The New York Herald Newspaper, January 14, 1876, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR —— JAMES THE DAILY HERALD, published every Pay in the year, Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per | month, free of postage. All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Your Henan, 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. VOLUME XL — AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. BOOTHS THEATRE, tagnty third street and Sixth avenue.—JCLIUS CESAR, Wee. COMIQUE, ater £ THEATRE, and Thirty‘Grst streets.— Third avenue, bet PANORAMA, at oT’. COLOSSEUM, Piicty.fourth strect and Broadway.—PRUSSIAN ST ‘ARIS. Open trom 1 P. M. to 4P. M. and from 7:30 P 10 P.M or TIVOLI THEATRE, Bighth street, near Third avenue, —VARIETY, at 8 P.M. WALLAC Broadway and Thirteenth street, MSP. M.; closes at 10:45 P.M. TRE, RRIED IN HASTE, Mr. Lester Wallac. PARISIAN VARIETIES, Sixteenth street, near Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BROOKLYN THEATRE, Washington street, Brooklyn,—OUR BOYS, at§ P. M. Yohn E. Owens. Mr. UNION SQUARE THEATRE, Broadway and Fourteenth street.—KUSE MICHEL, at 8 OLYMPIC THEATRE, Wo. 624 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8 P.M. FIFTH NUE THEATRE, Fwonty-eichth street, near Broadway.—!’IQUE, at 8 P.M any Davenport. TONY PASTO! Nos. 585 and 587 Broad: THEATRE, EGY, ats Po M. PARK THEATRE, Sroadway and Twenty-second street.—THE WIDOW HUNT, W3P.M. Johu Dillon, EA THEATRE, Sroadway and Thirty-third street.—VARIETY, at 8 P. M GERMA fourteenth street.—COMT at 8P. M. BOWERY THEATR Bowery.—SUNSUINE, at 8 P.M. Lill ilkenson, Fonrteenth street JEMISMONDE, neh Plays—LES SAN FRA few Opera House, Broadw ws P OM. Wwoon's M UM, Broadway. of Thirtieth str -THE CUT GL 3PM; closes at L049 P.M. Jule Keen. Matinee at ‘eM GLOBE IEATRE, 28 and 730 Broadway.—VARIETY, at 8B. M WITH SUPPLEMENT. | JARY MM. 1876, NEW YORK, FRIDAY From our reports this morning the probabilities sre that the weather to-day will be clear or partly | doudy and slightly warmer. Tux Henarp by Fast Mau. Tratns.—News- Jealers and the yriblic throughout the Slates of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, as well as in the West, the Pacific Coast, the North, he South and Southwest, also along the lines of te Hudson River, New York Central and Pennsylvania Central Railroads and their con- nections, will be supplied with Tim Henaxn, free of postage. Extraordinary inducements offered to newsdealers ty sending their orders direct to this office. Watt Sraerr Yesterpay.—Stocks con- tinued to show great firmness, especially Western securities. Gold receded to 112 5-8. Money on call was freely offered at five and six per cent. Foreign exchange was lower, investment shares were firm and govern- ment bonds active. Tar Conviction or La Pace of the murder of Josie Langmaid condemns a wretch to the gallows who richly merits his fate. He hasa year of grace allowed him before the execu- tion of the sentence, according to the law of New Hampshire. Tar Evrorean Powsrns are at present en- gaged in coaxing the Sultan into an accept- ance of Count Andrassy’s scheme of reform. The Sick Man may now learn what death is more awful than the bastinado, as all the ambassadors are addressing him on the sub- ject of reform. Mannattan Isuanp, we learn from the Superintendent of Buildings’ report, has eighty-four thousand two hundred build- ings, of which sixty-seven thousand one hundred and fifty-six are dwelling housesand sixteen thousand four hundred and thirty- four are business houses. There are four hundred and fifty-eight churches, thirty- three of which are not yet ready for the harvest of the Lord. NEW YOKK HERALD, FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1876.—WITH SUPPLEMENT. A Question for the Republicans. The question which we wish to put to the republican leaders is this:—Do they intend | to respect and observe the constitutional | limitations ? mental, organic law of the land. Whatever authority Congress has it has under the con- stitution, | two houses are only a mob, Whatever they | do in accordance with the broad but well de- fined powers granted to Congress by the con- stitution is lawful, authoritative, and de- mands the respect and assent of the people. But what authority can Congress exercise outside of its constitutional limits? Senator Morton, of Indiana, demands that the Senate shall undertake, by a committee, to investigate the recent election imMissis- sippi, and it is said that his demand will be supported by the republican majority in the Senate. Mr. Morton is understood to charge that there has been violence and intimidation by the democrats toward the republicans in Mississippi, and that the election was carried by such wrongs, and his object in the investigation he proposes is to | show this. Wedo not care to dispute with | him as to the facts, though letters from such prominent republicans as Senator Revels, Judge Carter, Judge Morris and the reports of ex-Senator Pease and others, flatly con- tradict his general allegation. The real question which it is useful for republicans, | not in the Senate only, but elsewhere, to look in the face is this: —Is there any consti- | tutional warrant or authority for such an in- vestigation? Clearly there is not. ‘The con- dition of Mississippi matters is this:—The newly elected members of the Lower House | have all been admitted to their seats without * | question, and on the certificates of election, in proper form, granted and signed by Governor Ames. As to the Senate, no Senator is asking for admis- sion. Now, then, on what plea can either house undertake to investigate an | election in Mississippi? Whose election? | Such an inquisition as Mr. Morton secks is a | judicial proceeding; who is moving the court? He charges irregularities in the | election ; but in whose? ot in that of the | Representatives in Congress, for they have come up with certificates from Governor Ames that they were duly elected, and were | admitted, without question, to their seats. | And even if the right of any one of them to | his seat is contegfed, this would not concern the Senate, becanse, under the constitution, “each house” ismade the judge of the elec- tion and qualification of its members, and the Senate has no authority to interfere in a matter which, under the case supposed, be- | longs exclusively to the House. A United States Senator is to be chosen by the present Legislature of Mississippi. He will appear to claim his seat on the 4th of March, 1877. When he makes his claim, then, undoubtedly, it is the privilege and duty of the Senate to consider it, and at that time, if Mr. Morton shall then be in the Senate, he will be acting within the constitution if he asks for an investigation, though even then his demand would be strengthened if he could show that Governor Ames had refused certificates to the Congressmen elected, and that thus and in other ways a formal protest had been entered against the election. It is not because investigation in Missis- sippi is necessary that Mr. Morton seeks it, ! and no one knows better than he that the true interests of the country require that the people of that State shall be let alone. Political capital for the ensuing Presidential | canvass is what he wants, and to obtain it he is willing to keep alive all the animosities engendered by the war and to hinder the ex- ercise of their rights by the white people of the South by every means in his power and the power of his party. His mistake will be demonstrated, perhaps, when it is too late for the republicans to profit by it. The people have no sympathy with this policy, and have about made up their minds that | interference with the internal affairs of the | Southern States must cease. If an election in Mississippi is to be investigated by a republican Senate thére is no reason why the elections in Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania should not also be inquired into. Interference in one State ultimately means interference in every State. The re- sults of such a policy would be the complete nullification of the will of the people and the subordination of the States to a factions | majority in Congress. The constitution | will not only be disregarded but destroyed, and a mere oligarchy will take the place of | popular government. This may not be what Mr. Morton is aiming at, but the people see clearly enough that this will be the result, and hence it is not to be expected that his | policy will receive their indorsement. We remind the republicans of the consti- tution out of pure good will tothem. A Presidential canvass is near at hand; the acts and the merits of the two parties will be | closely scratinized. ‘here is no doubt that many things will be readily forgiven to the republican party. If it has been extravagant | in expenditures, or lame in reforms, or long suffering toward certain abuses, we believe the people will be inclined to overlook many | such faults, as being chargeable mainly to | the President, whose influence, as everybody recognizes, has tied the hands of republican leaders, and has often overborne, by the help The constitution is the funda- | Outside of that instrament the | federal interference, and enjoying peace and a renewed prosperity, with that of Louisiana, to see how dangerous and injurious is such a policy. Whatever the people may forgive the re- | publican leaders, they will not, we believe, } again trust them with power if they con- | tinue to support unconstitutional and vio- | lent methods of government. Nor ought | they. If the republican party is to be ani- mated and moved by the spirit of Grantism ; if it means to accept the violent and illegal | policy of General Grant ; if this spirit is to tule in its councils, what difference ean it make whether it renominates | Grant or takes some other man who will but repeat and continue his errors? What the people want is a change of policy; a return to the safe paths of the constitution; | Peace and good will, which cannot be got so long as the party in power governs in defi- ance of the fundamental law of the land and | of public opinion and public safety. If Sen- ator Morton's motion shall prevail in the Senate, and if the republicans in that body | thus publicly and formally declare that ‘they do not hold themselves bound by constitu- tional limitations, but that they will trample on the fundamental law of the land for the attainment of merely partisan purposes, they will alienate from their party, justly and in- evitably, a great mass of intelligent voters, without whose support they caffhot hope to carry the next election; and they will de- serve failure, because their success under the circumstances would be a grave peril to the country. Marshal MacMahon’s Proclamation, President MacMahon's proclamation to the French nation is not the kind of document we should be pleased to see our chief Ex- ecutive issue on the eve of a general election; but, remembering the kind of Republic the hero of Magenta presides over, it must be viewed as moderate, while its chief signature is an assurance that it is dignified and out- spoken, It is important as marking the | bounds to which he can go in urging the election of candidates who support the | government as at present administered. From the fears it expresses we can plainly judge that the Marshal does not expect a majority in Senate and Assembly of the | same conservative order as that from which all the liberal features of the constitu- tional laws were dragged piecemeal. The | proclamation is intended rather as an appeal to France not to imperil what has been won thus far by elect- ing men who would seek to overturn the governmental fabric. We should call that an insult to the people’s common sense in America; but in unsettled France, with its wild history of ninety years behind it, it is probable the extreme republicans will only wonder, nay, regret, that it is not stronger. To the conservative republicans it will prove distasteful; but as their present programme does not go perceptibly outside the limits set by the President they can fight inside it and win. In point of fact this opposition to the republicans is growing in France to be cognate to the ‘bloody shirt” ery of our politics, and to be ridiculed accord- ingly. There has been a general re- publican advance, which, from its | gradual nature, is s guarantee against reaction on one side or excess on the other. MacMahon gives it distinctly to be under- stood that until 1880 the present form of government will be upheld ‘‘without weak- ness." This is a sword cutting two ways. It secures the Republic against the monarch- ists as well as the radicals. At the same time there is no indication that any force in the coming Legislature will be strong enough to upset anything more than the Ministry. The Marshal says, in one of his most nota- ble sentences, that the present institutions “ought not to be revised before they are honestly tried.” This common sense will concede ; but, inasmuch as the details of the work give perfect satisfaction to no party, it is idle to suppose that they are not suscepti- ble of marked improvement, and that, sooner or later, the task of amendment will be un- dertaken. Altogether, the proclamation— although the army 1s quietly drawn up be- hind it—will not help the reactionists of the Monarehy or the Empire, and the cool judg- ment of France may safely be trusted to say how “advanced” shall be the majority of the legislators it is about to choose, Amenrtcan Actors In Enoianp.—From Mr. H. D. Palmer's letter, which we published yesterday, it appears that the report that he intends to take ‘‘an entirely American dra- matic company” to London was inaccurate. He explains that he simply proposes to pro- duce ‘‘Henry V." in London, with Mr, Rig- nold and others of the original cast, and possibly to bring out ‘Julis Cesar” at Drury Lane, with Messrs. Davenport, Bangs and Barrett in the principal characters. To such an enterprise there is no reasonable objec- tion, but it is a very different thing from the exportation to England of a company com- posed exclusively of Americans. We are glad to learn from Mr, Palmer that the Sergeant Bates business of carrying the Star-Spangled Banner into England is not contemplated, | and hope that this sensible view of the case | will be a lesson to all who imagine that dramatic art can ever be truly served by sen- sational encouragement of national rivalries, eS eee he thdgpeiggtad of patronage unscrupulously used, the good their policy of rejecting the nominee: for the | - ives and desires of wiser and better men. position of Commissioner of Public Works | . ; i who identified himself with the reduction of Sri ee bomcigarte © baa aint } tion of a man of moderate views and un- | Vircrsta will not be represented at the ! Centennial, and the result is distinctly | traced to Blaine’s Andersonville speech, It the laborers’ wages last year, gave the quietus yesterday to Fitz John Porter's candidacy. Mayor Wickham at the same time begged to withdraw the nomination (a request in which General Porter somewhat unnecessarily joined), and then sent in the name of Mr. Allan Campbell, on whose claims the Board will incubate for a week. Tax Exros:rion which will be held at Brussels this year of life-saving and health- preserving appliances, particularly those | tending to mitigate the horrors of warfare, should insure » prompt response from America. This hard, material age has its soft spots, and one of these is that war, tethal in its very intent, should not pursue its victims past the field of battle. It is the age ovement as ‘and to be ilinstrated at the Brussels Exhibi- | of anesthetics in surgery, and such a is typified in the Geneva Cross | ministration has kept its hands off the local | good deal of poor opinion of the runaway doubted good character, and the expression in the platform of a determination to work out necessary reforms, will be regarded by a great mass of voters as sufficient warrant for them to trast the party, relieved of General Grant and his followers, for another Presi- dential term; the more so becanse the demo- | erats have not so far succeeded in regaining, ' to any considerable extent, the confidence of | the country. - But one thing the people require, unless we entirely misunderstand ; them, and that is a return to strictly consti- | tutional methods. The danger of a longer | continuance of unconstitutional and, there- | fore, violent and illegal ways, is very | widely felt all over the country, | {and the more because everybody sees | that, wherever in the South the federal ad- and State governments, peace, order and is wonderful what power for mischief is pos- | sessed by mere demagogues. One in the | House of Representatives gave the cue toa | pair in the Virginia House of Delegates, and they had power to defeat the Centennial appropriation. So the world is often moved by its baser emotions evoked by the smallest of men, Har Fever broke out in a virulent form | among the Dock Commissioners yesterday, | when the representatives of the hay trade | complained that their interest was not satis- factorily provided with wharf accommoda- | tions. The Commissioners seemed aston- | ished at the extent of the hay business, and | promised to look i | Six Junsns have | Tweed one million suit. There seemed a defendant prevalent among the citizens tion is the application of the pain-saving idea | good will have immediately followed. It is summoned. Fancy a New Yorker who has a to the rnde and wholesale surgery of the only necessary to compare the condition of difficulty in believing that Tweed is a bad tattle field Arkansas to-dav. relieved of nnconatitutional | man, The Amnesty Debate—Mr. Blaine’s Second Speech. Mr. Blaine has not succeeded in clearing himself of the charge of having needlessly and wantonly stirred up the most disagree- | able and irritating topics connected with the civil war and reviving bitter memories which a patriot should wish to leave undisturbed. This whole discussi bout the treatment | Seip ciraeanate | If such a tribunal results from the Deutsch- | of prisoners is ill-timed, purely mischievous, and nobody can acquit Mr. Blaine of having | opened its sluices. His defence is as weak in logic as anything we have ever seen from so ableaman. He says he has no wish to punish Jefferson Davis, but only resists an attempt to con- fer on him an “honor.” This is a refine- ment entirely beyond the realm of com- mon sense. The “honor” that would be bestowed on Mr. Davis by including him in an act of amnesty would be precisely neither greater nor léss than the ‘honor’ which was conferred on every male negro in the South by the amendments to the constitution. Did Mr, Blaine or any other advocate of the amendments ever contend that their purpose was to confer upon the blacks a high honor? Was it not rather the very pith and sub- stance of their arguments that they were lifting the negro race from degradation and giving them their mere rights asmen? It would have sounded oddly, indeed, if the republicans of that day had declaimed, in the strain in which Mr. Blaine began his speech yesterday, about the ‘“honor” which was to be conferred on the ignorant planta- tion negroes by lifting them to political equality with the ‘mean whites” of the South, An act of amnesty would only place Jefferson Davis in the same political condition as his fellow citizens, the plantation hands and* negro whitewashers of the State of Missis- sippi. Mr. Blaine is hard pressed for argu- ments when he is driven to rest his defence on so ridiculous a ground. If the political disabilities pronounced on @ late rebels are not in the nature of a punishment why were they inflicted? Was not the sentence pronounced on General Fitz John Porter intended to be a punish- ment, and is he not enduring that punish- ment to this day? General Porter was ren- dered by his sentence incapable of holding any office or position of trust under the United States; and we know not what Mr. Blaine’s sense of penal suffering may be if he does not look upon that as a punishment. Would it be conferring an “honor” on General Porter to relieve him from that sentence? Section third of the fourteenth amendment shows on its face that it has the force of a penal statute. It declares that ‘Congress may by a vote of two- thirds of each house remove such disability.” This is the section under which Congress is now debating, and the question does not re- late to conferring an honor, but to the “removal of a disability.” In all trials of impeachment under the constitution it is ordained that the punishment shall not ex- tend beyond the same kind of disqualitica- tion under which Jefferson Davis is now suf- fering, Would relief from such a sentence be regurded by any sane man as an ‘thonor?” When a culprit is pardoned out of a State prison and restored to his civil rights, does the State Executive confer on him an “honor?” Such logic is too futile and pre- posterous for a man of the pretensions of Mr. Blaine. Blackwell's Island, It is only when an event happens like the escape of Chatterton and the drowning of Gardner that we get an insight into the mis- management of the institutions on Black- well’s Island. A more remarkable case has not come to the public knowledge in a long while, and itis not even necessary to assume that Kidd, the fireman, murdered one of the prisoners and deliberately allowed the other to escape to fix a very grave offence upon the | Workhouse officials and the Commissioners. The proof ofa complete want of discipline in the institution is equally clear, whether the charges of the colored boatman or Kidd's explanation is accepted. That a fireman should be afforded any such opportunity as that which Kidd unquestionably had isa fact which cannot be explained away. The Commissioners had so many previous warn- ings of the mismanagement of our institu- tions on the Isfand that its continuance is a surprise and a disgrace, When the present Board was appointed the Stockvis case was attracting general attention, and that brutality as well as negligence existed in the department was only too clearly es- tablished. We hoped that with new Com- missioners a better system and more thor- ough discipline would be inaugurated. The action of Kidd demonstrates how vain was that hope. Prisoners, it seems, are allowed to walk about the Island, and in this case they were able to procure a boat and come to this city. There can be no discipline where such results are possible. The crime charged against Kidd is in reality the least important consideration affecting the case, for had the discipline of the institution been what it should be his offence would have been impossible. A great reform in the management of our penal and charitable in- stitutions is needed, and it can be obtained if the responsibility in the present case is put where it rightfully belongs. An International Maritime Tribunal. The invitation of the German government to the other maritime States to unite in an international conference to devise common mode of inquiry into shipwrecks and dis- asters to shipping is a very important step in the right direction. In no other way can the causes of accidents at sea be properly in- vestigated, or any effective measures be de- vised for the prevention of the direful calamities which are now of such frequent | occurrence, We showed some time ago that ourown laws are entirely inadequate to the punishment of criminals like Thomassen, or even of offenders of less fiendish crimi- nality. For inquiry into the causes of dis- asters at sea we hive no effective machinery whatever, and it is very seldom that the loss of aship in the merchant service, either in this country or in England, is made the sub- ject of a searching investigation. Punish- ment is even less frequent. Evidently new rules of international maritime law ought to “pe adopted for the merchant service, and Germany's suggestion is the first step in that direction, Rules without a tribunal to en- force them would be useless, and so the pro- posed conference must prepare a scheme which shall include a board that is perma- nent. The subject is one of the greatest im- portance in itself, and the adoption of the plan which the German government sug- gests will be another step toward the federa- of philosophers as well as the dream of poets. land disaster the lives of her passengers will not have been sacrificed in vain. The Case of Landis. In this remarkable case it is already tes- tified that Carruth was not killed by Landis’ bullet. Dr. Joshua K. Thomas, of Philadel- phia, who made the post-mortem examina- tion, says, it is true, that ‘‘the primary cause of death was a gunshot wound;” but his own fuller statement takes from this phrase all the sense that might be dangerous to the prisoner. He found the bullet resting on the tentorium cerebri, the fold of membrane beneath the hemispheres, and which sepa- rates them from the upper surface of the cerebellum. The bullet was ‘encysted,” that is to say, a membrane like that upon which it rested had grown over and around it. There was no pus at that point, In other words, complete recovery had taken place as to the injury done by the bullet. Nature had provided by the “cyst” in which she had so carefully wrapped this intruding bullet that it might remain there indefinitely with safety to the man's life. Although recoveries from bullet wounds in the brain are rare, this is just what happens when they occur, and when nature has taken these conserva- tive steps recovery follows, unless some othercause of death intervenes. What, then, was the other cause that operated here and killed the man? It is stated in the testimony of the same doctor ‘‘The immediate cause of death was the abscesses.” Abscesses, as the word was here intended, are pouches filled with pus. There were four of thgse at dif- ferent points in the brain, every one re- moved from the position oceupied by the bullet. These abscesses caused the man's death; but what caused the ab- scesses? Not the bullet; it could not have gone in four directions. Be- sides, one abscess was three-quarters of an inch deeper in the brain than the bul- let went. There was no pus near the bullet. There the brain was healed. These ab- scesses were caused by the different doctors who thrust their little silver crowbars, called probes, into the substance of Carruth’s brain in different directions searching for the bul- let. It appears that nature would have sus- tained the man ‘against one penetration of his brain. From the hole boyed by the bullet he might have recovered ; but an assortment of ‘homeopathic surgeons” coming in relays and boring new holes with their probes was too much for him. They killed him. But how can Dr. Thomas say that ‘‘the primary cause of death was a gunshot wound” when he also deposes that the immediate cause of death was the abscesses; that there was no abscess where the bullet was, and that the abscesses which caused death were made by the probes? Evidently logic is not esteemed in his school. The defenceis to be insanity, but it can be strongly reinforced by the evi- dence of the doctors for the prosecution, Our Masquerading Assemblymen, Our State Legislature has got to worky despite its buncombe about the corruption that it has not yet had time to practice, and the honesty which, if it has any, it will in due time take care to parade. We note that yesterday the mill of the Assembly was in motion. Gnarled subjects, studded with knots and covered with thorns, lay before the Judiciary Committee, to be shaped from the rude form in which they came from the rustic members.to the smooth, straight, pol- ished articles which adorn the pages of our statute books. Now, said the Chairman, let buncombe bound from bench to bench in the chamber there ; ours be the task to think and ponder and debate upon the weighty things that lie before us. Ah, fellow mem- bers, the courts, the law’s machinery and all that thereunto belongs right hefty is; but here is heavier matter for our minds. Say, shall the festive French and the German gay wear masks at public balls or no? Concentrating their intelligences upon the bill, they altered a comma here and a full point there as solemnly as Lycurgus draft- ing the Spartan code, until they bore the precious bill before the House. There mouths still hot with inflamed language in denunciation of dishonesty hastened to stop themselves that the Masquerade bill might go through. Once, when Ireland was on the verge of rebellion, the English Houses of Lords and Commons stopped everything to read three times each and so enact the sus- pension of the Habeas Corpus act. It was done and England was saved. Such an emergency was before the Assembly. Either they should pass the bill, or the Germans would come to Albany as the Marseillaise went to Paris to overawe the Convention, or the ten thousand Cornishmen went to Exeter ‘‘to know the reason why.” They would barricade all the avenues to the Capi- tol with beer barrels and play from ten thou- sand groaning wind instraments Wagnerian music by day and Bach fugues by night until the Legislature surrendered. The French would proclaim the Commune and the gore of the Assemblymen would fill the gutters. Hence everything was surrendered to Momus; buncombe was bunged up, gush died on the | lips and the bill passed the Assembly. New York has much to hope from an Assembly that has such a keen perception of the people's needs. The Mother-in-Law in Politics, The woman suffragists are marshalling for A new movement. Will legislators please consider what a revolution would occur {f the mother-in-law should become a political power? No married man would be able to say his soul or his vote was his own, No un- married democrat would dare to marry a lady with a republican mother. Both | mother and daughter would vote against his dearest whims, and he would not dare to go near the polls for fear of being challenged by brella, Our streets during political cam- | paigns would flaunt tantalizing banners in- scribed, ‘Vote for John Smith, the mother- in-law's candidate for Mayor!” ‘Tea from ‘the tariff!’ “No imoort duties on falaa tion of the world, which has become the hope | a pair of lace mits and a blue cotton um- | | can Expedition, 1873-4." fronts!” No married man would cars to bs @ candidate for office, and a man with his second mother-in-law would be politically dead. Cigars would be heavily taxed, while snuff would go free, and the Legislatures would be filled with lobbying women whose daughters-in-law were in office, if, indeed, the mother-in-law did not take all the offices herself, even assuming the Presidency, ani writing more vetoes than Andrew Jackson. Would you, fellow freemen, fancy a mother- in-law President, swinging her reticule on yetoes in the air, opening all the letters im the Post Office Department, intriguing with Isabella and making money out of tea, snuff and blue umbrella rings? Rather than suffer the cruelty of an old mother-in-law President we would prefer even Governor Tilden. Chess at the Centennial Exhibition, Chess is one of the few games that are purely intellectual. Almost all our intellect- ual amusements include the element of chance or luck, as in all games of cards, while others require physical fitness, as in rowing, shooting, billiard playing and yaghting. Here the mental calculation must be supplemented by the trained eye and the steady nerve. But chess is absolutely an abstraction. It can be played without boards or men, Chance is excluded from its pro- cesses, It is true that if two lunatics wero to sit down to play’one of them might acci- dentally mate the other by pushing the pieces about—and this, it is said, has hap- pened—yet tq jmpr from this that chess iv, ‘ever a game of luck would be as erroneous as to say that astronomy as a science admits of chance because an idiot looking through Lord Ross’ telescope might happen to dis- cover anew comet. Chess must be played by thought alone. We do not say that, because it is purely intellectnal, it is superior to the other partially intellectual amusements we have. re- ferred to; on the contrary, we are inclined to consider this a mark of inferiority to sports which are more useful or more fully develop the powers of man, Still, as one of the oldest amusements in the world, and as a peculiar method of thinking, chess must always hold an unchallenged place among the marvels of human inyention. That there should be a chess congress held at the Centennial Exhibition is not disputed. At the international expositions at London, Paris and Vienna congresses of the kind attracted the attention of the world. When we consider that America has produced in Paul Morphy the greatest player of the world since La Bourdonnais, the importance of maintaining our reputation in the game is ‘clear. We have many fine players who would take part in a tournament, and some of the greatest professors of chess in Europe would undonbtedly cross the ocean to conquer new worlds. We have recently reported the fine games contested by Mr. Mason with Mr. Bird, one of the most brilliant of English players, in which the young American was victorious. Mr. Bird will probably return here next summer, bringing with him Black- burne, the blindfold player, and other celeb- rities. We may also have Steinijz, Kolisch and Paulsen. The best of the European visitors would find a vigorous antagonist in Captain Mackenzie, who, next to Paui Morphy, is generally conceded to be thé strongest player in America, and who knowa that such an assemblage of chess magnates might not tempt Morphy himself from his long retirement? But nothing has yet been done toward the organization of a congress, and we would remind our leading players and clubs that but little time for proper ac. tion remains. : Crxcrynatr has won in the battle for 4 place to hold the National Republican Con- vention, and June 14 is named as the day. A great many things may happen in five months. 4 Tae DenaTe i§ THE SENATE on tho re liability of the Treasury Department's book- keeping is not such lively reading as Mr. Blaine’s Andersonville demagogery in the House, but it is important. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Blooming pansies in Wisconsin, ‘The Buffalo Express favors Conkling for President, Mrs. A. R. Shepherd wears two shades of blue ia silk, Froude, the historian, failed as a politician and di- plomatist, The tate Senator Douglas’ paintings will be sold ts Washington, Lands in the Blaek Belt of Alabama have doubled ta price the last year. Kentucky judges and legislators cannot receive free passes on railroads. “Kuster supplight wis families’ is the sign of a Penn- sylvania oyster dealer, Senator Ferry is one of the heaviest lumber opera tors in the State of Michigan. Mrs, Attorney General Pierrepont wears stee! colored silk, trimmed with black lace. The Chicago Tribune thinks that “Emerson’s fe says’’ are the Bible of the heathen. : Benjamin West's portrait, painted by bimeelf, has been sold to the library of Congress, Jennie June calls Miss Clara Morris the most dower- like person she ever saw. A June rose? Mrs. President Grant receives in pink brocade, trimmed with point lace and ostrich feathers. Judge Bosworth's daughter ts to be married on Tues- day, the 18th inst,, to John 8. Saxe, son of the poet. An Alleghany pauper bas a mania for killing and eat- ing dogs. Almost any town would be glad to elect nm Mayor. In Virginia the wet weather of the past month hag caused the roads to be very heavy, almost impassable in some places. Twenty-two thousand eight handred and sixty.three dollars were the receipts of the Palace Hotel, San Fran- cisco, for one day. Curiously enough, both Jof Davis and 0. 3. Grant have recently ordered a bill of shoes {rom the same firm at Now Haven. The Milwaukee Commercial Times says, liysterically — “Can anything excel the patience and intelligence of s night editor?’ Yes; a dominic hen on a china egg. Floarens, the great physician, said that aman might live to be ahundred years old if he only anderstoor the laws of hygiene, Watterson understands the law of hygiene and sugar. The London Standard of December 8 says :— ‘Liew tenant Murphy, whose name is well known in connee tion with the Cameron expedition into Centra! Africa js in Bombay, The gallant officer, according to th Times of India, has & companion also distinguished is African travel. This is the inte Dr. Livingstone’ dog—the only dog that has survived a journey ints Central Africa, This faithfal creature travelled from Zanzibar to Unyanyembe with the explorer, and thee followed Livingston's body back to the coast The doy 6 inscription — East Coast Afri. Itt asmall sized bull ter rier, white in color, and, we are sorry to say, in very infirm bealth. I travelled 1,500 miles tm Africa—e wonderful effort in pedestrianism—before it was twelve months old, and i¢ **« ginge travelled Li ooe milos by sea *