The New York Herald Newspaper, October 11, 1871, Page 8

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES "GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, All business or news letter and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore Herarp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. TRE DAILY HERALD, published every day m the year, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription WALLACK'S THEATRE. Broad: wrest. — Ps ong way and 13th ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street.—Enauisu Oprma—Mantita. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner 30th st. —! - ances afternoon and evening TUE CULLD STKALIE Te BOOTH'S THEATRE, 3a at, ive gneten wae Ey » between Sth and @th avs, BOWERY THEATR \ = wa Gua E, Bowery.—Monty anp Misney. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, Raf a GRAND OPERA HO! ‘ _ seRe USE, corner of Sth ay. ana 33d st. LINA EDWIN's THEATRE. No, 720 Broadway.—FRENcH eRA—La Pericno.s. FIFTA AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— Tur New Drama oF Divorce. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Fourteenth st. and Broad- way.—NFe@xv AcTs—Bog.esaug, BALLET, &c. Matinee. OLYMPIC THEATRE. Broadway.—Tux B, I~ ‘vroMime or Hurry Dumpty. Matinee at “thet site. STADT THEATRE, N. . h sr F een jos, 45 and 47 Bowery.—Orzea MES. fF. B. CONWAY'S - Lavy or bros. BROOKLYN THEATRE.. reapcsco MINSTRE! jAuL, Broa _ tan Bax 101800 Minevmea. ky ome BRYANTS NEW OPERA HOUS: . ‘and 7th ave.—Brrant's Miversrve. se Mannie TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, Ni wery.— Mano Boornraictrins, BURLEDQUES, £0. | PONE OnTRINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—Batuap Con- PARIS PAVILION CIRCUS, Fourteet 24 and 34 avenues —Equnsrsianiom, go, “et between SOMERVILLE ART GALLERY, ». —EX- UBITION OF Fine PALNTiNGs,’ © ith venue.—Ex, AMERICAN INSTITUTE EXHIBITION, Third od Bixty-third street.—Open day and evening. QUADRUPLE SHEET. low York, Wednesday, October 11, 1871. CONTENTS OF TO-DAYS HERALD, ‘Paaz. E~Advertisements vertisements. 3—Advertisements. Sore 4 Yhicago Calamity: The Fire at Last Checked: Fearful Loss of Life and Property, 6—Benevolence and Sympathy for the Chicago Suf- ferers: Grand Expression of Metropolitan oe : ‘ago Sufferers (continued from xt . S—Editoriais: Leading Article, “The Great Ua- lamity—Succor for the Unforiunate”—Amuse- ment Announcements. —News from France, England. Germany, Spain, Brazil and the south Pacific—The English Turf—The Elections in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Towa—Riot in Phiiadelptia—Tne Mormons: ment of Brigham -Young—The Chi- cago Calamity (Continued from Fifth Page)— MISCUMuucoUs Telegrauis—Business Notices. f0—Yachting: Ashbury Once More to the Breach; Another Letter from Mr. Ashbury; Meeting of the New York Yacht Club; Tne Proposed Race for (he Queen’s Cup—Awiul Death of a Drunk- ard—An Irish Confederation in Jersey City— ‘The Jerome Park Races. At—Jerome Park Races (Continued from Tenth )—Horse Notes—The National Game— ae, in nog ie armenia and Commercial Reports—Marriag and Deaths, é ee @2—Yachting at Newport—Municipal Movements— The srie Railway Stockholders—The Third Avenue Savings Bank—Cuban Independ- epce—Personal Intelligence—Our National Guard—Views of the Past—Eurupean Mar- kets—Snipping Intelligence—advertisementss, @3—Saturaay's Fire in Chicago: The Prelude to the Drama of the Great Confagration: Seven Bundred Thousand Dollars Worth of Property Consumed; the Losses and Insurances— Former Fires: The Great Fire in London; Terrible Conflagrations in New York, Pitis- burg, Philadelphia, San francisco, Portland, Charleston and Unicago; Tabie of Other Monster Burnings. 14—Proceedings in the Courts—Eartnquake in Delaware—A Murderers Procession—City Government—advertisements, 15—Advertisements. 16—Advertisements, Sznp Wooten BLanKerts, woollen clothing of all kinds to the sufferers at Chicago. Tae “Rronzst” Tame Ovut—Keyser's con- dition. Private a8 WELL as Pustic benevolence should be exhibited in the terrible strait our sister city, Chicago, is now in. Tae Evsorion ms Purtaperraia yesterday ‘was the occasion of quite a spirited riot, in which four men were killed and twenty-five wounded. The origin of the fight, in which police and citizens, white and black, were en- gaged, is attributed tothe determined efforts of the rough democracy to drive the negro voters from the polls. Crtoaao has always been a place for pro- fessionals. Let them think of this in this her dire necessity. Betonam Youne appeared in Court in Salt Lake on Monday and was held to bail in five thousand dollars, It is thought that there will be trouble if he is convicted. The Mormons, however, have so uniformly threatened trouble as a last resort, with no intent of carrying out the threat, that we may safely conclude they know too much to resort to the hopeless arbi- trament of war or riot. Tie Wear will furnish our perishing friends tat Chicago with food. Our Eastern friends must farvish them with raiment. Rewio1008 and REVOLUTIONARY AGITATION ™ Peev.—The cities of Peru, Lima particu. larly, are deeply agitated and very setiously disturbed by the discussion of the Italo-Roman question. The President of Pera sympathizes with the clerical party. Demonstrations were made in Lima in favor of Italy and 4 counter demonstration in support of the Pope. Troops charged on the assemblage which sympathized with the radicals, The people defiled a portrait of the Pope, Intense agitation ensued. There are fourteen thou- gand Italians resident in Lima and Callao, A revolution against the Italian government was looked for when the Heraxp despatches were forwarded to Jamaica, Infallivility works poorly in South America. Taxarmoat Proriz Suovrp Give one aight, at least, for the benefit of the sufferers boy the havoc of the fire Head at Chicago. NEW YORK Tho Great Calamity—Seccor for the Un- . feorteaate. One subject absorbs the thoughts of the American people and is the theme of sympa- thetic conversation from one end of the coun- try to the other. The destruction of Chicago touches all hearts. The devouring element that has laid the proud city in ashes may well be called the fire king, for it has done more damage in forty-ei,bt hoars than the armed hosts of the most powerful monarch could have done. Four days ago the three hundred thousand inhabitants were reposing in security, little imagining such a» dreadful calamity as that which began at eleven o'clock on Saturday night and increased in fury on Sunday evening would make half the population homeless. True enough it is that we know not what a day may bring forth. No such calamity by fire, nor by any other cause so suddenly and within such a few hours, bas occurred in modern times, The great fire in London, in 1666, the year after the plague, might have been more disastrous. Thirteen thousand two hundred houses were burned down then. The fire in Chicago has destroyed, according to report, over twelve thousand houses. It is not known yet what lives have been lost or what is the value of property destroyed in Chicago. The loss and suffering we know are very great. Happily, the last news that comes by telegraph informs us that a copious rain had fallen opon the devastated city and extinguished the fire so far as to give hope that there will be no fur- ther destruction. We pray this hope may prove well founded. We can hardily realize in thought the men- tal anguish and bodily suffering of such a vast mass of people as have been driven out of their homes, stripped of all they possessed, and not knowing where to find food, raiment and shelter, It is bad enough when a few families or a few hundred people lose their homes by fire and are driven for protection to the charity and under the roofs of others. But in this case all alike gre made homeless and destitute. A hundred thousand to a hundred and fifty thousand people make a vast crowd, Broadway, when crowded from one end to the other, on some great gala day, scarcely pre- sents such a mass of humanity. Imagine, then, the numbers we see on such occasions throwa destitute and homeless upon the world, and the situation of the people of Chicago just now can be realized ia part. Imagine the thonsands of delicate women, helpless chil- dren, feeble old people, and the sick, as well as the multitude of men without shelter, and suffering from hunger and cold. It is a heartrending scene. Thousands of rich or well-to-do people have been made poor and tens of thousands of the poor have had their little domestic accumulations swept away. Fire is inexorable. It leaves nothing but ashes. " It must be some time before all the dread- ful consequences will be known, Many valu- able and important documents belonging to individuals or institutions, affecting their property and business, as well as records of the city, State and federal government, have been destroyed, probably, which cannot but lead to much trouble hereafter, The loss to insurance companies will probably overwhelm many of them, and, as a consequence, other institutions may go down with the general wreck, Bankruptcy, suspension and great financial embarrassment of merchants must follow the destraction of such an enormous stock of goods and produce and the inability of creditors to pay. The total loss of property of all kinds is variously estimated from a huodred and fifty millions to three hundred millions, This must affect financial matters beyond the limits of Chicago. We see the effect already in New York. Then the interruption to trade in and through that great commercial emporium of the West will be seriously felt. Besides, a vast capital will be required to rebuild Chicago, if it should be rebuilt. With all the recupera- tive power of the people of that city of the West and of the country generally this disas- ter must have no small influence upon the money market and financial operations, The first thing to be considered, however, is to afford immediate relief to the Chicago sufferers. Food, clothing and the means for temporary shelter are first needed. Happily, in a case of distress like this, the American people do not need to be stimulated. They are large in their charity on such occasions, Whether the call be from home or abroad for those who suffer the response is the same. And New York, always remarkable for its large liberality, is subscribing grandly for the sufferers of Chicago. Our rich merchants are acting princely and the citizens of every class are moving generously, Throughout the country, and in other cities, too, there isa general movement to afford relief. Our railway magnates are giving their roads and as many trains of cars as are neces- sary for transporting, free of charge, the sup- plies that are furnished. The first necessity, then, is likely to be relieved soon. Here the value of railroad and telegraphic communica- tion is worthy of notice. Had there been no railroads and telegraph to communicate rap- idly the state of things at Chicago and to transport supplies promptly the suffering would be much greater. These mighty agents of our modern civilization are efficient auxil- iaries of the benevolence of the people. Fear- ful as is the loss by fire at Chicago, the evil is compensated in a measure by the noble acts of charity it inspires. We might well say over. this dire calamity at Chicago, as the old” prophet of Israel ex- claimed over Babylon, ‘‘How are the mighty fallen!” Chicago was a great and proud city. Her people were most ambitious and did everything on a grand scale. Her growth has been unprecedented. She was the admi- ration of the world, Through her superior geographical position and the extraordinary enterprise of her people the vast trade of the great West was concentrated there. In a few hours this greatness has, apparently, been all destroyed. Will Chicago recover from this blow? Will trade find other channels and the railroad system other points of conver- gence? We have no idea that this city will follow the destiny of many great cities of ancient times, such as Babylon, Nineveh or Palmyra, and rise no more. The times are very different, She lies in the midst of a productive couatry and a vast and grow- ing population which is ful! of industry and enterorise. Then ‘be railroad avajem which HERALD, WEDNESDAY, UUTUs4t 1, 18TL—QUADRUPLE SHEET. Constitutes the great arteries of commerce will remain concentrated there. She will con- tinue to command, probably, the trade of the lakes. If we mistake not Chicago will rise again from her ashes like the fabled phcenix, and will become more beautiful thaa ever. It will take some years to bring this about, but the same enterprise which gave Chicago its enterprising growth within the last ten or twenty years can rebuild it again in as short a time, or even in less time. We hope she may speedily overcome the terrible disaster that has befullen her, and become io the end more populous, moe prosperous and more beautiful than before. The Ofusicipal Corruptionn—Whe Are the True Reformers. Many years before the present raid apon the municipal administration was commenced the Heraxp stood in the field, frequently alone and unaided, as the determined enemy of official extravagance and corruption. We de- nounced the Court House rascality from the first moment it became evident that the ex- penditure upon the building was to be worked asaplacer for the carichment of an unprin- cipled ‘‘Ring” in the city government. At that time the partisan journals of New York, either interested or hoping to be interested in the prolific job, neglected to espouse the cause of the taxpayers or openly defended the action of the plunderers, We exposed other schemes of peculation concocted by city officials and Boards of Supervisors and Aldermen before their consummation and before the robbery of the city treasury was effected, and in many iostances we succeeded in preventing some sale of real estate to the corporation at ten times its marketable value, or in heading off some other cunningly devised plot for the en- richment of individuals at the expense of the citizens. It fact, the Heratp has been from first to last the advocate of wise economy and honesty in the administration of our muni- cipal affairs, and has endeavored to induce the people to lock the stable door before the borse was stolen. To that end we urged, years ago, a concentrated, powerful and re- sponsible government, making the Mayor in. reality, as he is in theory, the chief executive officer of the city, and holding him to a strict accountability to the electors for the efficiency and integrity of all his subordinates. If the whole New York press had then united with us in the labor of reform the city would not be suffering in its oredit and character as it now is. But partisan journalists are unfortu- nately precluded from an honest advocacy of the interests of the people, and those who now 80 bitterly assail the municipal government for Political purposes, at that time defended it in all {ts actions from similar motives. The present exposures are the result of the failure.to stop corruption in the city adminis- tration years ago. They grow mainly out of that scheme of plunder persistently denounced by the HeRap, the Court House job, When the war against the government officials com- menced, we demanded a thorough investigation into all the charges against the several depart- ments, and the punishment of all unfaithful public officers, no matter where they might be found. At the same time we refused to join in an indiscriminate assault upon every person who chanced to hold a prominent position under the city government, Mayor Hall had filled important and responsible trusts for years with credit to bimself and advantage to the people, and we did not choose to denounce bim as a corruptionist until some evidence of his unfaithfulness should be produced. Park Commissioners Sweeny and Hilton had dis- charged all public duties confided to them with zeal and fidelity, and we refused to regard them as plunderers until their partisan assail- ants should show something more than news- paper invective in support of the charge. The investigation into the management of the de- partments justifies the position we have held. It establishes the fact that the hotbed of municipal corruption was the office of the City Comptroller, and the probability is now strong that the frauds committed upon the city origi- nated in and were confined to that office. It was there that claims against the city were purchased of the original claimants, and it is asserted that there the amounts were altered from thousands to hundreds of thou- sands of dollars. It was there that entirely fictitious accounts were put in against the city, audited, allowed and paid upon forged warrants and receipts, It was from that office that an Auditor—the most responsible and im- portant officer in the department except the Comptroller himself—purloined vouchers and warrants and was still retained in position and trusted by his chief. There are rumors that the official signatures necessary to the success of these enormous and reckless frauds have been forged to the warrants in the same nest of rascality, as well as the names of the pre- tended claimants. The Hegatp demands the immediate arraignment of the head of this corrupt department, Richard B. Connolly, in order that he may prove his innocence if he has really been the tool of his subordinates, or suffer the penalty of his crimes, if he has been their leader or accomplice. The partisan press and the politicians who have taken the matter in hand and are endeavoring to control the action of the Committee of Seventy screen and defend Comptroller Conndlly for --their own purposes, and continue to shower coarse abuse upon other officials whose connection with the disgraceful plunder is not only ques- tionable but against whom no evidence to substantiate a charge has yet been discovered in spite of a scrutiny that has now been in progress for over five weeks, There is, how- ever, one honorable exception to this, The editor of the Tribune, » few days ago, thought proper to dissent in his own name from the attacks made upon Mayor Hall and Park Com- missioners Sweeny and Hilton. While insist- ing that the former had forfeited the position he holds, by neglecting to acrutinize the ac- counts of certain contractors in whose favor warrants for large amounts have been drawn, and all of which warrants the Mayor is at present supposed to have countersigned, Mr, Greeley says:—‘‘As, however, I do not understand Mr. Foley to assert that he has personal knowledge of the division among the members of the Board of Audit of moneys fraudulently obtained from the treas. ury on bogus claims, I must, for the present, regard the charge that Mayor Hall has stolen millions from the city and converted them to his own use as not proven.” In reference to the Park Gommissiqners (he /saguege of Mr. Greeley is yet more emphatic. He says :— “I bave seen no evidence that Peter B. Sweeny is a ‘public plunderer.’ He has cer- tainly kept very bad company, and has spent public money on the parks, &c., more lavishly than I can approve, but, if he has either stolen himself or helped others to steal, I have no evidence of the fact, Awaiting the develop- ments expected from the Committee of Seventy, I must hold Mr. Sweeny innocent of pecula- tion so far as has yet been shown. Ditto, and rather more so, as to Judge Hilton. If he has stolen anything, I shall be not only sur- prised but sorely grieved. Still I suspend final judgment till the facts shall have been fully set forth and authenticated.” Now, this is precisely the position occupied by the Heratp from the commencement of the present excitement. We have resolved to wait until some evidence shall be adduced, if any can be found, to fasten guilt upon the Mayor and the Park Commissioners before condemning them as corruptionists and thieves. At the same time we have demanded a search- ing scrutiny into the conduct of every city official and the punishment of any who may be found to have betrayed his trust. We now insist upon the arrest of Comptroller Connolly and his examination in a court of justice, because the developments already made prove clearly that criminal acts have been com- mitted in the department over which he pre- sides, Tie Committee of Seventy has been tacitly made the instrument of the people to bring unfaithful public officers to a reckoning. It has no rights or power save such as may have been thus bestowed upon it, and when it attempts to screen and defend a suspected person it abuses and violates the confidence that has been reposedin it. Up to the present moment it has not only taken no steps to insure the trial of Connolly, but has adopted that officer into its councils and is using him as anally. It seems that this policy of trading upon wholesale accusations agalost other public officers and of protecting the only one against whom actual charges are made is to be pursued until after the State election, and hence the suspicion, which is daily growing stronger in the minds of the people of New York, that the whole reform agitation is a piuce of political jugglery, designed not in the interests of the citizens bat to subserve the purpose of politi- cal adventarers, The committee. can never remove this impression nntil it shall prove its honesty of purpose by instituting criminal pro- ceedings against Richard B. Connolly. If the same evidence of guilt which surrounds him existed against any other city official the com- mittee would at once bring the offender to the bar of justice. By what right does it refuse or neglect to deal in the same manner with the Comptroller? ‘The Sympathy of Science and the Gov. ernment in the Great Disaster. The frightful fire at Chicago, if unmitigated by nothing else, bas taught the people of that doomed city that they have many friends. No sooner was the news of the disaster tele- graphed to Washington than the Secretary of War instantly ordered an immense supply of blankets, tents, clothing and food from a large number of Western military posts, where they were stored, to be forwarded with all possible despatch to the scene of rain. With wonder- fal celerity bis orders were telegraphod all over the country. The extent of the disaster was not known to the government until near midday of Monday, and in an hour or two the relief telegrams from the War Department bad flashed over the wires, and early in the after- noon from Jeffersonville, Ind., from St. Louis and many other points every provision and supply was on its way to the great city of the Northwest. The Secretary of War may well and long live in the grateful estimation of the poor and ill-fated citizens of Chicago and of the whole country, which suffers sorely and sympathizes deeply in the untold tribulation of the Northwest. It is worthy of marked comment that if our poor and desolated sister city. could not (as her citizens have so gallantly struggled to ac- complish) prevent or quench this ‘‘sea of fire” that has rolled its billows over her splendid avenues and her princely stores, telegraphic art and telegraphic enterprise have, in our country, well nigh reached the acme of per- fection ; and that, in all such disasters, the cry of distress no longer falls, like the sound of the minute gun at sea, on a dull and leaden air, but, in an instant, it is borne to thousands, yes, to millions, who eagerly respond. The poet has beautifully said: —~ One touch of nature makes the whole world xin, And, in this sorrowful instance, the sympathy of science has invoked the electrician’s art to a lofty, beneficent purpose. Those silent but swift messages announcing to the bereaved Western metropolis the sympatby of the nation will be remembered longer than the most por- tentous despatches of generals and diploma- tista, and will bind all men closer together in the bonds of American citizenship. In no country In the world, perhaps, has telegraphy, in all its departments and adapta- tions, and benign offices, reached such excel- lence as in this; and no feat of telegraphy has ever displayed its utility and value more con- spicuously than that of which we have just spoken, Disease, with its Inappreciable horrors, is likely to follow the calamity at Chicago. Where are our dispensaries and their dis- pensing agenta? Tae Etxorions 1 Franogs.—The long- looked for elections of delegates to the Conseils Généraux have at last come off in France. It is not possible yet to say what is the actual result, It is quite clear that in the large towns republicanism has carried the day. Lyons, Toulouse, Marseilles and Avignon have voted the radical ticket. The moderate republicans have carried Lille, and they are abead in the Northern departments, Cler- mont has sent up the Dac d’Aumale, In Central France the imperialista have been triumphant, In the divided condition of the republican party, sad in the absence of acom- mon understanding among the Bourbons it does seom as if the Bonapartists, who stick to each other, may yet carry the day, Union is strength ; and the imperialists seem to under- stand the principle. Ler tie Ponses of our Christian fellow citi- zens, Protestant as well as Catholic, Catholic a8 well as Protestant, be opened for the relief of tho pall-stricken cite of Chicawn. Subscriptions for the Obicage Sufferers. The question of relief for the hundreds of thousands of people in Chicago rendered penniless and bomeleas by the fire is now all importaat, The generous promptness with her sister cities of the Union have come already to her relief shows the Doble spirit that animates the American heart everywhere. It is, indeed, something that relieves with a silver lining the dark cloud of gloom that has blighted the young giant city of the West. Our merchants and millionnaires, whoare bound to suffer heavily persona'ly by the wholesale devastation, have shown the spirit of Sir Philip Sidney—when wounded he gave the cup of water for which he was famishing to a dying soldier near him. Chicago needs imme- diate relief more than our business men do, and unhesitatingly and generously they accord it. Much more yet remains to be done, however. “5 Ia order to increase facilities for securing this relief, subscriptions will be received at the HERaLp office and forwarded promptly to the sufferers, We subscribe five hundred dollars to the fund as a commencement, and hope to be able to forward to the Chicago sufferers a sum proportionately larger, in com- parison with the greater destitution, than that with which contributors, through the medium of the Heratp, gladdened the hearts of the widows and orphans of Avondale. All classes are invited to contribute to this fund, the richest and the poorest, and sums in any and all amounts will be cheerfully received and forwarded. The devastating element was no respecter of persons, It destroyed humble tenements and grand residences, small shops and immense stores alike, and rendered the occupants of miserable huts and of wealthy mansions alike homeless, The oharity there- fore appeals to both rich and poor. Contri- butions of from one cent to any undefined amount will therefore be received ia the counting room of the HgRALp office, by clerks specially deputed for the service, to-day and henceforward, until the generosity of the people bas no further call upon it, Tho Pennsylvania and Okie and lowa Elections, The awful calamity which has fallen upon the late beautiful, prosperous and self-reliant city of Chicago has so profoundly impressed the public mind, and has become so far the universal topic of public sympathy and dis- cussion, that in this city hardly a reference was made, even among our professional poli- ticians, yesterday to the Pennsylvania and Ohio elections in full progress during the day, and in no instance was there any interest expressed as to the probable results. Under ordinary circumstances these important State elections would have been the great excitement of the day, and an anxious multitude would have been gathered, after supper, in front of the Hxnatp office, awaiting the firat reports upon our bulletin from Pennsylvania and Ohio. We had no such excitement in the city yesterday and no such gathering in front of the Hegaxp office last night ; for our citizens of all parties and of all creeds and nationalities,.and of all con- ditions in life, were too much interested in the sufferings of those one hundred thousand people—men, women and children—left house- less wud destitute, and exposed to the mercy of the elements amid and around the ruins of Chicago, to give any serious thought to the Pennsylvania and Ohio elections. The meagre returns we have received from Pennsylvania and Ohio warrant the con- clusion that the republicans ia both States have carried the day without any material drawbacks of democratic gains in the one and with serious democratic losses in the other. As for Iowa, we are only in doubt as to the extent of the republican majorities out there, though it is probable that in all these elections the popular vote was somewhat reduced by the depressing effect of the Chicago calamity, in addition to the usual influences in these purely local eleciions of “general apathy.” With more facts and figures before us we shall be enabled to discuss these elections more aatisfactorily to-morrow, The Fire, tho Insurance Companies the Wall Street Panic. The shock to the various monetary interests of the country by the terrific~calamity at Chicago has already manifested itself in the failure of three of our local insurance com- panies, who, in the endeavor to get business not afforded them in the competition of the metropolis, expanded their risks elsewhere, and have been involved as wholly as if they made a specialty of exclusive business in the burned city. We are not questioning aud the wisdom of such a policy in the conduct of their business; for the Chicago fire is one of those provi- dential interpositions which are so often sent to upset the plans of man and show him there are misfortunes and calamities against which he cannot provide. Skill, address, judgment and all the qualities which combine to make the compound of financial wisdom go for naught in presence of such an occurrence. A week ago who would have thought to ques- tion the reliability and soundness of a mort- gage investment in Chicago real estate. Now, how apparent the truth that riches have wings. The disturbance of the great ocean of commerce and finance reached our Stock Exchange and _ precipitated a panic of considerable severity. The famed Western railways connecting with Chicago were plunged suddenly down tho acale of prices to figures which leave no doubt of enormous losses to the stockholders and to the speculative combinations who were build- ing castles on the prospective future of such investments, The wave has also reached London, and the cable announces great agita- tion both in the money market there and in the breadstuffs market at Liverpool, The uni- versal shock will doubtless render the Chicago fire the most momentous in the world’s record of important events. Sympatny For Cutoaco in LoNvoN.— As we said yesterday, the Chicago cala mity has exerted quite as much excitement and called forth as much sympathy in London as in New York. Subscription lists are opened in the various banking houses and money is being freely given. It will be the same in Liv- erpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Dablin, It will not be otherwise in Hamburg, in Berlin, ia Vienna, in Paris and St. Potoraburg. Wo cannot look unon this ia amv other light thea ’ ada fresh proof that Obristianity has gives birth to a common sympathy, aad that oar rapid means of communication are making the human family one. After a late and dosolat- ing war this evidence of brotherly love is con- soling. TT The Propesed Races fer the Queews Cap—The Decision ef the Now York Yacht Club, It is unfortunate that Mr, Ashbury should find himself involved in an epistolary con- troversy whenever he undertakes to make a match against American yachts. It is the more to be deplored at this time because the projected race for the possession of the Queen's Cop has been looked for- ward to by our citizens as an event of much interest, and both the New York Yaoht Club and the people generally have supposed that on the arrival of the Livo- nia nothing remained to be done exoept to name the vessel or vessels selected to compete with her for the coveted prize, to settle upoa the course, to arrange the necessary prelim- inaries and then to enter upon the contest, When the challenge of the owner of the Livonia was received, accompanied by certain conditions, the New York Yacht Club hastened to signify its readiness to meet the proposals and to accept the challenge, In this it was actuated as much by admiration of the spirit and enterprise displayed by Mr. Ashbury in his gallant endeavor to reverse the repeated defeats he suffered in our waters last year as by the dosire to afford -the yachtsmen of England at all times a fair chance to recover the prize honorably wrested from their whole splendid fleet by the America twenty years ago. It was, of course, understood that Mr, Ashbury was as familiar as any American yachtsman with the conditions of the trust un- der which the cup is held, with the rules an@ regulations of the New York Yacht Club, with the fact that centre-board boats are sailed in all our matches, the same as keel boats, and with all other matters that could in any way affect the contest he invited. Under these circumstances there was no sus- picion in the mind of any.member of the olub, or of any citizen who takes an interest in yachting matters, that a single point of con- troversy could be raised on either side in re- gard to the proposed international match, As, however, Mr. Ashbury has found room for some fourteen objections to the propositions or arrangements of the New York Yacht Club, it has been determined to make all the con- cessions that are deemed possible, rather thaa to suffer the contest to be suspended. It has, therefore, been decided to offer the Livonia six races, three over the regular club course and three over an outside course, twenty miles outside the lightship and return, with a seventh race over one of the above-named courses, to be decided by the committee, in the event of a tie, These six or seven races are expected to be sailed by Mr. Ashbury as the representative. of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club only, in which capacity his challenge was originally given and accepted, and the winner of the majority of races is to be determined the possessor of the cup, We still entertain the belief that Me. Ashbury will accept this fair and most equit- able proposition, and that he will not deny to the citizens of New York the pleasure of seeing his new and beautifal yacht perform her gallant task, or to himself the opportunity to again contend for the possession of the cup he has displayed such tlaudable ambition to secure. But should he insist upon declining the contest we shall appeal with all confidence to the yachtsmen of Eng- land for their judgment as to the fairness and liberality of the conditions offered to their countryman. Mr. Ashbury is, of course, at liberty to withdraw the chal- lenge he has given and to send the Livonia back ingloriously to British waters, without having even attempted to achieve the victory upon which be has reckoned. He may even go through the farce of sailing over the course and claiming the cup if he can possibly derive any gratification from so unprofitable an exhi. bition. But we are sure that he is precluded from complaining of any want of fairness or even of generosity on the part of the New York Yaoht Club, and that should he really persist in his refusal to sail the matches offered to bim his fellow yachtsmen on the other side of the Atlantic will regard such a termination of his present visit to New York as far more inglorious than an honorable defeat, Our Places of Amusement and ferers at Chicago. The places of public amusement in this city were probably never so well patroniged as they are at the present time, Why sbould not their managers come forward at once and donate at least one night's gross receipts te help the sufferers at Chicago? Dan Rice, with bis superb Pavilion Circus in Fourteenth street, is already in the field with a donation of the entire receipts on Friday night next, and no discount. Parepa-Rosa, with her gorgeous operatic troupe, gives the receipte on Saturday night next at the Academy of Music. The merry Fox, at the Olympic; Frank Mayo, at Niblo’s; Daly, at the Fifth Avenue; Lucille Westera, at Wood's Museum; Edith Wynne, of Dolby’s troupe; Butler, of the Union Square Theatre; the ever popular Florences, at the Grand Opera House; the angelic Moulton, at Steinway Hall; Tony Pastor, at his Bowery bijou ; the San Francisco Minstrels, Studley, at the Bowery; the immortal Wallack; the grand Wachtel, at the Stadt; Cordova, and, not last and not least, the great Charlotte Cush- man—why should they not all contribute ia their several measures to the relief of the stricken people of Chicago? Get up your benefits, Send the proceeds forthwith to the Mayor of Chicago. Let the good work go grandly on. Tuer Crurones oy THe City hare an opportunity to exercise their known gen- erosity and charity now in sending retief to Chicago. The great calamity offers a text for sermons of the greatest power, and we suggest to the great preachers of the city to improve upon it next Sunday. Let them bear in mind the admonition of charity to all, and while, appealing to their hearers to ald the work/ef relicf let them avoid the temptation that ‘may beset them to fling their frivolities in the face of the stricken people, Let them all take the Christian text, “Bear ve ope another’a hum 1 dens.” the Sa pa