Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1885 — VIEWS ON THE ELECTION. [ARTICLE]

VIEWS ON THE ELECTION.

The authorities of a London hospital have hit upon the novel idea of using their extra ambulance for giving children and convalescent patients an occasional ride. This benevolent scheme has been found to pay well also, for the resulting improvement in health of the hospitalized patients has made it possible to give them an earlier discharge. At Kilrush races, in the county of Clare, Ireland, the other day, one of the animals entered for the race was the property of a gentleman obnoxious to the Parnellite party, to whom notice was sent to withdraw the horse, and it was announced in posters that there would be disturbance if he insisted on competing. The horse had white stockings and a star, which would have immediately disclosed his identity, so a paint brush was brought into requisition to efface the stockings and the star, and the result proved satisfactory. The animal in this disguise not only ran but won. A carriage-road is to be made from Jerusalem to the ruins made at Jericho by the blast of Joshua’s ram’s horns. A small modern village now stands near the ruins, which are sunk 1,200 feei below the sea level in a wellwatered but dreadfully hot valley. A shrine near the road is a monastery at the very cave in which Elijah is said to have been fed by the ravens. The monastery is literally hung on to the face of the precipice, and consists of a series of cells and a hall supported on vaults through which lies the entrance. A few Greek monks live like birds perched on the edge of a nest in this singular abode, to which a chapel pinnacled on a rock is attached. Competent authorities estimate that not more than six per cent, of the digging has been done in connection with the vast enterprise in the hands of the Panama Canal Company. Financially the obligations of the company are said to be $153,000,000, Engineer Menocal estimates the actual cost of the entire work at $375,000,000. To raise this sum of money and the annual cash interest, will raise the obligations of the canal to upward of $600,000,000 before its completion. It would require a Frenchman’s flight of fancy to imagine that the Panama Canal can ever pay its expenses, and also a sum sufficient to pay any reasonable rate of interest on the capital and funded debt. * • . . .r. . . • A Washington bookseller says Secretary Bayard reads heavy books. The only work the President is known to have purchased lately is that of the Hon. James G. Blaine. Secretary Whitney reads a great deal. He doesn’t confine himself, however, to politics, history, or philosophy. He is very fond of hovels and reads many. Some are the best and some are the lightest. He is fond of Hugh Conway, Miss Murfree, and Mrs. Alexander’s works. He reads such novels as “The Vagrant Wife,” “The Tinted Venus,” “Called Back,” “Struck Down,” etc. Secretary Endicott reads novels, too. But he never buys anything in English. He always gets French novels, and reads a great many of them. Other members of the Cabinet appear to read little, or at least to buy few books. The daughter of a well-known woman is thus described by a correspondent: The genuine Newport belle, for she has lived there since she was a child, is Maud Howe, daughter of Julia Ward Howe, and who, though verging on 30, is .still quite as beautiful as when she sat for a portrait now in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington, which attracted so much attention when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy. She is a striking-looking woman, with an “exquisitely turned jaw,” a perfect neck, and an artistic head—round which she binds a wreath of ivy, in the style of the winner of the Olympian games. She is a lady of caprices. At present aesthetic garments are her fad, and she attires herself in limp, loose gowns of dull faded colors, which cling about her in a way that would have charmed Rossetti. Dogs are, with her, another mania. The three oldest consulting libraries in the United States are those of Harvard, Yale, and the New York Society. Harvard College began its career with a library which was a part of the bequest from John Harvard, but in 1764 a fire completely destroyed its accumulations of 126 years, Yale College be-

aided thirty-three yea rs later by the bequest of 1,000 volumes from Bishop Berkeley, yet in 1764 it amounted to only 4,000 volumes. The New York Society’s library, now containing 80,000 volumes, was founded in 1700, but it did not take this name until 1754. The fourth oldest library is that in Philadelphia founded by Benjamin Franklin and his friends in 1731. The library has now over 130,000 volumes, and, in some respects, is unsurpassed by any other collection of books in the country. Its income is about $26,000 a year, of which a third is only available for the purchase of new books, yet it attempts, with much success, to do the same kind of service that is accomplished by the Boston Public Library, whose income is $125,000. Mrs. O’Connell, who has just settled her boycotting difficulties, is the daughter and heiress of a very remarkable man, Charles Bianconi, who went to Ireland as a poor Italian boypeddler of images, and founded the celebrated Bianconi cars, which for many years were the only public conveyances in many districts in Ireland, and the most popular in all. He was a strong Nationalist, and supported munificently all O’Connell’s movements. The boycotted lady when very young wedded Morgan John O’Connell, a man thirty years her senior, a nephew of the Liberator, and, as M. P. for County Kerry, one of the most popular men in the House. Since his death and her father’s, which followed, she has devoted herself to her only boy, John, who was deformed and a : cripple from childhood, and who, after being unsuccessfully treated by many of the first surgeons of Europe, has been so completely renovated as to ride to hounds, through a series of operations by Dr. Lewis Sayre, which are recorded among the special triumphs of surgery. The lady is winsome and bright, and has been, always charitable, generous, and patriotic. Her boycotting has created universal surprise. The movement to confer on the women of China and India the benefits of Western medical science has brought brilliant opportunities within reach of female physicians. Dr. Woodhull, who began to practice her profession the day after her arrival at Foochow last winter, writes that the calls upon her services are more than she can meet. The hospital for Chinese women recently opened at Shanghai, under the charge of American women, is already well filled with patients. Lady Dufferin is President of the association that has been established in India to import skilled women physicians from Europe and America for the purpose of training capable native nurses, midwives, and medical practitioners. Every white physician in Oriental countries is asked almost daily if he cannot prescribe for suffering women without seeing them. Debarred by social customs from consulting men doctors, Oriental women are the victims of great and unnecessary misery. They are thus shut out from the advantages of Western medical ait, although they know its value and desire to avail themselves of its resources. A chemical examination of water brought up from great depths in the Mediterranean proves, as suspected, that the deep sea water is more salt than that at the surface, though nothing can be found to show the existence of a bed of salt at the bottom to produce such extra saturation; in fact, strata of water of. less dens ty are met with below those of greater density. Thus it appears that the outer current I in large part carries with it the excess of salt produced by the surface evaporation, the cause of the circulation being due, it is believed, to hydrostatic action purely. That is, the water of the Mediterranean is continually losing by evaporation a larger amount than is returned to it by rains or rivers, and, consequently, the inflow from the Atlantic must take place to keep up the level. If this inflow consisted of fresh water, the total quantity of salt in the Mediterranean would remain the same, ; and the density, therefore,, would undergo no increase; but, as the, upper ! current of salt water brings in a certain ' quantity of salt in addition to that ! which the Mediterranean basin previI ously contained, the density of this ! water is increased, and a column of it i reaching to any given depth becomes ! heavier than a corresponding column of Atlantic water, the excess of downward pressure consequently displacing the lower portion of die column of water, which will flow outward as an under current.

How ths Situation Is Regarded at Washington—The Administration Pleased with the Outlook. Views of Vice Presidept Hendricks and Ex-Senator McDonald Comments of the Press. Washington Views. Washington special. The President very justly believes that the success of his own party in his own State is an expression of confidence in him, and an approval of his course. It shows that his party will come out and vote, whether on account of or in spite of his course is a matter of secondary consideration. The result in New York gives the President a standing with the Democratic party in the country that he could not have had without it. He received news of the probable result on the train coming from Buffalo, and manifested great pleasure. Upon reaching the White House the good news was confirmed, and the size of the victory was made more apparent, and the President’s satisfaction was complete. He at once telegraphed his congratulations to Gov. Hill. Col. Lamont says that in proportion to the size of the State fewer removals were made in New York than in almost any other State. It is certain that the Presidential patronage was not used to any extent to help the party in New York, because many of the local bosses were complaining of the* fact during the campaign. The President, the Governor, and the two New York members of the Cabinet were entirely agreed that the Democratic party in New York would be best served if the Federal administration kept its hands off. The overwhelming Republican defeat three years ago was the result of indignation at an attempt, or a supposed attempt, by the national administration to manage New York politics. Tuesday’s election showed that the Democratic party can carry New York State without the employment of Federal patronage, and this success of a party which possessed the power but would not use Federal patronage is a distinct and a very important gain for civil-service reform. Had the Democratic party lost New York it is certain that every Republican and every Democratic opponent of civil-service reform would have accepted the result as a demonstration of the purely Utopian character of the reform. Judge McCue, Solicitor of the Treasury, said to-day: “We owe it to that man,” pointing to the White House. “It was because the people had confidence in him that they voted for Hill. They knew he would not have supported Hill if he had not wanted him elected. They knew he was earnest in that. He demonstrated it by going several hundred miles to vote for him. The victory is an indorsement of the administration; ” Second Comptroller Maynard says the victory in New York is not a surprise to him. It is a mistake, he thinks, to that it is a “straight Democratic victory,” inasmuch as New York is such a close State that there can not be a straight victory for either party. There is an independent vote of about 75,000, composed of members of both parties, which can decide the result. While the so-called mugwump papers opposed Hill, the majority of the independents and Republicans who voted for Cleveland supported Hill, and the Democrats got the support of the labor vote. It was shown by the vote outside of New York that Mr. Hill got the same support that was given to Tilden. Representative Frank Hurd says it is a, splendid victory, and highly gratifying, but he declines to express an opinion as to whether or not the victory was an indorsement of the administration. Ex-Representative Casey Young said the victory would strengthen the Democratic party. The only effect it could have upon the administration would be to strengthen it in its present policy, to which the victory w'ould be considered to be due. Assistant Secretary Fairchild thinks the victory in New York is due to the policy followed by the President, and it is an indorsement of the administration. The President, Mr. Manning, Mr. Whitney, and Gov. Hill were in perfect accord as to the President’s policy concerning appointments in New York. He thinks any attempt to use the victory as an indorsement of any other policy, and to make the President act differently with regard to appointments, will fail. Congressman Morrison, of Illinois, said: “I think that the result shows conclusively that the country is Democratic by a safe majority. That is as good a reason as I can give for the result.” Gov. Hill Speaks His Mind. Elmira (N. Y.) special. Gov. Hill was serenaded by the Elmira Club. In respojjsarto calls he delivered an address, in which he thanked his neighbors for having assisted in vindicating him from the charges which had been brought against him during the campaign, congratulated the party upon the fact that New York is a Democratic State, and said that the result showed that the independent Republicans had left their party and become permanently identified with the Democratic party.