all its elective officers holding office ,until April; 1877, under one charter, while attempting to execute another charter, It will changs the number of wards, re-divide the city into distriets, and generally put the affairs of the city into inextricable confusion. If the charter of 1872 be voted down mext Friday, then the people of Chicago will still have the privilege of retaining the present charter as amended by the Mayor's bill, or of ddopting in August next the charter of 1875. Those who wish either of these must mite and reject the charter of 1872, which, if adopted, repeals absolutely the whale of the present charter, and prohibits the adoption of the one of 1875 for ome years to come, The city is not in 8 condition to perpetrate practical jokes when the consequences are so serious. A gangof 500 men may, next Fridsy, organize and poll several thousand votes for the charter of 1872, and, in the ab- sence of any vote on the other side, may secure it3 adoption a8 a joke; butsucha proceeding would be .a public calamity, in. volving the city in financial embarrassment and confusion which would require years to overcome. Let the citizens therefore vote on Friday “Against the Charter of 1872,” and thus secure the privilege of deciding in An- gust next whether they will rotain the pres- ent charter, with the Mayor's bill included, ‘or the new charter of 1875, which includes the vital points of the old clarter, with the verious important and radical improvementa, MUNICIPAY, INDEBREDNESS, The alarming increase in tho debts of the cities and towns of Massachuseits has at- iracted the attention of the Legislature, and bills have been. introduced having for their purposo the placing of restraints upon such nction. The figures will appear startling even to people in the West, where considerable recklessness has prevailed in thig business: 1874, debts of cities and 1870, same .. Tncresss in four years. $15,000,385 In the same time the increase in property valuation has been 29 per cent, and the amount of money raised by taxation hss in- creased 80} per cent, the increase of debt has been 130 per cent. The fatal facility of issuing bonds and spending borrowed money, which has involved so many Western towns in ruin, seems to be in full practice in Massa- chusetts, When it is proposed to expend $20,000 on & work of questionable necessity, o town-meeting will resolutely vote down & motion to levy a tax to raise the money ; but the same town-meeting will, without objec- tion, vote to issue bonds to raise the money, and to paya high interest thereon. Thus municipalities are led into the toils of debt, aud when, to pay the debt and the interest thereon, the taxes become excessive, the men of means sell out, and move to other places not yet overwhelmeé with bonds. The Constitution of Illinois in 1870 wisely sarrested -and prohibited the creation of any municipal debts in gratuities or loans to cor- porations ; the provisionresds, * No county, city, town, township, or other municipality, shall ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corporation, or make donation to or loan its credit in aid of such corporation.”” This provision cut off the most insidious and dangerous form' of temptation to the creation of municipal debt. Unfortunately, before it was adopted the municipalities of the State had voted large subscriptions to railroad stock ; they paid their bonds for the stock, and there are yet outstanding of these bonds nearly $15,- 000,000, bearing an average of 9 per cont in- terest. . Many of the towns are overwhelmed with this debt. *Others—a few—are bravely struggling to pay interest and prineipal, but the large majority of these bonds will not be paid for half a century. Another wise provision in our Constitution is that the debt of no municipality shall ex- ceed 5 per centum of the valuation of its tax- &blé property for State purposes. As this valuation is, perhaps, about 50 per cent of the real value, the limitation is. practically 2} per oent of the actual value of the taxables. It hssbeen estimated that the nggregate of the debts of the varions municipalities of the State of Illinois will reach $40,000,000, which, at an average of 8 per cent, calls for $8,200,- 000 interest annually. The nggregats taxa- tion for sll purposes, in 1872,. was $19,821,~ 000, in which must be included general and spacial taxss in Chicago and 8 dozen smaller cities, amounting to probably $8,000,000, In 1873, the taxes wers $ 5,023,600 sasiont 583,242 Cif Tntz'n. district, and local., Add Cryeagownd otber citied. ., We 5uppose, \ touch less than $31,000,000,'which is 000 mare than was levied in Massachusetts in 1874 Assuming the tax-in both States to be about equal, Massachusetts pays $2,000,000 more annually for interest than does Illinois; and while our public debts are decreasing, or certainly not incrensing, weo are paying our wey by direct taxation; *The restraint on the creation of debt cuts off all lavish expendi- tures of borrowed mopey, and forces those who legislate for local communities to levy taxes to meet expenditures, Extravagance is thus, in a large measure, cut off, to the great disgust of thousands of public-spirited individ- uals, who think the proper function of Gov- ernment is to borrow money and pay officers for expending if P . b THE GOLD -STATES. There are nine American States which have constantly used ané still nse specie as a cir- culating medium. Three of them—California, Oregon, and Nevada—belong to tho Union. The other six form Canada. Only an imagina- 1y political line separates tho latter froma this country, Their business interests are inter- woven with onrs, and their political - institt- tions are modelod after oirs. The slight dif- ferences which exist in this case do not exist intheother. California, Oregon, and Nevada have exactly th® sames business and political interests as the rest of the*Union. Yet they, in'common with the six Canadian States, have a gold-standard currency. Inthese nine communities, irredeemable greenbacks are demonetized, as gold is with us. They pass st a d.inc'ount, as gold passes here- at a preminm. The taker sells them at once to a broker or banker, and thay are shipped to the States, where they are the standerd of value, —if*we can call an ever-shifting point a standard. K The history of the way in which California has preserved her business from the cantami- nation of fiuctusting, debased currency is of especial value pow, for it shows what State legislation, backed by the popular will, can do to hasten resumption elsewhere, ‘In the first place, the Constitution of California for- bids any State Bank to issue notes, It must confine itself to a deposit and discount busi- ness, buying and selling exchangs and loan- ing money. The only currency recognized by the Constitation of that State is gold and silver. When the Legal-Tender act was passed by Congress, under the pressure of a real or fancied necessity, the Legislature of California enacted a law on contracts, which contains this passage: ‘“‘In an action on a contract, or an obligation, in writing, for the dirpet payment of money, mads payable in a specified kind of money and currency, judg- ment for the plaintiff, whether the same be by default or after verdict, may [shall] follow the contract or obligation, and be made pay- able in the kind of money or currency speci- fied therein.” The constitutiBnality of this 1aw has been upheM by the Supreme Court of the United States, Such simple means as these, supported by 8 hearty public spproval, have proved suff- cient. The Pacific Slope has had s gold- standard currency from 61 to '75. The re- sult has been that prices have been steady. There has been no unexpected fluctuation, no violent chsnges, mo bling or betting on the value of a dollar. "Business has not stag- gered on one continuous spree, now ina drunken delirium, now in a prostrate or comatose condition. The perfest proof of Californian and Canadian currency-wisdom came when thirty-four States of the Union saw their business erushed, their laborers thrown out of employment, their capital wiped out, their delusive, fictitiops pros- perity swept into nothingness, by-the panic of 1873. Ths gold-standard-States stood the strain. No crisis checked their businesa.: Their industrics reSted on hard gold and 20ld values,—not flimsy, fluctuating paper which the Government refdsed to redeom. A law like that of California, adopted in 1I- linois and other States} would throw safo- guards around gold contracts, apnd would draw public attention to the possibilify of what may be called individual resumption of specie payments. A great deal of wholesale business is now being transacted in New York and Boston on a specie basis, and much more would be, provided the importance of individual action were urged upon the public. The Secretary of the Treasury cannot resume specie pnyments on his own hook Jan. 1, 1879. The nation must help him. ‘EDUCATION AND CRIKE. The rnatural history of crime is a subject which is only beginning to receive the at- tention it deserves. The average educated man knows a great doal more of how moths, and caterpillars, and frogs, are produced, than he does of the gencsis of pickpockets,” robbers, and murderers. Itis not to be won- dered at that it is so, since therois really more kmown of the former than of the lat- ter. The production of criminls has 're- ceived from legislators, statewmen, and philanthropists, a minimum of investign- tion,—an amount out of all proporion withits importance to the social well-being of man- kind. Tndimes past, the devil wasa sufficient hypothesis to explain all crime. . In ourdays, there is 8 growing tendency to account for it on the principle of heredity. On the former hypothesis, the criminal wns the man who hearkened to tho demon’s voics, and he differed from other men only in yielding to the Satanio influences which they resisted. On the latter, the oriminal is born predes- tined to"a life of murder or rapine. We have no disposition to enter into the question of the efficiency of theso causes—only we would call attention to the gell-known fact that ‘most criminsls, if not all, have had a training in crime, and that there is good reason to be- lieve that it is education in crime which msakes men in most instances criminsls. There. is 8 school in the land not erected at public expenso—the school of the street—largely attended ' by the chil- dren of the wretched, by children sometimes without father, or mother, or guardian, or f‘riend,—l.muxele&a, homeless, penniless, shiftless,—left to vegetate, whom society—so to speak—tramples upon, and who in turn learn to trample upon and to hate society. Here thd vast majority of criminals are formed, and here the prevéntion of crime must begin, How- much may be done for society by snatching the young out of ‘this hotbed of crime and nursery of criminals it is impdssible to estimate ; but that an almost infinite amount of good may be mplished iu this way is evident. from wlint has been done already in the great Cify of New York by the juliciously-directed efforts 'of the friends of the little street-Arabs. -To Mr. M. L. Siwowwy, an eminent French scholar, who is' now. publishing a. series of arti- cles in the Revus des Deuz Aondes on, America, we aro ‘indebted for a review of the labors of these philanthropic New York gentlemen. - The results obtained ‘| may have the effect of inducing the benevo- lent elsewhere to undertake o similar task at home. . Cranyzs Lonmvg BraoE was the first whose sympathics wers enlisted in favor of the homoless children . of New York, For over twenty yoars he has been working in' thair’ interssts and the intirest of socisty, 5| running withoyt any reward but the results obtained, and without any abatement of zeal. In 1852, there were in New York alone 10,000 children with no home but the street. At night, they might be found sleeping in the open air, in old garrets, in the porches of houses,.in _cellars, on the wharves, in old boxes; and this in winter as well as in summer. The police could do nothing to remedy this state of things. If sent to jail, they were soon'sat free again to resume their old mode of lifé. Mr. Brace determined op, opiming s num- ber of lodging-houses for their . benefit. ‘With the assistance of otiiers as benevolent as himself, he established the Fulton street lodging-house. Knowing that alms-giving has & debasing influénce on the moral character of the receiver, he fixed the price of lodging st a couple of cents-a night. Here they ob- tained o clean, tomfortable bed to rest in. The next step taken wasdto induce therchil- dren of the lodging-house to attend a night- school opened for their benefit. Gathering his boarders about him one fina morning, Mr. . Brace told them that there was & gentleman in want of an office-boy, and that he wonld pay him $3 nday: The competition for the position was appalling, until Mr. Brack in- formed them that the boy should be able to write a good hand! That was a qualification which none of them possessed. Whereupon Mr. Bnaoe proposed a.night-school, which was . accepted wunsnimously, sand the school was successfully established. Most of the boys have some littlp source of income, selling papérs, blacking boots, errands, etc. . The establish- ment of & savings-bank initiated them into the secrets of economy. At present there are a mumber of such sohools and lodging- houses in sdmirable working order in New York. Each boy has g bed of his own, and is furnighed, for tho st pittance, with all the comforts of a home. His whshing costs him mnothing. In the school he is taught reading, writing, arithmetic, geogra- phy, and history. His bed costs him 6 cents o night; his breskfnst, dinner, and supper the same amount each. C'hild.&fi unable to pay obtain credit, and their self-respect hns been developed to such an extent thatit rarely hsppens that they fail to meet their engagements, which it is never insisted they shall In 1873, 7,600 children frequented the Newsboys’ lodging-house, near the City: Hall. The total expense for the year was$16,- 000, one-fourth of which was paid by the chil- dren jhemselves. As many as 1,240 of them had made some Lttle savings, an aggregate of $2,500, Owing to the establishment of these ifstitutions, the number of children in New York arrested for petit larceny, etc., dimin- ished 50 per cent in the interval between 1861 and 1871, spite of thefact thatthe popu- lation increased vastly during the same peri- od. This isequivalent to saying that one-half of the young criminals of New York wete re- claimed to an orderly life, or that one-half of those who otterwisc would have becoms criminals were, through the educational agency of the lodging-houses and night- schools, prevented entering on a criminal course. What stronger proof can be pro- duced to shoyw that opening schools is the’ best way to make prisons useless, and that an increa® in the number of school-teachers entails 8 decrease. in the number of police- men ? Schools prevent crime, prisons punish it. Reach the class from which criminals proceed by the school and there will be no reason to reach them by the prison, when the formation of character is at end, and reformation an impossibility. THE COURT-HOUSE ARCHITECTS. The Building Committee of the Common Council, in their report on the Court- House, which they submitted last Monday, and which the Council will act upon next Monddy, accepts the dictates of the “Foreign - Know-Nothings” by suthorizing the Board of Public Works to employ thres architects, who will be two foreigners and one American. In the Germanico-Hibornian combination, the Germans fear to trust an Irishman with the work, and the Irish would never trust 8 German. It is insisted, there- fore, that there shall bo a German architect end an Irish'architect, which secures a division of the spoils and patronsge. The American is simply added for sake of appearances/ and he will be in the minority and without powar, unless as a balance of power in case of a quarrel between the foreign architects. A final struggle should be made in the Coun- cil to defeat this programme; buat there is not much likelihood of even a protest against it. It is ridiculous that there should be three architects to do the work of one, simply to acknowledge the ‘‘claims” of the Irish and Germsns o aguinst the Americans, who pay four-fifths of the taxes. 5 For the rest, the report recommends the only lawful courss, viz.: to place the con- straction of the City-Hall under tho managoe- ment and supervision of the Board of Pablic Works. If the report be adopted as it stands, it is entirely probable that the three architects already agreed upon by the Coumaty Com- missioners will be accepted by the Council. If there is any chance that the construction of the Couri-House may finally be given into the hands of a single architect, we must insist upon an opposition to the report in the Coun- cil, ps this is the only proper and business- like way of proceeding. But if this final effort fail, and if there are to be three archi- : tects of different nationalities or mo Court- , Housé, we presume that Messrs, ' Eaan, Eants, and Bunume might as well be ac- o cepted 8s to wrangle over the matter longer, only to get less. competent men, perhaps, ir ; the end. i The particular recommendation in the re » port which should commaud the ready &« ) quiescence of ‘the Council. is the limitatic n of the architects’ pay to 2 per cent on ! 1e cost of the building. The Board of Publ e Works is aunthoriZed to pay $25,000 for t! he city's share (2 per cent on $1,250,000,—h alf. the proposed cost), which thethreearchiter cts may divide among them as theyagres, If this be agreed upon, the Cqunty Board wa: nld scarcely pay less, and would hardly dare )to poy more. ' The three architects—if wem mst have three—would then receive $50,000 ) ss their compensation, which is preity fair pay in these hard times, when money is ses: irce and the demand for architects not very b1 sisk. The public ought not to be required ta pay any more for a given amoun$ of service mim. ply becauss this servics is divided up az nong three instead of being done by one pe rson. And $50,000 will be conceded to be verr handsome pay for superintending the can~ struction of a building. ) If this recommendation of the Coms nittee ‘e adopted, and the city and county car i then agree to adopt Ar. Traey's beautifal ¢ lesign for the Court-House, limiting the ¢ ost to $2,500,000, there will ba no objection o the undertaking of the work. Mr. Tmx £y has always claimed—and we think' rightly 7—that the Oourt-House may, be constructer 1 after his model as chesply s agcording o any other plan. submitted. It “excoeds s]l:the othars in light, 'besaty, ventilatibn, an %1 com. sort of inspiration. T4 is the only one of the many plans which shov ys the dome from the straet. If the Court- House be built on this plan we shall have the . handsomest and most cogvenient publio buif Ring on the Continent, —an ornament to the ity and & eomfort to all who shell occupy |/ & —— The annual meetir 1g of the American So- cial Science Associats on will be held this year at Detroit, from the * 11th to the 14th of May. The programme. is # m ‘inieresting one. The President, the Hon . Davip A. Weris, will give. the opening nddress. - Prof.- W. T. Harrs, of St. Loud j, will rend a paper on “Ideal Educstion i n America,” which will probably be too ides fistic to be of much real value. Prof. Harm) &’ fortejs chopped psy- chology, and there s ire few persons who can really enjoy his wril fings. Dr. D. F. Lrscorx will submit & series -of statistics on the health of childrenin our ; public schools, which can- not.fail to be of vd iue. Experience seems to show that city sche jols, with their four or five long stairways, arr 8 doing almost as much physical herm es mental good. The econ- omy which saves ¢ gound-rend at the expense of flesh and b lood might, perhaps, be spared from maonis pipal estimates. Congress- man GarszELp, of Ohio, reads on “ Atherican Finance,”—n dubi ious title, if his essay refers to the principles ¢ »f the science. We are not aware that they ¢ hange in the presence of the | American eagle. Then there will be a debate, which should b¢ ) of surpassing interest, on “Problems ‘of ! Irade and Industry in the Bouthern States.’ ™ If Hexey Warrzesox could be got to partici pate, and would confingy, his eulogiums of T¢ »x Scorr’a job to an hour or s0, the rest of 1 ais talk would be of notable worth. GaMau ren Beanroep, of Boston, ‘who is one of € he best theoretical fhanciers in the country, reads a paper on “‘ The Fiscal Policy of Englt and and Rhe United States,” and Geoeax 1 #auxee, of Springfield, Mass., whose trans] ationr of the [Reous des Deuz Mondes ! articles on the ‘payment of the Frenm ph indemnity we reviewed a chort tir pe ago, recds on * The Financial Exy erience of France a Lesson to the United St ates.” The proceedings of this second day, * Wednesday, May 11, will close with a confer ence on questions of pauperiam, insanity, etc. The next day, Thursdsy, there will be esgayt 5 by Cranres L. Brace, the Rev. W. G. Extor. , of St. Louis, and H. A. Hr, of Boston.” ‘The latter will be on “Immi~ gration.® F Yiday’s session will be marked by a paper by ] Joryax B. Eatox on *Civil-Ser- vice Reforx aas an Experiment in the United States.”, J. . W. Forszs, the victor in the recent con fest for reform in the man- ngement of the Chicago, Burlington & Quinc; y Road, will present a joint report by himself, " Hexzy Vmzazo, .of Boston, 7 nd J. W. Horr, of Wisconsin, on the raf froad question. D. A. Wassox will read a pay Jer on the same theme, and the last session w il close with a report by the Secre- tary, Mr. F. B. SixBozN, on *‘ The Past and Present - Work of Social Science.” Besides the gent! femen whose names appear in this list, & }e¢ fge number of others will attend the meeting jand participate in the discussions, The sub fiects annowaced are all living issues, and the fr treatment by able men cannot fail 1o ba of [ value to social icie‘ee and to civiliza- tion. “ARR YE READY?” This . is & good season for the Adventiats, The re cvent experience of snow-storms and tem- perats me at zero in the middlo days of April bas p1 separed, or ought to have prepared, people for al moset any meteorological disaster, even to the @ Iesolution of all materisl thinga. We do oot l; now, therefore, that anybody onght to be swrpd :sed at the announcement that the worldis to @ >me to an end to-morrow evening. The *Tit mists,” under the lead of Brother TEUAMAX, bave » got it figured out 80 closely that nobody buty profogsional astronomers will have the te- met iy to dispute them. Considered purely from an pteorological point of view, we don't ses that tha re can be any reasonable objection to it, forit is ¢ mnonnced that *‘the elements ghall meit wif hferventheat.” Thatisjust what we have all' bean waiting for, longing for, prayiog for ; aw 3 we have aboat come £o the -conclusion that we sghall pever have any warmth again unless it co mes in the maoner indicated.. Some selfiah pe msons may make a rush for Tux TRIDUNE T uilding and a few other fire-proof structures ; br it, &= a rule, we think most peopls will enjoy Q. 10 fire. ‘The date for the destruction of the earth could B ot hove boen more timely. We have Sunaay i nmediately Freceding for meditation, and all 4 my Monday for final preparations. As the num- t wer of saints who are to be-carried up into the ¢ douds i3 limited to 144,000, and the rest ¢ > mankind are to be plueged into 1 the lake of fire, every one will have a fruiiful * theme for speculation as to bis individual chances. * TThoso who cannot fairly count upon being caught wp into the New Jornsalem will have tho satie- taction of knowing that they will be disposed of alzmode; cremation will be yery fashionable. “I'ns destruction comos just in the nick of timo to +gave carefal housekeepers from the annual bur- -don of house-cleaning which they take upon themselves abont this season ; and the hnsbands Who have to endure the domestic (tnrturn incident to thus snnual revolation will lock forward to the -general dissolption of to-morrow pight as & pos- sible improvement upon the ills they, wounld otherwise have suffered. The paop*s who have been house-renting will lkewise congratulate themselves on the sudden and nncxpected relief. There wasnothing lessthan thedestruction of the world that could have saved them the trouble of moving, and we doubt whether they would rather bear the ills they bave than fly to others they know not of. Altogether, then, if the world has got to be destroyed, thers could bo no fitter timo than tho present ; and if the destruction is to be fire, thero is 0o people more accustomed $o large connlgrniims than the Chicago people. Tuia a litile late for the faithfal, who bave not ‘been forewarned earlier, to take a fall advantage of the approachicg dissolntion, sell off their worldly goods to unbeliovers, and enjoy themsolves on the proceeds up to Monday evening. Perhsps it ia as well ‘st this late hour for those who have ot already staken this ntion to forego it. Wo would cspecially advise Board of Trade mgn not to gell wheat short with the expectation that there will be no call for Vdelivery; for it would be just like tho “buyer 10 to demsnd a settlement in the lake of fire. But while the time.is past for takiug any advautage of ‘‘op- tiona,” there are a grest many compensstions for the sudden * going-up "which tke “Timista» confidently predict. It will strike » general bal- ance-sheet. It will be s special bleesing to men .who have notes falling due on 'l‘uudng. It will Bave a good many people from the expense and mortification of going_ throogh baokruptey. It ‘will be especially welcoma to undiscovered de- faulters. It will be a sure cure forrhenmatismand catarrah,—the first ever discovered in this cli- mate. It'will equalize the condition of all men 08 effectually as the Commaaists could desire. It will incontinently put an end to tas Third- Term discussion, asthe 144,000 saints are to govern the world for the next 1,000 yesrs. It will dispase of the Becaze trial, which wonld otherwise never have como'jo an end ; and s good mgoy other pe?pls may asfertain whatit is to bang on the “'ragged edges” and *‘suffer the tortures of tho damned.” It will be a apecial boon to the unfortunate Judge who drow the un- lucky straw that uondunu]:d -him to preside k3 5 a ’ 4 N\ over Mr. SroREY’s trial on the publishing an obscsne n.mpwe:figm'fl]m o barmony to the presentrelationship betwesn thy Sunday Afternoon Lecture Soclety agd Women's Polytechnic Inatitate, who want to con. tinge the course. It will relieve all men of Ehety complicationsas to the new City Charter, and their uncertafnty how to vote. Ttwill serve ag genoral celebration with fireworks of the m,' tennial aaniversary of the battla of Lexington, “The fervent believers will bave the best of i, it 3 true, becanso they will awalt the event withy grand supper and have their feet washed, By there are also many consolations for the nop. believers, which every one will be able to supply ]f:; i;‘l:;zsle]f. sccording to the peculiar nature of i vidual’ tribulati ‘whi il thy brought to an end. o TRk Witk We only desire to 83 that in'case the destrus. tion of the world should by any accident be post. poned, Tz Torsune will be published sy ususd on Tuesdsy morning. iy ———— THE NEED OF ANUSEMENT, f “We must learn again,” says Hawymorys, ** the forgotten art of gayety,” . Have .we,ever kmown 162 The Pusitans, who forbde beas. baiting, not becanse it gave pain to the bear bot because it gave plensure to the spectators, werg the sons of the friends and relatives of the men who setiled New England,—the men who toox g their pleasure in hesrmg sermons of incredibly length, fn watching men and womes put on the © pillory aod in the stocks for real or imaginary offenses, and in going throngh the petty, cramp- ing, inoonceivably rigid forms of & daily ifs ; that wes as hard and sombre as the rock-bomud conat that was dotted by their scanty setilemengs. They wove 80 many dark threads into the fabric .of American life that all the mod- emn additions have not yet overlsid them, It was a godsend to Americans when they got. samething to celebratse. The recarrenca of Wasartaron's Birthdsy in the winter mada them £0 to parlies and give solemn batls then, and s » special providence bronght about the Declara. tion of Independence i the middle of summep, patriots had to go on picnics and listen o the verbal pyrotechnics of the arator of the day, sod 8t least abandon, if wot forget, their workadsy lives for a few hours. Besides these two fest- vals, for which we are indebted to Mrs. Avage. TIXE WASHINGTON and fhe Continental Congrecs respectively, & lngubrioms joy, origioally of Mas. sachusetts manufactare, has been creeping orce the country. Thankegiving Day is thoroughly New-England-like, from ihe sermons to tia mince-pies, from the long prayers to the big turkeys, from the mental to f the physical dyespepsis. Then there is Christ. mas, which seems to be going out of date. Young America, priding itselt on its dis« covery of the non-existeice of Sants Claus, bas exchanged blissful igncrauce for foolish wisdom. These four are substauntially our guly holidays, for the 1st of January isa dobions day, and work upon it is aiwaya s possibilicy. 1¢ ws # ‘count it in, we have a total of five daya ont of 4 the year when s man may make merry—within bounds—rwithout expdsing himself o grave pop- ular condemnation. On four of these days, the chances are three to one that tho weathor® % will be execrable. This pretty effectually dis- poses of public enjoyment, except for the forto- nate few who have cheery bomes. Hivinz & Rood time in a pelting snow-storm is beyood tha aversge man. He takes refuge in the nearcst saloon. The supply of bolidays is not equal to the de- wmand. The Amernican people, baving woried for » century under the comstant sting of the “whip in the =ky,” sung by s New Englacd poet, wants to play a whila. The Centennisl epoch will give i€ some chaace to do 0. F:om to-morrow, when Concord and Texington make bolidsy, to April 80, 1889, which will be the cen- tennial of the inauguratiun of the first President of the United States, there will be any pumber of national and local eventa which will become ona hundred years old, and can (and should) be seized upon as pretexts for playing. The growing appetite for play is full of hints, 1t harmless amusementa are not provided, harm- tul ones will be taken. —_— The Mecklenburg Declaration of Iodepend- ence, which is to be celebrated at Chaclotie, N. C., on the 20th dsy of May next, wasmade ia Meck- lenburg County on the 20th of Alsy, 1775. The citizsns of that county declared at that tima their absolute independonge, and prononnced them- salves a free people; and for the maintenauce of their independsnce tbey eolemnly pled;ed to each other “their lives, their fortnaes, end their most sacred honor,” They also based their actiod on * the mheront and inalienable rights of man.” The points of coincidence betweon this document and the one promulzated the next year, now known a8 the Declaration, are manyand strking. The citations given above will serveas examples. Mr. JxFFeRsoN, however, defended and'eatablished the originality of the Declac:- tion prepared by him, and even cast some doubis npon the genninenesy of the Mecklenburg iz~ “trument, though theso were afterwards dispelled. | Just now the North Carolins people are en- raged becanse President GaNT hes rafused m invitation- to bo preseat at their Centennisl, while accepling one to the Lexington and Con- cord affairs, Thay accuse the Presidont of wass of courtesy io not anawering the invitation, s least with an sutograph letter of declination. To the Editor af tne 5. Louts Glode: A I -;pyo-o"(hn ‘no smount of fucts and figures would vice Cnicago and Cincinga of be sufficient to convi wize of St Loals. If the gt n could not be settled - 0 by the showing of cur list directory, con many calculations, based upon divers ' states cf and all harmanizing {a the sggTegate, then itis settlement. 1willadd my mite, however, calcuiating Epon the name of Sicm, Tt i3 Ingwn that 1 our large citessn aversge of one in about 54} persus bears this common name, Ip St Louis there are %6 of ons kind ‘and another. Afultiplying this number by the averags above stated gives 469,.40 a8 the populition of St » remariably closa ment with the calcuiatiuns of the directory. J. W. 0. By counting the number of Sanrms “of oms kind and another ™ in tho Lakeside Directory ot Chicago, it appears that there are 18 of the variety t of Syur, Sceror, snd §uoTa, 80 of the SurrR and Sirrae family, and 1,390 of the boos £ds Sarrrn tribe, making a total of 1,438 Sagras “of one kind zud another,” ‘Alzltiply this by 50, 88 the St. Lonis man does, aud the populstion of Chicago appears to be 776,520, This 18 exactly one-third larger than tho popuiation of this aty, s claimed by woll-fuformed persons, which showa that tno basis upon which the St. Lonis man goes is incorrect to that extent. Reducing his population by ove-third also, the figures for. the two citics stand thus: Chicago, 517,760 ; 8& Louis, 826,160. i 5 Now that the ploasing subject of the bess methoda of bresding men and women has be- come one of the main themes of scigntificin- vestigation, thanks to Mesers. GarTow, Cax- poLLEy and Risot, the pravention of the birth- of offspring to the aged or infirm.is a topic of eoger debate. A book of travels recounts s custom of & certain tribe of savsges in Borceo which seems to promise a sure solution of the question, Oddly evough, thns simple remedy bas apparently escaped the attention of the scientific writers on heredity. Mt is as followss i When members of this tribs become either aged or infirm, the young and healthy members make them climb lofty trees. Then ths tribe dances sround the tree, joyously singing, “The fruitis ripe; the fruit is ripe,” and occasionally shaking the tree. The victims finally drop, and are then cooked and eaten. The edvanteges of this process are manifest. Not only are the useless menfbors of society thug prevented from ib- flicting diseased children upon the world, bub they are themselves ntilized in a way which adds to the strength and hoalth of the finsat animals in the tribe. . The uses of a fres collegs of masic, Nberally sndowed and equipped, are manifest ; aod there was accondingly s groat deal of satisfsotion , smong educated people, some tme ago, when'it was announced that s gentleman of large means and s big heart had decided to found such an in- stitation in New York City. A bill is now pesi- iog in the Ndw York Legialature which providiy that the oollnge may own real estaie worth 88