The New York Herald Newspaper, December 25, 1878, Page 4

4 NEW YORK HERALD, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 1878.-WITH SUPPLEMENT. NEW YORK HERALD BROADWAY AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, T THE DAILY HERA! 1 every day in the Pe oneludods” Tou dollars pet conte per cop: Ny Zeek, OF ab s rate 0 ‘ar per nonth for any period less ‘Than’ six months, 01 Htars for six months, Sunday petage. Ene dollar per year, free of post- “Noriek 10 SUBSCRIBERS.—Remit in drafts on New York or Post Office money orders, and whore neither of these cau be procured send the mon regi er. All remitted at risk of seuder, In ordor ure atten must give their old as wel now nddrens All business. ters or telegraphic despatches must be addressed N. ik HeKALD, MAL. Letters and packages should be o properly sealed. Rejected communis returned, Pras or N 12 SOUTH .SIXTH LONDON eee “OF THE NEW YORK HERALD— iO. 46 FLEET STREET. PARIS OF PICE—W AVEN(Y DE! LOPERA. NAPLES OPFICE—NO. 7 8 PACE. riptions and advertise: taowill mathe waa toreaasin tow Yor! Sense VOLUME XUIII........-.-+. AMUSEMENTS TO-DAY FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE—Rir Van Wingue. NIBLO’S GARDEN—New Youk axp Loxvox—Matines. NEW YORK AQUARIUM—CinpexeLLa—Matinee. GLOBE—Osty 4 Fanuke’s DavenTen—Matinee, GRAND OPERA HOUSE- UULANTS—Matines. PARK THEATRE—Banrs ix Tx Woop—Matinee. LYCEUM THEATRE— % Mareiacx—Matinee. BKOADWAY THEAT! AN’L—Matinee. COMIQUE—Canistwas Joys Sorrows—Matinea, WALLACK’S THEATRE. UNION SQUARE—Tue Bayker's Daventkr—Matines, BOOTHS THEATRE—E: GERMANIA THEATRI TIVOLL THEATRE. TONY PASTOR'S—Val SAN FRANCISCO Mi ABERLE'S AMERICAN TH WINDSOR THEATRE—V ND EVENING, TRE—Vanrerr—Matinee, TY—Matines, STANDARD THEATR BOWERY THEATRE; OLYMPIC—Tickut-or- Lia’ New York and ils vicinity to-day will be cold and clear or fair, with blustering westerly to northwesterly winds. To-morrow it will be cold, windy and clear or fair. Merry Curistuas To ALL. Watt Street Yesterpay.—The stock market ‘was dull and quiet. Gold sold at 100 1-32 a 100 1-64. Government bonds were firm, States dull and railroads higher. Money on call lent up to 6 percent and closed at 2 per cent. Loox Ovr for the red ball at Central Park, to-day. Reap “ALways with You” and do as, you would be done by. Ir Any Maw is longing to do something that nobody else has done let him play Santa Claus to the street wanderers to-day. Tue Latest Loss at ‘“‘banco” is reported to exceed two thousand dollars. Why do not Weatern merchants read the papers ? Dorricare Cunisraas Presents can be dis- posed of at tenement houses and mission schools, particularly it they are good enough to eat. Two Tuovsanp Dotiars Batt for the offence of having stolen two boxes of cigars must seem to honest burglars a monstrous perversion of law. Fre Insurance seems a strange business to be suffering depression. Are fires leas frequent nowadays, or do people have less property to barn? A Turoven Tare ey Rar is the Christmas celebration that the inhabitants of Harlem are longing for, the road being complete from their river to the Battery.. Axotner Instatment of Captain Boyton’s spirited narrative is published to-day, and though the thermometer does not invite any one but an Esquimau to saunter about in the river, the story is as interesting as it could be in mid- summer. Tue Story of the Manhattan Savings Bank, its robbery and its injunction, is certainly a piti- ful one. Cannot the directors have that injune- tion removed or tind some one who will lend to the depositors upon the bank books that are said to be worth their face? If not the saving , Classes would do better to be their own bankers. Ir Is Apour Trux for Pennsylvania to follow the custom of some of the other States and in- vestigate the conduct of her elections. For a prison watchman to be busily engaged in count- ing tickets while a convict is taking the pat- terns of his keys is as bad as some of the dread- ful Southern affairs that many Congressmen Tage about. Tue Weatner.—Referring in Monday's HeRarp to the steep gradients formed during Sunday in the Ohio Valley and Inke shore dis triets, and the strong to high winds that re- sulted, we called atteution to the probability that similar winds would be felt “from the westward along the lake shore, and on the Mid- die and New England States cousts.” We also predicted that the low pressure west of the storm centre then passing off the coast would itself develop another storm centre when it neared the coast. The weather experienced during yester- day along the lakes, the St. Lawrence Valley and on the coasts, fully justified our announce- ments. The barometric gradients from the lake region, southwest and west, became re markably steep, and the winds rose to the force of gales in many places, especially over Lakes Michigan and Erie, and along the const between Philadelphia and Eastport, Maine. ‘The centre of on exceptionally high pressure | area is now west of the Missouri, but the aren itself extends southeastward toward Florida and northward into British Columbia. In the Southwest, where the threatening indi- cations presented themselves on Monday, the centre of a shallow disturbance has moved into the Gulf from Texas, with rains, and is travel- ling along the coast over southern Florida. Ex- eept in the lower lake region, where some heavy snow has fallen; and on the Gulf coast, the ‘weather is generally clear or fair, but every- where the temperatures are very low. We have experienced the greatest cold in New York of the year, and present indications point to the continuance of low temperatures for some days. Such an enormous overpouring of air frow the -west of the Rocky Mountains shows that a con siderable disturbance is approaching trom that direction. The weather on the English coasts is air, but the pressures and wind directions show ‘that the storm we predicted on the morning of he 234d for that region is nearing Kusope. In New York and its vicinity to-day the weather will be cold and clear or fair, with binstering westerly to northwesterly winds. To-morrow it will be cold, windy and clear or fair, The Scientific Progress of the Wear. The year which is now rapidly passing into history has been in many respects the most remarkable of modern times. The historic tableau may be described in post- Raphaelitic parlance as a ‘nocturne in black and gold,” charged with a brighter tint of hope and deeper gloom of utter dark- ness than the combined genius of Turner and Whistler ever painted or the erratic pen of Ruskin ever characterized. How many brilliant promises belied at the critical mo- ment, how many confident anticipations awept away by the remorseless logic of his- tory! Saluted at its birth by a volcanic roar of artillery from the passes of the Etropol Balkans, where Muscovite and Mos- lem were ringing down the curtain upon the lurid drama of the ‘Independence and In- tegrity of the Ottoman Empire,” the year closes amid the deepest intricacies of the “Great Asian Mystery” now being enacted amid the everlasting snows of the Hindu- Kush, the pathless wastes of the ‘Roof of the World” and the shifting sands of the Kizil-Kum. The interpreters of prophetic visions still have Ample room and verge enough ‘The characters of hell to trace upon their premillennial canvas, and they would do well to keep their lamps trimmed and burning, for the dawn of peace is not yet come. But while the political annals of the year are writ large with battle, murder and sud- den death, the scientific record stands writ- ten in letters of living light. No future chance or change in human events can rob this passing year of the glory of being one of the great epoch-making crises in man’s knowledge of nature—a Promethean mo- ment richly fraught with ‘the wonders that shall be,” the marvels of the present, the axioms of the coming hour. In no other seas of human activity is it truer than in the deepest gulfs of physical speculation that ‘‘there is a tide in the affairs of men.” Every really great discovery is reached almost simultaneously by isolated workers separated by thousands of miles. These earnest searchers are so many athletes swiftly speeding toward a common goal, which the most fortumate gains but ao moment before the slowest of his competi- tors. At+the very outset of the present year the world of science was assembled on the judges’ stand, counting seconds in the race between Pictet and Cailletet for liquefying the last of the gases, and thus experiment- ally proving the unity of nature and the continuity between the solid, liquid and gaseous domains. Cailletet ha? scored the first round by liquefying oxygen and car- bonic oxide as early as December 2, 1877, but being then a candidate for election toa seat in the Academy of Sciences he mag- nanimously refrained from announcing hig success and consigned the account of his discovery to a sealed packet, which was opened at the academic session of De- cember 24. Strange to.relate, M. Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, announced by letter at that meeting the same result achieved by entirely different processes. Scarcely had the wondering savans found time to announce to the public this double triumph when M. Cailletet, on the last day of the year, accomplished the liquefaction of hy- drogen, nitrogen and atmospheric air, and, pressing closely upon him, M. Pictet swept to the goal January 11, definitely establishing the sequence of the ‘‘constants of nature” by the solidification of hydrogen. It was found to be a metal, thereby brilliantly justifying the conclusion first reached forty years ago by the veteran chemist, J. B. Dumas, who had the honor, as president of a leading scientific society, to receive the first tele- graphic announcement from M. Pictet, and to make known to his associates at Paris this grand discovery on the very day it was made at Geneva. Results such as these would suffice to make the year 1878 forever memorable in the annals of science, but only the first page had yet been written. In the same month of December, 1877, when Cailletet and Pictet were winning their first laurels in Paris and Geneva, Thomas Alva Edison rode into New York one morning from Menlo Park with a queer brass cylinder under his arm, and astonished our neigh- bors of the Scientific American.with the bra- zen-faced assertion that ‘‘Mary had a little lamb.” The phonograph had sprung, un- heralded, upon the world, and so incredi- ble was the scientific fact thus revealed that several weeks elapsed before it was generally credited. Although the fall- fledged discovery of the phonograph per- tains to 1877, the whole of its development and its world-wide renown belong to 1878, ‘and it is assuredly not the least of its many titles to perpetual remembrance that ‘‘the Wizard of Menlo Park” then first assumed a recognized position as a factor in our coming civilization. Of Edison’s manifold other and curious inventions—the mega- phone, the phonomotor, and the aerophone— we have no need now to speak, though in other times they would rank high among the ctiriosities of science. But there are three other achievements of his genius which distinctly call for mention among the wonders of the year—the improved car- bon telephone, the tasimeter and the elec- tric lamp—more than one of which were first fully described in the columns “of the Hunatp. Other workers have recently in- scribed their names upon Fame's eternal bead-roll with similar titles, and it would be unjust not to recognize the great merit of our countryman Professor Hughes in the discovery of the microphone, of Professor Graham Bell in perfecting his telephone, of Mr. Stearns in ‘‘duplexing” the Atlantic cable, of Professor Alfred M. Mayer in his illustrations of the atomic theory by float- ing magnets, of Sir J. D, Hooker and Paul Bert in their discoveries in vegetable chom- istry, of Count Du Moncel in his ingenious development of the phonograph into a con- densateur chantant, of Lewis Swift and Pro- fessor Watson in their discovery of intra- Mercurial planets, of Professor Leconte in his discovery of a new element, of Pro- tessors Newlands, Wilde and others in their ingenious classifications of the elements by periodic laws, and of Lontin, Rapieff, Jab- lochkoff, Werdermann, Sawyer, Hosmer and Gary in their important, but not yet fully realized, applications of electric force. | The crowning discovery of the year, how- ever, if the half that has been claimed should prove true, will belong neither to Pictet, Cailletet, Edison, Hughes, Watson nor Swift, but to the eminent English astrono- mer and spectroscopist, Mr. J. Norman Lockyer, who visited our shores in July last for the observation of the great solar eclipse. His discovery, which the Hznaup was the first to announce in America, is nothing less than that all the sixty-four so- called ‘‘elements” are condensations or modifications by the interactions of the cosmic forces upon a single primitive mat- ter, which, so far as this earth is concerned, seems to be hydrogen, but which in the solar corona is found to be at least four times lighter than hydrogen, Of course men are already speaking of this discovery as if it were synonymous with alchemy or the transmutation of metals. In one senso they are right, but not in the most im- portant meanings connected with those ex- pressions. It may be found possible to reduce gold and other precious metals and stones to their primitive calcium or hydro- gen, but it may be positively stated that it will never be possible to make gold from hydrogen or calcium. The reason is the same as in the parallel case of reducing fuel to ashes. To destroy is easy; to recon- struct from the same or similar materials is impossible. Above all, one of the factors in the formation of metals is unlimited du- ration of time for the play of the cosmic forces, and until the new alchemists can control that factor their efforts will bo use- less. It is too early to predict the range of Mr. Lockyer's discovery ; but, granting all the facts which he claims, he has but dem- onstrated experimentally an idea which is perfectly familiar to modern chemists. It is highly probable that Mr. Lockyer’s conclusions are well founded and that they will revolutionize the formal teaching of chemistry, but they cannot change the facts as they have always existed. Mean- while the scientific world is becoming im- patient for the record of Mr. Lockyer's ex- periments—not for his conclusions, for those they can draw as well as he. Christmas Again. The day of all days beloved of church- men and charity seekers, shopkeepers and small boys is again upon us, and it prom- ises to be celebrated with as much hearti- ness as if nearly two thousand recurrences of the occasion had not done their best to dull the general interest in the day. There are countries in which holidays are more numerous than they are here, where saints crowd the calendars and give the honest workingman so many opportunities to rest that work sometimes becomes a rare expe- rience, but American almanacs are s0 dreadfully behindhand in this respect that sinners are as enthusiastic as good men in welcoming the approaching Christmas while it is yet afar off, and in casting economy upon the ground, and trampling it under foot most vigorously for at least a day or two before the great festival. Except before breakfast on New Year’s Day there is no other time in the year in which so many wise resolutions are made as the few weeks preceding Christmas, but as the day ap- proaches and the shop windows fill with things that no gentleman’s family should be without, jolly old Santa Claus chuckles merrily to himself as the good resolutions waver, weaken and finally drift off to the place where there are already enough of their kind to make paving contracts im- possible for ages tocome. Nor is incon- sistency displayed in financial affairs only, The fine, hard-headed old fel- lows who during all the rest the year earnestly urge the wisdom of having all chaMies distributed by organized bodies may about Christmas time be de- tected in the weakness of giving peninies to shameless beggars, sending turkeys to poor families, giving cast-off clothing to tramps and in other ways acting as kindly as if a man’s benevolence were a personal virtue the duties of which could not be delegated to any organ- ized body whatsoever. As the days go on children begin concerted movements upon the family purse, and this class of operations becomes so generally the rule that any man who is excepted feels un- comfortable in spite of himself. Then some people, in a semi-apologetic sort of way, begin to talk about the religious aspect of the day, and though busi- ness men generally leave such affairs to be attended to by the ladies of their families, they suffer an occasional inroad of unexpected sentiment, until, when the day has fairly arrived, everybody meets everybody else in a good-natured, great-hearted sort of way that they cannot help for the life of th though they may feel dreadfully ashamed of it a few days later. But whether Christ- mas sentiment is reasonable or not is of no consequence so long as its results are merriment and good-heartedness, and no man who watches the world as it goes can help admitting that in spite of a great deal of foolishness that is inseparable from fes- tivities in general the coming of Christmas is always the richest of the blessings that the year brings to humanity. Snowed Up. An announcement thata train on the way from this city to Buffalo has been lost in the snow in Northern New York, and that no intelligence can be obtained of its where- abouts, seems an astounding piece of news, yet it is made public throngh the postal au- thorities, whose interest in the mails car- ried on the lost train is official, and whose information should be accurate. Several trains are reported as snowed up in our other despatches, and the story of the storm sufficiently accounts for the event. In the country through which the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg Railroad runs they are ac- customed to heavy snow storms, but are not often so well supplied as on this occa. sion. Five days of heavy snowing will make an obstruction anywhere that trains cannot well get through. But at least itis known where theso trains are, and they can be reached and the passengers supplied or relieved from the inconveniences of life in asnow drift. Consequently their case pre- sents nothing worse, after all, thana picture of the embarrassments of travel and the extensive interruption of communications. of Buta train snowed up and actually lost suggests possible inconveniences of a more serious nature, Speeches at the New England Dinner. Of the fourteen speeches in response to toasts at the New England dinner every one was by a republican, so far as the speak- ers are known to have any party politics. We do not know whether Dr. McCosh ever votes nor even whether he has been natural- ized, and we are quite unacquainted with the political views of Commodore Nicholson and President Brand, of the St. Andrew's Society ; but the other eleven, both lay- men and clergymen, are well known and most of them ardent and conspicuous re- publicans. How did it happen that no democrat was invited to contribute to the wit and wisdom of this interesting festival ? The New England Society would seem to have become an institution as strictly par- tisan as the Union League Club. In former times three of the six New England States were pretty steadily democratic, and all of them have given birth to men who in other States have been ranked among the great lights. and ornaments of the demo- cratic party. Among those who rose to high national distinction were Lewis Cass and Stephen A. Doug- las in the West and William L. Marcy and Silas Wright in our own State, not to mention others who were scarcely less eminent. Thetwo most eminent oppo- nents of Governor Marcy and Governor Wright were not men of New England birth, but Governor Seward and Governor Fish, both native New Yorkers. We think it a mistake to give a partisan cast to these celebrations, The Pilgrim Fathers were appreciated and venerated long before our Present parties arose, and their virtues will continue to be commemorated long after the parties of the day shall have disap- peared. The three principal speeches on Monday evening were by republican statesmen who are acting a very distinguished part in pub- lic affairs. Secretary Sherman said nothing from which anybody in this community will dissent, so far as relates to his principles and purposes; although some may perhaps think him a little too sanguine gnd ex- ultant in his expectations. Of his ability to maintain specie payments we suppose that no intelligent financier of this city entertains any doubt, but there seems a touch of spread-eagle oratory in his pro- phecy that our legal tender notes are to cir- culate all over the world side by side with the notes of the Bank of England and sharing their unquestioned credit. It is never wise for a finance minister to indulge in flights of tancy. It is not by any means a settled question that the legal tender notes are to form a permanent part of our currency. Certain ,it is that they can never possess equal credit with the notes of the Bank of England in the present state of our legisla- tion, and the responsible head of our finances is not warranted in making predic- tions which overstep the limits imposed by our laws. When a Bank of England note is taken in Bombay, or Jeddo, or Constantinople or Rio it is in the certain assurance that it is the fall equivalent of gold. But what safety would there bein taking a United States note by a merchant or banker in the East Indies while the state of our laws is such that it may be paid either in silver or gold when sent home for redemption? How shall a banker at the antipodes know whether a thousand- dollar note is worth its face or only eight hundred and fifty dollars in silver? We think it isa piece of misplaced financial buncombe for Secretary Sherman to say, ‘I have no doubt that the time isat hand when thesé notes will go wherever the notes of the Bank of England will go.” Between Secretary Evarts and Senator Blaine there is a very marked conflict of opinion on the question of free ships. Mr. Evarts, reflecting the opinion of mercantile New York, said with pointed felicity of phrase, ‘If we wish to build ships, let us build them ; if we wish to buy ships? let us buy them.” But Mr. Blaine, as a repre- sentative of the shipbuilding interest of Maine, could not let this pass without challenge, even on an. occasion where con- troversy was out of place. “I dont know,” he said, “that it is allowable to have controversies at tlte table, and yet I must differ from my honorable friend, the Secretary of Stat And he pro- ceeded to make an argument for upholding our restrictive and obstructive navigation laws.. We do not mention his argument to refute it, but only to call attention to the fact that Mr. Blaine is to enter the Presi- dential lists as the champion of protection as well as the reviver of sectional animosi- ties. With the addition of a crusade against the Catholics his political equipment, as the knight errant of obsolete ideas, is complete. ‘The Doom of Eva Leroy. “Driven out of Alpena.” This had been done to Eva Leroy while all the world was busy laying up stores of joy for the merry Christmas times. Tragedy marches side by side with comedy; under tho smile is the agony. She fell by the way- side in the bitter cold, and lay there in the numb stupor of creeping death. Just think of it fora moment amid your pleas- ures, while the little faces are dimpled with delight, and the older faces beam with a softened pleasure, and the lights gleam and the fire blazes, how that woman wandered on through the darkened wind-swept wastes, the laughter dying out on her cars, the lights of Alpena fading from her eyes, even the hard words and stern faces of those that drove her forth leaving but indistinct impress on her brain, so piercing was the cold and so long and dreary the road stretching out before her, At length the lights of another village gleamed on her eyes, but she fell be- fore she reached them. She was young and had been handsome, but she was a sinner—and now the penalty was laid upon her with a dull savagery that man re- serves for erring woman alone. There are parsons who paint a heaven for the godly, but there was nothing short of death for her. They found her where sho fell, frozen and dying, and brought her in. T'oo late! The chalice of life was broken and there was nothing left but to hide the fragments under the frozen clay, Think of her as she sank down, wearied, chilled to the mar- row and despairing. You would pity a dog dying such a death, but a woman, young, with the lines of her beauty still to be traced under her haggardness, as God might trace the whiteness of lost purity under the stains on her soul—stains that they tell us can be washed away! Was her death made bitterer by the thought that it was to be upon the eve of the time when the angels sung of ‘‘Peace and good will among men on earth?” She cannot be.recalled to answer; the hardened men that drove her out cannot undo their deed ; but all who read her fate to-day may make amends in some form for the inhumanity by pitying and helping one weighted soul among the poor, the erring and the outcast who are dear to God. The Bulgarian Question Settled. We are urged by a correspondent, whose letter we publish in another column, not to discontinue our efforts to supply the vacant Bulgarian throne with an American king, and the suggestion is made that we in- crease our list of candidates by the addition of other names, ‘We are prepared to admit the qualifications, merits and claims of the gentlemen mentioned by our correspond- ent, and should gladly hail their corona- tion if they could be spared. But they all have callings at home and their country- men would not be willing to part with them, even to oblige Bulgaria, Mr. Lawrence Jerome, who ought to have been elected to Congress, is reserved for the United States Senate, and when Mr. Kernan re- tires we hope to see Mr. Jerome fill his place. Meanwhile his genial humor so endears him to his ‘fellow citizens that they would not consent to part with him, even for the short time that must intervene before he is transplanted to Wash- ington with Senatorial honors. The popu- lar Sam Ward’ would make a right royal monarch, but where would be our dinner parties, where our pleasant anecdotes, where our accomplished Third House, with- out him? Mr. Jenkins Van Schaick would pass naturally from ‘‘a prince of good fel- lows” toa king, and his old Dutch blood would make Germany his friend; but Wall street mfst have its hour of merriment, and where would the fun be without the jolliest broker in the Board? Chief Justice Quinn may be needed again on the New York bench—who knows?—and besides, the people of New York would ‘view with alarum his increasing influe-ence” in a foreign country. The First ward could not exist without Judge Duffy. Uncle Dick Schell is ‘‘every inch a king;” but the magnificence of fiat money would de- part with its leading practical advocate, As to Mr. Henry Bergh, while he would be the most valuable ruler we could give to Bulgaria, we cannot consent that he shall leave New York. His good deeds make him aking among men, wherever he may be, and the American people have already awarded him the bright crown of humanity and Christian philanthropy. Neither man nor beast can spare Henry Bergh from the field of his present labors. Besides, we regard the throne of Bulgaria as already as good as filled by the sug- gestion of the Russian Emperor, and while we are in receipt ofthousands of let- ters recommending the favorites of the various writers as proper persons to wear the new crown, we feel impelled to close the chapter and take leave of the candidates and the subject. We fear that to press our claims any further might take the appear- ance of opposition to the Emperor, who has always been our sincere friend, even if he did get a little the best of us ina real estaté transaction in the northern part of the country. Besides, we are really willing to withdraw our national aspirations in favor of the English Prince, whose sister is al- ready half an American. — A School Trustee on Ventilation. Our report of a chat with a school trustee contains some suggestive facts from the lips ofa gentleman who is deeply interested in the schools and would not have an unjust word said against them. But truth should be told when human life depends upon it, and the trustee alluded Yo declares that some of the teachers never dream of mak- ing use of the ventilators, and that lack of rules for the manipulation of air currents is partially the cause of vitiated atmosphere in classruoms. The suggestion of the Hexnarp, that the Board of Education should prepare a small manual of the use of ventilators, registers, windows and doors, and distribute it among the teachers, is indorsed by the trustee, as it is by every one else except the members of the Board, who apparently es- teem only such life-saving appliances as are designed under its own direction. It is comforting to know that there is already a series of instructions for janitors, but when we read that they are required to ven- tilate the rooms, through the doors and windows, only once a day, it is impossible not to feel that the Board itself noeds imme- diate and thorough ventilation. To print and circulate among all the teachers a com- prehensive manual of ventilation would not cost twenty dollars ; of course so intelligent a body as the Board of Education could have such a paper prepared without éxtra cost by one of its own employés. Why is it not done? Why was it not done years ago? A Plethora of Pocketbooks, A young woman was brought before the judge at Jefferson Market yesterday morn- ing charged with having too many pocket- books. The police found her coming out of a crowded store on Monday afternoon ; they suspected her of having too many leathern receptacles for cash, and they were not mistaken, for on searching her they found five. At her home they found five’ more, She could not satisfactorily account forthem. The implication that she stole them is a sad one; sad for her if it can be proved, sad for the shoppers who lost them, and perhaps for five-and- twenty little people beside whose hopes of a visit from Santa Claus rested wholly on the modest contents of the pocketbooks. It is satisfactory to think that a good many portemonnaies escaped this collecting pro- cess, Indeed, the fathers and mothers of New York have just now,‘on the. whole, more purses than they eam. keep full after the week of shopping and present-buying which has gone by. . A handsome wallet, even when there is little in it, has its uses, and some of these may console paterfamilias when he feels how flat and void itis. The expert young lady, who wi!l make a second appearance in court this morning, might make a very large collection of pocketbooks to-day without being richer, except in leather, That is one of the joys of Christ mas. An Operatic Tournament. “Hereabouts somewhere,” said the man in the story, ‘stand three brothers who have been in this neighborhood three hun- dred years fighting each other for the pos- session of a cloak, a coat and a pair of boots—tor the possessor of these becomes ‘all powerful and can accomplish readily whatever he wishes.’’ All the grand com- bination at the Academy of Music propose to wrestle withthe public on Thursday night in a battle somewhat of that nature; they fight for an equipment that will enable them to accomplish whatever they wish in the way of getting up scenical illusions for the benefit of the spectator. For the scenical equipment is the garment of the play, and as manya fine fellow would fail altogether to impress society with a sense of his merit if he appeared ia the pic- turesque attire of Macnire, but would take at the first trial if gotten up with the advice of Brummel, so perhaps more plays, musical and cther, have gone to the dogs for want of good mounting than for want of genius in the authors. It would be superfluous to dilate on a theme that isas plain as the fact that in scenery good or bad lies the greater part of the progress the stage has made since the days of Thespis’ cart. It is avery handsome favor the management does the public in giving a benefit particularly to supply the stage with scenery, and the pub- lic should do its part and respond liberally. Instead of the three brothers of the story they will see three musical sisters of greater talent than perhaps any three ever seen on the same night in one company in this city—Marie Roze, Etelka Gerster and Min- nie Hauk. And if the fact that that famous fight was kept up for three hundred years must be understood as implying the equal skill and genius of the champions, the ad- mirers of music will doubtless be forced on Thursday night to judge that the suprem- acy between these fairer rivals can never be decided iu a shorter time. But the scenery can be painted meanwhile if the public will “down with the dust.” By How Much Will O’Leary Win? O'Leary has at length closed the little gap of ten miles which his sing@gr looking antagonist opened for him during the first two days. Many no doubtimagined that such an opening could not be closed, especially when O’Leary’s Monday blisters were taken intoaccount. But when it is borne in mind that the latter is simply not touching the pace of the famous Sir John Astley race, which he won so gallantly; that although his judgment of a rival’s merits is ad- mitted to be good, he looks fleshy, and has not even trained to walk this race, but is plainly confident that he can win it at catch weight and condition, and that so far he has practically only walked, while his prowess as a skilful and fleet runner is well known, it will be no surprise to learn that he spun away round the track yesterday as’ blithely and springily as though he had never heard of a blister. No fairer, cleaner or more business-like walker ever trod the sawdust path, and every youth in this country who wants to learn how to become an honest. and thorough long digtance walker should carefully study this excel- lent model, while, at the same time, he should be scrupulously careful to avoid the slovenly, shambling gait of O’Leary’s tem- porarily famous rival. It is a pity that some one cannot be found who will put the champion of the world to all that is in him, and over every mile of the ninety a day for the six days together. ' PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE, Perhaps Senator Bruce is the dark horse. A brother of George D. Prentice is in the Navy De it. A daughter of Edwin M. Stanton is aclerk in the War Department. Mr. Maurice Delfosse, Belgian Minister at Wash- ington, is at the Windsor Hotel. Mr. F. W. Potter, formerly of the Newark Courier and Consul at Marseilles, was dying on Monday. It is said that Blaine was quite a sailor in his youth,, That is probably where he learned to use the Blaine pin. Some lisping young Isdies at Vassar have formed a lispers’ club. They are probably studying myth- ology. It is announced from London to-day that the Duke of Edinburgh is about to be promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. A widely-circulated German newspaper is publish- ing one of Andrew Jackson Davis’ spiritualistic works as & serial story. * Ex-Senator Conness, of California, who has lived in Boston for eight years, is looming up in the poli- tics of that city, He is a republican, Talmage believes in ventilation for his Tabernacte, It really would be unhealthy for his congregation to have no ventilation for his sewer gas, A Tennessee paper remarks that a man was “found dead with a button-hole through his coat.” Now, ten to one, that man died of a button-hole-stitch in the wide, Josh Billings:—“I don’t insist npon pedigree for @ men or horne., if @ horse kan trot fast the pedigree is all right;sif he kan’t, I wouldn't give a shilling @ yard for his pedigree.” Dr. John A. Weisse, author of “The Origin and Destiny of the English Language,” was yesterday elected President of the American Philological Society for the ensuing year. We desire to inform General Butler that in Wiscon- sin bricks are being made of paper. Ho might get some to throw at the democrats who want to be hit with plenty of paper just now. The political course of the Hrnatp seems to be having general consideration throughout the coun- try, if we may judge by the almost unprecedented number of quotations and comments which are ap- pearing in the provincial press from Maine to Cali- fornia. Ata party in Michigan a couple of young people submitted in jest toa mock marriage; and after the ceremony was pertormed by a gentleman present the girl discovered that he was a justice of the peace, and she claimed that the marriage was legal, The young man doesn’t sce it in that light, An Towa court has decided that drivers are under! legal obligations to treat .people decently who desire to pass them on the public road. A Mx, Norrie thought to play smert with Mr. Boles, an able law- yer, of Waterloo. Boles was behind Norris, but, de« siring to go faster, undertook to yo by. Norris then whipped up and prevented it, but when Boles fell in behind slacked his speed, to Boles’ hindrance and au- noyanee. Boles sued for damages and won his vase