Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 January 1885 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. BY JNO. C. NEW Jt SOX. THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, -1885. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Cjmn b* four.3 at the following KjON'DOK—Amei,'a Lxcuaiitje in Europe, 449 strand. FATJIS —American Exchange in rW.a. 30 Boulevard tdat, Capucinoa. XSW YORK—St. Nicholas and Windsor tiotela CHICAGO—PaImer House. CINCINNATI—J. R Hawley & Cos.. 154 Vine Street. X4WISVTLLE—^C. T. Hearing- northwest come Third and Jefferson streets. CP LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot and Southern Hotel. Telephone Calls. Eiaineos Office -38 | Editorial R00m5.... 242 Open winter this—frozen and cracked open. Be it remembered all this time that the Democratic party is the party of “reform,” Tie law will be reformed to accommodate sa-lpMi-keepers. If, as is now claimed, Mr. Cleveland’s policy is to be of the mugwuiupian order, Mr. Hendricks’s adherents will at once organize a lodge of sorrow. It would be a disgrace upon the State officials to re-elect John P. Freuzel to the office ir has so signally dishonored, but the Republican party can stand it if the Democratic party can. ________________ The Baltimore Manufacturer's Record publiahes a list of manufactories that have resumed work since the beginning of the year, tutd shows that one hundred thousand men have returned to employment. The new South American cancer cure, to which the attention of the State Department las been called, is known as “alveloz.” The department might give it a trial on the “cauetron the body politic,” that campaign orators at* so fond of talking about. The last annual sale of Plymouth Church pews showed a tailing off of about $7,000. Those in Dr. Talmage’s Tabernacle sold on Monday night at an advance of $585 over last year. It may yet dawn on somebody that Mr. Beecher’s unwarranted and unclerical course in the last campaign did hurt him in the esteem of his parishioners. Mr. FrenzEL would undoubtedly be glad to go back to his old place on the police commission if ho thought ho could “boss” it in the way he did for two years. But in some way he has accumulated the idea that Commissioners Murphy and Morrison mean business, Mr. Murphy having tired of “Frenzelism.” Why not re-elect him, and lot them ait down on him once more? Mr. Cleveland is reported to have said recently that the pressure for office is not, by any means, so overwhelming as he had expected. It is not known what he expected, but this expression of opinion is a trifle premature. If the interviewer will catch him a month after the inauguration, say about April 1, he will probably be willing to admit that the reality exceeds his wildest anticipations. A New York special gives the important information that the editor of the Evening Post has visited Governor Cleveland, and “has had a long talk with him about the mugwump policy of the incoming administration,” It is suspected that the mugwump policy of the Post just at present is to keep Mr. Schurz from securing a lucrative ap;>ointment, and, if Mr. Cleveland can be inoculated with the same virus, it is thought the visiting editor will be entirely satisfied with tho progress of reform. New York and Pennsylvania are making faces at each other over tho beggarly display' made by those States at the New Orleans exposition. Pennsylvania claims to have goods enough on the grounds to make a creditable exhibit, but is not able to secure an appropriation of funds which will enable the managers to unpack and arrange them. New York could raise any amount of money, j>erhaps, but has prepared no exhibits. It would seem by such showings as these, that the bad management and possible failure of the Exposition are not entirely due to inefficiency at the New Orleans end of the line. • ■ 111 I I MM The horrible discovery has just been made that the bones and dust which faithful Canadian Catholics have treasured and bowed reverently before for four years as the sanctified remains of St Claudius and St. Juliana, are fraudulent, and nothing but the ashes of common sinners. The Bishop of Montreal'secured a quantity of these relics during a visit to Rome in 1880, but it now appears that he was victimized, tho Pope’s certificates attached to the fragments having been forged by tho conscienceless Hebrew who palmed himself off on the good bishop as a devout dealer in church treasures. Tbs pretended relics are ordered by the Pope to be immediately destroyed. It was Mr. Samuel J. Randall who prevented consideration of the Grant retirement bill on Monday, by insisting that the bill from the foreign affairs committee, which had the first place in order under tho suspension of rules, should be read without the omission of any j>art. Ah the bill covered fifty finely-written pages, th*- reading and the subsequent discussion consumed the entire afternoon session. At 4 o’clock Mr. Lowry, of Indiana, moved to Adjourn, every member present fully under-

standing that tho previous proceedings and the adjournment meant an indefinite postponement of the Grant bill. Mr. Randall veiy craftily made a record on both sides by voting against adjournment, but the motion was carried, and it is not of record that he evinced any dissatisfaction thereat. Is there no Republican Watterton who will annihilate Mr. Randall? ' FINE WORDS BUTTER NO PARSNIPS. The Nineteenth Century Club needs the addition of a little virility to save it from senility and the gangrene of namby-pambyism. Made up largely of mugwumps and grannies, it lacks the vertebra) of decent loyalty and the manhood to assert it. At the last meeting the question of “The Solid South” was discussed, and in the absence of General J. B. Gordon, of Georgia, who was expected to read a paper on that topic, Messrs. Algernon Sullivan and Abraham Wukeman took it upon themselves to explain the raison d'etre of that anomaly of American politics. In opening, Mr. Sullivan said: “Why does the South cast its vote resolutely upon one side? It was as a rebuke to the Republican politicians that the South became solid. The same spirit filled the minds ot the Liberal Republicans during the recent campaign. I believe that the motive which the South had in becoming solid was that prompted by a wish to do the country the best service in its power. It was an honest protest against putting 7,000.000 of people under the control of a centralized political power not resident with them.” If Mr. Sullivan knows the alphabet of current politics, he knows that his argument is not only disingenuctus but unqualifiedly false in its logic and deductions. What, in the name of ordinary common sense, has the Republican party done that the rebellious South feels called upon to rebuke? Whence comes the inspiration and force of the Republican party but from the ever-loyal North, and where now is it strongest in the hearts of the people but among those who threw all into the balance of war that the country might live despite the onslaught made by the solid South? What has been done that Satan must rebuke sin? Has the Republican party deprived it of local self government? Has it passed any laws that do not apply to the North as fully and completely as to the South? The spectacle of the solid South “rebuking” the Republican party is to make Benedict Arnold impeach Washington. The South casts its vote resolutely on one side, not as a rebuke to anybody, but as a deliberate conspiracy by which to eventually regain power through the aid of its Northern allies, ex-copperheads and modern mugwumps, a striking reproduction of tho ante-bellum pro-slavery men and Northern doughfaces, than which a more contemptible association never existed. With this consummation possible to their hope, tho murderous minority in the South has throttled free elections, shot and beaten the majority out of existence, and the “rebuke” is complete. Mr. Algernon Sullivan knows this as woll as ho knows there is a solid South, and he insults the intelligence of his hearers when ho ignores these palpable facts. But Mr. Wakeman is even more of a lickspittle than Sullivan, and casts honor and loyalty to the dogs. With impudent self-suf-ficiency, he said: “I accord to the South the same sincerity that we possess. Its people were born to believe that slavery was of divine origin. They therefore ought not to be treated with harshness. The South is made up of two elements —white and colored. By the fortunes of war the lutter were elevated from slavery to equal citizenship. When the right of franchise was bestowed upon the negro it was supposed that he would bo permitted to exercise it. The whites, however, still continued to regard the negro as an inferior. The sentiment of rebellion still exists among the white population of the South.” The South—that portion of it that electioneers with the shotgun and bull-whip, and that is the soul of its solidity—cannot fairly be accorded any sincerity whatever. It is treacherous, cruel, fraudulent and ungrateful. Bent on personal ends, the men who havo made the South solid have made it so by methods of murder and intimidation never heard of in the North. The Republican party, in all its lease of power, never passed a law that was not as wholesome for South Carolina as for Ohio —never; and despite Bourbon obstinacy, and evident hostility, the policy of the Republican party has done more to develop the South than ever would have been done under Democratic rule. That the South believed in tho divine origin of slavery is no sufficient apology for its existence. Exactly the same argument is employed by the Mormons in favor of polygamy. Would Mr. Wakeman urge the American people to respect the sentiment that makes polygamy anything else than infamous? What “harshness” has been employed toward the South at any time, and of what now can tho solid South complain? The slaves were freed, it is true, and “elevated from slavery to equal citizenship.” But that is all. The men who believed slavery a divine Institution, and who are now combined against the “harshness” of the Republican j>arty, whipped tho right of suffrage out of the slave, and is now about to take charge of the administration by virtue of a titlo perfected in .murder. The South is too manly even in its lawlessness to undertake to deny that the Republican majority of the South was strangled because it was made up from black voters. Talk to the solid South about a rebuke to the Republican party, and they would scorn the imputation. They sought power, and they havo at last got it—thanks to the Sullivans and Wakemans of New York, Mr. Wakeman would not be “harsh,” but with covered face and with every token of fraternal submission would approach the solid South ami beg its pardon for whatever may have offended it. Unlike SSUivan, he evidently realises that the

TILE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, THURSDAY, JANUARY 2% 1885.

South has butchered its way into power. But he does not say it that way. O, no; that would be too “harsh.” lie says: “When the right of franchise was bestowed upon the negro it was supposed that he would bo permitted to exercise it. Tho whites, however, still continued to regard the negro as an in ferioi!” The essence of the truth i3 in the words, but so deftly concealed and diluted aud sweetened that surely no one can take .JTense. It was exactly this same spirit of subserviency that emboldened the solid South to go into treason and rebellion. Tho argument was made throughout the South that the North would never dare fight them—it was too cowardly. The mugwumps are gently sowing the wind of * , * r ogance and disloyalty. Will they volunteer to help reap the whirlwind of results? NEWSPAPER POSTAGE. A number of bills are pending before Congress to ameliorate or entirely do away with what must be confessed is an unnecessary and onerous burden upon the metropolitan and class newspapers of the country. About ten years ago the law and the custom were changed, compelling newspaper publishers to prepay the postage on ail papers sent outside of the county of publication, which, to papers having a general circulation, has proved to be a most burdensome expense, amounting to an average of a million and a half of dollars a year, or about fifteen millions of dollars during’ the time tho law has been in operation. A fair consideration of the matter must show the injustice of this tax. The great bulk of tho newspaper publications of the country are the county weeklies. Out of a total periodical list of 11,314 given by the census of 1880 there were 8,633 weeklies, nearly ail of which, by the terms of the law, are permitted to bo circulated free in the counties in which they are published, tantamount to absolutely free circulation for most of them, as they have few or no subscribers outside of their counties. The relief asked for does not, therefore, touch this vast and valuable body of weekly papers, which are very properly accorded tho free privilege of the mails. The burden falls upon the city papers with general circulations all over tho oouutry, upon class journals which are devoted to special trades and professions, and upon tho entire religious press of the country, none of which come into any sort of competition with the regular local weeklies, and whoeo interests cannot, therefore, be in any sense antagonistic to the proposed modification or entire abolition of the present rate of pound newspaper postage. The justice of this proposition is recognized by the number of bills whioh have beon introduced into Congress. Among others who have interested themselves in the matter is Senator Voorliees, who introduced a resolution instructing “the oommitiee on postofticos and post roads to inquire into tho propriety and expediency of admitting all newspapexs, periodicals and other printed matter to the United States mails free of postage.” Post-master-general Howo, in a special letter addressed to Speaker Keifer, argued the justice and propriety of the free carriage of newspapers. He said: “If the public is to bo taxed for tho transportation of either class of mail matter, unquestionably it should bo not for the fourth class, but for the second. Intelligence rather than trade should be fostered by the government. It does not much concern the whole people what it costs the merchant of Montana to transport his teas or shoes from New York or Boston. On the contrary, the diffusion of intelligence is a matter of public and of general concern. It is hardly an extravagance to say that the circulation of newspapers and magaziues in Texas is a benefit to Vermont, and vice versa. This fact is recognized by existing laws. To spread information among the people the government not only sends free of postage hundreds of thousands of volumes through the mails, but. actually prints them for free distribution.” This argument is unanswerable. The postage on newspapers is a tax on intelligence. There is no agency so helpful to the government as the press; it is vastly more valuable than the tons of official documents that are passed through tho mails unchallenged, and upon which the idea of levying a rate of postage has never been broached. In 1880 the periodicals published in the United States was in the ratio of ouo to every 4,433 inhabitants, a larger ratio than anywhere else in the world. In the older countries the ratio runs all the way from 8,624 in Denmark to 971,428 in Turkey. These figures show that periodicals are peculiarly the literature of the people of the United States, and they should not be burdened unfairly by tho government for which they do so much. The memorial of the newspaper publishers of the country is again before Congress, and we believe, if it bo justly considered, its prayer will bo promptly granted. It does not ask entire exemption from postage, but merely a reduction in tho rate to correspond with the reduction made in tho rate of letter postage, which was in answer to a popular demand, and which has mot the approval of all the people. In the language of the memorial, “We hope you will add nothing to the burdens of tho publishers now free, but ask that you will diminish the burdens of those for whom we speak.” General Rosegrans does not mean to let shrinking modesty stand in the way of his political preferment. “I think I ought to be appointed Secretary jf War,” he is reported as saying. “I want it, the people want me there, and my experience fits me for it.” The General had many other things to say in his own behalf to the newspaper man who interviewed him, proceeding, probably, on the principle that every man should be his own advocate, on account of being better posted as to the merits of the subjeot than another

could bo. The argument which is being most strongly urged in his behalf is his religious faith. The General and his relatives are ardent Roman Catholics, and it fs maintained that his appointment would so please the Irish of that church, that thousands who voted for Blaine at the late election would return to the Democratic fold. “Mr. Cooper today said to a News reporter: ‘I don’t care whether there is an investigation or not. The committee would find every dollar, or a mighty good substitute. * Os course I don’t carry all of it here in this safe,, and I’m afraid that what’s here is not secure; but I have the money on special deposit in the banks. It is my money and cannot be used by the banks or jeopardized by a panic.’” The above is in the News of yesterday. It is a change of front, a change that was indicated when the Sentinel fell into line and said an investigation of the affairs of the State treasury must be had. The appearance of that article was sufficient to cause the comment that things had been arranged so that a legislative committee could be safely welcomed to an examination of the public funds, or of the “collaterals,” which Mr. Cooper says he holds for a part of the money. But the statement of Mr. Cooper, as given above, is remarkable. He says “it is my money.” Is that so? If so, why does he give a bond? What law makes the State money his money? He also says it “cannot be used by the banks, or jeopardized by a panic.” Is that an honest statement? Does Mr. Cooper pretend to believe that the banks do not “use” the money he deposits with them, and that it cannot be “Jeopardized by a panic?” Will he say that none of the State money, or “my money,” as he calls it, has been “used by banks” and “jeopardized by panics?” If his money is merely on deposit for safe keeping, and is not “used by tho banks,” why is there occasion '.for “collaterals?” Do people take “collaterals” for money 6imply placed in a bank-vault for safe-keeping, and not “used by the bank?” Finally, does Mr. Cooper desire to convey tho impression that the banks which receive deposits of public moneys do not pay interest upon them? If they do pay interest on such deposits, does Mr. Cooper think he can make anybody believe that the banks do not “use” the money? Do banks pay interest on money thoy take simply for safekeeping, and aro nob permitted to “use?” Is not the public moneys on deposit in banks “used by the banks,” and as much “jeopardized by a panic” as any other money? It looks to us as though Mr. Cooper has endeavored to throw dust in the eyes of the public iu this statement, if he is correctly reported, and, if that bo the case, the importance and necessity of a thorough investigation of the affairs of his office become more imperative than ever. After ail the clamor about the failure of the measures for the relief of Ireland, it seems that they have worked to a very fair result of good. Mr. William O’Brien, editor of the United Ireland, and Member of Parliament for Mallow County Cork, says: “The prospects of the Irish peasantry were never better than they are at the present moment. There have been many winters before this when it required desperate means to get food and fuel. Thank God, it is over. The Irish people are now so situnted that they can take care of themselves and each other, and that is about all thoy have ever asked. Come what may, there will be no more famines in Ireland to appeal to the benevolence of the rest of tho world.” The evil days are past, this representative Irishman says. There will bo no more such destitution as there has been. What has wrought this change? Not emigration, for there has been more in worse seasons, with worse seasons still to follow. Not an access of prudence and economy, for the Irishman of to-day is what he has always been in character and business qualities. Not an unusual influx of money, for there has been nothing to mako. The improvement declared by Mr. O’Brien to be so marked as to efface all traces of past suffering, must Lave come of the land laws, the arrears of rent act, and the general system of Irish relief so strenuously resisted by many of the Irish, and so continually decried and derided as idle since. There has been nothing else to make it. The climate, soil, people and natural conditions are unchanged. The difference must be in a change of political and moral conditions that inspires energy and encourages thrift, and for this the government of Mr. Gladstone is entitled to the proper amount of credit. The English forces under General Stewart found ten thousand of the Mahdi’s men, last Saturday, at a point about twenty miles from Meteroneh, whereupon a very determined engagement resulted, in which the victory seems to have been with the British, but at a severe cost. By the marvelous methods of communication, and the enterprise of the newspaper press of the world, it is possible to lay before our readers a very full and graphic report of this engagement. Very few who read the account this morning will stop to thiuk of the miracle worked to bring the news from the Soudan to Indianapolis in not more than four days. The news from Egypt is likely to be of a stirring character for some time. A COMMUNICATION from Mr. A. C. Lanier, of Madison, on the subject of the Fish Commissioner, his work and usefulness, will attract attention. Possibly no man in the State is so able to express an intelligent and valuable opinion on this subject as Mr. Lanier. He has for years made a special study of fish, act merely as a sportsman, but in the

higher and better phases of thoir relation to the economics of the State. It would be a step backward for the Legislature to abolish the office of Fish Commissioner. What should be done is to enlarge the scope of the office, and equip it properly to do what is expected of it. A careful, intelligent, energotic Fish Commissioner, with the means at his command and a good law at his back, could do an important service to the people of the State. The present theatrical season, although it has been death to many inferior attractions and mushroom sta,s, is treating the legitimate actors with great kindness and bountiful returns wherever they go. —St. Louis Republican. This fact—and it is a fact—proves what the Journal has maintained: that good work on the stage is best appreciated, and in the end must pay best. A part of the business of theaters should be to eduoate the popular mind to appreciate excellence in the drama, so that mediocrity would be crowded out, and the stage given to its best estate. Few people have any adequate conception of the terrors of the press, of its star-chamber manner of disposing of public men, of its let-tre-de-cachet way of annihilating any and all that incur its displeasure. The feelers of this monster devil fish of modern times are the news reporters—the men who interview and who “report” things in general, to the dismay and consternation of all classes. While all these facts are apparent enough to those connected with the press, the editors and proprietors, who, of a truth, are morally responsible for all the evils and dire results that come from the press, they, of all men, realize the full extent and character of its awful power. But for an outsider, the Hon. Francis N. Bangs, attorney, of New York, has a pretty fair idea of its ramifications and deadly import. In a recent trial, in which a contract was involved, Mr. Bangs said: “The contract was made in California, under the terrors of the press. Do you know what they are? Do you know what an obstruction to the administration of justice the press is? Do you know that even the counsel on the other side (pointing to Mr. Choate), with all his professional distinction, political prospects, personal beauty, and the attractions 'of eloquence, do you know that he dreads to come into court for fear equally of the eulogies and censures of the press? Do you know that no witness dares to come into one of these rooms, dedicated to the administration of justice, without fear that the men who sit anonymously at these desks will caricature their pictures and misrepresent their testimony? Do you know that no party dare air his grievance or defend himself against the imputations made against him, with the courage that ought to be borne, for fear of the terror of these same ever changing, irresponsible, and unintelligent tribunals? Do you know all that. Then you know what the terrors of the press are." Mr. Bangs closed with this, and tho court adjourned to take out a life insurance policy. The deadly qualities o I nicotine have been demonstrated in Breathitt county, Kentucky, recently in a way calculated to inspire a healthy fear of careless handling of dirty old pipes. A man feeling the need of an emetic, and having none of the usual remedies at hand, was given a small amount of the stuff scraped from tho stam of an old pipe, the natural expectation being that it would nauseate him to the point of vomiting. Instead of tho desired result it poisonod him, and within ten minutes he was dead. Mrs. Laurce DeFora Gordon, of San Francisco, lectured before the Equal Suffragists at Washington, this week, on the conundrum, “Is Our Civilization Civilized?” If Mrs. Gordon’s inquiry refers to California civilization, the answer must be emphatically that it is not civilized, if the Hills and the Sharons with their attendant retinue are to be regarded as representatives of the State. _ It is said that Vandalia, 111., has a professional kiduapper. If he will kidnap half the professional people in the country, the other half will be made a present to him, and no questions asked. It is understood tfiat The Century publishers pay General Grant SIO,OOO for three war articles, the first of which is the one on Shiloh, In the February number. A Boston man has succeeded in swindling eight pawnbrokers out of large sums of money. Thus is the intellect of the Hub once more vindicated. A factory In St. Mary's, 0., sent England 120,000 oars for the Nile expedition.—Exchange. England has put in her oar onco too often in the Nile; what need of 120,000 more? To the Editor of the Indianapolis Journal: What is the feminino gender of Earl? Darter, Ind., Jan. 21. A Reader. Countess. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. W. H. Bartram has started, at Buffalo, a prohibition paper named the Sixteenth Amendment. It is rumored that Governor Pattison, of Pennsylvania, w ill enter the Methodist Episcopal ministry at the close of his term of office. General Fleury directed by will that his memoirs should be published if his family thought fit, but not within ten years after his death. The Rev. George A. Gordon, tho new pastor of tho new Old South Church, Boston, does not liko to have his sermons reported for the daily papers. President Arthur writes a big upand-down hand, which sprawls and jumps from ono word to tho next without leaving tho paper, yet is very legible. Out in Dakota, it is reported, a lake thirteen feet deep is “frozen solid to the bottom.” And this, too, in the section whore, the correspondents assure us, nobody feels the cold. Jeanne Bernhardt, a sister of Sarab, who was a member of the company when it appeared in this country, will soon marry M. Reygere, an actor of the Gymnase Theater, London. The date of Princess Beatrice's marriage will not be fixed until the usual money grant has been made on the assembling of Parliament. The wedding will .take place at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The canal which Germany intends to construct to unite the Nerth and Baltio Seas is to bo large enough to admit of the largest war vessels passing through It. It is estimated that the work wiil be completed in five years. A Mormon editor of Salt Lake City Says in a recent issue of his paper: “The unknown woman who was killed at this plaoe about throe mouths ago by the cars proves to be one of the wives of the editor of this paper.” Mule. Barron, daughter of the wealthy Mexican captain of war and sporting fame, is shortly to mar :y Count Charles de Fitz James, formerly of tho French navy, and recently decorated with the ordor of the Legion of Honor for gallantry on the field. The February number of The Chautauquan, just issued, contains an artiole on “National Aid to Education,’' written by General John A. Logan. General (jogan will also contribute an article on the some subject to tho March number of The Chautauquan. A Scotch boy, having injured his leg severely, was turned over to a local practitioner. The oure progressed slowly, and the mother, who had become very anxious, concluded to consult a “bone-setter" living some miles away. The latter worked hard over the

leg,* and at last “got the bone in’’ to the marie of the boy’s lusty screams, “Didn’t the setter do it welir* asked the cheerful old lady, as tho pair hied homeward. “Yes, be did, mother,” said tho lad, “but I was na sic a fool as to gie him the sair leg.” Lord Lytton, at the time of the declaration of Queen Victoria as Empress of India and the striking of the splendid medal honoring the event, impudently bought one, altered the inscription to “Victoria, Empress of the Arena,’’ and sent it, richly set, to an equestrienne. Horace Howard Furness has given SI,OOO to establish at Vassar College “the Kate Rogers Furness Prize Fund.’’ The income i9 to be divided into two prizes, which are to be granted to two successful competitors in essays on some Rhakspearean or Elizabethan subject. Tho competition is to be limited to the senior class. A farmer’s wife in Bollinger county. Mo., left the baby in his care while she wont to town shopping. The father, being busy plowing, nailed a box to the plow-beam, in which ho placed the baby snugly, and thus the industrious and ingenious father proceeded with his work, to the satisfaction and amusement ol the little one. Lady Wilde, in her "Driftwood from Scandinv via,’’ says that in Hamburg she saw more pretty faces among the middle classes than she had ever come across before. “The serving maidens of Christiau* are tall and slender as pine trees, dark-haired and exceedingly pretty, with splendid teeth flashing through merry smiles. The year 1885 finds four English judges still actively pursuing their judicial labors after attaining the age of fourscore years. They are Vice-Chancellor Bacon, who is in his eighty-seventh year; Judge Petersdorff, in his eighty-fifth; Judge Hultou, in his eighty-third; and Judge Bayley, of the Westminster County Court, also in his eighty-third year. Schuyler Colfax is now said by some newspaper* to have been the victim of nicotine, his attack of vertigo several years ago in Washington, which his physicians declared to have been brought on by e&> cessive smoking, being cTtcd as proof of the assertion. Tho fact is, however, that Mr. Colfax left off the use of tobacco entirely over a dozen years ago. Mrs. Eugenia Marks, of Frankford, Philadelphia, whose death Is announced, was a slave of Thomas Jefferson and was at his bedside when he died. She took great pleasure in telling that while at Washing! ton she cooked so nice a breakfast for General Jaokson that he went to the kitchen to compliment her and accompanied his compliments with a $5 gold piece. Mr. Henry C. Pedder, formally the confidential employe of Arnold, Constable & Cos., and the largest stockholder in the Manhattan Magazine, who lived in royal style at a costly villa in New Jersey, and who disappeared suddenly, is said to be living now iu St. Kitts, one of the West India islands, where he was born, and living in good style, too, but that can bo done in St. Kitts, it is said, with $25 a mouth. The death of Rev. Dr. A. A. Scott, an honored Presbyterian, of California, who was made doctor of laws by the University of the City of New York since tho war, is a striking reminder that this is not an ago of vindictive memory. Dr. Scott was the oldosfc Protestant minister of the Pacific coast, and when tb®" war broke out wrote pro-slavery letters for a San Francisco paper, prayed in his pulpit for both Abraham Lincoln and Jeff Davis, and his eongvegatiou hanged him in effigy. Dr. Scctt left the city, but roturned to San Francisco after the war, however, and has since done good service as pastor of the St. John's Presbyterian Church. CURRENT PRESS COMMENT. The people who are now out of work know vdiak Democratic victory has cost them. The consequence* have been serious enough already to justify all tho earnest warnings uttered by Republicans during tho presidential campaign. All will sincerely hope that the worst of them have been seen. But. if (Jongr ess does not contrive to behave more sensibly tn future, the prospect for business or industry cannot be called brilliant.—New York Tribune. Cut rates operate injuriously on business by disturbing its legitimate and steady current. A merchant who has received his freight wnih rates at--Uj*--regular standard finds his competitor iu business paying probably less than a quarter of the amount for tho transportation of the same merchandise, aud able to undersell him. In the end the people uie certain to be called upon to make up for tne losses entailed on the corporations by these periodical and unwholesome rivalries—New York World. Undoubtedly, the silver dollar, if its coinage at the present rate is kept up long enough, will drive out gold, and render silver the sole monetary standard of the country. It is also true that much' inconvenience will be caused by the use of silver as a standard here, while gold remains the standard abroad. But that the supremacy of silver is “unpleasantly near,** or even likely to come within throe years, wo can see but little reason for believing, aud we are quite sure that when it really comes, it will cause no financial, disaster whatever, but. on the contrary, a temporary apparent prosperity.—New York Sun. It is true that to many the presidency seome so rich a bauble that no surrender made to obtain it can assume the character of a sacrifice. But it is equally true that General Grant did not so rogard it, and thak the reteutiou of Ids position in the armv would have been far more to his tastes. The voice of the country was, therefore, the compelling force which removed him from the army, auu it should restore him. Mr. Randall, iu favoriug Mr. Edmunds’s bill, shows himself a far wiser and more discreet manager for hi* party than the pin-hole Democrats who are trying to make capital out of the Porter case.—Chicago InterOcean. The lato Postmaster-general TTowo took tho correct position when he declared that, if the public is to bt> taxed for tho transportation of either class of mail matter, it should unquestionably be for the secondclass. on the principle that intelligence rather than trade should be fostered by the government. The rate* of nostage on all other matter have been reduced, while that charged newspaper publishers still remains unchanged. This discrimination is not only burdensome, but unjust, and all that the publishers now ask is that the rate be reduced one-half, which would still leave the government ample compensation.—Pittsburg Commercial-Gazette.

Wilir,K there are gratifying signs of improvement in tho business situation to be seen, there has been ne boom, nor anything lilt© one, Manufacturers are quite satisfied for the present to continue operation* without actual loss, ana merchants to pay their notes and still keep the balance on the right side of the ledger. They are willing to drift along in that way until.tbo better times, which they believe are now near at hand, shall arrive. Any great activity may bo longer delayed than Is thought, but the beliof—a belief amounting to almost an assurance—is generally entertained that tho lowest dopths of shrinkage have been reached, and that the nxfc movement, whether it come sooner or later, must necessarily be upward.-* Philadelphia Inquirer. It is not likely that tho failure of Congress to agroa upon any legislation this winter will lead to the calling of an extra session. That Is certainly not the pur* pose of procrastination. The Democratic leaden will be as anxious to avoid the responsibility they hav assumed after Cleveland shall have been inaugurated os they are now. Cleveland ami his immediate advisers will not want to be pestered by tho Congressional office-brokers. The party is not prepared to enter upon distinct and well-defined legislation in regard to revenue, taxation, or finance, and bonce adneros to the laissez-faire policy, which is in direct contradiction to the party bluster during tho campaign about tho advantages of a ‘change” and is not calculated to inspiro popular respect or confidence, Chicago Tribune. It was not to bo expected that the Democratic party would or ange its character merely because the people had foolishly trusted it for once. The giavo objections which justified most earnest resistance to that party in the last campaign, as in every other sine* 1860, have not passed away because by fraud at tha South, and by tho treachery of a few individuals at the North, the election of a Democratic President has been secured. What, the party was when it wanted power it will be found to be now that it has the power with this exception, that tho restra'n'ng influence whioh a desire tor presidential success has always exerted now' no longer . curbs tho greed of its more “hungry and thirsty" members. The country kjis determined to try the experiment, and now has no tiring to do but to observe its results as patieutiy as possi-ble.—-Now York Tribune. That Englishmen would demand even more heroic remedies for their own land grievances than have been applied in Ireland, might have been predicted from the moment that the Irish land act of 1881 was passed. For Englishmen possess what, Irishrnon hav* never had and cannot hope for in an imperial Partial meat, the absolute, unquestionable power to extort instant compliance with their imperative demands. Moreover, if we boar in mtnd tho ratio of population to area, we must recognize that the agrarian disabilities and inequalities under which the iud-h of Englishmen have labored are even more intolerable than thoso which have bred incurable disaffection in the Irish race. That in a country so densely peopled as England a portentous amount of tho national soil should be monopolized by a handful of great proprietors, and that, while hundreds of thousands of human beings are houseless and half starved, vast tracts should be withdrawn from cultivation for nfl better purpose than to iudulgo tho tastes of aristocratic sportsmen, are wrongs so flagraut and so gad* ing that to most observers it seems marvelous tha& they should have been able to survive the second M form bill.—New York Sun.