The New York Herald Newspaper, August 15, 1871, Page 4

4 a NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 187L.—WITH SUPPLEMENY Sew YORE HERALD [OO ee BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXVI AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. PASTOR’S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— LACK Bann. [A EDWIN's THEATRE. No. 720 Broadwi Ta —KEn.y ORS MINSTRELA BOWERY THEATRE, Bowe: Macumns Gizi—Tur Buzzani —BERTUA, THR SEWING WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner 20th st.—Perform- ‘ences afternoon and erening—A Lirn's REVENGE. BOOTH'S THEATRE, 2%4 between Sth and 6th avs,— NELL AND TRE MAROHIONESS. TERRACE GARDEN, 58th street, between tdere duties CONCERTS. Pesheen ies CENTRAL PARK GARDEN.— ; suuuze Nourse’ Coxorrs, YT TEOPORE Tuomas! WITI F ow York, ‘Tuesday, August 15, 1871. 1 SUPPLE] = CONTENTS OF TS-DAY’S HERALD. Pace. 1—Advertisements. dvertisements, 3—Merrick Camp Meeting—Another Railroad Mur- der—Joytul Jamaica—The Election in t Lawilessness and Murder tn the West—Newark Pavement Purzle—The City of Boston: Anotuer Bottle Found—Financial and Commercial Re- ports—The Cattle Trade in the West—Domes- tic Markets—Advertisements. 4-—Eatiorials: Leading Article, “Sunday Rowdy- ism in the Metropolis and Its Surroundings— The Remedy”—Amusement Announcements. 5S=—Terrible Volcanic Eruption in One of the Ma- Jayan Islands: All ihe Inhabitants and Ani- mals on the Island Swept into the Sea—The New American Loan in Surope—Anotuer Ex- Plosion in a Feunaylvania Coal sine—The Jorea: Another Battle Between the American Squadron and the Coreans—News from Wash- ington—Fatal Steamboat losion on Chau- taugua Lake—Miscellaneous Telegrans— Amusements—Business Notices. 6—Inviung Infection: Tne Filtuy Streets of the Metropolis; Report by the Police on the Su- perficial Condition of tie Streets and Ave- hues; the Sanitary Inspector on Zymotic Dis- eases—The Jersey City Fire: Three Persons Burned to Death—Scott Centenntal—The New Drag Law—Long Branca—What are the Wild Waves Saving !--Fire in Goidsborough, N. Q.— Base Ball Notes. Advertisements, it. Jobn vs. Oid England: The Coming Inter- national Boat Race; Full Description of the Personnel of the Rival Crews—The McNamara Murder—The Indian Raids—The Right of Polygamy to be Tesied m a United States Court—Americans in Paris—New York Rail- road Business—Tombs Police Court—Essex Market Court—Foster Blodgett ana the Third Party Movement—Proceedings in the Courts— The Ooburn-Mace Mill—Another Large Morte gage—The Slaughter of Innocents: Conttnna- tion of the Coroner's Investigation of the Westiield Woe. 9—The Siaugi ter of Innocents (Continued from Eighth Page)—Brooklyn Affairs—The Two Kaisers at Gastein—Royalty in Ireland—Aad- dress of the Roman Population to the Pope— Religious Disabilities 1a Russia—Turkey; More About the Persian Famine—Ravages of the Vine Disease in Frauce—Misceilaneous For- €ign items—Naval Intelligence—fhe Arctic Expedition—The Pleasant Valley Boats—Nice Sunday Work in Newark—Sait Lake City Hlopements—Marriages and Deaths, 10-Yachting: Grand Regatta of the New York and Eastern Yacht Clubs; One of the Finest Races Ever Witnessed; Victory for the New York Club; Regatta of the Stamford Yacht Club—rhe Rochester Tragedy—Miscellaneous Telograms—\ tews of the Past—shipping Intel- ligence—Advertisements. Tue Saratoaa Aveust Races commence to-morrow, and as Saratoga now is ia the full blaze of its summer glory there will doabtless be an unusually large and fashionable attend- ance on the course, Borries FRoM Missing Suips.—A corre- spondent sends to the Heratp another story of @ bottle which has been found from the miss- Ing steamer City of Boston. This time the loss of the steamer is attributed to an explo- sion, As it is the third or fourth story of the same kind in relation to this steamer we need searcely say that we entirely discredit it. No ‘words are strong enough to condemn the silli- mess and wickednegs of people who invent stories of the fattemor bottles from missing ships. Such idle tales renew old griefs and give pleasure to no one. Tus New GoverNMeNt Loan In GeEr- MANY.—The sum of one hundred and thirty millions of this loan taken in Frankfort-on- the-Main on the terms of the government, is agrent financial event. It marks the conf- dence of the solid and sensible German capi- talists in the stability of the government and the Treasury of the United States, But that is no new thing with the Germans; for in the midst of our great rebellion they were the largest buyers of our national bonds, and ex- perience has only confirmed the soundness of their judgment touching these investments. Toe Corgan War.—Admiral Rodgers has had a second engagement with the Coreans, and added additional lustre to American arms ; put his subsequent course shows that the ad- vantages gained are questionable at best, and bis victory a bootless one. In the second en- agement, onthe 10th of June, meagre ac- pounts of which have been received by the last steamer from China, the forts were stormed and taken after a stubborn resistance by the Coreans, who numbered six thousand. The American loss was small, but among the killed was Lieutenant McKee, of Kentucky. On the 1lth the guns were spiked and the forts de- imolished. After waiting a few days, vainly endeavoring to negotiate with the native offi- cials, the squadron returned to China. The English press in China pronounce the expedi- tion a failure, and say the sudden return of Admiral Rodgers means that he was practically defeated. The Coreans, however, are not done with their troubles. Two Englishmen anda German have been seized by the anthorities and sent into the interior. This outrage is to be avenged, an English equadron having been sent to demand redress, backed by a force sufficient to awe the Coreans into submission, Avorner Mrntyo Horror.—Never before {o the history of American mining has any season been so prolific in disasters as is the present, Yesterday an explosion of gas oc- curred in the Eagle shaft at Pittston, Pa., which caused the death of twenty men and boys, all the occupants of the mine save two, who were stationed at the mouth of the shaft, Relays of volunteers immediately went to work to rescue the remains of their unfortunate companions; but, notwithstand- ing their almost superhuman exertions, up to midnight but five bodies had been recovered. The brave fellows, while engaged in their noble work, were themselves only saved by a miracle from a terrible fate. Within a few feet from where they were laboring was dis- covered a body of vapor of the most inflam- mable character. Had a single lamp come in contact with this vapor not a man in the tune would page deft it alive. Itia an unpleasant fact that during the past few years, and more than ever during the pre- sent summer season, the Sabbath has been marked in New York and its immediate sur- roundings by outbreaks of crime and disorder of every imaginable description. The pious coun- tryman, who delights to believe in the excep- tional depravity of New Yorkers, must indeed feel his soul stirred with joy as he opens his Heratps of Monday and Tuesday mornings. It must seem to him as though the metropolis is delivered over each Sunday to the unre- strained control of the dangerous classes. Rowdyism, in compensation for its enforced submission to law and order throughout the workaday week, is then let loose to work its own sweet will upon the respectable public, and Five Points and Mackerelville are allowed to take undisputed possession of .every ferry and conveyance and of every public resort either in or near the city. It is impossible to magnify the present ex- tent of this crying evil. We have not space to give seriatim tho list of the affrays and outrages even of a slogle Sabbath, and we remind our readers that the published cases are only those which are exceptionally serious, There .are scores and hundreds of arrests for drankenness and trivial assaults which are never chronicled in the newspapers ; and then, again, there are innumerable instances of what we may term successful rowdyism—that is to say, cases where respectable people rather than resent an insult quietly back down before the determined bullying of some shoulder-hitter on a Lord’s day jambaree. Every one who goes abroad on the Sabbath, in- deed, must have had sad experience of the fact that the gangs of desperadoes who infest every thoroughfare and place of public resort, indulge in a sort of saturnalia of license, de- bauchery and outrage. As to the police, they appear to have adopted the idea that Sundays come in the same category as the Fourth of July, and that it is unnecessary to take into custody any man guilty of less than murder or grand larceny. Lighter offences, though they would be summarily ‘‘run in” on any other day, are allowed to pass unnoticed. Drunken men reel along the sidewalks, and, now and then, with impunity, bespatter some unhappy passer-by with all sorts of filthy and profane language. We have seen such cases over and over again, and so, we doubt not, have our readers, And the car conductors and ferry gatemen, though even on week days they are not particularly scrupulous as to whom they permit to pass in the stream of passengers, of course adopt the same tactics as the police, and calmly allow the Sunday public to take care of itself. ais matter of Sabbath rowdyism is indeed a scandal and reproach to our local government, and something must at once be done to stamp it out. Our Sundays were not always thus noisy with disorder. We can remember a time when the merchant or the clerk, after toiling through the long week in the dingy and unwholesome haunts of trade, could take his family to Fort Lee, or to Staten Island or Harlem without having to tremble for his life and submit to all sorts of galling insults. That time seems now, inour present evil days of triumphant Thuggism, a golden age forever fied; but it existed nevertheless, and we have no doubt that a proper exhibition of public feeling would rouse the authorities to give us another epoch of quiet and order. But what is the remedy to be applied? First of all, the laws already in existence for the due preservation of respect for the Sab- bath must be enforced. There is one act especially which has been allowed to fall into desuetude and which must be again restored to the status of a living law. We mean the law probibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. Rum is at the bottom of a very large propor- tion of the disorder to which we are now call- ing attention; and the vigorous prosecution and punishment of the various saloon keepers who sell liquor on the Sabbath would of itself do much to give us once more a peaceful and orderly Lord’s day. It would be far better to have all the groggeries wide open, as they were a few years ago, than to nominally close them and at the same time allow the trade to ron on as briskly as ever. The only effect of the law as thus not carried out is to add the charm of ‘‘forbidden fruit” to the already suffi- ciently fascinating luxury of dram drinking. We insist, therefore, upon a rigid enforcement by the authorities of the very letter of the Sunday liquor law. But the most important thing to be done to wipe off this shameful disgrace of Sabbath dis- order from our city is @ thorough change in be Sunday police arrangements. In some way provision should be made to bave a guardian of the peace upon every excursion boat that leaves the city, and squads should be stationed at each principal resort. If necessary a special Sunday auxiliary force should be enrolled and drilled, And every officer should be instructed to be more strict rather than more lax on Sunday than upon a week day. The slightest breach of the law should be at once succeeded by the arrest of the offender, and notice should especially be paid to such misdemeanors as swearing and using obscene language, making insulting remarks to ladies and generally annoying respectable people, And if the authorities will only begin to show signa of placing things ona healthy basis again in this matter we are sure they will soon succeed in overawing the small minority of disorderly roughs who now cause the trouble. Ninety per cent of the people who are abroad on the Sabbath are peaceful and orderly citizens, It is a little leaven of lawlessness and indecorum that does all the mischief. We have an example in point of the ense with which a change might be effected. We allude to Coney Island. For years this bath- ing place was synonymous with rowdyism and disorder. Respectable people were afraid to visit it, even on a week day, and on Sunday it was abandoned to the tender mercies of des- peradoes and thieves and monte players and a choice collection of the other varieties of the dangerous classes. At last the property owners and hotel keepers saw that their inter- ests were being ruined by the malodorous rep- utation of their settlement. They were thus roused by the prospect of ruin into vigorous efforts to crush out the evil. They have suc- ceeded admirably. Good police arrange- ments have effectually driven tbe roughs to regions more congenial to the free indulgence of their hereditary and acquired instincts. Coney Island, in place of being the worst among the Sunday resorts, is now, perhaps, one of the most orderly and secure; and, as natural consequence, the hotel keepers are again thriving and the place is thronged with respectable visitors. There are people now who even board ont there, a thing which none in their senses could have dreamed of doing a year ago. We cannot close without a few words of warning about the apparent alarming increase of the disorderly element in the rising genera- tion. The cause of it we cannot exactly de- termine, except it be that year by year, while the riches of the few increase faster and ever faster, the condition of our lower classes be- comes more and more wretched. We cannot expect refinement and politeness from a boy reared in a tenement house in the Sixth ward, even though he has attended public school and acquired certain rudimentary knowledge. We believe, however, that there is an increas- ing class of children among us who live out in the streets from infancy, and who grow up to manhood without having a single day’s school- ing. The changes in society during the past few years perhaps necessitate some measure of compulsory education. If wedo not have it we shall soon be embarrassed with an ignorant and criminal class of our own raising, who will combine the natural smartness of the Ameri- can with the brutality and depravity of tho European evil-doer. The frightful increase of crime among us, and especially the rapid growth of a disorder that is as dangerous as crime, proves that there is something in our body social which it were well at once to dis- cover and reform. The Alabama Claims—fhe English Arbi- trator and His Associates. It is now authoritatively announced that Sir Alexander Cockburn has been appointed arbi- trator for Great Britain under the Treaty of Washington. The Lord Chancellor is to draw up the case. Lord Tenterden and Professor Bernard are to act as assistants and Sir Roun- dell Palmer will act as counsel. It is impos- sible, we think, to take exception to any of these names. Lord Tenterden and Professor Bernard are already well known to the Ameri- can public, both haring been members of the Joint High Commission. Lord Chief Justice Cockbura is one of the most highly respect- able men who hold office under the British Crown. It was he, as some of our older readers will remember, who, as Attorney Gen- eral, acted for the Crown in the prosecution of the celebrated poisoner, Dr. William Palmer. But for his firmness and masterly management Palmer might have escaped with his life. In 1856, on the occasion of the death of Chief Justice Jervis, he was created Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and in 1859, when Lord Campbell was raised to the Woolsack, he was advanced to the high position of Lord Chief Justice of England, a position which he still holds, Sir Roundell Palmer is one of the foremo# men at the English bar. He is known as an active member of Parliament, an impar- tial supporter of Mr. Gladstone and one of the finest scholars in England. His ‘Book of Praise” is one of the finest collection of hymns ever published. Since 1861 he has represented Richmond in Parliament, It is generally un- derstood that but for the different views which the two men took of the condition and wants of Ireland Sir Roundell Palmer would have been appointed by Mr. Gladstone to the high post of Lord Chancellor. With such men rep- resenting Great Britain, and with such a man as Charles Francis Adams at the head of the representatives of the United States, we may reasonably conclude that the work to be done will be done in a manner and with results entirely satisfactory to both nations. The Centenary of Sir Walter Scott. The centenary of the birthday of Sir Walter Scott is to be celebrated in a becoming man- ner in Central Park and elsewhere in this city to-day. Atfour o'clock the corner stone of the monument will be laid. The Rev. Dr. Thomson, Mr. William Wood, Mr. Richard Irvin and Mayor Hall will take part in the proceedings. Sir Walter Scott is fairly enti- tled to all the honor and all the praise which the world can give him. He is one of the few men of whom it fe. safe to say, his memory will never die. It is most meet that Scotsmen should seek, at home and abroad, to worthily commemorate his one hundredth birthday. We are glad to learn that the Scotsmen in New York have done so well. Scotland owes much to the genius of Sir Walter. He, more than any other, made the little kingdom famous. Scotland had no lack of great men before his day; she has had no lack of great men since his day; but it was Walter Scott who introduced, if we may so put it, Scotland tothe world, and compelled the nations to admire Scottish scenery, Scottish character, Scottish literature. Since the days of Sir Walter Scott Scotsmen are—and not without good reason—proud of their country. But the author of ‘‘Waverley” was more than a Scotsman. He was a representative man, not of Scotsmen, but of the race. All nations have a right to callhimtheir own, His genius was universal, end like Shakspearo and Homer and Virgil and Dante and Milton and a few others, his name will be preserved and cared for by all intelligent peoples in all time tocome. We rejoice that Scotsmen are doing 80 well all the world over in the matter of this centenary celebration; but we could have wished that in this cosmopolitan city of New York the platform of to-day had been a little broader. His memory is especially the pro- perty of Scotsmen; but he is so much the pro- perty of the race that nationality ought not, in this city at least, to have been a feature of the occasion. Asa creator he is scarcely second to Shakspeare; and who is willing to admit that Shakspeare is the property of Englishmen alone? Of Sir Walter Scott it can be said that he never wrote a line which could bring a blush to the cheek of modesty. In these de- generate days this fact ought not to be over- looked. It is our conviction that one hun- dred years hence Scott will be better known and more highly appreciated than he is to-day. A Votcano has vomited death and destruc- tion upon the hapless inhabitants of the Island of Tagolanda, in the Malay Archipelago. The irruption was accompanied by a concussion of the sea, and a wave forty yards high arose and swept four hundred and sixteen persons out of existence. The particulars of the calamity, as given in our despatch, are terribly interesting. ‘The Explosion of the Westficld and the Lesson It Teaches. It is remarkable how wise and learned a large class of our people become—at least in their own estimation—when it is too late. We have waited patiently to see how much of the wis- dom and learning brought to bear on the ex- plosion of the Westfield could be made avail- able for the future; but the results thus far are by no moans reassuring. The difficulty is that talk about science is a very different thing from science itself. There is no lack of scientific professors. Scientific books abound. Among our innumerable instructors thera is scarcely one who has not a new method of his own by which scientific wonders can be pro- duced. All would have us bear in mind how stupld their predecessors were, and that for obvious reasons the present is the great age of progress. Yet when their superior knowledge is put to the test inthe simplest manner their conduct is much more like that of precocious children than scientific men, What lies on the surface this numerous and noisy class cannot see at all; whereas they are ever ready to point out as palpable what has no existence save in an ill-trained, vain imagination. This, we think, will explain why it has so sorely puzzled such a large number of savans to discover why the terrible explosion oc- curred, althongh there is not a simpler propo- sition in all Euclid. Could men who thought and wrote two thousand years ago have seen the Westfield before sho exploded they could have predicted, without any elaborate ex- amination, and without knowing the precise use and value of the steam engine, that some catastrophe must befall it before long. For, if those old people were not acquainted with the steam engine, they were perfectly aware of the terrible force of steam. They knew that what tore the rocks asunder and made the earth itself tremble would not long brook confinement ina rusty old pot, almost ready to fall asunder without any other force, inter- nal or external, than that of gravitation. If Hero, of Alexandria, who made experiments on steam more than a century before our time, could have been asked the question, he would most probably have said that the ex- plosion of the Westfield should be attributed to ignorance, carelessness and avarice, Judging from certain comments of Seneca in his ‘‘Questiones,” the Roman philosopher would have arrived at pretty nearly the same conclusion. But let our scientific men only turn to Leonardi da Vinci's description of his steam cannon, and judge from it how much has been learned since his time (1519) in regard to the terrific power of steam. These running allusions to the past will not seem at all irrelevant to those who are wearied with the constant boasting of our savans as to the immense progress we are making. The truth is that, like most other things, the boiler of the Westfield was too superficial the first day. At most five years would have been a long period for it, whether kept in con- stant use or not. Evenif no flaw appeared at the end of that time it should have been set aside. Patching a corroded, worn boiler may do for a while; in nineteen cases out of twenty no serious accident may result from it; but if in the twentieth or even in the fiftieth case an explosion takes place which destroys human life, though there be only half a dozen victims—nay, only one—such a catastrophe makes the saving made by patch- ing as much blood money asif it were the proceeds of an acknowledged traffic in human life. It is but seldom that a boiler is used so long as five yearsin any English or French steamer. But this is by no means the only difference. First, the European boiler is much stronger than the American—in general the former is capable of sustaining twice the amount of pressure which the latter will bear, The European boiler is subjected to a rigid exami- nation by one thoroughly competent for the task before it can be used. Whenin use it has to undergo a similar examination at least once a year, and it is inexorably condemned for the slightest flaw. Yet these are not the chief points in which the English and French have an advantage over us. In the European vessels the term engineer has some significance. The engineer is a functionary who understands, at least, the first principles of mechanics. Not only must he comprehend the mechanism of the boiler and be able to form an approximate idea of the pressure which it is capable of sustaining, but he must be able to tell the examiner in what do the properties of steam differ from those of gas. In short, in Europe an engi- eer means a person who {s capable either of constructing or managing machines, whereas in this country if you ask for the engineer you will be introduced to a person who, perhaps, the week before was nothing more than the fireman, Talk to him about mechanics, statics or hydrostatics, and it is ten to one that he thinks you mean to insult him, If in @ communicative mood, he may tell you that if there be any difference between gas and steam it is none of his business. How absurd it is to expect that a person of the latter character could take the necessary care of “the steam apparatus, or be able to tell his employers, no matter how honest may be his intentions, when there is real danger, This brings us to another point, which it is painful to contemplate, but which it would be unwise to overlook. While in this country we talk a great deal about knowledge, and quote from Bacon and others to show its value, there is scarcely any great people that sot so little value on it in practice. That sort of knowledge which in other countries is called the knack of making money is, indeed, in high esteem among us; but none have a lower appreciation of that genuine knowledge which is safety as well as power. A smattering is all our people care for; to be smart, acute, capable of turning a penny, are the great things, If this disposition were confined to private individuals it would be comparatively harm- less; but it is fully participated in by our government, both State and national. It is not alone steamboat, railroad and other com- panies that employ persons for almost any reason rather than their being properly quali- fied. In one case a person is employed be- cause he {s the protégé of some director or person who owns many shares; in the other he gets an appointment merely because he is a democrat or republican who {s moro zealous and active than his brethren; or, perhaps, it 1s only the Individual who recommenda him | that professes those characteristics. At all events, his qualifications are the things thought of last and least. If two candidates present themselves, the one possessing all the neces- sary qualifications, the other only ‘‘influence,” does any one doubt which would be accepted in nineteen cases out of twenty? Perhaps the owners of the Westfleld form an exception ; but if so they are sadly misrepre- sented. We fear they must be regarded as a type of the class we feel it our duty to con- demn. Without any disposition to pass undue censure on them, we think that if their Staten Island boats could be brought into court, no intelligent jury would require any more con- clusive evidence against them. If those old hulks could speak they would be apt to say: ‘* Alas! do not blame us for being infirm and crazy ; the fault is that of our god, Mammon, who has forced us to eke out an existence which isas irksome to ourselves as it is loath- some to all who are obliged to have any rela- tions with us. Had we been allowed our own way we would long since have passed out of existence on the principle inculcated by honest Lucretius in his very fine rhapsody ‘On the Nature of Things.’ ” A speech like this might have greatly facili- tated the work of the Coroner and his jury. But our Ooroners are very much like our learned men, who can see what is in the moon or in the rings of Jupiter much more clearly than what is in so vulgar a place as the Battery. Whether this be so or not, let the various investigating committees now at work report as they may, explosions will con- tinue to be more or less frequent until the ob- vious defects we have alluded to are remedied. If we are to be safe we must have much stronger boilers and much more competent and more searching examiners. We must have engineers whose qualifications do not consist in a certain amount of skill in making fires and putting on brass patches. It is true that competent men will require higher salaries in all those positions than incompetent men; but the former will prove much the cheaper in the long ran—as much cheaper as the vigorous, high-spirited Arabian courser is at any price to the spavined, low-bred nag. aputa and tho Country of the Vril-ya— Symmes’ Hole the Hope of the Strong. Minded. Blackwood’s Magazine, in reviewing that somewhat remarkable book, ‘‘The Coming Race,” asks :—‘‘Was_ there no island left—no possibility of am undiscovered island left to us in the Atlantic or the wide Pacific—that our author was compelled to hide away his Utopians in the dark caverns of the earth?” The question scarcely seems to be one requir- ing an answer, asia design, if not in execu- tion, the satire is in imitation of the ‘‘Gulli- ver's Travels” of Dean Swift. The idea of a race of mon differing from anything ever known before dwelling in some far away island is not a new one, and the location of the Vril-ya under the earth falls sbort of being a fresh conception. But the geography of Laputa and the geography of the Vril country are matters of small importance so long as the shafts of the satirist hit folly as it flies. We can forgive the author of ‘‘The Coming Race” whatever want of originality there may be in the conception or plan of his book, because of the terseness and vigor with which he deals with the problems of the age. The comparison between Laputa, an island floating above the far-off seas, with both up- stairs and downstairs departments, and the country of the Vril-ya shows they aro in nothing more alike than in the differences of the two nations, In the one case the traveller reached the abode of the Laputians by being drawn up to the summit of the island by block and tackle; in the other case he let himself down into the country of the Vril-ya by a similar means. The one country was inhabited by a sleepy set of philosophers, who gave all their time to their philosophical studies and their flappers; the other was the home of a wide-awake species of perfection- ists, who scarcely needed philosophy, 80 potent were the effects of vril, and so wise and well-behaved were the women. Among the Laputians, as among the Vril-ya, the women did the courting; but the latter were much better than the former, inasmuch as married women were faithful to their spouses— an assertion which cannot be made either of the Laputians or the people on the outer crust of this hollow earth, The idea of this book, and to a certain extent its treatment, were drawn from Swift's ‘‘Laputa;” but the satire is so modern and the style so deliciow that a hundred flying or floating islands could not make the newly-discovered country a whit less interesting. If we were disposed to quarrel at all on this subject we should claim on purely American grounds that the entry to the country of the Vril-ya ought to have been by way of Symmes’ Hole. Captain Symmes, who did perhaps better service in helping to defeat the British at Lundy’s Lane, long maintained a favorite theory that the earth is hollow, and, being open at the poles, is capable of habitation. In 1822 and 1823 he asked Congress to furnish him with means to fit out an expedition to test the trath of his theories. But as Congress laughed heartily, in the first instance, at the absurdity of electric telegraphs, it could not be expected that it would restrain its jollity over the contemplated discovery of the countries under the earth, Fortunately we have at last authentic reports from the world in which poor old Captain Symmes, cuudemned ag a lunatic and laughed at by small boys and smaller © ongressmen, so implicitly believed. We know from the traditions of the Vril-ya that the tad pole theory of Mr. Charles Darwin and his followers is not a delusion and a snare. We know that there is a country where women not only do all the courting, but where foolish parents have no right to inter- fere with the loves of their stalwart daughters. But even in the latter particular Dean Swift’s life, as well as his famous travels of Gulliver, was suggestive to the author of this new book. The American traveller was beset by both a Stella and Venessa in the land of the Vril-ya, and Zee and Tae’s sister promised to make his life as sweetly wretched as the others made the life of the witty but angainly Dean. We are glad Congress did not grant Captain Symmes the aid he wanted. The loves of ‘the Woodhulls and the Tiltons and the diffusion of magnetic Influences by men like Mr. Stephen Pearl Androws aro about as much as this world oan stand, Had Symmos gone sailing TIEN nnnmnerneneernnnnrr ee under the earth through the hole at the North | Pole he might have brought a cargo of Zees | | out with bim, and some luckless wight, who is | still able to resist the advances of our strong: — minded sisters, would probably have found himself burned to a cinder for resisting thelr wooings. We care very little for the loaded tongues of our suffrage reformers so long as they carry no vril-staff to reduce us to sub- | mission. At the same timed must be con- | fessed that Symmes’ Hole Is the hope of the strong-minded, and Sorosis cannot do better than to organize an expedition to enter the | North Pole in search of the coming race. The Asintic Cholera—Are We Prepared fou me That terrible pestilence, the Asiatic cholera, now on its course again through Europe, is coming westward. Within six months, or three months, or one month, it may be brought here in some emigrant ship from Germany, where the disease now widely exists and is spreading, especially along the German sea- coast. We have called the attention of the Mayor, the Health Board, the Street, the Quarantine and all branches of our local authorities concerned, to the duty of proper and timely precautions, first against the introduction of this fearful disease into the city; secondly, in view of a proper sanitary condition of the city and all its surroundings, in the event of the introduction of the disease, and from the reports published in another por- tion of this paper, it will be seen that the Police and Health authorities have commenced to act upon our suggestion. It is evident, from a walk or a ride through the city in any direction, that in the impor. tant matter of street cleaning, &c., they can- not act too promptly The city streets front- ing the water are fearfully filthy, the river piers in most cases are filthy, and the docks are filled with garbage and vegetable refuse of all de- scriptions. The streets back from the water for half a mile, more or legs, devoted to the wholesale grocery and fruit business, are full of vegetable refuse. In fact, from the Bat- tery to Washington square, wa have only one clean street of any extent, and that is Broadway. The street lately widened from Washington square to Canal street, and now known as South Fifth avenue,, might well be called Filth avenue, it is so abominably disordered and dirty. It is flanked on both sides by a succession of streets abominably dirty, and with their festering rookeries and tenements those streets offer, as they are, a rich harvest to the cholera. Between Centre street and the Bowery we have another section of the metropolis, and again, between Park row, Chatham street and the East River, we have another section, awful to contemplate, streets and dwellings, basements and rookeries, And, yet again, between the Bowery and between Third avenue and the East River there are some fearfully dirty and reeking districts ; and also on both sides of the Central Park, particularly on the west side, among those shanties, down to the river, and, worst of all, perhaps, in view of the cholera, are those extensive excavations in the street openings in progress at the upper end of the island, beyond the Central Park, considering the miasma more or less created by these ex cavations. Over all these specified districts, and in others not specified, there is an immense amount of cleaning up called for to put the city in proper order to meet the cholera. The same may be said of certain dirty districts in Brooklyn, Jersey City and Staten Island: In a word, this metropolis and ita surroundings, at this time, offer an inviting field to the cholera, and a general cleaning, fumigation and a liberal application of deodorizing chemicals are demanded. From its natural situation and advantages New York should be the healthiest of all the gréat cities in the world, but its average weekly death rate, in the absence of any epidemic, is far in excess of that of London, Paris or Ber- lin, Of course it follows that New York is in a bad condition to moet the Asiatic cholera, and so there should be no further delay by the officials concerned in the precautions which our dearly bought experience of 1832 and 1849 urges upon us from five thousand graves. The simple trath is that we of this city are not prepared for a fair fight with this gtim visitor from the deadly delta of the Ganges, while the chances of life or death to every one of a million and a half of people, in- cluding the city and its surroundings, may be involved in this matter of timely precautions to the extent of human resources. Tue Enatisu Carver is reported to have administered a well-merited snubbing to the French government by refusing to extradite those Communists who have escaped to Eng- land, It seems incredible that the French government should be so ignorant of the temper of the English people as to be guilty of this absurdity. It may obtain the sur- render of the Communist refugees from the weak, puny government of Belgium, which is frightened out of its wits by the epectra rouge, and, therefore, apt to be led into any reactionary measure, but from a great and free country like England and the United States, never! The offences of the Paris Communists are, however criminal in themselves, mainly of a political character. At any rate it is difficult to define and to prove the exact nature of their offences. The authorities of Versailles have, moreover, by the barbarous tcatmont of the prisoners at the camp of Sartory and the Orangerto vmtiatad sympathy in favor of the Communists. True, tie French government has denied the report of these cruelties, but then the world has been taught to think that trath and it are twain, —_—_$———_$—$—$————— Toe Unrmatom or A. H. Srepnens, of Georgia, on the ‘new departure” is simpy this, that If the national democratic party in their platform of 1872 support this new depr- ture in the acceptance of what he calls te frandulent fourteen and fifteenth amendmens, he will himself take a ‘new departure”in search of a new party. Very good. {ha more the merrier, We shall probably bve three or four parties in the field in 1872, wick will make things lively, though not very ddbt- fal; but we shall have, most likely, a redar old-fashioned scrub race in 1876, “with allhe modern improvements,” which will ske things very lively and the result exceedgly doubtfal.