The New York Herald Newspaper, March 11, 1876, Page 4

a NEW YORK HERALD | *srpomisntey = Romana ona 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 month, free of postage. at} All business, news letters or telegraphic | despatches must be addressed New Yorx | Henavv. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. . i Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO. 112 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD--NO. 46 FLEET STREET, PARIS OFFICKE—AVENUE DE L’OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. ooo THE WEEKLY HERALD, every Saturday, at Five Cexrs per copy. Annual subscription price: One Copy... - $2 Two Copies. 3 Four Copies. 5 ‘@ Sent free of postage, Any larger number addressed to names of subscribers 1 25 cach. An extra copy will be sent to every club of ten or more, Tur Evrorman Eprmion, every Wednesday, at Six Cents per copy, $4 per annum to any part of Europe. . 71 THIRTY-FOURTH sTRE VARIETY, as SP. M. Matinee PARISIAN RIETI VARIETY, at 8PM. Matinee at 2 P. GAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, at 8 P.M. Matinee at 2 GLOBE THEA VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matinee at 2 BOOTIUS TE JULIUS CAHSAR, at 8 P. RE. Bt Matinee at 1}g P.M. Mr. Lawrence Barrett. OLYMPIC THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. Matinee at 2 P.M. TWENTY THIRD STREET THEATRE. CALIFORNIA MINSTREL +P. M. Matinee at 2P. M. FARIETY, at 8 P.M woop THREE FAST MEN, ats THEATRE. ats P.M.” Matinee at 134 Ww. 8HE STOOPS TU CONQ P.M. Lester Wallack. TONY PASTOR’ VARIETY, at 5 P. M. cn HALL, ILLUSTRATED LE ‘M. Matinee at 2 P.M. Professor Cromwell. . THEATRE. ZIEGENLIESOHE, CHATEAL VARIETY, at 5 P.M BRO! HEATRE. M. Mrs. G. C. Howard. usIC, M. Clara Loutse Kel- PARK TH cee at 8 P.M. Matines TRE. 2 P.M. George Faweett WITH SUPPLEMEN NEW YORK, SATURDAY. MARCH Wl, 187 From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be warmer and tloudy, with light rains. tT. Tue Henarp sy Past Mart Trars.— News- dealers and the public throughout the country will be supplied with the Dairy, Wexxuy and Suxpar Henaxp, free of postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. Wau Street Yestenpay.—Stocks tended apward, yet were feverish. Erie advanced more than two per cent. Gold sold at (14 1-2. 1145-8. Money on call was sup- plied at 21-2and 3 per cent. Foreign ex- change quiet. Investment securities firm. Austria is in a dilemma as to what dispo- sition to make of the Herzegovinan refugees, who refuse to quit her territory without the protection of a military escort, which would likely give offence to the Turkish govern- ment. Wan Has Broxen Ovr between Japan and Corea, according to advices from St. Peters- burg. Can it be that the Northern Bear has ® paw in this affair also? Should China take ahand in there will bea pretty triangular row in the far East. Tue Frexen Cantnet, as it is constituted, does not seem to satisfy Gambetta, who re- gards it as a one-sided ministerial affair. He has been left out in the cold, and doubtless the entente cordiale of the happy family of the Republican Union will be shortlived. Aw Enterrrisina Bevotan, having made an extensive haul on the Bank of Brussels, to the amount of five million dollars, turned | his steps toward the land of the free, think- ing, perhaps, that he would be a welcome exchange here for the members of the ‘Tam- many Ring who are in Belgium. But just as he was about to step on board a steamship at Queenstown the arm of the law reached NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, MARCH i, 1876--WITH SUPPLEMENT. Our government has undoubted points of superiority to that of Great Britain, but the advantage does not consist in the organiza- | tion of the Executive Department, which is the weak and crude part of our political system. After such revolting exposures as have recently been made in Washington an English Ministry could not stand a day; and punishment is always more salutary in proportion as it is prompt. The English government is superior to ours in being more directly responsible to the people and more completely under the control of public opin- ion. When an English Ministry falls into disgrace it can be got rid of at once, without the tedious process of impeaching individual members or the more tedious waiting for the expiration of long terms of office. Impeach- ment is a troublesome remedy, even when it succeeds, and it is always liable to fail, even when there is no moral impeachment of Belknap is ata dead halt for | confessed criminal ; and even when evidence is found the trial will be obstructed by tech- nicalities, while the two-thirds necessary to convict is an additional obstacle to success, exists under our government for deposing officers who abuse their trust. Besides, it operates only on the individual officer who. is arraigned; whereas the more prompt method of the English government puts out the whole Ministry by a simple yote of the House of Commons. The storm bursts at once, the political atmosphere is purified, the public sense of justice is satisfied, and the government moves quietly on under new auspices. It is greatly to be wi-hed that the Executive Department of our govern- ment were so organized as to put the administration equally under the control of public opinion and make it as directly re- sponsible to the people. We do not advo- cate a servile copy of this part of the British constitution. For tame imitation evinces poverty of resources, and is sure to fail by lack of adaptation to circumstances. But there is no reason why we may not reach the same result by political machinery suited to the peculiar nature of our government and the temper of our people. We need to put a helm in the ship on which the people can place their hands in an emergency, and promptly change its course when it is in danger of running aground. No part of the praise which our statesmen so habitually and justly bestow on the fed- eral constitution is due to the organization of the Executive Department, which is not a model of wisdom, but a monument of crudity and folly. Wedo not here refer to the re- eligibility of our Presidents, which a major- ity of sound thinkers have long regarded as a mistake, but to other and more funda- mental objections. The method of electing the President, to begin with, proved so ab- surd in practice that it has been a dead letter during the whole period of our political exist- ence. The framers of the constitution intend- ed that the Presidential electors should really choose the President, and elaborate pains were taken to protect their independence. No person holding a federal office can be a Presidential ¢! or, and they are required to meet and vote .1 the same day in their separate States, as a means of preventing the intrigues and bargaining which might result from assembling the whole body in one place. The idea was to create scattered bodies of independent citizens, free from official influence and without facilities for combination, who should vote in accordance with their own convictions and really choose the President. It is needless to say how abortive and grotesque this careful plan, which seemed so wise on paper, has proved in practice. The Presidential electors are mere automatons, who have no will of their own, and passively register the choice of their political party declared nearly a year in advance of the time when they give their votes. The exclusion of federal office-holders amounts to nothing, because federal office-holders pack and con- trol the conventions which nominaft the candidates for whom the Presidential elec- tors are compelled to vote. The meeting of electors as separate bodies in their own States does not prevent corrupt combinations, because such combinations are perfected in the national nominating conventions at | the opening of the Presidential canvass, and | the electoral colleges servilely obey the party | mandates. Nobody can dispute that this | part of the constitution is a total failure and a monument of political folly. It is quite as little open to dispute that | another part of the original plan for electing | the President was a short-sighted failure, | The constitution, as first adopted, required | each Presidential elector to vote for two | Persons without designating which he | preferred for President and which for Vice President. ‘The person receiving him, and he will not visit our Centennial. Tar Execution or A Neoro is such a frequent occurrence in the South that only when the crime for which the law demands tapital punishment is of a particularly re- | volting kind does the event cali forth the entire population to witness it. Such was the case yesterday at Newberry, 8. C., when a most desperate character suffered for mur- der, robbery and arson. Ax Important Case was decided yesterday in the Superior Court, which will have the effect of making city railroad corporations pay some respect to the rights of the travel- ling public. Every one knows what dan- gerous and frequent nuisances drunken rowdies are on the cars, and what little con- trol is exercised over them by conductors. The Sixth Avenue Railroad Company will now have to pay damages for an assault committed on of their passengers by a drunken man, should the verdict be affirmed by the higher courts, to which the case is, of course, appealed. Respect- able people on the cars in the night time one sometimes consider themselves fortunate in | escaping with insult alone and pot being assaulted or robbed. Such an important precedent as the present case should be hailed with gratitude by the suffering vic- tims of grasping companies, who are intent only upon making money, without any re- gerd for the comfort of their patrons, the highest number of votes was to | be President and the next highest Vice President. At the fourth trial this method | of voting came near destroying the govern- ment. The election was thrown into the House of Representatives, and during thirty- | six ballotings it seemed doubtful whether | Jefferson or Burr would be elected, or | whether the government would go to pieces | in the struggle. That alarming danger led to an amendment to the. constitu- tion requiring the Presidential electors to give separate votes for President and Vice President, but leaving the other main features of a thoroughly bad system unchanged. It surely reflected no credit on the authors of that part of the con- stitution that it came near wrecking the government before the end of the twelfth year of its existence. Those demonstrated and confessed mis- | takes were by no means the only weak parts of the system. Some of the leading minds of the Convention which framed the consti- tution had their heads filled with a | chimera or crotchet that it was indispensable to make the Executive entirely independent of Congress. It was in | pursnance of this dectrinaire notion that the Convention prohibited the choice of mem- bers of Congress as Presidential electors and | created the electoral colleges as a substitute for Congress in choosing the President. Th part of the vlan has proved as great a doubt of the guilt of the accused officer. The | want of legal evidence, although he is a self- | majority | And yet this tedious, cumbrous, | ineflicient process is the only method which | failure in practice as the others to which we have alluded. Instead of the strict | separation between the executive and | legislative branches of the government | | which the framers of the consti- | tution intended, there is always a | close concert and co-operation when both belong to the same political party. The function of the President in making ap- pointments to office is not, indeed, so idle and mechanical os that of the Presidential electors in choosing a President; but it is nevertheless true that a majority of the federal appointments are really made by members of Congress. A thing so notorious by Mr. Hale, of Maine. He was replying on the floor of the House to some democrats | who had alluded to President Grant's power to procure his renomination by his influence over the federal office-holders. Mr. Hale's answer consisted in a statement of the facts which existed in his own district. He asserted that the federal appointments in his district had been made on, his own recom- | mendation, and expressed the opinion, | which nobody contradicted, that this was in conformity with the usual practice. Every- body knows that this is the ordinary method, | and it shows how futile was the idea of the | framers of the constitution that they had made a complete separation between the Executive and Congress, and had rendered each independent of the influence of the other, It was the original plan of the Federal Convention that the President should be elected by Congress. That method was twice rejected and twice readopted, and it would have been better had it been finally ; adhered to. The vacillation and shifting was between the electoral colleges and Con- | gress, and at the last moment the Conven- tion decided in favor of the electoral college system, which has proved so idleand abortive. A change in the direction of the English system would necessarily vest the choice of the Cabinet, either directly or indirectly, in Congress ; but, quite apart from the merits of the English system of prompt accounta- bility, it would be an improvement to go back to the original plan of the Federal Convention and elect the President by the legislative department. The Condition of the Navy. Some of the suggestions made in his last report to the Secretary of the Navy by Admi- ral Porter were excellent, and indicated the feasibility of meliorations in the conditions of the service so important that it is a pity they should pass out of sight. Like every man whose life hds been identified with the service this gallant veteran has a great pride in its glory, and doubtless more faith in its efficiency than the many who, if their oppor- tunities to know its condition are not so ex- cellent as his own, have at least the advan- tage that they contemplate it in that more relentless spirit of criticism which keeps always near to the facts. But the Admiral himself recognizes the difficulties that are always in the way of securing those appro- priations without which little can be done, and it was doubtless in the spirit of that recognition that he gave so much considera- tion in his report to things that can be done without the immediate use of money, and to other things that promise to enable all gov- ernments some day to reduce permanently the grand items of naval expenditure. Our navy, as it stands, cannot be regarded as a force that would be formidable to any great naval Power; and the Admiral himself, though he has good reason to know how much it can do with inadequate re- sources, can scarcely hold that in a serious war we could make any better disposition of three-quarters of our vessels than to blow them up, and so avoid the shame of seeing ‘the enemy do it for us. Yet upon this navy, that does not defend our coasts because they do not need it, and could not defend them if they did ; that does not even maintain and continue a breed of American sailors upon whom we could depend in war—upon this service that thus neither actually nor pros- | pectively contributes to our greatness on the sea, we spend almost enough money every year to build a respectable iron-clad fleet upon that model which the Admiral himself has sketched, and which he believes will some day prevail in allnavies, It would be eventually a far more satisfactory use of our millions to spend them in accordance with the policy implied in the main points of the Admiral’s report. The points of this policy would be line-of-battle-ships, swift cruisers, seamen and torpedoes; the policy contemplating not the immediate possession of these elements of a great navy, but the eventual possession—the pos- session of them in the future when we may need them—by steps to be taken now. For the eventual. production of seamen the policy would be to greatly increase our ex- penditures on an apprenticeship system on the present schoolship model. For the eventual possession of swift cruisers the recommendation is to make some provision of legislation for bonuses or other considera- tions to builders to induce them to construct their clipper ships or passenger steamers on plans furnished by the Navy Department, with the understanding that the govern- | ment may purchase such ships in case of | war. With one quarter of our expenditure— | well nigh wasted as at present applied—an- nually appropriated to construction, we | should in four or five years have a great | iron-clad navy; and our torpedo system, con- tinued as now in progress, would complete the scheme. In this scheme is at least the germ of that great desideratum—a way to get a navy without increasing our expendi- tures. | OT a Tur Brrrisa Government, then, did not demand the recall of Minister Schenck. Well, we need every grain of consolation in these days of national humiliation, It is | consoling to think that John Bull did not figuratively ‘kick one of our diplomats out of his dominions. Tae Buxrcker Srreer Rat.noap still con- tinues to be a bone of contention in the courts, the parties on either side giving and taking punishment in the liveliest manner. Many ugly revelations have come out con- | cerning the former management of the road, | and give an insight into the ‘‘ways that are dark” of our railroad directors. hardly requires detailed proof, but we will | allude to a statement made at this session | | whom they would take satisfaction in inflict- Extradition. Our Canadian neighbors are altogether right in their notion that the Extradition | treaty between Great Britain and the United States is behind the times and ought to be amended so as to cover a larger category of offences. It cannot be agreeable to them to have their cities made the refuge of the swarm of swindlers constantly contributed by us. This sort of tide may please the railroad | companies that carry passengers in that direction, for it swells the dividends that | they are able to pay; but the railroad men | are somewhat indifferent to good morals. As it is not pleasant to the Canadians to have our rogues it must also be disagreeable to them to be deprived of their own, upon ing the penalties of the law. Our treaty with England scarcely goes beyond the list of great crimes. It includes murder and assault with intent to commit murder; pi- | racy, arson, robbery, forgery and the utter- ance of forged paper. All our munic- ipal thieves are safe in Canada, except such as could be charged with the making of forged vouchers, Between countries situ- ated as we are with regard to Canada, whose social and political character are so nearly alike, every offence that could be punished under the common law by a sentence to State Prison in either country should be in- cluded in the Extradition treaty. It will be a surprise to the country at large to find that we would, perhaps, already have secured such a treaty but for some notions of Mr. Fish, That gentleman appears in the un- usual light of the supporter of a system un- der which hundreds of criminals are safe as soon as they can cross the border. At any time between 1870 and 1874, as appeared by the English diplomatic papers we gave yes- terday, the English government was ready to make a liberal treaty, and endeavored to do so, but was compelled to give up the attempt on account of Mr. Fish’s adherence to a point that could not be conceded on account of English statutes to the contrary. Mr. Fish’s point was that in certain cases the courts should not determine onan important point, but that this should rest with the Secre- tary of State. This point was whether or no extradition was really sought with a view to punish for a political offence. Under the English law the accused cannot be sent out of the country if he can prove to the satis- faction of the magistrate that he is wanted in the other country only on account of po- litical misdoings ; and as that was their law they could not agree to do by treaty acts in contravention of that law. But Mr. Fish re- quired that points like this should not go to the courts, but should be determined by the Secretary of State; for he wished to make a treaty which, as the supreme law of the land, would override our State laws and the resort to State courts, and enable him by tapping a little bell like the one Mr. Seward had to send out of the country any man who was called for. This was certainly strange ground for Mr. Fish to take and on which to refuse any improvement of the present inad- equate treaty. The Tobacco Chewers and Peanut Eaters. The proposal to abolish peanut eating in the street cars has very properly aroused the indignation of many of our correspondents, to some of whom we give room elsewhere. The abstract right to eat peanuts must be con- ceded, and, that concession once made, it fol- lows that the practical exercise of the right cannot be forbidden by sumptuary laws. The constitution is as clear upon this point as it is upon any other, and, in truth, clearer than it is upon some points. Although it is to be admitted that peanuts are not ex- plicitly mentioned in that document, still they are plainly referred to in the preamble, which declares the object of the constitution to be to ‘‘promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” Nothing could be stronger than this, for peanuts, by reason of the phosphorus they largely contain, pro- mote the general welfare by increasing the brain power of the country. Peanut eaters are, as a rule, intelligent individuals, for, a priori, they know what is good, and to know the good and hold to it has in all ages been considered an evidence of wisdom. (See Proverbs.) Now, when it is the object of the constitution not only to ‘‘promote,” but to “secure” the blessings of liberty, pea- nuts and other matters, it follows that pea- nut eating cannot be prohibited without vio- lating both the létter and spirit of a charter which is dear to the American heart. But the champions of s corrupt and un- just sumptuary law will say that they do not wish to prohibit peanut eating per se, but only as the overt act exists in the cars. This argument isa wretched evasion not worth refuting; yet we shall now refute it, for if we only refute those things that are worth refu- tation we should soon have nothing to refute whatever. They profess to be willing to allow peanut eating in any place whatever except in the horse cars, by which they hope to gain great applause for their liberality. But in reality they concede nothing while hypocritically affecting to grant all. To prohibit peanuts in the street cars is to pro- hibit them altogether, for there is no other place where they are eaten. Thus the apologists for a degraded system of sump- tuary supervision assert that aman may eat an abstract peanut, but that he cannot eat a concrete peanut. This is to eat of the “chameleon's dish—to feed on air,” for who ever bought a pint of abstract peanuts? They might as well say to a man, ‘We grant you abstract right to keep hogs, but you must not keep them in a hog pen. You may keep! your bedroom The effect them in your parlor or or in a church, but not ina pen.” of this would be to annihilate hogs, just as | the effect of the present scheme would be to | ernsh peanuts; for the cars are clearly ‘the only places where « real peanut eater can eat them with proper satisfaction. It is the same with tobacco chewing, to which by long custom the street cars are appropriated. Men who would not spit tobacco juice in the streets are glad to do so inthe cars, They feel that the floor of a car is equivalent to a spittoon, and many people, in fact, have learned to eat peanuts and chew tobacco simply by riding up and down town in the cars every day. Ifthe cars were made for ladies and gentlemen the case might be very different, but they are not. The com- panies do their utmost to discourage: gentle- men and ladies from using the cars, and if they have not entirely succeeded it is not for the want of endeavor. If a man, therefore, wishes to chew tobacco and munch peanuts | we advise him to take a street car; there he | can pursue those delightful occupations | with perfect impunity, while if he squirted | tobaceo juice in the gutters or scattered pea- | nut shells on the pavements he would at- tract much attention, and people might probably think he was not at alla gentleman. An Uneasy Committee. It will strike many people that Mr. Clymer and his committee are more touchy than wise, and that they would be more usefully employed in finding evidence to sustain the impeachment of Belknap than in prying into the sources from which the Herarp’s agents in Washington obtain their news. If Mr. Clymer were an as- pirant to a place in our Washing- ton bureau he could, no donbt, learn a great deal from our correspondents, but unless he should prove more alert in that capacity than he is on the investigating com- mittee we could offer him no compensation which would make it worth his while to enlist in our service, nor assure him of avery long tenure of his situation. But if it be his more modest wish to qualify himself for the better performance of his present duties he made a wise choice of an instructor in the art of finding out what other people desire to conceal; but in that case he should haye applied to Mr. Nordhoff in a more courteous and docile spirit. If Mr. Clymer had gone quietly to our special correspond- ent and begged his assistance in getting on the tracks of needed witnesses it is quite pos- sible that he would have received valuable hints and have been taught a thing or two which he very much needs to learn. Mr. Nordhoff did not profess to give the statements in his despatch at first hand, and as Mr. Clymer had already been put in pos- | session of the name of Mr. Nordhoff's in- formant it would have saved time to go at once to the fountain-head. One would sup- pose that the committee might find enough to do at this stage of their inquiry in investigating Belknap and seeking evidence for his conviction. It seems small and fussy to turn aside from their proper business and spend valua- ble time in hearing from Mr. Nordhoff’s own lips what appeared on the face of his despatch, that he derived his knowledge from another. It was equally idle to sum- mon him to tell the name of his informant, for it was already known to the com- mittee. They could not have expected to creato much awe by summoning into their presence a gentleman who understands the art of making investigations so much better than themselves, and although the loss of their own time may be of little conse- quence, that of our correspondent is of more importance, since he succeeds in finding out the things which he attempts. Ventilate Our Public Schools. There can be no reasonable excuse offered by the Board of Education for not securing perfect hygienic conditions in our public schools. The school authorities have been warned year after year by their own officials that defective ventilation and an insufficient supply of pure air have been working serious harm to the health of the pupils and that we are preparing a highly educated generation of invalids for the near future. The old maxim, ‘‘Mens sana in corpore sano”—a sound mind ina sound body—is ignored by the system which now prevails in the public schools of New York and under which health is the price of knowledge. Pure air and wholesome surroundings are as much neces- sities to the proper development of young minds as the best framed curriculum. Sound Jungs are as important to the student as pro- ficiency in ancient and modern history, and we cannot doubt that in after life, when the blossoms of youthful education develop into their proper fruits, even mathematics and the modern languages will but poorly compensate for constitutional weak- nesses contracted in the pursuit of such knowledge. The discipline of the schools is very admirably maintained. The pupil is taught to sit with a rigidity of backbone that is only equalled by the stiffness of his or her neck from exposure to draughts. Statics, pneumatics and rheumatics are thus illustrated in a manner that ought to be satisfactory to the most philosophical mem- ber of the Board of Education. But with vitiated air, bad ventilation and the sudden change of temperature from a highly heated school room to the cold air of the street, can we wonder at the fatal prevalence of diph- theria and pneumonia and their kindred dis- eases among our children? The Board claims that it is on the horns of a dilemma {| with regard to the whole matter. That on one side is the imperative right of every child to be educated at the public schools, and on the other a deficiency of school space at the disposal of the Board, which is meas- ured by an excess of thirty thousand pupils over the number that can be properly accom- modated. The solution of this difficulty is clearly the erection of more plea of the school authorities does not reach the chief cause of complaint, which is, that the present floor space the air space, on the | capacity of which their health depends, is | utterly insufficient. The Shower of Flesh, The extraordinary phenomenon of a shower of quivering flesh reported from Sterling, Ky., has puzzled the natives of the whiskey State beyond measure. According to the special telegram the occurrence took | place while the sun was shining brightly in a clear sky, and a large area was covered by the precipitation. The hogs and chickens rushed to enjoy the heavenly banquet and devoured the substance with evidemtrelish. It would appear that the centennial year is | to become famous’in our annals for more than the mere political associations which surround it, and bountiful nature showers down the food for the hogs and chickens of the West so as to allow the farmers of that } | | happy region more time for the contem-— | | plation of their country’s greatness, It is an unthankful office to spoil a mystery and to rob the quidnunes of their rights to discuss its wonderful details and compare notes school&, but the | | even with the proper proportion of pupils to | regarding the relation it bears to the duration ofthe world’s lifetime. We feela kind of compunction in forestalling the wonderful deductions of the village debating societies and are in despair at spoiling the gossip of the husking parties; but duty to a mas# of our matter-of-fact readers who have no time for researches into the mysteries of the aerial world compels us to explain. At different periods in history there hava been recorded such strange occurrences as showers of live fish over considerable areas of land and all bearing the evidences of having been but lately transferred from their natu- ral element to the aerial heights whence they fell to the earth. Vast numbers of small frogs have also been known to fall during rain showers, and in the Middle Ages the in- habitants of Europe were stirred to repent. ance for their manifold sins by an ominous shower of blood—an event which was promptly turned to account by the religious teachers of the time and pointed to as an evi- dence of the Divine displeasure at the wicked. ness of men. But sceptical philosophers discovered that atmospheric whirlpools, such as that recently experienced at St. Charles, Mo., could suck all the water out of ponds, .and even create waterspouts that raised vast bodies of water from the sea, and of course frogs and fishes went upward with the ele- ment they inhabited. The shower of blood was proved to be caused by the red pollen of certain plants growing in Eastern Europe, and which, being borne through the upper air by the force of the winds, became mixed with the falling rain and imparted to it all the appearance of blood. If the story from Sterling, Ky., is true the shower of quivering flesh was nothing more than a mass of the larve of insects, which, having been caught up by a whirl- wind and carried to an immense height, re- turned to earth again in the form of a shower of bruised and wriggling worms. Many of the lonely Western lake shores are sur- rounded with vast accumulations of these larve of flies, which present a most dis- gusting spectacle by the quivering, crawling movement of the little red worms that com- pose the mass. The upward centripetal mo tion of tornadoes is favorable for the raising of heavier objects than worms to a great elevation, and there is no doubt that the deposit at Sterling, Ky., is due to this cause, The quivering motion observed in the so called flesh is either due to the “last kicks” of the worms in their dying struggles. or to the shrinkage of their tissues when exposed to the action of a denser atmosphere. In the far West the Indians dry these larva in cakes and use them for food. Innumerable birds diet on them also. It is therefore not to be wondered at that the Kentucky hogs and chickens regarded as high living what poor Lo considers a delicacy. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, * Clara Morris is well enough to ride out on horseback, Central Georgia families raise their own tea also, The plague has appeared on the bauks of the Ew phrates and of the Potomac. Massachusetts has furnished eight English Min- isters. San Francisco hoodlums badjy whipped their Mayor, although he was defended by policemen. Twenty-six carloads of emigrants passed through Towa in one day for the Black Hills. pan Baron de Sant’ Anna, Portuguese Minister at Wash ington, is sojourning at the Albemarle Hotel. Sefior Don Ignacio Mariscal, the Mexican Minister arrived at the St. Denis Hotel yesterday from Was ington. " Senator Edmunds says there ts just ono little place in the middle of his back that he can't get at to scratc® without leaning up against a door. What big Christian names Grant and his Cabinet have. Even the honest Secretary Taft is Alphonso— kind of romantic too. Sir John Lubbock writes from England to the Wiscon- sin Historical Society, congratulating it on its copper findings, “relics of an age scarcely traceable in Eu- rope.’? Detroit Free Press:—*A pawnbroker at Muscatine, Iowa, advanced money on all the furs that came along last winter, and at the present time can offer only one sum ner garment for sale, and that is a coral ring.’? As Belknap’s beautiful beard disappears in the dim distance, John Cochrane comes to contribute his hair once more to the republican party. He is having the tucks let out. . Some Iowa republicans say that Senator Kirkwood, would have divulged the facts about Bolknap if the Jatter had shown any strength in the late Senatorial contest, Kirkwood is the man wifo attended a Wash. ington dinner in a red shirt, It seems now that the reason why Grant chose Bel knap was that Belknap, a retirmg man, had won ¢ major generalship, and was recommended by bot? democrats and republicans for Internal Revenue Colleo tor at Keokuk. It is very profane for those young fellows who +t get into the Hippodrome to sing, Iam a shoulder of a hoss, A quarter of a lamb. ‘A strange ocean animal has, by force of natural selection and all that sort of thing, according to the Darwinian theory, begun to eat the gutta percha os the submarine cable, having mistaken it for bake¢ clams, Some English economists contend that spade hus bandry 1s more productive than farming ona large scale; but they aro almost always deluded by the fallacy of reckoning gross returns of produce instead of net profits. “‘Amarilla,”"—Do mot bewail the fact that, now that he has been jilted, you do not know how to spend your weary evenings. Try to sit up with yourself til, ‘one or two o'clock some night and wonder if it was all his fault, “Every science, every language, every literature, every business,” says Michelet, “interested Turgot,’ ‘This 1s true also of a woman lying on hor chin listen- ing under the crack of adoor, and Turgot had ne monopoly. In Russia the mediums are able to materialize spirit hands that swing dumb bells in the air. One of them was asked what this was for and it said it had just bees putting up the ding-bats to fight a sucker who way going to be backed by Pontius rilate. Ben Hill keeps on yawping:—The North must nov ask me to give up my manhood, I cannot afford ta give ip my manhood. Oh, my manhood, my man hood.” Say, Ben, be still about five minutes and may ho the North won't know you're thero, “p, N.—Say that “Belknap is a natural outgrowth.” If anybody else comes along look up as high as you can, pat the side of your jaw and repeat :—“It’s a natu- ral outgrowih."’ After a while people will begin to un- dorstand that you have ideas on the subject. “Polish ladies have a special, vivid, delicate, spirited, haunting loveliness, with grace, distinction and elegance in their limbs and features that is all their own; yor cannot call them fragile, but they are of so fine a fibre and so delicate a coloring that they only just escape that apprebension,” The London World wants a London hotel on th American plan, so that people can pay so much a day, and then eat all day if they want to. Let us, too, have a hotel on that English plan wnich permits a man pay for as much as he can drink in an hour, even itt man only lasted ton minutes. The Salem Observer says:—“Wo heard a’ day or tw ago of a most praiseworthy act on the part of a nobl hearted aud wealthy gentleman of this city, who, holé fog notes and mortgagos tor $30,000 for money fur nished to aid humble but deserving persons, cancellor these obligations by destroying them. It 18 not ofes that a fire is kindled for so noble a purpose or that will call forth gratitude from so many hearts,”