The New York Herald Newspaper, October 26, 1874, Page 6

8 NEW YORK HER eee BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. anemone JAMES. GORDON 8ENNETT. PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- ‘nual subscription price $12, pa EE sa All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yoru Henavp. Letters ard packages should be properly ‘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 TO-NIGHT. OLYMPIC THEATRE, Rs 6% Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P. ML .; Closes at 1045 ATRE, and Twenty-second closes at 10:30 P. M. PARK T WBroaqway, between ‘Iwen tureets.—GiLDsU AGE, at ‘Mr. John T. Raymon. THEATRE COMIQUE, Ry 514 Broadway.—VARIETY, a8. M.; closes at 10:39 2 M. STEINWAY HALL, & DULL CARE, at8P. M.; ic Maceabe. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth strees—LR. Buw P.M. BOOTH'S THEATRE, orner of Twenty-third street and’ Sixth avenue — ge BETH, at 32, M.; closes at 10:3) an. P.M. Miss Cush WALLACK’S THEATRE, TH ROMANCE OF A ‘POOR YOUNG P.M; closes at 10:30 P.M. Miss Ada Dyas, IY OF MUSIC, n Opera—IL TROVATORE, at closes at 10 P.M, Mile. Heilbron, Miss Cary, ‘Carpi, Dei Puente, Fio NIBLO’S GARDEN, roadway, between Prince and Houston street —THE ELUGE,' at 8 FP. M.; closes at IMP. M. The Kiralfy Family. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Errenty. eighth street _and *Broadway.—MOORCROPT; Je TH: DOUBLE WEDDING, at 8 2. M-; closes at IL ig M. Miss Fanny Davenport, Miss Sara Jewett, Lot ames. MRS. CONWAY'S OUKLYN THEATRE, LADY AU SECRET, at 8P. M.; closes at 10:30 be. M. Mrs. Baweea C. MeCollom, ROBINSON HALL, em street. between Broadway and Fifth avenue.— ARIBTY, at 8 P. M. BRYANT'S OPE“ A HOUSE, Test Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO INSTRELSY, &¢.,at3 P. M.; closes at 10 P.M. Dan ryan. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, bag nd Broadway.—VARIE1Y, at 8 P.M; closes at 10 TONY PASTOR'S OPERA HOUSE, No. 201 Bowery.—VARIE/Y, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P. CO MINSTRELS, ‘wenty ninth streeL—NEGRO j closes at 10 P. Mf. SAN FRAN roadway. corner of ANSTRELS x, at 5 P. LYCEUM |HEATRE, fa street d Sixth avenue.—ROMEO AND JULIET, at8P. M.; closes at 10:15 P, M. Miss Neiison, Ber Barses Third avenue, between streets. INDUSTRIAL & OSSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirty-titth street STORM OVER. FARIS ond MES. JARLEY'S WAX WORKS, ats 00 F. M. and 745 P.M. SOMERVILL Fourteenth street a! LOOKOUT MOUNTA! GALLEFY, P.M. P.M. Lhellle PUTO estern. TRIPLE SHEET. New York, Monday, October 26, 1874, | From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be clear or partly cloudy, Inortant ur Trvz—That the republicans, in their meeting to-night, will fully explain the results of the late Western elections, and why it is that those elections cannot upset “the powers that be’ in New York. An Examination of the prisoner supposed to be Nana Sahib has caused the British authorities to doubt if he is really that no- ‘*torious monster. His personal appearance is too youthful ; but other witnesses will soon determine the question of identity. An Estente Corprarz has been officially declared between France and Spain, and be- tween Germany and Spain, but there is no entente cordiale between France and Germany, and here lies the danger to Spain, France and Germany and to the peace of the Conti- nent, Swreverort, La., last fall suffered dread- fully from a destructive siege of the yellow WESPE, at 8'P. M,; closes at | | averted if General Grant would publicly dis- ALD! The Third Term Question and the | have | yet this is the vein in which our contempora- | ries are discussing it, They are at length con- | vinced, after pouring so much shallow ridicule | term discussion has lately assumed in the | personal information, by Mr. Bryant himself. _NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, OCTOBER 2b, 1874. TRIPLE SHEET. Public Press. | The fact that all the ablest newspapers in | the United States, all the publio journals | whose intelligence and standing give them a or three weeks, discussing the third term ques- | tion as the gravest topic of the period, might, perhaps, soothe the vanity of the Hzrarp if its only object in pressing this subject on public attention had been to create a tran- sient sensation. But we disclaim such trivial motives in dealing with a political question of the gravest magnitude. We thought it our duty to raise a voice of warning against the most portentous peril which has beset our free institutions, and the satisfaction we feel | in the recent indorsement of such a ‘‘cloud of witnesses’ as is furnished by our contempo- raries consists in the hope that we are to able and zealous allies in rous- ing the public mind to a sense of dan- | ger. Itseems tous that the journals of the country have not yet grasped the whole extent of this question; that they stick in the bark instead of penetrating to the pith of a danger which threatens to subvert republican govern- ment in this country. Nothing could be more superficial than to regard itas a mere question of President Grant’s personal ambition. And on the Hezaup’s warnings, that there is real danger of a third term; but they do not per- ceive that the source of this danger lies far deeper than the personal aspirations of the President now in office, They accordingly seem to think that the whole peril would be avow the aspirations he is supposed to cherish in manner so unequivocal as to bind his personal honor to refuse a third nomination. With all due respect we think this a very superficial view of the subject, It is not | what General Grant may personally de- sire, but what the condition of the country may enable him to attain, that is the real ground of apprehension and alarm. The philosophy of this question is not yet under- stood; but the recent public awakening against Grant’s aspirations and the deep interest with which the question is lately dis- cussed afford some ground to hope that we may gain the serious attention of the country to a deeper philosophical probing than this | question has yet received. We shall be greatly mistaken if the arguments we have yet to pre- sent do not make a profound impression. But our present purpose is merely to call attention to the great prominence the third | | public press. The most noteworthy instance is a recent able leader in the Hvening Post, written, as we are assured on trustworthy It is needless to say that a gentleman of Mr. | | Bryant’s eminent standing in the literature and politics of his country and his fastidious | paper. | the full magnitude of the danger as viewed | | philosophy. | twenty centuries. He said the Empire was would be impossible for us to use them. The ground as the venerable editor of the Evening Post, who is intrusted with many confidences title to attention, have been, for the last two | by the leading public men of the country, but | never divulges them in the columns of his | In his recent striking leader on the | third term question he shows how thoroughly | he is convinced of the reality of General Grant's aspirations without betraying any private confidence, and the Hzraxp has con- sistently maintained the same reserve respect- ing private communications. We do not see how a respectable newspaper can pursue 4 different course. The confidential informa- | ment in interpreting public facts, but it would be a baseness to make any public use of private conversations, The exact sense of propriety always main- tained by the venerable editor of the Evening Post gives peculiar significance to his em- phatic protest against the third term ambition of President Grant. He has the amplest op- portunities to know, from his wide and confi- dential intercourse with public men, what Grant is really aiming at, and unless he were thoroughly convinced he would not come forth from his retirement to make an energetic pro- test. But we doubtif even he has yet grasped the full magnitude of the danger. It is not & mere question of the ambition of a particu- lar man who happens to be Presi- dent; it is the symptom.of a deep- seated disease, Which threatens the life of our free institutions, and which has not | yet been set forth in the full diagnosis which truth would warrant. The Henaup displayed the symptom because that was the readiest method of enlisting public at- tention. Having accomplished this it does not despair of impressing the country with from the highest standpoints of political Fallacies as to the East. In view of the possible, we cannot yet think | probable, conflict of the only two remotely Eastern communities with which we of the United States have any relations, it is not wholly amiss to disabuse ourselves of two fal- lacies whith are widely prevalent. One is that the commercial interests of the United States and the world generally, as between China and Japan, bear any the least com- parison; and the other, that while everything in Japan is improving and what is termed “progression,” all in China is decrepitude and decay. Fifteen years ago, when France and England had the old Empire by the throat, and Canton was captured, and the sanctity of Pekin violated, and the Em- peror’s palace burned, Mr. Meigson Cooke, barriater-at-law and special correspondent of the London Times, gravely and positively an- nounced the coming doom of institutions which in their present form had lasted for sense of personal dignity would not come |‘ out of his retirement at his advanced age | R th avenue.—BATTLE OF | Walker. pi EXE other public writer. Certain it is that he | fever, and this fall, though exempt from the | fever, the city is under the terrors of the bayonet. Such is the progress of law and order under Kellogg’s benign government in Louisiana. Looxina Ur 1x THE Wortp.—A few years | ago the Republic of Dominica offered to sell out to the United States for a million anda half of dollars. Now, Dominica, on her own ‘account, wants to borrow three millions. This looks like progress, but it may signify only an empty treasury. Tue Repty or Lorp Dersy to the com- plaint of the Spanish government that ma- terials of war were shipped from England for the Carlists was an example of independence and candor which will make the American policy in regard to Spain seem even more timid aad humiliating. Tue Count oe CHamBorp.—It is reported that the French Bourbons are strongly urging the Count de Chambord to return to France. Those Bourbons in these appeals simply ig- nore the teachings of the recent French elec- tions, because they never learn anything and forget everything except the so-called ‘divine rights’ of the Bourbons, Fortiryixe Acaisst tae Caruists.—The Spanish republicans have completed the work of fortifying the line of the Ebro, and now they are expected to begin an active movement against the Carlists immediately. This means that the republicans, so tar, have been fighting on the defensive, and that in | preparing for regular offensive movement | on the one side they mast be fortified against the Carlists on the other, to prevent their | | man slipping round by o flank movement to | | name and the names of the other gentle- | gotten that there may be another side to the | story, and the Parthia having gone to sea it Madrid. Moral.--The Carlista are stronger in the are bound to respect the sacredness of field than they are represented to be in the | private conversations, and even if we needed @enerul news despatches from Madrid. to indorse a mere newspaper sensation. ‘This eminent patriot, who is one of the bright- | est ornaments of American letters, and the | only survivor of the distinguished body of | | New York journalists who so powerfully in- | fluenced public opinion in the last generation, | has a better title to be heard than almost any | | would not take up his pen, so little used of | | late, on any subject which he did not think of | first rate importance. Mr. Bryant has evi- | dently become convinced that the third term | question is a serious peril, and if younger and more alert journalists were first to descry the | danger, it is all the more creditable to his patriotism that he takes up the note of warn- “ing at so late a day, when no other motive than a slow and reluctant sense of public dan- | ger could have called him to the front. The | admirable article to which we allude, and | which proves how fully the vigorous faculties of early manhood are in his case preserved. | at an advanced period of life, closes with this frank declaration:—‘‘So causeless, however, is this innovation upon the settled usages of the country, so inexcusable on any pretence of present necessity and so pregnant with danger for the future, that we feel ourselves bound fraukly to say that from whatever quar- ter the nomination of President Grant fora third term may proceed, it will meet no sup- port from this journal.” In view of the tone of scoffing ridicule with which the Hzpaup’s first notes of warning were greeted the earnest indorsement of a publicist so able, experienced and respected as Mr. Bryant may well console us for the flippant obloquy of small journals which saw nothing in this great subject but a transient | newspaper sensation. But we feel less satis- faction in some other attempts to support the | Position of the Huranp. We are assured, on | | authority in which we have the fullest con- fidence, that Judge Pierrepont, an intimate and confidential friend of the President, did actually say what has been attributed to him ina conversation at Congress Hall, | in Albany. The names of the gentlemen with whom he had that conversation have been communicated to us, with free permission to use them to authenticate the conversation. We trust it is scarcely necessary to say that the Hzrarp declines to avail itself of such a permission. In our judgment the cas- | | ual conversations of o gentleman in | a hotel, uttered in the freedom of social intercourse, can never be justifiably re- ported tor publication in a newspaper. There is, perhaps, nothing contrary to the usage which prevaiis among gentlemen in repeating such conversations in private circles, if there ‘was no express or implied injunction of se- erecy ; but there is no valid excuse for giving them to a newspaper for publication, It seems that the respectable young gentleman who was one of those to whom Judge Pierre- | pont addressed his conversation at Congress | Hall happened to repeat the substance of it to the editor of the Utica Observer, who had the indiscretion to printit. When its authen- ticity was denied the editor ot the Observer called on his informant to support him, and | | the young gentleman, whose youth must be | his excuse, was unwary enough to write a let- | ter to that paper, stating what Judge Pierre- | pont had said, And this young gentle- | has authorized us to use his | | mon present at the conversation. We ® mere eggshell, to be crushed by the first | hard blow from without. Poor old Mr. | Seward, because he saw dirt and bad roads and ruined temples on his antipodean ramble, came to the same conclusion. Yet it is very obvious that blows from without rather benefit than weaken her, and as a_ political China stands as firmly as in the days of Bel- shazzar, holding for her specialties the whole world tributary, and stronger in her adapta- bility than ever she was, China will not im- port sewing machines and Yankee clocks like Japan, but she has docks on which huge men-of-war can be repaired, and war steam- ers, manned by Chinese, and all the improve- ments of modernartillery. As far back as 1859 the French sixty-gun frigate L’Audacieuse was docked at Shanghai oa ways devised and built by Chinese, and safely relaunched. China, then, is not decaying, nor likely to de- cay. Whether the progress of Japan is to the same extent a fallacy this is not the place to discuss. The whole Japan affair has always seemed to us more of a toy than any- thing else, As to the relative interest of the commercial world in them, it is simply absurd to talk about it. Look at the map and see the little Japanese patches alongside of China’s enormous territory. And even of Japan, small as it is, we have not penetrated beyond the outer surface. Jeddo is close to the coast relatively to the superfices of the main land, while at Hankow and further, five hundred miles up the great river of China, are foreign factories and ex- tensive trade. To make this contrast clearer look at the relative foreign trade of the two countries, and to make it still more apparent we take their larger customer, Great Britain, as the standard. In 1873, the latest year of which we have returns, China imported from England and her colonies $127,000,000, and Japan about $13,000,000. In the same year China’s exports to Great Britain were $111,000,000 and Japan’s about $1,500,000. Our own imports from China were $26,000, 000, and from Japan about $9,000,000. The ex- to establish the fact of Grant’s aspirations, it | Hemarp stands, we suppose, on the same | tion it receives sesists and guides its judg- | insti tution’ Will the President Answer His Friends? { If the President intends to speak upon the third term question he must speak very He returns to Washington to find him- self in a new position in respect to this issue, | and it is not possible that he should fail to see | it. When the Henaxp first urged him to spare | the country a painful and possibly disastrous struggle by making a manly declaration that he would not again be a candidate he had this pretext for his silence, that the press of his party treated our warnings as mere moon- shine and mischief. When men like Mosby and Gordon declared in favor of a third term he had the excuse to plead for silence that they were not authorized to speak for him, and when the movement for his re-elec- tion almost amounted to an organization he could still assume that it was made without his permission. It is true that during this period his silence encouraged the formation of a third term party and connived at the in- troduction into our politics of an evil prin- ciple which he might have crushed with a word. But then the President is a silent man by nature ; the dignity of his great office forbids him to take the people into his con- fidence ; he would not speak on compulsion, and, besides, “it was not a practical ques- tion.’’ So when he was asked if he would continue to hold his office he responded by holding his tongue. But now an answer is requested of General Grant, not by sensational newspapers which want to get up an excitement which steadily increases for eighteen months, nor indirectly by the enthusiastic politicians who have been for months shouting for him as the third term Washington, but by his trusted friends and by the party which elected him. Since Gen- eral Grant left the capital for a Western tour | the October elections lost two great States to the republican party, and the democrats made enormous gains in the next Congress. The fear of the people that he intended to use the republican party as an instru- men to obtain his re-election was the main cause of its defeat. Many of the ablest republican leaders firmly believe this, and, alarmed at the danger threatened by the President's intention, or the silence which is eloquent of ambition, they have appealed to him to remove it. When Governor Dix said that he was opposed to a third term it was an appeal, When Judge Kelley declared his oppo- sition it was an appeal. When Senator Morrill urged Senator Edmunds to use his influence with the President to disavow a third term purpose it was an appeal. When Secretary Robeson said the President was not a candidate that was an appeal for confirmation, It was an appeal more significant, because it was unexpected, that the New York Times made when it begged Governor Dix to save the party in New York by proclaiming himself against the third term, When the Indianapolis Journal, Senator Morton’s ‘“‘organ,’’ said that the President should make a manly announce- ment, and that “this is what he should have done long ago, and would have done had he properly appreciated his duty to the country and to the republican party,’’ that was an ap- peal. When the Jvening Post tells General Grant that his present taciturn policy im- poses upon the republican party ‘the bar- barons alternative of suicide or his renomina- tion—to destroy itself or be destroyed,” it is an appeal of the strongest kind. ‘The question is now formally addressed to the President, not by his enemies, nor by those who are independent of him, but by his friends. The republican party now demands an auswer. Its very life depends upon the issue. So long as the President will not declare himself against the third term move- ment it will increase under his encouraging silence, like vegetation in the darkness, and when the light comes men will be astonished to behold its growth. This is what the re- publican party fears; the corruption of its own members, which has already been shown by our canvass of Oon- gressional opinions, and its consequent committal to a purpose which the people will not approve. The October elections have shown that the people will not be controlled in this matter by the politicians, and the friends of General Grant have been forced to so inform him. They are his advisers now, not we. They implore him to save not merely the country, but the party. They ask an answer at once, that the elections in Novem- ber may*hot add to the October losses. It is hard to see how he can long maintain his silence when so carnestly besought to speak. Yet when the subject was alluded to in the Cabinet on Saturday, in connection with the elections, he summarily dismissed it as irrelevant, and said it would be extremely indecorous in him to take notice of news- paper discussion. This may do for the Cabinet, but it will not do for the party. General Grant may wait till after November 3, bat it will be at his own risk; for if the re- publican party is then defeated its friends, who are his friends also, will hold him re- | Boon. ports from the United States to Japan were relatively larger, but an examination of their details shows that it is a commercial inter- course that must be temporary. Of course, such # comparison proves nothing conclu- sively as to the result of any conflict into which these unfortunate communities—for war isan especial misfortune to them—may be plunged. The islander may be too much in such a contest for the continental. Such things have happened before. We enter into no such speculation, but merely note an ae- tual state of facts on which it may be worth while to meditate. Japan is worth less to us than China, and China—all vaticinations to the contrary notwithstanding—is, in this sense, not ‘‘going to the dogs.” Tux Sureverort Agrests.—It seems there is some sort of a misunderstanding between General Emory and Major Merrill in regard to the Shreveport arrests. Major Merrill is, perhaps, @ little too zealous in the work in which he is engaged. Tae Coxtasion between the Adriatic and the Parthia, like all events of this kind in which the public safety is concerned, has occasioned a good deal of comment. The officers and pilot of the former vessel have joined ina statement declaring that the Parthia was to blame. At the same time it must not be for- will be impossible to determine the question sponsible for the ruin. The Metropolitan Pulpit. ‘We have gathered and offer to the public to- day, not a bouquet of bright-colored and brill- iant garden flowers, roses, tulips and pinks, but a simple bunch of herbs. To such a bunch we surely may compare the sermons published on another page, herbs of grace, herbs of humil- ity, herbs of charity, forgiveness and sim- plicity. There is healing in these leaves, and if some of them seem bitter to the taste they may be, for that very reason, more efficacious, It would be well, at all events, for the public, so eaget in pursuing pleasure that expires when it is overtaken, and happiness the mirage that vanishes, to study whether in these discourses—and others that we have woek by week printed—there may not be per- manent help and strength. Among the most noteworthy of these ser- mons we may place that of Bishop Bissell upon the duties of a Christian life, which are expounded with ability, and that of Bishop Whipple upon the duties of clergymen. These subjects correspond to each other very closely, as must be evident toall who examine them with care. The latter sermon was delivered on the occasion of the consecration of the Rev. Mr. Welles a8 Bishop of the Dioeese of Wis- | consin. ‘The Mission of Jesus” was explained by the Rev. Dr. Bellows, and a compartson of the teachings in the books of the evangelists | with those of Paul was finely introduced. of responsibility till her officers have been what may be said in tham—which we do not— heard fram Mr. Beecher presented his favorite idea ef God and His relations to thia sinful world, and Mz, Taimage described God's highway, proving conclusively that it is the only road on which it is safe to travel. He spoke of Napoleon's great military road, fif- teen miles long, and forcibly inquired, “what was that to the road down which the hosts of heaven may come and all the redeemed of this earth may ascond?’’ The Rev. W. H. Cornforth, of London, delivered a discourse upon ‘The Immatability of the Saviour,” and Father Toner depicted the dangers of postponing repentance. There is much vari- ety in these sermons, but entire unity as to the necessity of the Christian religion to the happiness of mankind. Crying Their Wares. All of our candidates for Mayor—Wickham, Wales and Ottendorfer—are loud in their promises of reform, but none of them has yet told us what he means by his promises. Ina municipal canvass like that now going on in this city generalities are not sufficient. We, should like to hear from each of the candi- dates not so much that he is in favor of re- ducing the debt as the means by which, if elected, he expects to lighten the burdens of our people and improve the credit of the metropolis. Which of the candidates has as yet indicated a policy which promises good streets instead of the present wretched thor- oughfares in many localities? Has any one of the three aspirants for the Mayoralty any definite policy of public utility, or is each of them willing to accept the office and drift along from one emergency to the other, as has been the course of the present incumbent? Such a course will not much longer satisfy the demands of the people. In national, State and local politics we have heard nothing but generalities for years. In 1872 the opposition went into the canvass depending almost solely upon the ery, ‘‘Anything to beat Grant,” to bring them victory. There are no longer defined issues in our politics, as there were from the days of Jefferson to the time of Van Buren. A return tothe old order of things is becoming imperative. Generalities are be- coming distasteful. Promises of reform mean nothing, as is evident from the fact that every candidate makes them. Where is the candi- date for Mayor who will tell us just what he expects to accomplish, and how he hopes to accomplish it? The city debt is a serious problem. Each of the candidates ought to tell us how to meet the current expenses of municipal administration and yet pay the in- terest on the debt and provide for maturing obligations, He ought to tell us, besides, what measures of public improvement it would be the object of his administration to under- take and accomplish. Up to the present mo- ment we have had many promises, but, para- doxical as it may seem, no distinct promise. It is time that candidates ceased crying their wares in the Cheap Jack fashion and told us just what they are going to do. Current Literature. The current literature of a people is always an interesting study. To the American | reader American biography and history are especially interesting. We are now at a suffi- cient distance from our Revolutionary struggle with Great Britain to judge the men and events of that period with calmness and im- partiality. Of the personages who took part nent position than Franklin. Hero at last is a life of the philosopher that fills all the requirements of biography and autobiography, and consequently we have yielded a large part of the space which we devote to literature to-day,to a review of Mr. Bigelow’s work. As a cognate subject our review of Inger- soll’s ‘Life of Greeley” will havo a special attraction, for Greeley was, in his way, quite as remarkable a man as Franklin. Then we pass judgment on Mr. Abbott's his- tory of Captain Kidd, the pirate, and glean some interesting facts from John Camden Hotten’s lists of the emigrants trom Great Britain to America during the seventeenth century. We also get a glimpse of the sin- gular ‘Maria Monk’’ excitement in’ the book of Mrs. Eckel, her daughter, whose story is now told for the first time. Our reviews touch, besides, on other subjects of almost equal interest, and the whole presents a valu- able résumé of the most recent publications. The ‘Western Prairie Fires. The alarming prairie fires in Indiana are the natural sequel of the intense aridity which has prevailed there since the close of sum- mer. The September weather review shows an extensive belt of drought running south- westwardly from the southern shores of Lake Huron across Indiana and [Illinois to the | lower Ohio valley, in the centre of which the reported prairie conflagration has raged. As the beautiful West, so promising to the farmer, develops its civilization the conviction grows'that these fires of the fall are becoming more frequent and fatal. The unguarded camp fire, the spark of a locomotive, the dis- charge of the huntsman’s rifle, the lightning flash, may instantly ignite the vast seas of parched grass which wave over the prairies and the autumnal winds spread the havoc far and wide. These winds are the southwest, whose breath, like that of the desiccating sirocco, prepare vegetation, and even the soil itself, to burn. The prairie fire is, it is true, as old an institution as the prairie itself, which, from the earliest period, as far as geologic indications point, has been kept treeless by the annual burning. When as yet no human incendiary trod the Western wilds to desolate them wantonly the electric dis- charge from the storm cloud was probably sufficient every year to kindle the flames. At | any rate, experience shows that no human device can avert the annual calamity of forest and prairie burnings; and, aside from ar- tificial clearings, the area of treelessness hus rapidly expanded in the memory of living Western settlers. The resinous nature of the forests which fringe the Western lakes gives admission and lends terrific intensity to the once kindled flame. The only practical question which is left for the Western farmer to solve in his effort to stay the flery elemer’ is how to build his cities so that they may best resist it. The ; winds which transport the ashes of the con- | suming prairie and sow thum broadcast are from the southwest. The ill-fated city of Chicago, in her great fire, was utterly at the mercy of the flames, because they commenced in her southwestern precincts and were borne northeastwardly by the prevailing winds till arrested by the waters of Lake Michigan og arhausted for want of combus- in that contest none occupied a more promi- | i tible material. Had the fire begun in the northern portion of that metropolis it would have been comparatively unharmed. This fact proves the necessity of building the moat fireproof structures in the southern parts ot the Western towns and cities, so that if the fire begins among them it may be extinguished, and not spread over the whole area of the town. No doubt, also, a further precaution might prove useful in the agricultural dis- tricts, to reduce the amount of inflammable fencing, or, as is done in France and Ger- to dispense with it almost entirely. The cinders of the fences swallowed up in the fire storm are its most efficient means of ex- tension, for those of the prairie grass are too small to be very dangerous. As it is a mani- fest impossibility ever to employ any extin- guishing agent on these enormous conflagra- tions, they can be checked only by some such expedient for withdrawing fuel from the flames. It is, we hope, now so late in the autumn that the Indiana burnings may be arrested by heavy rains. But the farmers in Western New York, Ohio and Western Pennsylvania may well be warned to look out for the spread eastward of this devouring agent. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Thirty thousand persons annually emigrate from Italy. Ex-Governor John Evans, of Colorado, is staying at the St, Nicholas Hotel. Mr. Marshall Wood, the sculptor of London, ts re- siding at the Brevoort House, Bishop Edward R, Welles, of Wisconsin, has apartments at the Coleman House. Spiteful people in Paris say that Patti has not sung in that cigf since its misfortunes, Senator Gegfge F. Eamunds, of Vermont, ar rived last eyBuing at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Congressman R. H. Duell, of Cortland, N. Y¥., is among the latest arrivals at the Astor House, Mr. R, Lafamme, a member of the Canadian Parliament, 1s registered at the Brevoort House. The Duke and Duchess o/ Edinburg will make their home permanently at Eastwell Park, in Kent. . Dejazet takes Burgundy and objects to Bordeaux that “one is as stupid at the end ofa botile as at the beginning.’’ Who says he never saw a drunken Frenchman? Ninety-three were arrested in one day in one ‘ward of the city of Paris, George Bancroft Is now about to write on the constitution. We thought at one time that Andy Jonnsou was bad enough, Tne London Jewish Chronicle announces the death of Rabbi Jacob d’Avigdor, formerly and for many years Chief Rabbi of Turkey. The Right Hon. Hugh Chiiders, Member of Par- Hament, sailed from England for New York on paturaay, 24th inst., in the steamship Abyssinia. Four thousand persons waited in the streets all night at Paris to see tue execution of Moreau, who poisoned his two wives—and the execution was postponed. From Madrid it is reported that Dorregaray’s retirement trom the forces of Don Carlos ts due to the fact that ne had been properly “seen” by re- publican omcials. On the 11th inst. they raised to the top of the Vendome column in Paris the bronze casting which forms the pedestal for the statue. It weighs 5,000 pounds. Emperor William intended to go to Italy this winter, bat has been compelied to send Von Ken- dell to Rome with a letter of regret—cause, obsti- nacy of his doctors. Who shall succeed to Bazatne’s post as Marshal of France? MacManon is forGeneral |’Admirault, but the Right and Right Centre of the Assembly strongly favor the Duc d’Aumule. In a trial of the Queen against Mr. Taddings, ed- itor of tne Colonist, for libel on Rev. Mr. Light bound, at Hamilton, Bermuda, a verdict of guilty was rendered, Mr. Taddings was sentenced to ten days’ unprisonment in jail and to pay a fine of $250. International good will again | Sailor overboard from British three-decker London in the narbor of Rio Janeiro and likely todrown; two sailors dive from United States frigate Lancaster and save him! Three cheers! Blood is thicker than water, &c. Monsignor Teodoli Camorlingo, at the Vatican, has been captured by brigands near Frosinore, aud they want 150,000 francs for him. Excessive ly dear for a Camerlingo; but the brigands have not heard of the decreasing importance of this sort of people in the world of to-day. One hundred years ago Louis XVI. had just as- cended the throne of the Capets; there was no American Republic; the colonization of Australia had not begun; there were fifty years more to wait for the frst railway, and nobody had dis- turbed the world witn such a motion as commani- cation by telegraph. Sydney Smitn said every pu>iic man should be provided with a foolometer—that is, the acquaint- ance of three or four regular fools, on whom he could try bis measures and judge of the effect they were likely to produce on public opinion. Grant bas a fine collection ot private fools, and ao has Jobn Kelly, yet no good effect is perceptible. Lord Dufferin, the Canadian Governor General, lett the Brevoort House last evening for Washing- ton. He will breakfast with Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister, this morning, after which he ‘will leave for Baltimore, returning to New York by the evening train, He will leave this city for his home in Canada on Thursday next. The Queen Dowager of Bavaria, who has just embraced Catholicism, is @ Prussian Princess and cousin of the German Emperor. Her brother, Admiral Prince Adalvert, died ashort time ago; her sister, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, is mother- in-law of Princess Alice of Great Britain. The Queen remained a Protestant during the life of the late King of Bavaria, but has long evinced a marked predilection for the Papal Church. “Ou diabdle la couleur va-t-elle se nicher?"" de- mands the French reporter of a queer discovery. Doctor Chevreuse had fish in an aquarium and fed them on beetles. In cutting off the beetles’ heads he found a few drops of thick liquid flow out, aad after considerable observation noted that the color of this substance varied with tne plant of which the beetle had eaten. He has obtained by experiment fourteen very valuabie shades of color not perishable in the light. An ola soldier 10 Sicily gave his wife a silk dress. His wife died and was buried in the dress. Some weeks after the old soldier saw this dress ona wo- man in the country, and, making inquiry, was told she had purchased it from the Capuchin monks, who had the custody of the village cemetery. He reported the case to the police, who investi- gated and made the discovery thata regular trade was carried on in effects taken irom dead bodies. ‘There was even a trade im hair. His number in the Paris hist of drivers was 13,022, He had seen better days, but now he drove acab. He was sent, with others, to carry a wed- ding party from the church toa wedding break- last. In his cao were placed the bridegroom ana. the bride. He recognized in the bridegroom a; man who had once had him pat in prison for debt. Once 1airly on the way, he whipped up and dro’ away from the other cabs and landed the bi and bridegroom, badly damaged, after an hour's hard drive in @ desolate rural district op the wrong road. ‘they got home at midnight. It was am epic vengeance. Casimir Delavigne’s play of the “Children of Edward’—the subject of which was the usurpa- tion of Richard IIl.—was interdicted by Thiers, then Prime Minister, because he thought the story had an unpleasant resemblance in some points to the history of the Orieans dynasty. Delavigne went to the King and Thiers was present. Dele- vigne said, “Sire, you know that i have @ calla- orator in this tragedy—yoerself—tor it was Your Majesty, who, under the ab@day groves o1 Neullly, asked me to put the subject on the stage.” Tne King replied, “You are quite right, Let the inter- diction be taken of.” And #o it was done, ip apie of M Thiers,