The New York Herald Newspaper, February 26, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD |™* Dae. la Among all the sudden and heart-rending calamities that bave happened in this city there was never one so fitted to stir the public BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, efter January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New York Herarp will be ‘sent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. An- tual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic Four cents per copy. despatches must be addressed New York Wirraxp. Rejected communications will not be re- furned. Letters and packages should be properly ipealed. AEDS Lc (LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK | HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Wubseriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. ets. emit VOLUME XL: = = = AMUSEMENTS PARK THEATRE, Wroadway.—French pera Boutle-GIROFLE-GIROFLA, a@i cP. Mj closes atl: P.M, Mile. Coralie Geoflroy. NIBLO'S, | Broadway — THE TICKEDDE VE MAN, at3P. M.; | loses at lu. M. Edwin @ Thorne. DOL Gr adway and Thirty 1ORM. "wo exhibitions dand 8 ¥. M. BOOTH" corner of Twenty Sixth avenue.— GUENRy’V., ats . Mr. Rignoid. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS. et.—PARIS IN A | NEW YORK HERALD, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1875.—TRIPLE SHEET. Affrighting Catastropne Andrew's Church. heart to mingled emotions of horror, pity, are sympathy, indignation and an awful sense of NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | the uncertainty of life as that which befell | the quiet worshippers in St. Andrew's church, on Duane street, yesterday evening. | edifice stands on the northside of Duane | street, near Chatham street, Swe: ny's Hotel, | a large and high brick building, is located on the corner, facing both streets. | it, on Duane street, and adjoining it, was | a tall, narrow store, six stories in height, | whose interior was consumed by fire on tho | 12ta of January, leaving its iron front and | brick side-walls standing. ‘Tbe next building to this is St. Andrew's church, a Catholic | place of worship—a low, large structure, | capable of seating on its floor and in its broad galleries about fifteen hundred people. Between this low-roofed church and the western side-wall of the tall, deep store left standing since the fire of January 12 was & space of some two or three feet. This was the condition of things exterior to | the church and in its close neighborhood | when the congregation assembled for worship | gone through with in the regular order, and Father Carroll, of St. Stephen's church, was in the pulpit, in the midst of a discourse | which rose to an unusual pitch of solemnity, | as if some mysterious premonition were oper- | | ating on the mind of the preacher. He was | speaking of death, and warning the dense and crowded congregation of the fearful | danger of postponing preparation for that event, when, with dreadful suddenness, his | discourse was interrupted by a loud, stupefy- | ing crash, foliwed in a second or two by auother. The wild amazement and frantic | terror which ensued defies description. Those Biroadway: corner of Wenty-ainth, greet. NEGRO | stupendous crashes came through the root on e | the east side of the building, bringing down ROBINSON HALL, i v" Fixteenth street —BEGON! DULL GARE, at 8 P.M; | Portions of the roof and a heavy, crush- Closes at 10401", M. Mr. Maccabe, {ing mass of loose bricks upon the ACADE seorner of Twenty: }HIBITION OF WA Javom 9A. M. to SP. nue. —EX- Open TIVOLI THEATRE, Fighth street, between Second and’ Third avenues— WakIeTy, ac i2 P. M.; closes at 2:30 A. M, K’S THEATRE, WALLAC 1 Piroadway THE SH\UGHRAUS, at SP. M; closes at | a U 40. Mt. Mr. Boucicault WAYS BROOKL THEATRE, closes at 10:40 P.M. WOOD'S MUSE! roadway, corner of Thirtieth ‘S OF EW YORK, at2 P.M, DIEDRICH, 45 P.M. STADT TH Foyer ORPaBE AUXE ayr. TRE, “ OLYM HEATRE, ge Broadway.—VABIETY, at8 PF. M.; closes at 10:45 ROMAN HIPPODROME, Bwenty-sixth street and Fourth avenue.—Afternoon and | eveuing, at2 and & THEATRE COMIQUE, Fo Broadway.—VARIETY, at SY. M.; closes at 10:15 DE GARMO HALL. ;CONCERT, at § P.M. Miss E. V. Proudfoot and Mr. J. uc Thomas. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, ‘Twenty-eichth street and Broadway.--THE BIG BO. NANZA, at 5 P.M.; closes at lw PM. Mr. Lewis, diss Davenport, Mrs. Gilbert. S$ OPERA HOUSE, , ats ; closes at 1045 TONY PASTO. Bi, 201 Bowery.—VAKIE PM LYCEUM TH Wourteenth street and sixth ND WIVES and ICL UN PA MM. ; closes at 10:40 P.M. Mr. BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE, wee | heen Atom eee at 2 and 8 P.M ; closesat 40 P.M BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE, West Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenne.—NEGRO BUNSTRELSY, dc. at8P. M.; closes at WPM Dan ryan GERMANIA THEATRE. | Sg hegre street.—DIE KRANKEN DUCTOREN, at 8 M.; Closes at 10:45 P.M. NEW YOR ET, HE , FRIDAY, FEBRUARY | From our reports this morning the probabilities | are that the weather to-day will be cooler and partly cloudy. \ Warn Srreer Yesterpar.—Gold declined to 114}. Stocks were unsettled, money with- out change and foreign exchange steady. Railroad bonds were active. Tue Sreamen Tue Queux, of the Na- | ‘tional Line, went ashore on Squan Inlet in | 8 dense fog. Happily no lives were lost. The cabin passengers reached the city last night. Fortunately, she got off without human assist- | ence, through the kindly mercy of a westerly gale. Tux Free Commissioners and THE CorPora- tion Counskt are said to be preparing or to | have already prepared further answers to the | charges upon which they have been removed from office by Mayor Wickham, with the in- | tention of forwarding the same directly to Governor Tilden, ignoring or overlooking the Mayor of the city. If their intended action is / correctly reported it will scarcely be approved ‘by the Governor. Their written answers to | the charges already made to the Mayor and | considered by him prior to the removals should have contained all the defence in their | power to make. If the Governor should take | any notice at all of these unofficial communi- | cations it would only be to transmit them to | the Mayor in order that the latter might have the opportunity to see whether they con- | tained information of a character to change the conclusions at which he had previously arrived. Fora Avenve.—The movement to cover Fifth avenue with an experimental pavement, | a chemical composition of asphalt and other | commodities unknown to us, shows much | strength, But there can only be one brief, | plain, conclusive ans wer to it all—namely, that’ ‘we want a substantial highway, well approved by experience and use. We want a pavement that will last, and be a comfort to the people. We have no-doubt much can be said in favor of the asphalt composition. We do not deny that under certain conditions it pleasant, grateful pavement. Nor do we impeach the motives and the public spirit of many honor- able men who believe honestly in asphalt. Bat ali experience, so far as it is within our ‘knowledge, shows that this pavement is apt to crack in winter and melt in summer—to need constant nursing—and that, practically, it is unfitted for the severe uses of a great city. Consequently, with these facts clear to all men, the attempt to experiment upon our fairest and most beautiful avenue would be a iS P.M. Miss Ling | | heads of the people in the gallery on that | side. In the consternation, astonishment and | horror which seized that crowded congrega- | tion persons in the gallery leaped over upon | | the heads of people in the pews, and there | was a tumuliuous rush toward the doors, in | which many were either squeezed and crushed | to death or dreadtully injured. In the confusion | nobody knew how many had been killed | or how many wounded in the gallery by the sat | weight which came down upon their heads | | with the falling roof. After great effort and difficulty the church was at last cleared, the | dead decently removed, the severely wounded taken to hospitals and the more slightly wounded to their homes. The cause of this horrible spectacle of | death, maiming, fright, confusion and horror, | which came without warning and with such | terrible swiftness upon that peaceful religious | assembly, is apparent from the description of | the locality. The long, high, western wall of the six story burned building, left standing since the fire of the #2th of January, had | suddenly fallen upon the low roof of the church, breaking through and driving down the heavy incumbent mass upon the heads of | the people in the gallery directly underneath. The scene which ensued in the church fills the in St This Just west of | Jast evening. The prayers, cbants and other | services which precede the sermon had been | inally indicted we do not know. But it is certainly in the power of the Mayor to bring their official life to a speedy close, and the community will demand their instant re- moval. Let him summon the Commis- sioner of Buildings to answer charges to-day, and let the certificate of re- moval be forwarded to Governor Tilden to-morrow. This is a casein which no dif- ference of opinion can arise bétween the Mayor and Governor, and every official head connected with the Department ot Buildings should fall into the basket before the setting of to-morrow’s sun, A Suggestion to the Society, Would it not be well, in view of the recent discussions concerning the exploration of the | Arctic regions, for the American Geographical Society, ot which the Hon. Charles P. Daly is the efficient President, to invite a general sci- | entifie review of the whole subject from learned men of all nationalities? By a | careful elaboration of their opinions and the facts which they present a closer | view would be obtained of what is really needed in the way of exploration, | since detailed instructions could then | be given with judgment as to the work to be | done by all who may be engaged in the differ- ent enterprises. Such instructions will be in- dividuilly given to the different members of | the English party; but why not make it inter- | national, and thus enlarge the field of uscful- ness by concentrating effort. The ambition | of Americans is to excel in all things, and Geographical | scientific men are not exempt from the | prevailing weakness, particularly if they be | travellers ; but, in the present state of knowl- | edge, it is much better that every investiga- | tor should confine himself to a particular line ! of inquiry, and in so important a matter as | the completion of the survey of the North it | the Assembly. care to enter the political arona, and chose to | ‘would be well that each one should know | what the other hasin hand to do, in order that there may be concert of action, The ad- mirable address of Judge Daly last evening, reported elsewhere, is ample to show that in his hands, or those of the gentlemen whom he might associate with him in the task, an invaluable compilation could be | | made, which would be of the greatest | | service in the work of Arctic exploration. | The illustrative use made by the worthy President of an Arctic map published in | yesterday’s Hrnatp we are willing to take | as an omen of the service journalism can be | to science, not merely by exhibiting what has | been done by others, but in manfully helping | to accomplish the mapping of the unknown | quarters of the world. The Judgments Against the City— The Comptroller's Misstatements, Evidence is gradually accumulating to prove | that the recent statement made by Comp- purporting to be a correct official exhibit of the actual financial condition of the city, is fraudulent from beginning to end. We have already exposed the scandalous jugglery by which Mr. Green endeavored to misrepresent liability of his report of the ‘unadjusted | claims” outstanding against the city. The | proceedings before the investigating Law Committee of the Board of Aldermen prove that Mr. Green has incorrectly stated the | The Conservative Ri Me im France. The persistent discipline shown by the re- publicans in+ the French Assembly in voting what is, after all, a nominal republic {and resisting the blandishments of the Bonapartists is the most important political movement that has taken place in France for a long time. It will be observed that the resolution to take this step was inspired by a speech of M. Gambetta. This gentleman has vindicated the opinions his friends entertained of him when he first | came into public life by a course of patience and conservatism rarely seen in French poli- tics. The leader of the republican party, and believed to be practically a Communist in his | sympathies, M. Gambetta has shown a knowl- } edge of the true principles of political success—compromise and courage. There- | fore, with that tendency in the French mind, and especially the radical French | mind, to fly off upon a thousand issues, to quarrel about fancies, theories and im- aginative differences of opinion, to in- trude sentimental issues into the gravest aspect of public affairs, his success in holding his party as a practical unit redounds to his credit as a leader and to the wisdom of the party which he commands. % As our readers will, perhaps, remember, the beginning of the crisis which has so hap- pily ended was the fact that a distinguished French soldier made his bid for the military headship of the imperial party, and gave reason to fear a military coup d'état like what has twice been seen in Spain since Amadeus left. General Canrobert was asked to become a candidate for the office of Deputy for the Do- partment of Lot—an occurrence not uncom- mon in France or elsewhere to distinguished soldiers or distinguished civilians, or even to the undistinguished ot both classes. Several commanders of divisions have sat in Canrobert, however, did not say so by an open letter to Count Joachim Murat. He assigned as his motive that he army, for he wished to be in a pesition where he could best serve his country if she re- quired his devotion; he had but one idea that might be called political, which was pro- found respect for the fallen Empire and faith in its institutions, and he wished, apparently, to keep out of party complications, that his hands might be the more free to give effect to that one political idea if an opportunity shouldcome. All the political journals at once criticised this letter with a bitterness which | seemed to regard it in the light of a procla- mation that Canrobert was ready. Can- robert could only have thus openly declared his readiness from a personal conviction that he was not the only old soldier whose mind is made up. He wished to be beforehand with | some one in his declaration. It is but natural that the corps commanders should be dis- troller Green to the Board of A'dermen, and | gusted with the inofficiency and helplesssness | of Versailles, and not unnatural, perhaps, that th@y should nearly all be imperialists. We have said this was the alarm note of the | crisis, the fear that the Empire was surely com- | ing. LEversince the failure of the negotiations the increase in the city debt during his term | to bring back the Count de Chambord to the | | of office, and have shown the evident unre- | throne—an event which would have been quite { | possible but for Bourbon obstinacy—there | have been but two parties possible in France— the Republic or the Empire. These have always possessed the living elements of poli- tical action, and they are in direct antagonism. did not wish to separate himself from the | imagination with shuddering horror, The belief that Sedan had destroyed the Na- | Mr. Prince’s Rapid Transit Bill. Whatever may be thought of the bill intro- duced in the Assembly by Mr. L. Bradford Prince in other respects, it has at least the merit of conforming to the new amendments engrafted on the State constitution. The constitutional difficulty consists in the pro- hibition to ‘pass a private or local bill’ in any one of a long list of enumerated cases, in- cluding among others the “granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks.’’ Before the adoption of this amendment it was com- petent for the Legislature to pass any ac: it pleased creating a corporation to construct either an ordinary street railroad or a steam road through the streets of this city. But under the amended constitution no local bill can be passed authorizing either the municipal corporation or any private corporation to lay down railroad tracks, and nothing can be done on this subject except under general laws applicable to all parts of the State. In'framing such a general law there is a double difficulty, both parts of which Mr. Prince seems to have surmounted. One part of the difficulty consists in framing a consti- tutional law which would authorize the city to construct a rapid transit road on its own account with the funds or credit of the city treasury, making the road a municipal public work like the Croton Aqueduct or the Central Park. There has for some time ceased to be any dispute or doubt as to the authority of the Legislature to do this witbin certain pre- scribed limitations as to the consent of prop- erty owners or judicial action if they should obstruct the public interest. But there are grave objectiong to the construction of rapid transit roads by the city, and the most im- portant part of the problem is to devise some constitutional method for the building of such roads by associated private enterprise, Mr. Prince has taken this problem in hand and seems to have solved it. He has framed a bill which empowers the municipal authorities of all the cities of the State to determine the routes, prescribe the plan of construction and fix the rates of fare of all such roads which they may deem necessary for the interest or conven- ience of their respective cities, subject always to the constitutional requirement of the con- sent of the owners of property along the route, or, failing this, a judicial decree. But had his bill stopped here it would have been exposed to all the objections which lie against the construction of such works at the expense of the municipal treasury. The great difficulty was to find a constitutional method oi authorizing a private company to make and own the road and receive its profits. Since the amendments this can be done only under a general law, which gives no private indi- vidual or corpogation any privilege to which all others are not equally entitled. Mr. Prince does not cut this Gordian knot, but unties it. When the route, plan and rates of fare of a proposed road have | been determined the bill makes it the duty of the city authorities to sell the privilege of building, running and re- ceiving the profits of the road at public auc- tion to the highest bidder, who is empowered to associate other individuals with himself and form a corporation for conducting the | enterprise. This is entirely consistent with the amendment which forbids any private or local law for laying down railroad tracks. The bill confers no power upon New York which will not be equally shared by all the cities of | to fitteen hnndred people assemble sev- | present charter the Surveyor of Buildings. | This department was created for the purpose | It would be an egregious trifling with pub- lic patience and an insult to the moral sense of the community to call this dreadful horror an accident The unanimous voice of the as an atrocious crime. Six weeks have passed since the fire which left that long, thin, high, crumbling wall standing | almost directly over the roof of the next build- | ing, on which it might fall at any hour of the | day or the night. The criminal negligence was | not less murderous, but more murderous, by | the fact that the low adjoining building was | achurch. Had the dangerous wall come down | with a sudden crash upon e private residence | the peril to life would have been comparatively | slight. But to leave such o tail, frail, top- | heavy menace hanging for six weeks over the | roof of a building in which from thirteen eral times each week was a negli- gence so wanton, so inexcusable, 60 uttcrly | heartless, so flagrantly criminal, tbat no language is adequate to set forth its tur- pitude, and no severity of indignant denun- ciation can match the offence. The reason why that dangerous, death-deal- ing wall has stood so long and postponed this terrible catastrophe is to be found in the re- cent condition of the weather. On the night | of the fire and during the greater part of the time since, until within the last two or three days, the weather was intensely cold. The | water thrown upon the cracking wall by the fire engines froze into the crevices, the ice acting as a cement to hold it together. The recent thaw, and especially the warm | rain of yesterday afternoon and evening, dis- placed the adhesive ice in the fissures of the | wall, and left the whole mass to obey the law | of gravity, which brought it down with a swift, terrible crash. The whole blame of this appalling calamity must rest upon the Department of Buildings, and especially upon the officer called by our of securing the community against dangers from unsafe or ill-constructed buildings. There are no points of danger to which its vigilance should be so promptly and vigorously directed ax to high, ansupported | walls lett standing after a fire. The warping effect of a fire in bringing thin walls out of perpendicular, the cracking and disintegrat- ing influence of intense heat and the subse- quent action of freezing water and melt- ing ice create an immediate neces- sity for a thorough examination and testing of such standing walls after every fire, and a surveyor or inspector should be on the city will brand and denounce it | amount of judgments obtained against the city since September, 1871, and the costs en- tailed upon the city. The total amount of judgments between September 16, 1871, and December 31, 1874, is alleged by the Comp- | troller to be $1,935,389 and the costs to the city $66,082. The report prepared at the County Clerk's office shows that the total amount of judgments recorded in that office from Octo- ber 1, 1871, up to the present time, is $2,739,407. Of this sum, $181,613 is for | judgments docketed since January 1, 1875, thus leaving the amount up to December 31 $2,557,794. The costs taxed to the city in the Supreme Court alone, on these judgments, | amounted to $50,755. The County Clerk is unable to tell the amount of costs in judg- ments obtained in the other courts, because | they are not separately set forth. The interest | imposed on the city on these judgments up | to the present time is $103,758. Mr. Green bas thus misrepresented the amount of judg- | ments and costs. But apart from this there are thousands of cases which are factiously fought by Mr. Green in the courts and paid, with costs, before a judgment is docketed. None of these suits are included or noticed in Mr. Green's report, although the object of the Aldermen is well known to have been the dis- covery of the amount of money wasted by Mr. Green in factious litigation. We have repeatedly said that no correct in- formation in regard to the financial condition of the city government can be obtained until it is dragged forth from the recesses of the department, in spite of the Comptroller's opposition. Concealment and deception are inconsistent with the honest management of | finances ; hence the necessity for an investi- gation thorough enough to go to the bottom of all the transactions of the department. A bookkeeper who should lock up his employer's ledgers, bills, vouchers and cash book, and refuse to allow the principals of the firm to examine them or to ascertain their contents, would be dealt with summarily. He would be turned out of the counting room, his drawers would be forced open and his ac- counts overhauled. Mr. Green stands ex- actly in this position in relation to his em- ployers. The people do not know the condi- tion of their accounts, the amount of their | liabilities or any of the details of their finan- cial business. They can obtain no truthiul statements trom the Comptroller, and it is time that the authority of the courts should be exerted for their protection if the Mayor is powerless to act. Tur Cenrenniat.—We feel that we are com- ing ioto the historical phases of our centen- nial time when we note as an event, which | ground before the premises are ever left by to-day finds its anniversary, what is called | poleonic legend is a mistake. The Empire has done too much for France in the way of material prosperity, and there is too much to attract the French character in the nimbus of Napoleonic’ glory which surrounds the Empire for it to easily die. The Bonapartists are adroit and able politicians. Their cause has been sustained by large sums of money. | Where this money comes from is a problem, but Napoleonism has always been financially successful, as was seen when the first Ew- peror, although a prisoner at Elba, had in- | fluence enough to negotiate the money which sustained the hundred days. The army has never failed in its allegiance to Napoleonism. The leading generals are avowedly with the Empire, tor Napoleonism is another name for military advancement and fame. Although the Church would prefer Henry V. there are many reasons why it would not object to Napoleon 1V. The lad is a model Catholic, and the Empress is known to be under severe ecclesiastical influences. It is thought, also, that the Empire would give more satisfaction to the European Powers than any other form of government. England is imperialist, Prussia has whipped two Napo- leons, and would not mind whipping a third. Even the Powers who would prefer a Bourbon, as s more respectable quality of king, feel that there can be no peace in France under a monarchical system that does not involve the eee ith all these influences leading toward Napoleonism, and above them the persistent system ot agitation by the Bonaparte leaders, stimulated by the success of the military usurpation in Spain, we caf understand the wisdom and courage of the republicans. M. Gambetta sees plainly enough that there can be no republic in France that does not em- brace the moderate monarchists. The mon- archists see that next toa constitutional king the most satisfactory form of government would be a conservative republic. M. Gam- betta feels that a republic, no matter how con- servative, is all the time a step toward repub- licanism; that the system, to grow well, must grow slowly. Hence he and his following combine with the moderate monarchists and pass the Senate bill and the Public Powers bill by almost two-thirds majorities, He does not want a Senate, but better a republic witha Senate than a monarchy with a Chamber of Peers. He sees that republics have never succeeded except when they havo steadily progressed from a basis almost mo- narchical He has probably studied the history of the United States well enough to know that in the beginning the distinction between republicanism as preferred by Washington and Hamilton and the monarchy of Great the guard of police who keep the space clear | “Leslie's Retreat.’’ According to the provin- | Britain was little more than a shadow. If, around burning or recently burned buildings, | cial history of Massachusetts, in the old and | therefore, the Republic should be proclaimed, | To leave the uncommonly thin wall of a | moss-covered town of Salem there was a | and couid once become an assured form of six story building, which is liable to faliatany | movement undera patriot officer called Colonel | government, wielding its machinery, steadily minute, standing for six weeks, to the peril | Alexander Leslie to resist the British. It growing in the confidence of the people, of a vast congregation which assembles close | might have been battle, but it was only an | identifying itself with the Chureh and the under the overhanging danger, is ® criminal | event. But we are rapidly coming to the time | State and even with the aristocracy, it is only } trifling with human life and public safety | when every month will have its unuiversary, | a question of time for it to grow more and which deserves the severest censuro avd culminating in the supreme anniversary of all | more liberal. After Washington and Hamil- waste of money and an abuse of the public yolare, | punishment. Whether the officers of the commemorating the day which proclaimed | ton we had Yefferson. Alter ‘Lhiers and Mac- | | Department of Buildings cam be crim~ | American Independence, Mabon Frauce may bave Gambetta | day’s session had been closed by a regular the State, and it opens the door to a perfectly free competition among all citizens for the privilege of building and owning the road. Everybody has the same right to put in his bid, and the one who offers the city the best bargain and gives proper security for perform- ance is entitled, with his associates, to form acorporation for this purpose. We cannot see that this bill is open to any constitutional objection; but whether it is in other respects the best that can be framed is a question which should not be hastily decided. The Force Bill in the House. The contest which kept the House in cop- tinuous session from Wednesday noon until a late hour in the afternoon of Thursday re- sulted at last in a republican victory—but whether an empty victory remains to be seen. Even if the bill should pass the House it would have to run the gauntlet of the Senate, and the time isso short, and the Senate has so much other business to transact, that the democratic Senators might easily talk the bill to death. The chances that it will become a law, as we reckon them, are exceedingly slen- der. But the unyielding vigor with which it has been pressed upon the House proves that its supporters are not without hope, The obstructive tactics of the democrats, by whieh the bill was fought off for more than twenty-four hours, demonstrate the ineffi- ciency of the new rule adopted. to prevent filibustering. Had ail the republican mem- bers cared enough for the bill to re- main in their seats during the weari- some Wednesday night the dilatory strategy of the democrats might have been foiled. But many of them preferred the re- pose of their pillows, and as there were not republicans enough to make a quorum, the opponents of the bill hit upon a new method of filibustering which was successful during Wednesday night and until past moon yester- day. By simply refusing to vote they pre- vented a working quorum, and then, when called to account for their refusal, motions | were made for hearing their excuses one by one, and the yeas and nays called on each of these motions. The continuance of this fight depended on both sides upon a calculation of time. Everything depended, on the demo- cratic side, upon keeping the House without @ working qnoram until noon yesterday and wearying out their opponents and getting an adjournment before that hour. ‘There is a standing rule that no new bill can be taken up during the last six days of session ex- cept by a two-thirds vote, and as the sixth day would begin at noon yesterday the Force bill would have received its coup de | grace had it been staved off till that hour and the House had then adjourned. On the other hand, it was the purpose of the republicans to run the session on past that hour, when their absent members would come in to take | partin Thursday's session, But Thursday's ses- sion could not commence until after Wednes- adjournment. A parliamentary day is construed to extend to the hour of adjourn- ment; so that if the House had remained sit- | ting until Saturday, the whole four days would | can commissioner 1s president, will day. Tne members who came to their seats yesterday noon merely participated during the afternoon in the proceedings of the legislative day which began Wednesday noon, so that by prolonging the session beyond twenty-four hours the republicans contrived to evade the rule against taking upa new bill during the last six days without a two-thirds vote. For the first twenty-four hours they were like an army fighting to keep the enemy at bay until its reinforce- ments arrived. The republican tactics proved successful, and the bill was taken up yesterday afternoon in virtue of the parlia- mentary fiction that it was still Wednesday until the House adjourned. ‘The bill can, therefore, be acted upon either to-day or at any time previous to the final adjournmenten the 3d of March. We suppose there will be no difficulty in passing it through the House, and if the democrats talk it to death in the Senate the republicans will, nevertheless, be able to turn their efforts for the bill to elec- tioneering advantage in their appeals to negro or pra-negro constituencies. Ourreaders will recollect that this is the bill agreed on by the republican caucus some two weeks since, authorizing the President to sus- pend the writ of habeas corpus and exercige arbitrary military power in any State or part of a State where he may fancy there is dis- loyalty either to the State or national govern- ment, Masks and Faces. The attempt of the police to regulate the masked ball the other evening, by compelling all the merry makers who came in masks to unfold their real quality before entering, has: excited much interest. The law against masked balls has become a dead letter. There has not been a season recently when we have not had famous assemblies of shrouded men and women, We can understand how, in countries where the stiletto is only an extreme form of political controversy, the mask gives an oppo- nent an advantage he would not have in the ordinary rules of debate. Consequently the necessity for a rigid supervision of masks. We note the argument that the mask may be- come the cover for immoral speech, and that refined and shrinking virtue would hesitate before venturing into a miscellaneous throng of dancers. But there is the same danger in an evening stroll down Broadway, in the lobby of a theatre, in a railway car and a market: house. We can discover evil without going to a masked ball Furthermore, the law makes no distinction between a mask and a veil. A lady has as much right to go into the Academy as Aurora or the Ace of Diamonds as to assume the latest costume from Paris. The whole proceeding belongs to the pedantry of justice meddling with private rights and not protecting the public peace. If people will go to balls, it matters little whether they dance in masks or faces, We are civilized enough to behave ourselves, even if we cloud our features in satin and gauze and cut frolicsome capers. The police will find statutes more in need of enforcement than the statate which submitted the opera ball to municipal jurisdiction. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Postmaster John F, Smyth, of Albany, ts staying at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, Professor Ezra Abbot, of Harvard College, is re siding at the Everett House. Rey. Dr. Thomas A. Jaggar, of Philadelphia, is registered at the Coleman House. Mr. Witham T. Adams (‘Oliver Optic”), of Boston, is stopping at the Windsor Hotel. Royalty in China still dies from smallpox. This is Jenner-ally impossible in Europe nowadays. Bx-Governor Andrew G. Curtin, of Pennavivania, arrived last evening st the Filth Avenue Hotel. Postmaster George W. Fairman, of Philadelphia, is among the late arrivais at the St. Denis Hotel. Congressman elect Jonn M, Davy and Proiessor H. B. Hackett, of Rochester, are at the Metropoli- tan Hotel. Judge Joann T. Ludeling, of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, has taken up his residence at the Windsor Hotel. General Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, arrived in this city yesterday and took up bis residefce at the Fiith Avenue Hotel Yung Wing, of the Chinese Educational Commis- sion, has just been married toa New England laay, aud is residing with his bride at the Windsor Hotel. “Oh, for those good old days,” sighs an Indiana editor, ‘when tnis office received enough Patent Ofice reports to keep every stove red not from November to March.” So Bergh, in excuse of bis attempt to bally the Grand Jury, piesds ignorance. Glad to hear there 1s something Henry does not pretend to know— infallible people are great natsances, Beecher 1s Gibraltar and Tilton ts a bubble, if we believe the counsel; but it is odd that Gibraltar should have trembled fer years lest the secret that the bubbie held should come out. And so the defence imvoives the jealousy of Mra. Mouiton. In the Beecher circle, then, it cannot be comprehended that a woman should regard the ‘great preacher and not sin—in thougnt if not otherwise. a It 1s evident that civilization is wanted in Eng- land, Jobo Bull “discriminating on account of color,” in taking $1,600 for negroes and requiring $2,500 for white men, stamps him at once as a bar- barian and & savage. William Hepworth Dixon departs from America to-morrow on the steamer Adriatic. He considera himself almost an American now, bis irequent visits to this country putting him nearly on the basis of a citizen tourist. Here’s philanthropy :~An association “to ele- vate the grade of butter manufactured in this country.” Hope this elevation of grade will not engbie the butter of the future to outrank the butter of the period in too great a degree. Three thousand bird nests have been distributed Qt various points in the parks of Paris. They are made for the sparrow, titmouse, cuckoo, black. bird, magpie and others—and in the forms respec- tively as the birds make them for themselves, “Vaticanism” is good and supplies a want—. “Romanism” was too large for the case, and “ultramontanism” originated in other disputes, It 1s @ charitable word, too, as declaring that the source of the present trouble is not in the Churcn or its dogmas, but in the palace of its head. Here is & sentiment from Beecher:—“What place is so rugged ai homely that there ts no beauty, if you only hi sibility to beauty ?”* Beecher has, perbaps, ® «reaver seusibility to beauty than other people, and this theory may accoont for his finding it where other people can- not see it—in “commonplace little women.” If the Bonaparte Prince Imperial showd marry tne Danish princess, it would be great stroke, as it is in “grand alliances” that French states- men put their trust for the future of their country. Bat he will bardly get her. Provably the Empress | of Russia will be an insuperable obstacie, Her ob- | jection to “encanailerait” herseif was made against this family. ‘The President has appointed Dr. Wines, of Now York, commissioner to the International Prison Congress, to be held next year at Rome. ‘he In ternational Penitentiary Commission created vy tue Congress of London, and of which the Ameri- meet at Bruchsal, Grand Duchy oj Baden, in September, to frame @ programme of procedure and make all necessary protiminary arrangements for the Com have been counted as the seasion of Wednes- | gress of Rome,