The New York Herald Newspaper, March 13, 1876, Page 4

£ NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY PEED, rage Pa in the ir. ‘our cents per 4 = a elle oor year, or one dollar per month, free of postage. All business, news letters or telegraphic lespatches must be addressed New Yore ZRALD. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. bi Rejected communications will not be re- yurned. PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO. 112 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—-AVENUE DE L’OPERA, Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. AMUSEMENTS TONIGHT, THIRTY-FOURTH »TREET OPERA HOUSE, VARIETY, at 8 P.M. c i GERMANIA THEATRE. ZIEGENLIESCHEN, at 8 P. M. PARISIAN VARIETIES, VARIETY, at 8 P.M. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTR GLOBE THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P, M. BOOTH JULIUS CESAR, ats P. OLYMP! VARIETY, at 8 P.M. NTY.THIR MINSTRELS, TIVOLE THES VARIETY, tS P.M. WOOD'S MUSEUM, BUIL GAIR, atSr. M. Matinee at 2 P.M. WALLACK’S THEATRE. THE WONDER, at 87. M. Lester Wallack. TONY PASTOR'S NEW THEATRE, VARIETY, a8P.M CHICKERING MALL. ILLUSTRATED LECTURE, at 8 P.M. Professor Crom- well. TW! CALIFORNL. CNATEAU MABILLE VARIETIES, VARIETY, at 5 P.M, BROOKLYN THEATRE. N P.M. Miss Kate Claxton. EB THEATRE, OF MUSIC. Clara Louise Kellogg. * LYCE VARIETY, at 8 P.M, BOWERY THEA’ BERTHA, at 8 P. M. TRE, re > FIFTH UE THEATRE, PIQUE, at 8 P.M. Fanny Davenport. Matinee at 1P. M. WI hea = mat NEW YORK, MONDAY, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be cloudy, with rain and snow. MARCH 13, 1876, ‘Tue Henawp py Fast Mary Trars.—News- dealers and the public throughout the country will be supplied with the Datry, Werxxy and Scnpay Henarp, free of postage, by sending their orders direct to this office. Tue New York Women’s Crnrennran Union deserves every support in its endeavor to have woman’s work properly Yepresented at the Exhibition. Professor Cromwell will lecture in aid of the enter- prise on Wednesday afternoon next, at Chickering Hall. Tae Devence of the Franconia’s officers in their forthcoming criminal trials, as fore- shadowed elsewhere, will try to throw the blame upon the officers of the ill-fated Strath- Clyde, who, they say, tried to make their ship pass the Franconia, and in the en- deavor to head off the latter came into colli- _ Bion withher. This does not agree with the statements of the deplorable affair which have reached us. Dr. Storrs does not make his position very clear. He dissents from allowing mem- bers to be driven out ofga church without trial and does not think that the majority of the late Advisory Council was sufficiently unprejudiced in the Beecher matter to be competent, impartial judges. From Bowen to Bacon and from Storrs to Beecher the Congregationalists who have meddled with the scandal seem to be troubled with a dys- pepsia of unequivocal speech, Tur Burrisu Istanps were yesterday swept by a fierce storm, which prostrated the tele- graph lines in various places and necessarily inflicted considerable damage in other re- spects. This storm in Great Britain is another evidence of the influence of our atmospheric disturbances on the weather of Northern Europe, because all such storms proceed from this side of the Atlantic. The velocity of the wind was greatly increased by the freedom with which it swept from the peean over the low lands of England and Treland. It is probable that many wrecks will be reported from the coasts as resulting from this visitation. ‘Tue Discussion as to whether the Centen- nial Exhibition should be opened on Sundays is timely. Should the decision be in the negative it will prevent tens of thousands from visiting it, while doing no good to any one but the grogshop keep- ers. Thousands of working men in this tity, for instance, who might run down with their families to the Quaker City ona Sunday and enjoy an instructive day at the Exhibition, returning to their homes on the same evening, will in these hard times have to give up a holiday which means the loss of a day's work. If Puritan- ism should prevail the Exhibition managers will find themselves in the position of the dog in the manger, with a deficit into the bargain. Usress Brsmanck disappears from power Count Arnim is likely to go over the preci- pice on whose ragged edge he has been sitting for some time. Those who observe things nearest to the imperial German Gourt cannot altogether explain the im- placability of the Chancellor to already fallen official. There was nothing in the causes which led to the punishment of Arnim which would awaken sympathy for aim outside of Germany, for his Germanism ynly differed from that of Bismarck in trifles of detail, but he finds a pity which is a re- duke to the ‘Man of Iron,” since the punish- tggests a self-distrustful weakness illy as- this | | all, ment is so much greater than the offence, and | NEW YORK HERALD, MONDAY, MARCH 13, 1876—WITH SUPPLEMENT., The Centennial and Centennialism. The Centennial is becoming a national question, and its celebration is now the per- vading topic. We are afflicted with a “‘Cen- tennial” mania. We have ‘Centennial coffee” for breakfast and take a morning stroll with a ‘Centennial cigar.” Fashion de- mands a ‘Centennial hat” and a ‘“ Centen- nial scarf.” Moods of conviviality must be supplied by ‘Centennial drinks.” The politicians already talk about a “ Centennial canvass” in which there shall be no candi- dates in whose veins do not run the blue blood of the Revolution. The booksellers are profuse with ‘Centennial literature,” and we have biographies, tales and all man- ner of chronicles about the time that tried men’s souls, Every day almost is an anni- versary. When we remember that we are to have these anniversaries for five or six years we may fancy what amount of patience is necessary to help us along to the day when we shall, we trust, commemorate the comple- tion of the constitution and the entrance of Washington upon the Presidential office. But there is thé comfort that it comes only once in a hundred years and that when we are well through with this we shall have no more in our time. If we keep going as we do now the chance is that we shall have no country to ‘‘celebrate” in a hundred years. We may make as much of it as we can while we have one. This, if a gloomy reflection, is natural enough when we see what we see in Washington and elsewhere, It is some- thing that our fathers would have never dreamed as possible in the model Republic of the globe—that a Secretary of War would bea confessed peculator and that we should have an administration famous or infamous, as the historian may view it, for the absence of those virtues which shall be the theme of a thousand orators between the anniversary of our independence and the anniversaries which will celebrate the various steps in the formation of our government. It is some- thing that we have a public opinion that does not hesitate to stamp upon the crime of a Belknap. We have no such tradi- tions in our history as are read in the his- tories of other nations at the time of the formation of the government—evidences of a laxity of moral principle which have no counterpart in our records, dark as they have been, since the war brought with it an unsettling of the time-honored principles of the Republic. The crime of Belknaps has a parallel in the folly of Hamilton, with this exception, that if a Secretary of the Treasury were to confess to relations like those which enabled a villanous husband to blackmail Hamilton it would close hiscareer. Whether this is an evidence that we are better than our grandfathers, or a little more prudish, we will not say; but since we are to have a period of ancestral adulation at our own ex- pense there is no harm in reminding the lamented shades who gave us our Republic that they had skeletons of their own even in the closets of the most illustrious of them all. The Centennial is perhaps the most remark- able event that will happen in our day. We have given our grandchildren something to celebrate in the Proclamation of Emancipa- tion and the conquest of the Confederacy. There are those now living, let us trust, tho will see the Republic in a blaze of glory over the centennial of these events, and who, as they listen with dimmed eyes and trembling limbs to the praises of Lincoln and of Grant, will recall how, with the big, wondering eyes of childhood, they saw the celebration of to- day. So if we owe something to our grand- fathers we have imposed a solemn debt upon our grandchildren, for we question whether after ages will not look with as much pride upon the men whoachieved emancipation and saved the Union, as upon those who secured an independent sovereignty. The transcend- ent events of this century are the Declaration of Independence and the Proclamation of Emancipation. If we were content to cele- brate the Declaration ina noisy fashion, dedicating the Fourth of July to such cere- monies as would show our gratitude tothe men of the Revolution, no one would com- plain ; but we are not a moderate people in anything, and the danger is that we may lose our self-possession and go mad with Centennialism, Our imaginations begin to run riot as to what will take place on the Fourth of July. It would not surprise many to see the sun: stand still, even as it did be- fore Joshua, and the absence of some such mighty manifestation of a Divine interest in the Centennial would be apt to shake the faith of devout patriotic souls. “f We are working hard for the proper cele- bration of the anniversary. We have a vast Exhibition. Philadelphia is inan ecstasy of anticipation and preparation, This ex- treme tension, this feverish excitement, will react, The Exhibition will be crude and vast. There will be a sense of bigness and of national possibilities and evidences of natural wealth; but we shall have no such dis- play as was seen in London or Paris, or even in Vienna. We have more land, more mines and wells, more varieties of soil and climate ; we can show larger turnips and trees and pumpkins and masses of ore; but what can wo show as evidences of art and in- dustry and taste to be compared with the other exhibitions? Even as it now stands, far distant Japan, coming out night of centuries, the embodiment of a civilization which yesterday was a blank, will manifest a progress, a ripeness in art and science which we cannot surpass. Eu- rope showed the results of centuries of civil- ization. America will show the results of one century of hard work. In architecture and painting, in agricultural perfection and delicate workmanship, in the fashioning of clays and metals, colors and stuffs, what have we done to compare with France and England, with even China and Japan? Therefore, we must not expect too much, We shall learn, if we apply the lesson aright, that we are not the greatest of nations; that, with our strength and wealth, we may sit at the feet of the elder world and see how we have been surpassed in the achievements of human genius and skill. Unless we enter upon this centennial time | with these anticipations we shall be disap- pointed. And it is well that we stop shout- ing for a few minutes and look calmly at it We question if the Exhibition will be what most people expect. There will be no unusual tide of foreign travel to witness it. sorting with the apparent strength of the | People who have had a surfeit of exhibitions great Empire, within the past few years will not care to | of the | cross the angry seas to look at a pile of quartz rocks or miles of machinery. We have no attraction that will compensate for the Paris boulevards, the German springs, the Scottish highlands or the English lakes. | We have none of the old associations which, as our favorite ppet says, even gold cannot buy. There are no minster towers, no remnants of a civilization that goes hack to Julius Cesar; no monuments of mediwval genius. We have a parchment, some walking sticks, a collection of faded Continental uniforms and a variety of autographs. But we have no idea that the sight-seeing world will risk a couple of days among the fogs of Newfoundland to study them, Whatever value our Exhibition may have will be an American show for Ameri- can eyes. If people want to see the best monument of acentury’s work they will find it in New York. There is no such mani- festation of wealth, enterprise, genius and achievement on this continent as may be seen in an afternoon's ride from the Battery to Harlem Bridge. That is the true Centen- nial Exhibition. The display in Fairmount Park will be tame, indeed, compared with it. Who Frightened Marsh to Ran Away? There is a mystery about Marsh's flight which ought to be cleared up. The mutual recriminations between the republicans and democrats when the subject was discussed in and neither side touched the pith of the question, Marsh left Washington, after his discharge by the committee, on the half-past one P. M. train on Thursday, March 2, arriving in New York the same evening in season to retire to bed at his usual hour. He spent the greater part of the following day in this city, leaving in the four P. M. train. On the same day a Cabinet meeting was held in Washington, which adjourned at three P. M. Between the end of the Cabinet meet- ing and the departure of Marsh from New York there was an interval of an hour, a period long enough for him to have received, of what had been done in the Cabinet. Onthe next morning, March 4, all the newspapers printed an Associated Press despatch from Washington, account of the Cabinet proceedings, which it was stated, among other things, that the President ‘had determined not to shrink from the responsibility that rested upon him, and he therefore asked the Attor- ney General to take immediate steps to pro- ceed with the criminal charges against Tomlinson, and all others shown by any evidence to have had part in the fraudulent transactions that were the subjects of atten- tion. In the determination of the President there were full and thorough expressions of opinion favoring such action as the President had determined upon without delay.” If between the adjournment of the Cabinet meeting at three P. M. and the departure of Marsh from New York at four P. M. this decision was communicated to him the motive of his alarm and sudden flight is sufficiently apparent. In the discussion of this subject in the House to which we have alluded Mr. Blaine stated on authority that the indictment | neither of Belknap nor Marsh was under con- sideration at all in that meeting of the Cabi- net, and he argued that Marsh could not have been frightened out of the country by proc&edings which never took place. But the report of a purpose to indict and punish him would have had the same effect on the mind of Marsh as the fact, and there was time enough for him to have heard of the report before he fled. The report may have been false, but Marsh had no means of know- ing that it was false. Certain it is that there was sucha report in Washington after the adjournment of the Cabinet meeting, and that it came from such sources that Mr. Go- bright, the experienced and cautious agent of the Associated Press, had no doubt of its truth and sent it forth to the country, on the same day, as authentic news. If Mr. Blaine’s statement be true Mr. Gobright was imposed upon, and the same person who gave him false news would have a stronger motive for deceiving Marsh. Ifthe purpose of the de- ception was to secure his flight the same false news would naturally be told to some | person in Washington who would telegraph it to him at once and cause him to abscond. The fact that he fled on the very first north- ern train that left after he could have re- ceived the spurious news of what had been done in the Cabinet makes it credible that this was the reason of his sudden flight. Marsh seemed in doubt whether the news was genuine, and snch a doubt would ex- plain his vacillation. The inquiries he made of the conductor indicated a purpose to re- turn to New York in the first down train he might meet. He got off at Peekskill and paced the platform in such astate of nervous trepidation as to attract attention. As the train was about to start he jumped on, but before it got under full speed he hurried out of the car and leaped off, with some danger to his life, waiting two hours in Peekskill and go- ing on in the next train. How was that in- terval employed? Did he telegraph to his counsel in New York to procure a more au- thentic account of the facts from Washing- ton? _Did he receive at Peekskill the sub- stance of the Associated Press despatch which was sent that night to all the news- papers of the country? There was time enough for such information and motive enough for seeking it. There is only one person who had a strong motive for inventing such false news, and that is General Belknap himself. With Marsh out of the country and not daring to return Belknap is safe from impeachment | and indictment unless other evidence can be | discovered. It is more probable that the gent of the Associated Press was deceived and Marsh seared in Belknap's interest than that the committee were willing to connive at or the President to promote the escape of ; the most important witness in the case. Mr. tell from what source he received the false | report of the proceedings at the Cabinet meeting. his office, and a dictatorship is the only alternative known to that Republic to save things from chaos, In this country few die and none resign, Gobright should be summoned and made to’ the House were disingenuous and puerile, | by telegraph from Washington, intelligence | dated March 3, giving an in | General Belknap and Messrs, Marsh and | Tue Prestpent or Unvevar has resigned | The State Survey. A committee to examine the condition of | temper of the Mexican people is such surveys and maps of the State of New York | that it would inevitably lead to war. If we was appointed at the January meeting of the | are to have war, General Pillow thinks we American Geographical Society. Expe- rienced engineers assisted in the investiga- tion, and the.report published by the society sets forth in a striking way the gross inaccn- racies of old surveys and the costly troubles arising therefrom. It seems that the land- marks, designated in deeds as means by which we should find the exact piece of ground conveyed, were trees, stumps, stones and other perishable or- movable objects. These have disappeared or changed position to such an extent that the boundaries of many estates are already lost, and many more are rendered so uncertain as to prevent careful purchasers from investing in these lands, The original chain and compass sur- veys have proved, whenever tested, to be so bad that they are no guide whatever in determining doubtful lines or areas, The Flushing surveyors say that the farms there measure from two to twenty acres more or less than the deeds purport to convey. One property, described in the deed as fifty acres, ‘‘more or less,” measured sixty-nine acres. One railroad reports that the deeds of the lands over which it is built have an average error of ten per cent in the number of acres described. In Westchester a lot conveyed as “seventy acres more or less” really contained eighty-seven acres. The best authorities say that not one deed in a thousand gives the true amount of land which changes hands. We know of one case where an estate which had always passed for 4,000 acres was offered for sale, and the price fixed in accordance with its supposed ex- tent. As it was near the coast the intending purchasers applied to the United States | Coast Survey for information, and found that the land really measured only 2,600 acres. In Europe they have had this same trouble in preserving boundaries and making abso- | lutely reliable measurements of counties, towns, estates and holdings. Each country has settled the difficulty by extending overits whole area just such a triangulation as that of our own United States Coast Survey. They establish a system of practically inde- structible and immovable monuments at short intervals over the State, measuring their distance and direction from one an- | other with absolute precision. Then the dis- tance and direction from these imperishable landmarks to the neighboring corners of es- tates, towns and counties are very care- fully determined. This fixes them forever. Each new line laid down in the State, when connected with these triangulation stations, becomes as permanent as they. The adoption of this system of surveying in Europe has put an end to all. disputes about land boundaries, such as have in the past twenty years cost this State enough to pay for a survey that would settle the matter foralltime. The difficulties attending such a work are becoming greater every year, as property increases in value and population is more dense. Most landowners will gladly agree upon their dividing lines, if they can only be permanently fixed by a dis- interested State survey of the same scien- tific character as the coast survey. “Such a work will proceed slowly at first and cost but little each year. In saving ing the transfer of real estate, in furnishing an accurate basis for all local surveys for tax maps, public improvements and other purposes, a State survey will pay for itself over and over again. It should be started now, while the public feeling about reform will permit only honest and capable management. If begun in a time of general prosperity, and the conse- quent carelessness in administration of affairs, we fear that scientific purity cannot be secured. The bill for a State survey, in- troduced into the Assembly by Hon. Isaac I. Hayes, is an excellent one and ought to pass, The Cattle Raids on the Frontier. We print letters from two gentlemen who profess an accurate acquaintance with the state of affairs on the Mexican border. One of them, Mr. Jasper W. Johnson, is the coun- sel of more than thirteen hundred citizens ; of Texas who have been plundered by the Mexican bandits and are seeking redress through the action of our government. Mr. Johnson has devoted four years to the inyes- tigation in jthe interest of his clients, and two Congressional commissions have spent fifty thousand dollars in collect- ing evidence. The other correspondent, General Pillow, became personally ac- quainted with the Rio Grande region while serving in the Mexican war, and has very decided opinions in relation to the proper remedy for the raids which have been kept up for the last ten years. On the main facts which form the ground of complaint there is no difference in the statements of these writers. The raids began in 1865, immediately after close of the civil war, when the State troops of Texas, which had guarded the frontier, were disarmed and disbanded, and have con- tinued with little interruption from that time to this. American bank of the Rio Grande, from sixty toa hundred miles in width and four or five hundred miles in length, has been Mexican property. Most of the robberies have been perpetrated by an organized band under the Mexican General Cortina, who maintains a quasi army, which he pays out of the pro- | ceeds of the plunder, reserving enough to | enrich himself. He supplies not only a large section of Mexico but the Island of Cuba with beef cattle, and the Mexican government has not interféred with his operations. While these writers substantially agree in as to the remedial measures which they suggest. Mr. Johnson, looking solely to the compensation for the stolen property, and he says that negotiations are in progress of which he has no reason to complain. Gen- eral Pillow, on the other hand, passes the prevention. He has | sals by the pursuit of into their own country. the money now wasted by litigation, in facilitat- | the | A strip of territory on the | acarly depopulated by the insecurity of | their statements of the facts they differ widely | interest of his clients, merely desires that influence of haste for wealth ina hothouse | the government shall compel Mexico to make question of redress and discusses means of poor in face of the chance to be unjustly | no faith in repri- | robbers | stern counsel of itself. He thinks | this .would be, at best, but a mere | palliation of the evil, and that the had better declare it boldly, and then secure the advantages of victory. He says the raiders are mounted on fleet horses, and that on their side of the river, where they per- fectly understand the country, they would easily elude pursuit, They are clothed in suits of dressed leather, which enable them to ride unharmed through the chapparal which would tear off the clothing and lacerate the flesh of their pursuers. He believes that nothing short of war will bring the Mexicans to terms, and that the war should be waged to secure a change of boundary. The Rio Grande, which is nearly dry for nine months of the ye, gives no security as a frontier; but by conquering and retaining two of the Mexican States we might secure a boundary line consisting in part of a deep river, im- passable without boats, and in part of a range of mountains with only two or three passes, which could be gnarded by a few com- panies of artillery and cavalry. The subject is interesting, and we are willing that all who possess real knowledge of that region shall have a hearing in our columns. Preparatory Contests for the Centen- , nial In their well meant endeavors to have the Centennial regatta on the Schuylkill worthy of the time and the nation the Committee og Arrangements have taken a step sure to defeat the very end they are most eager to attain. By throwing open the races to rowers from the entire world they will have in each contest so many entries that no track in the world could properly accommodate them, much less the narrow Schuylkill. One way out of this, and the one they purpose adopt- ing, is to row the different races in heats. But this is a plan not only objectionable ‘ from every standpoint, but simply fatal to fair racing. It fifteen boats are entered to row on a track wide enough only for five there must be four heats—three trial and one final. Working at the fastest rates and under most favorable circumstances, these, if all attempted on the same day, must occupy several hours, and hence thoroughly tire the spectators. The wind and sun and current meanwhile change sufficiently to visibly affect the rowing, while the separation into absolutely fair sets for the trial heats is next to impossible, and if the second boat, in one trial heat, makes better time than the first in another, it cannot be fair to let the latter into the final heat and yet exclude the former. Should the managers also not be thoroughly up to their work—and the men in this country who have ever developed any particular ability in handling a large fleet of outriggers can be counted almost on one’s thumbs—the long labors of the committee will end in a confusion peculiarly trying, because hundreds of thousands will be there to witness it. The evident remedy for this is to get the trial heats through with beforehand and elsewhere and have them all disposed of, People will go to Philadelphia expecting to see, not a batch of trial heats, but a grand race among the very best oarsmen the world can furnish. If the Schuylkill has but room for five crews abreast, then but five should be allowed in any one of the many contests, and here Saratoga can come, directly to the rescue, and in doing 50 insure a series of contests on her beautiful lake more brilliant | than she ever knew or for long years will know again. On Tuesday, the Fourth of July, and the two days following let her throw open a series of races to the professional | oarsmen of the world, giving liberal purses, Of the American crews competing let the | two who show the best score in the three days’ races be eligible for places at Philadel- phia, and let all whom they have beaten stay out. To meet, then, the two exceed- ingly tough crews from the British provinces and the champion team from England there | will be the best we really have, and they will not be hampered by second rate teams, in danger of fouling them. Let Saratoga fix three days of the following week for a simi- lar weeding process among the amateurs. Besides so manifestly deciding where the merit rightly rests a moment's thought will show how profitably individuals may then be changed, the poorest man in the first boat giving place to the best in any of the others, and still having time to thoroughly fill his new place before reaching Philadel- phia. The winners thus at Saratoga will get all the patronage they wish, and until they first win in such a contest, and so earn it, it would be foolish to extend it to them. Sermons for the Sin of the Times. A dull and dreary Sabbath has not a | quickening influence upon the religions emotions, Maen is more prone to look at the | sad face of mortal things and bewail his inability to better them than to fly for relief to the Great Giver. Yet with the shadow of a~great shame over the nation, with an | arrow quivering in the heart of the | nation’s honor, there was something | kindred in the gloominess of nature, |The physical redresses the balance of the moral for the moment, and as a man in sorrow is said to find temporary relief by | walking against the rain, those who yester- | | day heard the warning words of the nation's moral danger could ponder on it more deeply that the face of the heavens did not mock him with laughing floods of sunshine, | The warning came in various tones from the | | pulpits, but if Mr. Frothingham is less | Christianly orthodox, his words, which we print elsewhere, have more force and perti- nency than many which were uttered | yesterday in the time-honored chan- cels of hoary creeds. If he coupled the perjured savings bank president with the corrupt Cabinet officer he was only enforcing the ‘Evil of the Time” in the play- ing fast and loose with trust, which is the | most painful illustration of the demoralizing civilization. Mr. Moody, too, in a more | strongly Christian manner, enforced the sam’ lesson. If the face of Daniels is extinct, who did not fear to suffer for truth'’s sake— the men who in our day would dare to be take for the nation to Dr. Hepworth, who also preached from the trials of | Daniel, failed to impress this great lesson of rich—it is time | as much as ever, | which alone can make and keep the government what the Hebrew prophet’s life, although he dee livered a good sermon. Dr. Bellows, too, who preached on the balance of soul and character, just fell short of the pregnant lessons of our times, which his subject should have led to. We want plain, direct talk upon this vital matter from our preach- ers, for if our shame is only to be spread to the world and come back intensified upon our unrepentant heads we had better let the moral sores fester without acry until the national soul parts with weary wings from the corrupted body. F The Gas Overcharges, The people of New York in thei quarrel with the gas monopolies, whe not only charge too high, but for’ too much, are fortunate in being able to fight their own battle without hay- ing to trust to purchasable legislators at Albany. The competition in the coal oil trade is so keen that the price of that illuminating fluid cannot be so suddenly raised as the price of coal gas, which is in the hands of a grasping monopoly. Hence those who find their gas bills a burden pecuniarily disproportionate to the value returned (and who does not?) can send back their meters and save money and indigna- tion by using oil. We know that gas has many advantages, but if the companies charge two dollars and _ seventy-five cents for what is not worth two dollars, and systematically send bills for. excessive quantities, a man had _ better take a little extra mechanical trouble than empty his pockets monthly and annoy him- self all the time by kicking against the spikes of a despotic and irresponsible gas company.’ Hence the spread of the oil movement in New York. Our reporters show, as will be seen elsewhere, how the oppression has been felt and how cheap, nay profitable, the remedy. Argument like that of the storekeepers who are using oil is worth columns of argument based on the hard times and the downward tendency of prices, Economy 1n Icz will probably be among the contracting cries of storekeepers and householders throughout the coming sum- mer, unless Old Winter favors us with a boreal blast before the companies have fixed their summer tariff. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, dines CO ay Pinchback {s called an Anglo-Atrican, Maine is supplying the country with ico, Mrs. Belknap was born in Massachusetts. New England is sending colonies to Arizona. Senator Ingalls is much talked of for Vice President, Senator Jones brings his potatoes all the way from Elko, Nev. Senator Sargent speaks more rapidly than any other orator in the Senate. Witham Walter Phelps is again talked of for Com gress in his old district. It is estimated that there will be 30,000 people in th¢ Black Hills by May 1. General John A. Lozan’s hair is raven black—ag black, in fact, as the ace of clubs. Colonel Sheridan, brother of the Lieutenant General, will join McCook’s forces in the Black Hills. Mr. C. De Young has introduced Eastern ways of journalism into the San Francisco Chronicle, ‘A Southwestern paper thinks that ‘Watch on the Rhino”’ ought to be a popular song in the Quartermas ter’s Department. The Icelanders cultivate English more than any othes European language, Shakespeare and Byron being theit special favorites. A correspondent of the Owego Gazelle thinks the election of Senator Bayard, of Dolaware, to the Presi- dency, would make things all right in Washington, Central Pacitic Railroad trains nave been unusually blockaded 1n the snow this year. Much ‘fast freight’? has been destroyed, This is an argument for Colo’ Scott, The recent census gives these figures:—New York, 1,060,000; Philadelphia, 800,000; Brooklyn, 507,000; St. Louis, 450,000; Chicago, 410,000; Boston, 340,000; | San Francisco, 250,000. Father John Morris bas brought out a second series of his ‘*fronbles of our Catholic Forefathors Related by Themselves,”” which is pronounced by the Academy to be a very interesting and important publication. Frank Lee Benedict's novel, ‘*Twixt Hammer and Anvil,” uses over again his old materials, which are considerably the worse for wear, The scene is laid ia France and the characters are French aud American, Just a year ago a Norwegian, when drunk, frozo his hanas and feet so badly near Decorah, lowa, that they had to be amputated, His wife last weck got judgmen’ for $9,500 against the druggist that sold him the liquor Mile, Rosa Bonheur is about to leave Paris again for several months. She has recently been staying in Hungary, at the seat of Baron Sina, and is now about to become the guest ot Lord Cochrane, on his estate a Dumfries. Senator Christiancy walks around the Senate with his hands behind him, and at receptions, where his very young tid-bit of a wife appears in flowing white, jike Ophelia, he ts said to appear awkward and sheopish. Mr. L. G. Bridges, of Keokuk, lowa, whose name hag been mentioned in connection with the headstone con- tract, publishes a card in which he denies that Bel- knap went shares with him in said contract, or that the’ Secretary ever realized anything through him in that } transaction. Cooper's novels are having a great run in Russia, Translated into that language, 3,000 copies of the lead- ing stories were sold ina year, Bret Harte’s tales and poems have also appeared in Russian, and have sur- passed the sale of Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” and ‘*Pendennis,” done into that language. General Braxton Bragg, with some gentlemen from Mobile, Ala,, and Austin, Texas, are taking stops for the establishment of an extensive colony in Western Texas. Colonel Norton, Mr. Hollingsworth and others loft Austin a few days ago for Laredo, for the purpose of making a thorough examination of the country, with a view toestablish a largo stock ranche, and also te prosecute mining operations and farming. Milan (Tenn,) Exchang::—“Pinkerton, the detective, stopped a few hours at tho Central House here a few days ago. A gentleman with him said Pinkerton told him he could put his hand on Charley Ross in twenty. four hours if money enough was pnt up. He said ree | wards had been offered, but the money was notia sight. If this be true, Pinkerton should be ‘lost? until he makes the boy's whereabouts Known,” “The hope of the country,” affirms the Indianapolis Journal (rep.), “tests with the republican party to-day It represents the elements of society it ought to be. The rebel yell which is now ringing througl»the land has been heard before. It was heard often during the war, and never so loud as when the overthrow of the republicau party was thought to be at hand.” As the toilet of Mile, Croizette, in tho “Etrangére,” will probably give the tone of the fashions for the coming’ season, lay readers may bo interested in a description of i Her drosses were dosigned by M. Carolus Durand, her brother-in-law. In the first ac she wears an ovening dress of white crossgrained: cream colored silk, with embroidered flowers of the ame color; the bodice is trimmed with a few white jot ornaments. In the second act her morning arcss onsists of a body ani skirt of cmerald green velvet, ut like a giding habit, three rows of gray buttons, ar | ranged diagonally, reaching below the belt; the tunie is gray and set of by small cords of Spanish velvet. In the third act she woars a walking dress of raby Velvet with plaited satin of the samo color, the flounces being of very wide gold braid and bonnet and veil te Match. In the last two acts the dress ts dla Pompe dour, the skirt being of gray silk, delicately shaded with rose, ornamented with bouquets of flowers and ‘rimmed with white and pale rose colored cord,