The New York Herald Newspaper, February 13, 1875, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1875,-TRIPLE SHEET, NEW YORK HERALD AND ANN STREET, BROADWAY JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly | @ditions of the New Yorx Henatp will be sent free of postage. od | THE DAILY HERALD, published every | day in the year. Four cents per copy. An- gual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic @espatches must be addressed New York Henap. Rejected communications will not be re- tarned. Letters and 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 accented debcseses +NO. 44 AMUSEMENTS THIS APTERWON AND EVENING. METROPOLITAN THEATRE, | stra Broadway.—VARLKTY, at 8P. M.; “closes at 10:30 NEW YORK STADT THEATRE, Bowery, -EINGEADELTER KAUFMANN, at 8 P.M; Gloses ai 10:15, M. OLYMPIC THEATRE, rABIET TY, at 8. M.; closes at 10:45 lo, 624 Bro adw: » M. Matinee PARK THEATRE. ORL 8PM; closes at 1045 BR IOLONEL SiNN'’S VALE M. Matinee ar2 P. ROMAN HIPPODROME, Twenty-sixth street and Fourth avenue.—Afternoon and evening, at2 and & THEATRE COMIQUE, FS, 614 Broadway.—VAKIETY, at 5 P. M.; closes at 10:45 ‘&. Matinee at 2P. M. FTH AVENUE THEATRE, Seyret street and Broadway.--WOMEN OF THE Nei (Closes at 1us0 PM. Me. Lewis, aliss venport, Mrs. Giivert, Matinee at 1:30 P.M, TONY PASTO OPERA HOUS! Dog Bowery.—VARIL at E, 8 P. M., closes at 1045 LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street and Sixth avenue. “THE NEW MAG- ALEN, at 8P.M.: closes at lu:40 P, Ml. Miss Carlotta lercg. SH fatines at 30 PM BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, West ee a Street, near Sixth avenue.—NEGRO MINSTRELSY, dc., at 8} closes at 10 ¥.M. Dan Bryant Matinee at 2 P. GERMANIA THEATRE, Fourteenth street—Dii FLEDERMAUS, at. 8 P.M; Closes at 10:45 x. M. Miss Mayr. DF MUSIC, at? P.M. Miss Kellogg. ACA! Irving place.—THE i. PAR! Pa —French Opera Bou Mile. Corahe Geot EAT. fe G{ROPLE-GIROFLA, yy. Matinee at 1:3) P. M. ateP. M. EB OCTUROOS er. MM. ; closes a: way.—TH dwin F. Thorne. Matinee at ia P. Me at 10 45 . M. Edwin F, SE, 4 OF BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner of a third street and Sixth avenue.— | an v., ¥. M.; closes at ll P.M. Matinee at 1:30 KELSY, at 8 P. M.; closes at LU P. , SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, corner of Twenty-ninth street.—NEGRO M. Matinee at aP.M. ALL, teenth: street BLGON De LL CARE, at 8 P.M; Giees at toes M. wr. Maccabe. Matinee at2P. M, ACADEMY OF DESIGN, ir of Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue, —EX- irks OF ‘Open WATER COLOR PAINTINGS. M. to 5 P. M. and from 6 P. Ml. to9 P.M. WALLA THEATRE, lway.—THE SHAUGHRAUS, at SP. M.; closesat a0. M. Mr. Boucicauit Matinee at1:30 P. M. BROOKLYN THEATRE, ‘Wasbington street.—CA MILLE. at 8 P. M.; Re catkwne Rousby. Matince at 2 P. M.— Bie rast fmee at 2 TRIPLE SHEET. EW Yor K, WOOD'S MUSEUM. , corner Thirtieth as ceed p DIK, and iy f gHIF, atSP. M.; closes at 10:45 Mar § TU TRDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1875, From our reports this morning the probabilities gre that the weather to-day will be coider and partly cloudy. Watt Srnzet Yesterpay.—The stock mar- ket was dull and lower. Foreign exchange steady. Money was quoted on call at 2 and 3 percent. Gold, ses THe Actiox OF THE Senate yesterday on the Oregon Railway scheme determines the fate of all subsidy measures during this ses- sion of Congress. Tae Hovse or Representatives was in Committee of the Whole on the Tariff bill yesterday; but though Mr. E. H. Roberts and Mr. Kelley both made elaborate speeches no new views of political economy were enun- ciated. Great Interest attaches to the search after the Hon. William 8. King, the missing man. At present it seems as difficult to find him as it was to find the man who struck Billy Patterson. Everybody ought to be on the look-out for him, and the correspondence which we print this morning shows that a good many people are looking for him. Francz rejects the Senate, and the dissolu- tion of the Assembly is imminent. A crisis in the affairs of the Republic is unavoidable, and it may as well come now as at any other time. The usefulness of the present Assem- bly has been long at an end, and a general election is the only way by which the govern- ment can be put upon a a secure foundation. Tae Cur: cpsston.—It tu turns out that | the Sister of the Moon did not follow the Brother of the San from the Flowery King- | we cannot repeat his facts and arguments in | culty which attended the pa: dom to the Celestial realms, but,on the con- | trary, is in a fair way to give birth to another Son of Heaven. So the Chinese succession is still in doubt, and the young Empress, who was reported to have committed suicide, may yet become the Empress Mother. TIrwa Homz Rvre.—Our despatches this morning indicate a renewed agitation of the Trish home rule question in the Imperial Parliament, and there is a threatened seces- sion of the home rulers from that body. This is a device that has been often practised in the United States during the last few years, beginning with the secession of the Scuthern Congressmen in 1861, but it has never proved an effective measure of partisan policy. It will scarcely be more effective suould Ireland attempt it in the English House of Commons. The proper way for Ireland to secure home rule is to remain in Parliament and battle for it im the only place where it can be segured, | authority by foreign economists. David A. Wells om the Currency— “The Cremation Theory of Resump- tion.” In accordance with its plan of enlisting the ablest pens in the country and the world in treating special questions of deep public in- terest, the Henazp lays before its readers this morning the most enlightened discussion of the question of resuming specie payments which has as yet been presented to the Ameri- can public. It is by Mr. David A. Wells, mirable specimen of the joint application of scientific principles and wide practical knowl- edge to the solution of a great problem. Mr. Wells is almost the only American writer on this class of subjects who has acquired a Eu- | ropean repntation and is quoted as a high Besides a | fondness for this kind of inquiries, founded on a strong natural aptitude, he has devoted his whole time and all the vigor ot his mind for the last foarteen years to investigations connected with our financial system, pursuing his researches not like a mere scholar or theorist, but by going abroad into the world and making diligent personal inspection of the practical working of our banks, our great manufacturing and mercantile establishments, our principal railroads, our systems of taxa- tion, both State and national, our mining in- dnstries and our foreign and domestic exchanges. It is this practical cast of his mind which seeks to build on a sure basis of facts, not taken at second hand trom books, but acquired by original observation and con- stant intercourse with every variety of men in the higher walks of business, that have given to the labors of Mr. Wells their great value and reputation. It is impossible to make a synopsis of Mr. Wells’ elaborate communication without doing it injustice. To present his mere conclusions, separated from the copious array of facts and arguments with which he supports them, would deprive them of their persuasive and convincing character, and merely gratify a curiosity to know what he says instead of enabling readers to see what he has proved. As this great subject is likely to occupy public at- tention for several years it is worth the while of all who would really understand it to bestow on Mr. Wells’ paper a very attentive perusal, which will exempt them from reading, or teach them to despise a great deal of the cur- rent trash on this question. Mr. Wells amusingly christens the views he advocates as the ‘‘cremation” theory of resumption. The process he recommends is for the Secretary of the Treasury to burn half a million of greenbacks every week, making twenty-six millions a year. According to his estimate it will require something less than four years to bring the currency to par by this method, making a gradual reduction of the premium on gold at the rate of about three percent perannum. As the greater part of business engagements through the agency of banks mature at periods considerably less than four months, debtors couid lose, at most, but one per cent on each transaction, or half of one per cent on an ordinary sixty-day note. This small gain by bankers and capitalists would tend to make them more liberal in granting loans tor the accommodation of the business public, and would therefore have a compensating advantage. There is at present asuperabundance of money in all our com- mercial centres which can be had on call loans at an almost nominal rate of interest, prepared by him at our request, and is an ad- | creditors as compared with that of debtors. Those who borrow this money of the savings banks are comparatively few, and are men of property who can give the ample security re- quired by these institutions. Hundreds of thousands of other people in moderate cir- cumstances, who possess property or make savings, invest them in railroad bonds or other securities, and belong also to the creditor class who would gain by an appreciation of the currency. The debtor class is really very small as compared with the whole body of the community, and the majority of 1t consists of merchants, manufacturers, miners and for- warders, who would gain more by the in- creased facilities of borrowing consequent on | a steady and assured appreciation in the value of the currency and the revival of confidence and prosperity than they would lose in the dif- ference between the value of the money they borrow and that in which they would make payment., It is very important that the pub- lic be educated to correct views on this sub- ject, and the able communication of Mr. Wells is the most valuable contribution to the general enlightenment which has yet been of- fered to the American public. The Lesson of the Hartford Fire. There was another terrible fire yesterday, this time Hartford being the scene of the de- struction. While it by no means reached the proportions of the recent conflagrations in Chicago, Baltimore and Boston, it was still sufficiently great to call renewed attention to the insecurity of our large cities, One of the chief difficulties in the way of the Hartford firemen was found in the fact that the fire plugs were frozen, thereby weakening the efficiency of the Fire Department. This is a danger common to all the Northern cities in a season of such intense cold as the present, and it is one that should be carefully guarded against. It is comparatively easy to prevent the water from freezing in the pipes and hy- drants if the proper precautions are taken. Neglect of these precautions may destroy a city while the firemen are preparing to make themselves useful. It isa danger which never so sternly confronted us before; but just as we had begun to point out the danger in our own city this Hartford fire occurs and gives a new force to our argument. It is a lesson which should not be neglected. Many houses in this city have been without water for weeks, and in some localities much precious time would be wasted in case of a fire before the frozen pipes could be thawed and made to supply the engines. Hartford’s disaster teaches New York and other cities not to trust their security to uncertain fire plugs and ser- vice pipes. The Fifth Avenue Pavement. We trust that the proposed legislation for the repavement of Fifth avenue in a sub- stantial manner, worthy of the beauty and utility of that highway, will not be of sucha character as to compel the Governor to veto itorto bring odium upon the Legislature. This is the mistake that Senator Hugh Moore has made in his bill for providing rapid transit—a bill which violates the constitution and simply repeats the old Tammany legisla- tion. It is generally understood that the pro- posal to pave Fifth avenue with asphalt or with any chemical composition which will crack in winter and melt in summer, and which has never been really a success even in the equable climate of Paris, will be abandoned. No interest can be served by a pavement of and yet it was never so difficult to borrow money for a considerable period. The reason is that capitalists have no confidence in the future and fear that a long Joan might be repaid in a cur- rency so depreciated as to eat up a great part of the interest. But a gradual and certain approach to specie payments, extending over a period of four years, would not only insure capitalists against loss but would operate as a small bonus on loans and bring all the money of the country into active employment. Money is borrowed on call loans chiefly for speculative purposes, whereas long loans are wanted for the prosecution of legitimate busi- ness and starting productive enterprises. The gradual contraction which Mr. Wells advo- cates would therefore have a strong tendency to set the wheels of legitimate business ayain in motion by re-establishing the confidence ot capitalists and making it for their interest to extend liberal accommodations to the busi- ness public. The idea that steady contraction on the ate disastrously is refuted and exploded by abundant facts in the recent financial history of the world. France, between October, 1873, and December, 1874, contracted its eurrency by athousand million francs, or two hun- dred million dollars of our money, and yet the business of that country has not perceptibly suffered by want of pecuniary accommodation. Mr. Wells shows that the great outery which caused Congress to arrest the contraction policy pursued for several months by Secretary McCulloch was the result of their imagination and visionary fears. It is a fact, now first made known to the public by Mr. Wells, that there was no actual contraction of the currency during that | period, and that it was all a mere matter of bookkeeping entries in the Treasury ledgers. The fact that no commercial inconvenience was experienced from the causes which changed the value of the currency between 1865 and 1873, bringing down the price of gold from 133 to 10, is an additional proot that the dangers feared from contraction are chimerical. | | Mr. Wells’ handling of this branch of the subject is very masterly and convincing, but | detail. The assumed oppression of the debtor class by gradual contraction is reduced by Mr. Wells to its proper dimensions. y that the great bulk of the people long to the debtor class, precluded by their condition from entering it. Capitalists are too prudent ‘y to lend their money except to people pecuniar sponsibility, whose possess of property is Bs The ot getting in debt and are dw mass of community are incapable beyond a very moderate wages of the week, or the season, snflice for paymg. amount which the month, or the The thrifty portion of people of small meomes—a very la are seldom in debt at all, and they form the most numerous body of creditors in the country. The eleven hundred millions deposited in the savings banks show how | numerous and widespread is the class of class. gradual plan Mr. Wells proposes would oper- | He proves most | this kind except the interests of those who own patents for preparing peculiaf pavements. Now, we have no doubt that many pavements have been invented which will be an advan- tage to the city. It may be that ingenious men will succeed in devising other pavements that will supersede those nowin use, We shall be glad at any time to welcome these plans when they are something more than ex- perimental But just now our experience of what was done under the Tammany Ring in the way of poulticing the streets so that they be- came quagmires and quicksands or marshy pools, offensive to men and dangerous to horses, is too vivid for us to look with com- fort upon any tampering with Fifth avenue. We are satisfied to have as good pavements as the Romans had, or to have sucha road as Macadam invented, and which all experience proves to be the best in cities like New York. The paving will cost enough when it is done. We do not wish any experiments. We know what a Macadamized road is and that it suits our climate; therefore we trust that any measure but one that involves the principle of Macadam, or one equally as good, will be defeated by the Legislature as a worth- less job. Tur Ick Bripce was again formed on the East River yesterday, and hundreds of per- sons passed and repassed between the two erties, Nothing more foolhardy could be attempted. Great masses of ice floating down the stream and subject to the tides and cur- | rents are not the things to be intrusted with the security of life. They are, always liable | to break up and rash down tho bay, bearing | with them their human freight. It is aston- | ishing that some great calamity has not already occurred from the action of people | who trust themselves to such an insecure | footing, and we wish to warn those not wish- | ing to make a heeriless sacrifice to avoid the Ii the habit of foolhardy adventure which has been growing upon our people of late years is persisted in a terrible disaster will be the result. A little inconvenience is preterable to the risk of life, especially ina danger. | case where the chances are so evenly balanced | | for so little good. Our account of the diffi- | and Kast rivers, and the exciting and ludic- | rous scenes on the boats and ice, is a singular chapter in metropoiitan life. Tre Beecuern Tran met with an unex- pected impediment yesterday on account of | the blockade in the East Riv man was u! to be present in the morning, and the case was finally adjourned till Monday, | owing to limited communication between the two cities, Taat Trmaipie pean, the District of gain the subject of debate in The District is not to a Delegate in Gongress, and one of the elected by the Senate amendments. Columbia, was the Sy ha three Commissioners is to k peor cording tothe The consideration ¢f the bill ¢ nity fr a little political badinage between Mr. Morton end Mr. Thurman, but beyond | this it had no very great importance, nate yesterday. opporti- e of the North | A jary- | Home Rule in New York. ‘We do not know that we are prepared to scoept the ‘Costigan bill,’ as it is called, in all its phases. These bills, introduced into our Legislatures for the purpose of “‘reform- ing the city government," are generally of a treacherous character. They require close supervision. We have never seen a city charter, for instance, that was not as intricate asa Chinese puzzle. One trick was never solved without finding another inside of it We leave, theretore, the details of the Costigan bill to those who are expert in such matters, contenting ourselves with approving the prin- ciple which animates it, There can be no measure of reform so wel- come to New York as that which establishes home rule in this city. We recognize how, in & large and generous sense, this city and other municipalities are dependent upon the State, But the function of the State is as distinct from the office of the municipality as the government of the city is from the govern- ment of the family. The trouble heretofore has been that the State, when it has suited its purposes, usurped the functions of the city. The State has so frequently been in the hands of needy politicians and adventurers who sought place and jobbers who craved money. They looked upon New York as a rich placer, and treated it very much as the early miners in California dealt with the placers of the Sacra- mento Valley. They thought only of the gold it contained, and destroyed all other values. Every year for many yearsa gang of greedy men have obtained powerin Albany. Their first use of power was to plunder New York. All the misfortunes which fell upon our city from the Tammany Ring came through Albany. Al- bany was the rock on which ‘Tweed stood when he began his campaign of robbery and shame. Albany was at the root of our corrupt commis- sions, our inefficient police, the plundered treasury andthe dismantled departments of our city—a city robbed under one administra- tion and stifled under another. We can think of nothing in a large sense beneficent which this city owes to the Albany influence. On the contrary, there has scarcely been an instance in which the State interfered with the city where its influence has not been per- nicious. As we understand the principle of the Costigan bill it is to do away with this un- wholesome relation, to free the city, not from its proper dependence on the State, but from its subservience to it. In other words, this bill embodies the principle of home rule. The argument made that to pass the bill would be to reflect upon Mr. Tilden is a trifling one. We must not legislate for a city like New York in deference to the wishes of any man, be he Governor or not. The moment our democratic friends begin to pass bills that will please one officer, or not to pass them for tear they might displease him, they drift into the old condition of favoritism and misgovernment. Mr. Tilden is one officer of the State who may pass away to-morrow. It is his duty to administer the laws, and not the duty of the Legislature to legislate to suit his fancy. Furthermore, Mr. Tilden is too much of a statesman, we are convinced, to allow his personal wishes to interfere with a large measure of reform. Therefore, our im- pression is strong in favor of the Costigan bill Unless there is some reason for its de- feat that does not appear to us on its face we trust that it will be adopted without delay. The Rights of Authors. The case that will be tried to-day before Judge Woodruff, between Mr. Boucicault and Mr. Hart, in reference to ‘The Shaughraun,”’ involves a most interesting question. ‘The Shaughraun”’ is the most successful comedy of the season and one of the most brilliant on the American stage. Its success is a remark- able event. How far can an author and actor be secure in the enjoyment of such success? A play like “‘The Shaughraun” is as much a property as if Mr. Boucicault had founded a newspaper or builded him a barn. We have no means of knowing the value of a property of this character; but, judging from the suc- cess at Wallack’s and the assurance of gain throughout the country—such as we saw in “Rip Van Winkle’ and Lord Dundreary— we should think that Mr. Boucicault would regard his play as worth certainly a quarter of a million of dollars. Now, how far has any adventurous and ingenious rival the right to assail or to injure a property of this value? The law protects the sewing machine and the patent medicine, and it should protect the dramatist. The averment is that ‘‘The Shaughraun” is an adaptation from an Irish comedy, written not long since for the English stage, and called ‘Pyke O'Callaghan.” This is a direct statement and one easily enough considered. We have looked into ‘Pyke O'Callaghan’ curiously, to see how far Mr. Boucicault had demeaned his genius by pilfering from an unknown work. There is no resemblance ; no real, and scarcely an apparent resem- blance. The pretence that ‘‘The Shaughraun,” with its exquisite dialogue, its unique and original effects, its grace and color and deli- cacy of tone, is copied trom a forgotten comedy, written for a subordinate London theatre, is so absurd that it is a burlesque upon justice to take it into Court. This we teel bound to say, because the matter is one of simple justice and fair play, that public opin- ion should decide without waiting for the tedious process of law. In ‘Pyke O'Calla- ghan’’ there are the ordinary characters of the Irish drama—the royalist, the rebel, the servant man and the informer. In ‘‘The Shaughrann” there is an officer, a rebel, a | servant and an informer. But we have these | characters in all modern Irish stories and comedies, This is because the comedy is the legend of its time. Every generation has its | own comedy, with marked traits and resem- blances, just as it has its manners and cus- | toms, There is the comedy of Congreve and Goldsmith, of Sheridan and Boucicault, each school different only as the a liffer. For | an actor to take “The Shaugh: and play | it under a thin disguise, me: because it comedy, is as absolute a wrong as it would have been rival of Sheridan to have appropriated ‘The School for Seandal’’ on the ground that a stern old jather, a giddy wife almost tripping, a hypo- erit nd a spendthritt were also in other comedt “The Shaughraun”’ is an Irish comedy in this that it pictures Lrish society just as “Pyke O'Callaghan” pictured it. The royalist, the servant, the rebel and the infor- | | mer exist, and they come into all comedies. for & But in every cssential of the comedy “The Shaughraun"” is as different from ‘Pyke O'Callaghan’? as from the “Taming of the Shrew." This, we repeat, is a question for public opinion as well as the courts of law. How can we have plays like “‘The Shaughraun” if our dramatists are not protected in the ownership of a good work when they do it? How can we hope to elevate the stage if every success- ful play can be carried off by the first rival who envies its success? The question com- — itself to every sentiment of manly fair y- His Excellency’s Ingenious Plan for the Pacification of Arkansas, The keynote of the statesmanlike policy which His Excellency is pursuing with such praiseworthy assiduity and pleasing results was struck in the closing sentence of his fitst letter of acceptance conveying the fervent aspiration which has been so singularly real- ized, ‘Let us have peace!” It has been said that the first impression on a person who visits a great work of art or sublime scene in nature—like St. Peter's Church at Rome or Niagara Falls—is a feeling of disappoint- ment, and that it is only by considerable familiarity that the mind rises and expands to take in the full grandeur of the object. We fancy that a stranger, who has not contem- plated it long and lovingly, would experience a similar difficulty in doing full justice to His Excellency’s noble policy of “peace.’’ It would not be quite reverent to compare it to the wisdom which the pen of inspiration tells us is ‘‘unsearchable and past find- ing out;” but we trust we shall deserve no rebuke for saying that His Excel- lency’s policy of peace is an enormous, an in- scrutable blessing, which ordinary citizens, whom Mr. Lincoln used to call “plain peo- ple,” cannot easily expand their minds to comprehend. The latest exhibition of His Excellency’s genius for watering the tree of peace and covering it with fragrance-diffusing blossoms, making it ‘a thing of beauty anda joy for- ever,” is that marvel of healing and concilia- has the general features of all modern Irish | tion, the Arkansas Message. To be sure, the State is as quiet and orderly as it bas ever been at any time since its first admission into the Union; but the very fact that His Excel- lency thinks he can improve upon such a con- dition attests the high ideal standard at which heaims. He is not content to follow the homely rule of letting well enough alone. He wishes for “better bread than can be made of wheat."’ The mere vulgar tran- quillity which has prevailed in Arkansas since the adoption of its new con- stitution does not satisfy His LExcel- lency, and he wishes to administer the new elixir of peace which it has been re- served for him to discover. If it were Ar- kansas itself, instead of His Excellency, that had discovered this surprising elixir, we might have some fear that there would bea fresh occasion for the old epitaph:—*I was well, wished to be better, took physic—and here I lie”. But in the hands of His Excellency the new peace medicine will of course work won- ders. The novelty and originality of this new method of peace must not prejudice superfi- cial people against it. To overthrow a con- stitution which a large majority of the people adopted and approve; to install a Governor whose claim to the office His Excellency him- self last spring, after careful examination, assisted by legal advice, decided to be un- founded; to pour troops into the State to overturn its constitution, upset its govern- ment and force a bogus Chief Magistrate upon an unwilling people, must have a wonderfully pacifying influence on the temper of the citizens. Appearances may seem against it, but appearances lie on the surface. If the army sent to Arkansas should be large enough there need be no misgivings that His Excellency will be unable to establish a more perfect peace than ever existed in a free com- munity. It maybe as perfect as the peace which reigns on a battlefield after contending armies have withdrawn, leaving their dead on the ground. No spectacle of peace can be so perfect in the eyes of s wanderer who sur- veys it, and it His Excellency is bent on such a peace in Arkansas there can be no question of the fitness of the means he proposes for consummating it. But the medicine will fail if itis not administered bountifully. Noth- ing is so peaceful as a corpse, and His Excel- lency will have complete success as a State physician if the medicine, whose first effect must be inevitable convulsions, is only given in quantities large enough to ingure that su- preme quiet which no subsequent malpractice can ever disturb. Vantitia.—The English government is mak- ing strong efforts to introduce the culture of vanilla into the East Indies. Vanilla is a native of Mexico and the warm regions of Central and South America. The demand for it has increased with the progress of re- finement and luxury. As the pods have come to be used in Germany for dyeing purposes there will be a still greater demand. The stock at present is generally found in Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil, but the authorities think thatif the bean takes root in a climate like Bengal it will add a new indus- try to India. Would it not be well for some | of our people to see what can be done with | the vanilla plant in southern California or some other of our tropical States? Tue For Sean Question.—We notice that | at a recent session of Congress a bill was in- ceed to the Territory of Alaska, after the ad- | journment of the present Congress, to in- | islands of St. Paul and St. George, the num- | if an increased number can be killed without | endangering the perpetuity of the fisheries.’’ | This is the most interesting and profitable | fishery that we have. There have long been rumors that it has been selfishly managed by its owners. ‘The fur seal only inhabits the | islands of Alaska, and our government should | take prompt measures for bringing the fishery | under severe jurisdiction. It would be agreat pity if by a little neglect now it should be de- | stroyed. ‘Tue Stare Cuancrms Arp AssociaTION makes an appeal for ten thousand dollars to | | enable the society to carry on the work it has | | undertaken. One feature of the society—that of finding work for able-bodied paupers and | homes for poor childsen—oommends it English | troduced authorizing a commissioner to pro- | quire into the condition of the fur seals of the | ber of seals annually killed, and ‘‘to inquire | jin 174, 18 still in the confidence of the entire community and makes it desirable that the influence of the association should be extended. Every year the question of pauperism will thrust itself more and more upon public attention, and we must overcome its evils by preparing to meet them before they become overwhelming. Ip rae American Socrery or Orvm Ex orvzens fail to find in the question of rapid transit a problem of sufficient importance to* engage their mathematical minds it will be difficult to provide that learned body witha mission. It seems that many of the members are opposed to taking any action in the mate ter, on the ground that a quick transit road is | matter of local engineering, in which some of them have private interests through plans of their own. This is a view so narrow and selfish that we are astonished it should be urged in a scientific body formed for the purpose of advancing the profession of en- gineering, and it will result to the discredit of the society if the civil engineers fail to recom mend a plan for this great work. Innication.—We observe in the East India journals that the government is profiting by the terrible warning of the famine to intro- duce a new system of irrigation. This ques- tion is one of great interest. Considering that so large a part of our own territory must in the future depend upon irrigation for its fruite fulness and general succession of crops, our people should carefully study everything that has been done on this subject in countries like India and Egypt. Drscovertes 1n Astronomy.—The English and French governments are taking steps towe ard securing observations of the total eclipse of the sun, which will be visible in the East Indies on the 6th of April. Disraeli’s government has granted five thousand dollars toward the enterprise. The calculations of the astronomers show that no eclipse of the sun will equal this in interest until 1893, when it will be seen in Central and South America, It is thought that the British expe dition will leave early in February. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Mr. John Jay Knox, Comptroller of the Ourrency, is at the Fitth Avenue Hotel, Captain Williams is evidently a part of the police which needs reconstruction, Rev. T. Harwood Pattison, of London, yesterday arrived at the Sturtevant House. The condition of Congressman Hooper, who ts 1 in Washington, has become worse, State Senator F. W, Tobey, of Port Henry, N. Yu is registered at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Mr. Andrew D. White, President of Cornell Unt. versity, has apartments at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Rev. Dr. R. B. Fairbairn, of St. Stephen’s Cole Jege, has taken up his residence at the St. James Hotel. General John N. Knapp, recently of Governor Dix’s staf, is residing temporarily at the Windsor Hotel. Congressman George W. Hendee, of Vermont, ts among the late arrivals at the Filth Avenue Hotel. Mr. James F. Joy, President of the Chicago, Bur- Mngton and Quincy Raiiroad Company, is sojourm ing at the Windsor Hotel. Mr. James Harlaa, of Washington, formerly United States Senator from lowa, is stopping at the Firth Avenue Hotel, Admiral James Alden, United States Navy, Gene ral W. N. Grier, United States Army, and William Astor, Esq., arrived in Jacksonville, Fia., on the 8th inst. Dr. G, H. Kingsley, brother of the late Canon Kingsley, arrived at the Brevoort House yester- day irom Quebec, and will sail for England to-day in the steamship Baltic. The gross receipts of two street railway compa. nies—the Sixth and Eightn avenue lines—are $1,586,762, whicd, at five cents lare, gives upward of 31,000,000 passengers carried by the two ip 1874, The proposition in the Legisiature to extend the Greenwich street Elevated Railroad is good, and will give @ substantial morsel of rapid transit. It was vetoed last year. Govergor Tilden, we hope, 1g not interested in rival enterprise, Luckily the Civil Rights bill is not law, or Mayor Wickham’s discrimination on account of “pace, color,” &c., in refusing to marry a white woman and @ black man might get usall into trouble, and His Exceljency might favor us with some military attention. » Managerial manners. The manager holds forth with @ sympathetic friend on the decay of the “Shere are no authors—no plays, There decent piece and not one to be had for love or money.’ At this point @ timid youth is sown in, who requests permission to leave the manuscript of a play for the manager’s considera: tion, “No. sir,” says the manager, savagely. ‘As 1 was just saying to this gentleman, I have plays enough in the house for ten years.” Paris Figaro cites as an evidence that the Duky d’Aumale is not @ mean man the fact that in the year 1874 he gave away $30,040. He 18 one of the owners of that famous Orleans property, tn restoration of which, just afier the war, wa looked upon as a financial burden worthy to & mentioned in connection with the five milliom and the German war requisitions, Charles Gautier recently died in Paris, the las of aseries of Charles Gautiers, father and son known to have succeeded one another from the tume of Louis le Hutin. They were not nobies, but common people, and several times declined to be ennobled. Instances of a family of ‘common peo- ple” thus preserving the record of their descent from @ period s0 remote are veryrare. Gautier died trom wounds received in the war. In Japan they have the Pure Shinto, in which. as we learn {rom a newspoper of that country, thé sixth prayer is addressed to Oho-kuni-nushi, “whe rules the Unseen, and to his consort Suseri-bime, & whom ts dedicated the ancient temple of Ono-ya sbiro in Idzumo, By the term ‘Unseen’ are mean peace or disturbance in the Empire, its prosperit; and adversity, the life and death, good and bar fortune of human beings; in fine, every super natural event which cannot be ascribed to a def nite author. The most fearful crimes which @ mat commits go unpunished by society so long as they are undiscovered, but they draw down on bim tht hatred of the invisible gods. The attainment o happiness by periorming good acts is regulated by the same law.” Won’t some of the big importing houses introduce the Shinto? Was the “Pilgrim's Progress” invented by @ Dutchman? The weight of evidence is that way. The London Athena@wm says:—“Mr. Douce lent Southey for perusal @ copy of the Dutch boot ‘Dat Boeck van den Pelgrim,’ Delf, H. Eckert var Hombereh, 1498, 4to, which is now in the Bodleiar Library, at Oxiord; and, although Southey did no perhaps understand Duten, still the wood caw must have shown him it contained the gist o Bunyan’s book; yet he prefers to contound th ‘Boeck van den Pelgrim’ (Delf, 1498, 4to) with the ‘Duyikens ende Willemynken Pelgrimegie (Antwerp, 1627), With engravings by Bole wert. The edition of Deguilleville’s book of the Pilgrim, printed at Del’, 1498, was not the first. A previous edition, “Dit 18 dat Boeck van PeL gherijm,” had been printed at Haarlem, by Jacop Heilaert, 1486, folio, =r. Barlow, the Bishop of Lincoin, who 18 usually said to have procurea tne rejease of Banyan irom an imprisonmens whict haa Jasted not jess than twelve years and a hat (it was after, not during, bis imprisonment tha he wrote the “Pilgrim’s Progress’), may have shown, him an English MS. translat on of Deguille vilie’s “*Piigrimage of Man,” Which after having been in the possession of Bishop Moore, who die¢ the Cambridge University Jibrary. ‘hat the books are identicalim thes main purport seems beyond douby