The New York Herald Newspaper, April 12, 1874, Page 10

10 NEW YORK HERALD} BROADWAY AND ANN STREBT. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. 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 XXXI AMUSEMENTS TO-NORBOW. EM ete WOOD'S MUSEUM, hirtieth street —THE HIDDEN sat43) P.M. ST. MARC, THE | Boats 6 ab closes at 10: PM. THEATRE, CHARITY, at8 P. i choses: at enport, Mr, Fisher, Mr. Lewis. , THEATRE COMIQUE, No. 514 Broadway RIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 FB. M.; closes at 10:30 BOOTHS THEATRE, a Sixth avenue and Twenty-third street.—ZIP, at 7:15 P. M. | closes at 1045 P.M. WALLACK's T and Thirtret stre: ses at li P.M. Jettreys Lewis. E p VETERAN, at 8 Broadwa; PM. clo wer Wallack, Miss SIC. | ACADEM ce. Italian Opera— Fourteenth street and IL TROVATORE, at 5 P.M. wesatil P.M. Tima di Murska. ts : THEATRE, Washington street, Brooklyn.— CONNIE S06 atliP.M. Mr. and HEATRE, mand Bleecker streets. — NC Ay ENTERTAINMEN,, at PM. HOUSE, Eignth avenue and iwe street—EILEEN OGE, at? P. dS. ; closes at Li P. Broadway, on) DUMPTY AT H GL. Fox Piace.—HUMPTY M.; closes at iP, M. BROOKLYN F opposite City Ha: P.M. ; closes at LiF k THEATRE, | —LA MARJOLAINE, at 8 Foster. and VARIETY Bo} EN loses at LL P.M. Broadway, bet’ ROCKET, ats Mayo. ‘on streets.—DAVY lu:su P.M. Mr, Frank THZATKE, Fourteenth street. near sixth aveuue.—Grand Parisian Folly. ats P. M.; closes n sireet—LOVE'S PEN- . Charles Fechter. qT RA HOUSE, No. 21 Row ERTAINMENT, at 8 ‘M.; closes at i Dear Sixth avenu ‘EGRO - STKELSY, dc, at I M. iis closes at lu P.M. co. Breadway, corner of MOONLI M, fitth street.—PARIS BY mses at P.M. Swme at7 P. , lost. “we do, Cremation—To Burn or Not to Burn. We are in a quandary just now as to the proper disposal of the dead. Heretofore the matter has been decided by the religious sen- timent of the community, and those who have left us have been put to rest in Greenwood | | under the daisies ; but now the practical sense of utility asserts itself and demands that a man shall practise economy while living and be economizéd when dead. Sir Henry Thomp- son has written a paper which has get all the malecontents of society by the ears. He thinks ita very grave matter to bury people, and suggests the possibility of disposing of the dead in such a way as to render the Chincha Islands entirely unnecessary. With a nicety | more mathematical than sentimental he gives the exact number of pounds of rich compost into which the annual dead of London may be resolved, and tells us with unsurpassed pathos that we have lost an incalculable amount of money by not converting the millions who have gone into fertilizing material. Just think of the delights of changing our mothers-in-law and all our poor family rela- tions into valuable bone dust! It is an oppor- tunity too good and far too profitable to be In the near future some fanciful specu- lator may get up a corner on human cinders and earn a living by urning the dead. We have heard of a Frenchman who has been so | fascinated by this new movement that he has bequeathed his body to the chemists, declar- ing that, since he has given light to the world by his works for twenty years, it is no more than fair that his remains should be converted into gas that he may continue to give light after death. When you look at the matter from an economic standpoint only, disabusing your mind of all foolish sentiment, this view of the subject is quite worthy of the age we live in. It is a pity that the suggestion is not Ameri- can ; but we can easily avenge ourselves for having more reverence for the dead than the rest of the world by taking possession of the market. We can pay a higher price for bodies than those dull Englishmen, who are not ac- customed to making money by the ream, as Before long, doubtless, we shall establish agencies, semi-real esiate agencies, since the ashes are to be used to enrich the soil, where we can sell all our incinerated friends and relations. Itisa delightful reflection that one’s useful- ness is not to end with death; thatsome of us will be worth more money dead than alive. In- stead of vanishing when the breath is gone we shall reappear, converted into California pota- toes, or pippin apples, or rye. A great deal of discrimination will be necessary just here. Since humanity isno longer to be wasted in | sentimental graveyards, but used in acommon sense way, and changed into a kind of sub- limated compost, we must not neglect the nest of the thin may become the fattest of the fat. Such disinterestedness is seldom seen, and, once seen, should be encouraged. One word of warning before the fires are | lighted. We have intimated that different classes.of men will be used in the culture of very different varieties of vegetables. We now suggest that those who expect to be converted cabbages form a potato league, a turnip league | and a peach blossom league, for the protec- | into potatoes, peach blossoms, turnips and | NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, APRIL 12, 1874—QUINTUPLE SHEET. feature as he finds in the American girl, and it is not to be wondered at that the good-natured _ beer-drinking Ingomars of the German cities should be astonished at seeing so much beauty walking about ulone or talking merrily in socioty. But about the funniest story which has yet come to usfrom the other side is that in our Brussels letter about the American throne being offered to Prince Frederick Charles, If ; early hour. Herald and the City—Our Ad- vertising Columns. Eighty columns of advertisements are printed in this copy of the Henap, and this fact alone sufficiently indicates the necessity which compels us to appeal once more to the public to send in their advertisements at an With all the perfection to which mechanical contrivances are yet brought there is such a limit to the possibility of newspaper The the Hohenzollerns were as numerous and 08 | production that time and quantity must have chemists’ magic art. We are made up of such tion of their own remains and for the purpose | of controlling the ash market. If this is not attended to at once some shrewd Wall street broker will sell short and bring them to ruin. ries and so keep the monopoly in their own hands. There may be at first some slight prejudice in the public mind, but when we hear the cremation list of prices quoted by the Stock Exchange prejudice will disappear and the financial advantage will become apparent. with the ashes of our hospitals and poor- houses. By all means try the experiment. for the erection of the necessary buildings and furnaces. The dead could be driven in in the evening, and by morning they could be displayed in the window, each in his own jar, properly labelled, with name and price per pound. Within six months we should have at least a dozen patent ovens in which the human form divine could be reduced to a fertilizer, retaining in the ashes most of the muscular, nervous and, possibly, vital forces of the original. Let us have no delays. The dead are being uselessly buried every day. We are losing money, and we are also losing a crop of vege- tables that might have a decidedly human flavor. Begin with any one’s body but ours. Pulpit Topics To-Day. The variety of topics chosen by the preach- ers for this day's meditation is greater than | they usually present at such a season. A standard subject for liberal Christians and for ' some Christians not quite so liberal is ‘God's Fatherhood,” on which Rev. Mr. Sweetser | will speak this morning. | tained in this phrase rests the brotherhood of | man, and the recognition of this relation gives every man an influence for weal or woe | on his brother. On this ‘‘Mutual Infiuence’”’ | the Rev. Mr. McKeivey will preach this morn- | ing. Mr. Cudworth believes that ‘Yearning It might be well to establish club bone facto- | | is an article of luxury that must be manufac- ; We may yet be able to pay the public debt | | legislation at both capitals, and free tickets Let our first citizens open a subscription list | | for it long enough. The public can have no On the truth con- | | years, The Senate at Albany might employ | | passing a bill to give this road license to un- | for God’’ is the universal instinct of man- | | kind, and he will seek to demonstrate this | truth this morning. He will in the evening also tell the Church of the Messiah what is | “The Only Foundation on which a Christian Church Can Rest and Become Prosperous.”’ | Advice of the right sort is needed by this | unsettled and unstable in its foundations of | faith and of finance. | Temperance, too, will receive a share of at- | Church of the Messiah, which has been so long | | rians at Bome and at Albany are addicted to are thai the weather to-day will be cold and clear. Tue Greece.—Up to the moment of our going to press we have vo news of the arrival of the Greece. Adverse winds are, as we think, sufficient explanation. The presump- tion is that the Greece will arrive to-day, with her living freight all safe and well. We know no good cause for too much anxiety. Ali the steamship lines for the last week report ad- verse winds and slow passages. A Cuntous Porst or Orper was raised by | Mr. Cox in the House of Representatives yes- terday during the action on the Currency bills. | Mr. Beck had proposed in az amerdment to tax the national bank circulation or stock, and the point of order raised was that mem- | bers interested in the national banks or stock had no right to vote on the question. Mr. Cox stated at the same time that he owned bank stock. The Speaker overruled the point of order, and he was nght, probably; but it is a fact that the majority of the members of Congress are voting directly in a matter of their personal interests on this question. Tue AsuanteE Treraty.—King Koffee, it is said, has signed the treaty with England sent to him by Sir Garnet Wolseley ; but the old boy, it is added, has given no guarantees. What guarantees could he give? His capital city was captured, and ‘‘loot’’ was allowed and indulged in. After all, the conqueror needs no higher guarantee than this—that the enemy has been defeated, and that he admits the fact. King Koffee has had through this war some fresh experience of the ways of the world, and the presumption is that he will not much trouble the British government in the future. Sir Garnet was right. He did his | very different purposes. The topers, for in- | stance, after having been reduced to the proper consistency, should be distributed over the vine-growing sections of our country, that they may addto the bouquet ot our na- tive wines. panions of the olden time, and find enjoyment in the fact that they, too, will be sipped in the applejack of the future. The gourmands would have the satisfaction of | knowing that they will give a heretofore | unknown flavor and richness to the food of the next generation, while the dyspeptics would enjoy a sweet revenge on all healthy digestions by transmitting their peculiar ten- dencies to the crops that grew from their re- mains. not be lost sight of. Since our pursuits in life are very different, the use to be made of us after death must be equally various. One | man, after being properly baked, would be in- valuable for a potato patch or a hop bed, while another would be beyond price to start | early vegetables with. Let us be discrimi- nating in this matter, and not beso captivated by our discovery as to rush headlong into | errors easily avoided by a calm judgment. | Analogy suggests the first experiments to | | be made. We have been very careful to follow it in the advice we have | {already given, and willingly leave the | variety of combinations which may be made by mixing the incinerated bodies of men of different tastes and temperaments to the slow | It is quite evident, | processes of actual trial. however, that our Fifth avenue belles should be carefully preserved and sprinkled with a sparing hand over the beds of lilies, carna- tions and roses. The rogues in the Peniten- tiary could be used fora growth of worm- wood, and the regues out of the Penitentiary, together with the corrupt politicians of the time, for a marvellous crop of snakeroot and other roots and herbs. | | various ingredients that we must be used for | Then the topers of to-day could , sit in sweet fellowship with their boon com- | These facts are so important that they must | work and left. Even Bismarck made a mistake | sbout guarantees. | Tae Exriosion on EBoarp THE TIGRESS seems to have been unnsually disastrous. | According to our special despatch from St. John, tain Bartlett states that at the time of the | been in suck reduced circumstances before. Dursting the water gauge registered a suffi- | The entire cost of putting him intoa glass ciency of water in the boiler ; bnt he believed | ca8e was just two shillings and fourpence, the gauge was out of order. In all proba- | English money. This of itself is an item of In the Vienna Exposition this matter was | practically exemplified. On one of the mys- | terious shelves was a bottle marked No. 19, containing three and three-quarter pounds of fertilizing materiul, the gross result of an | F., published this morning, Cap- | Italian gentleman, who had evidently never | bility this is the whole secret of the matter. Bad gauges, low water and insufficient atten- ticn to safety valves have led to many fearful accidents before now, and to these we may attribute the sacrifice of twenty-one men in the case under consideration. Tae Lovisa Genus Mystery.—We print this morning fuller details of the Louisa Germs case, an account of which was printed in the Henatp of yesterday. The story is a strange one. On the 29th of last mouth a young woman of the above name died at the house of Dr Ernest Uhling, and the body was interred at Union Cemetery, Brooklyn. It having been discovered that the Doctor and the deceased lady had lived cn most intimate terms, and that the former had taken out ® joint policy cf ten thousand dollars im the Merchants’ Insurance Company, the policy to revert to the Doctor in case of the death of the lady, Coroner Kessler ordered the exhumation of the body aud an examina- tion of the same. The grave has been opened, ‘9s our news this morning shows. The result before the public We are willing to allow nineteen bricks to speak for themselves. have fiown ase looks bad, all the more so that the | | sufficient importance to carry conviction to | | any sane man. It only takes three hours and about half a cord of wood to put a million- naire into # very small glass bottle. The culy difiiculty to be apprebended is the inevitable | of family jars. However, after death, l be always possible to put a stopper in, during life, is sometimes difficult. t a meeting of cremationists recently held in this city a series of resolutions was adopted recommending the formation of a | society whose members shall bequeath their bodies to a cl.emist's retort, Their arguments were interesting, if mot convincing. One | gentleman, after intimating that he was not h, born at bis present weight, which he declared | | to be two hun dred and fifty pounds, asked the from?” No one seemed able to conceive, and so he answered the question himself by assert- ing that he was made up mostly of earth, air, water and fire. He then asserted thit it is entirely unfair to grow to such proportions | without getting a reccipt in full and paying the bill at death. He proposed to square the account by having his body reduced to the | afore-mentioned constituent elements, to be hereafter converted into turnips, fresh eggs, conundrum, ‘Where did all this bulk come | tention from the preachers to-day. Dr. Ry- lance will tell St. Mark's Protestant Episcopal church what ‘‘Christian Temperance’ is, and, it he should take as liberal a view of this ques- tion as he took lately on the question of amusements, he will doubtless favor Dr. Crosby’s theories on temperance as against total abstinence. But this question has legal aspects which it will be the province of Mr. how the law stands related to temperance at present, arid how it should be amended or altered to meet the new necessities of the cause as developed by the women crusaders. Some men are capable of dealing only with facts; other men can deal only in fiction or speculation. Of the latter class are those | Progressive Spiritualists who manifest more | desire to know how they shail be occupied when they depart this life than they are to leave these speculations to the future and to fill the present with the fullest measure of truth and goodness that they can give to their | fellow men. Let the morrow take thought for | the things concerning itself; sufficient to every day is the evil thereof. Some of our occu- pations here in this life are not of our own choosing, and this may be the case also in the life tocome. Wherefore speculate, then, on | these things and leave the tangible facts of life to take care of themselves? The Rev. Mr. Hepworth will invite his hear- ers this morning, as Nathaniel invited Philip, to ‘Come and See” whether any good thing | could come out of Nazareth, and in the even- | ing he will tell the young people what some of | them say and think of religion. Mr. Pycott, of i | Brooklyn, will group and present the ‘‘Teach- | ings of Experience’ for his Episcopal hearers, and will emphasize the lessons which may be drawn therefrom. A Panorama of Europe. The columns which we devote this morning to our correspondents in the European capi- tals show the scope and extent of Henarp news facilities in the Old World at the same time that they present a kaleidoscopic review of the thoughts and doings of people abroad. From London we have theatrical gossip; from Brus- sels a grave talk about emigration and emigra- tion laws; from Paris pleasant chit-chat con- cerning the American Legation and such tooth- some bits of information as the quarrel be- tween Victor Hugo and Gambetta in regard to Hugo’s latest novel; from Dresden more American chattiness and the news that Mr. | Julian Hawthorne, son of the novelist, has a new novel nearly ready for the press; from Rome information about the King and the Kingdom and the Pope and the Papacy, and from Constantinople a short chapter on Turkish affairs. Looking more closely at | this panorama of busy life in Enrope, | we see in rapid succession pictures | as happy as those the stage carpenter unroils | | of Fairyland in “The Midsummer Night's Dream.’ We have a word about Tom Taylor's new drama, ‘‘Olancarty,’’ which we find to be another contribution to the modern series of | historical plays, and we cannot but wonder | whether it will be as popular as Wills’ “Crom. well’ or Halliday’s ‘Amy Rebsart.’’ In | America we have as yet given no attention to | plays founded on historical subjects; yet we cannot doubt that the opportunity afforded by historical subjects for stage pageantry wil! | soon make the historical a very popular branch | of the pictorial drama, Our correspondent } Goss to discuss this afternoon, and to show | | into Beaver street. | of which at one side rest upon the movable | rail. Double-action brakes control the wheels, | will be organized to run the road through | | fulfils the requisite conditions, and, as there ' such crude and cheap designs as that intended anxious for vacant thrones as were the Bona- partes at the time Napoleon was giving les- sons in war to the Prussians at Jena and | Auerstidt, F. ©. would still be compelled to wait a while longer, for the American throne tured before it can be emptied, even for a Hohenzollern. Our Italian letter cannot fail to have a particular interest for the New York Assemblymen, for it seems the parliamenta- similar practices. The railroad carriages are turned into an adjunct lobby of the halls of are considered as desirable there as here. And this brings us to the last scene in our panorama, which ends very properly with a glance at the new Grand Vizier and an anec- | dote of the fast young Prince Izzeden, and so completes a picture fairer than that of Fairyland. The Various Plans of Kapid Transit. It will be strange indeed if the people of New York cannot have a rapid transit road out of the multitude of schemes now before the Legislature. Some are good, some are bad; but there are suggestions enough in the many to frame at least one plan of rapid transit which will recommend itself to the ma- jority of the people. It is in this view we favor Mr. Eastman’s idea of appointing a commis- sion to select a route and a form of railway best adapted to the necessities of the city. The underground plan, so much talked of a few years ago, is no longer in favor. Nor | does it meet the needs of the situation. Quick, transit is quickly demanded. We have waited | patience with any such transparent imbecility | as the Broadway Underground Railroad, i which, even with the best intentions, cannot | be constructed as far as Union square in five | itself more honestly and intelligently than in dermine and destroy the principal street in | the city. Of the plans now before the Legis- lature there are three that stand out promi- | nently—namely, Vanderbilt's, Gilbert's and | the Third Avenue Elevated railroads. Van- | derbilt’s follows the route of the present | Fourth avenue street car railroad to the | Leonard street, on the west side of Broad- | way—that is, all the highly fashionable estab- | Grand Central depot, and the design is a | double series of iron columns planted in the | middle of the street and united by transverse | beams, on which the elevated roadway rests. The Third avenue plan follows the route of | the street car railroad on that thoroughfare, and in design is similar to that of Vander- | bilt. Gilbert’s is a more ambitious design | than either of these two. It starts from | Kingsbridge, runs through River street and Eighth avenue to One Hundred and Tenth street, through Ninth avenue to Fitty-third | street, through Sixth avenue to Amity street, | and then along South Fifth avenue, Canal | street, West Broadway, Chambers street, Church street and Bowling Green Park, | From this point it ; takes up the east side of the city through | Pearl street, New Bowery, Division street, | Allen street, First avenue to Twenty-third | street, and along Second avenue tothe Harlem | River. The design is an open archway of | iron, spanning the street from curb to curb, | and supporting the roadway on the summit of | the arch. Of plans less familiar to the public | is Speer’s ‘Travelling Sidewalk,’’ as it is | called, which has passed the Assembly. It is an endless link of elevated wooden platforms, worked by stationary engines, and intended to | be kept moving day and night up one side of | a street and down the other. Passengers get | on and off by means of small cars, the wheels ; plattorm and at the other upon a stationary | which are independent of each other, and the platform may be in full motion while the small cars are ata standstill. The bill per- mits this invention to be tried around | some square outside the city, and if General McClellan and two other engineers named pronounce it practicable a company | Park row, Chatham street, Bowery, Fourth avenue, Eighth avenue, Greene, Church and Vesey streets. The Greenwich Street Elevated | road, which at present is only a compromise between rapid transit and nothing at all, seeks leave to extend and multiply its track. The \ Gardner plan contemplates an elevated iron | roadway, bearing four tracks around the water front of the city. Oauldwell’s bill is for a ‘People’s road,” elevated, running | from a point in Westchester through Fourth | avenue to the City Hall. How this is to be accomplished, with five miles of Fourth ave- nue already in possession of Vanderbilt, is not quite clear. There are other bills for elevated rapid transit before the | Legislature, but they have uo distine- and are obviously framed for obstructive purposes in behalf of two con- spicuous interests—the New York and Harlem and the Third Avenue Railroad. Where Mr. Eastman’s idea commends itself is in allowing all the roads here enumerated to compete be- fore a commission of five gentlemen to be appointed by the Governor. If Gilbert satis- fies the commission his plan is correct and capable he will be awarded one route. Vanderbilt will be awarded another if he | tive character, is room for half a dozen roads, every serious | design will have a hearing. Tous this com- mission appears indispensable. If our streets areto be disfigured and rendered useless by for Fourth avenue, better surrender them altogether, wall them up and let the loco- motive tear through them on the surface, Gentlemen of the Legislature, it is a small boon—please let us have this commission. | be wisely left to their own excellent inspira- | Catharine street, which world has wandered | by the experience of the past. | people. Tar Puppiers at Haenissura have caved | at the pleasant Saxon capital gives us an odd | in, After a four months’ strike they have ac- | picture of the effect of American beauty upon | cepted the masters’ terms. They take five | the sluggish German mind. Tie Ghee | eye is not accustomed to such litheness of | dollars in place of six for a day's wages, and they agree to abandon the Union. Is this to dandelions and roast beef. whereby the thin- | limb and classic perfection of face and | be the end of it? distinct relation to one another; and as our edition is so large as to absolutely necessitate the putting a ‘‘first side” to press quite early, it is only by sending their advertisements in good season that the public are sure of secur- ing them insertion. With all our presses in full operation, and each printing fifteen thousand impressions an hour, it is still not possible to get our edition ready in time for the public demand without putting certain pages to press at eight o'clock at night, and as the later pages are necessarily reserved for the latest news it is obviously quite uncertain that ad- vertisements which come in later, especially if, as frequently happens, they come in consider- able quantities, can get in their proper places, and it is not always certain that they can get in the paper ; at least they lose the benefit of the minute classification which is so great an assistance to the advertiser by increasing the facility with which any notice on a given topic can be found by the reader. In meeting the public necessities in this way we have already made great advances, and perhaps in the future may make even greater; but the vis inertice is still triumphant over science at many points of their great battle. In the old times, when the possibilities of our space were less elastic than they are now, we were compelled to exclude our advertisers very often. Now we endeavor, so far as possi- ble, to extend’our space to meet the pressure ; | but in order to do this even we must know early what the pressure is likely to be. Once more, therefore, we call upon our advertisers to come early, and to come often, of course. But in this latter point of conduct they may tions. In our advertising columns one may see the growth of the city, and our eighty columns of to-day differ from the twelve col- | umns of thirty-five years ago only as the metropolis of the Western World now differs from the lively little town that was excited as to whether the “Tippecanoe and Tyler, | too,” men would manage to “beat little Van, Van, Van.” In one day we have had two pages of advertisements in a single trade—that of dry goods. Com- pare the traffic such a fact indicates with that of this city when all the great dry goods? establishments were between St. Paul's and lishments—for even then there was another” world in dry goods asserting itself over in | person for the head of the Finance Depart. . ment than there is of the success of an un. desirable candidate for Mayor. The tax payers would realize the fact that they were voting for the protection of their own pockets when voting for a Compiroller, while the direct issne would be covered upand forgotten in a contest for the Mayoralty. A shining city contemporary, in an article published clsewhere in the Hxnanp to-day, indorses the elective principle in the case of the Comptroller, and goes so far as to declare that if there is to be an appointing power at all the Comptroller should appoint the Mayor rather than the Mayor the Comptroller. This idea is suggested, no doubt, by the present situation, in which the Comptroller, as the stronger and more positive power, controls and moulds the Mayor, whe is of weaker and more pliable material. Butif we had an Exe ecutive of the present age—one born about the time Mr. Havemeyer was first chosen Chief Executive of the city—the case might be reversed, and then our contemporary’s argu- ment would fail. In that event the Comp- troller would be as putty in the hands of the Mayor. But even in the present condition of affairs we see the evil of collusion between the heads of the Financial and Executive de- partments. @ntrathful debt statements are put forth by the one and indorsed by the other. The report of an examining commis- sion is submitted by the Mayor'to the Comp- troller and acting Chamberlain—the very officers whose accounts are under investiga- tion—and the report is tampered with and altered to suit the views of the Finance De- partment. This is certainly not calculated to give us honest government or to com- mand the confidence of the people. Mayor Havemeyer, no doubt, believes that he is doing his duty in carrying out the views— we almost say the orders—of the Comptroller; but he must remember that he will not always be Mayor, and, if he has such little confidence in a popular election, how can he know what sort of a successor he will have? In fact, Mayor Havemeyer’s argument against the election of a Comptroller is a very Weak one. It is even unjust and unkind to the present | Comptroller; for if Mr. Green in truth pos- sesses all the virtues and qualifications the Mayor assigns to him, and if he has been ag signally successful as the Mayor claims in the reduction of debt and taxation, his triumphant | election to the office he now fills by appoint- | ment cannot be doubted. More or Less Water. It is not a little remarkable that there is very nearly as much human nature among religious as among profane folk. The verbal phrase ‘ta quarrel’’ is the golden heritage of all ages, and it has been conjugated in every mood and tense—on week days by politics and business, | and every Sunday by religion. We have jails for rogues and excommunication and ostra- | cism for heresy. We have detectives for up to Grand street and the upper regions of | | the Bowery and Fourth avenue; while on the | | west side the world that was comprised be- | tween Beck’s and Stewart's has spread out and fertilized all the regions of Upper Broad- way and Sixth and Eighth avenues. We cite | the comparison of the dry goods trade only be- cause it is typical in its indications. In every | other trade the differences are well nigh as great, and these historival differences between | the city of '38 and the city of '74 are the | points that may be profitably noted in our ad- | If we have any merit in | vertising columns. the case it is that, as this journal was the one to feel in its prosperity the whole growth of the metropolis, we have endeavored to be | equal to the requirements imposed by the po- | sition. Should the Comptroller Be Elected or Appointed? The question whether the Comptroller of | New York should be elected by the people or | appointed by the Mayor of the city is one of | much importance and reaches beyond any squabble over the retention or ejection of any individual who may for the time occupy that | office. The position taken by Mayor Have- | meyer against the election of the head of the | Finance Department is broad and decisive. His high opinion of the prdésent Comptroller is natural enough, since any failure to appreciate | the extraordinary qualifications of that officer | would be, in fact, a lack of appreciation of \ the capacity of the Executive Department, | which owes so much of its effi- | ciency to the controlling influence of | Mr. Green. But the Mayor goes beyond the question of the expediency of making an im- | mediate change in a charter which has not ; been in operation one year, and denounces { the election of the head of the Finance De- partment as full of danger and as condemned In this we think the venerable Executive is in error. Our best Comptrollers have been elected by the Even Connolly, when an elected Comptroller, appears to have acted honestly, | and it was only after the power of the “‘Ring’’ | had taken all the leading offices out of the reach of the popular vote that the big rascalities of our late Tammany rulers commenced. The Comptroller is an officer who ought to be entirely independent of the Mayor. As the head of the Finance Department the for- mer possesses the power to audit and pass ; upon all claims against the city, and such claims are wholly within his control until he ; finally draws the warrants for their pay- ment. Then comes the first check that the law places between him and the public treas- ury. The Mayor is required to countersign | the warrants thus drawn and signed by the | Comptroller, and it has been firmly maintained by the reformers, of whom Mr. Havemeyer was once the honored head, that this counter- signing is not merely s form, but that the Mayor is required in the discharge of his duty to satisfy himself that every warrant which he completes by the addition of his name is drawn for a just and honest debt. We main- tain that for this, if for no other reason, | the Comptroller and the Mayor should be independent, the one of the other, ao that there would not be so great a danger of collu- sion between them as there is when the Comp- troller owes his appointment to the Mayor and may be his mere creature, Besides, if the people would be likely to elect a corrupt Comptroller, as the Mayor believes, they | would also be likely to elect a corrupt Mayor, who would appoint a corrupt Comptroller; 80 that point of Mr. Havemeyer’s argument goes for nothing. On the other hand, there is less probability of the election of an improper ' itself and proves its own unworthiness. crime, who are well paid for the work they do; but the clergy get on the trail of a heresy | and follow the clew, for no other recompense, | apparently, save the satisfaction of impaling ! the victim. Our Baptist friends have entered upon a crusade of late which naturally comes under the general head of the temperance movement, since jt wholly favors water. Its only peculi- ‘ arity is that it insists upon all the various degrees of temperature to which that brave ! old element is subject. It wants cold water in August, tepid water in May and October and warm water during the winter solstice. The Baptist denomination separates itself from | the rest of the Christian world on the question ‘of how muck water is necessary to insure thorough spiritual ablution. This matter is | deemed of such vast importance that, unless ‘the churches of the land agree with it and adopt its methods, it will have no fellow- ship with them. Sprinkling, as a symbol, is held to be a farce, and nothing less than sixty gallons is regarded as a sure guarantee | against the fire of the next world. | This matter does not come within the prov- ince of our criticism as a question, but only as one of practical social order. The gen- eral tendency of progress is to bring the churches together. The Roman Catholic Church has torn down its Inquisition, and the Protestant Church has split up its witch stakes ! for firewood of another kind than that origi- nally had in view. Denominations are begin- ning to bury the hatchet of controversy and contention and to shake hands over the bloody chasm. The religious body that stands in the | way of this approaching union, which meang more work and less talk, does injustice to The hot fire of the war did much to fuse all these various metals into a solid bar. The common interests of religion and the flagrant crimes of society make it incumbent upon all churches to sheathe the sword of theological warfare and to use the pruning hook vigor- | ously. One missionary society is better than two controversies, and settles more vexed questions. Anathemas are out of date, and the bed of Procrustes is invaluable only toa museum of ancient curiosities. ; The Baptists, however, still have the ram- pant instinct of war. They seem half inclined | not to make any maa a Christian unless they can make him one of their own kind. Con- version of soul is a good thing to their minds, | but immersion is sti!] more important. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is necessary, but even that is not qnite complete until one has donned a bathing suit and been submerged. Lest these grave facts should be disregarded. aspecial pleader was imported from Boston, whose business is, as he himself boasts, to keep al! men out of the pulpit who refuse to subscribe to his personal beliefs. He has ret himself no less a task than to bring back the erring denomination to the proper standard of just sixty gallons of water. He will not condescend to sit at the table of the Lord, but prefers that of J. D. Fulton. Dr. Adams, with his long life of eloquent usefulness ; John Hall, with his sturdy simplicity, and the rest of the long list of laborers whose best recom- mendation to the love of the people is te be found in their saintly lives, are not deemed worthy to break his bread or to enter his church. Unless the amount of water used im their consecration touches the mark of high tide, while they may be treated by our Boaner- ges with some degree of condescension, they can never be regarded as equals. Now, to the looker-on all this seems lika the merest nonsense. Religion, with its grand essentials of brotherly love, of charity, of prayer, becomes. in the hands of these grounds