The New York Herald Newspaper, December 26, 1876, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1876. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR THE DAILY HERALD, published every | day in the year. Three cents per copy (Sun- day excluded). ‘Ten dollars per yeur, 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 Henaup. Letters and packages should be properly sealed. Kejected communications will not be re- turned. - PHILADELPHIA OFFICE—NO.112 SOUTH SIXTH STRE LONDON OFFICE OF THE NEW YORK HERALD-—NO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OFFI AVENUE DE L'OPERA. NAPLES OFFICE—NO. 7 STRADA PACE. Subscriptions and advertisements will be received and forwarded on the same terms as in New York. AMUSEMENTS 'TO-NIGHT. GRAND OPERA HOUSE. BLACK CROOK, ats. M. LYCEUM TRE. RICHARD IIL., at SP. M. Kdwin Rooth, ran LITTLE NELL, at 81’. CONCERT A AZURINE. BooTH DAN’L DRUCE, at ® P.M. BOWE. THE BOSS, at 8. M. NEW BROADWAY THEATRE, SORRINTA, at® P.M. COLUMBIA 0 VARIETY, at 8 P.M, Matinee, THEATRE VARIETY, at 8 P.M. OLYMPTC™ VARIETY AND DRAMA, TONY VARIETY, at P.M.) VARIETY, at 8 P. THE NEW A CAN MUSEUM, PATTOOED GREEK. wily from 10 A,” M. till 1 BRAGLE VARIETY, at8 P. M. NEW YOR AQUARIUM, Open daily. PARISIAN VARIETIES, VARIETY, at ® P.M, SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS, ats. M, GARDEN. VAL, ata P.M. GILMOR GRAND EQUESTKIAN FES PHILADELPHIA THEATRES. NATI NEW FATARACT OF TH 4 KIRALFY'S ALHAMBRA PALAG! )ZURINE; OR, A VOYAGE TO THE EA NEW YORK, , 1876, From our reports this morning the probabilities are that the weather in New York to-day will be cold and cloudy, with snow, followed by still colder and partly cloudy or cloudy weather. Tae Srnancest Tainc Ovt.—A North Carolinian was killed in his own house four days ago and no one has yet pronounced it a case of political murder. For Inrormation Azout Bismarck’s health and his good will toward America, and als6é about the mischief which foreign born ladies play in German diplomacy, read our Berlin letter. Even tHe Loxpon Times laughs at the idea ofa war over the Presidency. When Eng- lishmen compliment us on our modesation and good sense it is time for a general bull- dozing of our native born croakers. Tue Inprana Dasocnats are getting ready to celebrate the anniversary of Jackson's victory at New Orleans, and timid republi- cans fear the festivities will cloaka gun- powder plot with the terrible ‘‘Blue Jeans” Williams in the character of Guy Fawkes. Tue Excuish papers carefully explain why the Cambridge University oarsmen were justified in declining the challenges of Yale and Cornell, but the single word “cowardice” can be read between the lines, Ovr: Sprcian Desparcn from General Crook’s camp seems to indicate that the pur- suit of the Sioux will be abandoned for the present. It is difficult to imagine how anything better can be‘done. Withont the Indian allies which were to have come from Red Cloud, lacking any information of the detachment with which Major Randall started in search of Crazy Horse, and with short rations and half forage, Crook's little army can do nothing better than return to Fort Fetterman and refit. A Srnance Corncrpence in theatre frights occurred yesterday. At the Newark Opera House a small boy mistook the nature of a calcium light and shouted ‘fire !” with the effect of clearing the house and causing two persons to be severely crushed by the crowd. In the National Theatre at Washington, the play being the “Two Orphans,” and the occasion being the first appearance of Kate Claxton and this play since the burning of the Brooklyn Theatre, a cry of ‘fight! was mistaken for ‘fire,” and a panic immediately resulted, in which several persons were severely bruised. Managers will find some useful hints in the reports of these occurrences. Tax Great Stonm which passed over Eng- land and Scotland during the past few days has proved terribly disastrous to shipping. Our cable despatches announce, besides the wreck of a great number of vessels, a distressing loss of life. The storm is the same one which swept our coasts on the 16th and developed such tremendous energy off the Newfoundland coast. The Hesaip gave timely warning as to its probable course across the Atlantic, and even stated the number of days it would take to reach the British islands; but unfortunately no intimation of its move- ment in that direction could have been published in the English press, otherwise much valuable property and still more valuable lives might have been saved. The meteorology of commerce must be considered | and Yale in our own country. Higher Education in New York—The Conditions of a Great University. Mr. Jay's excellent and timely centennial discourse before the Alumni of Columbia College, our oldest institution of learning, supplies as fit an occasion as we are likely | to have for offering suggestions about im- | proved means of culture in this metropolis. Plans have been discussed for elevating Columbia College to the rank of a great university. We are willing to con- cede that it would be better to build on this ancient and respectable foun- dation than to add another to the mushroom institutions springing up in all parts of the country. Whatwe want is not to multiply the herd, but to improve the breed. Colum- bia is the stock on which improvements can be grafted with the best hopes of success, becanse she has already pecuniary means ample for a good beginning, with a historical prestige and an associn- tion with illustrious names which would protect her against the distrust that impairs the usefulness of a parvenu institu- tion. Itcannot be doubted that there isa field in this city for a university of the high- est class. Within a radius of thirty miles from the Post Office there are two milions of people, forming o community of great wealth which appreciates the importance of education and is ready to promote it. We are not deficient in colleges of average standing. have the University of the City of New | York, the New York College (formerly Free Academy), three Catholic colleges, which give instruction in the higher departments of learning, besides two law schools and several medical schools of excellent repute, and two theological seminaries of name and standing. We insert a list of our principal institutions, with the number of their pro- fessors and students :— Colleges. Instructors, Students, Columbia College (arts and sciences). 15 151 Columbia Colloge (school of mines)... 24 201 Columbia College (law schvol) ae 438 University of tho City of New York (arts and,sciencos).. -. 15 137 University of the City k (medical department)... 22 257 | Colioge of Physicians an 26 421 St, Jobn’s College. 27 479 College of St. Francia Xavie 48 604 Manhattan College, .... 13 100 | General Theolog:cal Semina 6 13 Union Theological Seminar; ul ui College 01 New York, 3s us This table shows that we are not ill pro- vided with institutions authorized to confer degrees. They compare favorably with most other colleges of the same kind in the United States, but none of them reaches or approaches the rank of the great European universities or has a standing like Harvard But their aggregate attendance of nearly four thou- sand young men proves that an institution of the highest class would not lack stu- dents. It may be said that the multitude of ex- isting colleges in this city and everywhere in the United States leave no room for a great university, ‘This is true if Columbia should bid against them on their own ground and pursue their methods. But there isample space above their heads. Swift, whose wit often conveyed valuable mean- ings even when it seemed most whimsical— Democritus, dum ridet, philosophatur—said :— “In all assemblies, though you wedge them ever so close, we may observe this peculiar property, that over their heads there is room enough, but how to reach it is the difficult point.” We com- mend this idea to the authorities of Columbia College. Let them raise their institution into the vacant space above the heads of the crowd of American colleges, Disdaining a vulgar competition in stone and mortar, not relying too muchon the growing demand for polytechnic instruction which so many colleges are properly attempt- ing to satisfy, they should feel that for them has been reserved the high mission of creat- ing a university which will make culture an end to be pursued for its own sake and not a means for fitting men to beinstruments. Just as athletic sports are pursued for the pleas- ure felt in them, although they strengthen the body for every useful purpose, so intel- lectual culture should be pursued for its own nobleness and as its own great reward, and the mind will meanwhile be invigorated for all the exertions of practical life. As the country grows in wealth we shall have a constantly increasing class of young men who inherit competence, and who will start in life with the means of gratifying a taste for art, a love for manly recreations, a delight in foreign travel and a desire for intercourse on an equal footing with able and cultivated men. If we hada univer- sity organized on the principle that culture is to be prized for its own sake and is to be courted for its beauty more than for its dowry, its standards of excellence would be so raised that all our colleges would be stirred to emulation. Nothing tends to dif- fuse itself like high excellence, even in trivial arts. The champion billiard players have filled all our towns with billiard tables ; the champion boatmen have covered our lakes and rivers with a healthful and ex- hilarating sport ; the race course is filling the country with improved breeds of horses, One Pope or one Tennyson spawns a school of imitators, whose productions Heaven save us from reading, although they illustrate the tendency of excellence to excite effort in the same direction, All kinds of culture descend, like streams, from their sources; but # there were no moun- tains to give them birth there would be no rivers to diffuse fertility and beauty throngh less elevated regions. A univer- sity which erects the loftiest standards, and pursues noble culture with disinterested aims, imparts something of its dignity and spirit to institutions of the next lower grade, and these in turn to seminaries of the third order, operating like the little leaven which the woman in the parable ‘‘hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened.” If Columbia aspires to supply this great central want—the want of a potent stimu- lus in American culture—she must take hold of the problem by: the right handle. Her thonghts must not run upon a campus, and edifices, and laboratories, and ob- servatories, and apparatus and vast ex- ternal appliances, which aré the mere husks of a university, but her first effort must be to assemble a galaxy of able and in fatare on the broad basis of international | brilliant professors, For propagating re- interest, ligion one St. Paul would be worth all the Besides Columbia College we | | so enthusiastic at least proves how deep an | could bring together a constellation of great church architecture in Europe. In the last generation men thronged to hang on the lips of Clay or of Webster, careless whether they sat on cushioned seats in a public hall or on rough slabs in an extemporized tent. A great man eclipses his surroundings. To hear Burke talk for half an hour in a shed where he had taken refuge from a shower was an event in a man’s life. When Peter Abelard (famous for more romantic reasons than his learning) drew thousands of youth to the University of Paris from all parts of Europe to listen to his lectures they were seated on plain, hard benches. During the ages when the universities of Padua and Pisa were the most famous in Europe they maintained their celebrity solely by the great ability of their professors. . At a later period the University of Leyden held the same primacy by the same means— a primacy which she did” not lose until Goettingen first and afterward several other German universities adopted her policy. In the latter part of the last and beginning of this century the University of Edinburgh blazed inio renown by the ability of its professors, of whom Playfair, Dugald Stewart and Black were the most illustrious. It was customary for the best families of England to send their sons to Edinburgh at that period for an education and then to Oxford or Cambridge to take their degrees. Lord Palmerston studied three years at Edinburgh. He said in his autobiography:—‘In those three years I laid the foundation of what- ever useful knowledge and habits of mind I possess.” Brougham, who had the prepossessions of a Scotchman, paid in later life a more glowing tribute to the excellence of the Edinburgh professors of that period. “I have heard,” he said, “the commanding periods of Pitt’s majestic oratory, the vehe- | mence of Fox's burning declamation, have been carried away by the mingled wit, epigram and argumentation of Plunkett,” but for mere intellectual gratification he preferred the lectures of some of the Edinburgh professors. Praise impression may be made on young men by teachers of the highest gifts. If Columbia | professors her prosperity would come up to | her most sanguine wishes. As Emerson has said in his piquant way:—‘‘There is no in- terest or institution so poor or withered but if a new strong man could be born into it he would immediately redeem and replace it. A personal ascendancy—that is the only fact much worth considering.” The Christmas Celebration. Christmas was enjoyed yesterday as thoroughly as if hard times had never been heard of and as if everybody knew who was to be the next President. The partition of turkey was accomplished with a thorough- ness which offered Russia some valuable food for reflection, while Great Britain learned that plum pudding can never be an English monopoly. Some extra good din- ners explained to the inmates of prisons, almshouses and charitable institutions that Christmas is different from other days, and made an opening in the hearts of these un- fortunates after the practical manner of the Master Himself. Some hundreds of men celebrated the day at rum shops without getting as much enjoyment as they had ex- pected; but scores of these, as they found hospitable entrance to the cells of police stations and the apartments of the city’s grand hotel in Centre street, learned that there are times when even corporations have souls. Thousands of children roamed about with full hearts, faller pockets, and stom- achs to which no adjectives can hope to do justice. The wildest advocate of the eyo- lution theory could have pointed with con- fidence to the juvenile abdomen yesterday to show how in the dim age of antiquity it became necessary for the camel to have five stomachs. The consumption of candy utterly annihilated the theory that demand regu- lates prices; for if this idea of political economy were true sugar would be worth its weight in gold to-day. The martial note of the drum was heard in many a house- hold otherwise peaceful, and sent pangs of terror into the hearts of mammas with tender hearts and tenderer ears. Santa Claus did his duty aftera fashion, but he acted too much like an aristocrat to meet the approval of those most in- terested in his performances. Perhaps the heathen old saint had found a Bible, read the passage, ‘‘Unto him that hath to him shall bé given,” and then did his best accord- ing to the dim light he had received; but it is very certain that Christmas trees were as scarce in tenement houses as policemen near the scene of a burglary, and thousands of poor people fed only on that faith which does not fill tMe stomach. When such blunders are made it is not always too late to mend them, and no amount of respect for an old public functionary like St. Nicholas should deter any one from usurping-his office and playing the reformer. A Waren Famrnx and a general suspension of manufacturing business in Massachusetts is feared by close observers of the conditions in that State. Indeed, judging from the accounts which we publishgo-day in another column, the first named trouble has already come, and the second is beginning to exercise a serious influence on trade. We have already warned Europe to expect a severe winter, and dangerous if not destructive floods in the spring, but we feel that a similar condi- tion of things is more than probable nearer home, Where mills arc operated by water power only there can be no doubt that the present unfavorable weather presents a great problem to the proprietors. The introduction of steam power can alone solve it and enable the owners to resume work. The addition of enforced idleness to the many discomforts of the winter season ren- ders the lot of the mill hands peculiarly distressing, especially when work is plenti- fal if the means of executing it can be secured. Another danger also threatens the manufacturing districts of New England— namely, the possibility of a sudden thaw and disastrous floods and inun- dations. If the authorities do not take steps immediately to ward off this great danger we may have to record some terrible scenes in the New England valleys, and Pos- Greatly as the prolonged Presidential complication is to be deplored it is having an incidental good effect in educating the public mind respecting one feature of our institu- tions. During this period of anxiety and sus- pense all our best political minds are exert- ing their astuteness to discover some 50- lution of the difficulty, and this part of the constitution is surveyed on all sides with keener scrutiny than was ever bestowed upon it before. As every new idea or new crotchet is immediately ventilated in the newspapers, and as the public interest secures it an at- tentive examination, a greal deal of fog and ignorance is likely to be cleared away in the progress of the discussions. Although but little light may be shed by the proposed so- lutions yet, as they must all set out from acknowledged princip'es, the settled and admitted interpretations of the constitu- tion are becoming very familiar to the pub- lic mind. That habitual phrase, ‘the Electoral College,” does not meet us with its former frequency, loose and half- informed writere having come to perceive that there is no such sggregated body, but that each of the thirty-eight States has a sep- arate electoral college, and that it is inad- missible to employ the phrase in the singu- lar except with reference to one of these. It is not used in any other form in any statute, nor would it have been in popular parlance except from looseness of concep- tion as to the precise organization of the Presidential electors, Another point on which vague ideas have been rendered more exact relates to the final counting of the electoral votes in the pres- ence of the two houses of Congress, Hereto- fore the popular mind has been too ignorant of the subject to perceive its difficulties. These difficulties may not have been solved, but they are now pretty well understood. The effect of throwing out the votes of any State is also better appreciated than it ever was before. When one political party has had a great majority the rejection of a few votes was of no practical consequence and nobody looked very closely into the consti- tutional points involved in such a rejection. It is now at length perceived that it may lead to questions of great delicacy. If the Florida votes or the Louisiana votes should be found illegal would that insure Mr. Tilden’s election by the Electoral Col- leges? This is a difficult question, because it is not yet decided what constitutes a ma- jority in such acontingency. In order to elect a candidate must there be a majority of the votes to which all the States are enti- tled, or only a majority of the votes which are counted? If the former Mr. Tilden would not be elected if Florida or Louisiana is thrown out; if the latter he would be elected unless some of the States voting for him should also be rejected. The rule established by the constitution seems perfectly clear where. there is real doubt respecting the facts. It only requires “a majority of the electors appointed.” If none are appointed from a particular State that State has no more infiuence than if it did not exist. But if it appointed electors and for any reason they did not assemble and vote, the fact of appointment remains, and the electors to which it is entitled must be counted to ascertain what is a majority, although they cannot be counted for any candidate. If, for example, Florida should be flung out on the ground that the Tilden electors and not the Hayes electors were legally chosen on the 7th of November, they could not be counted for Tilden, be- cause they did not vote and certify accord- ing to law, and yet they would have to be taken into the estimate in determining what is a majority. The result would be no choice by the Electoral Colleges, and the House would choose the President and the Senate the Vice President—a result which is now generally expected by people who frankly avow their opinions. But even on this point a difficulty has been raised in connection with the fact that Mr. Tilden and Mr. Wheeler are both citi- zens of New York. Acareless reading of the constitution has led a few people to believe that it forbids the election of a President and Vice President from the same State. A careful examination of its language will show that thisis an error. The constitution does not permit the electors of New York, for example, to vote for two citizens of New York, but it leaves them free to vote for two citizens of Illinois or Virginia or any other State than their own. It neither declares nor implies that the President and Vice President shall not be from the same State. But it will be a coincidence without any ex- ample in our history if béth of the highest officers should be citizens of the same State. What Are the Police About It? As great an outrage as any connected with the Ravenswood burglary will be the escape of the thieves if they are allowed to go un- punished. There is at least one clew to their locality, for the four men in the boat which was seen passing Hell Gate on the night of the burglary could not have been either a pleasure party or a quartet intent upon legitimate business. The affair does not concern the Ravenswood police alone, Men with the daring of these burglars aro not going to neglect the chances of their peculiar business that are to be found on the river fronts of our city and Brooklyn, and in the thinly settled but rich neighborhoods of our extreme uptown wards, The ruffians undoubtedly belong to New York, which city is the university from which the most accomplished thieves graduate, and their plunder is probably now being turned into cash among New York pawnbrokers and ‘fences,” There is ability enough in our police force to dis- cover these scoundrels and bring them to justice, and the people rightly demand that this ability shall be put into active use. If the police cannot take care of great offenders like these and make of them a terrible ex- ample to evildoers their minor services will not save them from being pronounced utterly incompetent. We hope this Ravenswood outrage will arouse the authorities to the ne ity for an efficient patrol of the East iver Wat steam launches, manned by alert offices The river is the natural highway of thieves Going To Do but they might travel ii in squads and bat talions without any one to molest or make them afraid. Until such an arrangement can be made the police boat Seneca might be useful in some other way than in hug- ging a pier and keeping the ice from chafing rotten piles, For her to sail up the river early in the evening, before any sensible thief is awake, and again in that morning daylight which the barglar hates as if it were a police court, may be a good way of consuming coal which the city pays for, but as a warning to thieves it isthe hugest joke afloat. If she could be soaked in kerosene and set on fire in the river at midnight she might be useful for at least one night in frightening thieves, and thus fulfil the duty which she is intended to do. The East River Bridge Investigation. It is to be regretted that any doubt should be cast on the accuracy of the calculations of the engineers regarding the strength of the great suspension cables for the East River Bridge. Still, when these doubts are ex- pressed and an array of figures is presented tosustain the objections, we must regard it as very fortunate that they have come up for discussion before any steps have been taken to convert a mathemati- cal inaccuracy into a serions practical blunder. The scale of the work itself lends a gravity to apparently trifling errors in cal- culation which they otherwise would not possess, and we believe that no pains should be spared or time lost in arranging for a complete revision of the plans and specifi- cations, with a view to determine whether or not mistakes have been made in the prep- aration of either, The Hzranp haw already commenced an investigation of the East River Bridge works, and the results are suf- ficiently definite to warrant the suspicion that ‘some one had blundered.” The fact that an engineer of acknowledged ability has taken exception to the calculations of Chief Engi- neer Roebling, respecting the specified strength of the most important part of the structure, renders a formal investigation by a board of disinterested experts absolutely nec- essary before any more money is expended on that past of the work. Not only should the engineering calculations be carefully re- vised, but also the system under which ma- terials are supplied to the work must be in- vestigated. The directors owe it to the public, whose. money they are spending, as well as to their own reputations, that no stain of doubt should rest on their manage- ment. The bridge is now the joint property of the cities of New York and Brooklyn, and not that of the Board of Directors; there- fore the Mayors of the two cities should at once appoint a commission of in- quiry. This ,should be composed of United States military engineers, whose scientific attainments would entitle their opinions to the fullest confidence, and whose position places them beyond the influence of overzealous partisans. No one who is a party to the present contro- versy should be permitted to have any voice or part in selecting the investigating board. Indeed, no respectable engineer should be willing to serve merely as the representative of either Mr. Hill, the Board of Directors or Chief Engineer Roebling. What we need is a wholly disinterested board of experts, whose opinion will be accepted by the pub- lic without any lingering doubt as to its honesty. If it is proved that mistakes have been made no one can complain of their exposure, and the remedy will be sim- ple and inexpensive. But if all is shown to be right and that no cause for alarm exists then the present managers and engineers will reap additional honor for their probity and scientific skill, and the work can pro- ceed without further interruption. One of the first.acts of Mayor Ely’s administration should be the appointment of such an inves- tigating board as we suggest. The Weather. The Gulf depression has now reached the Atlantic coast and in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras heavy snow and high winds have prevailed. A small area was detached from the main disturbance before it passed the southern extremity of the Alleghany range, and is now moving northward along the western side of the mountains toward the entrance of the St. Law- rence Valley. Snow is falling over an immense area of country from the Missouri River to Toronto, Canada, and as far south on the coast as Augusta, Ga. In this city the weather was threaten- ing throughout yesterday, with a slight fall of snow at about five o’elock P.M. The temperature continues remarkably low in the Southern States and, indeed, throughout the entire country, particularly in the North- west. The Hezaup's prediction of Sunday, regarding bad weather in the northern and southern sections of the United States is being fully verified. Although the de- pression noticed in the South has produced extraordinary rains the press- ure has fallen but slightly below the mean of 30 inches, and in some cases is only relatively low. Stormy weather, with snow, may be expected in the Atlantic, westward of the fortieth meridian and be- tween Iatitudes 30 and 55 degrees north. Tho weather in New York to-day will be cold and cloudy, probably with snow, fol- lowed by still colder and partly cloudy or cloudy weather. Taz Trextoxn Ficut.—This morning a few hundred Jersey braves will fight a mock battle at Trenton and explain how, o hundred years ago to-day, Washington bull-dozed the British and led the Hessians in a ‘‘german” of which the step was anything but that of a ballroom. They will first cross the Delaware by night, put if an electric light conld be suddenly thrown upon them it would reveal warm gloves, heavy overcoats and good shoes, for any of which the patriots who made the original crossing would cheerfully come out of their graves and take hold of the oars. The fight was not such a wonder- ful affair in itself; many an unreported skirmish of the late war engaged more men and resulted in greater loss of life, but the battle convinced: apprehensive Ameri- cans that Washington could and would fight, and it showed the British that the patriots did not constitute a mere army of observation. Men who are fond of puzzles will wonder what would have happened to Washington's reputation and the patriot cause if the battle had not been fought; but men of sense will appreciate the importance of the first engagement of the Revolution which fully displayed Washington's daring and the ability of the undisciplined Ameri- ean yeomanry to vanquish the trained sol~ diers of Europe. Coul as a Munition of War, Although the progress made toward per- fection in naval architecture has been re- markable during the past ten years, and almost invincible iron-clad war ships, pro- pelled by steam, have taken the place of the old wooden sailing ships and slow-going steam frigates, the difficulty of maintaining an effective fleet in active service has in- creased so enormously that we must not overestimate the value of recent improve- ments. The power of marine engines must be proportioned to the weight of the vessels they are intended to propel, and | this power is only to be obtained by the consumption of immenso quantities of fuel. If a war ship like the English Inflexible, with a displacement equal to 11,165 tons, requires a propelling horse power equal to eight thousand, we can readily see that in order to keep such a monster ves- sel under control for war purposes she must consume an enormous quantity of coal. This fuel, therefore, becomes as important to her effectiveness as her massive armor plates and monster guns. Indeed, it may be considered more important; because, with sufficient coal, even an unarmored cruiser can depend as much on her speed as on her batteries for defence. Hence, in order to keep a great iron-clad fleet ready for service and maintain its effectiveness when engaged in the operations of war vast depots of coal must be established at points easily reachn- ble by the fleet. The greater the distance from which this all-important fuel is brought to these depots the more uncertain the sup~ ply must be; and for an English fleet cruis- ing in the Black Sea large stores of coal must be collected at Constantinople, Varna, Sinope and Trebizond, as well as at Malta, Gibraltar and the British home ports. Eng- Tand has always endeavored to maintain a certain supply of coal for her fleets at the various points on the globe where grave necessities are likely to arise. Her depots on this side of the Atlantic are at St. John, N. B.; the Bermudas and in the West Indies, Her chief European coaling sta- tions are necessarily Malta and Gibraltar. At St. Helena and the Cape of Good Hope she supplies her steamers with fuel, and again at Aden and the Indian ports, and Shanghai, in the Indian Ocean, and the Western Pacific. Australia and New Zea- land also furnish places where depots are formed for the merchant service, and there is no doubt that the recent acquisition of the Fiji Islands by England was intended to perfect her system of coal supply in that part of tha Pacific Ocean. Russia, having a limited sphere of operations for her navy, will not suffer the same degree of inconvenience ag England should both engage in war. Her ports of supply will be near at hand and always accessible, besides being well de- fended. The immense coal deposits of the United States will furnish an unfailing re- source to European belligerents should their own supplies fail, We are willing to do business with them on a fair cash basis— quick sales and light profits—and can as- sure the ‘‘effete despotisms” that, so far as we care, they may batter the map of Europe into any shape they please. % Tue Western Union TeiEcraPx Company's directors resolved, on Friday, to destroy original despatches as soon as copied. Now for hqwls about heartless monopolies. The correspondence on the demand of Congress for copies of certain telegrams is given in another column. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, A broth of a boy is a soup-son, Becker, the artist, isa model man, Mark Twain has a wrinkled brow. Rutherfurd, N, J., basa tree-toed man. A quail on toast is worth two in the bush. Never accuse a baggage-smasber of putting on lugs, Fiity Cincinnati tramps refused two woeks’ work in @ coal yard. Mrs, Gwin has gone to Cal‘fornia, while the Duke remains East. General McClellan is in Washington making a feint against Baltimore, Senator Jorome B. Chaffee, of Colorado, 1s at the Fitth Avenue Hotel. Statistics show that the greatest number of cases of bydrophobia occur in March. Among the ball-dozed citizens of Louisiana isa Mr, Berry. He is a black Borry. General Sherman sedms to bea vory busy and im. portant factor in Washington politics, Everything is falling in these hard times, and even the thermometer bas gone down to zero. General Anderson, of the Returning Board of Louisi- ana, arrived at Washington on Sunday night The gi kleptomaniac of tho St. Louis Globe-Demo+ crat wants @ scissors factory to locate in that dusty village. Senator Christiancy walks with his hands clasped behind him as if his Christmas slippers wore two sizeg ‘oo small. Mme. Essipoff will romain th America until spring. Her husband, Leschetizki, the composer, Is the Stein- way agent at St, Petersburg. Everything is slippery in Portiand, and a manos woman who Is standing up on the sidewalk is thought to be too proud for anything. New York Commercia!:—The man who» was all “doubled up with a kick’’ is supposed to have been kicked by a pair of double uppers, Said Smith, @ toper, the other morning, “Even ‘water tastes as if it wore full of liquid fire.” And Cast- ina replied, ‘That is what your aqua-forte-is,”” Washington Nation:—'The only difference betwoeg Chamberlain and Hampton is that ono is trying te make troops of friends and the other friends of troops," Grant's first move aiter leaving the chair willbe toward Caba. Ho ‘to see the place where Tweed took out his hairpins and wept when he remembered Zion. Probably the sickest man on the face of the earth is the paragrapher, who, reading his own column, dis- covers that a joke isn’t half as smart as he thought it was when ho wrote It, Seoretary Gornam, of the Senate, who has just mare ried a Treasury girl, was a widower with six children, Mr. Gorham ts the Bob Ingersoll of California and ig known as a ‘good fellow."” “George,’? we cannot tell you the meaning of those words appended to poems, ‘set to mi ” We think, however, that Tom Allen and Joo Goss had some set te music a while ago, and Allen got cremated, Tho critic of the Chicago Zimes veautifally finds fauit with the opera and its arrangement of seats; and everybody knows that whon the Times man bas @ night off the only rows of seats he socs aro in a hep roost. Now Is the time when the masic of the bell curt air kindle enthusiasm in the youthful si hers; sho asks him why he rubs his ffosve¢ mus gainst her glowing check, ho sa; Wb, ye founda regean® ry ermwers