The New York herald. [volume], December 15, 1874, Page 6, Image 6

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NEW YORK IIERALD
IJOAOWAT A-*D AMM STREET.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT.
PROPRIETOR.
THE DAILY IIERALD, published every
tfay in the year. Four cents per copy. An
nnal bubucription price $12.
NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.?On and
after January 1, 1875, the daily and weekly
editions of the New Yob* Herald will be
sent free of postage.
All business or news letters and t^egraphio
despatches must be addressed New Yobs
Hr.TUT.i).
Rejected communications will not be re
turned.
Letters and packages should be properly
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LONDON OFFICE OF TIIE NEW YORK
EERAIiD?NO. 46 FLEET STREET.
Subscriptions And Advertisements will be
ttcoived and lotwarded on the same terms
es in New York.
Volume XXXIX No. 840
AMCSEBEST8 TO-NIGHT.
THEATRE COMIQUE,
?o.^514 Broadway.?VARIETY. at 8f. M.; closes at 10 30
BOOTH'S THEATRE.
corner of Twenty third street and Mxth avenue.?'THE
HERO OP THK"HOUR, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:0/P. M.
Mr. Henri Stuart,
ROMAN HIPPODROME,
Twentr-sixth street and Pourth avenue.?FETE AT
PtKIN, aiternoou and eveniun, at 2 and S.
WALLACE'S THEATRE
IE BHAUOH1 "
lo :40 P. M. Mr. Boucicault
Broadway.?THEkhaUghkaun. at 8 P. M. t closes at
TERRACE GARDEN THEATRE.
Fifty-eighth street and Lexington avenue.?VARIETY,
at 9 P. M.; closes at 10 30 P. M.
FIFTH AVENUE THEATRE,
Twertyelehtli street and Broadway.?SHE STOOPS TO
? ONQl'ER, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 JO P. M. Mm Fanny
Javeuport.
BRYANT'S OPERA HOUSE.
v.'est Twenty-third street, near Sixth avenue.?NEORO
MINSTREL Y, 4c.. at S P. M.; closes at 10 P.M. Dan
I ryant
BROOKLYN THEATRE,
Washinsrtofi street?JANE EYRE, at 8 P. M. Miss Char
lotte Thompson.
SAN FRANCISCO MINSTRELS,
Proadway, corner of Twenty-ninth street?NEORO
MINSTRELSY, at 8 P. M.: closes at la P. M.
ROBINSON HALL,
Sixteenth street.?BEUUNB DULL CARE. Mr. Mac
cahe.
GLOBE THEATRE,
Broadway.?VARIETY, at 8 P M.; closes At 10 JO P.M.
LYCEUM THEATRE.
Tonrteenth street and Sixth avenue.?CHILPERIC, at 8
P. M., closes at 10:15 P. M. Miss Emily soldeue.
NEW PARK THEATRE.
Fnlton street, Brooklyn.?'THE ORPHANS. R. M. Car
roll and Sous.
OERMANIA THEATRE,
Fourteenth street.?ULTIMO, at 8 P. M.
WOOD'S MUSEUM,
Broadway, corner Thirtieth street.?OLIVER TWIST,
at I P. M. QUITS, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45 P. M. J. H.
Iinsoa.
METROPOLITAN THEATRE,
No 585 Broadway.?VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10 JO
P . M.
OLYMPIC THEATRE,
No. S24 Broadway.?VARIETY, at 8 P. M.; closes at 10:45
P. M.
ORAND OPERA HOUSE,
Twenty third street and highth avenue.?THE BLACE
CE.OOK. at 8 P. M. .closes at 11 P. M.
PARK THBaTRB.
Broadway, between Twenty-flr?i ana Twenty-?econd
street*.?GILDED AGE, at* P. M.; closes at 10*: JO 1'. M.
Mr. John f. Raymond.
COOP2R INSTITCTE.
SLAVE CABIN CONCERTS. The Tennesseeans.
NhW YORK STADT THEATRE,
Bowery ?D URC H UfcG ANGE.NE WE I BE R, at 8 P.M.;
Closes at 10 JO P. M. Miss Lina May r
TRIPLE SHEET.
N?w York., Tueaday, Dec. IS, 187*.
From our reports this morning the probabilities
are that the weather to^lay will be clear and very
cold.
Wall Street Yestebday.?The stock mar
ket was without feature other than an un
settled feeling. Gold advanced to lllf.
Money was a shade more active.
The RspoBTof the Commissioners in charge
of the Freedmen's Savings Bank shows that
the depositors are not likely to realize much
from its ruins. We give the melancholy docu
ment elsewhere.
The Wbece of the cable steamer La Plata,
with the loss of sixty lives, was attended by
exciting scenes and acts of heroic courage,
and we supplement the despatches already
published by a lull account by mail of the
thrilling events.
The Senate Yestebday considered a large
number of subjects, including the grasshop
per plague, the rights of colored citizens in
public schools and the Union Pacific Bail
road; but its principal action was the appoint
ment of a committee to provide for the enter
tainment of the King of the Hawaiian Islands.
In the House there was a bharp debate upon
Pacific Hail and on the Vicksburg affair, and a
committee to investigate the latter was ap
pointed. A great many new bills were intro
duced in both houses.
The Von Arnim Tbial.?The testimony in
the Von Arnim case was closed yesterday and
the arguments of counsel began. The prose
cution insisted that the Count had abstracted
State documents to be used against Prince
Bismarck, while his counsel declared that he
had acted simply for the defence of his own
honor. Great indignation was felt in Paris
because of papers read in the trial which
showed that Bismarck had declared it his pur
pose to keep France weak for the benefit of
Prussia.
Iwsuboent Successes in Cuba.?If the newg
which comes to us from Havana be correct the
Cuban insurrection has taken a step forward
most threatening to Spanish power. For many
years the Spanish authorities have felt that
iheir only hope of crushing the patriots lay in
confining them within a narrow territory.
With this object extensive fortifications were
built across the whole island. The patriots
hare now succeeded in forcing this line. As
it is their intention to apply the torch to the
plantations of the Western Department and
invoke a servile insurrection a complete
parolyzation of business may be looked for.
By destroying the material resources of the
country the patriots hope to render it impos
sible for Spain to carry on the war. The
remedy is a heroic one and tinged with bar
barism ; but those who stand by and see a
weak people slaughtered in cold blood have
no right to complain on the score of hu
manity
The 1 rouble* la thi Southern States?
Wutjr of COB(r?H.
It it> for many reasons desirable that Con
gress should act on the recommendation of
the President, repeated from last year in his
annual Message, and relieve him from his un
pleasant responsibility. With the single ex
ception of the Louisiana case, in wbich the
first steps of General Grant were precipitate
and ill-advised, he has evinced praiseworthy
caution and proper reluctance in interposing
officially in the domestic politics of the South.
When the application came from Texas he
refused to interfere, and the result vindicates
his wisdom, no State in the Union having
been more quiet and orderly than Texas since
his refusal. In the Arkansas excitement, last
spring, he stood aloof as long as he could,
and when he did act his recognition of Bax
ter was so fit that it silenced adverse criti
| cisrn in every quarter. Had it not been for
the New Orleans imtvXt under Penn in
?September, which compelled a fre.?h
interference in Louisiana, the President
would have effaced the censure which
fell upon him for abetting the Kellogg
usurpation. But it was impossible for him to
have acted otherwise than he did in Septem
ber, although if he had beon at liberty to
abandon Kellogg at that stage Louisiana
would have been thenceforward a quiet and
l orderly State. It is unfortunate that Con
gress did not intervene last winter to save the
President from the necessity of going on in
the path he mistakenly marked out for him
self when he made Kellogg Governor.
It is to be hoped that Congress will now come
to the President's relief and accept the responsi
bility which belongs to that body in all similar
cates. Were it not for the new complication
in Louisiana, which may require immediate
action, this whole class of questions might
: safely await the action of Congress. Arkansas
I has a government which is, unquestionably,
i supported by a large majority of the citizens,
| and nobody can doubt that the tranquillity
, of the State will be maintained by the
I easy method of leaving it to itself.
Iu the more recent Mississippi case
I it is not probable that an application
1 will be made to the President, the action
of Governor Ames and the Warren county
negroes being too utterly indefensible to in
vite official investigation and exposure. Not
withstanding the ominous state of things in
New Orleans we trust that the action of the
Returning Board may lead to no disturbance
o 1 the peaoe, and that nothing may occur
requiring the President's intervention until
Congress shall have had time to investigate
the subject and define his duties.
All the action of the President in cases of
this kind is based upon an old law passed in
the last century, by a Congress which had no
foresight ot the kind of difficulties which have
arisen since the civil war. Nothing is more
certain than that the law of 1795 did not con
template a decision by the President between
contesting candidates for State offices where
the only point in controversy is which of two
competitors was legally elected. Congress
ought to amend the law and-adapt it to fhig
class of cases, which never arose until within the
last two years, but have since become so com
mon. The wisest law that could be passed
would be one forbidding any interference of
the President with the result of an election and
requiring him to support the offloers whom an
uninfluenced Board of Canvassers declared
elected until Congress could make inquiries,
and reverse the action of the State canvass
ers if it found reasons to justify interven
tion for that purpose. Had such a law been
in force two years ago this scandalous Louisi
ana broil would not have arisen. No well in
formed man doubts that if the President had
been compelled by law to keep aloof two years
ago, pending the aotion of the Returning
Board in Louisiana, McEnery would have
been declared elected and that order and
tranquillity would have been maintained in
the State during these years of turmoil and
disgrace. There will be no end of such
troubles if a partisan President is left free to
step in before the returns of a State election are
canvassed and cut the Gordian knot by meas
ures for installing the candidate supported by
j his own party. It is indispensable that Con
gress should define his duties in a matter eo
delicate and so nearly touching the vital prin
ciple of free institutions. The President
should be permitted to have nothing to do
with declaring the result of a State election.
This should be left entirely to State officers,
acting under State laws, and it should be
made the duty of the President to provision
ally support their declaration, whatever it
may be, and, if he doubts the validity of a
State election as declared by the State can
vassers, to submit the question to Congress,
maintaining the officers returned as elected
until Congress shall have acted on the ques
tion. Had such a law been in existence two
years ago President Grant would have escaped
all the embarrassment, the South all the con
fusion and the republican party all the scandal
which started with the aid given to Kellogg's
usurpation.
It is evident from President Grant's recent
Message that a more precise law on sub
jects of this class would have rendered
his duties easy and have saved him from
much embarrassment After his intervention
in favor of Kellogg he had doubts and mis
givings as to the propriety of what he had
done, and he has since repeatedly referred
the question to Congress, asking it to relieve
him from a responsibility which he does not
covet He feels that the present law leaves
too much to his discretion, as is evident in his
repeatedly asking Congress to review his ac
tion in the Louisiana case, and to put him on
sure ground by either indorsing his course or
prescribing a different one. President Grant
himself does not believe that Kellogg was
legally elected and legally declared Governor.
He seems, in his last Message, to indorse
Senator Carpenter's opinion that neither
Kellogg nor McEnery is legally entitled to the
office, and says that he supported Kellogg
because be believed, on other gronnds than
the election returns, that Kellogg had a ma
jority of the votes. Considering that the
election returns are the only admissible
evidence i? such cases this admission
of the President is sufficiently remarkable.
That we may do him no injustice we insert
his language "I have heretofore called the
attention of Congress to this subject stating
that on account of the frauds and forgeries
committed at said election, and because it ap
pears that the returns thereof were never le
naqoaaiHe to
thereby who were legally chosen. Bat, from
the best sources of information at my com
mand, I have always believed that the present
State officers received a majority of the legal
votes actually oast at that election." The
frankness of this declaration and its freedom
from chicaning sophistry give it a claim to
respect; bat the confession of the Presi
dent that hs decided who was Governor of
Louisiana on different grounds from the elec
tion returns is very noteworthy. The official
returns are the only legal evidenoe in any
such case. Attempts to deoide who was
elected on any other data are mere conjecture
and guess work. The President ought to be
not merely relieved by law, but to be pre
cluded by law, from usurping the duties of a
State board of canvassers and assuming an
authority which they do not possess of de
claring the result without reference to the re
tarns. He should be strictly forbidden to
interfere, directly or indireotly, with the can
vassing of the returns, and bound by strict
statute to recognize the State officers whom
the Canvassing Board declares elected until
Congress can review the question. Had such
a law been in foroe in 1872 the McEnery gov
ernment would have been peaceably installed
and Congress would never have interfered to
disturb it All these troubles have grown out
of the necessity the President was under to
act under statutes passed without reference to
this class of cases and whioh ought to be
rendered obsolete by new and timely laws,
adapted to the present circumstanoes of the
country.
The Revelation* in the Rom Cme.
A man whose word is worthless daring life
is often believed in death, and thus the dying
confession of one of the burglars shot at Bay
Bidge, L. L, yesterday morning, that he and
his comrade were the kidnappers of Charley
Boss, is generally accepted as truth. He had
no motive for lying ; he was dangerously
wounded and knew that he must die. This
man, Douglas, desired that the little money in
his possession should be applied to procuring
him a decent funeral, and said that his dead
companion had stolen the boy and that he
was his assistant in the deed. It is strange
how the punishment of one crime leads to the
detection of another, and there is reason to
hope that the tragic death of these daring men
may result in the restoration of Charley Boss
to his parents.
Unless Douglas, in the moment of death,
added an unmeaning and wanton falsehood to
his other sins, there is no cause to doubt that
he and Mosher were the abductors of the child
for whom, during five months, unavailing
search has been made. The police authorities
now state that they had suspected these men,
and had been in search for them; and that
this is not merely an idle boast is shown by
our full report of the facts to-day. The Su
perintendent of the New York polioe is said
to have supposed Mosher and Douglas to be
tbe kidnappers from the description given of
them. There is, therefore, good reason, be
sides the confession of the dying man, to be
lieve that tbe perpetrators of the crime have
been discovered, and the recovery of the child
onght to be the consequence.
The motive for further concealment is de
stroyed by the death of the principals. The
storm of indignation which followed the kid
napping was wholly unexpected by these men,
and they became afraid of the consequences
of their own deed. They did not dare to
surrender the child. But some person must
have been in the confidence of Mosher, and
as he is beyond all human power to harm,
and as nothing now is to be gained by the
retention of the boy, nothing risked by his
restoration, it is probable that person will
soon appear. The police have a clew now
which they can hardly lose, and, un
less Charley Boss has been killed,
which there is every reason to doubt,
he is likely to be soon restored to
his family. Thus a happy ending may be
hoped for a domestic tragedy which has
thrilled every home in America and has be
come, by its mysterious and exceptional nature,
almost a national sorrow. If it were a
romance it would not be believed, and as a
true story it Btands almost alone in the crimi
nal annals of our day.
How to Clean the Streets.
In Paris the streets and their contents are
evidently contemplated in a very different
light from that in which they appear to the
eyes of our municipal authorities. Here the
great problem is how to get somebody who
will clean them for the least sum, though this
"least" sum is a very large one?indeed, con
sidering the service, a fabulous figure. In
Paris the problem is who shall have the privi
lege of cleaning the streets and who will pay
the most for it. With us dirty streets seem
the one intolerable and unmanageable burden
of life. In Paris the streets are contemplated
as a sort of mine, the property of the author
ities, and the right to work this perpetual
mine as a valuable franchise that competing
capitalists bid for. Contractors purchase the
mud of the Paris streets, and the present con
tractors pay for it $120,000 per annum.
The terms of the purchase are that the con
tractors shall sweep up the filth and carry it
away, and that the men whom they pay to
perform this service shall be under the orders
of the city authorities. Manufactured into
fertilizers tbe material thus bought for
$120,000 is sold for $600,000. And we pay
enormous sums every year to have our mine
cleaned out and its product carried away as
rubbish.
We Abb Occasionally in receipt of letters
from advertisers, who complain that they are
charged by agents for advertising in the
Hebald more than our regular rates. One
correspondent tells us that he paid a certain
sum for an advertisement at our office, and
upon giving one precisely similar to an
agent he was charged about ten per cent
more. He asks us to "let him know if this
way of charging is correct" To tbte we
answer that the HiBitj) has only one price,
that it has no outride agents and allows no
commissions to those in tbe agency business.
We have our regular offices, No. 1,266 Broad
way, No. 530 Sixth avenue, Third avenue and
124th street, and in Brooklyn, comer of
Boerum street and Fulton avenue. Our
friends will find the advertising rates tbe
same at all of these offices. If they choose
to pay an additional commission to "agents"
we shall feel sorry, but we cannot help it
It is a matter over which we have do control.
The way to avoid complaints is to deal with
jj>ur vwu iiirectU*
Th* PmIAs Hall UtmiH""?"
The investigation of the bribery suspected
to have been practised by this company in
procuring the annual subsidy of five hundred
thousand dollars in 1872 is expected to pro
ceed before the Committee on Ways and Means
to-day by the examination of Richard B.
Irwin, the most important witness and the
supposed agent of the company in placing
j money where it wonld "do most good. Pub
lic expectation is active in relation to Mr.
Irwin's disclosures in consequence of the ex
traordinary means that have been thought
necessary for securing his attendance. When
the first g06pcena was issued to him last week
he could not be found, and it was feared that
he intended to slip away to Europe on one of
the steamers whioh sailed on Saturday. The
Sergoant-al-Arms of the House was accord
ingly ordered to proceed to Now York,
arrest Irwin fot contempt and bring
! him to Washington. The arrest was
made at the Hoffman House on Saturday,
and Irwin, who was suffering or feigning ill
ness, was kept under guard by Sargeant-at
Arms Ordway and his assistant until yester
day morning, when they set out with Irwin
for Washington, where ho is expccted to tes
tify to-day.
It appears from the testimony of Mr. Hatch
before the committee, on Saturday, that tho
records of the company show that checks
amounting to seven hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars were drawn to the order of
Irwin in May, 1872, when the Pacific Mail
subsidy was pendiug in Congress. Mr. Hatch
swears that he has no knowledge of the
purpose for which those checks were given or
of *he uses to which the money was applied.
Irwin, o course, knows, but he may not
be able to tell without criminating himself,
and may prefer imprisonment for contempt in
refusing to answer to the penalties to which
a full statement of the truth might expose
him. The company fell under suspicion soon
atter the subsidy was obtained, and at the
next session an investigation was moved by
Mr. Randal! and ordered by the House. It
had proceeded but a little way when the
Forty-second Congress expired, and the tes
timony was sealed up for the Forty-third Con
gross, which was so engrossed by the cur
rency debates last winter that it did not re
new the investigation. The recent trouble in
the affairs of tho company recalled attention
to the subject, and an investigation was
promptly ordered at the beginning of this
session.
The recent letter of Mr. John Roach, de
fending and lauding the company, has no
real bearing on the subject of this investi
gation. Mr. Roach is probably under
a bias in favor of a company which
is his best customer, as he is the builder
of its new ships ; but no one doubts that he
states his honest opinion of the merits
of the company. Nobody suspects him
of using improper influences with members
of Congress, and it is not likely that Irwin
and his employers made Mr. Roach a confi
dant in their lobbying schemes for getting the
subsidy. The advantages to commerce and the
shipbuilding interest which he sets forth are
irrelevant to the question of bribery which
the Committee on Ways and Means has under
taken to investigate. But if the bribery
should be proved by valid evidence the sub
sidy would doubtless be withdrawn, which
would ruin the company and extinguish the
hopes of all the applicants for Congressional
aid at this session. The keenest interest will
therefore be felt in the testimony of Irwin, to
be taken to-day.
This ugly crisis in the affairs of the com
pany affords a fresh demonstration of the im
prudence of President Grant in accepting
its invitation last summer to the expen
sive and ostentatious trial trip of the 1
City of Peking. The arraignment of
the company for bribing its subsidy
through Congress reflects an unpleasant
light on the great excursion, in which the
President allowed himself to be paraded as
the chief recipient of its profuse hospitality.
If the charges now under investigation are
true the purpose of those prodigal attentions
to the President and other officers of the gov
ernment must have been to make friends in
high quarters and lay up a store of official
good will to Bhield the past from exposure
and facilitate future raids on the Treasury.
That flaunting and expensive pleasure trip
was made at the expense of the taxpayers of
the United States. It did not become a beg
ging company to spend the people's money in
junketing magnificence, and it became the
President still less to give them his counte
nance and accept their scheming courtesies.
We trust he will learn sufficient caution from
what is now transpiring to save him from
falling again into such thoughtless impro
prieties.
Mr. Foriter'i IptMh.
America is a candid country, the more so,
perhaps, because it finds concealment impos
sible. We cannot bide oar faults as a nation,
nor the imperfections of our government
Credit Mobilier frauds, back-pay grabs, rail
road swindles, misrule at the capital and
usurpation and chaos at the South, are things
wbich cannot be put away from the sight of
other countries. We make a virtue of this
necessity and invite the criticism we can
not help. But we are fortunate and glad
when the critio is at once so friendly and
so capable as the distinguished Englishman
whom the Union League Club of this city
entertained last evening. The Hon. W. E.
Forster is one of the few publio men in
England who, during the late war, professed
faith in the stability of the Union and
defended the policy of our government
While he no doubt perceives many things in
our institutions which are to be regretted, he
certainly has always sympathized with
their spirit and recognised their value.
The welcome of this true friend of
the United States has, therefore, been every
where enthusiastic, and that his prolonged
toor through the country has been a
pleasant one we have his own assur
ance. In his speech at the Union
League Club last night he said that
he had not heard one mention of his native
country that an Englishman would not like to
hear, and as we are a candid people he may
take this as a strong proof of good will. His
speech is manly and thoughtful, and its con
cluding words respecting the duty of English
speaking nations to proteot their liberties by
eaeh preserving its own are those ef true
1 uuteama&ahio and wisdoufc
Unci* Dick IB Co??r?M.
A careful correspondent informs us that
Uncle Dick announces his purpose to
vote for every railroad subsidy bill which
is brought into Congress. He thinks the
country ought to be restored to "a pros- i
perons condition." that "capital should be
able to employ labor," and that it would be
"a good thing to expend eight hundred
million dollars." When the Heiuld nomi
nated and supported Uncle Diok for Con
gress it was upon the express idea that e
would represent the largest ideas of legisla
tion, that he would be the Colonel Mulberry
Sellers of Representatives, that he would lead
Congressmen from the barren pastures of j
economy into the high, bracing atmosphere |
of "publio improvement,'' "AmericaQ iudu^- j
try" and "development of the country.
For Uncle Dick, like Napoleon as described i
bv Lamartine, has a mind "every thought
of which is an empire." We are not betray
ing any confidence when we say that ilia cam
paign that will open in the beginning of the
year under the command of Uncle Dick will
be the most remarkable ever known in the
annals of legislation. His campaign will
embrace the most comprehensive system
of "public improvement" ever known. As we
have no money now, and as money ifl an
essential element in the campaigns of even
as great a captain as Uncle Dick, we shall
begin by purchasing one hundred new print
ing presses and setting them to "making
money." After we have printed several thou
sand millions of beautifully engraved "cur
rency" the work of "encouraging Ameri
can industry" will begin. First comes the
Alaska, Honduras and Patagonian Rail- j
way, with Brazil and Peru extensions. Then
comes the Alleghany, Rocky Mountains and
Sierra Nevada Canal Company, which is
to connect San Francisco and New York by a
direct water route. Then comes the annexa
tion of Mexico and Cuba and South America,
which is to be accomplished by diplomacy,
the beginning of which will be a
vote of one hundred millions dollars
to the secret service fund, in order
that the Secretary of State may bribe the
Pope and the whole Order of Jesuits. Then
we will have war with England, for the pur
pose of encouraging our shipping industry
and the bunting manufacture and our gun
trade, and to colleot the balance of
our indirect Alabama claims, amounting,
in round numbers, to three thousand
million dollars. The effect of this war, it is
reasonable to suppose, will be the annexa
tion of Ireland, India and the Pacific Islands,
and the election of General Grant as Presi
dent for a third term.
Uncle Dick is not alone in this campaign.
As Napoleon had his marshals?his Murat, his
Ney, his Massena, his Berthier?so Uncle
Dick has his gifted lieutenants. He has taken
possession of Welcker's famous restaurant.
That distinguished host has put under con
tribution the vineyards of France, the moors
of England, the trout streams of the Adiron
dacks and the oyster beds of the East River.
The finest brands of Chateau Margaux, Cham
bertin, Sauterne and Pommery, with rare and
exquisite cordials, whose golden glow repre
sents the bottled sunshine of the Rhine val
leys, have been imported for the feasts.
Colonel Mulberry Sellers will be detained
by New York engagements from visiting
Washington until after N$w Year's. He
will be there shortly after the holidays,
acoompanied by his secretary and manager,
Hon. William Stuart. Those who know Uncle
Dick and Colonel Sellers and Mr. Stuart?
and who does not know them ??will understand
the wit, the flow of soul, the merriment, the
classic taste, the remembrances of high society,
that await the present Congress, while the
house formerly occupied by the British Lega
tion has been taken by a distinguished New
York statesman and banker, who will not
play an obscure part in this canvass.
"We congratulate our statesmen upon their
winter opportunities. Napoleon's Hundred
Days form a memorable epoch in the history of
France; Uncle Dick's Hundred Days will
form a memorable epoch in the history
of American legislation. But the parallel
will end here; for Napoleon found a
Waterloo?Uncle Dick will find an Auster
litz. In this canvass there will be no
distinction of race, politics, reputation or
color. Uncle Dick is too muchof a statesman
to despise the swarthy Carolinian, only fresh
from the chains of slavery, or the needy
carpet-bagger, who has spent the procoeds of
bis last cadetship and is anxious about his
hotel bilL All will be welcome to these fes
tivities. Unless fate, which controls the
destinies of the greatest men?Cwsar, Hanni
bal, Napoleon, and even Uncle Dick?should
fall cruelly upon these noble designs, the
Forty-third Congress will end its career by
giving to the country a series of schemes for
"the development of American industry,
for "the protection of labor," "the revival of
business" and -the general prosperity of the
masses" that will excite the astonishment, if
not the admiration, of mankind.
Railroad Law la Europe.
With oar extensive territory and one lan
guage and generally one law on all the ordi
nary points ol human diffionlty we are scarcely
able to comprehend the troubles that beset
mortality in Europe, where one railroad jour
ney may carry the traveller in a day or two
through three or four nations of dif
ferent language, different law and dif
ferent views of life generally. Difficult
as it often is with us to locate responsi
bility and secure redress for injuries, we are
at least relieved from the very great embar
rassment in such pursuit that one always
dads on the frontier of a foreign country. It
is, therefore, rather with benevolent curiosity
than with personal interest that we may con
template the endeavors of society in Europe
to secure the international recognition of
some definite general principles for the satis
faction of grievances against railway com
panies. Suppose a manufacturer of fancy
articles in Paris fills an order for goods to be
I delivered in Prague. He ships his case at
i^aris by a French company. At the frontier
it goes into the hands of a Prussian company,
which passes it on to the Nassau or the
Hessian company; and that, in turn, gives
it to the Bavarian company, which gives it to
the Austrian company, which, perhaps, passes
it on to Prague. But it may get to Prague
badly damaged, or it may not get there at all.
In either case who is responsible ? This is
. weoiaelv what &h*T Want to know* V JfOU
and the company that deli vera a damaged
package it proves that it received the package
in a damaged state. Yon sue the next with a
similar result, and the next, till you get to the
first of the series, and that company perhaps
proves that the package left its bauds in per
fect condition. With six suits determined
against him a man is very apt to be sorry
that he ever owned a package. It is to deter
mine a whole category of difficulties of this
nature that an international railroad con
gress is called for to consider the propriety of
establishing some rules and usages on the
basis of common consent One of the rules
proposed is that the company which delivers
shall be responsible and shall have its remedy
against any other company, as it is supposed
that this will secure discrimination as to the
condition of goods received. In the case of
the absolute loss of goods the company whioh
first received them will perhaps be held
accountable.
. ** * 4"*
The Louisiana. Troubles.?'The situation
in New Orleans has not been materially
changed by the events of yesterday. The Re
turning Board met and proceeded to transact
business by investigating certain charges of
fraud; but before any progress had been made
the presiding officer, Governor Wells, re
ceived information that the White Leaguers
were in the vicinity and contemplated an at
taok. Upon the ground that he could not
proceed with the canvass under the threat of
violence, and that he did not wish to appeal
to the United States troops for protection,
Governor Wells compelled the Board to ad
journ till eleven o'clock to-day. Nothing
has therefore been done by either party, but
the excitement is undiminished, and the dan
ger of trouble is not removed. The Board
of Returns is evidently afraid to act, and the
White Leaguers watch it closely. If any
overt act of violence is committed the United
States military foroe is sure to interfere, and
such a necessity will be universally depreoated.
Louisiana can win no good by revolution, and
one blow may make her condition more des
perate.
PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE.
Fortuny died of ttio Roman fever after an illaeM
of eight days.
Professor Mark Bailey, of New Haven, is staying
at the Irving House.
Governor Henry Howard, of Rhode Island, is at
tne Fifth Avenue Hotel.
Hobart Pasna, tne Turkish Admiral, resumes his
rank as Captain in the English navy.
Commander 8. L. Breese, United States Navy
has quarters at the Fifth Avenue HoteL
Paymaster Israel O. Dewey, United states Army,
Is quartered at the Metropolitan HoteL
Governor Charles R. Iugersoll, of Connectionr,
arrived last evening at the Albemarle Hotel.
Rev. Dr. W. 0. Cattell, President or Lafayette
College, is residing at the St. Nicholas Hotel.
Ex-Governor Theodore F. Randolph, or New
Jersey, has apartments at tbe New York HoteL
Congressman-elect N. Holmes Odeli, or Tarry
town, N. Y? has arrived at the St. James HoteL
Seflor Don J. J. Emparanza, Spanish Consul at
Key West, is sojourning at the Firth Avenua
Hotel.
In meditating In a critical occasion a man says
to himself, "What shall l do?" a woman, "What
shall I wear?"
Mr. Allan Rntherford, Third Auditor of the Treas
ury, arrived from Washington yesterday at the
Metropolitan HoteL
Mr. James Tlllinghast, Superintendent or the
New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, is
at the Windsor HoteL
Mr. E. A. de Pass, President or the Windsor and
Annapolis Railway, or Nova Scotia, is registered at
the Union Square HoteL
Ex-Governor J. B. Page, or Vermont, arrived In
this city yesterday and took up his residence la
tbe bt. Nicholas HoteL
State senator William B. Woodln, or Anbnrn,
and Assemblyman Thomas G. Alvord, or Syracuse,
are at the Metropolitan Hotel.
Tbe death of General H. H. Heath at Lima. Pern,
on tbe l4tn ult.T is much regretted. He for soma
time edited tbe first English paper published at
Callao.
Parties, says tbe cynic or the Vte Parlslenne, are
like women; they appreciate our fidelity to them,
but they rejoice over our infidelities to another la
their ravor.
Judge Theodore Miller, or Hudson, N.Y., who waa
landed by tbe recent political tidal wave on the
bench of the court or tbe Appeals, is stopping at
the Metropolitan HoteL
11 you can prove that a man has Injured yon, but
cannot prove tbe date on which ue did it, you can
not have a remedy. Sncb seems to be the point
of law Involved in that order lor a bill of particu
lars.
Tbe government or Ecuador has ordered the Ar
rest of the editor or the Nueva Era or Guayaquil
for speaking offensively of the President of the
Republic and expressing an opinion adverse to
his re-election.
In tbe commune or Givors, department or the
Rhone, France, there are 2,714 voters, and at a re
cent election there was only one vote cast. Indif
ference to tbe nominal right of self-government
can no further go.
The Emperor or Russia Is the greatest or human
potentates, measured by the thermometer. At
Sebastopol, November 17, It was twenty degreea
warmer, and at Archangel tbe same day twenty
degrees colder, than the ireestng point.
As the strict application or the Russian law to
tbe Mennonltes would drive out of the country aa
industrious population of 40,000 persons, it is be
lieved that the Ministry will accord to this sect
complete exemption from military service.
Our wild Indians allege that one or their grler
ances is the "unjust discrimination" against then
on the matter of railroad tariff, with the Indiaa
arguing tor bis rights on the rail, it almost seem*
as If we could see daylight through the Indiaa
problem.
Russia comes rorward in the light of the Sultan'a
friend. His dignity in the matter or the treatiea
of Western Powers with tne Danublan principali
ties has been saved oy the czar, it is a bad ease
10r the sick man when his best friend is in St.
Petersburg.
Four brothers in Holland are aged respectively
88, 85, 83 and 81. The first two were In tbe grand
army la Russia. The third was enrolled as an im
perial soldier, bnt did not leave France, and the
leurth was in the Dutcn army. They are all la
vigorous health.
In despair a French capitalist baa invested all
his money in cosmetics. He saya that national
obligations depend on politics and politics are un
certain, and every recognised security has simi
larly some weak point, but coquetry is human,
flourishes everywhere and may always be counted
upon.
Augustln Cochin one day interviewed a Parle
ragpicker. He said, "What induces you to take
?p this occupation f" "Pride," was the answer
"How pride T" "Yes. I was a carver; but I had
a great ueal to do with my wages, and my com
rades ridiculed my clothes. But I chose new com
panions among the ragpickers, who do not lauga
at me, and i am happy in my tatters."
Captain Lahore, of the Belgian General Staff, baa
got into not water by hia book or tbe Servtot
a 'Stat Major. He recently roaght one of Sis critics,
alio an officer of the staff, in the Utt.e riding
school at Brassels. Tbe dnel was with satires,
and oy the terms every cut or thrust was admis
sible. There was bnt one restriction. Neither
could touch his adversary when disarmed.
Captain crousse, the oritlc, fell in the course oi
the combat, bnt fell wltb his sword in his band.
He was, therefore, at Lahore's mercy, who there
npQQ OMoqgUnjMd tua dual*