The New York Herald Newspaper, January 6, 1873, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. Volume XXXVIIL............::ceeseseeesNOe 6 —_———— AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, enty-third st. and Eighth av.—Bounp tux Croce. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broad , between Prince and Houston streets.—Lxo anp Loros. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadway, between nth and Fourteenth streets.—AyuxRiky Court. WALLACK'S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street.—Brorner Sam. BOOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-third street, corner Sixth @venue.—Ricuarp III. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Dina Dono Bru, OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston ‘aud Bleecker streets —Lxs Buicanps. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Two Srorts—Cxime; on, Secrets or Ciry Lire. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near Third Sv.—Dar MxineipaavEr. ATAENEUM, No. 585 Broadway.—Tux Turex Honcn- BACKS, MRS. F. B, CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— Divorce. NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1873—WITH SUPPLEMENT, The Oredit Mobilier Corruption—More Light for the Investigating Commit- tee of Congress. As the committee appointed by Congress to investigate the charges made against certain members of that body of a corrupt interest in the Orédit Mobilier is about to renew its sittings, and as its time is short, we place before it, through the medium of to-day’s Henarp, the inner history of the connection of that company with the Union Pacific Rail- road. The information is contained in an affidavit of Dr. Thomas ©. Durant, and, although this statement is a portion of tho records of the Supreme Court, in the suit pending between the two corporations, the facts it sets forth are now for the first time published. ‘The story of the corruption will be the clearer to tho general public, and the moro easily understood, from this eapos¢ of the transactions, and after its perusal the, investigating committee will be better ablo to discover the importance to the parties interested in the magnificent scheme of plunder of such friendly aid in Congress as would insure them against any in- vestigation into their acta. The Union Pacific Railroad was a ward, as it were, of the STEINWAY HALL, Fourteenth street.—Lectunze— “Gossir, Its Causxs axn Cone.” ASSOCIATION HALL, 23d street and 4th av.~Lxe- roRe—"TuuE Metmop OF LEARNING FRENCH." BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third at. corner Oth av.—Nucro Minstaxisy, Eccentgicitr, &c. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— A Munxr’s Lire, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, corner 28th st. and Froadway.—Etuiorian MinstRELsy, 4c. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— ECIENCE AND ART, WITH SUPPLEMENT. New York, Monday, Jan. 6, 1873. THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. 'To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. — “THE CREDIT MOBILIER CORRUPTION! MORE LIGHT FOR THE INVESTIGATING COMMIT- TEE OF CONGRESS’—LEADER—FovurTa PaGE. THE CREDIT MOBILIER VICE PRESIDENT SETS FORTH SOME FACTS! WHAT THE CON- GRESSIONAL COMMITTEE MAY FIND OF FRAUDS UPON THE UNION PACIFIO: A PUBLIC EXPOSE OF CONTRACTS, AFFI- DAVITS AND INJUNCTIONS—SEcoND aND THIRD PaGEs. MAYOR HAVEMEYER’S MUNICIPAL VIEWS AND REMINISCENCES! AN INTERESTING CHAPTER FROM A WELL-INFORMED CHIEF MAGISTRATE: FOSTERING RINGS+Six1u Pace, SAN FRANCISCO PROTESTS AGAINST THE GOAT ISLAND SCHEME! SPEECHES OF PROMI- NENT CITIZENS: THE DANGERS FROM THE PACIFIC RAILWAY—Firtu PaGs. NEWS ¥ROM THE NATIONAL CAPITAL—TELE- GRAPHIC AND LOCAL ITEMS OF NEWS— Firti Par. STOKES IN THE TOMBS! HOW HE SPENT YESTERDAY: HIS DOOM: IN “MURDER- ERS’ ROW: COUNSEL RISING TO EX- PLAIN—TENTH PaGE. HONEST JOHN CAMERON ENTOMBED! IMPRES- SIVE CEREMONIES AT THE CHURCH AND THE GRAVE: MASONIC AND POLICE TES- TIMONIALS OF ESTEEM—MARITIME INTEL- LIGENCE—TENTH PAGE. “LES MISERABLES!" BITTER BOREAS SPREADS AN ICY MANTLE OVER THE METRUPOLIS AND CUTS OFF THE ELECTRIC CURRENT: THE POLICE, FIRE AND SIGNAL SER- VICES—FirtH PGs. “FREE LANCE'S’ APPRECIATION OF DUN- DREARY’S BROTHER, THE WEATHER AND FIRES! THE NEW CURE FOR ENNUI: BLESSINGS OF OUR TEMPERATE ZONE— SixtH Pac. A QUARANTINE EXHIBIT! WHAT HAS BREN DONE IN THE EXTIRPATION OF CON- TAGIOUS DISEASES: THE DEATHS ON SHIP AND IN HOSPITAL: THE FACILITIES OF THE SANITARY OFFICIALS—E1guTo Page. RESUME OF THE MONEY MARKETS FOR THE WEEK! THE FLUCTUATIONS AND FINAL RATES—THE NOTED DEAD—Nintu Pace. DOCTRINAL POINTS DISCUSSED BY THE PAS- TORS! THE SLUSH AS A BAR TO DEVO- TION: A BOUNTEOUS RELIGIOUS SPREAD FOR THE HERALD READERS—Eronin PaGE. Present Turers axp THe Porr.—M. Borcelles, the representative of the French Republic at the Papal Court, will, it is said, soon return to Paris. In some quarters this is regarded as an evidence of the continuance of the difference between President Thiers and the Holy Father. It is perhaps more natural to conclude that the President has resolved to discontinue an embassy which is no longer of any use, One representative in Rome Presi- dent Thiers may think is quite sufficient to attend to the interests of France. By universal consent the Pope has ceased to occupy the position of a temporal prince. NJOYMENT Can Go Hanp my Ranp before those who purchase tickets for the various balls in aid of charitable institu- tions in the city. On Wednesday, the 22d inst., the ball in aid of the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum will be given at the Academy of Music. Itis pleasant way to be char- itable; and where youth and beauty can woo their way heavenward in evening dress and, to the light sttains of “L’Allegro,’’ soften the lot of “i Penseroso’’ it should be done, Tae Sanpwick anv Fis Istanps,—Our friends across the water are evidently much exercised about the future of the Sandwich Islands. John Bull sees quite ns clearly as Brother Jonathan that manifest destiny points to the annexation of these islands to the United States. We have no desire to enlarge our ter- ritory by the annexation of any of our imme- diate neighbors. What we wish to see is a cordon of separate and prosperous republics on this Continent and in our immediate neighbor- hapd. But the Sandwich Islands are necessary to us a8 9 half-way station between China and Australia, in view of our great and rapidly growing trade in the Pacific. We need them ond we ought to have them at once, either by direct annexation or through the establish- ment of a protectorate. We can have no objection to the suggestion made by the London Standard, that in order to maintain the equilibrium, should the Sandwich Islands fall into our hands the Fiji Islands should be Annexed to Australia. We had supposed that Great Britain bad already on her hands too cc. colonies, In a matter of this kind, however, shé fitst be allowed to judge for Derselt. government, The people, whose substance was invested in the road, were interested in the honest and efficiont management of the affairs of the corporation, and stood, in fact, in the position of preferred creditors. If faith- ful and honorable Representatives in Congress had investigated the charges made from time to time against the management of the com- pany they would have exposed the bold plun- der of the road by the Crédit Mobilier ring and the government would have stepped in to rescue it from the hands of the conspirators, Secrecy was the great object to be achieved in order to enable the few men who were banded together to defraud the stockholders and the government, to carry their designs to success. To accomplish this it was necessary to seal the lips of the most active members of the Senate and the House, and it will be the duty of the committee now engaged in the investigation to ascertain from the record whether the votes of those who have been interested, either in their own names or in the names of relatives and close family connec- tions, in the Crédit Mobilier, have not been uniformly cast to obstruct and defoat investi- gation into its transactions. The simple history of the affair that has created so much excitement is soon told. While the Union Pacific road was under con- struction a ‘ring’’ was formed inside the direction, embracing, as such a combination always does, the shrewdest, most active and least scrupulous of the Board, for the purpose of making large fortunes for its members in an illegitimate manner, at the cost of the road and of the unsuspecting stockholders. As usual, the object was to be achieved by means of construction contracts. Through the votes of the ‘‘ring’’ the work was to be awarded in a lump to some dummy contractor, at a price double, or more than double, the cost, with a fair profit added ; for, as a great many capa- cious appetites had to be satisfied, an ample margin was necessary. The contractor was then to make over the contract to the ‘ring’ directors, in their capacity of stockholders of the Crédit Mobilier, the pretence being that the Crédit Mobilier had the means to push the work vigorously forward, and would be better able to do so than any single individual. In pursuance of this conspiracy—for it was nothing else—the contract for the construction of a large portion of the road at fifty thousand dollars a mile was awarded and duly assigned to the “ring’’— a price which, according to Dr. Durant’s statement, was more than double the legit- imate cost of the work. This, however, was not enough. By the votes of the conspirators many miles of road which had already been constructed and accepted by the United States government as complete, and which had nearly all been paid for by the Union Pacific Company, were included in the contract at fifty thousand dollars a mile, and thus an enormous amount of money was taken bodily, as it were, out of the pockets of the stockholders without a shadow of jus- tification and transferred to tho greedy grasp of the ring. The shares of thé Crédit Mobilier were thus made at once worth from eight to ten times their face value—that is to say, o single thousand dollar share. was worth from eight to ten thousand dollars in cnsh. Armed with this capital the members of Congress who were in the ring set about “‘satisfying’’ their associates at Washington of the great virtues and benefits of the Crédit Mobilier, of the ad- mirable and honest management of the affairs of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and of the propriety and patriotism of frowning down all attempts to interfere with its great work by petty inquiries and annoying investigations— of the wisdom, in short, of allowing it to con- tinue a close corporation, sealed up from the eyes of all except the conspirators and their allies. Of course no “improper inducements”’ were offered to Senators and Representatives to bring them over to this way of thinking. The offer of s money bribe would, no doubt, have been indignantly spurned as a vulgar and dangerous proceeding. A “pure business transaction’ took place between the lobbyists of the Crédit Mobilier ring and the speculative members, The latter simply pur- chased a few shares each in the Crédit Mo- bilier, and “paid their money" for them—at par, of course. Some of them were too punc- tilious even to do this; but they had wives, and brothers, and sons and gons-in-law who had no objection to such ventures, and who entered into them without reserve. Lucky dogs! They found their one thousand dollar shares worth ten thousand dollars in cash, if they desired to sell them back again, and brimming over with heavy dividends if they concluded to hold them in their possession. What wonder that o corporation so sig- nally successful should be regarded by these fortunate Senators and Representatives as deserving every encouragement and protec- tion that Congress could give it, and that both the Crédit Mobilier and the Union Pacific Railroad should haye found warm friends at | Washington always watchful of their interests and jealous of their privileges! There are some plain, blunt people in the world who will insist that the Senators and Representatives who received this Crédit Mobi- lier stock at par, and voted for every measure demanded and against every measure objected to by the men who bestowed it upon them, were bought up, like cattle, at so much a head. There are some artless enough to believe that Senators and Representatives whose wives, sons-in-law or other near relatives were 80 favored asto be given ten thousand dollars for one thousand by the Crédit Mobilier ring have been just as guilty of bribery and corruption as if they had taken so much cash for their votes, | Theso singular opinions will not have been changed, or modified even, by the course pur- sued by the tainted legislators who have been blatant in their denunciation of those instru- mental in exposing the scandal, or who at one time ao boldly and so untruthfully denied all connection with and all knowledge of the dis- Graceful transaction. Itis for the committee of investigation to decide how far the people who entertain these views are correct in their judgment. Thanks to the Heraup, the mem- bers of tho committee have now plain sailing before them. ‘The denials are all or nearly all withdrawn, and pleas of justification or restitu- tion have taken their place. The names of some of the fortunate stockhold- ers in the Orédit Mobilier have been supplied, and it will not be s0 difficult to discover for whom Oakes Ames and others held large amounts ‘‘in trust.’’ But all this the committee must now inquire into with open doors, There must be no more tampering with this loathsome disease; its seat must be reached and tho knife of the operator must cut it from the body politic. The people must be cheated and hoodwinked no longer. Already an uneasy feeling is abroad as to the integrity of the committee, and the fact that most of its members have been steady supporters of the Crédit Mobilier and the Union Pacific Railroad is not calcu- lnted to reassure tho public mind. Let the committee look to it that the taint already on their associates in Congress does not extend to their own garments ! We call upon the investigating committee to remove the suspicious seal of secrecy 80 unwisely placed upon their proceedings and to throw open their doors at once to the people of the United States. We demand in the name of the people that these investigators shall stand forth in the light of day and let the truth be known, no matter who may be dam- aged by the disclosures, Let us know if men in the highest and most responsible positions in the government are mere purchasable jobbers, ready to violate their oaths and betray the public interests for a price. It is too late now to cover up tracks and protect friends. Will the investigating committee do its duty fearlessly, or stand branded as a partner in the infamy it fears to expose? The Cabinct Changes—The Secretary of the Treasury. A despatch from Washington represents that President Grant denies any present knowledge of the desire of any Cabinet member to retire except the Secretary of the Treasury, or any present intention on his part to make changes save in this instance, and that only should it become necessary. Very general dissatisfac- tion will be felt should Mr. Fish continue in the office of Secretary of State. Tho people look for change in that office. As to Mr. Boutwell, his policy has been 80 eccentric that tho commercial com- munity will feel relief when he retires, His contraction policy now is as singular as his expansion policy before election. Then the Secretary of the Treasury was the friend of the bulls; now he is the hope and main- stay of the bears, Hoarding greenbacks, he now appears in the réle of an official ‘locker- up” of currency, and those who a short time ago relied upon him as the prop of speculative stocks now fear that he is about to bring about their ears the temple of sand he has helped to build up. We would just suggest that possibly some good may grow out of the rumor that. Bout- well alone is to retire. If no Secretary of State is to be taken from New York this city may furnish a Secretary of the Treasury. If Governor E. D. Morgan should hope to be Mr. Boutwell’s successor, then Senator Roscoe Conkling might find the Senatorial race the easier to win. There are all sorts of singular ‘dfs"’ in politics, The Recent Fatal Fires—The of the Grand Jury. It is very well known that the Coroner's in- quiry into the cause of the deaths of the vic- tims of the Fifth Avenue Hotel fire was unsat- isfactory to the people of New York. The ver- dict of the Jury was not such as had been ex- pected, or such as the terrible event seemed, in the opinion of a large majority of our citi- zens, to warrant. Nine unfortunate girls were roasted and charred in their horrible prison chambers, left until too late without warning of their deadly peril, barred in by grating from escape by the roof, driven back by the cruel flames and smoke from escape by the stairway, shricking in their terrible agony to the annoyance of the hotel clerks until death put a stop at once to their cries and their sufferings. It should be ascertained positively and beyond doubt whether any respon- sibility for their awful fate attaches to any living human being; whether the owner of the hotel in the slightest degree neglected those means of escape from fire required by the law ; whether the lessee by any act ren- dered escape impossible; whether while the guests were warned of the danger these poor young girls were left unheeded to their fate ; whether, in fact, any act was done or omitted to be done by any person which aided this miserable sacrifice of human life and for which the law can exact punishment. The duty of this inquiry devolves on the Grand Jury of the Court of Special Sessions, and Judge Sutherland, who will now take his seat on the bench of that Court, should charge the Jury to that effect. As District Attorney, and as Supreme Court Judge presiding at the Oyer and Terminer, Judge Sutherland will fully understand the importance of an investigation into the causes of the deaths at both the Fifth Avenue and the Centre street fires, and the propriety of instructing the Jury on the subject, He is not likely to neglect this duty because the victims in both cases were poor Irish girls who came here to seek an honest living by honest labor. For centuries burning to death has been looked upon as the most awful suffering the human frame can undergo, and the surroundings in both these cages have added additional horror even to that most hor- rible fate. The people will not be satisfied unless a thorough investigation by a Grand Jury is made, and no person should be allowed to sit on the Jury charged with the duty who is Duty in any manner, directly or indirectly, con- nected with the owner or lessee of either building. We trust that Judge Sutherland will give these suggestions a proper considera- tion, and that the inquiry we demand will be made without fear and without favor. The Prevision of Fogs and the Ad- vancing Storm. Our great fogs have usually beon made the subject of jest and joke, but if meteorologists are to be believed they are very suggestive and important phenomena. The late fogs which so thickly mantled this city extended many hundreds of miles southward, and have proved the occasion of more disaster than a severe storm; so that it becomes as necessary for our Weather Bureau to be as premonitory of the former as of the latter. In descending the Danube in 1818 Sir Humphrey Davy noticed that mist was invariably formed during the night when the air on the banks of the river was as much as six degrees colder than that overhanging the stream.’ The densest fogs are known to form during the winter months, and especially in the vicinity of large rivers and large cities. The famous London fog owes its November thickness to the comparative warmth of the Thames bed and the artificial heat of the metropolis at a season when the cold Polar and soft equatorial winds overlap each other and com- mix. The intervening mist lying between the two great air currents is a premonition of those terrible gales, originated by the rapid condens- ation of the warmer and southerly wind, and too often serves as a veil to conceal the deadly designs of the gathering storm. The Gulf Stream coming in contact with the hyper- borean Labrador stream on the Newfoundland Banks is scarcely less certain of causing the notorious fogs which prevail there. There is the conflict of the two opposite aerial streams, ‘equatorial and polar,” to occasion the vio- lent disturbances of the atmosphere which make the Gulf Stream the terror of the mariner. Humboldt and others have observed that when an oceanic current mects a shoal in its course the spot is indicated by the shroud of fog which is immediately and permanently formed. With such indications our weather guides may be enabled to give much earlier and surer prognostications of the storms that must now be looked for during the later Winter and boisterous March. The region over which the late fog was so dense, and, in some instances, so disastrous, is the Middle Atlantic seaboard, and we may justly infer that it is at present the area of active conflict be- tween the boreal and southerly winds— great disturbers of the atmospheric peace. We shall do well to be on our guard against the early recurrence of severe gales off the coast and severe rain and snow storms on the land. The great Royal Charter gale of 1859 on the coast of Anglesea, of unsurpassed vio- lence, was preceded by just such weather as we have recently had—hail, snow and sleet in the north and heavy rains in the south, with dense fogs and other indications of conflicting currents. Even while we are writing this the Signal Office reports a storm in the Ohio Valley, moving northeastward, and orders its warning signals to be displayed at this post ard along the seaboard. ~ ~*~ The Rain Fall Yesterday—Damage to the Telegraph Lines. The few unfortunate ones who were com- pelled to be out yesterday to answer the calls o. duty or of business, and the few pious ones whose Christian love was proof against the weather, and who if salvation came by works would deserve well of the Almighty, had some sensible experiences of what the Storm King can do when he martials his forces, Begining feebly about church time in the morning, the rain in- creased in volume and fell with vigor, freez- ing almost as rapidly as it fell, until walking was a penance if not an impossibility, All the ingenuity of Puck covld not keep the telegraph wires in their position, nor in their relations to poles and persons. Loaded with icicles, they yielded to the weight, broke from their fastenings, ond to-day they hang listlessly and uselessly across streets and avenues and sidewalks of our city. Our police and fire departments have gone back to first principles, and mounted men do the work of the wires. There is necessarily more or less confusion among these guardians of our peace and safety, but they have done and are doing their work, disa- greeable and arduous as it is, faithfully and well. Our neighboring cities are in the same plight, and telegraphic news, limited as it necessarily is, was forwarded in many in- stances by the old fashioned “pony ex- press.’ In the upper part of the city large limbs of trees have been broken off by the weight of ice; the telegraph poles have been inclined in some places several degrees from their perpendicular position, and the Storm King did his work so well that in some churches up town people were compelled to stay in the house of God from the morning till the close of the evening service. We know of at least one such case, Last evening there seemed to be a change in the weather from sleety rain to dry and moderate frost, so that locomotion to-day may be more comfortable for pedestrians. But does not this almost general breaking up of our telegraph lines suggest the expedi- ency of having some underground wires, as European cities have them? If some great disaster should befall us we should be almost helplessly tied up by the present inability of the wires to obey us, An effort is to be made to-day to restore them to working order, but we ought to be insured against a repetition of such loss, if possible, in the future. In another col- umn will be found some interesting facts con- cerning the ravages of the Storm King yester- day, whose track was followed by our repre- sentatives. Wo are getting through this Winter pretty roughly, And the end is not yet. —_——_—___— Faexcn Covrrs hold railway companies strictly responsible in damages for accidents to their employés as well as to passengers and the general public, Relatives of an en- gineer and fireman killed a year ago have just recovered against the Lyons line large verdicts, which, besides a capital sum, include a yearly income to the widow, mother-in-law and children of the persons killed, If our law inflicted such penalties it would soon be found the wisest economy for the roads to have few broken rails and misplaced switches, The Reassembling of Congryess—The Louisiana and Arkansas Difficultics— The Mexican Border Troubles. From the enjoyments of their Christmas and New Year festivities the members of the two houses of Congress return to their legisla- tive duties to-day. The day’s proceedings in both chambers, but particularly in the House of Representatives, we conjecture, will be in- teresting. Resolutions of inquiry or proposi- tions for legislative action will doubtless be. introduced on a variety of subjects, including, perhaps, the Louisiana State government dif- ficulties, the Arkansas imbroglio, the Mexican border troubles, as revived or threatened to be revived by that filibustering and cattle-steal- ing Mexican, General Cortina, and the ‘‘mani- fest destiny’ of the Sandwich Islands. The immediate regular business before the House, we believe, is the final passage of a deficiency bill, embracing something overa million of money to the District of Columbia, toward the expenses of improvements in Washington made and being made by the Territorial gov- ernment. At New Orleans, as it appears, two State governments will be inaugurated to-day—the ‘Warmoth-McEnery government and the Durell-Pinchback establishment. The War- moth-McEnery party do not expect to get control of the State offices. Their object is simply to make the legal point of the organ- ization of their government in order to carry their appeal to Congress. Their sub-commit- tee of two hundred have reported that the President, in their late conference with him, recommended the submission of this whole matter to Congress, and that both the Presi- dent and Attorney General assure them that such an investigation by Congress will meet with no opposition from the administration, and that they will co-operate in this settle- ment, affording such aid as Congress may see fit to recommend. The Warmoth-McEnery party, in this view, anticipate that Congress will promptly appoint a committee to investi- gate the subject. Acting Governor Pinchback, however, pro- poses a shorter method of settling this vexed controversy. He has issued a proclamation, in which he declares that if the parties op- posed to the government of which he is the head attempt to-day “to organize a govern- ment in direct conflict with and in violation of the peace and dignity of the existing gov- ernment,’ andso on, ‘‘such parties are revo- lutionists and guilty of treason,’’ and that ‘‘it is my duty as the Executive not only to quell mobs and insurrections but to prevent, by the prompt and vigorous execution of the law, the inception of such riotous and disturbed conditions.” He says further, “I do not propose that sucha state of things shall be inaugurated in Louisiana as will make it necessary for the national. authorities to declare martial law therein.’’ In short, Act- ing Governor Pinchback says that if by force of arms he can prevent it, ‘‘no pretended General Assembly shall convene and disturb the public peace.’’ He evidently relies, too, on the national troops to sustain him in this resolution. In any event, here is a clear case for the intervention of Congress, in compli- ance with that provision of the constitution that “the United States shall guarantee to every State in the Union a republican form of government,"’ a form which does not exist at this time in Louisiana. Meantime the Arkansas case, in the form of a billof complaint from the democrats and Greeley republicans against the Grant repub- licans holding the State government and against thdse declared elected to the State offices, and charging the State officials with various fraudulent practices in the late elec- tions for national and State officers, whereby false returns have been made, is before Judge Caldwell, United States Circuit Judge for the Eastern district of Arkansas. Here is a pros- pect for an interminable investigation. But while this legal appeal is under discussion a Henap correspondent at Little Rock informs us that by a singular coincidence the report of an apprehended coup d'état of the fusionists onthe 4th instant was quickly followed by the appearance in Little Rock of the Fourth United States infantry; and hence this, too, becomes s proper subject for an inquiry on the part of Congress. The fourteenth amendment, in the next place, touching the rights of the people to vote, and the duty of Congress in the premises, carries with it the power for a full investigation into these alleged whole- sale election frauds in Arkansas, The Mexican border troubles have assumed @ new phase under the irrepressible border bandit, Cortina. It is believed that he medi- tates a pronunciamento within a few weeks against President Lerdo; that Lerdo will not be able to put him down, and that the border people of Texas are apprehensive of renewed depredations upon their horses, mules and cattle by this audacious Moxican raider and robber. In order to extinguish him a Washing- ton HeRaxp correspondent informs us that it is the intention of the Texas delegation in Con- gress to urge upon Congress a bill to raise a volunteer force of Texan rangers, to be organ- ized under United States officers serving in Texas, and to give them authority to cross over into Mexico, in order to hunt down Cor- tina and his banditti. It is conjectured that this decisive plan of action must result in the annexation of the Mexican States north of the mountains of Monterey; but this need not necessarily follow. We can surely assist Pres- ident Lerdo in establishing peace on his bor- der without further appropriations of the soil of Mexico, But as Mr. Secretary Fish has proved unequal to the settlement of these Mexican border troubles it becomes the duty of the Texas delegation in Congress to appeal to the war-making power for the protection of their people, becomes the duty of Con- gress to prot them. We shall probably hear from the Téxans on this subject to-day, Rewemser THe Inrant Asytum.—It is not often charity takes so pleasing a form as that of the Infant Asylum ball, to be given on Thursday evening, Jaiuaty 18, at the Academy of Music. A worthier object could not appeal to charitable hearts or generous pockets, and if the rapid sale of tickets and boxes tells no flattering tale the occasion will be one of tho most brilliant of the season. ‘To matron and maid, paterfamilias, bachelor and beau, wo say “Go."’ An Honxst Expression oy Gratrrupn—The thanks to a merciful Providence from the Pres- ident of a horse car line that the epizooty and our big snow storm did not come together upon the city. Sa The Superheated Steam Sensation. “Do you believe in superheated steam ?"’ threatens to become almost as much of a col- loquialism as “How does your meerschaum color?” or “What's gold to-day ?"” The re- porter propounds it to the scientific professor in something of the same spirit in which a catechumen might ask a free-thinker whether he believed in Divine Providence. This new Frankenstein has been created in a night, and now every homestead is haunted with it. The private skeleton that lurks in every closet is forgotten, and this ubiquitous spectro takes ita place, The conviction spreads that our old friend steam has gone back on us, and that henceforth we shall be obliged to place him in the same category with fire, whose character asa good servant but bad master has long been known. From the ruins of Talmage’s Tabernacle, and Barnum’s Museum, and the Centre street conflagration, and the Fifth Avenue holocaust, and Daly's charred bijou, a ghastly phantom has arison whose namo is superheated steam. With livid features and beat- ing heart we take aretrospect of our lives and behold the vampire lying in wait for us at the church, at the theatre, at the place of busi- ness, in the very silence and seclusion of our” own homes, We detect him, with tho re- lentless patience of malignity, biding his time in the very appliances by which he treacherously administered to our comfortsand luxuries, ensconcing himself in our pipes and boilers, and threading the inmost recesses of our counting-houses and dwellings, the more effectually to blast us at some unexpected mo- ment with his burning breath. At first it was not unnatural for the average intellect to suppose that superheated steam was but a myth of Fire Marshal McSpedon's superheated imagination ; and had it been so that official would certainly deserve all the shoulders have recently tingled. But when such an authority as Professor Plimpton comes to his rescue, and when not only is the existence of superheated steam demonstrated to the satisfaction of the least alert intellect, but the conditions under which it is generated are shown to be analogous to those which. might readily be antecedent to most of the recent severe fires—no sooner are these facta plainly set forth than the phantom becomed as tangible as flesh and blood, and oiviliza- tion vents a sigh as deep as Milton tells us nature gave when Eve became an apple picker. With Plimpton’s significant shake of the head each house becomes a volcano, every home a Vesuvius. We look at our steam pipes bias-eyed and turn the cold shoulder to our boilers, We take deep in- spirations of disappointment and think con. servatism not such a bad fellow after all, as wa pile the wood on the long-neglected hearth and bring out once more our all-but-forgotten stoves. We put the brake upon the wheels of progress, lay by the whip of ultraism and throw away the radical spur. Who can say, we whisper to ourselves in a still small voice, but what one day the world will perish by superheated steam? We have found at last, we think, the foe in our household, and the next thing to do is to oust him. Perhaps more than one of us has suffered, from time to time, from the caprices of a favorite servant, who, after long years of faithful service, suddenly took a new de parture in morals and eyinced psychological eccentricities which by no means conduced ta the peace and economy of tie u0usehold. Per, haps, too, when we came to reflect upéti ous own conduct we grew more lenient to out erring domestic than we would otherwise have been, and considered that had we not shown too great a familiarity here, or had we repressed an undue partiality there, we should have been ® gainer in the end, and nota sufferer. The application will be anticipated. Possibly we may use the same reasoning in respect to the superheated steam question with as satisfac. tory a result. It is not our province or pur- pose to explain why it is that humanity obtains its wisdom through such bitter experience, We leave such vagaries to the metaphysiciana and abstractionists, believing that the answer exists only in the realm of what Herbert Spencer would call the ‘unknowable.’’ It ig enough to understand that the process through which valuable knowledge is gained is gen- erally painful. This fact stares us in the face, and the sooner we submit to be stared out of countenance by it and apply our eyes to better purposes than that of ineffectually stanng in return the happier will be the result, The superheated steam sensation is another illus- tration of this truism. The only useful moral at present deducible is that there is something radically wrong in the application of the principles by which many of our public and private buildings are heated by steam. At such a crisis as the present it is inevitable that ignorance, prejudice and sordid self-interest should equally clamor, and that the dispas- sionate voice of truth should with difficulty be heard. On the one hand we have the spec- tacle of a boiler inventor accusing the Fire Marshal of absurdity and incapacity, and Mr. Wiard of venality and selfishness. On tha other we have the equally refreshing picture of McSpedon deprecating public criticism and tingling beneath newspaper censure. Bo- tween the two arise the mild accents of science proclaiming that superheated steam is merely steam heated apart from water, and that ita temperature may be increased indefinitely or tothe point of dissociation. Meanwhile wa scarcely anticipate a general panic, It takes a great deal more than half a dozen fires to shock humanity into permanent disgust with an institution from which a vast degree of luxury has been long enjoyed. Your born New Yorker possesses that happy temperament which would lead him to search amid a world in cinders for enough wood to erect a log hut with and set civilization on her feet again. Far be it from us to jest at any calamity, still less at one which brings physical torture in ita train and seems to defy the best science and invention of mankind. But we cannot forbear ‘8 congratulation ” t gritty spirit which, like an ember amid the ashes, shines the brighter for the 9 mdi blackness, or a hope that the recent awful series of calamities will strike the rowels deep into the sides of American invention and urge us on to a safer and happier future, New Postan Reoviattoys—Goop ror tur Newsraren Pousuisuzrs.—This week the new postal regulation goes into effect, whereby the newspaper mails will be made up and labelled in the publication office and sent directly to the steamboats and railway depots without smart with which, he says, his neck and - a