The New York Herald Newspaper, January 28, 1873, Page 6

‘NEW YORK BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR Volume XXXVIL AMUSEMENTS THIS EVENING, NEW FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, 728 and 73) Broad- way.—Auixy. GRAND OVERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st. and Eighth ay.—Catanact OF THE GANGES. ATHENEUM, No. £85 Broadway.—Granp Vanuerr Ex- ‘TERTAINMKAT. NIBLO'S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and Bouston strects.—Lxo ap Loros. UNION SQUARE TH Broadway aud lourth a Jnion square, between pEKD YEARS OLD, WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth street—Bnomrn Sax" ROOTH'S THEATRE, Twenty-thir’ street, corner Sixth venue.—Brutvs, on, Tux Faun or Tarquin. THEATRE COMIQUE, 514 Broadway.—Laua Rooxn. OLYMPIC THEAT! and Bleecker streets. between Houston GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near Third Av.—Das MiLCHMAEDOHEN AUS SCHOENBERG. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowory.—Burraro Bin.—Sracr Sravek Yankex, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Bro: Kirt, tax Arkansas Travei y, corner Thirticth st.— Aiternioon and kvening. MRS. FB. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE,— @nx Tron Mask. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third st. th av.—Nxcno Minstarisy, Becentaiciry, &c, TONY PASTOR'S OPE ‘AnieTy ENTERTALNMENT. corner JUSE. No. 201 Bowery.— Mee at 2). SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, corner 28th st. and Broadway.—Emiorian Minstisisy. &C. NEW YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, 618 Broadway.— FCIENCK AND Ant. New York, Tuesday. Jan, 28, 1873, THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. Penne ans To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?"— LEADING EDITORIAL ARTICLE—SixTH PAGE. BUPREMACY IN ASIA! RUSSIA PROPOSES A NEUTRAL ZONE, INCLUDING AFGHAN- ISTAN! THE CZAR’S BROTHER, THE GRAND DUKE NICHOLAS, LEAVES FOR THE FRONT! HE WILL LEAD THE ARMY! BRITISH SENTIMENTS—SEVENTH PaGE. STILL WORSE THAN CREDIT MOBILIER ! WHAT A POWERFUL COMBINATION IN THE SIOUX CITY RAILROAD INTEREST ACCOMPLISHED IN CONGRESSIONAL BRIBERY ! THE AMES AND BLAIR FAMILIES IN THE GAME ! THE HOAXER’S MEMORY ! LIST OF OFFICERS— Fourrn Paar. KNOW-NOTHING ALLEY ON THE STAND! HIS MEMORY: VERY TREACHEROUS ALSO! AMES, ON HIS METTLE, THREATENS FURTHER UGLY FEATURES FOR EX- POSURE! THE CONGRESSIONAL JOE MIL- LER—Tainp Pace. ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS! ALARM OF VIL- LAGERS—A® BRITISH SHIP GOES TO PIECES ON THE FRENCH COAST! ALL » HANDS PROBABLY LOST—SEveNTH PaGE. MR. GREELEY'S LAST DAYS! SOME P. FACTS ELICITED IN THE WILL ST? u! A BRILLIANT MENTAL LIGHT OBSCURED BY MONOMANIA! FEAR OF POVERTY AND SELF-DENUNCIATION—Tentu Pacz. NO REFUNDING OF THE COTTON TAX TO BE PERMITTED ! FRANKING DISPENSED WITH ! THE PACIFIC ROADS TO PAY THEIR INTEREST AND FIVE PER CENT— THIRD Pace. LEGISLATIVE PROGRESS AT ALBANY! CHAR- TER QUESTIONS GETTING TANGLED! TAM. MANY AS A BASIS FOR A NEW DEMO- CRATIC EDIFICE—Tiirp Pace. RELIEF FOR LOWER BROADWAY! A PLAN AGREED UPON FOR WIDENING ANN AND BEEKMAN STREETS, CONVERTING FULTON MARKET INTO A GRAND CITY CAR TER- MINUS AND ESTABLISHING TWO NEW FERRIES TO BROOKLYN—Fovrtu Pace. PACIFIC RAILWAY LEGISLATION! THE COM- PARIES MUST TOK THE MARK WITH UNCLE SAM! NO MONEY TO BE PAID FOR | FREIGHT OR TRANSPORTATION UNTIL | THEY DO—Tuirp Pace. WEATHER REPORTS—PERSONAL GLEANINGS— LATE TELEGRAMS—SEVENTI Pace. BOSTON'S CONFLAGRATION! A CRITICAL IN- VESTIGATION OF THE ORIGIN OF AND CONDUCT DURING THE FIRE! THE STORE- | KEE ING TO LAW- | | LESS ACTS! NGI AMRELL REBUKED! GUNPOWDER UNFEASIBLE— Furti Pace. SOHN BG. ALLEY BEFORE THE WILSON COM- MITTEE OF INQUIRY! WHAT HE KNOWS AND HIS F DISH COADJUTOR DOES NOT KNOW OF THE PLACING OF SUNDRY SUMS! UNION PACIFIC SOLVENCY—THE LITERARY MELANGE—Fourtn Page. A LIVELY SCENE IN THE TWEED TRIAL! MR, TILDEN AND MR. FIELD EXCHANGE RATHER SHARP WORDS! STOKES’ AP- PEAL FROM THE JURY VERDICT OF GUILTY! OTHER LITIGATIONS—E1cata PaGE. MONEY ACTIVE IN WALL STREET! GOVERN- MENT SECURITIES ADVANCED! STEADY! THE EXPECTED GRASH OF 1876—_WHERE IS “SLIPPERY DICK ?"—LO- CAL NEWS—NINTH Pace. A Cnance ror Sreepy Justicr.—Recorder fackett presided yesterday in the Court of General Sessions, and, in conformity with the Jaw of last Winter authorizing the Judges of that Court to hold a double session whenever in their judgment the public interests re- quired it, he directed the Clerk to enter an or- der for an additional panel of jurors, returna- ble next Monday, for the purpose of a double Court in February. This will probably secure the trial next month of all the murder cases now accumulated on the District Attorney's hands. If this can be secured and the guilty Persons be brought to speedy punishment we may hope for a diminution of the ruffianism ‘and lawlessness which have recently made life so cheap. We commend the action of Recor- der Hackett. Now let us have the terrible example of a general hanging of all the con- victed murderers on the same day, if possible, and then peaceable citizens may hope to walk the streets in safety. Tas Sroux Crry “Rivne” Isvesrication will he helped materially by the publication of a history of that enterprise, which will be found fn another part of the Henatp. The direc- tors, officers and shareholders are set forth, pnd, from the names of Congressmen appear-’ fing therein and the significant extracts from the evidence in a suit in this State, much mat- fer will be found for further inquiry. The prevalence of Hoax Amos in the matter would pe suspicious of itself, GOLD | NEW YORK HEKALD, TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1873.—-TRIPLE SHERT. HERALD What Are You Going To Do About It? Gentlemen—members of Judge Luke Po- land's investigating committee, Senators and Representatives in Congress—the inquiry into the Crédit Mobilier transactions is about to close, the testimony 1s said to be nearly all be- fore you, the confessions of your unfortunate associates have been made, the great Hoax Ames has cleansed his foul bosom of as mack of that perilous stuff with which it is sur charged'as he deems it propor to get rid of, andnow, “Whatare you going to doabout it?” This is a question which all the country is in- terested in asking, and upon tho reply you make will depend the verdict of the people of the United States upon your own title to pub- lic confidence. The air is filled with rumors not altogether flattering to your reputation for integrity. Itis confidently asserted by those who profess to have access behind tho scenes that it is the intention of Judge Poland’s committee to make a simple report of facts as they appear in the testimony ; to submit the contradictory statemonts of the various witnesses ; to bring into prominence the natural denial by all of any corrupt intentions. -in the buying and selling of the stock, and to refrain from making any comments or recommendations, leaving Congress to form its own judgment upon the case and to justify or expel the tainted members as it may see fit.. It is said that Congress is prepared to accept this gospel of St. Luke as bringing glad tidings to the majority party; to maintain that the lustre of their own shining political lights is undimmed by the breath of corruption, but to offer up two victims on the altar of public opinion—the democratic James Brooks and the 'peaching Ames. The former, says the report, is to be censured for his family specu- lations, which are to be declared inconsistent with his duties as a government Director of the Union Pacific Railroad, while the latter, tho great Hoax himself, is to be rebuked, not for his transactions with Senators and Representatives, but for his letters to Colonel McComb, reflecting on the official integrity of his associates, which are to be pronounced a breach of the high privileges of Congress. If the venerable Judge Poland and his asso- ciates imagine that the Investigating Committee can thus grossly disregard their obligation and not stand condemned as the convenient tools of the corruptionists, or if the Congres- sional majority believe that any subterfuge to which they may resort will deceive the world as to the truth of this tale of infamy, they misunderstand popular sentiment. The people care nothing about the disgraceful details of the miserable affair. They aro indifferent whether in the process of mud-throwing the character of James Brooks or McComb, of Oakes Ames or Colfax, may receive the fouler stain. They pay no heed to the quibbles and evasions of the witnesses or the specious pleas of partisan organs. It is enough for them that the light of day has been let into the dark recesses of a corruption *more infamous and more dangerous than the bold robberies of the Tammany plunderers; that members of Con- gress, who are entrusted with the law- making power, have been found to be a set of bartering hucksters, ready to place themselves under pecuniary obligations to corporations notorious for their grasping and pestilent character ; that statesmen who have assumed especial honesty, who have constituted them- selves leaders in morality and reform, who have been honored with the public confidence and some of whom have been raised to the second office in the gift of the people, are con- victed of acts which must brand them forever as unfaithful public servants. No white wash- ing reports can obliterate these facts ; no sub- terfuges and no distortion of evidence can blind the people to the real character of the transactions in which these tainted Con- gressmen are involved. It is as useless to argue that Wilson, Colfax, Kelley, Patterson, Brooks and their fellows did not know the nature of the corrupt bargain they were making with Oakes Ames when they took his stock and covered itup under the names of relatives and | timstees, as it would be to pretend that a burglar does not understand the character of the jimmy and the skeleton keys which | he hides under his coat. Every man | of common sense knows that these official | speculators would have held the stock in their own names if they had been engaged in an | honest business transaction of which they | were not ashamed. Every man of common | sense knows that they would not have run like frightened sheep to Oakes Ames upon the first hint of exposure to have the transaction cancelled, if they had not felt guilty in their | souls. Every man of common sense knows | that they would not have uttered the bold falsehoods to which they descended during | the Presidential campaign if they had not known that the confession of the truth would have blasted their characters and their pros- pects. How idle, then, to hope that a non- committal report from St. Luke’s convenient committee or a flurry of virtuous indignation in the House of Representatives will hoodwink the people into the belief that the corrupted Congressmen are not, one and all, guilty and unfit to retain a public trast! We warn Judge Poland in advance that his | their duty by the criminal stupidity, if | not the collusion, they have already dis- played in their manner of conducting the so-called investigation. They have the | Power to compel the production of books } and papers. Why have they not done so? | The Sergeant-at-Arms of the House has been shown to have disbursed a fand of ten thou- | sand dollars of Crédit Mobilier dividends. Why has he not been called as a witness and made to produce his accounts, which show to whom the money was paid? Why has no proper effort been made to force the produc- tion of the books of the Crédit Mobilier, and why has not Oakes Ames been called upon to | expose the whole of his famous memorandum book to the committee? It is well known that campaign, after consultation with Senators Wilson, Patterson, Colfax and others, in this the most positive manner and making state- quently shown to be false. Has it never oc- curred to the committee to inquire of Oakes Ames the particulars of this consultation and committee will be condemned as faithless to | Oakes Ames wrote a letter during the recent | city, denying the truth of MeComb's story in | ments every one of which has been subse- | have been stopped through the parliamen- tary tactics of Speaker Colfax, and how many similar inquiries have been smothered in Congress by aid of the votes of the tainted members? If Judge Poland’s Committee should adjourn without examining the ac- counts of the Sergeant-at-Arms and the mem- orandum book of Oakes Ames, they will be accorded little credit for earnestness in tho investigation. Should they make a non- committal or whitewashing report they will be regarded by the people as no better than the corruptionists whose guilt they try to conceal. There is no disagreement in the jury of the nation. The voice of one and all pronounce a verdict of guilty against the whole batch of huckstering Congressmen. They are all in the same category—Wilson, Colfax, Ames, Patter- son, Brooks, Allison, Kelley and the rest. The same evidence inculpates all alike, and the difference between the offender who received his hundred and fifty shares and his associate who received his two or his ten shares is only similar to the difference betweon the highwayman and the pickpocket or between the burglar and tho sneak thief. They ail denied the story together at first, and they made their subse- quent written confessions harmonize by pre- concert. When Mr. Brooks rose in the House of Representatives, and with melodramatic effect shook in the faces of his fellow Con- gressmen the certificate for fifty Crédit Mobi- lier shares standing in the name of ‘‘a person who sometimes speculates in steck in Wall streot,’’ declaring that this was the ‘figment’’ out of which McComb and the great Hoax had ‘made up the whole story,’ he only acted upon the policy which Colfax, Wilson, Patterson and the others had previously adopted of a general denial, trusting to the friendship and self- interest of Ames to keep the facts concealed and make the stories fit, and to the closed doors of the committee to suppress any ugly questions that might be put to the wit- nesses on & cross-examination, Now that the facts are known all are convicted of falsehood together, and the attempt of the partisan journals to impeach Oakes Ames on the ground of false testimony falls to the ground. Vice President Colfax declared that he ‘never received the value of a farthing’ out of Crédit Mobilier, yet the check once in possession of the Sergeant-at-Arms disproves this statement. Senator Wilson, Vice President elect, announced that ‘neither from Oakes Ames nor from any other person did he ever obtain the slightest interest,’ direct or in- direct, in Crédit Mobilier, yet he is shown to have held shares and to have only returned them under the dread of exposure. It is sad to be compelled to criticise a man holding the high office of Vice President of the United States so severely and to condemn him so un- equivocally; but if Ames is not a mere brazen impostor Mr. Colfax is convicted of downright untruth, and justice demands that an inde- pendent journal, knowing no party and no in- terest but the public good, should strip the mask from the face of a public offender, be he Vice President or mere miserable member of the lobby, willing to sell himself fora few dollars. We repeat, that all these persons are in the same category; their guilt is the same, their denials the same, their de- fence the same. In the instance of Senator Patterson we have proof under his own hand that he uttered false testimony and that he applied to Ames to back up the lie by making his evidence tally with it. The case of Senator Patterson is the case of Wilson, Colfax and all. How, then, can it be pretended that Ames is false and that the men he corrupted are truthful? The people are sick and weary of this foul tide of corruption, hypocrisy and falsehwod, and Congress will do wisely not to outrage public sentiment by condoning the offence of its convicted members. Let all go who can be reached—republican and democratic—be ex- pelled from the positions they have disgraced, and let those who are not amenable to Congress be impeached. The term of Vice President Colfax is about to close; that of Senator Wilson is about to commence. Can the people be satisfied that a Crédit Mobilier operator, on however small a scale, shall have the chance of becoming President of the United States? If the offenders properly understood popular sentiment they would resign their positions and retire to private life, and the list of the retiring officials would include Harlan, Cald- well, Thayer and all who have either pur- chased their way to power or been bought up by the Durants and Ameses of corrupt corpo- rations. Our appeal to these men may be in vain, as was a similar appeal once made to Tweed and his Tammany associates ; but the people may by and by come to the rescue of | the country and make a reckoning with their | dishonest servants. One thing is certain, no | Representative who has written “©. M.” be- fore his name in letters of corruption should | be any longer allowed to write “M. ©.” after it. Another Heavy Snow Storm=—Rapid Transit. Our heavy snow storm number three, for this Winter of unexampled severity, has de- | scended upon us while yet most of our streets are buried under the drifts and shovelings of | that first terrific storm of December. We have thus the accumulations in our crowded thoroughfares of the three storms to contend against in our enormous freight and passen- ger transportation, up and down and across the city. ,Our means of coming to the lower | end from the upper districts of the island and of getting back again, wholly inadequate to the public necessities at the dead low water of business in midsummer, are now simply ridiculous compared with the demand. “Rapid transit’ from the old city of New York to the new city is now to be had only by that hitherto | much derided one-legged elevated railway of Greenwich street and Ninth avenue, Since December, however, this one certain and | speedy line of communication between the Battery and Thirtieth street has established the fact that we need not waitfive, six, eight | or ten years for the general relief of the city in this matter of rapid transit, when by an en- larged elevated railway system, on iron col- umns, this general relief can be secured within six months. The means of general the circumstances that led to the publication of his written falsehoods? Why have not the committee taken pains to ascertain what pro- posed inquiry into the Crédit Mobilier and Union Pacific Railroad was said by Ames to and immediate relief are at hand if our prop- erty-holders and taxpayors will only take hold of the subject with the determination that something shall be done. ‘The success of the one-legged road indicates what may be dong with a two-legged or four-legged elevated line; and these heavy snows leave us no alternative but an underground or aérial system of city lines for rapid transit. Comprehensive Public Improvements— The Widening of Ann Street. The growth and necessities of New York are suggesting several comprehensive schemes of public improvement which are of vast impor- tance to the future interests of the city, and which claim the earnest advocacy of all intelli- gent and far-seeing citizens, A broader view is being taken of our public wants, and with a thoroughly reorganized city government, under men of energy, enterprise and liberality, there is no doubt that the metropolis will be speed- ily aroused from the lethargy in which it seems to have lain during the past year, and will be pushed forward vigorously towards the accomplishment of the magnificent destiny in store for it. Rapid transit is now acknowl- edged to be an affair in which the people are interested more than the speculators and lob- byists, and there is somo prospect of the suc- cess of the Hzgnixp’s proposition for two viaduct roads to be built by the city. Tho completion of the fine boulevards, which have remained stagnant for the past twelve months, and the improvements in West- chester county, will receive a new impetus as soon as the city departments are harmonized and the powers and duties of the several de- partments and officers properly defined. The dock improvement will also be prosecuted without vexatious interruptions, and many of the desirable works contemplated by the old ‘Tammany leaders will be revived under honest management and more promising auspices. Tho lower part of the city, which so impera- tively needs relief, will not be neglected in this genoral revival of enterprise and energy. A movement is on foot to widen Ann street, the particulars of which are given in the arti- cles which we publish from the columns of two of our contemporaries. The plan is a comprehensive one, and deserves con- sideration. It is certain that Ann street must be made a thoronghfare capable of draining the lower part of Broadway, and when the new Post Office is open for business it will be impossible to allow the railroad lines to con- tinue to use the end of the Park as a terntinus. It is proposed to make Ann street a railroad avenue, eighty or one hundred feet wide, and to run it through to the river by way of Beek- man street. Whatever plan may be eventually adopted, it is certain that Ann street must be widened. The public necessity demands it, and the Legislature should pass an act render- ing the completion of the work certain. The improvement would not only pay for itself in a few yoars, but the increased valuation of the property would be more than equivalent for its cost, even if the wholo expense should, be paid by the city at large. The Spanish and the Modocs. The Voz de Cuba has been criticising the recent encounter between the Modoc Indians and the United States troops.. It thinks that “this Indian war wounds humanity in its noblest sentiments, and is a real scandal to this century of humanitarian sensitiveness.”” ‘Tho same organ also insinuates that President Grant needs instruction in the means of civ- ilizing the Indians, instead of exterminating them, and obscurely hints that a good moral effect might be exercised over us by the send- ing forth of correspondents from Europe to spy out what is passing in the Indian Ter- ritory. Perhaps his is disinterested and excellent advice; but the glass of which our Havanese neighbor’s house is constructed is s0 ex- tremely brittle that it is doubly inexpedient for him to throw stones. One little pebble from tho sling of truth would be more than sufficient to demolish his vitreous tenement and bring it in splinters about his ears. Be- tween the mutual outrages inflicted by Span- ish and Cuban soldiers there is little to choose. They are outrages which make humanity’s blood boil and the cheeks of the most impassive civilized man tingle—outrages which glorify the most un- natural mutilation of the person and cele- brate a bloody and obscene triumph over each fresh corpse. In view of these things, it sometimes seems as though the Christian world, in the mere name of humanity, would one day find herself under obligation to step between the mutual butchers and exclaim, “Thus far thou shalt go, but no farther.” | The same undeviating record of cruelties that made General Sheridan declare, with all the solemnity of sad experience and profound con- viction, that the American Indians, incapable, as arace, of civilization, deserved that series of severe chastisements whose end is extermi- nation, is presented by this long and barbar- ous contest between Cuban and Spaniard, with this addition—that in the Cuban-Spanish case those cruelties are mutual. We say it looks as though it may become necessary for the civilized world—that is to say, for human- ity in its highest present development—to put an end to the horrid Cuban war. We do not | care as a nation to meddle in the affairs of other peoples, but all civilized nations may | feel compelled to unite in stopping | the atrocity. The atrocities by the Indians in | their warfare we regret, and wish to end | them in the only practicable way—by bringt ing the warlike tribe into subjection. * These poor savages have their barbarism for an | excuse when they mutilate the dead and | torture their prisoners. If the Spaniards and | Cubans wish to claim the same excuse of bar- barism for their inhumanities and cruelties we shall cheerfully admit their claim to moral fellowship with the Apaches, the Kiowas or the Modocs. This may not be the aim of the Voz de Cuba, but it is the only logical conclu- sion to its proposition. Its satire, it will learn, has, like the boomerang, a tendency to knock out the operator's brains. On the journalistic point we are glad to note a sign of progress in the Cuban press. The Voz is anxious that the outside world should know something of our Indian war. Very well. Let all the Cuban press send a cor- respondent each to Oregon. They will have full facilities to prosecute their inquiries on the spot. They will have one great advan- tage over Henatp correspondents in Cuba— namely, no passports will be required. They can observe the conduct of the war on the part of our boys in blue, and then they can cross over into the lines of Captain Jack, among his boys in red. If the correspondents are all bald we will insure them against being scalped there. If they have the selves out of the fastnesses around Tule Lake we will guarantee them a kindly reception among civilized people once more. If the comparison of the Voz holds good the Spanish correspondents should have no difficulty in making friends with, Captain Jack, on the ground of similarity of mode of warfare. But we believe the Voz, in its haste to strike at America, ignored the false position it took up for Spain. The Spaniards and Cubans may be savage in war, yet, from their preten- sions to civilization otherwise, we submit that the disgraceful nature of their barbarities is made doubly apparent and shameful. Financial Statistics of the Raliroad, The Senate at Washington has evinced some disposition to respect public opinion in regard to the corrupt management of the Pa- cific railronds by adopting, yesterday, Senator Edmunds’ amendment to the Appropriation bill, which requires that the amount due those roads by the United States for freight shall be withheld until the overdue interest shall have been paid, and until the five per cent on the earnings of the roads shall have been paid over to the government in conformity with the law. This is a step in the right direction, and it is to be hoped that it is not mere pre- tence, but an indication of returning sense and honesty on the part of Congress. In this connection the annual report of the company presents some interesting facts. As generally understood by the public, the Pacific Railroad means the whole line from the border settlements of Missouri to Cali- fornia, which includes, of course, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific roads. It is, in fact, one connected line, received aid from the government as such, and has a common inter- est. It appears, then, that the Union and Central Pacific, according to the annual re- port just made, cost $114,258,535. The cost of the Central Pacific is not given, but as the indebtedness is over $5,000,000 more than that of the Union and the stock subscriptions over $20,000,000 more we suppose the cost to have been greater. The cost of the whole line, therefore, as assumed by the companies, can hardly be less than $240,000,000. How much of this was a bona fide payment in cash, or how much was fictitious to enable the Crédit Mobilier contractors and ailroad grabbers to make enormous sums of money, we shall not know until the whole matter is thoroughly exposed. We think, however, $100,000,000, if carefully expended, would have made the whole line and equipped it as well as that has been done. A hundred and forty millions, prdbably, have gone into the pockets of the Congressional and other specu- lators. The indebtedness of the Union Pacific amounts to $75,894,512, and of the Central to $80,900,132, making in all $156,794, 644. The loan of the United States to the Union was $27,236,512, and to the Central $27,855,680; in all $55,092,192. Thisisin second mort- gage bonds, which the United States govern- ment is bound for, and which it has to pay interest on, with little prospect of ever being paid, except a small portion of the interest, as a consideration for the railroad carrying the mails. The government having consented to accept a second mortgage after having pro- vided for a first mortgage, as an accommoda- tion to the companies, the companies were enabled to issue first mortgage bonds for the market, and, on the strength of the credit given them by the government, to real- ize over $53,000,000 in addition. All this was independent of land bonds issued and of the proceeds of sale of the vast amount of lands granted. We have not the figures before us to show the total amount of land granted, but it must be about 200,000,000 of acres, and perhaps over that. This land grant alone will cover the bona Jide cost of the line, There never was before in the history of the world such a stupendous job and fraud uponthe people. It is easy enough to see why Congressmen be- came interested and why they passed an act to substitute second for first mortgage bonds to the government as a guarantee of the loan. During the last year the earnings of the Union and Central Pacific were $17,335,935. ‘Taking the estimate of aggregate expenses of the Central for the year, which amount to $4,317,322, we suppose the net earnings to have been for the whole line fully $8,000,000. Considering that the lands and the loan of the United States granted to the companies were more than sufficient to make the entire line, the $8,000,000 net eargings, besides the pro- ceeds of bonds and stocks, are clear profit. Yet these companies are imploring the govern- ment not to demand the interest on the second mortgage bonds which it pays and has guar- anteed. It is high time the whole of this monstrous Pacific Railroad job were probed to the bottom and that the government should in- sist upon full payment of the interest on the bonds it guaranteed. Pacific Tue Poricy Game sy Imprcuntous Coy- GRESSMEN.—The mystic figures ‘“3—2—9"’ are becoming almost as notorious as the well known policy triplet 4—11—44. The former is Hoax Ames’ talismanic enumeration of the amount paid certain impecunious Congress- men on their policy Mobilier checks—in other words, policy checks mobilized. Now what a | Pityand shame it is that so many hitherto respectable gentlemen should sell themselves for the paltry amount of three hundred and twenty-nine dollars, when they might have gone into any policy dealer's shop in Sullivan or Thompson street and bya lucky hit ona “gig” come in for the handsome percentage of two hundred to one.on their investment ! This would have been a better dividend than that they received on their Mobilier or Pacific Railroad stock, and in a transaction about equally as creditable. Impecunious Congress- men will probably hereafter look well before they leap into a 3—29 ‘‘saddle,”’ and, like beg- gars on horseback, ride themselves to the devil. There is no policy in that. “Tre Acr‘or Corrvption.’’—The Kansas City (Mo.) Times has a summary way of sum- | ming up the outside attractions of some of our United States Senators when it says, ‘In- diana is to-day represented by a moral leper ; Pennsylvania by an instrument of its great railway corporations ; from South Carolina a renegade carpet-bagger and thief claims the seat once held by a Calhoun ; a negro barber claims a seat from the State of Louisiana ; Kansas is disgraced by a Caldwell, who did not have sense enough to conceal his bribery,’ all this, too, without trenching upon Hoaz Ames’ precious domain of Crédit Mobilier pollution. Talk about this being an age of corruption! Fiddlesticks! There is enough corruption lying around loose in official stations nowadays for half a dozen ages of corruption. Congress—Swamping of the Cotton Tax Scheme—The Franking Privilege Abol- ished at Last. In the miscellaneous budget of Monday’s proceedings in Congress there are always some notable jobs cropping out at an angle of forty-five degrees from the horizon. Yester- day, in the House, these eroppings-out were unusually rich. For instance, Mr. Dunnell, of Minnesota, introduced a bill to incorporate the European and United States Land and Immigration Company, which from its title is doubtless a bill to place all the European immigration to this country and the sorting of the public lands in the hands of a gigantic corporation. Next, Mr. Hereford, of West Virginia, introduceda bill for the enlargement of the James River and Kanawha Canal. This is one of those notable trans-Alleghany canal schemes referred to encouragingly in the President's late annual Message, and we presume that Mr. Hereford knows what he is about in introducing this bill. A few weeks hence we'are to havea report from the Com- mittee on Commerce on all these grand canal schemes for connecting the Tennessee and Ohio rivers with the Southern Atlantic soa- board, and we dare say that Mr. Horeford’s little bill is part of a powerful lobby and a pow- erful log-rolling combination in Congress. But the project to refund the cotton tax, col- lected for five or six years as an internal reve- nue tax, comprehending the snug little sum of some seventy millions of dollars thus collected and turned over into the Treasury, is a mag- nificent lobby job. We apprehend, however, that it received a deadly blow in the House yesterday. By way of feeling the pulse of the ‘House, Mr. McKee, of Kentucky, moved to suspend the rules and adopt a resolution in- structing the Committee of Ways and Means to report forthwitha bill for refunding the cot- ton tax ; but the motion was rejected—yeas 76, nays 105. But will these 105 noble Romans stick? There is no telling in these Crédit Mo- bilier times. We must for an answer wait for the next vote on the subject. We suspect, however, that this cotton tax refunding scheme has been knocked in the head for this session, But by far the most surprising act of the House yesterday was the passage of the bill abolishing the franking privilege, as amended by the Senate. After years of make-believe efforts, Congress is at last rid of the nuisance. The bill now goes to the President for his signature. In the Senate ao right handsome little scheme of speculation was brought forth in the shape of a bill by Mr. Cragin, of New Hampshire, directing the Postmaster General to make a contract with the Mediter- ranean and Oriental Steamship Company for carrying mails to European ports, and to en- dorse the bonds of said company to the amount of thirteen millions of dollars. Well, if this company get this endorsement there is no reason why all other companies and indi- viduals concerned in navigation should not put in their claims for a similar accommoda- tion, adhering, as we do, to the broad platform of equal rights. Thirteen millions at one fell swoop for a steamship company is rather a heavy endorsement for a beginning. ‘There were, however, in both houses yes. terday some good measures passed or pro- posed. In the Senate, for example, tho bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to refund differential duties on articles actually on board French vessels destined for the United States on November 5, 1872, and the bill to require the national banks to restore their capital when impaired and to amend the National Currency act were passed. Then the proposition of Mr. Conkling, which was adopted, for an inquiry into the expediency of providing a new residence for the President and of turning over the White House to some other public purpose, is a good idea, for the White House is at best but an old barn of a building for a residence, and it is in a locality so charged with the malaria from the Potomac in the Summer and Autumn that no public officer should be required to make it his resi- dence. The bill of Mr. Fenton to make public highways of all highways or roads now in use on the public lands or Indian reservations is also a bill which should be passed. In the House a bill was introduced and passed declaring the meaning of the Amenda- tory Bankrupt act of June 8 to be to exempt from judgment against bankrupts the amount allowed by the constitution and laws of each State respectively, as existing in the year 1871. This measure will give great relief to many honest Southern men still struggling from their losses and embarrassments of the war to get upon their feet again, and so this bill should become a law. The Centrat Asian Difficulty—Prospect of an Amicable Scttlement. If the latest London reports pruve to be well founded, we are little likely to hear much more, for the present at least, of Anglo- Russian trouble in Central Asia. According to a cable despatch which we print this morn- ing Russia has made a proposal that a neutral zone be established between whatever territory Russia may choose to make her own and Afghanistan, and stipulating, at the same time, that the independence and neutrality of Afghanistan be guaranteed. This, it can hardly be questioned, will satisfy the British government, for from the first.the British government has steadily adhered to a demand tantamount, in all essential respects, to the proposal which, it is now said, Russia makes. It was understood four years ago that Mr. Forsyth’s mission had accomplished this result, viz., that Russia had agreed to the establishment of a neutral zone between Afghanistan and any new territory which she might acquire, Great Britain consenting to allow Russia to proceed in her carcer of conquest unchecked. Later, it seems, a mis- understanding arose regarding the terms of the secret arrangement brought about by Mr. Forsyth’s mission. The boundary lines of the neutral territory were either imperfectly sketched or imperfectly understood. Hence the mission of Count Schonvaloff, a particular friend of the Ozar, to London. Hence the core respondence by telegraph between St. Peters good fortune to bring their clothes and them- | and so on to the ond of q long choptor, And | burgand London, Henco, too, the emphatie