Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1883 — Page 3

gljeDc inocrattc Sentinel RENSSELAER. INDIANA. jW. McEWEN, - - - Publisher

The smoke of the great fire In Dallas, Tex., was seen in Fort Worth, thirtytwo miles distant. A fire alarm was sounded in Fort Worth, and with twenty-seven men the foremen of all the companies took a steam fire engine and two hose reels to the Union depot. They put the engine on a flat car, and in forty-five minutes from the sounding of thelfirst alarm they were playing on the fire in Dallas. The New Zealand Legislature has decided that the Kea must go, Kea being the name of a race of parrots whose fondness for mutton has made them exceedingly disliked. They are said to have acquired this expensive taste gradually, having been content to peck at carcasses hung up in the markets. But in recent times they have ■developed sufficient audacity to attack the living sheep, and thus invited official destruction. Dr. Norvin Green, the President of the Western Union Telegraph company, in an article in the current number of the North American Review, on “The Government and the Telegraph,” gives the following figures of the miles of telegraph lines now in operation in the countries named: Miles In Great Britain 23,00 q In Germany 41,0<Jq In France 86.00 q In Austria and Hungary 30,00 q In the United States ISO.OOq ■ He states that on the lines in the United States there are. “about 500,000 miles of wire.”

The father of the late Duke of Portland used to say that he was the wealthiest living Englishman, for, though his revenue' might not be so large as that of some others, no one had more available cash. Lord Derby is in a similar agreeable position. His income from land alone is £167,000 per annum, and he may be credited with at least as much more as will make up £200,000 per annum. For ■ his Irish estates, which he wisely sold, he received £160,000. Then he has £5,000 a year officially.* His wife has a large jointure from the Salisbury estates, and he is childless. The membership of the church at Wallpack, N. J., is all torn up over an internal dissension that threatens to ■drive the defeated faction to the mountains. The fight began ten years ago, •over the location of the church when it was about to be rebuilt. It finally .settled on the organist. This, of course, •was but natural. The church organist who escapes assassination may be accounted lucky. The controversy growing hotter, the enemies of the ■organist, a young lady, were driven to desperation. They couldn’t do justice to their indignation, because its object was a woman. They then perpetrated the unique outrage of tarring and feathering the instrument. There are pigmies in the church as well as out. A BurlJington correspondent says that the Vermont law giving women the right to vote for school officers and to hold educational offices, which has been in force three years, is practically a failure. The law is obscure in its terms, and too little interest has been taken by the women in its provisions to obtain a’judicial interpretation of it. Of the 241 towns in the State, twenty have this year chosen women for Superintendents of Schools, but in no case, so far as this correspondent knows, has such a choice been brought about by the Votes of women. Of the twenty the majority are clergymen’s wives. Female Superintendents were not a novelty in the State at the time of the passage of this law, but the legality of their election had not previously been formally recognized. A case of extraordinary longevity is reported by Russian papers from a Bessarabian province, where Savtchuk, a man of above 130 years of age, enjoys perfect health and strength, but his white hair has a greenish tinge. He is a Little Russian by birth, and settled in Bessarabia while it was yet under Turkish dominion. His eldest son, who is more decrepit than his father, is 37 years old. The village of 120 houses where Savtchuk now lives has risen from •one cottage, which he built a long time ago with the help of a friend, and is exclusively inhabited by direct descendants of the two first inhabitants. The tribe of the Savtchuks is composed of fifty families, which live in peace and quiet without ever going to law. A recent telegram from Charleston, 8. C-, states that a bale of cotton picked by machinery was exhibited on ’’Change and attracted general attention. Its condition was pronounced to be as good as t that picked by hand. A large number of machines designed for picking cotton have been invented during the past few years, and some of them are of very ingenious construction.

The trouble with picking cotton by machinery is not found in the machines themselves, but with the condition of the plant. The bolls do not all lipen at the same time. The ripening process goes on during several weeks. To prevent wastage it i< necessary to pick the bolls as fast as they become matured. A delay of a few days often subjects the ripe cotton to injury by rain and winds. The machines that have been experimented with gather the cotton from the ripe bolls well enough, but they tear open those that are not mature. A machine that will gather the ripe bolls and not injure those that are not mature would be a great success. Such a machine would revolutionize cotton production in a few years. It would be almost as valuable as the cotton gin. By judicious selection of seed it may be possible to produce flowers that will mature at the same period. Could this be accomplished the success of the machines that have heretofore been experimented with would be assured. At present the expense of picking cotton greatly reduces the profit. A “spy” went on Sunday to a hotel at Newton, Ct., and persuaded the proprietor to sell him liquor. The proprietor was arrested, but when the trial came on the doors of the court-room were found to be locked and the keys missing. The court was thereupon held on the front steps of the Town hall, but the “spy,” who was the chief witness, was found missing. The court adjourned for dinner. But the hotels were all closed to the prosecuting lawyers and witnesses, and nothing could be had but some crackers and cheese which one of the defendants had bought. Public opinion seemed opposed to the idea of hiring somebody from another town to come in and break the law in order to secure evidence against the local hotel proprietors. The peoplQ believe in home industry and in producing their own spies. Therefore they wouldn’t allow the foreign one to be produced at the trial.

Chicago Times: Last evening a man named William McNulty entered the Hyde Park police-station and told a story that, no doubt, made the remains of the good George Washington turn over in his grave. He had enlisted in the army, at the tender age of 15 years—in 1843 —for five years. The enlistment was renewed for the same length of time in 1848, 1853 and 1858. Serving under Grant at Vicksburg, ha was taken prisoner. The Confederates took him South and finally into Mexico. There, at the time Maximilian was shot, McNulty had a rope around his neck twice, but was finally saved. In 1865 he was captured by a gang of “Greasers,” and until recently had been a prisoner in the Sierre Madre mountains. He tried to escape, and was shot with several bullets in the shoulder and abdomen, besides losing a portion of one foot. He now has a copper bullet in his neck which entered his mouth, and at present reclines peacefully on the carotid artery. His hands and feet have been nearly shot to pieces, and he carries a bullet in his head which penetrated between the eyes. He escaped recently when the band was captured, and is now on his way home to Adrian, Mich. He has not heard froni his old home for twenty-two years. The good people of Adrian should extend a proper reception to Mr. McNulty.

Brother Jonathan.

“You have told us about Uncle Sam,” said a bright boy at my elbow, “now can you not introduce the original Brother Jonathan?” So I consulted the “Dictionary of Americanisms,” and found something like the following: When Gen. Washington, after being appointed commandei' of the army of the Revolutionary war, went to Massachusetts to organize it, he discovered, a great want of ammunition, and it seemed as if no means could be devised for the defense and safety of the troops and country. The elder Jonathan Trumbull was then Governor of the State of Connecticut; and Washington, who relied with the utmost confidence upon the Governor’s judgment, remarked: “We must consult Brother Jonathan on the subject.” This was done, and his Excellency succeeded in supplying many of the exigencies which existed. Afterward, when fresh difficulties arose, the remark of Gen. Washington was remembered and repeated until it became a by-phrase, and later a designation for the whole country.— New York Examiner.

Bullets in the Ball-Room.

A young fellow went to a doctor to have his legs examined, and there came near being a consultation of physicians over the case. His shins were black and blue in spots, and he didn’t know what was the matter. He said when he attended dances, and was waltzing, he often felt peculiar sensations on the shin bones as though he had been struck with something hard, but he didn’t know but it was nervous prostration. The doctor went to the next dance, and when the young man felt the peculiar sensation, he whistled, and stopped waltzing, and led the girl up to the doctor. It was soon discovered that the trouble arose from the small leaden bullets that girls wear in the bottom of dresses, to make them set well. The young man only dances quadrilles now. —Peck's Sun. Thebe is but a step between a proud man’s glory and his disgrace.

THE BAD BOY.

“Hello, Hennery,” said the grocery nan to the bad boy, as he came in holdng his sides to keep them from burstng with suppressed laughter; “what has occurred to cause a pious young man to laugh in that worldly manner? You must try to cultivate a long, mournful Maintenance, and learn to sigh and look lick when yon are the happiest,” and the grocery man weighed out a couple of [xmnds of buckwneat flour for a hired ?irL “Has your pa joined the police force? I saw him driving a lot of hogs to the pound yesterday.” “That’s what I am laughing about,” said the boy, as he put an apple on the stove to bake it. “Pa has gone to tne pound after the hogs this morning. You see, I have been taking lessons in painting and drawing, and the other day I surprised pa by showing him a picture of a blue cow, with a green tail and old gold horns, and he told me he never saw anything more natural, and he advised me to turn my attention entirely to animal painting. Pa keeps four hogs in a pen in the back lot, and every day he turns them out in the alley and lets them run, and takes them up when they come home. The hogs are large white ones, regular beauties, and pa thinks about as much of them as he does of me Well, pa told me to go and turn the hogs out yesterday, and I took my paint brush along and before turning them out I painted black spots all over the hogs. You never see a lot of speckled hogs, where the spots were put on any better. The hogs looked at each other kind of astonished, and I turned them out. In the afternoon, pa went out to the pen and began to call, ‘poig, poig,’ and the pigs came running up the alley. Pa saw the strange hogs coming, and he got mad and drove them out of the alley, and then he called for his pigs again, in a muscular tone of voice, and the speckled, hogs came again, a little slower, and seeming to wonder what ailed pa. They acted as though they felt hurt at being received in such a violent manner. Pa met the speckled hogs with a broom, and he run them down the alley again, and the hogs stood off and looked at him as though they thought he had the jim-jams. You’d a dide to see pa drive his own hogs away, and talk sassy. He got a pail of swill and called the hogs again, and they came on a gallop, and then pa called a policeman and they drove the hogs to the pound. I didn’t see pa last night, but the first thing this morning I told him I had taken his advice, and turned my attention to animal painting, and that I had painted spots on our whits hogs, and made speckled hogs of them, and that speckled hogs were worth 1 cent a pound more than white hogs. Well, pa didn’t faint away, but when it all came over him, that he had drove his own hogs to the pound, he was'So cross he could have bit a nail. But he didn’t say anything to me, ’cause I s’pose he didn’t want to discourage my artistic ambitions, but he has gone down to the pound after the hogs. May be the rain has washed the spots off, and the man that keeps the pound will not let pa have ■white hogs when he left speckled ones there. However, I didn’t warrant the hogs to be fast colors, anyway. Do you think it was wrong to put spots on the hogs ?” “Wrong?” said the grocery man, as he put some white flour into the sack of buckwheat flour and mixed it up; “it was a condemned outrage and deception on your pa, and you ought to be punished. But that was not as bad as your wheeling a nigger baby behind your pa and ma, when they were coming from the museum. What did you do that for ?”

“Well, the colored baby was sawed oft onto me, and I had to wheel it,”. said the boy, as he ran his teeth into a baked apple he had taken off the stove. “You see, us boys had been sawing wood for the ladies that keep the foundling asylum, and when we got through I asked the boss woman, the one who warms the milk and puts it in the bottles for the babies, if there was anything more we could do. Well, she said it was a nice day for the babies to be outdoors, and if us boys would wheel the babies around a block, on the sidewalk, and give the poor little things a little fresh air, they would be real glad, so I told them to trot out the baby wagons, and we had a boss time wheeling those poor little infants. I guess they have about forty, and they look awful sad. Gosh, I wouldn’t like to be a foundling, with no pa nor ma, except a rubber nursing bottle, would you? If those ladies that take the foundlings and bring them up, don’t get to heaven without any questions being asked as to what church they belong to, then St. Peter is a different kind of a box-office ticket seller than I take him to be. We boys took two babies at a time, in baby wagons, until we had given ’em all a ride but one, and I tell you it did us good to see the poor little things look around at the people we passed, as though they were looking for their parents. I don’t suppose they see any parents, but I noticed a coupfe of young fellers get on the other side of the street mighty quick when they saw the procession coming. Say. some of those babies are just qs smart as anybody’s babies, and after they had been out a little while in the sunshine they would laugh and look so pleasant and happy that I had more fun and felt better than if I had been in a circus. But when the last baby came in, it was a colored- baby, and us boys looked tired. My chum he kicked *«n wheeling the colored baby, ’cause he is a Democrat, and the other boys sajd it was time for them to go home, and finally another boy and me tossed up a cent to see "which should wheel the little black fellow. It oj.me tails, and I lost, and the lady put the baby in my wagon, and I started off. The firs t thing that colored baby did was to look up at me and say ‘papa.’ Gosh, I thought I should die, and I turned round to slap. it side of the head, when the boys and the lady laughed. But when the lady said they had taught it to say ‘papa,’and I looked at it, and it was laughing and kicking and having fun, I was kind of mashed on that nigger baby, and if it ever wants a friend all it has got to do is to send a postal card to Hennery. I had more fun with that baby than you ever

I would wheel it along behind a gentleman and lady who were talking earnestly, and it would say ‘papa,’ and they would look scared, and the lady would look offended, and they would turn a corner and go off and wouldn’t speak to each other. One fellow giv? me half a dollar to take it away, and I gave the money to the lady that keeps the baby livery. Well, just before I took the colored baby back to the Home, I see pa and ma going along on the sidewalk, and pa was explaining to ma how it was that he was out till 12 o’clock the night before, at a special meeting of the lodge, and ma didn’t believe it as well as pa thought she ought to, and just then I run the baby wagon right np between them, and the colored baby said ‘papa,’ and I laughed, and ma said ‘ Hennery, where on earth did you find it,’ and pa leaned against the fence and turned pale and said, ‘lt’s a condemned lie,’ aisd the baby laughed, and then I told them I was working for the foundling asylum, wheeling babies for fresh air, and they went home, but pa walked awful tired. That’s all I did to trifle with pa’s feeling s, and I didn’t think it was very bad, do you?” “No, sir,” said the grocery man, as he took the boy by the band and pressed it heartily. “A boy who can take pleasure in doing good like that, to poor little foundlings that are despised, i< a friend oi mine, and you can paint all the speckled hogs in this ward if you want to. As Shakespere says, ‘lnasmuch as ye do unto the least of these, ye do it unto yours truly.’ ” And the grocery man drew some maple sirup out of a molasses keg for a board-ing-house keeper, and the bad boy went out to help his pa drive the speckled hogs home. — Peck's Sun.

A Bad Place.

The country hotel is not a place of blissful repose, and there is one in Arkansaw which is rarely visited the second time by the same man. Several nights ago a gentleman, hungry, wet and tired, stopped at the place, and after partly satisfying his appetite with corn bread and bacon, went to bed. Just as he sank to sleep, a negro entered the room, shook the tired man, and said: “Boss, yer’ll hafter git outen dis bed. De boss’s son hab jes’ got married an’ hab fotch his wife home. Hate ter ’sturb yer, but de happy pa’r must hab dis room.” “Why didn’t you tell me before I took the room ?” said the tired man, arising. “Case da wan’t married den, sah.” “Didn’t you know' that he was going to marry?” “Sorter ’spicioned it, sah, but yer see de lady dun fooled de boss’ son three times, an’ we didn’t know but she w'as gwine ter fool him agin.” “I wish she had. I don’t see why people want to marry when it imposes a hardship on others. ” “Doan see myse’f, boss. Jes’ step dis way, an’ I’ll show yer a good room. ” The tired man was showm into a room w'hich could not h ive been much worse than the one he had just left, and which W r as certainly no better. He threw himself on the bed, and had probably been asleep five minutes, when the negro entered again, shook him, and said: “Hates ter in ter rup’yer, Colonel?” “Then why the devil do you?” “Showed yer in the wrong room, sah. Dis one hab dun been engaged by a travelin’ gentleman. ” “He can’t have it.” “I’d ’vise yer, boss, not ter argy wid him. Bad man an’totes a self-cocker. Show yer ter yer room, sah ?” The tired man follow'ed the colored gentleman to another room, which was little better than a stable. “Yer ken rest here, sah, mighty peaceable. ” The man was soon asleep, but after awhile he was aroused by the negro, who said: “I haster ’sturb yer agin, sah. Travelin’ man down stairs what ’gaged dis room. Said dates I didn’t give him de room or de dollar extra what he paid fur it, dat he’d kill bof ob us.” “Here, take him the dollar. ” “Thankee, sah. I feels safe now,” and he left. The next morning the man learned that there had been no marriage, but that the negro had been paid extra by travelers for the best rooms, and that the dollar secured him his room as the last man who arrived only offered the black rascal 50 cents. —Arkansaw Traveler.

A Business Proposition.

A cowboy, who had lately arrived in Austin from the Panhandle district, stepped up to the ticket-window of the International railway-station, and inquired the fare to a certain place. “Eight dollars,” replied the agent. “But can’t you let me down a little easier than that?” he said. “Come, now. 11l give you $5.” “There’s no jewing down of prices here,” said the agent; “do vou want a ticket?” “Well, don’t get up on your ear about it,” said the cowboy. “Gently, gently, be you the man that’s going to run the train out of herb ?” “No, it’s another man.” “’Tis, eh? Well, won’t you just ask him if he won’t take me for less if I’ll let him run slow and save expense of wear and tear on the machinery and road-bed? I ain’t in no particular hurry.”— Texas Siftings.

“No, I Thank Yon.”

Jennie Jones was a pretty little girl, and it was the only time she had ever been visiting by herself. She was spending the afternoon with one of her schoolmates, and, when it came tea time, Jennie was invited to stop to tea. “No, I thank you, ma’am,” she said shyly. “I guess you better.” said her little friend’s mother, good Mrs. Morse; “sit right up to the tkble—won’t you now?” Jennie fidgeted, twisted her apron, put her finger in her mouth, and finally electrified the company by remarking: “Well—l don’t know; ma said I was to say, ‘No, thank you’ the first time I was asked, but—but—if you urged me, I could stay!” It is scarcely necessary to say she stayed. He that calls a man ungrateful sums up all the evil that a man can be guilty of.— Swift.

THE CURRENCY.

Extracts from Controller Knox’s Report. Controller of the Currency Knox reports the organrivticn of 262 banks for the year ending with list month, leaving 2,522 in operation, the system extending into every territory. The bonds outstanding, which can only be redeemed by purchase in the market, aggregate $1,052,•70,062. The Government has gained about $4,090,000 bv the accidental destruction of bank notes, and the whole costofthe system in twenty ye irs has been but $5,610,669. Controller Knox thinks the true policy to avoid contraction .of bank circulation is to reduce the redundant revenue. As to’ the extension of the corporate existence of National banks, the Controller says: At the date of my last report the corporate existence of eighty-six National banks had exmired, and thirty of these banks had extended their existence under the act of July 12, 1882, fifty-two banks went into voluntary liquidation, ana were succeeded«by other associations organized in place thereof, chiefly previous to the act of July 12, 1882, which authorized the extension of the corporate existence for a new period of twenty years of National banks whose franchises were about to terminate. The four remaining banks expired by limitation, and did not effect new organizations. The number of National banks organized under the act of Feb. 25, 1863, which were in operation at the date of my last report in December was 307. Of these banks, 273 have extended their corporate existence under the act Of July 12.1882, seventeen have been placed in liquidation by vote of shareholders of the bank, and four have expired by limitation. AU of these banks which have been placed in liquidation and have expired by limitation, with the exception of two, nave been succeeded by new associations, organized in the same localities with different titles. The whole number of banks now In operation which organized under the act of June 3, 1864, whose periods of succession will terminate during each year previous to 1900, is 195. The number, capital and circulation of banks expiring in 1884 and 1885 is as follows - Years. No. of banks. Capital. Circulation. 1884249 $ 89,611,570 $ 60,526,825 1885727 185,936,715 124,807,450 As to the relation of the banks to the bonds, the Controller of the Currency says: , The average rate of Interest now paid by the United States on the bonds deposited as security tor circulating notes is about 3>6 per cent, upon their par value, but it is equal to about 3.19 per cent, only of the current market value of the bonds. The banks now hold-$41,000,000 of $106,000,000 of 4s, and $21,000,000 of 3 per cents, which have been refunded from 3)4 per cent. More than one-half of the bonds now held by the National banks are 3 per cents. If the public debt continues to be paid as rapidly as it has been during the past all of these bonds will certainly be called within the next three years. Those of the lower numbers, which it is safe to estimate will not be called within the next ten years, cannot be purchased for a premium of much less than 2 per cent., and at that price there will be a loss upon circulation based on this class of bonds if they are redeemed within three years. The profits on circulation based on other bonds held by National banks are merely nominal. STATISTICAL. * Of the amount of United States bonds held by the National banks and bv banks organized under State laws the Controller says: Through courtesy of State officers, the Controller has obtained official reports made to them under State laws by State banks in twentytwo States, by trust companies in five States, and by savings banks in fourteen States at different dates during the year 1883, and from these returns the following table has been compiled: Held bv 754 State banks in twentytwo Statess 5,287,606 Held by thirty-four trust companies In five States 17,437,990 Held by 630 savings banks in fourteen 5tate5219,017,313 T0ta1.*5211,742,909 The interest-bearing funded debt of the United States was November 1, last, $1,273,475,450. The total amount of bonds held by the National ($379,486,350) and State and savings banks ($211,742,909) was $621,229,259, which is not greatly less than one-half of the interest-bearing debt. The U nlted States bonds held by State banks is given by geographical divisions for the years 1880, 1881 and 1882, 1883, as follows: Geographical Divisions. 1880. 1883. Eastern Statess 45,230,098 $ 37,399,819 Middle States 157,563,757 182,847,588 Southern States 958,470 646,500 Western States 2,672,242 3,105,024 Pacific States 7,240,835 17,743,978 T0ta15213,665,402 $241,742,909 Illinois has advanced from sixth to fifth place In the National-bank capital. Kentucky has displaced New Jersey, and Minnesota is now the fourteenth State, taking the place of Vermont and displacing lowa and New Hampshire. Virginia is superseded by Wisconsin, Texas, and California. The Controller says the section qf the Revised Statutes which places restrictions upon loans i should be so amended as to exclude from -the ! limitation mentioned legitimate loans upon produce or warehouse-receipts and some other classes of collateral security, os well as loans upon United States bonds. ;

Synopsis of Secretary Lincoln’s Report. The report of the Secretary of War gives a pretty full history of the operations of his department, but has not much to offer in the way of active military operations. After referring to the retirement of Gen. Sherman from command of the army the Secretary says that the only active employment of troops was in the brief Apaobe campaign last summer under Gen. Crook. He adds: As for some time past the only Indian outbreaks have been in Arizona, special attention has been directed to an en-' deavor to secure for that region of the country the same quiet which exists elsewhere. After careful consideration of the difficulties involved, an arrangement has been made between the Interior department and the War department, under which the police control of all the Indians on the San Carlos reservation has been given to Gen. Crook, and he has been charged with the duty of keeping the peace on the reservation and preventing the Indians from leaving it. Gen. Sherman expresses the belief that if Gen. Crook is permitted to manage the Apaches in his own way, all wars will cease in Arizona, and that with them will disappear the complicated Indian question which has tested the patience and courage of our people ever since the first settlement by whites on,this continent. The number of desertions from the army in the past year was nearly 3,600; only a few less than the extraordinary number of the year before. As a means of checking the evil, the Secretary recommends that the pay of enlisted men be raised to sl6 a month. He also recommends that enlisted men be retired on full pay after thirty-five years’ continuous service. The whole number of national cemeteries now under the care of the Quartermaster’s Department is eighty-three, containing 321.369 interments. There has been some delay in prosecuting the work of providing heidstones for the soldiers’ graves in private, village, and city cemeteries, but the work will be continued until brought to a satisfactory close. Referring to the improvements at the mouth of the Mississippi river, the Secretary says: The last annual report of this department brought the history of this work to Sept. 9, 1882. During the four quarters ending Sept. 9, 1883, there was no failure of maintenance of the channel. From Sept. 10,1882, to Sept. 9,1883, both dates inclusive, four quarterly payments for maintenance, amounting to SIOO,OOO, and two semi-annual payments of interest on the s!.*• 000,000 retained, amounting to $50,000, were made, the total expenditure for the improvement to the latter date being $1,850,000. A considerable portion of the report is given to a history of the Proteus expedition, but beyond a mere recital of the facts the Secretary does not go, as a court of inquiry is now in session investigating the causes of the failure of the expedition. Referring to the militia the Secretary says: “I earnestly recommend that the attention ot Congress be invited to the subject of giving substantial encouragement to the formation of volunteer militia organizations in every State, and in the District of Cqjumbla, by liberal appropriations to supply the necessary arms, equipments, tents, ammunition, and other ordnance stores. With our small standing army our main dependence for public defense must be on our militia; and the wisdom of the comparatively small expenditures which would encourage their organization and their efficiency in drill and discipline seems apparent. In the last Congress a bill on this subject was reported from the Senate Committee on Military Affairs (S. 1596) by which it was contemplated that, in lien of the annual sum of $200,000 provided by the act of the 23d of April, 1806, the sum of $600,000 should be annually appropriated, the purposes for which it should be used being more extended than under the provisions of the old act. A careful consideration of this proposed act leads to the belief that its enactment would be a great public benefit, and I strongly recommend the passage of such a law.” Tea plants are growing in portions of Mississippi and Louisiana, and poor people pluck the leaves and steep them. The plants have had very little attention, and yet they are of fair size and appear hardy.

WAR.

FINANCE.

Abstract off the Report of the Secretary ST the Treasury. . The report of Secretary Folger for the fisca l year ending June 30, 1883, shows that the ordi* nary revenues of the Government for the yea* were as follows: Customs, $214,706,497; intern*! revenue, $144,720,369; sales of public lands. $7,C5>,864: direct tax, $18,157; miscellaneous. $30,796,695; total, $398,287,582. Ordinary expenses: Civil and miscellaneous, $68,678,0227 War .department, $48,911,383; Navy department, $15,283,437; Indians, $7*362.590; pensions, $66,012.574; interest on public debt, $59,160,132; total, $265,408,138. leaving a surplus revenue of $82,879,464. This is $7,309,00 more than Mr. Folger estimated that the surplus would amount to in his last annual report. Compared with the previous fiscal year, the receipts for 1883 have decreased, in customs •$5,704,233; in internal revenue, $1,777,226; in direct tax, $51,986, and in m soeilaneous, $906,948. They have increased in sales of public lands $3,202,724. Total decrease, $12,664,367. The expenditures show an increase over the year before of $7,526,697 The expenditures of the War department increased $5,400,000; for the Navy deoartment, $250,000, and tor pensions nearly $5,000,000, while the interest on the public debt decreased almost $12,000,000. Since the last annual report the sot of March 3, 1883, diminished the sources of internal revenue and changed the tariff law, so that the estimate made a year ago must be entirely revised. Then the receipts expected from Internal revenue were $145,000,000. ’ Now the estimated revenue is $120,009,000. The receipts from customs have fallen off proportionately. For the four months ending Nov. 1, the total receipts were $124,369,985: for the corresponding months of last year they were $114,952,932. For the same periods the expenditures were SB9918,200 ana $98,706,661. By the payment of $207,000,000 of the public de.bt, the charge for interest will be greatly reduced. It is probable that the receipts will be about $350,000,000 for the fiscal year 1884, while the expenditures will amount to $265,000,000, leaving a surplus of $85,000,000 over and above the sinking fund. During the last fiscal year the bonds retired amounted to $134,009,750. Since then $38,374,000 of 3 per cents have been paid, and $40,000,000 more have been called. Of this last sum, $5,000.000 has been met already, and is included in the $38,374,000. The Secretary again calls the attention of Congress to the fact that the receipts of the Government are greatly in excess of its needs. The dangers of this large surplus to the money market will be dwelt upon, and the Secretary will say that there is no method of disbursing this surplus except by payment of the public debt. Payment of the public debt, however, is nowinjurious to the national banking system. When all the outstanding calls are paid, the 3 per cents, will be reduced to the neighborhood of $280,000,000. and of this the banks hold about $200,000,000. If payment of the public debt is to be permitted tojo on. even this year, as it has during the last fiscal year, the existence of a good many national banks is threaten :d, and this means a sensible contraction of the currency. If the income of the Government remains asdt is, the Secretary of the Treasury will call atTeast $50,000,000 more of bonds before the end of the fiscal year, and by the end of the fiscal year 1885 more than half the banks holding 3*B as security for circulation would have to replace them with 4’s at a great premium or retire their circulation, and thus contract the currency. In discussing tue mode of reducing the revenues. the Secretary opposes the abolition of the internal-revenue tax. It is estimated that this tax will yield under the present law $120,000,000, and this is at least $35,000,000 more than the revenue can be decreased. A decrease of the tax on tobacco and spirits does not necessarily argue a smaller revenue, as experience has often found. Therefore, the Secretary recommends a still further reduction of customs duties, after a proper inquiry shall have developed what articles can best stand the reduction. Sugar, at least, the Secretary thinks, ought to pay a much smaller duty than it now does. The Secretary is embarrassed by the new law which has so recently been passed that it would seem proper to give it a further trial before endeavoring to change it, but it has not accomplished the purposes which he desired to effect when he last year recommended that a redaction of revenue be made by a revision of the tariff that should reduce the duties on sugar, iron, steel, woolens and wool, cottons and raw material. Therefore these recommendations must be substantially renewed, for the dangers of a large surplus are even more threatening than they were before the passage of the Tariff act. The Secretary calls attention to the suggestions made by Comptroller Knox, that the rate of tissue of national bank notes be increased to 90 per cent, of the market value of the bonds, and that the 4’s be refunded in 3’s, the holders receiving a premium in satisfaction for the resultant loss df interest.

THE POSTOFFICE.

Postmaster General Gresham’s Report. The report of the Postmaster General is very full and comprehensive. He estimates the revenue of the department for the fiscal year ending June 30,1885, at $17,104,078, and its expenditures at $50,062,189, leaving a deficiency to be supplied out of the Treasury of $2,958,111. This deficiency will be caused, it is thought, by the reduction of postage, but the report suggests that figures are purely conjectural. The free delivery system has been largely ex - tended during the year, and is now in operation at 154 offices. The total appropriation for this service was $3,200,000, including a special appropriation of $200,000 to carry out the provisions of the act of Aug. 2,1882, an increase of $575,000 over that of the preceding year. The total cost of the service was $3,173,336.51, leaving an unexpended balance of $26,663.49. The increase of the cost over the preceding year was $550,073.77. The present status ot the Star service shows for 1883 a cost of $4,739,478, with 77,998,782 miles of annual transportation, against a cost of $7,321,499, with 76,070,995 miles of annual transportation in 1880, being an increasei from 1880 of 1,927,787 miles of transportation and $2,582,021 decrease in cost. This service is now all performed under contracts made upon proposals submitted in response to advertisements. An interesting statement, snowing the development and cost of the railroad service from its commencement until June 30, 1883, is nresented. It is the general opinion that the rates of pay have been greatly increased of late years; the fact is otherwise. The cost per mile of transportation in 1854 was 11,4 cents; in 1883, notwithstanding the enormous increase in weight of mails and the superior facilities provided for distribution, the cost is 10.75 cents per mile. On the 30th of last June there were 5,927 mon-ey-order offices in operation, whose transactions during the year, of domestic orders issued, amounted to $117,329,409.31, and of domestic orders paid and repaid to $117,344,281.78; of internationalorders issued to $7,717,822.11, and of international orders paid and repaid to $3,063,187.05; a grand total in issues of $125,047,328.42, and in payments and repayments of $120,407,468.83. The fees received in domestic orders issued aggregated $1,101,821.80, and on international orders $170,238.80—a total Of $1,272,060.90. The gains were, in domestic transactions, about 3& per cent., and in International transactions from 1.85 to over 56 per cent.; in domestic fees about 4J6 per cent., and in international fees from .56 to over .54 per cent. The Postmaster General opposes the proposed reduction of postage on drop letters from 2 cents to 1, on the ground tjat it would increase the cost of the carriers’ service and lead to a clamor for its extension, but he is in favor of increasing the single rate limit on all letters from a half ounce to an ounce. He also recommends that the rate of postage on transient newspapers and periodicals be fixed at 1 cent for every three ounces, instead of 1 cent for every two ounces as now. On the subject of postal telegraphy, the Postmaster General is diffuse. He says: “From the best consideration which I have been enabled to bestow upon the subject, I have reached the conclusion that Congress has the constitutional power in providing for the postal service of the country to avail itself of all the facilities devised by the inventive genius of modern times for transmitting messages and Intelligence, and that it has full authority to adopt either of the first two plans which I have mentioned. “The establishment and operation of a postal telegraph as a monopoly, or in competition with private companies, would, it is insisted, reduce rates which are now exorbitant and protect the public against the abuses and evils deemed to be inseparable from the service as it exists. In either event an enormous expense must be incurred. But without dwelling upon that consideration, it is clear that an efficient execution of either plan will necessarily Involve the employment of a multitude of operators, messengers, mechanics, and laborers, and thus largely add to the patronge of the Government. An increase of that patronage beyond what is indispensable to the public service is to be deprecated and avoided, and it is one of the dangers which threaten the purity and duration of our institutions. In Europe the telegraph is under the control of the public authorities. With us, the administration is the Government in action, and may, for the time being and for all practical purposes, be considered the Government itself. In seasons of political excitement, and, to some extent at other times, is there not ground for serious apprehension that the telegraph, under the exclusive control of the dominant party, might be abused to promote partisan purposes and perpetuate the power of the administration? But if it could be kept entirely free from such influence, I should hesitate to sanction a measure providing that the United States shall become the proprietor of telegraph lines, and operate them by its officers ana agents.”