The New York herald. [volume], May 17, 1876, Page 6, Image 6

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NEW YORK HERALD
BROADWAY AND ANN STREET.
JAMES GORDON BENNETT,
PROPRIETOR.
AMUSEMENTS TO-NIGHT.
OLYMPIC THEATRE.
IIUMPTT DUMPTV, at 8 P. M
I'AR18Ia.\ VARIETIES,
M 8 P. M. Matinee at 2_P. M. _
TIIIRTY-KOURTH feTREET OPERA HOUSE.
fARJETf. 11.
eblly * lkon's-minstrels.
MIR 1L
Pll-TH avenue theatre.
PIQUE, (t 8 P. 11. Fanuy l>av*nport.
globe tITeatre.
VARIETY, at 8 P. M. ?
WOOD'S MUSEUM.
UNDER THE OALLOWS. at 8 P. M. MaUnet U2P.il
BROOKLYN THEATRE.
PRIDR. ?? 8 P. M. Charlotte Thompson.
SAN r RAN C IsToTm INSTREL8,
kt * r. M.
THEATRE CO MI QUE.
variety, at 8 P. M.
CENTRAL PARK GAKDKN.
ORCHESTRA. QLAKTET AND CHORUS, at 8 P. M.
OILMOEE'S-GARDEN.
GRAND CONCERT, at 8 P. M. Offenbach.
WALLACE'S THEATRE.
1IOW SHE LOVES IIIM. at 8 P M. l.cttf r Wallaek.
TONY P vSTOR'S ISEW THEATRE
VARIETY, at 8 P M.
UNION SUUABfi THEATR!?.
CONSCIENCE, at 8 P. It. C. R. Thorne, Jr.
EAOLB THEATRB.
vabiety, at 8 P. M.
PARK THEATRE.
BRASS, at 8 P. M. Mr. <2for<tt*
THEATRE FRAKCAI&
MADAME COYEHLBT. HHP. M.
BOWERY THEATER.
BUFP AND BLUK. at 8 P._M.
CHATEAU MAB1LLE VARIETIES,
at 8 P. M. Matin** at 2 P. M.
CIIICEERTNO HALL.
CONCERT, at 8 P. M.
TRIPLE SHEET.
NEW I011K, WEDNESDAY, MAY 17. 1878.
THE DAILY HERALD, piMished every i
day in the year. Four cents per copy.
Twelve dollars per year, or one dollar per
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All business, news letters or telegraphic !
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as in New York.
VOLUME XL1 NO. 138
From our reports this morning the. probabilities
are that the weather to-day will be warmer
and clcar or clearing.
Notice to Country Newsdealers.? For
prompt and regular delivery of the Herald
by fast mail trains orders must be sent direct to
this office. Postage Jree.
Wall Street Yesterday.?The stock
market was one of the dullest of the year.
Prices were generally lower. Depression
was also shown in some of the investment
securities. Gold opened and closed at
112 1-2. Money was supplied on call at
three per cent. Government bonds were
generally firm.
Salonica.?Acting, no doubt, under orders
/rom Washington, Rear Admiral Worden has
Bailed in the Franklin from Nice for Sa
lonica.
The Louisville Backs have very success
fully opened the spring season in Kentucky,
fend the second day was quite as brilliant as
the first The winners were Lisbon, Ten
Broeck and Sallie Gardner.
The Illinois Republican State Conven
tion will be held at Springfield on May 24,
knd our correspondent says that there is no
doubt but that Blaine will be its first choice
for the Presidential poiuination.
Anotheb Explosion of giant powder has
terrified New Jersey and proved again the
danger which attends the manufacture and
the storage of this material. Two men were
killed, and the noise was heard twenty miles
distant from the scene.
The British Government will make no
final decision of the Winslow case till the
answer of the United States to Lord Derby's
despatches is received. These despatches
have jast reached Washington, and some
days will probably pass before the question
of extradition can be settled.
General Auour has been intrusted by the
government with discretionary powers in
complying with any request of the State gov
ernment of Louisiana for the preservation of
order by the United States troops. He can
be trusted, we believe, not to use the mili
tary except in case of extraordinary emer
gency.
The New Jerskt Convention.?The re
cent attacks npon Mr. Blaine have not hurt
him much, if we may judge by the action of
his own pArty. Illinois is expected to in
dorse him as a Presidential candidate, and
the voice of the New Jersey Convention,
which meets in Trenton to-day, it is also be
lieved will bo given in his favor.
The War in Mexico goes on with energy,
tnd it is clear that the fate of Matainoros
will soon be decided. General Escobedo is
within sixty miles of that city, with twenty
five hundred men, well equipped, and the
revolutionists threaten to burn the town if
they are unable to defend it. The valuo of
Escobedo's co-operation with the efforts of
the United States commanders to suppress
disorders on the line of the Ilio Grande de
pends largely on the result of this movement
Massachusetts Business Troubles.?The
failure of a number of manufacturing estab
lishments in the woollon trade in Massachu
setts is an unpleasant piece of news for the
oountry at a timo when we are all looking to
S revival of trade. The tall in the
price of commodities, which is in al
most general progress now, mast pinch
all businesses, as tha decline represents a
loss in valuo when large stocks are held
which will test the solvency of firms against
whom there is not a breath of suspicion of
weakness now. It is also a time in which
keen business talent may reap its reward, as
the story of the late X. T. Stewart ho plainly
shows. In sddition to t ie talent there is
also iModtd the courage to apply it.
if. kBwi'i Coafmac* ??* 1
Schari'i AdireM.
The address, of moderate length, read
yesterday by Mr. 8chnr/ and adopted by his
meeting is not remarkable either for rigor
of thought or force of expression. Had it
appeared unheralded as a leading article in
tho Evtning Pout it would have attracted
little attention, and no other newspaper in
the country would have copied a line of it.
The great number of grandmotherly mid
wives called in to assist at its birth and the
factitious publicity given to the occasion
will probably secure for it an insertion in
most of the public journals of the United
States. Mr. Schurz has a good eye for Btage
effect, and if he had expended as much
intellect on the address as he has industry
in arranging his blaze of calcium lights to
advertise and illuminate it, it might have
had a better chance of impressing the public
mind. Its ideas are just, but not new; and
when the same line of argument is repeated
for tho hundredth time it needs to be
recommended by some novelty of treat
ment to gain attention. We find nothing in
this address but the same old beaten Btory
of the corrupting effect of the spoils system,
which is correctly depicted as wrong, with
out that strength of indignant denunciation
and glow of burning eloquence needed for
kindling public feeling, nor any suggestion
of remedies beyond the impotent one of
refusing to vote for bad candidates. And
yet this rather mediocre address is the sole
fruit and entire outcome of the assembled
wisdom of the Fifth avenue conference.
Such an array of midwives to give Mat to so
small a birth, ridiculous as it is in one
aspect, has, nevertheless, its instructive side.
The instruction it conveys addresses itself
particularly to Mr. Schurz, although it
comes rather late. The necessity he felt he
was under of organizing such a meeting
of notables in order to got attention to his
address is an implied admission that talents
alone, or eloquence alone, does not suffice
for making a deep impression in politics with
out tho adventitious influence of station. A
man who expects to gain the ear of a large
public must speak from a pedestal, and the
natural pedestal for a statesman is high offi
cial position. Mr. Schurz having become a
mere private citizen, and wishing to secure
more attention than would be given to mere
argument and eloquence, sets himself at
work to get np a meeting which may serve as
a substitute for a commanding official station.
But how much more efficient and influential
he might have been if he had not broken
with his party and could speak with all the
authority of one of its foremost leaders! In
stead of obtaining a favorable hearing from a
small body of isolated and unorganized mal
contents ha might have commanded the re
spectful attention of the whole republican
party, a large portion of which would have
been predisposed to listen to him with
candor, if not approbation. As one of
tho recognized leaders of a great
party he might have declared his
hostility to the spoils system with the cer
tainty of receiving an amount of co-opera
tion compared with which the indorsement
of a meeting gotten up by himself is a baga
telle. Mr. Schuiz's frequent changes of
residence have precluded him from gaining
a strong and attached local constituency;
his breach with the republican party de
prives him of supporting connections; he
has accordingly become a political estray, or
what we, in newspaper language, call a
"Bohemian," and this kind of wandering
would be fatal to any public man less gifted
tbun Mr. Schurz. Without a local constitu
ency, without party ties, without a fixed
residence, this accomplished man is like an
oft transplanted tree, whose roots never be
come fixed in the soil, and, as "Poor
llichard" says:?
I never mw an oft removed tree,
Nor yot uu olt removod family,
That throve to well as those that settled be.
This quaint admonition of oar wise Frank
lin is as applicable to political as it is to
domestic life. To say nothing of the dis
repute which attaches to the word "carpet
bagger" as indicative of political vagrancy,
it is a mistake for a public man to desert his
political party, except to co-operate in the
formation of a new one. In politics, as in
war, no man with capacity for a large com
mand should attempt to "fight on his own
hook" and lower himself into a mere cap
tain of skirmishers. Bat what is Mr. Bchurz
bat a political skirmisher, now that he is
outside of parties and courts the vain im
portance of making a figure in what Mr.
Charles Francis Adams yesterday called
"the floating vote of the country ?" In
military life such detached action will do for
small, uneasy spirits who lack capacity to
lead a corps or a division, but an accom
plished soldier knows too well that distinc
tion and importance are to be acquired only
in positions where concert, subor
dination and disciplino must be duly
regardod. The same principle holds true
in politics, for the fundamental idea of
politics is associated action. Political re
sults can be accomplished only by a ma
jority ; but how can there ever be a majority
without concerted action and more or less
surrender of private judgment? Mr. Schurz
is outside the republican party, outside the
democratic party, and proclaims his inten
tion to lead his select body of skirmishers
agaiAet either party if it presumes to go into
the tiNd with a commander-in-chief whom
ho dcck not like. But which of the great
parties i^Jikely to care enough for his squad
of carpet-wight politicians to select its gen
eral- in-chieYwith a view to their snpport?
Mr. Schu\ in his rather tame address
has certainly nit the worst abase of onr in
stitutions; butyl is ?"? abuso too deeply
seated and of Ux^ong duration to b? cared
by the mere selection of a candidate for the'
Presidency. Let uV suppose that the Fifth
avenue conference oould have its wishes,
and that Mr. Bristow Vnill be nominated at
Cincinnati and Mr. Tlhlcn at St Louis.
Is anybody sitnplo eirongh to suppose
i that either of these genffomen would not
give the federal offices to \ii? political sup
porters? Is anybody veruknt enough to
think that Mr. Tilden wonui not tarn out
every republican and pat a Tihum democrat
| in his place, or that Mr. Bristol would not
| see that every office was filled by a Bristow
I republican? No matter who is nominated
a?d who elected, tlio spoils system will be
| upheld until some more radical measure is
\ adopted than a mere change of the Chief
Magistrate. That corrupting system will never
be abolished until men of standing and in
! fluence in both political parties shall at
! tempt to educate their followers into a
; higher morality. This most necessary of all
j reforms will never be carried except by
{ leaders who are so strongly intrenched in the
confidence of their political parties that they
can give distasteful advice without forfeiting
their influence aa leaders. A man like Mr.
Schurz, without party connections, with
out an assured position in the poli
tics of the country, operating as a mere
outsider and skirmisher, supported only
by a small body of clorgymen, col
lege professors and political eunuchs, can
make no impression on the settled practices
of parties. As an eminent republican states
man, enjoying the confidence of other repub
lican leaders, Mr. Schurz might gain co
operation in such a reform, but as a branch
lopped from the political tree and lying
upon the ground he cannot infuse into its
trunk the renovating Bap which might give
a different hue to its foliage. Political par
ties can be educated only by their own
accredited leaders. Sir Robert Peel, though
a tory, carried the repeal of the Corn laws ;
Mr. Disraeli, though a tory, carried the
second Reform bill, but what could either of
them have done if he had occupied an
isolated position like that of Mr. Schurz ?
The great mistake of Mr. Schurz's public life
was his desertion of his political party and
his consequent loss of influence with all
citizens who remain in its ranks.
Do You Bit* Yonr Thmmbi mt Me f
Our operatic enterprises are apparently
sustained on one Bide and the other by re
tainers as earnest and resolute in the cause
of their respective houses as ever were the
supporters of Capulet against Montague ;
and if their swords are not always ready
they at least bite their thumbs at one an
other with a ferocity worthy the greatness of
the quarrel. In the communication Bigned
"Fair Play" we have the defiance, appar
ently, of the Capulets of Mapleson?who
will not "carry coals"?and are disposed to
consider that Mr. Strakosch bit his thumbs
at them in certain phrases of a conversation
recently published in the Hkbald.
If a man may do what ho likes with his
own of coune he may bite his thumbs; but
if he bites them demonstratively and in
public no doubt the action may be made to
convey as much meaning as if he invited a
gentleman to tread on the tail of his coat or
knock a chip off his shoulder. Moreover, if
there is good reason to believe that the action
I is especially intended to be offensive or dis
agreeable to any particular person that per
son acquires the right to call him to account
by every code of honor, though the quarrol
be only upon "the seventh cause." Nay, the
person thus assailed is under obligation to
have it explained who the thumb was bitten
at. He may not only "cavil on the ninth
part of a hair," for that he could do in mere
trade. It is hiB duty
Greatly to Un?l quarrel Id a sbam
y/ hell honor's at the stall*.
Therefore the case is fairly before Montague
Strakosch as presented in the cartel of "Fair
Play," and he may bite his thumbs again
if he means it that way; or if this explosion
of the spirit of the Capulets alarms him he
may explain calmly that he bit his thumbs
without a personal reference. They will then
not directly pursue the case furthor; but we
warn him that they will lose no opportunity
to jump on the top rails of the world and
flap their wings and crow about it. But,
however the gentlemen bite their thumbs or
flourish their steel in this quarrel, wo hope
no harm will come to the ladies. The Capu
lets refer to Belocca in a tone that is not
chivalric, to say no more. If we remomber
the Montagues admitted Titiens' great
achievements and great fame, and even said
that her voice had been too long heard to
leave any doubt of its quality. This hand
some admission is not reciprocated.
The NaiUng Race.
The postponement of the mustang race
yesterday -was a disappointment to many
people who were anxious to see the display
of human endurance and skill. The learn
of unfavorable weather were perhaps not as
influential as the fears of Mr. Henry Bergh
and his officers. 'J'hat extremely benevolent
gentleman, whom no remorse prevents from
writing plays and offering them to managers
for the torture of the public, wns deeply dis
tressed lest the mustangs of the Plains
should be cruelly treated by whip and bit
and spur. For the rider who undertakes to
ride three hundred and Ave miles in fif
teen hours, with the privilege of using
thirty mustangs in that time, we have
not heard that Mr. Bergh expresses
any pity. Yet the rider is likely to have the
hardest expcricnce of all. There is really
no cruelty inflicted on these fiery little
ponies, which enjoy the sport and only re
quire to be under the control of the rider.
To torture them would be to insuro the loss
of the race. But Mr. Bergh's philanthropy
is carried to an excels in which it becomes
unkindness. He would spoil a legitimate
sport simply because he is not acquainted
with its nature. The question is whether
the mustang should be ridden at all; if it
is to be, then the appliances must be used
which experience proves necessary for the
control of the animal and the safety of
the man. We do not wish to appear
malicious, or we would suggest that
Mr. Bergh should demonstrate his theories
by attempting to rido the meekest and mild
est of mustangs with an ordinary saddle and
bit. Don Quixote's charge on Kosinanto
upon the windmills could not have had a
result more unfortunate than that of such
an experiment. But we will not wish the
valorous President of the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals this
calamity, but only hope that if the race takes
place to-morrow, as is announced, he will
have the good sense to remain away, or else
to attend as a spectator only, and admire the
pluek and energy of the ponies and the bold
ness and endurance of the rider.
Ir the Sclt.vn or Zaxzibab has sincerely
agreed to abolish the slave trade, under a
treaty with ?ngland, then the efforts of
Livingstone, Grant and Stanley have been
grandly rewarded. Livingstone gave his
life as ranch to the breaking up of this
trade as he did to the discovery of the head
waters of the Nil*.
j Tit* Rkat-Gan roller la ?>?
I Louisiana seems resolved to destroy tbe
i democratic party. Two years ago, when the
country was on the point of accepting the
Herald's idea of a National Convention of
Peace and Reconstruction, the "White
Knights, or some such gang, overturned the
regular government, compelled General
Grant to issue a warlike proclamation and
revived in an hour the spirit of Sumter. In
an hour all hope of any such convention
faded away. Now, on the eve of a most im
portant eleotion for the Presidency?an elec
tion that will determine the control of the
nation for four and perhaps forty years we
have news of another outbreak in Louisiana.
The results of this we sum up as follows:?
"Eight colored men shot; four hanged;
twenty wounded ; no whites killed. An
other source reports:?"Sixty blacks killed.
Another says:?4 'Three whites killed." The
Sheriff reports:?"Seventeen colored men
killed and many wounded."
In noting this occurrence we may say, in
the first place, that all news from the South,
from the Associated Press reporters and the
newspaper correspondents, may be accepted
as friendly toward tho democrats and the
whites. It has been so at least since the war
closed. Therefore, if these accounts have
been exaggerated, it is in favor of the whites
and not the negroes. The whites write and
talk and use the wires ; they have the ear of
the country, and it is their story upon which
we now comment. It is certainly a painful
story. We talk of reconstruction, of pure
government, of bringing the old sections to
gether. The majority of citizens in the
North have no purpose so dear to them as
the political, personal, social and commercial
restoration of the Union. To bring about
these results, to forever extinguish the pain
ful memories of the war, to enable the South
to resume her occe proud position, there is
nothing we would not do, nothing except to
cancel the results of the war. And yet
there seems to bo ? party in the South
which will have peace on no other terms.
This party recognizes that the negro has been
freed from personal slavery, but it proposes
to reduce him to political slavery. It was
conquered by the rifle; it proposes to con
quer by the shot-gun.
It is time for us to speak with the utmost
plainness to our friends in the South. There
can only be one end to this shot-gun policy.
These constant stories of assassination on the
Red River, of conventions dissolved by force,
of riots, with "twenty negroes killed and one
white man woundedof revolutions like
that against Ames in Mississippi; this
proscription of Northern men as "carpet
baggers" and of Southern republicans as
"scalawags," this assumption that because
a citizen of New York removes to North
Carolina and dares to go into politics as a
republican he must necessarily be a scamp
and only to be treated as an outlaw, this
ostracism and proscription, and, above all,
these cruel, brutal, inhuman murders of
negroes that we have seen in New Orleans,
Memphis, Vicksburg and Colfax, and
which we now witness at Bayou Sara, only
defer a true reconciliation between tho sec
tions. It is no answer to say that these
outbreaks result from the misgovernment of
men like Moses, Whipper and the rest We
admit their errors. We have censured the
general government for permitting them to
hold power. But this is no excuse for the
scenes that take place in Louisiana. See how
New York was misgoverned five years ago.
See the misgovernment in Chicago to-day.
There is nothing in the history of the South
to compare with it. But neither New \ork
nor Illinois would stand excused for a mo
ment if the reign of thieves had given place
to the reign of assassins.
We can only attribute riots like those we J
have seen so often in the South, and which
we now see in Louisiana, to the reign of
assassination. The law-abiding men of that
State must deplore it as much as we do in j
New York, and we trust they will take up
arms and suppress it. We cannot think of
the gallant sons of Louisiana?the men who
followed Beauregard over so many bloody
fields?going with shot-guns into the
swamps to murder negroes. We appeal to
these men to put an end to this reign of
assassination ; tor, if they do not, the gen
eral government will. Even if there were a
democratic majority in the House as large
again as the present the people of this
Republic?who fought the war for the
Union?would never submit in silence to
a union which permits tho repeated assassi
nation of citizens for their principles. Upon
this point there must be no misunderstand
ing. Wc differ about a hundred things, but
on this point we do not differ. Unless there
is an end to this negro killing; unless this
reign of assassins?who, whether they call
themselves Ku Klux or White Camelias, are
assassins, cowardly and cruel, because they
select their victims from an inferior, help- J
less, amiable and inoffensive race?is ter
minated; unless the best sentiment in the
South at once punishes these men
and prevents a recurrence of their
crimes, the strong arm of the general
government will fall upon them. Once com
pel Grant to draw the sword "for the pro
tection of Union men" and there will be no
need of a campaign for the Presidency.
Once revive tho Sumter spirit and the dele
gates to St. Louis may as well remain at
home. Bayou Sara "riots" will determino the
canvass. We all remember how the country
thrilled with hoiror when Lieutenant General
Sheridan denounced the leaders of the Camelia
lodges and Ku Klux bands as "banditti."
We all remember how the citizens of New
York arosfl in indignation at the "insult"
thus thrown upon a people by a military
commander. But as we read this revolting
despatch from Bayou Sara the question
arises, "May not tho brilliant and illus
trious Sheridan have been perfectly right,
even in the extravagance of his denuncia
tion, and may not tho honor and peace otm
the nation demand that he go at once to the
Southwest to put an end to this reign of
terror and death ?"
Amnesty i* England and France.?Both
the French and British Parliaments are de
bating tho question of amnesty; tho ono to
tho exiled Communists, the other to the few
Fenian prisoners. It is not likely that am
nesty will be granted in either ease. Tho
French republicans do not wish to expose
themselves to the charge of sympathizing
with toe Commune, which would certainly
be made against them if a full pardon to the
exiles should be given, and the advocacy of
the measure by Prince Napoleon will not
add to its strength with the Assembly. In
Parliament the liberal party is reluctant to
join with the Irish Home Balers, who are
manoeuvring to gain something equivalent
to a balance of power in the House of Com
mons, though it would be glad enough to
use their votes against the Disraeli Ministry.
Thus political plots^md counterplots inter
fere in both countries with mercy.
A Highly RtipceUble Fan*.
The gentlemen who are filling rSles in
"third party" representations this year are
enacting a farce which, while amusing
enough probably to themselves, is not likely
to be a success. The Fifth Avenue Hotel
company is highly respectable, and com
prises some very fair actors, who have fre
quently appeared in public before. But
stirring dramas are in preparation at other
houses and they are not likely to attract
much attention at this time. There will be
the great Cincinnati performance, with its
sensational positions, its elaborate soenery,
its intricate and exciting plot, its famous
melodramatio actors and its distinguished
tragedians. All the world will be studying
the movements of the company and watch
ing the denouement, whether present at the
representation or not. Then will follow the
startling St Louis drama, with its veteran
artiBts, its new wardrobes, its magnificent
decorations and its stirring incidents. The
company will embrace a wide range of
talent, tragic, comio and melodramatic.
The plot of the play will concentrate the
attention and excite the imagination of an
enormous audience and of millions outside.
People will take sides with < ne or other of
these companies ; the respective numbers
will swell according to the favorable im
pression left by their appearance in the
West, and no person will pay any attention
to lesser attractions. Of what possible
utility, then, can be a select parlor enter
tainment at the Fifth Avenue or a greenback
comedy rehearsal in a private oifice at such
a moment as the present? The actors in
these forces had better put off their dresses
and go to Cincinnati or St. Louis to take
part in tho famous dramas about to be pro
duced in those cities.
The King ?f Dahomey.
This redoubtable monarch of ihe jungle
has extended a by no means diplomatically
worded invitation to the British nation,
represented by Commodore Hewett, to i
"come on" and undergo the process of anni
hilation at the hands of his valiant amazons. I
The cause of this outburst of interest in
the demolition of effete civilization on the
part of the King of Dahomey has been
the interference of the commander of
the British coast squadron in the
case of an Englishman who has been
imprisoned and maltreated by the savage
and the demand for the liberation and
indemnification of the victim. Forgetful of
the lesson administered by Her Majesty's
troops to his fellow barbarian. Coffee, King
of Ashantee, the Dahoman monarch is dis
posed to court a similar visit, which, if paid,
will undoubtedly result in the cooling of his
warlike ardor after the contemplation of his
capital, Abomey, in a condition considera
bly worse off than that of Chicago
when the fire enkindled by Mrs. O'Leary's
cow burned itself out. But the con
fidence that sustains the King of Da
homey must be based on something I
more tangible than that arising from mere ,
bumptiousness. We will glance at the situ
ation and review the resources of this dusky
challenger of the might of Great Britain.
The Kingdom of Dahomey is located on the
Upper Guinea coast of Africa, and is sur
rounded by other States known as Yoruba,
Egba, Ashantee, and by the Gulf of Benin.
The nearest estimate that can be made
of the population places it between
one hundred and fifty thousand and eight
hundred thousand. The coast is low and
sandy and very difficult for landing, owing
to the prevalence of southwest winds, but
the port of Whydah is suffii iently accessible
to ships to indnce the British government to
select it as the rendezvous of the fleet. The
general surface of the country is a plain, ris
ing inland to the Kong Mountains. Vast
marshes extend south of the capital, which
are inundated during the rainy season and
are rendered impassable. The forests are ex
tremely dense, being similar to those pene
trated by the Ashantee expedition in its
march on Coomassie. But the most ap
palling prospect in store for the High
landers and Connaught Rangers in the
event of war is created by the per
sonelle of the King's army. His body
guard is composed entirely of women, who
are credited with being unflinchingly brave
and ruthlessly cruel. With a regiment of
these matrons and belles of the bush, armed
with flint muskets and clad in uniforms
which have the merit of being serviceable
during their wearers' natural lives, the King
will advance to meet his enemies, the said
Highlanders and ltangers. We fear we
must leave a description of the prospec- j
tive battle to the historian of the war. I
Then, again, the British troops will have to
storm stockades decorated with the skulls of
the victims of Dahoman cruelty and fanati
cism. These ghastly trephies of war and
religious fervor form the chief ornaments of
town wall and temple, tho material being
furnished by the slaughter of slaves and
prisoners of war. The soldier who goes out
on the expedition against Duhomey may set
down among the possibilities the final im
palement of his skull on the palace gate at
Abomey, where, as a matter of course, it
would get an honorable eminence, the owner
having come on the King's invitation.
The Ohio Convention.?Cincinnati will
bo the scene of excitement to-day, and the
?'eyes of Delaware" and the whole country
will be fixed upon the Democratic State
Convention. Ohio is such an important
Stato in tho Presidential campaign, not |
only as tho central arena ol the battle
between tho hard money and the in
flation wings of the democracy, but also
as the first large State to vote in tho fall. It
occupies the same position that Pennsyl
vania did betore her constitution changed
the day of election irom October to Novem
ber. it is also to be remembered that the
influence of the Ohio inflationists last
jtar with the timid democrats of West*
em Pennsylvania lost that State to th*
democratic party. The issue upon the
financial question is not as strongly made
this year, hut in all respects the action o!
the Convention will have a decided influence
upon the canvass. Governor Allen and Mr.
Thurman lead the respective forces, and th?
latest information of the situation is else>
where given.
The Tramp ot Armed Mas.
Mr. Gathorne Hardy presents somewhat
vividly the state of mind in which the Brit
ish Ministry views the attitude of the conti
nental nations and hears noises which it
deems those of warlike preparation. The
Ministry "hears the tramp of armed men in
every country in Europe," and hastily cells
upon Parliament to vote an increase in the
income tax, that England "may keep her
place among the nations." What is Eng.
land's place among the nations? In the last
war waged in Europe England's place wai
that of an outside trader, who sold suppliei
and munitions to both sides, and was satis
fied to put money in her purse, while Ger.
many trampled under foot the ally who, in
England's quarrel, had turned the equilit*
hum of the European balance in favoi
of the Western Powers. England's sym?
pathics, however, were with Franoej
for of the two Powers France was
her best customer. In our war her sym
pathies were with the South, which was also
a good customer, and England here also
put money in her purse, but encountered a
little drawback, ultimately, in the Geneva
verdict If these two wars affbrd any in
dication of England's real "place among tho
nations" it does not appear that any increase
of taxation is necessary to maintain it,
unless the Ministry contemplates the possi
bility of another arbitration as the final con
sequence. But the Ministry may deem thai
the Crimean war affords the indication ol
England's right relation to her neighbors,
and may mean this declaration as a general
notice that if there is a war in Europe this
summer England is to be "counted in." If
they act on that programme they will find
how the views of the country have changed
n twenty years.
Thx Latest or Starlet.?Mr. Henry M.
Stanley has not been heard from since his
letters dated in April, 1875, and published
in the Hkbatj> of November. They gave an
account of his explorations of the Lake Vio?
toria Niyanza and its tributaries, and inti
mated his intention to march directly west*
ward to the Albert Niyanza, where he hoped
to meet with some of the party of Colonel
Gordon. He had then experienced bitter
hostility from some of the natives, but, at
the latest dates, was hospitably entertained
by King Mtesa, who gave him a royal re
ception. After these letters were received
by us Stanley passed into the darkness of
Central Africa, and we have only the brief
glimpse of him in our cable despatches from
London to-day. There was an envelope ad
dressed in his handwriting reoeived by Col
onel Gordon, but it contained nothing but
some writing in an unknown hand, and in
very poor English. What this inclosure was
the despatches do not say, but the news
throws no light as yet upon the whereabout*
or success of the brave explorer.
PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE.
Callfornlans are eating cherriea
Kllpatrick la lecturing In Colorado.
Is Bishop Simpson the Great Unknown 1
Longfellow la greatly bored by curiosity seeker*
Palace-car Pal I man'a Chicago bouse coat $800,000.
The Chicago Tint* says that Piper la a regular lad)
killer.
General Jimmy Hasted is in favor of women's rights.
But he is safely bald-headed.
It Is claimed that Governor Hendricks Is surely la
favor of extinguishing tho national banks.
Senator Thurman ia old B1U Allen's nephew, aad
they are eontoatlng for the Ohio delegates.
Gail Hamilton frequents the House gallerios and ap
plauds with her eyes when the debates are exciting
Mrs. Sherman-Fitch, it is said, will bsre her Jewels
sent to Europe and wear them home as personal prop*
arty.
Bret Harte saya that California produces magnificent
grapes, but that Its other iruits rival those of the East
only in sixa.
Blaine keeps crackers In his desk, and after one of
his volcanic speeehes he tosses them down his throat
as though they were wafers.
Mallctt, the ismous ex-supervising architect of ths
Treasury, owns but one house in Washington. Hu
friends eall him a poor man.
Kate Randolph Rogers, the successful sctress, now
playing in Boston, saya that Anna Dickinson has
geolua and that ahe will succeed.
General Caster, when on the plains, wear* fcaghalr,
ao as to ahow the Indians that he is not afraid ol their
gelling a good hold lor a first class scalp.
When on the floor of the House Congressman Hoar
bears a striking resemblance to Horace Greeley, and
his voice is very much like that of the late editor.
Two national politicians and a member of a London
banking firm, in a quiet game of "draw" at Waan'ng.
ton the other night, left $140,000 in the haada of I
noted sportsman. The game lasted thirty-six boon.
Governor Swann, Chairman of the Houso Committee
on Foreign Affairs, has a commanding pbyaiqoe, but
the weakest voice of any man in Congreaa When h?
speaks the reporters have to get within foor feet of
him.
Detective Whitley, who testified against the safe
burglar conspirators, found himself in a Washington
street car with Boss Shepherd the other day. Whitley
stayed, bat Boss Sbephord recognised the detective
and left the car.
The Washington Journalists have a poor opinion Of
Schuyler Colfax, bat they admit that he was the besl
presiding ofBcer of latter yeara Blaine allowed tb?
members to talk, and Cox continually hammers ths
desk with his ivory gaveL
A writer in the Hartford 7Vsms, speaking of Florida,
says:?"The thickets and the garden trees are nearly
silent in the middle hoars of the dsy; though the song,
tiers wake op again In the afternoon, and about sunset
they sll seom to Join witn the mocking birds."
The Louisville Commercial, the leading republican
organ of Kontucky, says that Morton Is too great an
invalid to be a candidate; 8horman says that Morton is
dead below the knees; but Chatham mads some ol lm
most splendid fights With his legs swathed in flannel,
Lanier's poem has been defended with a good amount
of patriotism In the Sooth. The Atlanta Coiutitutiom
at last jays in reply to Lanier's critics that the poem'*
high-wrought delineation was of too advanced art, and
did not adapt itself to the broador and more ragged
sentiments ol the popular besri.
The Fryer process lor treating ores has proved I
succexa Through ibis process there will be a revolu
tion in gold snd silver mining. It saves a large per
centage of metal that formerly was lost, and as II
"the tailings" of mines It Is estimsted that nearly on*
third is wasted sotno or the old mines will be roworbed.
The Hon. John U. Palmer, the rising star of demoo*
racy in Illinois, a man whom many expect to be ths
dark horse, is lifly-ntne, waa a cooper, pedler, teaches
and lawyer, supported Van Baren. opposed the Xs
braska bill, waa in ISM President of the flrst Illinois
Republican Conveulion, personally preferred Frrmont,
but supported McLean, voted for Fremont and Lincoln,
whs a member of the Peace Congress, was a Untos
division commander, was made >!*|or General, waa foi
lour years Governor of Illinois, and la lint latl the (*?
fillnan