The New York Herald Newspaper, December 31, 1875, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.—On and | after Junuary 1, 1875, the daily and weekly editions of the New Youx Hznaxp will be tent free of postage. 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 Yonx | HxERaLp. 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—AVENUE DE L'OPERA, Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. | | an ambassador was a person sent to lie | synonyme for chicanery; an ambassador may | ally negotiations which must be conducted NEW YORK ‘HERALD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1875. Why So Much Mystery? There is an old tradition among diplo- matists that all they do or propose ought to be shrouded in the most impenetrable se- | creey. It dates from a time when the people were only the obedient and ignorant instru- | ments of a small governing class, and when | the members of this class amused them- selves with intrigues against their rivals in other nations and attempts to over- reach them. In those days it was justly enough remarked by a sarcastic wit that abroad for the good of his country at home. | In fact, deception, fraud, falsehood and in- | trigue of the lower kinds were the stock in | trade of a first class envoy, whose proudest | | achievement was to steal the despatches of another, while in the last resort he did not seruple to procure the assassination of some | abler man than himself. All this is now happily past. Diplomacy is no longer, anywhere in Christendom, a be a gentlemen and a Christian. But the | old notion still prevails that secrecy and | mystery are necessary parts of the inter- course between governments, and that the public is inexcusably impertinent when it asks to be let into the secret of what their gov- ernment is doing in some of the most im- portant matters which can interest them. Now, we freely admit that there are oceasion- | VOLUME XL. : AMUSEMENTS _TO-NIGHT. PARISIAN VARIETIES, Bixteenth street, near, Broudway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. THEATRE, HELENE, at 8 P. M. THEATRE, | HENRY Vi, at SPM. Mr. | EATRE, UNION SQUARE TH KOSE MICHEL, at 8 Broadway ana Fourteenth street.— Pm ‘ OLYMPIC No, 624 Brondway.—VARI FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, Twenty-eighth street, near Broadway.—PIQUE, at 8 P. M. Fanny Davenport. TONY PASTOR'S NEW THEATR! Nos. 585 and 587 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 nee at 2 P. M. WEATRE, i ats P.M, M. Mati. | PARK THEATRE, Broadway and Twenty-second street.—THE CRUCIBLE, at 8P.M. Onkey Hall. EAGLE THEATRE, Broadway and Thirty-third street,—VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BOWERY THEATRE, | Bowery.—VALLEY FORGE, and 1776, at 8 P.M. Mr. Stetson. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, Rew Overs House, Broadway, corner of Twenty-ninth street, atsP. TIVOLI THEATRE, Eighth street, near Third avenue.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M. WOOD'S MUSEUM, Broadway, corner of Thirtieth st —THE OCTOROON, were closes at 10:45 P. M. Chanfrag. Matines “2PM. F. GLOBE THEATRE, Nos. 728 and 730 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Mati- tec at 2 P.M. BOOTH'S THEATRE, fwenty-third street and Sixth ayenue—JULIUS C#SAR, SPM. Mr. Lawrence Barrett. | LYCEUM THEATRE, street and Sixth dvenne—LA MAITRESSE at8 P.M. Parisian Company. CHICKERING HALL, Fifth aveane and Eighteenth street.—GRAND CONCERT, at8P.M. Von Bulow. Matinee at 2P. M. THEATRE COME Me No. 514 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 5 P. M. THEATRE, between Thirties Third avenne, MINSTRELSY and VARIETY Fourteenth LEGITIME, WALLACK'S THEATRE, and Thirteenth street.—-THE ROMANCE OF A ‘OUNG MAN, at 8. M.; clones at 10:45 P.M. Mr. B POOR John Gilbert. NEW YORK, FRIDAY, D c ees = From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be warmer, foggy and clearing. ‘Tux Henavp sy Fast Man, Trams.—News- dealers and the public throughout the States of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as in the West, the Pacific Coast, the North, the South and Southaest, also along the lines | of the Hudson River, New York Central and | Pennsylvania Central Railroads and their con= nections, will be supplied with Toe Henaxp, | tree of postage. Extraordinary inducements | offered to newsdealers by sending their orders direct to this office. Watt Srrzet Yestrnpar.—Stocks were EMBER 31, 1875, | privately. ~ | the Suez Canal. | action which depended for its success upon | It is far better that the public, ina free | | of a just and honorable nation. | confidence received ashock ; merchants were | Anotable instance is the recent purchase by Mr. Disraeli of the shares in | That was a business trans- keeping out other bidders; and the British Prime Minister was entirely justified in | keeping the whole world and the English | people in ignorance of what he was doing | until it was done. But such cases are rare. | In general only mischief can grow out | of secrecy in diplomatic negotiations. State, at least, should now what the rulers intend or propose. Here, for instance, is the long negotiation of General Grant with Spain regarding Cuba. ~All the later stages of it have been carefully concealed from the people. Why? What is gained by so much | mystery? If what General Grant demands of Spain is just his demands would gain strength from the support of the peo- ple, who would undoubtedly give it to just and honorable demands. If what he requires of Spain is unjust, then certainly | the people ought to know it, for no President has a right to propose injustice in the name The truth is that in this Spanish negotia- tion the President has played in an inex- cusable manner with the apprehensions of our own people. For several weeks before his annual Message was is- | sued the public was kept in constant | alarm by rumors of probable trouble with Spain. Our fleet was hurriedly refitted | and assembled, for what purpose nobody | about the government dared to tell. Mys- | terious hints were circulated in the press about some grave impending event. Business | embarrassed at a time when it is of great im- } portance that trade shall be encouraged, and meantime, if any one sought, in the interest of the public, to get at the meaning of all these preparations and these hints, he was told, as the nurses tell little children, “Open your mouth and shut your eyes ; by and by you'll get something to make you wise.” By and by came the Message, and again | the public found mystery where it had | a clear right to expect an honest, straightforward report of what was doing and what was intended. Even the late Jack Bunsby did not speak more oracularly than the President spoke in his discussion of Cuban relations. “Whereby, why not? If so, what odds? Can any man say otherwise? No. Awast, then!” said the immortal Bunsby ; and the “demnition total”—to speak after the man- ner of the late Mr. Mantilini—which any American merchant, anxiously planning a | voyage or a venture of any kind, got out of | the three columns which General Grant de- voted to Spain and Cuba, could be accurately without feature and the market was gener- ally stagnant. Money on call loaned up to | seven per cent and 1-32 commission, and | closed at four per cent. Gold opened at | 113 1-8 and closed at 113. Foreign exchange | ‘was quiet. | Tue Mercnants or New Yor« are not quite satisfied with the freight rates west, and particularly that arrangement which allows the railroads tocontract with individu- | als at excessively low rates while excessively | high rates are charged to the general body | of traders. They are right in saying that | this does not protect New York commerce, and their advocacy of a fair, paying rate for | everybody, withont favor to any, has the | proper commercial ring about it. To dis- | criminate between parties in New York is | Bs bad as to discriminate between New York and Baltimore. Tar Encusn Krr have accepted the Bhallenge of the New York riflemen for a Match in America during the Centennial | selebration. Sir Henry Halford will be the | Captain of the English team. We under- stand that the endeavor to secure a range | wear Philadelphia has not been successful, | and hence it is highly probable the match will be shot at Creedmoor, which, with a little better accommodation furnished by the railroads, could be more successfully nsed | for that purpose than any range hastily extemporized. We are now anxious to learn if this team will be an Imperial one, or whether we are to expect a team each from Ireland and Scotland. Tue Frencn Assempry dies hard. The proposition of the Committee on Dissolution that the Chamber should dissolve to-day was rejected yesterday, and the agony will be prolonged, possibly, into January. The Left | is naturally dissatisfied with this prospect, as it may keep the Chamber sitting up tothe eve of the Senatorial elections, thus giving the government time to perfect its machinery for carrying the elections in the conservative in- terest. The best thing for the Left to do is to expedite business and thus force the ma- fority to go home. A great many members of the sections of the Right know that it is | their iast appearance in the réle of Deputy, and hence they are in no hurry tq dissolye, | country. | of a passion summed up in these lucid words of Bunsby. Now, the President is not a Bunsby. | He is the responsible ruler of a great nation. | He is aman of undoubted ability. He can | tella plain story as well as any man in the | President the Congress they have just sent to Wash- ington to treat them, in an annual Message, to a lot of riddles, to play upon their apprehensions, and to put off their inquiries as impertinences. We trust the House of Representatives will, as soon as it meets, demand of the President the information which he ought to have given it in the annual Message ; the nature of his demands upon Spain ; the rea- sons for the sudden outfit and assembling of our fleet at so great a supposed expense ; and the present condition of the Spanish nego- tiations, What the country loses in stag- nation and the inevitable interruption to commerce, consequent upon several months of such silly mystery as the President has hidden the Spanish nego- tiations in, would make a sum so large that it would buy Cuba outright. War is not the costliest thing fora nation. The stagnation caused by prolonged apprehensions of hos- | tilities may costa people more than a war; | and such mystery as we complain of may, after all preliminary losses, plunge us into a war from which frankness toward the peo- ple would save us, Grant's Appeal to Powers. Foreign General Grant is a man of remarkable tenacity of purpose, and this is the quality which made him so eminently useful when he was in command of our armies in the civil war. In that momentous period the supreme power of judging and deciding did | not belong to him, but to the source of his instructions at Washington. In his subordi- nate capacity as the military executive of a policy dictated to him from Washington his strong tenacity of purpose was invaluable. But in his present high office, which clothes him with the power to decide as well as to execute, it has only led to persistent blun- dering. President Grant’s greatest quality is, like fire, ‘ta good servant, but a bad mas- ter.” The stubborn inflexibility of his na- ture isa source of folly and mischief when released from the guidance of superior minds ; it is like a gallant horse without an intelligent rider. When President Grant was a very young man he served asa lieutenant in the brilliant Mexican war, which was a succession of re- nowned victories. He was then at an age when indelible impressions are made ona strong character, and the liveliest of all his recollections are connected with events | which awakened his youthful enthusiasm | and filled his imagination with ineffaceable images. His first impulses of }atriotism, his earliest visions of glory, cama to him while he was sailing for Vera Cruz on the waters of the Gulf, with a youthful exalta- tion of feeling which invested those regions with an atmosphere of romance. The fas- cinating spell which that juvenile experience exerted on his mind colored his whole sub- sequent character. As soon as our civil war was ended he burned to lead an army to Mexico to dethrone and drive out the Em- peror Maximilian. After he became Presi- dent his thoughts were still turned in a southerly direction by aspirations to make a name in connection with some splen- did achievement in that quarter of the world. | His Santo Domingo project was dear to his | | heart, and there is nothing he was ever com- pelled to relinquish which cost him so much feeling. In spite of the condemnation of Congress and the people his affections still cling to that scheme, and, had he not been overruled by his Cabinet, he would have in- troduced a defence of it in his recent an- nual Message. Being foiled in Santo Do- mingo he turned his thoughts toward Cuba, still wishing to make his administration memorable by some important step in the suffused with the then prevalent democratic sentiment of ‘manifest destiny,” or the ab- sorption of all territory south of us into the Great Republic. The tenacity of those early impressions may account for, although it cannot excuse, the inflexible desire of the President to distinguish his administration by some great stroke of policy in that part of the world. Having been thwarted in his Santo Do- mingo scheme by the opposition of Congress and the country, and finding that he was likely to encounter a similar opposition in his designs upon Cuba, he has had recourse to a diplomatic coup to smooth down the ob- “Here is a man,” said Captain Cuttle, proudly pointing to Jack Bunsby, | “that has fell down more than any man | to his own self than the Seamen's Hospital to all hands ; that took as many spars and bolts about the outside of his head when he | was young as you'd want a order for }on Chatham yard to build a pleasure | fairs of the Western Hemisphere. yacht with; and yet that got opinions in that way it's my belief, for there nothing, like them afloat or his | ain't | ashore.” That certainly is not a good de- | American people. scription of (General Grant. He is quite capable of acting openiy. But he prefers secrecy and mystery; he seems to think that | the people are a lot of incapables who can- not be trusted to know what their guar- dian is doing on their behalf. And so, out of a love of mystery, or out for the silence which has gained him so much foolish praise, or out of a contempt for the people—it is difi- | cult to tell which—he plays the part of Sphinx, and, as an inevitable result, em- barrasses trade and commerce, makes every nerve of the nation tingle with probably needless apprehensions; gives to thousands | of American merchants, who have or would | like to have ventures on the high sens, the opening of manufactories, and, in short, causes an increase of the general stagnation which has made so many men poor for | several years past. There is nothing possible in our relations with Spain that can be at the same time | honest and needing such prolonged mystery. It is an un-American habit which General | Grant has fallen into of conducti: affairs ina corner. He sits in the executive | chair, not to do his own will or that of a small band of would-be aristocratic rulers, but to do the will and care for the interests of the American people. are perfectly capable of forming a just opinion of what we ought to demand of | Spain; and it is an insult to them and to | anxidus days and sleepless nights; prevents | ng public | stacles. He has seemed to fancy that by get- ting the indorsement of European Powers who have no interest in the question he can | alive; that has had more accidents happen i flank the public sentiment of his own coun- try. But he could have done nothing so cal- enlated to deepen the repugnance of the American people, who scorn and repudiate the idea of Enropean interference in the af- His ap- peal to foreign Powers to indorse his Ouban | policy, instead of aiding it, is sure to damage it irretrievably in the estimation of the The participation and ap- proval of Europe would force our citizens to denounce and reject it. Secrrrary Bristow anp Tae Presment.— If President , Grant's suspicions should | bring him into open collision with the See- | retary of the Treasury the latter has a | strong precedent to support him in a refusal to relinqaish his office. General Grant him- | self was once a Cabinet officer who incurred | the displeasure of his official chief, but he | did not feel called upon to résign any more | than his predecessor, Seeretary Stanton, who | followed Senator Sumner's advice to “stick.” trant Cabinet ent cers, but cannot remove them, and he will | Presi can suspend | offi | be wary of sending Mr. Bristow’s case to the | Senate for decision, when his only offence is | too munch zeal in pursuing the Whiskey Ring and too little consideration for the im- | plicated private secretary of the President, | If there should bea quarrel between Gen- eral Grant and Mr. Bristow it will be quite safe for the Secretary to defy the President and ‘‘stick.” | Ta Waisxex War 1x Cutcaco is vigorously carried on by the revenue officials, and the greatest consternation exists among the dis- | tillers of the “crooked.” One of the impli- cated distillers is reported to have said that they could not avoid cheating the govern- They are not babies; they | moeat,hecaum of the Cesire of tho officials | that they should do so, This is a very poor defence if it is the best they have to make. Meantime tho prosecution will ha mnabed. West Indies. Throughout his early man- | hood he was a democrat, and his soul was Our Harbor Defences on the Coasts. The activity in naval circles, which has scarcely abated, suggests many things, but among them the most important is the question of defence, Being a com- mercial people many of our most im- portant cities are built on the sea coast and within the sphere of naval opera- tions in the event of a foreign war. To pro- tect these rich and populous centres of com- merce from the destructive malice of an en- emy who would not hesitate to bombard where he could not capture, we have three elements of defence. The first of these is what we might term the natural element, the second the geographical, and the third the artificial or military. The natural de- fences to our coasts and harbors consist of the shoals and currents that combine to ren- der nearly all our harbor entrances difficult of navigation except under the direction of expert pilots, and the prevailing winds and storms on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, which are extremely dangerous to ships en- gaged so near land as to maintain anything like a blockade of our ports. The necessa- rily exposed position of a hostile fleet, or the effort to modify it, will subject the enemy's ships to the dangers arising from one or other of the causes named. § The geographical element of our defence lies in the distance a European enemy would be compelled to move from his base of supplies before reaching the sphere of his operations against our coasts. There are three bases from which European fleets could move on our Atlantic and Gulf coast line—namely, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on the north, the Bermuda Islands on the centre, and Cuba or the West India Islands on the south. Even these, and especially the latter two, should first be sup- plied from Europe and in the face of our swarming gunboats and cruisers, A modern naval fleet must be a steam fleet. The use of immense quantities of coal is as necessary to effectiveness as that of food and other sup- plies. The character of the natural defences already named, as well as the exigencies of war, compéls the continuous maintenance of steam at working pressure on every hostile vessel sent to our coasts. Therefore, whether cruising, fighting or blockading, the consumption of coal goes on just the Same, and unless the supply is maintained equal to the demand the offensive value of the fleet or ship falls to zero, She must re- tire or run the risk of capture. Few steam vessels, even the largest war ships, can carry more than from fourteen to twenty days’ | coal in active service. We can readily conceive, then, the diffi- culty of supplying a fleet that has con- sumed a partof the coal allowance in reach- ; ing our shores and is compelled to keep constantly under steam when there. The artificial or military element of our defence combines three features, more or less de- pendent on each other for effectiveness. | These are the fortification of our harbor en- trances, the torpedo system of defending and obstructing the channels and bays, and the fleets of the United States, which have so often proved equal to the greatest emergencies of war. With regard to the two | former factors of the military element of de- | fence we must remember that an active enemy can employ them against us, even on our own territory. The outer islands of Boston Harbor, Sandy Hook and the similar peninsulas that command the navigable entrances of nearly all our At- lantic ports can be suddenly seized and fortified and the channels torpedoed against us. Here is really our only weak point, and we need have bnt little fear of | foreign fleets, provided we do not permit | them to take the advantage we have sug- | gested by occupying our own defensive posi- tions. Let us, then, abandon the useless and costly fortifications that an enemy will never attempt to reach, and guard the points | where he can injure us most by a prolonged | ocoupation and blockade. Tweep's Bonpsmen in the criminal cases | are fighting hard to prove that they are not | responsible, The case goes to the General Term, and when it is passed on there we shall see how far their plea will carry them. Anotuer Heavy Deratcation is reported, this time from Buffalo. City Treasurer Bork | has fled, leaving a deficit of over three hundred thousand dollars. . Like many others who have gone his road he was open- | handed, and apparently open-hearted. | He was a president of thirteen | | societies, and foremost in all phil- | anthropic works. Doubtless he thus | managed to divert suspicion from his dark | doings; for who could question the man who kept his balances straight on paper, who had the reputation of great wealth, | who gave homes to the working | classes for a song and was foremost in | all benevolent projects? These cases are | hard to judge without all the evidence; but, whether he lent the city’s money to others or used it in other ways, he was steeping him- | self in dishonesty at every step, and it is | proverbial how difficult it is to retrace these downward steps. Tae Cornesronpencr between the Com- mittee on Crime and their counsel on one side and District Attorney Phelps on the other is concluded in another part of to-day'’s paper. Mr. Townsend replies to Mr. Phelps’ letters to Assem- blyman Campbell with fire ond dash, but Mr. Phelps waves the committee off with a reiteration of the charge of political | partisanship which he made in his first notes, It is cnrious and refreshing to read at the close of Mr. Townsend's letter that he has written it “with no feelings of bitterness” to Mr. Phelps, but the body of the document reads very much as though he believed he was passing red hotpokers throngh the Dis- trict Attorney and felt rather gratified at the operation. Owe or Tose Honriere Cres which de- face civilization occurred in this city yester- day. Aman having shot his wife and two children then shot himself. No canse has been assigned for the act. The man was janitor of the Society for the l’revention of Cruelty to Children, but he killed his own. The man’s name would indicate that he is a German, and it must be noted with regret that this large and generally peaccful class of our fellow citizens furnish lately a great nnmbar of the crimes which end in sniaida. \ | the world. as well as those in which individuals take their own lives without first burdening their souls with other crimes, Meeting of the Legislature. ‘The Legislature of New York will assemble at Albany next Tuesday. The session is likely to be one of great interest, although it may not accomplish much work. Both po- litical parties will be at a disadvantage by the tendency of important legislation to a deadlock. The republicans have a majority both in the Senate and Assembly, but not a two-thirds majority, so that it will be useless for them to pass any bill which cannot meet the approval of the Governor. The political opposition between the legislative power and the veto power may have a salutary effect on one of the important subjects which will come before this Legislature—namely, the apportionment of Senators and Assemblymen under the new census. The republicans had the apportionment in their own hands ten years ago, and that they made an unfair use of the advantage is attested by the fact that in the last election they were able to carry both branches of the Legislature although the democrats elected their State ticket by a majority of about fifteen thousand. As Gov- ernor Tilden will be certain to veto an unfair apportionment bill there is a reasonable prospect of justice in organizing the new Senate and Assembly districts. As there is only one subject in which the Governor takes an active interest it is prob- able that all the emphasis of his Message will be given to the canal frauds. He will, of course, extol and magnify his aggressive war on the Canal Ring, but the republican Legislature may not accept his own valuation of his services. In the numerous speeches of Governor Tilden last summer and antumn he made constant appeals for a supporting and co-operating Legislature, confessing that he would be powerless without such aid. The appeal was not responded to by the people in the sense in which it was made, and as the republican party think that the Governor has been man- aging the canal question to promote his chances for a Presidential nomination it is improbable that this republican Legislature will vote him any laurels. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the democratic oppo- sition and denunciation which he encoun- tered last winter will not reappear in this Legislature. He is known to be scheming for a Tilden delegation to the Democratic National Convention, and he has too many bitter enemies in his own party to expect gentle treatment from this Legislature. On the important question of municipal reform the Governor has conspicuously failed to do his duty. He was authorized by the last Legislature, at his own request, to appoint a commission on this subject ; but he deferred the appointments so long and so inexcusably that the labors of the commis- sion will be of no value to this Legislature. It is too evident that he means to fight off and postpone the question, but whether with a view to his Presidential chances is best known to himself. We trust, however, that the Legislature will not postpone so important and urgent a subject in deference to Goy- ernor Tilden’s wishes to secure the New York delegation to the Democratic National Convention. On the great point of a spring election he is so committed that he cannot retreat, and his posttion is so distasteful to Tammany leaders that he may wish to avoid offending them by throwing the question of municipal reform past the choice of delegates, which will probably take place before the Legislature adjourns. Lessons from the Surrogate’s Court. When we see the novelist or the dramatist | who has got all his characters into an inex- plicable tangle suddenly produce a will or a codicil to set things right, we are apt to com- | plain that he lacks inyentiveness in resorting | to such a hackneyed expedient. Forged wills and wills found after great search are commoner in the play and the novel than in the probate courts. (Generally the testa- mentary drama opens when the well attested and carefully deposited will is sought to be admitted to probate. Then the widow and children begin to learn things which they had not dreamed of; then claims ignored for half a lifetime struggle for a hearing; then the secrets which have been guarded by a | sinall circle are laid bare to the world, In Ameri peculiar social phase of our rapid progress in wealth is being brought to light through the Surrogate’s Court. America boasts more than any other nation of its self- made men, Those who began life poor and reached well into the years of manhood before fortune smiled on them, but who then almost at a bound reached the heights of wealth, are more numerous here than in any other country. While their successes | | in making money have been liberally chronicled, their domestic careers have been let alone, yet, one by one, the Surrogate's | Court displays how well or how ill their life at the hearth has supplemented their life in Often it shows how the wife who ‘shared the early privations has been cher- | ished to the end, but too often, also, it tells that the cold tide of gold has drowned heart and conscience, and plainer in manner, and the courageous speculator becomes a skulking coward at the thought of presenting the new-born friends of his new-born money to her. She is isolated. He doles out a pittance to her; he buys her silence ; he never mentions her, and, his weak head earried away by some new beauty in the new world of fashion, he marries again. recent case, and we fear itisatype. Our | “shoddy” women have been ridiculed here and abroad ; but, better a thousand times to bring the plain old wife with one through the world, no matter how absurdly she carries her new plumage of wealth, than to strut with a Indy wedded to a lie, bearing a brand that will stamp the man in his grave as a coward and a perjurer, that will leave a mistress and not a widow, and will taint the children of the second “wife” as illegitimate. Then we have cases where the divorce court has stepped in to rid aman ofa woman he could not tolerate in the glare of wealth, but whose features were sweet to him in the shadows of poverty. A so-called “mutual separation,” brought about, perhaps, by his own cruelty, has given man an opportunity to take to him asa wife in name. but-not in law. the divorced The wife is plain in person | wite of his wife's brother, whom he coveted. In another case we see a man of immenst wealth, who was a poor strolling actor in his youth, riot in his passions, discard wife after wife and take up mistress after mistress, till his money is fought over by his victims with all the revolting details of a debauched life shamelessly paraded. They are sad- dening as well as disgusting pictures, and they should be pondered by the thoughtful. No generation can afford to pass its social problems by, for the occasional sins of one may become the rooted vices of the next, ‘The memory of a pure and united household is one of the best bequests aman can leave to those who follow him. What Dead Sea fruit of domesticity is the heritage of those born of the marriages and ‘‘unions” we have de» scribed ! Civil Service Reform. We congratulate the democratic party, and especially the Committee on Civil Service Reform, presided over by that distinguished, fair-minded man and thoroughly reformed statesman, Mr. Whitehouse, that it has so im- portant a field before it. If civil service means anything at all itis that honest men should be kept in the positions they fill creditably, that old and faithful publie servants should be recognized, and that in the clerical department of a body like the House honorable officers should not be re- moved for political reasons. This certainly was what we learned from the democratia party on the stump during the last cam- paign, If there is any truth im these declarations it is their duty to inquire at once into the appointments that have re- cently taken place in the House. Irom what we can learn of these appointments men who have served the House for years, men of capacity and integrity, have been suddenly turned out of their clerkships to make room for a squad of ex-Congressmen and _ political adventurers, We do not now see how the democrats can refuse to look into these charges. The coun- try will watch jealously the action of the majority in every way, and when its speakers talk of civil service reform after this exhibition we are afraid they will be listened to with impatience and incredulity. By all means let the Civil Servica Committee take up this question of the House appointments. Let if find out how many men have been removed from office and how long those who have been removed were in the service of the gov- ernment, and the causes of their removal and the names of the Congressmen who urged their successors. West Pornt.—A story has been in cireula- tion that the great Prussian soldier Von Moltke had severely criticised our national Military Academy, and had said, among other things, that the exclusive selection of officers from such a school was more un- likely to produce great war captains than if the shoulder straps were within reach of the entire male population. It is now stated from Berlin that Count Moltke never uttered the observations attributed to him; that he would not agree with many of them, while in others he thought exactly the opposite. We wish the exposition was a little clearer. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Germany will adhere to free trade. Bancroft employs two secretaries, Chinamen work Wyoming coal mines, Joe Bedie—Judge, Governor, and now LL.D, ‘The Boston Herald denies that Grant ‘‘swars™® Senator Thurman loves light Freuch literature, Boston’s wealthy men were not born in Boston. Edinburgh fishermen caughta 1,200 pound sunfish, Colonel Joyce’s wife wants a Washington clerkship. One million Roman Catholics in England and Wales, The Spectator thinks Tweed’s natural resort is Paris, Senator Bayard frequents the Congressional Library, Lord Derby don’t waut Abyssinia annexed to Eng land. The dead letter auction occurs at Washington Janw ary 17. Eastern Europe seems to be allied against Western Enrope. Mr. Cave, English financier for Egypt, looks like Henry Clews. Gladstone says, “Elevate the working class by keep. ing your children in it,”’ d One hundred and sixty-three internal revenue collec. tors in the United States. The Richmond Whig hints that Schurz will accept any State for a Senatorship. . Artist Prior, of the /llustrated London News, has been arrested by Turks in Herzegovina, The Duke of Cambridge, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, thinks war is possible for England. Colonel Bangs, Chief of the Railway Postal Service at $2,500, becomes Superintendent of the Illinois Agricul tural Company at $6,000. Associate Justice Stephen J. Field, of the United States Supreme Court, arrived from Washington Ias{ evening at the Albemarle Hotel. By inadvertence Mr. Simon Sterne, a member of the Municipal Society, was alluded to as being an ex. Commissioner of Charities, instead of Meyer Stern, whe really hed that office. Wendell Phillips reiterates his old theory that Massa chusetts should govern Boston. Years ago he said that the constabulary of the Commonwealth should supersede the derelict police of the city, Judge Holman, Congressman from Indiana, is said ta be the foe of the lobby, and without regard to this fact he Is also a rising candidate for the Presidency. How high a riser he will be is nut settled, but he is one of the early birds. Mr. Ruskin pitches into the young lady Sunday schoolteachers, “At present,” he says, “you keop the dancing to yourselves and teach your schoiars the catechism, Suppose you were to try for a little while learning the catechism yourselves and teaching them to dance.” In Germany there is popular hostility to Americans Decatise the latter are supposed to have favored France in the late war, and because American travellers make hotel living dear, The German government and iw nowspapers, however, try to cultivate friendly rela tons with us, The Chinese entered California tn 1850, drawa | thither by gossip about the land of gold. Senator | Sargent remembers soeing the first hinese junk that Such was the story in one | | | smiles sadly. | be gratified by Spanish domination in Cuba, anchored off the California coast, At the present day the thin muscles of the Chinaman are prominently effective as far east as Wyoming, Proctor Knott, Congressional wit, fs short, stout, straight, firm, gray-eyed, white haired, white mus- tached, Although funny, be appears melancholy and His speech on Duluth was one of the funniest things ever made in Congress, He is ap pointed head of the Judiciary Committee, Fortunately ho is witty only once in a while, The Pall Mall Gazette does not understand why the United States can complain of greater suffering from the condition of Spanish government in Cuba than other nations can, And, as if it still had no idea of geography in politics, the Gazetée assures us that if we will only wait until Spain settles its civil war we may One hundred Georgia newspapers and seven Goorgis grand juries want a shortening of erimi the score of economy; good wagon roads; a dog law, aa 4 protection to sheep raising; and a consolidation of county offices for the purpose of effecting economy it public expenditures. The latter proposition ts one serioasly to be considered by statesmon, aé is also an additional one to consolidate weak counties territe- rially,