The New York Herald Newspaper, November 11, 1872, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. —-—— JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. -_ THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the yeat, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12. Volame XXXVIL.......ccccesesseseree NOs S16 AMUSEMENTS THI THIS EVENING, OOTH'S THEATRI Twenty. third street, corner Sixth avenue. —Kerny—Jussix Brown, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Counterrsit; on, Troe ann Fause, GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st, and Eighth av.—Ror Canorre. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadway, between Thir- teenth and Fourteenth streets.—AGNEs. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway. between Houston and Bleecker sts.—ALADDIN THE SECOND, FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— Tux Inconstanr. ACADEMY OF MUSIC. Fourteenth street.—Itauian PERA—MARRIAGE OF FIGARO. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broad ‘Burravo But, Atternoon and rondway. corner Thirtieth st.— vening. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway ana Thirteenth street.—Our Ammnican Cows ofetaten COMIQUE, 51 oe ¢ Broadway.—Atappiw No. NR \. MRS. PF. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— { \,, BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Montague st.— /SRanv Concent, ‘ BRYANTS OPERA HOUSE. Twenty-third st.. corner 6th av.—NeGno Minstaxisy Eccuntuiciry, &c. 718 BROADWAY, EMEBSON’S MINSTRELS.—Gnraxp Enmortay Eccenthiciries, WHITE'S ATHENSUM, 585 Broadway.—Necno Mux. ernetsy, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA MORES; No. 201 Bowery,— ,Gmanp Variety ENTERTAINMENT, &C. \_ SAN FRANCISCO MINST! , St. James Theatre, corner of 28th st. and Broadwa' ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELSY. \_ STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth st. LECTURE, “Sma )Our Fuac Protect Our Citizens Anroap.” *BAILEY'S ‘GREAT CIRCUS AND MENAGERIE, foot ot Houston street, East River. AMERICAN INSTITUTE FAIR, Third ay., between 634 ‘and 64th streets. TRIPLE SHEET. bey Yerk, Monday, Nov. 11, 1872. ‘THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. — 'To-Day’s Contents of the Elerald. = “THE TERRIBLE VISITATION AT BOSTON! AN ERA OF GREAT CALAMITIES!"—LEADING EDITORIAL ARTICLE—SixTu PAGE. BOSTON'S TERRIBLE AFFLICFION! $250,000,000 LOSS! SEVENTEEN HOURS’ REIGN OF FLAMES TWO HUNDRED ACRES IN AREA! POWDER AS A SAFEGUARD! FIREMEN AND CITIZENS CRAZED AND POWERLESS! THIEVES OPERATING! THE UNIVERSAL SYMPATHY—Turrp, FocurtH AND TENTH PaGEs. MAP OF THE LOCALITY OF THE BOSTON FIRE— THIRD PaGE. RECEPTION OF THE TIDINGS FROM BOSTON AM ALL CLASSES! PAST AND P! EN LOSSES OF NEW YORK MER- CANTS: A. TT. STEWART AND THE PLYMOUTH PASTOR ON THE DISASTER: THE INSURANCE PEOPLE—Fourtu anp Firra PaGEs. PREPARING FOR THE MORROW! FLURRY AMONG BANKERS AND BROKERS AT THE FIFTH AVENUE 'CHANGE: GOLD AGAIN ADVANCES: GOVERNMENT HELP—THE HORSE DISEASE—Nixtn Pace. ANOTHER BIG FIRE RAGING IN LONDON !—FIRE- MEN UNABLE TO CHECK IT! HEAVY LOSS—SEVENTH PaGE. THE LORD MAYOR’S BANQUET! COMPLIMENT- ING THE AMERICAN UNION: GRANVILLE ON THE ANGLO-AMERICAN ARBITRA- TIONS—SEVENTH PGE. QUARANTINE PRECAUTIONS AGAINST CHOL- ERA—PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS—MARINE INTELLIGENCE—S&VENTH PaGE. CONSECRATING A CEMETERY FOR THE STRAN- GER “BRETHREN OF THE MYSTIC TIE: IMPOSING MASONIC CEREMONIES—SEVENTH Pace. RELIGIOUS DISCOURSES IN NEW YORK, BROOK- LYN AND NEW JERSEY CHURCHES: AID FOR BOSTON—ANNIVERSARY OF ST. LUKE’S HOSPITAL—ErGutn Pace. Dzsrnvctive Fire 1x Lonpox.—A cable telegram from London brings news of the prigin and progress of a very destructive fire in the British metropolis. Flames burst forth from the building known as the City Flour Mills, situated in Thames street, during the night of Saturday, and spread with such alarming rapidity that the entire premises, with the more immediate manufacturing sur- youndings, were laid in ruins at an early hour in the morning yesterday. The entire force of the London City Fire Brigade, a most efficient and excellently disciplined body, was at work at the scene of disaster at the moment when the Henatp despatch was forwarded—a fact which, even standing alone, proves the serious nature of the occasion. The actual losses already incurred were of a very heavy amount, and we have not yet received intelligence that the flames had been completely extinguished in the neighborhood of the point of first ap- pearance. The Trade in Constantinople. On Wednesday last, according to one of our latest despatches from Europe, an English steamer arrived at Constantinople from Malta, having on board twenty slaves. It is well known that a brisk slave trade is carried on between Tripoli and Constantinople by way of Malta. That such trade is possible in Europe at this late age of the world’s history is sim- ply disgraceful. It is especially dishonoring to England, which has for so many years made such an outery against slavery, that her merchants and shipowners should still make money out of the inhuman traffic. We cannot blame the British government for this par- ticular offence. But the British government (Will not be regarded as guiltless by the general public if this case is not fully inquired into, and if the offenders are not promptly punished. Considering the excitement which has been produced by the Stanley-Livingstone Cortespondence and the recent action taken by the British government to effectually put down the African slave trade, we are entitled to expecta full exposure of this case, And if the importation of slaves from Africa is necessary to the social life of Turkey the sooner the Tarks pack up and recross the Bosphorus the better for themselves, The patience of the pivilized nations is exhausted, and the foul Plot of slavery must be wiped out finally and forever. It is as disgusting in Turkey and Paypt as jt is in Onba Slave Tne Terrible Visitation at Boston—An Era of Groat Calamities. In the fearful and destructive conflagration that has been raging in the city of Boston for the past thirty-six hours reflecting people will recognize one of those overwhelming calami- ties which seem to be from time to time visited upon the world in order to humble our pride of power and. to set visibly before our eyes the weakness and dependence of mankind. Since alittle after seven o'clock on last Saturday evening up to this morning an agent, not of mortal creation and beyond mortal control, has been at work in the heart of our sister city, destroying in a fow hours property and wealth which have taken more than half a century of toil and care to accumulate, crumbling into dust massive buildipga that seemed to bid defiance to the ravages of time, burning to ashes and scattering to the winds with fearful rapidity enormous stores of goods, which have cost years of patient skill to perfect and months of steady labor to manufacture. As announced in yesterday's Henatp, when the alarm of fire was first founded in Boston on Saturday evening the flames were discovered in the back part of a large granite building on the corner of Sum- mer and Kingston streets. Doubtless the fire- men and the lookers-on, when first called to the scene, regarded the fire as one of ordinary character that would easily be made to yield to the skill and prowess of the brigade; but the resistless element went rushing and roaring through the spacious building, bursting through floor after floor, until it reached the high Mansard roof, from which it shot out with terrific violence, casting its rain of sparks over the lower buildings all around it. Mean- while the flames darted their angry tongues through the windows in tho front and rear of tho several stories, driving the firemen from their posts and stretching out across the streets to lick up new victims on the opposite sides. As if purposely to aid the flames, the wind rose steadily as they spread until it had in- creased to a gale, and then the destroyer rushed onward over every obstacle, defying all the efforts of man to check its fearful progress and spreading horror and consterna- tion all over the city. The details of the terri- ble night and day, the account of the de- struction, the scenes enacted while the fire raged, the district burned over, the names of the sufferers and other news of interest con- nected with the conflagration up to the latest hour will be learned from our graphic reports and the map that accompanies them. They do not need recapitulation here. The extent of the calamity is told in a few words. Over two hundred acres of ground in the centre of that part of the city devoted to wholesale busi- ness and on Saturday covered with thousands of buildings as handsome as could be found in any other city of the Union is to-day a mass of smouldering ruins. Two hundred and fifty million dollars worth of property has been wiped out of existence in one day and night. How puny seem all the efforts of man and how unreliable his calculations in the face of such a lesson as these few words convey ! It is only a little over a year ago since the world was startled by the news of the terrible fire that devastated Chicago and spread suffer- ing and destitution among so many thousands of her citizens, When we reflect upon these two destructive conflagrations and upon the many wholesale slaughters by land and sea that stand as grim sentinels along the line be- tween them, we may well believe that we live in an era of heavy visitations. It may be that the extent and violence of such disasters go hand in hand with the rapid progress of the age; that as we crowd more closely in cities we grow more reckless of our lives and property; that as we rush madly over the world in search of fortune and pleas- ure we spare no time to give heed to those precautions our more thoughtfui ancestors never failed to adopt. It may be that steam and electricity have taken captive our reason and our prudence and hurried them off out of the world, At all events, such fearful lessons as these wholesale burnings, coupled with the horrors of the Bienville, the Missouri, the coal- mine explosions and similar scenes of car- nage, should teach us that werare too care- less of our fate and of the fate of others, too prone trust to fortune to keep us out of harm and to neglect those precautions which are in fact a duty, and which we are none of us strong enough to disregard. The Boston fire is not a calamity to that city alone, Its effect will be felt in every city of the Union, and it may be in many cities of Europe. The heavy losses have already crushed down some insurance companies, and more may follow. Not one of these institutions can suspend withont causing widespread misfortune, and the com- mercial world generally will feel the Boston visitation as a serious shock. When we take into consideration the losses in trade, the damaging agitation of the stock market, the condition of dependent persons thrown out of employment, the general shock to credit, all of which must follow the absolute annihila- tion of two hundred and fifty million dollars’ worth of property, we shall understand that the range of the calamity will not be confined to those who are directly losers by the fire. to act that might have checked the fearful spread of the destruction, becomes a crime, through which the innocent are made to suffer. We In this view of the case, any want | of efficiency or courage in the Boston Yire Department, the neglect of any NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER Il, 1872.-TRIPLE SHEET. do not even hint or insinuate that a single effort was spared or misdirected that was within the reach of the firemen and authorities of Boston during those trying hours, or that any censure could attach to our neighbors for a single act of omission or commission con- nected with the fire, We simply mean to illus- trate that the recklessness and carelessness which, we fear, are characteristic of the pres- ent age, are offences, not against ourselves alone, but against the community at large. There is one marked difference between tho present conflagration at Boston and that which & little over twelve months ago laid the greater part of Chicago in ashes; In Boston the flames have destroyed the great wholesale and other business houses of the city. In Chicago they swept away the homes of the people. The wealthy merchants of the Eastern city have residences far removed from the scene of de- struction, in which their families are living in safety and comfort, apart from the mental suffering occasioned by the sudden misfortune, The poor trades- men, mechanics, clerks and laborers of the Western city wore driven into the streets, and their wives and children wandered about with- out shelter, clothes or food. We feel shocked and grieved at tho idea of such a terrible de- struction of valuable property as that which has just been witnessed in Boston. We think with something like awe of the solid, massive granite buildings crumbling to ashes, one after another, as the fire rushed onward; of the vast piles of costly goods swallowed up in the hot waves of that raging sea of flame. We regret the sudden loss of fortunes that have been acquired through years of honorable ex- ertion and commendable enterprise. But when the news of the Chicago calamity met’ ourears, when we learned that the tenement houses had been emptied of their terrified inmates, that the dwellings of the poor had been consumed, that tender women and helpless children had been driven out into the world in abject destitution ; that thou- sands were without sufficient clothing a1 and tens of Eth ands without food, @ pang “of horror and Sai shot through every human heart. It fas this that called for the immedi- ate offerings of the charitable in. all nations and in all climes, and that illuminated the history of the world with one of the most glori- ous and ennobling scenes ever painted on its pages. There was more real heartfelt gricf stricken into the breasts of mankind by the destruction of the few poor sticks of house- hold furniture, the beds and bedclothing of the Chicago sufferers, than will be felt at the loss of all the goods consumed in the ware- houses of the Boston merchants. This disastrous event has again brought into notice the wonderful agency of the electric telegraph. While the people of Boston in the vicinity of the fire were rushing distractedly about the streets, wild with terror at the gen- eral destruction that seemed impending in the afflicted city—probably before some citizens living at distances from the Fifth ward were aware that the conflagration had commenced— the news of the calamity was flying over the wires into every city of the Union and speed- ing under the ocean to the shores of Europe. While the fire was raging its progress was known continuously in New York, and as building after building was swallowed up its loss was known thousands of miles away. It is this agency which brings these great misfortunes home to every mind almost at the same moment, that calls human sympathy all over the globe into action simultaneously, and that truly ‘makes the whole world akin.’’ This is not one of the least striking features of the great Boston fire. The Fire, the Treasary and Money “Warkes. The anticipations of 2 monetary crisis to follow the Boston fire sent the great crowd of speculators yesterday to their conventional gathering place at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Stocks were quietly bought and sold by those who were unwilling to await the more popular sentiment to be expressed at the regular ses- sion of the Stock Exchange this morning, It is easier to write history after than before its occurrence, so that opinions as to what will be the result in the money market to-day and during the week of the great calamity ab Bos- ton must be more or less speculative. We ate favored this time with a precedent in the Chi- cago panic, which was as_ short-lived as it was illogical. People have often wondered at the great rise in stocks and the ease in money that followed the latter event. The explanation lies in the fact that the Chicago fire, by destroying two hun- dred millions of fixed property, made floating capital more abundant as compared with the fixed capital of the country. Panics in money arise from a too great preponder- ance of fixed capital as compared with float- ing capital or money ; so that, with the first effects of fear and excitement gone by, the present disaster onght to have really the effect of enlarging the volume of money, as compared with fixed capital. Meantime the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, who hap- pened to be in town last night, assures the public that the government will use its money to prevent a panic by affording instant relief tothe money market. The situation should be viewed coolly and calmly by everybody. The worst has been done, now that the fire is over. Panic and excitement will only aggra- vate the disaster. the Henatp Enrerpnise 1x tur Boston Fire.-- It is hardly necessary for us to-day to call the reader’s attention to the very full and com- plete telegraphic report of the great fire in Boston which we published in the late edition of the Herat yesterday morning. Qovering as it did an entire page, it carried its own the supply of tho paper could not nearly meet fhe demand of its readers, Enterprise like this, which, while it encircles the North Pole, seeking for the open Polar Sea or drives fear- lessly into the jungles of tropical Africa for a lost traveller or the source of an important river, is, nevertheless, so alive to events trans- piring near our own homes, is genuine and certain, not spurious and spasmodic. We can therefore afford to allow our contemporaries to enjoy the passing glory of their brief hour, while wo are conscious of a glory that is abiding in the high appreciation in which the Henatp is held throughout the world. Help the Sufferers. Calamities such as that which left Chicago with her material heart burned out, but her heart of grace untouched, can never fail in attracting the commiseration of humanity. When in the dies ira of that city by Lake Michigan the entire civilized world came nobly to her assistance a great collective act wag performed which made giver and receiver feel that next to the acknowledgment of God in the Universe iy the grand religion of the active brotherhood of man, whose permanent advent is brought nearer by such outpourings of charity to one another. It scarcely needs this preface of a past generosity to ap- peal to the world for help for Boston now. If its tribulation does not equal in the number of victims impoverished by the flames that which wrung our hearts a year ago, there would yet be thousands brought face to face with imminent starvation who cannot wait a week for bread. The rich who have suffered will in many cases find themselves too closely brought to the verge of want to be able in the confusion of their fortune’s wreck to extend a hand to the poorest. In those large massive buildings that have crumbled, like dry sand heaps in a gale, before the whirlwind of fire, thousands and thousands of men were employed who will find the immediate future lowering and dark before them as the smoke cloud hanging over the blasted city like a pall. For these we make instant appeal. Let the generous heart at once transfer the emo- tion of charity into actual assistance. We must not pause to measure the extent of the loss, it is enough to know that the envious flames have lapped up the resources of thous- ands, and the suffering that must result cannot fail to be Intense, In the confusion it will be almost impossible to organize local relief. The dwellers in the afflicted city will be 60 much occupied with their own c&tés that wa can, scarcely hope that they will be able to bestow proper attention oif the more unfor- tunate citizens. These must look for aid in their hour of sorrow to those who are removed out of reach of the scourge that has devastated Boston. Our eyes are not blinded by the drifting smoke, nor is our sense of sympathy for the unfortunates blunted by the pangs of personal suffering. It is therefore clearly our duty to step in and endeavor by acts of genorosity to alleviate, the sorrows of those whom misfortune has stricken most severely. We know that it is only necessary to call the attention of the public to the desirableness of immediate action -in forwarding relief to secure an instant and generous response. Boston, with its grand old memories, must ever be dear to the American people. It was the birthplace of our liberties, and as such is sacred ground. It is associated in our thoughts with the heroic period of our nation’s life, and we owe it love and reverence for the maternal tenderness with which it watched over our young liberties. Now that sorrow has overtaken the historic town we shall feel in extending our assistance that we are discharging an old debt. As we write the telegraph brings word that a meeting of prominent citizens has been held in the City Hall to organize a system of relief and make an appeal to the American people for aid in Boston's hour of need. The reply will mark the sympathy which the sudden and awful calamity which has swooped down on the Northern city has awakened in every Ameri- can breast. Nor will the feeling of sorrow be confined to this Continent. Already the cable has told the story of the conflagration to the whole civilized world, and the same chord of human feeling that vibrated in sym- pathy to Chicago's cry of distress will be touched by the desolation that has fallen on Boston. It is, however, on our own prompt action that we must depend for the supply of the urgent wants of the people rendered homeless and deprived of all means of sup- port by that terrible vigitation which throateng to besoine a national scourge. It is not enough that we should feel regret; we must act generously and at once. Out of our plenty let us give largely, and with words of con- solation pour balm on the burning wounds of the unfortunate. By such acts of kindness we shall bind together more closely all sec- tions of our common country in bonds of love and lasting friendship. oe Precautions Against Fire In Our Cities. The impotency of the Boston Fire Depart- ment to check the flames that reduced the most flourishing portions of this Northern city to ashes teaches us the necessity of adopting some more effective means of combating the ravages of fire than we at present possess. It is clear, from the experience both of Chicago and Boston, that the Fire Departments as at present organized are unequal to contending successfully with great conflagrations, however efficient they may be on ordinary occn- sions, This is due as much to the want of proper discipline os to the need of a larger supply of powerful en- gines. In most cases the progress of the fire is due in the first instance to the absence of vigor and decision on the part of those who have to struggle against the devouring ele- ment. Under the present system we haye no man with sufficient authority who, by virtue of his position, can adopt desperate remedies, and so fires are allowed to grow in extent until they have acquired such proportions that they can only be subdued by recourse to the most desperate expedients after hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property has been destroyed. The cure for this evil might be found in the appointment of some man of brains and vigor to take charge of the Fire Department in each city, who, in cases of emergency, would have authority to take whatever measures he thought necessary to check the progress of a conflagra- tion. Such a man would be able to decide at commendatign for enterprise with it so that ! once whether it was necessary to blow uv a block or two in order to save a city, and in- stead of resorting to this means in exiremis, would do it before the logs, as in Boston and Chicago, had bepome appalling. The effective results obtained in checking the progress of the Boston fire by the blowing down of whole blocks by the marines show us clearly how much can be accomplished by vigor and de- cision. Ithas been pretty generally recog- nized as the most effective mode of arresting the progress of flames in a city is to make a Gap in their pathway, but owing to the want of some one in authority, whose duty it was to order this extreme measure, it was only re- sorted to in Boston when an immense amount of property had been already destroyed. The marines acted with admirable coolness, and though their first efforts were not’ successful, they persevered in their operations, and at last succeeded in effectually checking the flames. This fact points out for our future guidance the proper way to deal with fires when they threaten to assume alarming pro- portions, and shows conclusively the advan- tage that would result from tho appointment of a responsible head with | large discretionary authority over the different Fire Departments in our principal cities. With the knowledge of his responsibility a publio officer in this posi- tion would be prepared by reflection to act promptly and understandingly. He would have the department thoroughly in hand, and the result would not fail to be greater unity of action in the department and a more intelli- gent execution of orders, The salary of an able and skilful man, fitted by experience for this post, would be saved a hundred times in the superior efficiency of his department. He might also be charged with the supervision of buildings, The danger of erecting wooden Mansard roofs, thinly cov- ered with iron or zinc, is so manifest that they ought to be forbidden by city ordinance, Perched up on fireproof buildings they aro like tinder boxes, and carry the fire from house to house with inconceivable rapidity. The falling sparks from a distant fire are suf- ficient to communicate the flames to these slight structures, and the danger from confla- gration is increased a hundred-fold, How- ever ploasing they may look to the eye tho risk is too great to be ran for the sake of mere prettiness of effect. As this style of architecture is being largely adopted in New York we think that measures ought at once to be taken to en- force the ordinance against wooden buildings, lest we should be exposed to the same calamity that that has befallen Bos The Boston Fire’ in the Pulplis. As might readily be expected, the great Bre in Boston created the most intense interest all over the city yesterday, so that the pulpits caught the contagion and the ministers very properly appealed to their congregations for the manifestation of that brotherly sympathy which we owe one to another. Last year it was Chicago, now it is Boston, and we know not but our own turn may come next. Are woe prepared for the devouring element, or will it find us at its mercy as it has our sister cities ? Mr. Beecher devoted his evening hour to the fire and its lessons. He saw in it a city with- out a rival on this Continent for substantial buildings, for cleanliness, for everything that marks the progress of Christian civilization. Its products of skill and enterprise and manu- facture, its literature and its schools of the highest class, and yet made accessible to all its citizens; its intense patriotism and love for truth and justice and liberty and right make its loss not merely a local but a national calamity. Its looms and factories must now stand idle; its me- chanics and artisans must suffer perhaps for the necessaries of life because of this disaster, which Mr. Beecher thinks has been sent by Divine Providence to rebuke the prevailing spirit of worldliness among men. But he per- tinently asks, Shall one scholar be punished for the offence of the whole school? It is also arebuke to vain speculations and audacious interpretations of Providence. But there are lessons to be learned from this fire, not the least of which are that in large cities narrow streets and crowded neighborhoods and Man- sard roofs should be avoided, and in their stead we should have wide avenues, open squares and plenty of small parks. The country can’t afford to be burned up this way every year and to see its granite walls in ashes, If Boston, therefore, shall heed these lessons, in ten years from this time, Mr. Beecher thinks, she will have cause to be thankful for this calamity. But every valuable building should have within it hydraulic arrangements by which it-can be flooded in cases of fire. But the most important lesson of all that Mr, Beecher would draw from this great fire is that contained in the Saviour’s precept, ‘Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth,”’ where they can be so easily destroyed, but rather lay them up in heaven, where they shall be abid- ing and sure. Mr. Talmage, in closing a sermon on the rout of the Midianites of old literally, and the rout of the modern Mid- ianites at the election last Tuesday, prayed that God would control the raging of the fire in Boston and would silence the agony of the prostrate, dying, burning city, and of its dis- tressed and homeless people; that He would save their churches and storehouses, their homes and their lives. Rev. Dr. Bellows, too, in his opening prayer, very affectingly alluded to the fire, and at the close of his sermon on the interdependence of human lives and their entire dependence upon God for everything remarked that if he had been asked to point to the most securely built and substantial city on this Continent he would have pointed to this very section of Boston which, in one night, a sea of flame has left in ashes, while the owners, who had the day before felt secure in the stability of their possessions, looked on with pallid faces and quivering lips at the work of devastation. The other topics of pulpit thought appear tame in comparison with this now all-engross- ing theme. And in our sympathy for the sufferers we shall forget or ignore Mr. Hep- worth’s doctrine that the strongest power in the human heart is selfishness, and that kings, statesmori, business men do all that they do from a purely selfish motive. Rather shall we believe with Dr. Chapin that Christianity isessentially the religion of unselfish good- ness, and we shall go to and practise it towards our neighbors now in misfortune. Mr. Frothingham was wholly visionary yester- day. He had visions of pain and suffering be- fore him, of remorse and guilt, of idleness and profligacy, and these, with others, were pictured before his audience to show. if he might, that the Bible vision of heaven and of A Jailemens to soe, in wiih the good abali be rewarded and the wicked be punished, is an illusion, if not a delusion. Bishop Clark- son, of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Nebraska and Dakota, preached a missionary sermon in Christ church, Bedford avenue, Brooklyn, in which he gave an interesting no- count of his own and his ministers’ labors im that missionary district. Rev. Father Farley, in the Cathedral here, spent his morning hour in exalting the Virgim Mary, who had always been the help of Chris- tians, and no one was ever known to implore her aid in vain. The German Catholics of Brooklyn yesterday dedicated a very hand- some church to St. Boniface, at which Bishop Loughlin preached and referred to the spread of Catholicity, and urged his hearers to ba more earnest in their devotions and more holy in their lives. In St. Stephen’s, New York,’ Father Glackmyer is conducting a ‘mission,’”; which has attracted thousands of the faithful’ to the sacraments. He preached yesterday a very practical sermon, suitable for every man, as well as for those who heard it, against pride, self-will, sensuality and self-love, and urged ° their opposites for adoption in imitation of Christ, who loved mankind even unto death. The Insurance Companics and the Boston Fire. Tho great financial interests connected with the insurance business are again disastrously involved in an extensive conflagration. Almost within a twelvemonth of the Chicago calamity comes a second conflagration, the occurrence of which, according to the doctrine of chances,’ was indefinitely if not infinitely remote. That two great cities should be burned even within the limits of a century, as have been Chicago and Boston, was a contingency against which nine hundred and ninety men out of every thousand would have staked excessive odds. The insurance business being a sort of legiti- mate betting, the fire and its losses naturally, suggest this train of thought. Here, as at Chicago, it will doubtless prove that the odds, although in favor of the companies during a’ long average of years, is against the Boston companies to the extent of the bankruptcy of many, if not most of them. The amount of insurance claims at Chicago was very nearly one hundred millions, and the companies paid about fifty per cent, taking the average of what they all did in the way of payment. So. fox our aay are meagro as to the ino go h yas known last night tto rai e eee Paved 6 ou New York companies. It will be found, by, and by, that the losses by the preoht tire vil isl ‘Vety Tatgety, nay, almost entirely, upon’ Boston herself, the great concentration of wealth in that city having furnished enough capital to insure all her many business inter~ ests, while her people have been always’ strongly disposed to cultivate and encourage their local institutions, Boston was, in many, respects, an epitome of what sound financiak theories require of every community, however sadly the rule may work under the present cir- cumstances. She bore to the rest of the coun- try the relation England has generally sus- tained toward the rest of the world, and was the nation’s creditor. Capital flowed out of Boston constantly, and interest, dividends and profits poured in. She was self- reliant, and independent in money matters, so that the present calamity will do less injury out~ side her limits than did that at Chicago, in whose fate was involved the money of a very wide region of the country. Our Duty to the Fire Department. In connection with the recent terrible dis- aster at Boston thoughts are naturally sug- gested with reference to the efficiency of our own Fire Department and the means taken to maintain its present degree of excellence., That department has done noble work, and i perhaps one of the best organized institutions of the kind in the world. It has had its trials and its triumphs; its battles with the fire fiend, and nota little of senseless opposition from those who, for reasons of their own, may be inimical to the welfare of the Fire Depart~ ment as it is now organized; but the mass of our citizens—the men who own property and the women who clasp their little ones closer at the sound of the solemn alarm bell—look upon the noble firemen of New York as their strong right arm, and they will continue to do so while they see them brave, prompt and active in the discharge of their duty. There isa silent sympathy between the fire- man and the great public; an almost inex pressible admiration for his services, and al- ways a ready tribute to his courage and de- votion. Hence the least popular of any policy which could be pursued by the officials of New York would be that looking to the impair- ment of the existing system or interferenca with the rights and privileges of the men. _ At the present time, for instance, a contro- versy is going on between the Comptroller and the Fire Department, which appears to of our people to be based on a mere techni- cality, to involve no principle whatever, and yet which threatens to impair the efficiency the department and to demoralize the force.. This is certainly a foolish and narrow-minded course of official action, for it can have bné one tendency—to-wit, the destruction of that esprit du corps which had always characterized these men who do battle with the elements. We cannot afford to be parsimonious in this respect, nor do our taxpayers desire it; for if there is one bury den more than another which they cheerfully bear it is that which supports, strengthens and gives tone to our Fire Department. New York is rich, and, on the principle that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,"’ citizens would rather pay three times the p: ent cost of our department than entertain even the suspicion that unwise economy has beem the cause of plunging the metropolis into such gloom and disaster as that which has so recently enshrouded our sister cities of Boston and Chicago. .PIGHT WITH THE INDIANS, WASHINGTON, D, C., Nov. 10, 1872. Lieutenant General Sheridan telegraphs to th ‘War Department that about five hundred Indians, from the Grand River and Cheyenne agencies attacked the post at the Northern Pacific Railroad crossing of the Missouri River at eight o'clock om the morning of the 4th inst., but were all drivem off without diMculty, No loss was sustained, FLORIDA ELECTION, A Democratic Governor Elected. SAVANNAH, Ga., Nov, 10, 2878, From information received here from Florida it appears Blorham, democret, has bren elected ernor of that State,