The New York Herald Newspaper, April 11, 1876, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR fics ios ett aad 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 Henar. Letters and packages should be properly sealed, Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OF FICE—NO. 112SOUTH 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. is 1s IMENTS TO-NIGHT. —o——_—_— SQUARE THEATRE UNION YWERREOL, ai 8 !’. M. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. PARK THEATRE, BRASS, atS P.M. George ett Rowe. JATEAU MABILLE VARIETIES, tor. M. VARIETY ROWERY THEATRE, WAITING FOR THE VERD' ats P.M. THIRTY-FOURTH STREET OPERA HOUSE VARIETY, a 8 P.M, EK THEATEB, Davenport. ATRE, FIFTH PIQUE, atSP.M. Fai GLOB: VARIETY, at 8 P. M. BAN FRANCISCO MI VARIETIES, PA VARIETY, at 8. RM. ATRE, GE! DIE KARLSSCHN rs woon USEOM. iad AWAKE, ats P.M. Goorge France. Matinee at 2 Ly EATRE, VAUDEVILLE, at 8?’ ie Palmer, THEATRE COMIQCE, VARIETY, at ST’. M. ATRR. A. J. Montagus, ZATRE. snold, TRE. WA FEARS, IDLE TEA BOOTIE HENRY V., at 8 P.M 71 VARIETY, at 8 P.M. BROOKL HEATRE, SHE MIGHTY DOLLAK, P.M. Mr, and Mrs, W. J. Florence. is TONY PASTOR sr W THEATRE. TRIPLE SHEET. NEW YORK, T PAY, APRIL ~ From our reports this morning the-probahilities @re that the weather to-day will be partiy cloudy. i, 18 Norice to Country Nzwspraters.—For ompt and regular delivery of the Heraup oe Jast mail trains orders must be sent direct do this office. Postage free. Watt Srreer Yesrerpay.—Stocks were generally lower. Gold opened and closed at 113, with intermediate sales at 113 1-4. Money was supplied at 3, 4 and 5 per cent, Governments, railway bonds and investment securities were steady. PLU AURSR Ede ti Turkey at last reports a victory in Bosnia, but from the number of insurgents in the field there it would seem that the chance of their final defeat is remote. * Tae Wraxness or Auronso’s GOVERNMENT fs shown in the strength of the Vatican influ- ence at Madrid. Begging of Rome not to oppose liberty of worship in Spain will, if continued, lead to the kingship going beg- ging again. Icetanp is better off than was believed. The voleano-vomited pumice dust that was to destroy the pastures, on the contrary, makes the grass grow where it never grew before, and the islanders who were threat- ened with famine are found flourishing on fish. We are very glad to learn these things, as man attempted but little to relieve the threatened want which Nature, in her own mysterious way, removed from the sturdy people who woo her in her most repellant fastnesses. Mr. Conxuinc anp THE Presmency.— The generous manner in which the Sun supports the claims of Mr. Conkling for the republican nomination shows a discernment and liberality which never appear to so much advantage as in independent journal- ism. Mr. Conkling represents the courage and discipline of his party, and so long as we have two parties in our politics the wis- dom of independent journals in supporting the real leaders of each organization is com- mendable. More than all, we are glad to welcome the Sun into these high realms of politics and to the consideration of national questions from a national point of view. Anoruen Panasx From Grant.—Once more Grant has given us a phrase which ex- presses pithily and happily a thought and aspiration of the whole people. He is famous for his phrases. Several of them are inseparable from the history of the war. On some occasions he concentrated the pro- gramme of a campaign in an epigram; as when he said, ‘‘the Confederacy is a shell;” or, “I will fight it out on this line,” &c. His fleclaration to the republican party, that it was ‘time to unload,” was of the same sort. Now he expresses, with a sense of impatience, his wish that the 4th of March, '77, were already here—in short, that he were out of office. How deeply and widely the whole | American people are with him in this re- spect, how precisely he has given words to their thought in uttering his own, he can pever understand. Assempirmax Kiruzax, the “Blue Line” legislator with ‘‘fine feelings,” made a great sensation when he clamored for an investiga- tion into the action of the Railroad Commit- tee on the ‘‘No Seat No Fare” bill, which, like # heartless parent, he deserted when West, Whitson, “Nic” Muller and the rest of the worthies were throwing it to the wolves on the floor of the House. Never before did the © dingy walls of the old Capitol reverberate to such indignant but, alas! hollow thunder. The days and weeks roll on and this thun- derously fine-souled Killian, the wounded ‘West, the sorrowing “Nic” Muller, the wilt- ing Whitson mope about in silence and call | pot for the investigation they wept for some weeks gone. Have they applied the salve of | Third avenue axle grease to their pierced | bosoms? Do they know as much about that netarious piece of work as John Kelly and Channeey Depew could tell them? It ap- — ‘NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, APRIL ‘1, 1876—TRIPLE SHEET. SS Democratic Prospects and Candidates. The expectation of the democratic party that it will carry the next Presidential elec- tion has a great deal to support it. The re- volting exposures which have occupied pub- lic attention during the last two months ought to have a fatally damaging effect on the party in power, even if no more should be proved than has already come to light; and there is good reason for believing that the end is not yet. If the evidence of per- vading rottenness should have no political effect the country is in a bad way, because public indifference to these disgraceful ex- posures would imply such a decay of moral sense among the people as would justify doubts of the stability of the Republic. If widespread and long-continued official cor- ruption be not a sufficient reason for dis- carding the party in power there can be no sufficient reason; for mere mistakes of policy or bad judgment in measures are venial offences in compati- son with swindling knavery and gross be- trayal of trusts. We cannot think so meanly of the American people as to. suppose that they will not be stirred with moral indigna- tion at these thick-coming exposures, or that they will not attest their abhorrence by their votes. These disgusting revelations are likely to go on, and it is hardly conceivable that the democratic party will mismanage so egregiously as to blunt their effect. With tolerably wise strategy on the democratic side the republican party should be igno- miniously defeated in the approaching Presi- dential election, because it has justly for- feited the power which it hasso scandalously abused. The contest for the democratic nomination will be active and vigorous, because, in dem- ocratic estimation, success at St. Louis will be equivalent to an election. The chances seem so favorable that Judge Davis, of the Supreme Court, though never a demo- erat, is more than willing to accept the democratic nomination. We should supposo that the experience of the democrats in going outside of their party for acandidate in 1872 ought to operate asa warning; but there are democrats weak enough to make a similar blundering ap- peal for republican support. We do not be- lieve that a political party ever gained any- thing by such miserable trimming. It is always dishonorable to the candidate, as im- plying that he is willing to relax his princi- ples for the sake of high office, and ‘it is equally dishonorable to the political party which takes up such a candidate, as show- ing that it is composed of political bucca- neers who are as ready to sail under any other flag as under their own for the sake of plunder. With so good a prospect of suc- cess as is now opened to the democratic party it would be absurd for it to take a re- publican judge as its Presidential candidate, Judge Davis is brought forward as a rival of Governor Tilden; but no democrat of sense and principle can hesitate a mo- ment between a steady, consistent dem- ocrat and a renegade republican. If the choice lay between these two candidates no earnest democrat should countenance .or tolerate the pretensions of the republican judge. Another gentleman who has been much talked of and is supposed to possess some strength is Governor Hendricks. There is little to choose between him and Judge Davis, both of whom belong to the same type of trimmers. It is really of no conse- quence whether a man surrenders or stifles his political convictions to get the support of a party with which he has never acted, or to recommend himself to a section of his own party with whose views he has no sym- pathy. Aman who yields or disguises his principles for the sake of office lacks the firm moral fibre which should be possessed by the Chief Magistrate. Sacrifices of prin- ciple and sacrifices of integrity are so nearly akin that there is no solid ground for con- fidence in the honesty of a_ states- man who has shown a_ willingness to barter his convictions for the hope of office. Governor Hendricks does not meet the requirements of the situation, for a Presidential canvass in which the main issue is reform of abuses should be led by a man who is conspiciously true to his convictions and his conscience. Mr. Hendricks has not a clean bill of moral and political health, and the democratic party would forfeit its most important advantage by nominating a can- didate on whom his principles sit so loosely. Democrats of sturdy convictions and robust honesty would not care the toss of a nickel cent whether an outside trimmer like Davis oran inside trimmer like Hendricks were made the candidate. No man is fit to lead this great canvass on the democratic side unless the steadiness of his principles isa guarantee of the firmness of his integrity. Davis and Hendricks being excluded there remain three prominent democratic candidates of conspicuous ability and sound principles—namely, Governor Tilden, Sen- ator Bayard and Senator Thurman—any one of whom would make a vigilant and incor- ruptible President. Each of the three has some peculiar attributes of strength. In favor of Senator ‘Thurman it may be said that he alone, of all possible democratic candidates, hasachance of carrying his own State of Ohio. If this chance were a certainty it should be a controlling reason for making Mr. Thurman the democratic standard bearer, for a democratic victory in the Ohio State elections would virtually decide the | Presidential contest in favor of the demo- cratic party. A democratic success in Ohio in October would be worth at least thirty | thousand votes to the party in New York in November, and would bring an equal | ratio of gains in every other State. If the chances are such that Ohio is worth contesting Mr. Thurman is the best candidate ; but it does not'yet appear that even he would have any certainty of recover- ing Ohio from the republicans, and unless | this can be done Mr, Tilden or Mr. Bayard would be a more expedient candidate. If October it is better that the democratic can- didate for the Presidency should not have a | peculiar stake in that preliminary local canvass, If Ohio should be conceded to the repub- licans and Mr. Thurman's claim to the demo- cratic nomination be ruled out the choice among the candidates who have as yet be- | come prominent would lie between Governor the republicans are destined to carry Ohio in | Tilden and Senator Bayard. Either of them would make good President, and, accord- ing to present appearances, one of these two will carry off the prize. If Governor Tilden cannot get the nomination himself he is certainly strong enough to give it to Mr. Bayard. Both are statesmen of settled con- vietions and sterling integrity, and official swindlers would be equally scourged out of the government under the administration of either. Mr. Tilden would be a more sensa- tional President, but Mr. Bayard would make fewer enemies. Senator Bayard’s chances, whatever’they may amount to, de- pend on the good will of Governor Tilden, and so long as the Governor has hopes of getting the St. Louis nomination himself he will not be likely to designate a political heir. Butin the present aspect of the can- vass he has a double chance for political in- fluence; for if he cannot control the Conyen- tion in his own favor he may give the nomi- nation to Senator Bayard, and thus assure the success of his principles and the pre- dominance of his personal influence in the new administration. The Death of Alexander T. Stewart. The death of Alexander T. Stewart can- not fail to create an impression in the com- mercial and business world which’ would not result from the demise of any citizen we might name. ‘This effect is not so much in consequence of the vastness of his wealth and the extent of his business enterprises as of the force and vigor of the intellect which has ceased to work. In his case death robs the world of nothing that he amassed; but we are all the poorer in the fact that the power which directed all theso vast concerns is no longer potent. Sucha loss is the obliteration of capital, because it was the intellect, the fore- sight, the directing, energies of this man which created the capital we now call Mr. Stewart's wealth. The loss of this wealth would not have been a greater blow to the commercial interests with which it is bound than the loss of the intelligence which made it increase its functions and multiply bless- | ings wherever its influence was felt. It is too customary with the unthinking crowd to belittle the usefulness of men like Mr. Stewart; but without them the world would be a sterile and unproductive desert. They are the motive power which turns the wheels of trade, and Alexander T. Stew- art more than any man of his time was the exemplar of commercial probity and useful- ness and success in this country. There.are many things to be said in his honor, and first among these is the fact that the fairness of his dealings was never questioned. When his business shrewdness was the keenest his integrity was apt to be shown in ils brightest colors. Those who dealt with him never had occasion to complain that they were his victims, and when he marked his goods down that he might sell to buy again he was obeying the law of morals quite as much as the laws of trade. It is by such devices and through men with the quick wit to adopt them that business energies and enterprises are kept from stagnation, and because of this merchants like Mr. Stewart are among the most useful and¢important members of the community. We cannot stop to inquire what will be the effect of this man’s death upon the busi- ness and commercial interests of the city. To do this would be to enter into the minu- tim of his vast affairs and to estimate the ex- act value of the directing force which moved the vastness. of his enterprises. At such a time we cannot do more than recognize the power which, until yes- terday, was potent in all the business centres of the world, but to-day is silent asthe inanimate form which is all that re- mains. From all that we see around us— those magnificent storehouses, and hotels, and theatres in Broadway, the growing city on Long Island, the mills and factories which his wealth was calling into existence, and the immense commercial activity which grew up under his guidance—we may esti- mate the character of the man to whom all these things belonged, not so much because he bought and paid for them as because he created them. Out of the little storeroom at No. 283 Brondway they all’ may be said to have come ; but in fact they were coined out of this man’s brain, and the value of all this property and these pervading business en- terprises is, after all, but the work of a single mind, directing and controlling the forces which make society and government, liberty and happiness possible. Tae Wiruprawan or Steamers from the traffic between this port and Liverpool, re- ported to have been agreed on by four of the leading English lines, points to an expected further falling off in the emigration from Europe to America during the present year. The tourists who may come to visit the Cen- tennial Exposition, it may be plainly seen, are not expected to counterbalance in the smallest degree the loss from a diminished number of steerage passengers, who, from the way they may be stowed between decks, form the most valuable kind of cargo. The falling off in emigration may be cred- ited to hard times in Europe and the exag- gerated reports of harder times here, which have been industriously spread in Europe, particularly in Germany. The moral with regard to the Exhibition may shock Phila- delphia somewhat, but the Henatp antici- pated it some weeks ago. With regard to the emigrants, a single season of renewed enterprise, sure to come, will correct the re- luctance of the toiling millions to turn their faces westward, and the flood of brain and muscle, as fertilizing to this country as the Nile overflow to Egypt, will pour over the land as before. Tas Unsratinc “or M. Rovner by the French Chamber of Deputies, on the ground that a letter from the Prince Imperial exer- | cised an unconstitutional dynastic influence | on the electors of Ajaccio, may be politic in France, but reads strangely here. We have not a spark of sympathy with the Vice Emperor or his pack of adventurers, but an- nulling the votes of the Corsican electors for such a reason is certainly straining matters to a dangerous point. In effect, too, we doubt its wisdom, for Ajaccio is Bonapartist almost toa man, and wiil probably re-elect M. Rouher or Prince Napoleon, and whether a Bonapartist comes as an avowed imperial- The English Mission—Mr. Longfellow. We disagree with our neighbor the Sun in its estimate of the fitness of Mr. Longfellow for the English mission. It by no means follows that because a man of genius writes poetry he is nota practical man. Some of the greatest men in history, great in purpose and achievement, wrote verses, Frederick the Great wrote an incredible quantity of rhymes and quarrelled with Voltaire because he sneered at them. Yet as a king, warrior and diplomatist, Frederiqk stands first of his time. We do not know that Napoleon ever wrote verses; but he was fond of Homer, which showed good taste, and of Ossian, which showed that he was not always lofty in his tastes. John Quincy Adams wrote poems to the end of his days, and bad enough many of them were. Lord Byron, whose fame as a poet was on the eve of what promised to be an illustrious civil and military career, when he died. The fact that he had written ‘‘Childe Harold” did not prevent the Greeks from offering him the command of troops. Goethe's verses are among the monuments of German litera- ture, and yet Goethe was a Minister of State. In the history of our own diplomacy we have had no better service than that of Joel Barlow, the poet who served us in France, and Bayard Taylor, and George H. Boker in our diplomatic service in Russia. A few days. have only passed since a poet was appointed to rule one of the largest empires in the world. If Disraeli sees fit to send Owen Meredith to govern India why should we hesitage to send Long- fellow to London? But why multiply illustrations? The editor of the Qun has himself, in his ‘‘Book of Household Poetry”—a book which is a mosaic of classics—celebrated the wisdom and genius of poets. Tho editor of this volume should feel debarred from criticising the nomination of a poet to any station, how- ever eminent, Mr. Longfellow, unlike some who have written verses, is a very prac- tical man, of common sense, clear judgment and experience. He represents a wide and generous culture: He has had abundant opportunities for studying the institutions, the literature and the politics of the older nations. A mission like that of England needs something more than a life around the lobbies of Congress. What an atmosphere Longfellow would take with him into the drawing rooms of London! His venerable, | classical head, recalling to those who look upon it the noblest forms of antiquity, would be far different from some of the heads we have been sending across the seas. While, therefore, Professor Woolsey would suit us, while we should be happy to see Senator Morgan or any of the estimable candidates conceived by the Sun nominated | to the Court of St. Jumes,- we still think that Mr. Longfellow would answer more conditions of fitness than any one thus far named. While objecting to the assumption that, because Mr. Longfellow has written noble and beautiful poems, he would not make a suitable Minister, we beg to con- gratulate our contemporary upon its re- newed and enlarged interest in national politics, and especially upon the fidelity with which it follows the example of the Henavp in dealing generously with the real issues that come before the people. These | are the higher realms of journalism, and the ; Sun, in entering upon them with so much j enthusiasm and good taste, shows that it | really shines for all. Deportment and Gas. Elsewhere in our columns will be found the record of the most noteworthy fact of | these times. ‘Urbanity and courtesy” are now to be found in the offices of gas compa- nies. They are strange things to be found | in such places. Independence has been proverbially recognized as the great moral attribute of wood sawyers; and impu- dence and a general tendency to adopt an insulting demeanor toward a protesting pub- lic are equally known as the distinctive | characteristics of all persons employed by gas companies. So it has been for a time from which the memory of man runneth not | to the contrary ; but now we hear that these | persons are -attentive; that they listen to what people have to say; that they admit | the possibility that their complaint may be | well founded; that they inquire into the | matter. This change has been pro- duced by kerosene. It seemed strange when people new colors in silks and ribbons, invented in these days, were produced from kero- sene; and it seems ‘a fact equally remote from the nature of this fluid that it should mend the manners or improve the heart of a man in a gas office; but it has evidently done both. By an article on gas, given else- where, it will be seen that greater wonders yet are to flow from the use of kerosene ; for, through the invention described, it seems possible that every large establishment may yét make all its own gas, Van Ranst on Cheap Cabs. Van Ranst seems to be regarded as the magnate of the hackmen—the person whose consent must be obtained and with whom terms must be made before any change can be permitted in regard to the use of the street for cabs. He is evidently satisfied with things as they are. So long as the law will permit and the public will pay him he wil) be happy to fit up vehicles to carry a man or a woman about the streets at two dol- Jars an hour, or at a dollar a mile, which would be about five dollars an hour. If he could keep his coaches constantly employed at this latter rate for, say six hours a day, or thirty dollars for each coach, the busi- | ness would pay; aot extravagantly, but so that a man need not complain. the public had to pay him five dollars a mile there is reason to believe that he could stand it. It will not astonish any one to find that this owner has an unlimited capacity for fegarding any sum paid for any service as no more than sufficient, for was he not trained as to the expenditures of the public in the school of the Tammany potentates, who now patronize the omnibuses in Brus- sels or walk in Montreal? He was the Hack- | master General of the Ring daysy and in all the accounts for carriages that figure in the municipal documents of those days he had an interest. No orie suspects that when his ist or disguised as republican leaves very | bills were sent in to the city he made them little choice of evils. higher or lower as the price of oats was up heard that the beautiful | Indeed, if | ordown. Perish the thought that a great hackman should stand on such trifles! But if the prices were adjusted, as were the prices in other bills against the city, with a view to dividing with the persons who aud- ited the bills, then we can understand how the great hackman got his ideas up on the subject ot prices. But we can assure him it is time to get his ideas down. The Ring is extinct, and the public mind is getting into that normal tone when people refuse to pay for any service a cent more than just what it is worth. Let Van Ranst be easy about irresponsible drivers. People donot mean to be victimized by them, nor by responsible ones either. The Conviction of Fuchs. After a short trial the butcher of Simmons has been convicted of murder in the first degree. Had the crime of the killing not been supplemented by the atrocious butchery of the remains the defence might have been heard to some effect. As the crime stood, in all its horror, the story on which the prisoner relied to save him from the gallows could not, in minds unused to fine legal dis- tinctions, outweigh the inference to be drawn from the revolting means employed to hide the body of the murdered man. The in- stances of men frightened by the conse- quences of an act legally or morally justifiable into really criminal efforts at concealment are not unknown to students of criminal practice. These surround a case with great difficulty, for the color given to the first transaction by the acts that followed is often such that the truth is extremely likely to be obscured. In Fuch’s case the utter depravity exhibited in his mutilation of the remains of Simmons, his cunning, and the vile moral atmosphere in which the crime transpired, gave the same bestial color to his defence that o similar story told by a dog | would have done. It could scarcely be ex- pected to help him among ordinary men. The first ballot of the jury, we are told, showed that six of them totally disbelieved this story; that five accepted it in part, and only one out of the twelve in its entirety. That all of them fivally rejected it and | agreed to make the offence the highest known to the law shows that what may | have been fecbly grasped at first by }some of them as the legal grade of the crime per se could not be defended by them when opposed to the strong reasoning of the majority based on the whole story of the killing, the mutilation and the concealment. It resulted in a verdict which will be accepted by the public; for, no matter how the story of the provocation has been received, no one will say that such a miserable wretch as the prisoner is too good for the gallows. Rip Van Winkle in the White House. It is not generally known, but yet seems to be established on competent evidence, that in the past seven years—seven is a mystic number—there has been in progress in this country, on a grand scale, one of those cases of oblivion that have so often attracted the attention of poets'and philosophers. Irving has set what may be called the oblivion myth, in a popular style, in the story of that idle and amiable old reprobate, Rip Van Winkle. It was written in another age that aman walking through a forest heard the voice of a bird, and stopped to listen to the most entrancing music that ever smote hu- man ears. He listened for a little while, as he thought, and then went on to the neigh- boring village; but seven years had passed in | what seemed to him a moment of delight. This thought has, in short, reappeared from time to time in various torms, garnished with | different fancies as the imaginations |of the poets of different countries | adapted each to the customs and }comprehension of his own land—the ever applicable truth that a lifetime may slip away in what willseem but a moment in the revelries of pleasure, and that, by the man who is lulled in the delights of the senses, duty, honor and every vital obliga- | tion are forgotten. But, though this comes up in various forms in the hands of the | poets, who would have looked to see it come upas a fact at the national capital? Yet that is the case before us. It seems that as soonas Grant reached the White House he | | fell into a modified form of this kind of ob- | livion; a lethean dimness came between his vision and the world; lethargy seized upon | the warrior’s will. This fully accounts for | the change the people noted in the character | of “the acts that were called Grant's acts be- | fore he went into the White House and the | acts given out as his after that period: No | effort was spared by men about him to guard | his slumber—to perpetuate the trance that | separated the hero from the world as it knew | him. Babcock, the faithful secretary, kept \a hop pillow under his head, and filled | the air with the vapor of poppies and | the drowsy music of well poised flattery. | Williams darkened the windows and packed | the keyholes to keep out noise. Duties of | this nature were divided between a dozen. | And while they kept him in this sluamberous | condition they ‘‘ran him” as a piece of Pres- | idential machinery. They made appoint- | ments through him—governed in his name. So it went on for seven years. Then camea democratic investigating cominittee and waked him up, and now he comes forth to find himself in rags as to his reputation—an old man in a world he cannot recognize, and gazed upon by people who cannot recognize in him the gallant soldier whom they pointed to guard and keep has been tumbled indignation might be fierce but for the pity that will rise with it, and pity might soothe his remorse but for the truth that pity is in- separable from contempt. Tue Grxrva Awarv.—The English gov- ernment could not well do otherwise than | decline to make any representations to the | United States on the possible surplus re- maining over after the legitimate claims | upon the fifteen anda half millions of the Geneva award have been satisfied. If Chief | Justice Cockburn was the government of | England perhaps we m.ight have some stir- ring despatches, to which we might recall Mr. Caleb Cushing to make reply. 9 hs ebay to ruins about his ears. At such a sleeper | Trouble on the Mexican Border. The inconvenience of living near a gun- powder manufactory is very great, and the haste with which people who find one grow- ing up in their midst remové from its vicin- ity or combine to have it removed may be ap- plied to the state of mind in which the American citizens along the Rio Grande find themselves with a revolution in full blast on the other side of the river, Our despatches acquaint us with # very disagreeable condition of affairs at Lae redo, Texas, and New Laredo, across the Ria" Grande, where, after the perpetration of an outrage upon an American citizen, the Mexi- can federal commander had a fight with the revolutionists, in which stray missiles wounded four persons on the Ameri- can bank. The revolutionists repulsed, the Mexican commander opened fire upon the American soldiers on this side of the river, to which Major Merriam, the United States commanding officer, replied by drop. ping two twelve-pounder shells into the Mexican town. These are acts of war on both sides, the exact responsibility for which it is difficult to assign at present, but asthe facts aro stated Major Merriam hag the point in his favor of having acted on the defensive. What occurred at Laredo yesterday may occur to-day or to-morrow at other points along the Rio Grande; and as the United States do not propose to move away from the river because a few ragged cutthroats of one or other Mexican kind are fighting for supremacy in Mexico, the situation becomes particularly delicate: On the other hand this country is now in no mood to take the trouble of removing the Mexican boundary back to the mountain line. Hence it becomes absolutely necessary that meas ures should be taken to prevent the recur. rence of these disagreeable episodes between the citizens of countries nominally at peace. This is to be done by keeping such a force upon the border as will overawe the fighting ragamuffins of Mexico and placing it in the bands of a prudent officer of high standing who can be relied on to make such dispositions of his command as will make rencontres unlikely. The whole business of official communication along the Rio Grande needs to be strictly regulated. We cannot, for instance, understand what right Major Merriam had to cross the river and bandy words with the Mexican commander, The gallant officer was probably led away by sheer motives of humanity, with which, as a soldier, he had nothing todo. It is hard, no doubt, that American citizens and. soldiers should be shot at without replying in kind; but as we have no desire to see the United States hurried into war by such acts the government should take prompt measures to prevent their repe- tition. The President, his Secretary of War and the General of the Army will be held re sponsible for preserving the peace by prompt and dignified action. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, . Florida makes 216,000 cedar pencils a day. Secretary Robeson has returned to Washington. Several republican papers in Iowa have come out ia favor of Governor Kirkwood for President, Mr. Holman may, aftor all, bea formidable rival to Orth as candidate for Governor of Indiana, “Now, Mr. President,” said Taft, ‘1 mean to abolish these posts and turn them into railway ties.” Boston wants to be the headquarters of American art. She seems to be ina fair way to succeed. | Old Tammany Hall boys were saints alongside the horde of bummer politicians who infest Chicago, Paris girls try to be thin, avoid complexion-spoiling soup and meat and wish to be translucontly pale, Colonels Whipple and Tourtellotte, of the staff of the - General of the Army, reached Washington yesterday. Thoro is a round of criticism because it costs $1,500 a year to educate a boy at college, when it did not cost Dauiel Webster's father ono filth of that sum for that statesman’s expenses. The Buffalo Courier says that there are some Buffalo bills in the Legislature. This is untrue, There are only two genuine Buffalo Bills—one is in Canada and the other is Lieutenant Governor. Detroit Free Press:—The remains of yet another great city have been discovered on the banks of the Caspian Sea. It is becoming more evident that Cain and Abel and Gideon Welles had other boys to play with them. Tho spirits materialized George Washington at a séance in Indiana the other day, and when one of the spectators asked him whether he was really the great hatcheter, our first Prosident replied, “Dot ish dot kind of Hans ica am.’? In Germany the telegraph wires are in futare to be carricd underground instead of being supported by posts, The object of this change is to preyont the in- torruption of communications which regularly tollows upon a great storm, From Fun:—Mary:—‘I gay, Mrs. McCarthy, thie Yero’s a very bad cabbago.” Mrs. M.:—"Shure now, and is 1t, honey? ‘Then pick another. Bless yer, young cabbages is like sweethearts; you must thry hail-a- dozen ‘lore ye gets a good wan.”’ New Orleans Republican:—Married women generally get their letters when the time comes for them to pach away their husbands’ overcoats for the summer; and perhaps they will also find two or three which the gen- tleman was asked to mail the fall previous. Colonel Higginson thinks that only women aro not horrified at political corruption, because their lives are remote from political knowledge ana influences. But Tweed’s and Pendieton’s lives were not remote frum such knowledge, and they were not particularly horri- fed. Tho Indianapolis Journal thinks that even the modesty of the South in not wishing to name the Gemocratic candidate for President is dangerous, be cause a Northern democratic President would be ruled by the South atter the manner in which James Bue chanan was ruled, ‘The Augusta (Ga) Constitutionalist quotes and says:— They complain that at Fort Sill the fraudscharged a dollar and a half for soothing syrup, about fifty per centadvance, But what do soldiers want with sooth- ing syrup?—New York Herald. A \argo portion of the troops stationed at Fort Sill are infantry. Tho signs in California are that the independents will | reuntte with the republicans against the recently vice elected President seven years since—n man | who has slept while the house he was ap- | torious democrats, This movement is hastened by the fact that the republicans are now the enomies of the Central Pacific Katlroad, and are, therefore, working in the path marked out by the independents, Stanford & Co, are behind the democrats. The Newark(N. J.) Courier has become a morning paper. Thus the experiment of baving an evening Topublican competitor with the sober, conservative ol¢ Advertiser ends disastrously. The stockholders never paid up their stock, and the editors were compelled te be lobbyista There was a field for the Courier, bat it never displayed any journalistic enterprise, Sir Stratford de Redcliffe, in his old age, after a life of greny activity im Cabinet politics, turned himself to ward religious subjects, and wrote a not very brilitant but pious book. Guizot, after his long political career, gave us a book of rolizious meditations, very mild and pious. Thurlow Weed, in his olf aso, attends the Moody and Sankey meetings regularly, Will ho give us a book? Dr. Fayrer’s opinion is that, if systematic returns were kept, the annual namber of deaths from snake bites (exclusive of all doubt{ul cases) 1n India would be found to exceed twenty thousand. A larger proportion of women, it seems, are bitten than men, showing that the women of the working classes in India are buses than their lords in tbe fieids and other places where snakes are to be met with,