The New York Herald Newspaper, December 26, 1872, Page 4

Re NEW YORK HERALD * BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. 'SAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. oe Volume XKXKVIL,....5..:ccesessseeesNOe 361 = AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets,—Lxo axp Loos. IN UARE THEATRE, Broadwa: silirigeath ‘sad Fourteenth sts.—Scuoor row! between ‘Bcanpar, FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street.— New Year's Eve. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth wircet,—Brorner Sam. THEATRE COMIQUE, 5l4 Broadway.—Avetca; On, Oixg Done Beit, BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth evenue,—Hanry Dunaar. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker sts.—Lxs Cent Viencxs. ‘WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corné@t Thirticth st— iN THe Woop,’ Aiternoon ima Evening. GERMANIA THEATRE, Qv.—Der Nine Das Givee STADT THEATRE, Nos, 45 and 47 Bowery.—Orzna— Rosket tax Davit. GRAND OPERA ROUSE, Twenty-thira st, and Eighth av.—Rounp ‘tax Crock. ‘MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— Batanas, &c. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st.. corner (bh ay.—Nxaxo Minstaxisy, Eocenreicirr, &c. Fourteenth street, near Third ks. ATHENEUM, No. 585 Broadway.—Sriexpip Varigtr or Novetixs. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— Gaanp Variety Entertainment, &0. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, corner 28h st. and Broadway.—Erniorian Minstretsy, £c. TERRACE. GARDEN THEATRE, 58th st., between Lex- ington and 3d avs.—Orxna—Die FLorrun Buxscuy, £0, DR, KAHN'S MUSEUM, No. 745 Broadway.—Art axp Scuence. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— Science axp Axt, New Yerk, Thursday, Dec. 26, 1872. THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. ‘IS THIS A REPUBLIC AND IS LOUISIANA ONE OF THE UNITED STATES f’—LEADING EDITORIAL ARTICLE—Founru Pacs. PULL PARTICULARS OF THE LATEST RAIL- ROAD SLAUGHTER! THE KILLED AND WOUNDED: CAUSES OF THE DISASTER— Firra Pace, SANTA CLAUS MAKES THE WORLD AKIN! CHRISTMAS OBSERVANCES BY CHRIS- TIANS, FAMILIES, PLAIN AND FANCY SKATERS, BENEFACTORS AND BENEFI- CIARIES =EVERYWHERE : A HAPPY CHRISTMAS FOR THE LITTLE ONES: BOREAS MAKING MERRY—SixTa AND SEY- ENTH Paces. EUROPEAN CABLE NEWS! SERIOUS ILLNESS OF THE RUSSIAN CZAROWITZ: CARLISTS REFUSED SHELTER IN FRANCE: SPANISH SLAVERY AND OPPRESSION OF CUBA— FIFTH Pas. LATEST AUSTRALASIAN NEWS! DISPUTES BETWEEN NEW SAVAGES: AN AUCKLAND CONFLAGRA- TION: SHIPWRECK AND LOSS OF SIX- TEEN LIVES: EMBRYO REBELLION IN FIJI—Firte Pace. BELOW °ZERO! SEVERELY COLD WEATHER PREVALENT—BOATS SUNK IN THE OHIO— OMINOUS ZEALAND RAILROAD ACCIDENT IN INDIANA — FIFTH PAGE. THE CONFLAGRATION ERA! THE CENTRE STREET HOLOCAUST ! SIX GIRLS MISSING ! SAD SCENES AT THE STATION HOUSE— BARNUM'S FIRE BOX—Tarp Pade. FIRES ELSEWHERE IN THE CITY—INVESTIGAT- ING A CHARGE OF ARSON—RESUME OF UPERATIONS IN WALL STREET—THE O'HARE HOMICIDE—Tuirp Pace. CHINA AND JAPAN! THE CELESTIAL EM- PEROR PREPARING TO ASCEND THE THRONE: A NEW FLAG FOR THE CHINESE NAVY: PROGRESS OF THE GRAND DUKE ALEXIS: RELATIONS BE- TWEEN JAPAN AND COREA—EiGurTH Pace. NEWS FROM THE FEDERAL CAPITAL—GEN- ERAL TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE — Firth Page. NAVAL INTELLIGENCE! OUR ASIATIC SQUAD- RON—IS IT PRIAM'S TROY?—OBITUARY— MARINE INTELLIGENCE—E1onTH Pace. JGHN BULL DESORIBES BROTHER JONATHAN ! REV. HUGH STOWELL BROW BAD BOSTON—SEvENTH PAGE, ‘Fme anv Surpwreck on tHe Suones or New Zmatanv.—From the antipodes comes news of death and financial disaster, the results of shipwreck and fire. By despatches from New Zealand we are informed that the ship New- castle has just been wrecked off Cook Strait, and that sixteen persons were swept from life to eternity by the disaster. The Pacific Fire Insurance Building in Auckland has been totally destroyed by fire. Several stores, which immediately adjoined the structure, were also demolished, as was also a magnifi- cent building occupied by the post, telegraph and provincial governmentofhces. It looks as if a special judgment by fire were already on the peoples, and that the avengement is uni- versal, without respect to geographical limit. His Impenut Hicunuss tae Czarnewitcu Axexanper of Russia is invalided by a severe attack of typhus fever. The medical bulletins issued in St. Petersburg indicate that he is seriously ill. The patient is twenty-seven years of age—a period of life which, in an otherwise robust constitution, almost invites fatal congestion and internal gangrene from typhus. Tae Exrreme Price or Foop in England is naturally calling public attention to the great extent of unproductive land in the kingdom. Conventions of laboring people ask that the parks and game preserves be de- voted to tillage and feed for men instead of merely affording sport to the wealthy class. Difficulties of alienating land, its gradual ab- sorption. from small into large estates, and especially the vesting of tilles by mortmain in religious and other cor- porations, which do not make it pro- ductive to its fullest capacity, are the grounds of a very general demand for legal reform. A strong attack by the London Times upon the endowment of churches, schools, hospitals and other’ corporations with land, urging that these trusts should be converted into money, has called forth a spirited rejoinder from the defenders of ‘the old system. It is probable that this subject will be fully discussed during the coming session of Parliament, the Minis- iry being considered as pledged to propose a measure of reform which will facilitate the purchase and gale of real estate, and perhaps #eatuigt the tying up of land in cndowments, «s Tats @ Repesitc and is Louisiana One of the Umited States? Either this is a republic or itis not. Either the States their own local affairs or they do not, ‘Whater may de- note, we believe we.are not rash in assuming that the people of the United States do live in @ republic; further, we boldly quote the con- stitution and the ng of the Supreme Court to proveiit incumbent upon the United States “to guarantee to every State in the Union's republican form of government.” Tn. other words, every State is a republic within a republic, ‘Now, as our creed in. the late civil war affirmed secession to be-unlawful, as wo proved the right by our might on the battle field, “Louisiana is in the Union, because she never was out of it, and is entitled to a repub~ lican form of government because she is a State. Hence it follows that the imperial policy being pursued toward her is an unwar- rantablé insult to a conquered, law-abiding, free (?) people, Ignorance is a two-edged sword. Negroes demoralized by designing leaders are no better than low whites de- moralized; and what if a Legislature like that of Louisiana should become, uncontrollable ? Already its members are. loud in their threats against their defeated-opponents. May it not be possible for.them to turn upon their white instigators? We say this not because negroes are black, but because these particular negroes are from ni ity totally uneducated, and have been pl upon ever since they had political power. Undoubtedly it was a mistake in the liberal republicans of Louisiana to dally with War- moth in the late elections, for pitch defiles, In spite of their aversion they accepted his aid ; but his is the power of the boomerang, and returns to delay, if not to destroy, roform. Few of the New Orleans committee but were his fierce opponents in the past, yet the administration organ in this city intimates that they are “really acting in the interest. of Warmoth.” And what do this committee ask—a committee reprosenting such vital in- terests as to draw around them thousands of citizens to wish them ‘‘Godspeed”’ when, in a drizzling rain, they departed for Washington ? What do they ask? Anything unreasonable? Why, their story is twice told, and yet we shall repeat it again and again in the hope of bring- ing the North to its senses and Congress to its duty. They ask the federal government to make a candid and impartial investigation of the facts we have so often put before our readers. They maintain, and we have every reason to be- lieve them, that they have not heretofore been concerned in the controversies among the political classes which have endangered the peace and brought scandal upon the State. They picture two distinct governments claim- ing sovereign jurisdiction, the United States and State courts in direct conflict, Judge Durell, under color of the Enforcement act, overturning the entire State administration with one hand, while he seizes an opposition newspaper with the other, plotting, we are told, for a nomination to the federal Senate! No wonder that strong men weep, no wonder that commercial travellers in New Orleans, representing more than thirty New York houses, address.a memorial to the people of the North, protesting against the “arbitrary usurpation of power and place by political adventurers, backed by a United States Judge, who has called in the assistance of United States troops to execute his decrees!’ It was not treason that the liberal republican Governor-elect preached. From all sides we learn that the State election was peaceable, There was every evidence at first of John McEnery’s election, and that he should have asked the President to suspend recognition of both governments until there could be laid before him all the facts seems to us based upon far more sense of justice than Attorney General Williams’ immediate recognition of Pinchback, who, with a roving commission from nobody, but supported by federal bayonets, now legislates headlong out of office whatever Senator or Assemblyman incurs his dread displeasure. ‘The President's decision is made, and will not be changed, and the sooner it is acquiesced in the sooner good order and peace will be restored,’’ is Attorney General Williams’ curt despatch of December 13. The Attorney General is happy in his official phraseology, as ‘‘a fellow by the name of Jack Wharton” can testify. If manners make the man, what a man the Attorney General must be! Yet, undaunted by the despatch of December 13, the Attorney General of Louisiana pleads, the day after, that “‘a federal Judge, abso- lutely without jurisdiction, seizes a State House and seats a Legislature, the members of which have no other claim to their seats than the finding of a Returning Board, whose sole authority is the recognition of this usurping federal Court, and which professes to act solely upon the statement or returns made by certain United States officers who are entirely un- known to the laws of Louisiana.” ‘‘The rest is silence.’’ Now, that Louisiana has a griev- ance is beyond question; but that her delega- tion to Washington was wise in selecting Judge Campbell as spokeman is doubtful. Judge Campbell is a clever lawyer, but Judge Campbell is a controversialist, and wrangling with General Grant and Attorney General Williams on federal usurpation was not the way to find favor in the eyes of those already | prejudiced against his cause. Under such circumstances of what avail was it for Judge Campbell to tell the President that if Judge Cartter, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Columbia, should undertake to count the votes for President and Vice President and fleshpot. How is it possible, then, for the President to seo more than one side, and that the wrong one? Let us be grateful that he leaves the matter with Cougress. The Attorney General with Delphian vision oP 3 it is only the future that can be controlled." It remains to be seen how much weigat an in- representatives at Washington. Judging by the past we are not particularly sanguine about what is to come, On Decomber 17 Mr. 8. 8. Cox, of New York, offered, the following resolution in the Honse.of Representatives :— ‘That the President of the United States be re- quested to inform the House at the earliest pos- sible date be 4 the Executive of the United States tnterieres in the affairs of Louisiana, giving all the that he be her to give the tonduct of 7 of tne conduct o! one United States Court ln Houlsiana, thet the House may determine what steps, it to be taken. if , ough: In consequence of his interference in the political affairs of said State. The resolution was. received with the same partisan animosity that characterized the re- ception of Senator Sumner’s generous proposi- tion’ to’ strike from all’ regimental fings'the names of battles fought with conquered brothers, .. We repeat the oracular language of Attorney General Williams: im saying that ‘ewhat is’ past is past’ General Grant asks ‘for peace, and we ‘contend that @ peaceable union is utterly impossible so long as there is usurpation im any part of, the country. Northern republicans disbelieve in the sincerity of Southern Unionists, and henoe are _rendy to support, caxpet-baggers. We assure them that no disbelief ever had less foundation in fact, that no people were ever more ready to accept the situation, but that the best way to foster hatred and revolution is to carry out the guerilla warfare of adven- turers like Pinchback. It is quite possible for a negro or a Northern man to be a rascal. It is quite possible for a Southern man to be honest. Let honesty prevail and good gov- ernment will ensue, Let Congress demand a thorough investigation, appointing: investiga- tors without fear and without reproach, and Louisiana will be satisfied. Her best people are notso much averse to Kellogg as they fear his Legislature. Let the election records be closely scanned. Attorney General Williams admits that there may have been ‘Grregularities in the registration. and elec- tion.” ‘Irregularities’ is a mild term for tampering with the ballot box, the sgis of our liberty, and comes with raro grace from the Attorney General of the United States ; but the admission is alone sufficient for action, and if, upon reassembling, Congress does not hearken to the voice of press and people we shall believe that there are things far more rotten here than in Denmark. Christmas and Its Observances, Christmas Day, 1872, will doubtless long be remembered in New York and throughout the Northern States as one of the coldest Christmas days within the memory of the old- est inhabitant. Butif the wind carried with it a chill as from ‘The pitiless coast of Labrador, if it was ‘‘an eager and a nipping air,’’ it was still wholesome and bracing in the sun. And never before in this metropolis and its sur- roundings, on the islands and the mainland, | was the day so_gener observed as a social holiday and a aes religious Thankagiving and of the good works of Faith, Hope and Charity. From the reports which we give on other pliges of this paper of yesterday's church decorations and services, of the happy re- unions at our various benevolent institutions, of the merry multitudes in the Central Park, ofthe processions of target companies—not forgetting the mirth-provoking fantasticals— &e., &e., the stranger within our gates will perceive that the city of New York is eminently cosmopolitan, a city representing the four quarters of the globe and the islands of the five oceans. So far, too, as reported, it appears that through- out the United States our people, without dis- tinction of nationality, creed, race, color or previous condition of servitude, have had a re- markably ‘merry Christmas ;" that even in the most boisterous of our reconstructed South- ern States they suspended for the day their political.quarrels to join in the general rejoic- ings of the blessed anniversary of that glorious morning when, over the starlit skies of Pales- tine the angelic host proclaimed the glad tid- ings of salvation and of ‘‘peace on earth, good will to men.” Throughout all Christendom, we doubt not, peace or war, this Christmas Day of 1872 has been observed more generally by the people, in one form or another, than at any time since the general peace of 1815. Is it because, excepting here and there some local disturbances, general peace now prevails, oris it because the Christian world against the powers of darkness is rising with renewed strength to the work before it? In any view, our hopes are strengthened that the time is coming when the universal faith of mankind will be “peace on earth, good will to men.” Death of the King of the Sandwich Islands, His Majosty Kamehameha the Fifth, King of the Sandwich Islands, died at Honolulu on the 1ith inst. He had been ailing in health for some short time past, but the exact nature of the disease by which he was finally removed from life is not stated. The monarch was childless, and the question of succession to the vacant throne becomes an open one between the Polynesian people and what re- mains to them of a free constitution, which has been made aristocratically reactionist under British promptings and for the benefit of Eng- lish commercial interests. The people of the declare who was elected to these offices, with the power of the government to support him, the act would be no more legal than the course pursued in Louisiana, under the opinion of the Court, supported by the federal power? We do not believe, nor do the committee be- lieve, that the President desires to tyrannize over the South, but the effect is quite as bad as though he’ were intent upon despotism; and this effect is produced by an evil which cannot be removed too soon, and which has already injured General Grant’s reputation. His fidelity to his friends is so well known as to render it s foregone conclusion that, with every desire to learn the truth, he would take his coloring from his brother-in-law, Col- lector Casey, who is the leader of the Custom House party against Warmoth. Now, Collector Casey wishes to be nominated for the United States Senatorship, a nomination easily se- cured under the f{ e reign of friendly | Pinchback, who like haukers after a sunilac islands—which have been justly termed, in group, the Cuba of the Pacifio—incline already toward self-government under a free democ- racy. It remains to be seen what diplomacy the Washington Cabinet will pursue under the citeumstances. Kamehameba the Fifth waa anti-American in tone and sentiment. As Prince Loo he travelled in the United States some few years since. When ascending the Connecticut River, on a steamboat, the future King sat down to the dinner table in company with the other passengers. His rank was not generally known, An impetaously attentive waiter, a native of the Green Isle and a dem- ocrat in politics, after observing him a mo- ment said, unceremoniously, to the royal stranger, “Nagurs aren't allowed to ate with white folks at this table.” The matter was explained to the Prince, but he never forgave what he resented'as a deliberate insult, and poor Pat thus became the innocent cause of NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1872. monarch while engaged in executing the honest duty of serving potatoes. The Tinder-bex Buildings in New York—A Grand Opportunity for en American Haussemann. ‘The burning of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, and of the circus on Fourteenth street, in this city, both of which were covered with corrugated iron, has attracted general attention to the use of that article for building purposes, and the conclusion has not been in its favor. It was found in both instances that the iron, covering ag it did wooden structures, only served two purposes ; first, by intensifying the heat, toadd to the more rapid spread of the flames, and next, to prevent the water from the engines reaching the seat of the fire. Corrugated iron has great strength, but it will heat through quicker than flat sheet iron, and will not so readily burn out and shrivel up, as much of the iron did on the Boston buildings. Hence the impression prevails that it is o fire-trap rather than a protection toa building, and it has suddenly got into as bad repute as have the-Mansard roofs; which, like lumber yards in the sir, carried the flames from house to house during the conflagration in the mod- ern Athens. We have already insisted that the onslaught made om Mansard roofs, & few weeks ago, was hasty and in- considerate, and have shown that a Man- sard roof has only to be made really fire- proof to render it unobjectionable as a hand- some finish toa building. The fault lay, not in the shape of the roof, but in the fact that it was built as if designed to feed a fire, If a roof of any description, or the upper floor of a house, should be constructed of wood covered with slate or a thin coating of iron, it would be simply a tinder-box, utterly unsafe, and certain in a great conflagration to aid the spread. of the flames. If a Mansard roof is made actually fireproof—if it is built without wood or other combustible material—it will prove a safe- guard against fire, and is less likely than any other style of roof to catch and hold the showers cast from a burning build- ing. The’ difficulty is that builders put up tinder-box shells from basement to roof, and because they uso alittle iron in their construction, or put on a thinly covered Mansard roof, they advertise them’ as “fire- proof,” when they are nothing more than fire- traps. It is a system of obtaining public con- fidence under false pretences, which is almost certain, sooner or later, to meet with exposure. Corrugated iron is no doubt a valuable ma- terial for building purposes if properly used. A firm interested in its manufacture protest against the gencral condemnation it is just now receiving, and declare that the abuse, and not the use, of the article should bear the blame. Although they are interested parties there is much truth in their remarks. They charge that corrugated iron is ‘‘unscrupu- lously used, in season and out of season, by parties knowing little of its true merit;’’ that certain churches in Brooklyn ‘have been built partially of corrugated iron,” but that ‘no one but the architect and builder ever considered or called them fireproof,” and that nd bas mee looked at those buildings without seeing that they were perfect fire-traps, and almost certain to burn _on slight provocation. Dr. Talmage’s church is described to have beona heavy wood frame, partially, and only partially covered with iron, All the points most likely to readily catch the fire were of wood. Door and window casings, triamings, mouldings, cor- nices, inside and out, and ornamentation of many kinds, were all of wood. The building was full of wooden pillars to support the great roof. The outside was ornamented with huge wooden columns. The iron used was only sufficient to fill the panels made by the orna- mental woodwork. The iron, then, merely served as a guide for the flames, and had no opportunity to show itself as a protector. It is therefore claimed that to charge the de- struction of the Tabernacle to the corrugated iron used in its construction is to transfer to the iron the blame that properly attaches to the architect and builder. The firm inter- ested in the sale of the material assert that no claim has ever been made that a wooden building covered with corrugated iron is fire- proof, although’ they pretend to" believe that such stracture is safer than an ordinary brick building. This is, of course, the opinion of a prejudiced witness, and the proof is that a building thus covered is about the most dan- gerous in case of fire of any that can be ¢on- ceived other than a mere wooden frame. But there is, no doubt, reason in the protest against condemning the use of iron, because it has proved a condustor of fire, as partially used in such shells as those recently destroyed in Brooklyn and New York. The company claim that they can construct buildings wholly of corrugated iron—that is to say, with brick walls sufficiently thick to withstand heat; thin iron floors, with roofs, stairways, shutters and inside finish all of iron. The menagerie building on Fourteenth street was probably one of the most danger- ous ever allowed to be put up in the city of New York for the past ten or twelve years. Trev. Mr. Cramer, the rector of the Church of the Redeemer, furnishes an intercsting state- ment of its character. He watched the build- ing as it was being put up, and, seeing that it was exceedingly hazardous, advised the church corporation to increase its amount of insu- rance. The corporation examined the neigh- boring building and followed the rector’s pru- dent advice. The attention of the Inspector of Buildings was called to the fact that a mero tinder-box—a magazine of danger, rather— was being constructed in the heart of some of the most valuable property in the city—the Academy of Music, Tammany and Steinway halls, the Church of the Redeemer and other costly buildings. But no notice appears to have been taken of the warning by the re- markable public functionary who is supposed to exercise a supervision over such matters, and in a report of unsafe buildings recently made by the superintendent the menagerie shell was not mentioned. The truth is, we have many such fire-traps in our midst, and we need strin- gent laws and their fearless enforcement to sweep them away before we are visited bya conflagration such as the people of Chicago and Boston have recently experienced. The character of our principal buildings has greatly improved of late years; but they are only,seattered at interyals on our principal thoroughfares. Behind them and at their sides stand buildings fit only to feed the | offending a fast ally to bis hereditary enemy, | demes ina great conflagration, The neigh- row and Nassau, are old, ruinous, unsightly tinder-boxes that ought.to be swept out of ex- istence. Lawyers, bankers and insurance companies who locate im thé new Nassau street iron building’ may rest’ in confidence feed it at every step, What New York now needs is a comprehensive and vigorous system of improvement, andthe neighborhood of the new Post Offico—the business: heart of the city—should be the first, to feel its influence. There is no more valuable property for rent- ing in New York, from the Battery to Harlem Bridge, than that in the immediate neighbor- hood of the City Hall Park, Park row, Spruce, Ann, Nassau and the neighboring streets. Money invested in the widening of Ann street and in the erection of such buildings as that now progressing towards completion on Nassau street, between Fulton and Ann, would beara large immediate interest and a larger prospective increase, There ought to be public spirit enough in our city government and enterprise enough in our capitalists to place this portion of the city at once in its legitimate condition. The Latest Rellway Disasters. From one of the charming valleys at. the west end of this State there came a mournful wail to mingle in the merriment of our Christ- mas festival. Near the ridge which divides the streams whose waters feed the Ohio and so seek the ocean through the Mexican Gulf from those which descend into Lake Erie and passing Niagara and the Thousand Islands find an outlet in the far north of the St. Law- rence, flows a rippling brook, whose high banks are spanned by the trestle bridge of the Buffalo, Corry and Pittsburg Railroad, near the station house at Prospect, a few miles southerly from the thriving village of May- ville. There, on Tuesday afternoon, just when the shadows began to lengthen as the sun de- clined and the brisk wintry wind blew cold and piercing from Lake Erie, a train ap- proached from Corry. It descended a steep grade as it neared the bridge and the steam was cautiously shut off. Slowly the en- gine advanced across the chasm, and had nearly “reached the northern bank, when & bgoken wheel threw the senger car from the from the locomotive which passed over in safety, while the doomed coach, with its precious freight of human life, crashed through the timbers and fell into the abyss. Fifty passengers and several employés of the road made that dreadtul leap which cost the lives of half of their number. It was the repetition of the New Hamburg holocaust of two Winters ago, except that it occurred in daylight, the numbers were less, and drowning was omitted from the causes of horrible death. The over- turned smashed car took fire, and the killed and maimed occupants were entangled in the wreck, and there, burned and frozen, living and dead, formed together a shocking spec- tacle of mingled horror and torture that once seen long haunts the memory. Sad was the Advent evening in that little’ railroad station, and sad were the tidings brought by the electric messengers to many a home through Western New York and Northwestern Pennsyl- vania. Of those who plunged to the bed of the frozen creek few escaped unharmed. .More than twenty . disfigured corpses: have been rescued, Others remain beneath the blackened ruins, shapeless and hardly recognizable as human bodies. How many will this disaster cause to bear in mourn- ful_memory the Christmas of 1872? While the disaster picrced so many hearts it also showed us the bright side of Christian charity when all the farming population of the neigh- borhood opened their houses as hospitals in which to. care for those who were saved alive, and all to their best ability ministered to their needs. The occurrence seems to have been one which no human foresight can effectually guard against. So far as yet reported it was purely an accident, for which we can do nought but weep. While it calls upon rail- road companies to exercise the utmost care to secure the safety of those whose Jives are in their keeping, it should move us all to thank Providence that we are spared, and that of the millions who journey by rail so small a pro- portion suffer mishaps. A broken rail on the line of an Indiana road on Christmas Eve caused the death of three passengers, and several others were seriously injured. This probably was the effect of the severe frost, which has rendered the iron dan- gerously brittle and liable to break at any part not properly supported. In such weather as we have had during the last week it is abso- lutely necessary for safety to run at a low rate of speed, and even then there is liability to accident. The Spanish Govern: and Eman- cipation in the Colonies. The Spanish government seems at last re- solved to do something towards the emancipa- tion of the slaves in her colonies, A bill has been introduced in the Cortes providing for the abolition of slavery in Porto Rico; and on Monday Seftor Martos, Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced that the government had taken measures to prevent persons purchasing slaves in Porto Rica and conveying them to Cuba. In answer to a question as to whether it was intended to indemnify the slave-owners for the property they would lose by emanci- pation, the government asked that the ques- tion be deferred until the debate on emancipa- tion was opened. We are well pleased to see that a beginning has been made; but we doubt whether any lasting good will result from emancipation in Porto Ricg so long as it is “rack egpantioe B | Ik is not the first time that » beginning hae been. made in the same direction. All previous efforts have failed. Whether this new effort steal sel ta Anode SED: eR wit tel . More Victims of Criminal Neglect. The Centre street fire was far more disas- trous than was at first supposed. It now ap- pears certain that five or six of the operatives in the upper stories of the building, where the fire began, have perished in the flames. Following so soon after the sacrifice of a dozen scrubbing girls in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, it preaches an impressive sermon and Points to what seems an inexcusablo fault. We have here a high house, admirably con- stracted to burn, filled with paper-and primed with benzine. In its lofts hundreds of girls, provided with fire escapes. . They. had beon condemned, it is said, as* unsafe, and’ an order had been issued that new onexshoul@’ beput-up. ‘This order, it is'asserted, had not been obeyed. The fire broke out, and im an instantall was commotion and terror, Frantio girls in scores pressed to the insecure atair- cases, by which many managed to reach the street with their lives. Others tried the de- fective fire escapes, and, aided by the noble exertions of the firemen, were enabled to. safely clear the tottering walls. But those in- adequate ladders proved the road of death to some half a dozen of the industrious youth who earned their bread at the risk of life im that tinder-box high up above the ground. While several were slowly clambering down the walls fell, and since then the friends of six young girls and one boy seek them in vain. and make inquiry for them at the police station without avail. The oir- cumstances. will, of course, receive, offi-’ cial investigation. Possibly there may be no fault, no omission of requisite precaution on the part of the owners or occupants of the fallen building; but if the facts ate as stated «| fearful responsibility for the death of these seven young victim’ rests somewhere. It is possible to make buildings fireproof. Cer- tainly it is a sacred duty of all who employ operatives in buildings liable to be burned that they provide ample means for their escape. We have officers whose business it is to see that these aro provided. Fires are of daily occurrence. Can we afford to kill our labor- ing people in our burning houses? This question came with fearful force from thou- sands who yesterday looked upon the ruins im Centre street. : PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Senator Lot M. Morrill, of Maine, is quite il!, b A sister of Edgar A. Poe resides in the Southern Part of Ohio. It is the Rev. W. R. Alger, of Boston, who is writing the life of Edwin Forrest. The city editor of a newspaper in Zanesville, Qhio, has been nomluated for Mayor, 2 During November the Royal | ational Lifeboat Association saved in Great Britain 16 lives and seven vessels, A good month's work, The heaviest postmaster in the United States ig. he who has charge of the post office at Leaven- worth, Kansas, James Millmore, brother of Martin Millmore, the sculptor, and an honored member of the sume pro- fession, died in Boston yesterday. ‘Two years ago, in Augusta, Me., four couples were married at the same time. Since then two have parted and two have applied for divorces. The negro cadet atthe Naval Azademy at An- napolis, Md., since the last order of the Secretary of the Navy, istaken by the hand by his fellow studenta, Mrs, Julia W. Hunt is before the courts of Sam Francisco pleading for a divorce from her husband, Oliver D. Hunt, brother of Laura D. Fair, the Crit- tenden killer. James Dent has been appointed Postmaster at Stafford Court House, Virginia. This looks like another brother-in-law. It was supposed that they had all been provided for. Sidney Rigdon, the reputed author of Joe Smith's Mormon Bible, has been stricken with paralysis at his home in Alleghany county, N. Y. Polygamy wag not permitted by Rigdon’s Bible. The Maharajah of Cashmere keeps 8 poet, and, from all accounts, compensates him well for his_ rhymed depreciation of the sun, moon, &c., ti favor of his master’s refulgent mind and person. A testimonial has been given to the Duke of Buc-~ cleuch for his liberality in matntatning for forty- five years “an admirably appointed pack of fox- hounds,” What is the next testimonial tobe for? . Judge J. S. Cooper, of New Orleans, has arrived atthe New York Hotel. The Judge is a member of the, Citizens’ Delegation to confer with President Grant on the chaotic condition of political affairs in New Orleans. Ex-Speaker Orr, of South Carolina, has arrived in . Washington, to receive his instructions-as Minister to Russia, and is being wined and dined by his old congressional acqnaintances and by the Russian Legation there. Blanton Duncan, the great !eader:of the Boar- bon straights in the last Presidential campaign, has changed the name of his paper trom the True Democrat to the Commercial Advertiser, and wilt publish it on Sundays. E. J. Miller and Wiitiam R. Williamson of Cinctn- nati, and Sam Craighead, of Dayton, Ohio, are Samuel N. Pike’s executors. Mr. Miller» and Mr. Craighead are brothers-in-law of the deceased, and Mr Williamson was connected with him. inbusl- ness, ; They have compulsory education in. Texas. The F law requires that all persons under the age of it- teen shall attend school. A married lady in Hous- ton, who has not yet reached the age that would © entitie her to exemption, attends school regularly and carries her baby with her. When Mrs. Stanton was delivering her tectaro on the ‘Coming Girl,” in Green Bay, Wis., she tot how her father, when they were going over the highlands of Scotland together, had a pair of boot» ; made for her. After the lecture a bronzed+faced, + furzy individual said. to. her:—“An’ wi’ ye shek haan’s wi’ the maan thaat wha made the booties; for ye? and there he was. She did. The Japanese government continue to, recruit men of science in Germany. Dr. Hilgendorf, Senior Professor of the Polytechnic Institute im Dresden, and Secretary of the Leopotdina-Carolina in the same city, formerly. director of the Zovlogieat Gardens, Hamburg, has accepted the chait of Natural Science in the School of Medicine at Jeddo, Dr. Cochins, formerty attached to the Victoria Col- lege, in Berlin, has. also been called asa professor of physics and chemistry in. the same establishment. M. Langiois, @ Paria Deputy in the French Na- tional Assembly, who served a8 impromptu Colonety of MobUeg. during the siege, made one of the radi cal pariiamentists who erowded to M. Thotrs’ lateay reception. “Every one is for you at Paris,’® he said to the President. “{ have mot at leas\’s hundred ladies Who are anxious to give you the kisa of friendship, and who desire me to te you so” “Lam really touched at so charming a mea sage, Colonel,” added M. Thiers. Langloia imme. diately brought up his right hand to his temple tn saluting style, “No Colonel here, Monsieur lo Pre- sident," 3 woare all your Marelukga ait you are thy of Who GommMutds us."