Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, August 6, 1876, Page 4

THE CHICAGO RIBUNE: SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, i876—SIXTEEN PAGES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. TAYTABLE IN ADVANCE—POSTAGE PREPAID AT THIS OFFICE. Pailx Editton. postpaid, 1 year Parts of a year, permonth., Malled 20 any address four weel mla{ Edition: Li 5 Spectmen coples sent free. To prevent delay apd mistakes, be sure and give Post- Office address 1n full, Including State and Comnty. Remfttances may be made either by draft, express, Post-Office order, o- in registered lesers, at our risk. 7ERMS TO CITY SUBSCRIBERS. Dafly, deltvered, Sunday excepted, 25 centa per week. Dally, deitvered, Sunday fncluded, 30 cents per week Address TRE TRIBUNE COMPANY, Carner Madison au2 Dearborn-sts., Chicago, Il TRIBUNE FOR THE STMMER. Pasties leaving the clty for the summer can have “Tux Dat.y TRBUSX forwarded to any_address upon leaving orders az our counting-room. The paper will e prompiiy malled {o asiagle wrapper, posisge Daid, tor §1 per geonth. SOCIETY MEETINGS. DGE, No. 8. K. of P.—All members, reciiem bt %&m?‘mflmm;;. a2 redacaied o tiest R S T COMMANDERY, No. 18, K. 7.~Atten- S i R O Caseiace Monday ‘evening, 2 business.” Br orde of the k. C. A T P OWBRID oS Heenials, BLAIR LODGE, ¥0. 393 A F. & A M._Tegular e onday evening, Aug %, 38 orelock: Rork wafi?gxm; % fm“v‘xvm{fg brethren car- sl oL e ot e W, el b C.'W. 0'DONNELL, Sec. ST. FFRNARD COMMANDERY, No. 35, K. T.—At- tention Ki a! You are rcquested to appear at 12t ‘elock p.m. next Satus s 12 0 act as cxcort to Orfental Consistory. Sir ta of sister commanderies are courteously invited to, unite with us, o . JOHN WOODMAYN, E. C. 3. 0. 'DICEERSON, Recorder. TENTAL CONSISTORY, S.-. P.-. R.". §. 320, ox 8. K—Rgogulu' assembly at Consistorial Hall, 72 ‘Thursday evening, Aug. 10. Workon bt ?‘BE N I\u ,‘2;“. Cocnimtnderin-gmd. JAMES A. T, BIRD, 325, Grand Secretary. SUNDAY, AUGUST 6, 1876. At the New York Gold Exchange on Satur- day greenbacks ruled stesdy throughout the day at 89 — The ladies’ yacht race at Geneva Lake yesterdsy culminated in a victory for the Geneza, which ran the sixteen-mile course in 2 b. 36 m. 18 sec. The affair was excln- 8l under the charge of the fair dames «1 damsels summering at the lake, who, er offering a silk flag as the prize, officiat- s judges and time-keepers, to see that it v::5 fairly won. e —— The confirmation of TILpEN's connection with the Lake Superior iron mines, and the Tag-money scheme of paying off the laborers in long drafts, which wers cashed at fearful discounts, comes from a gentleman who was engaged in the banking business in the min- ing region. Workingmen will notice that TrLoxy refused to pay his assessments when the honest men of the Company wanted to Pay their debts, and will remember the fact as they contemplate Mr. TrpEN's present sore enlarged view: The two letters of Trupey and HeNoricxs, decording to all the accounts from ‘Washing- fon, have left the hard-money Democrats and the inflation faction as much at loggerheads asever. The inflationists declare their un- stinted admiration of Mr. HexDRICES' utter- ances, but prefer not to say anything about Mr. Topes’s, and the hard-money Demo- <rats are overcome with their exuberance dn behalf of Topey, but silent and morose when Hexpricks is mentioned. We very muach fear that the Democratic party is not a happy famil; The long agony is over, and the heart of the rag-worshiper is made glad. The fiat had gone forth, a double-headed one at that, 2nd the only thing to do was to go through the empty form of repealing & law that was not of itself a finality, but an earnest of what wzs to be patiently and zealously worked for, with a good prospect of success. The Commission provided for by the Supplementary bill will probably re. sult in some practical good, but the resump- tion-repeal farce will repel more voters than it will sttract to the Confederate national ticket. The German-American Republican Union of Chicago have fired a 300-pound rifled shell with percussion sttachment into the Demo- cratic ranks. In another column will be found their address to Germsan-American voters, in which they urge the utter repudia- lion of ‘wmocratic principles and adhesion totl ..epublican party as the only salvation for the nation. After reviewing the War and establishing the necessity of abolition, theaddressdeprecates intrasting the laws that, freed the slave to the party that fought the adoption of those laws, and whose Southern allies still show by their atrocities how they hate the enactments, They encourage the support of the Republican financial plank, Quoting Gov. HaYEs on the GivilService Re- form, they pledge themselves to stand by those views, and, after a well-merited shot at the Confederate House of Representa- tives, they close by demanding of every German that he lend his earnest and ‘bearty support to the Republican ticket. — Tse Tarsune, having reprinted a series of articles from the Chicago Times, which it published prior to Trprx's nomination at St. Louis, and in which he was denounced as & sham reformer, s Rebel sympathizer, a too! of Tweep's, and a railroad-wrecker, took occasion ‘to make the following re- Toark : The Chicago Times, without recanting anything it formerly said of him. without “denying in detail the charges it ifically made and which Lave been abandantly snbstantiated, has given him &0 ardent support ever since he became the candi- date of the Confederates, The inference is too Plain to require comment. Now, the Times, admitting all it said about TILDEN before he was nominated, and still insisting that it was all true, pretends to be ignorant of what the ¢ inference” is from its present support of him which we charac- terized a8 *“ 200 plain to require comment.” It may be plainly stated. The Chieago Zimes was interested in the success of the Cenfederate party, notwithstanding its pre- tense of independence to secure Republican readers” The editor of the Chicago Times, an old political bedfellow of Ty DN'S, kmew the latter's bad record, wad wns aware it would not stand the " brunt of a campaign. The Zimes, therefore, sought to defeat his nomination by exposing his false and fraudulent claims s & ** reformer.” In this it failed ; but its old- time devotion to the fire-in-the-rear Copper- beadism subsequently overcame its aversion even to TiLpey, and it swallowed its crow along with the others, and resolved to make a desperate fight in the forlorn hope. This is the inference, * too plain to require com- ment™ for intelligent people, though many persons have aiso drawn-the sofarance that H 3 TILDEN'S “ bar'l of money ” has had some- thing to do with the present voracity of the crow-eaters. This is not necessary, however, 1o explain the situation. Storex’sold Cop- perhesd sympathies, which became a part of his life and nature during the War, are a suf- ficient explanation for his eagerness to sup- port 8 man whom he even now admits to be a sham and personally indefensible against a man whose purity of character bas never been even called into suspicion. He knows Troex would be the President and tool of the Confederates, and that satisfies him, —— The Chicago produce markets wers less active Saturday. Provisions were stronger and the lesding cereals easier. Mess pork closed 20¢ per brl higher, at $15.723@18.75 for August and $18.835@18.873 for September. Lard closed 15¢ per 100 Ibs higher, at $11.25 cash and $11.323@11.35 for September. Meats were firmer, at 7fc for boxed shoul- ders, 8fc for do short ribs, and 10jc for do short clears. Lake freights were steady, at 13c for comn to Buffalo. Rail freights were unchanged. Hidhwines were quiet, at $1.10% per gallon. Flour was less sctive. Wheat closed §@3c lower, at 891 for August and 92]c for September. Corn closed 1@jc lower, at 453c cash and 45c for September. Oats closed ic lower, at 303c for cash or seller September. Rye was steady, at 55c. Barley was quiet, at 72c for September. Hogs were in good demand and advanced 5@10c, closing firm at $6.35@6.70 for common to choice. The cattle market was quiet and weak, at $2.50@5.00 for common to choice. Sheep : One hundred dollars in gold would buy $112.00 in green- backs at the close. — The St. Lonis platform denonnces the falure for eleven vears to make good the promises of the legal-tender notes; nor s the denunciation un- merited of that improvidence which in eleven years since the peace has consumed $4,500, 000, 000, and 761, could nat atord o give the people o sound and Btable currency. —Samuel J. Tilden's Lelter of Ac- ceptance. This smacks of the Tammany demagogue, | In those eleven years the principal of the national debt has been reduced by $700,000,- 000. War claims sgainst the Government, of all kinds, have been liguidated exceeding $400,000,000. There have been $300,000,- 000 paid for pensions in those eleven years, The interest on the national debt eleven years 2go was nearly $150,000,000 a year. It is now $100,000,000, the average has equalled $125,000,000, and the the total for the eleven years $1,375,000,000. These four items, cansed by thé Democratic Rebellion, foot up as follows : Paid on the War debt. Paid War claim: Paid soldiers’ pensions. Paid interest on debt... . ‘Total onaccount of the Rebellion §2, 775,000, 000 Subtract this sum from TiLpEY'S $4,500,- 000,000 and it leaves $1,725,000,000 in cur- rency, the average gold value of which in eleven years has been nnder 80 per cent of gold, or'equal to 1,350,000,000. Divide this sum by eleven years and it gives less than $127,000,000 per annum as the cost of the Government. Jawes Bucmusav's Ad- ministration, sixteen .to twenty years ago, cost an average of $70,000,000 a year, with a population of 27,000,000 to 31,000,000. The population is now 45,000,000, or a half larger than it was in 1860, and the expense is not much more than one-half greater. But we are not boasting of the economy and re- trenchment practiced during the last eleven years. The entire Americsn people have been extravagant and profligate in their ex- penditures, and it was this waste of money, more than anything else, which caused the financial collapse three years ago. —— ME. TILDEN'S LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. The long-delayed letter of TroEN accept. ing the nomination tendered him in June last, published in Tae Trmoxe yesterday, is long,—it is verbose. At times it professes candor and assumes to be explicit, but dex- terously avoids all definiteness, beyond a general declaration of favoring a resumption of specie payments. Nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of a thousand, if asked, after reading the letter, * What does he say ?" will answer, “ He favors a resumption of specie payments.” But when, how, or by what plan or means, not one of them can understand, beceuse Le fails to explain. Examined closely and critically, the letter gives no stronger or clearer interpretation of Mr. TpEN's views and purposes than does the St. Louis platform, and this purposely vague, obscure, and meaningless. Repeating the general declamation o1 the St. Louis Convention concerning what he styles the gigantic taxation since 1865 ; the oppressive weight of taxation on income the reduction of expenditures, and the labor disturbances at the South,—he reaches the great question of the currency and specie payments. He declares that “ The object de- manded by the [Democratic] Convention is a resumption of specie payments on the legn, tender notes of the United States.” He avers that “The methods by which this object is to be pursued and the means bywhich it is to be attuined are disclosed by what the Conven. tion demanded for the future.” But we fail to find in the letter or the resolutions any such disclosure of method or mesns. He claims that, when the United States Government shall begin to redecm its notes in gold, then the bauks will be able to redeem theirs in gold. He states the average ex- port of specie to be $70,000,000 a yesr, nearly all the product of our mines, and he thinks that a sufficient quantity of this can be intercepted from the current flowing out. of the country, and by acquiring from other countries, for specie psyments, and that this is a resalt to be essily worked ont by practical kmowledge. Bat he fails to ex- plain how or by what means the work is to be done. He says at one point that the greenbacks may be funded ; but he significantly remarks that if the option of funding be given to the public the greenbacks would be immediately absorbed in the bonded securities ; but, dis- covering that fanding would lead to contrac- tion, he pronounces it dangerous, and he refuses to admit that there can be any safe limit to the amount of currency. It is true that he declares that Public economies, official retrenchments, and wise finance " are the means indicated as provision: for resources and redemption; but he fails to tell the country what is * wise finance,¥ He declares that when the Government re. sumes, the banks, being able to get goid from the Treasury, will resume; bat this rolls the whole burden upon tBe Government to pro- vide all the gold needed by the importers, the banks, and theconntry, to resume, Under this system it will be incumbent upon the Government to provide an annual supply of gold to pay duties, $140,000.000 ; for ex. port, $70,000,000; for domestic ase, RiC,- 000,000; or a total of £260,000,000 in gold annually. Mr. Trepew ©omits ary explanation asto how, when, or where the Government is to get this gold. Having paid out gold for the greenbacks, Mr. TrLoex writes vaguely as if they were to be reissued ; but again 1ails to explain-for what: Purpore they are to- —y be reissued, and how they are to be again redeemed. Mr. Truoex discusses the value of resump- tion of specie payments, using therefor much of the argument reasoning which we have used in Tre Trmunz for several years: On this point he writes as o Republican ad- vocating the policy of the Republican party, using the precise arguments of that party. But when the reader has followed him, ex- pecting a statement of how and when we are to have specie payments, Mr. TipEN escapes by saying ‘‘The specificmeasure and actual date are matters of details having ref- erencs to ever-changing conditions. They belong to the domain of practical and ad- ministrative statesmanship ” He adds: The Captain of & steamer about starting from New York to Liverpool does not assemble a coun- cil over his ocean chart and fix an angle by which to lash the radder for the whole voynge. A human intelligence must be at the helm ta discern shifting forces of waters and winds. A human mind must be at the helm to feel the elements day by day and guide to a mastery over them. Such'pretynmlmul are eversthing. Without them a legislative com- mand fiXing a day, an official promise fixing a day, are shams.” They are worse. They arc a snare and o delusionto all who trust them. The man esking to be appointed Captain of a steamer sailing between New York and Liverpool who would not promise to have his ship ready to start on the advertised day would be rejected as unfit to be trusted. A steamship line unable to fix with certainty the time of departure would have neither freight nor passengers. A steamer promising to start only when the ¢ human mind ” at the helm got ready would hardly be considered a safe menns of trans- portation for the human life and the property intrusted to it. The steamer leaving port with the rudder unlashed, and at the mercy of wind and wave, would not be able to find insurance in any company, no matter how desperate. After distorting all manner of Ppropositions to evade the question of how and when to Tesume specie payments, he declares that it is to be accomplished by a “ system of prep- aration,” and that if elected he will do what he can to bring about such ““system of prep- aration.” What this system is to be, ex- cept it is to be comprised of *wise finance,” Ar. Troey declines to explain. He will not gotosea bound by any date for sailing, route to take, rate of speed, time of arrival out, or amount of coal on board; he wants to go and take his own course, without refer- ence to charts, compass, time-tsble, or any- thing else, except his own ““human intelli- gence” at the helm, Summed up, Mr. Trmpes's whole letter on finances may be expressed in the opening sentence of that part relating to specie pay- ments, wherein he declares that he agrees with the St. Louis Convention, and that ¢ The object demanded by the Convention is aresumption of specie payments on the legal-tender notes of the United States.” The Test is a jumble of reasoning out of which he reaches no conclusion. and he insists that he cannot reach one, but must go into the future as into the dark. All that he writes in his long letter has been written over and over again thousands of times dur- ing the last ten years. There is not a new or an original thought in it, He repoats the Confederate arraignment of the Republican party for not having re- sumed specie payments during the last ten years. He, however, suppressesthe fact that, in 1866, the Republican party began ‘the work of resnmption, and had actually re- tired $44,000,000 of the Government notes when the Democratic party conceived the idea of making irredeemable greenbacks the Permanent money of the country, and using them as a substitte to * pay off ” the whole national debt! Mr. TpeN does mot recall the fact that the Democratic Convention which met in New York in 1868, and nomi- nated SEYMOUE for President, declared this as the policy of the Democratic party. Mr, TILoEN then personally supported Sevsove on that platform. This was such a hin- drance to specie resumption that it greatly damaged the public credit. Since then the Democratic party, at State, county, and local conventions and elections, and in Congress and out of it, has made war against specie resumption in \the most determined manner. It has been a cham around the necks of the public credit, and a standingmenace to the resump- tion of honest money. Even in the Ppresent Democratic Congress, a majority of the Dera- ocratic members oppose specie ‘payments as an evil, and favor the issue of limitless irre. deemable paper. Mr. TrpeN's sssociate on the ticket was his most formidable rival be. cause of his support of shinplasters as a sub- stitute for coin currency. Even in the Con- vention which nominated Mr. TILDEN, the unlimited scrip men were a formidable party. In the State of Ohio, the Demoeratic party declares specie payments to be a ¢ d—d barren ideality,” and in Indians, upon whose vote Mr. TrunEN relies for elaction, the party is generally in favor of more scrip, and de- mands the indefinite Postponement of specie resumption On this point the Demo- cratic party, except in the East, is over- whelmingly opposed to specie payments 10w or at any time; and the party has, since 1866, unfalteringly defeated every measure looking to resumption, or to Pprepare for re~ sumption, or to in any way elevate the pub- lic credit and bring the country back to sound money. Whatever hasg been done to restore credit and reduce taxation has been done by the Republicans in spite of the Democratic party. There are but three modes of resuming specie payments: 1. Funding the green- backs. 8 2. Taxation to raise coin to pay off the greenbacks, 3, Selling coin bonds, and with the proceeds taking up the greenbacks. Alr. TrioEN has not advocated any of these 5 he has advocated nothing of any kind, ex- cept to adopt “‘a Preparatory system,” which system can only be matured by placing “ ha. man inteligence” at the helm, whatever that mesns, —— A couple of months ago the ancient and ‘worn-out editor of the Times, suffering from 8 compression of the brain called ego,” imagined thathe had received 8 ““call” to publish two papers, both daily. He felt that Chicago hada “want.” He had g special revelation that he was the only man on earth that could supply that * want” This ‘‘ want,” which it was his manifest destiny fo satisfy, was “alively, newsy, sparkling evening newspaper.” He launched his en- terprise with all the confidence of an ancient mariner. He became propheiic, and an. nounced that it would *“at once jump into universal circulation.” He could not reason- ably doubt this, since he was 8t the helm. A few days showed unmistakable signs of weak- ening. The old man at the wheel seemed to lose his hold. So he annoanced ‘‘a new feature in Chicago journalism,” which consisted in delivering s 5 o'clock edition in- stead of a3 o'clock edition. Bat evidently the people of Chicago didn’t want the later edition any more than the earlier edition ; at all events, the *“ want” wasn't so Ppressing but they could do without it. And so the i ambitions veteran of two paners, both daily, has, so to speak, thrown up the sponge, and the Telegroph has been added to the long obitnary list of moribund newspapers, with the usual epitaph : Since 50 early I was done for, 1 wonder what I was began for. Mr. Storey does not submit with a very good grace. Wounded vanity always has a sting. He tries to put the blame upon the people of Chicago and the Northwest. We fear it is another case of sour grapesand a wily old fox. He says the Chicago Journal, ““ the merit of whose sntiquity is conceded, has s total circulation of but eight to nine thousand,” after consuming thirty years in reaching that figure. He claims that the Telegraph did better, but the facts scarcely bore Lim out. By selling the paper at 1} cents to the newsdealers, and giving away others, it may have reached 5,000, but it could not have kept that figure long. He retires from the field after an experience which ought to be valuable at a cost of about $20,000, and will now probably admit that two daily pa- pers cannot be issued from one office. We suspect, however,” that the dissppointment of the rabble because the evening edition counld not surpass the morning edition in sensational scandal had something to do with the rapidity of the Telepraph's decline and fall. LIGHTING THE STREETS. The recent, and expected, action of the Common Council in regard to the street- lamps is an important step in the direction of economy in city finances. There is evi- dently no nse in burning gas when such arti- ficial illumination is equaled or exceeded by the light furnished by either the sun or the moon; and, if the weather be fine, there are several nights in each month during which the streetlamps need not be lighted at all,— except those at the bridge-approaches, and a few others in the most thickly-built portions of the city. But the weatheris a very im- portant element in detarmining the quantity of artificial illumination reguired in either case. The light of the full-moon may be en- tirely shrouded during the greater part of the night by clouds; and even the duration of twilight is often materially shortened under an overcast sky. And it is impossible to calculate and allow for these things more than a few hours beforehand, whatever the weather prophets may say to the contrary ; 50 that the use of the present table, or any other that could be compiled, ought to be tempered with judgment. The city shonld not at any time be left in absolute darkmess, 50 long as taxes can be collected; and total darkness can only be avoided by burning a great deal more gas than is actually needed, or by sometimes extending the hours for gas-lighting which are given in a table that is calculated with an eye to municipal economy. Of course, it would be folly, and extravagance, to waste gas ‘during ten or a dozen fair-weather evenings and mornings in order to avoid the necessity of a departure from the tabular times on one occasion. There is also & point in regard to the moonlight itself which it is important to note ; though it seems to have been entirely ignored in the recent discussions of the sub. ject. On the open prairie, and in the thinly populated districts, the light of the moon be- [ tween the first and third quartersis better than gas during the whole time that she iz sbove the horizon. But in the more thickly settled portions of the city, where the build. ings are high, the light of the moon is of lit- tlo nso, unleas she be at least thirty degrecs above the horizon,—because the buildings cut off the light from the streets when the moon ig low. The lamps should, therefors, be kept burning longer, on moonlight even- ings, in the business sections of the city than in the suburbs. The central portion should not of any time be left in darkness ; but it would be an extravagant wasts of gas and money to light the larger area during the whole time that the smaller area Tequires artificial illumination. The business of lighting the streets of a great city cannot, therefore, be economi- cally governed by any castiron rule. It should be under intelligent supervision ; but by whom ? ‘Hitherto it has rested entirely with the Gas Companies, or the officers thereof, to decide when and whers the rules should be departed from, if at all. As those parties are interested in having the greatest permissiblo quantity of gas consumed, it cannot be expected that they will pare very closely in the interest of the city. It needs only a very little cogitation on the subject to be satisfied that it is about as absurd to leavo the matter to the Gas Companies and their employes as it would be to allow the same parties to dictate the times when the gas shall be lighted and extinguished in our offices and residences. In each caso the “say” in this important matter should rest entirely with the party paying the gas-bills,—not with those who supply the gas. The private consumer turns the gas on and off when %e thinks best ; and the city should follow his exarfple. An of. ficer of the Municipal Corporation, intelli- gent enough to control the matter economic- ally, and sbove suspicion of collusion with the Gas Companies, should be charged with the important duty of deciding when, and how much, the tabular times ghall be devi- ated from, and of furnishirg due notification to the lamplighters. This could easily b done by telegraphic signals’to the police. stations and engine-houses, which are so ‘widely scattered that no lamplighter need travel far out of his beat to receive instructions. And it ought not to he deemed necessary to pay an additional officer to per- form this duty. There are Pprobably several now in the employ of the city, even with the recent reduction in working force, either of whom could easily spare the time for this from his other duties. But even if it were found impossible to have the matter attended to without paying a fair salary therefor to a suitable person, it would still be to the interest of the city to make the arrangement. The gas that conld be saved by 3 judicious sttention to the street-lamps on behalf of the tax-payers would amount to very many more dollars pe: annum than the money needed to compensate for the service. Take last night as an instance. So far as observed, the lampsin the South Division were unlighted ; while those in the West Di. vision were burning their fall complement of gas, though the moon wasless than twenty- fourhours past the full, and giving o much better light than that farnished by the Peo- ple’s Gas Company. (On2 or two distriets in the West Division were anlighted, indicat- inga shipshod arrangement, possibly due to the absence of Mr. Bmues at Saratoga). Several hundred dollars’ worth of gas were needlessly burned in the street-lamps of the West Division last evening. The scientific knowledge required in the work is not by any mesns great. A few hours of study issufficientfor a man of aver- age intellect to understand the leading prin. ciples of weather change. A mere glancing at the weather bulletin published daily in the newspapers is certainly ot enough,—the predictions made st Washington eaver too great an extent of territory to make them ab- solutely trustworthy for any specified local- ity. But o comparison of the local (mer- curial) barometer, etc., with the Inles.b at- mospheric reports from surrounding points, as fornished by the United States Signal Service Bureau, will give cloud indications that can be depended upon, in nineteen cases ou of twenty, several hours in advance. Probably the payment of afew dollats an- nually'to the observer in charge at the Sig- nal Office in this city, wonld insure better proguostications than could be made by any one not specially trained to the work; and then a very few minutes’ time each day would be all required from the city official charged with the duty of issuing the order ‘to light and. extinguish the street-lamps. The matter isreally one that deserves much morae attention (we do not mean mere talk) than has hitherto been given it on behalf of the péople who pay the gas-bills. On the one hand is the great importance of having the street-lamps lighted during every minute of the time that the streets would otherwise be absolutely dark. On the other side of the question we have the imperative necessity, in the present exhausted state of the city finances, of saving every dollar consistent with that provision. At therate of $2.50 per thousand feet, and 5 feet per hour, every minute that the street-lamps are burning takes $2.15 out of the City Treasury; and, if the cost per thousand be made 50 cents less and 3-feet burners be substituted for those now in use, the cost per minate would still exceed $1. With the greatest proposed reductions, a saving of three minutes on each day of the year, or the omission of a single night’s unnecessary lighting, would be a gain to the City Treasury of more than $1,000. At the rate heretoforo in force, the saving would be fally twice that amonnt, ‘We respectfully recommend this view of the case to the taxpayersand their represent~ atives,—the Common Council of the City of Chicago. — THE COURT-HOUSE RING. It is very evident, from the action so far taken in the Comnty Board relative to the stone for the new Court-House, that the Ring is byno menns dismayed by the criminal indictments that have been brought against some of the county thieves, but proposes to go shead, without regard to the public inter- ests, and reckless as to the amount of public money to bespent, to provide the greatest pos- sibilities for thieving. Ever since the fire of 1871 the Court-House building has been looked to as the richest field for plunder that would be presented to the tax-eaters of the present generation. The postponement of the work from time to time has been mainly owing to the inability of the voracions beneficiaries to agree upon a satisfactory division of the spoils. At one time = basis of nationalities was adopted, and there were to be three architects, representing, respect- ively, the Irish, German, and American ele- ments; but this was abandoned, evidently for the reason that the Americans are entitled to no share of the plunder. Finally, after years of bickering, a beginning was sctually made by letting the contract for the foundation, choosing for that pur- pose s bid higher than another re- sponsible bid for the same work. This contract has been pursued far enough already to ensble the contractor Hams to present a modest bill of $70,000 for “extrns.” This is the old story, but it is not even the begin- ning of the end,—only the beginning of the beginning. ‘The next item for plunder comes up in the letting of the contract for stone. The Ppre- liminary negotiations in this matter have been long and costly. Several of the Com.- missioners, partly te take their summer vaca- tions at the expense of the public, and partly to mislead the people into the belief that they were sincere in the pretense of making a thorough inspectionof all varioties of stons before deciding upon any, have been Jjunket- ing about. But the first thing that was done in the Board was to pass a resolution pro- wding that the selection of the stone ba con- fined exclusively to limestone, which prac- tically limits the Board to the Lemont and neighboring quarries. The men who voted for this resolution were Carrorz, Creamy, CovnvLy, LONERGAN, McCarrrey, Morroy, TaBor, and JomnsoN. CLeamy, though his name was mentioned ir one of the Grand- Jury reports in an unpleasant con- nection, has been making loud professions of honesty, and it has certainly been expected that Tanoz would not vote in the interest of the Ring. Kut this was s Ring move. It was the starting-point two years 8go, when the Board proceeded under Mr, Sax Asaron's administration to adopt a reso- lution that the Court-House shonld *be built and constructed of Cook County lime- stone.” The force of public opinion subse- quently secured a repeal of this rascally Pproposition, the purport and intent of which were apparent; but it has been revived as the very first step in the new march of the Ring. The outrage of this proceeding is abundantly illustrated by the fact that the bids for furnishing the_stone from other than neighborhood quarries ranged from $426,000 to $521,000, while the bids from the Lemont and neighborhood quarries of limestone range from 532,000 to $959,000. That is, the lowest bid from the quarries to which the Board have voted to limit them. selves is higher than the highest bid from the outside quarries, while some of the bids from the Ring's favorite quatries are double as much as the outside Dbids. We under. stand that Mr. Epwix Wariee fs the favorite candidate of the Board for the contract, and his bid is $695,730, or nearly $200,000 more than the highest of the outside bids. This, it must be remem- bered, is for only one-lalf .the building,— the county’s portion,—and the city will be compelled to take the same kind of stone at possibly a higher rate for the other half. Now, the Ring members of the Board had better go slow. The Chicago public is slow to wrath, but their time and punishment will surely come if they pursue the game of plun- der. Some of the scoundrels are already under indictment for past peculations, and have not dared to go to trial in the commu- nity which they have helped to rob, but have secured delay and a changs of venue by swearing that the Judges of Cook County areso prejudiced agninst them that they can- not get justice, which is not true. Their methods are the same as thosc of Twrep and his gang, who had some of their richest pickings in the building of the New York Court-House. They will, sooner or Iater, be overtaken, as TwEED and bis associates were. They Lave contemptnously rejected a propo. sition coming from competent and responsi. ble men to erect the _entire structure in a handsome and substantial style, at a total cost of 2,100,000, and determined to proceed on & plan of their own, thelowest estimated cost of which is $3,500,000, with a possible dome which will cost $1,000,000, and at probably afinal cost which will not fall shoré.of. $5.000.000,. ox: more than, donbio, wiaat the work would have been dons for by Mr. BovrvgroN and the responsible gentle- men associated with him. Now the only in- telligent explanation that can be made of thisdecision isthat some two or three millions of the public moneys are to be squandered m order to afford the Ring opportunitics for stealing the greater part of it. The action in regard to the stone is the first important movement in this direction, and it had better be abandoned. The people have never yet failed to reach official scoundrels, when suf- ficiently aroused, and we warn the Ring again that their time will come if they per- sist. SHOP-WORK INSTRUCTION. There is no doubt that the mechanical arts and skilled labor of this country are at & seri- ous disadvantage, because of the lack of systematic and scientific training in early life. 'The old apprentice system did not af- ford this to the desired extent, from the fact that the youth who entered mechanical works to learn his trade was generally employed to do the carrying, sweeping, and other un- skilled labor necessary to be done, and had to depend entirely upon his own energy and aptitnde for acquiring a partial knowledge of the trade to which he proposed to dev.ute himgelf. But the Trades-Union organiza- tions throughout the country, having arrayed themselves against the apprentice system, on the ground that it is opposed to the interests of foreign workmen coming to this country, the American youth have been deprived even of this partial aid to skilled Iabor. This dep- rivation, and the general neglect to teach the American youth trades, is one of the most dangerous conditions of the time ; it inevitably leads to an enlargement of the “ clerking ” classes, the unemployed classes, and the indigent and vicious classes. It likewise depreciates the character and valne of skilled labor and mechanical productions. Mr. RUNELE, the President of the Massa- chusetts Institute of Technology, thinks he has discovered the remedy in the shop-work system of instruction which has been adopted at the Imperial Technical Schools of 8t. Petersburg and Moscow, and advises that this Russian system be adopted in the Massa- chusetts Institute and other technological in- stitutions in this country. He says that the exhibit at the Centennial Exposition of the collections of tools and samples of shop-work done by the Russian studenfd shows that the system has schieved ‘magnificent Tesults. The St. Petersburg institute has now 500 students, and that at Moscow probably as many more. These schools have the usnal curriculum of studies essential to a scientific education, but in ad- dition thereto they have the mechanical de- partments for special instruction in the sev- eral trades of engineering, building, carpen- -ter and joiner work, iron forging, ete. The course of instruction at St. Petersburg em- braces five years, and during that time the students are employed some 648 hours each in actual manual Iabor in ‘the various shops and mills belonging to the institute, begin- ning at the simpler work and gradually pase- ing to the more complicated. Mr. RuNELE, in his report, describes the system as fol- lows: The ideas involved in the rystem are, first, to entirely separate the instruction shops from the construction shops: wecond, to do each kind of work inits own shop: third, to equip each shop with as many places and sets of tools, and thus ac- commodate as many pupils as a teacher can in. structat the same time: and, fourth, to gradnate the samplea to be made in each shop’ according to some _scale. that of_difficulty being probably the best in practice. It will be seen, then, that the problem thus far is simply one of systematic in. struction, given by an expert in- each uhnr. and having the rame end in view a8 instruction In any other subject or department. The aim is to give sufiicient skill in each specialty in the shortest Pos- sible time, and to give the nstraction to as many at the same time as_the teacher can well mstruct, thus cecuring the greatest economy of time, and therefore money, to both teacher and pupil.’ Af- ter the student "has finished his course in the sev. eral instruction shops, he may then be transterred toa construction shop, which may still be used simply for instruction, as in the St. Petersburg school, no orders being ' taken, and ail construc- tions being made simply to give variety to the in. struction;’ the machines aud 'tools made being sold at the end of the year if wanted. If it shall be decided to act upon President Ruxxre's recommendation and add instruc.. tion shops to the Massachusetts Institute, the experiment will be watched with the greatest interest ; and, if it prove successful, it may become s part of the instruction of other similar institntions in the United States. He proposes to start with a two. years’ course, for admission to which the candidates must pass examination in arith. metic, geography, English grammar, English and American history, and algebra through simple equations. The studies of the first year's course, ho suggests, shall be salgebra, plane geometry, rthetorie, and composition, and drawing; the second year advanced studies in the same direction, with French added ; and during the entire course a devo- tion of twelve hours every week to practical shop-work under the supervision of skilled instructors, — The Chicago Zimes, assailing the resolu- tions proposed to the Board of Trade by Mr. ‘WRIGHT, used this language : The whereases state certain things that are not trme. o the first place, they state by implication that the silver dollar was n fnll legal tender - framn 1792t 1873 by virtue of Congressfonal enuctmane. That e not true. Congrens never assumed to nots either the gold dollar or the ilver dollar a Jegul- tender. Ifnever avwnmed to 1873. The ouly legal-tender legislation oy Con. gresy, before thie pa gr‘eenhmck—{enfler 86t f 1862, was in 1833, when_ the subsidiary af). Yur coins were overvalued about 6% por cent ‘o the purpose of preventing their i As it would obviously be unjustto make an overvaliey or token coinage full leual-tendcr, it was granted that this coinage shon), nQt be legal-tender for mnore than $5 in nnf one payment. Nothing was satd about the legal-tender quality of eithes gon coint or silver dollars. Legal-tanger legislation (\?’u! l‘till :lo the S‘:ilt‘:balzlvher! it belonged under the onstitution, whic] Dot give power to to muke anything legal-render. . © Cogreas Tax TRIBUNE pointed out the reckless ig- norance displayed in this dogmatic state- ment, and stated the facts ay contained in the statutes. But the T'imes, backing down 50 28 to admit there was legal-tender legisla- _t.iun in 1837, thus again exposes its reckless ignorance : Once more, TRE TRICUNE asserts L - thority of the United States to maken:)'id sy sl der.cuin legal-tender Lias been exercised from e date of the first coinage acta. ™ Now, 1 Tux Tranose can ind one wyllable of legal-tenacr Lot islation in any uct of Congress passesl before 1837, ¢ will be entitled to a silver medal 10 foet 1y guy. eter. Iu answer it is only sufficient to quote from the aci of Congress of April 2, 1792, entitled “An act establishing & Mint and Tegulating the coins of the Uniteq States,” the following: Sec. 16. Thatall zold and sflver cof §hall have boen struck at and insued from ther Ly Jiint shall be A LAWPUL TENDEN in al] paymeni wehutdocser, those uf full weight according 1o (e their respective weights, . The Chicago 7%mes is thus forever pub- lishing misrepresentations of laws and facts, seemingly having no regard for the value of truth, and a contempt for the certainty of exposure. Its course in regard to this silver business has been a continual falsification both of the law and of history. If this be the result of ignorance, it woald be cheaper for the old man to send his men to school ; at least he might buy them the books which they conld find information. Rather the Timesa copy of the statutes. In the meantime send over that silver medal, Tn reckleas disregurd of this fact Tuz Trracys proposes to take advantage of the large decline the value of silver to repudiate between 17 apg 13 er cent of the public debt. And yet it iy not in 2v0r of PEXDLETON'S grevnback scheme of repug) ation.—Chicagy Times. A constant indulgence in untruthfyl assertiop has finally degenerated into a chronie habit in the cditor of the Chicazo Times. When he wrote the above le kunew that his finanga] columns reported silver as worth Sl tosa pence per ounce in London, “with seardty of supplies,” which means a furtber advance, He knew that the silver dollar was worth 89to 5 cents in gold, and rising; and yet he asserts that it i3 17 to 18 per cent below gold! What por. pose has he to serve by thus attempting to ge. ceive his readers? Can he not tell the truth in g0 simple a matter as the price current of 3 metal? ——— The Evening Journal retails at five cents per copy. STOREY undertook to run out the Jour-. nal by cutting under it fn price and peddling - his Telegraply, for threc cents. Thereupon the Journal induced the Evening Post and Mail to pab the price down to fuo cents, which killeq the cirenlation of the Telegraph. The public re. fused to pay three cents when they could buy 5 much better paper for two cents. The Proprie- tors of the Post having the most money o spare in a cut-throat game of this kind, after g strugele of eight weeks, Capt. STorey struck his colors to Commodore TAYLOR and surrep- dered the ship. ——— What contributed as much as anythine to the disastrous failure of STOREY's Telegraph wasitg conversion fnto a Confederate TiLDEN and HENDRICKS organ. There are not enough pec- ple in Chicago and vicinity who can resd that will take an evening paper whicn supports the Confederate canse. It is all they can do to stand STOREY’S morning organ of TILDEN and HexDRICKS and the “Lost Cause.” Saratogs was the summer-meeting place of the members of the old Tammany Ring, TwEED, 8WEENY, GENET, BARNARD, et al., ar- ranged most of their skullduggery there, and it is hallowed by associations and jobs that made it eminently a fitting theatre for the efforts of TiLpEN and HENDRICKS to extend the Tam- many rule beyond the confines of New York State, within which TweED fought to keep it. ————— Gov. HENDRICKS, according to the Chicago Times, 18 in full accord with the once somewhat- noted “Black Curp.,” of Michigan. That worthy enunciated the doctrine that “ Education is the bane of Democracy;” and HENDRICKS, as his utterances are summarized in a head-line in the Times, ‘‘ regards the school (aud bloody-shirt shouters) as public enemies.” ————— It was a wrial of mettle,’ muscle, and money between old SToREY of the Telegraph and Col. TAYLOR of the Post and Mail, whether the former could hold out longer as a three-center than the latter as a twocenter. After eight wecks old SToreY failed to come to the scratch when time was called, and his bottle-holders threw up the sponge. Gen. SINGLETON, in an interview with a Quin- cy Whig reporter, says LEW STEWARD will sup- port CoorER and Cary. He contends that “The greenback people will vote and act in accord- ance with the well-known principles of their or- ganization,” and that “TrLpes will be defeated by a larger vote, both popular and electoral, than GREELEY was.” Onc Lord HENEY LENNOX has been playing SCHENCE on the “Lunnmeners.” He was a “Commissioner of Works,” and accepted 100 paid-up shares of the Lisbon Tramway Compa- uy. The Compauy collapsed, and Lord Hexry LENNOX resigned his seat In the British Parlia- ment. —— TILDEN crystallizes the situationin the follow- ing paragraph: The public mind will no longer accept shams. It has suffered enough from illusions.” All of which fs modest on the part of SAMUZL, and indicative of a correct apprecis- tion of the wants of the people and his own slim chances. ——— O1d StoRrEY did not give in to TAYLOR'S two- cent Pogtand Mai until after he had lost $20,~ 000 in greenbacks, worth 89 35 per cent in gold, or, estimated in silver, $19,996; but, as he is op- posed to cstimating values in siiver colu, we let than have such an exhibition of ignorance -in the Ghicago,nress repeated, we will lang, it stand a8 $20,000 in “ rag-baby.” —————— Vaxce, Rebel candidate for Governorof North Carolina, wanted “to fight the Yankees till hell {reezes over, and then fight them on the ice,” aud the people of his State are making it so hot for bim now that he will find hell comfortably ‘Warm, even in November. Albany Argus : “ The members of the Legis- lature of Texas have reduced their pay to 82 per day. They are Democrats.” ‘Which would also - account for the utter absence of anything in the Treasury from which to draw even the §2. —————— A conductor on the 01d Colony (Mass.) Rail- road, who has traveled 140 miles per day for the past twenty-eight years, figures the whole num- ber of miles traversed by him at 1,176,000, which Wwould net his frugal savings at $1,176,000. ————— " ““The maln building of the Philadelphia Ex- Position is to be brought to Chicago and put up 2s & rallroad depot,” says su exchange. A North-Side shoemaker talks of taking the rest “for an extension to his shop. At a TILDEN barbecue in Glasgow, Ky., there being no ox bandy, the constituents of the Democraticcandidateset fire to a colored school- house with a view to the cremation of the in- mates. Vic WooDHULL's éffort to get rid of BLoop 13 Indicative of a renunciation by her of future literary endeavor. Broop has written every- thing on which Vic has made a reputation. On the New York Zimes' hypothesis of intem- perance, TILDEN'S perennial wink may be at- tributed to the accepted fashion of standing off the barkeepers. ——— Having given his views on the currency, Mr. TILDEN will now confidentially expound to his Democratft friends his method of ballot-box inflation. ——— Nine-tenths of the German Tarners of Obio are pledged to the support of the Republican nominees. t SITTING BULL has developed more “git up and git™” than the standing army. Old-mnn-who-un't~mmlge-hh-horfl= goes around on street-cars now, ——— PERSONAL, The Baroness Rothachild drives s four-fn-hand mail-coach in Paris, and s called & capital whip. Charles Dudley Warner's new book, **Mam- mies and Moslems,” s favorably reviewed in the - London Academy, Wwhich, however, speaks with deserved severity of the **incorrect and catch penny title,” . We hope to be excased for remarking that Mr. W. F. Storey's evening paper, the Telegraph, ba notas yet ‘*jumped into universal circulation,™ 84 he predicted in the prospectus it would. On the contrary, it has jumped almost *tat once ™ ints universal smash, Fernando Wood 1s reported as having eaid thal the popular idea of the coat of living at Washing- ton is largely erroneons, He entertains more thay 237 other perton In the city, except Secretary Flsh, and his own expenses are, he says, not morv than $10,000 per annum. r. George Washington Childs, of Philadelphia s credited with the ambition to ‘become the pro prietor of the New York Tribune. The report probably without foundation, and, it e, it only thowa that Mr. Childs has a landable ambitios whick Is likely to remain long ungratified. The veracions George Alfred Townsend chron- fcles the all-mportant fact that Bessie Turnor, 0ne of the consbicaons personages in the Deccher scandal, is literally starving in Brooklyn. She had & good situation as & school-teacher at or ness-