The New York Herald Newspaper, February 11, 1879, Page 6

ym NEW YORK HERALD, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY i, 1979, TREe SHEET. NEW YORK HERALD | 822" _ th? Manssement of the Indians BROADWAY A AND ANN STREET. JAMES GORDON BENNETT, PROPRIETOR, THE DAILY HERALD, published every day in the year, Three cents per copy (Sundays excluded). Ten dollars per eur, five dollars for six mouths, two dollars and lifty cents ice three months, or at a rate of one dollar per month for period less than (ivee months, Sunday edition included, free. rr) postace. ., EEKLY HERALD—One dollar per year, free of post. “NOTICE TO SUBSCRIRERS.—Remit in drafts on New York or Post Office money orders, and where neither of these enn be procured send the money in a reyimered letter. All money remitted at risk of sender. In order to insure atten- thon subscribers we changed must give their old ai All busin De addresse Letters and packujces should be properly sealed. jected communications will not be returned. pia Sh ie alata PoRapaLrnss OFYICE—NO. 112 SOUTH SIXTH LONDON “OFFICE Or THE NEW YORK HERALD— NO. 46 PE’ PARIS OFFICE—49 AVENUE DE L'OPERA, NAPLES OFFICE—NO. 7 STRADA PACE. ie despatches must AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT. BRP ADWAT THEATRE—Orux110, LiGaN GuaRD Bat. UNION SQUARE THEATRE—Tue Banxga’s Davcuten, NIBLO’S GARDEN— GLOBE THEATRE— GRAND OPERA HOUS BOWERY THEATR: PARK THEATRE—Tue Vicrrs: FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE— BOOTH’S THEATRE--Axi STANDARD THEATRE—! GERMANIA THEATRE—Dxa | LYCEUM THEATRE-H. |. Pixarorn, HRENFRIED, TONY PASTOR'S—Vani TIVOLI THEATRE—Vanuxry. AMERICAN MUSEU CHICKERING HALL— NEW YORK AQUARIU AOADENY oF DESIG The probabilities are that the weather in New York and its vicinity to-day will be warm and cloudy, with rain and inereasing winds. To morrow the same conditions are likely to prevail, followed by gradual clearing and lower tempera- tures. Watt Street Yesterpay.—The stock market swas fairly active but weak, particularly for the grangers. Government bonds were weak, States dull and railroads strong. Money on call was easy at 11g a 3 per cent, closing at 11g & 21, per cent. Kinatt1, the church debt raiser, has success- fully resumed business in Springfield, Maas. Wuat Has Harrenep! Up to a late hour fast evening Ex-Comptroller Green bad not vis- ited Mayor Cooper. Tux Stare Ovent to buy out a couple of coal mines a8 soon as possible. It takes a thousand tons of coala month to heat the little corner that is finished of the State Capitol. Tne ScnuLtTte MurpDeER investigation in Con- necticut has ended in the finding by the Coro- ner’s jury that the accused Buchholtz possesses “a guilty knowledge of the crime.” Sreampoat Caprarxs will do well to make a note of the suspension of two of their number who have been found guilty of culpable care- Jessneas in the recent collisions in the harbor. Passencers on the “L” roads will feel more security becuuse of the precautions that have been taken for the regulation of the trains in the event of fire along the route. The more safeguards that are applied the better. Two Inrerrstinc Points have been raised in the Blair court martial—first, that no name is signed to the charges against the accused ; and second, if the General of the Army comes forward iu that capacity he cannot prosecute in ® court of his own creation. Ir Mus. Sait and Covert D. Bennett, who were placed on trial in Jersey City yesterday for the murder of Policeman Smith, are con- victed it will be purely on circumstantial evi- dence. The theory of the prosecution is that the crime was prompted by love. Ir tne Fourteen Huxprep WorkIncmen who have struck on the Metropolitan Railroad because of a reduction of their wages are wise they will accept the terms of the company. Em- ployment, as they have good reason to know, is hard to obtain. If they can do better, why of course well and good. Tue Cnarity Batt last evening was in many Tespects the most brilliant and successful event of the kind that has taken place in many years, It was attended by the wealth and fashion of the city, and the handsome sum realized—between sixteen thousand and twenty thousand dollars— will be the means of relieving many a poor family. Tux Remyant or tne Cueyenxes from Camp Robinson have arrived at Sydney, Neb. Wild Hog and his fellow prisoners tell a pitiful tale of misery and starvation, and if there is a par- ticle of truth in the statements made to the Heraxp correspondent, it is evidently the duty of the government to find out what the Indian agent in Arkavsas did with the supplies with- held from the red men. Tun Werarner.—The depression advanced into the central valley districts during yoster. day and now dominates the weather over avery large aren. The extensive arca of high barome- ter that overlies the Atlantic States from the Gulf of Mexico to Nova Scotia will tend to direct the course of the depression more to the north. Tt will also favor the formation of very steep gradients, particularly in the northern districts, so that we are likely to experience increasing winds this afternoon and during to-night. In the Northwest the pressure has risen rapidly, aceompanied by falling temperature. Rain has falien in the Mississippi and Missouri valleys and the northern lake regions. In the most northern sections of the latter district it turned into snow, but the temperature was not low enough to permit of its remaining on the ground very long. The winds have been fresh to brisk in the central valley districts and tho West. They have increased to high in some nections of the lake regions, and bave been gen- erally light elsewhere. The temperature has falien in the Middle Atlantic, New England States and the northeastern part of the lower luke regions, and has risen in the other districts, The weather over the British islands ts favor able, the wind being generally strong from the west to northwest. It is very probable that the approaching depression will develop a storm centre of considerable energy 4s it nears the Atlantic coast. The weather in New York and ite vicinity to-day will be warm and cloudy, with rain and inereasing winds. Tomorrow the same conditions are likely to prevail, followed by gradual clearing and lower temyerature, Be Retransferred to the War Depart- ment? Senator McCreery delivered yesterday a speech of great interest, which filled the galleries, on the bill for transferring Indian affairs from the Department of the Interior tothe Department of War. The Hzratp has long been convinced of the expediency of this change, and the arguments with which we have supported it gain new strength and cogency from year to year. ‘The steady progress of events demonstrates the inefficiency, imbecility, bloody crueity and needless massacres which attend the present system, and which grow worse and worse as time wears on, We have frequently set forth the nature of the situation, and do not know that any possible restatement could add to the clear- ness of our former representations. The controlling facts of the new situation have arisen since the construction of the Pacific Railroad and the consequent extension of mining enterprises in the heart of the In- diancountry. Agriculture naturally follows mining, since the miners must in some way be fed, and the expense of transporting their food thousands of miles gives to the neighboring growers of grain and vegeta- bles a protection of three or four hun- dred per cent on their products. The consequence is that the Indian country is rapidly filling up, or rather is beginning to be filled up, with enterprising white set- tlers, who need protection against their savage neighbors. The immense herds of buffaloes which used to roam over the plains and supply food to the Indians are getting thinned out, and since hunger knows no law the rising settlements in that region are likely to suffer more and more from predatory Indians, who will rob rather than starve, and whose incursions will stir up the white settlers to vengeance. It is obvious that the extension of our settle- ments will breed incessant Indian wars. The situation has become so grave that it already demands, and will in a few years compel, a total change in our Indian policy. Assuredly, we are not to surrender that *| vast region to predatory tribes of roaming savages, who will be driven by the extinc- tion of game to prey upon the crops and cattle of white settlers, The two races can- not live together in peace as neighbors under the new circumstances, with the ap- proaching extinction of the buffalo on one side, and the increasing crops of the settlers on the other side to tempt the hunger-bitten savages to save themselves from starvation by raids upon cattle and crops. Nothing is more clearly written in the book of des- tiny than that we must surrender that vast portion of our territory to the Indians or that we must clear them out and relieve the white inhabitants from the robberies, scalping, massacre and : incendiagism’’to which they will be constantlysexposed if savage neighbors are tolerated to prowl about their settlements. Unless we are willing to shock humanity by the utter extermination of the Indians there is but one rational policy to pursue. That rational policy is precisely similar-to the one which was adopted forty or fifty years ago with reference to the tribes east of the Mississippi, when’ the ‘government, actuated by wise and humane considera- tions and with a politic union of force and persuasion, caused their re- moval to the Indian Territory. That re- moval was the only really, \great.thing ever done in our management of ‘the Ind+ ians. The tribes so removed gave us no subsequent trouble, and the statistics of their crops, cattle and houses, recently pub- lished, prove that they are living in comfort and abundance in the Territory assigned them. That great task needs to be repeated with respect to the trans-Mississippi Ind- ians. ‘The successfal removal during’ the administration of Jackson and the first years of the administration of Van Buren of the Creeks, the Chickasaws, the Choc- taws, the Potawatamies, the Ottawas, the Chippewas, and, though last not least, the Cherokees, put an end to the Indian question on this side of the Mississippi. It must be remembered that our now flourishing Stales on the east banks of the Mississippi were then new and sparse settlements, and that the presence among them of powerful Indian tribes was a constant source of quarrels and danger—that is to say, it was a condition of things similar to that which will soon exist among our new settlements in the great re- gion traversed by the Rocky Mountains. The same ovil demands the same remedy. The roving tribes of predatory Indians must be persuaded or compelled to take up ® permanent residence in a restricted terri- tory assigned them by the government, Whether this is done by persuasion or com- pulsion, or by both combined, it can only be done with efficiency, nay, it can only be done at all, by military methods. ‘There is a species of sublimated but ab- surd humanitarianism which has been brought into play for the last eight or ten years with reference to the Indians, We are in entire accord with the pacific Quakers and other squeamish Christian philanthro- pists in their amiable sentiment that per- suasion isa much better instrument than force. But in dealing with the Indians persuasion is impotent and ridiculous un- less there lies behind it a force strong enough to compel. The Indians can be porsuaded only by men whom they respect; but their native character and all their traditions and training make it impossible ‘for thom to respect anybody but warriors, We might os well send philanthropic women among them as philanthropic civil- ians; they would regard tho former as white squaws, and they regard the lattor as little better than white squaws in male attire. It is ingrained in their nature that they are incapable of respecting any but warlike qualities. Kindness is wasted upon them and despised unless backed by courage, determination and power. Wo must treat tho Indians in accordance with their mental habits and modes of judging. General Scott understood this perfectly, and he acted on this principle when sent by President Van Buren to remove the re- calcitrant Cherokees from the States of North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and ‘Tennessee to the place assigned them west of the Mississippi. General Scott performed that difficult task with and considerate humanity which elicited universal en¢omiums. here is no part of his long and brilliant career on which he looked back with greater satisfaction, and in his autobiography he quoted with undis- guised pride the eloquent eulogy on this subject by the celebrated Dr. Channing. But the much praised humanity of General Scott on that occasion and the splendid ac- complishment of his mission by mere per- suasion would have been impossible if he had not carried with him an army of regulars, and of volunteers specially raised for the occasion, large enough to be not merely formidable but ir- resistible. His proffers of kindness were listened to and heeded because he had ample power to compel the submission which he advised. ‘fhe number of volun- teers called for,” says Scott in his auto- biography, ‘independent of a few regulars, was overwhelming. Hence, resistance on the part of the Indians would have been madness.” Kindness from a warrior with such a force under his command was appre- ciated and accepted, but civilians who de- pended on mere philanthropy and per- suasion would have been despised and dis- regarded. There is as much real humanity among the officers ofthe army as among civil- ians, and on a warlike people like the Indians the necessity for using force will be small in proportion to the amount of force with which they are confronted. Hence the superior efficiency of the army for carrying out a philanthropic policy with the Indians. It must be remembered that the great achievement of removing the tribes hereto- fore mentioned across the Mississippi and planting them there in peace took place while the Indians were still managed by the War Department. It was completed ten or eleven years before the Department of the Interior was created. The Afghan Embassy to Kaufmann. A special despatch to the Heraxp, pub- lished this morning, from our commissioner at Tashkend, in Turkestan, informs us of the expected arrival in that city, on the 20th of February, of an influential Afghan embassy to General Kaufmann from the fugitive Ameer of Afghanistan. The per- sonnel of the embassy shows that much im- portance is attached to its mission by Shere Ali, who has surrounded its movements with all the imposing forms which an Eastern potentate conceives to be necessary in order to give weight tohis requestsordemands, A numerous retinue, with many horses, at- tends the progress of the nephew and the three chief Ministers of Afghanistan, who are to impress on the Governor General of the Czar in Central Asia that Shere Ali is by no means the cipher in Asiatic politics which his British enemies would make the world believe, It will be interesting to know what ‘effect this’ second attsmpt to secure Russian aid will have on #i¢Ufiairs of Afghanistan. Our special commissioner, who has’ excep- tional opportunities‘of noting the course of events, tells us that the embassy will be received with much ceremony at Samarcand by the local Russian Governor, and that it will then proceed to Tashkend, to the resi- dence of General Kaufmann. Perhaps this latest move of the Ameer will force the British into the serious diffi- culty of attempting to make their ocoupa- tion of Afghan territory a permanent one, thus creating the very condition of affairs in Central Asia which. it is their policy to avoid if possible."'It is pretty clear that Shere Ali would not send a second embassy to General Kaufmann without knowing that it'would meet with a more favorable recep- tion than the first one, The arrival of General Kaufmann’s aide-de-camp with im- perial instructions from St. -Petersburg a few days before that of the Afghan embassy shows that the Czar is not wholly indifferent to the situation created by the British invasion of Afghanistan. It is also noticeable that the chief of the mission which was almost rudely repulsed by Gen- eral Kautmann in the latter part of Decem- ber is a member of the new one now approaching Tashkend. If this official, Shere Ali’s Minister of the Interior, be- lieved that all hope of aid from Russia was at an end it is unlikely that his master would send him northward on another fool’s errand. It is more likely that the re- pulse of December was intended to afford time for organizing the success of February. Before the Governor. Mr. Gumbleton, the County Clerk, put in an answer yesterday to the charges made against him before the Governor by the Committee of the Bar Association, The answer is aclear and distinct denial of the charges, so far as the latter relate to the official action of the accused and the alleged collection of illegal fees. Mr. Gumbleton protests that the charges made by him havo in all cases been in conformity with the law, and asserts that instead of exacting more than legal fees ho has in many cases accepted less, and in some instances remitted his personal fees en- tirely. This is a much bronder answer than was anticipated, as the impression has gone abroad that the fees charged in all the county offices are in excess of what the law really authorizes, although apparently sanc- tioned by usage and common consent, Mr. Gumbleton shows that since 1868 the Comptroller has required, for the sake of condensation, that the County Clerk's re- turn of fees received in his office should contain only fees payable to the city, and not such as are retained by the County Clerk, Of course this answer has to be examined by the opposing counsel and to be tested by the law and the facta. Governor Robinson very properly put down his foot against the introduction into the case, as.it appears before him, of any of the wrangles between the opposing parties or of any of the legal tournaments over the production of the Clerk’s books. It is the duty of the Executive, he says, to consider the charges of illegal acts done by the County Clerk in his official capacity, and he will hear nothing else. If Mr. Gumbleton’s statements should be corroborated by the proof and justified by the law the Gov- ernor will look no further. It is well that these cases are to be disposed of by a clear- headed, impartial Executive, who will ne- ther show favor on one side nor yield to per- sonal or political prejudices on the other, Cetywayo's Victory. Startling news comes from Cape Towa, via St. Vincent, regarding a reverse to British arms in the recently commenced campaign against the Zulu king, Cetywayo. Itappears that on the 27th of January a large British colump, consisting of a portion (a battalion five hundred strong) of the Twenty-fourth infantry, six hundred native auxiliaries and a battery of artillery, was attacked by an im- mense force of Zulus near the Tugela River, on the line between Natal and Kafirland, and was utterly annihilated, The despatch announces that the British force lost the whole of its valuable convoy, comprising one hundred and two army wagons, bearing sixty thousand pounds of provisions ; one thousand oxen, four hundred shot and shell, one thousand rifles, two hundred and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition, two gunsand the colors of the Twenty-fourth regiment. Forty-nine British officers were killed. This is, to say the least, a fearful disasier, and cannot fail to be fol- lowed by a rising of all the native tribes on the’ Cape Colony frontier against the British power. That the fight was a desperate one is proved not so much by the capture of the convoy and the utter defeat of its protectors as by the loss of the guns and regimental colors; for it is to be presumed that the ‘Ii'wenty-fourth and the artillery did not allow these to fall into the hands of the Zulus while o man remained to defend them. It is probable that the combat became o massacre in the end. We’ therefore infer that the estimates of the Zulu numbers and _ losses, which are set down at twenty thousand and five thousand respectively, are based on speculation ; because it is unlikely that any survivors remained on the field to makethem. For some time the London daily journals have been warning the govern- ment that the Governor of the Cape Colo- nies, Sir Bartle Frere, underestimated the strength of the Zulu king, and that mili- tary preparations on a grand scale were necessary to a successful campaign. That this has been the case is proved by the dis- aster now recorded, and British prestige has received « blow in South Africa from which it cannot recover without an enormous expenditure of blood and treasure, The scene on the ‘ugela River shows how very different the picture becomes when the lion does all the hunting. The seven attacks made by the Zulus on the British lines after the battle on the Tugela River are reported to have been repulsed, but Natal is in danger and further complications with the natives are feared. Consternation prevailsthrough- out the colony, and the Governor has made urgent appeals for reinforcements, Eng- land has now a war on her hands which will prove more serious than that in Afghanis- tan, A Most Important Decision. Since the trial of the famous suit’ of Bar- dell vs. Pickwick in the British Court of Queen’s Bench no more important case has occupied judicial attention than that ot Thompson vs. Tammany, which was yes- terday decided in favor of Thompson by the learned Judge of the New York Supreme Court, whose time has been taken up in its consideration for several weeks past. By this momentousjudgment one hun- dred and forty-seven aspiring citizens of the metropolis are debarred from entering into the mysteries of the Tammany Society and taking a part in the duties and festivities ofthe Order. Moreover they are prevented from voting for Sachems in April next, when, we sre told, a great struggle is to take place for the future control of the society. For some two months these one hun- dred and forty-seven inchoate braves have been hanging by their top-knots, as it were, between the third heaven of election to Tam- many and the fourth heaven of initiation, and now Judge Barrett decides that they have not been elected at all, the meeting at which they were balloted for not having even been held ‘half an hour after the set- ting of the sun.” The legal acumen of the learned judge at once discovers the fatal character of this crushing irregularity. So the one hundred and forty-seven aspirants are wiped out with one sweep of the ju- dicial sponge, and Thompson triumphs. Now comes up the momentous question, Who owns the majority of the present mem- bers of the Tammany Society, and thus holds the power to elect the next Board of Sachems? It would probably be going too far to assert that upon the answer depends the stability of our institutions, the main- tenance of our peaceful relations with the rest of the world, the success of our finan- cial policy, the revival of our shipping in- terests and the settlement of the Indian question, But we can sately affirm that it does involve the scarcely less important matters of the stability of Michael O’Fla- herty's cart contract and the maintenance of Dennis O'Toole’s inspectorship of garbage in the Health Department, The Sachems control Tammany Hall; Tammany Hall con- trols the Democratic General Committee; the Democratic General Committee controls the city patronage, and upon the city patronage depend the fortunes of the O'Flahertys and the O’Iooles. No wonder, thon, that deep interest is excited by Judge Barrett's important decision gnd that the politicians are engerly discussing its prob- able effect on the next Tammany election, The Arrears of Pensions Bill. There is considerable misapprehension abroad as to the. object of the Arrears of Pensions bill, just signed by the President, It has already been called a mid on the Treasury, a bill for the benefit of claim agents and other bad names, The truth is that the bill proposes to date—and conse- quently to pay—all pensions from the date of the death or disability for which they were granted, whereas the majority of the pensioners created by the late civil war were paid only from date of application for pension, which was from one to fifteen or more years after cause for application had occurred. The principle of the bill is evi- dently correct; the means and cost of its application are fair subjects tor discussion. The Secretary of the Treasury estimates that the arrears will call for a hun- dred million dollars, and as the money will be claimed only by men who are already pensioners and who can immediately lentify themselves by the Pension Office records, it is probable that the bulk of the sum would be called for at once, in which case the Treasury balance would be serie ously disturbed. ‘Lhe Commissioner of Pensions differs materially with the Secre- tary, for he estimates that thirty or forty millions will cover the demand ; but how can the nation suddenly pay out even this amount without either raising the tax rate or inflating the volume of the currency? We admit an indebtedness is proper and necessary, but to promise immediate pay- ment when there is no money to pay with is unfair to the creditor and dishonorable tothe debtor. The soldiers and soldiers’ heirs who are to.be benefited should look into this matter of the probabilities of pay- ment before they unload their gratitude upon the lawmakers who passed the bill, The Test Oath for Jurors. It is nearly fourteen years since the close of the civil war, but there still remains in the statute book the law that any grand or petit juror in the Courts of the United States is subject to be challenged and is disqualified unless he can make oath that he never gave any voluntary aid to the re- bellicn. We have not the slightest doubt that the requirement of this lest oath ought to be repealed, nor that President Hayes would cordially sign a bill to that effec*. It is reported that the democratic mem- bers of Congress have decided that this illiberal'and absurd test oath must be re- pealed at this session, and that they have resolyed to go to the extreme length of tacking it to the most itiportant of the ap- propriation bills, and thereby stopping the payment of all salaries to civil officers if the republican Senators should vote against the repeal, This is going too far. It is (to employ the phrase of an English statesman) an attempt to “‘makethe extreme medicine of the constitution its daily food.” Ordinarily every measure of legislation should pass or be rejected on its merits. It must bea very extreme and a very urgent’ case which can justify the engraiting upon an appropriation bill ofa measure which cannot be curried on its merits, The repeal of the test oath for jurors is not such @ measure. It is certainly a bad law, but not one which works intolerable op- pression. This is proved by the action of the democratic party, which has for four sessions had control of the House, and might at any session of the four have tacked the repeal to the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Appropriation bill. Having volun- tarily submitted to the test oath for four years what special new reason is there for attempting to force its repeal by blocking the wheels of the government? When the new Congress assembles next December this odious test’ oath’ will be re- pealed, of course, and. having been sub- mitted to for four years why may it not be endured for an additional nine months? There must by this time be an abundance of white jurymen in the South who can take the test oath. Boys who were seven years of age at the close of the war are now twenty-one and qualified to serve as jurors. Citizens who were twenty-one. at the close of the war are now thirty-five, and most of them can take the oath. The subject is not of such importance and urgency that the advocates of repeal may not brook a farther delay of nine months, and public opinion would condemn the forcing of an extra ses- sion on so flimsy a ground. On the other hand it may be said with reason that, since the repeal of this test oath at the next session is inevitable, it is not worth the while of the republican Senate to stand out and block the wheels of the gov- ernment for the trivial satisfaction of keep- ing a doomed law in force for so brief a period. It would be a wise and graceful thing for the republicans to consent toa repeal; but, if they do not, it would be un- justifiable for the democrats to compel an extra session on a matter which admits of so early a remedy. Theatrical Sliding Scales. Atheatrical manager takes exceptions to the criticisms of our correspondent ‘Fair Play” in last Sunday’s Hzxaxp, and attempts to justify the policy of varying the prices of admission to a theatre from time to time on the singular plea that the public ought to expect to pay in proportion to the expense incurred by the management. Thus, when a cheap play is produced with a cheap com- pany the popular price of seventy-five cents may prevail, but when a more expensive piece takes its place it is perfectly legitimate to raise the price of admission to a dollar andahalf. It naturally follows that ifa yet more costly performance is presented it is fair to demand three dollars for seats, We thas have a sort of hirmonious sliding scale for managers and audiences, When an entertaiment is poor seventy-five cents or a dollar is quite enough to pay for the infliction of sewing it, As it: improves in character tho price risos with the performance, Tho only difficulty in the arrangement is that proprietors and spec- tators might differ in their appreciation of the value of a piece, and while a sliding scale manager might think an “expensive” entertainnicnt worth the highest rato of ad- mission the audience might consider it dear at the lowest rate. The people generally regard the charge ofa dollar anda half as too high for re. served seats at a theatre, now that war prices are at an end. They would not, however, patronize a poor performance simply because it was cheaper. If our managors desire to meet popular sentiment they can do so by adopting popular prices and endeavoring to make up for the de- creased charge of admission by presenting entertainments attractive enough to fill their houses every night. We can con- ceive of nothing that would be more ruinous to o management than the policy of putting a cheap, indifferent piece on the stage at a low prico of admission for three or four weeks and then supplying a good performance for another three or four weeks at an advanced charge. If one dollar for reserved seats is enough to support a good theatre that price ought to prevail. Many believe that the increased audiences at one dollar would bring as much money, especially to the large houses, as the present prices realize, - who are fond of visiting the theatres would no.doubt go twice at one dollar where they now go once at a dollar and a half. It must not be forgotten, too, that the unjust prac. tice of handing over all the desirable seats in a theatre to ticket speculators and co:m- pelling people to buy of them at an ad- vanced rate really increases the pretended price of admission from thirty-three to one hundred per cent, Consolidating the National Survey Systems. We are pleased to see that the recom. mendation of the National Academy. of Sciences, that the many systems of surveys ing the national domain which are now in operation should be consolidatéd under one direction, has ‘been taken up by Con; gress, and is now embodied in the bill pre- sented by the Honsp Comittee on. Appro- priations, The able addross of Mr, Atkins in yesterday's afternoon session on this im- portant question clearly shows how neves- sary it is to put an end to the usclesa ex, penditure involved in ‘the prosecution of surveys which cannot in the aggregate be said to possess any strictly scientific value, — because they are conducted independent! of each other and not unfrequently go over the same areas. Nothing is better calcue lated to cast suspicion on the accuracy, and; consequently, on the value of such surveys, than the fact that for the same district they differ materially. Besides, it seems to beg useless expense to the nation to go over ground many times for the purpose of se- curing a knowledge of its special details, when all its features could be ascertained and its limits established by one survey. We do not question the skill of the emi. nent gentlemen and their assistants who direct and prosecute these special surveys, but wo are at a loss to understand why it ia necessary that one expensive party should deal only with topography, another with. geology, another with geodetic points and still another with the subdivisions of terri+ tory for the purpose of its distribution among intending settlers, not to mention anything nbout the military surveys -exe- cuted by officers of the army. Besides these internal surveys we have the Coast Suryey; which is conducted with unequalled ability by a special corps of surveyors and hydrographers, Why not, as the bill sub mitted by Mr. Atkins provides, put the di« rection of all these surveys under one responsible head, so that every dollar exe pended will contribute toward the come pletion of a perfect work? Common sense as well as economy demands such a reform, and opposition to it must rest either ona want of appreciation of the public requires ments or on a desire to sacrifice public ine terests to individual yanity or gain. We hope that Mr. Atkins’ recommendations will be adopted’ by Congress, and that the real work of our national surveys will be placed under the direction of the acai’ tendent of the Coast. Survey. ama PERSONAL. INTELLIGENCE, :; Pittsburg papers talk about taxes, ‘Tha Tectoly Free Press wants the ao caren to summon Sitting Bull as a witness. Mr. Irving, who is the rage in London, has an ai controllable restlessness, which serves him well im: Hamiet. The Hon. Mr. De Boucherville has been appointed, to thie Canadian Senate to take the place of the late Hon. Louis Lacoste. There is no.doubt that circuses in this country have almost played out. Not # goat in Tennesses has caten s circus poster for two years, A It is reported at Montreal that C. J. Brydges, late of the Intercolonial Railway, has received an sp- pointment from Mr. Vanderbilt, at Chicago.’ ort Now that Congress is trying to prevent Chinamen from coming into the country we hope it will extere minate the rats that the Chinamen would eat. Of the men who have won honors at Cambridge this (university) year a majority were prepared at amt grammar schools comparatively unknown to aa " Ricard 8. Allen, of the Réveille, Leadville, Colés, is at the St. James Hotel in this city. He is bringing out an illustrated edition of his paper showing the exact condition of the mines and the sspects of bia city. From London Fun:—‘Miss Highlofty—Oh, Mrs. Vavasour, do you not admire Mr. Slyshaft? I think him such a noble feilow; he can take people down 80; just now he made little Miss Greve so uncome fortablo with his chaff. Iam a favorite of his; he never does it to me, and I do like him so.’ ” Tho wife of colored Senstor Bruce has been returns ing calls in Washington this week. Sho wears @& handsome visiting dress with s white hat; but it is said, singularly, we think, by the Washington Star, that she keeps hor white veil over her face. The lady is beautiful; so why make this suggestion ? Professor Charcot at Paris finds that the light has the effect upon very nervous people of throwing them into a mesmeric state, which the Pros fessor calls lethargy. They respond to the gestures. of the Professor by imitating them. Dr. Darenberg, in the Journal des Débats, calls it “the phenomenon of suggestion.” Let's turn the electric light upon Pele ton. In Mercurius’ Astrological Almanac for 1878, under the head of “January,” was this prophecy:— “Victor Emmanucl’s nativity is affected. Let him beware.” He died in that month. Under “Deceme ber” it said:—“Saturn’s transite are evil for the Princess Alico of Hosse. Illness or death in the: family." Her two children died in that month. The book was printed in the year before. In ordinary winter weather in Paris the services o® 2,500 publicly paid street sweepers aro employed, with 2,000 auxilary hands at half wages. In very bed weather 7,000 sweepers, besides inspectors and chiefa, are ready at a moment's notice to ply their in all the streots of the city. They begin at threo the morning and end at four in the afternoon, Some times, however, they work for twenty hours, Thackeray loved our people, but he onco—that wag, many years ago—wrote to a friend on this side of the water that he was always sorry when he saw a group of Americans at a European watering place cating vulgarly at table. Apropos, wo learn that a promi- nent first class restaurant down town is about to provide @ separate little room, with counter and tables, for gentlemen who do not wish to hear mom make noises with their mouths whén they eat, Gene tlemen will please leave their names with tho clerk. Ashland (Ky.) Review :—“Ot prominent Cincinnatt newspaper men Murat Halstead, of the Commercial, is: the handsomost and the ablost; Deacon Smith, of the Gasette, tho crookodest in the legs and the straightest in the morals; Colonel A. C. Sands, of the Times, the biggest around the middle and the shrowdest; Johnny McLean, of the Enquirer, tho sharpest nosed for news and the quickest to get it, and A. Minoe Griswold, of the Saturday Night, the funniest and the surest on telling what's in bottle from the smell of the cork.” The St. Stanisiaus novitiate near Floriasant, Mo., bas forty students under the Jesuit fathers, hoy must, says the Boston Pilot, have & college edu cation, and spend four years in s rigorous training to show them that they are to have no easy life, meanwhile studying hard, Then they go to Wood. stock Golleve, near Baltimore, where they spend three years in studying philosophy and give foir “more to theology, About one hundred and twenty ‘attend at Woodstock. Fow ‘are thirty. There are st through before they about one taking the entire season through. Persons | Jesuits in the United tates aud Canada,