The New York Herald Newspaper, February 24, 1876, Page 6

t NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per macnth, free of postage. All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New Yore Hsrax. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. ; Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OF FICE—NO. 112 SOUTH SIXTH STE b LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD--NO. 46 FLEET STREET, PARIS OFFICE--AVENUE DE L'OPERA, Subscriptions and advertisements will bo received and forwarded on the same terms as in New SOR AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT, GERMANTA ey ae DER VEILCHENFRESSER, at 8 P.M. * TIVOL] THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. aN TWENTY-THIRD 5 CALIFORNIA MINSTRELS, Woo. THEATRE. ‘M. Matinee at 2 P.M. M. TER: TRAMP, ning SP. Matinee at2 P.M. ©. 8 Nichols. HIRD AVEN( VARIETY, asi M. . Mr. Fred. Robinson. THEATRE, NATI L EXHIBITION OF WA’ FIFTH AVE) PIQUE, at 8 Fanny Davenport. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET OPERA HOUSE, VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BOWERY THEATRE. ®6I SLOCUM, at8 P.M. Frank R. Frayne. PARISTAN VARIETIES, VARIETY, at SP. M, Matinee at 2 P.M. BAN FRANCISCO MID GLOBs THEA’ VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BOO" THEATRE. sULIUS CAHSAR, at 8P.M. Mr. Lawrence Barreta THEATRE COMIQUE. hemi atS P.M. TRIPLE SHEET. YORK, THURSDAY. FEBRUARY From our tenets this m morning tha probabilities are that the weather to-day will be decidedly eold and clear. ‘Tur Henarp py Fast Mart Trarys.— News- dealers and the public throughout the country will be ig ied with the Daty, Weexiy and Sunpay Henan, free of postage, by sendin their orders direct ‘to this office. : af Watt Srnesr Yxsrerpay.—Gold rose to 114 1-8. The stock market was active on lower prices. The bears enjoyed a field day. Government securities were firm. Money loaned at 3 1-2 a 4 per cent. Foreign ex- change steady. Bancocx’s fate will probably be decided to-day, District Attorney Dyer closing for he prosecution yesterday in a telling speech. Tue Ansorprion or Kuoxanp by Russia seems fairly completed and another step on the road to India may be credited to Mus- eovy. Tuer Brack Hus and the interloping miners therein were up in the United States Senate yesterday. It will take more than a law to keep the gold hunters off the Sioux reservation. Tue Tweep Srx Mrion Svrr had another day's hearing in the Supreme Court yester- day, Keyser being the principal feature in the proceedings. He is right in thinking the tity owes him something, but not in the di- rection he professes to believe. Tae Frencn Canryet has not been re- modelled yet, nor will President MacMahon undertake that task until after the-supple- mentary elections next Sunday, M. Dufaure holding the portfolio of Interior ad interim, while retaining his own as Minister of Jus- tice. Itis gratifying to note that this did not keep M. Buffet’s head out of the basket. Wwstrow, the saintly forger, finds the rules of the Clerkenwell House of Detention press rather hard upon him. If men who are about to commit base acts for their personal gain had copies of prison regula- tions and bills of fare and the picture of a prison cell in their possession we might be spared a great many criminal trials The great trouble is that every rogue believes he Ban never be found out. Dox Canros, at last reports, was with one of the remaining bands of his followers. He will hardly oblige Alfonso by remaining to be shot in a general action. An occurrence like the latter would relieve the young King very much, who would not like to see the Pretender escape to repeat his rebellion at some more opportune time, and would rather avoid ordering his execution if cap- tured. Wauen Joun Quincy Apams was elected to the House of Representatives he found that he was the owner of some shares in the United States Bank. Before taking his seat he sold his shares, on the ground that, asa representative of the people, he should not have an interest in any matter that might come before the House for legislation. What ® blessed thing it would be if our members to-day were to be governed by the same tense of honor. Crear Gun ‘Three of the principal gas sompanies of New York have agreed to a re- duction of the rates per thousand cubic feet from $2 75 to $250. There is no reason that we can see why the price should be more than $2 25, and we believe that it can be fur- nished at $2 and still yield a large profit. The extensive oil movement in Brooklyn foubtiess entails some inconveniences, while saving considerable money to the consumers, but in bringing the gas companies to their senses they are teaching all monopolies a pad lesson, . siya eee NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1876.—TRIPLE SHEET. Who Perpetrated the “Gross Impro- | so avert a greater calamity than actually The Democratic National Convention. The decision to hold the Democratic Na- tional Convention two weeks later than its republican rival rests upon intelligible reasons. Time enough will elapse between the two conventions to enable the democrats to survey the ground, gauge pub- lic sentiment and take advantage of the mis- takes of their opponents, if they make mis- takes. But the selection of a place for holding the Democratic Convention is not justified by such obvious reasons. It is difficult to see what advantage will accrue to the democratic party from holding its National Convention in St. Louis. Missouri is not a doubtful State; it will give its, electoral votes to the democratic candidate in, any event, and is equally secure for Hendricks, ‘Pendleton, Thurman, Bayard or Tilden. It was a wise stroke of policy for the republicans to appoint their National Convention at Cincinnati, because the October election in Ohio will go far toward deciding the Presidential contest. If the democratic party were not weakened by an_ internal feud it would have met the republicans on their chosen battle ground and have accepted their challenge to make Ohio the pivot of the campaign. The Democratic National Con- vention would doubtless have gone to Cin- cinnati if the committee had not feared the local pressure of the Ohio inflationists. The currency question is the rock on which the democratic ship is in danger of of; being wrecked, and the National Committee has felt constrained to forego the otherwise great advantages of holding the Convention in Cincinnati by extreme dread of an inflation platform and a candidate to match it. The demo- cratic inflationists in Congress are strong enough to have prevented any action hostile to their views, and the perpetual adjourn- ments of the democratic caucus for six or seven weeks show how impossi- ble it is to reach a compromise which would enable the Eastern hard-money democrats to save appearances. The Western inflation- ists prefer that no agreement should be reached, because the party might feel bound by it, and a clearly defined policy by the democrats in Congress would obstruct the efforts of the inflationists to control the National Convention. They prefer that the currency should remain an open question, thinking they have better chances to get it decided in their favor in the National Convention than in Congress. If Cincinnati had been selected as the place of the Convention local influences might have turned the doubtful scale in favor of the inflationists, and have led toa fatal schism in the democratic party. It remains to be seen whether the local influences in Missouri will not be equally fatal. The demo- cratic party in Missouri are inflationists, though not quite so bold and aggressive as their brethren in Ohio. Certain it is that no hard money pressure will be brought to bear on the Democratic National Convention in St. Louis. It is an advantage for the infla- tionists to have the Convention held anywhere in the West, and, although St. Louis is less favorable to them than Cincinnati, they have good reasons for preferring it to Chicago, where the most powerful part of the local press advocates hard money. Although it may not be a triumph it is at least an advantage for the democratic inflationists to have the National Convention of their party held in St. Louis, where the local democratic influences will not favor the hard-money views of the East- ern States. The designation of St. Louis is generally regarded as favorable to the chances of Goy- ernor Hendricks. If it favors any candidate it favors him, because it rules out the claims of Governor Tilden and other Eastern rivals and exempts Mr. Hendricks from the sharp competition of Ohio candidates. Ohio is the béte noire of Mr. Hendricks. In the National Convention of 1868 he was defeated by the opposition of the Ohio delegates. When they found that they could not secure the nomination of Mr. Pen- dleton they resolved to defeat Mr. Hendricks at all hazards and forced the disastrous nomination of Governor Seymour. The demo- crats-of Ohio may not have the same fierce op- position to Mr. Hendricks which they had eight years ago, but it is safe to assume that he has escaped his chief danger by the selec- tion of St. Louis instead of Cin- cinnati as the placo of the Demo- cratic National Convention. It is at least certain that hostile Ohio influence will not defeat him at St. Louis. Asa compromise candidate between the hard-money de- mocracy of the East and the soft-money de- mocracy of the West, Mr. Hendricks’ chances do not suffer by the selection of St. Louis as the place of the Democratic National Convention. Such a situation is, of course, fatal to Governor Tilden, who has no strength in the West, but it does not close the contest between Mr. Hendricks and other Western candidates. It decides noth- ing between Thurman and Hendricks or between Pendleton and Hendricks, although it extinguishes all the chances of Governor Tilden. The great element of uncertainty respect- ing the action of the Democratic National Convention grows ont of the two-thirds rule which has so long been the common law of the nominating ‘ conventions of that party. Nothing could be more absurd than the two-thirds rule. Its practical effect is to enable the minority of a convention to defeat the will of the majority. It was first adopted in 1832, when the Democratic National Convention was practically unanimous in favor of the renomination of General Jackson, and was repeated in 1836, when there was an equal unanimity for Mr. Van Buren. The purpose of the rule on those occasions was to strengthen candidates against whom there was no opposition. In 1844, when Mr. Van Buren was the le ading candidate and sure of a majority of the Con- vention, the two-thirds rule was revived asa means of enabling the minority to defeat the choice of the majority, and it has been kept in force ever since. But it is absurd on its face. Itis contrary to the practice which pre- vails in all the State conventions of the dem- ocratic party. There a majority of votes con- trols the nominations, and it is repugnant to democratic prinetples which make the ma- jority and not the minority the controlling force in politics. The proposal to = the two-thirds rule, which was made in the Democratic National Committee, was right in principle, but irrelevant because the National Committee have no authority to de- cide such a question, The Democratic Na- tional Convention adopts its own rules and is the only competent body to de- cide whether two-thirds of its mem- bers or a mere majority shall suflice to make a nomination. If tho two-thirds rule is kept in force it will not only kill off Mr. Tilden, Mr. Thurman and Mr. Bayard, but Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Pendleton, and give the control of the Convention to its minority instead of its majority. The two- thirds rule is absurd, and the St. Louis Conventien might wisely repeal it. The selection of St. Louis as the place of the Convention is fatal to the claims of any Eastern candidate for the demo- cratic nomination, and the choice lies between Mr. Hendricks, Mr. Pendle- ton and Mr. Thurman, unless the two-thirds rule should be maintained, which would kill off every prominent candidate and commit the selection to accident. As things now look all that can be safely con- jectured is that the democratic candidate will be taken from the West, and that he will not be @ conspicuous advocate of hard money. Monopoly Again. All our fair hopes that we should have a cheap cable service are to vanish. Here we have a proposition to consolidate the Anglo- American and Direct cables. The details of the arrangement have not been matured, but we have no doubt it will be consummated. The last we heard of the Direct Cable was when it was advertising for the ‘persons who had cut the wires.” If there was not the specific charge, there was the intimation very broadly put that the cutting was the work of those interested in the other line. Perhaps the managers find that there is no way to secure their property and secure a dividend but to put it beyond the tempta- tion of rival shareholders to cut the wires— snap the wires, We have never felt sure that the Direct Cable was anything more than an effort to compel the other line to take it at a fair rate of payment. As soon as this arrangement is made we shall have the old rates over again. This ocean trade is constantly increasing, and it is of the utmost consequence to the peace of two nations, England and the United States, that telegraphing should be cheap and unin- terrupted, and not at the merey of any monopoly. There has been no monopoly in allthe history of monopolies as rapacious as this ofthe cable company. Thus, when the Henatp proposed to send a special cable despatch from Vienna, on the occasion of the Exhibition, the cable line quietly advanced the rate so as to profit by the increase in business. Philadelphia, most of whom have been only too happy to have their rooms one-half taken, and who now propose to increase the rates This is like the hotel keepers in during the Centennial, instead of doing what they should—namely, reduce the rate on account of the increase of trade and the certainty of profit. There is no reason why acable line should not make money at the rate of a shilling a word. No ono has ever honestly tried the experiment. To make a cable a success we should educate the people to it, just as we educate them to read the newspapers. The increase in population, the steady growth in trade, would all in time help the cable business. But the owners of the Direct line, instead of waiting for this, have thrown an enterprise that in time might have become one of immense public utility into the lap of the old corpora- tion. It will now control the Direct line as itcontrols the French and the English wires. The true way to settle the whole cable ques- tion is for the government, in granting the right to land acable.on our shores, to ex- act a stipulation that the rates shall not ex- ceed a certain sum. The governments of the two countries should take these wires into their own hands. We are tired of a monopoly managed for no other reason than to increase the gains of the stockholders. Was Babcock a Party to It? Section 5,440 of the Revised Statutes is as follows:—‘‘If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offence against the United States, or to defraud the United States, in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, all the parties to such conspiracy shall be liable to a penalty of not less than one thousand dollars and not more than ten thousand dol- lars and to imprisonment not more than two years.” ‘There is at least no doubt of the existence and operation of the whiskey conspiracy. Even Judge Porter could not deny facts so evident. There is no doubt that “one or more of the parties” have done acts to effect the ob- ject of the conspiracy. “All the parties,” therefore, are subject to the penalty prescribed in the law, Has the prosecution shown that Babeock was ond of the parties? It is not denied by the defence that he carried on with the con- spirators the correspondence by telegraph already published ; but the defence puts a forced and well nigh impossible interpreta- tion on the correspondence in order to make it appear innocent, But the point whether that correspondence referred to the whiskey conspiracy or referred to some other topics and was perverted to whiskey conspiracy | uses is one that must go to the jury, and the jury seems to be honest. This gives the case a bad aspect for the President's secretary, for if that correspond- ence referred to the operations of the Ring he was, of course, a party. Turnkey Tareatentnc Servia and Monte- negro with military occupation if the two principalities do not withdraw their subjects from the insurrection reads somewhat strangely. There are hardly any cireum- stances under which the Mussulman Power would be permitted to undertake this grave act without changing the attitude of the three Empires. If the concessions offered the revolted Herzegovinans by the Sultan do not terminate the war it is safe to say that threats of this nature will not accom- nlish it, eral with dismay. priety!” The despatch from Mr. Nordhoff which we print this morning thickens the mystery that surrounds the amazing and reprehensible circular which Attorney General Pierrepont sent to the Western district attorneys. Mr. Pierrepont has not yet thought fit to publish the ‘facts” on which he told our readers that he rests his vindication for writing and send- ing that strange instruction forbidding the prosecuting officers to secure testimony against the whiskey thieves by promising lenity to accomplices who turn State's evi- dence. We hope he will not much longer withhold those alleged *‘facts,” for they must be of a most astounding character if they jus- tify the Attorney General in overstepping the law to intrude into the province of other offi- cers and attempting to frustrate justice by sealing up one of the ordinary sources of evidence in criminal prosecutions. The new point raised by Mr. Nordhoff relates, how- ever, toa matter which the Attorney Gene- ral may not yet be able to explain, but which it is his clear duty to investigate. Mr. Pierrepont declared in his communica- tion to the Herarp that his circular was a confidential communication to the district attorneys, ‘exposed by a gross impropriety.” Mr. Nordhoff makes it evident that in investi- gating that breach of confidence the inquiry lies within a narrow compass, There were only five persons who had any legitimate knowledge of that confidential cireular— namely, the Attorney General, who prepared and sent it; the President, who prompted and inspected it, and the three district at- torneys to whom it was addressed. The district attorneys are exempt from suspicion by the fact that it was first divulged in Washington at a period so close upon its date that it could not have come back from either St. Louis, Chicago or Milwaukee. Being a confidential communication, requir- ing no haste, it was sent by mail and not by telegraph, and time enough had not elapsed before a correct copy was given to the Wash- ington correspondent of tha Chicago Times for it to have been sent from the West. The district attorneys are further protected from suspicion by the accompanying history of its origin, of which they could have no knowl- edge. Those officers are therefore outside the field of inquiry, and the range of suspi- cion is narrowed from five persons to two, those two being the Attorney General him- self and the President. Of course it was not “exposed” by Mr. Pierrepont, who de- nounced the ‘gross impropriety,” and we thus arrive, by a process which logicians call “the method of exhaustion,” to a con- clusion which should fill the Attorney Gen- It may be said that there is one other possible source of the leak in the confidential clerk who prepared the copies. In the first place the clerk would not have dared to disclose such a secret, and in the second place the most he could have done would have been to furnish a copy of the circular without the history of its origin, which would not have been communicated to a copyist and could have been known only to Mr. Pierrepont and the President. It is inconceivable that the Attorney General meant to denounce himself for ‘a gross impropriety ;” and so we are again brought by the method of exhaustion to the only in- dividual who had either means or motive for divulging the secret. We are thus brought by strict logic to the edge of a field in which we feel great reluc- tance to tread. But the extreme delicacy of the inquiry must not arrest our steps so far as they can be taken on a basis of fact. Mr. Nordhoff asserts—and he is not a man to commit his name to such an assertion with- out proof—that the circular and the history of its origin were furnished to the press by Mr. Emory Storrs, one of General Babcock's counsel. But where did Mr. Storrs procure them? This is a question which Mr. Nordhoff does not undertake to answer, and it isno wonder that he shrinks on the threshold of such an inquiry. We feel some hesitation ourselves in pursuing the inferences to which his facts seem to point, but the thing is so seri- ous that investigation cannot be evaded, and the press must not recoil from a painful duty. Mr. Storrs could not have received his information from Mr. Pierrepont, who denounces its exposure, nor from the clerk in the Attorney General's office, who could only have supplied the circular, but not the information, and there was only one other person in Washington who could have been Mr. Storrs’ informant. This state of facts and this inevitable infer- ence show how necessary it was for Mr. Pierrepont to have denied that the President prompted or had any knowledge of the circular if he could have done so with truth. Under such circumstances the failure to deny was a confession, and a confession which involves consequences of the most painful delicacy. It establishes the fact that the President had it in his power to supply one of General Babcock’s counsel with a piece of information which he thought so important to his client that he hastened to give itto the press in order that it might have its natural effect in frightening away witnesses. The whole country will agree with us that the parties chiefly concerned cannot afford to let this transaction rest in its present aspect. Comprronier Greun’s Puan for reducing the salaries of the employés of the city gov- ernment, which was framed in reply toa res- olution passed by the Assembly, will be found in compressed form elsewhere, It proposes to save two million dollars yearly to the city. A motion to eut down the Comptroller's own salary was introduced in the Assembly yesterday, although retren¢h- ment in that direction is not apparently con- templated in Mr. Green's comprehensive document. Tux Tarrytown Fin [he purchase and equipment of a tire engine will doubtless be the next official act of the Tarrytown vil- lagers. They will have reached the conclu- sion at a loss of upward of one hundred thousand dollars, representing the value of a block of buildings destroyed on Tuesday night. But in times like the present, when money is tight and business dull, the nom- inal loss bears a small proportion to the hardships the fire will inflict upon a small community. Fortunately, Peekskill, pos- sessing more foresight than Tarrytown, was enabled to lend the latter a fire angina, and happened. Robinson Crusoe’s Money- We are permitted to give, in other col- umns, some extracts from advance sheets of a piquant little work on the currency, writ- ten by Mr. David A, Wells and enlivened with spirited illustrations by Mr. Nast. A light and playful book on so heavy a subjget is a novelty in the literature of political economy. Mr. Wells is not only the best informed of our public men on this class of questions, but he has the happiest faculty of making them popular and intelligible. In the little work which he is about to pub- lish he has surpassed himself in making a dry subject attractive, and explaining the principles of finance in such a manner that any person of good common sense can follow the discussion with interest and feel that he is acquiring clear ideas on a great public question, upon which he has been only con- fused and befogged by the ordinary argu- ments. We are sorry that respect for Mr. Wells’ copyright does not permit us to transfer. the greater part of his book to our columns, although it would not appear to full advantage without Mr. Nast’s apt and amusing illustrations. Mr. Wells takes as his starting point the meditations of Robinson Crusoe on the worthlessness to him of the bags of money which had been saved from the wreck, and by the illustra- tive fiction of the island becoming gradually populous he proceeds to show at what stage the want of money would be felt, and ex- plains with singular lucidity the real func- tions of a medium of exchange. Probably nothing which has ever been written on cur- rency is so admirably clear and convincing as Mr, Wells’ exposition, and the satirical way in which he explodes the current delu- sions on that subject is the attractive feature of the book. Among the passages which we quote is one which strikes us as singularly good, although its full force cannot be seen apart from the connection in which it stands in the book. We refer to the amusing illustration of the milk tickets of the ‘Lacteal Association.” When the greater part of the cows on the island had been killed off or fallen victims of a cattle disease the bright financiers hit upon the expedient of relieving the scarcity of milk by doubling the quantity of milk tickets; but, as these tickets did not increase the supply of milk, and as the babies of the island could not imbibe any nutriment from the abundant tickets, the inhabitants soon discovered the futility of this expedient, which has been so knowingly imitated in the projects of our inflationist financiers. Judge Porter on the Press. It is credibly reported that on a certain occasion a distinguished advocate made his address to the jufy uncommonly rich in classical references. He ‘roamed with old Romulus, soaked with old Socrates and ripped with old Euripides;” but, in the midst of the glow and murmur of admiration thus excited, the practical counsel on the other side inquired ‘‘what all that had to do with the laws of Wisconsin?” In a similarly practical spirit Judge Porter might fairly be asked as to two-thirds of his harangue in St. Louis, what all that has to do with the case before the jury. Exactly what connection there is between the impeachment of Andrew Johnson by the Congress of the United States and the trial in St. Louis of a manaccused of the mean roguery of a conspiracy to steal it would probably trouble any person to tell who might be possessed of an imagination less flighty than the distinguished counsel. But Judge Porter did not deliberately intro- duce that great case. He plumed his orator- ical wings for a swoop at the press, but got lost somehow and tumbled and tumbled, anxious enough to land anywhere with safety, and came down sprawling fair in the middle of the impeachment trial, where he managed to say a few words for poor old Andy, fancying, no doubt, that the jury are all democrats. But why should Judge Por- ter in his oratorical flights hawk at the press ? What is his quarrel with the newspapers ? | Because the papers had charged that Bab- cock had received money from the St. Louis Ring. Well, was not the testimony on the trial irresistibly to that effect? Does Judge Porter believe that anyone of the jurymen is lunatic enough to credit the testimony of the letter carrier to the con- trary? Because, further, the newspapers have said that Babcock acknowledged the receipt of the money by letters and tele- grams. Well, was not a telegram acknowl- edging receipt of “Yours, with enclosure,” shown in court ; and was not the failure to show a letter only due to the fact that Bab- cock dare not produce his correspondence with the men in St. Louis for that period? Because, further, the press had said that Babcock had grown rich and bought houses in Washington. Well, the sum of his recent investments there is given at $139,000. Does any one deny it? Judge Porter evidently felt that he hada bad case. He had to ac- count to the jurymen for the impression that the testimony had made on their minds, He could not assail the testimony, but he might give them the notion that they had got it all from the newspapers, and that the newspa- pers would publish any story that was bad enough. Judge Porter's dealing with the newspapers, instead of the testimony, is one more to be added to the many practical con- fessions that counsel have made in the course of this case of the guilt of their client. Brooxtyx's Borromiess Prr.—The people who are not weary of having the Beecher scandal rehashed for them have a prospect of lively reading for some time, for after in- dustrious Plymouth has lopped off the heads of councils, investigations and trials fresh heads pop forth at every cut. The fruit- less endeavor to get at the “bottom facts," as the truth of the mat- ter is called, has recently suggested that the scandal is a bottomless pit wherein the atmosphere becomes hotter and more objectionable the deeper inquiry goes. If it does not exactly fill this deseription there are many believing Christians who sincerely wish the whole scandal in that portion of the next world which the above comparison suggests, even if they would make a few honorable exceptions to the people included in it. Bacon might then be a fryer, and ‘the mutual friend” would be Moulton still, not to sneak of the outlook for a devilled Bowen, | The Cold Wave and the Gale. Although it was well known that a storm centre was passing over the region of the lakes, which would in all prob ability be followed by high winds and cold from the northwest, meteo rological observers were fairly surprised yesterday morning by the suddenness of the gale which swept over New York. Up to 4 late hour on Tuesday night there were no other indications of a change ex- cept the increased cloudiness of the sky and a slight fall in the barom- eter. But about three o'clock yester day morning the gale commenced with a sharp fall of sleety snow, accompa nied bya freezing northwest wind, which attained a velocity of over twenty-five miles an hour. The humid air that supplied the moisture which formed the snow was soon forced eastward by the increasing pressure of the gale, and the sky cleared rapidly as the dense wave of cold air advanced over the North Atlantic States. At noon yestere day the storm above referred to was reported as having passed over the Gulf of St. Law- rence, the velocity of the wind in New York city increased from twenty-five to thirty-six miles and at Sandy Hook from forty-three to nearly sixty miles per hour. All along the New Jersey coast the gale swept with grert force, attaining & velocity of fifty miles per honr at Barnegat, over thirty at Philadelphia and over twenty-two miles per hour at Bos- ton. Fortunately, this heavy blow, being ofl the coast, was not dangerous to navigation. The prevailing winds throughout the United States eastward of the Rocky Mountains, during yesterday, were northerly and westerly, which corresponds perfectly with the presence of a high barometer in the Northwestern sections, where the mercury stood at 30.83 degrees at Yankton and 30.60 degrees at Fort Sully. The low barom- eter, 29.50 degrees, extended southward from Halifax and marked the centre of in- draught for the cold air in the North and ‘West. Our object in calling attention to ‘thia sudden change of weather is to warn our readers against relying too confidently on a continuance of the fine weather into spring. We have just experienced a fall of tempera- ture in twenty-four hours of twenty degrees, and may expect a farther decrease before the mercury again mounts to where it stood on Monday last. At eleven o'clock last night the thermometer indicated eleven degrees above zero. The genial airs of January are certain to be followed by cold, blustering winds in March. The poor, who are not prepared for these sudden weather variations, should not be forgotten when we wrap our overcoats and fur-lined cloaks around us, By timely aid we may help to alleviate their sufferings, In God’s name let such be rendered promptly and freely. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, How old 1s Hugh Hastings? Ex-Senator Lyman Trumbull fs in Washington. Governor Hayes, of Ohio, is a very wealthy man. Senator Sharon is in Chicago on his way to Washing: ton. Miners who make $$ # day in the Black Hills work The Richmond Enquirer thinks that Beecher’s de- fence is really insanity. Tho Black Hills excitement is making Cheyenne Wy. T., the liveliest town in the West, General Sherman said, admiringly, that Blaine ts one of the oldest statesmen in the country. In New York city a great many clerks who used to buy twenty-cent cigars now patronize waffle stands. Erasmus challenged any sensible man to consider how much nonsense he contrived to utter whenever he talked with a lady. Major Gifford, Vice Commodore of the Royal Cana dian Yacht Club, is trustee of funds fora yacht to be sent to the Centennial, Murphy was walking carelessly upon the ice yester+ day morning conning to himself the words, “A pink trip,” when down he went—“slip.”” Rev. Brooke Herford, of England, says that what most impresses a foreigner visiting America is the hal{ finished appearance of everything. Englishmen haye a talent for governing Oriental peoples of different races and creeds without pressing too severely on their social freedom. Henry Vincent says that a great many self-made men ought to have been self-made, since no one else would ever think of taking the trouble to make them. Congressman Holman says he never was a good speaker, and that he has to on hold to his desk and steady himself when he pronounces the word “‘lee- moaynary.”” Prince Bismarck declares that so long as he remains at the helm of affairs it is not the State which will make the first advance toward a reconciliation with the Church, General Kilpatrick says he thinks Hayes, of Ohio, will be nominated by acctamation in the Republican Convention. He says that General Sherman could have the Presidency if he wanted it, Sefior Don Adolfo Ybaiiez, Chilian Minister at Wash- ington, arrived in the city yesterday and is atthe Windsor Hotel, This fact may be supposed to accoun’ for the Chili condition of the atmosphere—but # doesn’t. The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion says that nine-tenths a the colored people pay no tax on real estate, and one half do not pay even tho poll tax, which ts devoted exclusively to the common schogls at which the chi? dren of that race aro taught. In criticising Professor Tyndall's thesis that humaq emotion, not knowledge, is the true foundation for ¢ religions philosophy, Mr. Martineau replied that a soon as emotion proved empty he hoped wo shouk stamp it out and get rid of it, In Lower Bengal it appears by government repory that during the six years ending with 1866, 4,218 per sons were killed’ by tigers, while the grand total « 13,400 people altogether were killed by wild animals chiefly leopards and wolves. ‘The atheism of the elder Mill was tho result of hit incapacity to believe that ® world so full of evil way the work of a perfect being. The hypothesis that i was the work of an imperfect bemg did not, as 4 mere hypothesis, appear to him so incredible, Tho average Milwaukee reporter having found the skull of an Aztec with a gings eye, now finds in Lake Michigan a sea serpent with fins striped like the Amer ican flag, Two drinks more would have put spectacles on that skull and made the reporter see stars as weil ag stripes. ‘The Stato of Georgia exempts from taxes cotton and woollen mills and machinery for ten years from the time the mills are started. There ts one mill in opera tion in Augusta, containing 23,000 spindles, which has made a dividend of twenty per cent among the stock holders. It is the opinion of all good Continental observers that the French townsman has of Inte years been growing intoa man of a virtually different race from the country people, and this goes far to explain the difference of the voting in France as dependent on the proportion im which the two classes are mixed to- gether. Dan Mace, writing about his oxperience with trot ters, says:—'We started her in the race, but she wasn” abie 10 beat nothing. A hymn of praise swelled up Ward from the renascent carth, and was curried t¢ heaven on the wings of the morning zephyrs, which gently agitated each glowing leuf, waving the golaen ears of the fast ripening corn and kissing ach floweret, as all nature drank m the loveliness 0 dawn, I brought out Liteh, and, putting a saddle om her, mounted her, and, ‘after spoeding her in tho road, ‘wo all measured her stride, and found it was 22 feet ¢ inchea, 1 won the bats