The New York Herald Newspaper, February 9, 1874, Page 4

_ NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1874.-WITH SUPPLEMENT. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, | published every day in the | Annual subscription | THE DAILY HERALD, year, Four cents per copy. price $12. | ‘All business or news letters and telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Yorx | Heratp. | Letters and packages should be properly | sealed. Rejected communications wiH not be re- | turned. eet LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. | WAL S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirtee street ~MONEY, at 8P. M.; closes at iv. M, Mr. Lester Wallack, Miss Jeffreys Lewis, Broadway. hetwe VAUDEVILLE an Holman Opera Tro MENT and BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, | posite City Hull, Brooklyn—LUCIA DI LAM. MERMOOR ais ¥.M; closes at 1t45 P.M. Kellogg English Opera Company. MR YN THEATRE, ARIE AN TOINETTE, rs. Bowers, BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery.—LIFE Of DEAIH; LEND ME YOUR LOVER, Begins at 3 P.M. ; closes at li P.M, METROPOLITAN THEATRE, o, 58% Broadway.—VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. Msi BLO’S GARDEN, | and Houston streets —FUN ERS THAN ONE. Begins at Broadway. bet IN A FOG) MO. P.M; closes Vokes Family WOOD'S MUSEUM, PBroadway. corner Thirticth street LEAST SIN, at 2 | M5 cldsgs at 4:50PM. CIUARETTE, at § P. MG ican atll P. FIFTH AVENUL THEATRE, Twenty-third street and Broadway.—FOLLINE, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. Mr. Harkins, Miss Ada Dyas. | GRAND OPERA HOUSE, | hth avenue and ‘Twenty-third — s eet HUMPTY | % METY (Al SCHOOL and VARIET SBLENT, at 8 1’. M.; closes at 10:45 P. ETY ENTERTAIN- M. Mr. G. fig eS THEATRE COMIQUE. No. 514 Broadway.—! BAGPICKER, AND VARIETY | sENTERTAINMEN 3 Closes at 10:30 P.M. USP. ixth avenue ana Twenty Be 5 TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, jo. 201 Bowery VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 P. closes ut LP. Mt ha --ELENE, at 7:45 j closes at 10:30 FM. Mrs. J. B. Booth. | BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, aren nty-third street, corner of Sixth avenue —CINDE, @LLA IN BLACK, GRO MINSTRELSY, &c., at P. Bi. closes at 10 P.M. COLOSSEUM, {Proadway. corner of Thirty- ‘th street.—PARIS BY wiceT, at} tM; closes at SP. M.; same at 7 2. M ‘Sloses at 10 P. M. Pourt “4 STEINWAY HALL, ‘ourteenth street—Evening at 3 P.M. GRAND CHAR- UTY CONCERT. : HARLEM TH Marien. LANCASHIRE 10:45 P.M. ia Park Thea’ with New York, THE NEWS OF YESTERDAY. : closes at | “SUPPLEMENT.| Feb. Monday, 9, 1874. ‘To-Day’s Contents of the Herald. ‘THE ACHEENESE STILL HOLDING OUT AGAINST | THE DUTCH! ING PaGE. NATIVE CHIEFS CONSTRUCT- FORTS IN THE INTERIOR—FirtH ‘THE FAMINE IN INDIA—ENGLAND’S ELECTION | CRISIS—FirTH PAGE. A YUCATAN TOWN SACKED AND BURNED BY | INDIANS! AN APACHE RAID INTO SO- NORA! MEXICO “A REPUBLIC ONLY IN | NAME!” AMERICAN BISHOPS ENTER- | TAINED—FiFTH Pace. HOMELESS AND HELPLESS! TURES OF THE MISERIES OF THE SUF- FERING POOR OF OUR GREAT CITY! THE MEANS OF ALLEVIATING DISTRESS! THE HOWARD RELIEF ROOMS AND THE STA- TION HOUSES—SixTH Pace. PUBLISHING THE GOSPEL! THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION! MR. BEECHER’S VIEWS OF | A CATHOLIC CHARITABLE ORGANIZA- | TION! THE BEST THOUGHTS OF PROMI- | NENT DIVINES—EIGuTH PaGeE. THE LOUISIANA QUESTION AGAIN DISCUSSED BY PRESIDEN GRANT! POLITICAL MOVE- MENTS—FirTa PAGE. PHRILADELPHIA’S CENTENNIAL MAYORALTY MUDDLE! A STANDSTILL! A NEW YORK POLICEMAN DEMOLISHES ONE OF THE CANDIDATES! THE LADIES MOVING—TeNTH PaGE. WAS FITZ JOHN PORTER SACRIFICED BY THE POLITICIANS? MR. MONTGOMERY BLAIR WARMLY THE DEGRADED GENERAL! PU JUSTICE SURE TO BE DONE—FirtH Pace, THE SUNDAY CONCERT AT THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE—GENERAL NEWS—Firrn Pace. PIPING TIMES AMONG THE TEMPERANCE PEO, PLE IN OHIO! THK DEALERS IN LIQUID PUISON OVERCOME BY PRAYER AND | CHANT.NG! THE LAST OF THE LOT RESORTS TO THE COURTS FOR REDRESS— TENTH PAGE. INCEPTION OF AN ACTIVE SPRING MOVEMENT IN REALTY! THE ANNEXED WARDS OF- FERING A RICH HARVEST TO OPERA- TORS! INTERESTING FACTS—OTHER 80- LUTIONS OF THE QUICK TRANSIT PROB- LEM—TuIrp Page. COURSE OF THE MONEY AND GOLD MARKETS pra LEADING SECURITIES DURING LAST ! CONGRESS AND THE CURRENCY— RLEVATED TRANSIT—NINTH PaGEe, ANNIE Srewant’s s Stony.—What a comment | is furnished on the value of our civilization by | the story of the poor milliner wandering | homeless and foodless through the busy streets of this great city, surrounded by all that makes life worth having, and yet unable to obtain a crust of bread to sustain life or a | shelter from the fierce storm! What wonder that a poor helpless creature, looking out on | the cheerless prospect, should desire to be | “anywhere out of the world,” the cold, un- | feeling, brutal world that tramples over the | ehildren of misfortune, crushing them merci- lessly to the earth, in the unceasing rush to the common goal, the grave, where rich and poor shall meet in equality at last ! | burst of bewildering extravagance and a spasm | ized the expenditure as precipitately as it was | itself to the administration of the navy in the } made a great stroke for economy by reducing | the force of marines to number insufficient | state of the national mind—which is every | irreconcilable. | heroic ardor, glory in the gallantries of our | | from the seas by the splendid ships and hardy | | sufficient to establish a good system of coast | seas; we are not the sons of Hull, Bainbridge, | | sex, the United States, the Hornet and the rest— | | the people, whether it be to deal with great | | ever course we take whithersoever the conse- ‘| been taken while our blood was warm it would _ | left us without the power to strike VIVID PEN PIc- | THE McCLURE MOVEMENT AT | Cutting Down the Navy—The Costii- mess of Economy. Within a few months the provision made by Cougress for the support of the navy has indi- cated, in striking relation to one another, the two very contrary ways in which Congress and a portion of the public seem to regard this part of the national service, for we have had a | of especial parsimony. Four millions of dol- rs were spent ridiculously in preparing a fleet of impossible ships for a war into which we could not venture, and Congress author- made, and seemed to rush to the sacrifice as if fearful that some shadow would be cast upon | the national honor by a momeut’s delay. | Having probably relieved some sense of pa- | trictic ardor in tbat way, it next addressed spirit of one looking aiter cheeseparings, and to properly guard the national property at the various navy yards, In this inconsistency, however, Congress strictly, if unconsciously, represented the true now and then seized with impulses equally At one moment we burn with | brilliant naval history and rejoice in the im- | agination of hostile fleets and Powers swept tars of the navy we fancy we ought to have. In that humor we do not count the cost; and we not only are not mercenary but we deem | it an unworthy or even insulting circumstance | if any one whispers that glory is not to be had anda martial spirit not to be indulged | without extravagant expenditure. But in pared humor we scan an outlay scarcely police and wonder why it should cost more to keep up a man-of-war than a ferryboat. In | this spirit we have ceased suddenly to indulge heroic fancies and we are simply sharp traders. We no longer care whose banner sweeps the | Decatur, Porter and Perry; and as for Cham- | plain and Erie, and ‘‘the coast of Barbarie,’’ | or the grand stories of Old Ironsides, the Es- these are fancies fit for ballads; we care only to save our coppers; we contemplate our na- tionality as a small trader does his shop, and we are solicitous only for the condition of the | till. No single voice can, with any propriety, be raised against a disposition property taken by | subjects on the principles that govern retail | trade or on the inspiration of chivalric notions; but we ought to be prepared to stand by which- | quences may lead us, and, having saved and hoarded our money, we ought not to be sur- | prised if we do not obtain those results that | | could only follow expenditure. Only a short | | time ago the nation was justly indignant at | the insult and outrage put upon us by an | impudent Spaniard, and there was a fury for | reparation, and if the reparation could have probably have been such as would have made | our ships respected for many a day to come. But the system of handling our finances as if | the nation were only a great peanut stand had a single blow, and the Dons, having trodden on our toes, may well have laughed | at the futile anger with which we regarded their act. Fortunately for us their hands | were tied at home by political troubles; but if | such a case occurred as between us and a | Power which though no stronger on the seas | than Spain should have its hands free our | position would prove exceedingly unpleasant, for we should have to recede from any de- mand we might venture, or possibly have our cities bombarded as those of Chili and Peru were by Spanish ships but a short time since. | Spain has ten sea-going iron-clads. At the | time referred to some of the most formidable— | as the Numancia, the Tetuan, Mendez Nunez, | Fernando el Catolico and the Villa de Madrid— | | were in the hands of the insurgents, and the | government had no money with which to | complete the heavy armed ships in its navy | yards. Spain was compelled by these facts to recede from her position just far enough | to enable us to close up the difficulty | | without an altogether open disgrace, | though certainly with very little credit toour name. Now, however, the Spanish | | government has recovered the ships its rebels | | had seized, and it is rapidly finishing the | | Castella, Arragon and Navarra ; and if the war that must come and is sure to come between | | this country and Spain shall find us as help- | less as we are now we shall be driven from the seas at the outset, and if we eventually | retrieve our glories it will be atan expense sufficient to build half a dozen navies. M. Thiers made, at the time France was paying her fearful money tribute to Germany, an epigram that involves the true philosophy | of that kind of national economy which | Exposes a nation helpless to its foes. He said, “Il en cotde trop chére d'étre faible’’—It costs too dear to be feeble. There is no extravagance so awful eventually as that parsimony which cripples the defence of the nation’s cause, It was | a singular political retribution that put these | words in the mouth of the man who had so | persistently clamored only the year before the | | war against the expenditure that the govern- | ment deemed necessary to provide for the na- | tional safety. His clamor was effective and | the estimates were cut down, and the same Thiers who saved that money to France was | compelled to pay to Prussia a sum that would | | have equipped an army sufficient to collect a | tribute at Berlin. In the same vein of economy it is proposed to save four or five millions on our own army and abandon to the | Indians the greatest wealth-producing district | in the world, and to save an equal sum on the navy, though we abandon to the contin- gencies of our haphazard foreign policy a | commerce just recovering itself from the | depredations of the four or five cruisers fitted | out against us by England under the cover of our civil war. Only the chance of war with the Spaniards | stampeded our merchants; for under the | pressure of that excitement they put their cargoes to foreign bottoms, conscious that there was no protection for American com- merce equal to even the smallest occasion. Would a Virginius difficulty between England and Spain have frightened a single British trader from the regular and ordinary prosecu- | | the facts as any other man, takes the ground | | calmer times, | until his voice or good temper comes to him | Verati, and had him put in the carcel. That | obtained ranging from ten miles to thirty | miles an hour, according as locality and safety | perfected. | of by ward primaries, as this would give him | Itis intimated also that Postmaster Dunham | election, tion of his cieeooe Ana would itnot bea | The Women’s Crusade Against Rum. [Tne city re NL Redue- wise outlay to spend enough money on our navy to give our merchants just such o con- fidence in its efficacy for their defence as English merchants feel in the English navy? But Mr. Fernando Wood believes he can “improvise in three weeks” a navy ‘capable of coping with the combined fleets of Enrope.”’ How useless it must be, then, to keep up an old navy when a new one can be had so easily and so soon! Economize to death, therefore, the navy we have, especially as ‘‘No more taxes!" is a good ery for hard times ; though when we consider that, as our taxes are now gathered, they come from the rich, and as our economy is applied to sailors and workmen in the navy yards it is burdensome to the poor, perhaps the cry of ‘‘no taxes” is scarcely so good as some of our Congressional demagogues fancied. Had war come, as it lately threatened, those who have opposed the navy and uselessly squandered the money that should have main- tained it would have stood condemned before public opinion ; though this would have been a sorry consolation, with our securities depre- ciated, our millions of import revenue lost and our cities laid under contribution by the enemy. And all this for the want of a navy that should be the defence of the nation against the world in arms! The Destitution in the City. The story of the destitution prevailing among the poor of New York which we pub- lish to-day will startle our well-to-do readers in their comfortable homes, It is not pleasant to reflect that there are two New Yorks, the one plunged in the most abject misery, wanting all the necessaries of life, shivering from cold, borne down by disease, crowded into the unwholesome tenement houses of the poor quarters, which are | now, in truth, dwellings of sorrow and affliction. Yet while the prosperous | citizens go merrily over the beautiful snow to the music of tinkling bells, the poor, hud- | dled together in fireless rooms, chatter and | shiver in the piercing night winds, slowly | starving to death. Hundreds wander home- | | less in this great city through the winter | storm, more desolate and helpless than if they | were in a desert. In the midst of plenty | they starve, and the pangs of hunger aro | rendered more difficult to bear by the | sight of the good things they must not taste. | Some active measures are necessary to alle- viate this widespread distress. The ordinary machinery of charity cannot be trusted to | meet the increasing demands for help, and the story we publish to-day shows that | there is no time to be lost if the great suffering and distress existing among our poor are to be alleviated before famine begins | to seek victims among the unfortunates. | Prompt and energetic action is needed from | the charitable. The speediest and simplest | | mode of relief will be the establishment of | numerous soup kitchens, where all who are hungry may obtain food for the mere asking. Gexerat Fitz Jonn Porrer’s Case.—We publish to-day a very interesting communica- | tion and forcible argument from Mr. Mont- | gomery Blair on the case of General Fitz John Porter. General Porter, it is known, has | made strenuous efforts to have his case recon- sidered, believing that injustice was done him by the court martial and the government which dismissed him from the army. Mr. Blair, who knows, perhaps, as much about that General Porter should have another trial. It is unnecessary to recite his argument here, | as our readers have it before them in another part of the paper. But we may remark that there seems tobe much force in the point made of there being rivalries and jealousies among the military chiefs at the time of Gen- eral Porter's trial which were calculated to prejudice the case. At all events there could be no harm in ordering a new trial in these Tue Spanish Mopr or Discreuminc AN Opera Stncer is to put him into the ‘“jug”’ | | again. The benevolent government at Ha- vana exercised this privilege on poor Verati | (or Ferati), the tenor of the Lucca-Murska Opera Company. Verati was to be the Elvino in “Sonnambula ;”’ but he did not make his appearance, much to the disappointment or chagrin of the officials, if not of the public and artists. Hl Presidente of the theatre, who, it appears, possesses magisterial powers, made out a commitment to prison for eight days for is the way they do things in Havana. As Verati published a card showing he was not to blame he was let out of prison and sang the next night amid ‘‘considerable enthusiasm.” There is not in the world such an absolute despotism as that of the Spanish government in Cuba. The poor Cubans have to bear it; but if foreign artists choose to submit to such tyranny for the sake of gaining money they cannot complain. War Nor?—A correspondent in to-day’s Henratp proposes a plan for rapid transit which, if it could be carried out, would solve the question in a novel and desirable way. | He professes to be able to apply to ordinary | single vehicles or to trains of cars or carriages a means of locomotion by a mechanical con- trivance, which can be used on ordinary road- beds, and from which a rate of speed can be will warrant rapidity of travel. There is no reason why such an invention should not be If our correspondent is the genius whio has managed to solve the problem he will have very little difficulty in procuring the | | facilities for testing the merit of his invention. Tue DeMmocnatic Frop m= New Haven grows more interesting. A sub-committee of the State Central Committee is to meet on Wednesday next to settle it. It is charged that Mr. Gallagher, the well known democratic leader, wants the delegates from New Haven elected hereafter by mass convention instead complete control of the city. This is a settle- ment against which many democrats protest. takes a lively interest in the fight, which sug- gests the remark that federal influence is gen- erally fatal to the settlement of democratic | quarrels. The democracy af Connecticut can- not afford a big fight on the eve of a State | The women of the West think the time is all | sin no more.” | more of a sinner than the manufacturer of the | poison. But the latter is taken into the bosom | of the Church and hugged and fondled there Our readers are fully aware of the crusade carried on against the liquor traffic by the women of Ohio, and intended to be opened in Massachusetts by the wives and mothers of that State. We have watched it with some degree of pleasure, not, however, unmixed with pain and surprise. We were glad that women had enlisted in this warfare, for they have the deepest interest, present and prospec- tive, in the curtailment of the liquor traffic. The dead weight of this business falls almost entirely on the wives and mothers and daugh- ters and sisters of the land. To hun- dreds of them the money that goes into the liquor dealer's till is the price of bread or of blood. Every dollar spent in the rumshop means deprivation and desti- tution for the wives and children of those who drink. We were not surprised, therefore, that the women of Ohio took hold of this matter with earnestness and zeal. ‘Nor should we be surprised if the women of New York organized a crusade ugainst intemperance here, where, according to a recent report of one of the Excise Commissioners, nine thousand of their sex have been arrested for the crime of intoxi- cation in public during the past year, while only five hundred and sixty males were ar- rested. The disproportion of the sexes ad- dicted'to intemperance is certainly remarkable, and should arouse the women of this city. But while the arrests of females, doubt- less, cover all or nearly all of those given to the intoxicating cup in New York, it is too manifest that the number of males arrested does not bear the same proportion to the number who make themselves drunk with liquor. We should not be surprised, we repeat, if the women of New York or Boston or of other cities made an effort to stay the tide of intemperance in this land. But we think there is a better way to accomplish this reform than that which the women of Ohio have adopted. Their zeal is not directed by discretion, and we venture the prediction that a reaction will come by and by that will sweep away like an avalanche, with irresistible force, whatéver of good these earnest and godly, but, as we think, mistaken, wives and mothers of Ohio have or shall have accomplished. Praying and psalm-singing are right and | proper means, and the Good Book tells us that there are a time anda place for these things. day long and seven days of the week, and the place the shops and stores of their neighbors. Now, aside from the ridicule which must fall upon religion from this unseemly method of warfare, it does not carry the gentleness of | the Gospel with it as it should. ‘These godly women can make ‘a scourge of small_ cords” for the backs of the liquor sinners; and some of their male followers, as we noticed in a paper the other day, carry slungshots and other missiles with them and use them as well as they do the hymn books; but they do not as readily bid those sinners, in the tender tones of the Master, “Go and The liquor seller 1s no as if he were a saint or an angel whose wings had not yet grown to carry him on high. The root of tho evil is not here ; it is with the gov- ernment, which not only sanctions the traffic in its various stages, but derives its chief reve- nue therefrom. Let the women of Ohio and of New York and Massachusetts lay their axe | to the root of the tree; bring their moral and social influence to bear upon the legislation of the nation which sanctions it, upon the Church which endorses it by her silence and upon the individuals who are engaged in it, and who luxuriate upon its profits, snatched | | from the homes and the bodies of thousands in this land, and the doom of the liquor busi- ness cannot be far off nor be doubtful in its success. But it is useless to break up the business in a little town in Ohio while Con- gress and State legislatures and churches and larger communities favor its continuance and derive profit from it. Tae WorkiNcMzN AND THE Poor.—The constant struggle of the working classes with the stern realities of life sometimes hardens their nature to the sufferings of members of their own class so that they are guilty of con- duct towards their more unfortunate fellow laborers which is often tinged with brutality. The case of Reilly, who was refused permis- sion by the ’longshoremen to earn food for his children because he is unable to comply with some trade union law, isa case in point. It is sad to see the best impulses of man’s nature checked and suppressed ina stupid attempt to deprive a laborer of the right to earn honestly his bread. Such incidents are not calculated to increase the respect of the general public for trade union principles. Mexico Srmx Unsezasy.—Though we had lately soothing news from our neighbors across the Rio Grande, there is by no means a reign of universal peace among them. We see by the telegrams published to-day from the city of Mexico, up to the first of this month, that the revolution in Yucatan is gain- ing strength, that the Indians had plundered and burned the town of Canotchel in that State, and that the Apaches have been raiding in Sonora. The press of Mexico does not like the new American trade dollar, and says that it has proved injurious to Mexican interests. Tae Howarp Retier Association.—It is the intention of the managers of this excellent charity to provide soup for the needy who shall apply for food at their institution. The publication in the Henatp yesterday of the manner in which the poor are cared for by the Howard Relief Association brought nine hundred applicants to their rooms in Leonard street yesterday. It was found im- possible to meet so sudden o demand, as there is sleeping accommodation for some two hundred and seventy persons only. The establishment of o free soup kitchen will be a step in the right direction, and we hope to see it imitated by other benevo- lent societic# Itis the readiest and surest way of aiding the poor with the least damage to their self-respect. It will also be a great boon to that most deserving class, the genteel poor, who starve in garrets because they will not beg. Tse Gratitupe or Rerusiics.—A grateful country leaves its one-legged heroes to perish on the street from hunger and cold. What have enthusiastic politicians to say to the maimed soldiers who fought and bled for the Union and are now allowed to starve? tion of the Year's Appropriations. The taxation of the present year for the city of New York reaches the enormous rate of 3.40. We need not at this time criticise the financial policy which has managed to burden the people in this manner, and to increase the city debt some forty million dollars in less than three years, while almost all our great works of public improvement have been brought to a standstill It is enough that the evil is upon us, and that a citizen who owns a house valued at ten thousand dollars will have to pay three hundred and forty dollars for a year's taxes. If we can lighten this heavy burden it is certainly wise to do so. At the same time it is not wise to simply “bridge over’’ 9 difficulty, as is the custom now in our city finances, and to increase our eventual embarrassment by piling up debt which must some day be met. If we can exercise a rigid economy and thus cut down our expenditures it is our duty to give this much relief to the people. There is still much extravagance in some of the departments, Last year a counsel was en- gaged by the Finance Department to go to Albany during the legislative session, and for many weeks this lawyer was paid out of the city treasury tho exorbitant fee of one hun. dred dollars a day and trom nine to twelve dollars a day for his hotel expenses, the amount being drawn by him for some days during which the Legislature was not in ses- sion at all. This year we find hidden away in the City Record of January 23, where no per- son ever sees it, the list of salaries in the Finance Department for 1874, and among other liberally paid employés we find one “Examiner” at the modest salary of twenty- five dollars a day, and another at four dollars and a half an hour, or at the rate of forty-five dollars a day for a working day of ten hours. These are abuses which should be summarily remedied. Mayor Havemeyer now submits to the Legislature two bills prepared by the Comp- troller, authorizing the reopening and revision of the appropriations made for the several city departments by the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in December last. If these bills be passed, it is said, the appropriations can be cut down and the taxation lessened. This is desirable, supposing the reductions to be made in the proper places, and not in a manner to still further cripple and hinder the prosecution of public works and the improve- ment of the city. But why did the Board of Estimate and Apportionment agree to need- less expenditures at all? Why did they not exercise rigid economy last December, less than two months ago? Especially, when the Board of Aldermen, in accordance with the right vested in them by the charter, did re- duce certain extravagant appropriations a few weeks since, why did the Board of Estimate and Apportionment oppose and defeat this economy and insist upon keeping the appropriations as they had passed them in December? The ‘Board of Apportionment consists of the Mayor, the Comptroller, the President of the Board of Aldermen, Mr. Vance, and the President of the Tax Board, Mr. Wheeler. It would have been more satisfactory if the Comptroller had told the people exactly how and where the promised reductions are to be made, and the Legislature should insist upon receiving this information, and should so | frame the laws they are asked to pass as to authorize the reopening of the apportionments for the especial purpose of the stipulated re- ductions and for no other. There can be no possible objection to furnishing this informa- tion, and, by providing for the specified re- ductions in the laws, the people will insure the promised saving, and will not run the risk of a reapportionment only for the gratification | of that jealousy and envy among the depart- ments by which the city is so seriously injured and disgraced. Skeleton Iron-Clads—How We Secure an Efficient Navy. The simplest, most effective and most inex- pensive method by which we can increase our naval strength and put ourselves more nearly upon an equality on the seas with the leading European Powers, is by building a number of iron-cladsin skeleton, and keeping them on the stocks in our navy yards, ready to be finished when the necessity arises. The advantages of this policy are so self-evident that it is only nec- essary to advance the proposition to insure its general approval and acceptance. We must keep our navy yards up to a certain degree of efficiency under any circumstances, and the employment of the force in building the pro- posed skeletons would really economize labor and insure ys skilled and practised workmen. We must have the material on hand, whether we are likely to need ships or not, and by working it up in this manner we should lose nothing by decay, while we should be in a position to get ready for active service as powerful a fleet of vessels as we might re- quire in about one-third of the time that would be consumed it we had to commence building the hull. There is but little difference of opinion as to the necessity of an increase of our naval force. As one of the great Powers of the world we must place ourselves on an equal foot- ing with other great nations if we would preserve our position, command respect and insure peace. There is no better safeguard May against war than the known ability to wage war successfully. The cry of economy and the tear of heavy expenditures alone interfere with that wise policy, which would be | more effective than the shrewdest | diplomacy in averting the unpleasant complications with foreign governments which have from time to time given us so | much annoyance. The only strength which is of real benefit to us in our standing with | European nations is naval strength. Our power on the seas must be recognized and respected, or we might as well have no power atall. The proposition for a strong skeleton iron-clad navy satisfactorily meets the diffi- culty, because our condition would be known abroad, and our recognized ability to launch a fleet equal to any emergency at a very short notice would be as valuable to us as would the presence of American war vessels in every port in the world. Besides, there would be practical economy in the policy. We should make some outlay in time of peace; but the sinking of the money would be more than compensated by the saving we should effect if we should be driven into war, when the cost of labor and material would be largely inereaged, ‘ Yesterday's Pulpit Themea, The sermon of Rev. George H. Heptorth, which we publish to-day, has in it many besu- tifal truths of profound interest to the mest wicked sinners. In the contemplation ot Jacob's vision of the ladder whose top reached to-heaven he reads the truth that there is a road to heaven even for the criminal, the wicked, the doubting and the unbelieving. Out of men's sensual passions and sins God can make altars of prayer, and every man bas found in the record of his life something supernatural, which he could explain only by the wondrous power of the Lord. And Mr. Hepworth finds in this vision also another truth—namely, that this road to heaven is always open, so that the ungodly and the sinner may enter on it whenever they will. Bishop Cummins finds that there is but one door of entrance to the kingdom of God, and that is by the birth of the Spirit and of love, But the Bishop finds, also, that salvation is @ personal matter and that men cannot be saved in bodies or corporations. Corporate Chris- tianity, he thinks, is a curse, while individua} Christianity is what man requires to work great reforms, : The Rev. Henry Powors agrees with Darwin that evolution is the law of life, but he differs with that scientist in the interpretation put upon the word evolution, To Mr. Powers it means not God, but the method of God's manifestation in nature. It is a progression from the simple to the complex, and by this law the universe is governed. In this very learned style Mr. Powers gives us a specimon of nice reading, but to men hungry for the bread of life it must feel like a stone. Had he put the last quarter of a column of his discourse first and thrown the rest of it under the pulpit or kept it for the lecture hall we have no doubt the people would be setter fed and strengthened spirit- ually and God be glorified. Butif the sal- vation of men is not the end sought then the last part of this sermon might be omitted altogether, and the rest would constitute an interesting lecture. One of the best illustrations of the province and property of faith, as distinct from the evi- dence of things reported by the senses, is given in Mr. Beecher's sermon, which we pub- lish this morning. The touch of sarcasm which pervades his reference to the crea- tion will be fully appreciated by those scientists who pretend they know when the world was formed. He also distinguishes intellectual faith from religious, and gives an apt illustration in the communion of the Lord’s Supper. Mr. Beecher does not believe, as some others do, that faith is mysterious, He believes it rather to be normal and natural. All progress, he thinks, is toward faith, and the reformation of men is attained by the power of love—the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Rev. Mr. Peabody tells us very truly to-day that Christ’s life was not the result of philosophy, that His mission was from heaven, and that His religion is that which the nations of the world most desired eighteen centuries ago and most desire to-day. But we do not agree with him in the belief that if Jesus stood among us to-day He would by the heavenly luminous electric light of His mission influence and move the world. Mankind have been moved more by the invisible but still present Christ than they ever were by the visible and tangible Christ. And we do not believe His reception would be any better or His life be any longer had He been born in the nine- teenth century of the Christian era instead of the first. Mr. Talmage leads us to infer that Jesus is here—at least in his church—and he asks the pertinent question, “‘What Shall We Do With Him?’’ He appealed to his congregation's sense of honor, courtesy and culture, while he told them what he knew they would not do to Jesus. They could not be rude or abusive or discourteous to Him. They, how- ever, might look upon Him as an optician to cure the blind eyes, an aurist, a good friend, a cheerful companion. But the safest and best thing which he commended them to do was to take Jesus into their hearts and into their confidence. Dr. McGlynn gave his people an exposition of the parable of the sower, and drew there- from the lesson that the salvation of our souls is of far greater importance to us than the mere passing gratification of our bodies. From the same parable Father Kane pointed out the folly and danger of listening to the Word of God with indifference. He rebuked the pulpit sensationalism of the day, which he intimated is opposed to the Gospel. Father Kane goes in for simplicity in the ministry of the Word; for, as he says, the simplest words go straight to the heart. And still further, from the same parable, Father White inculcated the duty of religiously educating the young, and Father Garesché, who has just opened a “mission” in the Church of St. Mary’s Star of ‘the Sea, Brooke lyn, without this parable, called attention to the same duty, and expressed his disapproval with Catholic parents who sent their children to the ‘Godless schools,”’ An interesting service was held on the flag. ship Roanoke yesterday, in which Chaplain Kane preached on the importance of decision in matters of religion. Dr. Wild, of Brooklyn, discoursed on the harmony that exists between the life and the | sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he | would have his people follow wholly. Accrpenta Poverty.—Among the greatest sufferers in the present season of distress are the accidental poor, those who by no fault of | ‘their own are thrown out of work and find it impossible to obtain other employment. The story of Stoniman, told by one of our reporters, | is, unfortunately, only a representative case. | Thousands of men willing to work are at this moment suffering the pangs of hunger because they can find no employment. It shows also the necessity of reform in the organization of our charities. The large sums so liberally com tributed by the people ought to place it within the power of the poor to obtain at least a little food and slielter daily. Is Mexico a Rervustic?—According to the despatches from Mexico, Judge Ramirez, of the Supreme Court, declares Mexico is a re- public in name only, as in reality it is gov- erned by ® military despotism. He ought to know, certainly. Mexico, in fact, has hardly ever been in any other condition. Nor is that the only government called republican where there is military despotism. What else is