The New York Herald Newspaper, May 24, 1874, Page 8

8 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREDT. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, —_——-—_—_ LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will bo received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. AMUSEMENTS TO- oe NIBLO’S GARDEN, ‘ay, between Prince ore Houston streets—THE OY OF Tab Lake, aise Ti Bote No. 54 Broadway.—VARIETY KNCEBTAINMENT, at 8 P. M ; closes at 10-30 P. M. oa MALACKS THEATRE, Bro: yay gna. rhe Caer “CLANDESTINE steanrs ah rt ¥.. P.M. Mr. Lester Wallack, Miss Jeffreys law OLYMPIC THEATRE, yA between Houston and bieecker street weODE ILLE and bg gtd ENTERTAINMENT at 7:45 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. BOOTHS TUBATRE, ixth avenue. corner of Twenty-third street.—KING genx, ateP. M; closesatl045 P.M. Mr. John MeCul- METROPOLITAN THY ATRE, io. $85 Broadwav.—VAitl:. hd ENTERTAINMENT, at Ter M. ; closes at 10:30 P. WOOD'S MUSEUM, a, 5 ner ¢ chiro street.—THE ORANGE P. M.: gd M. Fert FOR Live: ats P.M; closes Aldrich. ws Pr DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Trenty.cighth tect ant Broadway. OLIVER TWIST, thr. M. closes al 30 . ver Bijou Heron, ur. Louis James Saar Peromgers, MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE, LONDON A°SURANUE, at 8 P.M. Miss Jane Coombs. | vy PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN. CHRIS. AND Lissa, at8 P.M.’ Baker and Faron. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.—VARLi aY ENTERTAINMENT, at 2:30 | Pr. F. M-+ closes ‘ut 5:30 P. M.; also at8 P. M.; closes at 11 BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third street, near Sixti avenue. NEGRO MIN. | STRELSY, &c., at 8 P.M. ; closes at 10 7. ‘TRAL PARK GARDEN, and Sixth avenue.—ZHOMAS! CON. | loses at 1b) :30 P.M. CE: Fifty. sea stro CERT, at 8 P. STEINWAY HALT, Fourteenth street—CONCLRT. Padovani, Miss Mendes, | Ferrants, Agramonte, NATIONAL GN, Fourth avenue tut twenty-third street ANNUAL EX- HIBITION. Open day und evening. col Us corner of Thirty fifth ‘street,—LONDON IN Broadway, 1874. at 1 PS M.; closesato P.M. Same at7 P. M.; closes | aci0P. M. ROMAN HI?PO ROME, Madison avenue and, Twenty sixth street —GRAND te SONGRESS OF NALIONS, at 1:30 P.M. and | From our ‘yeporle this snoen mornang the probabil | ties are that the weather to-day will be generally , cloudy, with occasional light rains. Want Street Yesterpay.—Gold opened at 112} and closed at 1123. Stocks were firmer. Tae Farenps Have Come Acary, but are | mum, as accords with their religious practice. | The ministers and elders held their regular yearly meeting at the meeting house, Rut- | ledge place, yesterday. The doors were | closed to the outside world. ‘Phere need not be, however, any anxiety. These good people | are not likely to set the world on fire or to | disturb the peace of any one. Tse Proctamation or Don Cantos to his | army after the retreat from the heights of Bil- | bao, which we publish elsewhere this morn- ing, is certainly a most extraordinary docu- ment, On the eve of retreat his admiration is | greater than on occasions of victory. When the chances of success appear more distant than ever he talks of his victorious flag wav- ing glorious over the royal quarters in Madrid. Lzeat Viovence.—Another police clubbing case has occurred on Broadway, in which, without any right, the officers undertook to arrest and pummel a gentleman in his own store becayse he objected to the entrance of | the police without a warrant. If public confi- dence is to exist in the police force these breaches of the clearly laid down rules of police procedure will have to be brought to | an end. What have the Mayor and the | Police Commissioners to soy t to the matter? Crrarixa Moxe Orrices.— The great noise made a short time ago about retrenchment and cutting down the expenses of the departments in Washington is likely to end in smoke. There have been several propositions to create new | offices or to add to the clerical force, and now anamendment has been offered to the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Appropri- | ation bill to create the office ot Third Assist- ant Secrotary of State, with a salary of $3,500 | ayear. It is hard to bring either the depart- ments or Congress to economy. Tue Dirromatic Rewations Between France anv Genmany.—Prince Clovis Hohen- lohe has presented his credentials as German | Ambassador to France to President Mac- Mahon. The most friendly assurances were, | as we are informed by cable, exchanged on the occasion. Prince Clovis Hohenlohe ranks as an excellently devout German Catholic, In this respect he will be agreeable to the French President. His appointment as Am- bassador of the Emperor of Germany will be accepted in France as a covert contradiction to Bismarck’s Church policy. Beyond this the “friendly assurances” may be set down as mere diplomatic palaver. Lxowiatrve Buvxprrs.—The last session of the State Legislature scems to have been marked by unusual carelessness and inca- pacity, as well as by the ordinary share of dishonesty. We have just heard of the sin- gular alteration of the Supply bill between its final passage and its arrival in the Executive Chamber, and that mysterious affair seems to have given rise to conflicting statements be- tween Senators and Assemblymen. We are now told that through gross carelessness or worse a bill signed by the Governor and now @ law contained provisions ordered to be | stricken out by an amendment which is cer- fified as having passed both houses. The law | in question is an amendment of the city char- | ter, and the blunder or fraud, whichever it may be, defeats the object designed to be ac- complished. The Consolidation act is also fall of difficulties, and the general muddle of legislation makes it evident that our repre- sentatives at Albany were more intent upon the profits they secured than upon the laws they passed. Ds govern the | All this is not merely unconstitutional ; | would NEW YORK HERALD, SUN DAY, ‘MAY 24, 1874 QUADRUPLE SHEET. The Civil Rights Bill in Congress. Although the bill in regard to the rights of negroes which has just passed the Senate can never be enforced, and is scarcely worthy con- sideration as a measure likely to have auy in- fluence upon the life of the people, it may very profitably be contemplated as an indica- tion of the progress we have made in our de- parcure from the notions that prevailed with the founders of this Republic touching the distribution of power between Congress and the State governments. That men who had spouted politics long enough to get themselves sent to the United States Senate should be so little acquainted with the operation of political princi as to believe this measure could have the effect they propose might be thought strange, if there was any evidence that Sena- tors believed the bill likely to have the effect they pretend to desire, and if it was not, on the contrary, clear that they vote only to make a record for their party claims to negro favor, and merely as kissing the dust on the shoes of the negro voter. But the very fact that a republican party vote in the Senate can be given for this bill is instructive as present- ing for general recognition the fact that the national constitution is regarded by the party in power as an obsolet2 instrament—a dead letter—a compact, without legal, political or moral vitality. For all local legislation, for all domestic government, the States were, in the theory of the constitution, sovereign Powers, and within their sphere Congreas had no more authority than the British Parliament; while for all dealings with foreign Powers and for the regulation of some great functions of gov- ernment which regatded the States together as an aggregate sovereignty Congress was alone supreme. It was always difficult to draw the line as to all the facts affected ; some | would be claimed as on one side, some on the other; but the wildest flights of assertion of Congressional supremacy still admitted that there was a vast field of legislation on strictly local subjects that was only within the compe- tency of the State authorities. Now, however, we see the United States Senate enter this field of strictly domestic subjects and proceed to | " | | they venture all the claim they have on the | legislate, not only on topics that were formerly left to the State Legislatures, but on topics that were regulated by county authorities, by boards of supervisors, and even by the more | strictly local boards of police and excise, In the first section of this bill for civil rights Congress pretends to lay down rules for the hotel keepers, to say who shall travel in public conveyances and theatres and places of | amusement generally; to legislate for our common schools, colleges, hospitals, insane asylums and charitable institutions generally; | may, even to declare who shall be buried in our potters’ fields--for we believe those are . the only graveyards we have that are not pri- vate property. Further than all this, Con- | gress proceeds to declare who shall sit on the grand juries in the several States, who shall serve as petit jurors, and to lay down penal- ties for the misconduct of the Commissioners of Juries and similar strictly local officials. it is absurd and nonsensical. It does not merely transcend the power of Congress, but it goes | beyond the point up to which people can contemplate the law with respect, and, at least, with straight faces. In several States where the sale of alcoholic | beverages is forbidden by statute it hus been attempted at different times to plead the | license given by the United States internal revenue authorities, as conferring a right to sell hquor that was superior to the State laws against that traffic, But the decisions of the courts have been uniformly to the effect that the general government only taxed the com- mercial enterprises it found in existence in the several States, and that its license was a receipt for the tax and protected against a second collection of the same sum, but did not and could not give any rights as against State laws, which were abso- | lutely supreme on such subjects. And that is evidently the correct position as to innkeepers, | beer pedlers, stage drivers, menagerie and wax works owners, keepers of graveyards, | lunatic asylums, cremation furnaces, &. These gentlemen have no official knowledge of Congress ; Albany they know, and the City Hall they know, and some of them are even acquainted with the mysteries of the Tombs and Mulberry street; but Washington is as far beyond their comprehension as the transit of Venus. If innkeepers were licensed to keep open houses of public entertainment by the general government, and not by the excise boards, Congress and not the local authorities might dictate how they should manage their houses, and stipulate what they should do with the mouldy cheese and what with the im- possible butter. If the statutes incorporating our railroads were made at Washington, and | mot at Albany, they would, perhaps, cost more, but we could understand that Congress then have the power to add to or take from them. If our com- mon schools and our public hospitals and our pauper graveyards were purchased and supported by taxes levied on the whole people of the United States it would be but rational that the national legislature should have the right to say who should be taught or physicked or buried in them. But as Con- gress does not furnish one copper toward the support of the public schools or public hos- pitals of this city, whence does it derive any right to say that a colored man or any other sort of man shall be received into them if the local managers decree otherwise? In legislation of this sort the Senate simply fulminates a bull against a comet. It has no more authorily over the subjects which it pre- tends to regulate than the Shah of Persia or the Emperor of China or any other magnifi- cent potentate, upon whose intellect his lunar relationships have had @ bad effect. Con- gressmen, in so far as they are sincere in re- gard to this bill, are no doubt misled by that portentously comprehensive clause of the Fourteenth amendment which declares that “Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.’ But one clause in the constitution cannot have the power to nullify the purpose, | scope and effect of the whole instrument taken together. Perhaps the States wanted to add to the constitution ; we cannot believe they in- tended to expunge it. It was never supposed that a clause of two lines at the tail of an amendment would abrogate the whole grand compact and take its place. In the same amendment it is said ; | and the Image of which some of our readers =‘‘No State shall make | any iconoclastic manager atempt to disturh or enforce wen which shall abridge the Privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liborty or property without due process of law nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." These are the wise and safe indica- tions of the only appropriate legislation that is possible. Congress may define within cer- tain limits a course for the sovereign States, but it cannot oust them and pretend to per- form their minuter functions. But if this legislation is foolish constitu- tionally ond as it regards national politics, it is even worse in its aspect from the standpoint of general or abstract politics, It directly provokes, excites and cultivates the antipa- thies of race and caste by forcing into prominence distinctions that are ineradi- cable. It enforces conflict by causing the law to give an equality which the Creator has denied, and ruinously injures the race it pre- tends to serve by placing it in a position of antagonism toa superior and dominant race. No laws on such subjects are sound or effec- tive save in so far as they are declaratory of actual conditions. if the law designates a line of action that is in accord with the ten- dencies of human pride and passion there is harmonious operation ; but if law and human nature are in conflict it is human nature that prevails, and every ineffective law that is made is a direct loss to the moral power of the State. Senators, however, do not care what the operation of this law will be. They givea vote for it as they might place a bait to catch the negro in their political trap. They do not even care if the bill is beaten, so that they can lay the fault of its defeat upon the oppo- sition. We are not sure but they vote for it the more readily trom a confident anticipation that it will not get through ; for thus they will secure credit with the negro and have no responsibility fora bad law. They vote also as men who bid desperately on a last call, There is no rational probability that after this Congress there will ever be another with a republican majority; but if there is it will only be through negro votes, and thus white man for desperate endeavor to gain the negro. Pulpit Topics To-Dey. A new era is commemorated by the Church to-day. The Pentecostal . anniversary has | come again, and yet comparatively few min- | isters outside of the Oatholic Church attach much significance to the memory of that great day. There is, however, one who to-day will explain “The Nature of ‘the Pentecostal Gift,’’ the Rev. John S. Davenport, of Bos- ton, who will preach on this subject in the Catholic Apostolic church. The world has received no greater gift than the Holy Ghost, and what people want to-day more than any- thing else is an intelligent and simple exposi- tion of the nature and personal work of this Divine Spirit. Too little heed is paid to these things, and the ignorance in the Church to- day on such vital Christian doctrines is pro- found and deeply to be regretted. Mr. Daven- port’s exposition should therefore be so plain and practical that the people can carry away his ideas with them. That the hoary head is a crown of life if it be found in the way of righteousness was beautifully illustrated by the long and useful life of the late Rev. Dr. Thomas De Witt, of the Collegiate Reformed Church, of this city. His friend and fellow laborer in the Gospel, Dr. H. D. Ganse, will this morning illustrate, by scenes th the life of Dr. De Witt, the satis- faction which God gives in long life. With- out the comforts and hopes which Christianity gives this world would be a pretty dull place for a man who has passed his four score years. But to Dr. De Witt there was a real satisfaction in living, for he lived not to him- self, but to Christ, who loved him and gave Himself for him. It was faith in this Christ that sustained him and made him so emi- nently useful in his long ministerial career. Of the nature of that faith—of saving faith—it | is important that we should know something, and we may learn something about it from Mr. Sweetser, who will make it the subject of his discourse this evening. The mysteries and imageries of prophecy are the delight and study of some ministers. Great profit, mentally and spiritually, may be derived from this study if it is pursued in the right spirit. Mr. Love, of Albany, who is not unknown to New Yorkers, will bring his study | to bear this evening on the Mystic Stone | may remember Daniel speaks in his prophecy. Dr. Fulton, of Brooklyn, will have some- thing to say this morning on his pet theme— baptism. ‘Jesus came to the Baptist’ is the dry announcement, but we may imagine what an array of argument lies at the back of it to support the doctrine of immersion as the only mode of baptism. The Doctor has chosen an- other theme for his evening meditation, which is equally familiar to him—pamely, ‘The Women's Temperance Movement—Its Peril and Its Hope.’” Temperance people will of course be interested to hear the views of such an eminent pastor on so important s subject. The Women’s Temperance Union will at the same time discuss their own movement in Seventeenth street Methodist Episcopal church, They evidently see more of hope than of danger in ft, and are determined to go forward with it in the name of the Lord. Theatrical Nuisances, The lady who invoked our aid to abate the annoyance caused by the male portion of the audience leaving their seats during theatrical performances has evidently thrust her head into o hornet’s nest, and her chignon is in danger. Man is long suffering animal, but the insult which our lady correspondent in the name of the fair sex offered to mankind in general by sweeping assevera- tions on the score of his ‘‘smiling’’ propensi- ties, added to the injury suffered from chignons, has proved too much for his good temper. We publish in another column a specimen of the communications that have been pouring in on us, and we fear the result of the unhappy letter will be a male crusade agairist false hair and feathers. If the flag of revolt\—‘No chignons and ao feathers”—-should be once hnng out, there will be such a rally of theatre-going males that we tremble for the topknois of our lady friends. Of course the Henanp will always be on the side of the ladies whether they are in the right or the wrong, and should | of our railroads or to recall the jolting memo- | so much asa single hair of ono fair switch | we shall purchase a boitle of concentrated gall to express appropriately our loathing and con- tempt for the monster. The Lesson of the Mill River Disaster. Among the pulpit themes to-day the lesson of the Mill River disaster will probably be at least an incidental topic. A more important subject could not be selected, for the breaking away of the insufficient structure called the Williamsburg dam points out some phases of Christian ethics which cannot longer be disregarded. The first of these is that the erection of insecure structures of any kind is criminal and ought to be punished asacrime. As in the case of the Mill River reservoir, the cause is usually traceable to parsimony on the one hand and greed on the other. We are told that the mill owners in this beautiful Massachusetts valley preferred the contractor who offered to build the dam for twenty-five thousand dollars to one who refused to construct it for leas than seventy-five thousand dollars, thereby saving fifty thousand dollars and losing everything. This is the side of parsimony. We believe that a thorough investigation into the cost of the structure for which the contractor was paid twenty-five thousand dollars would place the actual outlay at less than ten thousand dollars. This is the side of greed. We find the same kind of parsimony and greed in the construction of railroads and bridges and great engineering works of every description. We frequently hear of railroad | trains being precipitated over embankments | and of bridges giving way under heavily | laden cars. One day it is a boiler which burst, as in the case of the Westfield, and the next the foundering of a lengthened steamship in | mid-ocean, asin the recent disasters to the ships of the French line. Every few days an unsafe building topples over in New York and Brooklyt, while the younger cities | have each year a longer list of calamities of this kind. Indeed, so loosely are immenss buildings of every kind constructed nowadays that whole towns are in danger of falling betore a high wind. Palatial residences are | built in a month and great showhouses for the entertainment of the people are finished ina fortnight. One very ridiculous person at Lan- | caster, Pa., has built several houses in a day. Contractors employ bad workmen and | bad material because they are cheap, and push their work forward regardless of consequences. It is impossible to exaggerate the deficiencies | of American architecture and engineering, | and no words are too strong to denounce the criminal loss of fife and waste of property which are the direct consequences of these | parsimonious and greedy practices. This is what Thomas Carlyle a few years ago called ‘‘Shooting Niagara.” In his own vigorous language he described modern struc- tures of every kind as cheap and nasty. Any | one who would verify the aptness of these | words has only to look at the roadbed of many | ries of jumping coaches and swaying bridges in his experiences of railway travel. In every | part of the country the traveller sees railroads | perched aloft on wooden legs, and no human being can tell when the timbers will give way. | In this city nearly every tenement house is a death trap not only for the inmates but for passers-by in the’streets. In Fifth avenue a splendid looking apartment house is sup- ported by props, and in Broadway a number of houses, weakened by the removal of adjacent buildings, are kept from falling by wooden beams planted against them. We have a Superintendent of Buildings, to prevent the erection of unsafe structures, and he has an attorney, whose special business it | is to entorce the law against those who violate its provisions; and yet there are more insecure edifices in New York to-day than when these offices were created. Officials no longer ap- | pear to think that they have in their keeping a sacred public trust, but seem to regard their offices as places of mere personal emolument | and stepping stones to still better positions. There is no telling how many dams there may be in the country as unsafe as that in Mas- sachusetts, which broke away a week ago and let loose the flood upon the unsuspecting in- habitants of Mill River valley. We are, in- deed, shooting Niagara, and, though there is always death at the bottom, no effective meas- | ures are taken to prevent tho recurrence of the heels of each other. ministration to bring the necessary revolution. We can recall to-day the horrors of the | Westfield disaster almost as vividly as on that beautiful Sunday when the city was startled | by the terrible story of the accident. Even in that case the law was not enforced, and no- body was punished. It is doubtiul even if steam boilers are any safer to-day than they | were before that tearful calamity occurred. ‘The zeal in the inspection of the boilers offerry- boats and steam vessels generally and in large manufactories which was displayed after that event was relaxed as soon as the event itself passed out of the public mind. An investi- gation into a railroad accident usually ends in a mild censure of the persons least to blame. Nobody was ever sent to Sing Sing for build- ing deathtraps in New York. Even in the Mill River affair public indignation was first directed against Spellman, because it was al- leged that he detained Cheney while the latter was on his way to warn the villagers. The men who are responsible for this disas- ter are the mill owners and the contractor. The former must not escape condemnation at the expense of the latter, even though it should be shown that he made fifteen thousand dollars out of his contract ; for they gave him the contract that they might save more than three times that amount, and they accepted his work though it was feared from the begin- ning that the dam was unsafe. The exact cost of the work is a very important matter in the investigation which is to be made this week. Nothing can more clearly illustrate the danger that was patent to the eye of every engineer that ever looked upon the Wil- liamsburg reservoir, nor can anything more clearly prove the utter recklessness and parsi- mony and greed that enter into so many un- dertakings for the development of the re- sources of the country. The lesson of the Mill River disaster must not be overlooked or forgotten till men of every class learn that what Carlyle so aptly termed ‘Shooting The Auniversaries. We have had our annual visitation of clergymen from all parts of the country, and in spite of it the weather has been good. One or two attempts wero mado to get up the canonical rain, but they proved signal failures, Exactly what connection exists between min- isters and rain we have never been able to discover; but the fact is not tobe denied that an inundation of pastors almost always brings an inundation of the aqueous fluid. The meetings have been of unusual im- portance this year. The talking has been good, and the questions discussed have been handled with logic and common sense. It must be productive of great results to gather tho thinking from all parts of the land once a year that they may compare notes and re- model their theories, and to invite the lights of lesser magnitude to revolve about the fixed stars of science and theology in larger or smaller groups, according to the degree of attraction exercised. Oftentimes a profound thinker and conscientious scholar is unable to criticise his own conclusions and to find out their exact practical value when in the midst of his researches. But when he subjects his theories to the intellectual anatomists who meet in New York every May he is not only un- mercifully handled—which is itself a healthy discipline—but he is quickened to new effort in his favorite study. This annual exhi- bition of vivisection adds to the general scholarship of the country, and isa kind of tonic and stimulant which induces intellectual and spiritual health. Among the important meetings were those of the Social Science Association, now in progress, and those of the Reformed Episco- pal Church, which has succeeded in laying out @ policy that makes a square and honest issue with the body from which it has seceded. All matters pertaining to social progress claim the marked attention of the public, and the discussion of any topic which has for its end a greater security of human life or the per- manency of our institutions deserves all pos- sible encouragement. We are glad to hear any fair criticisms on our penal and reforma- tory institutions, and the thoughts of all true | philanthropists on these matters will be care- fully read and pondered by the general public. The gradual change in our ideas of the proper function of a prison, and the new conception of the possible educational and moral influ- ences that may be brought to bear on our criminals which is just beginning to take | possession of all believers in human progress, mark an era in political economy. The grow- ing conviction, too, that the ocean can be divided into highways which need never inter- sect, suggested by the recent disasters which have rendered a trip across the water a matter of no small peril, is worthy of all possible scientific investig:tion. This is a matter in which every merchant is interested, as well as every man and woman who parts with a friend. Itis evident that something should be done, and at once, to render the navigation of the Northern Atlantic less haz- ardous. It is hard enough to submit to loss of life by storms and icebergs, without being haunted with the possibility and of late months the probability, of a collision, which may under proper regulations be avoided. Then, again, the attempt to solve the prob- lem of pauperism commends itself to the good judgment of every taxpayer. The theories on this subject have been very various, some of them worthy of experiment and some evi- dently visionary. All honest talk on such a subject, however, is productive of good results. It is brought to our notice every day, since one of the first things the merchant is com- pelled to do when he enters his office is to so barricade himself that he cannot be subjected to a raid by a whole army of mendicants. If somue who would rather starve than work can be punished, and the rest who are unable to find employment can be helped to their Satur- day night’s wages, the community would breathe more quietly and raise a monument to the originator of the new order of things. Next in importance to these social problems comes the attempt to found a new denomina- tion with the backbone of common sense in it. The platform adopted commends itself as reasonable in most particulars, and the evils complained of in the old régime must have proved very galling to the gentlemen who sub- mitted under protest. We have noticed in the ficance to which the attention of these re- formers should be called. In the first place, quite a number who have joined or are ready to join the body are not settled pastors, and therefore bring with them a certain suspicion of self-interest. No clergyman who unites | with the movement adds any strength to it unless he either brings his parish with him or | leaves his parish that he may come himself. apparent and the momentum of actual weight is added to the cause. In the second place, there are very many setiled pastors who, if we judge by their public utterances sympathize with the Reformed Church, but do not join it. A little more independency and willingness to sacrifice something would add scores to the catalogue of Bishop Cummins. It may be hard to give up an assured position and a good salary for the uncertainties of such an experiment, but until this is done no progress can be made, The time has come fe every man should show his colors. * Altogether the meetings have weed more successful than usual. There has been a great deal of talk, but some plans for solid work have been developed. Stage Drivers’ Finance. In another column we give the story of a needy stage driver—as neat a piece of satire, perhaps unconscious, as has lately seon the light. Our correspondent deals with the problem of stage drivers’ wages and stage owners’ profits and an oscillating point of equilibrium between the two. From all the known facts it appears that stage owners have always systematically underpaid their drivers from the certainty that the drivers would compensate themselves out of the fares, The Court awarded it and the law allowed it, In that way the drivers were part owners. Ona good day they made a great deal, on’a poor day less. In short, the owners recognized regu- lar dishonesty as part of their system, and while this was in full operation they most un- fairly, and without the consent of the drivers, loctors. This compelled the drivers to bo Niagara” is a crime that is to be punished as a crime, ruinously honest. It was as if a man should tara all bis chickens into ducks aud then dry | new organization two facts not without signi- | disasters which follow so closely upon the | Everything is cheap and | nasty, and, seemingly, there is no power in | the law nor sufficient virtue in the public ad- | In either case the conviction of right is quite | introduced the boxes or automatic fare col- | —— up the ponds. Yet the owners recognized the operation of the boxes to some degree, for upon introducing them they increased the wages seventy-five cents a day; but this, the drivers gay, is too little for the real difference, and they want fifty cents more; and our opinion is that the owners should not come any sharp practice over these poor fellows, who state their case with the simple sincorily of thoroughly honest and upright men, who cheated fair while they had the chance. Per- haps the drivers ought to consider it some portion of the equivalent for this fifty cents that they are now paid by somebody else and are not compelled to pay themselves; and— we mention it diffidently—the fact that their accounts may stand better on the books of the recording angel is, perhaps, of some value. Spirit of the Religious Press. Our religious contemporaries this week ram, ina more secular strain than is usual with them. The Independent, which is making » fresh move to larger quarters on Broadway, does not go heedless of the claims of suffering humanity on its columns. It suggests that to- day collections be taken up here in all the churches in aid of the suffering operatives by the Mill River disaster. This is a good sug- gestion and should be acted on promptly. The Christian Union briefly seconds the call for pecuniary help at once, and dwells at length on the intricate relations of capital and labor in England to each other and to the State Church. Its commentsare based onthe “lock- out” for the last two years of the Agricultural Laborers’ Union. The influence of the State Church party, with here and there a notable exception, is given in favor of the farmers, and the laborers are in consequence going into dis- sent. This transfer will, by and by, result in disestablishment and possibly in the abclition of the right of primogeniture, entail and other ancient laws and customs of Great Britain, and { it is hard to tell what the end may be. The Methodist has a good wordfor the Re-= formed Episcopalians. It says the leaders of this reform movement are not self-seekers; they are not seotarians or schismatics. They have left the Church of their fathers with the kindest expressions of love for it and for all connected with it, and of hope that it may be cured of the evils that beset it. They have left the narrowest of sects, the most culpable of schisms, to engraft themselves into the true church universal, the alliance of believers of various names but the same spirit. Church and State, discussing the ritualist and reform controversy in the Protestant Episcopal Church, contends that the present need of the Church is ‘‘the allaying of the bit- terness of controversy and the shaping of all the elements of our system so as to fit it for the largest work for Christ, and open it to the freest and fullest influences of the Holy Spirit.”” The Freeman's Journal is too fall of the Pit. grimage and its concomitants to find space for any other topic in its editorial columns. The Tablet divides its attention with ita own enter- | prise, “Our Lady of Lourdes,” and certain criticisms of the Observer on the Pope and the Bible. The Catholic Review dismisses the Pil- grimage in a few words, and enters into the Encyclopxdia controversy with its usual vigor, and defends the spiritual and temporal as- sumptions of the Papacy against the strictures of a Boston contemporary. The Jewish Messenger glories over the devel opment of a taste for Hebrew study and litera- ture since the Hebrew free schools were started here in 1864, and it calls for the co- operation of the congregations in making them a success in the future. The Jewish Times bas some suggestions and advice to the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, which meets here in annual session during the week. They, of course, will read it. The Crusaders in Trouble. The saviors of society have ever been met with scorn, obloquy and persecution. In nothing does history repeat itself with such persistency as in this hatred and ill-will to those who would save men from their evil pas- sions. Even this free and enlightened Repub- lic and boasted nineteenth century are no safe- guards for the enthusiast in the cause of humanity. The temperance ladies have dis- covered this unplessant fact to their chagrin. They prayed and sang and paraded un- til in their eagerness to do good they made themselves in the eyes of the law “a nuisance and an obstruction.” Then that unpoetic creature, the policeman, who is na respecter of high morality, no weigher of ele- vated motive, took the ladies by the chignon and marched them into the nearest police stae tion. Forty vistims to this legal persecution were pounced upon in Pittsburg, Pa., and be- fore the fair crusaders could return to their ‘ain firesides” they were obliged to give bail. This” is indeed a sad end to the crusade. The tem- | perance ladies have put themselves in the place of the victims of King Alcohol and wil be able to give an account of the disorderly célls at the next meeting of the crusaders. In | spite of this little contretemps the ladies prom- | ise, by the down of their cheeks, to carry on the war to the bitter end, and we have no doubt they will do it if, it should coat them their chignons, Tue French Mumusrny.—The Assembly have given proof of a desire to support Mar- shal MacMahon in his efforts to create a gov- | ernment by adjourning till Thursday. There isin this acta weloome assurance that the French Representatives are not wholly the slaves of faction. Expediency has at last as- serted itself, and it may be that the govern- ment will receive such support as will ren- der the immediate dissolution of the As- sembly unnecessary. This will be am advantage to France, though it may delay the aspirations of some parties in the State. Were the Assembly dissolved. now the republicans would probably sweep the country, and this fear will restrain the royalists and Bonapartists from obstructing the government so as to render an immediate appeal to the country necessary. The repub- licans, too, can well afford to wait. Every day's experience strengthens the hold of re- | publican opinions on the peasants, who sre | learning that neither kings nor emperors aro necessary to the well being of a people or to the security of person and property in the State. When the time does come for dissoln- | tion the organization and number of the re- publican party will place the governmaent securely in their handm