The New York Herald Newspaper, April 13, 1874, Page 3

iy Cr WASHINGTON. Financial Probabilities in . Both Houses. Repndiation the Avowed Ultimate Ohject of the South. THE FATE OF FREE BANKING. Sneectenaiiiaenetoniiot America’s Losses Through Lack of Cheap Transportation. ae ai eee Alarming Riva!ry of Russia and India in Production. WASHINGTON, April 12, 1874, ' Mepudiation the Ultimate Object of the Inflationists—Confession of a Southern Politicilan—Repudiation to Lift Taxes from the Shoulders of 7” Poor—The Seuth’s Revenge. In a conversation yesterday morning with an old Southern politician o! thirty odd years’ experience im ppbiic affairs, ne advanced some startling but growing opinions touching the necessities of the South and West calling for more currency and the advantages that will be gained to these sections from an inflation and a depreciation of our paper Money. But, proceeding still further, this South- erp philosopher not only expressed the opinion that inflation at this late day would open the door to -repudiation, but that repudiation, the tume- honored method oi abolishing a dishono: ed paper eurrency, would ve cheeriully accepted by the South, and not very seriously resisted by the West, and would he a great blessing to the whole country. . The South and West, said he, want more cur- Tency, simply because not one of the Southern or Western States las anything like the currency dacilities which it had before the war, and most of them have less than half the amount of their ante-bellum circulation. This, too, when their ‘business affairs call for more, and more they are bound tohave. Of course, in proportion as the eurrency is inflated, it will be depreciated; but suppose it is depreciated so far that $3 %m paper will be an equivalent for only $2 4m goia; do you not perceive that the Western and Southern States, as the debtor States, will gain Jargely by this depreciation? A Southern mer- ehant, we wi!! say, owes a debt to a New York im- Porter of $30,000. fle pays it in legal tender paper Money, and if $30,000 of this paper are in value equal to only $20,000 in gold he saves upon the gold standard $10,000 by the operation; and so through all the transactions between debtor and creditor as individuals, States or sections; and if through Congress these debtor States can enforce | this system of settlement, is it not according to ‘The good old rule, the simple plan, that he shall take who Nas the power And he shall keep who can f Self-preservation and self-interest are the firat Jaws of nature. The interests of the East are the creditors’ interests, *he interests of the West and South are those of the debtor, and, to use a Jamiliar Southern expression, “the jongest pole brings down the persimmons.” That is all there is of it, and if we have the power over them in Congress our creditors must take the consequences. Vice versa,- we ‘would be the sufferers, The balance of power happens to be on our side, and we avail ourselves 0! its advantages. What else could you expect us | todo? i grant you that inflation at this late day ‘pens the door to repudiation, through a financtal collapse; but as a Southern man, whose interests are those of the South, what is repudiation to me? ‘My idea is that, jooktng at the general welfare, re- pudiation will be a biessing, and a great blessing, to the country, Wasit not a blessing to France, im the matter of those depreciated assignats* ‘Was It not a blessing to the United States im the » @xtinction of that depreciated Continental cur- rency?’ Was there any other way to get rid of this depreciated rubbish than the short and decisive way of repudiation? It operates, tw be sure, iike a hurricane; but it puri- fies the atmosphere. It may sweep over the country like a fire on the prairics; but, like a fire ou the prairies, 1t will not touch the living Foots of the grass. Indeed the grass will spring up again with renewed life from the visitation. Bat what of the disuonor of a repudiation of the Rational debt? youask. Suppose the vondholaer gets in his interest payments a sum total amount- ing to the principal of bis bond and six per cent interest in legat venders, will that be repudiation’ ‘Are we coming to that? Inflation will surely carry us to this idea or to the shorter catechism of our continental currency. But again I ask you what Is this to us of the South? You compelled us to re- pudiate our Confederate debts of all descriptions, and dv you suppose that it 1s a matter of pride or pleasure to us to be further compelled to tax our impoverished people to assist in the payment of your debt or to meet your taxations? Don’t you Know that Time at last sets all things even ? Sponge out the national debt, and, deducting our bonds, will not the act be equal to an appro- priation of $500,000,000 for the relief.of the South- ern States, in relieving us of these heavy federal taxations, internal and external? Does it not ap- pear strange that the producing States should be the debtor States? But so it is, and so it has been Yo allages. Your middlemen, the merchants ana money changers, pocket the profit of the producers and keep them constantly in debt. The day will come when these relations between producers and middiemen will be better understood and regu Jated than they are now; but the pro. ducers already understand where the shoe Pinches, and the Grangers will what to do in 1876, Inflation, you may “depend upon it, is the remedy for all their griev- ances, for it strikes at the roots of these heavy taxes and these grinding railway and moneyed monopolies, and brings them all down to the com- mon level of a general settlement and a new be- ginning, call it a general collapse or universal bankruptcy, or repudiation, or what you please, | Can you imagine that tnis national debt will be paid off m gold within the next twenty years? Can you believe that with its heavy burdens of taxes and bondholders it will be toleratea even ten years longer? We are travelling too fast for this. Do you not perceive that the Fepublican party is breaking up on this financial question ? That the West and the South ave entered upon what you call ‘a new depar- tore.” From the voting on the currency bills in both houses of Congress is it not ap- Parent that the republican party is gone, ‘amd that the democratic party is also sec- Mtonally cut to pieces on this vital matter of infla- tion ? J believe that our National Cegtennial wilt usher in another American Declaration of Inde- Pendence that will astonish the world quite asim. | pressively as the great Declaration of 1776, though At rill be upon the same broad platform of equal rights, ‘ Such are the views of more than one or ascore Of the active politicians of the South, and that to some extent they underiie the inflation movement in Congress tuere is no reagon to doubt. Sentiments of Co: rency Bille—Both the House and Senate Measures Likely to Pass—A Question of Mutual Admiration—Danger ot Con- tinued Suspense for the Country. | At no time while the *tnancial matter bas been before Congress has there been as much excite- ment onthe question as now, To-night there is the greatest interest’ manifestea among Senators and Representatives over the provable action of ithe House, to-morrow, and the gloom of uncer- tainty appears to harass everybody who is about the hotels where Congressmen are gathered dis- euseing the possible fate of the Currency bill, It sa conceded that aSter the Morning hoxr to-morrow know | NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1874—TRIPLE SHEET. satisfied to adopt that extreme measurc, but ex | ment is satis‘actory to everybody, not only be- ! House wil! proceed with the regular order and take up the Currency Dill. No other measure is likely now to gain from the House a two-shirds vote to suspend the rules,” without whtch the Currency bill cannot be put aade. The programme to-morrow is the call of the previons question om the bill and pending amendments. ‘The bill now stands as origimally reported, jess the seventh and eighth sections, and the first amendment in order is in the nature of a substitute, being substantially the Senate bill, and is offered by the hero of Fort Fisher, This will put the House in @ very embarrassing posi- tion, for its rejection as a substitute would endan- ger the possibility of its passage when it ts reached im the reguiar manner, and its adoption would annitate the pending bill and send the substitute to the Senate for its concurrence as @ House measure, But the plan agreed upon is to reject this substitute, yotc down the amendment sab- mitted by Mr. Wilson, of Indiana, which is for free banking, with other provisions than pro- vided im the pending bill, vote down the amendment of Mr, Foster, of Ohio, providing Jor @ contraction of greenbacks to the extent of twenty-five per cent on the addittonal amount of national bank notes pat out, and also vote down the amendment submitted by Mr, EK. R, Hoar, | making gold and silver, after September 1 next, -legal tender for the payment of any aebts there- alter contracted, and authorizing the tesue of a bond bearing four and a half per cent interest in gold, redeemable, payable mn thirty years, in gold, ; mM excuange for greenbacks, which are to be can celled and destroyed and never retasned, If all these amendments are rejected, then the question will be upon the adoption of the bill, and, so far as 18 now known, there are no other amendments to be pressed. ‘The friends of the measure are confident that it will pass, and. should time allow, a motion will be made to go to the Speaker's table, and, having reached the Senate bill, to pass that also. ‘The Senate bit! would then be ready for the Prest- dent’s approval, and the House bil! would go to the Senate for its consideration, and this is what hus been developed to-day. The Senate, finding that its own bill is likely to become a law, and having a& new choice in the House bill, will, it 1s said by Senators who dii mot advocate the bill passed by the Senate, vote for the House bill as it now stands, while it is claimed that Senators Mer- rimon, McCreery, Bogy ig Goldthwaite, who voted for tne passage of the Merrimon substitute, would vote against the Honse bill. There must, therefore, be a defection of four or five from the opponents of the Senate bill to insure the pas- is aiso another dinger to be apprehended. new proposition in the Senate would Involve that body in contentious debate. The uncertainty which would prevall on any new issue can only be determined by debate and the management of Senator Morton and his dongreres. The friends of free banking in the Houde will not he satisfed with less than is now contemplated. In the event, how- ever, of both bills becoming laws, the free banking Measure would supersede the limit of $46,000,000, *as contemplated in the Senate, ava would leave the latter part of tue section providing tor the re- tention of gold received as interest inoperative. | In all probapility legislation will entangle the finén- cial schemes and keep the country in suspense for weeks to come. Hints of the Forthcoming Report of the Trausportation Committees—What is Recommended and Why. | fhe Select Committee on Transportation Rouves to the Seaboard will meet on Tuesday night, and Senator Windom, the chairman, expects to sub- Mit the report this week. As has already been stated in these despatehes, it will be very impor- tant, as will be seen by the outline of it given therein. Senator Windom did not at first intend to make any. comments, but with- m the last few days he has concluded to submit with the report some very pertinent and conclusive convictions. He will take this | posttton :—‘Cheap transportation Is to be obtained | only through competition, and competition, to be effective, must operate through cheaper channels ol commerce than are now provided, and must be governed by a power with which combina- | uon is impossible.” Such cheaper chan- | nels can only be provided by the construc- tion Of double track, freight railways or | by the improveméat™and creation af water routes. The committee have passed over the idea - a8 between the two alternatives of freight rail- roads and water lines, the committee will favor | Water lines. : It 18 estimated by the engineers who have con- | ducted the surveys that an expenditure of about | $7,000,000 wobid connect the Mississippi | with the lakes, and the required improve. | ment of the Erie Canal to the scale of magni- tude corresponding with the contemplated grand | | connections wotld require about $10,000,000, while | about $12,000,000 would connect Lake Cnamplain with deep water on the Hudson, securing a ship’ canal capable of passing veseels of 1,000 tons, | Senator Windom, in his collection of highly im., | portant statistics, will present the following | startling facts to show the necessity for cheap in- ternal transportation in this country and the per- nicious dangers which threaten us from abroad, if something proportionate to the vast demands of our | products and other resources is not done ina | short time:—The imports of wheat from Russia | and America into the Untted Kingdom were from es to 1864:—From Russia, 47,376,809 busnels; | from the United States, 127,047,126 bushels; from 1868 to 117,967,022 bush- els; from the United States, 116,462,300 | bushels. Thus, from 1860 to 1864, as compared with 1868 to 1872, an increase of | 70,590,213 bushels during the lat: | over the former in favor of Russia, while the de- crease correspondingly to the United States 18 | swelled to $10,584,746. In regard to cotton the | record shdws that in 1860 there were pro- duced by the United States 1,115,890,008 pounds; | by all other countries, 275}048,135 pounds; in | 1870, by the United States, 600,080 pounds ; | by all other countries, 785,297,292 p showing a falling of in the production of this staple, once so mighty as to be called “king,” in tne United States of nearly fifty per cent: and a gain to other conntries of | nearly 300 per cent, ‘This is due to | several causes, but mainly to the high price of food in the South and to the costly transportation of the same {rom the West to the Southern States, and to the conatruction of railroads in India by the British government for the express purpose of | Tendering Great Britain independent of the United States. While we have neglected to supply cheap food to our cotton planters and a home mur- ket for our Western products, England has mean- time guaranteed interest on over $400,000,000 ex. pended on railroads in India to secure these fi ties. Though the farms in the South are not so well adapted to raising corn as cotton, yet they have found it cheaper to ratse a large pertion of their corn rather than to pay high prices to get it there. A remarkable and interesting fact in re- gard to the raising of wheat and in connection with this whole subject is presented by the State of Minnesota, But five per cent of her lanas are under cultivation, and yet she produces one-tenth or the wheat grown in our try, and if one-half of her lands were under proper cultivation she would produce about as much as the whole wheat crop of the United States now amounts to, This, with a comparatively 1872, from Russia, government, could be carried for about one-half the freights now charged, The whole spring crop Of 1869 was 112,549,733 bushels. The winter crop amounted to 175,194,893 bushels, making a grand total of 287,745,626 bushels. Minnesota produced in 1869 about 19,000,000 bushels, and in 1873 she had ; Increased to about 28,900,000 bushels, and sie now Jexds the Union, Callfornia and lowa coming next in the order of producing ability. The Bankrupt Law—Status of the Dis- cussion Upon It in Congress=The Amendments Proposed. Now that the currency question ts about passing from the manipniation of Congress, it is proper that another great ousiness question should ne disposed of. Early in the session the House of Representatives expressed @ decided inclination to repeal the Bapkrupt act. Ive Senate were not Sage in the Senate of the House bill. There | a Any | | of obtaining cheap transportation by regulation of | freights, audit may be set down conciusiviey that, | *| from New York to Godiavn, Insco. or period is shown | nds ; | ili- | whole coun- | | small expense, with the aid of the United States | pressed an equally decided inclination to abolish such of ite provisions as had become odious and | oppressive, and returned the bill to the House with | amendments, The House Judiciary Committee re- | solved to recommend non-concurrence with their H amendments and to ask for a committee of con- Jerence. This course of action promptly followed | up would bave brought the report of the Committee | of Conterence to a vote within a week. The result | would not in all probability have been a repeal of | the act, but the Senate amendments, some or all, with others, probably would have been adopted, ‘The priuctpal amendments of the Senate were First—To allow the assignee, when “the interest of the estate, as well as oO} the creditors, woula be promoted thereby,’ to carry on the business of | the debtor tor nine months, Second—To aliow the real estate of the debtor to be suki jor one-fourth cash; tne remainder to be pee ze three equal annua) instalments, with in- res Titvd—To allow a discharge of the debtor in case | of imvoluntary bankruptcy, irrespective of the amount of assets or assent of cr ditors; and, in | cases Of voluntary bankruptcy, where the asseta | 0} the debtor equal thirty-three per cent of claims | proved, or, if not, with the assent of a majority of creditors in number and amount, Fourth—To allow iorty days after suspension of payment, and to require one-tourth in number of | the creditors and one-third in amount to apply beiore an application tor involuntary bankruptcy. Futh—Vo allow a majority 1 number and three- fourths in value ot the creditors to make a settle. | | ment with the debtor, and take the case out of | bankraptoy, providing, however, lor pro rata | equal payment to all the creditors, : —To reduce the iecs of marshals, assignees, registers, &¢,, one-haif of the present allowance, Seventh—Vo require each’ Marshal, asignee, oe ister and Clerk 01 Vourt to make a return annually to the Attorney General, under oath, of the fees, | costs aud emoluments received by them respec- ‘avely, : Lighth—-To allow proof of debts to be made be- fore a Notary Pubiic, ‘Yhese provisions are all iooked upon as being Teasonable and wise; the fourth, and especially the fitth, of great public importance. A recent case has illustrated the value of the fourth, and such cases happen from time to time. A single | creditor threatens to throw the Sprague Manaiac- turing Company into bankruptcy, to the injury of | the mass of creditors, and causing the «is- charge of many thousanas of employés. | any law which legalizes such odious and intolerable mischief is a@ disgrace to the statute book, and ought promptly to be modi- fled. Another case, whieh iliustrates the value of the fiftn, has recently occurred tm the city of Phila- delphia, and such cases happen sJrom to time. A Saving Fund Society, involving many thowsands of depositors in loss, has broken, and the unfortu- nate sufferers desire to take the complicated | assets of the concern into their own hands and nurse them with care, 80 that, in time, all will be paid, and @ loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars prevented, Bat, under the present law, | the consent of every creditor Is necessary, in fag, ifu case gets into bankruptcy it ts impossible | to get itout. Any one creditor may, from obsti- nacy or something worse, pnt acase into bank- | ruptcy, and any one ereditor may similarly keep it there, to the manifest injury of the mass of | creditors in both classes of cases, Many satistactory reasons are urged in favor of | the other amendments. The above are selected as fair exemplars of the care beatowed upon tne aub- jectin the Senate. Senator Edmunds has been conspicuous in the support of the amenaments. | | His absence in Florida has thas far been the main | Feason for postponing action upon them. Mr. Tre- | main has the bill in bis hands in the House, and | | Will, doubtiess, avail himself of the “earliest oppor- tunity to press it for action. i The Annual Signal Service Report. ‘The annual report of the Chief Signa! Officer has just been issued from the government printing oilices, it makes a volume of 1,100 printed octavo | pages. The correspondence of the ofMice in its several divisions is extensive, 46,432 letters having | been sent ana 217,575 received during the last year. The aggregate of the correspondence is 264,007 letters and documents sent and recetved, exclusive of publications and telegrams, The | office is in communication with many foreign cor- respondents, and last January the-oxchange of sim. ultaneous reports between Turkey and the United | Staves commenced. Tne reports are as nearly ag | | possible uniform in character, and exhnbit pres- | sure, temperature, wind, rain, relative humiaity and clonds, The volume contains much valuable scientific information, accompanied by diagrams | and maps, indicating the course of tornadoes, | storins ana cyclones; also a chronological list of auroras observed at the respective signal service | | stations from November 11, 1870, to July 31, 1873, | meinsive. A list of disasters to shipping upon the | great American lakes during the year 1873 1s given, | | from which it appears tnat the number of vessels sunk i# 41, destroyed by fire, damaged by fire, | 8: dismasted, 7; disabled, damaged, &c,, 166; dam- aged by collision, i28; struck by lightning, 7; | waterlogged, 15; sprung ieaks, 36; ashore and ; aground, 148. ‘Total, 558. Sailors drowned, 40; kiiled by fall, &c., 10; seriousiy injured, 14, Total, 64. The meteorological record is very claborate. ‘The volume contains the report of P. Meyer, ob- | server in the signal service, who gives a general description of the voyage of the steamer Polaris, of the National Banks in the State of New York, | ‘The following is an abstract of the report made to the Comptroller of the Currency, showing the condition of the national banks In the State of | | New York at the close of business on Friday, tne | 27th day of February, 187 | Condition R Loans and discounts Over drafts.....-.+ U.S. bonds te secure circulation. U.S. bonds to secure depost U. S.,bonds on hand. Z ; ' Other stocks, bunds and mortgages... 3,240,111 Due from respemins, and reserve sgeuts 12,988,189 Due from other national banks.... + 2,074,081 Due from St anks and bankers. 12,253 | Real estate, furniture and fxtur Durrent expenses. Premiuins paid.. Checks and other cash items Bills of other national banks Bilis of State banks.. Fractional curre ‘Total... $139, 600,050 Capital stock paid b $36,524 | Surpius fund 8,101,010 | Undivided profi 4,578,840 Nattonal bank pote Sti 28,089,988 | State bank uotes outstand, 228,742 | Dividends unpaid 101,508 Inc.ividual deposits. 47,403,428 United States depos 540,385 Deposits of Untied States disbursing | officers. ...? 2,182 Bills payable Total... See eeeeeeeteeeeeeceees | Number of bauks 220 (exclusive of the cities of New York and Albany), Postal Relations With France. ‘The new French Minister has had an interview with Mr. Blackfan, Superintendent of the Foreign | Malls, Post OMce Department, in relation to a | postal treaty with France. The indications are a Salisiactory arrangement will be made between the two countries, although the general features are not yet agreed upon, Tho St. Louis Bridge. In October last General Humphreys submitted to the Secretary of War the report of a board of engincers convened at St. Louis, Mo., to examine the construction of the St. Louis and Illinois Bridge across the Missiasippt River, at St. Louis, | and report whether the bridge will prove a serious | obstruction to the navigation of said river, and if so, in what manner its construction can be Modified. A copy of the report was furnished to the bridge company, The board wag reconvened on January 14, and on January 31 applementary report was submitted on it, General Humphreys coneurs in the views respecting the obstraction to navigation which the peculiar construction of the bridge forms. In accordance with hia recommen- dation the Secretary of War submuts the question to Congress. Change of Chief Clerk in the Savy De- partment. John W. Hogg, who has been empioyed in the Navy Department for many years, succeeds Mr. Holmes E. OMey, a8 chief clerk of the Department. | He has oiten temporarily acted in that capacity | and in others of eousi reuvonainiiity, The appoints ; Committee on Ratiroads, | and a grant of land 100 feet im width on each side | pushed | Whose majestic voice and presence would electriy | from Nevada. He might properly have said, and | me, Mr, President, with your mock heroics of | Th | life of these far Western Territories. cause of Mr. Hogg’s peculiar executive abinty but of the combination with it of agreeable and pleas- ant manners toward all who have business with the Department. Mr. Omey, the retiring chief clerk, has received from Secretary Robeson o complimentary letter, THE TERRITORIAL RAILROAD BILL. oabncnrsaaagencem Senator Stewart in a Tornado of West- orn Eloquence—He Becomes Excited on the Indian Question—Some Wise Amendments—A Description of the Ne- vada Giant and His Peculiar Ideas. WASHINGTON, April 9, 1874, Relieved for the time being of whe currency i question, the Senate for the last two days has been chiefly occupied in the consideration of a bill pro- viding for the incorporation and regulation of rail- roads in the Territories of the United Stated, as reported by Senator Stewart, of Nevada, irom the ‘The bill a8 reported provides that in any of the Territories, except the Indian Territory, an organ- ization of not leas than ‘five natural per- sons” a8 @ body corporate may build and operate 4 failroad under the provisions of this act. I'he terms, concessions and restrictions under which such corporations snail act are thus detailed:*The grants to all such Territorial enterprises embrace the right of way of the track, the right to take from the adjacent public lands materiais of earth, stone, timber and | water needed for the construction and mainte- nance of the road; and a grant of forty acres for every ten miles for depots, machine shops, &c. | ‘The company may also go into THE BUSINESS OF LAND GRABBING | by buying up the’ public and private lands along their route under certain conditions; and finally, | in the twenty-lirst section, the bili gives to rajl- | Way companies in the several States the same gen- eral allowances of land, with the rigut of way, ag are given to these Territorial roads. The Secre- | tary of the Interior is made tue general supervisor and regulator of these ‘Territorial corporations | und their roads, . { The purposes of the bill are those of a general | law, and applicable to all the railway enterprises | hereafter undertaken in any of the Territories ex- cepting the Indian Territory, and to precinde spectal legislation for combinations of land grab- bers and lobby jobbers, and yet, as reported, this bill was apparently little better than a stupendous land grabbing scheme. hs WISE AMENDMENTS. But it has been clipped of the section which gave to these Territorial roads the privileges of favored land grabbers, and of the section which extended the grants trom these Territorial roads to railway corporations in the several States. The right of | Way to these Territorial roads has been cut down irom & grant of 106 to 50 feet on each side of the track, and the grant of forty acres for depots, ma- chine shops, &c., tor each ten miles, has been cut down to ten acres, ‘These are important clippings, for they save many millions of public property, and Mr. Stewart’s | liberality in consenting td’ most of these amend- mounts was winning for him golden opinions from all sides of the Chamber when an unlucky amend- ment, proposed for the PROTRCTION OF THE INDIAN RESERVATIONS in the Territarics, roused the sleeping lion, and then, toweriuy in his wrath, he made the welkin ring. In addition to the Indian Yerritory it was proposed to exempt the District of Columbia, as a Territory, {rom the operations of this act. ‘All Tight,” said the Senator trom Nevada, But when it Was proposed to exempt the Indian reserva- tions in all. the other Terrivories, the indignant Senator, like a lion or @ grizzly bear into a corner, waa provoked be- yond the last point of endurance, and 0, turning upon his pursuers, he attacked them right and left, like a Sierra Nevada miner sallying from his cabin upon o gang of freebooters whose mission is to “clean him ont.’ It wasa touch of Nevada and of her tree woods, her bound- less plains of sage brnusn and of her endless laby- rinth of monntaius. it was @ blast as from the bugle horn of a Western pioneer, whose range is ‘from Oregon to Arizona, and whose “home is in the setting sun.”? SENATOR STEWART, OF NEVADA, stands in his boots six feet three, a man of tinc presence, broad suouldered, straight and strong. He is @ blonde, with sandy colored hair, a long, flowing beard, a Mitle whitened by the frost 01 time, aud the topo! its head, like the shining sum- mit of Pike’ is “above the timber line.” He / stands on the floor cf the Scuate, a fitting repre- sentative of the stalwart miners of Nevada, a man the boys of the Wevil’s Guich or the Koaring Cailyon. They would have been glorified in his presence to-day. The Seu’western hero of Dickens, “from the brown bees ag the Massassippy,’’ was % pigmy compared the indignant Senator we half expected him to , “I come, Mr. Pres- ident, from the silver di nga, the sage brush piaing and the alkel fleids of Nevada, 1 have seen the jackass rabbit and the Digger Indian ot the sage brush in all his glory of ireedum, and I have seen him on his reservation, and you can’t 1vol humanity. When the sun shines with his full noon- day force in my country you can see to California, and 1 can see the drift of this Indian amendment,” “MAKE THE INDIAN A CITIZEN,” We say that the Senator from Nevada, padgered as he was by chafing amendments to this bill, would have been justified in some such outbreak as this. But he did better than this. Your Indian reservation, a8 a rule, he described as a humbug and # dejusion; as @ sort of pen, in whica the poor Indians are treate like hogs, and in the management of which Indiau superintendents, ugenta and traders enrich them- seives at the expense of the Indians, the white settlers and the government. ‘True hamanity of | these reservations to the Indians was sheer hum- | bug and cruelty. The red man, should be given | the chances and responsibilities of a citizen. Tha. was the humanity he wanted. And why should a railway be debarred from passing through one of these Indian reservations, when it may pass | through the farms or towns of the white settiers, | in view of the getieral interests of the Territory? e reservations are but temporary abiding plates or the Indians at best, and not one-hali the indians reported {mu them cay be found, because | they do not exist, And what sort of humanity is | this to the white settlers which would stop the | building of a railroad where an Indian reservation } stands in we Way? How far do you intend to | carry this mock philanthropy? Where will it | carry you if © you undertake io make these reservations too sacred to be ap- proached by a railroad? Transportation is the | They bave no Navigation. They have imexbaustible treasures of gold and stiver in their mountains, and they must | have railrowus. And yet Senators say, Don’t touch | these Indian reservations. Ha! is that your Rast- | era notion of humaity ?’ And so on jor full haif an hour, ‘ oTRE SLEEPY SENATE STARTLED. Bat the manner and the voice of the Senator from Nevada were more unpressive than his matter. His manner was that of a rushing crevasse tearing through a river embankment and carrying every- thing before it. His voice is a powerful pro- Jundo. Against it the comparatively feeble voices of Bayard of Delaware and Stockton of New Jer- sey, in tueit attempted cross-examinations, were | drowned and reduced to silence. The Senator from Nevada was thoroughly aroused and ierribly | in earnest. He tairiy startled the conscript fathers irom the drowsy stupor into which they had fallen, | and yet there was much of the same pleasure | given irom this general rarming up as would have been given from the unexpected raid of a Nebraska buffalo through the Capitol greunds. The Senate | enjoyed it hugely, and the Senator trom Nevada | deserved @ vote O/ ‘hanks for this burst of Western eloquence, a8 a relief irom the tedious platitudes | of the enate debates, And yet we apprehend that in this tremendous Territorial Railroad bill Mr. Stewart has undertaken to carry a load under whuch he will be broken down, A DISHONEST OBLESTIAL, He Steals §700 in ‘Gold from His Coun- trymen and Starts for San Francisco— His Arraignment in a Jersey Court— Upuhot of the Case. In the early part of last week At’ Lone, one of the Chinese delegation in Belleville, N. J., started for San Francisco, whither he was sent by his countrymen to avoid a dreaded fatal rupture be- tween him and another Chinaman, named Len Gunn, Soon after Ah Lone had gone Len-<Guun and others missed avout $700 in gold. They suspected Ah Lone of having stolen the golden picces, and at once placed the matter m the hands of the police. The result was that An Lone* was captured in Chicago, the stolen money found with him, aud he and it returned yesterday to Newark in charge of an omecor. Im the forenoon the prisoner was ar- raigned im the police court on the charge of grand | larceny. A number of celesttals were present, | and in consequence of their uncelestial jaBbering | came near being committed for contempt. The upshot of the examination waa that, although the larceny seemed unquestionable, Ah Lone was tet Len Gunn, the prosecutor, it seem: welment or way ne crematio! hands of Ah Lone if he remained in Jersey; 80 i deststed from the a, and hence ‘An Lone's discharge. money was taken from roy fal shee toy wenn eave without it to more ik Peuleruly ° relgue once | Thos it will be seen that itis not a novel of soci- | of fashion. . LITERATURE. A WOMAN'S RIGHTS NOVEL." ee a It is not unfair to assume that a novel which is called by such @ title as “Fettered for Life” can- not be @ great book, for the simple reason that the purpose of the book is so much narrower than the purposes of art, Mrs. Blake shows some ca- ‘pacity for hterdry work, and yet ber work 1s al- most valueless. She has given less time to the study of art than tothe study of the fanciful side of woman’s rights, and yet she employs what must be the highest art to be effective in portraying the cruel and brutal side of woman's wrongs. The ballot can in no way better the con- dition of women, which, according to the experi- ence of most of us, 18 at least mot worse than that of the other sex, and even {fit could it would not be well to spoil what might have been made a good novel by arguing the question. Even Hawthorne, who is by far the greatest of our novelists, failed to give us a great book in his “Blethedaie. Romance,’ because he made it the vehicle of conveying the aspirations of the “Brook Farm” philosophers. If Hawthorne, whose Zeno- bia was not less noble than the Queen of old, failed to give his characters the individualty of a | wizard’s creations, what could Mrs, Blake nope to | do with her Lauras and Floras and the other weak women of ler imagination? We ask this question | in all Kindness, because we think the author of | this zovel could have written a much better book | if she had studied art instead of the tea and toast | Philosophers of Soresis, Let us glance jor a moment at the scope of Mra, Blake’s novel. Laura Stanley, a respectable young lady from Orange county, who was educated ai the Essex Institute, at Poughkeepsie, suddenly appears in New York in consequence of her father’s failure to recognize the rights of young women. She has come to earn her own living. Sue is excluded trom the hotels, stays at a police station all night, and, | strangely enough, is taken to Judge Swinton's | court at the Tombs in the morning. The Judge fancies her, and she is enticed into the house of a | villain named Biudgett, @ hanger-on of the court | and a friend of the Judge. Fortunately she is res- cued by Frank Heywood, a young Journalist, who saw her in court in the morning and knew the fate that was intended for her by the Judge. A tempo- rary home is provided for her with Mrs. Dr. D'Arcy, in Twenty-third street, where she remains ul she is able to find work. Several chapters are devoted to the dificulties ol the search, but she finds saMcient employment as a teacher of drawing to enable her to pay her board. She livesin the famtly of Mr. Moulder, a master mechanic, in the Sixteenth ward, and some- thing of a local politician. Swinton, being a patron of Moulder, finds occasion to persecute her at her new home, and finally abducts her from the house. A young girl whom Swinton had ruined, as he de- signs tornin Laura,and who bas descended in the so- cial scale till she is a waiter girl in a Broadway ative, becomes aware of Swinton’s purpose and informs | Heywood of it just in time to assist in her rescue after a most exciting chase. ‘The other side of the | book—for every novel has its other stde—is con- cerned with the fortunes of Flora Livingstone, a young lady belonging to one of our oid jamilies, Laura and Fora bad kpown cach other at Essex College, and the latter became one of Laura’s puyils in the art of draw- | ing. Having advised her fashionable young friend to ask her father to svuay iaw with him, Laura is | dismissed as an improper young woman to assvci- | ate with a daughter of the Livingstones. Flora tis | married to Mr. LeRoy, a society gentieman of great | wealth, by whom she is treated with extreme | Jealousy and rigor, and as she 18, forbidden to | print magazine articles with ber name to them, as an improper line of conduct for a young woman of | fashion, she finally drowns herself in Saratoga | ‘Lake or Congress Spring, we are not sure which. | This isto show how unhappy our butterfies of | society are, and what a terripie thingitis to be | fettered for life © a man who will not let his wife write for the magavines, In the meantime Laura is making @ suflicicntly wretched livelihood and pursuing her gtudies at the Academy of | Design, Swinton ts rising in the political scale, and | Bindgett reaches the acme of Eighth ward glory by | murdering ols wife and committing other crimes at | his “sample room” in that classic to- cality. Laura, of course, marries a man who 18 willing im every way to make his wie equal in chances and opportunities with himseit, | ety, and yet it introduces the reader to the belie of the metrovolis and into the parlors and voudoirs | It is not Intended as a novel of iow life, and yet it deals with the Half World with « free touch on the sympathetic side. All this would | be well enough if Mrs, Blake’s creations lived their | histories, but unfortunately they are only so many puppets for whom she has kindly volunteered to become historian. The -herotc Laura is always | arguing, instead of living and doing, trying and | suffering. Mrs, Dr. D’Arcy is only.a silk dress and | acarriage. One is not certain that Flora Living- | ston Le Roy iseven so much ag a set of blonde | curls. Frank Heywood is an impossible young | man—a journalist who strangely mixes the highest | editorial duties with reguiar attendance at the | Tombs Police Court, and is always on hand when | the villian seeks to decoy the young girl to shame | and ruin, In the end he turns out to be a woman in man’s attire, Even Judge Swinton, who might + be supposed to be somebody, as he evidently was } intended to be, is shadowy, vague and uncertain. | Yet Mrs. Blake might have made all these—even | Biudgett, her “Reddy the Blacksmith’’—more than | mere puppets, upon Whose movement should hang | @ plea for woman’s rights, if she had cultivated art instead of what she supposes to be ideas, ‘These remarks are merely preparatory to saying what we started out to say—namely, that here 1s 4 woman’s rights novel, the best of the kind that | has yet appeared, aud greater in promise than any book yet written by an American woman. Its weal- ness consists in the perverse refusal of the authar to recognize wnat American girls are instead of what she thinks they ought to be. None of oir | novelists have yet given us a picture of an Amefi- can young womau—tie lithe, fragile, vivaciots, + angelic creatures, who seem to the eyes of he stranger too etherial for earth and too condescejd- ingly bewitching tor heaven, American hones have never been painted for the imagination by the fine touch and finer fancy of a woman's pejcil. | | | i { | , What 4 picture Mrs, Blake might have given ts of , the Livingstone mansion in Fifth avenue! and had | she drawn, instead of merely sketching the livejand home of the Moulders, she would have contri(uted vastly to genuine reform in domestic comfor and | happiness. We know old Dombey’s housq and + David Copperfieid’s birthplace and rer ua cabin and Betsy Trotwood’s cottage a the | Wickficld mansion at Canterbury ay well | as if we had. lived in them, Indefl, we | always find Micawber and Captain Cuttle /and all | the rest “at home.’’ Becky Sharp or sl Sed- | ley could not occupy an apartment that wfdid not | see it with a reality that included even /he pin- cushions, Must we, then, as Americans, flbmit to | be represented tn French plays and Engijh novels as all living at the Fifth Avenue Hotel ingorgeous a@partments of cheap adornment, with ar feet on the tables? When Mrs, Blake took us t( Saratoga in such fine company why aid she nf& give us something more vivid and realistic tht an argu- ment on woman’s rights between hband and wife in an indefinite apartment of @ indefinite hotel? Must the beach and the surf ad the mot- ley summer gatherings at Long Branc] be surren- dered to the song and dance people a the variety theatres.? There is more of the gfutne flavor of iow life in New York injthe “Mul- ligan Guards" than in & hundred such novels as Mrs, Blake’s. It is time fthe writing of novela with @ purpose should ce: We do not care to ask Anna Dickinson “Whatjnewer ?” any more. We do not wish to go witi “up Broadway” when she carts where but in bright and briiliant It 18 getting to be too terribie al by Mrs. Blake how terrible it is to life.” What we want in oar novej are pictures, notsermons. The latter we canfave when we want them, from Beecher all tl way down to Bishop Snow. Our writers are other respects, and yet they are icapable of writ- Jag aX American Qovel or ap play, The | ease, A scnool book ring, Feagon consists in the absolute want of stuay Of our surroundings; and if we attempt to write @ novel of society on New York ‘we are sure to put into it the Knickerbocgers, who do not exist, instead of portraits of men and women who have their coupterparts everywhere. We want a fresh, Vigorous, breeezy society novel; and 4 political nove} powerful as “Ten Thousand a Year” or “Les Miserables’? would provea great sensation and the ruin of Credit Mobilter Currency Expansion Congressmen. We cannot expect such & work as the latter from any woman, but we |ook to the women writers for our great society novel, Mrs. Blake may accom- plish such @ work if she puts aside her ideas of the unhappiness of marriage, and it is for this reason that we nave given so much space to a book that, buc for its promise of be'ter things, would have little claim upon our attention, *FETTERED YOR LIFE; OR, LORD AND MASTER, A Story of To-day. By Littie Devereux Blake, author of “Southwold” and “Rockiord.” New York: Sheldon & Co, LITERARY CHIT-CHAT. Mr. J. A. H. Morey has im hand for the Eariy English Text Society the~+Rhymes and Prophecies of Thomas of Ercildoune, commonly called the Rhymer.” THEOPHILE GAUTIER’s “Histoire da Romant- isme,” now being published in Paris, is marked by all the merits of consummate style and exquisite fancy which distinguish the noveis of this writer, Tne Lars Riots at Bombay were owing to the publication by a Parsee of a Guzerate version of Washington Irving’s “Life of Mahomet,” in whiew there is a reference to the’ prophet’s domestic re- lations, The author attempted to stop the sale, but did not succeed in allaying the resentment of the Mussuimans, 3 THE Finsr Paris have appeared of a Dutch trans- lation of Mills’ “Principles of Political Economy.’” Tue WNiverswy LisRaRY OF STRASBOURG has received an augmentation of'80,000 volumes dur- ing the past year, and now numbers about 300,000 inali. Half of these additions, which constitute an augmentation more than fifieen times above the general average annual tucrease of public libraries, have been procured by purchase, and the remaining motety has been obyained through public and private donations, The library ts twice ‘a8 rich ag before it was*burned, BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN GROGRAPMICAL So- oiery (Session of 1873-4, No. 1V.)—This hand- somely printed publication, embracing a great variety of valuable geographical matter, compris- ing the Aztec Ruins of New Mexico, an impor- tant paper by Colonel Boudinot on the Indian Ter- ritory, besides, @ compretensive history of the Polaris expedition by ail the chiet survivors, containing ajso the .amous addresses of Dr. Hayes, has just been placed in our hands. Itis highly creditable to the society, as showing a prusperity and a usefulness as a scientific body not second to that of the Royal Geographical Society of London. SENOR JOSE DE ARMAS CESPEDES, a nephew of ex-Presidtnt Cespedes and a writer well known in Cuban and Spani literary cireles, is at present engaged in writing a historical novel, based upon the struggle of the South American colonies for independence and the conspiracies of the Sons of Bolivar, and the Black Eagle in Cuba near the close of the first quarter of this century. He promises new and interesting revelations concern- ing the origin of the Monroe doctrine. A CONGRESs OF Austrian writers has been called to meet at Vienna to mediate on literary questions “between France and the German Empire. Appieton'’s sournal says, with much truth, that outside of newspapers and magazines there is at present almost nothing in the way of original Iterature attempted in America. Appleton might udd that a good deal of the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the publishers, Tne New Lire of Benjamin Franklig, by Hon, John Bigelow, will extend to three volumes, PROFESSOR PROCTOR’s new book, “The Universe and the Coming Transits,” wilt be published | Simultaneously in London and Philadelphia by J, B. Lippincott & Co, Sampson Low, Marston & Co., have in press “Tne China Collector's Pocket Companion,” by Mrs. Bury Palliser, It 1s meant to supply the want of a poriable guide to marks and monograms, an@ as.such- may prove useiul to the lovers of the “ceramic art.’? “THe MILL WHEBL,” a recently pubilshed novel, oy Miss Helen Dickens, a daughter of the late Charles Dickens, is pronounced oy Enghish critics | 48 far from being an ordinary book. “fay SociaL History of Harvard Untvyeraity’? is the subject of a proposed new pook by some enterprising Cambridge students. It will be pro- jusely illustrated by heliotypes of the college balldings, proiessors, &c. TRBN THOUSSND COPIES of 3 recent issue of the Mmadee Advertiser'were printed on paper manu- factured irom reeds grown on the banks of the Tay. Barzac’s “Droll Stories,’ now translated into English for the first time and recently issued in Lontton, is said to be “very suggestive of Boccac- cto's “Decameron,” upon which it very closely borders, PROFESSOR L&PSIUS Will be librarian at the Royal Library at Berlin. THE FRENCH “Notes and Queries,” which came to an end in 1870, 18 to be revived under the titie ofthe “Myriobiblion,”” Mn. M. W. Evarts has written an excellent his- tory of Dutch literature. Henry WIKOFF has a new book tn Lippincott’s press, entitied “The Four Civilizations of the World.” THE LONDON AcADEMY finds in Professor Petit's “Fstory of Mary Stuart,” which is written from the Roman Catholic point of view, facts and argu- ments which weil deserve consideration. THE NEW SHAKESPEARE Society of London will print @ treatise on the chronological order of Shakespeare’s plays by Mr. Fleay. THE PENNSYLVANIA Legislature is tne last to meddie with the school books used in the public Schools of that State. The bill provides for uniform School books, which shall be used for five years, to be selected by a board. No doubt there are evils connected with a constant change of school books, but such @ remedy would be worse than the dis- added to the other Pennsylvania rings, would be a little too bad, ONe ov THE Most amusing classes of ‘literature ig the aucobiographicai. The French excel im the art of writing about themselves, and there are few more entertaining books than Marmonteis* “Memoirs” and Rousseau’s “Confessions.” Thiers and Guizot, it is said, will each leave®mautoblog- raphy behind. UNDER THE TITLE of “What is Wine?’ Mr. James L, Denman has printed a book on the abominabie adulterations sold as port, sherry and claret in the London market. f THE GERMAN GOVERNMENT Cannot get done with persecuting the press. Herr Schwab, editor of the ultramontane Rheinpyalz, has been sentenced to two months in prison for irreverence toward | the German Emperor. NEW PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED. _ ——_— From Harper & Brothers:—“The Office and Duty of a Christian Pastor,’ by Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, D. D.; “Annual Record of Science and Industry,” edited by Spencer F. Baird; “Through Fire and Water,” & novel, by Frederick Talvot; “The Blue Ribbon,” by the author of “Meta’s Paith.”” From D. Appleton & Oo :—“Logic—Deductive and Instructive,” by Alexander Bato, LL. D. From James R. Osgood & Cbv:—“Theodore Parker—A Biograpny,” dy Octavius Brooks Froth- ingham, From J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia:— “Alide: An Episode of Goethe's Life.” By Emma Lazarus, From G, P, Putnam’s Sons:—“The Education of American Girls, Considered m & Series of Essays,’? Editea by Anna ©. Brackett. From T, B. Peterson & Brothers, Philadelphis:— “Victor's Triumph By Mrs. Emma D. EB, N. Southworth. . From J, A. McGee:—“Iretand Among the Nae tions; or, The Faults and Virtues of the Irish with ‘Those of Other Races.” By Rev. J, O'Leary, D. D. From Le Courrier dec Mtate Unte:—“Quatres vingt-Treize.” By Victor Hage