The New York Herald Newspaper, August 3, 1874, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- nual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yor Henan. peas idl 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. .No, 215 AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING —_—+ WOOD'S MUSEUM Broadway. corner of Thirtieth street —LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, at2 P. M.; closes at 4PM. THE SUA Louts Aldnen closes at 10:30 P.M les, Sophie NIBL! Broadway, between Prince und Houston streets — KVANGELING, THE BELLE OF DIA, at # P.M; Closes at 10:45 P.M. Mr. Joseph Wheelock and Miss Tone Burke. GLOBE, No. 728 Broadway.—VARI RE, . M.; closes at 10 METROPOLITAN THEATRE, No, 585 Broadway.—Parisian Cancan Dancers, at 8 P. M. TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, Bowery —VARIETY ENTERTAINMENT, at 8 P. closes at 10:30 P. M. CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, Fifty-ninth street and Seventh avenue.—lHOMAS’ CON- CEKT, ats P.M. ; closes P.M. co. M, | Broadway, corner of Thirty-fitth ‘street LONDON BY DAY. Open from 10 4. M, tll dusk. * WITH SUPPLEMENT. New York, Monday, August 3, 1874. THE HERALD FOR THE SUMMER RESORTS, To NewspEALERS AND THE PuBiic: — The New York Heratp will run a special train between New York, Saratoga and Lake George, leaving New York every Sunday dur- ing the season at half-past three o'clock A. M., and arriving at Saratoga at nine o'clock A. M., for the purpose of supplying the Sunpay Henaup along the line. Newsdealers and others are notified to send in their orders to the Hrnatp office as early as possible. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be clear and cool, with possibly light local rains. Tae Purapenputa Porice have not yet found any clew to the kidnappers of Charley Ross. The discovery of the carriage, if it is the right one, ought to lead to the detection of the criminals. And we can see no reason why a doubt should arise on such ground as the probability that the only carriage of the kind seen in the neighborhood belonged to some sneak thieves. Perhaps it is also worth while to suggest that thieves may be kiduap- pers. Ler It Go to THz Counts !—The Milwaukee Sentinel properly alludes to jurisprudence ‘‘as perhaps the ripest product of our civilization,” and seeing that the verdict of the present tribunal will not satisfy anybody, argues that the case of Mr. Beecher and Mr. Tilton should go into the courts. If our laws have any value, now is the time to test it. been done to some one, to Mr. Beecher or Mr. Tilton, and what value have our laws if they do not remedy that wrong? Mr. Tilton should either enter proceedings against Mr. Beecher, or he should himself be arrested and indicted for libel. There has been too much of ‘inves- tigation” and newspaper twaddle and inter- | viewing, too much mystery and management and consultation of ‘eminent counsel.” Let us have this matter decided according to the rules of evidence, not upon the gossip of peo- ple like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the ravens who now croak over their carrion teast. Crop Prospects.—The statistics represent- ing the averages of the condition of the crops in the various States will prove extremely inter- esting not only to the commercial but also to | the consuming public. Despite the numerous pests, in the form of insects, blights, | droughts and diseases, which seem latterly more severe in their effects | than in former years, the reports of the wheat crop are very encouraging. The extreme visitations of misfortune to the farmer are apparently confined to limited regions, The sugar crop is remarkable for its favorable condition The growth of wool in the West has aug- mented and shows the wisdom of the farmer in comprehending that the new soil, although broken so few years ago by the hardy settler, | needs the benefit of the rest and recuperation in pasture fora time, In fine, there is reason for gratulation on the improvement in the science of agriculture made manifest by the monthly reports of the government, Tae AMENITIES oF JovRNALISM.—Pending the adoption of our suggestion to have a great Western editor imported into New York as an editorial monitor we look with gratitude upon any publication in the famous journals of the West that will instruct our professional brethren. In this spirit we copy in another column an article from the Louisville Courier- Journal, whose editor is a burning and a shin- ing light. It seems that a Cincinnati editor named Cockerill excited the anger of a Ken- tucky judge, who wanted him to go to Canada and fight. The editor declined, saying that if the Judge was burning for a contest he could be found at his office with pistols and scissors and bowie knife, all ready for the fray. The exact duty of an editor under these circum- stances is, we confess, a subject upon which we should rejoice in receiving instraction, and accordingly we learn that in Kentucky, when a judge challenges an editor he violates the law, oras Mr. Watterson so grandly puts it, “there can be no enforcement of the letter of a law if our judges and other officials violate | its spirit and take care only to keep them- selves within its letter." It is something to know this! We had all along thought that a Kentucky editor rather preferred his duel than not; that in his own expressive and un- translatable phrase, he desired no better fun than to ‘‘chaw up” a rival now and then. But—it seems we were mistaken, A great wrong has | and more extensive cultivation. | : eas =... | money spending the Governor simply for- | which reralts from the ‘policy of letting it lis | 46 i and compelled its members to go | | home. He cafried the stern discipline ot West NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, AUGUST Arkansas and Missssippi—Is This Re- | plate. . construction t | The admitted efforts of the republican | leaders to present the President to the South | as the true friend of reconstruction and peace | give unusual interest to every development that enables us to know the true condition of Southern affairs. Woe are asked to believe | that the President himself is the only trne friead of the South now in the administra- | tion; that he was magnanimous to Lee; that | he has taken pains to be generous to Mosby, | } Longstreet, Orr, and others; that he took off his hat in memory of ‘the immortal Jackson.”’ | It would not surprise us to see him undertake | a mission into the South as soon as the weather is more relenting and Long Branch | loses its attractions, Extreme Southern news- papers who represent as much as remains of the secession spirit show an unusual fondness | for the President, and openly aver that he | alone, as the possessor of imperial power, can save them from the miseries of ‘‘carpet-bag’’ | | and negrorule. Certainly ifthe President stood | alone between the truculent war sentiment, | which even now exists in the mind of as dis- tinguished a statesman as Senator Morton, and the happiness of the Southern people; if it could be shown that reconstruction only needed the President four years longer in | office, we could well understand the aspira- | tions of men like ex-Governor Hebert and | General Mosby. So anxious are we to see | the Southern States redeemed and prosperous | | that we should support the movement even at | the risk of violating a sacred tradition of the | | government. Let us see, however, how far | recent events in Arkansas and Mississippi | | justify the belief that the President only is the savior of the South and the friend of a | genuine reconstraction ! ‘ | The difficulty in Arkansas, which at one time | threatened civil war and inflicted great injury upon the prosperity of that State, is now the subject of a Congressional inquiry. We have already given our readers the testimony of | Governor Baxter, who told a plain story of the controversy. The point of his examination | rested upon the letter addressed by Governor Baxter to the Heraup, and which was pub- lished on the same day as another statement trom his rival, Mr. Brooks. It seems that the difficulty which came so nearly involving the | State in civil war was really in its origin a political and personal quarrel. Governor Baxter had been elected in the belief that he would advance the schemes of Senators Clayton and Dorsey and other leaders who were in | control ot the State. He very soon found that | these schemes meant really that the credit of the State should be used in the interest of per- | | sonal aggrandizement. There was to be a | “railroad policy," the “issue of bonds,” ‘ihe | offer of a United States Judgeship,” and ‘as much money as was wanted.’’ In response to certain charges that the Governor himself was not free from the imputation of mercenary motives he explained to the committee that he ‘meant to make money honorably.”’ This, we fear, was an unfortunate admission for the | Governor. When a man in that supreme po- | sition, the chief of a Commonwealth and charged with the peace and safety of the State, ; finds time or opportunity, 6r even the desire, to ‘‘make money honorably,” the fear is that the making of money is the highest | consideration of duty, and that there will not | | be the utmost scruples as to the means used | for obtaining it. What we sec in this investi- gation is the existence of that mercenary, | euninest Bootch. scientists. money-loving, sordid spirit which has been the | isbors of these authors—Dr. Mitchell and Dr. | curse of the Southern States and the real enemy of reconstruction. | From Mississippi we had looked for better | | things. Governor Ames carried into his place | as Governor the record of a blameless, brave | | and honorable soldier. Our readers will re- | | member that when the Governor was elected | | Senator and objection was made to his admis- | sion on the ground that he was not a resident | ot the State when elected, but simply a gen- | | eral in command, he was told that he had | | only to say that he came into the State with | | the intention of making it his home and there | would be no objection. It was only neces- | sary that he should make a mental equivoca- | tion, and there is not one politician in ten | thousand who would not have done so, especi- | ally to win such a prize as the Senate. He | | answered like a soldier, that he only came | | into the State as a soldier, only meaning to | | remain while on duty, and had not resolved | to make it his home until after he had been | | made Senator. This act of the Governor | seemed to mark an honest, brave man, who scorned falsehood as he would scorn death, | and when he became Governor of Mississippi | there was the hope that at last we had a re- | publican Governor who was not a thief and a rowdy. Itis due to Governor Ames that his | administration thus far has justified this hope. We have had none of those scandals from | Mississippi that we have seen in other States. | When the Legislature seemed disposed to em- | | bark upon wild schemes of appropriation and Point and the regular army into the executive | department of Mississippi, and to that we owe | the fact that until now his State, next to Vir- ginia and Texas, has been the best governed and most orderly in the South. What, then, is the meaning of this new | trouble? Governor Ames has addressed a despatch to the President reporting that an | alarming condition of affairs exists in Vicks- | burg, and that he would like to have troops | | for the public peace. We are disposed to look | carefully at a request of this kind from a man | | like Governor Ames, a soldier of the regular | | army, who knows what troops mean, who is | fully aware of the gravity of any such de- | mand, and who would not make it in a panic. | | The Governor's story is plain. In Vicksburg | there is now pending a bitter election contro- | versy. The issue is between the blacks and the whites. The spirit of the press, as we have had occasion to lament on various occa- sions, is most unfortunate. Appeals of the most inflammatory character to white men to “arouse” and “rally” and arm against ‘the negroes who mean to fight,’ adorn the Missis- sippi journals, Here before us, in the latest exchanges, we have stories of ‘negroes having nightly meetings,” ‘‘ company of @ hundred | organized on Porter Placo, about ten miles | below Satartia,” that ‘the negroes will fight,” and that we should “be ready for this valiant warrior when he com- mences his fighting.” One newspaper in- | forms us that “the war at Vicksburg between the whites and blacks is fearful to contem- | and remorseless as the evening storm cloud. | On the other line the white Celtic, Caucasian | Henrietta Weibel, whose dislike for infants | dislike | can be heard, in Irish brogue, brave men of | of song and of courage,” “who have success- | 3 | upon the negroes as their rivals in honest | reasons by the whites. The Orange riots more | ton or this child-hating girl growing up | invite disturbance than paltering with it on | should send him troops or not is another mat- | mate the Southern people. | were the leaders of the Union, and which | | to @ recognition of the fact that slavery is On one line the negroes are ar- rayed in solid column, looking as black race are standing shoulder to shoulder, with | | knitted brow and compressed lips, determined to stand by their own race. Along the column shouting forthe white man’s party, If the whites win the victory it will be by the courage of the Irish, for with their strong arms and brave hearts they are heroically | fighting to stay the march of the negro hosts | seeking the degradation of the white man and negro supremacy in Warren county."’ Another journal appeals to ‘the countrymen Grattan and Curran, of Emmet and | Moore’’—‘‘the children of the land of genius, fully fought all battles save those of poor | Treland” —not to fail in ‘this great contest.’’ Irishmen are called upon to make war | industry. We know well in New York the meaning of appeals of this nature. We had a controversy between the Irish and the negroes during the draft riots, and scenes of cruelty and horror were enacted recalling the French Revolution. | | We remember the ruthless brutality of the | New Orleans riots in 1866, when two hundred | negroes were suddenly massacred for political recently show that nothing is more certain to | the part of the authorities. It Governor Ames | sees that this ‘‘war between races” threatens the repetition of the scenes in New York and | New Orleans, then he is bound to interfere and keep the peace. As to whether the President | ter. But we are not dcaling justly with the South when we ignore every appeal for order as simply the expression of political ambition. The way to bring troops into Mississippi is to begin this war of races, They will i come then gwiltly enough. For whatever else | may be discussed, so far as the South is con- | cerned, one point is beyond discussion, that ! we must have peace and order; that the black | man and the white man must alike be pro- | the pursuit of happiness.’’ This principle | underlies all measures of reconstruction, and we never see such outbreaks and striies as are | now seen in Mississippi and Arkansas without | mourning over the madness that seems to ani- Is there no wis- dom in all the lessons of the war? Is there | no possibility that the lessous of that tremen- | dous contest will ever be learaed? Is it too much for a revival of that brave, proud, statesmanlike, far-seeing Southern spirit of the past, when its sons would lead the people to a true conception of their duties and responsibilities in the Union, dead, that another secession war is impos- | sible, that the constitution grants all rights to | all men, and that the South will only win its greatness again by a loyal recognition of this | and an earnest, manly resolution to consoli- | date that greatness by industry, patience and ; courage? The Death Rate and the Sei | An investigation of the interdependence of ; the seasons and death rate has recently been | brought to a successful conclusion by two The conjoint Buchan—are of extraordinary interest and cover an extensive field of statistical yesearch. | freshness of the country steals into the child hntdhg the classes from which . gr: | chiefly recrtiited that we must look ior the sup-"| ig BS oe ro <i | pression of that worst reproach to our boasted 'o €¥plain how Mr. Boucicault has dealt with’ Child Criminals. The counterpart of Boston's white-eyed boy murderer hag been found in the person of urged her to attempt their destruction by fire. And so strong is this dislike that the girl seems incapable of restraining it. Already on two occasions she has been guilty of in- cendiary attempts, having their motive in the wish to destroy infant hfe. It is curious that a mania of this kind should develop itself in one who is herself little more than a child, the more so that the natural tendency in young girls is to love and fondle infants. But no doubt the influence of the wretched society | in which the daily life of this child was cast weakens, if it does not destroy, the best natu- ral impulses of those who grow up in its | midst. There is something appalling in the | Teflection that thousands are compelled to breathe the vitiating atmosphere which exerted so baneful an influence on the moral sense of this poor child. Poverty and neglect do not | will require masterly handling. Among fail to leave their impress on their victims, | the characters we find the cele- and wherever the children of the poor turn | brated and heroic Southern General, they see before them little but what is calcu- | popularly known as “Stonewall” Jack- lated to degrade and brutalize them. This is peculiarly the case in great cities, and it is in these vast human hives that abnormal de- yelopments of crime usually occur. It would be difficult to imagine a nature so perverse and cruel as that of the boy murderer of Bos- amid the green fields. Something of the reared in presence of the beauty and generous bounty of nature, while the fetid tenement and dirty, repulsive alleyway seem to exert a noxious influence on the moral as well as the physical characteristics of those who grow up in the slums. Man is very much the creature of circumstances. He is mostly what his sur- roundings have made him. It is therefore | charitable to believe that under more favora- ble conditions neither of the children who have won unenviable notoriety would have grown up so utterly devoid of moral sense as they have shown themselves to be. Instead, therefore, of condemning with too much vehe- mence the child-authors of these murderous | . ‘ | crimes, society would do well to seek to remedy | tected in the enjoyment of “life, liberty and | in so far as it may be remedied the evil which lies at the root of the demoralization | which exists among the children of the poor, the victims of the slums. If these wretched beings grow up as enemies to order and so- ciety they are not much to be blamed. , So | long as they are content to squirm in the loathsome dens into which society and civili- | zation have crushed them, or their own folly and vice or the vices of their parents have | sunk them, society does little to improve or | amelior.ute their condition. It is only when | crimes like the present call attention, to the seething mass, stuk in misery and degrads- tion, which is packed out of sight in tene- | ment buildings and noisome alleyways, that the prosperous and well-to-do remember even | the existence of these unfortunates. It may | | be an idle dream to hope for the perfection of | humanity; it is at least a noble one, but there | is so much that may be done in the direction of | elevating the lower classzs in great cities that | the most practical minded would find ample | scope for the exercise of a large philanthropy, even within very limited lines of action. It is to the spread of elevating influences f nals are civilization—the child criminal. The Sermons Yesterday. They have gone through with the task of aver- aging the weekly mortality of London for | thirty years, and of deducing the mortality | rate for thirty-one diseases, so as to eliminate the effect ofthe season of the year upon each | malady. Taking all diseases at all ages there | is a large excess above the average in the mor- tality from the middle of November to the middle of April, when the rate falls to the | Jowest figure by the end of Moy, but in the, middle of July suddenly mounts up to alarm- | ing proportions, and so continues to the sec- | | ond week of August. This summer excess of | mortality is ascribable to the decimating in- | fantile diseases for which the period of an- | nual maximum heat (from July 10 to July 30) is so fatally famous in this country. Tho British death rate, it appears very | clearly from these statistical showings, has an i inverse ratio to the temperature, rising when the | temperature falls and falling when the tem- | perature rises. Leaving out of view the mid- | summer mortality of infants from diarrhoeal | affections it is seen that the heat of the dog | days does not perceptibly augment the general sickliness of the population. I: has, however, a stimulating effect upon diseases which produce convulsions, debility and tuicide, and is favorable to the spread of smallpox. The | great and controlling element in the results compared is the mortality trom pulmonary maladies, which dictates the very high death rate in the stormy, cold months, from November to April inclusive, No doubt a similar investization conducted by American physicians for this country would reveal some idiosynciasies of climate, modifying the Scottish deductions, and en- abling them to add many viluable pages to the science of medical climatology. As the American climate is drier than that of the British Isles and the climaic differences are readily ascertained it would be apparently feasible to apply the Scottish and English data in computing the preise parts of the year when special disord:rs would prevail and providing against then. In some por- tions of the earth, as in Aistralia, the ther- mometric curve alinost exatly delineates that of the mortality; so that fom week to week, and even in daily practice, the physician can foresee how his patient will be affected by the atmosphere. The pursui of investigations similar to that here mentioed has been con- ducted in several parts of the United States, we believe, but the result have never been reduced to great accuracy. A great end would be gained if long extenied observations of heat, moisture, &c., couldbe compared with the death returns, especialy in the large cities and in the popular winterresorts for invalids, The materials for such in investigation are ready for utilization. Tue Spaxisu Repusiic by instructing the delegates to the Brussels Congress to take no part in the proveedings, sives a gentle hint to the other Powers to accor recognition, This is @ simple act of justve to Spain, and it should hay been accordd long ago. The city pastors have not yet returned to their churches, with one or two exceptions, but the churches were well filled yesterday, when we remember that most of the flocks | have followed their shepherds out of town. At | the Brick church, in Fifth avenue, the pastor, | the Rev. James A. Murray, conducted divine | service, and announced that he would preach | every Sunday during the month. This church has been closed for some weeks. Mr. Mur- ray’s discourse was on the barbarism of the heart, and was an old-fashioned, doctrinal | sermon. The Rev. Dr. Deems occupied his | own pulpit at the Church of the Strangers, which was crowded to its utmost capacity. He enforced the doctrine which St. Paul | enunciated when he counselled the Christians of Philippi to let their conversation be as it | becometh the Gospel of Christ. The Rev. Dr. McGlynn, of St. Stephen’s, preached at St. Joseph’s church, Tremont, on the philosophy and poetry of the confessional. He pointed out the meaning and necessity as well as the beauty of confession, and enforced his coun- sels by many illustrations drawn from the Scriptures. Plymouth church was occupied by | the Rev. Dr. Robinson, who preached on the loneliness of Christ. Applying the beautiful language of Elijah, he pictured the trials of | the Saviour when ‘He trod the wine press alone.” The only allusion to Mr. Beecher was in the prayer, when Dr. Robinson fervently | prayed that the beloved shepherd might | emerge quickly from the cloud of chastise- ment or trial which now envelops him. In | only one pulpit was this Brooklyn sorrow | alluded to, and that was by the Rev. R. S. Macarthur, of the Calvary Baptist Church, in | Twenty-third street. Mr. Macarthur’s dis- | course was an arraignment of the “liberal Christians’ and was one of those unnecessary | brands which are always certain to be hurled by somebody at the very moment they can accomplish nothing except create a sensa- tion. This pastor had the bad taste to accuse Mr. Beecher as an apostle of loose ideas ot morality, an unpleasant charge to come from the pulpit and scarcely in harmony with the strict interpretation of the Scriptures, of i which Mr. Macarthur considers himself a champion. It would have been better to have waited till Mr. Beecher had spoken, and, in any event, it was not necessary that the Rev. Mr. Macarthur should testify that Christian- ity will not suffer because a cedar of Lebanon has fallen. One of the most interesting events of yesterday was the laying of the corner stone of St. Teresa's church, in Classon ave- nue, Brooklyn, by Bishop Loughlin. This is the thirty-ninth Roman Catholic church in the City of Churches. The ceremony was wit- nessed by several thousand people, and the remarks of the Bishop of the diocese were listened to with devout attention. Other churches besides those alluded to wero also well filled, and this excellent attendance, considering the season, shows an interest in Christian work and duty which is a refreshing 3, 1874.-WITH SUPPLEMENT. The New American Drama. We have strongly advocated the establish- ment of a native American drama, in which the scenes, incidents, characters and manners should afford pictures and portraits of our times. We have now been a nation for a cen- tury, and no nation has or ever has had more striking features nora more remarkable and incidental history. Yet how many dramatic pictures exist which portray American life? And the few that pretend to do so are small in their pretence. Among tho most popular are “The Octoroon” and “Rip Van Winkle,” both fair specimens of their day. Whether encouraged by our urgent advocacy or not, it seems that Mr. Boucicault has made a third effort to depict American life. The new play announced for production at Booth's Theatre, entitled ‘Belle Lamar,’’ is a historical drama and illustrates a stirring and terrible period. It is the first at- tempt to bring the subject on the stage, and son. Here we detect the inclination to realism which distinguishes all the later works of this dramatist. The subject of ‘Belle La- made Logan and the rest ofthem? Who held up the republican party in its times of trouble, and so forth? Who saved the coun- try when all others were powerless? runs the machine according to his own idea of the way it ought to be run? have the distribution of federal offices and things till March, 1877? enemy at first sight and can tell what it means when a President is ignored?” Who Who will Who knows an There is this important fact behind it all, that the President to-day is stronger than his party. Let him take his revenge by writing an address of his own and éither ignore the committee or give the country hi views about its members. This would complete the record, and it might be addressed in a momorandum to ‘‘Jones’’ of Nevada, now a conspicuous mem- ber of the seaside clambake cabinet, and the owner of one of the finest four-in-hand teams that has been seen on the beach for three oO» it may be four years. The American Cardinal. We print this morning an extremely inter esting letter written from New York to the Cincinnati Commercial. This letter gives a great deal of useful and curious information in reference to the rank and dignity of cardi- mar” may be briefly thus described: —A young husband and wife are separated in the first year of their marriage by the political feelings of the wife, who is of an old Virginian family, and of the husband, who is an officer in the United States Army. Failing in her attempts to seduce him from his allegiance, she seeks her home in the South, and in a moment of passion consents to a divorce, which her fam- ily urge her to obtain. Broken hearted and in despair she flings herself into the conflict and becomes a daring spy in the Confederate service. The repeated injuries inflicted on our armies by the treachery of such women, who intested our political capitals at that time, has exasperated the commanding officers, and it is determined to make an example of the first “viper on the hearth’’ that is caught in the act of treachery. No officer is so vehe- ment, so stern in these views as Philip Bligh, colonel of United States cavalry, commanding an outpost in the Shenandoah Valley. And to him falls the duty of carrying this order into execution, for his men arrest a woman in the commission of a flagrant act of espionage. The prisoner is brought before him and in her he recognizes his fugitive wife. This is what is termed among dramatists the general in- cident with which the action of this play com- mences. The incidents, the passionate strug- gles and the feelings that arise one after the other, provoked or engendered by this fruitful condition and posture of affairs may easily | be conceived. This outline of the subject will_bo sufficient to indicate that the drama- tist has on this occasion taken a large canvas anda great design. He challenges at once our attention to a very grand struggle, not of characters subject to small incidental issues, trivial because the characters are made the playthings of fortune ; but such a dramatic ac- tion involves and necessitates a stage where great human passions and feelings dominate all other considerations, where the minds of the spectators are employed in watching, follow- ing and sympathizing with the noble weak- nesses of grand natures under trial, and not interested in the string of ingeniously con- | catenated incidents which form f | his material, how he has drawn his characters and what dialogué he has clothed them with will be an earnest task for us to perform when we see the play. But as we have frequently criticised this dramatist with severity on former occasions we shall with equal sin- cerity and earnestness record a higher opinion of his work if it prove what we hope it will turn out. He has the advantage of a virgin field, uncultivated by any predecessor. No one doubts his tact, ingenuity and fertility. But this is not a subject where these qualities can be rendered available. Indeed, they would tritter its grandeur away. Here we have an opportunity for noble effort. But to return to the story. The wife is brought before a military tribunal, of which the husband is necessarily one of the members; his associates are un- aware the prisoner is his wife. Subsequent events enable her to receive a safe conduct to the North, which she uses to secure the escape | of a fellow prisoner—a young officer, who loves her and bas been involved by her in- fluence over him in the same fate. At this juncture Stonewall Jackson, urgent to rescue the woman from the penalty he knows she has incurred, makes a dash at the position of the Union troops, and they are driven into a terrible strait. They make a stand, to defend a bridge that is the key to the position, and on the possession of which depends the fate of the advancing army. This catastrophe crowns the play with a battle scene. This terrible extremity extorts | from the erring wife the acknowledgment of her fidelity and enduring love—a confession which the presence of death brings to her lips, and with it o prayer to be forgiven and restored to her husband's heart. This is in the right direction. Such scenes are more welcome to us than pictures of adultery and dishonor. The weakness of noble minds is a better subject for illustration than the weak- ness of trivial porsons, whose good or bad qualities are of little or no consequence. The Congressional Committee. The Cincinnati Commercial informs us, on what it regards as unquestioned authority, that the President 1s not ‘‘in the least gratified at the fact that he was not at all in any way referred to in the address of the Republican Congressional Committee; that his services to the country during the war were not re- nal, and acquaints us with the views of many good Catholics as to who should hold the office. Discussions of this kind do good; for while the Holy Father, in the exercise of his own infallible judgment, may nominate who- ever he pleases, even the humblest priest in the diocese, he will be apt to pay respect to public opinion. The suggestion of a West- ern journal that the Pope would confer the red hat on Mr. McMasters, editor of the Freeman's. Journal, does not seem to impress our cor- respondent, The prompt and self-abnogating denial made by Mr. McMasters when his name was first mentioned made any discussion of it on our part impossible, Nor do we think the Holy Father, from all that we can learn, has such an appreciation of newspapers as to wel- come an editorinto the Sacred College. How- ever, as the first virtue of the journalist is self-denial Mr. McMasters and his colleagues in Catholic journalism can wait. According to this correspondent there is now “a cardinal in petlo for the United States.” One theory is that our eminent prelate and fellow citizen, Archbishop Mc- Closkey, has been designated, and that his recent rather hurried visit to Rome is im obedience to a despatch from the Pope, who wishes with his own hands to bestow on him the supreme dignity. Another story is that Archbishop Purcell, of Cincinnati, will re- ceive the honor. ‘These prelates are both men of great ability and learning. They have also been traided in sound democratic republican principles and believe in the rights of the people. So that, if in tho future either of them should be elevated to the chair of St. Peter we should have, in our familiar phrase, ‘a live Pope,’’ one up to the times, who would not be afraid of Bismarck nor ba governed by any Italian ecclesiastical Ring. More than all, we should have a Pontiff who knew the value of newspapers, and who,’ rather than live iq duress under the sword of | Victor Ergme%uel, would remove the sacred capital to New York, where he could have per- _ fect freedom. A Papal Court in New York” would add largely to the attractions of the inetropolis, and the Pope would be free enough without having -& Yzgucb man-of-war in the ay to watch over him., ae) Mr. Conkling and the Central Rail- way Cas There have been some criticisms of the Hon. Roscoe Conkling for accepting a fee from the New York Central Railway Company to argue & case involving a claim against it by the gov- ernment before a United Biates Court. The charge, as we understand it, is that the Sen- ator, as an officer of the government, should not have accepted a retainer against the gove ernment, and the imputation follows that his act is @ corrupt one. To this charge the Senator replied in a speech, which we print elsewhere, For while the Heraup took no part in the accusation the fame of a man so conspicuous and distinguished as Mr. Conk- ling should always be protected and vin- dicated. The tendency to wound and destroy public men because we do not agree with them in politics is one of the saddest phases of journalism. We do not see that any blame can attach to Mr. Conkling. He was a lawyer earning his fee, and we have seen no reason, nor do we see how there can be any reason, in the suggestion that because he is a Senator he should not conduct a cause against the United States before a court of law. So long as the matters do not come before him in his capacity as Senator there can be no charge of impropriety. We are sorry to see that the Senator does not like the newspapers. It is bad enough to have one President like Grant, who docg not read newspapers, and who holds our calling in contempt. What shall we do if we areto have another like him in the eloquent and angry Senator from New York? PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. The Lord Mayor of London has been made a baronet, Philadephia has just raised $1,200 for John Mitchell. Ex-Mayor G. H. Thacher, of Albany, ts stopping at the Sturtevant House, State Senator F, W. Tobey, of Port Henry, N. ¥., 1s at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Mr. Marshall Wood, the sculptor, of London, is staying at the St. Denis Hotei. Senator William Windom, of Minnesota, is regise tered at the Metropolitan Hotel. Paymaster S. D. Hurlbut, United States Navy, is quartered at the Everett House. Count Lichtervelde, of the Belgian Legation, has apartments at the Brevoort Honse. Judge Charles J. Folger, of the Court of Appeals, ferred to in the usual patriotic style; that the | is residing at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. People were not reminded of the labors he had performed during his two terms of the Presi- dency; that his various efforts for the public good during the last twelve months were not properly described; that the admirable charac- ter of his appointments tp federal office within recent times was not duly dilated upon; that the assaults of his enemies were not repelled; that, in short, hardly any notice was taken of him by those who owe everything to him." We can well understand why the President should resent this omission. It is just possi- ble that the writers of the address, knowing that the President never reads any newspapers, may have taken advantage of this fact to ignore him. Now that he has discovered the evidence of the growth of morality and re ligion, omission we can anderstand his mortification. For, as the Commercial properly asks, ‘Who Misa Kicking Bird ts described as “a uvely, Piquant little thing, with arch, soulful eyes,” Senator Edmands has given $100 to the art gal- lery at the University of Vermont at Burlington. Baron de Reuter’s daughter is to marry Count Osto Steenback, of the Swedish legation in London, 4 silver cradle has been presented to the Mayor of Waterford, but he ts compelled to find his own baby. Mr. Frederick Douglass arrived in this city yes. terday from Washington and is at the Astor House. Mr. George S, Bangs, Superintendent of tho Ratt. Way Postal Service, has arrived at she Sturtevant House. Mr. J. F. Joy, President of the Michigan Central Raliroad Oompany, is sojourning at the St. Nicho- las Hotel. Secretary Robeson arrived at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on Saturday and teft last evening to join bia family, Who are passing the summer at Rye Beachy New Gamosnire, :