The New York Herald Newspaper, July 7, 1875, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD 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 Yorx Hznarp will be sent free of postage. THE DAILY HEEALD, mblished 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 Yonex HERaLpy, 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. PARIS OFFICE—RUE SCRIBE. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York, VOLUME XI. AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT, pS CENTRA KK GARDE! THEODORE 1HUMAs' NOBRT, at 6 P.M West sixtronmn, ‘street —Lngish “Opera—GIROFLE, st — ‘ Gihoria. ate P.M. TIVOLI THEATRI street, between Secona and Third avennes.— ‘commences at 5 o'clock ana closes at 12 WOOD'S MUSEUM, ‘Mhirtieth stree loses at 10:49 P. M. SUMMER GARDEN, odrome.—GRAND POPULAR CON- satliP. M OLYMPIC THEATRE, Nouee4 Broadway —VAKIETY, at 8. Mi. : closes at 10 45 WITH SUPPLEMENT. NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. JULY 7, 1875, THE HERALD FOR THE SUMMER RESORTS. To NEwspraLERs aND THE Pusric :— Tue New Yoak Heraro will run a special train every Sunday during the season, com- meneing July 4, between New York, Niagara | Falls, Saratoga, Lake George, Sharon and | Riebfield Springs, leaving New York at half- | past two o'clock A. M., arriving at Saratoga at nine o'clock A. M., and Niogara Falls at ® quarter to two P. M., jor the purpose of | supplying the Stwpay Henarp 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 Hrraup officeas earlyas | possible. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cooler and partly cloudy. Persons going out of town for the summer can have the daily and Sunday Henaup mailed to thein, free of postage, for $1 per month. Wat Srrzer Yestenpay.—Stocks were firm and business was dull. Gold showed steadi- ness at 117} and foreign exchange was with- out feature. Tar Firemen have been paid at last, and i | pes ibaa dace agree Rwy aa vt should not have been on the track at the same | Green or Mayor Wickham should be thanked. Now that the boys have the money they need wot thank either unless they like. Tse Foveta Anxvat Recatra of the Seawanhaka Yacht Club came off yesterday with good success, One of the pleasing fea- tures of the day's sport was the large number of amateurs in the crews. An excellent rule of the club compels the owners of yachts tak- ing part in the regatta to sail them. Tae Asentcan Rirve Tram have arrived in Belfast, where they were received with even more enthusiasm than marked their arrival in Dublin. This energetic Irish town never does auything by halves, and, having made up its mind to welcome the Americans, did so right royally. The members of the team are to shoot in a competition at Clandeboye, and, having visited the various places of interest in and about Belfast, will visit Scotland, where no doubt a hearty welcome awaits them. Our | riflemen have certainly no reason to regret | their visit to Ireland, tor it bas been to them | one continued triumphal progress, | Tae Dmecrors of the National Rifle Agso- | ciation, at their meeting yesterday, passed a /—-BLACKWELL'S | Matinee at 2 | | seeking the beach at Rockaway. NEW YORK The Disaster on the Southerm Kail- road of Long Island. The disaster on the Southern Railroad of Long Island on Monday was one of those needless calamities which shocks us as much because it should not have happened at all as by its terrible and sickening details. Col- lisions on railways ought never occur, and if there was anything like system in our rail- way management they never would occur. It is true it is now some years since there was | an appalling disaster anywhere in this | vicinity on the roads centring in New York; but, while this is true of the immediate neigh- borhood of the metropolis, it has been our | duty to recount.a very long list of catustro- phes on the railroads in different parts of the country since that appalling affair at Norwalk bridge in 1853. Within a few months there was @ distressing collision on the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, near Washington; and Angola, Carr’s Rock, New Hamburg and o | score of other names recall scenes almost as terrible as that at Norwalk twenty-two years | Bo Minor accidents, involving the loss of life, the roads, and where one of these is reported in the newspapers twenty are concealed from | the public knowledge. It is part of the policy of our railroads to refuse information to the press in regard to accidents, excopt in cases where the truth cannot be concealed; and this policy was pursued even in this latest disaster, though it was certain the details railway management can be found than in this disposition to hide away all damaging facts from public knowledge and scrutiny ; | ad this persistent policy of silence would be | conclusive in condemnation even if accidents were less frequent than they ate. But even if | as infrequent in the whole country as they | have been in this vicinity in the last two or three years, there would still be no excuse for this one. The calamity of Monday was aneed- | less one, and as such it should have been im- possible. Whatever may have been the fault of the conductor whose conduct cost him his life, we are not disposed to assume that he was guilty of criminal negligence. The principal blame belongs to the managers of the road, and not | to the inattention of the conductor, even as- suming that he was disobedient to the rules of the company, No railroad—and especially no single-track railroad—can expect to run | trains, regular and special, according to a set | of cast-iron rules. Itis the system that is at fault. It 1s almost inconceivable that after forty years’ experience in railroad manage- ment so much should be trusted to the judg- ment or obedience to rules of two conductors as to make it possible for their trams to come into collision. A glance at the cause of the accident on the Long Island road will make this reasoning plain. A heavily laden train leaves Williamsburg at noon on a day when whole multitudes from the metropolis are The train is too long and too heavy to keep the time marked for it by the rules of the company. | Another and a special train approaches | from the opposite direction, and, having | waited the prescribed time at the last | station, is entitled to the road. There is but could only be one result—a terrible and cis- in ignorance of the exact whereabouts of the other, also moves out from its last station— loss of life it was yesterday our painful duty to record. Under such circumstances it is easy to look for and even to find criminal neg- | ligence on the part of one or other of the | conductors. It is plain that both trains | wrong. We must not forget, however, that | both trains had their destinations to make | and that toc conductors were as much ro- sponsible for not making them as for a col- | lision, They were gmded only by 4 set of tules. Evidently they were not well informed as to each other's whereabouts, and conse- | quently were ignorant of their rights of the | road. Under such circumstances both should have waited, perhaps; but it was more like went ahead, with the distressing results we have already recorded. } on the part of Conductor Hibbard; but he | paid the penalty of his culpability with his | life, and, even were he living, no punishment | that could be inflicted on him would be a gnarantee against similar accidents in the future. In matters of this kind we must deal with the evil at its root. more security to life on our railroads we must | obtain it by means of systematic railroad | management. A set of rules is not a suflicient | guide to the conductors of trains on the rail- | aro of almost daily occurrence on nearly all | would be made public. No clearer proof of | | the general inefficiency and imbecility of our the truth was always told, or if disasters were | | one track, and should the two trains meet there | tressing accident. The down train, evidently | the two meet, and there are the wreck and | } | the State who uses the power conferred upon | time, and that one or the other was in the | human nature for both to go ahead, and both j In such a case the fault is clearly in the | | management, or rather the mismanagement, of | the road. There may have been culpability | If we would have | HERALD, WEDN SDAY, JULY 7, 1875—WI1TH SUPPLEME roads on Long Island, we wish to say a word. For years it has been a standing accusation against these roads that they were exception- ally niggardly and inefficient. However this may be it is certain they have tuiled to give general satisfaction, and bave had more than their share of shortcomings to conceal from the public knowledge. [Mad there been tewer passengers on Conductor Hibbard’s train fewer of them would have been killed. The overcrowded condition of the cars compelled some of them to go upon the platform, and it was mostly those who were killed. Inade- quate provision had been made for the ac- commodation of the crowds who were certain to pass over the road on the day of the acci- dent, and a new time table and special trains were putin operation without the necessary precautions against justsuch a catastrophe as that which occurred. Even the general man- ager of the road was at the beach pleasur- ing or gayly riding on the empty special cars which smashed into the overloaded ones, These people seem to think that railroads will run themselves—that all that is necessary is to fix up a time table, to appoint conductors and give them cars, and that the trains will run without hin- drance or accident, Their inefficiency is only revealed when some fearful calamity occurs, and then they exert themselves to keep as mach of the details as possible from being made public, and so go onas before. They | learn but little from experience and nothing from the griefs which betall others. It is be- cause of this that one fearful accident has fol” lowed another, throughout a quarter of a cen- tury, and that humau life is no safer on our railways to-day than it was when they first begun operations. Indeed, the ratio of risk has inereased with the demands upon the roads, whereas the experience of the first twenty years of railroading should have made the system so exact, by the aid of the telegraph, that an accident should be impossible. Congressman Cox on Home Rute. The eloquent and facetious Congressman, “Sunset’’ Cox, made ‘Home Rule” the theme of his ‘long talk’’ at the Tammany celebra- tion of the Fourth. As might have been an- ticipated, he mado the most of his subject | from his own point of view. He pointed out | how much we owe to the vindication of | “home rale” in the Revolution that gave us our independence as a nation, and drew upon history for illustrations of its influence upon | the happiness and the destination - of peoples. | He labored to show how fidelity to the prin- | ciple had been rewarded and how unfaithful- ness had been punished by researches amuog the records of both hemispheres; by a review of the Oriental and patriarchal relations; the tribunal relations among our Indians; the relations of France to Algeria, of England to India and Ireland, of Spain to Minorea and | Cuba, of Turkey to Egypt, of Austria to Hungary, of Russia to Poland, of Germany to the free towns, the principalities and Alsace and Lorraine ; of the Netberland to its pro- vinces, of Switzerland to its cantons, of Italy to its isles and cities, and of our own country numerous hearers but felt that he had made a brilliant vindication of “home rule” principle, and of the wisdom of the demo- eratic party in inserting it as a cardinal plank ; m2 their platform at the last State election. But why did the nimble-tongued Congress- | man confine bis illustrations of the operations | of home rule to bygone days and foreign na- | tions? Why did he not explain to the as- sembled Tammanyites the effect upon home rule of the action of a democratic Governor of him by a republican law to tie up the hands of a democratic Mayor of New York and to render him a cipher in the city government? Why did he not show bow forcibly the princi- ple of ‘home rule” is illustrated by the se- | lection of a Commissioner of Public Works for New York from the office-holders of the New Jersey government, and by the appoint- ment of a New Jersey legislator to the New York Commission of Charities and Correction ? A few words upon these matters of local in- all Congressman Cox’s antiquarian researches, Tur Sovrs.—The correspondence on the condition of the Sonth which we pub- lish in another column will be found full of interesting information. The great | problem introduced into our politics by the admission of the colored people to the enjoyment of equal rights with the whites is slowly working out its own solution. So far the influence of the carpet-bag element, | supported by the federal power, has been able | to maintain the color line unbroken outside of Arkansas, but there are not wanting indi- cations which point to a growing discontent among the colored people with the present system. The result of the carpet-bagger’s success has been a course of dishonest legisla- tion which has disgusted the honest republi- | on the part of the democrats will in time | break the solid phalanx of the colored vote vote of thanks to the members of the Amer- | Toads in the méighborhood ot New York. | and free the South from the nightmaro of icam team.for the self-sacrifice and skill they Every movenient should be controlled by a | displayed during their visit to Ireland. Ar- rangements were made for the fall meeting and some changes proposed which will meet with general approval. The proposition to invite teams of twelve from all the States to shoot at Creedmoor deserves attention and Creedmoor and make it troly what it'aims to be—the American Wimbledon. Suserr-Houtow Jovnnatism.—The Eng- lish tory organ has lashed itself into a fury over the American celebration of the Fourth of Jaly in London. The fact is, this organ has forgotten how long it is since the battle of Bunker Hill. It is well known that the gentlemen who write for the Slandard live in a kind of political “Sleepy Hollow,’’ and probably one of the venerable tories who re- | members “When George was King” suddenly woke up in his editorial chair to learn that | the Americans were celebrating Independence Day in the heart of London. Naturally the good old man forgot all the intervening years of bis political dotage and fired redhot shot into the rebels of Charlestown Harbor. We who have been awake and marching onward for these hundred years can well afford to smile at the vituperative bitterness of this old tory. Poor old fellow! he’s got his feclings, and we must respect them. But we must re- mind the younger tories that itis a hundred years well told since we expostulated with their great grandfathers at Bunker Hill, single will and the trains should be guided ; With more than the certainty and precision | of am army on the march. No | station to another withont express au- | thority, and this authority, | ment of the pawns on a chessboard; but | so far, even on our most admirably man- | aged railways, the control of the running | trains has not been sufficiently concentrated, | while the conductors are charged with too | great responsibility for accidents. If the | railroads were managed with the skill that experience and the means at their command enable them to use conductors would soon become the puppets of an unerring will and accidents be next to impossible. because there is no general and comprehen- sive system of railroad management in this country—no science in the running of | trains so unerring that a collision is not possible—that so many accidents oceur. Until some such system as we suggest is , adopted the general managers of our rail- | roads will continne to be pieces of orna- | mental furniture, while in the fiture, as in the past, disaster will follow disaster. | With regard to the line upon which the re- | cent accident hanvencd. as well as to the other | It is | carpet-bag government and federal inter- ference which at present crushes out the | energy from the Southern people and impedes con- | all progress. | ductor should be allowed to pass from one | Ten Lrvzs were lost on the Fourth of | July by a collision between a tugboat and ‘ so far as the | one of the Old Dottinion steamers in support. It would tend greatly to nationalize | T2NInNg of trains is concerned, ought to be | | superior, not to the conductors merely, but | | even to the President and Board of Direc. | | tors of the rond. The telegraph makes such | | a system as easily attainable as the manage. | Hampton Roads. This disaster evidently was due to criminal carelessness on the part of some one. Only three of the bodies of the drowned have as yet been recovered, pointed by Mayor Wickham met yesterday and organized. After the appointment of va- rious committees the Commissioners ad- journed. The selection of the members of the Commission is regardel very favorably | by the citizens, and great hopes are enter- | tained that the important problem of rapid transit will soon receive a satisfactory solu- tion at the hands of the new Commissioners, Brooklyn is also stirring in the question of rapid transit. Tax Custom Hovsr Orriciars have made an important seizure on board thé steamer Denmark. of alpaca rewarded the officers who made a descent on the stewardess’ trunk. these gentlemen will be immediately pro- moved. Lynx-eyed watch{niness like theirs ought not to pass unrewarded, And to think of all the millions’ worth of goods rich srougglers get throngh this same Oustom Hovaet Wonder how they manage it} to the States and Territories. Not one of his | terest would have been more acceptable than | cans of the South. Wisdom and forbearance | Tar Rarm Traxsrr Comnissioners ap- | ‘Three umbrellas and twelve yards | We hope | Accommedations of the Centennial, The Philadelphia journals have been dis- cussing the qnestion of accommodation for the thousands of visitors who will probably go to the Centennial. ‘This has been one of the really serious problems attending the practi- cal working of the Exhibition. Philadeiphia is a large, commodious and, in some respects, @ peculiar city. There are few hotels. Wo suppose, if the space devoted to the entertsin- ment of travellers were occupied to its tullest extent, there would not bs room for five thou- send guests in addition to the ordinary popv- lation. One of the plans proposed to meet this want is the building of new hotels. This was attempted at Vienna, and in nearly every case the experiment was disastrous, Phila- delphis should have more hotel accommoda- tion, but capital will hardly spend the sums necessary to build proper hotels merely for the profits of a single exceptionally busy season. Another plan is the running of swift trains ‘from New York to Philadelphia. , Colonet Scott has demonstrated that be can take pas- sengers from Jersey City to the Centennial grounds in less than two hours. By this means @ visitor could leave his hotel in New York at half-past seven, be in Philadelphia at ten, and, leaving there at five, be home again fora late dinner. Still four hours, or practi- cally five hours daily travel over railroads is a large price to pay even for the benefit of see- ing the Centennial Exhibition. One of the dangers is that the hotel proprietors of Phila- detphia will advance their prices largely. This will remedy itself, as it did in Vienna, where the result of the sudden advance was to drive everybody out of the city and paralyze the Exhibition, and hotel keepers went about on their knees offering rooms for any price. The Philadelphia Press has taken pains to inquire of the hotel proprietors what they propose to do in the way of advancing their rates. They satisfied the editor of that journal that ‘‘the visitors will be treated by the hotel landlords hospitably, generously and fairly,’ and that ‘‘where any advance is made it will be within the limits of from fifty cents toa dollar a day, according to the house.”’ It is not pleasant to find hotel keepers proposing even to make this advance on their ordinary rates. It would be much bet- ter, even tor their own business interests, if the crease of fifty cents ora dollara day. There is no reason that we can sce in any of the publications in the Philadelphia papers for such anadvance. Increased business will be increased gain. Because a hotel has five hun- | dred guests where it has been struggling along with fifty or one hundred, there is no reason for asking a dollar extraa day. It is not de- manded by the exigencies of the business. It profit and an attempt to utilize a great na- tional event for their own gain. As human nature goes we could not expect much better from hotel keepers. Tho accom- modation question will have to be settled in other ways. The press informs us that the hotel keepers in New York propose to reduce their rates during the Centennial season, and that they will do it by ‘concerted and‘united action.” As the Exhibition will be in the summer, when hotels are patronized in New York, they can readily afford todothis. It would be an act of wis- dom. We also hear that a system of sleeping var trains is being organized, enabling passen- | gers to live in palace cars at so much a day. | In these trains a small party can come and spend one day or two or three at the Centen- | vants at hand and their own parlor and cham- | ber at their disposal.” We have no doubt means to accommodate all visitors during this Centennial time. The wisest thing would | be for the people of Philadelphia who have houses with more room than they require to agree upon a system of general accommoda- tion. By this means, by a little concerted action in the hands of a judicious committee, ten thousand rooms might be thrown open at ordinary rates to the crowd of strangers who will certainly visit that city. This will be the best plan after all. If it is properly managed it will quickly solve the hotel problem. Athictic Humanity. There isa story about the drowning ofa member of one of the Harlem boat clubs cir- culating in the city which demands strict in- vestigation. The story goes that a young man ventured into the river to bathe from one of the boat houses on the river, although not an expert swimmer, relying on the presence of some score ot his club comrades to belp | him in case of need. The man almost im- mediately sank, and, though he was almost within an oar’s length of the boat house, he was allowed to drown, without any serious effort being made to save him. stated that looking on at the struggles of the drowning man were men whose athletes at that, Some names are are mentioned who claim to be champion swimmers, yet not one of these athletic champions had courage enough or humanity enough to jump into the water and stretch gling for life within # few fect of his friends and comrades, sports merely make finer animals of thos who practise them, but exercise no elevating influence on the mind? Had a score of pigmies witnessed the death struggle ot one | ot their own kind they would have mado some effort to save the unfortunate. What, then, can be said of this score of champions, | who saw a follow creature perish without | making an effort to save him, but that among a score of athletes therp was not one man? Tur Toran Vanvation of real and personay property in the city of New York this year is, in round numbers, one thousand one hun- dred and one million dollars. propriations for the annual expenses of the | city government amount to thirty-eight mill- | ion dollars. This is subject to a reduction of three millions, paid out of the city revenue. But the gross rate is more than three dollars and forty-five cents on each one hundred | dollars of valuation. That is to say, a per- son who owns a house valued at twenty thousand dollars will have to pay this year, less the trifle of city revenue, six hundred and ninety dollars for the expenges of Comp- troller Green's financial manavement. exclu. | hotel keepers would announce that, during the | | Centennial, they would take guests at a do- | will be regarded as an avaricious grasping for | not largely | nial grounds with their own cook and ser- | that the ingennity of our people will find the | It is further | pride it is to be athletes, and aquatic | given of men famous as oarsmen, and several’ | out a saving hand to the poor wretch strug- | Is it then true that athletic | The total ap- | sive of rates, assessments, interest and insur- ance. At this rate, how far are we from bank~ ruptey? Drowned at Rockaway. The loss of life which annually occurs at watering places in the vicinity of New York ought to compel some action on the part of the local authorities looking to the better security of bathers. On Sunday last three | persons were drowned at Rockaway Beach | because there was no provision made for H accidents that experience should have taught | the hotel keepers to expect. A young ! lady was suddenly swept from among her | friends by the waves and drowned before as- sistance could reach her, One of her male friends who had gallantly gone to her rescue was himself seen to sink when a second brave man went to his friend’s rescue. While these ‘two battling for life were being car- ried away a third man swum ont, but before he could reach his friends they too were en- guifed, and had not help reached the third man it is probable a fourth life would have been lost, John Gossmer, and William Goodhill, who nobly sacrificed their lives in the cause of humanity, | deserve to be remembered as_ heroes; but what can bo said in defence of those | bathing house keepers who, knowing the | danger of the beach, take no precautions to | | save life? Not « bont was at hand, not even & rope was cast to the men struggling for life and perishing in view of hundreds, The Coroner's inquest, as is too frequently the case in America, was simply a farce, in which the Coroner covered up as much as possible the shortcomings of his friends and neighbors. The Bridging Over Policy in Our City Finances. The only safe principle that can be adopted in a city government is that which teaches us to pay as we go. Our present embarrassed financial condition is due to the fact that under Mr. Green’s management we have wholly abandoned that principle and adopted | inits place a ‘‘bridging over” policy, whose end, unless it be checked in time, must be bankruptcy. Our gross debt on tho first day | of the present year was in round numbers one | hundred and forty-two million dollars. To | | this may fairly be added twenty millions of unliquidated claims and other liabilities, com- monly called ‘floating debt,’’ the actual | amount of which Mr. Green refuses to dis- | close. There had been recovered against the | city, between January, 1872, and January, | 1875, judgments to the amount of two million | five hundred thousand dollars, a large pro- | portion of which appear on the record as un- éatisfied, although, from the loose man- ner in which the business of the | Finance Department is transacted, 1 is impossible to discover how much of this amount has been paid and how much rergains unpaid, drawing seven per cent interest. It is sate to calculate that | we actually owed in gross at the beginning of | the present year one hundred and sixty-four | million dollars, including the funded, tem. | | porary and floating debt, unsatisfied jndg- ments and claims then pending in the courts. | | We have a sinking fund of twenty-seven mil- | lion dollars to go toward ‘payment of this | debt. The temporery debt is nominally | | twenty million dollars, but this embraces va- | eated assessments and assessments that be- | | long to the permanent debt of the city, being made on city property. We cannot safely | calculate upon receiving back from assessment rolls much more than half of this temporary debt, or, say, twelve million dollars. Thiriy- nine million dollars is, therefore, all the pres- ent provision we have toward paying a debt | of one hundred and sixty-four millions. Thirteen milion dollars of our debt ma- tures in 1875, and should be paid and can- celled this year. We have made provision to pay less than three millions of this amount. We renew or ‘bridge over’’ ten millions by issuing new bonds and stocks to take up those | that fall due, in accordance with mischievous | laws devised and secured by Mr. Green legal- | izing such reckless financiering. On the Ist of January last there remained uncollected more than twelve million dollars of the three preceding years’ taxes, and nearly eight mil- lion dollars of the three years’ assessments, or a total of twenty million doJlars of uncol- lected taxes and assessments. Probably at least twelve millions of this amount will never be collected at all, and will become a charge against the city, to be added either to the debt | or to the year's taxation. But while twelve million dollars of the taxes of 1872, 1873 and 1874 remained uncollected on January 1, 1875, the appropriations for the three years, to be paid out of the taxes, had all been drawn up to that date, except two millions and a quarter; hence ten million dollars which ought to have been derived from taxes must have been ob- | tained trom some other source to pay the ap- propriations. Here, again, we have Mr, | Green’s “bridging over’ policy. Instead of | repoging the deficiency to the Board of Ap- | portionment each year, in order that it might | be added to tho next tax levy, the Comptroller | | has concealed the fact of its existence, and | driven the increasing ball before him by the | unlicensed nse of revenue bonds, thus post- | poning the final reckoning. We thus stand | | to-day with a known deficiency of ten million dollars in “the city treasury, without talking | into account the deficiency through assess- ments uncollected, vacated and stiil unpro- ided for, and which must also be saddled on the city at Inst. ‘This is only a glance at the many evils of | | the deceptive, ‘‘bridging over” policy inaugu- rated by Mr. Green, but it is sufficient to show that our present loose, incompetent and | reckless financial mavagement canwot be con- tinued mach longer without landing us in bankraptey. Firearms on tux Founrn.—Out of a long list of accidents occurring og the occasion of | the celebration of the Fourth over eight- tenths will be found to have resulted from the reckless use of pistols and cannon, Out of some forty such accidents only seven are attributable to tireworl The remainder ere from pistol shots, the bursting of cannon and the explosion of powder flasks used for the In Balti- | more the use of any treworks within the city limits is probibited, and the Jaw is strictly parpose of loading such weapons. enforced, It would be well if we could have a State Jaw or a city ordinance ‘prohibiting the uso of pistols, cannons or anything but | manufactured fireworks, in New York, on the national holiday, It is scarcely worth | while to prove our loyalty by killing nad maiming some fifty toa hundred people an- nually, Mad Dogs. The annual canine panic has once more broken out. There is scarcely a peaceable citizen who does not see with alarm ‘the neat approach of any of the numerous curs whe roam through the streets and now and then frighten the timid burghers by looking askant | at their hose, Were it not for the watchfal. ness and vigor of some members of the po- lice fores this dog nuisance would soon make walking in the streets a very undesirable ex- ercise. But, encouraged by the fame reaped by active mombers of the force last year by dog slaying, ambitions officers are already doing good work with pistol and club in diminishing the number of the canine enemy. Shooting mad dogs in the street is very laudable, and we are inclined to publish every officer's name in large type * who shall kill a prowling cur whether he be mad or not. The officer can always fall back on the justification that the dog might have been mad, and no one except Mr. Bergh will care very much as to the exact mental state in which the slain canine may havé been pre vious to his death. It might be well forsome general action to be taken by the police authorities, before hydrophobia spreada among the canine tribe, to have all roving dogs captured and disposed of in the way least likely to hurt the susceptibilities of Mr. Bergh and his friends. Shooting in the streets is expeditious, but it has its incon- veniences and might probably be objected to by persons happening to be in the line of fire. We have great confidence in our police force, but an officer’s aim is not always correct. Tue Frrenps or raz Poon Lanonars.— Where are the friends of the poor laborers? We have heard nothing from them of late, and yet the city pay continues at the reduced price of one dollar and sixty cents per day instead of two dollars. Many of our million- naires have protested against this reduction; have insisted that Mayor Wickham, Comp- troller Green, Commissioners Porter, Wales, Disbecker and others should give up a portion | of their own liberal salaries before taking forty cents a day from the hard-earned wages of the workingman. But none of them have yet acted upon our suggestion to contribute toward a fund to make up to the laborers the amount deducted from them by the city. A number of wealthy citizens, many of them old office-holders, and probably all aspirants to office, have eloquently denounced tho in- justice of this reduction. They can well spare the amount necessary to restore the city pay to its fullsum. Which of them will start a subscription for that purpose? Why does not the next candidate for the Speaker. ship of the House of Representatives come to the front? Ir toe Srarement that an attempt is to be made to remove Mayor Wickham be not a ma licious report, originating with Comptroller Green, we must implore Governor Tilden not to take any action in the matter at present, The Mayor's recent appointments to the Rapid Transit Commission are more than sufficient atonement for his wranglings with the snarl- | ing head of the Finance Department. Then, even if the Mayor should abandon his inten- tion to visit Europe with his municipal and political menagerie, we shall need his services wher the victorious riflemen come home. Who could receive them like Wickham? Who could rub their shoulders and slap their backs so cheeringly as Wickham? Whv could make them sucha speech as Wickham will make, or join their dinner table with a con. viviality and an appetite equal to Wickham’s ? The Governor, who has been so dilatory in the cases of th» Corporation Counsel and the tainted Fire Commissioners, must not bo over-hasty in acting upon the case of the Mayor. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Sane Ara Judge John M. Kirkpatrick, of Pittsburg, is stop- ping at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Mr. Potter Palmer, of Chicago, 18 among the late arrivals at the Windsor Hotel. State Treasurer Joseph W. Mercer, of Missouri, has arrived at the Metropolitan Hotel. Pay Director Henry Ktting, United States Navy, is quartered at the Sturtevant House. Mr. Washington [ooth, Collector of the Port ot Baltimore, is scjourning at the Néw York Hotel. Senator Algernon S, Paddock, of Nebraska, hag returned to his old quarters at the Windsor Hotel, Assistant Quartermaster General L.C. Easton, United States Army, is registered at the Westmin- ster Hotel, Vice Presiaent Wilson returned to the city yes. terday and took up his residence atthe Grand Central Hotel. Mr. George B, McCartee, Onief of the Printing Division of the Ireasury Department, 1s at the Fitth Avenue Hotel. Brevet Mayor General Quincy A. Gilmore, of the | Engineer corps, United Stutes Army, has apart- ments at Barnam’s Hotel, The Emperor Dom Pedro, of Brazil, is going to Macahé to open the Macané and Campos Railroad, and thence to San Paulo to open the San Paulo and Sorocaba Ratiroad. Sorocaba ts the great cot- ton region of San Paulo, Acabie despatch to the Toronto Globe says Lord Dufleria bas appointed the Might Non, Mr. Cnild- ers arbitrator to decide upon the price which should be paid to the hulders of lands on Prince Edward Isiand for the extinction of their tenure Mr. Childers salis from England on tie 14th inst, Fines are fines in the Grand pucay of Posen. | One was imposed on the newspaper Auryer Pow nanski, whereupon the editor oncned a suoscrip- tion to Oppose to the penalty a popuiar demon, stration, All the subscription money was confs- cated and an additional fine of 460 marks was im- posed by this attempt to avoid the proper opera tion of the penalty. In the last letter written by the learned Baron Piggott be combats the theory of apostolical sac- cession, and chalienges his opponent to show that bishops, priests and deacons were orders insti tuted by the apostles, He aMirms that no one knows who was the immediate successor of Peter, or the secong link in the chain, and that tt ts not shown that there Was ever & delegation of suc. | cessorsiip. ‘Tue death, at his seatin Auvergne, is announced of Baron de Sartiges d’Augies,at the age o erghty-six. He Was one of the most erudite mem in his department ana was one of the collabora torsin the “Nobthaire de Auvergne” and the “Pnretionnatre Ilistorique du Cantal.” THe has be queathed tothe Nbrary of Clermont a valnavie series of Works On the nobility of France and the heraldic art. Visconnt de Lorgeid, in a speech in the French Assembly, called M, Foucner de Carell a thief; bat on account of religious, scruples the Viscount will not fight aduel. Le had, as he satd, made the declaration of Careti’s dishonesty on benal’ of “a majority Of the Deputies of nis deparement.” M, Caretl required, therefore, that ne snould as semble the Deputies jor whom he spoke, and that they should choose one of their number without religious scruples to give satisfaction, They weve mbled, but they compelled Lergeld to apo\e siamo DUDLEY.