The New York Herald Newspaper, July 3, 1875, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALv BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Yous Henaxp will be sent free of postage. ——e THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per month, free of postage, to subscribers. All business or news letters and telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. Letters and packages should be properly | sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- ‘turned. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. WARIS OFFICE—RUE SCRIBE. { Subscriptions and advertisements will be treceived and forwarded on the same terms ‘as in New York, ANOLUME XL..... ————— ; \AMUSEMBNTS ‘THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. ROBIN West Sixteenth stree GiBOFLA, at S$’. M. Matin ALL, hp opera—GIROFLE. | 2PM. | WOOD'S MUSEUM, rondway, corner of ‘Thirtieth ‘street —TWENTY WARS: OR, THs TWINS, at 6 P.M; closes ai 10:45 M. Matiuee at2 P.M. GILMORE’S SUMMER GARDEN, i Jate Barnum’s Hippodrome.—GRAND POV ULAR CON. CLR, ats’. Mj closesatliP. M, Matinee at 2 P. M. OLYMPIC THEATRE, 6M Broadway. VARIETY, at 8F. i M. Matunee at 2. Xo. » ; Closes at 1045 CENTRAL PARK GARDEN, THEODORE THOMAS’ CONCERT, at 6 P. NEW YORK, SATU! R RESORT ® ‘To NEwsprauExs snp THE PuBiic :— Tae New York Hxearp will run a special train every Sunday during the season, com- mencing July 4, between New York, Niagara Falls, Saratoga, Lake George, Sharon and | Richfield Springs, leaving New York at half- | past two o'clock A. M., arriving at Saratoga | at nine o'clock A. M., and Niagara Falls at ® quarter to two P. M., for the purpose of supplying the Scnpary Henaxp along the line ot the Hudson River, New York Central and lake Shore and Michigan Southern roads. Newsdealers and others are notified to send in their orders to the Heraxp office as early as possible. THE HERALD FOR THE SUMME 8. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cool aud partly cloudy, with possibly light rain. Persons going out of town for the summer can have the daily and Sunday Hunarp mailed io them, free of postage, for $1 per month. Wart Srrexr Yestrerpay.—Stocks were | generally ste:dy, but the market was dull. | Gold opened at 117 and closed at 117}. | Money unchanged. We Posuss this morning a summary of a | atch of bills vetoed by the Governor, to- | getber with the reasons for his action. Tat members of the firm of Claflin & Co., | indicted for smuggling, have entered a plea of not guilty. Their trial will probably come off in the fall. Tas Cunst1an Brornens, « Catholic Order devoted wholly to the education of the poor, are holding a convention at Paris for the election of a Superior General. This honor ‘has been conferred on Brother Irlide, Director of St. Bernard’s College, Bayonne. The new Superior General of this most useful Order is a man of great learning and piety. Tax Cantists claim another victory. Gen- eral Lomas, they assert, was defeated on the Qist and retreated to Orduna, with a loss of twelve hundred men. Spain is experiencing some of the advuntages of the monarcbical system—thousands of useful men slain to decide whether Carlos or Alfonso is to be the puppet seated at Madrid. The game is cer- tainly not worth the candle. Pity the two aspirants to the throne could not settle their quarrel in single combat, instead of skulking behind the lines while better men are getting killed in their cause. Tas Feexca Inunpatio: done by the late inundatious in the south ot France was much greater than at first was supposed. It is calculated that over three thousand persons have lost their lives and property to the enormous amount of sixty millions of dollars has been swept away. | A disaster so tremendous in its consequences may well excite pity and commiseration. The good work of relieving the snfferers has been undertaken promptly and gener- ously by the French people. At the same time it would be but a graceiul acknowledg- ment of the generous aid extended by the French people at the time of the Chicago fire if something were done at this side of the water to show that we are not unmindful of the calls of humanity, nor forgettul of acts of kindness and good will. Over Rormemen ix Jxetann,—Vesterday the Irish riflemen were in good luck, Mr. Edmund Jobnsom succeeding in carrying off the first prize. Both Pollock and Rigby made higher scores, but, as these gentlemen Yhad already won the Abercorn Cup, it was adjudged to Mr. Joluson, Messrs. Bodine, Gildersleeve and Fulton came in for prizes in the all comers, but their scores fell considerably below the first three Lrish marksmen. Fortune of wor. In making up the official score of Tuvsday's shooting it was found that the Irish had been beaten by Mhirty-uine points, not thirty-cight, as was at first supposed. Major Lecch has been tho recipient of warm praise from the Dublin press on the occasion of his retirement from $pe canlaingy of jhe team, | we doubt if there is any one cruel enough to | injured of human creatures. great tribute to great qualities that this man, | giyiduals. Mr. ‘Tilton has very sufficiently | | reflects him pleasantly ; | eme Beecher Trial—An End at Last. At length the Brooklyn agony is over, an’ | in the way im which its termination can give least satisiaction to the common thought; but wish it continued rather than ended, even in this unrounded fashion. None can withhold his mental congratulation from the sorely tried jurymen that they are at last discharged from their painful, onerous, thankless and un- paid duty, nor fail to sympathize with them in their experience of the practical tyranny of a judical system that takes a dozen honest men from their daily vocations and confiscates six months of their lives to determine the dis- pates and differences of people in whom they have little or no direct interest. Out of re- | gard to the jurymen, therefore—the really | innocent sufferers in the case—all will rejoice that the trial is over, In consideration of tie | undetermined issue left, however, there will be other views. Annoyance will, of course, | be widely felt and expressed that this jury has been unable to agree, for the public is pleased with positive results; but let us do the jury the justice to say that their disagreement is an evidence of the fairness with which they have been drawn from the community and re- flect its state of mind. No subject ever dis- cussed by the people at large brought up dif- ferences more promptly or inevitably than | this one, In the cars, on the steamboats, in | the hotels, in the domestic circle—wherever /men meet and chat, whether in circles of | three or twenty—opposite views were always _ taken on the merits of this case and on the points as they came up. Our experience has | been never to hear the topic mooted without | the promptest possible appearance, either in select or miscellaneous circles, of the fact that | there were people present who thought Mr. Beecher a great sinner and others who thought him the most grossly maligned and Itis at least o good or bad as you may believe him, has 60 taken hold upon the heart and affections, the admiration and sympathies of the people, that no little pool of thought can be looked upon anywhere in the wide limits of this land but it no echo can be awakened but it has a voice to champion his cause and declare faith in his purity. Nat- urally it cannot be possible that Mr. Beecher should be as widely known as his merits are debated, and so it is only what all might an- ticipate that there should be people everywhere ready to be convinced on light grounds or no grounds at all of his fallibility ou that side where men of his temperament are likely to be fallible; for the censorious, cynical, not to say malicious, element in hu- manity is apt at times to adopt the guise of a severe love of truth against distinguished characters. But that in equally wide limits he should be sustained with almost the devotion of personal love is an evidence of the impres- | sion he has made on his time and of the gra- cious and gentle aspect in which he appears to the people. Since there are, therefore, such deep differences in the way in which the | case is regarded; since these differences arisé | from the very constitution of the general mind—from the fact that no testimony can shake a man like Beecher in some minds, and any testimony can shake any man in other minds—let us give the jury the benefit of the same consideration given to the people, and not regard their failure too impatiently. But though the case fails there is in one | | sense a result. It may fairly be said that in an endeavor spread over one hundred and twenty days the greatest lawyers of this country (and one of them, perbaps, the acutest living legal reasoner) have been unable to convince | a jury of twelve commonplace men that the Plymouth pastor is innocent of the offence for which he has been on trial. Out | of all the dust and flurry and conflict of this trial that is the oue plain result. Undoubt- edly it would be more agreeable in the circle of the many wno so naturally admire the | eloquent preacher to have the fact stated the | other way; and, of course, from their point of view it is true that, despite the equally extended efforts of lawyers only less capable | than those employed by Mr. Beecher, the plaintiff had failed to satisfy the jary that the offence charged had been committed. But we believe that to reason in accordance with the presumptions behind the relation of accuser and accused ina case of this nature the statement of the result as we have given it is the fairer of the two. Mr. Beecher is innocent in the presumption only if the plain- tiff has failed to make out bis case, and if he were thus innocent in the opinion of the jury they would have pronounced him not guilty; but they were unable to give such a verdict. Had the case reached such a couclusion Mr. Beecher must have stood as he did before the trial, before the charge was made, before the world was taken into the confidence of these contestants. All that had been said an “NEW YORK HERALD, SATURD | everybody who cannot afford to employ law- | wur City Financial Management and a | vers ot the calibro of Mr. Evarts, or who know | illegal with regard to given points, and our that their purses would give out long before their cases reached the court of last resort. It is an incident of the great complication of modern life and the terrible multiplication of | laws that no simple-minded person can tell to & certainty what course is legal or what | judges themselves are constantly in dispute, and one class of courts is always busy revers- ing judgments given in another class, There | are only about half a dozen really great lawyers before the public in any generation ; | and if with our system of jurisprudence a man trusts himself into court with an ordinary | advocate one of these master minds will land | the Public Debt. The report of the Commissioners of Ac- counts, sworn officers of the city government, on the management. and condition of the Finance Department, affords a clew to the mystery of the large increase of debt and taxation under a reform administration and during a period in which the progress and prosperity of the city have been checked by a policy of suffocation. So far as we can trust to any figures furnished to the public by the present Comptroller, we find the gross debt to have accumulated, in round numb follows: — Debt January 1, 1809, Debt January 1, 1870, his plain lawyer has fairly discovered that the case is in progress. In the case before us, if the jury had pronounced against Mr. Beecher an appeal would apparently have been made and argued for a new trial on the ground of some defect in this trial; and if new trial bad never been obtained at least the arguments to be made could have been so stretched out as to exbaust the resources of the plaintif®. As it is, undoubtedly the defendant stands quite prepared to go for- ward ; but the plhintiff, who has reached the limit of his tether, must evidently stop. All this is better done in the courts of some other nations, In England itis worse even than with us, But in France, where the public power does not merely sit in the person of the jadge to hear the parties conduct the case, but where the authorities charge themselves with the inquiry, this whole dispute would have been quietly closed with a positive judgment in a week at most. But, as we have said, it is in this instance a good result of the evil that there can be no new trial. There isa limit to the extent to generally afflicted with the grievances of in shown that he was wronged by the position assigned to him in this difference when tho | trouble first came out through the zeal of the minions and satellites of the distinguished preacher. He has at least justified his posi- } tion if he has not sustained his charges. More than this he can scarcely promise him- self, He can never make a case that will give | public sympathy to a person of his excep- | tional demeanor; for the people cannot be less pleased to contemplate the whited sepul-*) chres of fashionable pulpits than they would | be gratified at even the apparent triumph of a man of the Ti type. The K nde Troubles. The Mexican government has at last awoke to the necessity of guaranteeing some | security to life end property along the Rio Grande border. The arrest of the so-called General Cortina by an officer of the regular army is an act of just too long delayed. | While conceding the difficulties with which | the authorities at the city of Mexico have to | contend in dealing with a brigand at once so | powertul and dexterous as this Cortina, we | think that the Mexican authorities have shown themselves criminally indifferent to the duty | imposed on them by international lew in the | matter of suppressing brigandage on their bor- | der, ‘he intimate relations existing — tween the bands of robbers organized on | Mexican termiory for the plundering of our | citizens and aman holding a general's com- mission in the Mexican army has been for | years notorious. Yet, notwithstanding the pro- tests addressed to the government at the city | | of Mexico, no active measures were taken up | the present time to remove this brigand to general from his command. No doubt Cor- | tina has with him the sympathies of the Mexi- | can population dwelling between Monterey | | and the Rio Grande, because, directly or in- | | directly, they gain by the constant raids made | | by the cattle thieves into Texas. But what- ever the difficulties of reducing this turbu- | lent population to order, it is the duty of the | Mexican government to overcome them, if it | wishes to avoid unpleasant complications | with its neighbors. The news from Mata- that Cortina’s friends are arming with | | a view to rescuing their leader wil! not sur- | prise any one acquainted with the border and its inhabitants. We hope, however, that Gen- eral Christo will hold on to his prisoner, and | in case a reacue should* be attempted shoot | him. The only improvement on this plan we | could suggest would be to shoot him whether | arescue be attempted or not. It would be the surest way of preserving the border from future trouble, In ease of trouble the United States torces will cross the river and sup- | port the Mexican forces to maintain order. The people of this country have no desire to quarrel with the Mexican Republic, but | a long series of outrages, such as have marked | the career of Cortina, might in the end pro- | voke a state of feeling that would render the a | maintenance of peace impossible. Woe desire j | moros him in the vestibule with a bill of costa before which courts may be impeded or the public | | read the roport of the Commissioners of Ac- and Devt January i, 1871. Debt January 1, 1872 Debt January 1, 1873 Debt January 1, 187 Devt January 1, 1876. ‘These statements are, as far as possible, exclusive of revenue bonds, which are simply for money raised for current expenses in an- ticipation of incoming taxation, and should be all paid out of the taxes of the year for which they are issued as soon as they are col- lected. We also find the tax levy to have swelled from year to year for the past ten years, in round numbers, as follows: — Tax levy in 1835. ‘Tax levy in 1566. ‘Tax levy tn 1867. Tax levy in 1363, ‘Tax levy in 1874 ‘Lax levy in 1875... The taxes levied upon the citizens expenses of government in four years of Tam- many rule, trom 1868 to 1871, amounted in the aggregate to $91,000,000. Of this it has been shown that $20,000,000 were stolen, leaving the honest expenditare $71,000,000, The taxes levied in four years of the present financial rule, from 1872 to 1875 inclusive, reach in the total $126,000,000, Of this we | have a right to believe that not a dollar has been stolen, According to Mayor Have- meyer's last Message to the Common Council, January 19, 1874, the amount which it was required to raise by tax for payment of in- terest on tae city and county debt in 1869 was $2,805,000. It 1871 it had risen to $6,000,000. In 1875 it has increased to $9,300,000. We thus find that since 1871 up to 1875, under Comptroller Green’s management, the debt bas increased $48,000,000, the annual taxa- tion $10,000,000 and +the annual interest account $6,500,000. These results have been | conveniently laid to the account of the legacy of debt leit us by the infamous ‘’ammany Ring. But this does not satistactorily explain the continued increase of the public burdens. St less can we attribute our extravagant ex- penditures to public improvements, for the public works have been almost abandoned and the progress of the city has been completely blocked for the past four years. No one can for the i counts without becoming impressed with the fact that the rapid strides we have made since 1871 toward municipal bankruptcy are due to incompetent and reckless financial manage- ment, to a financial charlatanry which would speedily break down the business of a banker or merchant, no matter how large might be its capital. The accounts of the Finance Department have been so miserably muddled, either through incapacity or design, that the Com- missioners of Accounts find it impossible to trace out the unexpended balance of any single year’s appropriations, or to discover what has been done with such balances, The Comptroller appears to have disregarded the law which makes each appropriation appli- cable alone to the purpose and the year for which it is made, and to have carried forward | balances from year to year and used them at | his pleasure, without any reappropriation by } the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, which reappropriation is positively required by the law. For instance, in 1872 Mr. Green | asked for and obtained in the annual tax levy $8,600,000 for interest on the public debt. He required and expended for interest that year only $6,900,000, leaving an unexpended balance of $1,700,000, In the two subse- quent years, 1873 and 1874, he misrepresented to the Board of Apportionment the amount actually needed for interest, asked for less than he wanted, and used this unexpended | balance for 1872 to make up the difference, concealing from the Board the fact of its ex- istence until it was unearthed by Messrs. Vance and Wheeler. Wo further find from the report that of the taxes of 1872, 1873 and 1874, there remained uncollected upon Jan- uary 1, 1875, $12,000,000, while the unex- pended balances of those three years amounted in the aggregate at the same date only to $3,000,000. The question is, how was the balance of Nine Million Dollars, being the difference between the deficiency in the | taxes imposed to meet the appropriations | the balance of tho appropriations | did it well, the quick eyes of the audience saw |in a minor actor, the stranger who per- | from the other side, and the result is the in- | namber of opinions on this issue it will be written against him on the Tilton score would | that no pretense forthe Set of force in deme have been esteemed as rejected—as not | ing with Mexico should exist, because a quar- merely doubted, but pronounced falso—as | Te! might casily be stirred up by designing relegated to the limbo of slanders that always | #24 ambitious men copper ahebeebeta arise against the good name of distinguished | U8der the pretence of maintaining the dignity men. Bat that moral rehabilitation could | of the flag and the inviolability of our terri- tory. If the removal of Cortina has been effected in good faith, and should be followed up by a rigorous campaign against his follow- ers and associates, much will have been done to remove a serious danger from the path of the Mexican Republic. We desire peace, and | will make many sacrifices to maintain it, if only our neighbors respect our rights and re- | | frain from committing outrages on our ter- | nitory. only flow from the distinct verdict, not from the failure to find a verdict. On the other hand, Mr. Beecher’s case is,as the parties | were placed, the answer to the charye made dication that the jury esteemed that answer | sufficient to throw doubt on the charges ; sufficient to discredit them ; sufficient to ro- qnire that they should be examined again and again betore acceptance, but not sufficient to dispose of them altogether. And here, again, Rart> Tnanstr.—Wo have at last got | the mind of the jury would seem to haveacted so far in the direction of rapid tran- | in harmony with the common mind, for in the | sit as to have Commissioners. That report we give eleewhere of an enormous is something. And if these gentlemen | will only work we have no doubt that this seen that while many believe the plaintiff has | vital question tothe prosperity of the city fallen short in his endeavor to prove his case, | will soon be satisfactorily solved. The Mayor the larger number of those used to the ex- | has shown great taci in the selection of the amination of evidence clearly believe that he , Commissioners, and deserves praise for having has proved far more than can be in any way | excluded both the lawyerg and the profes- agreeable to the friends of the defendant. | sional engineers, ‘Tbe sol m of the rapid From one of the worst features of this | transit difficulty is now in the hands of practi- case flows one good consequence, which is | cal business men, and their fellow citizens that a repetition of the trial seems impossible. | have a. right to hope that they will bring the | Abstractly it is not pleasant to consider that | same energy and intelligence to this grave | the present constitution of courts and the enor- | subject as they would to matters of private mous expenditures involved in the payment | interest. They have now an excellent c of counsel puts justice on nearly the same | tunity of garning the gratitude of } basis as a game of poker, whore the man who | by conferring on tne people the inestimable declares bis readiness to put down the largest | boon of rapid transit. {[t does not much | sum of money may win the game whether he | matter what system may be adopted so that holds or not the winning cards. Jt amounts | it is one that can be put into execution withia to the fact that iustice is practically denied to | & reasonable time. fatith debt and taxation, with a heavy defi- | not called for, raised by Mr. Green? It | is evident that the money has been secured only by a ‘bridging over” process; that is to say, by carrying over revenue bonds from year to year, by renewing such bonds when they fall due, and thus covering up, conceal- | ing and driviog abead an actual deficiency in the city Treasury of some ten million dollars. Such a wretched policy, evident through all the city’s financial affairs, has compelled vexa- tious and extended litigation in order to drive | off the payment of the public creditors. Legal expenses have been thus made enormous, interest has eaten us up and we stand to-day ignorant of our true condition, loaded ‘down ency that must one day be met, with an un- adjusted or floating debt, the dimensions of which we cannot discover, and with our | finances and our public credit at the mercy of | a financial charlatan, | Tux Rervpiican ALpEnmEN, having learned sufficient wisdom to return to their duties, should have known better than to place them- | selves in the unenviable position of opposing the filling of the pevtilential Harlem flats. By defeating the ordinance providing for “the, | filling in of the foul lots under the direction of the Department of Public Works they have | made themselves responsible for any evil con- | sequences that may result to the public health | during the heated term from this horrible | | plague spot. The fact that their ill-advised | action appears to bave been induced by partisan | | bitterness and bad spirit toward the majority | only makes their conduct the more reprehen- | sible. Itis acruel outrage that the lives of | ene gitizens should be endapgered by greedy | ception given to Mr. Rignold when he came AY, JULY 38, 1875.—TRIPLE SHEET, contractors and loose officials. It is out. rageous that a handful of Aldermen, repre- senting no constituencies, not elected by the People and only legislated inte office, should defeat the attempt to remove the dangerous nuisance and protect the public health. Caban War News. From the Cinco Villas we are treated to an- other of Valmaseda’s despatches. This time he has done no leas than routed and dispersed the forces commanded by the terrible Rios, one of the most daring and successful of the Cuban rebels. From the Captain General's account it is evident that if misfortune has befallen the gallant rebel it was his own fault, Getting tired of staying up in the mountains, where Valmaseda took care not to foliow him, the Cuban leader made a raid up to the very out- posts of Valmaseda’s army, and, having barned four important plantations and ao couple of tailway stations, he retired with his booty to the mountains. So much is certain, because the Spaniards admit it; but whether the Spanish column sent is pursuit really came upon the retreating rebels, attacking and dispersing them, is not quite so certain. According to the Spanish accounts Rios was captured and soon after executed; but so many Cuban leaders have been executed by proxy that it is not quite certain that Rios may not be beard from again. One thing we may be sure of, however, is that the death of an ignorant mulatto chief will not put an end to the insurrection in the Cinco Villas any more than did the death of the gallant and accom- plished Agramonte in Camaguey, or that of President Cespedes in the Eastern Depart- meng. Valmaseda may have gotlen rid of Rios, but his story of the proximate termina- tion of the war in the Villas umst be taken with a grain of salt. The Drama and the Schools, easton tans TEI eee PO ae A stray paragraph in our dramatic column has informed us that one of our most popular actors is about to visit Europe ‘for the pur- pose of studying in the best Enropean schools.” We do not know that we have read a dramatic item for some time that has given us more real pleasure. The trouble with a majority of our actors and actresses is that they do not honestly endeavor to excel in their calling. he deterioration of the stage of which so much is written arises from ignorance and indifference. Young people wander upon the boards in infancy, acquire a | certain knowledge of walk and gait and pose | and voice, and catch the tricks of famous artists. They become to a certain extont pat in Colley Cibber, and are content to wander along through manhood and into o!d age without becoming anything more than dramatic par- rots. The consequence is that the stage be- comes in many respects a machine. It does not grow. It depends for success largely upon its effects in color and drapery and painting. We have no doubt that there are men and womén, either in the profession or anxious to enter it, who would make as great a fame as Mr. Kean or Miss Cushman, But there is no | school for acting. Our stage directors think only of one object, and that is to make money. Nor do they do this with judgment; for, instead of nursing the stage, and when | they have a great actor endeavoring to | strengthen him by good performers and good plays, changed from day to day and running | directly through a season, their aim is to find some one sensational piece with popular at- tributes, which they play until it wears itself | out. Now, if we could have in our dramatic profession a school that would bring out the best points of the best actors, that would give a really good performer an opportunity, the result would be the elevation of the stage in Now York and the consequent improvement of the drama all over the coun- try. The ambition of the young tragedian is to be a good Othello ora good Hamlet; but there is as much genius required in being a good Mercutio or a proper Cassio and as much honor in performing these parts well. If we take the plays of Shakeapearo it is hard to find the part, no matter how small, | that will not test the best qualities of the best | actors, What a play “Hamlot’’ would be if | thoroughly performed; not, we mean, with | Mr. Booth as Hamlet surrounded by a com- | pany of sticks, but with Polonius and Ho- ratio and Laertes and Ophelia and the grave diggers, and even the poor little player with | his one act well performed. This is what they do in France. It our actors were to bring upon the stage the best points of the French school they would find as much ambition in doing asmall part well asin doing a great part badly, This isa point upon which an audience never makes a mistake, When “Henry V.’’ was performed here last winter, although Mr. Rignold had the leading part and | } | | formed the part of a Welshman, the true flash of dramatic genius. Although the re- before the curtain at the end of the acts was cordial and appreciative, and worthy of his | efforts, yet when Mr. Thorne came after him there was that loud, ringing, hearty cheer which meant the true appreciation f dra- matic art. We have in New York some of the finest theatres in the world for comiort, decoration | and character. We have some of the best actors on the stage. England, with all its wealth of dramatic talent, has not, for twenty | years at least, sent us any actors that could compare with our own. ‘here is no reason why America should not found her own dra- matic school. Why should we not have in New York the finest appoimted theatrical company in the world? Why should we not have in New York as good a play house as } the Théatre Frangais? Why should it not | become really a conservatory for the t chiug of true dramatic art? Sream YacuttNe.—The race between the | Ideal and the Lookout marks a new era in | yachting. There seoms some danger that the pleasant, swanlike cra(t, with their immense spread of white canvas, are to give way to | more rapid but certainly not so pleasant a craft. ‘The new innovation will take from yachting that spice o amateur sailorism \ which was its chief charm. No one will be | anxious to be an amateur euyineer or fireman, | so seamanship will come to be at discount, } We cannot say that we like the change mach. | A cruise on the old-fashioned craft would, no | doubt, be slower, but we think it would also | be more enjoyable, ' Mes. Orager’s Will. ‘The decision of the courts in this important case cannot fail to give general satisfaction. A lady of some eighty years, suffering trom tho delusion that fires were lighted by the devil beneath her bed, made a will giving all her property to two religious corporations, be+ lieving such benefaction necessary to hor salvation. Soon after the lady died and her relatives disputed the will, As all legal forms had been fulfilled the only ground upon which the will could be set aside was the laly’s incompetence at the time of its execution. Most satisfactory evidence being produced showing that Mrs, Crager was evidently of unsound mind for some years before the execution of the deed, and that she never fully recovered the use of her mental faculties, the Court very properly decided that the lady died intestate. Too much care cannot bo taken in admitting wills of this nature to pro- bate, the unreasonable fear of punishment in the next world producing a species of self- ish insanity that induces moribund persons to bestow their property on religious bodies in a way to work injustice to their im- mediate relatives. It is the interest of society that the law shouid discourage as much as possible those deathbed gifts. Ayorazn Fance Was Enacrep by tho wrangling officials, Mayor Wickham and Comp- troller Green, yesterday. The Mayor, prob- ably recognizing the fact that under the pres- ent law he has nothing to do but to sign tho firemen’s warrants for last month’s pay, but still stubbornly bent on not giving way, pro- cured a stamp of his signature and with this affixed his name to the warrants. The Comp- troller, resolved to bring the Mayor to his feet, declined to regard the stamp as a signa- ture in the meaning of the law and refused to receive or pay the warrants. This farce only makes the actors in it appear more ridiculous than ever. Mayor Wickham, if sensible that’ he has no protection agalnst the personal malice of the Comptroiler, should have signed the warrants in a manly manner, even if he should have been compelled to forego the de- lights of Long Island and to spend a night in the city in which the firomen toil winter and summer. The stamping was a school- boy’s trick. As to the Comptroller, the im- pertinent cause of all the trouble, no one can expect any other action trom him but such as will occasion the greatest amount of annoy- ance and inconvenience to others. Tur Repupiican Parry in the French Chamber is evidently improving in wisdom. The members have signed and published @ manifesto declaring that they will not ob- struct the passage of needed measures, in order that the Assembly may get through ita work and dissolve. They probably feel that in the next Assembly they will be ablo to con- trol affairs so that the government will ba practically in their hands—not counting MacMahon. Torsey.—Lhe “Sick Man’ seems about to relapse into the comatose state from which ho was roused by the rude clawing administered to him by the Russian Bear some twenty yearsago, English capitalists are becoming tired of doling out loans that, in all proba- bility, will never be repaid. The overland | route toward India, which Rassia has adopted during the past few years, has also had its effect in deadening the interest felt by Eng- land in the Grand Turk ; but since his utility asa political buffer has diminished English capitalists are slow about coming to the sick man’s aid. Tur Lare Arrempr to disorganize the city government has happily ended this week with the return of the ill-advised and contuma- cious Aldermen to their post of duty. It is | to be regretted that reputable citizens like Messrs. Vance and Morris should have been led by bad counsel first to defy tho law and next to act a part worthy only of the worst days of Tammany rowdyism. Hereafter we trust they will exercise better judgment, Campripce’s CENTENNIAL 1s next in order. The venerable tree under which George Wash- ington took the command of the American army will look down on a scene more brill- iant, if not so solemn, as the ong it celebrates. These eelebrations are a good thing in their | way and will serve to remind the young that nobility of soul and devotion to country achieve greater successes than selfishness and corrupt.on can ever attain, and this is a use- ful lesson for boys just now. Cuantie Ross.—Just one year ago to-day little Charlie Ross was spirited away from hia home, and since then, in spite of the great efforts of the police, no trace of the child has ever been found. That so daring a crime should go unpunished is a disgrace to the sagacity of our police officials, and is not cal- culated to increase the sense of personal security guaranteed by the law. Juver Brapy yesterday gave his decision refusing to quash the new indictments against “Boss’’ Tweed. The argument upon which this refusal is based will be iound in another column, PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. parenuanee Ve Judge J. M. Woolworth, of Omaha, has taken ap his residence at the Windsor Hotel, Ex-Congressinao Richard C. Parsons, of Onio, ts sojourning ab the Flith Avenue Hotel, Rey, H. S. Acworth, of London, is among thd late ar.ivals at the St, Nicholas Hotel. Colonel Henry 6B. Carrington, United States Army, i8 quartered at the Grand Central Hotel, Judge Theodore Miller, of the New York Court of Appeals, arrived jsst evening at tue Fifth Ave- nue Hotel. Mr. Fernand Bolsster, Procureur of St. Pierre and Miquelon, Newioundiand, 18 staylug at the St. Nicnolas Hovel. ‘Tne jate M, Phiiardte Chasiés left a Anished work onthe “Social Paychology of New Peoples,” whic will soon see the light. A message received In this city yesterday from | Loudon says:—Lady Fraokiio is stilt alive and is reporied to be slowly improving, Chevalier Ernest von Tavera, Austrian Chargé a’ Amuires at Washington, and Dr, Videla Dorna, Seoretary of the Argentine Legation, have apartt- ments at tne Aibemarie Hore!. colonel! Henry B. Harrington, M.A., LL.D., Pros fessor of Military Science ond Dynamme Eugineer- | jag, Wabash College, Indiana, leaves for Burope to-day in the City of Brussels The Golonel naw been jor tie jist five years engaged in tbe prepa- ration of & histor cal and military criticism of the battles of the lace war, He goes w Kurope for the purpose oO; Obtaining official gata from the British «od Beench war offices and libraries, wav- ing had assuronces from distinguished persons of both tuese Couatri¢s that every facility for coin lecting material would ve plaved at his disposal, The work, by permission, will be dedicated @ Gcueral Sherman,