The New York Herald Newspaper, August 18, 1876, Page 9

4 NEW YORK HERALD. FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET, JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR ee eetemaenrene 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 Youk Henarp. Letters and packages should be properly Fealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OF FICE—} SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF T HERALD—NO. 46 FL. STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVEN 2E L'OPERA, Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the s#me terms as in New York. NEW YORK =NO. 231 TO-NIGHT, AMUSEMENTS BOOTHS THBATRE. BARDANAPALUS. ai 67. M. Mr. Vange and Mre Agnes Booth. wo uM. SITTING BULL, at 4 P. M. at? M. KELLY & LEON'S MINSTRELS, wer, M. OLYMPIC THBATRE, VARIETY, at 8P. M. PARISIAN VARIETIES, er. M. FIFTH AVENUE THRATRE, LORD DUNDREARY, as 6 P.M. Sothern, WALLAC TEATRE, THE MIGHTY DOLLA ay, ML TIVOLI THEATER. VARIETY, at 8PM GILMORDDS GARDEN. GRAND CONCERY, at 5 P.M. Mr. Levy and Madamo Pappenheim. THEATRE COMIQUE, VARIBTY, at @P. M. N 876. From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather to-day will be warmer and cloudy, with possibly a thunder storm. During the summer months the Humaup will Le sent to subscribers in the country at the rate of Wau Srrevrt Yrsrenpay.—Speculation was feverish and stocks were lower. The largest decline was in Delaware and Lacka- wanna, Jersey Central and St. Paul pre- ferred. Gold opened at 111 1-4 and closed at 1111-8, with sales in the interim at 111. Money loaned on call at 11-24 2 per cent, Government and railroad bonds were gen- erally firm. Anp Stu Tuszy Come.—The Prince of ‘Wales’ “awful dad” had another monument erected to his. memory yesterday—as if he could ever be forgotten. Tur New York Yacur Crvp is having an enjoyable cruise. The sail from Shelter Island to New London yesterday was espe- cially enjoyable to those who delighted in plenty of wind and rain. Bracqve Bry's Report of the atrocities in Bulgaria will be awaited with much in- terest in this country, where the Commis- sioner is well known. A fair exposition of the causes which lead to these crimes, at least, aay be expected. Tne Swiss Crresritron at Philadelphia promises to be one of the most interesting events of the Centennial. It is in events like this that the impulse which the Exhibi- tion has given to liberty throughout the world is best exemplified. Wuen We Comparer our military establish- ment with that of Russia, as it is reported by cable this morning, we need not despair of the Republic. Not even during the re- bellion did we ever have as many in the field as Russia has in her peace armament, Tax Frvanctan Drprzssion which began here in 1873 and has gradually extended to nearly every country is now severely felt in Portugal. A number of banks and commer- cial houses have failed at Oporto, and heavy remittances have been made from England to lessen the effects of the crisis. Ir 1s Somernine New for Scotland to send to America for workmen, but our news columns this morning show that one hun- dred and fifty stone masonsin this city have been engaged to go to Greenock. Novel as this seems it is not so unreasonable as com- ing from the West to seek employment in New York. Axorugr Race Coyruicr is reported from the South, this one occurring in Texas. Two negroes were killed, and the excited | blacks in the vicinity, it is said, gathered for vengeance, when two more negroes were killed. is that the negroes were cattle thieves, but a county must be lawless indeed where cattle thieves are punished by assassination. An Acorecate of 423 rotten telegraph poles and 1,659 rotten trees in this city is something we could not have credited if po- lice examination had not revealed these dis- graceful facts. Tho next duty is their re- moval. Within a fortnight two persons lost their lives on account of rotten telegraph | poles, and now that the police know of the unsafe ones it would be inexcusable should they remain standing much longer. At Sanatoca yesterday, in contrast with the rain which fell throughout the day in the metropolis, the weather was delightful and | the racing was much enjoyed. The second meeting this year has been a great social as well as sporting success, and the American turf now only lacks great annual events like the Derby, which shall always be looked for- ward to with pleasure, to make our summer and autumn meetings national in character. Born Crook anp Terry are now making their advance against the Sioux, and we may have news of a battle at any moment. Our despatches and letters this morning give fnil information of the preparations for the advance, and contain some suggestive higts touching the way in which the Indian question has been managed by the Interior | Department, Even since the war begun the savages have been supplied with arms and ammunition by* Indian agents. In case of disaster the country will know where to place the responsibility, YO. 112SOUTH | ‘The reason assigned forthe murders | jouth— or Employment of Troops in th The New Order of the Secretary War. ° The unexpected order communicated to General Sherman, by direction of the Pres- ident, to hold all available troops in readi- ness to protect the rights of negro voters in | the Southern States, excites universal atten- tion, and is likely to provoke angry and injudicions comments. to regard this matter as very serious. It | should be looked upon rather as an adroit po- litical manceuvre than as an effective military order, The republican advisers of the President saw an opportunity to give Mr. Scott Lord a Roland for his Oliver, and as a bit of political strategy it has, no doubt, | been dexterously done. Our only regret is that the President appears as the chief player in this party game. Public opinion | will sustain him in every sincere attempt to secure fair elections in the South, and we have been hoping, and have had good rea- sons to hope forthe last twenty months, that he would take no further steps toward mili- tary interference except on a necessity 60 manifest that the whole country would justify him. Since the unfortunate Louisi- ena affair in January, 1875, President Grant has seemed truly reluctant to employ mili- tary force and has repeatedly. refused appli- cations from State Governors. We incline to think that the recent order is a hasty act, done on the advice of others, without proper deliberation, and that he will allow it on re- flection to pass into silent oblivion. We ! trust that the moral influence of his great | station will bo exerted to securo fair elec- tions and justice to both races and to pre- vent any complications requiring military interference. We would fain hope that his administration may end with a full realiza- | tion of the memorable aspiration, ‘Let us | have peace,” which he expressed in his first | letter of acceptance. ‘We regard this recent order as mere brutum fulmen—a harmless thunderbolt launched in too ready compli- ance with astute politicians, who did not wish their party to risk so tempting a chance to lash the democrats with a withe of their own cutting. We appreciate the joke, | but are sorry that the President was com- plaisant enough to take part in it. The democrats of the House were caught in a trap when Mr. Lord sprung his resolu- tion. They squirmed for two hours to no purpose ; but when they found they could not dodge a vote they were wise enough to vote almost unanimously for the resolution. Everybody knew that there was no hearti- ness or sincerity in that vote, given under | political duress, andsit is really a very good party joke for the republicans to affect to look upon it as serious and act upon it as an instruction to protect the negroes. Itisavery dexterous way of trumping the democratic trick, but itis beneath the dignity of the President of the United States to participate | in such a party game. ‘There are conclusive reasons for suppos- ing that this singular order is not serious. President Grant is no lawyer, but he knows that the Supreme Court, in a solemn judg- ment pronounced last March, decided that the Enforcement law is unconstitutional, and that the federal Executive has no au- thority to interfere to enforce the fifteenth constitutional amendment. After declaring that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account of race or color, it pro- ceeds to say that ‘‘Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legisla- tion.” Congress did legislate and passed the very elaborate act known as the Enforce- ment law. But that law covered too much ground; it included subjects on which the fifteenth amendment confers no power, and the Supreme Court decided that its constitu- tional and its unconstitutional features were so blended and intertwined that it had neither ability nor authority to disentangle them, and that the whole act is void by reason of its unconstitutional provisions. “We are not able,” said Chief Justice Waite, in delivering the opinion of the Court, ‘to reject a part which is unconstitutional and retain the remainder, because it is not possi- ble to separate that which is unconstitu- tional from that which is not.” “Within its legitimate sphere Congress is supreme and beyond the control of the courts; but if it steps outside of its constitutional limitations and attempts that which is be- yond its reach the courts are authorized to, and when called upon in due course of legal proceedings must, annul its encroacinents | upon the reserved power of tho States and the people. To limit this statute in the manner now asked for would be to make a | new law, not to enforce an old one. This is | no part of our duty. We must therefore decide that Congress has not as yet provided by appropriate legislation for the punish- ment of the offence charged in the indict- ment.” This authoritative decision settles the whole question as to the power of the Exee- utive or the courts of justice to enforce the | fifteenth amendment under existing legisla- tion. The thing stands now precisely as if no law had ever been passed on the subject. It is too clear that the teenth amendment is not ing, and, the law that was passed for enforcing it having become a dead letter by the action of the Supreme Court, the President has no other or greater au- thority to employ troops than he possessed previous to the new amendments to the constitution. The Supreme Court conceded | that Congress has power, to supply such legislation within certain limits ; but inas- much as the Senate and the House have been controlled by different political parties since the decision was made no substitute has been passed for the defunct act, and the President can legally employ troops in a | State only to suppress domestic violence in | compliance with 9 call from the State Legis- | lature or Governor. Sherman, therefore, amounts to nothing prac- tically, and is a mere electioneering trick. Congress would be entitled to respect ; bat a | resolution of the House is not a law, but a | mere declaration of opinion, It has no bind- | ing force on the Executive ; it confers no | government. The President is required to | exeoute the laws, but the Scott Lord resolu- | tion is not a law; and even if it were it , could justify no such measure as has been . It will be a mistake | The order to General | A military order based upon an act of | authority ; it is no proper foundation for | | official action by any department of the | } A | frequent thunder fit. | periods of cloudiness and rain, solf- H elf-exeeut- | over the entire continent east of the Rocky ordered by the President. The resolution does not contemplate military action, but action by the courts—not prevention, but punishment, Its language is ‘that in any case which has heretofore occurred or may occur hereafter in which violence or murder has been or shall be committed by one race or class upon the other the prompt prosecu- tion and punishment of the criminals in any court having jurisdiction is impera- tively demanded.” But what courts have jurisdiction? Not those of the United States, certainly, in the present state of the law, but only the courts of the particular States within which such violence is per- petrated, so that even if this resolution of the House were an act of Congress in the same words it would confer no authority on the President to interfere. We are confident that General Sherman will take no steps toward exécuting this strange order, and that the President himself will not fol- low it up by subsequent orders until after scenes of violence shall have occurred too formidable to be dealt with by a State gov- ernment, and then only on a legal applica- tion from the State whose authority is re- sisted, It is certain that the President will do no more, because he has no legal anthor- ity to do more; and we are sorry that he holds out delusive hopes to the ignorant negroes. If they should in consequence be emboldened to commit actgof violence the President himself will see that this un- seemly order is neither innocent nor harm- less. There being, at present no other law for their protection than the laws of the States in which they reside they ought not to be deluded into a false view of the situa- tion, and least of all by the President of the | United States, who has given ‘a hasty and heedless assent to the suggestion of political tricksters. The Four and a Half Per Cent Loan. It is satisfactory to know that there is at length an active attempt to reduce the interest on the public debt by negotiating bonds bearing a lower rate. The Henatp has persistently remonstrated against the financial imbecility of our government in continuing to pay six percent on the greater part of the national debt, when the national credit stands so high that bonds can easily be sold at lower rates. During the adminis- tration of Secretary Bristow nothing was done beyond closing up the five percent loan of his predecessors. We are glad to see that Secretary Morrill is disposed to take this subject in hand, and we wish hima brilliant success. One of our Washington despatches expresses the opinion that his success will not be brilliant unless he can dispose of o new loan at a lower rate than four and a half per cent. He has legal authority to issue new bonds to the amount of three hundred millions at this rate, but he is under no compulsion to do soifhecan get better terms. He has also authority to issue any amount of four per cent bonds for the conversion of the public debt, and it would be a great feather in his cap if he could dispose of a new loan at this rate. The Syndicate is very eager to take three hundred millions at four and a half per cent, and they would no doubt find ita profitable operation. Whether a four per cent loan is practicable is a question on which we shall seek the opinions of com- petent financial judges. It is asserted that at the prices at which government bonds are now selling the investment does not yield more than four per cent to the purchasers, and if this be the case a four and a half per cent loan would be wasteful. We shall not judge Secretary Morrill hastily, for wo have confidence in his ability and his wish to tlo the best he can for the country; but the subject is worth discussion, and he is entitled to the aid ot the best public opinion, The Weather. Yesterday’s thunder storm, with its copi- ous rainfall of 2.27 inches, was one of the series predicted for the present week in Tuesday's Henatp. The drizzling rain that prevailed during the day was due to the in- fluence of the cool northerly wind on the heated and moisture-laden atmosphere, a j condensation of the vapor into rain being produced. Such storms, although they may cause temporary inconvenience to a great many business people, are blessings for which we cannot be too thankful at the present season. While the city streets are in many places reeking with filth and the sewers charged with refuse matter in solid forms, a great drenching, cleansing rain storm is sorely needed to preserve the health of the city. Not only are the street gutters, pavements and sowers washed, but the air itself is purified by the heavy downfall of rain, the foul gases emanating from deposits of garbage and other putrescent matter being absorbed by the descending water. During the passage of the area of high pressure through Canada we will experience cloudy weather, and fogs will prevail eastward toward Newfoundland, rendering navigation difficult, From the westward we may expect and recurring Indeed, the latter conditions will be likely to prevail orms Mountains in constantly and rapidly shift- ing areas. A tornado will probably occur in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys during | to-day, the conditions being favorable for its development. The rain belt bas extended from the Missouri to the Atlantic, A Marker was wounded in the eye at Creedmoor yesterday, apparently ‘through the carelessness of one of the marksmen. Last year a number of accidents of this kind occurred, and now a man has lost an eye, probably his life, from mere want of disci- pline at the firing point. Not only must severer discipline be enforced before the targets, but the National Guard must court martial such of the officers and men as are guilty of indiscretions like that which re- sulted so lamentably yesterday, Pmacy 1x THe Sovnp is a phase which sounds oddly in these days, and yet such an act was committed on Wednesday night, a few miles from Hell Gate, a schooner being boarded by river thieves, who held the crew in terror while they robbed the vessel. We trust that these bold pirates may be arrested and brought to justice, notwithstanding our police system has reached such effici- ency as to give little ground for hope, The Anthracite Coal Ring. From the report of the proceedings at the meeting held in this city on the 24th ult. of the Board of Control of the Coal Ring it seems the difficulties were once more patched up and the weak link in the combination of coal companies is to be made fast and strong, so that the huge monopoly may continue to stagger alone until an attack on some more vulnerable point may break it up and bring about lower prices. How important the coal interests are may be judged from the fact that the annual production of the Union reaches over forty millions of tons, half of which is Pennsylvania anthracite. Every dollar, therefore, which the public is foreed to pay for hard coal beyond the cost of production | and a fair profit means twenty millions of | dollars annually to a combination of railroad companies, These wring a further profit out of the private miner who would be able to undersell them but for the exactions of ex- cessive freight 6r tolls to tidewater. To | theso he must submit, or by selling his coal at the pit’s mouth to the railroad he may obtain starvation prices, which sooner or later make him glad to sell out altogether. The determined struggle of the coal carry- ing roads to maintain and advance the | present price of coal 1s met by an opposition equally determined on the part of consumers, hence the middle men or coal factors are doing nothing, and there isa great reduc- tion in the number of that class. The coal auction sales, which formerly gnve a fair index of supply and demand, have been suspended since 1875, so that the great monopolists have effectually bottled up the avenues to any form of competition. The six companies which dictate the price | of coal in sufmmer and advance it each autumn and winter to the highest figures that can be squeezed out of the consumers are the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad; the Central Railroad of New Jer- sey, the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Dela- waro and Hudson Canal Company, the Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Phila- delphia and Reading Railroad. The neces- sity which now exists for these six corpora- tions to hang together as they do has been brought about by their extravagant and reckless management since the war. Not contented with the ten percent dividends on their constantly increasing stock which four of the six made and sometimes ex- ceeded, and which the other two generally made, for ten years past, they entered into leases of roads and lands and land pur- chases, urged thereto by the profits which the enormous inflation of the iron business and railroad building seemed to promise. ‘These improvements and purchases, at war prices, were paid for by enormous pledges of future credit, just as if the business of the country was to be always at the samo breathless tension and there were to Be no interruptions to prosperity. The inflation of the past ten years we give here, the fig- utes being the amount of the capital stock and debt:— 1866, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad,.........$15,376,922 Central Kailroad of New Jer- Sey... Lehigh Delawaro and Philadelphia and Reading. TOU stacoscte sozeund +++ $81, 102,511 $205,200,377 Thus, the eighty-one millions which rep» resented the cost of the coal carriers of 1865 has become two hundred and sixty-five millions now, and a closer study, not here necessary, would show that nearly all the inflation has been accomplished since 1868 and 1869, The road most prominent, by its immense purchases of land, éc., and con- sequent addition to its debt, is the Phil- adelphia and Reading Railroad, and.as it is a dictator in the prices of the Schuylkill region the importance to it of the wddition of fifteen sents per ton on the whole an- thracite trade which consumers must pay after August 1 will be seen by a comparison of the years 1869, 1874 (the best year in its history) and 1876, the year of the strike:— 1875, $36,535,438 1869, 1874. 1875, Amount of debt... $7,819,000 $53,155,000 $60,200,000 Amount of stock 023,000 274, 34,277,000 ‘Tons coal earried.. 4,239,000 6,348,812 5,505,000 Receipts from coal. $8,346,000 $8,920.00 $7,636,000 Receipts from other nources... 2,862,000 5,582,000 5,024,000 Gross earnings 208,000 14,452,000 12,660,000 Not earnings. 832,068 $720,205 4,630,768 Miles road owned, 152 327 327 This table shows that, while the share enpital has during the past seven years in- creased from twenty-nine to thirty-four millions, and the debt from about eight millions to sixty-eight millions (including the last London issue of ten millions), the gross earnings of the road have not mate- rially advanced; that while the coal tonnage of the road has increased nearly fifty per cent it is hauled for less money than in 1869, so that, this great expansion of credit having brought no increase of coal business to the@railroad, for which it was incurred, the price of a commodity ranking in im- portance next to food must be artificially kept up and all healthy competition extin- guished to enable this and other corpora tions in the same situation to earn the in- ‘terest on their bonds. The Closing Performance of Wagner's Trilogy. The curtain fell at half-past ten o’clock last night in the Festal Theatre at Baireuth, on a series of musical and dramatic per- formances of a scale of grandeur such as no audience ever witnessed before, The great music drama of the “Ring of the Nibe- lungen,” a work of such colossal mag- nitude that it required twenty years to bring it forth from its embryo state in the mind of the composer to the fulness of its majestic proportions, was brought to a suc- cessful close, The scene was a memorable one, the event an epoch in art history. Royal dignitaries and literary and musical celebrities united in an outburst of applause that brought the composer before the cur- tain. It was a triumph that seldom falls.to the lot of any human being, one that amply repaid long, weary years of toil, dis- appointment and trouble, and placed upon the brow of the. composer the laurels of immortality. A hero, “a swallower of formulas,” as he has been aptly termed, Wagner stands to-day before the world one of the most gifted of the chil- dren of dramatic and musical art, and before him bow, in homage to \his genius, the brighest intellects of | Kurope. He is to this generation what Beethoven was to a past one, end although few will be inclined to accept his theories as 1876.—WITH SUPPLEMENT. entirely practical, especially as far as the | human voice is concerned, yet no one can conscientiously deny to him the faculty of originating sublime ideas and of creating | such a revolutiongn the stage as will be pro- ductive of much good fruit. Turkey and Servia. The news of the war in the Bast has in it to-day a grain of comfort.for those who sym- pathize with the efforts of the Christian populations to resist the force of the domi- nant Moslem. On the Montenegrin frontier aforce of five thousand Turks has been beaten in the attempt to storm a fortified position. Reports of this kind might have been far more frequent in the history of this war if the Servians had been well handled. As itis the Montenegrins score all the suc- cesses. Itis true that this may be due to the fact that the Turks assail with their choicer forces that resistance which they deem the most likely to be of importance and regard the operations on the Monte- negrin line as of less immediate moment; but from whatever point of view it may be regarded the resistance to Islamism in the disturbed districts has been a disappoint- ment to all who were prepared to welcome the end of Turkish supremacy in Europe. The crisis of the Servian war cannot be delayed a great while, and but that it isa war in extraordinary circumstances its inev- itable result would be already clearly ap- parent. It did not seem possible in the commencement of this struggle that Prince Milan could plunge into an offensive war against the Porte without the certainty of support from a great neighbor to supplement at the proper moment his own evidently insufficient resources. Therefore it did not seem to the world at large that he had taken a desperate step. On the contrary, for Servia to wage war on Turkey, with a great nation like Russia looking on benevolently while Servia was successful and ready to interfere if tho tide should turn against her, seemed to Europe generally an un- dertaking so safe that the success of Servia was regarded as a foregone con- clusion. Butit must be judged from the event that the Servian prince could have had no reason whatever to anticipate from Russia any otherthan the moral support of sym- pathy and good will, and that, therefore, his course was in the highest degree rash and extravagant. His own army has been shown to be practically worthless, and uninterrupted success has enabled the soldiers of the Sul- tan to reach such a position that the war cannot be continued, in the military sense, as a series of operations of army against army, though it may be as the desperate struggle of a people who see before them no alternative but the desolation of their country and the butchery of their families or a savage warfare of the guerilla sort. It is too late to look for any such effigient aid from St. Petersburg as it was thought would certainly come when needed, and the point of next importance now is to know how far the great Powers will go in preventing Turkey from exercising the pre- rogatives of a conqueror over her prostrate enemy. Europe never thought of giving the Porte any guarantees against Servia ; there- fore, under the public law of Europe, Servia did not forfeit any rights in her as- sault on the Porte; but a number of treaties guarantee the position of Servia against the hostility of the Porte, and that, it will presently be seen, will greatly limit the vengeance of the victor. In fact, inasmuch as Servia is a tributary Power, her war on Turkey is really a rebellion, while the attempt of Turkey to do more than sup- press Servian resistance would be an act in defiance of the Treaty of Paris and the other public acts which guarantee Servian au- tonomy. Therefore no serious change can result from the Turkish triumph unless the Porte is prepared to force an intervention against itself from which it has hitherto been saved, probably, by British diplomacy, The Foul Croton Water. Notwithstanding the repeated assurances of the officials in charge of our city water supply that the Croton water is healthy and does not contain any matter which renders it unfit for consumption, we are forced to take the opposite view and to reassert our opinion that New York stands in the pres- ence of a grave danger. A careful survey of the watershed of the Croton River, made by a representative of tho Heap last win- ter, demonstrated that no precautions what- ever were taken to free the surface drainage into the collect ponds from the impurities incidental to their localities. What those impurities consisted of it is unnecessary to restate here, but they were at that time of such a character as to awaken disgust and alarm in the mind of every consumer of Croton water. The simple remedy of filter- ing the water that supplies a city of a mill- ion inhabitants seems not to have entered into the plans of the projectors of the water system and of its various extensions; and owing to an equal carelessness in the regu- lation of the reception of the surface water into the reservoirs the supply has become tainted at its very source. Now we learn from the Chief Engineer of the Croton Aque- duct that it is only during seasons of re- markable drought that the Croton water becomes tainted, and he explains this by a description of the manner in which the overflow at the dam removes the surface im- purities. By virtue of his responsible posi- tion Mr. Campbell’s opinions are entitled to great weight, but only when they coincide with certain well assured facts bearing on the subject of his charge. Assuming that ! the lack of rainfall has cansed the Croton water to have a foul odor and a worse taste during the present month, we are anxious to know how it happened that this trouble did not arise during the past three years, when the rainfall of the month of July, and even for the first seven months of each year, was considerably less than that of last month and of the first seven months of 1876, We present elsewhere a tabulated statement of the rainfall for each month from 1871 to 1876, both inclusive, which proves this fact conclusively. Now, the Croton supply has | been impure since the beginning of. last | month, during which we had the greatest rainfall of any July since 1873. How, then, can it be claimed that want of water this | year causes the supply to become almost putrid? Again, are there not reservoirs enough at higher elevations than that from which the supply aqueduct leads to flood the lower basin to many feet higher than its dam level, even for an hour, and so remove the surface impurities? Tho truth is that our water system is being botched, and no amount of scientific twaddle can conceal the fact. Water that is charged with objectionable animal matter, the drainage of farm lands and swampy grounds, and in fact made the medium of conveying away the refuse of a thickly set- tled region, cannot be filtered by “contact” with ‘the great motionless mass of water at the dam.” Neither will Professor Chandler's bright idea of cleaning the Park reservoirs | help matters. The supply is poisoned at its source and at that source must the rem edy be applied. The Amateur National Regatta. On Tuesday next the amateur oarsmen of the United States will hold their annual re- gatta on the Schuylkill River. It will con- tinue for two days, and as there are some of the best crews who were entered at Saratoga, together with some new additions te the en- tries, the prospects of fine racing are excellent and will prove an excellent preface to the international contests to take place over the same course between the oarsmen of Eng- land, Ireland, Canada and the United States a week later. The races, as in the interna- tional regatta, will bein heats—mile and a half straightaway. Yale, Columbia, the Beaver- wycks, Argonautas and Atalantas will take part in the fours. It is a matter of regret that the Sho-wae-cae-mettes are not entered, for either the national or international events, and the Northwestern men are only entered in the international, wisely prefer- ring to ‘hold back for the great event of the year, in which they expect to meet the best foreign and American oarsmen. Courtenay, Yates, Riley, Kennedy and the rest of the brilliant galaxy of scullers will row for the national prizes, so that the foreign scullera can judgo oftheir mettle, learn their pace and know what they will have to contend against. Somo of the contestants in the doubles and pairs will also row in the fours— an unwise proceeding, if the races are close upon each other, for there is such a thing ag men attempti to do too much and succeed~ ing in accomplishing but little. From pres- ent appearances the coming regatta of the National Association will be the most suce cessful sinee its formation! PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, There are 12,000 unemployed men in San Francisco, Chicago banks are not asked to make many dis- counts, The useful porgie paves the bottoms of Friday’s ish ‘wagons. ‘ Hon, A. H. Stephens is well enough to cat corn off the cob. 5 Mrs. Lincoln remains in tho Rocky Mountains, in Colorado. Senator Henry Cooper, of Tennessee, is at the Now York Hotel. Voltaire:—“If God did not exist, 1t would bo neces- sary to invent one.”” Wendell Phillips will like enough lecture this winter about the poor Indian. Murat Halsteat:—*We shall never be a cold water people by virtue of law.” Fiftg thousand copies of Mra, Crowell’s “Vials of ‘Wrath’? have been sold. Since Watterson entered Congress Blue Jeans Will- jams bas ordered an extra lemon every day. ‘ Martin Van Buren never forgot a man he had mot, and this is a talent belonging also to Tilden, Sefior Don G. Videla Dorna, Argentine Chargé d’ Affaires at Washington, is at the Albemarle Hotel. Newspapers are deploring the fact that Theodore ‘Thomas refuges to lose any more money In giving con- certs, The Suitan continues to bave delirium tremens, and thinks he sees Ben Butlor coming up the back stairs with a bustie on. Ex-Governor Spraguo is working hard in his Provie dence mills to redeem his fortunes and pay the firm’s debts, due next February. Chicago Tribune:—*‘We ean dismiss Sambo from politics in the same sense that we dismiss Patrick and Johnny, Sandy and Hans.” Sonaters Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island, and William H. Barnum, of Connecticut, yesterday arrived at the Filth Avenue Hotel, Proctor Knott is a little fellow, with rosy checks an¢ a white mustache, and he ig the man who trted to picl” a fly off of Blaine’s hind leg. One Maryland firm will put up 1,000,000 cans of te matoes, and 1,000,000 dogs will wag their tails de risively until the cans are empty. ‘The friends of Colonel Brooks, at Washington, an about to present him with a velvet boundoopy of Mn Beecher’s collection of hymns, Prolessor De Mergan says that man’s spirit lives of itself, but receives the body slowly while it hardens, Very much, for instance, like a soft-sheil crab, A Virginia lady, whose husband died two years ago, bas since that time, with the aid of her six daughtors, success(ully cultivated a farm of over 200 acres, A New Jersey critic complains because thero ts so Ittle hurrabing in republican clubs this campaign, a if politicians could say much with apple whiskey at $7 a gallon. His Excellency Mr. R, Van Pestel, Minister Resident of His Majesty the King of the Netherlands at Washing ton, D. C., left New York yesterday in the steamshig P. Caland for Kotterdam. Make your purple plums intos jelly-like tart, s¢ that the plums and the paste run together without being sodden. Whip rum and cream until they makea froth, and pour the froth on the tart. Every 259th Cincinnatian commits suicide; sixty-two percent of those who kill themselves are Germans; the avorage age at death ts forty years; five men to one woman is the proportion as to sex, and banging Is the favorite mode of taking off. Norwich Bulletin: —‘‘This is a season when a man fol- lows the lovely being whom ho adores to a summer hotel and sees her eating green corn on the cob with both hands at tho dinner table and immediately pays his Dill and goes home and takes to drink.” Alcohol was invented 950 years ago in Arabla, and was used by ladies with a powder for painting their faces, Since that time it has been ased mainly by gen- tlemen for painting their noses, and used in a plain state because they required no powder to fire them off, Herr Pieper has devised a now method of tempering and hardening glass, which con: In submitting the giass, while at a red heat, to the action of superheated steam, It is reported that this process has been so far successful as to induco the German glass makers tq give Pieper $75,000 for his patent, Colonel Meacham, who received six bullets when Genoral Canby was killed by the Modocs, tefends the Indians for kindness and hospitality, and insists that Captain Jack was 4 martyr to a dosire to live as a whito man. The main cause of troudle, says Colonel Meacham, is that some white man degrades the wife or daughter of am Indian, and being killed for 18, ia avenged by war. HL V. R, in the Cincinnatt Commerciat:— «There was one removal, however, which Spencer failed to emfect, That was Wickersham, Mobile Postmaster. Jowell would not touch bit, beenuse there was really no roa #on jor removal, and thereupon Spencer became very angry at Jewell, wont to the President with a tale of distress and was the primo cause of having Jewoil ousted from the Cabinet,” Helmbotz, the great philosopher, who writes aboat acoustics, now says that the quality of a musical tone depends wholly upon the number of vibrations whied ocoupy space between the instrument and the mem. brane of the oar, That is, take an ordinary sized tom catand his beau atone end of your theory and how are you going to Keep the membrane quiet at the other jong enough to count the vibrations of hair ol bottles and picture frames that you sling out of the window ?