The New York Herald Newspaper, May 28, 1874, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1874.—TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRiIBTOR. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the vear. Four cents per copy. Annual subscription price $12, All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York HeRaxp. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. Letters and packages should be prop- erly sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and Advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. = Volume XXXIX.. AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING OLYMPIC THEATRE, se: ey between Houston and Bleecker streets. AUDEVILLE und NOVELTY ENTERTAINMENT. at 745 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P BOOTH'S THEATRE, avenue, corner of Twenty nia street.—KTNG@ ious, atSP. M.; closes at 10452. M. Mr. John McOul- METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No. S85 Broadway.—VARISTY ENTERTAINMENT, at 7:45 P. M. ; closes at 10:30 P, M, WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirtieth street —THE ORANGE GIRL, at 2 P. M.; closes at 4:30 P.M. MAREED FOR LIED at's P. ‘M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. Louis. C, DALY'S FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street and Broadway. FOhivek TWIST, 18 P.M. closes at 10:30 P.M. Miss Fanny Davenport, Bijou Heron, hr. Louis James” France. MRS. CONWAY'S BROOKLYN THEATRE. WIFE'S -ECRET, at 8P.M, Mr. Frank Roche, Miss Jane Coombs. BBL GARDEN, D Lak fa at cioses at cd Mr. J ac Ta Miss lone Burke. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street.—DAME AUX CAMELIAS, at$ P. M.; Closes at 10:30 P.M. Mile. Eva Beauregard. TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE, Fifty-eighth street. between Third and Lexington ave- nues.—Operaucand Dramatic Entertainment, at 8 P. M. THEATRE COMIQU: No. 514 Broadway.—ON HAND, and WaRrery ENTER. TAINMENT, at 8 P. M. ; closes at 10:30 P. WALLAOK’S THEATRE, Broadway and Thirteenth, street.—WOODCOCK'S LIT. TL: GaME, und THE NERVOUS MAN. Begins at8 PB ia closes at ll P.M. Mr. Lester Wallack, Miss Jeffreys wis. NEW PARK THEATRE, BROOKLYN, Fulton street, opposite the City Hall—CHRIS AND LENA, at8 P/M. Baker and Faron. BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, Twenty-third street. near Sixth avenue. NEGRO MIN- STRALSY, &c., at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P. CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, ninth street and Sixth Pye —THOMAS' CON- To, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:30 P. M. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF DESIGN, Fourth avenue and Twenty-third street—ANNUAL EX- HIUSITION. Open day and evening. Pitt, CE. COLOSSEUM, Broadway, corner of T! ‘fifth NIGHT. at 1P. M.; closes at 10 P. M. "street.—LONDON = ae t5 P.M. Same at7P. M. ROMAN Hi?PODROME, Madison avenue and Twenty-sixth ‘street-—GRAND FAGEANT—CONGRESS OF NATIONS, at 1:30 P. M. and TRIPLE SHEET. May 28, New York, Thursday, 1874. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be generaliy clear and warmer. Wa Srezer Yesterpay.—Gold opened at 112% and closed at 112}. Stocks were lower and irregular. Ir Is Announcep as an evidence of American influence over English taste that felt hats are worn for the first time in the House of Com- mons. Tae Memory or Exisworts, the gallant young soldier who lost his life at Alexandria in the first days of the war, was suitably hon- ored by the unveiling of the monument at Mechanicsville yesterday with appropriate ceremonies. In such tributes as this we see no partisan rejoicing, but only the proper duty of patriotism, which would keep green the [ memory of the young heroes who so gladly gave up their lives for their country in the hour of its trial. Tae Brrvcerzy Divorce Sutt, which has been so long pending before Judge Van Brunt, terminated yesterday in a verdict for the plain- tiff, Mrs. Brinckley. The point involved in the case is one of importance. The jury be- | | order,’’ and nothing similar to it can be put lieved that a contract of marriage was entered into by the parties, and that, although the ceremony was not solemnized under any of the legal and accepted forms, it was neverthe- less a valid marriage. ‘Tur Henatp recently asked if we could not do something to relieve the burdens of the South—‘‘something more than to sing hymns and strew flowers over Confederate graves on Decoration Day?"’ To this question the Bur- lington Gazette, of Iowa, answers that to do this we must change the policy of the govern- ment, ‘by throwing out of power the corrupt men now ruling the affairs of the South would at once begin to brighten.” Tax Sanzoen Desatz Fousnep. —The pub- lic had become weary of the Sanborn scandal and the debate on it in Congress. Yesterday the debate was ended, and the bill repealing the law on which the contracts were based was passed. There was, however, an amend- ment adopted, that of Mr. Beck, which has. some significance. By this members of Con- gress are prohibited from acting as attorneys for claims pending in the several departmetns of the government. If this should become law and be faithfully observed a good deal of cor- ruption and lobbying will be checked, Cororavo has been knocking at the doors of Congress for admission into the Union as a State for so long a time that it is not gur- | prising the Committee on Territories of the House is persuaded to report favorably on the measure. But Colorado is in too much haste. She does not need a State government, and the country can get along very well without the two Senators and the Representative sho would send to Congress, Admission into the | Union is not necessary to the development of The New Civil Rights Bill. We suppose no man of intelligence and candor is of opinion that the bill which has been forced through the Senate and awaits the action of the House can bring any solid advantage to our colored population. It is allin vain to declare by law that colored citi- zens shall be entitled to purchase proscenium boxes at the opera and geats or compartments in palace cars, and to enact heavy penalties of fine and imprisonment against proprietors who refuse to sell them tickets. Except to make test cases for political agitation privi- leges of this description will not be sought by the negroes of our time, nor even by their children’s children. Such conveniences are expensive, and the negroes, as a class, will long remain poor. Luxurious accommoda- tions in public places are desired only by people who are accustomed toa corresponding scale of comfort and expense in their own homes. The mere cost of the tickets is a trifle in comparison with the modes of dress and degrea of social elegance which ac- company the patronage given to the higher grades of public convenience. So far as ..No. 148 | the proposed law is designed to operate within this sphere it can do no great mis- chief so long as it is not resisted. If nobody contests the privilege it will hardly ever be practically asserted, because the negroes have no money to spend for superfluous accom- modations, and their political patrons have no motive for inciting them to make a constant series of test cases unless there is a chance of stirring the embers of popular excite- ment, Unless proprietors refuse equal priv- ileges to negroes this part of the law will be a dead letter; and, really, proprietors have no good motive for resistance. The law will sufficiently excuse them to their patrons, and their patrons, themselves, whom no law can reach, would take care to make the colored intruders—as they would regard them—suffi- ciently uncomfortable. No law can regulate or punish social manners, and persons skilled in the art of expressing contempt would have no difficulty in surrounding disagreeable people with such an atmosphere of contumely as would be inexpressibly wounding to the pride or vanity of the few negroes who could bear the expense of asserting their equality. With the law as it stands negroes meet with no obstructions to the free use of ordinary railroad cars. People who shrink from con- tact with them have an easy refuge in the palace cars, which also protect them from dis- agreeable nearness to coarse-mannered, ill- dressed or bad-smelling passengers of the white race. In hotels the case would be some- what different ; but even in hotels there would be little risk of annoyance except at the public tables. The poverty of the negroes is a pretty complete security against their thronging ex- pensive hotels, and if a vain or socially ambi- tious negro should occasionally present him- self the managers could not only assign him a room in any remote part of the house they pleased, but they could give him any seat they pleased in the dining room without violating the law. If, in consequence of full tables, he should sometimes chance to be seated in un- welcome proximity to white people, they would have no difficulty in making their disgust so unpleasantly manifest without incurring legal penalties as to poison all the satisfaction the intruder might feel in eating his meals with persons who despised him. The opponents of the law may safely trust the play of social forces to annul and defeat it in most parts of the sphere of its operation, where it is calculated to alarm the sensitive- ness of social caste. If they are only careful not to put themselves within the scope of its penalties the invincible white repugnance to near association with negroes will render the law a nullity by exposing negro vanity and presumption to wounds which vanity and pre- sumption are always quick to feel. Consider- ing the pecuniary condition of the colored population, itis clear enough that nothing but the most exorbitant vanity and insolence could impel them to thrust themselves into palace cars, opera boxes, or fashionable hotels, and the weapons which would be used against them in such places are ,of precisely that kind by which aspiring vanity or pretentious poverty most deeply suffer. Against such weapons the law can interpose no shield. What court of justice will arraign disgusted young belles for quiet and contemptuous insults towards negroes within six seats near them at the public table of a hotel? It was only under the rigors of martial law that General Butler could promulgate his unprec edented ‘“‘woman in force against the lady guests of a hotel, the lady passengers in a palace car or the lady spectators in a theatre. The proposed law will be inoperative except against the proprie- tors of such places; and if the proprietors have the good sense to passively submit to its operation the political agitators will be foiled. The true policy for the proprietors is to sell tickets and accord privileges freely to all comers, white or black, and leave it to their patrons to protect themselves by such social weapons as they know how to use. If this politic method is adopted the offensive law will be mere waste paper except so far as it applies to schools. In respect to schools it is more formidable and may do infinite mischief; but we doubt whether it will be worth while to contest it in the courts, even for the preservation of the common school system of the South. Of the nine judges of the Supreme Court only one— Justice Clifford—is a democrat, and there is a great preponderance of chances against the law being adjudged unconstitutional. A fatile effort to get it set aside by the judiciary would only promote the object of its partisan authors. A rekindling of the extinct negro excitement would give them the advantage of the old issue, in which they always triumphed, and if their opponents are wary they will not, by bootless opposition after the law has passad, play into the hands of the agitators, ‘“Bat,’’ they may ask, “‘shall the infant system of free common schools in the South be ruined with- out a strenuous attempt to save it?” If there were a possibility of saving it this question would be pertinent; but it cannot be saved unless the Supreme Court should declare this law unconstitutional, of which there is no reasonable hope. Why, then, furnish fuel to her resources, and a State government would | partisan agitation by fruitless opposition in the be only a burden upon the people. Nobody would be benefited either in Colorado or out | of it, und it is to be hoped Congress will sco the propriety of permitting the ambitious Ter- xivory.10 wait still a Little while longer, | courts? If this bill becomes a law the com- mon schools of the South are irretrievably doomed, except in the two or three States in which the negroes are a majority, and a futile attempt (9 pave them will only sorye | to bring the negro question once more into undesirable prominence. Fruit- less for any other good purpose as the recent financial discussions have been, they have at least fixed and concentrated pub- Nie attention upon a different order of ques- tions from those which have convulsed the country for the last fifteen years. The present tendeney of Southern State legislation is to provide equal advantages of elementary education for both races in sepa- rate schools. The negroes cannot complain that their children are not instructed, nor that the instruction offered them is inferior, but only that they are not permitted to receive it on the same benches with white children. In the Northern States, where there are few negroes, this bill will have no perceptible effect. If negro children are sent to schools where their presence is distasteful they will be so humiliated by the insults of the white children as to make their attendance intolera- ble. Even at West Point, where the school is under military discipline, one or two negro students have been tormented by white inso- lence almost beyond endurance, and it would be utterly impossible to repress such manifes- tations in an ordinary common school. The negro claim to social equality is not o natural, but a forced growth. The negroes can rise in the social scale only by industry, thrift and intelligence—the true sources of prosperity and consideration. When people of the white race have succeeded in acquiring property they begin to thirst for social con- sideration; but this species of ambition is seldom exhibited by whites who have risen no higher in the scale of prosperity than the mass of our negroes. If the political patrons and pretended friends of these unhappy people were to give them sound advice, its purport would be to strive to secure respect by their industry and their virtues and to disarm prejudice by quiet diligence in their honest callings. The laws have already done for them all that mere law can accomplish, and the political agitators who feed them with false hopes are their worst enemies. A Tenacious Secretary. Mr. Richardson gives, every day and every hour that he remains in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, a new evidence of | his unfitness to be there. This evidence con- sists in his inability to comprehend the pro- prieties of the position, or in his unwilling- ness to act on that comprehension if he possesses it. It is an experience very common in our country for men to care more for their offices than for their dignity; but it should not be common in the Cabinet. It ought to be supposed that in high offices there is a sense of honor, and that only an ordinary moral tone would compel a man whose dis- creditable transactions had been shown to vacate an office whose duties he could mo longer properly perform from the mere loss of general respect. It isa pretty fair rule on this delicate subject that a man who does not resign when his resignation is in order is of that kind of humanity whose moral nature is covered with a rhinoceros skin. There is no occasion to consider the sensibilities of such a man, and his successor may be appointed without apprehension of any consequent mental calamity. Perhaps the President has noted this in regard to his Secretary, as he is reported to have said that “when Mr. Richardson does resign’’ his suc- cessor will be named immediately. The man who does not resign with such an observation on foot could scarcely be blown out of office with a torpedo. Taz Hoxxnzorzrn Bocr.—Business is dull in Paris, especially with the press; and as the Parisian must have his sensation, though the heavens fall, one of the city jour- nals has made the discovery that Sefior Sagasta and two other members of the Spanish Cabinet ‘favor the renewal of the Hohenzollern candidature’ for the throne of Spain. What an inexhaustible mine of excitement is opened by the mere suggestion ! There are not only the downfall of the Spanish Republic, the explosion of galvanized Carlism, the destruction of the hopes of the Alfon- sists embodied in the thought, But there is also a renewal of the Franco-German war, with the probable result of another siege of Paris. When the Hohenzollern bogy first appeared before the eyes of affrighted Europe people were puzzled to decide whether he was raised by the pious Kaiser or the plotting Emperor, and to-day the world is divided in opinion on that point. Now, however, it is quite plain that Sagasta is to drag him again into sight with the object of destroying the Spanish Republic, rekindling the Franco-German war and restoring the Empire to France. This certainly is a new and interesting phase of Spanish diplomacy. Tue Unroty Repsxins.—Official reports from the frontier predict a general In- dian war, and one close at hand at that. General Sheridan announces warlike movements among the Sioux that are very ominous for the welfare of the settlers in their vicinity, and the most powerful tribes in the Southwest are also taking to the warpath. So much for the peace policy and gov- ernment presents supposed to be suffi- cient to keep the savages quiet. Those reports also rebuke in a very significant manner the criminal policy that suggests skeletonizing our small army. A general Indian war would do much towards disabusing the public mind of such a suicidal course and showing what insufficient protection is ex- ercised at present by the government over the frontier settlers, The entire army would be inadequate to the task of guarding such an immense extent of territory against a wily, uh scrupulous foe, armed and trained at the gov- ernment expense. Tae Queen Dowaczr or Swepen, mother to the King, proposes to visit Norway. Itis fifty years since she made her first visit. Then Bernadotte was King and she was Crown Prin- cess. The Queen Dowager is the grand- daughter of Josephine, and was first cousin to Napoleon IIL She is now in the sixty-seventh year of her age, and was born when her father, Prince Eugene, was in the sunshine of Napo- leonic splendor. She married the son of Ber- nadotte in 1823, two years after the death of Napoleon, and when, as matters were going badly with the Bonaparte family, it was well enough for Beauharna's to marry a Berna- dotte, Her first visit to Norway was in her youth, a fair and hopeful bride. She now returns in her old age, a widow and no longer Queen. The occasion of hex visit will be made @ public ceremonve The Board of housetipamois and the City Taxation, The revised estimates of the several city departments are now in the Comptroller's hands, and there should be no delay in the action of the Board of Estimate and Appor- tionment upon them. The law authorizing the revision requires that the new estimate shall be made by July 1. Before final action is taken by the Board the figures should be laid before the people, so that the taxpayers may learn whether proper reductions have been made in the expenses of the city govern- ment. It is not desirable that any necessary work of public improvement should be stopped or embarrassed through mistaken economy; but it is essential that all expendi- tures not demanded by the public interests should be postponed until the Treasury is in a better condition. The Board of Estimate and Apportionment is one of the most important bodies in the city government, and it has hitherto been run after a sort of star chamber fashion. Its action has been a mere mechanical indorse- ment of the orders of the Comptroller. The remaining members of the Board seem to have been machines, without opinions of their own or independence of action. Itis about time that this blind subserviency should cease. Bach member is directly responsible for every act done by the Board, for the votes are mainly required to be concurrent. Mr. Wheeler, the President of the Department of Taxes and As- sessments, and Mr. Vance, the President of the Board of Aldermen, have, therefore, as much responsibility as Mr. Green and his venerable assistant, the Mayor. It is their duty to as- certain that an appropriation is proper to be made, or that there is occasion for the issue of new bonds and stock, before they vote in its favor. In the revision of the city and county estimate they should insist upon publicity being given to the proceedings of the Board, and should vote on every question connected with the important subject on their own judg- ment, and not on the judgment or at the dic- tation of any associate. The proposed expen- ditures of every department should be closely scrutinized and economized, while at the same time, as we have said, the necessary works of public improvement should not be embar- | rassed. We have been promised a large reduc- tion in the rate of taxation as the result of the reopening of the estimate, but care should be taken that the reduction is not secured simply by the “bridging over’’ process, and that the public interests are not made to suffer for the sake of a false appearance of economy. The Omnibuses and the Drivers. As the strike of the stage drivers comes very near to the public convenience a general interest is excited in it not proportionate to its importance from any other point of view, and the discussion over it takes in the necessity of the very existence of the om- nibus lines. Certainly Broadway is a great deal: better without them. Seven hundred lumbering, clumsy, slow-going vehicles, that go down Broadway a dozen times a day and up it a dozen times a day, are themselves almost enough to fill and occupy a good street, but when they are added to an already great traffic we see good reason why the street should so often become absolutely blocked. Some years nearer to the millennium than we are now, we may be able to have in the city government such a supervision of affairs relating to the public interest as will limit the number of licensed vehicles with regard to the capacity of the streets. Since the strike has called attention to the relief that the retiring of all omnibuses would be to Broadway people are naturally led to discuss the point whether the convenience of the omnibuses and their general utility to the public are equivalents for the jams they so frequently cause, and it is @ pretty general opinion that they are not. In pointing this lesson the. strikers have been of some little use to the public, but they are not likely to be of much use to themselves. Apparently their strike was a repetition of an error very com- mon with many strikers—they forgot that it is only in skilled labor that the withdrawal of service’ can do permanent or considerable harm. Some skill is required Omnibus to drive an omnibus, but it is skill of a kind | that is tolerably common in this country. To be able to drive a team and keep an eye on the pedestrian publio at the same time, and count outa fare or only pull the string that drops a coin into the box, cannot be supposed to call for great skill or long special experi- ence; and as there are doubtless now many thousands of persons out of employment who can drive tolerably well the more important part of the knowledge is ready to start with. No doubt the owners would rather have the experienced men at the same wages; but if the men hold out it seems probable that their places will be supplied by others. The Beauties of Reconstruction. We copy from a Charleston journal one of the most painful stories we have read since the war. Ina single county in South Carolina there had been a public sale of property which had not paid its taxes. Within five days twenty-nine hundred pieces of real estate had been thus sold. In other words, the owners ot twenty-nine hundred farms and homesteads are so poor that they cannot pay their taxes, and so submit to confiscation. Surely there must be a cause for this—a cause, the exist- ence of which isa sinandashame. We say nothing of the scenes of devastation inflicted upon the Carolinas by Sherman's army ; upon the fact that the army was virtually permitted to pillage the State which generated secession and was the home and grave of Calhoun. Let history pass upon that as it may ; we pass it as one ot those dark memories which we would gladly forget. But hero is a case for which no war necessity can be pleaded, South Caro- lina has been governed so wantonly, with such a total disregard of public rights and private security, that she sinks into inanition, that liberty, comfort and the pursuit of happiness seem to be impossible. The single incident thus recorded illuminates the whole Southern situation and dishonors the administration of General Grant, When he accepted the Presi- dency his yearning was for peace. But can there be peace with a government which amounts to confiscation ? Dos Cantos still maintains his position in the northern provinces of Spain. General Concha, at the head of an army of twenty-five thousand men, pursues and harasses the Carlist body. Sonaha, howeyer, if the news from Bayonne is to be trusted, finds the work hard ant not altogether full of promise. The simple fact that Don Carlos is still in Spain is proof suffi- cient that the Madrid government has on hand ® dangerous domestic foe. ‘The Carlists claim a victory on the 24th of the present month, and Don Carlos still moves about like a king among his friends, Am Important Application of Agri- cultural Selence. A new and most important application of a waste product, in the practical processes of agricultural chemistry, has been recently pro- pesed bya foreign engineer. In the manu- facturing and coal consuming districts of Great Britain the enormous profits derivable from the utilization of slag, coal ashes and the refuse of minerals after’ passing through the furnace, have been within a few years much discussed. The so-called “volcanic stone,” manufactured from slag and hydraulic lime, has been demonstrated to be one of the cheap- est and most durable building materials. But now the faz more economic and valuable use of the sama, waste matter for riper utd soil has been pressed upon publio atten The great chemist, Liebig, long ago sug- gested the important part silicates, in a solu- ble form, would play in the economy of plants, and silica abounds in all the slag products. Lands. otherwise highly improved and fertilized, but lacking in the one ingredient of soluble silica, may produce fine crops of wheat, but the straw is found to be too weak to sustain the ears, and whole ficlds of grain are thus easily prostrated by thesum- mer storms. The free use of disintegrated slag, which supplies silica to the straw and hardens and strengthens it, enables the golden harvest to resist the tempest. It has been observed thatin the midst of fields in which the grain has generally succumbed to the blast patches in which the ground had been fertilized with the silicious refuse of brick burning stood erect with their well-filled ears. In the wide wind-swept prairies of the West, whose wheat harvests are the main sup- ply of food for many millions besides thehome consumer, the application of this discovery may prove of the greatest benefit and largely add to the total annual yield of the grain growing States. The process of disintegrating the slag, so as to render it soluble, by run- ning it into water while in a fluid state, appears to be inexpensive. And as the porous soluble fertilizer that results is rich in lime a double purpose is served, which would justify considerable ex- penditure in preparing it for the agricultural market. The utility of this important chemi- cal compound will probably be felt in the sugar-cane regions, where silicious fertilizers areinso great demand, and where it is often necessary to burn the standing stripped cane for the sake of restoring vigor to the exhausted soil. Science has a great work to do in transmut- ing the waste and refuse materials, elements of pollution, into sources of economy and wealth. The utilization of the sewage of our great cities, for agricultural ends, has vir- tually been a demonstrated success. Wedoubt not thesame success, by patient experiment, is obtainable in the case of many other waste products, which, in ignorance of their value, we suffer to defile our streets, pollute our rivers and taint the air we breathe. Army Headquarters. The St. Louis and Chicago journals are dis- cussing with some earnestness the order trans- ferring General Sherman’s headquarters, as the commander of the army, from Washington to St. Louis. The Missouri journals exrult over the coming of the General as the pioneer of the capital, They have long dreamed that the greatness of the Republic demands that the capital should be built on the Mississippi, and Sherman’s movement is only an omen of what is comingin the future. The Chicago journals are green with envy. ‘There is not,” says the Tribune, ‘‘a single instance in the civilized or uncivilized world where the seat of government is at one place and the army headquarters atanother.” If Sherman should go West at all he should not stop at St. Louis, but go to Denver, which is West enough. At the same time the Tribune alludes to the fact that it possesses Sheridan, and, in a spirit of magnanimity, will spare Sherman to St, Louis. Our opinion is that it does not make any material difference where the headquarters of the army are. The telegraph makes St. Louis as near to Washington as Bladensburg, for all purposes of administration and authority. We can understand why the commander of the army would prefer to make his home in a community where he was a conspicuous man, and not, as in Washington, where he is out- ranked and smothered by other men quite as conspicuous. In Washington Sherman is among the attractions, a satellite revolving around the War Department and the Presidency. In St. Louis he would be the shining central sun. As the command of the army is little more than a social position, or rather will be when Congress has pinched and clipped the army into a skeleton condition, St Louis would be more attractive, especially to a sol- dier of the transcendent fame of Sherman, than any other city that could be selected. Still, the matter isnot of much consequence. Capital moving is.a dream. It makes little difference where we have the place of author- ity, so long as the telegraph obeys it, The natural capital is New York. When the gov- ernment chooses to come here we shall wel- come it. In the meantime Washington will do for a century or two at least. ComPTRoLLeR GREEN periodically favors the public with a tirade against the system of giving out city work by private contract, with- outinviting bids, even when the law author- izes such action and the city interests are properly guarded. But this is when the work is done under a department which does not enjoy the friendship of the Comptroller. When & department is on the good books of the financial bead the case is different. Take, for instance, the dry goods bills of the De- partment of Charities and Correction. The goods were sold to the city at an advance of from twenty-five to thirty-five per cent over their cost, in amounts over one thousand dol- lars, and yet no bids had been invited. How is it that the bills were paid by the Comptrol- ler? Why were the detectives, examiners, in- vestigators and other ‘‘contingency” employés of the Finance Department unable to discover their illegal character? We may not receive any explanation from the Comotroller: but is en ee SEE EEE NA ET. ey ee TaN TN Ty SNe ae ee ee Ne TM ee TOME Ts Pm nee eet he We RO a $$ ——_—__—___ it not about time for another indignant out burst against the fraudulent private contract system, in order that public attention may be diverted from the dry goods, flour and meat bills of the Charities and Correction Commis- aioners? Muzsling the Dogs. The fiat hag gone forth and the law has passed that henceforth all unmuzzled dogs found in the streets will suffer capital punish- ment at the hands of the authorities, and not all the tears of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will save them. The new law requires that the head of each dog shall be encased in a wire muzzle, so as not to leave any opportunity for the canine prisoner to exercise his biting proclivities, and a fine will be exacted from the owner in any caso where this ordinance is violated. In our crowded streets we can dispense with canines which are inclined at times to lunch off the leg of a passer by, and from the petted spaniet of the belle of Broadway to the vicious cur which acknowledges some beetle-browed rough as master, there is every reason to enforce the wearing of the wire muzzle. But what says the tender-hearted Bergh to this curtailment of the liberty of a portion of his flock? He will, perhaps, feel as if the Mayor and Alder- men had puta wire muzzle with a padlock on him. We may look for a proclamation on this subject on any day, a document that will make the dog-muzzlers tremble. Tes Trex or lmcration increases in volume as the spring advances. Up- wards of 4,000 immigrants arrived on Monday. One steamship, the City’of Paris, from Liverpool, brought 1,246 © steerage passengers, besides 41 cabin passengers, The Spain brought 1,000 steerage and 113 cabin passengers. The Oceanic had 861 steer- age and 56 cabin passengers, Nearly all of this vast number of immigrants sailed from Liverpool, though they were of different nationalities, Yesterday the influx, though not so great as the day before, was very large. All the efforts of the governments of Europe to restrain emigration and all the misrepresen- tations to divert emigrants from the United States and to the British Colonies: or-else- where fail to check the current to this Repub- lic. The panic last winter retarded immigra- tion hither to some extent. The action of the German government, to . pre vent its subjects leaving the Fatherland, and lately the misrepresentations made in England as to the alleged disadvantages which immigrants labored,under in this coun- try, had algo some effect, but the stream flows on nevertheless and appears to be increasing. The truth is the mass of people in Europe are pretty well informed about the United States— that is, as to the cheapness and quality of the land and the freedom and ‘excellence of our, institations—and they prefer to take the chances of life and to make their homes here. Well, there is plenty of room and, abun- dant opportunities for well doing to the indus- trious. Only let the immigrants leave the crowded cities and go to the interior, where there is work for all and cheap land for all. ’ ComPpunsory Epvoation.—Senator Stewart, of Nevada, has proposed an amendment to the constitution as follows: — ARIICLE 16.—If any State shall fail to maintain a common school system, under which ali persons between the ages of five and eighteen years, not incapacitated jor the same, shall receive, free of cuarge, such elementary education as Congress may prescribe, the Congress shall have power'to establish therein such a system, and cause the. rainy to be maintained at the expense of such This is one of the most important amend- ments that has ever been submitted to Con- gress. The constitution imposes upon Oon- gress the guarantee to every State of a repub- lican form of government. Now there can be no such form of government, either in form or in spirit, without education, .. We are rap- idly coming to the doctrine that ignorance: is crime, and certainly it is a crime against the State. It is more necessary to build school- houses than jails, and quite as important to send children to school as to preserve the quarantine at our ports. We trust the Senator will press this amendment, or one similar to it in spirit, and that it will commend itself to the prompt and intelligent consideration of Congress. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Randolph Rogers, the sculptor, {s at the Windsor Hotel. Speaker James W, Husted has apartinents at the Hotel Brunswick. Dr. Samuel G, Howe, of Boston, 1s residing at the Brevoort House, Rajah Kall Krisnna, poet laureate of Bengal, India, recently died. Mr. A. T. Stewart and Judge Hilton left this city for Saratoga yesterday, Ex-Congressman F. E. Woodbridge, of Vermont is at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Assemblyman F, A. Alberger, of Buffalo, ts stay- ing at the Metropolitan Hotel. State Senator William Johnson, of Seneca Falls, N. Y., 9 at the Metropolitan Hotel. Judge William F, Allen, of the Court of Appeals, yesterday arrived at the Hotel Brunswick. General Rutus H. King and J. N. Knapp, of Gov. ernor Dix’s staf, are at the Windsor Hotel. General William T. Sherman arrived from Wash ington yesterday morning at tne Astor House, Captain Tyler and Meutenant Tyler, of the Brit- ish Army, are quartered at the Fifth Avenue Hote}, Congressman George F. Hoar, of Massachusctis, is among the recent arrivals at the Fitth Avenue Hotel. Ex-Solicitor General B. H. Bristow has left his old Kentucky home and is now at the Fifth Ave. nue Hotel. General Ben. Harrison, a descendant of General Harrison, and a brigade commander tn Sherman's Atlanta campaign, ts strongly urged for the repub- lican nomination for Governor of Indiana, Sir E. T. Rogers, the British Consul at Catre, Egypt, is about to place a marble monument over the grave of Burckhardt, the celebiated Eastern traveller, whose body reposes in the Mussuiman cemetery of Bab el Naser. at Vairo, Dr. Kenealy, of Tichborne tris! notoriety, is im Ottawa, Canada, where he was the guest of Lora Dufferin on Saturday. He is there on business connected with the development of the mining interests of Nova Scotia. Colonel Marnier, a veteran of the First Empire, has just died in France at the age of ninety years. He was, under Napoleon, an aide-de-camp to Gen- eral Rapp, and at the Bourbon restoration became one of the gentiemen of the Chamber of Louis XVII. The Duke of Edinburgh, though a sailor, mast needs be identified with the land service; there- fore the Ninety-ninth regiment of foot has been chosen to bear his cipher and coronet on its colora, and hereafter will be kuown as the Dake of Edin- burgh’s regiment, Mr. Disraeli’s tack of health is causing considera- ble anxiety to his personal and political itiends, 4nd it 18 rumored that he may find it necessary te | Withdraw ior a jew months from the duties of Pree | micr, Which, in the meantime. wilt he varfarmad by Eari Derby,