Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 7 October 1885 — Page 4

4

rHE DAILY JOURNAL. BT JNO. C. NEW ft SON. WASHINGTON OFFICE—SI3 Fourteenth St. P. S. HEATH, Correspondent yji-;,... - ■ " ■”•= WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1885. RATES OF SUBSCRIPTION. nuts INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE —POSTAGE PREPAID BT THJt PUBLISHERS. THE DAILY JOURNAL. On< year, by mail $12.00 One year, by mail, including Sunday 14.00 Six months, by mail 6.00 Fix months, by mail, including Sunday 7.00 •Three months, by mail 3.00 •Three months, by mail, including Sunday 3.50 One month, by mail 1.00 One month, by mail, including Sunday 1.20 Per week, by carrier (in Indianapolis) 25 THE SUNDAY JOURNAL. Per eopy 5 cents One year, by mail $2.00 THE INDIANA STATE JOURNAL (WEEKLY EDITION.) One year SI.OO I .ess than on© year and over three months, 10c per Bxonths. No subscription taken for less than three Months. Jn clubs of five or over, agents will take yearly subscriptions at sl, and retain 10 per cent for their work. Address JNO. C. NEW & SON, Publishers The Journal, Indianapolis, Ind. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Ckn be found at the following places: LONDON—American Exchange in Europe, 449 Strand. PARlS—American Exchange in Paris, 35 Boulevard des Capucines. NEW YORK—St Nicholas and Windsor Hotels. CHICAGO—PaImer House. CINCINNATI—J. R. Hawley & Cos., 154 Vine street LOUISVILLE—O. T. Dearing, northwest corner Third and Jefferson streets. SI. LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot and Southern Hotel. Telephone Calls. Business Office 238 | Editorial R00m5.....-242 REPUBLICAN CITY TICKET. Election: Tuesday, October 13, 1885. For Mayor-CALEB S. DENNY. Foil CIkhk—GEORGE T. BREUNIG. The Platform. The Republicans of Indianapoiis accept the issue mA> in the platform and nominations of the Democratic city convention, and in the pending canvass and approaching election invite the co-operation and support, not only of the members of their own party, irot of all citizens, of whatever political affiliations, or ho favor— First—The enforcement of law in the interest of public order and for the preservation of private rights. Second—The strictest economy in the administration of the affairs of the city government withiu the revenue raised from the present rate of taxation, and of the refunding of the existing city debt at a lower rate of interest. Third—The levy of a tax of SIOO per year upon •ach saloon in the city, the proceeds whereofc shall be placed in the general fund of the city treasury. Fourth—The overthrow of the arrogant domination of the Liquor League in the politics of the city and State. fifth—A rebuke to the Democratic officers of State who have prostituted the metropolitan police system to the basest partisan ends, whereby the city’s good jpamn has been scandalized', its peace and good order imperiled, and the efforts of honorable public officers )to vindicate the law paralyzed. “I want to say, In the first place, that I plant myself squarely, flat-footed, with both Ifeet upon the platform you have adopted.’ —-Mr. Denny’s Acceptance Speech. The Liquor League is fighting for the control of Indianapolis. Shall it be allowed to succeed? MEMBERS of the Indianapolis bar should of “drunken epileptics.” They are dangerous creatures. AN increased attendance is reported at the meetings of the Indianapolis Equal Suffrage Society. If these ladies were privileged to vote next week all apprehensions as to the possible ascendency of “Cottrellisru” might be dismissed.

The Nesv York Evening Post thinks the “passion of shame" finds little accommodation in Senator Hoar’s moral make-up. There is reason to believe that the Post is not aware of ■the existence of this human sentiment through contemplation of its own mental experiences. The speetacle.of seeing Joaquin Miller denouncing General Sherman as “one squat ' hero of his day," and his veterans as ‘‘hired ' hordes,” is one hardly calculated to drown the bitter recollections of the war. It does not demand fair elections, however, and hence is not “bloody shirt." The Sandusky Register “waves the bloody shirt" in a way that Senator Sherman never attempted. It shows that the six Republican candidates are all ex-Union soldiers, while not one on the Democratic ticket wore the blue. It is very wrong to thus revive the bit prejudices of the war. TIIJS irregular and unsatisfactory mail service between New York and Brooklyn having been investigated, and found to be due to the inefficiency of the Brooklyn postmaster, peace reigns once more in the mugwump breast of the metropolis. It would have been dreadful liad Paragon Pearson been at fault. Are merchants and business men, and taxpayers of all kinds as much interested in the result of next week’s election as are the saloonkeepers? If ihey are, they will hare to show it by their acts; by not only votiug themselves, but seeing that all whom they can properly influence also vote against Coyism and Cottrellism in tho city government. The tax-payers of Indianapolis are much lEoro interested in the result of tho election ,next week than are the candidates for mayor and clerk, and for councilmen and aldermen. Their interest is relatively small. None of tho offices are remunerative. Neither are the “politicians" or “workers” greatly interested. There is no patronage to be distributed an a result of success. The people who are interested are the plain, every-day tax-

payers. They are the ones who will have to carry the election, if it be carried at all. And it will not be carried unless the plain taxpayers go to work, and stay at work until after the last vote is counted and the result declared. Do the tax-payers care to defeat “Sim” Coy, “Sam” Diunin and “Cottrellism?” Mr. Borgarding, who could not tell a lie because he got tripped up in advance, is the only individual who seems likely to get any satisfaction out of the very peculiar legal (or illegal) proceeding in which he is involved. Mr. Borgarding will get his money back. The gentleman who kindly drew it from the bank will hardly get value received. The Indianapolis Sentinel has progressed so far in its bar-room and “Sim” Coy methods as to say that the Journal “willfully lies” when it states the issue involved in the approaching city election. We do not care to follow the Sentinel. Let it wallow in its own filth to its heart's content. The decent public knows whether the Journal lies or not. We mistake Judge Norton if he does not deal severely with the parties to the Royse affair. Such a flagrant attempt to defeat justice merits the severest punishment. And it would seem that some means should he found whereby the credulity of an attorney in “a drunken epileptic” could be curbed before it leads to such lengths as in this case. The good citizen who believes in the impartial enforcement of law and in saving the city from bummer rule, who does not strike often and steadily for the law-and-order ticket between now and next Tuesday, will have no right to rejoice in victory or complain if the right should be defeated. The time for good words bravely spoken and hard work conscientiously done is now. Mr. Cleveland means to have anew deal all around. Anew Civil-service Commission would be of little use to his party without a clean slate, and ho therefore wipes off the names of those who passed the examinations under a former administration, and have been waiting for appointments. It is the mugwumps who maintain moststrenuously that Mr. Cleveland is an earnest refoi'mor, and it is the eminent Democratic workers who insist that the President is one with them. The disinterested observer can take his choice of opinions.

There seemed to be some doubt about it when the versatile and unique Benj. F. Butler announced that he had withdrawn from active politics, which, in his case, means running for some office. That doubt may now be dismissed, since he expresses the belief that “nine out of ten laborers can be bought for $2 apiece.” There are hundreds of thousands of laborers in this country that couldn't be bought with all the wealth at Bi tier's command. The bummers who bey and sell votes, as a rule, are not laborers other than with their mouths. The Boston Herald thinks Carl Schurz would be an ideal Civil-service Commissioner, but admits that it would prefer to see the “right kind of a Democrat” at the head of the Commission. Has this rejection of the ideal on the part of a once-earnest “reformer,” resulted from the lesson that the ideal in politics is not apt to realize the expectations based on it —not apt, in short, to “pan out?” Will tho Herald not go a little further in its frankness, and confess that it would prefer to see the “right kind of DemoCx~at” in the ideal President’s chair?

The attenuated theory is now advanced that the Chinese at Rock Springs fired their own buildings during the massacre in order to keep their assailants from finding the money that was buried under them, an<> which they subsequently came back for and recovered. This is an awful charge, and if it can be substantiated they should be sentenced to death. No man, heathen or Christian, should offer any resistance under such cincumstances, and, instead of concealing money, should cheerfully hand it out, with the polite regret that the sum was not larger. We think Mr. Murphy uttered a great truth when he said, at the late civil-service reform meeting, that, if the association had nothing to do but to quarrel about cross-roads postmasters, it had better die a-bornin’. The truth was not in the reason alleged, however. The cross-roads postmaster was not involved, only indirectly; tho person directly involved was the President of the United States. And if the association is too cowardly to express itself upon a principle to which it professes to be devoted, because even so high an officer as the President may be within the criticism, it had better die before it is born. No such cowardly flunkeyism can amount to anything in this world. TnE prevailing epidemic of smallpox obtained a foothold in Montreal in April last. During that month there were six deaths from the disease. In May there were thirteen; in June there were thirteen; in July there were forty-six; in August, 244, and in September the death-roll had swelled to nearly 1,000. The great trouble seems to be, not that the people who suffer most (the Freuch-Canadian Catholics) are dirty in person or surroundings, but that they were greatly prejudiced against vaccination. This aversion to it was greatly strengthened by the unlucky incident of two deaths among their children, in the early stages of the plague, from erysipelas, resulting from the use of impure virus. The movement then to compel vaccinnation was fiercely opposed, and the riot ensued. The Protestants and the Irish Ca tholics seem to

THE INDIANAPOIffS JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1885.

bear charmed lives, escaping as they do the great ravages of this most loathsome disease. The truth is they vaccinate, and thus escape. An account now comes that the Fren ch Canadians have been treated to a great demonstration of formal supplication by the church for a stay of the ravages of the plague, the most sacred emblems being brought into it This may* serve a good end in pacifying the populace, but it is not enough, and should be supplemented speedily by general vaccination and other means suggested by reason and science. When this is done energetically, a reduction in the death rate may be expected, and not before, unless victims as material should be exhausted. A PLAYED-OUT FAROE. The play of Grover Cleveland in the character of the great civil-service reformer is about drawing to a close, as we have so certainly anticipated. He has been President for seven months. He has put in office a few estimable and reputable men, but he has also put in such fellows as Chase, Piilsbury, Troop, Higgins, and scores of others in the different States, who are known by the people of those States to be anything but “reformers.” In Indiana, for instance, he has appointed such men as Lamb and Hanlon to offset such as Magee and Denby. The Civil-service Commission is broken up; it is as dead as a last year's mackerel. A rule has been wiped out by the executive pen that practically annuls the examinations thus far made, and opens the door to all the hungry horde that may appear before the new Democratic Commission when it shall be constituted. He has allowed Attora ney-general Garland to clean out his department to the last man, and his Postmastergeneral has turned his department into a character-assassination bureau, while his first assistant is chopping off heads at the rate of from one to three hundred a day. In the State of New York the Democratic party slapped civil-service reform directly in the face, both in the platform and by the nomination of a notorious spoilsman; and for the ticket thus nominated upon an anti-civil-service reform platform Mr. Cleveland's official influence is being daily used in the most direct and positive manner. A Washington special of yesterday to the Courier-Journal, evidently inspired from the White House, says: “The President makes no secret of his position in the campaign in New York. He tells all of his friends that he regards the election of Governor Hill and the Democratic State ticket as highly important to Democratic interests, and evinces the liveliest interest in the struggle. He confesses that the absurd reports that he is not friendly to the election of Governor Hill and the Democratic ticket annoy him exceedingly, and he is at a loss to understand why honest men editing newspapers should deliberately aud knowingly misrepresent him. “The President is not only in favor of the election of Governor Hill and the Democratic ticket on party grounds, but he favors it on honest government and business principles for the reason that the product of the>-D*mo-cratic State convention is of a higher and better quality than that of the Kepublican convention. In a word, the President of the United States is an honest man and a good Democrat, and, being asuch, he earnestly desires the election of the Democratic State ticket, because it is composed of good, honest men and Democrats. Asa further proof of his sincerity, it is the present intention of the President to go home and vote the straight Democratic ticket.''

Is it not high time to have done with all mawkish nonsense and sentiment about Cleveland and “reform?" The real truth about Mr. Cleveland is, that he is a big lump of very ordinary manhood, mixed with pure obstinacy directed by his personal feelings. To-day his obstinacy leads him in a direction that appears to bo “reform" to the optimistic, or to those who must needs find some possible excuse for their foolish course last year, and that is all there is now, or all there has ever been, about his so-much-vaunted civil-service reform. He has gone so far as to write a letter, by dictation, saying he is a Democrat, and wants to see the Democratic party succeed. This for New York consumption, and to aid a party and a candidate that are as hostile to civilservice reform as it is possible to be. Grover Cleveland is an arrant humbug when he poses as a civil-service reformer par excellence; his record as President demonstrates it beyond question, and his attitude toward the New York Democratic State ticket further confirms it. What will such men as George William Curtis, and such papers as the New York Times, New York Post, Springfield Republican, Boston Herald, and the like, say in view of this latest revelation of the pinchbeck out of which their tin god is made? THE DEMOCRATIC-PROHIBITION SIDE-SHOW, Rev. J. W. Wakefield, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Marysville, and a member of the Ohio Conference, has made a public statement to tho effect that he overheard a conversation between two men—whose political relations may be inferred—in which they discussed all the details of a proposed prohibition political campaign. One of these men said to the other: “The Republicans are united, and if we cannot divide them they will elect a Republican senator, and if they do they will still control the Senate. That means for the Democrats to step down and out in 1888, and stay out while we five. But if we can get them divided and carry the State, then we may get entire control of the government; THEN ALL HELL CAN’T GET US OUT.” After cornering the figures of the election, which seemed to indicate Republican success, the speaker continued: “This is to be overcome by management, and our chance is slim. 1 see, gentlemen, but one ghost of a chance. It is this: we must use the prohibition sentiment as we have never tised it Now, this is the plan: They (tho Prohibition party) have polled 16,000 votes. We must help them to double that vote next fall. We must get them to nominate I)r. A. B. Leonard for Governor. He being a popular Methodist minister, they will bite at that quick, and will feel flattered to

have him. As for Leonard, he is ambitions, and will feel wonderfully flattered to be a candidate for Governor.” The Methodist Book of Discipline was produced, and the action of the church on the temperance question read, and then the “fixer’’ said: “Now, with that as a goad to the Methodist conscience, Leonard in the lead, with the opportunities at the great camp-meetings to prod them up, and then in September, before the election, the five M. E. conferences of Ohio will meet, and the army of over eight hundred preachers will get red-hot and go out all over the State with the cry, 'vote as you pray,’ etc., and the Methodists will follow them like sheep into the Prohibition trap. “Now, with this plan well worked—and we must work it, cost what it may—we must talk nothing else; we must have every camp-meet-ing supplied with the best speakers —lady speakers are the most effective with the religious masses—with this plan well worked Leonard can get from 35,000 to 40,000 votes. From 90 to 95 per cent, of them will be from the Republican party —say 28,000 to 32,000 from the Republican vote. Now, as they will be cast for a third party, they will be a full gain for the Democrats. Now, I have not been extravagant. You see, gentlemen, it will bring us out.” Some further conversation between the two worthies ensued, and then it closed. Mr. Wakefield adds: “This programme has been carried out to the letter. The last camp-meeting and conference have been manipulated as far as possible. Everything has been done to carry out this grand fraud, by which to steal the State and senatorship and the control of the government, by misleading the good people through their religion and conscience. And lam asked to vote for A. B. Leonard, the figurehead, simply because lam conscientiously a Prohibitionist and a Christian minister.” We leave this statement just where it is, without a word of comment, other than to say that it has been before the public of Ohio for some days, and up to the present moment it has neither been denied nor challenged. Its truthfulness stands unimpeached, as does the character of the man who makes it. There will be many others besides Mr. Wakefield who will ask themselves seriously, whether they can afford to vote for A. B. Leonard, the Democratic free-whisky figure-head, simply because they are conscientiously Prohibitionists. The Springfield Republican says: “It is singular that a thorough examination of the real state of the Indiana township trustee warrant frauds is still delayed. The matter grows more puzzling as time passes, and neither County Commissioners, State officers nor newspapers seem to know just how the matter really stands. There is room for some clear-headed and energetic man to show what can be done in the way of explaining the crookedness, or at least tracing its results.” This is very remarkable, and the Journal has frequently alluded to it. There has been a timidity about taking hold of the matter that is not only marvelous, but suspicious. Take it in Indianapolis, for instance: Here an official quietly rests for weeks under a cloud of suspicion, and he takes no steps to force any action that shall tend to clear away the haze. He denounces certain signatures as forgeries, but makes no effort whatever to see that the man who has made so free with his official signature is tracked down and apprehended. A long time has elapsed, sufficient in which for those implicated to make such arrangements for their safety as may be necessary; and then, when, in the due course of time, without the slightest hurrying of the judicial machinery, the grand jury meets, Trustee Kitz appears before the body and repeats his denunciation of forgery against somebody. While commending the clearness and force of Judge Norton's charge to the grand jury respecting this township order swindle, and hoping that under its stimulus something tangible will be at once done to bring the guilty parties to justice, we cannot but express both astonishment and indignation at the little less than criminal delay that has characterized the movements of those most interested. From the beginning Mr. Kitz has evaded, has shuffled, has plainly lied, has juggled with figure sand trifled with facts, has hesitated and halted, until the public is perfectly justified in entertaining the worst possible suspicions of his reckless and profligate management of the township affairs. They will not want any more Kitzism, or Covism, or Dowlingism, or Dinninism in the administration of local affairs.

The way to have a good government is to keep the government good. Once turn the municipal government over to the Liquor League, and it will require a big fight, and a stubborn and expensive one, to get it back to where it should be. The Republican party has its face toward reform in its best and proper sense. No honest man can afford to fail to give it the heartiest support. It is a war between lawlessness on the side of the Liquor League and the decent and impartial enforcement of the law on the other. It has been said that Indianapolis is well governed, and that it will compare favorably with any other city of like or greater size. If this be true, it can be ascribed to the fact that the Liquor League has not yet had its way. And not having its way, it now proposes to capture the government for itself, and to run it according to the very peculiar and very “liberal” ideas of the league. Certain it is that if it succeeds there will be no arrests for gambling nor for violations of the liquor law. The New York mugwumps who voted for Hill for Lieutenant-governor in 1882 are trying, in a very lame way, to explain why his past record was a matter of no consequence then and of great importance now, and in so doing admit, substantially, that a very bad man is not objectionable in the second ofiico in the State so long as the first is filled with a great statesman like Mr. Cleveland. The Brooklyn Eagle says: “To claim that Hill’s vote in 1882 was an indorsement of the man and his career is as absurd as to claim that the vote for the Cleveland electoral ticket was an

indorsement of Hendricks.” This argument is altogether too fine spun for the average comprehension. The large majority of intelligent citizens will continue to believe that whoever voted for Cleveland, either as Governor or President, practically indorsed the rest of the ticket. A considerable number of gentlemen so voting blundered badly, but, having discovered that fact, the best course to pursue is in the way of a judicious silence. Tfie National Republican says: “The memorial services to General Grant, held at the Metropolitan Church on Thursday night, caused a great outpouring of the best people of Washington. It was expected that the President and Cabinet and the official family would be present. The President excused himself for not coming. The others did not. There were none in attendance, not even a bureau official from any of the departments. The fact that these services were held in the church where General Grant always attended, and in which he felt a great interest; that it was a meeting in commemoration of him, and that the oration was delivered by one of his closest friends, would seem to have called for some marks of respect for him in high official circles in the city where the Cabinet and all the officials reside. We have the evidence accumulating every day that much of the mourning over the death of General Grant was mere cant and hypocrisy on the part of sundry leading Democrats of the country, North and South. Those who believe that these men really respect the memory of Grant any further than to utilize it for political purposes are undoubtedly mistaken.”

To John S. Wise: If a man who has conscientious scruples about fighting strikes another in the face, he is liable to be called a coward and a ruffian for his pains.—Courier-Journal. This is the first intimation we haVehad that Mr. Wise has “conscientious scruples about fighting.” He declines that refuge of a coward and a sneak —the duel—but he has expressed himself able to take care of himself when attacked. When Mr. J. Ambler Smith found himself slapped in the face, he did not have reason to think that Mr. Wise had any “conscientious scruples about fighting.” If the editor of the Courier- Journal thinks Mr. Wise is borne down with “conscientious scruples about fighting,” he can test the matter by personally insulting Mr. Wise, as Mr. Smith did. The latter acquired an access of information on the point, as well as a bloody nose. Some of the timidly conservative newspapers, which are afraid to call their journalistic souls their own, lest the South may frown upon them, and which were shocked beyond measure at Senator Hoar’s denunciation of the Southern ballot-box frauds before the Norfolk Club last June, claim to see a marked advance in bis position in bis utterances at the Springfield convention. The Boston Advertiser thinks his outlook is wider and his passion moro controlled. It may not be impertinent to suggest that, possibly, the advancement is on the part of the mugwump critics; that it is their outlook which has broadened, and their tempers better control. To the ordinary reader Senator Hoar's sentiments do not seem to have undergone any material modification. In a letter defending Attorney-general Garland for his course in connection with the telephone suit, Mr. Rogers, the attorney of the pan-electric corporations, uses the following remarkable language: “Three years ago I donated to Mr. Garland $500,000 stock in the original Pan-Electric Company, which carries with it $500,000 in the pan-electric telegraph and $500,000 in the pan-electric telephone, making in all $1,500,000 stock in the company. ” * * * “Furthermore, Mr. Garland being indebted to me not only for his $1,500,000 stock, but for my efforts in getting him appointed Attorney-general, I began to feel that he was not inclined to reciprocate the favors I had done him.” And this is the Attorney-general of a “reform” administration.

The President is said to have told an anxious delegation of citizens who called upon him some time ago for the purpose of urging the removal of Fred Douglass from the office he holds that, if they would find a respectable Democratic negro competent to act as Douglass’s successor, he would consider him. The fact that Mr. Douglass is still in office seems to indicate either that the search has languished, or that the respectable, competent Democratic negro is a rare bird. And yet the organs of the Democracy are continually asserting, and with vehemence, that colored men, North and South, make up a considerable portion of the party. Last week a Methodist conference and a political prohibition meeting met simultaneously in the town of Delaware, O. Dr. Leonard, a methodist preacher, addressed the political meet ing, and Rev. Bishop Foster addressed the con ference.- And this is what the Bishop said: “The church is God’s specific organ for propa gating moral and spiritual truths and life—the governing principles and laws which are to fashion individual character and form society. It is inevitable that she should, indirectly, most powerfully affect all subsidiary interests and movements of men —commerce, politics and all other factors which go into the life of the world —but it is always uuwise, if not absolutely sinful. that she should ever depart in spirit or purpose from her divinely-appointed sphere. A minister of Jesus on a political stump, lifting his voice at the hustings on political issues, is a scandal to nia holy vocation and a betrayal of the sacred trust committed to him.” According to the statistics of Edwin Alder & Brother’s American Newspaper catalogue, there are in the United States and the British provinces a total of 16,105 newspapers and periodicals, of which 15.368 are published in the United States and 737 in the British provinces. They are divided as follows: Dailies, 1,411; semiweeklies, 188; tri weeklies, 64; weeklies, 11,567; Sundays, 426; semi-monthlies, 350; monthlies, 2,010; bi-monthlies. 40; quarterlies, 141. An incident worthy of the genius of a Hugo or Zola happened at Montreal a few nights ago. A mac delirious from the awful disease smallpox escaped from his keepers and ran through the streets. He finally began hammering on the

door of a residence. Os the inmates two were men who went out and beat the supposed roy* 1 terer. Returning to the light, they found their hands bloody and matfed with the offensive mat" ter peculiar to smallpox pustules. The disease was communicated to the family, and several members of it died. A more horrible incident could hardly be conceived. ABOUT PEOPLE AND THINGS. BOSTON Courier: Visitor—And your fanny man has committed suicide. Editor—Yes. Visitor—Poison! Editor—No; cut his jocular rein. Mr. Wm. A. West, the newly-appointed Chief Post, office Inspector, is a nephew of Mr. A. M. West, the “People’s party's” candidate for Vice-president las! year. Mr. Madison Morton, the famous English play and farce writer, is still alive, and one of the Poo* Brethren of the Charterhouse. He has just com* pie ted a drama which Mr. Toole is to read. It must bo expensive living For angels up in the sty, For wo all know, both saint and sinnet That a rent in a cloud is high. —Boston Budget. CANON Farrar justifies, in one way at least, hi* reputation as a public speaker: He enunciates clearly and distinctly, though he makes no pretense of elocutionary effort. He ha 9, in fact, all the charm of * good reader.

Secretary Whitney does not intend to use hi* country-place, five miles from Washington, as a regular residence. He has had it fixed up more as a place for an occasional visit, and uses it for entertaining hi* friends who drive with him. The largest, and probably the oldest, fig-tree in th* world, standing in the garden of the Capuchin Monastery, at Roscoff, is about to be sold. It was planted in IG2I. Its branches cover a space of 484 square meters, sufficient to shelter 200 persons. Rev. Dr. MoCosh, whoso gray hairs seem about to be brought in sorrow to the grave by the Princeton boys, has smiled score* of times when told that th* secret and sepulchral midnight pass word of the students was: “Jimmie McCosh, by Gosh!" Maj. Daniel Simpson, has Veen drummer for th* Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, of Boston, for sixty-six years. Last week he celebrated th* ninety-fifth anniversary of his birth. He has a druttv that was beat at the battle of Bunker Hill. A SON of the Duke of Westminister is not th© only English aristocrat who owns hansoms that are used by the public daily in London. His horses are of fin* 6tock, and the cabs contain the latest improvement*--a lamp to read by at night, a place for an umbrella, * looking-glass, and many other conveniences. The Duke of Newcastle, it is reported, has joined the Roman Catholic Church. The conversion occurred some time ago, it is said, but the avowal was postponed until the young Duke attained his majority. This conversion has caused much annoyance iu Established Church circles. The Duke has great influence, and has an income of $200,000 a year. It is said of ex-Vice-president Hamlin that duringhi* long public career the venerable ex-Senator has been from Maine to Washington and return one hundred times or more, has visited every State in the Union but Oregon, and has crossed the Atlantic and passed some time in Spain, and yet in all his travels he never rode on a train or a boat when an accident occurred. He always arrived at his destination on time. The manager of a circus that has gone through Canada, says: “Nowhere else in the world ar* audiences so interesting to the performers. In Quebec, Montreal, Hamilton and London notable fugitives from United States law—such as Eno, Mother Mandelbaam, and I suppose not less than fifty more—are pointed out to the ring-people by soma resident person. These exiles are sure to go to th* circus, to relieve the tedium of life in their uncongenial cities; and they are interesting to showmen, just as big financial rogues are to all sorts of Americans.”

Baronet Ward, cousin to the Earle of Rosebery, has raised in the Court of Chancery a claim to th* estates of the Earl of Norfolk, worth $2,500,000, and to the title of Earl. He bases his claim partly on a missing document supposed to have been placed in. the coffin of the last Earl and buried with him in th* family vault at Bexley Hall. The claimant has applied to Sir Richard A. Cross, Home Secretary, for permission to open the coffin, and pending answer to this petition, has locked up all accesses to Bexley Hall. He is engaged to marry Alice Millais, daughter of the artist. I)r. John Swinburne sent a letter to the workingmen’s meeting, at Troy, containing this paragraph! “I cannot refrain from suggestire that the laborer* and artisans who are the producers should act wisely in the approaching election and cast their votes wher* they will count most for the benefit of the State and the Nation at large. It-does seem to me that it will be hard for any citizen believing in the protection of American labor to reconcile his actions and profetsions if ho be found acting with the party of freetrade, which is attempting now to degrade white labor even as they fought to enslave black human laborer* in the past.” Bill Nye has written a letter of condolence and sympathy to Postmaster-general Vilas iu regard to th* newspaper portraits of the latter. He say*: * While I have not the pleasure of being & member of your party, having belonged to what is sneeriu'ly alluded to as the g. o. p.. I can not refrain from expressing my sympathy at this time. Though we may have differed heretofore upon important questions of political economy. I can not exult over these portraits. Others may gloat over these efforts to injure you, but Ido not. lam not much of a gloater, anyhow. I leave those to gloat who are in the gloat business. Still, it is one of the drawbacks incideut to greatness. We struggle hard through life that we may win th* confidence of our fellow-men, only at last to hav* pictures of ourselves printed and distributed wher* they will injure us.” It is more than a quarter of a century since Jay Gould tasted whisky, if the Albany Evening Journal is right, and the first drink was the last. In the day* when ho was a surveyor in u small way and was mapping a county, on the practical plan of getting lodgings and meals of the farmers in exchange for marking correct sun-diaU on their door-steps, he became tired one hot, dusty afternoon. He camo to a country tavern. In his pocket was a 5-cent piece. It suddenly struck him that, as a med cine to reliev* faintness, he ought to buy a glass of whisky with th* half dime. “I was ignorant of bar usage," he 1* quoted as saying, “and so, when a glass and a bottl* were set before me, I filled the tumbler chock full. The bartender made no protest, and I swallowed th* big horn. Then I went my way, trundling my wheel-barrow-like measurer of distances, and occasionally taking the bearings with a sextant. Never in my lif* had my work gone off half so blithesomely, and for * white I thought I was making a map of the starry heavens instead of a very dusty portion of this mundane sphere. After an hour or more of exaltation I grew sleepy and took a long nap under a tree in a field. I awoke with an awful headache, and found that th* figures entered in my note-book during the time of extra steam were quite incoherent. I was fully convinced that whisky was a bad surveyor, and I hart never tried it for any other purpose."

Tne Whole Story. Philadelphia Times. Colutnrs may be written explaining the causes of the failure of William Heath & Cos., but the plain truth is that the honest advance of legiU* mate values and the steady growth of legitimate prosperity are too strong to be gambled down; and as the tide of prosperity wouldn't break ts save William Ileath & Cos., the house of William Heath & Cos. had to break before the general revival of trade aud industry. That’s the whole a story. To the Best of Uls Ability, Philadelphia Press. St John, in his prohibition for-revenue-onij speeches, speaks of ‘ bleeding Kansas.” That is what St Johu has been doing ull along—bleeding Kansas. _ This Is “Reform.” Philadelphia Press. The Civil service Commission is in a sadly de bilitated condition. At last accounts it consuAet solely of a set of revised rules and Judge Thfe man.