The New York Herald Newspaper, December 5, 1878, Page 6

3 NEW YORK HERALD -e— BROADWAY A AND ANN STREET.. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR. THE DAILY HEE ‘bree cent! sic despatches must perly sealed liz SOUTH THE NEW YORK HERALD— | UP DE LOPERA. PHILADELY TREE LOXDON a) No. VARIN OF SINTH - received and VOLUME NLL. “~~ AMUSEMENTS BOWERY THEATRE NEW YORK AQUARIUM “TO-NIGHT, rarNeD HORSKS. ROOTH'S THE ATR r STANDARD THEATRE—AtMosr 4 Lire. ST. JAMES TH FIFTH AY: E THEATRE COMIQU GERMANIA THEAT SIVOLI THEATRE. KURTZ GALLER RE—Vaniery, WINDSOR THEAT! STEINWAY HALL—M: ‘MPHONY ReWRARSAL. BROAD ST. THEATRE, PHILADELPHIA—Uncux Dan’. TRIPLE. SHEET. “a = W YORK, THU RSDAY, DECEMBER 5 aa mulablhes we ce? dowenta es Fito Fork and its vicinity iay will be cold und parily cloudy, followed by clearing. To morrow it wil! be cold and clea WALL Strexr Yesterpay.—The stock mar- ket was active butirregular. Gold was steady, selling throughout the day at 10014. Gov- ernment bonds were firm, States dull and rail- roads irregular. Money on call was easy, lend- ing at3 adlyaé Orper b itt, Ky. ength been restored in Breath- Now let us hear from the | next county. Brookiyn ‘had, unfortunately, a two hundred thousand dollar fire last evening—the destrue- tion of the Pacific Mills. Mr. Porrer’s Commirter will try to decide to-day what it shall do. Let i and prepare for the coming holidays. Ir rune Testimony given against Judge Pinck- ney yesterday be sustained he is not a proper person to preside in even a district civil court. Wasninctoy ison the tiptoe of expectation over the coming trial of the Widow Oliver's suit againet the venerable ex-Senator Cameron for breach of promise of marriage. It will be reached on the calendar in about two weeks. Tuar Svrcipe does not vitiate an insurance policy has been again and again decided. It will be seex from our court reports, however, that at least one company is sceptical ou the point. Mr. Epmunps gave notice in the Senate yes- terday that next Monday he will ask that his bill to regulate Presidential elections be con- sidered. This is one of the important questions that ought to be settled during the present ses sion. Not SatisFiep > with his own | efforts Francis Murphy has determined to organize a band of temperance assistants, to be known as the “Murphy Workers.” It is the determination to carry the “war” into every corner of the metrop- vlis. Tue Training Seuoon for nurses in connec- tion with Bellevue Hospital is one of the most | useful and important of onr many benevolent institutions. At the aunual meeting yesterday, which was largely attended by the friends of the enterprise, twenty young women were gradu- ated. To Escarr Jory all that is necessary is to join the Reformed Presbyterian Church. A member of that communion has successfully ob jected to service on the ground that inasmuch as God is not acknowledged in the constitation he cannot couscientiously incorporate with the gov- ernment, to Is Ir Nor Possran some plan of | paying the United States pensioners whereby it will be unnecessary for them to lose | more than one day in the effort to obtain the pittance allowed them? At the quarterly pay- went yesterday there were the usual unpleasant seenes and incidents. pvise Coxoress.—The session in the Senate and House yesterday was very brief and the busi- | tess was confined chietly to the introduction of | vills and resolutions. In the Senate the propo- sition to appoint a commission on epidemics was agreed to, and by a close vote a motion to con- sider the Texas and Pacitie Railroad project was rejected. Wuat Wovrn Become of the undertakers end the livery stable ‘men if all our funerals were conducted in the same plain and simple style as that of Miss Waldron, the descendant of Peter Stuyy secretary | The coffin was borne on the shoulders of four men, while the relatives aud friends followed the remains ou foot to the tomb. nts The Wrarnen.— The storm eentre passed over our district during the early part of yester day, attended by rains iv the southerd and snows in the northern sections. It now overlies the New England States. The pressure rose rapidly pver the lake regions and the central valley dis tricts as the disturbance moved eastward, highest over the Western Gulf. Rain and snow have ver the lake regions, the Ohio Val ley and the Middle Atlantic and New England Slates, Cloudy weather prevails in all the triers except the South Atlantic ond Stutes, The winds have beeu /resh to brisk over the lake regions aod the Northwest, brisk in the ventral valley districts and generally light eise- where. A vise in temperature has taken place in the South Atlantic and Gulf States, it has been variable in the Middle Atlantic States and hus fallen in the other districta, We are likely to have cold weather during this week, the tem- perature falling lower than at any time ptevions this winter. The weather in New Yor'g aud its vicinity today will be cold and partly cloudy, jollowed by clearing. Tomorrow it will be cold and clear. jjourn for good | Itis | absurd for us to demand that Germany bow | The North German Treaty. No useful result will be attained by paus- ing to inquire into the motives with which propositions have been recently in- troduced into the House of Representatives to terminate the North German Treaty of | May #, 1868, which regulates naturalization and repatriation. If a Western producer brings wheat to New York for sale no ques- tion is made rbout the railway over which iteame, but the inquiry is whether the wheat is good or bad and what is the price of it, Alert politicians are naturally on the lookeut for an opportunity to please what is called “the German vote,” which is now so potential in New York and throughout the West, and yet it will be found on investiga- tion, we think, that the more staid and in- | dustrious of our German-American fellow citizens, who have really cast their lot with America, tako relatively little interest in the article of the treaty which isso obnox- ious to those born in Germany who wish to live there, and yet retain at the same time the benefit, but noi the burden, of American nitnralization papers. The Convention which is assailed was ratified in May, 1868, and, by its terms, it was to endure for ten years from that date, and, if neither party gave notice six months before the 22d of last May of its intention then to terminate the same, it was to remain in force until the end of twelve months after either party shall have given notice to the other of such intention. It was pro- posed in the House the other day to instruct the President to give the last named notice. The objectionable feature of the treaty is generally supposed to be contained in the fourth article, which recognizes the right of renunciation of naturalization and of repa- triation, and stipulates that if one natur- alized in either country ‘‘renews his resi- dence” in the country of his origin, ‘‘with- out the intent to return” to the country of his naturalization, ‘‘he shall be held to have renounced his naturalization.” Then fol- lows this sentence: — “The intent not to return may be held to exist when the person naturalized in the one country resides more than two years in the other country.” The word ‘‘resides” brings up, it will be seen, the difficult question about what con- stitutes residence within the treaty. There is the same perplexity of definition and proof that there is over the five years’ ‘‘resi- dence” in our naturalization laws. A like provision is, however, contained in our treaties with Bavaria, Denmark, Hesse, Sweden and Norway, Wurtemberg and Mex- ico, excepting that in the last named there is added the clause that the ‘‘presumption may be rebutted by evidence to the con- trary.” All of these treaties distinctly affirm the principle that a naturalized citi- zen may renounce his acquired citizenship. Our treaties with Austria and Baden de- clare that no fixed period shall work such renunciation, but every treaty we have made on the subject stipulates that pres- ence in the country of origin, when accom- panied with an intention not to return to the country of naturalization, is an aban- donment of the latter. We shall get, perhaps, a clearer idea of what ore the rights and duties of our own government in this matter of repatriation if we reflect a moment on what are, in the absence of treaties, the rights of Germany as an independent Power. Public law recognizes the right of a State to naturalize the native subjects of the other without the consent of the latter, and consequently the right of a subject to change his nationality. But public law at the same time recognizes the right of each State to regulate the allegiance of its own subjects and prohibit their expatriation. ‘These two propositions may, at first sight, seem to conflict when applied to naturalizu- tion; but they do not, in fact, because it is not international law which natu- ralizes an alien, but the municipal law of the naturalizing State. Every jocal law of naturalization is subordinage to the rule of public law that every inde- pendent State is a sovereign over its own territory and all who are within it. There- fore, so long as the naturalized person re- mains on the soil of his adopted country he is covered by the flag of that country. But if he returns to the country whose allegi- ance he has renounced without its permis- sion he is, of course, subject again to its laws, Upon this rule of conduct Secretary Marcy acted in the famous cases of Martin J. Koszta and Simon Tousig. The different treaties which we have ne- gotiated with foreign countries have en- deavored to define and peacefully regulate these conflicting rights. Nearly allof them, excepting that with Great Britain, declare that to accomplish a change of citizenship a | person must not only have been natural- ized, but have resided ‘‘continuously” or ‘‘uninterrnptedly” in the country of adop- tion during five years. It must be plain to everybody that the United States have the right to declare under what terms and cir- cumstances they will consent to recognize one who was once one of their citizens, as a British subject, and especially if such an one returns to the land of his birth. And the usefulness of this line of remark is that it brings ns to a perception of the fact that, if we unnecessarily annoy Germany in this business, there are distinctly recognized tights of hers upon which she can safely fall back, much to the possible incon- venience of German-Americans who revisit their native land. But there are indications of a good result which will come out of an agitation of the treaty question, and that is a revision of onr own naturalization laws. It will be down reverently before a certificate of naturalization issued out of one of our city courts in face of the notorious fact that such certificates are not always respected even by the supervisors of elections who are appointed by the United States. If we wish other nations to pay dune deference to our naturalization proceedings we must first make them of such a character that we can respect them ourselves in every depart- ment of our government. And if a natural- ized German seeks to dwell again in the land of his birth os an American citizen is it too much to require of him that he annually proclaim, to the authorities whose protection he asks, that he isan American NEW YO YORK HERALD, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1878. TRIPLE SHEET. citizen? Such a precaution is certainly easy enough, if the German born citizen has any regard, either patriotic or selfish, for the land of his adoption and for his own right to go and come as he pleases. The Subsidy Convention at New Orleans, The so-called Commercial Convention which assembled yesterday at New QOr- leans is of the same paternity and is in- tended to promote the same scheme as the so-called Commercial Convention which was held a few weeks since in Chicago, It is in the interest of the Texas Pacific Rail- road and has been gotten up with a view to aid the passage of the bill now pending be- fore Congress for granting a heavy subsidy, under the name of a_ loan, to that enterprise. ‘The New Orleans Convention does not even try to disguise this object, buat it pretends that this is not its sole object. It attempts | to make the railroad subsidy popular by yoking it with other measures, such as im- proving the navigation of the Mississippi, the promotion of South American commerce, and it even hitches on a national quaran- tine, which happens just now to be a measure which everybody will approve. But the paramount object of this gather- ing is an appropriation for the Texas Pacific Railroad. A great effort is to be made to get the Subsidy bill passed at this session. Its principal attor- ney in Congress, Senator Matthews, has al- ready delivered an elaborate speech advo- eating the bill; but the Senate yesterday, by a vote of 19 to 22, rejected his motion to take it up immediately. ‘his is rather a brief postponement than a rebuff, and it will require all the vigilance and energy of ; the anti-subsidy members to frustrate a project which will be pushed with indonyy table perseverance throughout the session. Fowl Facts. In connection with the subject of school | ventilation, to which the Hezaxp has paid more attention than some school trustees seem to think necessary, a little stcry that went the rounds some years ago may con- vince some parents that the school house janitor is not always the infallible provider of pure air that the authorities seem to con- sider him. The air of a certain ‘‘show” school was not only ‘‘fixed” but redolent of perfumes which were not exactly those of Araby, and an expert was sent to discover the cause. He found that the vertical por- tion of the great shaft through which pure air was supposed to enter the building had been tenced off by the thrifty janitor and used as a chicken coop. It was, therefore, not surprising that the air of the class rooms was foul, no matter how one might choose to spell the qualifying adjective. Even after this bird cage was restored to its proper use, however, the children und teachers complained of headaches and the first stages of strangulation, so further inquiries were made, and it was discovered that the jani- tor’s son, being a worthy scion of the family stock, had put a floor into the great ‘‘ex- haust” sheft in the roof, and was success- fully conducting a chicken coop of his own. But careful inquiries fail to assure us that the grade of janitors was raised after this discovery or that inspections of the venti- lating systems of schools by competent per- sons was any more freqaent or thorough than before the above-named odorous facts were discovered. The Trade Dollars. Many people find it difficult to under- stand that the silver trade dollars are not money, but mere silver bullion, possessing no quality which does not equally belong to silver in the form of bars. The bill which has been offered in Congress for mak- ing the trade dollars a legal tender, the same as the regular silver dollars, ought not to pass and probably will not. The effect of its passage would be to add thirty- five millions to the nineteen mill- ions of legal tender dollars already coined and to embarrass the experi- ment of resumption. Secretary Sherman, in his annual report, expresses his opinion that the coinage of the new silver dollars should be discontinued when the amount reaches fifty millions; but it would reach nearly that amount at once if the trade dollars were given a legal status as money. At the rate of two millions per month it would take about a year anda half to coin as many silver dollars as would be made by a mere Congressional fiat if the trade dollars were monetized. An offer was yesterday sent to the Secre- tary of the Treasury from San Francisco to sell him a million of trade dollars from China, to be delivered in sixty days, The reply of Mr. Sherman was that he will purchase silver bullion in San Francisco every Wednesday, but that he will pay no higher price for it in the form of trade dollars than for silver bullion in any other shape. He will not discriminate against our miners in favor of Chinese owners of silver. The government stamp on the trade dollars merely attests the quan- tity and fineness of the silver they contain, but they are not money any more than silver in bars bearing the stamp of an assay office. The trade dollars are coined merely for ex- portation, and it would be absurd to give the Chinese owners of five-sixths of them the profit which will accrue to the government in the purchase of them as bullion and coining them into regular money, Naturalization Papers of 1868. ‘The case of Coleman, arrested on election day for an attempt to vote on a certificate of naturalization alleged to be illegal, came before Judge Blatchford yesterday on a writ of habeas corpus. Before the proceed- ings were concluded Judge Blatchford an- nounced his intention to discharge the prisoner, but he did not make an immedi- ate order of discharge because counsel sig- nified a wish for a decision by the United States Court on the validity of the naturalization papers granted in 1868. It is important that that question be judicially determined, in order that it may be seen whether there is a conflict of opinion between the State and federal tri- bunals. The method of granting naturaliza- tion papers has heretofore been very loose, owing in part to the fact that the law on the subject is indefinite, If the decision of | supply as strong an argument for the re- ; did not want to subject his policy to even Judge Blatehford should coincide with ¢ that of Judge Freedman the coincidence will vision of the naturalization laws as would a conflict between the local and the federal tribunal. If they are in conflict the law is so uncertain that Congress should relieve it of ambiguity; but it the two Courts de- cile alike there is need of legislation to | prevent irregularities which no Court can | reach or punish under the law as it stands. The argument before Judge Blatchford will be continued to-day, and his opinion will be looked for with great interest. The Meeting of Partiament. On the present cecasion the Parliament of England meets in very peculiar cireum- stances. Had the Prime Minister consulted merely his own wishes it would not have been called, even though itis reasonably safe to suppose that the abject and almost servile majority which he controlled betore the adjournment will be as facile under his manipulation now as it was then. He had, therefore, only to go through the forms of submitting his policy to the judgment of the representatives of the nation, with the certainty, or next toit, that a ready ma- jority would be at his dictation, Yet he that merely formal and perfunctory super- vision. He wanted not merely to be a personal ruler in substance but in appear- ance. He gave way on this point, however, although it is known that he has ruled hitherto the consent of those who are noin- inally his coadjutors in the Ministry as ab- solutely as he has ruled a majority in Par- liament. He has held Parliament under the threat of dissolution, and has held a feeble government through the fact that he could do without the men of whom it was made up better than they could do without him. People who watch for the chance to step into a pair of shoes likely to be vacant presently must be near to where the shoes are likely to be left if they hope to succeed. But it was given out that Earl Beacons- field was constrained to relinquish his objec- tions tothe assembling of Parliament by the scruples of the Marquis of Salisbury and Sir Stafford Northcote against the re- fusal of what seemed required by an intelli- gent public opinion. It is doubtful if that was the real reason why the Premier changed his mind immediately after his contemptuous refusal to hear what the lib- erals had to say on the point. Perhaps the Queen herself thought it would be wise to hear from Parliament in this important juncture of national affairs. She may even have said so. And if she did then Earl Beaconsfield must thave hastened to smother his own wishes; not because under the English constitution the desire of the Sov- ereign can overrule the policy of a premier in favor with Parliament, but because it is one of the political fancies of the Earl that the Queen is the real Executive and the Prime Minister a mere machine to ful- minate the royal will. He puts his own fancies in the form of the Qucen's will. He does this with an ostentatious pretence that they are the Queen’s will in fact as well asin form ; and he could not make an ex- ception against the one case in which the Queen’s will really came to him in an au- thentic shape. Her Majesty, it need scarcely be said, has not the Premier's Oriental admiration for absolute power and personal authority. Indeed, between her and her Grand Vizier are reversed thé rela- tions ordinarily found between sovereigns and chief ministers. It is not » constitu- tional minister who softens a sovereign wiil in the interest of law and popular rights, but a constitutional sovereign who cries halt to a premier mounted on that some- what damaged racer, Royal Prerogative, and a minister, moreover, disposed to ride the steed to that hot destination laid down in the proverb for some sorts of persons not accustomed to equestrian exercise. Parliament may approve all that has been done, and varnish with its consent and even applause all the empty pretences. It very likely will, because this is a case in which conviction and change of opinion do not count. In the country there isa change of opinion on the foreign policy of the govern- ment—and such a change as would leave many members out in the cold if there were an election now, and there may be one sooner than they desire if they do not behave themselves handsomely on divisions. There will be a debate on the Indian war, but no harm will be done; and there will be some sharp criticism of the wonderful failure to provide for the evacuation of Turkey by the Russians, but a little rhet- oric about the perfidy of the Muscovite will get them safely over that. Milk, Butter and Cheese. ‘The first exhibition of the Dairy Associa- tion has already proved a most gratifying success to its projectors, and the visiting | public has learned many wonderful facts the existence of which it had never before suspected. The most skilful angler may fish all day in any of the milk cans at the exhibition without catching a single little trout, pickerel, eel or other watery resident such as is occasionally found in the fluid left by city milkmen at kitchen doors, He can find cream that is innocent of chalk, flour paste or other thickening and coloring matter, and asfor butter, there are whole tubs of it that dispel the vulgar illusion that because hairs give firmness to wall plaster they are also necessary to the compactness of butter. ‘There seem to ex- ist some dairymen who even believe that neither lard, tallow nor wagon grease is ne- cessaty to the proper flavoring of butter, Cheeses are there which fail to show any traces of paint or dye stuffs, which are not tough enough to plate armored war ships with and which do not smell like a side street underanAugustsun. Stranger still, there are cows whose lines and proportions dispel the popular fallacy that the breed of all milech cows is crossed with a pump handle, ‘The associated dairymen deserve the hearty thanks of the public for display- ing so much that wise men have often dreamed of yet died without beholding ; bat we trast they have considered the prob- able after effects, Who that has beheld and tasted such wonders can ever go back to the imaginary dairy products that milkmon and grocers are accustomed to impose upon him? A Reforming Pickpocket, It is the experience of one New York lady that if you wanta pickpocket caught the best way is to catch him yourself. He had taken possession of her wallet, containing thirty-seven dollars, and when we consider how much can be done with that much money by a lady of taste we do not wonder that she resolved to retake the wallet in person. Had she been a bank president, and the contents of a sate instead of a wallet had been stolen, she would have gone down to Mulberry street and held a conference with the inspector on duty ; but it is probable if the lady had done so the thief would have got away, for he was geing when she first caught sightof him. Thoroughly surprised at the spirit with which the lady set about securing the wallet he hastily presented itto her and was about to continue his journey, when, unfortunately, an officer of the law fell over him and would have ar- rested him for standing in a policeman’s way had he not been induced to do soona specific charge of theft. There is to-day one pickpocket less out of jail. But the service of this plucky lady to society does not end there. Upon searching the young man at the station house a Murphy temper- ance pledge was found among his skeleton keys and other implements. It will be erneily suggested that he went to take the pledge for the purpose of picking the pock- ets of the reformed drunkards and ‘awful exmnples” about the place. Is it not possi- Dle that the poor thief was in earnest, and that he subsequently took the lady's pocket- book by mere force of habit? Let us take this merciful view and indulge the hope that he will be kept foras longaterm us possible where his new temperance princi- ples will not be endangered, and something done in the way of hard work to keep his thoughts from the pocketbooks of others. Let his reform be made complete. Nest. Some inventive genius has started the story that the failure of the State Legisla- ture of 1876 to pass an apportionment law based on the census of 1875, in accordance with the requirements of the constitution, makes the Legislature of 1879 an unconsti- tutional and illegal bedy, without the power of electing a United States Senator. It is gravely suggested that if the minority in the next Legislature should protest and re- fuse to take part in the election of a Senator On these grounds the United States Senate might decline to recognize Mr. Conkling’s right to his seat on his new election. ‘The story istoo absurd to require serious no- tice, It is enough to say that if the failure of the Legislature to reapportion the State in 1876 was fatal to the constitutionality of any Legislature subsequently elected un- der the old apportionment law of 1866, then we have had no legal or con- stitutional. Legislature since 1876, and never can havea legal and constitutional Legislature again. We cannot amend the constitution or pass a new apportionment law because we cannot elect a constitutional Legislature to legally do these or any other acts. Hence we are thrown into chaos, without a chance of getting out again. If anybody should be foolish enough to enter- tain any serious apprehensions of such an uncomfortable condition of affairs we beg to assure them that the law of 1866, chapter 607, designating the number of mem- bers of Assembly to be chosen in the several counties of the State is still on the statute book unrepealed; is the law of the State governing the election of members of Assembly, and will so remain until it is superseded by another apportion- ment law. The constitution does not in- tend'that itand the State Legislature and all the machinery of the State government shall. fall to pieces, like Humpty Dumpty in the nursery rhyme, and never be put together again, because one directory clause in its provisions happens not to be obeyed. The republican Legislatures have done an act of great injustice to the State by refusing to pass a fair and just apportionment law, to take the place of the law of 1866; but their partisan action, while bad enough, has not quite destroyed our standing as a State, Let the Truth Be Known. From the Henato’s special report from Syracuse it will be seen that the Onondaga County Supervisors have requested the State Board of Charities to investigate the management of their County Asylum for Insane Paupers. This action was taken in consequence of the Hznanp's demands for an inquiry into the alleged brutal treat- ment of some of the inmates of the asylum aud for the removal and punishment of all officials who are directly or indirectly responsible for the evils that’ were brought to light by the unex- pected visit of a committee to the County Poorhouse in August last. The Onondaga Supervisors would have shown a more honest disposition to profit by our advice if they had promptly laid the matter before a grand jury, bronght to punishment any person who couid be reached by the law, and driven from the public service all who were cognizant of the horrible condition of the unfortunate occupants of the asylum cages. They allowed nearly three months to elapse without taking any action what- ever, and now, alter a disagreement between an investigating committee of their own body, they ask an examination by the State Board of Charities. The excuse has been offered that the ac. commodations of the Onondaga Asylum not being sufficient for the number of inmates the use of the wooden cages built in the cellar for incurable cases was unavoidable, The law allows the State Board of Charities under certain circumstances to authorize a county to support its own incura- ble pauper lunatics instead of send- ing them to the Willard Asylum, and the counties seek this privilege for the sole purpose of saving money. It costs them more to support the unfortunate beings at Ovid than to cage them up and kill them off quickly at home. Bat the counties are bound to give the insane poor proper treatment and sufficient accommoda- tion, and when their own buildings are over- crowded their duty is to send the incurable cases to the Willard Asylum. If there was too little room in the Onondaga building it became the duty of the superintendent to report that fact saa to have the AUN ables removed to Ovid. But this would have entailed a greater expense on Onon- daga county, and this, we expect, will be found to be the trae inwardness of the wooden cages, the cruel neglect, the foul, poisonous atmosphere and the speedy ree lease of the pauper lunatics by death. It is to be hoped that the investigation now to be made will cover this as wel! as all other points. The Yellow Fever Investigation, The recommendation of the President that Congress adopt measures to prevent the introduction of yellow fever and other epidemics is receiving prompt attention. The Senate yesterday passed a resolution for the appointment of a committee consist- ing of seven Senators, to ect in conjunce tion with a similar committee of the House, “to investigate and report the best means of preventing the introduction and spread of epidemic diseases, and especially yellow fever and cholera, within the limits of tho United States.” We trust that there is no State rights man who is so ultra and unreasonable as to object to this wise measure of precaution, The public health is the most important of public interests, and the health laws of the States, which have always been respected by Congresg are not broad enough in their scope to deal effectually with a great and desolating pestilence like that which has | recently prevailed in the Southwest. Of course Congress will not undertake to set aside or supplunt the State regulations, which are necessary and useful so far as they go, but only to supplement them in cases for which they are inadequate. Epi- demic diseases are introduced by the oper ations of commerce, and the authority of Congress to regulate commerce carries with it the right to prevent the introduction of disease by ships, cargoes or passengers. This subject is of national importance, and we trust that the committee will be able to report an efficient bill in season for its passage at this session. PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE. The Paseaic Falls are now very beautiful. Gambetta is very popular with the Grecks, Senator Sargent, of California, was much better yesterday. Senator Francis Kernan, of Utica, is at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Mr, William Beach Lawrence, of Rhode Island, is at the Albemarle Hotel. k Mr. R. Yon Pestel, Minister for the Netherlands at Washington, is at the Gilsey House. Here is a will recently admitted to probate in Eng- land :—‘Mrs. —— is to have all when I die.” Will somebody please send us in some more of that newest of new jokes, “Cana‘s is all for-Lorne?” Secretary Thompson, having recovered from his recent sickness, resumed his duties at the Navy Department yesterday. Ex-Congressman Dunnell, of Minnesota, who was attacked with vertigo on the floor of the House last Monday, is convalescing rapidly. ‘The Baltimore Gazette refers to the fact that one sel- dom, if ever, knows a Hebrew to kcep a naloon, Per- haps he doesn’t know how to make mixed drinks. Danbury News:—“The New York HeRaup says @ waiter should always have a pretty thumb. And like all other pretty things it should be shy and retiring.” ‘Mary Anderson claims to be the only actress on the stage who feels like laughing when she laughs.—De- troit Free Press. Zach Chandler is the only actor wha feels like smiling when he smilea.—oston Post, Albany Journal:—‘ ‘Mother, what is an angel? ‘An angel? Well, an angel is a child that files.’ “But, mother, why does paps always call my governess an angel?’ ‘Well,’ explained the mother, after a mo- ment’s pause, ‘she is going to fly immediately.’” A Paris physician has invented a narcotic of which a person may take certain doses for a certain time of sleep. The action is almost instantaneous, and if one were wiehing for only an hour's sleep on a rail- way car, for instance, the drug would accommodate him. Alexander H. Stephens yesterday, while ascending the stone steps leading to the House of Representatives, on crutches, slipped, and would have fallen directly backward but for the assistance of his attendant, who caught him in his arms, As it resulted the only in- jury received is a painful strain or wrench of the left knee, which will probably confine him to his room for some time. Burlington Hawkeye:—“The price of a wife among the Sioux Indians is twenty ponics. And when the young brave has won the girl and got her father’s consent at ruling rates, and the only thing that re- mains is to plank down the ponies, he sits down and sometimes occupies nearly a whole night thinking whether he had better steal the ponies from his own father or the girl’s. He generally steals them from his prospective father-in-law." BOARD OF EDUCATION, Ata regular meeting of the Board of Education yesterday afternoon an election of school officers for the next two years was held and the following gentle- men re-elected :—City Superintendent, Henry Kiddle; ‘Thomas F. Harrison and Norman A, Calkins, first assistant superintendents; John H. Fanning, Will- iam Jones, Arthur MeMutlen, John Jasper, Jr., and Alexander J, Selem, assistants. Hiram Merritt was appointed school trustee of the Seventeenth ward, in place of John N. Reynolds. The following gentlemen were elected school trustees for a term ot five years, to fill vacancies occurring in January :— First ward, Owen Murphy; Second, James F, Horan; ‘Third, Samuel H. Everett; Fourth, William H. Me. : Fifth, Peter J. Stuyvesant; Sixth, John von Seventh, Wilson Small; kighth, David M, inth, Henry Dayton: Tenth, Henry RK. Roome enth, Samuel G: ‘Twelfth, David H. Knzpp: Thirteenth, George W. Relyea: Fourteenth, Henr; ; Fifteenth, John N. Knox; Sixteenth, Alfres nteenth, Henry Merz; hteenth, Nineteenth, Charles L. Holt; Twen- nder Shaler; ‘Twenty-first, Louis Schultz; Walter Carter; Twenty-third, J. 8. ‘Twenty-fourth, Samuel M, Purdy, A resolution was ado} nesting the Vecretary of the Navy to continne Commander th thien in tems porary command of the sehoolship St. Marys. M UNICIPAL, NOTES. A number of laborers employed upon the Riverside drive called at the City Hall yesterday and complained that they had not been paid for two months. ‘Yhe Aldermen having passed a resolution authoriz. ing the Commissioner of Public Works to expend $220,000, in accordance with an act of the Legislature | for the erection of two pumping engines and fixtares ‘on the lots located at Ninety-seventh and Ninety. eighth streets d Ninth avenue, the work will soon be commenced. These structures will result in supplying | water to high buildings in the upper part ft Ms com stroller Kelly yesterday issued his regular monthly statement of the city fi o8, According «) figures the total bonded the city on imber 30, 187%, was $120,203,011 lS; on October 524,317 21; on December 1, 1877, A callers upon Mayor Ely yesterday waa w. atest, Mayor of Auckland, New Zealand. He was shown around the various departments at the City Hall, in company with Senator Wagstaff. The visitors afterwards called at Engine company No. 2, No. 100 Cedar street, where they witnessed an exhibi-+ tion drill, PERILS | OF ST DRIVING. Daniel Van Wagener, of No. 147 East Seventy-cighth street, took adrive on Tuesday afternoon on the upper boulevards, His team collided with another, and he was buried beneath the ruins of hisown vehicle. Off. cer Grant, of the Mounted Squad, pulled him out, and then Mr. Van Wagener foun that his left arn was broken. He received surgical attention at the 126th street station house and was afterward taken home, ‘This is the first accident under the new law allowing ® speed of twenty-five miles an hour above 190th street,