The New York Herald Newspaper, December 25, 1873, Page 5

BRuaDWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR All business or news letters and telegraphic @espatches must be addressed New Yore THE DAILY HERALD, pudlished every day tn the ear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription Price $12. Volume XXXVIII... ieee AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. =~ MRS. F. B. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE.— ‘Tux Wicxep Wortn, Matinee at 2 THEATRE COMIQUE, 54 Broadway.—Vaniery Entertainment. Matinee NIBLO’S GARDEN, Broadway, between Prince and louston sts —CuDREN IN THx Woop, Matinee at 134. WALLACK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth etrect,—A Man or Hoxon. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner Thirtieth st— Sr. Mano, Afternoon and evening, ACADEMY OF MUSIC, lth street and Irving place. — Travian Orrra—Arpa. BROADWAY THEATRE, 728 and 730 Broadway.— ‘Tar Woman ix Wairk, Matinee at Lig. GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Eighth ayand Twenty-third ‘t—Humrry Durty Aznoad. Matince at 135. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, 28th st, and Broadway.— Panricipe. Matinee at 14g. BOOTHS THEATRE, Sixth av.’and Twenty-tnird st.— Kir; on tx ARKANSAS TRavELLER, Matinee at lis. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker sts.—Ganniet Geum, Matinee at2, GERMANTA THEATRE, lith street and 8d avenue.— Orgxa Bourre—Les GxonGisnnes. Matinee at 2. PARK THEATRE, Brooklyn, opposite City Hall.— wocH AxpEN. Motinee at 2 METROPOLITAN THEATRE, 585 Broadway,—Vantzty Enrenraiwuunt. Matinee at2. STADT THEATRE, Nos. 45 and 47 Bowery.—Grnwan Orexs—Dix Levstigkn Weiser, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—Moturr Goosr—Inisn Turok. Matinee at2 TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.— Vanmery ENTERTAINMENT. Matinee at 2, BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE,*Twentv-third st. corner Sixth ay.—Nxgro Minstrensy, &c. Matinee at 2. STEINWAY HALL. Mth st., between 4th ay. and Irving place.—Matinee at 14g—Granp Concent. BAIN HALL, Great Jones street. between Broadway and Bowery.—Tue PiicRix, Matinee at 234. THE RINK, $4 avenue and (4th strect—Mznacenie anv Muskum. ' Afternoon and evening. ROBINSON HALL, sixteenth street—Magicar Enter- TAINWENT. Matinee at 2 NEW_YORK MUSEUM OF ANATOMY, No. 618 Broad- ‘way.—ScreNce AnD Ant. DR. KAHN'S MUSEUM, No. 683 Broadway.—Sctence anv Ant. New Work, Thursday, Dec. 25, 1873. THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. “OHRISTMAS! ITS HUMAN AND ITS NATIONAL CHARACTER”—LEADING EDITORIAL AR- TICLE—Fovrra Paag. . CHRISTMAS SAINTS AND CEREMONIES! THE FIRST GREAT GIFT! SANTA CLAUS IN THE BROWN STONE PALACES AND IN THE TENEMENT ROOKERIES! PAST AND PRESENT BEVERAGES! YULETIDE TWO CENTURIES AGO—SixTH Pace. THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS IN WALL STREET! BUT LITTLE DOING IN ANYTHING BUT MERRYMAKING! PRICES STEADY! GOLD WEAK—PIGEON SHOOTING—SgveNTH Page, AMERICA’S GENEROUS REMEMBRANCE OF THE VICAR AT THE VATICAN—THE ITALIAN ENVOY TO FRANCE CORDIALLY RE- CEIVED—FirtH Pace. A NEW DIFFICULTY WITH SPAIN SAID TO BE ON THE TAPIS! THE PINTA AT SEA FOR CUBA, UNDER SEALED ORDERS—FirTa Pags. THE UNPLEASANTNESS BETWEEN MINISTER SICKLES AND THE MADRID OFFICIALS! THE GENERAL SAYS POSITIVELY THAT THE INTRANSIGENTES INTENDED A HOS- TILE MOVE AGALNST US! PRESS DENIAL— Fun Pace. MARSHAL BAZAINE STILL A PRISONER—IM- PURTANT GENERAL NEWS—FirTa Paces. BAZAINE’S GUILT AND THE MEANS USED TO ESTABLISH IT! THE CAUSES OF THE FRANOO-PRUSSIAN WAR! ITS DISAS- TROUS PROGRESS AND CONCLUSION! THE LESSON OF THE TRIANON COURT MARTIAL—FirTH PaGE. THE CARLISTS TRAP 30,000 REPUBLICAN SOL- DIERS! ATTEMPTS TO TRANSSHIP THE VICTIMS—Firtu Pace, HONTING FOR HARRY—NEWARE’'S CASES—EIGHTH PaGE. MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN THE HEALTH OF THE GERMAN EMPEROR! HE IS WELL ENOUGH TO WALK ROUND—FirrH Pace. SPECIAL ITEMS FROM THE FEDERAL CENTRE— A BANKRUPT “GONE WHERE THE WOOD- BINE TWINETH,” WITH $70,000 — FirTH PAGE. EX-MAYOR HALL AT LAST VINDICATED BY A JURY! CLOSING OF THE TRIAL! NO WITNESSES CALLED BY THE DEFENCE! GENERAL LEGAL SUMMARIES—Tuimp Paas. LIBEL | Tee Wau or rae Presment.—According tothe Washington news General Grant re- ' mains inflexible as to his nomination of Mr. Williams for Chief Justice. He stated em- phatically that the nomination would not be withdrawn, and that he had never contem- Plated such a thing. No President ever talked more about deferring to public opinion ‘and to the representatives of the people in ' Congress, and none ever carried out his own will more obstinately. This is after the man- ‘mer of Louis Napoleon proclaiming in favor _ of liberty, universal suffrage and freedom of the press, while nullifying these by the exer- ( of arbitrary power. Words amount to little when actions do not accord with them. __ Bewarps 4np = Ponisnmext.—Suppose Sheriff Brennan has offered a reward of five thousand dollars for the apprehension of ory W. Genet, and the latter should happen fall into the hands of some one who is pre- ired to return him to the custody of the riff, could ho not, in sporting parlance, ’ that five thousand dollars and ‘‘go 0 better’ to be released? If money the only incentive to the capture of the ve, it is not at all likely he will be ted and delivered up within the ten days cribed in the reward offered by Sheriff ned, under date of Yokohama, November ) that the Japanese government mission to ba had been checked in its preparation to for the Antille by the interference of the Minister at the court of the Mikado. al, and apparently powerful, is the zm diplomacy of modern Spain. NEW YORK HERALD eammunaed Haman and Its National Character. Christmas, though honored in aH the limita of Christendom as a high festival, is also ob- served in every different land with peculiarly national characteristics—a fact that indicates its double character. As it teaches universal brotherhood in the name of Him who died for all—as it opens that limitless vista of intel- lectual speculdtion which leads us altogether out of our daily life and enables us, under the nfluence of purer aspirations, to grope a little toward some comprehension of tho great ex- ample—in this light it is the common festival of humanity, observed with the same thoughts wherever men. with human sorrows, weak- nesses and hopes have heard and believe the beautiful story of that obscure incarnation before which the three wise ones, or wisdom in all its attributes, bowed down. And as the festival of humanity it is an evidence of the common recognition of the superior races of men that humanity is not sufficient for itself—a position disputed only once in all the Christian ages, and that by the commingled lunatics and idiots of the French Revolution—aside from whom all human creatures of the think- ing races of men have acknowledged the need and the aid of a grander moral standard and a loftier ideal of moral excellence than any that merely human thought could originate. Side by side with this recognition of Christ- mas goes, in every country, its other recog- nition as a season of relaxation for the people, a time of indulgence in good cheer and merry making and social delight as national or even local tastes and fancies prompt and inspire. ae With us, as with others, the day has its higher observance; but what is our national notion of its more popular aspect? It is scarcely possible to say for the average Amer- ican just what is the central thought round which the twittering brood ot his Christian fan- cies gather—that is, it is difficult to find a point of such wide coincidence that it may be called nationaL And this no doubt is because of our diversity; because our English an- cestors in one direction, our Dutch ances- tors in another and our many relatives of later advent, have so respectively and vari- ously inspired and softened the spirit that animates our holiday activities. Christmas time comes in one circle hearty and boisterous with social cheer and Twelfth Night jollities, if not orgies. In another, one hears only of Kriss Kringie, combined from the Pelznichel and the Krist Kindlein of our German rela. tives with the quaint attributes that German downrightness in thought has given to either ; and associated with him in the same circles generally we find the dainty fancy of the Christmas tree. And not far, perhaps, from this fancy we come upon that thorough model of a pigmy Dutchman, our dear old Santa Claus, operating on suspended stock- ings at the chimney corners, while ‘visions of sugar plums’’ traditionally dance in the little heads that are nestled near by. In some quar- ters there seems to bea notion that Christmas- tide isabout the only time in the year when it is possible or permissible to raffle for fat geese—while at the same season by some in- scrutable periodicity of the human intellect, all the rusty old shot guns in the country are brought out to shoot at turkeys, tough, perhaps, but guiltless, though tied to poles at twenty yards distance. And with these incongruous ideas there will go in every circle much of the mystic remembrance of the shepherds and the star, and that far away Bethlehem— Over whose acres walked those blessed feet That eighteen hundred years ago were nailed For our redemption on the bitter cross. Down East we had the ascetic Puritans, whose extravagant fancy it was to abate all the social delights and to suppress all demon- strative pleasures as parts of Vanity Fair and as sins they were themselves not inclined to; who moreover hated even the religious observ- ance of Christmas as a piece of ecclesiastical mummery. In the presence of these wise fellows there was as little as possible of the lofty lesson and not a particle of the popular enjoyment. Enjoyment was an abomination, and their lofty ideal was to preach hypocrisy through the nose. Down South we had our settlers of the same ancestry with different principles, and who, like wanderers generally, carried to a further extreme the characteristic usages of the country from which they came; so that the season was, in the South, one of social relaxa- tion in the superlative degree, and the very slaves were practically free from Christmas Eve till the end of the year. In our own neighborhood we had the substantial Dutch- men—a humorsome people, without ostenta- tion, who cramm: eir round paunches with the domestic doughnut and plied industriously their deep cans, relinquishing other considera- tions of the season to the children, to whom it was a time of especial importance, because just before Christmas came the festival of Santa Claus, their especial patron, who, as such, was sure to visit them, and might leave some rewards for good conduct. In those days we had not the Christmas tree which later German comers brought with them, but which we have well nigh made our own, since we far surpass the Germans themselves in the success with which we cultivate this scrap of household glory ; 80 that the Christmas tree, like other trees, is all the thriftier for a new soil. In all our Christmas jollities there is no especially national characteristic. We are English and jolly, or English and Puritanical, or we are Dutch or German. It is, how- ever, national in us that we accept a rill from every source, and that for our fireside festival, our day for gathering if ever at the old home, we are willing to decorate the occasion with gny wealth of fancy the world may afford. Christmas itself is less glorious in the land of its origin than in other lands. It is denied and rejected by the moral races amid whom it arose, and flourishes only amidst the intellectual races who had at first no share in it. It is not ont of character, therefore, that a festival which the Old World drew from a still older world should, in the New World, borrow from the Old its range of peculiar devices in its lower sense as a popular holiday; but in its finer sense it may, perhaps, reach its ultimate glory only in a land where the divine aspirations of humanity are freer than elsewhere. Ivsreav or Gorno “Where the woodbine twineth,"’ is it not more likely Genet has gone where the Woodward vineth ? secure a conviction. It is one upon which the accused has always confidently reckoned; a result which he considered so certain that, at the commencement of the present trial, he declined to avail himself of the privilege of postponement, although the counsel whose aid he desired was unable to attend, while, at the close of the case for the prosecution, he waived all testimony for the defence and allowed the evidence on the part of the people to go to the jury uncontradicted, for what it was worth. The verdict will be approved by the people. It has never been believed that Mayor Hall was in any manner personally implicated in the frauds committed by the corrupt heads of departments who unfor- tunately held office during his administration. No such charge was ever seriously made against him by those citizens who were honestly engaged in an investigation of the municipal corruptions, Political organs, it is true, denounced him in the same coarse language which they used towards the real culprits ; but this was only for party purposes, and it is just to say that their tone towards the ex-Mayor has recently undergone a marked change. The most that was laid to Mayor Hall’s charge was a failure to exercisa proper care and vigilance in the discharge of his official duties, and of this offence an intelligent jury has now acquitted him. The only hesitation that ap- pears to have been felt by the jury was as to whether they could mark their disapproval of the looseness which had gradually crept into all official action by a verdict of simple neglect; but not finding this within their province, they promptly declared the accused “Not guilty.” The verdict is gratifying to the city. It shows that notwithstanding the extent and boldness of the conspiracy by which the people were robbed of millions, the chief magistrate of the city had no part in the crime. It would have been a public humilia- tion if Mayor Hall had been convicted of the offences charged against him, although they implied only technical guilt and not moral guilt, As it is we have the satisfaction of Anowing that although we have been plundered by bold and reckless men, our chief magis- trate has not been faithless to his high trust. There is another view in which the verdict may be regarded as gratifying to the people. It shows that the jury box may yet be relied upon for honesty, fearlessness and justice. The conviction of Tweed and Genet gave evi- dence that an incorruptible jury can be ob- tained who will find a verdict of guilty against a wealthy and influential criminal. The acquittal of Mayor Hall at a period of excited public sentiment proves that a jury can be found ready to do full and impartial justice to an accused party without regard to popular clamor. Where Are They? Oh, Where? And Echo Answers, “Where?” Where is Citizen Genet? Where is Alder- man Coman? Where is Walsh? Where is Norton? Where is Miller? Where is Wood- ward? Where shall we find them? Oh, where? And echo answers, ‘‘Where?”’ They are wanted and they are missing, and neither the Chief of Police nor his detectives know where to look for them or any one of them. The general opinion is that ‘they have gone where the woodbine twineth;’’ but the wood- bine twineth in so many places that this general opinion signifies nothing. Mme. Rumor informs us that the missing convict, Genet, by means of a line of coaches and boats from Manhattanville, crossed over on Sunday night to Long Island, and that by the Long Island Railroad he moved eastward and thence northward, and that he will probably take his Christmas dinner among Her Britannic Majesty's loyal subjects of the New Dominion. But rumor says again that a mysterious steamer, stealing along the seacoast below “the Hook,” is suspected as having been en- gaged to pick up some mysterious passengers, who were suspiciously moving about On the beach at Long Branch at the time of the mysterious steamer’s strange movements near that deserted village. And again it is ramored that there had beena beautiful yacht in the Hudson, near Manhat- tanville, but that it had disappeared on the morning of the discovery of the flight of Senator Genet. He may, theretore, be on the high seas this blessed Christmas morning or in the New Dominion, or en route to Mexico. When found our police authorities, of course, according to the advice of Captain Cuttle, will take a note of it. Meantime, we concur in the opinion of Chief Matsell, that in a philo- sophical consideration of the case the conclu- sion must be admitted that it was perfectly natural that Genet should avail himself of the first opportunity offered him to ‘‘vamose the ranch.” Chief Matsell isa man of experience in his vocation, and that his philosophy is correct we know from the escape of the prisoner Genet. As for Senator Norton, the Thunderbolt of the regions around Jefferson Market, and in regard to ex-Alderman Coman, the invincible, and Walsh, the incorruptible, and Miller, the inflexible, there is no clew to their where- abouts. The “glorious Mike,’’ when called for in Court, was reported by his counsel to be in Washington for the benefit of his health; but he has probably gone by this time Away down South, in Dixie, or beyond Dixie. Coman, Walsh and Miller, for all that we know, may have gone to explore @ new route near the Isthmus of Darien for an interoceanic ship canal, or they may have gone to St. Domingo to assist Baez and his “ring’’ against the revolutionists of the Do- minican Republic, or they may have left, each under a convenient alias, to spend ‘‘a happy new year’ with ‘Slippery Dick’’ in his distant ‘‘cottage by the sea.’’ Woodward, it is said, after trying to hide away in different holes and corners, has given it up as a bad job, and is here in the city, or somewhere con- venient, subject to the call of the District Attorney, as State’s evidence against his fel-. lows of the New Court House pool. The way of the transgressor is hard; but the way of these aforesaid fugitives from justice is a mys- tery which still remains to be solved. # Rowing in 1873. ‘The frosta, which have been shutting up the canals and hardening the ground during the past few days, have probably given the quietus to rowing, both amateur and professional, throughout the ountry for the year now rapidly closing, and hundreds, and even thou- sands, of outriggers and lapstreaks have been slung upon shelves and davits, not to come down until, in ninety days from now, the great university race on the other side of the water has been trained for, rowed and won. Among the professionals the year was a very quiet one, there having been no event which drew out the champion crew at all, and nothing which added any especial lustre to the name of our best single sculler, while, pos- eibly excepting Scharf, of Pittsburg, no second or third rate man has obtained any particular prominence, Indeed, the year has helped to make it plain that we have no first rate single sculler, John Biglin’s walk over with Ellis Ward at Springfield atoning not at all for his defeat by two oarsmen of the British provinces, but one of whom had before’ more than a local reputation at the sculls. Should Sadler (the English champion), Kelley and Chambers, Bagnall and Bright, conclude to come again among us, with Fulton and Brown to fill up the quota, there is small reason to,hope that Biglin would show at all well up among’ these master oarsmen, unless he does a power of work this winter at the rowing weights and on the road. We take no very deep interest in professional rowing; but so long as these Britishers continue to make inroads on our shores and challenge our countrymen to a trial of their mettle we hope that they who represent us with the sculls will do as well, or, at least, nearly as well, as four renowned sons of one old man at Cornwall have done at the oar; and when this is actually possible, if only abundant downright hard work be done during the next few months, it is too bad that it should not be. The face of Renforth, and even of the obsolete Hamill, told of almost vast reserved power and stay, while both were known to be prodigious workers. To rowas fast as they one must work as hard. But from among the amateurs comes no such sorry story, and the Potomac and Schuyl- kill, the Hudson, Saratoga Lake and the Con- necticut, and even the Monongahela and the lakes, have all sent good reports. At the mus- ter on the Connecticut, where but two colleges used to meet, eleven this year responded to the call, and well nigh clogged the broad, shad-bearing river with their long, frail craft and projecting oars, as they darted swiftly about or lay at the start drawn up ia line of battle; and even outside of the colleges there has been unprecedented life, thirteen and even fourteen scullers entering the lists where there was formerly difficulty in getting more than two or three; while six and seven four-oars at a time have, more than once, met each other in the friendly strife. One noticeable feature in the work of each— and nowhere was it more apparent than at the college race—is that there is still no recog- nized standard of rowing which all, or most, admit to be the proper or the only way. Boats have assimilated naturally enough, a few favorite builders getting most of the orders; oars differ but little; sliding seats are numerous. Men are using their common sense a little more as to the kind and quan- tity of food and work and rest, two out of the three leading crews at Springfield, for in- stance, being among ‘the most’ liberal and rational livers. It is being seen that the variance in height and weight and strength is much less than was supposed, and a deal else has been learned that will well repay the knowing. But, out of all the styles of rowing exhibited by these many crews and scullers— for but few of them row alike—who shall say to-day, as they say in England, there is but one way to row, and no other has yet been discovered which is so effective and success- ful? One college sent man over there pur- posely to bring back all the light he could gather from the first amateur oars- men of the world—the London Rowing Club. He studied faithfully, came home and taught his secret to his men who proved apt pupils and did far better work than any of their predecessors, But up, al- most alongside of them, to the very last inch of the homestretch, lay a crew that would not be shaken off, and yet, instead of doing clean and skilful work, their rowing was in some respects execrable, More power, perhaps a little, lay with them; but it was only a little. And a trifle farther over on the river six more backs rose and fell as gracefully, as uniformly, as one could wish to see; and yet, undeniably swift as they were, their style differed from the imported one, their reach out to their work, for instance, being far less deliberate. Early in 1867 John Stuart Mill told the students of St. Andrew's that there is a right way to do everything, and a correct descrip- tion of that way is the rule, and the only rule, that will, if followed, insure success—all else will fail. Who of all these oarsmen shall say we have found that rule in rowing? That it exists few doubt. Bat what is it? Again, in these college contests, at any rate, if not universally, would it not be well, instead of the long, unwieldy, six-oared outriggers, to substitute fours? Even the casual observer could readily see here and there a weak man in every single crew on the Connecticut. The Agriculturals, for instance, could well have omitted the two who sat next stroke and bow. Both bow and the man next him in the Har- vard boat lacked strength, and so it ran throughout, and so it always has, as any row- ing man knows. Scarce as good rowers always are, four will be much easier to get than six; to keep together; to train; to match each other; to make close racing; their boat will turn quicker; be easier carried about; will be stronger and will cost less, while a match with Oxford or Cambridge, a thing sure to come, will be had the more readily, for six oars are unknown in England, Finally, why do not the amateurs who as- semble so numerously both at Philadelphia and Saratoga, and who at the latter place left the collegians immeasurably behind in one very important respect—the management of the preliminaries of a race, arrange to have their principal meeting of the year during the week of the college races and on the same water, of course clashing in no way with the | students? Then they, too, would be well described beforehand ; would cut down the cost; would show who were the fastest row- ers, for the winners of each kind could moet, foreigners tered. A the thoughts thrown out may do much to show in the coming summer that the amateur Rainfall Produced by the Firing of Artillery—How the Waste Places of the Earth Can Be Reclaimed. Professor Edward Powers, of Chicago, is en- gaged in endeavoring to demonstrate the prac- ticability of controlling and distributing rain- fall by means of concussions produced by the firing of artillery. This subject, if not en- tirely new, is of great importance, and should ‘be thoroughly investigated by the government, Our Western domain, to say nothing of the vast desert wastes of other portions of the earth, demands irrigation. General Grant called attention to this necessity in his redent Message, and though we are at aloss to know exactly what he meant, it is clear that he recognizes the general truth we have pro- claimed. Mr. Powers’ theory is deduced from an examination of one hundred and thirty battles that were succeeded by copious rains. He claims that about sixty per cent of all battles or bombard- ments of importance are followed by rain within the first twenty-four hours from the commencement of the heavy firing. A calculation made from thé observed average number of rainy days in the year when there are no battles shows that only thirty-two per cent would be so followed within that time if the battles had no influence in produc- ing the rain. About ninety per cent of such battles are followed by rain within the first forty-eight hours after the commencement of the h€avy firing. All great battles in which much artillery was used were followed by rain (so far as definite informa- tion can be obtained), The average length of time between the commencement of the heavy firing and the beginning of the rain is twenty-six and a half hours. Rain following great battles, in which much artillery is used, is almost always very heavy. Engagements other than great battles, in which much artil- lery is used, are also generally followed by heavy rain, but musketry firing does not bring much rain. Rains follow battles not only in the spring and summer, but also in autumn and winter. Rains follow battles not only in this country and in Europe, but in the dry season in Mexico. Heavy rains fol- low great battles fought in times of drought. The rains following battles are generally accompanied with thunder and lightning. The theory of rain generally accepted by philosophers is that it is produced by the union of two bodies of air, one of which is colder than the other, and both saturated with aqueous vapor. It has been proven by experiments that when’ two such bodies of air are mixed they cannot, when mixed, contain as much vapor as they did before, the reason for which is explained by the principle that warm air has a greater capacity for vapor than cold air, and that this capacity diminishes in o much greater ratio than the temperature. Now, the trade winds take up large quantities of vapor from the ocean, which vapor is car- ried north and south by the equatorial cur- rents. Hence there are generally above us currents of warm air saturated with vapor. To explain how cannon firing produces rain, it is only necessary to explain how these cur- rents are caused to mix with the colder currents above them. The explanation is that it does so by rarifying the humid current. It rarifies it by condensing a small portion of the vapor which it contains. It condenses this small amount of vapor by concussion, which is similar to sudden pressure, and we know that by pressure aqueous vapor is condensed and its latent heat is given out—that is, when cannon firing brings rain there is condensa- tion of vapor in two ways; first, a little con- densation by the pressure of the shocks of concussion, which causes an evolution of heat and a rarification of the air, and, second, a great condensation caused by the rise of the humid current and its mixing with the colder one above it. As it will natur- ally take a little time for an air current hundreds, and perhaps thou- sands, of feet in thickness to rise into the colder current after being rarified by the con- cussions, and as, in the meantime, the air so rarified will be carried along by the current, it follows that the rain will not commence at the place where the firing takes place. It will generally work back to that place in the path of the current, however, arriving, as before stated, in an average time of twenty-six and one-half hours from the commencement of the firing. Unless the firing is heavy and con- tinued for two or three hours, so as to rarify a larger area and volume of the air current as it passes over, there will be no rain, or if there is rain somewhere on the path of the air cur- rent it will not reach the place where the firing takes place, as the equillibrium between the two currents will be restored before the rain reaches that point. Battles followed by heavy rain are: —First Bull Run, Fair Oaks, Pittsburg Lending (or Shiloh), Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Stone River, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Get- tysburg, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Har- bor, Nashville. During the second day of the battle of Buena Vista, Mexico, there were two violent showers, though this was in the dry season, and it had not rained before and did not rain after for several months. Would it not be a metamorphosis for which the world might be thankful if cannon could become implements of agriculture instead of remaining destroyers of life? The Bezaine Trial and the Late Franco-German Wal. In the Heratp of this morning we print & communication from one of our correspond- ents in Paris bearing upon the late Franco- German war and on the question as to the in- nocence or guilt of the now disgraced M arshal Bazaine. Our correspondent in plain terms tells what he knows ; and his knowledge in this matter, coming, as it does, from first sources, is entitled to much respect and to serious consideration. It is a most interesting and instructive chapter of the history of the late war. Tho Marshal has been tried and found guilty. It may be that he ts sentenced tg euffer the proper penalty of, bis crimes, Is / may be that he is comparatively tmocent the crimes for which ho is condemned for. However it may be, it is our duty to lay give them the means of judging for them- selves, One plain lesson the letter does read, and that is—that the late war was a blunder, 60 far as France was concerned, and mainly for the reason that the armies of France were not organized and guided by the genius of the First Napoleon. France requires to be led. Under proper leadership she is strong. With. out such leadership sho is weak. It is the mig- fortune of France that to her something like Cosarism is a necessity. This necessity ought not to be allowed to continue. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. General John M. Harlan, of Kentucky, ia at the St. Nicholas Hotel, Congressman W. H. Stone, of Missouri, ts stay- ing at Barnum’s Hotel. General Silas Seymour, of Quebec, has arrived at. the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Senator Henry Cooper, of Tennessee, has apart- ments at the Windsor Hotel. Congressman Henry 0. Pratt, of Iowa, is regia- tered at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Colonel 8. 0. Lyford, United States Army, is quartered at the Gienham Hotel. United States Senator Crozier, of Kansas, is staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Chief Engineer Wood, United States Navy, has quarters at the Union Square Hotel. Sir Charles Hartley, the eminent English en- gineer, is again at the Hotel Brunswick. Lieutenant Colonel Parnell, of the British Army, ig among the recent arrivals at the Clarendon Hotel. General F. T. Dent, the President’s brother-in- law, Was at the Astor House fora short time yea terday. Senator George S. Boutwell arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel yesterday, on the way to his home im Massachutetts, At the sale of the effects of the Hon. Charles BL De Long, in Yokohama, a pair of carriage horses were sold to an agent of His Majesty the Mikade for the sum of $3,500, Mexican. Viscount San Januarlo, Governor of Macao, ac- credited to the Court of Japan as Envoy Extraor- dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of Portugal, has arrived in Japan. Monday, the 3d of Novémper, being the twenty- third anniversary of the birthday of the Mikado of Japan, was celebrated with the usual salutes, re- joicings and banquets. The foreign ministers were entertained at Hamagoten, and the Governor of Kanagawa presided over a dinner given to the foreign consuls at the Saibansho. “When the late N. P. Willis wrote his fine hymm for the dedication of Rey. Dr. Beecher’s church, im Hanover street, in 1826,” remarks the Boston Transcript, “who thought it would be sung at the dedication of anew church for the Brattle street society in 1873, upon a spot then half a mile out in the water irom the eastern shore of the Back Bay & OBITUARY. John O. Hopkins. A telegram from Baltimore, under date of the 24th inst., reports as follows:—John 0. Hopkins, who was reputed the wealthiest citizen of Baltt- more, died this morning, at his residence, Sara- toga street, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, after several weeks’ illness. Since 1812 the de- ceased has been engaged in active business in this city up to his recent illness. He was prominently. identified with ali the leading {ndustries—mercan- tile, commercial, banking and railroad—und amassed a large fortune. He was in all respects a most exemplary and useful citizen and benefactor of humanity, devoting his wealth to public and private charities. In March last he donated propert valued at 000,000 to founding a free hospital in the city for the indi- gent sick and poor, without regard to sex, age or color, connected with which is a training schook for nurses. Ample provision has also been made for the endowment of a home for colored orphans, capable of accommodating-300 or 400 children. De- ceased also provided for founding a university on his valuable estate, Clifton, near the city, seit apart (or that purpose, it is sald, 1 000 shares Baltimore and Ohio Railroad stock, valued at $2,000,000. His great public charities will place his name beside those of George Peabody, Peter Coo- eoeeee other public benefactors. He was unmar- rie Mother Margarct J. Gallway. This esteemed Christian lady, ex-Vicar Superior of the Western Province of the Order or the Sacred Heart and founder of the Chicago convent and its schools, diea on Sunday last, 21st inst., aged 68 years. She was born at Cork, Ireland, February 22, 1805, and in 1825, having four years previously assumed the responsibilities of a religious order household, emigrated to Kentucky, settling, a year later, at New Orleans. In 1837 she entered the convent at St. Michael’s as @ novice; six years’ afterward she became its Superior. in 1848 = ‘ Be transferred to St. Louis, and in 1858 to hicago, where she established the novitiate ot t! order. in 1865, having just been made Vicar perior of the Western district, including the Statesi Of Iilinois, Missouri and Kansas, she visited to assist in the election of a new Mother Generak to succeed the founder of 6 order,, Mme. Barrat, who presided over it from 1805 to 1864. A year later she returned to the novitiate at St. Louis, where she arrange the construction of the ees convent anw leminary, at a cost of $200,000, She also built at Jhicago, adjoining the convent, a large free schook accommodating 700 scholars. The latter, like bern of her building enterprises, was planned and carried out by herself, without any assistance irom the authorities of the Church to whom she might have been expected to look for ald. Her hi having been seriously impaired by her labors she was compelled to take rest, and her duties having” been assigned to Mother Gauthreaux, (who died im 1872 and was succeeded by Mother Tucker) she came to New York, assuming charge of the sem- inary at Manhattanville. Proving physically um~ equal to her duties she removed to Kenwood, near pany, and there remained till the fail of 1872, when she returned to Chicago to die, Kia-th-chien, of China. There has recently died at Soochow, China, a na-, tive magnate who had attained considerable; celebrity among the Chinese and was at one time well known to many foreigners. This was Kia-ih-/ chien, whose latest official appointment was thati of Provincial Criminal Judge. When he first came 1m contact with foreigners he was the Foo of Sung- kiang, and was afterwards brought into very inti- mate relations with some of them as pay iter the “ever-victorious” army. It was while he he’ this position, about the year 1964 that,she became & member of the local branch of the Koyal Asiatioa Society, proposed by the then President of the Society, Sir Harry ‘kes. His death occurred some time since, and alter his remains hag& lain in state for some months they were removed to his ancestral tombs in Shense his son, who was lately in office as am Imperial Censor. It appears that at one time Kia was the Magistrate of tne Woo-kiang-hsien, in Soochow prefecture, and during the interval his S he deceased magistrate in dream to the Feo of Soochow, and ‘ainde severas low bows in token of obeisance. Tne Foo, in com sternation, asked how he, who had died monthé 50, mani to come back to the earth Poe | hat did he want? The etherialized mem! the Asiatic Society replied, that since his entrance into Hades he had been appointed the tutelary divinit) (cninpanany) of Woorkiang, and he came to notify the Foo that he was to 0¢ ipped ae. cording ly. The Foo promnely inform the people of the district, and this being one of the few mat. ters on which the peuple can act at once, without reterence to the Board of Rites, they at agreed to accept Kia on his own eredentials, ang he Is now belng worshipped a8 the Ching-wang Woo-kiang. THE GREBLEY ALBUM. ‘The Joint Committee of the Common Council terday decided to present the Greeley Album Greeley on the 14th January, at the resk eitoe oe Jonn F.Cleveland, in Coutage ‘Fiace. Havemeyor will make the presentation speech, THE SE¥ATE TRANSPORTATION OOMMITTER, ATLANTA, Ga., Dec. 24, 1873. The United States Senatorial Transportation Committce met at the Kimball House to-day. Cologne! B. W. Frobel made the argument in favoy of the Atlantic and Great Western Canal. Oolonel MoFarlaga, of the United States En; ee aie ‘ report Of the survey of the route, ‘leave to-morrow evening for Mobile, ARREST OF GAMBLERS IN OMAHA, Omarta, No! ‘24, 1673, The Sherif arrested to-day, out. a for © tay awaiting burial it is stated that the © ” of t appeared pai Sal Ay