The New York Herald Newspaper, May 4, 1874, Page 6

8 ‘NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. 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. WALLACK’S: CHAIRED Ly Broadway and Thirteenth street. —' Closes a ii P-M. Mr, Lester Wallack, Miss Je! MBS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washingion street, near Fulton street, Brooktyn.— BEN WUULLUGH, at 8 P.M. Mr. Oliver Loud Byron. oor THEATRE, Broadw: betw. Houston and Bleecker streets. — VACDEVILLE and NOVELTY BNTERTAINMENT, at 7:45 P.M. ; closes at 10:46 P. M. at 8 P.M; ys Lewis BROADw AT. THEATRE, Broadw: poste Washington place.—HUMPTY Dumer AY als, Ac, at8?. M.; closes at P.M BOOTH’S THEATRE, Sixth avenue, corner of Twenty-third {iret SPAR. Be OY P. M.; closes at 10:5 P. M. Mr. John vulloug! Tis els LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth stree!, near sixth avenue.—THE SCHOOL FOR - “pagal ats P.M; closes atl P.M. Migs Jane oom! METROPOLITAN THEATRE, Way.-VARLBTY ENTERTAINMENT, at 4; closes Hf 10D P. ACADEMY OF MUSIC, Fourteenth street, corner of Irving ‘place.—Strakosch Hallan Opera Couipany—Canoul's Bonefie—Marines 1:30 —Ni svon, lima di Murska, Lucea, Ca; Vizzani, Del Puente, scolara. a WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway. corner of ‘Tate n street —AURO RA FLOYD, at2 P.M: closes at 4:30 P. JARLINE, at SP M.; closes at 10:30 P.M. Sophie Mites) Marietta Row PARK THEATRE, Broadway and Tweuty-second sireet—LOVE'S PEN- ANCE, at SP. M.; closes at 1 P.M. Charles Fechter. Sneais dase, gn ny, Mone @ fourteenth street, near Irving piace.— BAD) TER KAUFFMAN, at 6P. M.; Cloves ath PM. soe EW PARK THEATRE. BROOKLYN, LEAG, ' Yue FORSAKEN, at8 P.M. Miss ada DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway.—MONSIEUR ALPHONSE. at@ PM ; closes at 10:30 P.M. Misa Ada Dyas, Mica Fauny Davenport, Bijou Heron, Mr. Fisher, r. : Ada Gray. THEATRE COMIQUE No. 514 Broadwa: Peep ENTSREAINMENT, at 8 P.M, ; closes at 10:30 P. TONY PASTOR'S OFREA HOUSE, No. jt Bowery. —VARISTY ENTERTAINMENT, at 2:30 et cle ae 520 P.M; alsoaté P.M ; closes at li °E, sixth Es ag yaad MIN- . M.; closes at 10 P. BR -third stree armel SY, &c., a8 ROBINSON HALL, Sixteenth street.—ART ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 P. M. COLOSS! Broadway, corner of Thirty. 1874, at LP! M. ; closes at 5 P. atlor M uM. street.—LONDON IN ‘ame at7 P. M.; closes ROMAN HIPPODROME, Madison avenue snd_ Twenty-sixth astreet.—GRAND PAGEANT—CONGEESS OF ¥ RATIONS St 130 P. M. and TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Sondny, May 4, 1874, = Se ae geet From our ur reports this morning the probabilities | are that the weather 1o-day will be cool and | pardy cloudy. ‘Tux Czor Prospect 1s THE West is en- couraging, of the spring season. The fruit crop promises well generally, little damage having been done by the frost. In the Far West, as in | ‘Minnesota and Wisconsin, farming operations had been retarded, but it is believed there will bea good season after all for the different cereals. Except in certain parts of Mary- land and Delaware, the injury to fruit trees by the frost has been generally inconsiderable. | Faran Bormgr Exrrosion.—A frightfal boiler explosion, resulting in the death of seven persons, is reported from Shawangunk, on the Wallkill Valley Railroad. It appears to be the old story of criminal carelessness and indifference to human life. The bdoiler is | alleged to have been old and rotten, and the villagers threatened to lynch the superin- tendent. An inquiry will be instituted, when | the facts of the case will be brought to light. It is another lesson of the necessity of some stringent law to compel closer supervision of | steam boilers. | Tae Question or ApsovnnmenT will be | brought up to-day in Congress, it is said, by | Mr. Dawes, the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means. The first proposition will be to adjourn on the Ist of June, but an amendment will be offered to make the date the 20th of June. Looking at the little necessary business accomplished and Yhe | , amount of work laid out, it is doubtful if the session will not have to be extended even beyond the 20th of June. Our Washington | telegrams give an idea of the questions to be acted upon and of those that will be urgently pressed. Map Ex-ALpermen.—We publish in another column a curious history of four ex-Aldermen who have passed from the Council of the City Fathers to lunatic asylums. It is rather a sad example of what misdirected effort in politics ean accomplish in destroying the strongest constitutions. We hope the moral of the les- son will not be lost on the present incumbents, and that they will avoid all “rings” and join the crusaders, otherwise they may see them- selves prematurely translated to peacock glory and bedlam. It isaltogether a sad commentary on the régime which shaped its aspirations in the engine house of Big Six, and which has | transit that would have met very satisfactorily NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1874. Legislature of 1874—1ts Charee- | the changes made by this bill and those made | vaunted liberty, becomes inconvenient it is The ’ ter and Its Work. The attempt to whitewash the character of the Legislature of 1874 will scarcely succeed, although, owing to the lack of opportunity, there has not been quite so much rascality perfected this session as in some previous years. The disposition to be corrupted was a8 good as ever, but there was nominally no New York charter to fight over, though the unprincipled partisan jobbery in the last few days of the session practically reconstructed our city government; no big railroad bills on hand, no comprehensive schemes of plunder to be carried through. The stealings were of a petit larceny description, with one or two exceptions, and the jobs were of a negative rather than a positive character. The lobby was not prosperous, for the reason that the members adopted the new plan of forming ‘‘gangs” and making their own terms instead of treating through the powers of the “third house."’ But the accustomed self-pro- tection pensions were received from the great railroad corporations, the ferry companies, the insurance companies and savings banks; rapid transit was made profitable, the Canal Ring paid out money to defeat the Canal Fund- ing amendment and for other purposes; the municipal department struggles in this city yielded a plum, and there were several tri- fling jobs to each of which a small compensa- tion was attached. There were of course some fair men in both houses of the Legislature, but they were not numerous enough to secure honest and desir- able legislation. From the commencement to the close of the session there was no indication of a disposition to legislate for the public interests. This was especially the case in regard to the measures relating to the city of New York. Rapid transit, important as it ig to the welfare ot the metropolis, was made a corrupt job in the hands of rural guerillas. Bills to promote local improve- ments in the city were torn to pieces by the hands of the pensioners of rival departments, leaving us in the same deplorable state of stagnation and dilapidation under which we have been suffering for the last two years. Just at the close of the session a radical change was made in our city charter in obe- dience to partisan demands, without one thought for the interests of the metrupolis and its million of inhabitants. While some good laws were passed, as is always the case however corrupt a Legislature may be, the general legislation was of this selfish, venal and partisan character, and all that saved the Legislature of 1874 from a reputation as in- famous as that which attaches to the Legis- lature of 1871 was the absence of any great schemes of public plunder. Out of the four rapid transit bills passed—the Gilbert Elevated, the Beach Pneumatic, the Water Line and the Greenwich Street Extension—itis just possible we may get ® railroad; but a rapid transit commission was what the people desired as the most cer- tain means of success. The Gilbert Elevated appears to hold out the fairest prospect at present, but it will require prompt and ener- | getic action to give the public confidence in the corporation. The Gardner Water Line bill, which provides for a railrond and ware- notwithstanding the backwardness | houses, is a great scheme, but would require an enormous amount of capital to carry it through. Its projectors declare, however, that all the money needed will be supplied by English capitalists. No doubt the project is a grand one, and the value of the concessions: must be very great; but some years must elapse, under the most favorable circum- stances, before it could be carried out. The Greenwich street ‘‘one-legged” line, as it is called, is now a success, and its extension will be of great public convenience; still, it does not meet the wants of the people, and we must look to the Gilbert Elevated with the greatest amount of hope, for the Beach Pneumatic does not invite confidence, and the “travelling sidewalk’ is simply an experi- ment, and a wild one at that, It is an evidence of the little regard that our legislators have for the public interest and the very considerable attention they pay to the projects of schemers and speculators that the rapid transit problem seems little nearer a solution now than it was when the Legislature met. There were plans for rapid | the public demands on this subject, but they | stood apparently only on their own merits, | and the practical legislator can never compre- | hend any fact of that sort; but schemes in | the success of which the public can indulge very little hope received the attention denied to the others. Why our lawmakers should not assent to what the people want and should instead give the sanction of authority to what the exploiters of the people want is a fact easily understood but very lamentable, The consolidation of the New York city and county governments— Mr. Charles O’Conor’s bill—is o measure that ought to have been passed four or five years ago. It will simplify the financial busi- ness of the city, and should save some expense. As we have already shown, this is a bill which puts into the Department of Public Works much power that the framers of the Measure meant to put elsewhere, but owing | to the clumsy manner in which the bill was at first drawn, and the very important points it overlooked, two supplementary bills were | made necessary for the perfection of the con- templated plan, and, as one of these its relics in the prisons and lunatic asylums of | the State it conspired to rob and misrule. | iB sn | Tux Inriationisrs Srupporn.—According | to our Washington despatches the inflationists | | are not disposed to yield, but are intent on | making renewed efforts to expand the cur- | fenoy in one way or another. The Senators who favor expansion have frequent consulta- tions, though it is believed they have not yet | agreed upon # new measure or their plan of action. However, they are remarkably reticent, as if they thought it wiser to conceal their till ready to strike. ofthe republican party in this movement dis- fyow any intention to break up or embarrass their party on this issue, and while deter- | mined to increase the currency express the hope of mataring « plan that will either over- come the objections of the President or secure @ larger vote in both houses. We do not be- lieve any measure increasing the currency can receive the approval of the President or ob- tain « two-third vote unless some provision is made for redemption and to lay the founda- tion for anecle vaymenia, ~ *’ The leaders | bills failed to pass, our ambitious reformers, contemplating the stars, fell into a pit. The bill to authorize the Board of Apportionment to review the estimates, with the object of cutting down the rate of taxa- tion, will accomplish one good object, since it prohibits the appropriation of any money for special contingencies. The large appropria- tion for the Finance Department—over three hundred and twenty thousand dollars— may well be reduced and a few other savings effected, notably in the Police, Building and Park departments. These would be so wach gain to the taxpayers. But the contemplated “reductions” are, for the main part, nothing more than postponements of the day of pay- ment—the ‘‘bridging-over” process—which | distinguishes Mr. Green’s financial adminis- tration, and which gives a fictitious relief to- day only to render to-morrow's burdens the more oppressive. Of other bills affecting the city, the most important are the Brooklyn Bridge bill, the Vacated Assessments bill and the Charter-tinkering bill. The iatter, although only a partisan measure, changes the whole by the city ands county bill there are such changes that it may be doubted if even the Legislatures which ostensibly had before them the labor of making new charters for this city ever more thoroughly changed our sys- tem. Our government, in fact, suddenly be- comes, under this system, an absolute despot- ism in the hands of the Mayor. He appoints, without consent or advice, the functionaries in whose hands are our lives and property, and who oan, by their power at the polls, actually control any election in the interest of what- ever master they may serve. The constitutional amendments were in- dorsed, with the exception of the fifth amend- ment, providing for the appointment of certain State officers, and this was beaten mainly by the canal and State prison interests. The third amendment, which increases the pay of legislators and prohibite special legis- lation, will be productive of much good should it be adopted by. the people, as it doubtless will be. bills to divide half the excise money among the char- itable institutions of the city, and to provide tor making a park of Tompkins square, are good measures, and the defeat of the Academy Appropriation bill, which saddled New York with a tax of seventy thousand dollars for the benefit of fancy preceptors, ig to be com- mended. Many outrageous jobs were rushed through at the eleventh hour, which will no doubt meet a proper fate in the Executive chamber ; but it 1s impossible to ascertain at present their number or character. We may conclude, however, that they are such as to stamp the Legislative session which has just closed with a character but little better than that of the worst of its predecessors. The Peabody Donation Fund. The trustees of the Peabody fund for pro- viding homes for the poor of London have made their report for the year 1873. They had roceived from Mr. Peabody's executors, in accordance with the will, during the year, one hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. The whole amount bequeathed and now given is over a half million pounds, and this has been increased by rents and interest over sev- enty-eight thousand pounds, This would be abont two million eight hundred thousand dollars—a graud sum and a noble be- quest for the poor. The fund was to be applied specially, as is generally known, to the acquiring of land and the erection thereon of cheap, comfortable dwellings for the deserving poor. Up to last January the trustees had expended three hundred thousand pounds for land and in building—namely, one hundred and two thousand for land and one hundred and ninety-eight thousand in build- ing. The number of families now occupying a residence in the finished buildings is eight hundred and eighty-two, and they occupy one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five rooms, averaging over two rooms to a family. The average rent of a room is forty cents a week within 4 fraction. The average earnings week of each family is about six dollars. How many times over forty cents a week do our laboring poor pay for not such good accommodation, and often only for one room? At the Shad- well and Islington buildings the rents are even @ little lower. The trustees have recently purchased a site of four and a half acres at Pimlico on which to erect buildings. There will soon be ready two blocks for the accom. modation of forty-four families on the Black- friars road estate, and sixteen blocks to ac- commodate three hundred and fifty-two fami- lies are in course of construction near Stam- ford street. Besides these there will soon be ready six new blocks at Bermondsey for sev- enty-two families. The net income derived from the buildings is about two and half per cent. The expense of man- agement seems to be very small. Our charitable institutions, on the contrary, cost enormously and frequently eat up the greater part of the funds. They do these things bet- ter in England. There seems to be no reason why, under continued good management and judicious use of the means in the hands of the trustees, the usefulness of the Peabody fund may not be extended from time to time till thousands of families may be provided with cheap and comfortable homes. These facts | are suggestive to our own rich men, who hardly know what to do with their great wealth. Freedom of the Press in Ireland. The belief that freedom of the press is guaranteed by the British constitution is one of a number of popular errors. It is quite true that in England proper the newspaper is allowed great freedom of discussion, but the liberty it enjoys is very much circumscribed by a stringent law of libel. This, perhaps, is the real cause of the apparent moderation ex- hibited by English newspapers in dealing with abuses. Although Ireland is generally assumed to be in the enjoyment of all the rights guaranteed by the much-talked-about British constitation, it appears that that most important right, the liberty to give full and free expression to national or individual opinion, seems to be hampered in some way unknown to the operation of the law in Eng- land and Scotland. Now, the free discussion of whatever affects the well being of the peo- ple is one of the most sacred rights of free- men. It is, in fact, the quatity which dis- tinguishes the citizen from the serf. Where it does not exist there can be no healthy public life, no real security for the liberty of the indi- vidual or the rights of the nation. That we hold to be a fundamental principle underlying all free government, and when it is disregarded or destroyed freedom ceases to be a reality and constitutignal government becomes a hol- low pretence. By tke exchanges we learn that an Irish paper, known under the title The Flag of Ireland, has received +‘warning,” under the Peace Preservation act, on account of some articles which the government regards as seditious. It is difficult to real- ize that this ‘warning’ comes from an official of the’ ‘freest government in the world.” It sounds very un-English; at least, it contrasts very strangely with the loud boasting about the liberty of the British press to which we are accustomed. Itis more suggestive of the Lower Empire than of the England of Queen Victoria ; but, much as it shocks our preconceived notions about the liberty of the British press, it is a stern reality. Liberty of the press exists under the British constitution so long as the press gives expression to no opinion hostile to princinle of the city government. Between British interests; bat the moment that much bg way hai by the governing power. In theory it exists to be talked about and be Bape to the outside world, but in fact @ hollow pretence and a sham. ums se preston glo of constitutional monarchies, it is mere brammagem—pleasing to the eye, but valueless for practical use. Stop the Slave Trade. The great difficulty which Livingstone en- countered im Africa was the infamous slave various coast tribes, in reaching the central portion of that great country, he was sur- prised.to find a race of men far superior to any he had hitherto seen. They were strong in physique, large of stature, mild of manner and very tractable. He thinks the Makololos the very best material with which to lay the foundation of a new civilization, and be- lieves that a strong hearted and devoted missionary might convert them as rapidly as did St, Patrick the natives of Ireland, and make for himself a place in the hearts of the pecple that would be as lasting as time itself. There is something very simple and very affecting in the way in which David Living- stone puts himself in the background, even in the deepest shadows of the background, and talks of the noble work which others may do. The good he has himself done is of no insig- nificant character, since, at the peril of his life, he has braved untold dangers and swung the door of future effort and success wide on its hinges, There is so little of self in the task which he undertook that the man is lifted by an appreciative and admiring world into the niche of immortality. At a time when aspirants for fame are hustling each other, and announcing with all the possible parade of a special plea their title to gratitude and their right to a government pension, we are all the more willing to put a real hero into the place which he has richly earned, but from whose occupancy he shrinks with a modesty to which most men are strangers. The principal drawback to the civilization of Africa is the slave trade. This is so exten- sive and so shrewd and bold in its opera- tions that the entire coast has become suspicious of every European. For at least a» hundred miles from the seashore there is constant war and anarchy, Tribes fight with each other with no higher purpose than to fill the hold of the slavers. The only representatives of civiliza- tion they ever see are pirates and speculators. They are cheated out of their moncy and kidnapped -to swell the freight of these enemies of the human race, who ply their trade and defy the world. They are fed on poisonous whiskey and kept in a constant state of quarrel that modern society may have honse servants and field hands. A state of primitive barbarism were infinitely preferable to the beastly condition to which these people have been reduced by the inordinate love of gain on the part of so-called Christian men and nations. Even England, says the brave explorer, has an itching palm for the whip of the slave driver. The shade of Wilberforce seems to have been exorcised from some portions of British society, and men who in London were loud in their applause of an anti-slavery speech are quite willing to own slaves in Africa and to score their backs wilh a rawhide. Tho native Englishman makes a very good patriot in Exeter Hall and an equally good slave driver when be wants to repair his failing for- tunes on the East Coast, There is in Great Britain a certain amount of sympathy with slavery. It cropped out in our great war, when Southern gold and cotton were too strong @ temptation for the ordinary British conscience to withstand, and when we were made to feel, perhaps more by inference than by direct assertion, that British authorities would not have worn mourning if we had lost the battle of Gettysburg. e Bat the nation that is directly responsiblo for the slave trade as plied at present is the Portuguese. They have organized a system of piracy which might do honor to savages, but which throws the mantle of shame over every naighboring people. They are ready to undertake any risks, to resort to any measure, and to sell in any market. This whole infamous problem of slavery, with its cruelty, its chains and its slow murder, has been laid bare by the enterprise and the daring of David Livingstone. The best monument which a grateful world can rear to his memory would be a united effort on the part of all civilized nations to puta cordon of war vessels about Africa through which not even Portuguese rapacity could break. Our present efforts are unequal to the task. We have stationed on the West and East coasts neither vessels nor men enough to make it dangerous for a slaver to come to anchor. We should go at the work in stern earnest, and the result would be not only the effectual breaking up of a disgrace- ful system of wholesale robbery, but a better feeling among the peoples who were engaged in so honorable an enterprise. The public senti- ment of America, after the facts have been thoroughly ventilated, would applaud any move on the part of our government in this direction. Donble the marine police force in the slave district, make on example of half a dozen rogues by hanging them from the yard arm of the capturing vessel, and in five years the dead Livingstone will make West- minster Abbey the Mecca of a redeemed and grateful continent. Soornern ~ Onxprr. ~The Mobile Register puts the case very clearly when, in speak- ing of the failure of Lonisiana and other Southern States to maintain their credit abroad, it declares that ‘the money market everywhere has become chary of dealing with the adventurers and Micaw- bers of the South.’ It believes that Ala- bama’s repudiation is, so far, only involun- tary. ‘She has not deliberately embraced dis- honesty by statute, but failed to pay her inter- est, because her scalawag Governor proclaimed that he could not pay it. This might or might not have been true. But had not radi- cal influence from Washington enabled aliens and negroes to take the State out of the hands of her people her credit would not bave been dishonored by interest defalcations. The same istrue of the city of Mobile. Her debts can be made alive and handled whenever thé admin- istration returns to the hands of her true and substantial citizenship.” This is very true, and it is gratifying to seo that such an able educator of the masses as the Register | recognizes the evil amd sees the remedy. Until the honest représemiative men of the South secure entire control in.their respective States foreign ag well as Northern capital will be driven away, and emigration,-which has done so much for Texas and Virgisia, will continue to seek other States, where the bur- dens of taxation fall more lightly and there is no danger of their lands being ‘confiscated owing to their inability to pay the enormous taxes imposed by adventurers who have no pecuniary interest in the soil. The Amerique. The story of the misadventure to the Amérique, which has already attracted so much attention at home and abroad, is told more at length in the correspondence we print elsewhere from Plymouth, Havre and Paris. ‘There are features about this accident almost grotesque in their obaracter. It is almost cruel to dwell upon them. We presume we shall only know the truth when we have the results of a judicial inquiry. We prefer not to take part in the universal denunciation of French seamanship as imbecility and coward- ice. Widely sweeping theories of this nature are unjust to ourselves, as well as to those whom we criticise. The French aré ingeni- ous and valiant, no more afraid of the sea than any other maritime people. The Amérique we must regard as an exceptional case, not to be determined by her flag or her nationality, but solely upon the conduct of those who com- manded her at the time of the disaster. Our cable news is confirmed by these de- tails. The Amérique was abandoned during a terrific gale, her passengers and crew gqing in three vessels which happened ‘to be in the neighborhood. The day succeeding two sail- ing vessels sighted her, “solemnly ploughing along under canvas,” with a signal of distress flying. When the boat’s crew boarded all the signs showed the haste with which she had been abandoned. Dinner was on the table, the soup was’ waiting to be served, boxes and trunks were opened and their contents scattered around. Upon examining the vessel it was found that the seas had damaged the engines and pre- vented the pumps from working, and that one of the compartments had sprung aleak. This leak, however, was confined to the one com- partment. The conclusion at which the offi- cers who examined the vessel arrived was that Captain Roussan feared that, with the loss of steam power and the disabling of the pumps, he would run too great risks with the lives of his passengers not to accept the offer of assist- ance from the vessels that happened to be in sight. Nautical men, especially after the event, will criticise the Captain for his over- caution, but he is entitled to his explanation. The vessel was taken into Plymouth, where she was held as a prize worth a million and a half of dollars. The story’of the French officers, as told to our correspondent in Paris, simply makes the excuse we have intimated, that thé vessel was abandoned in a panic of extreme caution. This is not a very good ex- cuse, but it will serve until we hear the result of the official inquiries. Legitimate Help in Art Work. Much discussion has been caused by letters written to a contemporary from Italy charg- ing American sculptors, in a wholesale man- ner, with fraudulent practices. Names that have achieved even a world-wide reputation were not spared in the sweeping assertions put forth. Although we did not admit the charges into our columns we felt that it was due to the high character of many of the artists assailed to publish the refutation that was made on behalf of Mr. Story and Miss Hosmer. At the same time we fear that, though the accusations were made too broad and sweeping, they were not, in some in- stances, at least, wholly without foundation. We are led to form this opinion by the de- fences put forward by some among the ac- cused. For instance, one gentleman makes the statement that with his own hands he has produced in four months “‘two life-sized monumental statues and finished four marble busts.”” That is his own showing in answer to the charges made against him, and any- thing more damaging we can hardly conceive. Now, most sculptors would consider that they had done very excellent work in designing and modelling one life-sized statue in three months. Men eminent in their profession and reputed rapid workmen would be likely to look on three months as an insufficient time to devote to the conscientious modelling of one figure. What, then, must be thought of this American artist, whose wonder- ful executive ability allows him to execute four marble busts and two life-sized statues in the space of four months. This urray quite takes our breath away, and we pause in wonder before this sculptural giant, whose prowess is absolutely appalling. There is a misty tradition that great art secrets of the Greeks are lost. Before the bas-reliefs of the Parthenon we have heard sculptors whose names are familiar wherever the English lan- guage is spoken confess to an inability to understand how one man’s hand could have in a lifetime wrought even small portions of that exquisitely grand work. Perhaps this modern American has found ‘‘the lost secret.” Certainly no other sculptor in Europe could produce two public statues and four marble busts unaided in four months and impart to them the correctness and finish which art work claims—the thing is impossible. The real question opened up by this discussion is, what aid a sculptor may receive without forfeiting his right to be considered the creator of works which bear his name. On this point there can be no doubt whatever in the. minds of persons acquainted with the system of working universally adopted by the sculptor. The design and execution of the original model should be purely the work of the artist. The transferring of the work afterwards into marble or bronze may be in- trusted to other hands, being chiefly mechan- ical; butif'the sculptor be thoroughly edu- cated he should be able not alone to direct but execute the final finish of his model in marble or bronze. Many sculptors are unable to doso, and in So far their professional training is deficient. It is to the lack of this thorough training that may be traced many of the charges made against American artists. As they are more dependant than European sculptors on the work of their ascistants they are open to the suspicion of receiving other than logitimate aid. This does not apply to all cases, but it certainly, does to the majority. The cure for the evil ia notin attempting to i hide % On fhe contrary, the present disoms sion will not be without ite value in imprems- ing on the mind of the American art student: that if he desires to establish # solid and last- ing reputation he must make himself as com-- pletely master, of his profession in all its branches as does the European sculptor. Where Shall We Go for the Summer?’ Although winter lingered in the lap of spring, it will not be long before the growing heat will admonish our summer tourists to be on the wing. Some of them are already on the way to Europe and others are engaging their quar- ters at the great seaside resorts and popular , watering places. For these we have no words of counsel, since most of them know what they are doing and can form a pretty accurate idea in advance of the discomforts they will be compelled to endure. But there is a large class of tourists, that is to say, tourists in a small way, who are asking themselves and each other where they shall go the coming summer. The answer we should give them, collectively and in detail, would be to go any- where except where the guide books tell them to go. Summer travel acquires a new zest from being out of the beaten track, and al- most at our very doors, in the great States of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, are regions, as yet unexplored by tourists, which have charms unexcelled by the pleasures of the Adirondacks and the Saranac. Every railroad going West from New York leads to magnificent fields of enjoyment for the traveller. Persons of boating proclivities will find the lake region in this State deli- cious, Nothing can be more delightful, for instance, than summer rambles in the radié of which Cooperstown is the centre, Oiher towns, too numerous to mention in detail, are almost equally inviting as bases of operations. The Wyoming Valley, in Pennsylvania, is sweeter than a painted landscape. Those who like to study almost unknown or little understood forms of domestic life could not do better than to settle down for a summer among a very queer people, the Pennsylvania “Dutch,” say at Ephrata, in Lancaster county. The valley of the Juniata, once the home of the wild-eyed Indian maiden, bright Alfarata, has many curious nooks and cor- ners. The old Bedford Springs, where Mr. Buchanan and his cronies made their summer headquarters for so many years, is a delight- ful stopping place for people who know how to walk on their own legs or to ride on plough horses. A trip from this point through the mountains to Berkeley Springs, in West Virginia, would befound a better remedy for weakened faculties than any blood purifier in the market. Atthe latter point—an immense bowl scooped out of the everlasting hills— our New York tourist would obtain wise counsel from ‘Porte Crayon,’’ who has done more with pen and pencil to preserve the quaint life of Old Virginia in ante-hellum days than any other American has done tor any other part of the country. And finally a courageous _ party might go through the historic val- lJeys and mountains of the two Virginias, from the Berkeley to the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, visiting Monticello and the Natural Bridge on the way, providing, of course, that dress coats, gloves and white cravats should be sent by express to the White Sulphur, that the summer campaign might end in a dance with the Southern belles who gather at that famous resort. Any one of these suggestions could not fail to result in a wealth of pleasure and accumulated energy. Why should we all tread in the beaten tracks of the multitade when seeking health ard pleasure? Even the hay of the White Mountains, when there happens tobe any hay there, smells of the city. Cannot some of us, bolder than the rest, adopt Sidney Smith's suggestion and get at least twelve miles from a lemon? The Orange hills and the Palisades are better than no hills at all; but- why rash to Mount Washington or the Adirondacks every year when the Alleghanies say to us, in un- mistakable language, that they are indeed the backbone of the Continent? Did the reader ever hear of the Conedogwinet and the Kishi- coquillas, which are born in the Kittatinny range? There is. a profusion of natural scenery all through the belt of the coal regions, anthracite and bituminous, bounded by what we call the Blue Mountains and the Alleghanies, and extending all the way from the Catskills on the Hudson to the infant volcano in North Carolina, waiting for city, eyes to look upon it, and city eyes cannot do better than to find it out. ; > The Spirit of the “Pulpit. Spring came yesterday with a late but wel- come sunshine, and our clergym2n show the life and brightness of the season in their sermons. Rey. Dr. Robinson, well known to so many of our people from his labors in Paris, preached on the noble theme of Christ’s redemption, in the Madison avenue Presby- terian church. When they said unto Jesus, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God?’’ Jesus answered, ‘This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent.” The inquiry thus propounded had really been the crucial inquiry for all the ages of human ignorance and pain. It had been manifested in many forms of penance, privation, effort; in such a man as Luther climbing on his knees the steps of the Lateran church. But outside of full trust in Christ was lost effort, lost strength and lost time. There was no other way of salvation but to believe in the’cracified Saviour. The message which God has sent us must either be accepted or rejected, and when we ask how we may work the works of God the answer will always be—by believing in the Onrist whom God hath sent. There was more than the usual ceremony in Plymouth church yesterday, occasioned by the accession of more than one hundred members to the communion. This was celebrated by a multitude of floral decorations anda cross sur- rounded by a crown, emblazoned “Victory.’* After the service Mr. Beecher distributed the roses among the new members, a somewhat picturesque and appropriate custom. Then was sung a ‘Te Deum,” after which Mr Beecher made what might be called a joyful’ discourse. He did not think Christianity ‘ should be gloomy and painful. The New Tes tament was full of the idea of joy or rejoio- ing; and joy, to Mr. Beecher’s mind, waa a sign of love, virtue and holiness. There was @ popular idea that religion was a commercial, transaction, paying a certain amount of sorrow here for the sake of a vory large dividend of joy hereafter; but this wos not the true view, Res