The New York Herald Newspaper, November 30, 1874, Page 5

THE STARVING MINERS. Situation of the Capitalist and Laborer in the Coal Regions Contrasted. THE MINER IN HIS HOME. Horrible Scenes of Destitution and Wretchedness, WOMEN UNSEXED BY MISERY. Bread to Starving Thousands or Riot and Murder. ATTENTION! PHILANTHROPISTS. ScRanTON, Pa., Nov. 26, 1874, Within a stone's throw of this proud and beauti- Tul city, just over there, across the ravine—nay, so close that I can see its crembling buts and rook- erles as I gaze from the windows of my hotel—is a strange and wild locality, whicb, from its earliest existence, has known no other name than Shanty Hill, Itis here that the miner has his miserable ‘@bode—here only that we can find him at home. The hillside upon which stand the cabins is so Precipitous that, ag all the seats of @ theatre can be seen from the stage, so can all the huts of Shanty Hill be viewed trom the opposite side of the gorge. This gorge is the dividing line of two Classes of society, which present the strangest and At the same time most melancholy contrasts, On the one side I see wealth, laxury, comfort and ase, on the other poverty, hunger, death and de- Bpair, On the one side all the blessings of Curis- tianity and education, on the other all the curses of ignorance and woe. On the one side capital, on the other side labor; not labor, noble, enterprising, dignified; not labor that delves down into the mines and with its tawny, muscular hands drags forth the juel for a million crackling fires; not labor that turns the iron hot and brist- ling from the mills, to gird our country with rail- ‘Ways; but laborin anguish and in teara; labor driven in despair from mill and mine; discharged, indolent and ridiculed; baffled, hounded and pur- sued until turned from every other quarter it grovels into the huts of Snanty Hill, where tt riots, hungers and finally expires. of the HERALD have read of pillage, outrage and murder. They have learned bow men have been waylaid, mutilated, crucified. Scarcely a day has marked the past few weeks but some biood-curd- ling tale of horror has flashea over the wires trom ‘this point that has startled every brain and sent | @ pang of anguish to every heart; nay, that hasso @roused their bitter mdignation, that were they to meet one of these dusky, dirt-begrimmed genizens of the mines their first impulse Would be to shoot him in his tracks. But I ask these readers, before they pass judgment | pon these miserable law-breaking men, to view the terrible condition in which they are compelled to live; to appreciate if they can the piercing agony of those who, idle upon the verge of winter, and With their wives and ‘amishing children clutching at their knees, stand shivering without a loaf. I Would have them listen to the cries that well up from tuousands of crushed or breaking hearts, Not tor comfort, not tor raiment, not for fire, but jor bread. Few who are not compelled ever visit Shanty Hill. It is right over there across the frozen stream, but yet as little known to these good Scranton folk as some unexplored wild of Alrica. A VISIT TO SHANTY HILL. in order to thoroughly familiarize myself with the locality 1 engaged a miner for a guide—one ‘who lives in the neighborhood, and to whom many of its inhabitants are companions. To have gone there alone at night would have been dangerous and fooihardy, tor some have journeyed thither and never returned. Following the entire length of the main avenue of this city and descending a deep ravine flied with biast turnaces and rolling | mills, I climbed the rugged steeps of the hillside beyond, and in about one hour after the time of my departure found myself in the heart of Shanty Hill, It was the eve of Thanksgiving; tne air was cold and biting, but the skies were clear and bright, with their moon and stars, Upon looking around me | discovered that I wes standing in a broad thoroughiare, running mountainwards, Fuggea and filled with stunes, upon either side of which were crowded hundreds of crumbling cabins. To the right, to the leit, above and below, as far as the eye could reach, I saw nothing but huts, for the population of Shanty Hill, all told, is 10,000. In and vut Of these lowiy placea, and fit- ting like shadows here and there, men, women and children were moving, while the neighborhood resounded with many unpleasant sounds. In some instances the people were decently clad, but the clothes upon most of them were simply a wilder- mess of tatters. ‘The faces that luted their eyes upon me as they passed were dark and sullen, while a few vore traces of distress and tears. Detiance caused many to and regard me Ssavugely, while & few who hurried along with vowed heads and aching hearts seemed utterly humiliated ana bioken down, IL aw nowhere around me, among the many thou- sand howes that crowded the steeps, a single one that was decent or respectavle, or ove in which ( eculd consider it possible for a human being to live; yet around me, and grovelling tn these dreary, nnheaithy huts were 10,000 souis, to waom ptr rah Was as dear and le as precious as to my- eel LIFE IN A ROOKERY. The first place to which my guide directed me was a cabin, literally tailing to pieces, the entrance to which was guarded by @ hungry, suariing aog. Wne door was unvolied, and, without knocking, ‘we two passea tn. The apartment was small and dt was cold, 1t was liguted partly by a dim, Qutter- ang lamp and partly vy the moonshine, which Of late the readers | glided in through the chinks and openings of the | anin and leaky rot, The embers of poverty’s tast | fre lay pure and white, like acorps , upon tue | hearth, womap Was there—a woman with a sullen, defiant face and dishevellea hair, and I saw also four young children; two were nestled stivering at her ieet, and the other two were asleep upun the floor, The woman was e@hoeless and syuckingless, wuile the only garment she possessed was 80 tattered and worn that through it coui be traced every curve and out Mune of ner form. Tire clothes of the children were like those of the mother, wiile her youngest—her baby—nad nothing but a shawi to keep it warm. As we entered the woman sprang to her feet and steadily regarded us. Her two children that were awake clung to ler garment as il tn fear. The woman was rude, rough, ignorant, deflant, Hun- ger raged in ber breast and hate and madness eamed in her eyes. Ifeitas { gazed upon her ike one who views some ruined mansion, in which comfort and peace once dwelled, vut which at last ‘was ieit desolate to the wolves. Every spark of womanhood trom her had fled, Every human Grait was aosent from her countenance. Courage, hope, pity—nay, even sbame had deserted her and leit her @ devil incarnate, the many about her—who nad been once & woman, but whom hunger and misery had transiormed luto a fiend. She vroke forth in @ torrent of pent-up griev- ances, which our coming had served to unloose—a profane catalogue of the ill-treatment she had re- ceived, that she had brooded over during her pov- erty and distress, and that our presence seemed only to mtensify. ened. she went to the broken window, and, throwing up the sash, pointed to the turrets and roots of the rich that gleamed in the moonlight on she other side of the gorge, and swore vengeance pon them. Ihave read how, during the reign of the Com- mune, women, brandishing the incenalary torch, Xow shrieking ‘through the strcets ot Paris; but t felt that had this creature been there she would A bave disdained the torch and caught up the live | cvals in her rude and naked hand4 The cries of the woman aroused her two sleeping children, and one Of them upon arising stood before me almost as naked a8 at the hourof ita birth, “Look at fhem,” shouted the iniuriated creature, “Look at them, They ere cola; they are gatarving, while . the children ’ of | them over there have had their supper, and are now aleeping im their nice warm beas, It is not be- cause thoy are better of than ng, but because they Have been abusing and cheating us ior vears.” Then Jollowed another OUTBURST OF RAGE AND DRSPAIR that would terrify any listener and cause him to lace his hands dpon his ears lest the memory of ne sounds should haunt him lorever. We passed out, Land my miner guide, out over the tilting, rickety floor, out over the body of the prostrate dog, Out into the cold snd dreary night. For a Dioment 1 paused apgD the puregbuld, ag IM oxine ~~ She | She not op.y raved, she threat- | pause | NEW YUKK HERALD, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 80, 1874 stIDCt, tO renect. NO Work, Do food, no Ore; butiew clothes for herself and almost none lor her chil- | dren; living inahome iikely to tumble to ruin Upon the heads of those she loved at any moment; ber heart hursting with hate and vengeance Sgainst all whose condition tn life was better vhan her own, nursing in her poverty and want ten thousand imaginary grievances, Ignorant and deflant of the law and frenzied with despair; | her life a curse, not only to all who surrounded her | | | ‘Dut also to herself, Would it be strange ff, in a Moment of supreme madness, she should break from her home, and, with the Knife or the biud- goon, Jay, cold In dense the first creature met in er WAY We walked the hard, stony thorougnlare, and entered another hut just across the way. But, ah, how strange the contrast! Poverty was here, aud want and woe; but it seemed as Il the hand, duily and hourly losing its strength, was daily and hourly giving that strength to keep it warm and clean. ‘The tire that burned was faint and flickering, and the room Was miserable and mean; but the presence of a mother and the pure, wlure face of her child wrought up a picture which, despite its dreary coloring and terribie Dackground, was as sweet and touching as it was painiul and sad. ‘There waa no deflance on the tender countenance of that poor woman by the fire: it was upturned to ours as We entered, and we learned O01 ite misery through ita tears, Pov- erty had destroyed her comiort, her happiness, her home; poverty bad reduced her to penury and rags; but poverty had not robbed her oi her womanhood; it was there a3 @ bright and holy spark, burning still in tue midst of her despair; all the more radiant because ail things ‘about it were so dark; woman, mother io the better days of hers that are gone, Woman and mother will she always be 1D the still darker days sure to come. She was not altogether destitute, nor was the house entirely without jood, But she said, faintly, raising her thin haud and pointing as i! the ter- ible thing existed to her vision in tangible rorm, “THE WINTER! THE WINTER! “Have you any other children one?” | asked, Without a word the woman tiredly arose, and, .. taking up the lamp, walked into an adjoming room, I followed her. There was a bed standing in the corner, a bed that was old, but clean; she pulled down the covering, gently, as if not to dis- turb the sleeper, and disclosed tne face ofa little girl For several moments there was no sound, but I knew too well the tempest that was raging in that poor mother’s heart. I appreciated the torrent of emotion that rushed through er breast as, standing beside that lonely bed, she looked upon the face of her slumbering dar- lung and thought of the cod, freezing winter yet to come, The food was too strong for uer to re- gist; 1b swept away every barrier; the lamp shook like an aspen leaf in her hand and she burst into tears. Here, then, I had seen two homes and two women—one filled with riot and revenge, the other of womanhood and woe; one ready to rush inco the street aud mete out death to all she met, the other raking the expiring embers of a dreary hearth, working her poor, hungry, fainting le away {o keep ner children clean’ and warm, 1 Passed out into the night again. Down in the | ravine below I could see the dusky chimneys of the furnace and mills, which all summer loug were | idle and are so still It was upon these that these people depended, and now everything threateus that during the entire winter they will run only upon halftime. If such ts the case even those who are now ea in them cannot hive, and how Will tuey pass their winter ? It is useless lor me to continue the reproduction of these sad pictures. I wept into more than twenty homes, to all of which, unless something be done, death and starvation must come beiore spring. { saw poverty and distress in all their lorms, and saw no home that was comiortable or well fed. L believe have said enough to arouse tho interest of these generous people of Scrantun, and to influence them to more carefully study the CONDITION OF HUMAN LIFE in their neighborhood, ‘The scenes of poverty and the effects of crime are so trequent that, to the people who reside here, they have in @ great meas- ure lost much of their grave significance, and [ notice an inclination upon the part ol many to treat with comparative indifference outlawry and riot, which to visitors seems very startling and rad. As I came down the steeps of Shanty Hill that descended cityward and as | cure- fully studied my path across its hard, shelving, slippery rocks, it Was With ieelings o! pity and re- gret, which the season served on.y to increase, It was rnanksgiving Eve; years ago tuese people, nowW so poor, were wont lo go to town with merry, singing hearts and bring back to those they loved turkeys, geese, fowia and meat o: every kind; were wont to make their ciildren dance and laugh with the warm winter garments they would surprise them with; were wont, in a word, to live like human beings and pot as brutes; were wont - to rush among tueir neighbors unfortunate and in want and give them loud and drink and raiment, so that on Thanksgiving DAE every man, woman and child on Shanty Hill would ve jul, happy @nd warm, And now, alas! the change. tieaven, tu the construction of suciety, has ordained great contrasts, but Heaven uever meant that any Clauss should starve. Now no happiness reigns in thousands of tuese dreary homes; no clothes for the bodies of these litle ones; no shoes lor their feet; nay, in some in- stances not even @ loaf to remind themof tue bright, busy days that are passed. And do not these same thoughts rage in their brain and wrangle in their heart? Do not the memories Of those better nours come to them and their desolated heartns, and as demons serve to urge them on tomadness? Is not the sight o/ a child once warm, now shivering, once happy, Dow in distress, and of @ wife he cannot feed, calculated to frenzy any man and lead nim to viviate any law, civil or divine, for a loaf? And when poverty ig rapidly nearing death, as in the first in. stance given above, when angry men are back- ed up and goaded on by such women as this ove [nave described, do not the recent outrages receive new lignt? Oris it strange that, moved | | | { | by such utter despair, the infuriated man shoud | Waylay the frst man better off than himself, and, creeping Uvon him unawares, strike bim merci- lessly and revengefully down? Tnave not overdrawn the picture. I appreciate the position into which this letter places society 1n the coal regions; but | simply ask all who douvt to visit Shanty Hill and see tor themseives—not the brick tenements Of the companies, but the rookeries into which thousands are compelled to live. There reside the men who tor months and months have been idle, and there the abodes of | many who, starve and die. There are seen grovelimy in fiitn und every coudition of debased or DEBAUCHED MANHOOD, hundreds, nay thousands of peopie who in their despair are ready at all moments to indulge in any Outrage that will give them bread. Have they not revolted already? Wus not Fairlawn list week tne scene of a public riot, aud there, hand- ling the club and hurling the stones, were not the | women a8 fiercely determined as the men? Hunger makes man mad, and to him at once aestroys the virtue of law and the sacredness of human life, During the past few days parties have visited my room and shown me letters Of @ most threat ening bature; partics well known here, and tn | many instances holding nign positions, ‘These letters are full of bitterness and threaten assault. Upon mauy were sciawied the skull and cross- bones, Briefly, these poor people must be dis- covered, protected and fed, otherwise they wiil feed themselves over burning homes and mutilated | bodies, THE 'LO\GSHOREMEN, No Change in the City—Meeting in Ho- boken—The Strike to Continue. There is but littie new to report in the matter of the great lock-out of the ‘longshoremen in this city. fronts yesterday and but few policemen were visible, During the past week—the second of the been but slightly interrupted, while the raw bands being instructed in the business count up by thousands. The strikers themselves, however, do not seem affected in their views by the eventsof the past jortnight. At their meeting on Saturday nignt they displayed the same resentment against their former employ- ers ason the first day after the lock-out, and are now just as far from that point where prudent counsel prevails as then. The few points the union has gained in the struggle, such as the France affair, seem to encourage the organiza- tion more than the prospective idle weeks of the future seem to dispirit them. Now that the steamship combination has refused to meet representatives from the union upon aby basis, and the oOwuers of sailing vessels have ex- pressed their probabie ability to get ali the capa- bie hands they may require, the strikers intend holding a mass meeting. Cooper Institute has been engaged, It Is rumore|, and speakers well known to the community have volunteered their services sor the occasion. The Strike in Jersey City. The determined action of the Cunard Company in resisting tne demands of the ‘longshoremen on strike in Jersey City has not dampened tne ardor of the latter in the least. On the con- trary, they are busy in fomenting strikes “all along the line,” and as coal companies in Jersey City are concerned they have nearly succeeded. More activity was displayed yesterday in this direction than on all | Committees | the other days of the week together. of one, two and three from the atrixers visited the dock laborers at their residences or in liquor saloons, pointing out the inevitable is aha “g which they Say they wiil achieve & com- bined =movement be made during this week, ‘The employés§ of the American Coal Company announced yesterday that they would give an active support to the strike, ard would induce otner gangs to follow their exagnpie. If the programme of the strikers should be omried out this week no tewer than 400 families will be aifected in Jersey City alone, The season of distress iairly opened, The enployés in “large factories, ike Cole ate’s, have been piaced on three-quarter ime. The Erie Company have reduced the wages of their trackmen and simuar gangs to $105 a day. Tne Pennsylvania Railroad Company haye shorteped the time ol heir amolovés. bpsides dig- far as the | unless aided before spring, must | Everything was very quiet along the river | | Was warmly received. | pictured a god in the shape of a man, | thing to unite mankin L charging a large number. There is a probapility, | however, that the Erie Company will commence the construction of their ship canal, trom the long dock to Provost street, within @ month, This would give employment to at 1,000 men. Mass Meeting in Hoboken. About 700 members of the 'Longshoremen’s Union ! assembled in Odd Fellows? Hall yesterday afternoon. | They comprised delegates trom the New York, | Brooklyn, Jersey City and Hoboken branches of | the organization and other members, as well as parties belonging to the Cigar Manulacturers’ As- | sociation, The utmost forbearance and good | order prevailed. Speeches were delivered vy | several delegates, and reports of cosets were presented announcing that the general strike was progressing Javorably—that che merchants were beginning to ud out how detrimental to themselves was the ruinons policy of cutting down the poor men’s wages. Contravictions were given to the glowmg report published in some ol the papers to the effect that tne process of loading the steamers nad gone on as usual, and that all toe steamers hud leit this port at the usual hours Oi sailing. Such was not the cases Many of the vessels, owing to the acarcity, as weil ag to the incompetency of new hands, could not be made ready for sea until Tuesday next. The feeling 01 the delegates seemed to be very strong against the New York companies who brought about the strike, and aimed a deadly olow at the rights of the laborer. Ample provision was made for the reiief of such men as had families in imme- diate want. The determtvation was renewed never to submit to @ rate of wages at which it would be impossible to keep bread 1n the mouths ot the ‘longshoremen’s wives and children, The Hoboken branch of the union has thus far acted with becoming moderation abd order, which is due, ina great measure, to Mr. James Muriow, their President, whose influence has saved tne police authorities a good deal of trouble, A STARTLING DOCTRINE, The Progressive Spiritualists and Their Latest Theological Development—Mrs. Dr. Hallock’s Theory of the Immacu- late Conception—Spiritual Maternity. At the corner of Forty-second street and Sixth avenue, and directly fronting on Keservoir square, there 18 @ hallway and porch and a stairway in the upper vista leading to a large apartment, which i8 Known as the Harvard Room. In tnis room, which is large, airy, well lighted, H and very clean, & chosen band of the strangest people that was ever known to man or woman as-emble every Sunday af- ternoon to hold what is called vy them | @ “conserence,” but which is in no sense a conter- | ence, for the reason that when it 1s over the disa- greement is greater than when the conference Opened. These people, who are shpposed to be Spiritualists, were jormerly in the habit of meet- ing at Robinson Hall, in Sixteenth street, which is now devoted to the cancan. They have mi- grated to the upper location, and there they meet on Sunday afternoons, rain or shine. There 1s a sort Of semt-organization connected with this | weekly assemblage known as the Progressive Lyceum, the head and front of which ts a tall bru- nette gentleman named Farnsworth, whe is a constant atiendant. Another constant attendant is a certain Dr. Hallock, who | talks very well when. occasion calis for it, and the Chairman is another doctor, whether medical or divine, is not known, named Atwood. The Chairman is @ grave and slow- spoken person, who strictly enforces the ten min- | ute rule on all orators, whether male or female, | unless the audience should show adisposition | to listen turther, and then permission is given to continue. There is the utmost ireedom of discus- sion as regards the principles avowed by each speaker, Uniess the speaker should see fit to, ciffer trom the majority, when he orshe is summa. rily squelched. Now and then individuats in the body of the hall will ask conundrams which can- | not be answered of the person who holds the plat- form temporarily, and the majority will tell bim instantly to shut up. TREN CENTS TO GET IN. A young man sits inside of the doorway upstairs, wearing a blue scarf and a rather jovial coun- tenance, who demands from each person the sum of ten cents, and, if paid in currency, the stamp is iinmediately placed on top of @ stack of stampa that are lying exposed upon a table. The audi- ence numbered quite a lot of men-who will per- sist In wearing their hatr long as a means of show- ing their genius and to indicate the fact that they have “views” on all subjects; and here and there | was @ sprinkling of women, who looked a good | deal like their male compatriots, The best of or- der generally prevails in the assemblage, and the monotony 1s only disturbed when something dis- tasteful is said. A man with a very decided Caledonian accent and rough hair took the platiorm ana gave his views on Spiritualism and spirit mediums, more | particularly referring to those who tie themselves | up in public entertainments, He said that he nad found Spiritualists who believed that the Daven- port brothers and @ man named Warren had the power of tying themselves in a box and loosing their bonds witnout any other agency to help them. This he thought to be absurd on the face of it, and wanted to know if Spiritualists be- heved in such things. The Chairman called the speaker to order, ané stated that he had no right to occupy the time of the audience with such irrelevant remarks. CALEDONIA AROUSED, ‘The Scotch gentleman took his seat, and asked | why he should not be allowed to investigate the Matter, and wanted to know what they came there for. | A young man, most stylishly dressed, whispered to a friend at the back of the hall that he velieved that they came there for the purpose of paying ten cents to the doorkeeper. Dr, Atwood. the Chairman, stated that he be- lieved that every person had a rightto investigate, but no one had the right to speak foreign to the subject before the audience. ff they had any doubis to solve they should take them home with them— (applause)—and not annoy those whocame for practical discussion, } The next speaker was a portly and solid-looking gentleman with gray hair and a pair of blue gog- gies. He was announced as Proiessor Hume, and He said that Spiritualism was making tremendous progress all over the world. Some of the most influential newspapers | in the country—at Chicago, Washington, Spring- fleia and in this city—were furthering the course strike—the operations of the steamship men have | of | LF of Spiritualism and its investigation, ‘here were but few real Christians, as Christianity is under- stood, and sham Christianity was all-pervadiag, Science, througn such men as Huxley and Tyndall, was acnieving wonders, and Spiritualism wel- comed science with open arms. IS THE BIBLE A HUGE LIE? The history in the Bible represented but a speck of time, and there was not any Bible o1 any ac- | count until within 100 years. The basis of Chris- tianity existed 1n all other religious systems, and it Was uonsense and a sliame to talk of Christ as a divinity, He was the same kind of medium to the Jews that Socrates was to the Greeks, Confucius | to the Chinese and Mohammed to the Turks, In | many things the Mohammedan faith was an im- provement on Christianity, and, jor one reason, that it wasa later development—6o0 years later: ‘The Egyptians, the greatest of all peoples, adored a buil, Apts and Isis, The Greeks, succeeding them, upiter, Gnd Phidias wrought for them a host of gods and goddesses—Mars, Venus, Pallas, Minerva, Vesta and others, and the Christian mythology was only | @ copy Of these systems, Spiritualism is the only and make them dwell in peace together. Look at the tremendous struggle that is now going on in £urope between Giad- stone and Archbishop Manning, and look | at Protestant and Catholic pitied against each | most deadiy Joes, It 18 true that Roman other | Catholicism had raised the white bauner of Spirit- ualism, and it wus its chief strength; but our Spiritualism contained everything to | perfect mankind. (Appiause.) Talk about the world being only 6,000 years | old and denounce Darwin because he said that man came from the monkey. Why, geologists can | prove by the stones taken irom the bowels of the earth that man came from a@ cell or # globule liv- ing in the moliusk, and the world of the Bible was vut a puge of the immeasurable space of In all religious systems there was conflict | but in Spiritualism. The Shiite and Sunite among the Mohammedans were in intermiaable con- | flict, and there were two bitter! opposing parties | in the Greek jeri st Wed in Spiritualism there | was a breadth and freedom and charity ound ip no other system. (Applause.) A SPIRITUALIST ON THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, Mrs, Dr, Hallock, & tall, pale faced and tutellect ual looking lady, was the next speaker. She said | that she was opposed to all kinds of dogmatisms | and intolerance, and churchanity, if the word | could be used. Mrs, Hallock said that there would | | be perfect freedom in all discussion on her spirié ual platform. She nad received testimony, as & medium, in regard to the immaculate conception, and she could not say that the ductrine was [alse or thas it was true, Yet the inspiration she had | received from the other world was in javor of the immaculate couception, but not as Protestants | beneved the . doctrine’ to be taugbh Some Protestants thought that the conception without sin referred to the birth o! Christ through Mary the Virgin, but she believed that it relerred to the conception of the Virgin herself, Agassiz and his school differed trom Huxley and Tyndall, She had been iniormed oy the spirits (hat the race which now lived on the earth had in past times come from an entirely ditferent planet, aod that the race had degenerated. She he- leved that there was coming on e*rth a race of women, perhups of American won: ., who would conceive ag Sf, Ann had, in the sume way, with- out sin dnd without the co-operation of man, and there would be other Christs conceived by this ime proved race of women. here Was tvo much domination by man; there was too much of the male aristocracy, and women should be allowed to come OD the spiritual plutiorm and assert their independent views, The speaker had been actively engaged among the workingwomen who had sought to benetlt themselves by co-operation, and she bad been spoken Of as a iree lover, and poor women who had met together to take counsel had been compelled to forsake their associates because they could not get work and were marked as ing been seen trlking with disreputable persons, forsooth. The male autocracy was everywhere dominant, and the title of tree lover was held over the head of any person who dared to nave any independent intelligence as a free womun. She hoped that no such spirit would ever prevail among the men who came to discuss Spiritualism, (Applanse.) NEW YORK CITY. A slight fire occurred yesterday morning in the basement of No, 358 Hudson street. Oniy slight dumage was done. Affre, caused by the overturning of a stove in the tancy goods store of Charles Dresniield, at No. 403 Sixth avenue, caused a damage of $1,000, which is Sully covered by insurance, At ten o’clock on Saturday morning James ‘Thompson, of No. 507 West Nineteenth street, fell down the stairs of the shoemaker’s snop at No, 225, in the same street, where he was employed, and fractured his thigh, “The General Causes of Panics and Crises’ will be the subject of a lecture to be delivered this evening In Steinway Hall, by Professor Bonamy Price, of Uxiord University, under the auspices of the Mercantile Library Association. The Twenty-third annual bail of the Ancient Order of Hivernians will take pi@ve on next Fri- day evening, December 4, at Ferrero's Assembly Rooms, Tammany Hali Buliding. Preparations for the grand occasion are already tn progress. A special meeting of the New York liquor deal- ers will be heid this (Monday) evening, to con- sider the pending decision of the Court of Oyer und Terminer in the case ot Sigismund Senwad, jouna guilty On Saturday of selling wine without license. The New York Neurological Soctety will hold a regular monthly meeting at the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons on Monday next, Decemper 7. Epilepsy and the neurotic origin of disease will be the subjects discoursed upon by Professor John T, Darby aud Professor J. C. Dalton, both physi- | Clans of the college. The St. Andrew's 118th anniversary festival wil! be celebrated this evening by a public dinner at Delmonico’s, under the auspices of the St. An- drew’s Society of the State of New York. The es- tablishment of a bond of brotherhood among the natives of Scotland (whose patron St. Andrew is | supposed to be) and the dispensing of charity among the deserving poor of that nationality are the objects of this time-honored organization. Afair will be opened to-morrow evening, De- cember 1, at No, 30 Union square (Fourta avenue), end will be continued datly up to the 15th prox. The proceeds will go to the assistance of the Asso- ciation for Befriending Children and Young Girls, whose institution 18 located at No. 136 Second ave- nue. Iris under the management of ladies of the highest Character, aud promises to be a thorough success, LONG ISLAND, Mr. Ephraim B, Carpenter, of Springfield, town of Jamaica, bad a valuable horge stolen from his stable on Saturday nignt. No trace of the thieves hus yet been found. At Bohemiaville, a settlement of Bohemians near Sayville, town of Islip, one of the women a Jew days ago gave birth to four children—two sons and two dauguters, At last accounts all were alive. A party of burglars on Friday night made an attempt to enter the store of Mr. S. L. Seaman, on Main street, Babylon, but they were fortunately discovered by @ night watchman, who sent several shots irom a revolver aiter them as they fled. The Woodside Shooting Association, which is duly incorporated under the act for the incorpora- | tion of societies and clubs, have purchased a plot of ground near the Great South Bay at Centre Moriches, and made all necessary arrangements jor the erection 01 & suitable ciub house for the accommodation of members. It 1s proposed to have, at the water celebration in Flushing, to take place on Thursday, December 3, @parade, to include a representation of the trades, followed by acollation for the visitors, | npscohes inthe Town Hall by leading citizens, clergymen, &c., and fireworks in the evening. The list of invited guests is quite an extended one. The expenses of the celebration are to be | defrayed by private subscriptions, which are al- ready quite liberal, GERMAN UNIVERSITIES, [From the Augsburg Allgemeine Zettung, Oct, 22.] The University of Berlin shows the largest at- tendance of any of the universities of Germany, having had, in the summer term of 1874, 2,980 students and 187 professors, While this university had fora time the second place and Leipzig the first, the order 1s now reversed, and Leipzig {ol- lows with 140 professors and 2,800 students. Then comes Halle, with 1,055 students and 95 professors; Bresian, with 1,036 students and 107 professors; Munich, with 1,031 students and 114 protes- sors; Tibingen, 921 students and 84 pro- fessors; Wirzburg, 901 students and 58 Protessors; Heidelverg, 884 students and 104 professors; Bonn, 858 students and 98 professors; Strasburg, 667 students and 81 | professors; Kbnigsverg, 603 students and 76 professors; Greifswald, 540 students and 58 pro- jJessors; Jena, 493 students and 69 Projessors; ) Munster, 451 students and 27 protessors; Erlangen, 442 students aud 51 professors; Marburg, 440 students and 62 professors; Giesgen, 342 students and 68 professors; Freiburg, 207 students and 52 professors; Kiel, 210 students and 62 protessors; Rostock, 142 students and 38 professors. 1n these | numbers the non-matriculated students are also iuciuded, The German universities outside the German Empire show the following attendance :— | Basle, 163 students aud 62 proiessors; Berne, 332 stadents and 63 professors; Zttricu, 331 students and 75 pro.essors; Durpat, 768 students and 67 professors; Graz, 932 students and 68 professors; ansbruck, 615 students and 52 professors; Prague, students (?) and 122 professors; Vienna, 3,615 students and 227 proiessora. Vienna there(ore is, at the present time, tbe largest Ger- man university, A writer in Heidelberg, in the Carisruher Zeitung, complains of statements made in North German papers, and notably in the Spener'sche Zeitung, calculated to damage tue Heldeiberg University. that Baden, @ comparatively small country, hag two universities; that Heidelberg ts the only’ unt- versity town that is not a gar ison, and that sta- dents cannot, therelore, there Fe, through their military service, and further, that living is not cheap there, and that only 1ew and unimportant bursaries can be given, it is fad Ta that che at- tendance ts so large as (he numbers given above show. [tis also remarkable that, despite all dis- advantages, Heidelberg drawa to tt more foreign students than any otner German universtiy. TUNNELLING NIAGARA RIVER, A Comprehensive Statement of the Plan and the Cost. (From the Buffalo Commercial.) The fact has heretolore been stated that Civil Engineer William Wailace tad prepared a plan for tunnelling the Niagara River at Buffalo for sub- mission to and consideration by those engaged in the movement for providing additional tacilitics for travel and business between this point and Canaaa. Afew facts in regard to the proposed plan will be of interest, It contemplates a passenger depot on the Terrace, near Main street, with @ railroad track running through the Terrace to Court street, down Court atreet to its foot, across the canal; thenve down between the canal and the track of the Niagara Falls branch of the Central Railroad toa point a short distance south of the ratlroad bridge over the canal, where the cutting will commence, ‘The tunnel 1s to run under Black Rock Harbor and the river, and emerge on the Canada side near where the old car shop formerly stood. Alter the surface 18 again reached the track will ve con- tinued around the high irae id join that of the Canada Southern Raiiwi the Episcopal church. The whole length of the cutting, inciuding the tunnel, 18 4,900 feet, and of tne tunnel proper 2,940 feet, The proposed dimensions of the tunnel are 30 fect wide and 20 feet high, This would give 22,627 cubic yards of excavation per lineal loot, or 65,833 cubic yards in all. In the thorough-cut on this side of the river there would be 126.29 eubic yards of rock and earth excava- tion—how much of each cannot be determined without test pits. On the Oanauian side the rock and earth excavation would amount to 118,317 cubic yards, The roof of the tunnel would be some sixteen feet below the bed of the river at tne deep- est point, The grade from the centre ‘is put down ay sixty feet to the mile, The estimated expense of the Work complete 18 $1,500,000, ’ .-TRIPLE SHEET. b --—-— V naa nothing to do with nim. He attended ; Goodrich, & homceopat a physician, The first death ampong the cnudren Fluctuating Nature of the Disease and How | It Is Treated by the Authorities, | NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. | Statements of the Physicians at the Deaf Mute Asylum and Others. ° UNDER CONTROL. Sixty-flve cases of smallpox were reported by the sanitary authorities as having been discovered in the city during the past week. Most of these were removed to the hospital on Blackwell's Island, W..ich, though crowded, ia still capable of | receiving all the patients likely to be attacked with | the disease. The authorities do not look upon this unusual increase as tn the ieast alarm- ing, from the fact that they feel not only fully competent to deal with all dangerous growth but | able to ar:est a rapid progress of the sickness, | | Smallpox ts of all epidemic contagious diseases | the most fluctuating tn ite existence, It. may ap- | pear in strong presence, as was the case last week, for @ short time and tuen not be heard of again jor an entire season. A _ single locaiity, too, may suffer from ts ravages to | @ severe degree and the remainder of | the city be entirely free jrom it, Among the | | sixty-five cases which have come within the knowl- | edge of the Board of Health are counted all those | reported from the Deaf Mute Asylum at 162d street, | and that the disease has reached the fallest ex- | tent of its power tn that institution the authort- | ties appear to feel satisfied. They have taken | every precaution to check its further spread, and | are now of opinion tnat the residents of the | neighborhood need be under no apprehenston. In | the early part oi the season a corps of vaccina- | tors was appointed by the Board of Health, ana | they are now steadily at work throughout | the city. When a case of smallpox 1s ats- | covered by one of the inspectors or assistant inspectors of the Health Department it ts at once reported to Dr. Day, the Sanitary Superin- | tendent, The case 1s examined, and if ascer- | tained to be smallpox, and if the patient ts un- able to afford sufficient protection from contami- nation of the neighborbood, ordered to the hos- pital on Blackwell’s Island, One of the ambu- lances belonging to the Board of Health is sent to the home of the patient, who | is removed to the Reception Hospital at Bellevue Hospital, where another scrutiny of the case is made, and if without any doube it is established to be what it 18 supposed, the patient is sent to the island. A good deal of feeling hav- ing been manifested against the appearance of the ambulances, the Board of Health have given orders for the purchase of coupes jfor the conduct of patients to the j Island, In the poorer districts of the city, where people are crowded into very narrow space, the { inbvabitants are easily alarmed, and the suspicion | of a contagious disease in their midst often tn- creases their susceptibility. The health authorities Und great diMcuity in mduciug many of these | Persons to allow vaccination, so strong ts their | PREJUDICE TO THE IDEA of the disease, and the appearance of an ambu- lance 1s very Offensive to them on that account, | Tue substitution of the coupés for the ordinary covered ambulance 1a to endeavor to humor the | objections of the people and create as little sus- picion as possible as to the nature of the disease which the patient taken out of a house 1s suffering from, Professor Chandler, President of the Board of Health, is now endeavoring to effect the transfer of the Smallpox Hospital from the control of the | | Commissioners of Charities and Correction to | that of the Board of Health; not that any objection exists to the general management of the Smal pox Hospital, but that the health authorities be- | lieve the public would have greater confidence in the institution if it were immediately under their control, The Board of Health insist they are the legal controllers of the Smalipox Hospital, and refer to the following section of the laws re- lating to the Board of Health to prove the institu. tion should be under their charge :— | that has been vaccinated, A person not vac that of a six:yeanald child, underwitted, and wha! from the {railty of its constitution was bound to’ die. Dr. Porter is the execative medical astend- ant of the inatitution and is responsible lor w' takes place there. I am only called in to giv advice, There are uow ten aipallpox cases im the Mansion House, three of whom J am happy to say are improving and to sit up. ‘The Whole disease, in my opinion, is varioloid. ‘The reason why we sent twelve children to the Smalipox Hospital was because we Dbe- lteved by go doing the mags of tne remaining children would run but little Or no risk if they were removed, Sawyer, the undertaker, to whom the HERALD refers to- day as suffering from smallpox, has been sudering from remittent bilivus fever, and has no mark OF stainon him, The children who leit the instita- tion during the past week, viz., Thanksgt' week, were not so Many as during the correspon Ing week last year, The smallpox cases that have come under my knowledge are those of P. Falen, who suffered ; rom tung disease and smalipox, and resided im 156th strees, and was sent to the Smallpox Hos- pita! on Blackwell's Island; also a map named Quinn, sent to the same epital, and who is now dead; also a man named Duane, whom I saw suffering [rom smallpox and driving a cart. I sent him to the Smallpox Hospital. The fourth case is that Of 9 man named Michael Howes, @ blacksmith, suifering from confluent smallpox, and who ts still residing in tis own house and im- proving rapidly. STATEMENT OF DR. G. F. JACKSON. Dr, George fF, Jackson, c{ 154th street and aves nue St, Nicholas, stated :— I see in the HERALD to-day that Dr. Goodrich’s child, which caught the smallpox from its father, who hud been in attendance at the Deaf and Dumb Institute, is very sick. I was in the house to-day where it lived, at 156th street, and found that the cnild had died this morning of smallpox. 1 was attending @ patient there. Dr. Goodrich’s | child was five montis vid, and had never been vaccinated, ln 1418t street, near Eighth avenue, there is a smallpox case of the confluent type. in the sam house there tsa case of varioloid. I vaccinated two children there iately, and the vaccine matter hag taken well. I uave reported these cases to thé Board of Heaith. I have heard ot four otuer cases of smallpox in Carmansville village within the last couple of da One of them 1s that of @ man oamed Howe, a his sister, also Patrick Quinn, Who Was removed to the Smatipox Hospital and is since dead, and the fourth case is 4 laboring man, who is suill at hishome, With reference to the man Patrick Quinn (now dead), that 1 have ju-t alluded to, be helped, Iam told, to put Moodie (the first fatal case) ito his coMn ahd was permitted togo aoout the village, and it is very hkely that he has spread the disease. If proper means had been tuken as to quarantining the children the result would have been different. In 1864 I bad @ bad smallpox case in a row of tene- mene houses at 143d street, near Hudson River. I vaccinated about seventy people living in adjoin- ing houses, and nota single case of smalipox oc- curred, I mention this to show the eMcacy of vaccination, D, J. O BRONSON, OF WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, Ihave, said Dr. Bronson, just come trom attend. ing @ baby five weeks old, belonging to a dress- maker residing in 17th’ street, suffering from smalipox, and the mother has been visited by one of the employés of the Deaf and Dumb Institation. 1 hear that a case has just developed in lasth street and Tentn avenue. I have also heard of @ case in 159th street without any doctor in attendance. It is thatof a young man twenty-one years old, A child in 160th streeg is also reported ag sick to-night with same disease. So lar as my imformation goes there have been at least twelve cases between 165th and 162d street, 1 have been Yascineyini snoae twenty people a day on an average lately, With reference to the difter- euce between variola and varioloid—the former tg smallpox and the latter is smallpox in a patient nated if exposed to a case of varioloid would cone tract varlola or smallpox, I am an old army doctor, and have had mach experience in smail- pox. WHAT DR. RODENSTEIN SAYS. I believe, said Dr. Rodenstein, the smallpox epidemic is rapidly ‘spreading, gnd one of my patients to-night has every symptom of the isease. {hold the medical officers of the Deaf and Dumb Institution responsible for the epidemic, as do all my brother doctors In the neighborhood. If my family suffers thereby 1 shall bring an action against the Deaf and Dumb Insti- tution. I Rave been in consultation with one of the members of the Board of Health, and the ques- tion of opening & smallpox hospital in this district has already been discussed, What the Officers of the Asylum Say. New York, Nov. 29, 1874. To THE EDITOR OF THE HERALD:— An article in to-day’s HERALD on smallpox in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum is likely to do injury to the tmnocent and cause anxl- ety to parents, I live near the institution; bave been in communication with its officers and teachers daily forthe past four weeks as well as for many years, and have been a director for years while Dr. Rodenstein was there. The statement encloscd is strictly accurate. Please publish it and oblige yours truly, CHARLES A. STODDARD, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Boara of Directors of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, SMALLPOX IN THE DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION, An article in the Sunday HERALD in which Ur. Rodenstetn purports to give an account of the Sectiun 3, Chapter 636.—Said Board shall have the same powers in respect to persons inflicted | With any contayvious, pestilential or inlectious dis- | Tavages of the smailpox in the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, in this city, needs correction fn some im- ease as are given by’ section 16 of chapter 74 of tne | BOFWNE hariiculars. | there has been but on2 case Laws of 1866 in respect to persons afiicted with | 9; @ Supervisor named Moodie was ee Contugious diseases; shall have exclusive charge | attended by the resident or consdlids and control of the ‘hospitals for the treatment | Physicians, pat, at wis owa vequese weg oi sucn cases, and snail have power | Divs the . aA eer to provide ‘and for the use: | physician of the village of Carmansvilic. The en- | of proper places to which to remove | Ure school and all the inmates of the institution | such*persons, as Well as to designate such, and | said Board may cause proper care and attendance | | vo be given to persons so sick, or removed when | | 1t shall be made to appear to the said Board tuat | | any such person is so poor as to be unable to pro- | | cure jor himsel! sucn care and attendance, or | hat the public health requires special medical | care and attendance, At about one o’clock yesterday afternoon Health | OfMicers Drs. Day, Taylor and De Marmon accota- panied by Dr. Porter, the resident physician, made | | @visit of inspection through the Institation tor Deaf Mutes, and also to the mansion house adjoin- | ing the asylum, temporarily used as a smallpox hospital. After they had finished their examina. tion @ HERALD reporter conversed with Dr. Por- | ter, who made the following statement:— The medical officers from the Board of Health and myself have visited the establishment, and | they have approved of what Nas been done. With reference to the inmates in the Mansion “House suffering from varioloid, there are ten of them— seven of whom are deaf and dumb children, and the three others are attendants, Some of the cases are convalescing. ‘Ihe cases commenced as varioluid. With reference to the deatn of the Supervisor of the boys, Moodie, he was attended by Dr. Goodrich, & hom@opathic practitioner, at Moodie’s own request, The treatment of Moodie was epee f homeopathic, ana Dr. Goodrich reported when he wied to the Board of Health that tne cause ol deatn was “black measies.” We are Were at ofce vaccinated and the Board of Health notified. The large mansion house, an isolatea building, Was cleared and fitted jor hospital uses, and the result has been that thirteen cases of varioloid comprise the whole epidemic. some of these have been very light, several severe. Those sick with varicloid have been taken to the Hospital at Blackwell's Island by order of the officers of the Board of Health, and nave been regularly visited by an oiticer from the institution. At Thanksgiving about forty pupils went nome to spend the holiday with their friends, It ts usual for a number who live near at hand to enjoy this privilege. Last ear the number who went exceeded 100. here has been no death at the institution since that of Moodie, mentioned above; and the under- taker who buried Moodie, and hig assistant, did not have smallpox or any other serious disease; and the Cases of smalipox in the upper part of the island, above 143d street, have thus far been limited to half adozen, which is perhaps a (air pro- portion in 8 city which reports sixty deaths irom | this cause during the week ending November 23. The article 18 calculated todo injustice to the managers of the institution, to cause needle: anxiety to parents and friends and to alarm healthful and happy community, and, thereiore, in behall of the administrative department of the institution, the above correction is requested, SHOCKING INHUMANITY, A Rich Man Permits His Son to Dte of Smallpox by Failing to Procure Him Medical Aid. not responsible ior this. Dr. Frothingham and mysel! bad absolutely nothing to do with the | tieatment of the case. J neiped, however, | to see that the sick man had all he wanted. We | sent tweive children to the Smallpox Hospital on | varioloid; but we thought it better not to endan- | ger the health of the others by their remaining in | the institution, Wath reference to the children | that bave been sent home, | have only to state that it 18 on account of its being Thanksgiving week, ana not on account of any panic. In Jact less children went home during this Week than during the corresponding week | last year. We ure ali exerting our utmost en- deavors to stay the progress of the disease. Dr. Frothingham 18 consulting piysician and one of the executive oMicers. BURIED AT TRINITY CHURCH CEMETERY. One of the children sent over to the Smallpox Hospital ts dead, and was buried to-day at Trinity | vhurch Cemetery, situated in this nelghborhood, | Tne frst case sent to the Smallpox Hospital was | that of Emma J, Whitaker. About the Lith inst. | we commenced vaccination, and up to, Sun- | day last had vaccinated = about’ 230, when, as I was not getting on quickly | enough, | called in the assistance of the Board of | | Health. With reference to the case mentioned tn | to-aay’s HERALD, of a cnild removed from the tn- | stitution, and of which the father caught the | smaltpox, [ would gay that the child was re- moved irom here suffering from diphtheria, and the jather, subsequently, caught smallpox, how we do not know, Mr. Sawyer, the undertaker of Movdie and of the institution, who keeps a shoe | shop near the Congregational church, denies that he has been suffering from smailpox. I do not think that more than three or four children have been removed from the institution to-day, bat as 1 18 a. boarding school the parents have | to remove them when they will, We hi: | four nunared children here at present, ‘atistics printed in the HERALD toulay was Jairly rrect. We have told the parents and guardians of the children that varioloid is rife at the present momeut, and they understand that we have | nothing to conceal. Moodie’s death, 1 believe, honestly, was the cause of the pres- Pi ent epidemic, Dr. Frothingham, the consulting physician of th syium, and mysell, after we go into the Mansion House, change our clothes and take a bath, thereby lessening the chance of infection, We generally allow the children here to go home from aoe to Monday evening, and we herevy run the risk of infectious disease, as last winter the measies were introduced in this fashion. We hope soon to get the upper hand of the present “epidemic.” STATEMENT OF WILLIAM PROTRINGHA lam one of the consulting physict: stitution for the instructio! With reference t hb Me De of the tn- t the deat and dumb, O the case of the man Moodie, ohe of the supervisors of the boys, and who, { believe, Jntroduced smallpox into she Inatitntion. A shocking instance of inhumanity, practised by @ ‘ather upon his child, was reported yesterday on the police returns from the Twenty-second precinct, On Saturday morning a man When it ig remembered Biacxweil’s Island. They were only suffering from | pamed Schneider, who resides at No. 416 West Forty-ninth street, reported at the Twenty second precinct station house that his | 800 Charies, a lad twelve years old, had died on the night previous, and that he had been without medical attendance during his sickness. The case was immediately reported to the Central OMce. | About half-past twelve o’clock on the same day Dr, Day, Superintendent of the Sanitary Bureau, who had learned, in some way, more of the case than the police, notified Dr. Ewing, Sani- tary Inspector of the district, that young Scnnet- Ger had died of smallpox, and ordered nim to ine vestigate the matter. Dr. Ewimg’s inquiries ended with the discovery that the boy had been sick for tweive days, during which time he was neglected and left without care or Srorer Medicine, Altogether the evidence seems o be that the man Schueider paid no heed to the condition of his son, but permitted him to languish and die in misery and agony, Schneider is comparatively a well-to-do man, as he owns the tenement in which he lives. ‘The body of his son was removed to the Morgue on - Saturday, and the premises on whigh the boy died were taken in charge for @ time by the healts autuorities, THE SALOON KEEPERS, jures to Procure the Cone loon Keeper’s ReleasemA Demonstration Projected. The German Saloon Keepers’ Central Organiza- tion held @ special meeting at the Germania As- semoly Rooms yesterday to discuss the fate of Sigismund Schwab, one of their members, now un- der sentence for violating the Excise law. John Fricke presided, and a full attendance of delegates, representing the saloon keepers’ Associations of the different wards, were present, The action of the President of the Liquor Dealers’ Union in reference to the Schwab case was de- nounced in severe terms for Pasa a | ‘Schwab on bail after the verdict, Measures we! ussed to procure Schwab's release on ball pending ® mo- tion for @ new trial, and a committee was named for that bel res At was decided that a mass meeting of all saloon, hote! and restauraut keepers in relerence to dy excise question shall he hela next W a