The New York Herald Newspaper, July 1, 1872, Page 4

é INEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. All business or news letters and telegraphic @espatches must be addressed New Your Hiunay. Letters and packages should bo properly bealed. + Rejected communications will not be re- turned. protec X THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the jvear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. 4 The Eurorgan Eprrion, evory Wednesday, at Six RNTS per copy, $4 per annum to any part of Great ritain, or $6 to any part of the Continent, both to. Anciude postage. ‘ ADVERTISEMENTS, to a limited number, will be in- rted in the WEEKLY HeRaLp and the European ition. Volume XXXVIL —- s AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. \_ WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtlcth st.— {Wow Our. re THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway. ~Vantery Enten- aunwant—Twx SourH; on, AFTER THE WAR, | OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway.—Scanerpar: or, Tax -OLv Housx on tux Ruins, ! UNION SQUARE THEATRE, léth st. and Broadway.— nima Dona ov 4 Nicut. | WALLACK’S THRATRE, Broadway and Thirteonth “ptreot.—Tur Last Trump Cann. { BOWERY THEATRE, Bo .—-YANcgE Jace—Ma- pera. IANA EDWIN'S THEATRE, 72) Broadway.—Grorgia panatres, \ PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, Brooklyn.— Wocuoss tux Continent. (TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— ‘Be Ecounraicrrizs, BURLESQUE, &0. HOOLEY’S OPERA HOUSE, Brooklyn.—Marriep AFk—BOLON SHINGLE. \ ORNTRAL, PARK GARDEN.—Ganpe Insrnuaxntan oNuRT. « TERRACE GARD ton avs.—Sumaen E 41 PAVILION, No. 633 Broadway, near Fourth street.— DLapy Oxouxsra. | NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Brondway.— Pormnca anv Anz. , No. 745 Broadway.—Arr ax AHN'S MUSEU. WITH SUPPLEMENT. New York, Monday, July 1, 1872. onTENTs oF TO-DAY's HERALD. -AGR. | AR 2—The Broadwa; ert estiran Suicide of an Tnebyiate—Canght in the Trap—A Nice Father—Proceedings in the Boards of Alder- men and Assistant Aldermen—Advertise- ments. 3—The Unterrified Compromise: Preparations for the Democratic National Convention; Balti- more Getting its Best Side Out; Where the Great Powwow Will Be Held; Feeling in tie City; Talks and Walks There; Interviews with Maryland’s Hard-Shell Leaders; Greeley Not a Preference, but Accepted as a Neces- sity; Anything to Beat Grant—A Sanguinary Sunday: An Affray in Park Row; Three Men Shot Last Evening; A Sailor Stabs a Watch- man at Pier 40; Brooklyn's Contribution to the Murder Manta; Minor Accidents and In- oidents—A Sunny Sunday—Sunday in Central Park—New York City Items—Music and the Drama—Brooklyn Affairs, GQ—nditorials: Leading Article, “The Washington Treaty Settling the Direct Claims—The San Juan Boundary Question "—Amusement An- houncements. 5—Kditorial (Continued from Fourth Page)—The Washington Treaty—Miss Nellie Grant's Tour. scial Telegram from Spain—News from Washington—Peter the Great: Magnifi- cent Celebration of the Emperor-Carpenter’s Anniversary—Weather Report—Miscellaneous Telegrapli—Business Notices. $—The Political Crisis in Spain: A General Re- view of the Situation and the Perils of the Amadeus Dynasty; The King and His Ad- visers; The Rise and Fall of the Se:rano Cubinet; A Ministry of Ten Days; Serrano’s Interview with the Monarch; Amadeus As- sumes the Sceptre; The Past and Present of the Spanish Nation and the Dangers of the Future—Kacing in et The Ascot Meet- ing—The Strikes. London Builders’ Lock-Out—The Jersey City Frauds, T—Advertisements, 8—Religious: Piety and Perspirarion; Pulpit Pol mics Propounded by Popular P: hers; fessor Everett and the Old Religion Free Religious Conference and the Qu of Capital and Labor; Frothingham’s well; A Boston Divine at All Souis’ | Taiks to Ambitious Amazons; Henry Wa Beecher on “Let Us Have F The Rev. e- ‘O- John Wall in the Bowery; Dr. Partridge on Christianity as a Soures of Joy; Dr. Witw's | Virst Sermon; Ordination of Déacons at the Church of the Transfiguration; Short Services ‘gt the Catholic Churches, 9—ieligious (Continued nm Ninth Page) —Finan- cial and Comm: Waning Activity of the Markets; The Summer Season and Its Pros- ects in'Trade and Finance; Speculation and he Turf; Goldsmith Maid and the gold made; The Gold Movement and the Exports; The July Interest and the Conference; The Drift of the Money M ; ‘The Dividend on Lake Shore—“tie Public Wasn"—Sic Transit—Court Calendars—Mar- riages and Deaths. 30—Sing Sing: A Visit to the Hudson River Thief Manufactory and Normai College of Convicts; Discharged Prisoners and Their 5 A Coney Island Gambler's Farms of Long Island—Dr, Livingstone a sey Rail Slaughters—Shipping Intelligence— Advertisements, Tue Fann Expzprrion 10 Cura is reported bo have landed safely on the island her arms, ammunition and reinforcements. A despatch from Madrid, however, denies, on the part of the Ministry, that any expedition has landed. The first report is not very well confirmed, and the denial is too general to be worth tuuch more. Tae Porrricat Crssis 1x Spary.—On another page this morning we print an interesting let- ter from the Hersiy’s corresjeeident in Ma- arid. It reviews the political situation as it exists to-day in that faction-torn country. Beginning with the coming of the young Bavoyard on the invitation of Prim, we have w clear and concise review of the changes which have taken place since Amadeus as- cended the Spanish throne. Between incapa- ble and faithless ministers, conspiring parties, discontented factions, jealous demagogues and ambitious aspirants for place and power, the young monarch has need of all the character- istic coolness, decision and resolution with which he is accredited. Without one man of power in the whole kingdom upon whom he can safely and fearlessly rely, his efforts to according to the constitution he swore to have sadly failed. The prospects of the future are no more hopeful, and King Amadeus’ energy and intentions may go for mought when weighed in scales against the machinations of the parties who are driving Bpain to her destruction. Peren tHe Great's ANNIvERSARY was cele- {brated with great rejoicing in St. Petersburg. or mouths past preparations have been going ‘on to render it in some degree worthy of the great fame of the Carpenter-Emperor. In ‘another column the Hxrary’s St. Petersburg ‘correspondent describes the festivities, in wh ich tho Czar and his Court took a prominent part, WEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, JULY 1, 1872—WITH SUPPLEMENT, The Washington Treaty—Settling Direct Claims—The San Juan Bound- ary Question. The indirect claims having been suc- cessfully thrown out of court at the request of the administration responsible for their intro- duction, the arbitrators at Geneva will proceed, on their reassemblage on the 16th inst., to consider the direct claims. By the Husnaup’s special despatch from Geneva woe are given an inkling of the mode in which that body will proceed to deal with the question of losses growing out of the acts of the various English pirates. The ves- sels will be taken up seriatim, and the re- sponsibility of England for the paternity of each will be considered. Their decisions on those points will clear the way for coming down to the question of damages. It may safely be presumed, if there is any truth in the stories of tons upon tons of documentary evidence already laid before the Court by both | sides, the arbitrators will not have much further to ask from either side in deter- mining the ‘question of England's responsibility or otherwise. According to this view of the modus operandi we may anticipate a little, and suppose that the five wise men havo declared England responsible for all or a certain num- ber of the ‘‘ escaped’’ cruisers, We leave out of the supposition the idea that tho Court may declare England irresponsible for any of them, since, although that would end a troublesome question, it would spoil calculations on the question of damages altogether. Having, then, declared Great Brit- ain guilty of gross neglect, the arbitrators will confer freely with the counsel on either side and endeavor to get an idea from them about how much would be a fair sum for each cruiser’s deviltry. Should the opposing coun- sel not differ too widely in this estimate tho five peacemakers will strike an equitable mean and then separate with three cheers and atiger by Mr. Adams. The chances, we need hardly say, are that tho difference of estimate will be very wide, for England has shown so much more sensitiveness about the pocket- nerve than in that which loosened her tongue to make a treaty apology for her negligence that we may assume her present spokesmen will think America should be satisfied with one farthing damages. This in England, you know, is a _ perfect salve for wounded honor, and it has the additional beauty of not carrying the costs. America certainly throughout has not cared a fig about the money question in the matter, but “the authorities’’ have so misrepresented her in this that if an extravagant estimate be within the reach of computation it would not sur- prise us to learn it had been made. The divergence of counsels’ views being then enormous, the arbitrators, like prudent men anxious to return home, will commit the case of each vessel to the Board of Assessors, before whom they will be distributed in fine particles with a completeness known to those familiar with the theory of the re- fraction of light. The endeavor to caleu- late the final award after this process is completed will equal the fruitless endeavor of setting up Humpty Dumpty after he fell off the wall; all the Queen’s horses and all Grant's men could not do it. In view of this “satisfactory settlement’ the adoption of the farthing damages might be preferred ; the result nationally would bo about tho same, But there are other questions under the treaty which are now in a fair way for sottle- ment. Among tbgse isa decision on the disputas boundary between Vancouver's Island and the main land. The settlement of the Northwest boundary line was provided for by the Treaty of Washington, and the Emperor of Germany was made the arbitrator. All the provisions for this arbitration are clearly and explicitly expressed in the articles from thirty-four to forty-two of that treaty. It would have been well if the rest of that instrument had been as unambiguous and as free from disputation as | these portions of it. The claims of each of the two governments of Great Britain | and the United States are clearly set forth, the evidence in support of them was to be fur- nished in a prescribed manner and time, then the whole matter was to be left in the hands of the imperial arbitrator, and his decision was to be final and binding. There are few of our readers who are not familiar with this disputed boundary ques- tion, and few that do not remember the threat- ening trouble between the two countries some years ago, when the troops of both took and held joint possession of the Island of San Juan, lying between Vancouver's Island and the Continent. The question is stated thus in the Treaty of Washington: —‘‘Wherens it was stipulated by article one of the treaty con- cluded at Washington on the 15th of June, 1846, between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty, that the line of boundary between the territory of the United States and those of Her Britannic Majesty, from the point of the forty-ninth parallel of north lati- tude, up to which it had already been ascer- tained, should be continued westward along the said parallel of north latitude to the middle of the channel which separates the Continent from Vancouver's Island, and thence southerly along the middle of said channel, and ‘of Fuca Strait to the Pacific Ocean;’ and whereas the commissioners ap- pointed by the two high contracting parties to determine that portion of the boundary which runs southerly through the middle of the channel aforesaid were unable to agree upon the same; and whereas the gov- ernment of Her Britannic Majesty claims that such boundary line should, under the terms of the treaty above recited, be run through the Rosaria Straits, and the government of the United States claims that it should be run through the Canal de Haro, it is agreed that the respective claims of the government of Her Britannic Majesty and of the United States shall be submitted to the arbitration and award of His Majesty the Emperor of Ger- many, who, having regard to the above-men- tioned article of the said treaty, shall decide thereupon finally and without appeal which of those claims is most in accordance with the true interpretation of the treaty of June 15, 1846.’' The following article goes on to say that the award of the Emperor of Germany clusive, and full effect shall be given to the award, without any objection, evasion or delay whatsoever. The rest of tho articles on this matter prescribe the mode of proceeding in furnishing evidence and so forth, and conclude by stating that the arbitrator shall be requested shall be considered as absolutely final and con- | to give his award in writing as carly as conve- niont. The separate claims to any territory, whether held by joint occupation pending the dispute, or whether no authority is exercised over such territory by either of the governments claiming it, are always liable to bring about a serious rupture. This is partioularly the case with re- gard to the Island of San Juan. Both our own citizens and the British are high-spirited, pug- nacious and not disposed to yield an inch when they think they have right on their side. The governments may be desirous of preventing trouble, but might not be able at all times and under exciting circumstances to restrain the people in that remote part of their territories. We really approached the verge of war at one time at that disputed point. At the period General Harney commanded there the diffi- culty had a vory serious aspect, for both the Americans and British were resolved to occupy San Juan, Though the matter was arranged tem- porarily by the joint occupancy of the island of San Juan, the north end being held by the British and the south ond by the Americans, the two being about fifteen miles apart, and though there has been no great danger sinoe, theold feud might break out again at any timo if there should be a suspension of friendly relations betwoen England and the United States, or even through some local difficulty springing up between the American and British sottlers in that part of the world. It is a state of things always more or less dangerous. The two governments recognized this fact when the Washington Treaty was framed, and wisely provided for a settlement. The fishery dispute by tho provisions of the treaty is likewise to be submit- ted to the arbitration of a foreign Power in the event of the Commissioners of Groat Britain and the United States not being able to agree. Tho arbitrator in this matter is to be one appointed by the Emperor of Austria, and the award he may make is to be binding. This is on the ques- tion of a money award for certain fishing privileges or concessions. As for the rest, rogarding both the fisheries and tho navi- gation of the St. Lawrence and lakes, upon which the two governments have agreed or have prepared tho way for adjustment, there need now be no delay. Préace Bismarck, it is stated, will, on behalf of Kafser Wilhelm, refer the San Juan boundary matter to distin- guished international lawyers for a decision. It was announced some time since that the stout old Emperor was ready with his de- cision; but it is not improbable that the head of tho House of Hohenzollern found himself more puzzled over the legal foggery of the arguments pro and con. than he did over the late French campaign, and so turned the affrighting arbitration over to the lawyers. Of all sovereigns he is per- haps the last to be influenced by outside mo- tives in his decisions; but the internal difficulties of tho difference between the Haro Canal and Rosaria Straits, when magnified by lawyers’ technicalities, would be enough to unnerve for arbitrating penmanship such a practical hand at the sword. We are to have settlements in all directions, but the one most to be longed for at present is the ar- rival of the period when the muddled Treaty of Washington is stowed away in a strong box at the State Department and labelled ‘‘At- tended to."’ Spain and Cuba—Valmaseda’s Resig- nation. Captain General Valmaseda has resigned, and his resignation has been accepted by the King of Spain. For the present the office of Captain General will be filled by General Ceballos; but our special correspondent, whose fespatch appeared in the Heraxp yesterday, gives us to understand that the post is to be kept open for General Cordoba, the present Chief of the War Department in Spain. It cannot but be pleasing to all who take any in- terest in the affhirs of Cuba to know that the inhuman rule of Valmaseda is ended. It would seem as if Zorrilla were determined to pacify the colonies, and, if possible, secure their continued allegiance to the Spanish throne, for simultaneously with the announce- ment of the acceptance by the Crown of the resignation of Valmaseda we learn that the Captain General of Porto Rico has been recalled and that General Latorre, an advanced liberal, has been named in his place, It is also stated that the government intends to introduce important measures for the relief of the Spanish Bank in Havana, and that the notes of that bank shall in future be accepted as legal tender for the payment of government dues. All this is very well. We cannot blame Spain for doing her best to pacify the colonies and to retain possession of them if she can. We are afraid, however, that these reform measures come too late. It does not seem possible that Cuba can ever be reconciled to the continued domination of Spain. Cuba wants independence, not a mere change of Spanish rulers, The Cubans are sick of Spanish misrule, and it will not be at all wonderful if, in the multiplying domestic miseries of Spain, the Cubans should find themselves strong enough to shake off the hated yoke. We know no good reason why a people who cannot govern themselves should be allowed to hold in bondage the inhabitants of the finest island in this Western World. The Plaint of the Red Men, The General Council of Indians in the I. dian Territory have sent a memorial to the President of the United States, in which they earnestly protest against being interfered with, in the face of the most stringent treaties, in the possession of their lands by those unseru- pulous land grants, which have of late become so notorious in Congress, The petition is couched in very strong and logical terms, and recapitulates the sufferings of the red men from the time they were driven from their homes east of the Mississippi River and trans- ferred to a wild country, which they have since reclaimed, and in which they have made great strides in civilization. Schools have been built, farms laid out and churches established, and although the — terrible civil war made sad havoo with the Indian country, yet they faithfully ad- hered to their obligations in the many treaties entered into between them and the govern- ment at Washington. But now they are in danger of losing all their hard earned posses- sions by those infamous land grabbers, who wish to devour the entire West and South by | their insatiable ravacity. No wonder that these red men complain when a spoliation of no less than twenty-four million acres of their lands is contemplated. It would be absurd for them to object to the introduction of a railroad and telegraph into their Territory, as these are among the chief promoters of modern Progress. But they justly object to being despoiled of their lands, under the color of railroad grants, and being placed under the yoke of a set of harpies. It is a direct violation of all existing treaties be- tween them and the government. They have done everything that lay in thelr power to fulfil their share of the obligations of the treaties, and it is but right that they should demand the same from our government. Treachery towards them now, when honestly striving to become useful and peaceable mem- bers of society, is no less inhuman than the policy of annihilating the entire race by fire and sword. We can hardly blame the vindic- tiveness of the savages on the Plains when we consider that their civilized brethren are out- raged and persecuted in a similar manner in the settlements assigned them by the govern- ment. President Grant should look into this matter seriously, for upon it great results de- pend. Our Amorican Colloge Commencoments— The Skyrocket Educational System. With the last woek in June our American colleges and universities go through that annual display which is oddly called the “commencement."’ It is the period which marks the onding of the collegiate career for a certain number of young men who graduate. With an elaborate diploma, printed on thick parchment and neatly tied up with bright-col- ored ribbon, a certain modicum of classics, science, theology and calisthenics, high hopes and rosy well-wishings, the gentlemen of the class of '72 betako themselves to their homes, whence they will soon be called to put their faculties toa class of work totally different from the curriculum of their Alma Mater. It is rather our desire to look at the adaptability of the course of studies to the future of the young mea than to take uny on tho inflation and unreality which are glossed over amid the wild fever of commence- ments. With even tho most solid of our higher educational establishments there is a tendency to fanfaronade at this sending-off period, which Seemg conceived on the rocket principle— namely, that the up-rush of the spark-flinging education must have its report high in the air, followed by a shower of ephemeral stars—a pyrotechnic eye-catching effect, which, out of respect for the short-lived asteroids themselves and the respectable old dons who manage the fireworks, we refrain from calling clap-trap. It is a concession to smiling mammas, delighted sisters and admiring cousins, from whose bright-eyed pleasure it is not in our hearts to detract an iota. It makes one forget the fate of the rocket stick that goes plunging into the darkness. But the rocket stick will turn up again somewhere, and its value, or the reverse, asa staff through life will become apparent sooner than the young A. B. imagines as he packs his trunk. This brings us, currente calamo, to our sub- ject of the fitness of the education which the children of the comparatively well-to-do re- ceive in theso institutions. At the outset we may say that inan alarmingly large proportion of cases it is the essence of uselessness. We do not believe that knowledge is a }urden in any branch, and record our acceptance of the axiom that ‘knowledge is power’’ to meet the objections of sensitive gownsmen, who look on all attempted restrictions of the educational course as heresy to human advancement. Neither do we believe that a system of educa- tion can be projected which will be so perfect in its details—morally, physically and men- tally—as to form a specific for every youth whose parents can pay for the process. We are re- minded of Rousseau’s cynical retort to a gen- tleman who introduced his son to the humani- tarian, saying that the boy had been reared on the plan laid down by the author in ‘“Emil’’— “So much the worse for your son and yourself.”” The perfection of the system, we opine, de- pends loss on its propensity to drawing rigid lines inside which all students must progress or fail utterly than on the possession of a cer- tain elasticity of compass which will admit of fostering the bents of talent which are sure to display themselves, and developing them vig- orously, even at the expense of some of the branches which are euphuistically called those of ‘‘polite education.”” Boys are trained in these institutions a good deal too much on the plan of fitting them for college profes- sorships, which might be very well if even that was thoroughly done. We might at least count on a reserve of dons who could jump into the breach of ignorance, Xenophon in hand; but we know that such a remote con- tingency as their being wanted for that occu- pation would find ninety-five in a hundred sadly in want of a lexicon. How this idea of don manufacture obtained is ‘easily ascer- tained. It dates from the far-off time when learning had only that object, when the polish of the universities shone out isolated amid the dense masses of ignorance around them. The self-conceit which then made the college boun- dary the limits of a perfect microcosm has not been lost even in our day, and there is noth- ing so humanly natural as a benign professor's idea of inducing all his class to shape them- selves mentally after himself. The innocent professor will possibly not discover his mis- take even when he finds that he is personally the most unfit man in the world to get along outside of the college campus. Our heads of colleges are especially fond of pointing to foreign seats of learning, particu- larly the English, for justification. A mo- ment’s examination will furnish the failure of the parallel. The English universities are thronged with the scions of the privileged classes, to whom the following of the curriculum isa mere formula, If the student has an apti- tude for classics and the higher mathematics well and good. He will in his easy after-life be able to quote Horace and Homer at public dinners or in Parliament, and he may turn his mathematics to some fancy application, or use algebra and decimals upon criticisms of county agricultural statistics. If he fails to become a classical or mathematical scholar he will never be likely to feel the loss of either. The triamphs of the system will always be found under the square hat of a fellow, the gray hairs of a wealthy savant at some royal | society or tho irreproachable lawn of a bishop. The bar, the medical and other professions, where they are fed from Oxford or Cambridge, give evidence of the success of the system in @ vory limited degree. It is seen more in the disquisition man when he is unprofessional. In other words, it is a costly sheen which absorbed years in its acquirement and did little more than furnish a distaste for the hard work which he had to undergo to fit him for the actu- alities of life, For the youth of a broad, rich young land like ours, with its resources on every side in- viting brawn and brain to develop them, this plan is eminently unsuitable. We want, in a few words, directness in education. Cultivate as highly as you can in the particular practi- cal branch for which the American student exhibits aptitude ; leave out the ornamental altogether where it can only serve as a fretful distractor. All this, of course, we would have grounded on a plain, sound education. Here, however, is the rock whereon your old- fashioned dons are shipwrecked. They will stickle for this and for that as necessary parts ofa plain education, until between them they present as crotchety a piece of construction as the coat of Joseph, a Dolly Varden polonaise or the Committee of Seventy's charter. With the exception of those dostined for the Church, the bar and the medical profession, it is mostly waste ground, which may become a dim field for reflection and faint classical allusion in after life, In the last two professions men- tioned this education, as in England, while furnishing a good foothold for future study, often leads to a foolish estimate of the student's ability and a neglect the now media for hid Sidceds in the line he has chosen, This, of course, arises more from the morale of college life than from the education itself. To the votaries of classical education we have only one word—that where it is undertaken it should be done thoroughly and with a practical object. The professions to which classics are essentials are well marked, and unless the youth places one or other of these in his future a handsaw would be of more service than Herodotus. In delivering these remarks upon the work- ings of our higher educational institutions we do not wish to undervalue the great good they are achieving. Qoytrgs of learning are giow- ing in importance and wealth among us. The flower of our youth pass years within their walls which will be looked back to in such seasons as the present with pleasure and grati- tude, They have left their writing in the lives of the best and greatest men of tho republic, and the alumni meetings of the principal ones gather together increasing numbers of brilliant, successful and talented men. This is much to be proud of, but we are anxious formore. ‘The mediocrities do not count in these gatherings; the failures are only whispered among class- mates. The safe mediocrities we cannot help, but the failures can be marvelously lessened by a timely reform. This lies in an Ameri- canization of the system—something that di- rects the brain and ‘the. energies directly to solid lifework, which should begin practically within the walls, and not be left to take shape fortuitously afterwards. To return to our pyrotechnic simile, we should have fewor broken rocket sticks, if even we had less fire- work stars, Organized Robbery on the Street Cars. The arrest of John G. McLean, a conductor on the Third avenue line of cars, charged with robbing a drunken passenger of his watch, may call public attention to a class of robbery which cries for correction. How this conduc- tor, who, we trust, is not a sample of his fel- lows, will explain the possession of three time- keepers on being searched at the station house, we leave to the law and himself. The car reg- ulations may be strict, but he hardly wanted so many watches to run his car on time. Many are the risks which the citizen takes when he walks along the streets after nightfall. The bludgeon, slungshot, knife or pistol in the hands of ruffians each furnishes its ele- ment of fear; but there is a class of outrage successfully and continually practised in the street cars which seldom reaches the public ear through the press. We refer to the organized system of robbery which places the city travel- ler completely at the mercy of the thief. The present immunity which these rufflans enjoy from capture explains in a great measure the want of public attention to the matter. It is not done on the simple plan of the Artful Dodger, who picks a pocket and takes his chance to get away; it is an organization, which, for the moment of its operation, is as potent as the pistol of the highwayman on Hounslow Heath in the old mail coach days, | or as the Apaches or Arapahoes in Arizona or New Mexico at present. The operation is per- formed as follows:—The gang, to the number of six or eight, jump on a tolerably crowded car—some on the front, the others on the rear platform. They | then proceed, according to their phrase, to “‘work’’ the car. Those on the front platform remain there, if the car is very crowded; those on the rear platform never enter the car, but remain crowded around the door. Now follows the ‘‘operation.”’ If the car is pretty full inside, with several people standing, the thieves from the front enter the car, and, jostling each other against the passengers, ‘go through’ such as have anything valuable in sight. The articles thus abstracted immediately disappear with the thief, who rushes out at the rear door, a passage being made for him by his fellow thieves. Should the passenger who has been robbed discover his loss he finds that the car will have runa block or two before he can force his way through the gang at the door. Pursuit then is, of course, hopeless. But the “operations’’ do not end here. An old gentle- man getting on the car finds that the way into the car is blocked, and the thieves deliberately “go through’ him. The conductor meanwhile looks on, absolutely afraid to interfere, even if he desired to do s0. Passengers wishing to alight are served in the same way as the old gentleman, until the gang think they | have done well enough, or mayhap stumble against a stout subject, with well-developed biceps and a revolver. In either case they retire as quickly as possible, as they ride only | for business. It is a mistake, however, to think that these miscreants run on the slight- est approach of danger. They calculate every chance and always go armed, and will join a rifled passenger in deprecation while they rob the next man to him. It may be innocently asked, Where aro the police? and call for a policeman would be just as futile as ranning after the thief. But tho de- tectives, where are they? It might not be fair to say that, they aro lounging at those hours around barrooms, hobvobbing with gamblers and tho like, but it might bo true, To stop a car | visitations of these gangs. Such as connec with railway termini—os, for instance, the Fourth avenue and Third avenue Contral depot lines—are their favorite resorts. The sleepy downtown-bound passengers, just alighted from the country night trains, are their hearts’ delight. In this manner a thou- sand dollars’ worth of property is often takem from a single car, and not one theft in a hum- dred is detected in time, and not one in five hundred ever brings punishment to the thief. If the conductor is asked why he permits them on the car, he will sometimes reply that he has enough to do to collect his fares, and will add in an undertone that they might ‘lay for him’* if he ‘‘squealed."’ This tells the whole story of terrorism exercised by these prowlers. They are well known to the car conductors, and par- ticularly well known to the police; but no effort is made in any direction to check the outrageous system, Notwithstanding the case of McLean, wa have left out of consideration the possible col- lusion of the conductors with the thieves. As a class‘they number many respectable ment among them. The case we refer to never- theless points a view of the matter which would furnish material for inquiry and observation. But two alternatives re- main: either passengers tnust go armed and defend their property, as they would on the Plains, with the bullét, or the detective force must arrest these gangs and have them sent to the Popitentiory ag confirmed vagabonda, | an enduring impression. ed From the present napect of affairs it would require a regular force to be applied to this service alone, and it should be attended to at any cost, for a man loses no claim that we know of on the. State for protection by riding in a streot car. We do not wish to encourage the general carrying of deadly weapons by the citizen, but if the law gives him no shelter against the armed thief he must, in very self-defence, go armed also, It looks too much like a back- ward stop in civilization to advocate the cap-a- pie armament of everybody, and we trust the » : o2 unheeded. It is a mistaken idea that the city saves anything by being cheaply policed. The thief and the outlaw are the first to discover it, and the honest man only finds it out when he is robbed and maimed ; society gradually’ perceives it if the man is killed. We have en- tered into these details of this system of rob- bery that people may be put on their guard ; correction of the abuse will lie in the hands of the authorities. With a force making this their specialty the disgraceful blot would be soon remedied, for one determined officer is more than enough for any gang of thieves, if the officer only knows his men. malian iti HT tha woarnt Police authorities will not let {hs worniog Sammer Jottings in the Churches. Yesterday was a day to try the religious en- durance of church people, and considering the oppressiveness of the weather it must be confessed that preachers and people did well and bore it nobly. Some of the ministers uttered their valedictories and bade adieu to their congregations until the fall. Others gave their hearers something to think about daring their summer vacations, and altogether our budget of sermons to-day is fresher and more attractive than some that we have printed be- fore the thermometer ran up to the nineties. Professor Everett, of Cambridge, Mass., in- structed the Church of the Messinh touching denomiuationalism, and, comparing and con- trasting the several forms of Christianity and heathenism, it seemed to many persons that there is little or no difference between them, and that one is as good as another. Itis hard to tell who is right and who is wrong. There may be a truth somewhere, but we must wait for its de- velopment. The preacher drew a very nice and proper distinction between religion and theology. While the former, like the air we breathe, is ever and everywhere the same, the latter, like the atmosphere, is always changing. It differs in one region from another and in one day from another. Theology, like the atmosphere, takes up everything—vapor from the sea, malaria from the swamps, sweetness from flowers and corruption from decay. It takes up the prejudices and imperfections of our lower life. Theology, like the atmosphere, may breed even death; religion, like the air, can bring only life. The unity of religion, the reverend Professor thought, is evidenced in the indices to the hymn books, wherein may be found songs by men of all creeds and orders of belief. In theology they would disagree, but in religion they would unite. And thas, in prayer and praise, all religious souls can go together. Many and sad indeed are the mistakes that men make for lack of knowing what their mis- sion in life is. Mr. Frothingham endeavored, in his parting words yesterday, to show his con- gregation that the aim of every man.in this life is happiness. Some seek it by wealth, luxury, pleasure, and others by faith, The aim of a religious life is not wholly for happi- ness. This idea was more fully elucidated by illustrations from natural history and philoso- phy, and it was shown that the fundamental idea of communism, which is pure selfishness, is directly opposed to the Christian religion. Mr. Frothingham wound up his discourse with a sneer at the religious and benevolent institu- tions of the age and the people who lead them. This is, perhaps, allowable in a man who rarely misses an opportunity to rail at religion and to set Jesus Christ below Socrates or Con-. fucius, To keep up the semblance of a Chris tian minister, however, it is necessary some-~ times to say a favorable thing about Chris- tianity or to pass it by in silence. His late lecture on the workingmen’s strikes was an~ swered yesterday, in Masonie Hall, by Mr Leavitt. Sterling character, like sterling gold, never loses its value, but is always above par, and hence it was a very fitting theme for a Sunday discourse, and Rev. E. E. Hale, of Boston, took it up and handled it yédterday for the benefit of All Souls’ church. Speak- ing of the elements of character, Mr, Hale re- marked thas even now we find fools in the pul-. pit, and talkers elsewhere who give greater consideration to brilianey in speech than to merit in the thought expressed. Such men fail in the end and are soon forgotten, aa were so many of our officials, simply because. they had not mental weight enough to leave ‘ Such men, he said,, were always working around for recommenda.’ tions from others, simply because they had not sufficient steadfastnesa of character of their own to command oith+r enduring attention ot favor, This is sevore, but tras. All the principal city lings are sulicot to the a Tho feature -vesiorday in the Lpisoopal NN a