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

] : © wa ase. x £ NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1876. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HERALD, ished every | in the year. Four cents per copy. | Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per | month, free of postage. ma All business, news letters or telegraphic | despatches must be addressod Nay Lone | Heraxp. ‘Letters and packages should be properly vealed. Rejected communications will not be re- PHILADELPHIA OF FICE—NO. 11280UTH SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD. . 4 ‘T SUREET. PARIS OF FICE—A E DE L'OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be: received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. = = AMUSEMENTS TO-MGHT, UNION SQUARN THEATRE. BOSE MICHEL, at 5 P.M. if OF DESIGN, A Di PER COLO’ AUADE TT SARBIERE Dist Phillips. NATIONAL EXHIBITION OF WA VARIETY. a! BAN FRANCISCO MI GLOBE VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BooTu DULIUS CESAR, « M. rr UNCLE TOM's © PV VARIETY, at 8 P.M. WOOL WHE SPY,atS P.M. Ma VARIETY, ai WALLA THEATRE. JOHN GARTH, at 1.M. Mr. Lester Wailaca OLYMPIC THEATRE, VARIETY, at 8 P. M, GRAND OPERA HOUS: ats P.M. Lucille Westera. EAST LY) to10P, M. TWENTY-THIRD CALIFORNIA MINSTRE: GERY DREI STATTSVERED STEINWA GRAND CONCERT. BROOKLYN THEATRE. QUEEN AND WOM. Mr. Fred, Robinson. THEATRE. —_— —es = From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be warmer, cloudy | and rainy. Tue Herat sy Fast Maw Tratys.—News- | dealers and the public throughout the country | will be supplied with the Darcy, Weexxy and | Bunpay Henan, sree of postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. Te Corsican Bowarantist Jovunnauists are knocking their heads against the French Press laws. Tue Encuisn Linznars may rejoice over | the return of another member to the House pf Commons to swell their comparatively seanty numbers, Tue Durcu Dxrecrives are searching for Winslow, the forger, a quest they might save themselves some trouble with if they addressed Scotland Yard, London. Tax Mrition anp a Haxr for the Centen- nial Exposition only awaits the President's signature to go bounding toward Philadel- phia, and we may presume it will not have long to wait. Now, friends, let us havea rarity among world fairs—namely, one opened ac- cording to announcement, with something like order brought out of the chaos. Commissioners O’Dononve ann Marti, of the Department of Parks, have made a state- ment dissenting from the utterances of their colleague and President of the Board, Com- missioner Stebbins, before the Senate In- vestigating Committee. The substance of the two Commissioners’ document will be found in another part of the Henaxp. Tur Scrran has been personifying the Bick by allowing a carbuncle to trouble him. fe has been operated on and the eru- cial incision doubtless made to relieve him may be taken to typify his ‘submission to the influence of the Cross in his acceptance of the Andrassy plan of reform. The insurgents evidently do not believe that the knife has gone deep enough, for they refuse to lay down their arms, and think the time has not come for the applica- tion of court plaster to their case, Sprcvnations on THE Bavcéck Oase are | very various, but while the case is in the | hands of justice, with every prospect of a full | and fair trial, we do not care to forecast the | result. It is stated in Washington that | the President's evidence in favor of his | friend and secretary has not been all that | the latter's lawyers desired, and the gossip from St. Louis indicates a good deal of pub- | lic feeling on the matter, but no reliable | basis for a judgment in advance of the jury's on facts yet to be testified to and evidence | not yet introduced. Sr. Vatentixe’s Day.—We fear the dainty | worship of the chubby little god of love, which was preserved to Christianity by mak- ing Cupid share the festival day of the pa- tient martyr of the third century, can be but ‘faintly traced in the observance which nowa- days greets the 14th of February. A few sentimental maidens and gushing young amen may still exchange fancifully designed pictorial emblems of the tender passion, ‘with more or less wretched verses, but, for the most part, the day of Valentines is used to cover the expression of mean Gealousies, cowardly ill-feeling and un- ebaritable rominders of personal fail- be Coarseness and vulgarity, unexcused by humor, appear in the disgust- , fing daubs we see in the windows of the | stores, ‘To such base uses may _ we come at last,” sighs Cupid, who sees ‘what was once a charming festival clubbed 40 death as was tho saint whose name is jmarked for to-dax in the Roman calendar, |The Political Witches’ Caldron in New York—Which Is Banquo and Which Is Macbeth? The inimitable poet, who so well under- | stood the secret springs by which human nature is moved, was perhaps no believer in the reality of witeheraft, and may have em- ployed the popular superstition of his time only as a means of setting forth | his perceptions of the subtle working | of passion and ambition. In the power- | ful tragedy of ‘Macbeth” the witches who | play so active a part in setting on foot the events of that wonderful d a may have been, in the poet's intention, only a lively representation of the effect of accidental cir- cumstances in kindling hopes which tran- scend ordinary expectatica. Neither Mac- beth nor Banquo, when they first encountered | the witches on the heath, had any reason to believe that one would be a king | | or the other the father of a race of | kings. But so inflammable is human am- bition that a small spark suffices to kin- 4) | die it, and the prediction of the witches | opened the way to their own fulfilment by putting an irrepressible demon in the hearts of the listeners. The les- son taught by Shakespeare is illus- trated by hundreds of examples in authentic history. When the Creole Jose- phine was told in her girlhood by an idle | West India gypsy that she would one day be an empress her heart was filled with aspira- tions absurd on their face, but at last fulfilled, because the gypsy prediction caused her to | put such an estimate on herself as en- couraged her to make the most of her op- portunities. The magical effect of accidental incitements to ambition was perfectly un- derstood by the great dramatist, and he rep- resented it as a potent form of witchcraft. The lesson he intended to convey in the tragedy to which we refer was the transform- ing influence on character of an ambition excited by accidental circumstances. Mac- beth would have passed his life in content as Thane of Glamis if a circumstance had not crossed his path which ‘led him to hope that he was born for a greater des- tiny. The key to the whole play lies in the idle prediction of the witches which put into his head the expectations he would not otherwise have dreamed of. Any other acci- dental spark would have equally fired the combustible materials. The real clew to the witchcraft is to be found in the dormant dis- position which a trivial accident sufficed to awaken, As the principles of human nature and all its greater passions are permanent we ean easily see how the passing accidents of poli- ing falcons fly” in some of our New York statesmen. The witches on the political heath have spoken to Tilden and to Conkling, but it does not yet appear which is the Thane of Glamis destined to a higher dig- nity. The witches told Banquo that he was “lesser than Macbeth end greater.” After saying to Macbeth, ‘‘Thou shalt be king hereafter,” they said to Banquo, ‘Thou | shalt get kings though thou be none.” But the difficulty lies, in the pres- ent case, in deciding which of the two is Macbeth! and which Banquo. Both Conkling and Tilden, according to present appearances, seem to have a better chance | of getting a President than of being one. Each seems likely to go to the National Con- vention of his party with the solid vote of New York under his control, but without votes enough from other States to secure the nomination. Each may be able to determine who shall be the nominee of his party, though lacking strength enough to make himself the candi- | date. ‘Thou shall get kings though thou be none” s equally applicable to each, and it impossible to say which of the two should be hailed as the Thane of Glamis. It may turn out that neither | will be a Presidential candidate, but that each will dictate the nomination of his own j party. The political caldron in this State has been as agitated for the last few weeks as if all the witches had been flinging in ingre- dients and stirring the fire. Doudle, double, tout and trouble, Fire burn and caldron buble, If Governor Tilden has been a party to Mayor Wickham's bargain ‘for defeating a spring election, filling important city offices | with republicans and smoothing the way for Senator Conkling’s control of the New York delegation to Cincinnati, he has made a fatal mistake. It may, perhaps, facilitate his own control of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, but in the end it will “wrench the sceptre from his hands.” It is not probable, as things look now, that either he or Senator Conkling will lead the canvass on their respective sides, although each may decide who shall be the winning candidate | for thé nomination of his own party. One or the other may get a President though he shall be none; and the one who succeeds in this will have great power in the new administration. If it be Mr. Conkling he will choose his own place in the Cabinet and control all the New York ap- pointments. If it be Governor Tilden he | will be re-elected to his present office, hold tho reins of the Custom House and drive it in double harness with the city and State patronage. If the po- litical witches had not turned the head of either this Macbeth or this Banquo each would have reason to be content with so great a measure of power. Considering that | the greater part of the public revenue is col- lected in New York, that the Post Office of this city isthe grand centre of the postal service, that the subordinate federal offices are more important in this State than in five or six average States, it should be an object of ambition to hold this immense patronage as an appanage of the high office of Governor or Secretary of State. But in this view Governor Tilden could not have so dangerous a rival as Sena- tor Conkling, and it is wild political insanity for him to favor the schemes of Mayor Wickham, which would give tho State to the republicans if the schemes should succeed. Mayor Wickham’s bargain tends to weaken the democratic party in its stronghold in this city by putting officers of great influence in the hands of its opponents, when a small diminution of the democratic majority in this city would enable the repub- lican warty to carry the State. If the Gov- ernor is a consenting party to this bargain he will rue it after the election. All such ingredients in the political caldron will help to stew a broth which will be poison to the democracy although the republican party may thrive uponit. Nothing could be so | contrary to his interest asa scheme which would diminish the democratic strength in the city and thereby assist Senator Conkling | to carry the State next fall. Governor Tilden has owed a great deal of his success to the slackness and inactivity of Mr. Conk- ling, who did not exert himself in 1874 because he disliked General Dix, nor in 1875 because the control of the State Convention had passed into the hands of ex-Govyernor Morgan. But if the Cincinnati candidate should be either Senator Conkling himself | or a man whose nomination he controlled he would make an energetic canvass, and, with the advantages which Mayor Wickham’s bar- | gain would give him in this city, he would easily carry the State for the republican can- didate. ‘The ingredients thrown into the caldron at Albany will not help the chances of Gov- ernor Tilden. The Governor is powerless against the republican Legislature, and can- not afford to take untenable positions. He is wrong in the controversy over Canal Au- ditor Schuyler, and is constantly losing ground by his wrong-headed persistency. It is the clear ,intention of the law that the Canal Auditor shall be the joint appointee of the Governor and Senate, and his refusal to send in another nomina- tion after the first was rejected is as inde- fensible as it would be if Mr. Schuyler were not a locum tenens of the office. It is also a blunder for the Governor to show how deeply he is wounded by his want of success in the last election. The people of the State did not indorse him in the manner he wished. He went through the State making speeches asking for a Legislature which would support his policy. Instead of com- plying with his request they elected a hos- tile Legislature, and he vainly rebels aguinst their verdict. He is endangering even his chances to get a pledged delegation to the Democratic National Convention by trying to figure as the great champion of reform after the people of the State refused to indorse him in that character. That game cannot win, because the canal question in New York isa small matter in the estimation of the country at large, and be- cause Secretary Bristow has so com- pletely eclipsed him by his magnificent success ina wider theatre. Governor Til- den has no Presidential chances as the cham- pion reformer, and his other réleof the cham- | tics have aroused hopes which “like tower- | pion hard ‘money candidate is: pretty well disarranged by the domocratic inflationists in Congress and by Speaker Kerr's dec- laration in favor of Mr. Hendricks, In such a general wreck of his expectations Governor Tilden cannot afford to forfeit the confidence of his party in his own State by any sort of complicity with Mayor Wick- ham's bargain for weakening the democratic party in this city. The Weather. In another column we publish an analysis of the weather records of several years back, by which we are enabled to institute a com- parison between our present winter weather and that of other years. The well estab- lished law of compensation of temperature is satisfactorily illustrated in the cases cited, so that our inquiries need only be directed to the nature of the causes of those extreme variations this season from the iormal me- teorological conditions which we are accus- tomed to experience in winter time. There isample room for speculation as to these causes, and more especially so because their influence appears to extend over nearly the | entire area of the continent. When we at- tempt to reconcile one theory with the ex- isting state of the weather we are con- fronted with some condition which takes the keystone from the arch of argument and all ourspeculative edifice falls to the ground. The extraordinary barometrical record on the 5th inst. alone presents a problem which will tax the skill of our meteorologists to solve. Experience, however, has taught us that the measure of heat and cold, dryness and humidity varies very little from year to year, and whatever may’ be the cause of the present condition of the weather we may be assured that the account will balance fairly at the end of the present as it has at that of former years. In the meantime, we must adopt all those sanitary precautions which the spread of disease warns us to adopt. It has been observed that, although pneumonia and its kindred diseases are not as destruc- tive tg life this winter_ag the last one, the prevalence of the Z¥motic diseases that accom- pany warm unhealthy seasons is very marked. The mildness of the weather should not lull our sanitary authorities into fancied security. It is a rule of war to be doubly on the alert when the enemy keeps too quiet. Pentrent New Yourx.—Over twenty-five thousand New Yorkers must have shared in the ministrations of the evangelists, Messrs. Moody and Sankey, in the seven meetings for preaching and prayer at the Hippodrome yesterday. Mr. Moody preached in the morning, afternoon and evening, and it really looks as if the quickening of religious feeling so anxiously prayed for had vigor- ously set in among us. This is an admir- able beginning of the second week of the evangelical labors of these untir- ing workers in the Lord's vineyard. Nor were the other sacred edifices of the city denuded of their customary con- gregations to swell the attendance at the re- vival meetings. Even in the materialistic utterances of Mr. Frothingham may be traced a sentiment of deep respect for the work of Mr. Moody. These are some of the most hopeful features of the revival, In the thronged churches where were heard the sermons of Dr. Wyatt, Mr. Giles, Dr. Tyng, Dr. Hepworth, Mr. Armitage, the force of the Gospel was felt. The Catholic churches were filled, and Mr. Beecher preached to his usual attentive audience of believers. A full report of the various services will be found elsewhere, How New Yorx’s Maus are collected and distributed is the subject of an interesting article which we publish to-day. Perhaps the most noticeable portion thereof is that treating the purely local mail, from which the government realized last year a round half million profit, The Rationale of “No Seat No Fare.” | In the struggle of the people of New York with the grasping car companies to obtain a | Seat for a fare we wish to keep the main issue clear. The monopolies haye endeavored to | befog the question by raising side issues and | pretending a depth of feeling for the | people's rights which is so comical that we can afford to laugh at it as the only thing in connection with the popular movement which at all looks like a joke. To convince the companies that we are not misled by their specious ingenuity We restate the case of the people. The ‘no seat no fare” de- mand is just, necessary and feasible, because First—Every passenger who pays a fare has a right to a seat, and however willing any passenger may be to take a strap or the space of a sardine in a box or a hog in a pen, he has no right to discommode, annoy and distress the seated passenger. Second—Crowded cars are unhealthy, foul, fetid and not only originators but spreaders of disease. Third—Crowded cars are indecent, the | scenes constantly occurring in them from immodest personal contact being fruitful of gross demoralization, Fourth—Crowded cars give steady, lucra- tive and safo employment to one thousand pickpockets in the city of New York. Fifth—The rule of ‘‘no seat no fare,” will not, as the dear, thoughtful companies con- tend, inconvenience the public by unneces- sary delays, for more and better cars can be put on, and the grasping companies bound by this rule will put on cars enough.not to | lose a single nickel to their plethoric treas- | uries. Sixth—The ‘‘no seat no fare” rule will be better for horses as well as passengers, and thus more rapid time can be made on the trips, and Seventh—The ‘no seat no fare” rule works, and always has worked, successfully | in London and Paris, where the population is far greater and denser than in New York. It would be easy to add to these reasons, but the above are sufficient and indisput- j able. As to enforcing the reform when once it is made a law we can only say that if it is intrusted to Mr. Bergh, and that all fines for violation of the rules are given to his society, it will be carried ont to the letter | without fail. The cool impertinence of the companies who, with both hands grasping the enormous profits they are wring- ing from the people's discomfort, are lamenting like so many Jeremiahs the proposed ‘invasion of the people's rights” to a strap is refreshing. We might cite many parallels to their confusion, but here is one. Just fancy a hotel keeper at Sara- toga who season after season packed his guests so that they slept three in every bed, ten in every bedroom; who filled the corri- dors with sleeping guests, crammed the verandas down to the lowest step, and when told that he was an extortionist, a pro- moter of disease, indecency and theft, would reply:—‘“Build another hotel or two! Give every man a bedroom that pays for it! Mon- strous! Enough hotels could not be built to accommodate them. I should not make one-third the money I now make, My heart bleeds at the thought that a man might under such a rule sleep in the open air.” That is mdiculous and absurd, but outside of sending lobbyists with full purses to Albany it is all the companies have to say for themselves. They are a monopoly un- willing to cease fleecing the public, but the people are not idiots to endure an abuse forever. Maps and Taxes. The community are at last awake to the absurdities of our assessment rolls; but one of the most important remedies seems to have been overlooked in recent discussions, ifwe may judge from a report to the Ameri- can Geographical Society by Mr. James T. Gardner, the Western geographer, on ‘The Uses of a Topographical Survey to the State of New York.” Errors in valuation of real estate have been treated as if they arose principally from the total depravity of local assessors. These much abused officials will be grateful to Mr. Gardner for proving that, even with the bést of intentions, it is impossible for them to correctly value the lands in their districts till they know the precise area belonging to each proprietor. The results of recent sur- veys of Flushing, Yonkers and Newport show that assessment roll errors in the area of property in these towns caused as great inequalities in valuation as arose from all other sources, The amount of land in most estates is put down in assessors’ Gocks aastoaing to opts guess, and the officials have now no way of verifying the correctness of the statements. The value per acre or foot of different classes of land is easily determined by watching sales, so that if the officials had proper maps, giving the area of each prop- erty with its improvements, they could easily arrive at a close approximation to the value. When taxes were assessed according to the new map of Newport the valuations of only four properties in the city remained un- changed. Many were altered fifty per cent and some much more, If an assessment map of the whole State is to causo the difference in distribution of taxes that a survey produced in Yonkers, then the present tax-payimg property will find itself relieved of about three million dollars annually, which will be levied on land now escaping. Tables of figures from official sources are given by Mr. Gardner to prove the character and amount of change effected in assessment rolls by proper surveys. The system of taxing by maps is no new thing in the city of New York ; but the facts of this report show how badly we are faring in the apportionment of the State tax, simply because the cities are better surveyed than the remainder of the State, An instance is given in Brooklyn, where a block belonged to three persons, two of whose lots were laid down on the tax maps at less than their true size, while the third was correctly measured. This resulted in the latter party paying his own share and six-tenths of one per cent of the total tax and assessment on the block in addition, The principle of this case holds good over the whole State. There can be no true equalization of taxa- tion till all real property is accurately in- ventoried by official surveys and maps. We especially commend this timely pub- lication of the American Geographical So- ciety to owners of real estate and also to every one interested in paying’ only the taxes for which they are properly liable. Mr. Pinchback’s Letter. Wo willingly allow Mr. Pinchback to be heard in our columns in defence of his per- sonal character, which, we believe, has been unjustly assailed on the floor of the Senate. If the accusations to which he replies were true, it would be proper for any Senator who had evidence to prove them to offer that evi- dence for the consideration of the Senate, , and for that body to exclude him on those charges, without regard to the regularity of his election, if they should be substantiated. But no proof has been offered, and the accu- sations are improbable on their face. Nearly three years have passed since Mr. Pinchback appeared in Washington with Governor Kellogg's certificate of his election as a Senator, and his opponents have refrained from no assault on his character which had any color of proba- bility. If he had ever been convicted and sentenced in Louisiana for burglary the records of some court and the register of the Penitentiary would show it, and the fact could not have been concealed for so long a period. If it were true authentic evidence would long ago have been in possession of some hostile Senator. No Senator has a right, at this late day, to cast such infamous aspersions on Mr. Pinchback’s character without the most incontrovertible proofs. In the total absence of supporting evidence we regard them as a wanton and inexcusable libel, and think it a simple act of justice to print Mr. Pinchback’s letter in defence of his good name. We have always regretted the defamatory scoffs of the democratic press against Mr. Pinchback, founded on his race and his former pursuits. A citizen of African de- scent has as perfect a right to hold the office of Senator as any white native or white natu- ralized citizen. To be sure, Mr. Pinchback was once a barber, as Henry Wilson was once a cobbler and Andrew Johnson was once a tailor; but it is the peculiar boast of our democratic institutions that they open the highest career to the humblest individual if he has sufficient capacity and energy to surmount the disadvantages of his youth. Sneers at the former occupation of Mr. Pinch- back are more illiberal than they would be in the case of white citizens, because almost every desirable occupation has been closed by public prejudice against colored men. Flings against Mr. Pinchback because he is a mulatto and was once a barber are ungen- erous and despicable. His claim toa seat in the Senate ought to be decided with sole reference to the valid- ity of his election, and on this ground we fear that his case is weak. If there be not some great flaw in his title why has he been for nearly three years an unsuccessful applicant for admission? The Senate, since he presented his credentials, has had a republican majority of more than two to one; so his exclusion cannot be accounted for by alleging party prejudice. It is a strong Senate of his own party that has kept him waiting and soliciting for nearly three years. The whole question turns, or should turn, on the validity of the Legislature by which he claims to have been elected. Un- fortunately for him a committee of the Senate, composed chiefly of eminent repub- licans, made an investigation two or three years ago, and reported, with almost perfect unanimity, that that Legislature was irreg- ular and possessed no legal authority. We have long been of the opinion that their con- clusion was sustained by the evidence, and, while reprobating the unjust personal abuse which has been vomited against Mr. Pinch- back, we are persuaded that he has no valid title to the seat which he claims, Rapid Transit on Third Avenue. The problem of rapid transit between the upper end of the city and the Battery is one of vital importance, not only to the property owner, but to the poor man, whose only capital is his hands, The public are familiar with the difficulties that the ad- during ten years’ agitation of the subject from the opposition of the horse car com- panies, who know that the completion of steam elevated roads will reduce their dividends very materially, Fortunately the Husted bill, which was carefully drawn, has opened the way for the accomplishment of all that .the most sanguine advocates of steam railroads could wish for, and the work of the late commission has given general sat- isfaction to the public. The New York Elevated Railroad Com- pany, whose line on the west side is meeting with a generous patronage from the public, has demonstrated that it can transfer passen- gers safely and comfortably from the Battery to Central Park in thirty minutes. As we showed the other day, the construction of this road has reduced the travel on the Eighth avenue street cars fully forty per cent and enabled the way passengers to ob- tain seats in exchange far the fares they pay. While the west side is thus blessed with rapid transit, the value of which will not be fully appreciated, however, until the com- pany complete their second track, the resi- subject to the Second and Third avenue horse car companies. What is now desired is the construction, with all possible de- spatch, of the route laid out by President Seligman’s commission on Third avenue, Under tho bill it is necessary to secure the consent of the owners of one-half in value of the property bordering such streets, in- cluding Third avenue, Failing to secure this consent the Supreme Court shall appoint commission, who shall pass upon the ob- jections and confirm or disapprove of the award of the commission appointed under the bill. This commission, appointed under the authority of the Court, consisting of Messrs. O. H. Palmer, E. Z. Lawrence and E. P. Wheeler, meet to-day to hear argument and decide whether Third avenue shall be used as a ronte for a rapid transit steam rail- road. Upon their decision depends the defeat or success of rapid transit on the east side, and the public will wait with great anxiety for their award. We have time and again pointed out the advantages of Third avenue asa route fora steam elevated rail- road, and itis to be hoped that the commis- vocates of rapid transit have encountered . dents of the east side of the city are still | sion Will not be lea astray by arguments im the interest of the street car monopolists to defeat the will ofthe masses, who insist that Third avenvw is the only suitable high- way on which to construct the road. Tho plea that property along the avenue ° would be depreciated in value is an ab- surdity, as is shown by the experiments of rapid transit in London, There property is enhanced in value by the construction of steam roads, and the time will come when the croaking property owners on the avenue will admit that a steam road is an advantage rather than a detriment. Third avenue is the proper place for the road, and the public will not be satisfied if it be located + elsewhere. Let the commission that meets to-day remember that there are others in- terested beside the Third Avenue Railroad Company, and they will hardly fail to con- firm the award of the Seligman Commission, who located the route there after full and careful investigation of all the facts, pro and con. If their award ke confirmed we have the solemn assurance of the New York Eie- vated Railway Company that the road will be completed to Central Park within eighteen months, and to Harlem Bridge in less than two years. é Adelaide Phillips. This evening musical New York will bo | presented with “Il Barbiere’” as the initial performance of a new season of Italian opera at the Academy of Music. While heralding this event it may not be amiss to recall to New Yorkers a few points in the carcer of Miss Adelaide Phillips, who is at the head of the new venture. This lady made her début in Italian opera with the memorable Lagrange troupe, and at once became a favorite, not only with the masses, but with the cultured few. Her devotion to art has been too well known to need comment here, but in her place she has sustained herself under every circumstance of com- parison with the most gifted singers she sung with. Asa concert singer as well as in opera she has been successful from one end of America to the other, and as an actress sha has always given the réies she sung a strong dramatic background. ‘These are strong claims upon public support, but, although she has never advanced it herself, there is one other title to admiration which we break no confidence in divulging. By her own unaided exertions Miss Phillips has pro- vided for and educated her six or seven brothers and sisters. To-night she makes her first essay in managementin this city, for the purpose of giving her sister, Matilda Phillips, an opportunity of being heard by the public. Miss Matilda comes to us from Italy, where she secured the finishing touches to her musical education. There, too, she first appeared on the stage and was pro- nounced a finished artist, winning, in one instance, the enthusiastic encomium that she possessed ‘‘the finest contralto voice since Alboni.” With other artists whose names insure a well balanced performance, with prices in accordance with the times, Miss Phillips modestly presents her claims for a hearing and a share of public patronage, and we cheerfully add our encouragement. é PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. Sicilia) Ladies favor the comely Conkling. Peter Cooper was eighty-five years old on Saturday. The Sandwich Islands want a new flag. Take Mor- ton’s. ‘ Ex-Governor Fenton wrote to a Florida friend that he is still a republican. The Japanoso believe that human enjoyment is a pleasant prayer to God, Bilow says that ‘‘the souls of the masters do not lie at the bottom of beer mugs.’’ The weather around New York the last few days hag been like that of a San Francisco summer, Senator Sargent, of California, advocates legislation for a competing railway line to the Pacific, Senator Burnside {s still detained at home, Provi_ dence, R. I.. by the illness of his wife, who remains in * @ eritical condition, Near North Chili, Monroe county, N. Y., the people hear strange, soft, Zolian music high in the air, They describe that the earth vibrates and the sound seems to rise and float away skyward. “Paterson,” a leather medal post, writes:— —, Maud Maller on a summer oy, by Jingo, Would have sung in sweet Whitticrian lingo, Sweet heaven! give us auburn-headed Conkling, or When the California Sierras came to the surface gold was, doubtless, in a state of solution and forced ite way into the fissures which Were in tho separated strata and divided layers, The France alludes with satisfaction to the passage im the specch of Sir Charles Dilke to his constituents, im which he says that it would not be for the interest of England that France should be conquered a second - ume. In correction of a Washington joke printed in thie column we are informed that the man who hoists the flag over the House of Representatives is John T, Clancy, a Northern man, who was appotnted by Speaker’ Pennington sixteen years ago. A Scotchman writes to us: Let a’ dimocrats To their ain mon cling, ‘Wo'll win the da’ Wi’ Roscoe Conkling. The St. Louis Globe- Democrat thinks that if Mr, Fort rises tn the House of Representatives every day to in- troduce @ patriotic resoiution, it will be im order for Mr. Cox to set up the hymn, “Hold the Fort, for lam coming.” “W. Wiliston Wilber,” a poet who reminds us of Sholley, sends us a long poem about Conkling. As we aro not printing a quadruple sheet to-day we can give only two lines: Now, boys, three cheers and a tiger, let the Give us for President our nonored Roscoe ‘ing? Father McLoughlin, of Pottstown, Pa, has cured the girls of his flock of street flirtations by disguising bim-~ self as an exquisite, carrying on an animated cor- respondenee with handkerchiefs and coughs at dusk, and suddenly disclosing himself as soon as his victim had taken his arm. Whe Richmond Despatch says that “ham is king;!” and thus writes an autobiography :—‘‘But the Virginia hog has been the object of derision for his appear- ance, which is the result of his life, He certainly, im the morning of his being, 1s familiar with tho sterm nurse of virtue—adversity. His discipline makes him hardy, brave ahd intrepid. This is the career of the Virginia hog. He lives his life in a golden latitude and’ bequeaths his body to the charming feast.” When the transatlantic cable was laid not only wore. the depths of the seataken, but spocimens of the, ocean’s bed in different places, which were found to be unconsolidated chalk; that is, eighty-five por cent was shells, or chalk material, and the chalk beds now’ worked were formed just as similar beds are forming to-day in the depths of the North Atlantic, These chalk beds wore formed by the skeletons of microscopi¢ animals as minute as the finest dust. The subseriptions of the bookselling trade for the firs, book of George Eliot’s new novel, “Daniel Deronda,’ reached a total of 4,000 copies, and it is expected that some 7,000 copies in all of this edition of the work: will be sold. By the terms of the “royalty” arrange- ment the author has made with her publishers (Messrs. Blackwood & Co.) Mrs. G. H. Lewis (George Bliot) will, it is believed, receive a sum of over $25,000 as her share of the profits derived from the first edition of “Daniel Deronda,” This, of course, is apart from the perma> nent revenu is certain to obtain for many years to come from the sale of the cheaper editions of the book, A successful English novelist may shortly make e@ mach mouey as afirst class primadonta