Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 April 1885 — Page 4

THE DAILY JOURNAL. BY JNO. C. NEW Si SON. C<C “, : THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1835. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can b found at the following places: LONDON—American Exchange in Europe. 449 Strand. FARlS—American Exchange in Paris, 35 Boulevard des Capacities. NEW YORK—St. Nicholas and Windsor Hotels. CHICAGO—PaImer House. CINCINNATI—J. R. Hawley & Cos., 154 Tine street. LOUISVILLE—C. T. Hearing, northwest corner Third and Jefferson streets. BT. I/lUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot and Southern Hotel. Telephone Calls. Business Office 238 | Editorial Rooms 242 Appomattox day! The Boston Herald says Postmaster Pearson is not a mugwump. He must be a "wkat-is-it” then. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are willing to own him. The Rose Ambler murder mystery is recalled by the assertion of a detective that he has about unraveled it Detectives are al ways on the verge of a wonderful discovery. The correspondence between General Grant nd General Lee, which resulted in the surrender at Appomattox, will be re-read with interest by thousands, and be read for the first time by other thousands. The result of the election in Chicago is the defeat of the Republican ticket by small majorities, Carter Harrison pulling through by the skin of his teeth, although the Republicans do not concede it. The most brazen frauds were undoubtedly committed, and there is talk of a contest. The Journal published an editorial some time since on the subject of cancerous diseases, in which certain facts were given taken from the report of the registrar-general of England, for 1882. There has now been published, in phamphlet, the address of Dr. Walter Whitehead before the Manchester Medical Society, in which the same statistics are used. Alluding to the alarming increase of cancer. Dr. Whitehead says: "If this is to continue at the same rate, cancer will constitute, in a very few years, the only disease the profession will have to contend with." April is a great month in the life of Gen. Grant. He was born April 27, 1822; in April, 1846, ho was with General Taylor in the advance on Palo Alto; in April, 1847, he was appointed quartermaster of his regiment. He offered his services, at the beginning of the late war, to Governor Yates on April 23, 1861; he fought the battle of Pittsburg Landing oh April 6 and 7, 1862; on -April 30, 1863, he crossed the Mississippi river at Vicksburg and took Port Gibson and Grand Gulf; in April, 1864. the National Guard was called into service that General Grant might have the active services of the veterant occupying garrisons; on April 9, 1865, he received the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. The congressional committee appointed to investigate the scientific bureaus of the government, with a view to "reform," has concluded its labors. Although no formal report has been made, it is given out that these de partments are found to have been conducted with efficiency and economy, and that no material changes will be recommended. This sort of report must be very discouraging to the average Democratic mind—and the Democratic mind may be said to be always, in all but exceptional cases, of an average quality. If no corruption and no rascals are found, how are tbej‘reforms” to be instituted which are to turn the Republicans out and themselves into offico? the hungry brethren are already beginning to ask. Reports of the sort above mentioned are not what they wero led by leaders of the Hendricks type to expect. Unless there can be a large infusion of good sense and decency into the matter, the sooner the "oratorical contests” are done away with the better for all concerned. The young gentlemen of the several colleges and universities have been most kindly treated by the press and the public; and we can readily see how these annual bouts, conducted in a fair and gentlemanly way, would be not only pleasant episodes in college life, but would be greatly profitable in the development of the art of graceful and forceful public speech. But no one can have failed to observe that for the last two or three years the rivalry between the colleges has ceased to be generous and manly. It has descended to a level beneath the dignity of educational institutions, and the tendency, unless severely and peremptorily checked, must work great damage to the colleges and to the student alike. Pending the last two or three contests the most serious charges were made, but nothing equal to the bitterness now displayed has ever been known. Committees and delegations from one or more universities havfe visited the newspaper offices for the purpose, on the one hand, of having published charges that would blast the reputation of a contestant and put a stigma upon the college pf which he was the representative, and, on the other, to secure the publication of defenses against slanderous imputations openly and industriously circulated in the hope of prejudicing or forestalling the judgment of the judges upon the merit of a given performMice. The extent to which this bitterness and envy has developed is alarming to the sinters friends of the institutions involved, and

to the well-wishers of the young gentlemen themselves. The condition of affairs that now obtains is to bo regretted; but it is worse than useless, and it would be unfriendly, to ignore it or to suppress it. The "contest” to-night will not be a fair, manly, generous emulation, but it will be attended with passion, with envy, with mean spirited jealousy, and with methods that are simply disgraceful to those engaged in them. The Journal speaks a friendly word, earnest, plain, and, possibly, ungracious; but it is a word that needs to be spoken, and we can probably say it better than can the faculties of the colleges, which may deem themselves powerless to arrest the decline of what should be a noble and honorable rivalry, however plainly they may recognize or sincerely deplore it. General Grant passed a comfortable day yesterday and up to the last report last night, received at midnight. He is steadily growing weaker, nowever, and should he be thrown into another spasm of coughing, and a further hemorrhage result, it is scarcely possible he could survive. His death may be expected any hour. THE LESSON OP TWENTY YEARS AGO. The mile-stone that the American people pass to-day, with its finger pointing toward the past, bears the legend: "Twenty years to Appomattox.” Sunday, the 9th of April, twenty years ago to-day, the chieftain of the confederate armies gave over the fight, surrendered his shattered ranks to Lieutenantgeneral U. S. Grant, and the war was substantially at an end. What followed was merely the acceptance of the inevitable, and the great armies that for four years had been in the field of military operations went back to the pleasant ways of peace. Appomattox crowned a perfect work, so far as General Grant was concerned, and gave him an abiding place among the world’s few great soldiers. Dying or dead, the people of this continent turn to again contemplate his great services. Luck, fortune, providence—what you will—opened the way for this man to reveal his character. The way once opened, his progress was practically unimpeded from Donelson to the day Lee quitted the field and gave over the struggle. What Waterloo was to England and Europe in general, Appomattox was to this country. The triumph of Grant was even greater than that of Wellington, in that it gives promise of a longer era of peace and good-will. The twenty years that lie between to-day and that memorable April Sunday on that quiet Virginia stage road ought to be multiplied indefinitely before this people forget its lesson. The South did not suffer alone, but North and South together were most fearfully chastened. That the crime has been condoned does not pluck out all the sting. The integity of the Nation has been maintained, but there are hundreds of thousands of lives that cannot be restored. For twenty years ten thousand firesides have been bereft of loved ones, and a great burden of debt for years has hung about the Nation’s neck, strangling enterprise and impeding prosperity. Twenty years ago to-day the young voter was a babe, and the man of thirty was but a lad of ten when the Army of Virginia surrendered to the man now dying in New York. A majority of the present voting population of the United States have come to manhood's estate since the Rebellion. To them the story of the war is at best a tradition. They have no adequate personal recollection of its awful import., its desperate issues, its fearful tragedies. The line then sharply dx*awn between the two great parties—the one loyal in every impulse, the other traitorous and treacherous—has grown dimmer, until now the latter arrogates to itself virtues that it once scorned at fearful cost of life and treasure. There was a lesson in the war that only the thoughtful of the young men of to-day can understand. The honeyed words of men who once hated the country and the country’s flag have deceived many. Men there are, here in Indiana, high in in the councils of the Democratic party, who, during the war, offered every aid and encouragement to those who were arrayed against the Union soldiers sent to the field. But for them the war would never have been undertaken, and but for their encouragement it could not have been protracted, as it was, over four direful years. It were well, on an occasion like this, to look back and contemplate the Nation’s achievements and the Nation’s deliverance, and then to take a reckoning and discover where we are. We cannot, as a people, afford to wholly forget our country’s history, nor to ignore the worth of those whose great services redeemed us out of civil war, and restored the land to its wonted tranquillity. Give credit to whom credit is due. To Democracy be allowed all the glory of the Charleston ordinance of secession, of the Montgomery Congress, of the firing on Fort Sumter, of Bull Run, Fort Pillow, Belle Isle and Andersonville. Be theirs the credit of every confederate victory, and theirs the debt of $3,000,000,000 put upon the people. To the Republican party, as the friend of Union, be ascribed Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Mission Ridge and Chickamauga, New Orleans and Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Petersburg and Richmond and Appomattox. i To it be given whatever credit may attach to the Emancipation Proclamation, to a restored Union, and to a thousand millions of debt paid within twenty years after the war closed. The anniversary of Appomattox must recall these things to every citizen, to him who was wrong and to him who is glad to-day that he was right. If the people profit not by the

—— 1 \ lesson written at such great cost, then is sacrifice in vain and patriotism a will-o’-the-wisp not worth seeking. A CHURCH DISGRACED. It is perhaps a part of ministerial duty to pluck the motes from the eyes of sinners, but it is well occasionally for pulpit incumbents to attend to the beams in their own eyes also The good men might, for instance, spare a little of the time which they are now devoting to denunciations of skating rinks to a consideration of the propriety of turning a church into a circus. The rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity, in New York, kindly loaned himself and his church to the midget wedding party as advertising accessories, and the result proved the business shrewdness of Mrs. Thumb and her new husband in asking the favor. An immense throng, which required over fifty policemen to keep in restraint, filled the street before the church. Inside were three thousand invited "guests,” among whom were Astors, Vanderbilts, Belmonts, and other distinguished people, but who, nevertheless, required forty policemen to keep them in order. When the lilliputian party entered the church the assembly stood up in the pews, and whispered and stared just as it would do at any other show. The clergyman performed the marriage ceremony with great impressiveness, and to complete the spectacle, and to leave nothing undone "promised on the bills,” bent down and kissed the bride, araid the cheers and laughter of the throng. The midgets had not passed out of the church before a raid upon the chancel began, each guest being prompted by a desire to secure a flower or other memento of the wedding. Had the performance been under a circus tent, or within the walls of a dime museum, it would have been unobjectionable, but in a church sacred to the worship of God it was a disgraceful desecration. Marriage of itself is probably as honorable between dwarfs or giants as between commonplace, medium-sized men and women; but when "show people” many, their weddings, if public, are intended simply as advertisements of themselves and their calling, and are so understood. If the rector of Holy Trinity did not so understand the matter he was a ninny; if he did comprehend the situation, and willingly made the sanctuary a dime museum adjunct for the sake of a little personal notoriety, he deserves nothing but contempt from all except the midgets themselves. The "Count” and "Countess” Thumb, or whatever their names may be, can do nothing less than to send the obliging rector a free tickot to all their shows. A BAD BEGINNING. The Cabinet bad scarcely been settled in their places when the appointment of Gen. John C. Black as Commissioner of Pensions was made with a great flourish of trumpets. Secretary Lamar telegraphed that the General’s acceptance of the office would give weight to the administration, and the General replied that if he could aid President Cleveland by accepting the office his services were at command. The appointment was very generally commended, and the new Commissioner entered upon his duties under most favorable auspices. But, behold! he who went up liko a rocket has already come down like a stick. Thus far Commissioner Black's administration of the duties of the bureau has been a succession of blunders, the last one, and the worst of all, being the demand for the resignation of Miss Sweet, the Chicago agent. For this act General Black has been unmercifully and unanimously scored by the press of the country, while Secretary Lamar made haste to say that he knew nothing whatever of the Commissioner’s action. Probably, if President Cleveland and Mr. Lamar were asked about the matter now, they would not think General Black had added so much "strength” to the administration as they hoped he would when he was so ostentatiously appointed to appease the righteous wrath of ex-Union soldiers over the naming of an ex-confederate and eulogist of Jefferson Davis to the head of the department charged with the duty of supervising the government provisions for their welfare. General Black was a good soldier, and he is a man of fair average ability; but he has what is known as the gift of gab, and has a reputation as an "orator.” No one so constituted as to acquire that notoriety amounts to anything in the quiet, earnest, practical work of an administrative office. Asa rule, the already exaggerated size of their heads enlarges, and they prove flat failures. It seems that Mr. Vilas and Commissioner Black will be the two conspicuaus examples of an almost inexorable law in the early days of this administration. Appomattox. To peace-white ashes sunk war’s lurid flame, The drums had ceased to growl, and died away The bark of guns, where fronting armies lay, And for the day the dogs of war were tame And resting on the field of blood-bought fame, For conquered peace o’er horrid war held sway On her won field, a score of years to-day, Where to her champion forth a white flag came. O, Nation’s chief! Thine eyes have seen again A whiter flag come forth to summon thee, Than t hat pale scarf which gleamed above war’s stain, To parley o’er the end of its red reign— The truce of God that sots from battle free Thy dauntless soul, and thy worn life from pain. 0 —Ben P. House. Here is a Boston definition of anew and much used word, but of hitherto uncertain significance. Slugger Sullivan having referred to someone as a chump, was asked the meaning of tho expression. "A chump, ” repeated the fighter who never fights, "why a chump’s a chump. O’Brien's a chump.” People who do not like the common word can now, with this high authority, feel at liberty to use the synonym ‘‘O’Brien.’' Miss Estel.uk Clayton, an alleged actress at the Union square Theater, New York, has broken

into the press by appearing on the stage barefooted. The account says she soon after put on shoes and stockings, but not until she had gone behind the scenes. The reporter thought the exhibition “thrilling.” If this is the beginning of costumes decollete at both ends, civilization will taxe to the woods every time a fancy dress occasion is announced. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS, Mb. W. D. Howells has taken the "Old Manse" at Concord for the summer. Christine Nilsson has received from King Alfon* so a cross of the Order of Beneficence, founded by his mother. George Alfred Townsend’s new tragedy, "President Cromwell," is in press. Only a limited edition will be printed. There are twenty persons whose gifts to colleges aggregate over $23,000,000. Three of these rich men—Stephen Girard, Johns Hopkins and Asa Packer —gave over $14,000,000. QrEEN V ictoria has a mania for collecting relics of engagement in war. Among others she has, mounted in crystal and silver, the musket ball that ended the career of Nelson. M. de Quatrefages stated recently at a meeting of the Academie des Sciences that in Senegambia the inoculation of cattle against pleuro pneumonia and smallpox had been practiced for centuries. Modjeska has a son now completing his studies as a civil engineer. He is devoted to his profession, and Modjeska is apparentiy both proud and fond of her big boy, who is, she says, twenty-four years old. The ruins of Fort Sumter are now but one story high, and there are but half a dozen guns, not one of which is fit for use. The government pays S2OO per month for watchmen, who keep lights burning for the guidance of mariners. A SMALL brass calendar that President Garfield used to turn every morning, and that now bears the date "Saturday, July 3, 1881," never having been changed since that fatal morning, is a prized memento in the home of R. B. Hayes. The venerabla Miss Elizabeth Peabody made the journey from Concord, Mass., expressly to hear Mr. Ignatius Donnolly explain his Bacon-Shakspeare cipher. There are now three people who take full stock in the discovery—Miss Peabody, Gen. Butler and Ignatius Donnelly. The famous portraits by Franz Hals, of the founders of the Hoofje Van Beeresteyn, at Haarlem, formerly one of the sights of that town, have been acquired by the Louvre for 100,000 francs. They comprise a portrait of a man (dated 1629, or when Hals was forty-five), one of a woman, and a family party in a garden. Photography is rendered so easy by electricity that one may be photographed unknown to oneself. The other night, at the observatory, the President of the French Republic was not aware that more than a dozen photographs had been taken of him until the soiree was nearly over, when he was given an album conta'u ing them. Dr. Edward W. Emerson, of Concord, has at last found a rock of white quartz, with sea-green beryls embedded in it, to mark his father’s grave. A block of it weighing eight tons has been quarried at South Acworth, N. H., and shipped to Concord. It is the intention to have the inscription placed on a bronze plate, which will be set in the quartz. When Proctor Knott made his fanciful Duluth speech fifteen years ago the humor of the thing tickled the entire continent. No one dreamed that Duluth would ever amount to anything, and when Knott called her "the paragon of cities” everybody laughed. Still this town is third in the list of grain-receiving points, beating Milwaukee, Toledo, and St. Louis. The old synagogue of the Spanish and Portugese Jews in Bevis Marks, London, now being pulled down, bears painted on a door panel the name of "Benjamin D’lsraeli," with the date 5577 (Jewish era.) It is believed that he was the grandfather of the late Ear! of Beaconsfield, but if so the commonly received date of his death, November, 1816, is wrong, as 5577 corresponds with 1817, A. D. At Queen Victoria’s last drawing-room there were some splendid Eastern costumes, and an Indian lady, having kissed the Queen’s hand, offered her Majesty an Oriental salaam as she retired, to the great amusement of the circle. This lady wore a quaint but very becoming Asiatic dress of white, with overdress richly embroidered with gold, and a regular Eastern veil round the head. She blazed with diamonds. An unprinted letter of Charles Lamb’s has come to light, giving his opinions on the relative value of Wordsworth’s and Byron’s work. Rereads thus: "I never relished his lordship’s mind. * * * Why, a line of Wordsworth’s is a lever to lift the immortal spirit. Byron’s can only move the spleen. He was at best a satirist; in an * other way he was mean enough. I dare say Ido him injustice, but I cannot love him nor squeeze a tear to his memory.” At the recent royal drawing-room reception in London black was the prevailing color. The Princess of Wales looked much better in her sombre toilet (which set off her magnificent diamonds very well indeed) than in the white dress which she wore at the first drawing-room. The Queen was arrayed entirely in black, having discarded the white veil she has hitherto worn for one of black tulle, and wore only jet ornaments. Princess Beatrice was in mauve and violet, and displayed many more diamonds than she has ever worn before. The latest eccentiicity of a young and wealthy bachelor of Philadelphia, whose pranks have amused society for years, is that of going to a fashionable restaurant for a late supper and insisting upon providing his own table-cloth. About throe times a week he appears between midnight and 1 o’clock A. M., and covers one of the tables in the men’s case with a more or less gorgeous table-cloth, generally made of some fancy shawl of Eastern manufacture. On this he orders spread a little supper for two or three, and appears to take a delight in the sensation caused when a newcomer first sees the startling cloth. He has now kept this up for weeks, and has not used the same cloth twice. OF Ferry, the lately-deposed French Premier, a correspondent writes: "He always shook men’s hands with a hearty grip; he could laugh loud and long even when not amused; if conversation flagged he could light it up suddenly with a few crackling jokes, but he generally preferred to sit silent, smoking penny cigars (for he was not rich), sipping absinthe, and taking mental notes of what was being said around him. Now and then, especially if a talker appealed to him, he would nod approval with a grave closing of the eyes, which is the supreme politeness in the art of listening. He never squandered his knowledge in small talk, so that his public speeches always took his mo9t intimate friends aback. Gambetta once said to him: "You are the most secretive of chatterboxes," the truth being that Ferry used commonplace ideas in private intercourse, just as some men keep half-pence for beggars. When she visited Victoria, British Columbia, a few years ago, the Princess Louise was in the habit of taking, every morning, simply attired, a walk through the city. Often she entered stores and made purchases without being recognized. One morning, it is said, as she was passing a little toy shop she saw two poorly-clad urchins gazing longingly at the allurements in the show window. She stopped and inquired what they particularly wished, adding that if they would tell her she would buy it. Two cheap and gaudy dolls had attracted the children’s attention, and the Princess stepped inside the shop to make the purchase. The ’amount was 25 cents; but the Princess had left her purse at home, and the little children’s faces began to fall as they saw their prospect growing fainter. Annoyed at the oversight, she turned to the shopman and asked him if he would trust her for a little while. The old shop-keeper, all unaware of the identity of his customer, scanned her carefully and finally remarked: "Well. yes. You have an honest face, and I guess it is safe enough." She Didn’t Vote the Wrong Way. Philadelphia Press. There is yet no statement of the reasons which prompted Commissioner Black to demand the resignation of Miss Sweet, the efficient pension agent at Chicago. Maybe she was an “offensive partisan.’'

THE SUCKER STATE PRIZE. Illinois Democrats Transfer the Senatorial Fight to Washington. A Small Contingent of the Legislature Visits the National Capital and Opens Negotiations for Morrison’s Withdrawal. Tariff Measures that Will Tend to Bar American Goods Out of Germany. Instances of Unexampled Gall on the Part of Office-Seekers—Commissioner Black and the Case of Miss Sweet THE ILLINOIS SENATORSHIP. Progress of the Scheme for Substituting Black for Morrison. Special to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.—lntense interest is felt here in the senatorial struggle in Illinois. Not many ’ Illinois men are at the national captal now, but all elements are represented, and there is a feeling that the result may, to a great extent, be fought out in the private parlors of Washington hotels and the elegant apartments of General Black’s boarding-house. A small contingent of the Illinois Legislature is here now, accompanied by an intimate friend of General Black, and they spend a great deal of time together. Two or three of the Illinois congressmen linger in the field. Land Commissioner Sparks is an interested on-looker, Mr. Oberly is not unaware of the negotiations in progress, and a number of other Illinoisans are taking a hand. Some strongly favor and others equally strongly oppose the retirement of Colonel Morrison from the fight All apparently look upon General Black as a most promising compromise candidate in this event. The legislators have become convinced that General Black would poll the full Democratic vote. Their efforts are now being directed to securing Colonel Morrison’s cordial indorsement and co operation in an effort to elect Black if his own chances diminish. It is believed that progress is being made in this direction. The factions differ widely as to the propriety of substituting another name for that of Morrison, and representatives of opposing views are watching each other closely. GERMAN IMPORT DUTIES. Measures that Will Have a Serious Effect on American Enterprises. Special to tue Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.—lnformation has been received at the Department of State from Consul Schoenle, the United States representative at Bremen, Germany, to the effect that the German coverment is taking direct steps toward increasing the import .duties to an extent that will bar out American goods, practically, and very materially affect the interests of our farmers. It seems that the farmers and laborers of Germany have for a number of years been suffering from heavy business depression, the same as England, France and other European countries. Prices of products and labor are very low, and with heavy tolls the people are crying out for relief. The United States has been pouring her cereals into Germany in immense quantities, keeping the prices down to almost a level with this country. In Germany the farms are small, and the producers, not raising wheat, barley, etc., in such great quantities a3 those of the United States, are driven to demand protection. All parts of Germany demand an increase of duty on grain and flour. It is said that at the present session of the Reichstag the duty will be increased from three to five times above the present tax, which is hut one mark per 100 kilogrammes. The officers of Germany are also splitting hairs to make Americans pay a higher duty on petroleum shipped to that country. They are stretching the construction of the present laws so as to classify the barrels in which we export petroleum as “coopers’ wares,” and make them dutiable at high figures. The United States sells to Germany 2,000,000 barrels of petroleum annually. Germany has her scalping-knife drawn for American enterprise. The consul states that “such a state of affairs naturally precludes the idea that the prohibition of the importation of American hog products ir. Germany has any prospect whatever of being revoked. ” DEPRESSED OFFICE-SEEKERS Amazed at Finding Their Applications Referred to the Civil-Service Commissioners. Special to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April 8. —An office-seeker who has been here looking after an appointment ever since inanguration day grew impatient this morning and called at the White House. “Your application papers were promptly referred to the Civil-service Commissioners, 1 see by the books,” replied the President; “and I presume blank application papers for examination have long since been forwarded to you at your home.” The office-seeker was amazed. “Why, I thought I’d get an appointment through you,” said he, “and I was indorsed by my delegation in Congress for that purpose.” “Oh! there are a thousand applications for every place filled here,” said the President, “and the only way I can do, not to show partiality, is to refer all these matters I cannot attend to at once, to the Civil-service Commissioners.” “Have you so referred many applications?” “At least ninety-five out of every huudred.” repliod the President, “and those that have been sent to the departments have fared worse, for scarcely a dozen have not been sent to the Commissioners. ” The office-seeker was paralyzed, almost. He returned to his hotel, and informed other men who have been waiting for their places. They were nearly crushed. During the day more than twenty applicants who have been hanging around here have been told at the White House that their papers were before the Civil-service Commission, and that they must get places through that body. The effect has been awfully depressing, and nothing has caused so much cursing. There is a good deal of agitation over the matter now. UNEXAMPLED NERVE. The Ground on Which Some Dismissed Employes Seek Reinstatement. Special to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.— “Some of these officeseekers have immense nerve,”observed an officer of high rank at the Postoffice Department to-day. “Yes, they have immense nerve,” he repeated, “for it takes nerve, or gall, or hardihood, or a

lack of sense, or something of that sort to at tempt the latest imposition that is being tried in three or four of the departments. For many years the force of employes has fluctuated in the departments -by reason of the appropriations that Congress has made to pay them. Large reductions have been made at various times, before and after the civil-serv-ice law was enacted. When there is no provision made to pay men they must be discharged, and to get hack required a reappointment before the civil-service law was passed, and now the examination must he passed again. There is one thing that will cause the dismissal of any of us—a lack of fundi to pay us. Well, sir, the men that have been dismissed for this reason during the past ten of fifteen years are applying for ‘reappointment* They call it ‘reinstatement,’ sometimes.” “Will they succeed?” I asked. “Poo-pooh!” replied the official. “They stand no better show of getting back than if they had never been here before. But they show their nerve or gall in representing in their application papers that they were removed because they were Democrats! Its amazing. The record# have been looked up before the applications were forwarded to the Civil-service Commissioners, and not one was removed for any cause that could bear in the slightest upon politics. Nearly all were discharged because there was no appropriation to pay them. Others were found dishonest, or figured in scandals, or were in some way found wholly unfit to hold their positions. That class receive such an indorsement before reference to the Civil-service Commissioners. COMMISSIONER BLACK. A Ruling Which Is Severely Criticised—The Case of Miss Sweet. Bpecifil to the Indi&naDolis Journal. Washington, April B. —Commissioner of Pensions Black has brought heaps of malediction* upon his head for the ridiculous ruling he made a few days ago regarding the expense accounts of special agents of the bureau. He ruled that the men in the field should not be allowed subsistence on Sunday. Such a construction upon right and good judgment was never heard of in any branch of the government service. The men are usually sent out upon trips for indefinite periods, varying from two weeks to a year, the average being probably four or five months. By this rule, their expenses are paid only six day# in the week. “It’s the most ridiculous ruling I ever heard of,” said the head of another bureau this afternoon. “If a man is entitled to subsistence on working days, he is on Sundays, because he must live on Sundays as well as on other days, and it was never contemplated by either common sense or common law that a man traveling around woiking for the government, whether on per diem or annual pay, should stand his own bills. Oh! it’s very ridiculous, and the position is so yntenable that he must retreat from it at once. But he assumed about as ridiculous a position, however, when he demanded the resignation of Miss Sweet, pension agent at Chicago.” “Had he no authority for that?” “No, not of his own office. He cannot ask for a resignation from any one except by direction, and if he was directed to ask for Miss Sweet’s resignation he should have said so, and stated by whose direction. Some men get very brash, though, in first assuming control of an office.” THE MINISTER TO SPAIN. Hon. John W. Foster’s Programme, Plans and General Mission. Washington Special. Hon. John W. Foster, minister to Spain, who had intended making a visit to his old home in Indiana prior to his return to his post of duty, now finds it impossible to carry out that intention. He will have a long interview with the Secretary of State, in a few days, relative to the foreign policy of the new administration, and will sail from New York for his post on the 22d of April. The selection of Colonel Foster, who is a stanch Republican in politics, to return to Spain in the interests of this government, by a Democratic President, is a compliment of unusual consequence single in the history of the government, hut is well bestowed. He goes upon a special mission—that of negotiating a new treaty with Spain—and he will bring to the discharge of the duty diplomatic talents of a high order and large experience. His acquaintance with Spanish statesmen and with affairs is intimate, and just now is recognized as invaluable. Colonel Foster will return here in the fall with a draft of the new treaty, ready to be presented to the Senate next winter for action, and will probably then retire from office. MINOR MENTION. An Effort to Abolish the Useless and Expensive Botanical Garden. Special to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.—An effort will be made, it is said, during the next year to abolish the Botanical Garden. This is a branch of alleged enterprise that has no place and no mission, and is a source of many thousands of dollars, expenss every year. It is not an ornament, because it is not beautiful, and advances no interest. It has been kept in existence simply by the shrewdness of the manager of it He is careful to send flowers to congressmen and senators and their ladies, and to see that baskets of choice cuttings ornament the desks of the statesmen occasionally. So far no one has shown the courage to retrench in this direction; hut the time seems to have come. The Case of W. A. Gresham. Special to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.—ln the Criminal Court, to-day, William A. Gresham, formerly of Delphi, Ind., now a clerk in the War Department, was arraigned for trial for cowhiding Albert D. Gihon, on March 2, last, particulars of which were printed in the Journal on the following day. In the Police Court Gresham was sentenced to sixty days in jail, and his two co-defendents fined SIOO each, from which an appeal to the Criminal Court was taken. Gresham changed his plea to-day from one of “not guilty” to “guilty,” and put himself upon the mercy of the court as to suspending his sentence until he should hare time to make application for clemency to the executive. Gresham having entered a plea of “guilty,” Judge MacArthur said that sentence should he suspended for a sufficient length of time to allow him to make application to the executive. Smith and Puff, who were with Gresham at the time of the assault, are standing trial, however, and testimony in the case is being heard. He Should Not Succeed. Bpecial to the Indianapolis Journal. Washington, April B.— lt is stated, on what seems to be good authority, that Judge Crowell, late auditor of the treasury for the Postoffic# Department (Sixth Auditor), is making an effort to have John Sleraon, chief of the pay division of the auditor's office, reduced in grades and himself made Slemon’s successor. It is hoped here that the effort may not succeed, for there is no bettor officer under the government