The New York Herald Newspaper, November 6, 1876, Page 4

Hy a ny NEW YORK NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HEI HERALD, } published every day in the year. Three cents per copy (Sun- day excluded). ‘Ten dollars per year, or at rate of one dollar per month for any period less than six months, or five dollars for six months, Sunday edition included, free of postage. All business, news letters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed New York Hera. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Rejected communications will not be re- turned. PHILADELPHIA OFF 1C E— NO.112 SOUTH SIXTH STREET. LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD—NO. 46 ET STREET. PARIS OFFICE—AVENUE DE L'OPERA. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. VOLUME SS eRe AMUSEMENTS GRAND, ORs HOUSE. BUFFALO BILL. ms? M. NEW YORK AQUARIUM. TO-NIGHT, Open daily. OOTILS, THEATRE, SARDANAPALU ee eb a Me Bangs and Sra Agnes oot. PARK THEATRE, TOM COBB, at 8 P. M THEATRE. r. Stoddard, Miss Rogers. IEATRE. BROO: LONG STRIKE, at 8 FIFTH AV. LIFE, at 8 P. Charles GILMORE' BARNUM’S CIRCUS AND. RDE: Rie, at 2and8 P.M. THEATRE. N SQUARE THEATRE. 4 8PM. COLUMBIA OPERA HOUSE, VARIETY, at 8 P. M. THEATRE COMIQUB, VARIETY, aoe “ TRE, VARIKTY AND BEA Me TONY PASTOR'S THEATRE, VARIETY, inca y THEATRE, Matines at 2 P.M, VARIETIES, BIL) MABILLE yr cn BP. PARI VARIETY, at 8 P. M. TIVOLI THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P.M. EAGLE THEATRE. VARIETY, at 8 P. M. SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, atSP.M. si KELLY & LEON’S MINSTRRLS, ateP. M. PHILADELPHIA THEATRES, KIRALFY'S ALHAMBRA PALACE, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS. NEW NATIONAL THEATRE. THE BLACK CROOK. KREUTZBERG'S ae MUSEUM, THE sQREAT SIEGE OF PARIS. Daily, from to 10 P. M., east ofthe Phiiadelphi Main’ ‘pkposition ‘Butiding PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM, Ninth and Arch streets.—TWO ORPHANS. ZOOLUG: GA DEN. WITH | SUPPLEMEN MONDAY, NOVEMBI R rm “1876, NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC. Owing to the action of a portion of the carriers and newsmen, who aro determined that the public snall mothave the Heratp at three cents per copy if they tan prevent it, we have made arrangements to place tho Hraxp in the bands ofall our readers at the reduced price. Newsboys can purchase any quantity they may desire at No, 1,265 Broadway and No, 2 Ann street, From our reports this morning the probabil- Mties are that the weather to-day will be slightly swearmer and partly cloudy or clear. Te Canpipates.—A useful list of na- tional and State candidates of all parties to be voted for to-morrow, together with the candidates for Assembly in this State, will be found elsewhere. Geyerat Suzrman found time yectentay to give one of our reporters his opinion in brief on the political situation and the con- dition of our trouble with the recalcitrant Indians. He regards the Indian question hopefully, and desires the election of Gov- ernor Hayes. Spam still proclaims through the Pre- imier, Canovas del Castillo, that she will not give up Cuba at any cost. There is, how- ever, asuspicion of whistling to keep the tourage up in the fact that such an an- nouncement is made at all, while every soldier that can be spared is being packed off to the Gem of the Antilles. In Ivauy the p progressists or radicals seem again to have the best of the appeal to the people. If the government is to pass ulti- mately into their hands it will be the better for the country to have the disciples of republicanism gradually educated in the responsibilities of office. The world may require ‘‘little wisdom” to govern it, but the qualities which make stable government possible are many, and they can only be acquired by a gradual experience. A Horniwix Munpes is that reported from Cooperstown, in this State, where a fathpr deliberately shot his son dead. There is a strange brutishness about the circumstances, which would probably lead some of the chicken-hearted sentimentalists to pro- nounce the murderer unaccountable for his erime; but apart from revealing how miser- ably some human beings grovel through life to the grave amid our boasted civilization we can see nothing in it to palliate the crime. Tux Weratuer.—The central orea of high pressure has now moved toward the North Atlantic const and extends into Canada from Virginia, and west as faras Buffalo, West- ward to the Missouri Valley the pressure decreases with a very fiat barometric gradient. In the last named section a de- pression exists, which although not very considerable is yet attended by rain areas on its eastern and by strong gales on its west- ern margins. ‘These latter are evidently due to the presence of an stéa of high pressure to th northward, and which has caused snowfalls at Bismarck and Breck- intidge, on the northern and northwestern edges of the depression. Cold weather pre- vails in the Northwest, but we will not ex- perience it at New York until after the dis- . tarbance referred to has passed our merid- ‘fan, The weather in this city to-day will be wormes and partly sloudy or clean Last Werds to Voters. The party press on both sides will be filled, to-day and to-morrow morning, with spasmodic appeals to citizens to come to the rescue and save their imperilled country. We cannot join the obstreperous chorus on either side. We do not believe our free in- stitutions are in danger, and have no notes to contribute to the brawling dissonance of the party trumpets. Our admirable and venerable constitution would ill deserve all the encomiums lavished upon it if it did not guard our liberties against. overthrow by an ordinary Presidential election. The present is merely an ordinary election. We have not within the memory of living men had a Presidential election in which the two great parties differed less on fundamental questions. Both declare their full accept- ance of the results of the civil war and of the constitutional amendments by which those great results are fortified ; both parties profess a desire to return to specie payments at the earliest moment when it can be done without a shock to business; both concede the importance of reforming the civil service and limiting the Presidential office to a single term; both have tried to convince the people that they are opposed to the payment of Southern war claims; both assert a purpose to re- trench expenses, reduce taxes, alleviate the public burdens and promote the public prosperity. With this substantial agree- ment on the most important points of do- mestic policy there are happily no foreign questions which have been made a political issue between the two parties. We, there- fore, regard the vehement exhortations and warnings of the party press as mere clamor for the offices and patronage of the federal government. The crazy final appeals of the party press only ‘serve as a_ sig- nal,” to: borrow the apt language of Fisher Ames, ‘for the party racers to start,” and (still using that great orator’s words) wé may “expect a great deal of noise, whipping and spurring.” This will be allover when the sun sets to-morrow, and whichever may be the winning horse our institutions will ‘‘still live.” The Heratp has done nothing to kindle party passions or fan the flames of party excitement, believing, with the first of our Presidents, that party spirit tends to great excesses in this country and needs to be moderated and restrained. No topic in Washington's Farewell Address is pressed with so much urgency as his solemn warn- ing against the mischiefs of heated partisan zeal, ‘Let me now,” said the Father of his Country, ‘‘take a more comprehensive view, and warn youin the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.” Then follow five emphatic paragraphs, in which these dangers are vividly depicted. “This spirit,” said Washington, ‘unfortunately, is insep- arable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of ‘the human mind. It exists in different shapes, under all governments, more or less stifled, controlled or repressed ; but in those of the popular form it is seen in its greatest rank- ness, and is truly their worst enemy.” “There is an opinion that parties in tree countries are useful checks upon the admin- istration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true; and in governments of a monarchical cast pa- triotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. Butin those of popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be en- couraged. From the natural tendency it is certain that there will always be enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose ; and there being constant danger of excess the effort ought to be by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it. A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.” We hoped, at the opening of this Presi- dential canvass, that it might be aonducted in a spirit of generous moderation, and that party spirit would abate its extravagance in the centennial of our national existence. We were encouraged to entertain this hope by the universal and effusive patriotism ex- hibited last year in celebrating Lexington, Bunker Hill and Mecklenburg. But the demon of party spirit has proved too strong for such restraints. Party virulence has never gone to greater lengths than in this year of national pride and exultation and‘ this great revival of hallowed national mem- ories. Could there be a more impressive proof of the sagacious insight and far reach- ing foresight of the revered Father of his Country than we have witnessed during this centennial summer and autumn? The most sacred national recollections have been powerless to hush and subdue fierce party antagonisms. The sons have fought and calumniated each other while strewing flowers upon the graves of their fathers ; and this in an election in which the two parties have made substan- tially the same declarations of policy in their respective platforms. Could there be a more melancholy demonstration of the untamable ferocity of party spirit, or a more signal vindication of the grave warnings of Washington? Astill more noteworthy evidence of the headlong tendencies of party spirit is fur- nished by its conquest of a portion of the American press from which something bet- ter might have been expected. Immediately after the Presidential election of 1872 quite a number of the ablest and most widely cir- culated newspapers in the United States enlisted under the banner of inde- pendent journalism. Nothing ever gave us greater pleasure, since we believe it to ‘be one important office of the press to mod- erate the heat of party contests, check the excesses of party to repeat the language of “by force of public opinion to mitigate and assuage it.” The prosperous journals of the country have no pecuniary temptation to lend themselves to partisan objects. The day is long past when tho leading journals of our larger cities needed to court the favor or fear the frowns of politicians. But our joy in seeing so many journals ranged on the side of independence was premature and short lived. ‘They did run well for a sea- son;” but they have nearly all succumbed to pasty epirit in the Aret serious trial, Dusing HERALD, MON DAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1876. —WITH SUPPLEMENT. this Presidential canvass the wae has stood alone in the field of independent jour- nalism, in which ‘the harvest is great but the laborers are few.” The Hxnatp alone has acted in the spirit of Washington's patriotic counsels in this interesting anni- versary, when even the party journals should have paid them some respect. How irre- pressible is party spirit when nearly all the independent journals have been swept into the maelstrom! We have, nevertheless, undiminished faith in the stability of the Republic, because it is in the manifest tendency of things that all the greater organs of public opinion will yet become independent. A child in its first tottering efforts to walk is subject to fre- quent falls, but after each fall it will again get upon its feet and at last acquire a firm trend and steady gait. It is a chief duty of the press to moderate the baneful excesses of party virulence and to show how much more important are the things in which citizens agree than those on which they differ. The hollowness of our partisan calumnies is illustrated by the promptness with which they are retracted as soon as their objects are dead. ‘But die and she'll adore you,” said the satirist to a husband who had a ter- magant wife. Our political parties are ter- magants of the same sort. When Jefferson, when Jackson, when Clay, when Lincoln— and the list might be indefinitely increased — who were so foully abused in the days of their influence had paid the last debt of na- ture, their political assailants united to do them honor and venerate their memory. These posthumous acknowledgments are neither insincere nor undiscriminating. They have never been paid to men of the type of Arnold or Burr, or any who did not mean well to the, Republic. The Hzranp aims to do the same discriminating justice to our public men while living that posterity will award them when dead. Our last words to the electors are not in- flammatory, like those of the rabid party organs, but quieting and assuaging, like the counsels of Washington. Whichever party succeeds, it will be watched and held in check by a formidable opposition. This is a necessary consequence of the closeness of the contest. Whether Governor Hayes or Governor Tilden shall be chosen Presi- dent his administration will be con- fronted with a vigilant and powerful op- position, strongly represented in Con- gress, and efficient for preventing noxious measures. That portion of the press which has lapsed from independence in the fervor of an excited canvass will re- cover its position and aid in bringing a just public opinion to bear on the government. The party which succeeds will have too feeble o majority to defy public sentiment, and the independent press will be in a posi- tion to exert a controlling influence on the measures of the administration. High as party spirit has run during the canvass we trust and hope it will not break out in scenes of violence on election day; and, this danger escaped, it will be safe to take a cheerful view of the future. General M Victory. The interesting account of the military operations on the Yellowstone, which we publish in another column, brings with it a large grain of comfort. At last some suc- cess begins to attend our arms, and there ‘is 8 prospect that the hostile Indians may re- ceive such a lesson during the winter that there will be no need for an expensiyespring campaign. ‘Too much credit cannot be given to General Miles and Colonel Otis for the promptness, energy and decision they have displayed in deal- ing with such bands of Indians as have shown themselves in the vicinity of their commands. If their success has not been as complete and the punishment, of the hostiles as severe as could be desired, the fault lies not with these officers, but in the failure of the administration to supply them with the necessary means. Perhaps it is only just to say that circumstances pre- vented the carrying out of General Sheri- dan’s order for the stationing of cavalry on the Yellowstone, and it is to the absence of this arm that the Indians owe their escape from exemplary punishment. However, the country asks rather for the restoration of peace and the placing of the Indian ques- tion ona sound basis than for vengeance, and will be satisfied so long as this end. is attained. The establishment of posts on the Yellowstone and Tongue rivers has béen asevere and fatal blow to the hostile In- dians. It deprives them of their last place of safe refuge and cuts them off from the great buffalo range of the North. So long as they could raid on the bor- ders in the spring and summer and retire in safety here in winter they cared very little for the hostility of the troops, and welcomed war as an exciting pastime in which they could indulge with comparative safety. All that is now over; the tramp of the soldier and the axe blow of the pioneer are heard in the last hunting ground of the Sioux, and they know they must either surrender or perish. The attack by our troops which followed the remarkable but futile parley between General Miles and Sitting Bull was success- fal, and though the Indians suffered very little loss in men, they seem to have become com- pletsly demoralized. Taking advantage of Sitting Bull’s retreat, two powerful bands, the Minneconjous and the Sans Ares, deserted the hostile camp and surrendered to General Miles, giving up five of their principal chiefs as hostages for their good faith. This was really # great success. It has taken his principal warriors from Sitting Bull and left that remarkable savage a wanderer and a fugitive, The victory is none the less im- portant for being comparatively bloodless, and the country will fail in its duty if it does not mark in a special manner its ap- preciation of General Miles’ prudence, energy and great success. Cororep Democrats in South Caroling have a hard time of it. A negro's convic- tions must be very strong to withstand the arguments addressed to him by United States marshals backed by federal troops, while their republican fellow blacks, armed with razors and rifles on one flank, and the colored women armed with blandishments on the other, endeavor to keep him within the republican circle, Prosecution eof the Communists in Franee. Parties are still divided in France as to the relation that the yet unpunished Com- munists bear to justice ; and this issue, on which passion could rage furiously enough on either side, might become a source of trouble if the government were less wise and moderate than it is. Hitherto the spec- tacle has not been presented in France of a government that yielded any part of its con- vietions because evidence was given that a great part of the country was against the ex- treme term of these convictions. Authority there has assumed that the course proposed by the government was an unchangeable postulate, and that in proportion as the country opposed such a course the country was wrong and needed to be suppressed and dragooned until it penitently recognized that the government was right, or until it barricaded the streets. This was the course of French governments in republican ré- gimes, as in all others, and seemed to be less a characteristic of any dominant party than of French nature. But that it was not nec- essarily a characteristic of French nature must be considered as proved by the differ- ent course that the government has several times pursued in the yet short history of the existing Republic ; and for the present Min- istry to yield on the issue named is a su- preme evidence of their purpose not to per- mit the success of an effective government to be compromised by issues that factious demagogues could utilize to the injury of the whole country, To reasonable creatures outside of France there can be no doubt that the Communists should be dealt with by the criminal courts and not under any political code ; for their revolt was against the will of the nation, properly declared by the most fairly chosen Assembly ever seen in that country. This isthe position of the gov- ernment. But there isa large party which holds that the revolt should be covered by the immunities that republics extend to political differences; and this is specious, and can be argued on till eternity. It was eminently wise, therefore, to agree to the compromise that only recognized crimes shall be punished; and this, we believe, yields but little, for the government has not within a year or two punished any Com- munard except for complicity in robbery, murder or incendiarism. The pardon of fifty-two participators in the Communistic insurrection, announced in our despatches, isa proof that the government in making the compromise is in earnest. Tomsorial Art and Artists. It is amusing to find one of those tra- ditional jokes which everybody reveres be- coming a reality. There, for instance, is the story of the rivalry between two barbers in an English town who kept reducing their prices until one of them offered to shave his customers for nothing. The other, not-to be outdone, put up a sign in these words, “What do youthink? I’'llshave you for noth- ingand give you a drink.”* Some of the barbers of New York, observing the reduction in the price of the Henaxp and the down- ward tendency of prices generally, have de- termized to make their prices for shaving five cents. Others, afraid of the loss of custom, have not only reduced their prices to five cents, but for this insignificant sum offer “a good shave and a good cigar,” ‘“‘a good shave and a glass of beer,” and one atrocious barber even announces ‘‘a good shave and a schooner of beer.” Asa general thing we are in favor of a reduction in‘ prices. But the barbers’ method is very like cruelty to animals. The man who smokes cigars or drinks beer thereby obtains a decided advantage over the man who does neither ; but it must be confessed he runs a greater risk. In a bar- ber shop where you are shaved and receive a cigar it would be bad enough to be com- pelled to inhale the poisonous atmosphere, to say nothing of the strangulation and ex- pectoration that would follow smoking one of the weeds. Then we are afraid that the beer also, especially in the schooner establish- ment, would be as dangerous almost as a cup of poison. Apart from all these risks, it is well known from the traditional anecdote that barbers always punctuate in their heads and that the famous sign should have read, “What! do you think I'll shave you for noth- ing and give you a drink?” We trust that nobody else will do anything so utterly ab- surd. Even the barber is worthy of his hire, and ten cents is little enough for a shave nowadays, especially when we consider a #onsorial artist’s manifold duties to his cus- tomer. It is expected of him that he will talk his subject so nearly to death that he lives as if by a miracle; that his up strokes shall threaten his customer's nose and his down strokes his ear without touching them; that ho shall carefully scan the beard so as always to go “against the grain,” and that by all the means in his power he shall min- ister to the discomfort of the poor wretch in his hands. Ten cents is little enough for such a desperate operation, and it is idle to talk of a cigar or a schooner of beer in such a case. ¥ rday’s Sermons. However absorbing the pursuit of politics may be at this period there was no per- ceptible diminution of worshippers at the verious churches of this city and Brooklyn yesterday. Protestants, Cath- olics, Unitarians and Liberals gathered in even larger congregations than usual. This will be cheering to the thoughtful of all creeds, for at a time when whole- sale religious conversions are unlooked for no sect can afford to begrudge its neighbors the devotion of their followers, Though in politics immense and sudden changes of sides occur, in religion, which is man’s elab- orate conception of the Almighty and the immutable good, the most that the sanguine sectarian can hope for nowadays is a slow drift which may be setting in a certain di- rection, though its stages are as imperceptible and perplexing as the ebb or flow of the tide to him who only watches the advance and retreat of a dozen waves. Mr. Beecher preached an emotional sermon on faith and love in his most pronounced man- ner. Dr. Hepworth treated also of faith; but while Mr. Beecher pointed his moral with Mary Magdalen the pastor of the Church of the Disciples drew his lesson from David the Psalmist. Dr. Armitage, always able, eloquent and lumi- nous. dwelt upon the “eye evidence of God,” giving another view of faith in His goodness. Mr. Frothingham’s ideal of re- ligion, which may be characterized as the morally utilitarian rule for a ‘‘perfect life” (the title of his sermon), was listened to by a crowded audience. As he is earnest and lucid he is always inter- esting. Those who have read or who have heard his sermons cannot fail to be impressed with the presence of two qualities in his mind which would seem to lead in opposite directions, and which only his earnestness and skill contrive to keep in something approaching united force. We refer to the iconoclasm which leads him to gird at all creeds, often the bad and good of them alike, and the real veneration for the good in religious beliefs of all kinds which is constantly qualifying his sweeping condemnations. Professor Adler’s thought- ful sermon at Standard Hall and the service of song at Chickering Hall were, with other services reported elsewhere, presented to the religious world of the sister cities, and doubtless will not fail of beneficent effect. The Cost of Mak: a President. “The American people,” said an English writer on our politics, ‘‘is perpetually voting for some election or other.” Somebody, it might be added, has to bear the expense of these perpetual elections. Just what the expense is, in a general canvass like that which is now drawing toa close, it is dif- ficult to estimate with any approach to ac- curacy; for there are no statistics extant upon the subject, and the politicians who plan and conduct campaigns are naturally reticent upon such matters. It is plain, however, that there must be a heavy outlay of money. The printing and distribution of campaign documents, the rental of public halls, the pay of stump speakers, the pur- chase of banners, torches, uniforms and other paraphernalia ; the expense of postage and telegraphing—all these are necessary out- lays, and when the extent to which they are carried throughout the country is borne in mind it becomes very apparent that the aggregate must be enormous. A para- graph has lately been go:ng the roynds of the press, to the effect that the strenuous campaign in Indiana prepara- tory to the recent State election con- sumed ten million dollars. This is, of course, wild exaggeration, based upon a mere random guess. An estimate that seems to us not far from the truth places the average cost of a Presidential election at about one million five hundred thousand dollars for each of the great opposing parties, or a total of three million dollars. Accepting this as within the bounds of probability it would seem that the expense of putting Mr. Tilden or Mr. Hayes into the White House is fifteen times greater than the whols amount of sal- ary paid to the incumbent during his term of four years, Calling the population of the country about forty millions this would be equivalent toa tax of seven and one-half cents a head for every man, woman and child in the United States. The mainte- ‘nance of the courtof France for the first year of the Second Empire was less than two cents per head of the population. It ap- pears that the cost of making a President may be greater than that of keeping a prince. The expenses of our elections, however, are borne mainly by voltintary contribution. The burden falls chiefly on wealthy parti- sans who expect to share in some way the benefits ensuing from the election of their candidate. It takes the form of a tax only in the case of office-holders, who are assessed for election expenses by the party in power, acustom that often falls heavily upon de- partment clerks and minor officials. The burden touches the people remotely and in- directly, if atall, while in reality they de- rive an actual and immediate benefit. The various devices by which their sympathy and support are solicited serve to awaken a more active interest in public affairs, and the masses thereby acquire the rudiments of political education, instead of remaining in apathy and ignorance of the condition of the country and the administration of the gov- ernment. Great as the costs of our elections may be, they cannot be lamented as an un- mitigated burden upon the people. Joint Discussions in the South, The joint discussions between Judge Settle and Governor Vance, the rival candidates for the Governorship of North Carolina, have closed, after an interesting canvass, which reflected great credit upon the orators on both sides and the party which they re- spectively represented. These discussions teach one important lesson which has been too generally overlooked in dealing with the Southern question—the necessity of having two political parties in the South, cham- pioned by able and worthy men. If the republican party in South Carolina, Missis- sippi and Louisiana had a few such leaders as it has in North Carolina and Virginia, with the whites divided on the political is- sues of the day, there would be compara- tively little danger of negro domination. Then the colored vote would be the object of political rivalry, and there would be negro. democrats os well as negro republicans. While the whites are all on one side it is, perhaps, only natural that the negroes should all be on the other; but in the end race or color will not be the test of political sentiment even in the South. Probably a “solid South” will accomplish this result sooner than it can be accomplished in any other way, since a concentration of power always leads to disintegration and division. However this may bo, it is clearly to the in- terest of the whole country that both partios in the South should have both a black and white following, and‘we know of no way by which this can be so easily accomplished as by means of joint discussions similar to those which Settle and Vance carried on with such good results. Both of them being able men and courteous even in their criticisms, each commanded respect from the other and the other's followers. In consequence the sec- tionalism of party disappeared entirely from the canvass, and the people were asked simply to choose between the parties and the candidates as a matter of political expe- diency. If there had been more of this spirit in the South after reconstruction there would not now be a black side and a white side and a conflict of races. Unfortunately the Southern people arrayed themselves on one side, and the blacks were left to the control eee ED of the carpet-baggers. All the evils which followed were inevitable under the circum: stances. Now, however, it is time this policy should be changed, and then, with able and worthy leaders to give character to both par- ties, it will make very little difference ta either North or South who is President of the United Siates. No Water—What Are We Going t¢ Do About It? From every part of the city—as shown by our article printed on another page of to- day’s Herarp—complaints are pouring in regarding the disgraceful failure of our Cro- ton water supply. We say disgraceful be- cause this calamity was avoidable by the most moderate exercise of engineering skill and executive foresight. We are aware that the department ‘‘cannot control the heav- ens,” but we fear that it, like the water | system it does control, has lost its head in the presence of the difficulty that now presents itself. It is useless, however, to waste words on the incapacity, dis played by the successive Commissioners and their agents who have brought upon us an artificial water famine. The evil is done, and the question now arises, What are we going to do about it? A population of over one million cannot be permitted to suffer the intolerable misery of a prolonged want of water. The health of the city would soon exhibit a change for the worse that would render necessary the expenditure of millions of dollars to stop the ravages of pestilence in the overcrowded dwellings of the poor. This danger threatens us at the present mo- ment, and no hesitation must be dis- played in meeting it. We cannot apply the abundance of scientific drivel with which we have been overwhelmed in official re- ports to the solution of the problem. Work, real practical work, intelligently designed and directed can alone save us from a disastrous prolongation of the present condition of affairs. There are thousands of workmen idle in this city who could be prof- itably employed in embanking and damming the valleys and streams of the Croton water- shed, so that if Providence does send us a copious rainfall we will have at least tempo- rary reservoirs ready to receive it, The Phila delphia Exhibition has a numberof pumps of all kinds in operation, which will be available for use in a few days. Selections from these can be made at once, and preparations for their erection completed within ten days if the city authorities so will it. The cost of this plan of immediate relief may be very considerable, but there is no time to spare for such considerations now. We must have water at any expense, or the consequences will be appalling. Will the officials for once get out of their groove and show themselves equal to the emergency? To Dine ar GuinpHawn is a great social! advance on dining at the Mermaid, and if Lord Mayor Cotton cannot spin good poetry he paid a fine tribute to art when he invited the authors and actors of London—the weft and the warp of the drama—to eat with him in state. What yarns they reeled off after the good fare had been disposed of is chattily told in our London letter. All honor ta Lord Mayor Cotton, who remembered Ham~ let's injunction to Polonius about the players, “see they are well bestowed.” PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, The German few are highly educated. Chamberlain of South Carolina is bald-headed, Parisians have fun riding round the city ena trame way. Oe guvaines Evans, of Colorado, is on his way to Europe. General Sherman left this city last evoning for ‘Washington. George Eliot has so far received $6,000 from Harper’. for ‘Danie! Deronda.” London skating rinks are complained of as affording. opportunities for indecency. Hore eomes the Milwaukee 7imes asking, “Who would be in Graut’s place?” Tildex. London crime increases; wife and child beating is noticeable, and garroting prevails. The Iilinois papers, speaking of the Sucker State, demand that every Sucker shall vote. The devil was the frst spirit medium, for he was calied the Prince of the Power of the Air. “What,” demands a Now Haven demoeratic paper, is all this lying about us?” Mainly whiskey. Councillor A. P. de Carvalho Borges, Brazihan Mine iater at Washington, is at the Hotel Brunswick. Rochester Democrat:—‘Sidney Lamier’s last poem willshortly be produced in the Hera.p as a war map,’? Potter Palmer intends to use the roof of his hotel (the Palmer House) in Chicago as a fruit and tlower garden. Some one says that there is to be an association of newspaper funny men. Why not call it the Society of the Pan.jaab? ‘A Chicago poetess writes, ‘Thus doth the rosy eum. mer set,” She may soon turn a rosy summerset inte ‘a first class fall. It is said that Mr. Watterson expeets the French mission. Thought it was promised to the editor of am illustrated paper? ‘A paragrapbist says that both Butler and Tilden have their eyes askew, but you can’t say that ene got his cue from the other. San Francisco will lay 130 miles of pipe from the Sierra Mountains to its waterworks, The iron if ordered from St. Louis. An Omaha paper says that ‘‘the cold frost caught the half opened geraniums.”” And they may sing “I’q bud a little faded flower.” Miss Fanny M. Banks, of the Cincinnati School @ the Centennial Exposition, has received an order fro: at Brattleboro to carve a larger organ for the Paris Exhibition in 1878. A Court Journal correspondent from Ostend says that the English girl who 4s so dignified in Londes will, on the seashore, rash into the water to scrambN atter a bathing machine, with dress gathered high am der ono arm, and stockingless, outdoing the ballet. Burlington Hawkeye :—‘'They are performing the cantata of ‘Joseph’ at the opera house in Des Moines, They had no trouble in securing talent to represent most all tho mombers of Potiphar’s ily, bus they had to send clear to Burlington to get a man to play Joseph.” Mr, Keating, of California, thua wrote to a widow: “Methinks sometimes when I jay awake in the morn- ing and think of thee, I fancy I soo the canopy of heaven open and a bright vista appears trom it, and lo! I see thee, my angelic gir.” She weighs 190 pounds and has sued him for breach of promise, Lord Dorby has cauged inquiry to be made into the report that « Bulgsrian girl had been given “in lieu of pay”? toa Turkish soldier, who had oxhibited his prize near Jerusalem, The story was first told by the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, aod that prelate, being mterrogated by the British Consal, admits that he “overheurd some people in the street telling the story, and has no further information.”” Two playors at bezique cutting for deal both eut aces; they tried again and both cut kings; they both cutagaia a third time, and nere appeared two kndves. As @ bezique pack consists of only thirty-two cards—all the twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes being rojected—the Improvability of such a coincidence is not so great as is a whist pack of fifty-two cards; nevertheless, the odd: are calculated to be 5,000 to one against the oceurrenct of this particular event.