The New York Herald Newspaper, April 6, 1876, Page 6

FIFTH _ PIQUE, at8P.M. Favny NEW YORK HERALD | BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR | THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year. Four cents per copy. Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per month, free of postage. ‘ All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Herarp. ’ Letters and packages should be properly | sealed. | Rejected communications will not be re- | turned. PHILADELPH: SIXTH STRE LONDON OFFIC PFICE—NO. 112SOUTH : a) OF THE NEW YORK | HERALD— NO. ! STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AV JE DE L'OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms Noh ey AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. woop's MUSEUM. por CORN GIRL, at P.M. Walter Benn, Matinee at 2 LYCEUM THEATRE BURLESQUE, at 8 P. REL at P.M. Lester Wallack. THEATRE. WALL. CAPTAIN OF THE W. BROOKL’ FERREOL, tS... TONY PASTOH VARIETY, at 8 P.M. UNION SQUAR FERREOL, a 8P.M. 0. i. The W THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P. BRASS, at 8 P.M. CHATEAU VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BOW MARIE STUART, at 8 THIKTY-FOURTH § VARIETY, at 8 P.M. av THEATRE, te v VARIETY, at 8 P.M. GE: DAS MAEDEL OH ¥_OF DESIGN. BITION. Day and evening. 1G “THEATRE. M in VARIETY, TRIPLE SHEET. “NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1870, TDW onl Gap Faporia Ihtd thorptad the probantaaias are that the weather to-day will be partly cloudy or clear. Noticz to Country Newspraters.—For pt and regular delivery of the Heraxp | By fast mail trains orders must be sent direct to this office. Postage free. Watt Srneet Yxestenpay.—Stocks were lower and the market heavy. Gold opened and closed at 112 7-8, with sales meanwhile at 1125-8. Money on call was supplied at 3 and 4 per cent. Government securities were dull and investments only steady. Fucus, the butcher of Simmons, was placed on trial yesterday. There was no difficulty about the jury, and we see no signs of in- sanity in the defence. Frencn Newsparens will be the first to feel the beneficial effect of the late elec- tions, The raising of the state of siege will | not affect the outward appearance of things | in the great cities to any extent. Our Exrrapition Treaty with England seems to be difficult of application in the case of Winslow, and as the insufficiency of its provisions is recognized on both sides of the Atlantic it should ngt be difficuit to amend them, no matter what becomes of Boston’s favorite son. A Boor Missixc.—Hell Gate pilots report that the buoy indicating Man-of-War Rock, off Thirty-fourth street, East River, has | been missing for the past month. The proper authorities will take notice, as this is | every dangerous point for vessels outward bound by Long Island Sound. Joy to New York !—Woe to the plunder- ing horse car companies! Work has been begun at the Battery on the Rapid Transit road. Let the Supreme Court give us the confirmation of the Rapid Transit Commis- sioners’ report, and then let us have a race between the constructors as to which will give us the first five miles of a stout, hand- some double track road., Tue Kueprive’s Sarety lies, as we have pointed out, in his playing the money | Powers of Europe against each other. Thus | what he got from England for the canal | shares brought a handsome sum from France | to pay the interest on his loan. Now Italy | joins hands with France to issue a new cop- per-fastened loan wherein to stow and secure the Khedive's floating debt, and so save him from financial shipwreck. ‘Tue Wearren To-Day promises to be cloudy, with probable rain. The storm, which was central in Iowa on Tuesday, has moved north- ward over the Iake region, and is now pass- | ing northeastward through the St. Lawrence | Valley. Warm southerly winds, followed | by a westerly and northwesterly blow, with cold, are in the programme for New York. Olsters are not yet out of season, They will go out with the oysters In this respect there is a relation between fashion and fish. Tar Russtan Carricisms upon Disraeli's | statement, in arguing on behalf of the Royal | Titles bill, that it was necessary, in view of Russian aggressions in Asia, to tell the sub- ject peoples of India that England meant to hold Hindostan against all comers, have a strong justification. International courtesy should have closed the English Premier's mouth, but in his statements of the necessity for an imperial title this is not his only blunder. fn: ‘Tox Decision 1x tHE Donan Case is not | an adjudication of the controversy between | the two claimants to the office of Commis- sioners of Jurors. On that point the Court of Appeals merely decided that an officer de facto can summon jurors without vitiating a trial, provided he complies with the law. | The Court of Appeals will make a separate | decision on the question whether Mr. Dun- | Jap or Mr. Douglas Taylor is the legal Com- missioner of Jurors. The case was argued yesterday by A. Oakey Hall for Taylor and | ‘Mr. Evarts for Dunlap, but several days may elapse before the Court reaches a decision. | money than private individuals. NEW YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 1876,—' Four Per Cent Interest. The great problem of the period is a re- duction of the taxes which weigh so heavily on all the industries of the country. “That class of politicians who masquerade as re- formers are loud and obstreperous in pro- fessing a wish to alleviate the burden of tax- ation, and if their methods were as wise as their professions are noisy they would deserve commendation. They have hit the real tone of public feeling in their clamors for lower taxes, for there is nothing which the people so earnestly de- mand, But the small economies they pro- pose in the expenses of the West Point cadets and curtailment of the salaries of public offi- cers would bring so little relief that they are hardly worth considering, while Congress neglects so obvious and practicable a meas- ure as reducing the enormous interest on the national debt. We are still paying six per cent interest on | the greater part of our public debt, while Great Britain pays only three per cent upon hers. Itis discreditable to those who control our affairs that in the eleventh year after the close of the war we are still paying war rates for the use of money. The possibility of borrowing at four and a half per cent is officially recognized by the Secretary of the Treasury, who does not doubt that he could | refund the five-twenty sixes at that rate if Congress would give him authority to issue long bonds. We believe that the whole debt could be refunded at four per cent with proper legislation and a skilful adminis- tration of the finances. ‘This belief is founded on the fact that men are now buy- ing government bonds at such prices that they get only four per cent for their money. At the Stock Exchange yesterday the price of United States five per cent bonds, re- deemable in 1881, was 118, the price of gold yesterday being a shade less than 113. Now, supposing the currency to remain in the same state as at present for the ensuing five years, the government in redeeming these bonds in 1881 would pay the equivalent of 113 in currency— that is to say, it would pay 100 in gold, which is the same thing as 113 in cur- rency. The present buyers at 118 would therefore lose five cents in five years, or one cent a year on each dollar of the investment. Deducting this one cent from the five per cent interest on the bonds it is plain that the net interest on the investment would be only four per cent. As people are found willing to purchase bonds redeemable if so short a period as five years at a price which barely reimburses the principal with four per cent, there ought to be no difficulty in dis- posing of bonds having forty years to run at the same rate. We are, therefore, justified in assuming that the national debt might be refunded at four per cent if we had able statesmen and financiers at the head of affairs. The saving of interest would be sufficient to defray the whole civil expenses of the government. By the last debt statement, published on the Ist of this month, it appears that the public debt bearing inter- est in coin amounts to $1,695,037,250, on which the interest at four per cent would be $67,000,000. The Secretary of the Treasury, in his last annual report, estimated the interest payable in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, at $97,000,000, so that if we could reduce the rate ‘on the whole interest bearing debt to four per cent there would be ap annual saving of nearly $30,000,000. There are various reasons why a govern- ment in good credit is able to borrow money considerably below the ordinary market rates, Consols or government bonds combine the advantages of productive fixed property and ready money. Property in real estate, ships or factories cannot be suddenly converted into money without great sacrifices, but there is seldom any difficulty in converting government bonds at their market value. 'The man who has government bonds locked up in his safe finds them as good as money in an emergency, and yet, unlike money thus locked up, they never cease to draw interest. If large sums are wanted bonds are easily convertible into cash; if small sums are wanted the bonds are unfailing collaterals on which money can always be borrowed in any ordinary state of the mar- ket. So convenient a form of property need not beara high rate of interest to make it eagerly sought. Another reason why inter- est on government bonds need not be high is their exemption from State and municipal taxation. Other property pays an average of about two per cent in local taxes, and in this city about three per cent. A person here, who lends money on mortgage at seven per cent and pays three per cent taxes on his mortgages, realizes only four per cent | net on his investment, and mortgages are in- ferior to government bonds in ready con- vertibility into money and as a collateral security for loans. It is as shameful as it is wasteful for a gov- ernment, in perfect credit like that of the United States, to be paying, in | time of peace, higher rates for the use of The very form of the bonds proves that it was not ex- pected, at the time of their issue, that the government would continue to pay the enor- mous war rates of that period. twenty bonds were made redeemable in five years from their date, in the expectation that by that time it would be no longer necessary to pay so high a rate of interest as six percent. The ten-forty bonds rested in like manner on the idea that, after the expiration of ten years, five per cent might be a higher rate of interest than the govern- ment would need to pay. have pass@d, the ten years have passed, and we are still paying six per cent on the greater portion of the war debt, which is a ier Q will be interested to know what disgraceful proof of financial. imbecility. | Why should not our government, like that of Great Britain, have the full advan- tage of its great resources and as- sured credit? Why should the United States pay six per cent interest while England pays but three per cent? Why should the national Treasury derive no advantage from the utility and con- venience of its bonds and their complete exemption from local taxation? There can | be but one answer, and that answer is found in the incapacity of our rulers. Of course the national debt cannot be re- funded all at once in four per cent bonds, It is » process which requires time, and be- pinged: safe. Their tackle crossed the walk in such cause it requires time it is necessary to begin. All this winter and spring have been wasted, the new five per cent loan having been all taken before the meeting of Congress, and | we are still paying six per cent on more than a thousand millions. Nearly one-third of this sum is not redeemable until 1881, and no complaint is made in relation to that portion of the six per cent bonds, But there are $721,318,000 of six per cent bonds which became redeemable in 1870, 1872 and 1873, and it is monstrous that the country is compelled to pay six per cent on that vast sum when private individuals are every day buying government bonds in the Stock Ex- change at prices which yield them only four per cent net interest. f There is but one remedy for this disgrace- ful state of things, and that is for the people to take up the four per cent cry and insist on being heard. Not only our American rulers but all rulers are slow to move in any important change until an aroused public sentiment pushes them along. It is by the press, by popular mectings, and by the live part of political platforms, that governments are impelled. During the corn law agitation in England one of the league orators illus- trated the necessity of pushing on the Peel Ministry with popular demonstrations by a parody on these quaint rhymes:— Whed the wind blows, Then the mill goes; Whoeu the wind drops, Then the mill stops. The parody was in this form :— When the wind blows, Then the Peel zoes; When the wind drops, Then the Peel stops. Nothing was ever more historically true, for the powerful breath of popular sentiment forced Sir Robert Peel to take vp and carry the reform, Our government must in the same manner be forced to give the country relief from the heavy burden of exorbitant interest. Let this demand be put into all the political platforms ; let the whole press of the country lend its breath to kindle the agitation ; let a strong cry for a reduction of this needless burden be raised in all the marts of business and all the walks of indus- try ; let the wind keep the mill in motion until this grist is ground, without heavy toll to a syndicate. A Suggestion for Cheap Cabs. It seems to us thatit would be an excellent idea for the American District Messenger Company to endeavor to supply a want long felt in this city—that of cheap cabs. Already this company has much of the machinery necessary for the service, and all that is required to carry the design into execution are the vehicles. A little capital will seeure these, and thereby a very useful company will add largely to its business and its profits. Nothing could be more serviceable or convenient than this plan, if carried into execution. A system of signals like those now in use for the employment of messen- gers can be adopted for the ordering of car- riages, and thus it will be possible to pro- cure a vehicle for any purpose and at reasonable rates without being compelled to go in search of it. The company has its wires in every direction; its instruments are to be found in many private residences and public resorts, and its offices and stations are located all over the city. Its busi- ness is of that character that a cab s vice would be ‘growth in a legitimate direction. Most of our citizens testify to the usefulness of the messenger and tele- graph service when properly carried out. Formerly it was next to impossible to send a message to any part of the vity except through one’s own servants or by an un- known or untrustworthy messenger. Nowa responsible company undertakes. to do this peculiar and necessary service at a given signal, which every citizen can make from his own house ; and if the company will add the cab service to its other business its use- fulness will be greatly extended. The sug- gestion strikes us as entirely feasible and one that ought to be acted upon without delay. Before the district messenger system was adopted there were people who pre- dicted that it could not succeed, and if the company acts upon this idea of supplying cheap cabs at short notice we believe that there will be as many false prophets in this instance as there were in the other case. There is noth- ing impracticable in the scheme. To a large class in this city cabs and carriages are as uch a necessity as are the street cars to the working people. The reason why they are so seldom used is because the charges are too high and they are too difficult to obtain when wanted. In order to procure a carriage most people are required to go as far as their contemplated journey itself, and then it is not certain they will be able to get what they want, even at the extortionate rates now demanded by hackmen. The adoption of the plan we suggest would ob- viate all this, bringing a cab or carriage to every man’s door without any search or ef- fort on his part, and the system could not fail to prove very successful. Tue Freevom or tHe Crity.—Every now and then the Aldermen vote this imponder- able commodity to distinguished persons, and on exceptional occasions accompany it with a gold box; but it is doubtful if The five. | the freedom of the city has any more | substantial existence than appears in such holiday demonstrations or any value to ordinary people. Just now a gentleman has this problem before the courts. He thought he possessed the freedom of the city generally, and particularly the right to the ordinary use of the sidewalks. But he came toa point where that part of the strect was occupied by people engaged in delivering a a way as to throw him down and cause a se- vere injury, and he demands damages, All the judgment in this case will tell—whether the sidewalk can be occupied by a safe Gom- pany or any one else, to the exclusion of its | secure use by the public? Mx. Daxa axp THe Senatr.—Mr. Dana is not confirmed because he wrote a letter that any gentleman would have written in the same circumstances. His defeat will tend to remove from the shoulders of the President some portion of the responsibility for many very bad appointments, for people will now reason that the President knew the Senate better than others did all the time, and that The Rejection of Mr. Dana—The Mis- sion to England. The vote in the Senate on the nomination of R. H. Dana, Jr., to be Minister to Eng- land, will alarm and distress the conserva- tive sentiment of the country. The Trib- une, whose Washington correspondent seems to be a member of the executive ses- sion, tells us that, on the motion to confirm Mr. Dana, twenty democrats and eleven re- publicans voted against him, and seventeen republicans in his favor. It is painful to see in this list antagonistic toMr. Dana such men as Bayard, Kernan, Thurman and Ran- dolph. We ean understand how the leaders of an opposition party should not stand in the way of the blunders of the party in power, “There is a political law, which seems to meet the approval of representative legis- lative bodies here and in England, to the effect that the duty of an opposition is to opr pose, destroy, overturn. This is the theory that animates the liberals in their war upon the proposal to call the Queen Empress. If the democrats in the Senate meant to throw odium on their body they did it in voting against Mr. Dana, for if Mr. Dana had been supported by them he would have been con- firmed. It would have been much better for Messrs. Bayard, Kernan and Randolph to have waived any party advantage thaj may come from the defeat of Dana and gone upon the record as supporting the President :| whenever he nominates gentlemen to office. No better man than Dana has been named for high place in many a day.. His defeat is disheartening to all who believe in republi- can governments as the best method of securing good men in office. It, only re- mains for the President to send some man into the Senate as Minister who will com- mand the confidence of the country and of both parties. The opposition to Mr. Dana began in personal pique. It took a party shape as soon as the World opposed him. The victory is the result of an alliance be- tween General Butler, ‘‘machine” republi- cans and the democratic Senators. Now let the President give us a nomination with o character so high and pure that there cannot even be a criticism upon it. Such a candidate is Henry W. Longfellow. Mr. Longfellow is an honored, illustrious and gifted citizen. His name is a house- hold word throughout England. He would do credit to both countries. There would be no cabal against him. The fact that he is a literary man should not be a bar to his nomination. Our literature has furnished some of its most famous representatives to diplomacy. Joel Barlow, whom Byron was disposed to regard as the American Homer, was our Minister to France in the great Napoleon’s days; Washington Irving was Minister to Spain; Edward Everett was Minister to England ; his brother Alexander, to China, Spain and the Netherlands ; Bay- ard Taylor was secretary to our Russian Legation; Mr. Bancroft servel us at two courts, London and Berlin; Henry Wheaton was sent to Prussia and Denmark by Mr. Van’ Buren; Mr. Marsh is now in Rome and Mr. Boker in St. Peters- burg ; Hawthorne represented us in Liver- pool and Howard Payne in the East ; Mot- ley was at Vienna and London, and Robert Dale Owen served us at the now extinct court of the two Sicilies. Therefore it would be a very graceful thing for General Grant to send Longfellow to London. It is a nomination that would meet with universal favor, not only in England but in America. Dom Prpno II.—Yesterday at noon the Emperor of Brazil sailed from the port of Para, his last port of call on his way to New York. The Hevelius, our special despatch announces, may be expected here as early as the 15th inst., which is the Saturday before Easter. The parting of His Majesty from his subjects at Pari was most auspicious, a night and day having been spent ina round of loyal demonstra- tions, described in our despatch. From the plan of the imperial tour telegraphed us it appears that His Majesty's stay’ in New York will be of short du- ration. It will be observed that the French Republic sent a representa- tive to Paré to greet the Emperor, and we hope the hint will not be thrown away on our national and municipal authorities in urging them to extend a hospitable weleome to this ruler of a great and friendly nation coming to do the Republic honor in its Centennial Celebration. Tue Intsu Rircemen are not only coming to shoot in the centennial match, but to ad- vance the old and honorable contest with our boys, in which they have twice sustained defeat, toa third trial. They will be hear- tily welcomed. We are sorry that the Eng- lish riflemen still apparently sulk because they did not have their way about an “Im- perial” team. In view of the Royal Titles bill they must now see that such a style would only be applicable to India, whence, no doubt, a number of fine riflemen—tiger shooters—could be chosen. Sir Henry Hal- ford’s resignation from the captaincy of the English team should leave the way open for the selection of riflemen for our contest. ‘The gallant Scotch and Irish teams deserve great credit for their prompt responses to our invitations. Danxozrovs Wats axp Buruprxes havo caused so many accidents that there is no excuse for those responsible for their care when unsuspecting pedestrians are crushed beneath the ruins of such buildings that are | left unguarded by proper fences, The latest accident in Division street, by which several children have been dangerously if not fatally injured, shows that proper precau- tions for the safety of passers-by were not | taken, We hope that the authorities will take steps to have the owner of this rickety structure severely punished, and that the friends of the injured will promptly sue for and recover heavy damages from Mr. Daniel Woolf. An example is needed. Tue Missrssrprr River continues to rise steadily, and at Memphis is half an inch higher than the flood level of 1874.and eleven inches higher than that of last August. Fears are entertained ot a still greater rise, which will raise the river above the highest level on record. The river measurement at he appointed to vacancies as good men as he | Memphis is now thirty-four feet eleven inches, could get confirmed, | When the waters reach the danger ; being employed as the active agent in raising line of thirty-four feet at this point the country opposite Memphis’ is overflowed. At thirty-four feet seven inches on the gauge the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad is flooded. If, as is anticipated, a further rise of one foot occurs we may have to record one of the most disastrous inundations that has ever devastated the Mississippi Valley. Mr. Kilbourne’s Revenge. None of the conspiracies which have been lately exposed in Washington have aston- ished the country more than that in which Mr. Hallet Kilbourne has just been detected. This gentleman was put in jail because he would not tell what he knew of the real'es- tate pool, and since he has been there has apparently had a better time than if he had been at liberty. His carte for breakfast, din- ner and supper, which we printed a few days ago, show that imprisonment has not had any bad effect on his appetite. Lent did not discourage his ideas of epicurean feeding. No man ever ate so much in so shorta time. The enormous consumption of spring chicken, tenderloin, terrapin, Philadelphia squab, birds, buttered par- snip, French peas, stewed peaches and sar- dines of which Mr. Kilbourne has been guilty attracted the attention of Mr. Glover, the Chairman of the Real Estate Pool Com- mittee, and now the terrible explanation of his diabolical appetite is plain. The dark and damning fact is apparent that Mr. Kil- bourne is in a conspiracy to cripple the in- vestigations in which Congress is engaged by exhausting the appropriations. Breakfast, dinner and supper; supper, Itncheon and dinner ; dinner, luncheon and breakfast, follow each other in Mr. Kil- bourne’s little bill, like the buff trip slip, the blue trip slip and the pink trip slip in the railroad rhyme, but with this difference, that six cent fare or eight cent fare were far below his sublime ideas. He held that his “lieber Freund” should ‘‘punch in the pres- ence of the prisonaire, a ten dollar check for a dinner fare.” When Mr. Kilbourne was locked up in his double cell he was naturally much enraged with the government. . He was in a position not unlike that of Cousin Joe in “The Rough Diamond,” who was kicked down stairs by a gentleman who afterward invited him to dine. ‘‘Well,” said Cousin Joe, as he picked himself up, ‘‘if I can't be rewenged on him I'll be rewenged on his wittles.” So it was with Mr. Kilbourne and the government; he determined to be re- venged—and he was, What other motive than that of revenge or conspiracy can be attributed to a man who eats for breakfast one sirloin steak, $1; one cold turkey, $1; one tenderloin steak, $2; two squabs, $1 50; one shad (Lent), $1, be- sides bacon, eggs, potatoes, cold tongue, chicken salad, water cresses, apples, iced cream, cakes, cucumbers, &c., and follows it up with a dinner which respect for our read- ers forbids us to describe, whose insatiable maw devours food of the value of $25 40 in aday? Does Mr. Kilbourne eat such enor- mous meals as this ina state of freedom when he has to foot the bills himself? We think not. When at liberty he probably breakfasts on tea and toast, lunches at a bar, where he gets a bowl of soup for a glass of whiskey and dines on stewed potatoes, which, we have the highest authority for saying, ate ‘mighty filling at the price.” No; revenge alone could inspire such gnaw- ing hunger combined with the cheering con- solation that the bill would not go to him but to the Chairman of the Real Estate Pool Committee, Mr. Kilbourne, like Cardinal Wolsey, is evidently a man _ of the “most unbounded stomach,” ad when we mark the steady growth of his bills for ‘‘breakfast, lunch, dinner and sup- per” from $12 50 to $25 40, we find a prac- tical illustration of how ; ‘increase of appetite has grown by what it fed on.” Let us hope the consciousness of his fearful crime against the government will sit lightly upon his—well, let us say, his breast. We learn from the ‘True History of the Bastile” that the State prisoners therein a fined were allowed a certain sum for thi meals, and that they frequently entered into conspiracy with their jailers to speculate in the provision market. ‘There is good reason to suspect that this has been the case with Mr. Kilbourne, Boss Shepherd, John 0. Evans, Sam Young, the jailers and Freund, and that they have endeavored to get up a corner in terrapin and shad, Kilbourne all luxuries to exorbitant rates. It is certain that the price of edibles has increased since his arrest. Thus we find this daring man | engaged not only in a conspiracy to ruin the government by exhausting the already de- pleted Treasury, but also in a plot to create a famine in Washington. Well, let Mr. Kil- bourne goon in his mad revenge. He may ruin the government and makg a fortune out of the markets, but in the end there are well founded hopes that he will perish of indiges- tion. Eighteen dollars’ worth of food a day would destroy even the nine stomachs of a camel or give an ostrich the dyspepsia, Drsasters Atoxa tHe Coast have been distressingly frequent during the last month, and many a stout mariner has found a watery grave within sight of the treacherous land. The south coast of Long Island, being low and unmarked by prominent topo- gtaphical features, is one of the most danger- ous during the season of storms. The loss of the schooner Helen J. Halloway may bo set down as due toa miscalculation by her master as to his true position, and the roar | of the breakers was the only warning he re- ceived of his mistake. On such a danger- | ous coast, lying right in the track of coast- ing vessels bound north, an additional num- | ber of lightships is needed for the safety of | navigation. ‘Two of these, at least, should cover the south coast of Long Island, and from points not less than ten miles to sea- ward. Oxrorp aNp Caxmntpar Boat face—We publish on another page of the HenaLp this morning an interesting communication from an old Cambridge oar in relation to the Oxford and Cambridge boat race. The com- munication explains not only the difference in the style of rowing of both crews, but ac- counts, in a great measure, for the great change which has taken place in the Cam- bridge boat, and which helped, within the last week, to make the light blue the favorite for winning, The rise and fall of the Western rivers during seasons of rain are governed by the movements of the freshet waves created by the accumulation of waters from their respec- tive watersheds, The average rates of move- ment of these volumes in twenty-four hours, on the principal rivers, have been carefully computed from data derived from a series of observations extending over a considerable period, and with the following results :—On the Missouri River, from Fort Benton to Omaha, the freshet wave moves at the rate of 157 miles in twenty-four hours, and from Omaha to the junction with the Mississippi at St. Louis 126 miles; on the Upper Mis- sissippi River, from St. Paul to Davenport, the rate of movement is 37 miles, and from Davenport to St. Louis, 67 miles; on the Lower Mississippi, from St. Louis to Vicksburg, the freshet wave travels at the rate of 94 miles per twenty- four hours, and from Vicksburg to New Orleans, 100 miles; on the Al- leghany River, from Oil City to Pitts burg, 120 miles; on the Ohio River, from Pittsburg to Louisville, 124 miles, and from Louisville to Cairo 60 miles; on the Cumberland River, from Nashville to the junction with the Ohio, 100 miles. The above figures give the average velocity; but variations occur with the increase or decrease of the volumes of water carried by the chan- nels, The difference between the freshet wave velocities on the different rivers, and even on the several sections of the same river, is due to the more or less rapid drain- age or accumulation of drainage from the watersheds at certain portions of the river system. Thé velocity increases from St. Paul to New Orleans, on the Mississippi, because of an increase of volume southward, but it decreases from Fort Benton to St. Louis because the river grade de- creases per mile in the Lower Missouri Valley, and the feeders or tributaries drain the great plains, from whence there ia but a very limited quantity of water dis- charged into the rivers, and that very slowly, the Missouri deriging its principal volume from its soyrces the Rocky Mountams, The Alleghany and Upper Ohio show a com- paratively nigh freshet wave velocity, be-. cause these rivers drain watersheds of markedly abrupt topography, which dis- charge their waters into the rivers with extraordinary rapidity and thus generate high but short freshet waves. In the Lower Ohio, from Louisville to Cairo, the grade being comparatively flat, the impetus of the wave is checked and the velocity reduced to one-half that on the upper section. A knowl- edge of the movements of these freshet waves on all rivers adapted for internal navi- gation is of the utmost importance, and the timely notice now given of the approach of floods by the Signal Service Department should enable every intelligent resident along the teecatensd line to guard against the loss of either merchandise, produce oz floating property. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Clara Morris is very ill again. ‘San Francisco has raised $2,000 for Hungary. Maino lumbermen are driven from the woods by the deep snow. General Butter has closed his Washington residence for the season. California raises the biggest pears, the biggest banka and the biggest feet. — The Globe-Democrat says that St. Louis real estate shows no sign of appreciation. Senator James E. English, of Connecticut, is at the Astor House, on his way to Washington. Men with nice morocco satchels are carrying home five cents’ worth of lime for housecleaning. Tho new Welsh magazine is called Y Wawr, Ite leading idea is to wago Y Wawr on Satan. The Louisville Courier-Journal reaches this office torn. It is too bright a paper to be mutilated. Richmond snquirer :—“There is no moral censor so keon and so pure as a politician out of office,” James Morgan Hart has been clected Professor of Modern Languages and English Literature in the Uni- versity of Cincinnati, (i ‘A Philadelphia judge has rendered a decision against telegraph poles. But in New York a man can speak his mind against one lamp post. O’Logan says Lotta’s hair is as red as cherries, Senator Logan’s hair is as black as cherries. Belknap’s hair ts as blonde as an oxheart, Congressman James @. Blaine, of Maine, and Senator Allen T, Caperton, of West Virginia, arrived in the city yesterday and are at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. The Jacksonville Union boasts that Southern Cali- fornia is ealled the Florida of the West, But, then, Florida is called the Coney Island of the South. ‘There is a woman in Jersey so economical thatthe other night, while her husband was abed, she turned apd made over hia jast pair of pantaloons for one of the children, It is worthy even of repeated notico that in the brary of Berlin America is represented by one volume of Emerson and twenty-six volumes of Mre. Ann & Stephens. Such is life. ‘When a man buysa little bit of a basket of straw. berries no bigger than a pinthe carries it around ogten- tatiously as if it made Kim tired; but he has two pounds of liver put up in thin paper like @ lace shawl, ASt. Jo (Mo.) baby, one of twins, has one blue eye and one black, a parrot nose, a woll’s ears, a pig’s tusks, three hands, a club footand a heavy beard. It has boen engaged to steal personals for the Chicago Tribune. ‘The Rochester Democrat quotes:—‘*The favorite brain nourishment in the New Yorx- Heratp office, saya ‘Waterloo of the St. Louis Republican, is not fish, but thistles; and the Henan certainly does make the loud- est noise.” Come, we gotoff that joke on you jacks some time ago, Get up something original. Richmond, Va, is to send steamboat excursions te the Centennial These excursious will be arranged so | as to allow visitors a week at Philadelphia. The boat, the old Isaac Bell, will afford accommodations asa hotel, the expense of the trip boing about $30 Other coast cities will probably follow this example. Gray eyed men make the best sportsmen; amber eyed men make the best musicians; hazel eyed men make the sharpest critics; bluecyed men mako the warmest poets; red haired people make the best bil Nard players; brown haired people make the best cooks, | A hair in a restaurant hash walways dark brown and | Just eight Inches long. The Norwich Bulletin says nearly every one was pre- pared for April fool jokes on Saturday. One gentleman | crossing Shetucket street saw a neatly wrapped pack- age lying on the crosswalk, but: was too sharp to pick it op, and merely smiled at the harmiess sell and passed on, When ho saw a boot black stop and unde tt and take out a box of fine cigars that some one hae dropped, he took @ grip on an expression whieh may be in the hymn book, thongh we never saw it there, and sat down and wrote his mother that he was lonely ‘and the world seemed to be all slipping away from him. ‘The Wilmington (N. C.) Review says :--Tho Virgina papers, without authority for so doing, have beem claiming General Loring, the gallant officer in the Khedive’s service, to whose skill it is said that the re- cent ive victory over the Abyssinians is duc, asa Virginian.’ As far as we can ascoriain General Loring was cither born in Wiltrington or removed here at as early age. Ono of the oldest citizens here recoliects the two Loring boys, of whom tie distingaished officer ‘was one, when they were schoolboys here, and no more than eight or ten years of age, Their father was Reuben Loring, a brick mason, and a brother to the Nestor of North Carolina journalism, Thomas Loring, Lee” « pe ri PN