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

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TIIE SUNDAY JOURNAL BY JNO. C. NEW * SON. SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 22, 1355. Telephone Calls. Business Office. 238 I Editorial Romm 212 Tiie Sunday Journal has the largest and best circulation of any Sunday paper in Indiana. Price three cents. THE CLASSIC3 AGAIN. A rather remarkable concession to progress has recently been made by Harvard University. Considering the nge and reputation of that institution, and the hardening, with increasing nge and honors, of the conservatism of all institutions and all men, it is the greatest concession made by the "old school'* of •dneation to the new one since the latter began to question the value of a great deal of the work held indispensable by the other. The faculty has decided that examination ia Greek shall not be required of applicants for admission. but shall be optional with them. This virtually rules out Greek as a necessity of the college course, and admits the possibility of a man being a good scholar, and serviceable in his generation, though he may never know tho dual number from the aorist tense. Other colleges long ago released themselves 'from the trammels of the classics, but they carried no great weight in their examples. Harvard, in a manner, gives the stamp of authority to the new order of things that subordinates classics to practical requirements. Not that it or any institution excludes clascfieal studies, or really depreciates them, but only gauges more justly than the old system, their relation to other studies and the afterneeds of the students. The intimate mixture of the classical languages in the construction of our own makes some knowledge of them necessary to a thorough knowledge, in its philosophy as well as its power, of our own. So they will always, and always should, be studied by those who care to perfect their philological attainmeuts. But the old-time devotion to declensions, and conjugations, and Mansions, and constructions, which has been slowly slipping back behind the active world for a good while, may now be considered fully and permanently abandoned. We have reached here, as they are trying to do abroad, the educational condition which Sidney Smith seemed to regard ns a sort of ideal Elysium, unattainable to imperfected humanity. sixty-Eve years ago. Said he: "A young Englishman goes to school at six or seven years old, and he remains in a course of education till twenty-three or twenty-four years of age. In all that time his sole and exclusive occupation is learning Latin and Greek. lie has scarcely a notion that there is any other kind of excellence, and the great system of facts with which he is tho most perfectly acquainted are the intrigues of the heathen gods. If a young classic of this kind were to meet the greatest chemist, or the greatest mathematician, or the most profound political economist of his lime, would the slightest, comparison between them ever come across his mind? Would he ever dream that such men a* Adam Smith and Lavoisier were equal in dignity of understanding, or of the same utility as Bently or ITeyne? We are indined to think that the feeling excited would be a good deal like that which was expressed by Dr. George about the praises of the great king of Prussia, who entertained considerable doubts whether the king, with all his victories, knew how to congngate a Greek verb in ‘mu iota.’ ” We have been for a full generation disembarrassing ourselves of this Incumbrance of costly uselessness, year by year throwing off more and more, till in the average of college course the classics have been reduced at least to a level with the study df natural science and modern languages. In some they have gone lower or gone out. A va-lability has displaced erudition, and the tendency of the times is to learn only what •can be used or applied, as a means of making practical acquisitions. But still the older and wore powerful seats of learning obstructed this tendency.. The English universities have only within a few years past made serious changes in their system, and even yet they are behind the general course of education here in this regard, while the schools of our country most closely corresponding to them lyive resisted with little loss tenacity. Now the bulwaik of conservatism gives way, and we may expect xhat Harvard will soon be nearly as practical and common-sensible as institutions of lesser pretensions. OUR ENGLISH CRITICS. Thomas Wentworth Iligginson criticises the disposition of Americans to accept with humility and meekness tho theory that the literature, man net’s and culture of foreigners, and particularly of the English, is better than our own; that, in short, sweetness and light have their origin abroad, and can be but a more cr less feeble reflection here. "Who has not dined,” he says, "in company with some traveling Englishman, perhaps a man of note, whose manners were so intolerable that, Its a Boston woman said lately, on one occasion, they justified dynamite? And who lias not lived to see extracts from tho same man’s book of travels, in which he kindly gave his own verdict of approval or condemnation of the society which had made an exception from its general standard of good breeding when it admitted him? Who has not heard some English lecturer, while coiling and uncoiling himself into and out of positions of inconceivable awkwardness, dole out elementary lessons on literature and science, as it weto In words of one syllable, to audieucoa which hod heart! Ulpse same themes discufjsod by Agaeftl*, or

Rogers, or Holmes? And who has not subsequently seen notices of that worthy man’s

book or magazine essay, ill which he, perhaps, benignantly complimented tho intelligence of his audience—an intelligence which he-never could fairly compute, since lie never found out how it had criticised him. I forget which of these excellent gentlemen it was who gravely recommended to the good j>eopie of Boston a wholly new moans of mental improvement —reading aloud in the evening! What is it that carries us calmly through those inflictions? No doubt good-nature lias something to do with it, and the feeling of hospitality; but it is also largely due to the tradition of humility, the habit of thinking that light and grace come from Europe; ex oriento lux.’ Coming, as this does, immediately after the complacent patting on the back which Matthew Arnold, who wants to come back and lecture, has given Americans, it really seems to have a personal beating. THE RINK INFLUENCE. The relations of the roller rink to the health, morals and education of youth seems to be in a state of evolution. The elections are over, the holidays have gone, the State legislatures are about to subisdo, the spring time, with its seductive shades, walks and drives, is yet far off, and now is the time when, if ever in 4he year, the churches are expected to hold revival meetings, and gather in the ripening annual crop —old-timers and back-sliders, wlio love a warm nook in the church at least for a month in the year; youth, just taking the first serious look into life; boys and girls of tender years, on whom the work of the Sunday-school has not been as seed cast on stony ground; and lisping babes, just newly touched by the story of the cross told at their mother’s knee, and with childhood eagerness anxious to begin with their parents the perennial crusade against the world, the flesh and the devil. To all these the churches now open their doors, and for them rekindle the spiritual tires. The eminent evangelists, boy preachers, and trance dreamers have been invited to call down fire upon the spiritual altars. But it is evident that some untoward influence holds them back. Is it the rink? The Methodists have inquired of l>r. Buckley; other churches have invoked their supreme councils and advised together. The question is, to everv loval Christian man or woman earnest for the salvation of tho young, What would Jesus have thought or said about the roller-skating rink if he had found one in the main street of Jerusalem, or had come across them in the quiet villages of Judea? Is the kingdom of heaven greater than these? Shall this new sport bo suppressed and frowned down, like cards and dancing, or with the piano of Mrs. Phelps in her "Gates Ajar/’ and the good English beer which Sweedenborg saw the redeemed drinking in his dreams, may we listen for the clatter of the casters on the crystal floors of the New Jerusalem? We have, it is believed by many, in rollerskating the forces of iniquity in anew guise. The indiscriminate fancy ball, which has proved the court of hell to so many, has been displaced by the roller rink, and so easy was the transition from good old-time skating and sliding, where the very snow spoke purity and the frigid winds whispered only virtue, to the hot and crowded rink, that it was not recognized as the foe of an upright and a churChlv life. The matter of the rink in its i*elation3 to the health and purity of youth, and to tho line which runs so waveringly between the church and the world, is now open for discussion. THE POWER OF PRAYER. The Potato creek woman who, it will bo remembered, ran away from her husband under rather peculiar circumstances, has returned to her home after three weeks’ absence. Some speculations were indulged in at tho time of her departure with the hired man, over tho comparative efficacy of prayer and the shillalah when used by a husband in such emergency, the opinion being advanced in these columns that a freer use of tho latter argument might have been productive of more immediate results. It lias since been learned, however, that the facts as reported at that time were somewhat erroneous. The Potato creek man savs he did not chastise his wife: he did, he admits, take down his shotgun, but he put it back again without even an attempt, as it were, to bring down a ’coon. This, on the whole, was wise, becausft shotguns go off sometimes; and, if the Potato creek wife or the hired man had received an injury thereby, she would not now be returning from Missouri to the bosom of her family, and the delights of a domestic reunion would not be experienced. It follows, then, that her return must be entirely due to tho prayer offered up by the pious Potato creek husband on the divers and sundry occasions when the couple knelt at tho family hearthstone after she had announced her intention of troiner off with a handsomer man. He had faith, but the faith weakened somewhat when she entered the sleigh with her hired adorer — who had previously been paid off in cash by his employer. The Potato creek man was not even reassured when, in answer to his final appeal, tho wife asked him if she might come back in a month, if she didn’t like it out West. "No,” said the husband, "unless you turn in your course before you get in the train at Colfax, you will never come back/’ This, as subsequent- events show, was an error on the good man’s part. Ho was wrong in limiting the power of prayer. If it could reach to Colfax, it could roach further,, and that it did so is proved by the fact that ske Wtw hot converted to the error of her

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1885.

ways until after arriving in Missouri. The next time she goes away the deserted husband will be more cheerful, knowing that neither Colfax, nor even the Wabash river or St. Louis, cuts off all hope. The united pair are reported to be very happy, which was, under the circumstances, to bo expected. The wife lias traveled, and has new subjects for conversation, thus naturally brightening up a household which might otherwise be somewhat dull in the absence of a hired man. Having seen the world, and, as she remarks, "three weeks of hell,” which, however, appears to bo an altogether unintentional slur on Missouri, it may be expected that the Potato creek woman will now remain at homo for a considerable period, and the household enjoy a corresponding season of sweet peace. When a crisis arrives again, the Potato creek man will have learned from past experience how’ to conduct himself and his seasons of prayer to better advantage. ■MmawnanKmiMMai A NEW MARRIAGE RECORD, Mrs. Eilen Reigel, of Reading, Pa., is a widow and wants possession of the late Mr. Reigel’s property. Her claim is contested by Reigel’s sons, who say she is the wife of a man named Ribble. The fact that Kibble’s name is tattooed in blue ink on the widow’s plump right arm is, they think, sufficient proof that he is her husband. The ease is not yet decided, the court adjourning until it can hear from Ribble; but the point is an interesting one. Women have hitherto had great difficulty in getting possession and in keeping their marriage certificates safely, but if a tattooed name of tho husband is sufficient proof of marriage, nothing more is needed. The loving young wife can have no objection to the pricking of the precious name into her cuticle; and. should she not be altogetlier moved by affectionate motives, the value of the certificate may be none tho less. It will be the part of wisdom to tattoo in any case. Os course it may happen that tho husband will die or be divorced, but the indelible label need not be an objection to future matrimonial alliances. The fair arm mav, indeed, be considered a sort of family record, and it3 value be thereby enhanced. What could bo neater and more touching than a mortuary column artistically arranged on the arm of a much-wedded woman. Tho name of the husband would be placed there on the marriage day, but any little inscription suited to his merits could be tattooed in after he had become defunct. As another husband went his way, the process could be repeated. In the case of divorce the legend would need to be varied, but would only add to the interest, and, perhaps, attractiveness of the arm. There might, it is true, be occasions when the tattooed name would cause embarrassing complications, a3 in the case ofHMrs. Reigel, who, it seems, had carelessly omitted the name of her latest spouse from tho list. It might, too, prove troublesome should designing women tattoo the names of men whom they fondly wished to call their own, hut have no authority for st) doing. These little diffi culties in the way of the law, however, could be easily adjusted, and doubtless will be so. should tho court decide that the record settles Mrs. Reigel’s status, and is, therefore, a proof of MINOR MENTION. It has been claimed for some time by critical writers that a decadence of true poetic spirit exists in England—that its poets no longer show originality, but devote their attention to timeworn themes instead of looking about them for fresh sources of inspiration. These critics had evidently not had tho privilege of reading the Vaccination Inquirer, a London periodical which seeks the service of prose and verso to aid in the overthrow of tho compulsory-vaccination law. Inspired by this noble theme. JJ. Garth Wilkinson, a physician of excellent professional standing, bursts into song in the following fervid manner: Haik! tho If erod-demons sing— Vaccination! Glorious King! Hark! tho Weeping Rachels cry— Let us die. and let us die. Vaccination, skin and bone, Sits upon his gory throne. They have slain our bonny boys; Festered o’er their infant joys. . Swine that rend us for our pearls. They have slain our little girls.— Vaccination, akin and bone, Laughs xipon his gory throne. Christ, our lost ones live with Theo, in Thy Heavenly Family, Comfort comes from Theo Alone. Jla- tyred Babes are near Thy throne,— Cherubs with Thy flaming swords, King of Kings ami Lord of Lords. Seven other stanzas are equally fine, and only lack of space compels their omission from these columns. These lines are certainly not open to tho charge of imitation or lack of originality, and if they are not poetry the writer and publisher would doubtless be pleased to have carping critics show them the reason why. f It should bo mentioned in connection with this stirring lyric that it should bo sung to the tune of “Rock of Ages,” the notes of that time-honored hymn being given in the Inquirer. All musical persons opposed to vaccination should learn the song without delay. Mrs. Conn, of Brooklyn, wants a divorce from Mr. Codd, who is described a3 a literary man. She testifies that although her husband is too disagrceablo to livo with in comfort, she had tried to effect- a reconciliation. In response to her overtures Mr. Codd placod five pagos of closely-written legal cap before her and said that if she w’ould follow the rules he had prepared for her government ho would consider tho question of a reconciliation. Mr. Codd is evidently one of those “literary fellers” best designated with a dash. Although Indianapolis is a port of entry, the picturesque sailor does not, for reasons needless to specify, make his nppearance upon the streets with much frequency. Nevertheless, few readers of the Journal but are familiar with tho pe culiarities of tho jolly tar, and would recognize him instantly should they meet him. They would identify him by his trousers, if in no other way. No malo biped other than a sailor ever wore garmouts of that remarkable cut. The 'and lubber has occasionally wondered why a seaman’s pant&faXtaa should widen frtoto the feneo

downward until it flops about the wearer’s ankle like a petticoat or the “divided skirt,” but the pattern had the dignity of antiquity, and a change was never suggested. Someone has thought of it at last, however, and innovation is to overtake tho sailor costume, having already conquered the apparel of the land. Henceforth the sailor of the United States navy will wear trousers made more in conformity with tho shape of his legs than formerly; ho will be mado to don a new and unattractive-looking hat, and will then be no longer the distinctive being of yore. Tho picturesque sailor will, in future, be found only in romance and on the stage. An Egyptian newspaper announces tho coming of Queen Victoria on a visit to that country. In a quaint, old-fashioned style, tho writer says: “O Egypt, do not be astonished by the news of the approaching arrival of Victoria, for you have been accustomed to tho visits of kings and queens since the remote ages. “You have been visited by the Persian, Cam byses; by the Greek, Alexander; by the Romans. Gallus and Marc Antony; and by the Frenchman, Napoleon. “After this, there is no reason to be astonished by the news of the approaching arrival of the Queen of England in Cairo.” This is the way of revenge the suffering tenant long has sought, and the only wonder is that it has not been discovered before. A Brooklyn man tried in vain to have his landlord make needed repairs, and now that diphtheria has appeared in his, the tenant’s family, as a result of bad plumbing, he sues the owner of the house for Should he win the suit, the landlord may be expected to retaliate on the plumber and thus eventually justice will overtake that evil-doer. Rev. R. T. Anderson, of Jeffersonville, preached his farewell sermon on Friday night, at Zion A. M. E. Church, where he has been for some weeks assisting the pastor, Rev. J. M. Washington, in conducting the revival meetings. Ilis services have been highly appreciated by the congregation, and he leaves with their best wishes. He received a purse of $25 and a large number of other gifts beforo his departure for Jeffersonville, on Saturday. In regard to tho morality of skating rinks, Evangelist Moody says that “where tho godly and the ungodly mix the godly are going to suffer.” Without wishing to enter into any controversy with Brother Moody, we have tho author ity of several sore sinners for the statement that the rink floor flies up and hits the just and the unjust alike, and that no man can possibly have suffered more than they thereby. “A reader,” who is evidently a member of a debating club also, asks the Journal’s opinion on the burning question of the hour: “Will a man go further for love or for money?" Without venturing to give a decisivo answer to so complicated a conundrum, we feel free to assert, without fear of contradiction, that the average man will go a very long way for love — if the woman has money. Had not George Washington diod lie would be 155 years old to day, 110 was comparatively a young man when he died. Perhaps it is well enough he passed to a better world when lie did. His head might be turned by tho way the papers speak of him now. When tho new union “depot” is built, it will have to be called “station.” A hood way to put j’ourself in the way of enjoying the Moody meetings, which begin tomorrow, is to go to church to day. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. “Oir, no; lio doesn’t amount to much.” saida young lady, referring to a rather effeminate youth. “Why, lie actually wears ear-muffs!” It is now announced that the able and conscientious Maluli pay s off his troops with scrupulous regularity cvery Friday, and meanwhile tho British Nation is anxiously waiting for Wolseley to pay off the Maluli. General Booth, of the Salvation Army, calls upon his English admirers for another “loan,” promising 100 per cent, interest, to be paid, as lie puts it, in installments of “f per cent, in this world and 05 per cent, in salvation,” which brings the actual interest down to legal rates. On the 10th of March, 1797. Thomas Jefferson paid the sum of five cents for seeing an elephant. It is commonly understood that in those degenerato dnys it costs much more than five cents to see the “elephant.” Oh, for a return of ‘'Jeffersonian simplicity !” From the French: They are discussing motempsycliosis in a drawing-room. “I,” said a witty' young man. “remember that way back in tho days of Moses and Aaron I was the golden calf. Since then l have been change I——" “Yes,” said a lady, timo has worn off the gilding.” R. H. Stoddard calls Alisa Edith M. Thomas an American Keats. “Her song,” he says, “like his, is a mesh of sweet growths, an arbor over which vines are luxuriantly trailing—a little hill, upon which her genius is standing tip-too and fluttering its wings. She has the greatest gift that any poet can I we—quality.” A VERY old man, Abraham True, died in Kankakee yesterday, aged ninety-eight. He was a native of Maine; was a pioneer at Lawreneeburg, Ind., in 1820; came to the present site of Kankakee in 1845; built the first house on tho present site of Kankakee, and kept for many years a half-way house, remembered by all old-timers on the Indiana, Illinois, and lowa thoroughfare or trail. In 1853 ho sold C. 090 weight of fish he caught. I WISH, says the San Francisco News Letter, some one would suggest some way by which Eastern people who have mado a brief visit to us could be informed formed for good that no one here ever dreams of using the word “Frisco." Wo are for.d of nick-narncs, of pet names and of chummy “cuss” words, but we have never been familiar with the name of our city. It is the surest test of a person’s alienship when ho flings at us, as a grateful compliment, the word Frisco. Thkkk are now vacant three Garters, savs the London Truth, one of which has been on hand for nine months, an unprecedented period to keep such a distinction dangling. The insignia of a deceased knight is returned by his representative to the Queen, who usually grants a special audience for tho purpose. The costly state robes go to the Dean of Windsor, who gets them as his perquisites, he being registrar of the order, which is a lucrative post if the knights happen to die off fast. The Duke of Abercorn is now tho senior Garter. The interment alive oi’ Miss CY>x, of OLonoko, W. Va., relates the Cumberland Times, recalls to mind the curious custom practiced hy- an old Virginia family, the Feudals, of Alexandria. Whenever a member of the family dies, the male representative of tiie older branch thereof, just before the hour for interment, buries a dagger in the heart of the dead to assure himself of no reawakening. The dagger used is one sacred to the purpose, and hao been devoted to its use for many generations. The custom originated because of the burial alive <>f a member of tiie family, and an inherited tendency to a peculiar form of heart disease. Ml:. Goldavix Smith, in a severe notice ot Carlyle’s “Life,” expresses himself in this wise. “When a man, being in a diseased and highly irritable eoudi tion, believes the whole world, himself and his own little circle of admirers excepted, to be a moral, political, social and economical Gehenna, the world being, in fact, nothing of the sort, are the theories of life and government founded on that belief likely to afford sure guidance to mankind? On Carlyle’s transcendent excellence tet a pais ter ot historical scene*, and xh \

sardonic humorist it is needless to dwell. In his philosophy there is nothing really positive or constructive. any more than there is in that of Swift.” Ax interesting reminiscence of the late Colonel Burnaby appears in the Publishers’ Circular. He was rather fidgety in the matter of proofs, and was in a state of feverish impatience until he got them. That he did not write for literary offect may be inferred from the following. On one occasion, when a slight inelegancy of style was pointed out to him, he wrote: ‘'You arc probably right about the repetition. * * * I write as I talk, and do not pretend to have any style. You are not the only person who has remarked about tho repetition of the word. I have let two or three people look at the proofs. They are not connected with tho press, but are average mortals. I call them my Foolometers. They like the book. I think they represent the majority of the reading public.” Mu. L.VBOUCHKHE does not believe in letting the fortunes that men make live after them—in undivided entirety. ‘ I would not allow,” he says, ‘‘any one to inherit from another beyond a certain sum. Let us suppose this sum were £ 100.000, and that a man dies leaving a fortune of £1,000,000, and three children. A ‘JO per cent, succession duty would absorb £200,000. There would then, after each child had inherited £IOO,OOO, remain £500,000. To share this ha would have to find five persons. Thus, instead of one son having nearly a million and two sons a trlile, as is the result of the mode in which rich men now leave their money, the state would come in for £200,000, and eight persohs would have a very comfortable provision." Editor Labotjcjikre, of the London Truth, says: “We begin our education at the wrong end. Instead of cramming a child with Latin grammar at the age of six, we ought to teach him French, German and Italian while lie is young enough to master the pronunciation correctly. Then, as a sort of extra polish, let him, if he lias time ami talent enough, study Latin and Greek, beginning, say, about the age of fifteen. If he has no aptitude for these dead and practically useless languages, let him at once abandon them. By our idiotic system, we make a boy waste tnc whole of his school days in vainly endeavoring to Write languages which ho most probably detests, and then expect him to pick up Fi’ench and German as he best can in the course of a long vacation tour abroad.” Frances, second wife of James Russell Lowell, was daughter of Captain John Dunlap, a loading merchant of Portland, Me., and a niece of Robert P. Dunlap, Governor of Maine from 1834 to 1838. While Mr. Lowell and his first wife were abroad in 1821 -’52, their daughter (now Mrs. Edward Burnett) was left in the care of Miss Dunlap. She was married to Mr. Lowell in September, 1857. tho year in which he accepted the editorship of the Atlantic Monthly, just started by Phillips, Sampson & Cos., of Boston, Mrs. Lowell had a serious attack of malignant typhoid fever five years ago, while in Madrid with he husband, who was then United Slates minister to Spain. After several days of critical illness, her physician pronounced her dead; but it was discovered that she was merely in a comatose condition, and with great care she was finally restored. After a slow convalescence she was able to rejoin Mr. Lowell in London, whither he had in the meantime been transferred as minister, but she never fully recovered from the effects of this experience, and was on this account accorded a special audience when presented to the Queen. She leaves no children. NINE O’CLOCK BREAKFAST. ‘ New York Mail and Express. There is already preliminary talk and gossip about spring fashion which, of course will be “the most beautiful ever seen." Rubies are coming into high favor for finger rings. The stone is set deep dowu in a plain gold band in a very effective w ay. Imperial blue is a now* color and is described by a correspondent vaguely as a sort of economically adulterated royal purple of old. There are many new styles and patterns in imported china and glassware, the introduction of which will be deferred until Easter. Fashionable finery at. balls and parties now shows signs of wear and tear which, considering the usage it has had. is not surprising. The latest thing in the way of a latch-key is nickel plated, and has a tiny lantern dangling from it like a tag, telling its own story. Three of the five bouquets carried by a young lady at one of the recent private balls were artificial, and very few people detected the fact. Young ladies who are inclined to anatomical displays in public are called, ‘’circus girls,” because they give such fine bareback exhibitions. Current events have made what are called Egyptian screens more Fashionable than ever, and now they are seen in every “notable household.” Family portrait breastpins are more than “commonly” fashionable, but are very conspicuous ornaments for young ladies to wear in public Unless a gentleman's overcoat is lined with fur, the trimming of the collar and sleeves with it is silly ostentation, and suggests a professional of some sort. Gentlemen’s favors at a recent gei-tpan were handsome silver knob walking canes. The host toss forgot all about providing the leader of the german with crutches. In newly imported china, some ofthemeat and game plattets have legs, like old fashioned New England vegetable dishes. The good carver will not like this innovation. Feathers continue to play a most important part nowadays in the trimming of both gowns and bonnets. tSome of it, especially small bird plumage, is very beautiful. The increasing rage for flowers of all kinds is declared by some to indicate a growing refinement among ;he people. Debating clubs should select the matter for discussion. “Arabesque,” in the Hour, says the raising of the hair to the crown of the head is found to call for shelter of some kind at tho back of tho neck, and a moderate ruff is the result. There is no abatement in tho craze for rugs, big and little, foreign and domestic, cheap and costly, and, bo it understood, no fashionable house nowadays is complete without several. Tablecloths, one would almost imagine, are entirely out of date, for everything in that line appears to be called a “scarf.” “Jane, be sure and put a clean scarf on for dinner to-night.” Among the lenten classes is one composed of a number of young ladies, who propose to make a set of gowns and stoles, and to embroider them for a well known Episcopal clergyman and his assistant in this city. It is thought that some two weeks and twenty fashionable hands will tie required to do the good work. Belief tliat Conant Is Being Held for Ransom. New York, Feb, 21.—The friends of S. S. Conant. the missing editor of Harper’s Weekly, who disappeared Jan. 16, think they have reason for believing him alive. Mr. Conant was seen on Coney Island on Jan. 20. There is no doubt of that. When this was learned do tectives began to work the island. They have now come to the belief that Mr. Conant is on the island, and is being held there by a certain man who hopes that a reward will bo offered for bis return. The man whom they suspect has told many contradicting stories about his seeing Conant there, about letters which he wrote and the like, llis reputation is bad. and the result is that to-morrow friends of Mr. Conant, tho detectives and a suitable forco will go to the island aiul ascertain whether tho missing man is really confined in one of the small hotels, as they suspect. Phelan’s Assailant Again in Court. New York, Feb. 21.—Richard Short appeared in tho Yorkvillo Police Court to-day, to answer the charge of having stabbed Cant Phelan in Kossa’s office. The court was crowded with sympathizers with the Irish movement. Counsel for tho prosecution rested their case, and counsel for the defense askod for the production of Phelan, as they wero not through with his cross examfnation, and asked for an adjournment. This was denied. Counsel asked for the discharge of Short on various grounds, and declared public opinion had much to do with tho prosecution of the case by the district attorney’s office. The prosecuting counsel denied this, and Judgo Paitorson denied the motion to disc have Short. Judgo Patterson refused to reduce the amount of bail, and Axed it at the original figures.

GOSSIP ABOUT NEW YORKERS How Vanderbilt and Bonner Drive Their Horses When They Meet on the Road. Claims Against the French Spoliation Fnns —Tinic Among Theatrical Stock Companies—War Against Wicked Pictures. A Brush Between Vanderbilt and Bonner* Special to the Indianapolis Journal. New Yoke, Feb. 21.— Seldom i3 there a week of steady sleighing in New York, and the present unusual chance to put fast horses in front of runners instead of wheels has not been neglected. The most observed of the drivers are William 11. Vanderbilt and Robert Bonner. The former i3 in bad health, but ho has not missed an afternoon of the rare diversion. He wears a cap of unpluckod beaver, tho longer hairs of which stand out bristling from his head like the quill* from a porcupine. The collar and sleeves of hi* ample coat, too, are fur trimmed, and^ by reason of flesh and garb he nearly fills tho width of tho light sleigh in which ho sits alone. No lackey accompanies him, and when he pulls up at a wayside inn it is the hostler who gets tho job ot holding the horses. These beasts are Lysander and Aldine, a pair which ho ha* driven on the track in 2:20, and which draw him through the snow for short distances at nearly if not quite that pace. Bonner uses a team composed of Rarus and Pickard, and they are not ao ideal match, for when urged to thoir fastest Rarus forges ahead of Pickard like the running mate to a trotter in a race. Bonner’s head is big and odd, the diameter being as great from front to back as from side to side; and that peculiarity is magnified by the huge otter cap which he wears. On the avenue northward, from Central Park, where the speeding of the* horses to sleighs is chiefly done, are the hostelries of Gabe Case and “Jedgo” Smith, about ft mile apart. Vanderbilt stops to drink at both places, but Bonner never at either. Just ail Vanderbilt drove -out from under Case’s shed,, Bonner came along. A race ensued. Vanderbilt is not a handsome reinsman. Ho leans anxiously forward, in an attitude suggesting that the reins are -cast iron, and that with them he is pushing rather than guiding tho horses. Bonner sits well back in his cutter, and his hands lie in his lap, oven when he is holding hard. But both shouted to their horses occasionally, after tho manner of professionals inciting racers to the utmost exertion. They kept alongside for half a mile; afteir that Vanderbilt's nags drew ahead, and on hill pulling up at Smith’s, he had to wait two or three seconds for Bonner to arrive. “Won'tyott go in, Bonner?” he cordially asked, inferentially inviting him to drink. • “Thank you, no,” replied Bonner, who is il pillar in the Fifth-avenufl Presbyterian Church.. “How's the mare?" meaning Maud S., whom he sold to Bouner last summer so freakishly. “First rate —never bettor, I guoss.” “What’s she going to do next summer?” “Beat the record, certain. I'm going to hftV§ her trained for a grand trial, and then youH bft prouder than ever you wero of her. She’* & wonder.” Then tho two horsemen parted, one drovft leisurely along. The other tarried for a glaa* of hot brandy and sugar. l’anfc Among Theatrical Stock CompanfeX, Special to tho IndianapoUs Journal. New York, Feb. 21.—The apoplectic death c*£ John Pacselle, the actor, turns out to have been au incidont of the panic with which the members of tho theatrical stock companies in this city are stricken. Nearly all of them are to lose their steady, lucrative employment at tho close of the present season, in consequence of the di* bandment of every dramatic organization i.a town except one. Parsolle bad for twelve year* drawn a salary of SIOO a week, forty weeks lit} tho year, at the Union Square Theatre. He hfiii a slight touch of apoplexy a year ago, and it impaired his memory to such an extent as to greatly lessen his value as an actor. His inability to quickly speak the language of his roles frequently ruined some of tho most important situations, lie was highly esteemod by his companions, and they habitually memorized his lines for the scenes in which they figured with him, in order that they might prompt him quickly when he got stuck. His popularity with Union square audiences also helped him to retain his position. But the decision of tho managers to abandon tho house, and lease it to combinations, quite crushed him, for be felt that he could not stand travel, nor get tho opportunity to do it profitably. There was no hope of securing a place in town. Wallaek had decided to hire performers only for the run of each play in tbe future, and probably will rent his house to itinerant companies during most of next season. Ho has made no money lately. Tbe Union-square folks have lost $20,000 on the season. The new Lyceum Theater enterprise, with its scheme of a regular company, is likely to ho abandoned, and the premises devoted, as orginally intended by the builder, to amateur use. The only company in New York will be at Daly’s Theater, where the policy of keeping moderate priced performers, and skillfully adapting plays from the German to exactly suit their abilities, has produced attractive and still not very costly entertainment After realizing the darkness of his outlook, poor I“arsolle failed rapidly. Indeed, his retirement would have been soon necessary had he hot died from apoplexy, induced by anxiety and weariruent. His struggles to bring to mind the line* of his role, and his frequent display of dazed confusion, were cruelly misinterpreted by the audiences, during his last month, as evidence of intoxication. French Spoliation Claims. fal to tti Indianapoliß Journal. New Yokk, Feb. 21.—The immediate coiose- \ qucnco of tho French spoliation act, lately passed by Congress and signed by the President, is tho opening of numerous # ofiices in this city for tho prosecution of claims. The operators aro, in most cases, men experienced in the pension business; and it looks as though they intended to reap an abundant harvest Tho door of one concern bears the names of ex-Govornor Boutwell and other public mon who have, at one time or another, taken an active interest in the subject; and tho samo captivatiug manner of imitating official authority characterizes the circulars, which are mailed broadcast over the country. These leaflets state, honestly enough, that damages amounting in estimato to thirty millions of dollars, wero dono to American shipping by French privateers during tho remainder of tho eighteenth century subsequent to tho Revolution; that theso injuries were, after muoh international dicker, offset against claim* brought against ua by the French government; but that tho individual losers, numbering not less than * thousand sea captains and owners of seized vessels and cargoes, got no recompense, although thirty seven different committee# of Coogirosa J