The New York Herald Newspaper, December 27, 1872, Page 4

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXVI, AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadway, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth sts.—Monxy. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-fourth street New Yuau's Eve. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street.—Brotuer Sam. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Dixa Dona Bru, BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third strect, corner Sixth avenue,—Henry Dunbar. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway. _ between Houston aud Bleecker sts.—Les Cent Vi corner Thirticth st— nd Evening. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broad: Atterno Bauxs ix Tux Woon, GERMANIA THEATRI av.—Der Narn Des Gi urteenth street, near Third BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Boyxiz Fisnwire— Heune, tur Hunter, STADT THEATRE, Nos. 45 and 47 Bowery.—Orcra— Tae Macro Fuure, GRAND OPERA HOU: ay.—Rounp TE CLock. NIRLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Houston streets.—Lxo anp Loros. MRS. F. . Twenty-third st. and Eighth B.. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— Satanas, &c, BRYANT'S OPERA HOU: Gth av.—Necno Minster ATITENEUM, No, 685 or Novkuties. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA House, No. 201 Bowery.— Granp Vakiery ENTERTAINMENT, enty-third st., mnicity, &¢. corner roadway.—Srrenpip Vanint® TRELS, corner 28th st. and SAN FRANCISCO MI NSTRELSY, &C, Broadway.—Etmioriax CANTERBURY VARIETY THEATRE, Broadway, be- tween Bleecker and Houston,—Vatixty ENTERTAINMENT. TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, 58th st., between Lex- ington and Sd avs.—Orera—Dis FLorten Bunsoux, &c. DR. KAUN'S MUSEUM, No. 745 Broadway.—Aart aNnp ScURNCE. Pd FORK MUSEUM OF ANATOM 618 Broadway.— ork, Friday, Dee. 27, 1872. THE | NEWS OF YESTERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Merald. “TRE HERALD'S SPLENDID FORECASTS OF THE COLD WAVE AND THE SNOW STORM! A TERRIBLE SEASON OF TEMPESTS FROM THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS TO THE ALPS"—EDITORIAL LEADER—FovurtTi Pags. WHE TERRIBLE SNOW! A DEPTH OF THREE FEET ATTAINED! CROWDED CARS AND BELATED PEDESTRIANS: SNOW IUMOR: ST, NICHOLAS ABROAD: HISTORICAL COMPARISONS: THE COLDER WEATHER AND MORE DREADFUL STORMS bad YORE— Eraurn Pace. FEARFUL WEATHER AND STORMS IN THE N, NORTHERN, SOUTHERN AND RN STATES ! TERRIBLE GALES ON THE LAKES A THE ATUANTIC—MARI- TIME INTELLIGENCE—E1cuTa Pace. AN AWFUL CALAMITY AT WILLIAMSPORT, PA.! * THE ROOF AND FLOOR OF A BAPTIST CHURCH GIVE WAY, BURYING THE CON- GREGATION IN THE RUINS OF THE EDI- FICE! THREE HUNDRED PERSONS IM- PERILLED! THE KILLED AND MAIMED— Firti Pace. MURDERING A MAN TO OBTAIN MONEY FOR CHRISTMAS ORGIES! A MYSTERY OF BLOODSHED CLEARED BY THE ARREST or THE FIEND WHO DJD THE DEED! THE MURDER OF ROGERSKI, THE JEW PEDLER, AT WASHINGTON CILY—Firra PAGE, NEWS FROM EUROPE AND AFRICA BY THE ATLANTIC CABLE! SEVERE STORMS AND DISASTERS ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN COAST: THE FRENCH PRESIDENT RE- CEIVES THE JAPANESE AMBASSADORS— Fier Pace. & POLITICAL MELEE IN MEXICO—FATAL COL- ON THE ERIE RAILWAY—THE TER- SLAUG: AT GOOSE CREEK— FEDERAL CAPITAL NEWS—Firti Page. BARNUM'S AND THE CAXTON CONFLAGRA- TIONS! THE FIRE MARSHAL INVESTIGAT- ING: SEVEN LIVES CERTAINLY LOST: SEARCHING FOR THE VICTIMS' BODIES: FIRE-ESCAPE TRAPS: TESTIMONY BY EM- PLOYES—Tuirp PaGE. CONTESTING FOR SUPREMACY IN THE FRENCH ASSEMBLY! THE “RIGHT” TRIUMPHS: THIERS AT THE WALL: PARTY STATUS UNDER THE NEW REGIME: WAS THERE AN IMPERIAL KERNEL IN THE NUT OF CONTENTION?—SixTH PaGE. Yestenvay tx Watt Srneer was indubitably dull after the Christmas celebration, and the faint efforts at animation were soon given over in wonderment at and discussion of the Great snow storm. Gold, on a further outgo of specie, was strong and advanced to 112}. Fatat Ramroap Accmrnt.—An accident occurred on the Erie Railroad, near Sufferns station, yesterday. The Orange county ex- press, bound down, was brought to a stand- still about three miles south of Sufferns by a western bound freight train which had been switched on to the down track in order to let the Western express pass up the line, Flag- men were sent back to signal any down frain that might be approaching, but the snow ren- dered their progress necessarily slow. Just at this time a down freight train appeared, and, warned by the flagman, its engineer put down the brakes ; but the track was a sheet of ice and slippery snow, and the train slid along until it came in collision with the Orange ex- press and ‘‘telescoped”’ two of the cars. Mr. Lewis Hermance, of Kingston, was badly, and it is feared fatally, injured; but fortu- nately all the rest of the passengers and em- ployés escaped with slight scratches and bruises. Cowrraction anp Exranston.—The financial ways of the administration are mysterious enough. Before election Mr. Boutwell was all expansion. When a tightening of the money market was felt, through the operations of private individuals, the government was on the street with its gold and its greenbacks, end all was bright in the financial sky. Since election the policy of Secretary Boutwell has been a policy of contraction, The street can mow look after itself, while the Treasury De- partment is engaged in pushing its Syndicate funding hobby and arranging its details. But if Mr. Boutwell’s new policy should prove an ill wind to the commercial community it is likely to blow much good to Judge Richard- son, his able deputy, who, if report speaks truthfully, is to be one of the fortunate sharers in the Syndicate profits of fifteen or twenty millions, The United States Treasury Depart- ment has indeed proved a valuable mine to Above connected with it in recent years, NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1872. The Herald’s Splendid Forecasts of the Cold Wave and the Snow Storm—A . Terrible Season of Tempests from the Rocky Mountains to the Alps. The great snow storm of the 26th of De- p> appeared A Bon og arn city while a single individual of its existing inhabitants survives to tell tho wonderful atory to his descendants. A wonderful story it is, whether we consider the extent of the country covered by this tremendous nor'easter, the enormous volume of water discharged from the clouds in its course from the Gulf States to and far into the New Dominion, and from the Great Plains to tho Atlantic seaboard, up to the Gulf of St. Lawrence; or whether we consider it in connection with that most re- markable atmospheric tidal wave of freezing Arctic air from the far Northwest, which pre- ceded this heavy tempest. But embracing the portentous warning of that cold tidal wave and the extensive,sweep of this mighty storm, to- gether with the disastrous tempests on land and sea which havo ushered in this rough Winter in the United States and Europe, and from the Rocky Mountains to the Alps and the Apennines, the subject assumes the highest degree of importance to the people of both hemispheres, Since tho first of November—indeed, from the middle of October—particularly on the British islands, and along the southern coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic, and thence up the Rhine to the Alps and into the plains of Italy, the season has been marked by many storms and floods of almost unprecedented severity, and fearfully destructive of life and property. Through the same period there have been unusually heavy rains on tho Pacific .slope from California to Oregon, heavy early snows on the elevated plateau of the Great Basin, and notably on the lofty mountains around Great Salt Lake, and thence over all the Rocky Mountain chain, from the extreme North down to New Mexico, with o season of unusual frigidity over tho Great Plains and a season from the Missis- sippi eastward of extraordinary fluctuations from stormy nor'easters to dry and freezing nor’westers, and @ season of many ship- wrecks along the whole chain of the great lakes and along the Atlantic coast to the eastern front line of the West India islands. The storm of rain, sleet and snow which has visited the country east of the Mississippi is evidently connected with the great wave of cold air which inundated the land on Sunday last, and was preannounced by the Hrrarp on the 20th inst. It is easy to see that this flood of icy cold atmosphere descending from the Northwestern sections, on reaching the Gulf of Mexico, would condense the vaporous air of the States bordering upon that inland tropical sea, and produce the great precipitation of rain which the Signal Service had predicted, and which duly came. It is equally clear that after the country this side of the Mississippi was covered with such a Polar acrial mass the moment any southerly or easterly winds, bear- ing the vapors of the Gulf or the warm Atlan- tic, should set in towards the interior, the effect would be a similar condensation in the shape of rain and snow, wherever the two opposing hot and cold: atmospheres came together. This would follow as surely as the blowing of a warm moist wind over o mountain or high plateau, such as Mont Blanc or a plateau of Russia, is the occasion of copious rainfall or snowfall; for the late cold wave of which wo speak had really, as it were, erected over the eastern half of the United States a temporary aerial plateau of low temperature capable of producing great condensation by robbing every vapor-bearing wind from the sea of all tho water it contained in its vesicles. Just as the weather reports so beautifully foreshadowed, and just as we might have expected in accor- dance with theoretic anticipations, it appears that on Tuesday night the volumes of cold air penetrating to the Gulf Coast gave rise to great cloudiness, rapid condensation and the conse- quent formation or an atmospheric depression or low barometer. This storm centre, draw- ing for its supply of air from the interior and Atlantic States, induced northeasterly, east- erly and southeasterly winds from the ocean, which brought the vapor for the snow storm which has extended over the Northern and interior States to Tennessee and Virginia, while at the same time the Southern seaboard States have had their heavy rainfalls. The low barometer or storm vortex, as meteorolo- gists call it, thanks to our Signal Service, we are enabled to trace from its origin on Tuesday, in the Gulf, northeastwardly over the Carolinas, which it passed early on yesterday morning. Yesterday after- noon it was moving along the Virginia and Delaware coasts and was rapidly approaching New York, during which time it was keeping up on its northern side the water-charged northeasierly and easterly winds from the Atlantic, and thus furnishing an abundant supply of material for the snow storm. In the lower latitudes of the country the strata of intermixture of the cold and warm air not being sufficiently cold for the forma- tion of snow, the Southern States have had rain, while from Tennessee and Virginia northward the temperature has been so low as to give the precipitation the crystaline form of snow. The storm centre from the Gulf has moved, it appears, along the seaboard on parallel lines with the Gulf Stream, out of whose vast stores of hot water have doubtless come the vapor masses which have descended upon us in the form of the snowflake, and which now mantle the soil of the Middle, the Western and the New England States. It is altogether probable that this snow cyclone will strike with accelerated velocity ina northeastward course along the Gulf Stream axis and the extension of that great oceanic river, and will be heard from again from the log-books of European vessels that will survive its fury, or from the mysteriously silent story of those ships which may perish, with their crows, on its angry track. The Signal Servico at Washing- ton has long since interchanged its storm warnings with the Canadian ports, and they are doubtless already notified of its approach by the chief signal officer. It is not yet too late to caution all vessels from the Eastern ports, as also from this port, to watch care- fully the official telegrams that may be sent to the points fiom which vessels are about to depart. Some fifteen years ago there had been in December such severe frosts as to lock up under a heavy flooring of ice the Delaware, the Susquehanna and the Potomac rivers, But | with the New Year. and after a day or two i of warm winds from the south, there came a general and heavy rain, so warm that it was accompanied by lightning and thunder. The Delaware, the Susquehanua and the Potomac were broken up by their heavy freshets ; but while the ice, in a thick and continuous mass, was still drifting down those streams tho wind whipped round to the northwest, a tre- mendous freeze followed, and those rivers, frozen fast again, presented the appearance of vast quarries of transparent alabaster, uncov- ered, and with their strata cropping out of the snow in beautiful confusion. So deep was the pack at the mouth of the Susquehanna, at Havre de Grace, that, in being frozen into a solid mass it served as a bridge for the rail- road between Baltimore and Philadelphia till the return of Spring. Now, while it is probable that this cold term of December, with its great and terrific snow storm, may be followed a few days hence by our expected January thaw, it is quite as likely that a reaction will follow tho thaw which may establish for us a severe and protracted Winter. From the be- ginning, howover, we aro promised a Winter's supply of water to the thirsty land from which we may count upon abundant harvests in the coming Summer and Autumn, Even these Canadian frosts extending to the cotton States, in destroying the ova of numerous destructive insects, may prove ‘“‘a blessing in disguise’’ to the gardener, tho farmer and the planter. It has been said that a great snow in a great city is tho greatest of nuisances; but if so it is atill a great advantage to the country at largo, as & blanket to the young wheat and as a coating of nourishment to the soil, ‘It is an ill wind that blows nobody good ;"’ but this heavy snowfall, with all its inconveniences, oven in our cities, will have its compensations in giv- ing some employment to thousands of men, and in the distribution in the suburbs of con- siderable sums of money by merry sleighing parties, who drive out to The tintinnabulation of the bells. The Committee of Seventy and the Mu- nicipal Govermment, ‘The city reformers aro in @ bad way. The Conimittee of Seventy, which bas been ar- raigned by a republican organ since election as a body of hungry office-seekers, insists upon laying especial claim to Mayor Have- meyer, and, what is of more importance to its members, to the offices which Mayor Have- meyer may have to distribute. Recently a delegation from the Seventy sought an inter- view with the representatives of the repub- lican organization in this city with a view to proposing a division of the municipal spoils, The ostensible object was, of course, to en- deavor to agree upon a charter for New York city; the real object was precisely as wo have described it. The republicans were found to be obdurate. They entertain the belief that Mayor Havemeyer, who was tho republican nominee, was elected by republicans, and as he received nearly the exact vote of the repub- lican party in New York their claim ap- pears to be well founded. They therefore see no obligation to study the wishes of any outsiders in regard toappointments, and, while willing to listen to all the Committee of Sev- enty may have to propose in regard to a charter, they positively decline to enter into an arrangement for dividing the city offices with the aspiring Seventy, or such of them as ore still unprovided for. We published in last Sunday's Heratp an account of this rumpus, and, while some of the cumulative reformers have thought proper to question its correct- ness, our report is fully confirmed by their own admissions, It is amusing to see half a dozen ordinary citizens, without-any prominence either in point of position or intellect, setting them- selves up as tho framers of charters for the great city of New York and the dispensers of its patronage. The people would probably like to know by what authority Messrs. Salo- mon, Schultz, Eaton, Bliss and Gardner are assigned to the duty of framing laws for their government and of deciding who shall and who shall not be appointed to office, The im- pression prevails that the Legislature is the law- making power, and the Legislature, the Gov- ernor or the Mayor the appointing power. It is especially indecent for self-constituted re- formers like the Committee of Seventy, repre- senting no one but themselves, and professing to desire nothing but municipal reform, to be found scratching and scrambling after office and squabbling with every one who disputes their claim to preferment. If the next State Legislature were an honest and independent body it would rebuke these intermeddlers as they deserve to be rebuked whenever they step beyond their province and enter the lobby in their own interests, as they did in thg Inst legislative session. So faras the city gdvarilz ment is concerned the republicans have now the responsibility for its éefiiciency, honesty and capacity, and they have a right to claim full power over its affairs. With General Dix in the Executive chair of the State and Mr. Havemeyer in the Executive chair of the city, there is no danger of improper appoint- ments, however they may be made, Nor is there any necessity for a misunder- standing between the republican Legislature and the republican executives. If the object of all is good city government none neod object to the manner in which the appoint- ments may be made. At present our city gov- ernment is in a constant turmoil through the jealousies between the financial department and all the other city departments except that of Public Parks. The consequence is disas- trous to the interests of the city, and the restoration of harmony is the first essential to areformed government. As the republicans will now be held responsible for the future administration of the affairs, both of the State and of the city, it is for them to say how the harmonious working of all the departments can be best secured and how the municipal offices shajl be filled. The Committee of Seventy have the same rights with other citi- zens to express their views in regard to our future government ; but when they undertake to enforce their special claims to office or to assume the rédle of lobbyists they deserve such a rebuke as that recently administered to them by the republican organization, ‘Tue Boanp or ALpEerMANtc Supervisors had @ warm dispute yesterday over the last bills of the season. The Sheriffs, present and past, made an effort to secure favorable action on their claims for fees, amounting in both cases to heavy totals, and their friends mado a The bills were ‘laid over ;"’ but several large claims were approved, and the session must have been a profitable one to all except the Sheriffs, ‘ The Postal Telegraph and Its Oppo- ments—Falso Promises and Falia- clous Arguments. The opponents of the postal telegraph ap- pear to have séttled down upon two points in support of their position—first, that the con- trokof the telegraphic wires would be a dan- gerous power in the hands of a political ad- ministration, and next, that the reduction of rates promised by the government would de- crease the profits, render it impossible that the lines should pay, and impose a burden upon the taxpayers for their support. The first objection affects political parties alone ; the second affects the public, and if well founded would be fatal to the proposed change, inasmuch as the great object of tho assumption of the lines by the government is to secure to the people lower rates and im- proved facilities, The danger of entrusting telegraphic mes- sages to the hands of government officers is no greater than that of confiding letters to the same agency. An administration that would be unscrupulous enough to tamper with telo- grams passing between citizens would not hesi- tate to delay, suppress or violate private cor- respondence passing through the mails, Tele- grams are open communications, it is true; but for that yery reason they are cau- tiously guarded. A person doos not usually send important secrets by telegraph except in cipher; and hence, even supposing it to be possible that tho confidential agents of the government could read every despatch trans- mitted over the wires, they would not be hkely to find much to repay them for the trouble. Besides, the Telegraphic Department of tho government would be less under political con- trol than any other. Expert operators cannot be found every day, and it would be impracti- cable to confine the selection of electricians to any particular political party. The operators ou & government line would not be any more accessible to the influence of politicians than are the operators ona line owned by a private corporation, and if an administration really desired to make political use of the informa- tion passing over the wires it would find it as easy todo so through the instrumontality ofa company which owes its existence and its special privileges to the party in power, as if the business were in the hands of the govern- ment. The outcry against “arbitrary power’ and ‘‘centralization’’ would therefore deceive or alarm no intelligent person, even if it were not raised by organs which look approv- ingly upon the recent overthrow of a sove- reign State government by federal usurpa- tion. The pretence that the government could not lower the present exorbitant rates ex- acted by a private monopoly without a heavy pecuniary loss is based upon the baldest misrepresentation of facts. Tho Western Union Telegraph Company represents over forty millions capital through repeated ‘‘wa- tering’ of the stock, while its actual capital, as represented by the value of the plant, is under twelve millions. Responsible parties, who are at the same time the most experienced and most competent electricians in the United States, stand ready to duplicate every line owned or leased by the Western Union, with uniform! wire as good as the best to be found on any portion of the existing lines, with bet- ter insulators than those now in general use in this country, and with the latest improved instruments, for the sum of twelve million dollars; and out of this they claim that their profit would be at least a million dollars. If the government should take the Western Union lines at the fabulous capital of between forty and fifty millions, or even at the rate of the present speculative market quotations, which represent nearly three times the bona fide capital, it might at first lose money by reducing the rates for transmission; but if new government lines are built, or if the lines of the Western Union should be taken at their real value of, say, twelve million dollars, tho rates for messages would be reduced fifty per cent and yet realize a much larger profit than is made on a fictitious forty-million capital. The assertion that low rates have always de- creased receipts is not supported by facts. In England the cheaper the cost of telegraphing the greater has been the profit. In every country men will be found opposed to innova- tion, who will argue against reductions of rates, and in a country like Belgium probably with some reason. But the people of the United States need the telegraph more and use it more than any other people in the world, and it only needs reasonably reduced charges to quadruple the present business. It is simply an absurdity to assert that four mes- sages at fifty cents a message will not yield a larger profit than one message at one dollar. The Western Union directors have them- selves supplied the best answer to the argu- ment against the reduction of rates by agree- ing, as we are informed, upon a gradual annual reduction of their present tariff, com- mencing with the new year and extending over four or five years. This must be done in the expectation that cheaper rates will increase the profits, or it is an unjust act towards the stockholders, who, even at the present charges, receive little or no dividend. The explanation of the new policy may, indeed, be found in the fact that the bill known as the Hubbard bill, which establishes a new company to build lines all over the United States, is reported to have enlisted the active interest aud co-opera- tion of some heavy capitalists, who in- tend to use all necessary exertions to secure its early passage by Congress, If Congress should not yet be propared to adopt the government system it should cer- tainly be willing to grant a charter to a new company and thus afford the people the advan- tage of competition. The opposition to the postal telegraph is ostensibly based on public grounds. It is argued that the people are bet- ter served by a private corporation than they would be by the government. There can be no honest opposition, however, to the estab- lishment of a new corporation the capital of which will be simply the cost of the plant, and which will be in a condition at once to reduce the present rates thirty or forty per cont. If we are correctly informed the Hubbard bill will be vigorously pressed when Congress re- assembles, and if we are not yet to have a postal telegraph the peoplo will at least expect their representatives to favor the proposed now desperate fight for them, but withoub success, | ling in the public intesest, ‘Tne Penalties of Courting by Fost. The weak, soft sides of human nature are, Perhaps, more frequently exhibited in breach of promise cases than in any other branch of legal inquisition. The Asmodeus of the law in his diabolic unroofing of the secrets of the heart has seldom such cause for sardonic laughter as when he lays bare the story of a failure to marry after tho parties concerned have reached the roseate height of a matri- monial engagement, Whether it is that so- ciety chucklingly finds therein a repetition of its own happily hidden experience in sending or receiving billets doux, or whether the intrin- sic fun of the developments is sufficient in itself, cortain it is that everybody laughs heartily when breach of promise is brought before the world. It is, however, very rare that the heroines of riven engagement fetters can bring the same cause into court as Miss Margaret Gilmore lately did at Pittsburg, in her suit for damages against J. S. Corbett. The gushing swain found some dozen specimens of his hand- writing as well as the lady before him. Tho story of these epistles, as told elsewhere, is among the most curious of the kind, Mr. Corbett is a native of Ireland, and had fost, as he says in one of his letters, a great deal of his hair in California, which delicately implies that he is bald. His experience of lovely woman on the American Continent did not fill him with the desire to confer his hand upon any fair one between the two great oceans. But he wanted to marry. Turning fondly backward in imagination to the pure moral atmosphere of the home of his childhood, the original idea struck him of engaging his rela- tives in the Emerald Isle as matrimonial agents. A maiden was soon selected by them for the position, and her photograph for- warded to the trusting Corbett. He was de- lighted, and commenced a series of letters to the bride expectant, wherein the cool delibera- tion of the middle-aged man of business gradually merged in the passionate gush of the ardent lover, He avowed himself a Covenanter, but the ‘one touch of nature’ soon proved that the traditional grimness of Puritanism was much subdued in his Celtic s6ul. Like a true gallant he thought Miss Gilmore should cross the sea as soon as practicable, so their marital jubilee should begin at an carly day. It is here curious to note how deftly a Cov- enanter can woo. Miss Gilmore was anxious, it appears, in traversing tho wild Atlantic to have a man for o safeguard. The wily and pressing Covenanter, if he had lost a great deal of his hair, had not lost a particle of his mother wit, for he suggested to her that the Almighty was the caretaker on which she should rely. This was a neat stroke. The lady trustfully consonted to leave her home, and the Covenanter furnished the tickets, On her arrival at Pittsburg by train from Now York she was to wave a white handkerchief, whereby the Covenanter would recognize histreasure. The train came puffing into the great, dingy depot of the Smoky City. He peered around for some time anxiously. At last the white handkerchief was waved and on she came with her maiden smile. Could there be a mistake? No, She waved the blanched talisman ; she answered to hername. His heartsank within him. His riotous fancy had painted a fairy picture. The reality weighed close on two hundred pounds and was close on forty years of age. He con- ducted her coolly, but with shattered hopes, to the house of a relative, and as soon as pos- sible fled precipitately to Ohio. The lady pined, and after careful consideration valued her blighted prospects at ten thousand dollars. The law thus invoked overtook the Covenanter, and he was finally allowed to rid himself of the portly Margaret forever for four hundred dollars damages—that is, about two dollars a pound, if we view it from the standpoint of avoirdupois. It was very cheap, and although neither party is satisfied it is hard to say with which side to sympathize in what was folly on the part of both. A Parisian dramatist has lately developed on the stage the idea of mar- trying by telegraph, but courting by post and photography does not seem to succeed in real life. If the Covenanter were younger it might have worked better. The sanguine soul of youth might have tided over the disappoint- ment; but it may now be decided that it is impossible with a man who has lost a great deal of his hair. The Centre Street Fire=Where Are the Six Girls? , No tidings are received from any of the operatives who are supposed to have perished in the Centre street fire. So severe was tho storm yesterday that the work of clearing away the ruins could not proceed, and it is prob- able that the bodies are concealed amid the pile of burning rubbish. Is anybody respon- sible for this loss of life? When the bereaved mother demands her child is there none whose conscience will convict him of culpable neglect? Wo are told that the Are e escapes were simply balconies outside the windows, destitute of ladders to connect the several stories. What assistance could such apparatus offer to a throng of frightened girls? No efforts can now save those lost lives; but within a stone's throw of the spot where they perished two hundred girls work daily on the wooden Mansard roof floor of a six-story building, which is said not to have even the pretence of outside fire escapes. Not a day ought to be lost before this and all similar death-traps be furnished with the best appli- ances which can be devised for safe egress. A card from the Superintendent of Buildings in to-day’s Hznatp states that thousands of buildings exist in our city even more danger- ous than this one in Centro street which has cost the community so many lives. If they are suffered to remain thus dangerous a frightful weight of guilt will rest on those who permit it. A Tennrrpte Catastroruz.—Another fearful catastrophe is recorded in the Herarp to-day. On Christmas morning, while services were be- ing heldin the Newberry Baptist church, in Williamsport, Pa., the floor and ceiling gave way, and five hundred persons were precipitated into the cellar below. Fifteen persons were killed and about fifty wounded more or less seriously. Among the killed whose nares are given are seven females and three children. Many a home was plunged into the depths of gtief by the terrible visitation, and gloom was spread over the entire city, It was in- deed a mournful Christmas for the people of Williamsport, and many a year will pass ore the season of Christian rejoicing is freed from the momory of the gad aflliction, A Legal Authority on Corrugated Irom Cages and the Building Law. Mr. Macgregor, the Superiatendent of Buildings, feeling hurt at the Hesanp hav- ing classed the corragated cage now being erected for the Rev. Mr. Hepworth with the corrugated cages lately burned to the ground, writes to say that the law is to blame, Ho has been laboring in his Department for ten years, he says, to procure a more stringent building law, and thus far has only been able to obtain it in part, Few people would have suspected that this terrible struggle of a decade had beeh going on; and fewer still that the part which he did obtain made any very percepti- ble difference in the result to the public safety. Leaving aside this wonderful atruggle and ite outcome, we may return to Mr. Hep- worth’s new church. It has sixteon-inch brick walls and excellent flues, but its roof is not, as he desired, fireproof. The corrugated iron sheeting is only for ornament. Tho perfection of the flues is his strong point. Now, the flues ne- cessarily pass up by tho tinder-box roof, and this will give some idea of Mr. Macgregor’a high ideal. If the Superintendent thinks that the shortcoming of the law alone is to blame ho need not so ingeniously apologize for the ornamental nature of the corrugated iron, nor fall into ecstasies over the flues, which, in their proximity to a wooden superstructura, constitute a Permanent source of danger. Aa Mr, Fepresents himsslf, ho is a helpless Official tied down by the law, and pers, petually in danger of being denounced aa & high-handed oppressor by the city press, aa well as by the architects and builders, should he stir 9 C9 the public, The Heratp, 4 bon oe intimates, has be Doon more copious in that species of ‘criticism than any other paper. As well as we remember any criticisms the o Henan may haye made, 89 far as Mr, Macgregor is conestned, wore quita the reverse of what he now professes to fear. The uptown man-trap which fell like a house of cards while being built, certainly did not blame him for being more stringent than the law allowed. It was quite the contrary. It Mr. Macgregor is content with carrying out even what he considers a defective law, it is no reason that the rest of the community should be. “No one will assume,” says Mr. Mac- gregor, ‘that the corrugated -iron covering rendered that building (Barnum’s) less fire- proof.” This is very bold, no doubt, but it is as thin as the iron itself. Iron has such a fire-proof sound about it that he-hopes to bear down all comment under the word; but the experience of the two fires indicates that the corrugated shell, when once its wooden contents are ignited, tends, by furnishing atemporsry furnace, to increase the fiercenesg of the flames. Having performed that part of the work, the shell quickly curls up with the contained heat, and allows the work of de- struction to be communicated wherever the wind listeth. This is what Mr. Macgregor charmingly calls novel. It may be to Mr. Macgregor. We wish him, however, to be consoled. The lessons of the Boston fire and the late series in the city will, wo hope, in- duce the Legislature to encircle him or hia successor with such powers that when a build- ing is burned the Superintendent will not be able to fall back upon the defects of the law for his excuse. When he blames the Comp- troller for cutting down his estimates he may certainly have justice on his side. It is a serious matter to think that parsimony should leave the city even partially undefended in sca important a matter. We should be glad to learn more on this head. We cannot think, however, that he has made anything like a good case for Mr. Hepworth’s new corrugated cage. Morper my Matamoros anp City Tomuny on tHe Rro Granpe.—A despatch from Mata- moros, dated yesterday, reports that the politi- cal excitement which has prevailed in the border line Mexican city for some time past has culminated in municipal tumult and the commission of a murder during the conduct of a military melée, Cortina’s men have fought in the streets of the place with Mexican soldiers of the line. A non-commissioned officer of the Republic was killed and several citizens wounded. Regular troops, aided by the National Guard, restored order. Cortina alleges that he defended himself against a con- spiracy hatched for the purpose of assassinating him. The existing condition of affairs in Matamoros, and along the line of the Ria Grande in that direction, is of an exceedingly dangerous character, particularly so to Amerie can interests on both sides of the river. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Congressman L. P. Poland, of Vermont, is at the Grand Central Hotel. Hon, Elihu B, Washburne Is stopping at the Com- monwealth Hotel in Boston. Speaker Blaine is spending the holidays among his personal friends in Maine. The story is again in ¢ircu’ation that General Phil Sheridan is soo to be married. Ex-Governor Henry H. Haight, of California, ts delivering lectures in San Frantcisco. Lieutenant Governor W. H. Gleason, of Fiorida,’ has arrived at the Grand Central Hotel. Mr. Bachr, the senior of the German philologists, and author of a history of Latin literature, is dead, Sefior Manuel Garcia, Minister of the Argentine Republic at Washington, has arrived with hia family in Paris, Professor Wyville Thomson, of Edinburgh, ta the chief of the new British scientific exploring expe- dition round the world, It is reported that Hon, George Washington Julian, of Indiana, is going to Texas, where be will desire to be known as Farmer Julian. Mr. Youl, a Scotchman, is carrying the ova of salmon from British rivers to stock the waters of New Zealand, He will place them tn youl tide. M. Schwartz Kiechlin, 4 wealthy manufacturer of Mulhouse, offers France 1,000,000f. towaras the establishment of 200 Alsatian families in Algeria, Henry T. Blow, of St. Louis, the former Minister to Brazil, yesterday arrived in town with the great snow storm. He isat the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Rev. John W. Johnson, a native of LMngham, N, H., and for twenty-five years @ missionary ia China, of the American Baptist Missionary Union, died at Swatow on the 2ist of October, Mr. Van Meter, formerly of this city, has been checked by the government in his work of educat- ing the poor children in Rome, Italy. The cause of the governmental opposition to Mr. Van Meter’s enterprise is not definea. Mr. Hynes, the new Congressman at Large from Arkansas, denies that he isa republican reformer. He ran on that ticket, but says he is square radi. cal. General Banks, who was not elected, is sald to have similar convictions now, The Dublin Evening Post, of vecember, 7 has the following obituary notice :—“Died, on Thursday, at Galway, Mr, Walter Burke, father of tne Very Rev, Thomas N, Burke, 0. P, There was an office and high mags for the repose of his soul in the Church of St. Aaiour. Dublin, tuis morping''