The New York Herald Newspaper, March 24, 1875, Page 6

6 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | alter January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yorx Henaxp will be | rent free of postage. THE DAILY HERALD, published every Four cents per copy. An- nual subscription price $12. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New, Yorr day in the year. Henarp. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. | Letters and packages should be properly sealed. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received und forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME Xe | AMUSEMENTS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. | ENUE THEATRE, Broadway.—THE BIS BO- t sat ll :30 P.M, Mr. Fisher, Mr. wis, Miss Davenport, Mrs Gilbert. LYCEUM THEATRE, Fourteenth street, near Sixth avenua—MARIE AN- TOINETIE, ac8 P: M.; closes at 11 ¥. M. Mme. Ristori. PARK THLATRE, Y CROCKETT, at'8 P. M.; closes at | Broadway.—DA 1045 P.M. Mr. GRAND CENTRAL THEATRE, 0. 585 Broadway.—VARIETY, ats P. M.: closes at 10:45 Bee rrahee ata pA BOOTH’S THEATRE, corner ot Twenty-third street and Sixth avenue.— HENKY V., at8 P.M. jclosesatll P.M. Mr, Rignold. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, away ornare of Twenty-ninth street.—NEGRO LSY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P. M. TIVOLI THEATRE, bth street, berrenn wenen’ vend Third avenues.— RRL JETY, at8 P.M. WALLACK'S TI Broadway, THE Ait GHaat 1045 P.M at ash. 25 closes at P.M. MR EATRE, BC sofees at WOMB PeM, | Mise Seah i Sarah Jewett. Mr. Louis James. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Y, corner of Thirtieth _stree: OF PARIS, at? P.M. IE Fastest Bor ix YORK, at4 P.M.; closes at 10:45 FP. OLYMPIC THEATRE, No. 624 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 l. M.; closes.at 1045 PML Matinee atz P. M. ROBINSON HALL, Fizteenth street and Broadway.—CALLENDER'S RGIA MINSTRELS, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 P, M. atinee at 2 P.M. 7 TRE Comi 514 Broadway. RIETY, at 8 M. Matinee at2 P.M. Bo e. CE, . M.; closes.at 10:45 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, ‘West Fourteenth street.—Open from 10 A. M. to'S P. M. BROOKLYN Sept ae Er, Fniton avenue.—VARIETY, at§ 1’. M.; closes at 1045 P.M Matinee at 2 P. M. BRYANT’S OPERA HOUSE, West Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue. MINSTRELSY, &c., atSP.M.; closes at 10 Bryant GERMA Fourteenth street.— closes at 1045 Y, ML TONY PASIOk Ko. 201 Bowery.—VARIETY, r TRIPLE SHEET, MARCH OPERA HOUSE, ts P.M; closes at 10:45 BEW YORK, ms WEONES SDAY, } OTICE. “TO ‘THE PUBLIC. Owing to the heavy pressure of advertise- ments on the columns of our Sunday edi- tions, advertisers will serve their own inter | ests and enable us to make a proper classi- 24 1875. they will hereafter send in for the Sunday the week and early on fication if advertisements Heratp during intended Saturdays. From our reports this morning the probabilities that the weather to-day will be generally ly. are clo Wann Srreet Yusrerpay.—Gold opened at | 116} and declined to 116. Stocks were weak. Foreign exchange was dull. Money, on call, at 3 and 4 per cent. easy Gronota has been devastated by atornado of nnusnal force, and the loss of property and | life is said to be extraordinary. Dox Cantos has excommunicated General | Cabrera, and the latter is on his way to seek | absolution from Alfonso. Tur Virreranp Sxootine Arrar has thus far had but one side freely presented. To-day we give the full story of Mr. Landis as told to our correspondent during an interview in the prison yesterday. Mr. Landis has given a full account of his wrongs and of the manner in which be shot Mr. Carruth. It is a terrible y, but is given with apparent candor and Tae Excuse Praraicens has passed, irs second reading, the bill pedis ing the Pence Preservation act, and the debate turned to a great de- gree upon the aid furnished by American sympathizers to Trish agitators. Mr. Disraeli appealed tothe patriotism of Trish forgetting that they bad in vain > his magnanimity in the case of Mr. Mit hel. Tax Boarp or Anpeaax yesterday adopted the Law Committee’s report upon the special message of the Mayor, The report is else- where printed, and urges, as a necessary step to reform, the restoration of the sole manage- ment of the affairs of New York to the Com- mon Council, Comptroller Green is severely »ngured for bis assumption of authority in appealing to the Legislature as a self-consti- tuted representative of the whole A committee was finally appointed to frame laws for the better government of the city, to be anbmitted to the Board for discussion, This was wise and practical action, and it may have ful resulis, nse | structive. NEW YORK HERALD; WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1875—TRIPLE SHEET, Readers of the comments of the party news- papers on Mr. Johnson’s speech must have got a distorted view unless they read the speech itself. The partisan editors try to convey the impression that it was an inco- herent outpouring of personal egotism and of vituperation against President Grant, whereas | it was, in fact, a strong, pertinent argument, too diffuse, no doubt, but bearing as closely on the question as any speech that has been delivered in this debate, and a great deal more so than most of them. We can recall no topic or line of illustration which was not strictly relevant, except the impropriety of receiving gifts by public officers. All his other points came in naturally, and several of them had not been made before in the course | ; of the discussion. The party journals com- | plain that so much of the speech is devoted to criticism cf the President. We wish the cavillers would tell us why this was out of place when the very question before the Senate was the proposed passage of a resolution indors- ing the President’s course in Louisiana, This question has but two sides—whether the | President shall be indorsed or shall not be indorsed; and the discussion necessarily in- | volves eulogy, or, at least, apology, by the ad- vocates of the resolution, and condemnation of the course of the President by its oppo- nents. The conduct of the President was the | very subject under debate, and it is prepos- | terous to complain of Senator Johnson for confining his remarks to the question, And | yet he is criticised in a tone as if he had wan- dered from the business before the Senate and launched forth into irrelevant invectives against the President on an oceasion to which | they were not related. Neither is it true thatthe speech is made up of violent invective and personal abuse. On the contrary, although Mr. Johnson's language is explicit, it was strictly parliamentary and decorous. The most devoted supporter of President Grant on the floor, it he had kept watch for that purpose, could not have found an occasion for calling Mr. Johnson to order. He was vigorous and earnest, for that is a pert of his character; but his hard hitting did not consist in vulgar language and coarse epithets, but in the force of his well aimed arguments. It is unjust and absurd to represent this asa low, ill-toned speech. Its language bears, indeed, no marks of careful preparation and has something of the crudeness incident to extemporaneous speak- ing, and, being transmitted at once by tele- graph without revision, fairness requires that it snould be judged by the force and per- | tinence of its reasoning, since its language, however unscholarly, nowhere offends against parliamentary propriety. Another partisan animadversion on this really good speech is its alleged egotistical | recitals of parts of Mr. Johnson’s personal and official history. This charge has a de- ceptive color of plausibility, but no substan- tial foundation. It is true that Mr. Johnson supports his argument by two references to his own administration, but we should pity the intellect of any man who would venture to say that they aré not pertinent to the question before the Senate. They are, in truth, the most pertinent illustrations that could have been selected by any speaker. Where else, indeed, can General Grant look for prece- dents in this class of difficulties but in the administration of his immediate predecessor ? The reconstruction question and the collat- eral questions connected with it first came into the foreground of our politics in the beginning of President Johnson's adminis- tration. When President Grant was elevated to the head of the government there was no other part of our history to which he could have recourse for guidance in dealiag with the Southern States, because Johnson was the first Chief Magistrate called to deal responsi- | bly with this kind of difficulties. If Mr. Johnson buttressed his argument with prece- dents at all he was compelled to take them from his own administration, the only part of our history where they could be found. The fact that other speakers had omitted them was a reason for their introduction, if they tended to throw light on the question. They are really the most valuable contribution which has been made in this debate to a discussion which is so stale in most of its aspects. The reason why | | other speakers have not referred to them | is obvious. They make against the republi- | can side, and the democratic debaters avoided | them from an unmanly fear that citing An- | drew Johnson as an authority would in some way commit them to his unpopular adminis- tration. It was, therefore, entirely proper for Mr. Johnson to call attention to them him- | self if they really elucidate the subject, and a charge of egotism on this account’ is a shallow ney unworthy of serious journalism. The two cases which Mr. Johnson cites from his own administration are truly in- The Tennessee case, in 1866, bears a close resemblance to the Louisiana case at the beginning of this year. General Thomas—then in command at Nashville— applied to General Grant at Washington for military assistance to enable the Union men of Tennessee to organize the State Legisla- | ture. The despatch came through the War Department to the President, and Mr. John- son directed instructions to be sent to Gen- | eral Thomas forbidding him to interfere. “The administration of the laws,’’ graphed, ‘and the preservation of the peace in Nashville belong properly to the State authorities, and the duty of the United States authorities is not to in- terfere in any way in the controversy between the public authorities of the State, and Gen- eral Thomas will strictly abstain from any in- terterence between them.’’ Nobody objected to this policy at'the time, and its practical re- Had the same policy sult was beneficial. been pursued by President Grant in Louisiana that State would have been spared two or three years of angry and needless turmoil. The equally pertinent. It arose in 1867, General an being then in military command at lent and overbearing that it kept the State in hot water, and President Johnson removed him. Under his firm and law-abiding successor, other case Orleans. His conduct was so in: | General Hancock, the State was pacified and things went on smoothly during the residue ot President Jobnson’s administration, With | public life and is in a position where he can he tele- | cited by Senator Johnson is | | Partisan Carping at Andrew Johnson. | made himself hated and detested by that com- munity, and whose presence tended to rake up old grudges and stir bad blood. In any sound estimate these two precedents and their quieting results are of more value than all the hair-splitting constitutional logic of | the democratic speakers, and it would have been am unmanly and fastidious delicacy if | Mr. Johnson had foreborne to introduce them | lest shallow, carping critics might accuse him of egotism. The sneering ridicule with which partisan wiseacres treat Mr. Johnson’s pro- | tessed attachment to the constitution is too | contemptible for comment. If he has raised any weak constitutional objections to Presi- dent Grant’s course in Louisiana, let them be exposed and refuted; but it is sheer idiocy or blind political bigotry to turn appeals to the constitution into derision. In our judgment Mr. Johnson's is the best speech which has been made in this debate. It is strong, plain, practical, and alto- gether better fitted to make an impression on the average popular mind than the dry ar- guments of the other speakers. We rejoice | that a statesman of Mr. Johnson's | great experience, robust honesty, dauntless, political courage, stubborn sense of duty, and independence of party ties, has returned to command the attention of the country. We are sure to have the opinions of one man who never shrunk from stating his real convic- tions and cares nothing for paltry political ex- pediencies. Itis an important accession to our means of learning the truth, for, although no well balanced mind will pin its faith to Andrew Johnson, he is always sure to say some.hing that is worth weighing before we finally make up our minds on public ques- tions. If Mr. Johnson’s speech could be widely circulated in Connecticut it would have more influence than all the anti-Grant speeches made on the stump. The Cendition of the Rapid Transit Plan. Another meeting of the subscribers to the capital stock fund tor rapid transit was held yesterday, and the condition of the enterprise is fully set forth in our reports. The labors of the committee have not been altogether | useless; new directors have been obtained and additional subscriptions secured. But, while we do not wish to disparage these earnest efforts, we are compelled to say that no important progress has been made. Sub- scriptions to the amount of a few thousand dollars and promises of assistance hereafter form a sad contrast with the immediate neces- sities of the enterprise. The scheme is a | grand one—millions of dollars are required to execute it, Yet with the proof of what rapid transit has done for London and other great cities, and the knowledge that it has proved not only a public convenience but a financial success, our capitalists continue to be indifferent and inactive. In the meanwhile ali the mterests of the city— manufacturing, commercial and social—are suffering ; capital is departing, and time, which is capital that cannot be restored, 18 wasted. While we approve the earnest efforts made by the gentlemen who met yesterday we must say that nothing really encouraging | has yet been done. The enterprise stands | still. Where are the capitalists who should give it their support and redeem the reputa- tion of the community? New York has never had more reason to display her public spirit | and less public spirit has never been shown, We want rapid transit, butit must be con- fessed that we are very slow in getting it. The Verdict in the Stockvis Case. The public has not lost its real interest in | the Stockvis case, although the excitement | has naturally passed away. We remember that a sick and insane man was arrested in the streets on the pretence that he was intoxi- cated ; that he was sent to Blackwell’s Island as a vagrant; that when the police au- | thorities were notified of his disappearance they did not identify him, although they had him in custody, and, finally, that, while either in the charge of the police or the prison officials, he received injuries which caused his death. This is enough to arouse the alarm and indignation of the public, and the satisfaction will be universal that the inquest in this case has not ended in the accustomed verdict of ‘“Nobody to blame.” For it appears that there is somebody to blame. The Coroner's charge was a strong | one, and the verdict of the jury, after an un- | usually acute investigation, sustained his re- | view of the evidence. It will be note that | the death of the unfortunate citizen is attrib- | uted to want of proper treatment, nourish- ment and medical aid while he was a prisoner in the station house, in the police court prison and in the Workhouse ; that care was | not taken by the police, Police Justice Flam- mer and the officials of Blackwell's Island to ascertain his real condition, and that the whole system now existing under the direction of the Police Board and the Commiss'~ners of Public Charities and Cor- rection: defective, and its management irra- tional and degrading. The facts forbade any other conclusion, and although the verdict is not severe in its censure of individuals its condemnation of the system under which they act is unqualified. But this is not enough. The verdict makes | | farther action indispensable. The responsi- bility of the death of Mr. Stockvis rests upon A Bullet in the Brain. It isthe fifth day since a bullet weighing half an ounce was lodged in the brain of Mr. Carruth, the Vineland editor, and he is still alive ; and this fact is scarcely comprehersi- ble to the many, who conceive the brain as in itself so essentially vital that any injury to it is followed inevitably and almost immedi- ately by death. Indeed, popular knowledge is only divided between the brain and the heart as the essential seats of vitality; and it was a great puzzle to people when, some years ago, a pistol bullet was lodged in the heart of the well known Bill Poole, and that comparatively decent bravo of city politics did not imme- diately die. In Poole’s case the bullet was certainly lodged in the muscular walls of the heart, and it might have been as safe there as in almost any other muscle, if repose and at- tention had eased the labor of the heart till careful nature could have reinforced the walls and provided against accidents; but an enemy was permitted to enter his room too early— there was a new altercation, an excitement, and, the heart being forced to an untimely energy, the thin septum of muscle that kept the bullet in a safe place was broken through, the function of the organ was interfered with and death came. It is just as certain in this case that Carruth’s brain is wounded—yet he lives; and people who find that a shot in heart or brain may yet not be fatal, will begin to mistrust their revolvers, It is not impossible tor a man to live with the most serious injury to the brain, and even to live for many years. Every medical mu- seum has specimens which exhibit that life is not necessarily cut short by the presence in the brain of substances presumably as injuri- ous as bullets. In the College Museum at Montpelier, in France, is the skull of a sol- dier of the First Empire who lived many years with a bullet in his brain, and one can see plainly the evidences of the efforts made by nature, like a skilful engineer, to prevent interference with her ordinary operations. Assisted, perhaps, by some sbreds of the in- ternal periosteum, she had constructed a pro- cess of bone under the bullet—between it and the brain—and reduced it to the character ofa harmless neighbor. In the practice of Dr. Detmold, of this city, we believe there once occurred the case of a man who, in some blasting operations, had a sort of small crow- bar or rock drill driven through his brain— into the head at one sideand out at the other— and who recovered from the wound at the time, but died subsequently trom its effects by the formation of an abcess and the exhaust- ing drain made bya large pyogenic tract. Cases might be produced in illustration to almost any extent. Wounds in the brain are fatal immediately, os arule, by the fact that they open large arter- ies or that they injure parts essential to the performance of some of the absolutely neces- sary functions, like respiration; and they are fatal later, by leading to inflammation. Arteries and large veins are so ramified in the brain that it is scarcely possible to shoot into it without inducing extensive hemorrhage, and the blood thus Jet out trom the vessels does not flow away by the wound, but is plugged in by substance, and acts as the same fluid does in case of apoplexy, by pressure and interference with cerebral functions. But it is possible to put in a bullet without opening either any considerable artery or large vein, and without touching the parts of the brain that preside over the operations of animal life. ‘This is, apparently, what has occurred in Carruth’s ease. He was shot in the back ot the head, and the bullet went upward and to the mght. It is perhaps lodged against the bone at the summit of the right cerebral hemisphere. Or if it reached that point with the force just short of what was necessary to penetrate it has passed by the inclination of the bone to a point not far from the right eye. As the man reasons and is conscious the an- terior portion cXthe hemisphere 1s not greatly injured and is not much, if at all, pressed upon by a clot. It is not probable, therefore, that the arteries near the eye are opened, yet the circulation of the eye is interfered with, as is indicated by the condition of the lidand by the condition of the eye itself, for the optic nerve is not injured, and the loss of | sight is due to trouble caused, perhaps, by pressure, and it may be by pressure of the bullet in the immediate vicinity of the orbital chamber. It is possible the man may re- cover, but, in our opinion, his chances are much lessened by the exclusion of Dr. Gross from the case. The Transit of Venus. The astronomical labors of tbe southern expeditions and those of the imperial party in Japan, as officially chronicled in our columns to-day, are closely analogous, in point of suc- cess, to the observations of the other Ameri- ean parties, being neither brilliant victories nor total feilures. If the grand object of their researches be not fully accomplished, that can in no way detract from the merit due to the scientists who have engaged in them and the nation whose patronage made victory possible. Many years canuot roll by ere the glorious works of these expeditions will be assigned to dne prominence in the annals of the nation. The activity of our social and commercial life may at present preclude a due consideration of their importance, but if it be true that the the men who had charge of him from the | hour ot his arrest to the hour of his death, and not upon abstractions. Justice to the vie. | | tim of this wholesale neglect, and the credit | and security of our public institutions equally demand that the facts shall be presented to the Grand Jury for snch action as it considers necessary. The matter should not drop with the verdict the Coroner's jury has rendered. Tue Bercuern Tran is rapidly approach- ing the period when the defendant must take | the stand himself, The cross-examination of | Bessie Turner was yesterday continued, and | to-day Mrs. Morse, another sensational and | exciting witness, is expected to make enter. | tainment for the galleries. Mrs. Morse will no doubt be cross-examined upon her letters to Mr. Beecher, upbraiding him for his jokes in | the pulpit and his in lifference to the suffer- ings of Mr. Tilton’ 8 # house shold. Lyxcn Law is nover justifiable, but if it ever could be justified it would in such cases | as that reported from Prince George county, Maryland. Outrages so infamous and horri ble infuriate society and canse it to forget its own laws. this history and these results in bis recollec- tion President Grant committed an act of sig- nal indiseretion in sending to New Orleans a commander who, on a former occasion, had march of intellect and the achievements of | science revolutionize and exalt the human conscience this must be of the marvellous revelations of as- tronomy. It has justly been termed the queen of all the physical sciences. Apart from its material benefits to the world of commerce and navigation, there is the eminently true | sublime spectacle it unfolds of another world as vast, as beautiful as ours, with glowing con- | with days and | | seasons and vicissitudes like our own, witha tments and refulgent seas, predestined path, which leads the imagina- tion across the universe to grasp the problems of infinite distances. This inestimable science | of countless worlds and inconceivable | magnitudes, of endless motions and | everlasting suns, lifts the mind above all that is terrestrial and points tho weeping heart to the mysterious eternity from which it has sprung, and the still more wondrous | realm toward which it inevitably moves, Its ennobling influences have been stamped on governments and individuals, and it is recog- nized in the religious sphere as the handmaid | who demonstrates the existence and the glory \ ofan Almighty Power inthe universe, Such is | the bullet or by the elasticity of the jelly-like* the domain of science in which our country is [ becoming justly renowned. We confidently anticipate the proportionate consequences thereof, and the practical verification of the lines of the English poet laureate, that The thoughts of men are widened In the process of the suns, Two Distinguished Veterans on the Canal Question. We publish this morning the present views of two men who have been more intimately and influentially connected with the canal policy of the State than any other two men now living. It so happens that this is to be the great field day in both houses of the Legis- lature on Governor Tilden’s exciting canal message, and as this number of the Henarp will reach Albany before the debate begins we venture to suggest that the members may learn more from our columns than they are likely to gather from the discussion. We direct attention to an interesting interview with Thurlow Weed on this subject, which he is qualified to untie “familiar as his garter,” and to an abridgement of a report on the canal question just made to the Chamber of Commerce by an old citizen and most able man, Samuel B. Ruggles, who is the greatest master of canal statistics we have ever had in the State, and whose glowing and expansive mind has always clothed these dry bones with flesh and diffused over them a beauty which is almost poetic. One of these respected veterans, Mr. Weed, is seventy-eight years of age, and the other, Mr. Ruggles, is seventy-five;, and it may be said of each, as was said of the great Hebrew law- giver ata still riper age, that ‘his eye is not dim nor his natural force abated.’ Each of them has, probably, written more on our State canals than on any other subject—Mr. Weed as an editor at Albany, and Mr. Rug- gles in reports, pamphlets and other docu- ments, in which be has expended, we might almost say squandered, the resources of a great intellect, fitted for the higher walks of statesmanship, but, unfortunately for the country, kept out of his proper sphere by the eaprices of our politics, It 1s truly remarkable and a wonderful illustration of the old saying that “politics makes strange bedfellows’’ that these old whig veterans and colaborers for 80 many years are found supporting Governor Tilden, whose views and theirs on the canal question were, for thirty years, ‘wide as the poles asunder.” Mr. Tilden, like Silas Wright, Azariah Flagg, Samuel Young and other lead- ers of the so-called ‘‘barnburners,” formed the extreme wing on one side of the canal con- troversy, and Mr. Seward, Mr. Weed and Mr. Ruggles the extreme wing on the other side. Between them was a large section of the dem- ocratic party styled, in the political slang of the day, ‘‘old hunkers,” and led by Dick- inson, Bouck and Seymour, Seymour being then a young and rising politician. It is truly remarkable that these extremes meet and we witness so unexpected ao spectacle as the support of a ‘“‘barnburner” Governor on the canal question by the surviving whig leaders. This fact cannot fail to make a great impression both at Albany and throughout the State. It is the strongest moral support Governor Tilden could receive in his bold as- sault on the Canal Ring. The canal question was the great bone of party contention in this State during nearly the whole period of Mr. Weed’s active career as a party editor and political adviser. There is no other question on which he has bestowed so much vigilance as the chief manager of one of our great parties in this State. After the Canal Ring grew up, and he incurred its hos- tility, his influence began to decline, and his friends attribute the loss of his old ascendancy more to this cause than any other. None of our public men has had so close a knowledge of the ways of the Canal Ring—none so iully understands its power and its corruption, or is so fully qualified to appreciate the boldness and courage of Governor Tilden, which he warmly applauds. Mr. Ruggles, quite as able a man in o different way, is altogether lacking in Mr. Weed's practical shrewdness and consummate tact; but he fora long period furnisbed the canal whigs with their best and brightest ideas on the larger aspects of the canal ques- tion. His celebrated canal report in 1838 was treated as a sort of canonical scripture on this subject so long as the enlargement con- troversy lasted. It was impossible to listen toa canal dispute in the remotest hamlet of the State without hearing perpetual reference to ‘Ruggles’ Report,’’ | the skies and the other decryiag it with equal vigor. In more recent years he has been the “guide, philosopher and friend’ of our Chamber of Commerce on all ques- tions connected with transportation. The report of which we publish an epitome this quest, and is full of tion. We advise members of the Legislature to send to the Chamber of Commerce for copies of the unabridged report, as they will learn infinitely more from it than they will ever gather by their unassisted researches. It, however, indorses and fortifies the canal policy recommended by Governor Tilden in his annual Message, rather than his more recent war on the Canal Ring, which was not declared until this report had been nearly completed. Governor Tilden is to be con- gratulated on tho support of these distin- | guished veterans and former opponents. John Mitchel. | The Irish societies of this and the neighbor. | ing cities have resolved to mark their appreci. rade in honor of his memory on next Sunday. It is, perhaps, fitting that such a mode of festifying the estirnate in which his life-long services are held should be adopted by his countrymen. But while honoring the dead they should not forget the liviog. It is impossible to call back the dead, but we may propitiate their manes by proce tecting and aiding those whom they loved better than themselves. Mitchel himself in life to the service of his country with no thought of personal gain. He occupied himself so much with Ireland that j ample provision they had right to expect from his social position and | brilliant —_ talents, Had he devoted his talents to the service of bis family he | | would undoubtedly have leit them rich, It | would be a graceful and appropriate tribute to his memory for the people in whose cause he labored to come now to the aid of his stricken family. His daughter and his widow should be offered a substantial tribute of the affection of the Irish people for John Mitchel. And if the men who will throng our streets on Sunday would only make. each one, an offering of one dollar in grate ful remembrance of John Mitchel's services, thoss whom the dead patriot loved most upor earth would be placed in a position of easy independence. This would be a practical way of honoring Mitchel’s memory, and better than a thousand parades. Are Charch Bells a Nuisance t Alderman Billings offered a resolution re- cently declaring church bells a nuisance and forbidding them to be rung for more than ten minutes previons to each service. We con one side extolling it to | morning was made to that body at its re- | valuable information | bearing on the present state of the canal ques. | | ation of the services rendered by Mr. Mitchel | | to the cause of Irish independence by a pa- | devoted | he had not time to make for his tamily the | gratulate the Aldermen that they have sc completely reformed the city that it only re mains to put the last finishing touches te their work by silencing ‘the sound of the church-going bells,”’ asif it were vulgar nois« like the din and roar of traffic in our streets. Even the sick and the dying seldom feel dis turbed by the sound of church bells, they awaken so many pleasant or sacred associa- tions and remembrances. Well people who complain must have very weak nerves. And yet we concede that, apart from a long established custom, the ordinary ringimg of church bells is of little use. Before timepieces became so cheap and their possession so universal the ringing of church bells had a manifest utility. But there is no more necessity for bells in the steeples of churches now than there is for great bells over rail- road depots to give notice of the departure of trains. But so much rever- ent and poetic feeling has grown up in con- nection with church bells that most people would be sorry to have them silenced, Schiller’s exquisitely beautiful and touching poem, ‘The Song of the Bell,” is perhaps the best expression of this feeling in literature, The pleasant exhilaration which so many people feel while walking to church on bright Sabbath mornings as the bells fling forth their tones upon the air more than counterbalances any annoyance that may be experienced in particular cases. We suggest to Alderman Billings whether it would not be better to try his 'prentice hand in this kind of reforms on the senseless noise of our Fourth of July ex. plosions of gunpowder. So long as patriotism reconciles us to this religion should, perhaps, reconcile us to the Sabbath sounds which have for so many centuries greeted the ears of worshippers. An American Novelist. The most celebrated of modern novelista was a lawyer, apd had practised his profes sion for years in Edinburgh before ‘‘Waver. ley’’ opened for him a new career. Mr. A. G. Riddle, the well known Washington advocate and Associate Attorney General in many im- portant cases, has, therefore, excellent prece- | dent for occasionally deserting the law for fiction. He has found time to produce ona novel annually for the last three years, and has made his legal experience assist his ime agination. The American novelist, who bas been looked for so anxiously, must choose his subject at home, and Mr. Riddle has found his scene in the national capital, his charac- ters among statesmen and politicians and his plot in conspiracies and courts. His latest story, ‘‘Alice Brand,’’ is founded upon a famous trial, and picturesquely sketches men and events in Washington, with impartial portraits of ex-President Johnson, Mr. Chase, Secretaries Seward, Stanton and other per- sonages of the period he has chosen. We | note this method with especial satisfaction, because, independently of the literary merit of Mr. Riddle’s work, he has set an excellent example in the choice of fresh and original American subjects. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. General J, B. Stonehouse, of Albany, is quartered at the Hotel Brunswick. Judge Natnanicl Siipman, of Connecticut, registered at the Windsor Hotel. Governor Henry Howurd, of Rhode Island, ts staying at the Fiftn Avenue Hotel. Mr. Robert H. Pruya, of Aloany, 1s among the late arrivals at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Chancellor John V.L. Pruyn arrived from Ak bany last evening at the Brevoort Honse. Submarine defence of tne coast isto be system aticaliy organize in every port of Frauce, secretary Robeson arrived in ‘his city last evens ing from Washington and is at the Fifth avenue Hotel. | Mr. Grenville Murray's “Boudoir Cabal? pub lished serially ta ‘Vanity Fair,” is to be repubs | lished, | Mile. Estelle bit ont the half of a gentleman's | cheek in Paris the other day, Mistaking bim for | another Chiet Engineer W. H. Shock, Umited States Navy, bas taken up his quarters at the Meiro | politan Hotel. Captain C. P, Patterson, Superintendent of the | United States Coast Survey, is residiug at the | Everett House. The Eastern Budget “is authorized to deny” the Teport that the Empress of Austria will meet the King of Italy at Brindisi. Senator Richard J. Oglesby and Judge John J. McKinnon, of Illinots, have taken up their rest- dence at the Fith Avenue Hotel, Vice President Henry Wiison artived at the Grand Central Hotel yesterday from Boston. He Will leave to-day for Washington. Punch pictures France taklog refuge in the arms of the Republic, frigntened by the shadow near her of the imperial eagie floating far above, Mr. W. Graham Sandiord, Secretary of the British Legation in China, arrived trom England ln une steamship City of Chester, and 16 at the Albemarle Hotel. An oficial return gives 2,501,040 pounds as the amount of horseflesh consumed in Paris during | 1874, There are now fiity horseflest butchers in Paris itself and five tn the banheus. In the oficial column of the Journa’ of St | Petersburg appears the name of the Vounsellor of State Catacazy, “placed at the disposition of the Governor of Bessarabia for official service.”? ‘The Empress of Russia is still at San Remo, bat wants to go to St. Petersburg; but Dr. Kotekine | wants to stay at San Remo, $0 he finds a longer | sojourn necessary jor Her Majesty's health and | that ends it; they stay. CuSTOMER—L want @ mourning suit, snorMaN—What 18 the bereavement, may Lack? CusromeR—My mother-In-law. SHormaN—Mr. Brown, show the gentieman to the light aMiction department.—Fun, Doré’s picture of the * nth Cirele of Danteta | Hel? contains 900 figures, Those in the fore: ground are the size of Ife. They ave grouped ina circle avout Dante and Virgil, who are ona cen. tratemtinence, It Will be exuibited at the next | Paris salon. Acablo despatch from London, under date of yesterday, 231 inst., reports as follows Mr esos S. Grant, Jr.,son of the Presideat ot the | United States, who bas been in this city ior sev. eral days, has lett for Scotland to make a tour a | that countrs,”