The New York Herald Newspaper, April 12, 1876, Page 6

NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, sp susedaseachar THE DAILY E HERALD, D, 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. 5 Rejected communications will not be re- turned, PHILADELPHL 10. 112SOUTH "FICE OF THE NEW YORK NO. 46 FLEET STREET. E DE LOPERA. | HERALD PARIS OFFICE—AVE) Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. Bt Xlde cece see ANUSEMENTS THIS APTERNOOY Al EAGLE THEATRE. VARIETY, at8P.M. Matinee atu P.M. PARK THEAT!'E, BRASS, at8 P.M. George Fawcett Rowe. erin MABILLE VARIETIES. VARIETY, at 8 P. BVENING. | WERY THEATRE. WAITING FOR THE VERDI PM. THIRTY- TOURTE, STREE VARIETY, at 8 P.M, FIFTH AV PIQUE, at 8 P.M. Fas grees HOUSE, GLOBE TH VARIETY, at 8P.M. Mutinee at SAN FRANCISCO MINS’ . Matinee at 2 Matince at 2 P.M. Minnie MIQUR. t 3 M. TuEAT r Wallack. S THEATRE. Rignold, THEATRE © VARIETY, at SP. M. Matinee WAL ‘TWINS, at 8 P. M. BOO’ HENRY V., at 8 V. M. BROO HEATRE, THE MIGHTY DOLLAK, at 8P.M. Mr, and Mrs. W. J. Florence. TONY PASTOR'S NEW THBATRE. VARIETY, ee M. Tox UARE THEATRE. CA Thorne, Jr. TRIPLE SHEET. “NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY. “APRIL 12, 1876, ior our seanorte ater morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day wiil be partiy cloudy, with rain, Notice to Country Nzwspeauers.—For promt and regular delivery of the Hzraup hy fast mail trains orders must Le sent direct wo this office. Postage free. Wat Street Yzsterpay.—Stocks were irregular, with oa lower tendency. Gold opened and closed at 113, with intermediate sales at 112 7. Money on call loans was supplied at 4and 31-2 percent. Govern- ment bonds were easier. Investments steady. StaGNaTIon In Business seems as general on the other side of the Atlantic as on this, while both in England and the United States money is as plenty as any inflationist could desire. Tue Starve to Lrerty, which is to be erected in the New York harbor under French auspices, continues to excite inter- est in Paris, and a grand operatic concert is to be given on the 24th inst. in aid of the project. Gounod has written a cantata for the occasion, and altogether the affair prom- ises to be as fine as anything which even Boston might give. Tre Munperer or Siamons, the butcher Fuchs, was yesterday sentenced to death, the 2a of June being named as the day of his execution. It is understood that his coun- sel will move for a stay of proceedings and a writ of error in his behalf, and: we trust these will be readily granted. It is due to every man convicted of a capital crime to have the judgment reviewed by the Court of Appeals, and it is a hardship that this should be denied in any case. Tue Eastern Question is one of those in- terminable troubles which no diplomacy can settle, because the expediency of maintain- ing the Turkish Empire is offensive to | civilization. Disguise it as we may, there is an irrepressible conflict between Mo- hammedanism and Christianity, and it is this fact which has kept the rebellion in | Herzegovina alive for so many months and | made the insurrectionary spirit general in Bosnia also. The jealousies of Austria and Russia are very important factors in the | contest, and, according to our news this morning, the conviction is general in the provinces that the Czar will be compelled to aid the insurgents in the end. Something | of this kind will become necessary before | very long, for it is plain that Turkish gnar- antees are worthless in themselves and un- acceptable to those whom they are intended | to conciliate. Tne Weatstn Cuances Prepicrep 1x THE | Henarp of Sunday are about to be experi- enced, and within the period therein an- nounced. Already the temperature has risen and the wind shifted to the eastward, blowing toward the advancing depression. The gradual movement across the meridian pf New York of the high barometer which was the course of the brisk northwesterly | winds that have prevailed since Friday night, and which followed the storm of the | preceding two days, was marked by the cor- | responding gradual decrease of the velocity | of the northwesterly wind on Monday from twenty-two to four miles an hour. Last night | ‘we were on the westerly side of this high barometric area, the centre having passed | during the afternoon. The condition of the weather to the westward as far as the Missis- sippi River is threatening. Clondiness and | rains prevail in the Ohio Valley, and aslight freshet will probably make itself felt later on | in the Mississippi by a temporary suspension of the lowering of the flood levels between | Cairo and Memphis. Beyond the Mississippi the weather is cleazing, with northwesterly winds, and these conditions may be ex- pected to prevail here about the end of the week. The low barometer passing off the mouth of the St. Lawrence has developed a mow fall at Chatham, New Brunswick | offer is supported by such a weight of solid | formly repudiates it, except in the quadren- | even of democratic usage against this rule than | the hand of nature. | jority to abdicate its rightful power before | third of the votes of the Convention. The Democratic National Convention— The Two-Thirds Rule. We have a piece of good advice for the democratic party, which we hope will be kindly taken, although we are aware that few things are so bootless a¢ the giving of | unasked advice. But this which we now reasons that it ought not to be rejected. The absurd and mischievous two-thirds rule, which has long been the common law of democratic national conventions, ought to be rescinded and discarded, and the present is as good a time as any for the party to eman- cipate itself from the tyranny of which the two-thirds rule is a convenient instrument. The two-thirds rule is repugnant to com- mon sense and democratic principles as well as to the great body of political usage in this country. It has never been adopted in any whig or any republican national conven- tion, and the democratic party itself uni- nial convention for nominating a Presiden- tial ticket. Nearly two hundred democratic State conventions of one sort and another are held in the course of four years, and there is no example of any one of them making the success of a nomination depend on the sup- port of two-thirds of the delegates. Demo- cratic usage conforms in this respect to the unvarying whig and republican usage, ex- cept in the democratic national con- ventions, and there is not a shadow of argument in favor of this noted exception which is not equally an argument for the two-thirds rule in every State con- vention of the party, in all Congressional district conventions, judicial district con- ventions, county conventions, Senatorial conventions, Assembly district conventions, Congressional and legislative caucuses and primary meetings. In all its numerous po- litical assemblages for selecting delegates or candidates, other than its national conven- tions, the democratic party leaves the decid- ing power in the hands of a simple majority, where it properly belongs on a rational theory of democratic institutions. The only plea for the two-thirds rule is established usage, but there is an infinitely greater body for it, since it has always been rejected in every nominating asssembly, with the sole exception of the national conventions. This exceptional usage is alike contrary to gen- eral usage, to common sense and to demo- cratic principles. The decisive objection to the two-thirds rule is that it enables the minority of the convention to defeat the will of the majority and thwart the wishes of the people. In an assembly of men there is no way of col- lecting its sense but bya vote, and if a majority vote one way and a minority an- other either the will of the majority or the will of the minority must prevail. It is ab- surd to give the minority greater power than the majority; it is absurd to let the few defeat the will of the many. A principle so obviously correct, and of which all men are equally good judges, does not need authority to support it; butas the defenders of the two-thirds rule may qnote authorities in default of argument, we cite the high author- ity of Jefferson on the other side. This chief apostle of democracy expressed himself, in a very deliberate official opinion, as fol- lows:—‘‘Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-govern- ment. They receive it with their being from Individuals exercise it by their single will; collections ofmen by that of their majority, for the law of the ma- jority is the natural law of every society of men, and of every collection of men who are to transact together a particular business.” A rule which empowers the minority to frustrate the will of the majority is repug- nant to reason and subversive of demo- cratic principles. As Webster said in one of the ablest of his speeches, ‘‘The first great principle of all republican liberty is that the majority must govern. In matters of common concern the judgment of a@ majority must stand as the judg- ment of the whole. This is a law imposed on us by the absolute necessity of the case." So true is this that the two-thirds rule is perpetuated only by the vote of a majority in the opening proceed- ings of every successive democratic national convention, a pretence being made of saving the majority principle by inducing the ma- candidates are voted on. The vote of a mere majority will be sufficient to abrogate the rule, and if the democratic party is wise it will refuse to be any longer bound by so indefensible a usage. Nothing has so strong a tendency to put imbecility in the front as the two-thirds rule. It is an irstrument for defeating the really able men of the party and putting them out of the field as a preparation for springing some obscure or unexpected name on the Convention and getting him accepted through despair of uniting two-thirds of the Convention on any of the recognized leaders. The two-thirds rule thus led to the nomina- tion of Polk in 1844, of Pierce in 1852, and other unfit nominations at othertimes. The machine sometimes thrusts forward a really able man, but he is usually one who was wholly unexpected, like the fatal nomination of Governor Seymour in 1868. The opera- tion of the two-thirds rule in killing off the strong candidates annuls the expressed wishes of the people, for it is not often that a statesman is so popular that his | rivals in his own party cannot control one- | No other device could contribute so much to lower the standard of public life as a rule which puts it in the power of small knots of schemers to overrule the majority and fling out every candidate of sufficient mark to go into the Convention with a strong popular backing. The two-thirds rule tends to im- becility in the government by additional facilities for foisting weak and obscure men into the highest position. It is hard enough to unite the majority of a convention ona really good candidate, but when one-third of the members are permitted to override | such a majority weakness and obseurity have every advantage over established char- acter and recognized merit. ‘The history of the two-thirds rule has no tendency to relieve it of the odium due to its violation of the great democratic principle | of majority ruie and substituting minority | tule in its place. In its thoughtless origin the two-thirds rule was a mere method of em- phasizing the known strength of a particular candidate. There was such a strong concen- tration of democratic sentiment in favor of nominating President Jackson for re- election that the two-thirds rule was adopted as a means of giving emphasis to a foregone choice, as more recent conventions pass a vote making nominations unanimous after they have been adopted. The two-thirds rule was continued from like motives in 1836, when it was certain that Mr. Van Buren would receive at least two-thirds of the votes on the first ballot. It was dropped in 1840, and would never have been revived if the pro-slavery section of the party had not had a strong motive for defeating the choice of the majority in 1844. It was fully un- derstood that Mr. Van Buren was to receive the nomination, until he wrote a letter opposing the annexation of Texas. The Southern democrats thereupon determined to defeat him, and as he was certain of a majority of the delegates the slave influence revived and enforced the two-thirds rule, which accomplished their immediate object, and has been the law of all the democratic national conventions since, to the detriment of the party and the advantage of aspiring mediocrity. This absurd usage can be easily over- thrown if the democratic press will take up the subject and declare the real views of the masses in advance of the Convention of St. Louis. It will not bear examination and will fall before the first attack if all that part of the democratic press will oppose it which has an interest in its abrogation. The friends of every prominent candidate have an equal motive for condemning this mon- strosity. Neither the supporters of Mr. Tilden, nor of Mr. Bayard, nor of Mr. Thur- man, nor of any other talked of candidate, can think it just that he shonld be defeated and thrown out if he succeeds in getting a majority of the Convention. The two- thirds rale may be worked as a political guillotine against every candidate fit to be nominated, and théir supporters, one and all, have an equal interest in expunging this absurd rule from the usages of the party. Longfellow for London, In the appointment of our Ministers at foreign courts it is a point little considered and yet eminently worthy attention that they should be not merely capable publicists or diplomatists, but that they should be rep- resentative of the nation as we assume that a Congressman should be of his constitu- ents. This phase of the fitness of things in diplomacy was effectively seen in the case of Mr. Washburne in Paris. At the time he was appointed he was not thought to bo a good choice for the place. People com- mented harshly upon sending one who was criticised as a crude Hoosier to represent us in that civilized capital, whither all other nations send their ripest scholars and their most capable politicians, But there came a time of trial, and then it was seen that the only nation that had a Minister in Paris who was in any sense like the people of the country from which he came—a type of the nation he represented—was the United States. From the unpleasantness of Paris in a state of siege Lord Lyons amiably with- drew.~ That was not like sturdy John ‘Bull. Spaniards, Italians, Russians, Austrians re- tired one after the other, and even the Turk, though believing stolidly that what was to be would be, preferred to be ata distance from Paris when calamity came. But the representative of the American people “held the fort” at which the Stars and Stripes were mounted on the Rue Chaillot. He proved himself the man for the place by his plain American quali- ties, simple courage, resolution, common sense. All the international lawyers in the world would not have been his equal, unless in addition to their legal attainments they had had qualities like his. Now, it is from a view of this sort of adaptation of a man to the place because he is a type of the people from whom he goes that we urge the ap- ' pointment of Mr. Longfellow as Minister to London. Our Minister in London is not so much a legal or political envoy from one government to another as he isa delegate from the American people to the English people. His commission is to society, not to the Crown lawyers. In fact, the Queen of England herself is scarcely a part of the political machinery. She is the head of so- ciety. Although called the Executive, yet in every practical point the executive func- tion long since became the possession of the Ministers. But the Queen, as the head and front of society, is still a great fact, and the representative from this country to ‘her Court should be such a type of our own cnl- tured and refined society as would give the best impression of it to English society, and as would be most welcome there. It would be impossible to fill these requirements more satisfactorily than by the appointment of Mr. Longfellow. Cartes O'Coxor axp Mns. Fornest.—A charge was published in some of the journals to the effect that Mr. Charles O'Conor, while pretending toserve Mrs. Forrest gratuitously in the famous Forrest divorce suit, ace tually exacted from her a very large sum for his services. Mr. O'Conor indignantly de- nies these accusations, and asks a trial by the Bar Association of this city that his pro- fessional honor may be vindicated. This is his due, although his denial will in itself carry with it the weight of acquittal. this Mr. O’Conor's letter has a feature that will attract universal attention—namely, his theory of the cause of Mr. Forrest's strange conduct in his domestic troubles, Accord- ing to this theory the quarrel was only a device of the tragedian to divert attention from financial failure resulting from the erection of the ‘‘castle” on the Hudson, which he had not the means to finish, and, as isapt to be the result of such devices, it | ended in the destruction of his home and left » dark spot on his fame. The theory is | ingenious, to say the least of it, and is prob. ably the key to a very remarkable domestic episode. As M. Rovner is to be permitted to sit in the French Chamber of Deputies the only effect of the rejection of his Ajaccio claim will be to strengthen Bonapartist preten. H sions, It is unfertunate that blunders of | this kind should be committed so early in the history of the Republic. Apart from j On the Rio Grande. Between the atmosphere of the State De- partment and the facts of actual life there seems to be a chronic and necessary antip- athy, unless the State Department 1s inac- eurately presented to the public. Our despatches from Texas indicate that the ac- tivity of the ferment in Mexico is extreme, and that the consequences have been felt on our side the river. An American in busi- ness on the Mexican side has been threatened and imprisoned for his refusal to respond to a forced loan, and is likely to have his estab- | lishment plundered. He evidently means to have it plundered ; for if his property is taken by force he may one of these days get indemnity. If he gives his money up under the apprehension of consequences the case for the future will be less clear. But some Mexican shots have fallen on our side, and 1 an officer of our army has been compelled to protect his men by the timely hint of a few shells sent over the river. All this our despatches say clearly and distinctly, and there is not the least room to donbt their truth. Neither are these facts different from what we might ex- | pect in the circumstances. They are pre- cisely what every one has anticipated for some months. But no sooner are our fle- spatches given to the public than the State Department is reported as saying that they are grossly exaggerated. It is very possible that no such thing was said by such au- thority ; but if it was then the State Depart- ment is ignorant of the condition of the border and is mistaken if it believes that events do not happen in the world merely because it shuts its eyes and refuses to see them. Great importance is not to be attached to the events chronicled. As we have shown hitherto, a Presidential campaign is in prog- ress in Mexico, and the so-called battles are rather incidents of the political ebullition than the conflict of a civil war. These latest events on the Rio Grande show the vigor of electioncering parties rather than the energy ofarmies. It is in fact that Porfirio Diaz is making himself felt in the country, and some of the convincing arguments he has hurled at his opponents have fallen on our side and wounded persons who, perhaps, from want of acquaintance with the ways in which a Mexican canvass is conducted, inadvertently exposed themselves with- in range of his rifles. This is one of those accidents that happen when people throng too eagerly to witness a lively spectacle, Naturally the people on our side the water are fond of freedom and connois- seurs of the operation of electoral machinery in republics, and when they heard that the commander in Laredo who supports Lerdo for the Presidency was engaged in hot dis- pute wi h a thousand orso of those who sup- port Diaz they crowded to enjoy the scene. They did not inthis make sufficient allow- ance for the effect on Lerdo's man of chagrin and bad temper. This fellow was not driven from his position by his opponents, but was roughly handled, and if a man is to be roughly handled he likes it to happen pri- vately. It isasingular peculiarity of human nature that a man would like all those dis- putes out of which he is to come victoriously to take place on an arena that could be over- looked by the whole human race, but all dif- ferences that are to end in his discomfiture he would like to have settled in the dimmest little coalhole that can be found anywhere on a side street. Mexican humanity, which is compounded of Spanish and Indian character, is an exaggeration of all other humanity in this particular. Therefore. when Lerdo’s man was roughly handled by Diaz's man and turned round and found that the Americans were looking on he felt an ex- cusable irritation. He naturally thought they were laughing at him. So he opened fire on them, perhaps by way of practically exhibiting the effectiveness of the arguments that had failed to convince the other party on his side the river. Thereupon word was sent to him by the cannon’s mouth that de- cided him to discontinue this eccentric in- dulgence of his ill humor. It is to be hoped this incident will go no further, for it is not desirable that our peo- ple should take any part in the Mexican Presidential election. There is already an unpleasant feeling in Texas about the con- duct of our neighbors, and it would not take a great deal to light up a conflagration that would burn out somebody in that neighborhood. Itis, therefore, especially de- sirable that a cool temper should be kept on our side. More Fraud—Trust and Theft. Another ‘‘respectable” man has left for parts unknown, and with him have disap- peared some seventy thousand dollars of money that he was permitted to handle on the presumption that he was a trustworthy person. He was the teller in a savings bank. He put the depositors’ money in his pocket and made the various entries in his accounts in such a way asto mislead any but an expert accountant. He thus secured impunity for his thievery, because expert accountants oniy see the books of such establishments some day when calamity comes, with the inevitable receiver in its train. It is true there are laws on the sub- ject of savings banks and other banks, and examinations are required ; but, as the pub- lic knows, that, like nearly everything else required by law, is a farce. Examiners are appointed, not because they are capable, but because they belong to the right party, and what can a manipulator of conventions do or sayin the presence of a complicated statement of figures in bank books? He might as well be set to make a watch. In | consequence the thieveries are not detected | and the robbery goes on. This man can be | punished if caught ; and can be caught, in all probability, for his offence comes under the | checks on which payments were made was | apparently such a fraudulent perversion of the papers of the bank from their true intent as constitutes a forgery. He can also be punished as n fraudulent trustee or officer of a bank under the Revised Statutes, for it is one of the singular contradictions of our law | that a trustee, or any person in a trust rela- | tion in an institution or joint stock com- | pany, can be punished for fraud, while o trustee who acts under the authority of a | private person has practical immunity for | his thefts. Cannot the men at Albany stop fora minute the pursuit of party bargains and skirmishes and manwuvres and put through a bill adding » few simple sections to the Revised Statutes on this subject, by which the stealing of an estate by a trustee | will be made a crime and will subject the criminal to a severe penalty ? “Privileged” Cab Owners. One of the results of the present discus- sion about cheap cabs is the discovery that there now exist two classes of cab owners, the privileged and the unprivileged. The | former class enjoy peculiar rights and are indeed responsible for the maintenance of the present extortionate rates. They have secured desirable stands for doing busi- ness and really monopolize the bulk of the | patronage given that description of city travel. Being in possession of these advan- tages the .“‘privileged” owners drive away their unprivileged competitors, and the public is deprived of an inherent right to employ cabs whose owners are disposed to do business fairly. The pnprivileged cabs, being driven out of the field, excessive prices are imposed on travellers who would gladiy avoid them otherwise. That this state of affairs is altogether wrong and un- just there can, of course, be no question. Indeed, it is not only wrong but positively illegal, for the Corporation cannot, under the law orin justice to the taxpayers, be- stow privileges on one class of public servants to the detriment of another, and at the same time foster a monopoly which robs the com- munity. We say this, because to demand an unfair price for service which can be profitably performed at a lesser rate is rob- bery in the strictest sense of the word. Towprove this it is only necessary to cite the street railroads. If their charters did not prescribe the rates for fares the different roads would undoubtedly increase them. This is proven by the fact that some of the companies, taking advantage of certain clauses in their charters, do charge their passengers more than other roads. During the war, when a tax of the fractional part of a cent was laid on each fare taken, the com- panies combined and increased the fares by an additional cent, thus avoiding the tax they ought to have themselves paid, and while compelling the public to pay it ob- tained additional profits. Cab ‘‘privileges” are, therefore, inconsistent with the rights of the public, which should be permitted to, profit by fair competition in cabs as it does in all branches of trade. Ifa man is willing to carry passengers in cabs at reasonable rates he should be protected instead of be- ing driven“away by “privileged” owners, who usurp rights that do not properly be- long to them. Amateurs r There are a great number of theatrical companies composed of amateurs in New York, and this season they have given an unusually large number of performances, most of which have been in aid of benevo- lent institutions. If in all cases the ama- teur actors have not pleased their audiences, they may well be compensated by the knowledge that they have relieved the dis- tresses of the unfortunate, from the found- ling who has but just stepped upon the world’s stage to the centennial veteran who is about to make his exit from the footlights forever, Charity is a cloak which covers a multitude of sins, and the poorer the actor is the richer will be his reward hereafter— not now—when he consents to exhibit his poverty for the benefit of a poor man. Such an actor may properly soliloquize, ‘I know that I have pained my friends and grieved my godmother; but then I have relieved the widow with nine children and fed the orphan who has not even one widow to con- sole him.” This charitable usefulness of amateur theatrical companies is very great, and in that respect they stand upon the same high ground as soup societies and the New Eng- land Dorcas. We seriously believe that and Actors, amateur theatricals have a higher value than their ostensible objects of benevolence to the unfortunate. Actors, like barbers, must be- gin somewhere. The youthful barber gener- ally begins by dexterously shaving off the corner of an ear or the side of the face, and when the bloody subject, starting up from his chair, like Banquo's ghost, ‘‘with twenty mortal murders on his brow,” exclaims, “That boy can’t shave !” the polite proprietor of the shop replies, ‘I know that he can’t shave, but he's learning.” ‘Confound it,” says the man, ‘I don’t want him to learn on me.” But this is very unjust, for it is clear that the boy must learn on somebody. It isso with actors. They cannot spring forth, like Minerva, ‘full statured in an hour.” have an advantage over the customers of barber shops. There is no school for the young barber but the shop; but the am- bitious young amateur may murder his first character in a garret, kill the next in a par- lor, and so come down from murder in the extradition laws. His manipulation of the | first degree to murder in the second degree, from that to manslaughter, from manslaugh- ter to assault and battery with intent to kill, and finally go upon the public stage acquit- ted of everything but justifiable homicide. | Amateur companies render the profes- | sional stage valuable services. They are the material from which the regular companies | are recruited, and some of the best actors we have seen were once only “Thespians” or “Forrestonians” or members of similaras- sociations. From the amateur to the artist anateurs in this city who might rival in ac- complishments some of the best professional | performers. The standard of private theat- | ricals has been raised of late, and, though it | is proper to blame or ridicule the pretensions of the incompetent, it would be unpardon- able to disparage honorable ambition when united with real merit. Tue Rervericay Tarevss 1x Soutn Cauo- | urna triumphed over the Chamberlain fac- | tion in the Convention yesterday, and now, we suppose, the organization of the purty | will fall into the hands of the corrupt men whom the Governor has been so vigorously | opposing. The effect of this may be to give even South Carolina to the democracy in the Presidential election—a result which the | people of that State would have no occasion to deplore, therefore, labor under disadvantage, and, | At some period of their lives they must experiment with Shakespeare and pay | rude court to the Muses, But theatre-goers | is frequently but a step, and there are now | The Planting of the Tree. An old book of travels describes that three. | quarters of a century ago the route from Boston to Springtield was through a dense j forest, and that wild turkey shooting was one of the sports of Connecticut. It is within a shorter time that H. W. Herbert wrote his book on the Warwick Woodlands, a description of a section of country lying within fifty miles of New York. ‘The cha coal burner has devastated the New Jersey landscape, and Longfellow and Lowell are endeavoring to persuade the State of Massa | chusetts to preserves forest park of only s | half dozen acres, The West is far wiser than | we. Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas have a yearly holiday called ‘‘Arbor Day,” on which the people plant trees. Minnesote | already has millions of saplings tenderly leafing on her stretches and knolls. Iowa everywhere shows that her once bare prairies are to have their horizon broken into picturesqueness and color by the maple and the elm. No poem of Bryant's is more beau- tiful than that one in which he sings of “The Planting of the Apple Tree.” It is a pretty though sad idea that the snowy-bearded old poet, should be planting a twig whose pink white blossoms shall for the first time cheer men when the letters on his tomb are scaled andgray. He is a greater hcro than the-war- rior, But the tree is an element of civiliza- tion. When the vast arid plainsof Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and Colorado bear groves rain will come, the climate will change, artificial irrigation will be unnecessary, labor will be lightened, men will be happies and wealthier, and the desert will blossom like the rose, Tue WasHINcton Save Bonarary.—We print this morning another chapter in the history of the famous Washington safe burg- lary, the contribution consisting of an in- terview with Miles, the burglar, who isserv- ing out aterm of imprisonment in the Ver- mont State Prison. The significance of what Miles says on the subject is in the allegation that, General Babcock was present at and took part in the discussion of the job before it was attempted and in the corrobo- ration of Whitley. At the same time it must be confessed that Miles is a bad wit- ness ; but it is only through such as he that the truth can be obtained in this matter, and it is for this reason that we print the story which he has seen fit to relate. “Tux American Banonx."—It is a very funny story which Antonio De Costa tells of meeting William M. Tweed in Italy, and not the least amusing part of it is the an- nouncement that the ex-Boss is travelling on the Continent as an American baron. We may sympathize with Mr. De Costa be- cause he did not know that ‘Tweed was escaped;” but we can scarcely desire the arrest of “the old man” after what we are told of him, for, besides, a certain Count Tweed is the only baron in pur peerage, and it would be a pity to interfere with the journeyings of this distinguished repre. sentative of our nobility. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, West Virginia is knee deep with golaen mud, Mrs. Stowe gives readings in Jacksonville, Fla, The editor of the Norristown Herald has experienced a shower ot lies. Hon. Elisha Baxter declines to be a candidate for Governor of Arkansas, Sportsmen may soon shoot the English snipe on the Pennsylvania marsh lands. The Rochester Democrat man thinks that a hard brush will bring in the hair, It was a hard brash took his hatr out, Indiana bas a cat which 1s (of course falsely) said to be 100 years old. Sho1sadear friend of the halt for- gotten Schuyler Colfax. Shoepegs are mado of white birch, ana cost this country $1,000,000 a year. Thus by statistics do we get at the bottom facts. It has been asserted that for several years George Washington ran this country and the British army without @ silk umbrella. New Jersey now comes forward with a shower of corned beet and cabbage. It occurred to a Hackensack man who refused to sift the ashes, The New Orleans Republican says that a monkey makes yon laugh without winning your respect. We always laugh at the Republican's jokes, Wila geese are streaking their way through the air to the north. The Springfield Republican will now have a chance to get a less tame literary correspondent from - Boston. Detroit Free Press:—“‘A Philadelphia saioon keeper calculates that be will need exactly 1,000,000 long ry straws during tho Centennial. Theso straws will show which way the juleps go.”” The city of Custer, in the Black Hills, celebrated ite first funeral and began its first graveyard. In the whole city only one Bible was found. It belonged to a girl, daughter of one of the miners. Spinner, the ex-Treasorer, is still basking in the sun- shine of Florida, It is said that Spinner learned how | to make his peculiar autograph one morning when he was trying to make a buttonhole stitch, Iv is said that at last the President's eyes are being opened. The press bas been trying to open them with crowbars of informat‘on for seven years. It is no merit in a President that he won’t believe in lightning unwl he is sttuck. The trouble about the Chinese in San Francisco is that they can live economically and cheaply, while a white man is pot contented unless he belongs to a church, whips bis wife and pays twenty-five cents for poor whiskey. There are a fow things that e Christian cannot stand, The near friends of Genoral Belknap say that if he will leave his case to bis counsel, and not try to shield anybody else, he will sppear to be less of a devil than | he is painted, It may be all right for him to appear on | the trial in person, but his counsel may do better with- ‘out his presence. Some of the best printed papers on our exchange list come from little, straggling out-of-the-way, pioncer towns in Wyoming and Nevada Perbaps this is be- | cause many good printers are adventarous rovers. In ail New Jersey or Tonnesseo there is not 60 pretty a Paper as, for imstance, the Pioche (Nev.) Record. Leland Stanford, President of the Central Pacific | Railroad (which has not made any money)! has ovor the door of his now million dollar palace in San Fran- cisco the word ‘“Fidelite,”” Mr, Stanford was not taith- ful to his party, whick he sold out, nor to his friends, | but he sticks toa dollar with pertinacity. Chicago people Jaugh at the circulars of New York* | merchants who claim that Western buyers of foreign goods pay ten percent more for them in the Western j markets than in the Eastern. No figures have been | given either to prove or to disprove this statement; but there is considerable social genoralizing in the | manner of Wendell Phillips on the subject. | Now Jersey democrats aro divided in opinion as to i supporting ex-Governor Parker or Governor Bedle as | their first chotce for President. It was ex-Governor | Parker who, when in office, mado Bedle a Judge. Bedle | had been his law partner. The Judgesnip made Bedle | Governor. Bodle secms to bo slightly more popular than Parker, because he 1 a fresher man. | _ The boys having exhausted all the forms of slang ad~ dress and ended with “Go get your hair cut,” the girls | now step forward, according to the Brunswicker, with such oxpressio: hese, which we hope will not be used at Vassat eit,” "Pull your basque,” “Straighten your corset stoel,” “Wipe the gum off your ating mg your eyelash out of tangle” 4 \ hey a a. D