The New York Herald Newspaper, November 17, 1878, Page 8

NEW YORK HERALD BE SAS BROADWAY AND ANN STREET JAMES GORDON BENNETT, rRoP ror. cond WEEKLY HERALD—Oue dollar per year, free of post age OPFICE—NO. SOUTH SIXTH NEW YORK HERALD— DE_ LOPE DELPHIA nts Will be received and in New York. ACADEMY OF MUSI GILM AY NIBLO'S GARDEN—Ac iRAND OPERA HOU TIVOLI THE SAN PRANCISCO MINS’ TONY ACADEMY OF DES NEW YORK AQUARIL WINDSOR THEATRE—V anier BROOKLYN PARK THEATRE Exmipinox, RAINkD HORSES. Vinainivs. VHIA—Huss Orrra. QUADRUPLE SHEET, WITTL SUPPLEMEN?P: YEW YORK. SUNDAY, NOVEMBEI The probabilities are that the weather in New Fork and its vieinily today will be slightly warmer and cloudy, with rain. To-morrow it promises to be warm and ‘partly cloudy, with oc- susicnal rains, followed by cleaving weather. WALL S?PRE ket was less active steady all day at 10023. Yesrerpay.—The stock mar- and weaker. Gold was Government bonds were strong, States steady and railroads irregu- lar. Money on call was easy at 3 a 4 per cent. ‘Tne We: Raiway Wak is probably at an end. Tuk Reat Estare judging from the o Frery THOUSAND PassENG value of our rapid transit roads. may turn out to be a very tough pumpkin if it is ever cut. Tuar Wesrern Union Ma A Mornen was made happy yesterday by the four children from the Juvenile release of her Asylum. Iv ts To Be Horep that the Richmond county police will finally unravel the Silver Lake mur- der mystery. Wuata Loror Hor Waren our Park Com- mixsion scems to be getting into! The Riverside Drive quarrel is becoming very bitter. Foosnaty is excellent sport during the pres- ent pleasant fali weather. Four guimes are re- corded to-day in our sporting columns. A Hevpiess Isrant, whose parents are in prison for skopliiting, is now a eharge upon the county, Could anyth be more pitiable ¢ Tue Leray Cavenns form the subject of a very interesting letter in today’s Heratp, The discoveries seem to be almost inexhaustible, Tuk Coser us of the Jackson- Hunt trial are now being recited in the Court of Common Pleas. It is not good to be in love with your aunt, « Lavy Reavers will be interested in the article on winter fashions published in au- other column; but few of them will care to purchase lace at five thousand dollars a yard. Ovr Pots Coverts reveal many touching see A husband's love for his erring wite was sounde® to its depths yesterday, and he took her home, Ss in real life. To Lear rrom A Wixpow seems to be a sure Way to commit suicid A young man who tried it yester in Brooklyn will probably die. ‘This is wn example which should not be imitated, ‘Tite Way Oxe O1p Lapy celebrated her een- teunial birthday and the history of another who died in Brooklyn at the age of over one hundred aud ten years will be found recorded in our columns to-day. ‘The Crmusan Cocrr AxNats seldom contain so remarkable a ease as that of young Wright, who is ou trial for the murder of Barney Fer- ron, the boatman. The accused will probably | be condemned on his own evidence, Wright is scarcely twenly, and the » recalls those of Roe re both executed | nd Friery, who y for erin ‘omitted in theirteens. Asorirn Survivor of the ill-fated Huron bas Quexpectedly turned up in Washington, His same is William Bader, and he was picked up the wreek, having drifted sixty | to sea while clinging toa spar. Bue | seems ble, but it is believed to t] authorities were | ‘ance & year after his long silence by | nere No wonder tie we tet astonished at the man's the disaster, but he e vp xplar Ulness in Norway. tive adds another othe exciting list derived from the perils of the sea. Tun Wear that extended over on Frida; —The area of high barometer the Middle Atlantic States has moved very slowly eastward, and tow overlies the ocean off the Nova coast. The depression that was in the bas moved into the central ey districts, but | t ssure within ite vas ine wl very ily. Rain has fallen in the lower Inke . the eentral districts and the | South Atlantic coast. Elsewhere the weather | has been idy, except in the Nortirwest and | mm the western Gulf const. The winds have | been geverally light in all the distriets, The tem- reraiure has fallen in the West and Northwest; elsewhere it has risen decidediy, It ia very probable that steep gradients will be formed on | the Middle Atlanti st during the next few days, and consequently brisk to strong winds a vw experienced, The weather continues very vusettiod on the European coast. ‘The wouther in New York and its vicinity to-day will be slight!y warmer and cloudy, with rain. To- morrow it promises to be warm and partly cloudy, with ovcasional raina, followed by clear- ing weather, ‘ ‘NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1878—QUADRUPLE SHEET—WITH. SUPPLEMEN1 The Vanderbilt Will Case. In the week just ended the proceedings inthis noted case have r.ached a definite | stage by the unexpected announcement of the counsel for the contestant that they will offer no further testimony. The Surrogate and the publie are at last in possession of all that was to be sworn to against the char- | acter of the late Commodore Vanderbilt and his capacity to make a will. It is not the province of the press to judge of the value |.of this evidence, that being the duty of the Surrogate after he shall have listened to the testimony by which it is to be con- | tradicted or extennated. Nor is it the province of the press at this stage of the proceedings to declare the sentiments of the community on this most astounding at- tempt to strip the body and the mind of a parent and expose all the diseases of the one and all the infirmities of the other. When the whole ease shall have been closed and the decision rendered it will be the right and the duty of society to express its moral estimate of the filial or unfilial quali- ties which can deal in this manner with the memory of a _ deceased parent “and drag his frailties from their dread abode.” If it shall appear in the final re. sult that this shocking course was neces- sary for obtaining the ends of justice, if the judicial decision in which all these un- savory proceedings are to terminate shall establish the incompetency of Commodore Vanderbilt to make a valid will, the com- munity, without condemning the contest- ant, will regret that her legal rights could not have been maintained without so stu- pendous a saerifice of filial reverence and duty. But if, on the other hand, the will is sustained against these remarkable as- saults society will undoubtedly pronounce its verdict on the motives of so extraordi- nary a warfare on the good repute of the testator. Never before did this community witness so extraordinary a speetacleas has been ex- hibited for nearly a year in the Surrogate’s Court. Commodore Vanderbilt up to the time of his decease was regarded by this community, which supposed that it had sufficient grounds for an opinion, as a map of fair average morals and of unmatched sense, sagacity and business judgment. Nobody deemed him a saint, but every- body thought he had one of the clearest, soundest and coolest heads that ever guided and controlled vast business operations in a community re- markable for first rate business talents. | It was a surprise as sudden and violent as an electric shock to find his mental sanity impugned by persons who seemed bound by obligations of filial duty to reverence his character and protect his memory. The Surrogate’ has been listening for the greater part of a year to testimony offered to prove the singular thesis that the most successful business man this country has ever seen was a superstitious imbecile, whose bodily diseases and mental aberrations unfitted him for so simple and ordinary a function as that of devising his property by will. If the evidence establishes this strange thesis the public will have to accept it ns a fact, but a suspension of judgment is necessary until the rebutting: ‘testimony has been given and judgment has been rendered by the Surrogate. Itis a relief to know that the worst and utmost that can be testified against the character of the late Commodore has been exhausted, and that the evidence of the proponent, which is now to be pre- sented, will tend to rehabilitate the char- acter of the testator and reinstate him in the ‘good opinion of the community which observed his outgoings and incomings for the long space of forty years, and regarded him as a citizen of average morals and unequalled soundness of head and business capacity. The public has as yet seen the testimony on orly one side, and it may be safely assumed that the rebutting testimony will muterially alter the present complexion of the case. We do not avail ourselves cf the j transition from attacking to justifying tes- timony for expressing an opinion on the merits of the controversy, which must be judicially decided by due course of law, but to call attention to the necessity of a thorough revision of the law of the State relating to last wills and testaments. There could not be a more overwhelming proof of the expediency of a change of the statutes relating to this sub- ject than is furnished by the proceedings to contest Commodore Vanderbilt’s will. We assume that this case will be decided in strict accordance with laws We do not dis- pute nor question that the calumnious testi- mony by which the deceased Commodore's reputation has been so traduced and black- ened has been justifiably offered by the con- | testant and properly admitted by the Sur- rogate. It strengthens the view which we desire to propound to concede the per- tect legality of these proceedings, which have so shocked the moral sense of the community, and which seem so inconsistent with filial duty and reverence. It is rather the law which permits these shocking pro- ecedings that is blameworthy than the attempt of natural heirs to recover what they deem their just rights of inheritence, The objections to the law relating to wills as it now stands and is administered are strongly supported by the average common sense of the community. Is it wise pr just to keep the law in such a state that a great part of estates devised by will can be wasted in expensive litigation which transfers the property of decedents from the proper heirs to the | i Louisiana lawson the subject of wills which | | | | lawyers who are engaged on one side and | the other? tates should be avoided if it be consistent with justice. Is it wise to offer temptation to natural heirs to violate all sentiments of filial obligation and to traduce the memory and befoul the character of the founder of | their family? If sach wholesale calumnies of the dead can be avoided without injus- tice to the living our laws ought to be so amended as to reconcile the filial senti- ments dictated by nature with the equitable claims of heirs, We believe that the laws might be so amended as to shut out those appalling domestic scandals and forestall the injustice of making the legal profession the chief heirs of great estates. It would be an important step in the right direction to adopt in this State the This wholesale waste of ex- | | | law, says:—‘‘There is much good feeling | should | Macomb’s Dam Bridge betore he can drive limit the power of the testator. By the laws of Louisiana, which were copied from the Code Napoleon, a certuin fixed propor- tion of a testator’s estate must descend to | the natural heirs on the same principies | which regufate the property of in- | testates, und only the residue can be | devised by will, The greatest of our New York jurists, Chancellor Kent, in com- menting on the provisions of the Louisiana and sympathy, and there is nothing un- | reasonable, in these very temperate checks upon the unlimited power of devise.” But even if the principles of the Code Napoleon, | or, in other words, the Louisiana law, were adopted in this State, if the testator could | devise by will only one-third or one-half or two-thirds of his estate, according to the | number of his children, there would still be a strong temptation to contest the wills of men of enormous wealth. ‘There | is needed some more efficient check on wasteful litigation and atrocious domestic scandals than such a limitation of the power of devise as Chancellor Kent ap- proved. When wills aro assailed it is usu- | ally by attacks on the sanity or mental com- petence of their makers. ‘Lhe question is litigated years and years after the will is made, when the evidences of sanity or im- becility have to be gathered from remo‘ and doubtful indications, It would be easy to set the question of mental competence at rest at the time when the will is made Avery simple law would suflice for this pur- pose. If, when a man was about to make a will, the law required that he should give notice of his intention to his lineal heirs, | and they were summoned to present their objections, if they had any, to his mental competency to the Surrogate, the question could be decided, once for all, at a time | when the evidence of sanity or insanity could be intelligently examined. If no heir objected (and not knowing what the will was to contain they would not be tempted | to make captious objections) the law should not permit the sanity of the testator to be afterward contested. If objections were made the question of mental competence be decided by the Surrogate after proper examination, and his cer- | tificeate of competence to make a will | should preclude all subsequent litigation on that point. There is no period when that question could be decided so intelli- gently as at the time when a willis about to be written, and a decision then made that the testator is mentally competent should be deemed final and conclusive. A simple law to this effect would preclude these expensive and scandalous contests over wills on the ground of mental incom- petence. Bridgeport Miles. : Peter Napoleon Campana is a good name to: march with, Lest, however, it-might prove too heavy a load fora long distance pedestrian it was abbreviated to the more suggestive and handier name of ‘‘Sport,” and the man started. He put his best foot forward on atrack at Bridgeport, Conn., last Monday morning. The track was meas- ured off on the basis of what is hereatter to be known as the ‘Bridgeport mile”—that is, a distance some two hundred yards less than the statute mile. Now the Land of Steady Habits has been hitherto enviably famous for its hickory hams and wooden nutmegs, why should it not have a mile of its own—a Bridgeport mile? Mr. P. Na- poleon went swinging along at a great rate, rolling up his ‘‘Bridgeport miles” with an advantage over O'Leary, Corkey, (Blower) Brown and all the rest of them that the innocent fel- lows never dreamed of. Unfortunately, in scattering broadcast the number of miles he was covering Mr. Peter N,’s friends forgot to state what kind of miles they were. At the end of five days a pestilential surveyor—one of those fellows with an unfeeling measuring tape and who has no soul for poetry— came along. He discovered and pro- claimed what sort of a mile Mr. P. N. was walking, which so disgusted “Sport” that he withdrew. His friends thereupon began to figure and discovered that his performance up to yesterday morn- ing was five hundred and forty-three Bridge- port miles, which translated meant four hundred and eighty-four statute miles, This they concluded was not a bad record, so poor ‘Sport’? was induced to continue his task, and last night it was announced that Peter Napoleon Campana had beaten all the records by covering five hundred and twenty-one and a quarter real miles in six days. In Bridgeport miles he had made five hundred and eighty-six, which looks a good deal handsomer feat for aman with sucha name. There are suspi- cious people who would throw doubts even on these miles. If fourteen reul laps made a Bridgeport mile, how many Bridgeport laps would make fourteen? That is the question. Once you set these conundrums going there is no end of it. We admire the pluck and persistence of Peter, but if he would come out as ao Simon Pure he must walk his next race neither in Bridges port miles nor by a Bridgeport ‘count. A Road for Speeding Horses, New York shonld have within its limits a road on which fast horses might be speeded. At present the man who goes out for an afternoon drive must go beyond faster than six miles an hour, At least, if on any of the uptown avenues he exceeds that rate, or a policemen thinks he ex- ceeds it, he is liable to arrest, whieh means usually a night in a police cell and ten dollars fine in the morning. It is perfectly right that in all places it should be the duty of the police to arrest ‘‘reck- less” drivers, and that fast driving should not be permitted where it is dangerous to the life and limb ot pedestrians; bat until the city is much more built up at its north. ern end than it is at present there are atleast two avenues on which fast horses might be speeded. These are Seventh avenue, above 110th street, and St. Nicholas avenue, On both of these a good driver with a fast horse can find an open road of two miles where he can take out of his animal all the speed possible without the slightest danger to anybody. Our City Fathers shonld pass a supplemental ordinance excepting these | tective science it is a grave robbery. | munity. avenues or portions of avenues from the limitation as to speed, but leaving a wise discretion to the police to prevent “reck- less” driving. Mr. Stewart's Body. Mr. Stewart's mausoleum at Garden City may perhaps remain permanently without the body it was constructed to contain, for his heirs and friends seem unlikely to re- cover his bones without dealing with the violators of the tomb in a way that would tend to the recognition of their crime as a legitimate commercial enterprise. If the heirs must finally come to the conclusion that the efforts of the police are hopeless they will have to choose between that com- merce and the completion of the monu- ment without the remains, It is no neces- sary part of the idea of a grcat monumental | structure that it should contain the relics ofthe man in memory of whom it is made, But where they wonld have put Mr, Stewart’s body his hejrs may place a tablet inscribed with the facts of the case. On this tablet it may be said that the edifice is in memory of Mr, Stewart and was intended to contain his body, but that this was stolen from a city graveyard and that the police could not findit. Thus the church may become a monument to Mr. Stewart-a monument to that peculiar type of our Christian civilization in virtue of which even graves are not safe if their contents can be contemplated as a good basis fora bargain; but it would be, above all, a mon- ument to the police of the metropolis, who certainly ought to have one. If there isany offence that might be sup- posed to be fairly within the limits of de- Mur- ders and some few other crimes are com- mitted by any human creatures. A man may strike another dead and disappear in the world of men as completely as a drop in the ocean, because murder is not an especial criminal industry and the mur- derers are not a classified pirt of the com- But it is otherwise with burglary, with pocket picking and with highway robbery, These are industries and have their votaries, and a well con- ducted police knows all the burglars and even knows the special kinds of burglaries pursued by particular individuals. Now the body snatcher is as specific a variety of criminal as the burglar or the confidence man, anda rogue in any other line would be as little likely to invade this province as Alma Tadema to paint on the themes of Turner. This grave robbery. was con- ceived, planned and executed by body snatchers. Every rogue, like every honest man, thinks in the vein in. which his thoughts run by habit, and at a rich man’s funeral it is only the body snatcher looking on to whom it occurs to imagine what a spoil there might be in the robbery of that grave. Other men would be horri- fied at the suggestion; to him it is common- place and trivial. ‘Tender hearted people regard the butcher killing sheep ns the type of all that is cruel, and yet he is probably a tender hearted father of a family, and the desecration of the grave that has been lately imagined as the extremity of all that isinhuman was done by men who thought as little of it in that respect as a cobbler of half-soling a pair of shoes, Body snatchers are not innumerable. They certainly do not exist as a class in this city; but they have a well marked existence at many places in the country, and particu- larly in all the small cities in the West where there are medical schools, But the temptation to snatch a body presumed to be worth halfa million might induce choice spirits of this enterprising fraternity to come this way. At home they are doubtless known to the police, and if any of them have been absent from their accustomed haunts since early in October that fact is known ; and if the police, getting from their associates in Western cities a description of noted resurrectionists thus absent, could find such men in this city, they would probably find such men worthy diligent at- tention. The Last Railroad Crime. Another shocking railroad disaster, by which five lives were sacrificed, is recorded in our special despatches from Mahanoy City, Pa, Unlike the wreck of the New Bruns- wick train this explosion of a locomotive while standing at the depot platform can- not be explained as an ‘‘accident,” The Dominion train was thrown off the truck on Friday by a bundie of bags becoming en- tangled in the wheels of the baggage car, and the destraction of the passen- ger car by fire was a. natnral se- quence of our heating system. But whena boiler explodes there must have been a defect, and this fact points pretty clearly to negligence on the part of the officials in charge of the Philadelphia and Read- ing Kailroad. The pressure of steam may have been unnecessarily great, though it will never be known what this pressure really was, as the engi- neer was blown to atoms by the force of the explosion, which was so powerful that a piece of the boiler was thrown a quarter of mile and the remains of the unfortu- a nate map were “picked up in a wucket.” We presume that there will be an investigation, which, judging from past experience, will result in a verdict of nobody to blame but the dead engineer, who cannot speak in his own defence. ‘These railroad “accidents” only show the im- perative necessity for some law in all of tho States holding the chief officers of the roads responsible, for Punch's suggestion of tying a director on every locomotive cannot be adopted in America, where so many engines are re- quired. It will not do to make such oceur- | rences a three days’ wonder and then for- get them until the next one startles the gommunity. Hysteria, Some further particulars are given to-day of the case of the young woman in Brooklyn who, as reported, has lived for twelve years “virtually” without food. For nine years, itis said, sho was in a trance and rigid, and for three years she has been “limp,” and in both periods equally without appetite, Cases of gitls who subsist for protracted periods without food are not uncommon, In fact, no extensive record of medical cases is without several such, and, of course, they ure always impostures, for when these girls are put in hospitals where they can be effectually watched they get hungry. Ordinarily, therefore, there are cases of hysterical mania and decep- tions. But this case, it will be seen, is of a somewhat different nature. It appears not to be alleged here that a human crea- ture has lived for twelve years actually without food, but only ‘‘virtually” without food. That means that she has had a little food, and the source of the fancy that the ease is marvellous is perhaps the notion that a girl, delicate at best, and, in addi- tion, paralyzed and comatose, needed as | much solid food asa ploughman. But it seems that this patient, if she consumes nothing else, is terrib!y destructive of worsted aud note paper. Curiosities of Comstockism, The recent action of Mr. Anthony Com- stock, the agent of the Society for the Sup- pression of Vice, in compelling a Fulton strect confectioner to remove from ex- hibition in his window a copy of Hans Makart’s great painting of “Charles V.’s Entry Into Antwerp,” on the ground that it is an “obscene picture,” is an affair of great cry and little wool. Many people lave supposed it to have been only an ad- yertising trick, like Mrs, Tom-Ri-Jon’s fancy dress. But the President of Mr. Comstock's society treats it as a serious matter, and draws some curious distinctions to show when, in the society’s opinion, art is art and when it becomes obscenity. For instance, copies and photographs of the original of the picture that excited Mr. Comstock’s anger may be imported and sold by booksellers, ex- hibited in print stores or reproduced in engravings in pictorial papers, That is Comstockian art. But they must not be displayed in confectioners’ windows, where bull’s-eyes and lollipops attract juvenile customers. That is Comstockian obscen- ity. Powers’ Greék Slave in’ an art gal- lery would be o very proper female; in a retail store window a very im- proper one. But the President of the Comstock society says that the offending picture was never ordered to be removed from the candy man’s window. This con- flicts with the statements of the confectioner and the agent, the former of whom states that its removal was ordered under penalty of seizure and arrest, while the latter has de- clared that he would have carried out his threat if the exhibition of the picture had been continued. The Society for the Sippression of Vice has, no doubt,-aceomplished much: -sub- stantial good in this community. So has the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. “The public morals are better protected now than they were a few years ago, and dumb animals of thé presént' gen- eration are better off, thanks to Mr.’ Bergh, than their ancestors were. Bat Mr. Bergh’s excellent society does not add to its popularity’ and usefulness when it in- terferes with pigeon shooting and turtle tying, and Mr. Comstock’s society will not win laurels by taking up the cudgels against works of art on the ground of the naughtiness of slimly draped figures. ~ The City Real Estate Valuation. The report that there was to be a general increase in the valuation of real estate this year is positively denied by the “Tax Com- missioners, Messrs. Wheeler and Hayward. It makes rio actual difference’ to‘ the tax- payer whether he pays three per cent tax on a valuation of ten thousand dollars or two per cent on a valuation of fifteen thousand. But the fictitious’ raising of valuations is sometimes resorted to forthe purpose of de- creasing the rate of tax per one hundred dollars and thus creating a faise impression as to the economy of an administra- tion, Any such deceptive practice is undesirable, and it is well that the denial of the report has been so promptly made. Our real estate is now fairly assessed, and certainly the valuation ought not to be in- creased at this time. A valuation unduly high only subjects us to a heavier State tax, and although the amount of State taxation just at this time is comparatively trifling we have beea subjected to enough injustice at the hands of the State arsessors to make us jealous of our rights in that direction, Palpit Topics To-Day. Since Dr. Talmage began to tell the young men of Brooklyn where and how they can see ‘‘the elephant” without being seen them- selves, he has drawn down upon his de- fenceless head the wrath of his brethren in the ministry who have never visited naughty places and therefore cannot paint them. ‘To-day the Doctor will con‘inue his de. scriptions of vice in New York ; but over against him in this city will stand Dr. New- man, who will paint the bright side of New York life, and show what charity is doing for the destitute and vicious classes here and what should be done more for them, And in his own town Dr. Talmage will finda foe in J. Hyatt Smith, who does not believe that a description of visits to the haunts of sin is the Gospel method of guiding men into paths of virtue and honor. At least it was not Chris:’s method. The second advent will be treated of by Dr. Fowler and Mr. Hatfield; the future life and punish- ment for sin there will be speculated on by Messrs. Corbit, Pullman and Calthorp. The approach of winter and the holidays reminds Mr. Burch of destitution and Mr. Hepworth of our duty toward the poor, Christian communism will command the attention of Mr. Sweetser; the ritualistic disciple will be pitied by Mr. Adams; in- fluences will move Mr, McKelvey; the bitterness of life will be sweet- ened by Mr. Searles, and man’s ac- countability to God will be shown by Mr. Coleord, Mr. Lloyd will explain the phi- losophy and purpose of dreams ; Christian facts and testimony will be given by Mr. Chambers ; the Christian race will be ran by Mr. Hull; the mountains of {srael will bo traversed in imagination by Dr. Tyng, Sr, and the drunken monarch will be held up to pity and abhorrence by Mr. Bonham. Daniel among fierce enemies will command the sympathy of Mr. Richmond ; citizen- ship in heaven will be advocated by Mr. Wilson, and reverence for the aged by Mr. | Jutten, Mr, Muir will call for laborers and Mr. Hartzell will watch for the morsing, while Mr. Rowell will demonstrate that sal- vation comes by ‘blood. And thus to- day our readers will be encouraged and helped in their upward and onward cours® PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE.: London omnibus drivers receive $1 a day. Vice President Wheeler has not yet been found, Sunset Cox, little people should be scen, not heard, Lorne may be adeep diplomat, but he is alf at bea now. In some ofour downtown restaurants macadamized ple crust scoms to be very popular. 'The favorite cavalry leader of the Ameer of Afghan- istan is an Irishman by the name of O'Donnel. Orange flowers are a cure for sleeplessness. In the south of France they are served with tea as an anti- dote. » Secretary Schurz left Washington last evening for’ a visit to St. Louis.. He expects to return next Thurs- day morning. Mr. Vietor A, W. Drummond, Socretary of the British Legation at Washington, is at the Hotel Brunswick. Edmund Yates is sorry when he says that in repub- lican France 300 crosses went to masters and not one to an artisan, “New Haven claims the girl of the .""—Hoston Pott, “Albany has her '—Albany Argus, You ought to go and ; her family. ‘ Meriden Record+r:—We have received an original poem, entitled ‘Unfinished Still.’ We fear the author is be cider self.”” Joseph Israels, the well known Dutch artist, has been appointed on officer of the Legion of Honor by the French government. Spurgeon will be presented by his congregation with $25,000 on the completion of his twenty-five years’ labor as 4 Baptist minister, December 31, Four Russian judges at Saratoff wished to hold court, but they were so drunk that they could reach the judivial bench only by groping along the wall, “The Austrians have no word in which fitly to ex- press their dislike of Count Andrassy.”—P. I. “We can lend them Kearney till next fall.""—Boston Traveller, “Ihear,” says ~‘Atlas” in the London World “on very high authority indeed, that Dr. Newman will be offered 2 Cardinal's hat before six months ure oyer.”” Lord Rosebery was yesterday clected Lord Rector of Aberdeen University by a majority of four over the Right Hon. Richard Assheton Cross, Home Secre- tary. ‘Thirty years ago the English House of Commons sustained an objection thats railway ought not to run to Oxford because it might scare cattle and prevent them from getting fat. lies Senator Howe holds his own in Wisconsin against Matt H. Carpenter's Senatorial aspiration. ‘The name of the future Senator may, however, be Keyes. Keyes is a “Boss,” with all that the name implies. There was a time when the validity of an English- man’s will was disputed, and the will was set aside because he believed that the time would come when a certain square in London would be lighted by gas, An Iowa man fancied that Jerusalem ought to haye a whiskey saloon, but his wife disagreed with him, 80 he went alone, and with American and English visitors to the Holy Land he does a good trade. Je- rusalem! , London World:—‘It is far more likely that sour old maids and frivolous girls will develop into seqlding shrews and inane useless mothers than that the mere fact of their remaining sing!e should mar and ruin their whole life.” An Englishman was yesterday walking down Park row, near Ann street--one of the most crowded places in the world. He had a black und tan dog at the end of along, thin chain, and he was reading # newspaper as he walked. Whenever the dog tangled anybody's lega with thecham the man would look around and say, “Aw guess these Haniericari’s ‘ave no heyes.’* c London Court Journal :—‘‘On Sunday night Profes- sor H—y was sitting in his front garden in the N. W. of London when a paper boy said to him, ‘Professor, did you ever think of the beautiful lesson the stars teach us?” ‘What is your-opinion,’ gaid the Profes sor, desirous of information, ‘of their teaching ¥ ‘How to wink,’ answered the stranger in asad sweet voice, and went his way.” OBIT UARY. F, A. M'DOUGALL: . Mr. F. A. McDougall, Mayor of Los’ Angeles, Cd, diéd yesterday, RALPH NUNES. pit ¢ Mr. Ralph Nunes, formerly @ leading merchant of Kingston, Jamaica, and jately Consul for the. United States at that port, died on October 30. NELSON M. BROWN. ‘Mr. Nelson M. Brown, superintendent of the Hous» tonic Railway, died at Bridgeport, Conn., last night, sued fifty years. His administration of the affairs of the road during the short time he was in charge gave satisfaction. PRINCESS MARY OF HESSE. A cable despatch from Darmstadt, Germany, reports that the Princess Mary, daughter and youngest child of the Grand Duke of Hesse, died yesterday of diph- theria, aged four years and six months, having been born May 4, 1874. The Grand Duke himself aud four more of his children have the disease. WALTER DWIGHT. Walter Dwight died at Binghamton, N. Y., about midnight, aged forty years. He was large dealer in lumber at Williamsport, colonel of the Pennsylvania “Buektail’ regiment during the war, and ex-Mayor of Binghamton, where he spent a large fortune in devel- oping ee beautifying the city. Of late he Lelonged in C! 0. HENRY BALDWIN FOOTT, J. P., CENTENARIAN. Mr. Henry Baldwin Foott, the only magistrate in the United Kingdom who had passed the extraordi- nary age of one hundred years, died November 2, af Cunigacunna Castle, in the county of Cork, Ireland, Some months since Mr. Foott celebrated the centen- ary of his birthday, and it was then stated that up to a very short period before he had enjoyed excellent health, and been an active istrate. Recent te search has shown that the number of cases in which persons have reached the age of 100 years in exceed- ingly 8 . As Mr, Foott was a gentleman of con- siderable landed property, there could have been no doubt as to his age, which must have appeared by many legal documents. SARAH A, FOWLER. ‘Mrs. Sarah A. Fowler died after a protracted ines at nine o'clock on Friday evening, November 15, 1878, at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Abbie J. Bren- nen, No. 96 South Second stréet, Brooklyn, E. D,, in the eighty-third year of her age, surrounded by ® cirele of loving children and grandchildren, She was born September 6, 1796, at White Plains, Westchester county, N.Y. Her father, Joseph Hatfield, was an old revolutionary pa- triot; her brothers—Abraham, Amon F. and Gilbert Hatticld—were all prominent men in their day and well known in commercial and political interests in New York city. Sho was early married to Dr. Francis Fowler, s promising young physician of White Plains, who subsequently became of the Medica) College in the city of New York. He eventually be- came a man of distinction in his profession. In the year 1827 she returned to New York city and en- J, in connection with Mrs. Scotch lady, Geocge mene a 8 e entered seashed 6 ‘the Public Schools, which later came ‘under the government of the Board of Education and were then called Ward+or Common Schools, Her works extended over ® period of thirty-one years bringing her in connection with some of the mont prominent men of those days—Samuel W, Seton, George 'T. ‘Trimble, Najah Taylor, ‘Samuel Demil, Herman Averill, Mahlon Day, Lind- ley Murray, Joseph Curtiss, James F, Depeyster audjothers, many of whom have long since wed away, She was the principal teacher of the old Duane Street Primary School No. 10 until ite close in 1853, being at (hat time transferred to Riving- aton Street Primary School No. 33, where she ie until the year 1858, when she resigned on account of ill health. Her resignation was long dwelt upon, and finally, with much rogret, accepted, Her school exhibitions and examinations were always an exam- ple and model to others. Having been left a widow ko young her life became one of usefulness, Her Sundays and sparc hours were devoted to mission schools and charitable work. She will be remem- bered by many yet living who have been benefited by her instruction. She was a lady of genial, courteous oe ¢, dignified, amiable and Christian-like in all er walks of life, Her funeral will teke place on ‘Tuesday next, November 19, at one o'clock, er late residence, The remains will be interred iMac family ground at Cypress Hill Cemetery.