The New York Herald Newspaper, January 18, 1876, Page 4

4 NEW YORK MNERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. ‘T'welve dollars per year, or one dollar per month, free of postage. : All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore Meravp. Letters and packages should be properly scaled. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO. 114SOUTH SIXTH STREE' * LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—» ‘LEET STREET. PARIS OF FICE—AVENUE DE LiOPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME XiI AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. WALLACK’S THEATRE. MARRIED IN HASTE, at 8 Mr. Lester Wallack, COLO: TANORAMA, Open from 1 P.M. to 10 PM, M. wo 4 P. M. and from 7:90 BROOKLYN 1EATRE, CASTE, at8 P.M. Mr. Montague UNION SQUARE THEATRE. ROSE MICHEL, at 87. M OLYMPIC THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. PIFTH 4 E THEATRE. PIQUE, at 8 P.M. Fanny Davenport. TONY PASTO VARIETY, at 5 I’. M EW THEATRE, 2P.M. PAR ATRE, A PRETTY PIECE OF BUSIN atSP.M. John Dillon EAGLE THEATRE, VARIETY, at 8 P.M. GERM MINNA VON BARSH ROW! THE PHOENIX, at 8P LY French Plays—LEs AT’ SAN FRAN STRELS, asp. M. Wo ACROSS THE CON Byron. Matinee at 2P. eM, at 8 P.M. Oliver Doud BE THEATRE. G VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BOOTH'S THRATRE. TULIUS CHSAR, at 8 P. Mr, Lawrence Barrett. THEATRE COMIQUB. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. THIRD PANORAMA, at 5 P.M. ry ad THEATRE, VARIETY, at 6 P. KEW YORK, TU eee From our reports this morning the probabili- ties are that the weather to-day will be warmer, sloudy and foggy. Tue Henavp py Fast Mar Tratns.-—News- | Realers anid the public will be supplied with the | Datry, Wexxiy and Sunpay Hernan, free of j postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. Wau Srreer Y. irregular, yet strong, the close of the market being attended by reaction. Money on call loaned at 7 per cent. Gold was steady at 113 a 113 1-8. Government and railway | bonds and good investment securities were rm. Tue Tanoix in tue Twerp one million suit has occasioned another delay. Talesmen or a new jury is the question for Judge West- | brook to ‘decide. Tue Prixce oy Waxes progresses gayly in India, despite the croaking of his journalistic dry nurses at home, who have been shocked at his beholding elephant fights and Naatch girl dances. He has left Delhi for Lahore «nd Cashmere. Tae Vore or tHe House yesterday on Mr. Holman’s anti-resumption resolution was significant and its defeat satisfactory. [t shows, however, that the soft money party | is far from dead. At tux Covat oF GENxzRAL SEssrons ‘ yes- terday five youths were sentenced to an ag- gregate of seven years and ten months in the State Prison, three for burglary and two for pocket picking. Criminal precocity is on the increase. Amwvesty was again shelved in the House of Representatives yesterday, and is left in the hands of the Judiciary Committee, there to remain until the evil odor of Mr. Blaine’s “grave clothes” speeches has been wafted away on the breezes of the centennial year, A Fine Dispray will be made by Germany at the Philadelphia Exposition, and the Ger- man authorities are making ample arrange- ments for everything connected therewith. Our fellow citizens from beyond the Rhine will be pleased at the news. ‘Tue Strate Lecistatone got to work yester- | day evening, and the Senate ordered the New Capitol bill toa third reading, debated Mr. Bergh’s Broken Bottle bill and received Colonel Cavanagh’s claim toa seat. Several Dills of interest t© New Yorkers were intro- duced in the Assembly. Tur Metnovist Mousrens were yesterday engaged in hearing the report of their com- mittee delegated to consider certain obnox- iously sectarian features of the law relating to education, and also to stamp the foot of reprobation upon any endeavor to share the school fund among the various sects, Tae German Government will, it is stated, close the Ursuline Convent and school in Berlin on the Ist of April next, This is in pursuance of the law to meet such cases, ‘The nuns, if desiring to retain their connec- tion with the community, will then be obliged to leave Prussia, as was the case with those who wéré drowned on the ill fated Deutschland, whose piercing cry as the waters rushed in throngh the cabin was heard:—‘'Ach Gott! macht es schnell mit uns!” Screncr has always had pretty much its to faee in friendly intercourse, and the mu-! out molestation and without such a drain own way in the battle with revealed truth; tual exchange of courtesies and cordial sen- | Upon its resources as a waron the part of but more recently some eminent scholars timents will sweeten the fountains which | Turkey might imply. But it may be rea have taken up the cudgels, not so much in have so long poured forth bitter waters. Our | sonably doubted that the Times believes the defence of revelation as in antagonism to the family feuds will fade out of sight inthe cxecution of Andrassy’s plan to be feasible, unfounded assumptions and fulse reasoning of modern scientists. Among others Mr. M. ‘TERDAY.—Stocks were | NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 1876. The Centennial Celebration. The letter of Mr. Jay, which we printed yesterday, with its valuable practical sug- gestions, is received with favoring apprecia- tion by the press and deserves the earnest attention of Congress. If it should be thought that his suggestions are offered at | too late a period for adoption, a little reflec- | tion will show that this is a hasty conclusion. True, he recommends important features not | comprised in the original plan, but they are features which would not disturb or inter- fere with the scheme of the Exposition first adopted. The acceptance of Mr. Jay's sug- gestions would be like adding new wings and towers to a constructed building, or in- troducing episodes in a great poem, or sub- joining expository notes to a superb edition of @ classic author, contributing instruction and embellishment without upsetting or confus- ingany part of what has yet been done. There is abundant time forthe new arrangements | proposed by Mr. Jay. It is not necessary, nor would it even be suitable, for the inter- national congresses to assemble at the open- | ing of the Exposition, or even in its earlier months. Their proceedings would partake, more or less, of the character of a commen- tary on the achievements of art and industry presented for exhibition, A congress, for example, on prehistoric antiquities, includ- ing those of the American continent, would take up and discuss the specimens on exhi- bition, and conld not proceed intelligently until these had been carefully studied and compared; and the same remark will apply to other departments of inquiry. The Ex- position will open in May and continue six months, During the first three months of the six none of the international congresses would assemble, even if they had been arranged for at the outset and the invitations had been already given. It is not probable that any one of the congresses would be in session more than a few days or a week, and to produce their best effect they should not be held simultaneously, but in succession. Such an arrangement would enable students and men of science to attend them all, and make it possible for the press to report all their proceedings for the gen- eral instruction of the public. No congress would, like the Exposition, be open con- tinually ; and if, beginning in August, they should hold their sessions one by one, they would bring freshness and novelty at the point where the interest of mere sight- seeing would begin to flag, and would impart the superior interest of instruction | reinforced by a legitimate curiosity to see and listen to the most eminent men of science of both continents. There is ample time for the requisite prep- arations to add this great feature to the other attractions of the Exposition, because there is no necessity for any of the congresses to assemble before the month of August. We hope, therefore, that Mr. Jay's suggestion may meet with the favor it deserves, and | trust that Dr. Henry, President of the | Smithsonian Institution, and other Ameri- can savans of like standing and eminence, will give it their influence and co-opera- on. is It is earnestly to be desired on many | grounds that Congress will not permit the | Centennial to be a failure. By timely assist- ance and liberality Congress can make it a | great success, and there is no other way by | which, with so small an expenditure of | money, Congress can do so much for the | general welfare. Viewed from the lowest | standpoint—that of immediate pecu- | niary advantage—the Centennial deserves the patronage of the government. The ap- propriation of a million and a half would add only between three and four cents a head to the taxes of the people, and it would increase the general wealth by many mill- ions, It would retain at home that large part of our wealthy population who pass their summers in Europe. It would attract hither multitudes of people from all parts of | Europe and Sonth America, who would spend money freely in this country during | their stay of several months. The swarm of | visitors would not merely go to the Exposi- tion; most of them would travel through the country visiting all points of interest, con- | tributing to the prosperity of our railroads and the hotels of our principal cities and chief watering places. Hundreds of thou- | sands of Europeans who have relatives in the United States would take this occasion to visit them, witness their good fortune in the New World and renew old ties of kindred | and friendship. Our visitors would vastly exceed the number of our own citizens who usually go to Europe in the summer on ex- pensive pleasure trips. The population of Europe is about two hundred and seventy | million; that of South America, including | Mexico and Central America, about thirty | million; while our own population is but | little more than forty million. The sources | from which we shall draw visitors are more | than seven times as great as those from which | | we usually send them, and besides keeping | our own people at home to spend their money here we should attract many times their number from abroad. The effect of such an influx of foreigners would be to lift our people out of the despondency into which they have fallen during the business | stagnation of the last two years and give a needed impetus to hope and confidence. The cost of the Exposition will be a baga- telle in comparison with the pecuniary ad- vantages it will bring and the fresh impulse | it will impart by touching all the nerves of our dormant activity. Another benefit worth tenfold the cost of the Exposition will be its happy in- fluence in restoring a good understand- ing between the the common sentiments of patriotism and hallowed memories awakened hy the occa- sion. It will bring the best people of the North and the best people of the South face presence of foreigners to whom we shall all be equally anxious to exhibit our institutions North and the South, | | All the irritations and antagonisms gene- | rated by the civil war will be effaced by | American people to hang their heads in shame and deplore a lost opportunity. We trust President Grant will do nothing and project nothing calculated to mar so in- teresting an occasion. Of all the years of our history this centennial year is the one in which a war or any foreign disturbance would be most inopportune. A world’s fair is, in its very nature, a grand syrbol of peace, When we invite the presence of all nations in exhibiting the trophies of civiliza- | tion and the growth of arts the harsh sounds of war would be insufferably jarring and dis- cordant. Peace hath her victories No less renowned than War, and of all the grand victories of peace none is so resplendent as an international exposi- tion, which, in the language of Prince Al- bert, presents ‘‘a proof and living picture of | the height of civilization and the progress of | mankind.” Let this century close in tran- quillity and be crowned with the brightest trophies of peace! If we have rights to as- sert or injuries to avenge against other na- tions let all our causes of quarrel be post- poned during this centennial year of festivity and congratulation ! We wish the year might also be signalized by a reform in the one weak point in our in- stitutions—the re-eligibility of our Presi- dents. We would fain hope that the amend- ment extending the Presidential office to six years and limiting the incumbent to one term may be passed by Congress and ratified by the States before the close of the great Exposition. If the ratification should be early enough to lengthen the present term of General Grant to six years the importance of the reform would reconcile us to this inci- dental consequence. We had much rather ho should have two additional years for straightening out our difficulties with Spain and Mexico, with the honor of bringing them to a satisfactory conclusion, than have this glorious centennial year clouded and eclipsed by the smoke of cannon fired in enmity to any foreign nation. We trust that all the gunpowder burned during this year | will he in friendly salutes to foreigners and explosions of national rejoicing. The New French Law on the Press. Exactly what necessary relation there is in France between the regulation of the press by law and the maintenance or dis- continuance of the state of siege in several departments of that country, it would prob- ably puzzle the journalists of Paris and the lawmakers of Versailles to declare; but the two subjects have somehow been classed together in a great deal of general discussion, and they are treated as twins in the ‘press law” just promulgated, which classifies offences of journalists in one section and provides for raising the state of siege in another. It isasort of left handed compli- ment, and yet, perhaps, a compliment that the legislators pay to the press when they | acton the assumption that they can only dispense with military foree in the govern- ment of a certain district when tolerably sure that they can muzzle the press by treat- ing obnoxious articles as violations of the criminal law. To hold that the presence and activity of the newspaper press is sufficient reason for imposing upon a people the pressure of military power—rather than ruling them with the mild and equable forms of civil authority — is to lay at the door of journalism a grave responsibility ; but in a country where gov- ernment tends habitually to become oppres- sive it is perhaps no grave dishonor to the newspaper press to assume that unless its operations can be violently and suddenly stopped at any moment a submissive people cannot be counted upon. In the new law this association of press offences and martial law as parts of a common whole will appear as the most noteworthy feature to any person outside of France. This law raises the state of siege in all departments in which it exists except the departments in which are situated the cities of Paris, Lyons and Marseilles ; and it provides that in these excepted de- partments the state of siege shall come to an end on May 1, 1876, unless in the meantime it shall be retained and confirmed by a new law. This will put upon the new Legislature the responsibility of an odious enactment or give the people freedom under their laws, As to the press it is protected by this statute from that effective exercise of tyranny that has been so frequently felt—seizure and ‘‘inter- diction.” Administrative authority cannot at its will seize newspaper offices and whole editions of any journal as it has hitherto done. But the publication of an article transcending the proper limits of discussion is to be treated as an offence against the public peace, and the offending party is to be fairly tried, and, if found guilty, punished by fine or imprisonment. The acts declared violations of the public peace are:—The pub- | lication of defamatory articles against any person or any public body; the publication of offensive articles referring to the President or to either of the two Chambers, or to any foreign sovereign or government; the publica- tion of false news, of any provocation to crime or any apology for criminal acts, or of any obscene pictures or articles. This law is not on its face severe. Indeed, althongh it would be intolerable in England or here, it is liberal for France, and if honestly enforced it will not hurt any good newspaper, while it | will be all the better for the press if it should | | destroy some hundreds of the other sort | England and the Eastern Question. The London 7imes urges the adhesion of | England to the Andrassy note, the Cabinet having the matter under advisement at pres- ent. It hints that if this chance is let slip the necessity may arise of applying ‘rougher | methods toa wider area.” If any peaceful plan would avert the fate of the Ottoman Empire England would be probably glad to see it applied; for, having in effect taken Egypt as her share, she wouid be glad to be | allowed to strengthen her hold upon it with- | or that the results of its execution would be | determinate of the anomaly of a barbarous D. Conway has been lecturing on the relations in their most attractive aspect. But the | Power like Turkey existing in Europe. The ‘of the scientific investigations of the English evolutionists to religions teachings. But noither the lecturer nor his opponents have gained much advantaca, completeness of this beneficent result will depend on our making the occasion brilliant enongh to be a powerful centre of attraction | toall the world. A failnra would cause the | “bit by bit" policy of reform may do very well in England, but in a country practically | closed up from the outside world as Turkey | is. with ignorance and bigotry, backed by bloodthirstiness, to fight anything like | change, the prospect is not cheering. Aus- trian rule in the Northern provinces and even Russian rule in Constantinople would be infinitely preferable, The latter would not suit England, for it would plant the most formidable outpost imaginable for Rus- sian aggression in Asia. The article in the Times is doubtless a feeler for English public opinion, and indicates that the Cabinet will support the plan. Spring Elections. Although this subject has been under dis- cussion for several weeks we have yet to meet with the first argument of any force or substance against the change. The separa- tion of municipal from general elections is so accordant with common sense that there are but few deviations from the rule either in this State or the other States of the Union. A large majority of the American cities, in- cluding a majority of those of the State of New York, hold their municipal ¢rections on a different day from the general election, and the same usage prevails in the rural town- ships in the choice of their local officers. We have more than once stated this broad and instructive fact, but no opponent of spring elections for this city has made any attempt to meet iit. To dispute it is impossible, and to parry its force is hopeless ; so the opponents of a spring election find no course open to them but to ignore it. But it is a fact which has so clos¢. a bearing on the controversy that it cannot be put out of sight. What are the reasons which have convinced so many State Legis- latures that a separation of municipal from general elections is , expedient? Those reasons, which have received so wide an as- sent, which have the sanction of experience, are entitled to be considered as valid until somebody shall be able to point out their fal- lacy. Until this is attempted we may regard them as unassailable, and if they are sound as applied to other cities it is incumbent on those who oppose a spring election to show why they are not equally applicable to the city of New York. The natural presumption would be that the separation is more neces- sary here, because our municipal interests | are so vastly more important that they have a stronger claim to separate consideration. The origin and history of blending the two elections in this city furnish a strong pre- sumption against its wisdom. The two elec- tions were fixed on the same day by the Tweed charter passed by the infamous Legis- lature of 1870, which Tweed controlled. Who believes that Tweed himself or that corrupt Legislature made the change for the purpose of promoting good government in the city? Nothing was more distant from their thoughts than to secure greater purity in the elections. Their sole object was to diminish election expenses by making a common corruption fund of the contributions of State and city candidates. The act was passed to serve the interest of trading politicians, Its purpose was so obvious that Mr. Tilden went to Albany to oppose it, and in his speech before the Senate Committee on Cities, of which Tweed was chairman, he strongly advocated the transference of the municipal election to the spring of the year. Was Governor Tilden mistaken? Was ho blind or short sighted in supposing that the holding of both elections on the same day would promote the corrupt designs of the Tammany Ring? The opponents of a spring election are as careful to ignore the action of Governor Tilden on that occasion as they are to keep out of sight the great fact that most of the municipal elections in the United States and in this State are held on a different day from the general election. Ships and Insurance. Perhaps the insurance fund of the world is the greatest aggregate of capital that can be classed underany one head. As every little county treasury is watched by ingenious thieves; as scarcely a merchant's safe or a re- tailer’s till is without the active attention of rogues with some contrivance and activity, it is not to be expected that the enormous capital held for the payment of losses by fire or marine accidents should fail to excite the cupidity of thieves, or to stimulate them to greater than ordinary efforts to secure some portion of so grand a plunder. Crimes that are directed against the fire insurance com- panies are familiar; but the case of the Mosel shows that all the depths to which the greater crime against ships may go have not yet been sounded. In the report from London of the investigation by the British Board of Trade into the loss of the Island Belle there is evidently another one of the ordinary cases of shipwreck contrived and effected with a view to the insurance. There were seven hands, only one of whom could steer the vessel, and he was kept in irons ; the second mate was killed, and the vessel was run on shore. With cases of this nature multiplying and cases like that of the Mosel threatening, governments will early find themselves compelled to face: a de- mand forsome revolutionary legislation as to the insurance of ships. As the endeavor to make safo the value of a certain cargo of merchandise directly imperils the cargo of human creatures that go out with it as sail- ors or passengers, the problem whether hu- man life or the goods are of most account will be presented for solution, and if strin- gent regulations cannot be enforced on the companies this temptation to horrible crimes must be cut off altogether by making it a crime to insure any ship or cargo. Using Newspapers as Catspaws. i One of the commonest incidents of news- paper life is the receipt of communications urging the editor to make attacks for which the writer who prompts them is unwilling to be responsible We are always glad to receive information or statements of fact from any authentic source, but we cannot consent to be the instrument of assaults on public or private persons to gratify the malice or hostility of people who shrink from the responsibility of their own acts and try to shelter themselves be- hind our columns. Every man who is pub- licly attacked bas a right to know who aro his accusers. When facts are privately sub- mitted to us in the expectation that we will employ our own judgment as to the use te be made of them, we treat them as matters of confidence, and would never think of ex- posing the writer. If we think fit to make 4 dividuals the responsipinty 1s entirely ours | discipline ana disregard of system in every- in courts of justice and the court of public opinion. But when, instead of communi- cating facts for us to judge of and use, & writer prepares articles for us to publish and expects us to make attacks on individ- uals and shield him from consequences, he asks more than we are willing to grant. He should have courage enough to expose his own name and back up his own quarrel. It is cowardly to skulk behind a journal and ask its editor to incur the enmity of people whose conduct he has no reason to censure. These remarks are prompted by an attack on Mr. John H Sherwood for a communication to another journal making certain statements and offers relating to the depreciated value of the real estate he owns north of the Central Park. The proper course for his assailant would have been to send a letter, signed with his name, to the journal in which Mr. Sher- wood’s communication appeared; but he presumes too much in expecting us to make his attack and shield him from responsi- bility. Oar Relations with Spain. « Mr. Fish has gone before the appropriate committees of both houses pf Congress to ex- plain the present condition of our relations with Spain. This was a very simple task so far as he is concerned in them, and we have no doubt he acquitted himself to his own exalted, satisfaction. He detailed a good many things which had already seen the light in these columns and evinced a pleased feeling at what he considers the success of his circular note. It has evoked a mild appeal to Spain from all the European Powers he addressed, excepting Austria, which probably thought the trouble at its own doors sufficient without meddling in ours. England, having several Spanish grievances, went, it is stated, to the length ofa mildreproof. Now let us give ouramia- ble Secretary of State credit for what he claims, namely, a desire to have the Spaniards pacify Cuba and to show Spain that Europe would be glad to see her do it. Having granted all this to him, we cannot discover that he has produced any more effect than if he ha@ caused a number of old gentlemen to pelt a Spanish bull with rosebuds, one of them going so far as to throw a thistle at him. The circular note of Spain which the Herato first published looks as though the bull was dismissing the blows by simply shaking his hide. This is the sum total of Mr. Fish’s action and its result, and it is not pleasant for Americans. Where the explanations stop short is just the point where they would have become deeply interesting. It has been for some time apparent that President Grant has been # carrying on another policy. What our citi- zens desire to know is whither this policy of the President's is tending. Gathering our naval forces merely to back up the harmless documents of Secretary Fish would be a very needless expenditure of effort, and it is just these movements, which do not enter into diplomatic notes, that need ex- planation. ‘Tho utterances of the leading democrats of the House who are of opinion that the Executive may have a war policy are worthy of patriotic citizens. Under any fair cause of war they would support the government to the fullest extent, but they do not wish to be led into hostilities blind- | fold. This is the voice of all America. It is said that the democrats and republicans are | equally opposed to war, as it might promote athird term. There is where the question sticks. It is in the President’s power to pro- voke a war, and he has left himself eligible for renomination so far. Marder and Insanity. In opposition to the proposed enactment that persons who have escaped punishment for murder by the plea of insanity shall be imprisoned for life in the State Lunatic Asy- lum, the Albany Law Journal argues that there is no logical ground for such a course, and that, if it is justified. at all, this must be on ‘the vague ground of public policy." If logie and public policy are in conflict in any case the people of a stupendous order of superiority may stand by logic; but peo- ple of a more ordinary mould, and especially legislators, will do well to regard publio policy as of the greater consequence. But in this case we do not see with the Journal that logic and policy are so farapart. He who escapes the extreme penalty of the law on the ground that the murder he committed was done under the influence of an insane impulse, escapes because he is not responsi- ble before the law. But the basis of civil- ized society is the assumed responsibility of every person to the law, and if a man is in a condition in which he is not responsible intellectually and has a propensity to commit crimes he is not such a member of society as can be trusted at large, and, in lieu of his personal responsibility, society must take a guarantee for safety against him by putting him in the custody of persons legally appointed to be- come responsible for him. This is the logical ground of his imprisonment in the first place. But it is urged that he will get well, and that then it will be unjust to detain him, because he will then be in a condition to meet his responsibilities generally, but can- not be held for a crime for which, in the theory of the law, he has no responsibility. But how ‘do we know he will get well? No better, certainly, than we knew in the first place that he would some day get insane and cut his neighbor's throat. Here society takes ® guarantee for the future; and the man who has once murdered in a fit of insanity indi- cates himself* as a proper person to be held until there is a moral certainty that he will | not repeat the offence; and this moral cer- | tainty can only be reached when the lid of his coffin is screwed down. Is not the se- curity of the community esteemed in the logic of the law as of more consequence than the convenience or even the rights of an in- dividual? Mismanagement on Blackwell's Island. During the last ten or twelve years the This has been the case not under the present Board alone, but under all of its prodeces- sors. Ever since the administration of our charitable and correctional institutions under the old board of ten governors was super- seded by the present system there has been reason to complain of the lack of discipline, the cruelty of keepers and the thousand and one imperfections of the service. The reasons are not so patent as the evils are evident. A change in the Board of Commissioners would not be a remedy, for this bas failed too often already. A change im the wardens and keepers would scarcely effect the desired end. Yet it is plain that reform is necessary and that s better and more effi- cient system is absolutely required. The inmates of the hospitals and asylums and the prisoners in the workhouse and the peni- tentiary should have no reason to complain of harsh and cruel treatment, as one of them di& in the columns of the Henaxp yesterday. Escape should be made impossible. For a system which shall secure proper discipline in our public institutions we can only look to the Commissioners. They can afford it if they will only give sufficient time and atten- tion to the details of their department. Without in any way allowing the dignity of their positions to suffer by that familiarity which breeds contempt they should be per- sonally and thoroughly conversant with everything that happens on the Island. We believe most of the evils which are com- plained of arise from the methods of admin- istration adopted by the Commissioners. There is too much dependence upon sub- ordinates in matters of information and too little in the things which relate to real ser- vice. Ina word, the board holds its sub- ordinates with a weak hand, while they in turn oppress their prisoners and neglect their duties. Rapid Transit’s Success—The Crowd- ing Naulsance. The opening of the extension of the Ele- vated Railway Company to Fifty-ninth street yesterday marked a red letter day in the annals of rapid transit. A train of cars was run from the Battery to Central Park in twenty-nine minutes, and although this is not by any means what we would expect from a double track line with occasional through trains, it shows satisfactorily that the lumbering horse car nuisance, to which New York has so long submitted, will no longer have it all its own way. We have already commented on the tendency to over- crowding, which is showing itself even on this steam car line, the passen- gers, doubtless, aiding to make tho increased accommodation a cause of suffoca- tion to each other. Now, not only on this line must the practice be promptly checked, but a similar measure of reform must be ap- plied to the horse cars. |The public, aecus- tomed as it is to the disgraceful crowding, as eels get used to being skinned, shows evident signs of a desire to end this uncom- fortable mode of asphyxiation. The compa- nies, however, are intent on keeping it up. In the newest cars on the Third avenue line the leather straps hang as invitingly as on the oldest little pest-box on the line. There are even more of them. In summer it may be observed that companies have found their profit in running open cars, where, theoret- ically, there is no standing room; but con- ductors will take up passengers while there is an inch of room on the footboard, where the passenger's life is absolutely in danger from every passing vehicle, Surely the citizens who use these lines have a right to more than mere foot room for their money. Not even the most brazen director would argue that to pack people to the verge of suffocation in winter and to hang them out for possible conversion into mincemeat in summer covers their contract. We would leave no stone unturned to procure steam transit, but the horse cars will be a necessity to the end, and now is a very appropriate time to force the lines to give a seat to every passenger wha pays a fare. We wish to hear from the leg- islator who will bring in the requisite rem- edy for this abuse. Long suffering as they are, the people of New York are ripe for a re- volt against this unhealthy, indecent and animal system. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Paris has thirty-three theatres, Liquor potass@ cures snake bites. Diocietian in building a house built » efty. The Turks are having comic operas performed in Turkish. It was James G. Blaine who once dubbed Conkling the turkey gobbler. Dr. Slade, the phenomena-mediam of New York, will go by invitation to Russia, A Paterson, N. J., man will always confess his error, even if he has to le about it Yhore is a decree forbidding a Viennese beer dealer to deal out foam below a certain mark on the glass, An English woman advertises herself as corn-cutter to the royai family. She practisesan “the light, fan- tastic toe.” Governor Tilden, tel! us whose relatives are quartered on the New York Centennial Commission, and how did they get there? The New York Times of Monday says editorially:— “The Coaching Club of this city bids fair to be a bril- liant success, Since the autumn races, when the first muster was held, and the appearance of five coaches in line to Jerome Park made such a decided sensation, the organization of the club has been completed and several enthusiastic meetings have been held, and now at least twelve coaches can be counted apon as sure to make their appearance in the spring parade, Among the rules adopted is one providing for two parades in each year—one in June and one in October, ‘These will be stmilar to the parades of the four-in-hand clubs in London. On these occasions the club is ex- pected to turn out in full force, and every coach is re- quired to appear in perfect regaiation trim, The course will be from Madison square up Fifth avenue (pavement permitting), round Central Park and back again to Mad- json square. On race days, also, there will bea full turn out, but the coaches on those days are not required to keep together, The officers of the club are Mr. William Jay, President, and Mr. William P. Douglass, Secre. tary and Treasurer, Messrs De Lancy Kane and Fred- erick Bronson, together with the three officers above | named, compose the Executive Committee. Wo ona | ean be a member who is not owner or part owner of a } } management of the public institutions on — Blackwell's Island has been a subject of con- stant reproach. The escape of prisoners has been ® common occurrence. Disturbances have been frequent. Crnelties and outrages are often reported. In every phase in whic! it has been possible to demonstrate it, it has mae | | drag and able to drive four horses, The object of the club is to encourage coaching and other outdoor sports, such as polo, lawn tennis, racket, &c., and considering the taste, wealth and spirit of the gontle- men who have organized it, there can be no question ot ite success. * * * A beautiful cottage, with ample ” grounds for polo and other games, adjoining Jorome Park, bas been purchased And placed at the disposal | of the club, The members of the Coaching Club, being all members of the Jockey Club, will, of course, free use of the clad house, grounds and stables them grounds of criticism or assault om in- | been shown that there is an absolute lack of | of tha amarican Jockey Cluy”