Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 January 1883 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. BY JNO. C. NEW & SON. For Rates of Subscription, etc., see Sixth Paee. MONDAY, JAM AHY 8, 1883. We wonder if Mr. Vanderbilt has found out by this time that he has any interest in the Nickel-plate railway? It was Job that “oh’d” that his enemy might write a book. The most bitter enemy of Mr. Hendricks need only “oh’' that he would write Yi letter. It is reported that Mrs. Langtry will appear three nights in this city, and it is safe to say that she will receive a polite, if not cordial, reception. As for Mr. Gebhart, an effort is being made to keep the sand-baggers from killing him outright. The total cost of the new capitol of the State of New York to date has been $14,222,903.09. The building will never be finished, like all public buildings. When one end Beern9 to he done work will have to be commenced at the other end. The question agitating Indiana is what will its capitol cost before it shall be ready for occupancy. Archbishop Purcell has sent all his worldly goods, about sixty dollars, to assist in discharging the debts due his Cincinnati creditors. The venerable prelate is living in absolute dependence with the sisters of the Ursuline Convent in Brown county, Ohio. There is something pathetic in the old man sending such a pittance to apply toward a debt of millions. The scheme of Uncle Rufus Hatch to lease Yellowstone Park is properly condemned. That great national park should not be in the hands of private parties, but put under government care, and held in trust for all the people of the United States. It should be preserved front injury of all kinds, so that its natural wonders and beauties and resources may remain unimpaired. Let us have one thing in this land of the free and the home of the brave not under the thumb of some monopoly or other. Uncle Rufus is a very picturesque character, but the Yellowstone is still more picturesque just as nature made it. A common-sense rule has been established In the Interior Department at Washington. A w ife of one of the clerks in that department complained to Secretary Teller, recently, that her husband was too intimate with one of the female employes. The Secretary investigated, and found the charge sustained, whereupon he discharged them both. This was more than the complainant had contemplated. She only wanted the woman punished, and she pleaded for her husband’s reinstatement, but the Secretary declined to grant her prayer. Healthy ideas of justice like the above should prevail elsewhere. The action of the coroner’s jury in the case of the shooting of Patrick McGowan, iast week, will commend itself everywhere. Roundsman Delaney was sent to arrest an offender in a saloon notorious for its dangerous character. McGowan resisted the officer and endeavored to prevent him getting his man, going so far as to club the officer over the head with a revolver. McGowan then jumped into a hack and tried to escape. Delaney followed, his face and eyes covered with blood from his wounds. McGowan then fired at him, the ball striking him in the eye and lodging in the temple, making a dangerous and it may be fatal wound. The officer fired twice in return, sending a ball through the desperado’s heart. The jury concluded its labors by commending Delaney’s act, and presented him with a handsome gold watch and chain in recognition of the bravery displayed in performing his duty. Such evidences of appreciation are calculated to encourage police officers in the discharge of perilous undertakings, while at the same time they discourage the sentimental blubberings over dead desperadoes. William Pendergrast probably has a very poor opinion of the law and of human judgment in general. He is serving a term in the Albany penitentiary for having passed a counterfeit silver dollar. He thought he was innocent, but the evidence was so conclusive against him that he finally concluded to plead guilty in order to save time and annoyance. An expert in the case, of twentyfive years’ expertness, testified that the coin was not only bad, but very bad. The “detectives” in the case, with an eye to the main chance, forwarded the coin to the Treasury Department and blandly laid claim to the reward. There the piece was submitted to every known test, and it came out of all of them bright and smiling, and proved to be genuine beyond doubt. But the law had said that Pendergrast was guilty, and the law couldn’t afford to go back on its word. So the matter was laid before the President, and he has solved the difficulty by pardoning an innocent man. Law, like women, is “a rum critter.” The Sherman bill forextending the bonded period should become a law, not in the interest of the whisky men. but in the interest of general business. If it is not passed, as Mr. Sherman said, there is likely to be widespread distress. Records of the Treasury Department show that the number of gallons of distilled spirits now in bond, and which will have to be withdrawn and tax paid during the current calendar year, if the bonded bill recently passed by the Senate should not become a law, is 10,003,870, and that the amount which would have to be paid as taxes on these spirits is $14,943,483. The quantity that must be withdrawn during the present month under the present law is 012,000 gallons, and the tax to be paid is $351,000. During February there will be about 030,000 gallons, and the tax to be paid about $843,000. Os the total quantity of spirits now in bond,over four-fifths are owned by dealers, residents of the States of Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York and Ohio. Banks are carrying this whisky largely. There is no demand for it, and if it should be thrown upon the market there would be either no sale, or immense loss, beside the payment of the internal revenue which the government does not need. The

plainest demands of business are imperative that the financial markets shall not be put to the strain of having this whisky forced out of bond and the tax paid. What response will the voters of the Ninth district make to Congress to-morrow? The Republican party has heeded the voice spoken in November, and as the first fruits the civll-9ervice bill has become a law. The Republican representatives in Congress are hard at work upon other measures of relief desired by the people. The Democracy of Indiana have put themselves on the record solidly against civil-service reform, and in the Legislature have exhibited the meanest possible partisan spirit. The election of Doxey to-morrow would indicate that the people are watching the current of affairs, and intend to make themselves heard and obeyed by political parties.

CHICKENS A LA MODE Few are the people who will not confess to a liking for chickens, or at all events, for chicken. Questioned upon the subject, it is quite probable that the majority will admit that their partiality has reference entirely to the toothsomeness of the bird when roasted orfricaseed, or in the dyspeptic form of salad. There are others, however, more or less Aesthetic in their tastes, as the case may be, who are enthusiats in the matter of live fowls. These may be the regular poultry fanciers, whose interests are wholly financial, or they may be amateurs who grow eloquent over the shade of a feather, or the number of notches on the comb of his pure-blooded birds. The amateur has a financial interest, too, but not of a compound nature, the returns being in inverse ratio to the investment. Then there is a large class of persons who are neither amateurs nor professionals. They know no difference between common barn-yard fowls and aristocratic hens, whose eggs sell for $3 a dozen, until the superiority of the latter is pointed out to them. Nevertheless, in spite of this ignorance, they have an admiration for chickens in all conditions of life, as well as those with their heads cut off. Everyone, then, can go to the poultry show now being held in Masonic Hall and find something to please. If a man doesn’t like the sight of these fowls with their feathers on, he can delight his fancj r by picturing the gigantic, but tender, spring chickens dressed —would not undressed be more correct?— and set before him in tempting brownness, done to a turn. The first visit to a poultry show is an event to be remembered. The unsuspecting visitor, who has recollections of the red rooster and the dozen hens which strayed about the premises when he was a child, is not prepared for what is coming. At the foot of the stairs he hears a noise like the scraping of innumerable fiddles, mingled with what may be horns and some distant thunder. Once in the hall, the deafening din proves to be nothing more than the crowing of cocks, the cackling of liens, assisted by a number of geese and turkeys with a corresponding volume of voice. Do cocks crow that way on ordinary occasions? Is the rooster in the freedom of the barnyard in the habit of crowing so continuously? There is a tradition that a cock crows once each hour of the twenty-four. By being penned up and brought into a giddy round of dissipation which compels him to stay awake at night, has he lost the faculty of determining the time of day? Or does the sight of so many rivals incite him to trials of vocal skiii without regard to time? The hens adapt themselves to circumstances more gracefully. If they are filled with jealousy and envy they hide these feelings, and cluck and cackle with their accustomed placidity. They all sing and cackle and crow and gobble at once, and without ceasing, until the wonder arises whether they are each trying to outdo the other, or trying vainly to commune to each other —for possibly they do not speak a common language. Can the Cochin be expected to know what the Brahmas are saying, or the black Spanish to understand the Plymouth Rocks? Describe the birds? No indeed. No one but an expert with no personal choice as to breeds could do that, and no such unbiased expert exists. The visitor, who has some knowledge of the animosity toward each other which fills the bosoms of owners of different breeds of cattle and hogs, and presumably of poultry fanciers, declines to mention his favorite among the birds on exhibition. Should he declare in favor of the buff Cochins or the Plymouth Rocks, volumes of statistics to prove their inferiority to the Leghorns and the black Cochins would be hurled at his head, and he would be pursued by breeders of Houdans, Sebrights, and all the other varieties, with proofs that he was wrong. But it is safe to say that they are all beautiful. It can be no longer a question where the wings and feathers are procured which ornament the feminine bonnets of the season. It is not the innocent song-bird which is robbed, but the domestic fowl. The gorgeousness of plumage is tropical. Breeding for feathers, according to farm authorities is a waste of trouble, but the owners of ornamental birds evidently know what they are about. By happy management and foresight, the leading colors are the fashionable ones in feminine attire. All the terracotta shades can be found. “Old-gold” birds are in plenty, and the stylish mingling of black und white is found in all styles. Jet black hens with white topknots, white hens with black topknots, and polka-dotted hens arc numerous. The old red rooster, too, is quite in order. Next year the prevailing colors in dress goods, it is said, will be green3 and blues. Poultry-raisers will, doubtless, exhibit, at the next show, birds in every gradation of theso tiuts. The

TILE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, MONDAY, JANUARY 8, 1883.

topknots themselves are a feature of interest, and are not unlike headgear which the girl of the period wears to the opera because she is told not to do so. The crested Houdans and Polish hens —yes* the cocks also, and the latter are the more show T y—peer out from under a mass of drooping plumes and feathery bangs, seeming proud of the distinction which these confer. The incubator is the center of attraction. Into one end of it the eggs are placed, steam is turned on, and after due time chickens are ground out at the other end of the machine. It is quite a marvelous invention. It saves, in the first place, much time and trouble to the hen, leaving her free to devote herself entirely to the production of eggs. With eggs at thirty cents a dozen, no public spirited heu can fail to see the advantage of tne invention. Looking at this steam stepmother one naturally wonders whether this method of getting on in life will not finally result in changing the nature of the chicks. Brought by wholesale into a life where there is no clucking, cooing mother to cuddle them under her wings, what will be the final result upon their characters? Orphans turned loose into a wire nursery, with hot-water pipes to their backs instead of the maternal wishbone, their development must be abnormal. If the full grown specimens on exhibition were raised by hand, it must be said that the development is abnormally large as to physical results. Whether a hen is morally benefited through a training and environment which impels her to lay eggs 365 days in the year and to refuse to “set,” is a question to be determined. All classes and conditions of people go to the chicken show and come away with the intention of repeating the visit. As tho Journal came away a bass-viol Cochin-China voice near the door seemed to invite another call, an invitation we have promised to accept.

“Messrs. John C. New & Soo: “Can you not send the Journal, via Terre Haute, so as to reach here by the 8:27 morning train? Other Indianapolis papers come by that train.” “Waveland, Ind.” The above is a sample of several letters the Journal has received within a few days, one of them being from Bloomington, asking that the papers be sent via Greencastle so as to reach there by 7:45 a. m. A moment’s reflection will show our agents the impossibility of their requests. The first trains from Indianapolis in the morning to Greencastle and Terre Haute do not leave this city until 7:30 o’clock, and, of course, there could be no connection with the train south from Greencastle and north from Terre Haute at any such hour as is indicated. If any Indianapolis paper, purporting to be a morning paper, reaches Bloomington and Waveland at 8 o'clock, it is simply practicing a petty and contemptible fraud upon the people who patronize it. It is a sheet printed the night before, not later than 10 o’clock, leaving here on tfle 11 o’clock night train, and sent out from Greeucastle and Terre Haute by the early morning trains from those points. Such a paper is nothing more than an evening paper, and cannot possibly contain the news which should be in a paper dated the following morning, The Journal is not printing an evening paper, and does not care to perpetrate a confidence game upon its patrons by dating itself a day ahead, and palmiftg off old and stale matter upon them. The Morning Journal is sent out on all the early trains from Indianapolis, and reaches every part of Indiana and adjacent States at the earliest hour possible with the existing railway facilities. “The issue as to whether the amendments will be submitted at a special or a general election is a matter of minor importance, and ought not to endanger the main point of the question. While every person believes that a special election would demonstrate more clearly and fully the wishes of the people, and would be freer from all partisan bias and prejudice, yet if the dominant party is determined to not submit them at a special election then the Republicans should acquiesce in a general election, rather than endanger the submission of the amendments.”—Knightstown Banner. AVhen the Republican convention met in this city on the 9th of August last, the whole question hinged upon what the Banner declares now to be a matter of minor importance. The only question in the committee on resolutions was this one, and had not the platform declared for a special election, and thereby against a general election, it would have been so amended by the convention by the votes of ninety-nine out of every hundred delegates present. It was the issue involved in the whole campaign, so far as the idea of the Democratic party submitting the amendments was considered at all. The Republican members of the Legislature will adhere to their pledge made to the people, and in nothing more strenuously than on this particular point. Real temperance people, even the prohibitionists, would prefer that there shbuld be no submission rather than submission at a general election. The Republicans of the Ninth congressional district should elect Major Charles T. Doxey to Congress to-morrow. Such a result would not only be a proper rebuke to the false and slanderous campaign the Demo-crats-have made against him, but would be a fitting companion piece to the election of Colonel Taylor in Ohio as the successor of Dr. Updegraff, showing that the tide which brought disaster to the Republican party everywhere in November last has been stayed. There is a general wail of disappointment over the Cincinnati Consolidated, particularly from the old readers and patrons of the Gazette, of which not a single trace remains, except the initials “R. 5.,” “8. R. R.,” and “J. T. P.,” which the new management compel the old Gazette writers to tag on to their

articles, The former Gazette readers in Indiana, having no ties to bintl them to the new paper, are subscribing for the Journal, which they will find a better paper for them, as residents of Indiana, than even their old and favored friend. “There is a growing prospect that the civilservice reform humbug* will be defeated in the House. The sham has disgusted everybody, and there is reason to believe that Mr. Pendleton himself would have abandoned the thing long ago if he could have found any excuse to do so. The defeat of the bill in the House would probably be a relief to him, as it would certainly be to ninety-nine out of every one hundred Democrats in the country.”—Evansville Courier, Friday. With this paragraph was printed the fact that the bill passed before this was written, by a vote of 155 to 47. The Courier seems to have been caught, like Statesmen Hendricks and McDonald, witn a lot of last year’s ammunition on hand. “The Governor’s message is not especially alarming except as to length. He could hardly have spread himself over any more ground if he had discussed the combined interests of Europe, Asia and Africa. He is as long-winded as Joseph Cook, of Boston.”— Sentinel. Not so alarming as the coarse partisan discourtesy of the Sentinel. Two years ago Governor Gray, who had been in office but a few days, gave the General Assembly a message making more than ten columns of the Journal, at least half as large again as the admirable message of Governor Porter.

One would hardly look to a dime museum for a lovo episode, nor to a living skeleton for a “masher.” Still, there are always exceptions, and the unpromising quarters of a dime museum in New York have developed a skeleton that made a mash on a professional beauty. Isaac W. Sprague is the attenuated human ossification in question, and his heart was so touched In sympathy for oue of the beauties who failed to get a prize in the late contest, that he figuratively wept with her over her chagrin aud disappointment. Her number was seventy-one, and her name Minnie Thompson. When the skeleton breathed forth hie tale of condolence, Miss Tuompson was Impressed. He weighs forty pounds, while she kicks the beam, metaphorically, at 160. Iu short, she’s plump and he’s thin. But that didn’t interfere. He was impressed by her, of course, for she was a beauty, and she was favorably disposed toward him, beoause—well, just because. The engagement was over, and the other competing beauties went their various ways, but still she llugered near, and waited patiently about till the reason did appear. With an eye to the beautiful, she had sized Mr. Skeleton, and come to the conclusion that he would be perfectly lovely in her parlor posing ou one leg as a stork. So Aesthetic, you know, and all that. The plot thickened. Sprague kept right on in business on his slender capital, and Miss Thompson —probably a relative of Thompson’s colt—made daily visits to the museum. He fouud preoious opportunities to whisper sweet nothings in her ear, and mauaged to slip his arm about her waist, murmuring that it should always sustain her, be a wbalebone to her aud the little olive branches that should grace their table in coming years. In the evenings she practiced at balancing berseir on bis knee, while bis fingers, like bunches of licorice root, conjured warm blushes into her checks. In a few weeks they were clean gone on eaoh other, and when he asked her if she loved him, she sweetly lisped: “You bet your boues.” That Bottled it, and he hied himself for a license, aud they were married. This teaches that true love is lum-tuin every where—in the palaces of the poor, as well as iu the humble cottages of the rich. Be good, dear girls, and “fly,” and you may marry a skeleton or a fool yourself some day. A few years ago the girl of the period begged silver dimes from her male acquaintances, which, when engraved with the victim’s initials, she wore about her neck as trophies. Now, according to an Eastern paper, the prevailing craze among young ladies is a “hair aloum”—gentlemen’s hair. No man, unless be is bald beaded, can resist an entreaty from a fair damsel for a lock of bis hair, and a girl with any enterprise might easily secure enough to start a hair store with, unless her mends chance to indulge iu the “sandpaper cut.” These scalps, when obtained, are not worn by the possessors, but are tied with ribbons, fastened into an album and labeled with the original owner’s name, together with a personal description ami such comments as may occur to the young lady. An enterprising newspaper man has been interviewing Patti upon the subject of Mrs. Langtry and her alleged flirtatious. This authority upon morals, public and private, drawing a leaf from her own experience, perhaps, is of the decided opinion that it is none of the publio’s business what Mrs. Langtry does in private life, but kindly remarks that she ought to bo more care : ful about her couduct, because Gebhart is so young. The prima donna is “so sorry,” too, for the poor Prince of Wales. “They have lugged him in so much that he must feel immensely scandalized.” This is a view which has probably not oenurred to au inconsiderate and heartless public. The Saturday Herald opened tho new year with a readjustment of itself, and a dress of tinted, finely-calendered paper, upon whloh its well-arrauged pages presented a handsome appearance. The Journal has had occasion to differ from the Herald in the past, and expects to find opportunity for disagreements in the future, but the world is big enough for honest variances of judgment. The truth is not likely to be always the exclusive property of any one person or paper, and the Journal is certainly comfortably enough conditioned to welcome with pleasure any evidences of the prosperity of its neighbors and friends. A London correspondent of a New York paper says English readers would be better pleased with Julian Hawthorne, if, instead of publishing fragments of his father’s writings, he would complete a story of his own called “Fortune’s Fool,” which has been left broken off in the middle in Macmillan’s Magazine. Perhaps Julian is perpetrating an American joke on the English readers—the “Fools” being those who expect any more chapters to the story. Paris doctors now agree that a person must fall a distance of at least six hundred feet in order to be unconscious when the collision occurs. Persons who have been contemplating suicide by the supposed painless method of dropping from a fourth-story window will now hunt a higher jumping-off place. Even the Washington Monument, when finished, will lack fifty feet of the requisite height. Wk have granted you use of the floor. Most; But if you should blarney much more, Most, By tho soruff of the ueck We’ll grab you, and decorously hustle you out headforemost. Joseph Cook owns up to being a raeio-gnos-tio. We always thought so, but out of regard for Joseph’s character, never mentioned the fact. A Chicago paper says of a young actress who made her debut iu that city at the begiuulug of

the present season that she haß already “succeeded in reaching the top rung or the ladder of fame.” Wonder what she will do next! Mrs. Stillwell had not confessed to any more murders at latest advices. ABOUT PEOPLE. E. W. Brady, formerly of the Munnle Times, has purchased the Davenport News, aud is furnishing the people of lowa with a good temperance paper. Mr. Dorman B. Eaton says that the passage of the civil-service bill is a most encouraging sign of the times, and is the first step in the reform to whioh it will inevitably lead. Some of the young gentlemen of New York will be interested at the present time to know that “mashing” is a word of gypsy origin, from mashava, meaning fasolnatiou by the eye. The questiou of the morality of Wait Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” is to be tested in a Boston court. A man there has been arrested for seudiug it through the mail. He is charged with “circulating obsoene literature.” Major Burke, of the New Orleans TimeßDeiuocrat, went to work iu astoneyard as a common laborer just after tho war. He is now supposed to be worth half a million, and to be looking toward the United States Senate. In a Boston club a year or so ago a player In a game of whist held the thirteen trumps; and there has been suob a case in a New York club. But the Loudon Court Journal tells how, at the Cuvier Club, four well-known gentlemen held each the thirteen of a suit. Vanity Fair tells a story of how Anthony Trollope once heard two novel-reading youths, in a wayside inn, disoussiug one of his “eternal” characters, of whom they were tired. He rose, acknowledged himself to be the author, and promised to go home and kill the charaoter. In the following installmant she died of apoplexy. Mr. Croffut writes: “The fashion or custom of smokiug is making headway among New York ladies. Thousands of ladies in the oity are fond of their oigarette, anu many of them smoke ‘regular’ cigars. I hear, iudeed, of ladies who give ‘smoking parties' to their confidential friends, where the cigar takes the plaoe as the inspirer of gossip heretofore held by immemorial tea.” The Detroit News *s responsible for the statement that a Tecumseh, Mioh., belle will soon be married in a pair of blaok silk stooklngs whioh her grandmother was married in forty years ago. If she could only get, in addition, her grandfather's hat of forty years ago, a paper collar, a smile and a pair of spurs she certainly would have a novel costume, but to be married in nothing but a pair of black silk stockings is something which the town officials ought to prevent. The Rev. George Gordon, of Greenwich, Conn., has been called to the pastorate of the Old South Church, Boston, one of the “softest,” as it is one of the most historical, pulpits in the United Btates. The salary is SB,OOO a year and parsonage. Mr. Gordon is a Scotchman, thirty years old, and unmarried. He worked his way through Harvard, overcoming many obstacles inoident to poverty, and graduated with high honors. President Eliot speaks of him as one of the most remarkable graduates for many years. While driving, recently, from Godollo to a hunting meet, near the Hungarian village of Magoroyd, the Empress of Austria saw au old woman almost on the edge of a high bank overhanging a rapid stream. Without uttering a word to any one, her Majesty sprang out of the carriage ana ran to the poor creature, whom she overtook just in time to save her from falling into the river. It turned out that the old woman was blind, and that the mere child who acted as her guide lagged behind. When the little girl came up the Empreee gave her a scolding and the olu woman a handsome gratuity. g= "■ 1 —SB* THE SPIRIT OF THE PRESS. Mr. Hendrick’s letter is an illustration of Mr. Henarick's incapacity to catch up with a modern idea till it has been crystallized iu law aud m fact. He is a slow team, but gets on to the new track If time in given him.—Cincinnati Commercial Gazette. The great revolutionary party of Russia has uo connection with Nihilism, which aims to produce anarchy. The revolutionary party embraces many thousands of influential persons who demand sweeping reforms in the government and the administration of the empire.—Louisville Courier-Journal. There must have been a corner in sackcloth and ashes in Boston after the full budget of Massachusetts sins and stupidities had been unloaded on a representative assemblage of citizens who, until then, had fondly imagined their State was the chief among thirty-eight and the oue altogether lovely.—New York Herald. Massachusetts will not find it easy to Ignore either its criticisms or its recommendations. Butler evidently iutends to be alive Governor, and if there is not a raking up of old abuses, a breaking to pieces of routine methods, and the infusion of new vigor, tempered with economy, in the administration of affairs, it will not be his fault.—New York Times. Is order to get people to vote two things must be brought about: The voters must be educated, and such a system of voting be adopted as will assure every man that his vote has its proper vaiue in tho genoral result. Before our elections express satisfactorily the will of tho people there wu9t be some system of minority representation. —Louisville Commercial. The permanent and proper revenue from distilled spirits and all that can he derived from it, in the long run, is the tax on annual consumption, and that will not be affected in the slightest degree by the extension of the bouded period. The House ought to pass the bill at once. Every day’s delay is an injury, and an injustice beoause an injury.—Louisville Commercial. Ex-Governor and ex-Viee President Hendricks has been accused of being a little slow and exceedingly cautious at times about expressing opinions, but he lias usually been oareful to be acourate when he did give expression to opinions coupled with tacts. We can understand how some people can deliberately misrepresent the clvii-servlce bill. As Mr. Hendricks is incapable or this lie must have failed to read the bill.— Cincinnati News. The deep and persistent distrust of the Democratic party still remains, ana defeat of reform by Democratic tricks aud machinations will array the whole independent vote against the Democratic party in the election of 1884, because it would be clear that in the event of success that, party contemplated a “clean sweep.” to which the country will uot consent. On the other hand, tho Republicans are responsible for legislation, and defeat of reform will go far to make Republican success in 1884 impossible.— Harper’s Weekly. Nobody of sense imagines that the Pendleton bill will be thoroughly efficient all at once. But whoever believes in the oojeot of tho bill, as Mr. Reagan said lie did, ought to see that the passage even of an imperfect bill has a great moral value. At the lowest it is a declaratory resolution by Congress in favor of the principle of tho nill, and very different from the platform buncombe, being more specific and purporting to make a practical application of the principle. A real ana not a sham admission of the principle is the beginning of all reform; and in making such an admission yesterday Congress took a long step toward securing a reform of the clvii service.—New York World.

THE COMMERCIAL GAZETTE. Expressions of Disappointment with the Great Consolidated. Columbus Republican. There is a general feeling of disappointment over the first number of the Cincinnati paper, the Commercial Gazette. The Commercial appears to have swallowed the Gazette, and those who have read the latter paper all their lives and regarded it as their political bible cannot be reconciled to the unfamiliar countenance of the consolidated affair. Neither in form nor matter does it resemble the old Gazette, and unless it improves with age, it cannot fulfill the hopes of its friends. Muncie News. The complete absorption of the Cincinnati Gazette by the Cincinnati Commercial will be a surprise ami a disappointment to the thousands of the readers of the Gazette who have for so many years been accustomed to its vigor and conscientiousness. The old Gazette will be hard to replace in the minds of its old and time-tried friends.

STATE EXCHANGE TABLE. The Rape of the Benevolent Institu* tious Vigorously Condemned. How the Constitutional Amendments Should Be Treated—Effect of Free-TradeJTalk on the Iron luterest. Effect of Democratic Free Trade Talk. Clay County Enterprise. How is the prospect of a Democratic Cos gress and free trade affecting the iron trade of the country at the present time? Simply in this way: If a railroad company, for instance, wants to buy a million dollars’ worth of iron, and they believe they can get it 40 per cent, cheaper after the Democratic Congress convenes than they can get it now, they will wait until that time before they make their contracts. And the anticipation of free trade, brought about by a Democratic Congress, and consequent cheap iron, is the very thing that is causing the iron works to suspend all over the country, and is causing the mines to shut down or have only onehaif work about Brazil. Hence it is that the folly of voting the Democratic ticket has already become apparent. Fear of Failure of Reform. Michigan City Enterprise. There seems, so far, to be little objection raised in any quarter to the civil-service reform bill that recently passed the Senate and to soon come before the House. The general feeling is, however, that while there are certain reforms needed in the civil service, any attempt at correcting the existing evils by putting the appointments beyond the reach of political influence will, from the very nature of our form of government, be more or less inoperative. In a short time such a law would undoubtedly become a dead letter, as the party in power would necessarily control the offices, and hence make tha appointments and dictate removals in a manner that suited their interests best. High License for Liquor Saloons. Lognusport Journal. The people of Chicago are very earnestly considering the question of a high saloon license for that city. It is argued that the proceeds of a high license fee could be used in employing a larger police force, securing protection to life and property. The common sense of high saloon license is thus made very apparent. The saloons are almost universally the cause or abettor of crime, and if they cannot be closed up entirely they should be taxed to support the means required to counteract their evil work. A high license will also greatly reduce the number of saloons, and increase their responsibility to the community in which they exist. Let the Democracy Go On. Terre Haute Courier, Several years ago a Democratic Legislature passed a law. making it the duty of the Governor to appoint the trustees of the State benevolent institutions. Now, when thii officer happens to be a Republican, the noto* rious Democratic Senator, Jason Brown, comes to the front with a bill, to take this power from the Governor and place it in the hands of a Democratic Legislature. This is in keeping with pure Democratic doctrine. We say to the Democratic majority, go on in this perfidious course. As sure as the sun shines, a day of reckoning will come.

Hard Job for the Bosses. Columbus Republican. A few years ago a Democratic Legislature, for purely political reasons, took the appointment of the officers of the benevolent inatitution9 away from the Legislature and gave it to the Governor. Now the Governor is a Republican, and for purely political reasons they propose to change it back to the Legislature. * * * It is said that Hendricks and McDonald have assumed the guardianship of this Legislature, but it they succeed in keeping it from becoming an object of disgust they will have to begin early and exercise a very close watch. Trifling with the Benevolent Institutions. Richmond Palladium. It may be all rislit that the Democrats should have all the time, what they so much desire —the spoils of office —but it is certainly very reprehensible to attempt to make the management of the benevolent institutions of the State a political prize, to secure which the laws relating to them are to be changed and rechanged every time the Legislature passes from one party to the other. Th Democrats have made a blunder in their first move, and if they continue as they have begun will soon disgust everybody who cares for fair dealing. Public Office and Party Responsibility. Worthington Times. Our present civil service, as administered by the Republican party, is the best, all things considered, that can be devised. Any effort to improve upon it will be a failure, though some of its details are probably subject to improvement. The representative men ot the dominant party ought to hold the offices and rule the country. That is all that politics means. It is sound principle and sound policy. Eliminate this idea and political organization disappears, to be followed by chaos and effeminate government. Democratic Treatment of the Amendments, John H. Stoll in Ligonior Banner. With reference to the disposal of the prohibition amendment I understand it to be the judgment of the safest Democratic managers that, inasmuch as these amendments were not properly entered upon the legislative records, they are not now legally before the General Assembly, and consequently cannot be treated as having been constitutional!/ acted upon by the preceding Legislature, il resolution to that effect will doubtless pass both houses. The Real Sphere of Legislation. Richmond Palladium. It seems to us that a legislature which should abolish laws which are practically useless, offenses which are technical and trivial, simplify the criminal code, and provide a clear and specific punishment for every remaining offense, would increase respect for and obedience to the law, stop the waste of thousands of dollars in frivolous and spiteful prosecutions, and would furnish a positive proof of their faith in the world’s progress, and in the success of Christian endeavor. A Word to Democratic Legislators. Crawfonisville Review (Dem.). The Review desires to whisper a word into the ears of the Democratic Legislature of the State of Indiana. Vote to submit the constitutional amendments to the people at a general election. We want no ‘monkeying’ about this matter. The Democratic party stands pledged to do this, and it must be done. The man who opposes the platform on which he was elected will bi buried, politically, so deep that Gabriel’s trumpet will fail to awaken him. Tlie Governor and the Benevolent Boards. Madison Courier. Earnest Republicans rejoice that our Governor will not lend a hand to aid the Democratic party in supporting one of its weak and crippled schemes. It was clearly his duty to appoint sound, solid Republicans to each board of trustees, and place the entire responsibility of rejecting them upon the Democratic party, and let that party carry the full odium of passing another bill in order to hold these places in their own hands. Let the Democrats Dance. Monticello Herald. Now let the Democrats, in the words of Mr. English, “dance to tne music” of the amendment submission. We shall soon see how much in earnest they were when they declared for submission.