The New York Herald Newspaper, March 2, 1876, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD ANN STREET. BROADWAY AND 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 | month, free of posta: i All business, news letters or telegray hie despatches must be addressed New Yore Henavp. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. y Rejected communications will not be re turned. PHILADELPHIA OF FICE—NO. 112 SOUTH | SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFF ) OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVENUE DE L'OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be | received ond forwarded on the same terms | as in New York. | | NIGHT. OLYMPIO THEATRE, VARIETY, at 8 P.M, EAGLE THEA UNCLE ANTHONY, at 8 SHATEAU arspeoM ~~ AMUSEMENTS —TO- « VARIETY, LATRE. A POM. Mrs. G. ©, Howard, TONY PASTORS NEW THEATRE, VARIETY, at 1’. M. UNION SQUARE THEATRE ROSE MICHEL, at 81". M ACADEMY ¢ ERNANI, at 8 P.M. Mme. Je NEW MASON EUROPE ON CANVAS, at 8, M. Matinee at 1:30 P.M, K THEATRE, | BRASS, at § P. M. ge Faweett Rowe. FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE, PIQUE, at 8P.M. Fanny Davenport. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET OPERA HOUSK VARILTY, at 8 P.M. BOWE BI SLOCUM, at 81. M. | RISTAN TEMPLE. y HEATRE. Frayne, VARIETY, at 8 BAN FRAD VARIETY, at 8P. BOOTH JULIUS CASAR, at ¥ ¢ DER VEILCHEN TIV VARIETY, at 8 P.M. TWENTY-THIRD CALIFORNIA MINSTRE Woor BCHAMYL, at SP. M. THIRD 4 VARIETY, at 8 P.M, THEATRE. at P.M. Mr. Lester Wal- SE STOOPS TO SOnaL r WITH SUPPLEMENT. NEW YORK, THURSDAY, MARCH From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cloudy, with | snow. Tux Henarp py Fast Mar, Trarns.— News- | dealers and the public throughout the country | will Le supplied with the Dairy, Weexxy ani | Svunpay Henarp, free of postage, by sending | their orders direct to this office. | Waxt Streer Yestenpay.—The decline in stocks continued and the market was feverish. Gold opened at 114 1-8 and closed | at 1141-4. Money on call ruled at 4 and 3 per cent. Government bonds were in popu- lar demand and railroad bonds firm, Porrvcan has her contributions to the Centennial Exposition nearly ready for ship- | ment. Now let us see that the Exposition | bhall be ready for them. H Tue Smapow Over Breixnar does not seem to have any silver lining for the honest sup- | porters of the administration, whatever | metallic lustre it may have had for parties at present unnamed. Eayrr backing out of Central Africa is the | news from Alexandria. This is not good | news for those who hope for the civilization of the wild tribes by conquest from the | North. The path for the Gospel is, how- | ever, still open from all sides, and what the | Khedive would do for land will not Chris- | tianity do for souls ? | Mrsister Screncr, it would seem, has been | roused to the fighting point respecting his | share in the Emma Mine scandal. Ho is announced to start for the United States next Saturday, and will send before him a strong denial of the truth of Lyon's testi- mony before the Committee of Foreign Af- fairs. It is rather hard on our Minister to | England to see Baron Grant denying the veracity of the same witness; for it brings Mr. Schenck into such unpleasant proximity with a stockjobber that it looks, to usea homely phrase, as though both were “tarred with the one brush,” and Mr. Schenck's only safety is in standing alon u’s Troup.es seem unlikely to | ‘The Emperor has refused his pe- tition to visit his sick son, and has not re- plied to his family’s prayer for pardon. | Meanwhile the Foreign Office, which his foe, | Bismarck, controls, has preferred against | : . | him accusations of high treason and insult- | ing the Emperor, Bismarck and the Foreign | Oftice. The moral of all this isthat Bismarck is Germany, for Von Arnim's offences aro purely personal to the Imperial Chancellor, | no matter how they are twisted. This Ing- | ging in of the Emperor, high treason, and so forth, is only to show that the great crime of treading on the Man of Iron’s corns in- sIudes the lesser offences of walking on such | small things as the Kaiser and the rest of the government. Tue Dect Cannr.—It is to be hoped that the Direct Cable Company will hold out against all efforts to absorb it in the rival or- ganization. The news with which we are this morning favored respecting the present tpparent failure of the amalgamators is encouraging, but we are sorry to say does not seem final, The story that comes from on board the repairing steamer Faraday respecting the break of last January is ly The description of the condition of the cable at the break seems to leave no doubt that the severance was designedly effected by human | means, and if this can only be established | beyond cavil both the American and English governments should unite in endeavoring to'track out and punish the criminals. Men eapablo of inspiring or committing such a crime are enemies of the human race, and | differing from ‘Thomassen, the dynamite assassin, only in degree, not in kind, suggestive. | in the lobby. | course involved war. | superable difficulty. | bred. | industry is brigandage. | P and finds distraction and amusement in the | j Mexican Bandits and the Texas Border. In a letter from a correspondent in Washington, published elsewhere to-day, will be found the only satisfactory ex- position yet given of the border troubles | on the Rio Grande and of the respec- tive positions with regard to the troubles | of the people of Texas and the jobbers Complaints from Texas have come to us so constantly and _persist- ently for years, and the stories of robbery and murder recited in them were so charac- teristic in’ themselves, and were so much like what it was reasonable to expect would happen in a district exposed to the predatory incursions of an ungovernable and ungoy- erned foreign nation, that the whole country and Congress haye from time to time become excited on the subject, and the demand has been loudly made that our government should peremptorily require Mexico to con- trol those elements of her population from which the troops of marauders were drawn ; or, in Mexico's failure, that they should be punished from our side, even though the But here constantly arose a doubt—a doubt that must always arise where the forces of the government can be perverted to the purposes of private speculation; where corruption is so much a recognized power in the land that the people can credit the possibility of its operation behind every act or fact; where they must scrutinize the shout of natural defiance, the appeal for protec- tion, the prayer for charity itself, to know if it does not conceal some swindler’s ruse. There were so many cases that might be protited by war and consequent conquest—so many territorial schemes, mine projects, railway projects, indemnity bonds, contracts of every species for army supplies—that a people sadly experienced were tempted to inquire whether the demand for acts that would lead to war did not come from inter- ested quarters; and further, whether the re- ported outrages that seemed to inspire and justify that demand were not all fictitious, only imagined, or perhaps even contrived and performed with a sole view to their ef- fect in making an indignant opinion, and thus producing the result desired by the speculators, This consideration and the ap- prehension that the Executive, if it found war likely to help a political conspiracy, would add the weight of its influence to the schemes of the jobbers, have together in- duced the nation to turn a cold ear to the stories of the Texas people; for the country did not want a war that would merely enrich rogues, and believes it can make presidents more satisfactorily in a quieter way. But in view of the facts as now presented, the separation of the two elements—the real grievance of the Texas people and the pro- ject of speculators—does not present an in- For that there is both a real grievance of the people on the border and a grand scheme in the lobby is evident. Life and property in the whole zone of Texas country along the Rio Grande for a width of | sixty miles, or within raiding distance of the river, are as insecure as they ever wero in territory similarly situated in the border wars of the Middle Ages. Cattle are treated precisely as they were on the Scottish border in the days when it was thought heroic for a Scotchman to steal what an Englishman But there is a prejudice against that sort of heroism now ; and besides, we, as the victims, are on the wrong side of the line to see the romantic side of these achievements. In order to comprehend how it is in Texas let us suppose for a moment that this were on the Canada border; that in the whole of the district where there is only an imaginary line between, where in the same forest a tree cut in Canada falls in the United States, that H there no man went to bed in security at night, that any farm might be given to the flames at any hourand that the fine cattle and horses were all driven offat intervals whenever the needs of predatory neighbors inspired an expedition—no human power could pre- vent such reprisals as would make a desert of all Lower Canada, for the irritation and rage could not be soothed or satisfied with indemnity. And the only difference be- tween us, the only reason why we in this section have not these troubles while Texas has them, is that we have respectively differ- ent neighbors. There is no more fault in the Texans than in us, but we are near to a civilized, order loving, well governed peo- ple; they are separated by a river from a country inhabited by a people whose only Persistent revolt against every form of authority, against every rule and every restraint, has, in that part of Mexico, finally brought about its legitimate | consequence in relegating society to the primitive condition when every man does what is “right in his own eyes"—unless some stronger man takes a different view of what is right and compels the other to accept that. No government exists and no subor- | dination of any sort except of lesser thieves to greater ones; and the whole district, with- out industry, commerce or legitimate enter- rises, lives on what it can steal from Texas running fights and murders that are neces- sary to secure the spoil. Some years ago, when complaint on this account was first made, Congress instituted | an investigation, and a committee went to the spot for the purpose. Inspired by the usual Congressional avidity it appeared early to the committee that the outrages upon the Texas people were a good basis for an operation against the United States Treasury. By a quaint coincidence the name of the most distinguished member is Robb. They estimated the losses then already suffered by the people of that neighborhood at forty- eight million dollars, which left a fine | margin, for if eight or ten millions would Tepay to the people what the Mexicans had stolen it was but fair that twenty-eight or thirty millions should be provided under the same cover for the ingenious gentlemen who should carry through the necessary | legislation, Nobody thought that Mexico would pay; for the doctrine of Ancient Pistol, “Base is the slave that pays,” is thoroughly appreciated in a country whose people are as nearly as possible a nation of Ancient Pistols. But the scheme was to put through a bill and negotiation by which the United States should pay all these clajms as the agent of Mexico, and then accept from Mexico an _ extensive | | tract of country “rich im minerals” as | ! the equivalent of the millions paid on ac- count of claims. Here, therefore, is the ex- hibition of the relations of jobbery to the grievance. Upon this primary: project of | robbery any additions might be grafted by | other schemes ; and the effect was always the same, to discredit by associating with it—an evidently fraudulent scheme—the legitimate call of the Texas people for protection. as about immediate and present security for their lives and property, and it seems hard that they should be denied this because un- scrupulous men have endeavored to make money out of their miseries. As to our relations with the Mexican gov- ernment arising from these troubles the case is not peculiarly difficult. Mexico either pretends to govern the country nominally within her limits or she relinquishes such pretence. She is under the same obligation to us, if she pretends to govern that coun- | try, that England is to us with regard to the northern border or that we are to England. and at its own expense every use of its ter- its neighbor ; and if it fails to prevent the punish them and pay indemnity for the damage they have inflicted. If it fails to do this; if it neglects or is unable to fulfil these obligations of a friendly nation after its attention is repeatedly called to grievances like those before us; if year follows year and the depredations continue, then a state of | war exists; and whether this exists because the nation whose citizens are the offenders is indifferent to its duty or unable to perform it makes but little difference to the govern- ment whose people are the victims. It is the duty of that government to recognize the state of war forced upon its people and act accordingly in their defence. For .our | government to hesitate to pursue Mexican marauders upon Mexican soil out of regard to international right, when that govern- ment has so little regard for such right as to permit the repetition of these outrages for ten years, is to make respect for law the op- pression of the people, and is, in fact, to put the law in such a position as to make every man its enemy. Our government must protect the Texas people, and it must operate on the Mexican soil as much as is necessary to dothis. If Mexico does not like this she must take the consequences, and is responsible as the cause of it; but we are inclined to believe that Mexico would be thoroughly well pleased, on proper representation, to turn over to our charge on our side of the river or her side all the bandits of Tamaulipas. Journalistic Changes. The announcement that Mr. Jennings has retired from the Times is followed by an- other to the effect that the Express is to pass into the hands of some of the most ex- perienced of our local statesmen. Among those named as the new managers are Au- gustus Schell, William A. Boyd and Fred- erick Smyth. Mr, Schell is one of the oldest and ablest of our citizens, and bas been a longtime in public life. He ante- dates Mr. Hastings, the republican leader, and Mr. Hastings, according to the diary of John Quincy Adams, was in close relations with Jackson forty years ago. The Express is a fine, old-fashioned newspaper, and in the hands of Mr. Brooks has attained a high degree of respectability. Now that 'it-passes into the control of Mr. Schell, Mr. Boyd and Mr. Smyth, it is not too much to suppose that it will become a positive influence in politics. It is a singular fact that while the morning newspapers are going out of politics the } evening journals are ranging themselves under party flags. The leader of the repub- lican party, Hugh J. Hastings, is the editor of the Commercial Acvertiser, a straight-out hog-and-hominy republican paper. Mr. Hastings believes in discipline, in shooting deserters. His first choice for President is Grant, his second choice Conkling. Mr. Schell, feeling, no doubt, that an agency as powerful as that of Hastings’should be con- troverted, takes the only sensible way of doing so by going into a newspaper. He is the leader of the democratic party in the State, Democratic Committee. Mr. Hastings will find in Mr. Schell a foeman worthy of his steel, and we may look forward to lively times during the coming canvass. It is also our pleasant duty to welcome William A. Boyd and Frederick Smyth into ing the Reign of Terror. His special work was to send suspected democrats to the block. Mr. Smyth was John Kelly's candi- date against Recorder Hackett, and would be Recorder to-day but for circumstances over which he had no control. We wish Messrs. Boyd and Smyth all possible success in their new profession. Lovistana.—-Our Washington despatches say that the democrats feel concerned about the impeachment business in Louisiana, and well they may be. The democrats in Louisi- ana are bent upon ruining the democratic cause, They began with the McEnery revo- lution, a most outrageous, unlawful pro- | ceeding, that threatened the country with civil war, Now they propose to take posses- | sion of the government in Louisiana by a subterfuge. First it was force; now it is | fraud. The country looks with deep anxiety | upon all these expedients, and asks, What | would these men do in Washington if they had power? Impeachment is a sacred remedy, not to be used as a political expe- dient. We want reconstruction in the South, and not revolution. If these schemes con- tinue, and some wisdom is not shown by the democrats, the Presidential election will be a walk over, as it was when Grant ran against Greeley. Taat Lirttz Atroxso should bring his mother back to Spain on top of the wave of triumph rolling down from the Pyrenees is very creditable to his filial affection, but not | to his prudence. When that innocent youth set ont at the beginning of the year 1875 from Paris for his tuture kingdom it was one of the stipulations that Isabella should re- main behind, Now the young King feels strong enough to have his own way, but it is not improbable that he will shortly find the | less dead weight he carries the better; and, | with all respect to Her ex-Majesty’s liveliness, she is a very dead weight, They do not say so much about indemnity | Every nation must prevent at its own peril | ritory as a base of hostile operations against | | operations of criminals it must surrender or | and the chairman of the National | | the ranks of journalism, Mr. Boyd was the | Fouquier Tinville to Robespierre Kelly dur- ; Overcrowded Public Schools. Those who believe in the dictum that ‘the | child is father to the man” do not often | bring to its support the fact that diseases contracted in youth spread their hurtful in- | fluence over the remainder of life. Injury ; to the system through the respiratory or- | gans of children often entails a manhood of | suffering, and hence we are glad to see that | one of our contemporaries has taken up the | overcrowding practised in our public | schools in a thorough and practical man- | ner. Superintendent Kiddle, in his last an- | nual report, called attention to this subject ; | but itseems that a strong public opinion must be created before any reform is attain- able. While providing healthy instruction to the young we must take care that the air through which it reaches their ears is not so vitiated as to be absolutely dangerous to their bodies. The manner in which in some of the schools children are packed in unven- | tilated and badly lit class rooms is shocking, and parents, when made aware of it, will has- ten to join the press in having this disgrace- ful state of things altered. In all schools the danger of epidemic diseases being intro- duced and afterward spread among the pupils requires constant vigilance, but when the same air must be breathed over and over | again for hours diseaso once present can scarcely be prevented from claim- | ling fresh victims. This, although o } terrible danger, is not by any means | the most formidable. The poisoning of the | blood from breathing impure air goes on | constantly in such schools, making holes, as | it were, in the system fora host of diseases | to fasten their hooks in. To children with delicate iungs it is almost certain death, and when, after months of attendance, such a child sickens and is taken from school, the fault is often laid on the child's recklessness out of doors, when the frolics in the fresh air have been the only things that allowed it | to endure the stifling process so long. We are informed that many of the teachers en- deavor to rectify the ventilation in the most crowded schools by opening the windows for a few minutes; but in mid-winter this is scarcely less dangerous than the hot, im- pure air, for the sudden influx of an | icy current of air on the uncovered heads of the little ones must produce the most violent colds and catarrhs. Now, it becomes imperative that all our day schools should be roomy, well ventilated and sunlit. Our Board of Health has failed to act in this | matter, and, indeed, seems as little able to | formulate as desirous to enforce a proper system of hygiene. It, therefore, lies be- tween the press and the public to raise such | a cry about this smothering of the innocents that the matter shall be remedied without | delay. Every paper if the metropolis should do its utmost to help bring about this needed change. However people may be divided about keeping the Bible in the | public schools there will be no division of opinion respecting the necessity of expelling impure air. Pruning the Navy Estimates. The War Department spends this year the | monstrous sum of over $40,500,000, and asks for next year over $57,000,000. We have | shown in previous articles where Congress ought to save at least $11,000,000 or $12,000,000 of this sum without decreasing the army. , If, however, it does diminish the army, it ought to save still more; and | if the House works with care we do not doubt it could save $20,000,000. | This would still give to the War De- | partment $37,000,000, which is by far too | much. Its whole cost should not be over | $25,000,000, and we expect, therefore, that | Secretary Belknap will be grateful to us for our extreme liberality. When we come to consider Mr. Robeson’s demands we find that he spends this year $18,500,000, and asks for next year nearly $23,000,000. He also, timid soul, cannot sleep of nights without a large naval force to protect him against anenemy. He dreams of invasions; he lies awake to hear the boom of Spanish guns ; as he consumes his | frugal dinner he stops to wonder whether a | Mexican or a Canadian frigate is not about | to open fire on the Navy Department. Be- | fore we consider his estimates in detail we’ | wish to comfort him. The country is not | going to war; we are not going to attack | | anybody, and nobody is going to attack us. | We are at peace, and if we behave ourselves | we shall not have a war for half a century ; | because we are too strong, our neighbors | are too weak and our friends aeross the ocean | have other affairs on their hands. Hence | the excellent Secretary of the Navy need not | get nervous. Soft be his slumbers and sweet | his dreams ; his beloved Camden is safe, | So now to business. The navy pay list amounts this year to $6,250,000, and Mr. Robeson’s fears of a sudden invasion by a Mexican fleet lead him to prudently increase | his demand under this head to $7,600,000, | | He ought, we have reason to think, to be | content with $4,000,000 at the utmost. Thus | Mr. Randal! would save a trifle of $3,500,000, | and nobody would be burt. His ‘contin- | gent” has crept up from $100,000 to $125,000. Why? If the House gives him $75,000 he j will have enough. Aside from its scientific | work, which ought not to be diminished, | because science is sacred, and we are not too | poor to support our scientific men; but | aside from this the Bureau of Navigation | asks for $119,500. But if we lay up a good | | many of our ships in ordinary, as we ought j to do, this sum can be decreased. T'roba- ‘bly $75,000 is quite enough. The | Bureau of Ordnance demands, including the torpedo business, $503,000, and | this includes ordnance work at all the navy | yards. As we mean to propose the sale of | several of these useless encumbrances it is probable that $250,000 will be a handsome ‘sum for this bureau to spend. Then comes ® special appropriation of $510,000 to arm ' certain monitors. On the whole this might as well wait. They are continually invent- ing new guns in Europe, and it is better to wait until we see what they have perfected over there. We advise the committee to strike out this $510,000, though it might give the odd $10,000 to be spent in watehing the progress of marine gunnery. For the Bureau of Equipment and Reeruit- ing the zealous and feartul Robeson demands not less than $1,500,000, with $100,000 as “contingent.” But it is his boast that he has almost the whole fleet already ona war nomenon of the sudden thaw suggests no | progross, | $900,000—$100,000 more than last year. | was precipitated into the yalieys. NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 1876.—WITH SUPrLEMMNT. footing. It ought to cost but a trifle to ree | other cause than the one above referred to, turn it to a peace standard, which is the Apartfrom the distressing consequences of intention of Congress and the wish of the country; and what with sales of stores and stoppage of recruiting and general economy, we should think Mr. Ran- ‘dall very liberal if he gave the Secre- tary $250,000 under this head. This is one of the great leaks of the Navy Depart- ment, and here Mr. Randall can save at one blow $1,350,000 and hurt nobody. Next comes the Bureau of Yards and Docks, for which Mr. Robeson thinks he ought to have He has just sold the Philadelphia Navy Yard. We hope Congress will order him to sell also those at Boston and New London, because they are useless, and that at Kittery answers every purpose. on a peace footing, $300,000 is a large sum for the Bureau of Yards and Docks, and Mr. Randall will be extravagant if he gives more. The Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, which asks for $1,339,000, ought, with a largely reduced naval force, to get on with ! the odd $339,000, and we trust will get no more. Finally comes the Marine Corps. There las been a rumor that it would be abolished. This we should think a mistake. Marines are needed in our ships and navy yards. Thé marine is a naval policeman, But it has become, under the liberal hand of Mr, Robeson, a monstrously expensive establish- ment. For a petty force of 1,500 men he has a general, a colonel, 2 lieutenant colonels, 4 majors, 20 captains, 60 lieutenants, and so on; and he has even an item of $6,000 for | horses for these gallant horse marines. With the navy on a peace footing 500 would be more than sufficient—indeed, 300 would be enough—and instead of $925,000, which the good ‘Robeson demands to support his marines, he could very easily get on with $250,000, We trust Mr. Randall will give him no more. Leaving the navy proper we discover un- der ‘Public Works” an additional demand for $1,725,000 for new structures and repairs at navy yards. Half a million is quite enough for this. We do not need any new works this year, and we trust Mr. Randall | will refuse to give more than the con- siderable sum we have named. What he gives above that will be spent for politics. Reckoning up the savings we have pro- posed we find them to amount to over $9,000,000—-in precise figures, $9,197,500. This will leave Mr. Robeson still the pre- posterously large sum of $13,500,000 to spend on a peace navy. It is too much, and we hope Mr. Randall will know how to reduce our estimates as we have reduced those of Mr. Robeson. Our navy on a peace footing ought not to cost us more than $8,000,000 ; $10,000,000 would be a very handsome sum, and if Mr. Randall gives more we shall think him a very ex- travagant public man. And we beg him not to make the mistake of cutting down the pay of officers on active duty. This pay is not too large; it is barely sufficient, and to decrease it would be wrong to the families of the officers. His business is to put the whole navy on a strictly economical peace footing, and he need not touch the pay of the officers left on active service. The Devastating Floods in Hungary. We learn from the latest telegrams regard- ing these destructive inundations that they have caused immense devastation and dis- tressing loss of life in the valley of the up- | per Danube. The sudden melting of the winter snows over the vast watersheds of the eastern Alpine and Carpathian mountain systems has swollen the rivers which derive their waters from these regions, causing them to overflow their banks and inundate the low lands. We have not as yet received any information regarding the effect of the February thaw on the volume of the Rhine waters, but a telegram from Paris informs | us that the Seine has risen to a flood level and that the alluvial plains in the vicinity of Paris are already under water. The devastation which has been caused in Austro-Hungary and particularly at Buda- Pesth on the Danube has not been equalled since tho great floods of 1838, Buda and Pesth are situated on high ground at opposite sides of the river, and are con- In any case, with the navy | nected by a great suspension bridge, which | spans the narrow river channel between the two cities. The town of Althofen is a suburb of Buda, and built on the low ground. This place has been almost | destroyed by the floods, two-thirds of its entire population of eighteen thousand people being rendered homeless. The | Daunbe at Buda-Pesth forms the only outlet for the vast volumes of flood water which | have poured down from the drained by the river and its tributaries west- ward and northward. ‘The narrow channel escape into the lower Danube. At this point, then, a gorging of the waters | has taken place, and the floods, as through a great sluiceway, rush downward with resistless force, sweeping everything before them. According to tele- grams from the desolated districts great fears are entertained for even the buildings which have withstood the floods up to the present time. The walls, although sapped by the waters, are also supported by them to some extent. When the waters subside the satu- | rated substructures will be unable to sus- tain the superincumbent weight of the build- ings, and their destruction is almost inevit- able. The transfer of air volumes of high temperature from the American to the Euro- pean continent by the natural eastward movement of the atmosphere is, in all prob- ability, the cause of the sudden thawing of the snows, which produced the floods. This theory is supported by evidence rather curi- ously obtained on the Alpine summits, A party of tourists succeeded in scaling Mount Blane in the middle of January last, and found that the temperature of the air at the great elevation of thirteen thousand feet was higher than that of the valleys and low lands. This leads to the inference that an upper stratum of warm air overlay the denser and colder surface atmo- sphere, and caused the snows at great ¢leva- tions to melt. Thus a vast quantity of water Whether this warm air is to be credited to our side of the Atlantic or to the more proximate con- tinent of Africa remains a question to be solved by European observers. The phe- / watersheds | these great inundations they present a highly interesting subject for scientific in- quiry, and prove the necessity that exists for the accurate system of intercontinental weather observations which the Hxnap has so often demanded. Rescued Sheep. The Trilune intimates in a vague way that among the converts made by Moody and Sankey at the Hippodrome are George Bliss, the gévernment District Attorney, ex-Gov- etnor Shepherd, of the District of Columbia, | and Hon. Hugh J. Hastings. The Tribune is so accurate and gives so much attention to religious affairs that we presume this in- formation is official. But as yet these gen- tlemen have not made a public profession of faith. One of the essentials of true conyers sion is that the rescued sinner shall rise up, and in open meeting proclaim his fealty ta the Saviour and tell how light came. This, as Brother Moody remarked the other even. ing, requires a sacrifice of pride, and it may be that the Tribune means to say that Bliss, Shepherd and Hastings are still in the ‘‘in- quiry room,” still laboring, and have not come ont and proclaimed their conversion. Be this as it may, however, the fact that three gentlemen so prominent in the world should become open followers of Moody and Sankey is a happy omen. It shows that Moody and Sankey are driving their work home—that they mean to fight the devil wherever they find him. Unfortunately, however, these converts are all republicans, They have a ppwerful influence in that party. Great good must result from their accession to the ranks of Christian workers. But let us have some democratic converts. Why not make a campaign against John Kelly, and Roosevelt, and O’Brien? Let us have a revival in both parties. Thus far the republicans are ahead. It may be that Bliss, Shepherd and Hast ings mean to capture Moody and Sankey for the canvass. This conversion may be until “after the élection.” Such a capture would be an invaluable card for the republicans, The democrats should look about them, and by sending some of their representative leaders into the inquiry room neutralize the efforts of the cunning republicans. CentenntaL Nomrnations.—A correspon- dent, in a letter printed yesterday, accepts our suggestion that we have a patriotic, centennial Hail Columbia can- vass, by nominating General Hancock for President and John Quincy Adams for Vice President. The General is a good soldier and a noble citizen. But the essential qual- ification for the centennial canvass is that the candidates shall be lineal descendants of some of the great men of the Revolution. Now ‘Johnny Q.” is the great grandson of John Adams, and thoroughly eligible. But how about General Hancock? We want an old-fashioned Revolutionary canvass, one that will bring up the old times with al? their glory. To that end let us have candi- dates from the Revolutionary stock—from the Adamses, the Hamiltons, the Jays, the Hamptons, the Middletons, the Cadwaladers, the Lees, or some one of the glorious names which are associated with our independence, So before we take Hancock we must have his pedigree. eocan No Busrvess anp A Money Famrve is the other side of the dazzling picture of tropical revolution in St. Domingo. If it were not that the Dominicans dislike work and have little need of money their condition would be pitiable. As it is they must be very happy. CanpipaTes FoR THE Prestpency should avoid “explanations.” They should be care- ful how they answer questions. Here we have a committee investigating Morton, while Dudley Field is questioning Tilden. The candidates should be very careful. Even a pebble may change the current of | the swiftest canvass. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, | ‘The first horring has appeared at Falmouthy Mass., and he is safe enough. Bulow’s notes are good, even though the Chicago Datchmen would not indorse them. Babcock is now to have a drumhead jury, being still unsatistied with the chucklehead jury. | They now want to introduce from Japan the sweet persimmon, forgetting that we nave Pinckback. Pittsburg Commercial:—The New York milkmen no longer cheerily sing, ‘We will gather at the river.” “The Indiana glass works are ranning night and day”? tarning out demijohns for the democratic campaign. Seftor Don Adolfo Ybafiez, Chilean Minister at Wash- ington, has taken up his quarters at the Clarendon Hotel, 4 Mules are selling for $200 apiece in Georgia, and yet the Chicago Tribune complains that it has topaya | “persoual” man $11 a week. is the gateway through which these waters | They are calling Thurman a trimmer, Hendricks & hemmer, Blaine a baster, Chandler a filler, Conklinga pinker, Sherman a ripper, and sew forth, Alter all, G. W. Childs does not write all the good things in the Philadelphia Ledger. He is only the | wooden Indian who stands outside with a kindling wood hatchet in his belt, Patriotisin will this centennial year make great profits ior Ben Batler’s bunting factory in the demand for fags. Butler’s genius, whether as a monopolist manufacturer or as a billy goat of politics, is always bunting. The Shreveport (La.) Telegram is a handsome paper, ‘and its editorial articles aro very bright. itis a pity that the paper is not larger, so as to get in all the Henanp’s “Personal Intelligence” as leading articles every day. “The charm of French society,” writes @ cor. respondent, ‘‘is to be found in those salons which are frequented by the kings of Parisian Bohemia—jour- nalists, poets, dramatists, artisis—wherein the Repub- lic is queen and Victor Hugo a god.” Mrs. Jobn Smith's baby was born on the 29th ult,, and Mr, John Smith wants to know on what day bis baby will be a year old. This question must be con- | giaered by onr American philosophers separately from that on the rhyme for Conkling. The paintings by M. Bandry in the new French Opera House are pronounced by competent authorities to be in imminent danger of destruction, These remarkable works have been otposed to the ruinous influences of the gas, and, althongn scarcely more than a year in their present position, they arc already ex- hibiting alarming signs of deterioration. dt may be said that the population of the United Kingilom increased tn the quarter of a century about twenty ver cent; that the people living “in 1874 were, Ol AN average, at least twice as well off as they Were in 1851; that they drank in 1874 twice as much tea and | sugaras they had drank in 1861, and forty per eont More spirits, wine and beer; that they had saved twice ae much and travelled neatly five times uch ; that, taking the increase of population inte account, serious crime bad decreased by nearly seventy per cent, | Pauperism by more than twenty-five per cent, while | Primary education had become etx times am general, | Those aro striking symptoms of material and social