The New York Herald Newspaper, March 21, 1874, Page 6

NEW YORK’HERALD, SATURDAY, MARUH 21, NEW YORK HERALD|*,27,, 7" 27 BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. ‘THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the gear, Four cents per copy. Annual subscription Erice $12. Al) business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Herarp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- | turned. 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. Volume 80 XXXIX AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING Broadway and Thurteenth We loses ae MPM Me Jol Lewis Mudinee at 1590 PAL RIVALS, at 8 Miss Jeitreys ilbert, ACADEMY OF "SIC. Fourteenth street—strakosch Italian Opera Troupe | ALVA matinee at 1 at 4:30 P.M. Mule. Torriani, Miss Cary panini, “Del Puente, Naumett, OLYMPIC THEATRE, between Houston and Bleecker, streets.— Y pNTESTAINMENT, at Matinee at2 P. M, BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, opposite City Hall, Brookiyn.—ZIP, ats P.M; closes at UPLM, Lota, Matinee at2 P.M. BOWERY THEATRE, Bowery. CREVENE, and VARIETY _ ENTERTAIN. WENT. Begins at 8 P! M.; closes at 11 P.M METROPOLITAN THBATRE. No. 585 Broadway,—VAKL ENTERTAINMENT, at $45 PM. ; closes at 10:30 P.M. Matinee at 2 P. NIBLO’S GARDEN, Froadway. between Prince and Houston streets, —DAVY CROGKETY, ats P.M: closes at 0:30 P.M. Mr, Frank Mayo. Matinee ati :30P. M. Lyc THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near sixth avenue —French Opera Boutle—Le. Perit (AUT, at 8 P. M.: closes at lW5 P. M. Mile. Marie Aimee. Matinee at 1:30 P. M.—LA FILLE. DE MADAME ANGOT. WOOD'S MUSEU! Broadway, corner Th. AMRICA\ at 2 P.M =P. M.; closes at 10:30 GERMAN BATRE, Fourteenth street, near Irving place.—EINE LEICHTE PERSON, at 8 P.M. ; closes at 11 P. M. DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, qremy-cighth street and Broadway —CHARITY, at 8 P. M. 5 closes at Miss Ada Dyas, Miss Fann; Lavenport, Mr. ishe! Lewts, Matinee atl 30 PM, GRAND OPERA HOUSE, Eighth avenue and twenty-third street.—PANTOMIME RIETY ENIERIAL“ MENT. Begins at 7:45 P. M.: Fe ones at 10:45 P.M. ‘The Martinetti Family. Matinee at THEATRE COMIQUR, No. S14 Broadway.—VARJETY EN #. M,; closes at 10:30 P.M. Matinee at MENT, at 8 M. STADT THEATRE, Bowery.—Grand German Opera—FAUST, at 8 P. M.; closes a2 11 P.M. Mme. Lucea. BOOTH’S THEATR Sixth ‘pate and Bigot third stree BAWN, at 7:45 P M.: closes at 10:45 Gault. Matinee at 130 PM TONY PASTUR’S OPE No. 201 Bowery.—VARIETY EN Bij closes at 1 P.M Matinee at 2 P. —THE COLLEEN . M. Dion Bouci- A HOUSE, rRtTATNAMENT, at 8P, BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, ‘Twenty-third s rect, near Sixth avenue,—NEGRO MIN- PTREUSY, ac. ats P.M; closes at lu PM. Matinee at STEINWAY HALT, Fourteenth street, near homes’ Symphony Concert, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 COLOS: corner of: hirt Anh street.—PARIS BY WOONLIAT® atiP. M.; closes at5 2. M.; same at7 P. M.; closes at 1) P.M. roadway, TRIPLE SHEET. “March 21, 1874. New York, Saturday, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be generally clear. Tse Rercusrac has again defeated the mili- tary bill upon which Bismarck and the Em- peror so vigorously insisted. Now, perhaps, we shall see the stuff out of which modern Cesars are mado. Tae Frencn Rerve.ic shows signs of de- termined existence in the removal of the Duke de Padoue from his mayoralty for partici- | pating in the festivities at Chiselhurst. Tue Inpran Loan which was asked for in Parliament yesterday has no importance be- | yond indicating the severity of the famine in that dependency of the English Crown. Home Ruiz mm Irexanp receives no en- | couragement in Parliament, as is evident from the light vote and lack of interest in the question in the House of Commons yesterday. Mr. Butt will have to wait fora more con- venient season. Tue Semure or tHE Epoar Srvarr at Baltimore yesterday is another episode in our Cuban-Spanish complications, The only result will be a good deal of nonsensical talk from the Treasury Department about naviga- tion and neutrality laws, and possibly a little feeble diplomacy on the part of Mr. Fish. Tae Canuists Movinc on Maprrm.—Our latest news from Spain is of on interesting character. ‘General Palacios is said to be marching in the direction of Madrid, at the head of an army of twelve thousand men. In his march he had defeated a republican column under Colligo, near Mirglanilla. Mir- glanilla is a village situated some forty-four tiles southeast of tue city of Cuenca, and Cuenca is some eighty-four miles southeast of Madrid. Palacios is still far distant from the capital city. If the report is true the Carlists have friends elsewhere than in the North. We | , doubt the truth of the report. We expect that the news from the North will, in a few days, give a new aspect to the entire situation. Tue Sexate at Worx.—In passing the Army and Fortification bills yesterday the | Senate showed a disposition to do a little | plain enough to satisfy the true friends of such earnest work. Ifa little of this vigor is ap- | | a measure, who would have preferred that the | plied to the currency question it will do much Commission should have full power to proceed | good. The country is suffering because Con- | gress fails to act upon these measures, We were promised at the beginning of the week that they should be disposed of without delay, and though the Senate yesterday made the bill to equalize the national bank currency the special order for Monday we can only hope that some definite action upon the whole mat-_ tershall soon be had. Will the Senate give little of its earnest work to the finances? Mr. Dawes will call up the question in the House on Monday on the Four Hundred Mil- lion bill; but what the country wants is diemion cr peo! leplaon, ba | plete disposition of the entire subject. Irving) place.—Theodore | Rapid Cheated? We are not disposed to allow the Senators and Assemblymen at Albany, and especially the representatives from this city, to humbug the people on the important subject of rapid transit for New York. If they once more cheat the million of residents of the me- tropolis for the sake of pocketing the money or conciliating the favor of wealthy indi- viduals and powerful corporations we will not allow them to cover up their rascality with the cloak of ignorance or falsehood. Their | corruption shall be made so clear that the most ignorant of their constituents cannot tail to understand their true character. Steam railroads at cheap rates of tare—from | three to five cents—run for the accommoda- tion of the people, at three to five minute | intervals, as the London underground rail- | way 1s run, are demanded for the growth and | . prosperity of the city, as well as for the public | | comfort, health and morality. To the poorer | classes in especial such means of cheap con- veyance would be a priceless boon. It would take them out of the close, unhealthful, com- | fortless, demoralizing tenement house; free them from the exactions of greedy landlords, | relieve them from the fatigue of weary horse- | car journeys at unseasonable hours at | the commencement or close of a/| hard day’s work, and give them cheap, bright, healthful and pleasant | homes, Every public interest demands rapid transit of this character. It is opposed by the Harlem and Hudson River Railroad in- terests; by the street railroad lines, the richest of which is the Third Avenue Company; by | the owners of tenement houses and by the ferry companies. All of these hold the people now at their mercy and make money out of the sufferings, losses and inconveniences to which the people are put for want of rapid transit. When all other means gf defeating rapid transit threaten to fail its natural enemies step in and bid for the franchise for the purpose of excluding’others, and without any intention to do the work themselves. On the one hand stand the people, who pray for rapid transit, but are unable to buy up the Legislature in order to secure it; on the other hand stand the individuals and corporations, who will continue to make a hundred per cent profit out of the people if they can deteat rapid transit, and who can thus afford to buy | up the Legislature at so much a head to do their work. Although the Legislature has the right to | grant the franchises for steam railroads in New York the city is the real party in interest, and the franchises in fact belong to the people of the city. It is proper that the control of the matter should be transferred to the city. The peopie ask that this shall be done by the | creation of a commission composed of promi- nent, responsible and capable residents of New York, to be appointed by the Governor, and the transfer to this commission of the power to authorize the construction of steam railroads, under proper regulations, by private capital, or to build roads for the people's benefit with the people’s credit. This would take the | matter out of the hands of the representatives from Erie, Chautauqua, Monroe, Oswego, Cattaraugus, Clinton and other counties of the State, and place it under the control of the | people of New York city, who are directly in- | terested in it. It would remove the question from the State Legislature, where it has been astandard source ot corruption and infamy, and transfer it to a commission of reputable and honorable New Yorkers, whose integrity could not be doubted and whose interests are identified with the progress and prosperity of the metropolis. How can democrats, who are always elamorous for popular rights, oppose such a proposition? How can “reformed Tammany’ ask the confidence of the people of New York if in this important matter it is willing to sell them out to a wealthy corpora- tion? Two applications for franchises have been | made to the Legislature, which bear upon | them the unmistakable stamp of insincerity | and corruption. One comes from the Third Avenue Horse Car Company, whose enormous profits can only be retained if rapid transit shall be defeated. The other comes from Mr. | Vanderbilt, of the Harlem and Hudson River | railroads, who is equally interested in killing | rapid transit. These parties now join teams, | harmonize their bills, apply for both fran- chises, and agree upon forteits ot one hun- | dred thousand dollars each in case they tail to do the work. The forfeit would be litUe more than one-tenth of a year’s profits of the Third Avenue corporation, and @ mere bagatelle to Mr. Vanlerbilt, who might quadruple it in a day out of a rise in Harlem stock. The very combination is evidence of | dishonesty ; for the idea of two friendly rapid transit lines, honestly run for the convenience of the people, one on Fourth avenue and the other on Third avenue, is preposterous. In the language of City Hall politics, it is “too thin,” and the combination only means addi- tional funds with which to purchase Senators | transit. We are confirmed in our opinion of the dishonest character of these propositions by the little side scene enacted in the State As- sembly yesterday. Some time ago Mr. East- man introduced a bill which seemed calculated to give the people of the city what they want— | an honest Rapid Transit Commission, which should build steam railroads sufficient for the public accommodation, or procure their con- | struction by private capital, in as faithtul and | advantageous a manner as the Croton water supply was secured or the Central Park con- structed. The bill was not quite simple and forthwith to build a road or roads on the city’s | credit and to operate it as a public work in | the interests of the people, soas to insure to the poorer classes the very lowest | rate of fare consistent with payment of the running expenses and interest and the accumulation of a sinking | fund to meet the principal of the debt as it | fallg dne. Still, the measure was looked upon as @ step in the right direction—as a promise to take this corrupting question out of the greedy Legislative scramble and put it into sok | Sais dads Mr. Eastinan's bill was con- signed to the tender keeping of the Railroad and Assemblymen, and the greater certainty | of cheating the people and killing rapid | the | y since; while the Third Avenue and Vanderbilt bills glide smoothly and easily past it, and promise to make rapid transit time through both houses. There is no money in Mr. East- man’s bill, and yesterday he rose to a question of privilege in order to announce that he was not privy to its unaccountable delay in the committee; that he had not sold out, and did not intend to sell out, and that he should at the proper time take steps to rescue the bill from the too careful keeping of the Railroad Committee. This brought up Mr. Lincoln, a member of the committee, who indignantly refused to allow the conduct of the committee | to be ‘aspersed.” He then proceeded to explain the difficulty of considering and deciding between the numerous propositions (by the way, this difficulty does not seem to have been felt in regard to the Third avenue and Vanderbilt projects), and declared that ‘each one having a rapid transit scheme thinks his | the best, and the committee will do well if it | pleases all."’ We may state that Mr. Lincoln was a member of the Erie Investigation Com- mittee of last session. Now, with all deference to Mr. Lincoln, the reference of the whole subject of New York rapid transit to a commission of New Yorkers of as high character as the Central Park Commission would be the best method of relieving the committee of the very difficulty of which Mr. Lincoln complains. He must | not hope to deceive the public by any such shallow pretences. It is precisely because of | the conflict over the franchise and the insidi- ous efforts of interested corporations to kill rapid transit altogether that a commission is demanded, in order that the best and most practical project and the one that promises the greatest benefit and convenience to the citizens may be certain to be adopted, in order that the road or roads may be actually constracted either by private capi- tal orthrough the public credit, and in order that the public interests may be properly pro- tected atter rapid transit is secured. Besides, Mr. Lincoln's flourishing pretence that his rail- road committee has all along been determined “to give New York rapid transit if possible” is all moonshine. The people of New York do not forget that the creation of a Rapid Transit Commission, such as they demand, would not prevent the construction of either the Third avenue or the Vanderbilt road. It would, in fact, render the construction of the roads certain, provided it is the honest inten- tion of the applicants to build them. It would simply guard the people from being cheated out of rapid transit altogether, or from beingy defrauded by the construction, in the name ot rapid transit, of a freight line for the advan- tage of the Harlem and Hudson River rail- roads. It will be hard to persuade any sensi- ble person that a Senator or Assemblyman who votes for these private corporations’ bills in preference to a people’s Rapid Transit Com- mission is not induced to do so by @ money bribe or from some corrupt consideration equally as infamous. The Young Vesuvius in North Caro- lina. It would not have been considered unjust to North Carolina a month ago if at that time we had remarked that religious experience was as completely unknown in the mountains of that State as volcanic action. Accepting the possibility of the one it is easy to accept the other, and, strange to say, both came to- gether. Bald Mountain has shown a disposi- tion to assert its ancient privileges as a vol- cano. As an indication of this purpose it gave forth ‘lumbering’ sounds, about the only lumbering the naked hill has ever done. The inhabitants at once went to prayer as the only remedy for the impending calamity, and, forgetting all sectarian dogmas and doctrines, forgetting even what few people are disposed to forget-srace in religion—they accepted a leader and teacher of the colored persuasion. Prayer continued without intermission for sixteen days, and almost the entire population of the mountain was converted. To the wicked and worldly mind all this will seem exceedingly funny, and it is undeniable that it has its grotesque aspects; but we must not for- get that with the grotesqueness of fear there is aiso the fervor of religious devotion. It is the spectacle, witnessed in every community, the most intellectual as well as the most igno- rant, of man going to God when man is him- selfincapable of contending with the raging and devouring elements. We need not be sur- prised at the scenes which took place among these simple North Carolina people. If the Orange Mountain should suddenly transform itself into a volcano even New Jersey might be converted. It is not surprising that with a real volcano threatening them the people of Bald Mountain should turn from their evil ways, especially when we remember that their young Vesuvius was getting ready to burst nearly a month before anybody else found it out. ‘Tue Crry Frxances.—We publish to-day the substance of a memorial to be presented to the State Legislature on the subject of the present financial management of the city government. The number and character of the signatures are sufficient evidence of the serious manner in which our business classes regard the large increase of our debt and taxation at a time when the public improvements are notori- ously stagnant. We seem somehow to be get- ting more and more deeply into financial em- | barrassments the further we are removed from the evil legacies of official corruption and the more parsimonious we become in the matter of all public works.. A thorough over- hauling of the Finance Department would do noharm. But this is generally supposed to be the duty of the Commissioners of Accounts, who somehow appear to have withdrawn mys- | teriously from public view. Has the office been abolished by the Mayor, or have the | Commissioners received instructions that the | secrets of our financial system are not to be revealed ? Tar Broapwax Unpercrounn Rarnoap.— This scheme was favorably reported to the | State Senate yesterday by Mr. Madden, ac- companied by a dissenting minority report from Mr. Tobey. The Broadway Under- ground is the old familiar Beach Pneumatic bore, and it modestly asks to put an obligation of five millions on the overburdened tax- payers of New York. Mr. Ledwith made a motion to adopt the minority report and to Feject the bill, but it was defeated by a vote of 13 to 12. The New York members were a unit against the bill. When will these rural Committas.~4 there it baa slnmbered ever Senators take their hands out of our pockets? M. Olivier and the French Academy. Once more has the last Premier of the Sec- ond Empire given Paris the pleasure of a sur- prise. He has presented himself as. moral hero, and has compelled the Academy to en- roll him in the number of martyrs to opinion. This could scarcely have been expected from the man who went into the war of 1870 with “@ light heart;”” except, indeed, as we might assume that a man who hada light heart in those circumstances would never, in any cir- cumstances, have a very heavy one, and so would be prepared with the requisite temper for taking advantage of opportunity as it came and meeting fortune on any terms, It may, indeed, be this temper that has given to the reappearance of M. Ollivier at a happy moment the cachet of that peculiar sort of suc- cess most likely to secure him favor with the larger number; or it may be that the truly earnest and loyal side of the man’s nature has come out in his little difference with the Academy. If it be the latter his success will be more lasting than in the other case; for the French, super- ficial and pitiless as they are in epigram, have, more than any other people in Europe, the instinctive perception of real sincerity, and respect it just in proportion as they do not possess it,: Our Paris correspondent tells well in another column the whole story of Ol- livier’s latest stroke. He was elected one of “The Forty” betore his fall, and as the fauteuils of the Academy are sacred to literature and the white light of human reason, it presuma- bly could never be known to the learned body that one of its members had tallen; because what are politics—what are all the coarse and common struggles of human effort—to people who live in the serene atmosphere of abstract thought? Ollivier, therefore, notwithstanding his fall, must bo received by the Academy when it might prove convenient to him, tor it had been necessary for him to leave the country soon after he was chosen to a chair. It proved convenient for him to be received just in those days when public opinion seems no longer to remember him bitterly, and when there is some appearance that Napoleon IV. | is not so tar from the throne as people once thought him. Ollivier was to read before the Academy ® paper on Lamartine, the former occupant of his chair, in which he introduced a reference to the relations ot Lamartine with Napoleon IIL, and made this the point of support tor some words of warm eulogium on the Emperor, of whom it is now treason to speak well in such company. But the Acad- emy refused to permit this eulogy to be read before it, and, as Ollivier refused to strike it out, his reception is indefinitely postponed. Never before, perhaps, was the Academy so useful toany man. It becomes for a moment the stage on which the adroit returning exile is enabled to present himself to the public in at once a serious and an amiable aspect. Out of their very admiration for courage the people will say ‘“‘Bravo!’’ to a man who tells an honest truth as to the talent and good heart of the strange ruler who has passed away, and of whom it has been for many months the fashion to speak ill through the pressure equally of republican and royalist sentiment; and loyalty and devotion are never wrong. Ollivier, therefore, makes a very pretty coup even if the Bonapartes never return, while if Napoleon IV. should one of these fine days step into his father's shoes Ollivier cannot be forgotten. Rerorn or THE AsHANTEE Troops.—Gen- eral Wolseley has arrived in England and the festivities are to begin immediately. Africa has been humbled and the King of the Ashan- tees humiliated and punished. The mission of war will be first celebrated, and then the Icud acclaim of victory will give place to the solemn celebration of the mission of peace over the remains of Dr. Livingstone. Pos- terity will have no difficulty in determining whether Wolseley’s or Livingstone’s mission was the nobler. A RemargaBe Perrtion From CaLirornia.— Senator Hager, of California, presented a petition from citizens of his State to the Senate yesterday ayainst any further subsidies to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. As Cali- fornia is more interested ttan any other part of the country in steamship communication along and across the Pacific Ocean, this pe- tition has particular significance. Most of the States or ports specially interested in any enterprise or industry appeal to Congress for protection or support. What, then, is the motive of the memorialists? They certainly do not wish tosce steamship communication stopped. Do they see that this subsidized monopoly is an unnecessary burden upon the government and an obstruction to useful rivalry? We should like to have some light on this subject, and hope Senator Hager or some one else in Congress will clear up the matter. Butter to Wuson.—In the letter to Sena- tor Wilson, intended to be terribly scathing, General Butler seems to have shown that the man from Natick has not a very masculine or robust frame of mind, and that his action on public questions is forced upon him one way or another by his friends, It was not neces- sary to prove that his mind was of the kind indicated, as this was already known; and as for the influence he was under, the only crime is that it happened to be of the Sumner and not of the Butler stripe, which makes all the difference in the world to Bold Ben and not so much to other people. Altogether the let- ter is a tissue of very little points, which, like the lost papers in the advertisements, are of “no value to any one but the owner,” who evi- dently felt great pride in them and thought them very fine. Butler makes a mistake in endeavoring to write. He should put his ene- mies down only by pulling wires, which he does with great success. His pen is mightier than his sword, but both are poor. Curmese Curzap Lason.—Mr. Hager, of California, who, it seems, is a Senator in Con- gress, has a delicate way of introducing the great problem of the Pacific coast to the atten- tion of the Atlantic States. Chinese cheap labor is troubling his soul, and so he seized upon a resolution recently passed by the Cali- fornia Legislature, instructing the Senators from that State to use all their influence to have our treaty with China modified s0 as to discourage Chinese emigration, to make his maiden speech and show his friends that he is indeed a Senator. As the Senate has nothing to do with it the Senator showed a double capacity, for he can not only improve oppor- tunities, but make them, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET. The Police and the Public. _ Captains Williams, of the Kighth ward, and Byrne, of the Fifteenth; Officers Fitzpatrick and Tuohey, of the Nineteenth precinct, and Detective Laby, are brilliant illustrations of the relations pf the police to the public. In the wards of the two captains there are many disreputable houses which one of the boards charged with the government of the city is endeavoring to close ; and this effort is made in the intereit of the public welfare clearly and unmistakably. On which side are the police? In any well governed city it would be a scandal tp make such an inquiry. In our city the inquizy not only may be made, but it must be answered that the captains of police place themeelyes defiantly on the wrong side. They oppose the efforts that are made to protect the children attending the public schools from \the contaminating influences that are gathered in their neighborhood. It wos formerly said that every house of ill-fame in the city constituted the captain of police of the ward its protector, and paid him roundly for his good will, thus purchasing from a functionary an immunity denied by the law. This was in the good old times of “Fernandy the First,’ and the story was probably. true; but we have had a retormed police since then, Has the reform failed in the very material point of amending the relations that then existed between the police and the keepers of disreputable houses? It is our opinion that the Board of Police Commis- sioners should investigate this point, for what passed between Captain Williams and the Board of Education is sufficient ground for the inquiry. Our people support a police to enforce the laws, not to defeat them ; but this is evidently not known in the police force. The cases of Fitzpatrick, Tuohey and Leahy go together. The second case is a conse- quence of the first and a commentary upon it. Leahy killed a man in his own house by the wanton, reckless, unjustifiable use of fire- arms, apparently just because he was a policeman and the other man was not. He shot a citizen because the citizen retused to open his door to him, though he had no right whatever to call upon the man to open the door nor to enter the door if it had been opened, and though the man was not a criminal nor an accused person, but an honest laboring man, at home in his own house with his family. What was done to Leahy? Nothing. He is at large, and, though he has thus shown the instincts and temper of an as- sassin, he is not deemed an improper person to be on the police. It is thus estublished by theaction of the police and the consent of the other municipal authorities that a policeman has the right to kill on the spot any man who disputes his will or refuses to comply with his demands; and the two policemen who clubbed the man Kollman only acted on this instruc- tion. Kollman, finding them making a dis- turbance in his house, required them to leave, and they clubbed him nearly to death; and Mr. Matsell, who sustained Leahy, must of course believe that they are quite within the limits of their authority, and, as Mr. Matsell is just now at the head of the police, it is of little consequence that the whole people have a different opinion. Increasing Railroad Charges. The great railroad companies having lines to the West are about to increase their rates of fare and freight, it is said. A convention has been heid of the managers of the passenger department of the New York Central, Penn- sylvania Central and Erie railroads, at which it was agreed to mutually advance the price ot tickets to ail Western points. The fare to Cincinnati, for example, is to be raised from fifteen to twenty dollars; to Chicago from twenty-two to twenty-six dollars, and to St. Louis from twenty to twenty-seven dollars. It is said there will be an increase of rates of freights on all these lines. It is evident the railroad companies, or the railroad magnates who have control of these lines, have no fear ot the grangers, of public opinion or of the State and national Legislatures. They are well nigh all-powerful. They can inflate their stocks when they please, divide these inflated stocks among themselves and call it capital, and then demand of the public increased fares and freight charges in order to pay in- terest on such bogus capital. Every citizen of the United States cun be taxed by these ir- responsible railroad autocrats, for every one has to travel on the railroads, or to have his produce or goods transported on them, and must pay whatever the companies charge. There is no alternative, no bargain to be made, no appeal. We almost despair of any remedy being afforded, either by the State govern- ments or by Congress, such are the power, wealth and means of corruption possessed by the railroad kings. It can only come when the people shall be fully aroused and restrain the railroad monopoly through an overwhelm- ing popular movement. Sare or Iwrure Mear.—The seizure yes- terday of some eighty carcasses of calves unfit for food points to an organized system for the sale of impure meat in this city. Under the present system of private sale the inspectors of the Board of Health are unable to examine a large quantity of the meat sold in the poor quarters, and, as a result, an illegal traffic in diseased meat is assuming dangerous proportions. There is but one effective way of dealing with this nuisance. It is to compel all meat to be sold in mar- kets under the inspection of the authorities. This would involve the establishment of ward markets; but anything would be better than to allow the poor to be poisoned. The extent to which the sale of impure meat is carried cannot be accurately estimated, as the facili- ties for evading detection are so great that it is only by chance that seizures are made. Some precautions ought certainly to be taken to abate a traffic so dangerous to the health of the poor. Tue Depts or THe Distnict.—It has long been known that the school teachers of Wash- ington are not paid their salaries, and Con- gress is now asked for an appropriation to support the public schools in the District. No other construction can be put upon this proposition than that it is a confession of the bankruptcy of the new government, Are the people of Washington always to be paupers at the doors of Congress? In view of the absence of even school fund at the capital the answer of the Board of Public Works to the accusations against it, which we print to- @ay, will fall upon less patient ears than Governor Shepherd and his sasociates could desire. The debts of the District are so enormous that magnificent streets and avenues are no compensation for a people impover- ished by the grand notions of their rulers. The Treasury Receipts Gocd and Promising Well. During the present month the receipts from customs have been equal to what they were for the corresponding period in March of last year, and the Treasury officials say that they would have been larger if the questions per- taining to the national finances and the cur rency had been settled by Congress, Keeping these questions open creates a feeling of un- easiness among merchants and checks busi- ness contracts and operations, The ‘Treasury Department considers the effects of the panic about ended as faras the revenue from cus- toms is concerned. The prospect appears so good that if Congress would come to some conclusion promptly regarding the finances and currency trade would revive, the poor would find employment and the income of the Treasury would be augmented. If the con- servatives and aunti-inflationists can prevent expansion let them press a vote and busi- ness will be established upon that basis. If the inflationists can carry avy one of their measures let us know the worst, so that trade may be regulated accordingly. The suspense and uncertainty are paralyzing, and little less injurious than a panic. Only we ask Congress to make whatever measures may, be passed final, or, at least, not to be disturbed for some time to come. The country might be brought to adapt its business transactions and values even to measures that may not be the best, but continual meddling with the cur- rency and the revenue system deranges every- thing. Soap Not a Nuisance—Public Baths Not Unnecessary. General Sherman, in his recent speech at the Cooper Institute on the Caucasus, said the Caucasian race was great because it was clean. He attributed its progress and civili- zation to the habit of bathing and washing, which the peoples beyond the Caspian and to the northward of the Black Sea regarded as a curious and unpardonable eccentricity. We are inclined to support the General, and toask for a more general application of the element which has brought society to its present per- fection, especially its application on the backs of the people who herd in populous cities like New York. There is before the Legislature a bill providing for the construction of several more floating bathhouses along the river fronts of the island. This bill should not only receive Legislative sanction, but even more capacious structures should be built. “While there has been probably no very appalling mismanagement in the bathing floats on the Enst and North rivers they are totally inadequate to the wants of the people. We are surprised that the Board of Health has not taken the initiative long before this in demanding a thorough and ample system for the benefit of the seventy thousand of the laboring classes who would undoubtedly use them through the season of warm weather. One of the great mistakes has been in believing that public baths are necessary only in the summer. They are quite as necessary in the winter, when many foul, contagious diseases are carried around by unclean persons and propagated in the street cars and other public conveyances. The waters surrounding the island are ad- mirably adapted to public bathing at all seasons of the year. The time, moreover, cannot be far distant when the Elysian Fields of Hoboken will become public property and the river frontage be occupied by a flotilla of bathing houses. Other structures might be anchored in the Harlem River and at different points along the East and North rivers within convenient distance of the several ferry houses. These objects cannot be effected without there isa bureau of public baths attached to some san- itary institution of the city which will go tu work on the enterprise at once, and with a proper exhibition of energy. We venture to say, therefore, that, should public baths be established in New York as they were in an- cient Rome or Alexandria, New York would become less afflicted with malefactors agaiust the law. Crime and filth go together, as soap and civilization are twin brothers. No New York criminal ever went froma bathtub to a burglary, though many burglars have gone to the douché on Blackwell's Island. Our legis- lators and those who look tor better times in the city should study this crying want of the people. We believe that in oue year the crim- inal statistics of New York would show that soap and water would have improved the “morale of the people. Who will move in the matter, and at once? Kerrina THE ; STREETS Cixan.—The police complain of a want of co-operation on the part of the public in the business of keeping the streets clean. In the poorer quarters great difficulty is encountered in inducing the dwellers in tenement houses to observe the regulations made by the police. The result ia @ useless outlay of the public money and a continuance of a state of filth in the streets dangerous to health. There is in all great cities a class of people who rather cling to dirt and squalor, and it is necessary to force this class by stringent regulations to keep themselves and their homes clean. The police must be prepared to deal energetically with all who fail to observe the regulations. It is the only way of securing cleanliness in the streets, The quarrel between the Street Clean- ing Bureau and the Board of Health as to who shall enforce the regulations is only another example of the chaotic state of our city gov- ernment. The cliques and rings are so busy fighting each other that they have no time to devote to the interests of the citizens. Tue Cause or Temperance will gain nothing by disturbances like that at Clove- land yesterday. Though the mob was in the wrong the wrong was not entirely theirs. The multitude is apt to get excited over demon- strations so remarkable as the women’s cru- sade ; but while we denounce its brutality wo can only accept such conduct as evidence that the wicked will not be converted by force. When movement intended for the moral good of others, by going beyond the recog- nized methods of missionary labor, provokes riotous opposition, its advocates and agente ought to desist, at least where offence is likely tobe given. There will be pengg for Cleve- land if both parties take to the old marim about everybody minding his own business, a