Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1883 — WASHINGTON NOTES. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON NOTES.

Th® New York Court of Appeals has made an example of Constantine Faber in a way that he don’t enjoy. It appears that some time ago he got a divorce, coupled with an order from court that he should not marry during the lifetime of his ex-wife. Like many others, in years past, Mr. Faber concluded to marry again, and did so, despite the inhibition of the court Heretofore such an act has been construed simply as a misdemeanor. But this time the court pronounced him guilty of bigamy and sentenced him to five years in the penitentiary. Upon the body of a man who died in Philadelphia the other day, was found a canvas belt containing several thousand dollars. He was of a suspicious nature, and had come gradually to distrust every human being but himself* He abandoned Iris wife, avoided his relatives, placed no confidence in banks, and converting all his property into cash, carried it constantly on his person as the only means of saving it And yet he died suddenly leaving his heirs to quarrel over his possessions, as they might not have done hail a savings bank had a chance at them first. _______________ After some weeks of almost complete ignorance of the movements of the Mohammedan Prophet of the Soudan, we are told that he has at last taken Khartoum, the metropolis of Nubia, and in fact all of Egypt above the cataracts. In this position, with the ready fanaticism of the Moslems to help him, and the Sultan not particularly averse to seeing him make trouble for the refractory Viceroy, there will be nothing surprising in a serious disturbance of Egypt and its dependencies that will make the English protectorate a costly business. The belief in a new Messianic visitation, which has a firm hold on the great body of Mussel mane, is a favorable condition for the proposition of a bloody fanaticism.

Dynamite, which about thia time is makirg so much trouble and suffering, is in appearance very much like moist brown sugar. Nitro-glycerine, which is formed by the action of nitric acid upon glycerine at a low temperature,is the act* ive agent in dynamite, but it is mixed with some absorbent substance to make it safer to handle than the liquid nitroglycerine. The absorbent material used ia a officious earth, a fine white powder composed of the remains of infusoria,and resembling powdered chalk. This takes up two or three times its weight of nitroglycerine without becoming pasty, and the ingredients are easily mixed, leaden vessels and wooden spoons being used to avoid dangerous friction. If fire is applied to this mass it burns with a strong flame, but will not explode; but when ignited with a detonating fuse, or even by a sudden blow, its explosive force is tremendous, being about six times that of gunpowder. The Nihilists at Vienna are highly gratified by information just received from a trustworthy source at St. Petersburg that the Czar has decided to commute the sentence of death, and to pardon a large number of others who have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. One report says that this act of clemency on the part of the Czar is only carrying out the traditions of the Emperors of Russia, who have always upon their coronation, released prisoners, and done many other acts as charity and mercy. A dispatch, however, from wellinformed parties at St Petersbvrg, who are familiar with the recent Nihilistic movements says that this concession by the Czar is due undoubtedly to the extent and mysteriosness of the Nihilistic activity, and the fear entertained by the Czar that he would meet his father's fate.

The popular impression that an editorial room is a constant battle-ground, that the editors are being incessantly hounded for copy, that the indignant subscribers rush in with complaints and horsewhips, that the editor is a persecuted creature—is all a fallacy. The average editorial room is a very quiet sort of place—a spot where loafers are seldom tolerated, and where disturbances very infrequently occur. The idea that the foreman is inveterately howling for copy is an erroneous one, invented probably by some amateur journalist long ago, who did not know that all well regulated editors make it one of the important details of their business never to let the printers stand around and charge time. The editorial room is not a luxurious spot, but it is invariably comfortably quiet. It is especially a rare field for the study of character. In the course of a brief year every phase of human nature passes before the eye of the editor in his sanctum, and it is there the cant and hypocrisy of humanity are more frequently self-ex-

posed. &The hollowness and rottenness of politicians are first detected by the editor, ter the politician has a confidant in the editor. And it is so with lawyers, preachers, merchants and every manner of man who steps into the editorial sanctum. If they are weak and hypocritical, the editor is the first to discover it, for the editorial room is a sort [of disrobing chamber for the rest of the world —a chamber where people come and lay off their masks and toggery and display their blemishes rnd weaknesses. t To those who are in the secrets of the sanctum it is no wonder that editors are invariably the most confirmed of cynics. Ireland is a pretty expensive portion of the United Kingdom for tue British Government under the present Russian policy. Prior to the Land League organization three years ago it cost about sll,000,000 to run the governmental machine there. The policy of repression has necessitated larger expenditures. An army of 25,000 men was maintained during 1881 and 1882; the constabulary last year numbered about 12,000; the Dublin p.lioe force alone costs $1,250,000 last year; the Land Act cost $700,000 a year, and Arrearages Act about $300,000 more. During the last six months the administration of the Crimes Act has cost over $150,000, which goes largely to the lawyers who hang around Dublin Castle. It is probable that Mr Gladstone’s Irish policy cost British tax-payers, not less than $25,000,000 last year. As he does not propose to change that policy of militarism and repression, it is very certain that the Irish estimates must continue to grdw in every succeeding budget. •

The French have never made an encouraging success of their Algerian colony. It has, during the forty (years they have held it, been an ever incrqpsing expense, without adequate returns. France in fact, has never been a very successful colonizer anywhere. She was driven out of India by England and out of this continent by the same power. Her colonies are now reduced in number, and those she retains are expensive experiments. In view of these facts, it is not apparent how the French Government can make its present colonizing efforts in Asia and Africa successful. The Anamese territory is held at the risk of a war with China, and the effort to establish French authority on the Congo, in Africa, has met with the angry protests of Portugal, who claims not only the mouth of Congo but the sovereignty of the lower Congo country. The British Government is opposed both to the Portuguese and French claims, and especially the Portuguese, because the Government levies the most exorbitant duties on goods going into the interior of Africa. The opinion in England seems to be that the Congo river should be internationalized like the Danube. Just now there is imminent danger of a collision between France and Portugal on the subject.

The Agricultural Department costs the country half a million a year. It is not worth the money. There are a dozen first class agricultural papers in the country which furnish more information than the Department does. Some of the State Agricultural Societies overshadow the whole Agricultural Bureau in usefulness. The seed distribution of the Bureau is an absurdity. Read this statement from George ueddes made to the New York Tribune: ‘'Some days since 1 received, as did many of my neighbors, a package of seeds from this Department, and soon came a printed official card informing us of the object the Department had in view. 1 quote from the card: ’The object of this distribution is the promotion of the interests of agriculture by introducing into the various sections of the country such new and valuable products as may be adapted to the soil and climate of each.’ ’New and valuable’ seeds are desirable, and may be worth testing and reporting upon, as requited in the caid, to the Department. I took a package of these seeds, seven articles, put up nicely in small papers, to a leading seed store in [Syracuse, and found that six of these varieties of seeds were theie and then on sale, and their merits well known and proven for many years, the seventh, Kankakee watermelon, had an unknown name. It may be a 'new and valuable’ variety, iut more nkety is one of the half-score well known and fully tested varieties on sale, under another name, assuming this Department watermelon to be of the average value of those on sale, the whole seven papers were worth at retail just twenty-five cents. Can the Commissioner believe that he w promoting the interests of agriculture by sending out these seeds, giving them away to the manifest injury of the regular dealers in garden seeds ? Eight thousand dollars a yea) in liltie bribes of squatter of a dollar euvh to in ks this Department popular! ‘New and valuable products;' six-sev-enths, certainly, on sale in every great seed ■tore,” _____________ The diplomatic corps of the United States is poorly paid compared with those of England and Germany, and it is a matter of some wonder now they keep up their state in competition, especially as few of them have personal fortunes like most of the British Ministers. Our ministers at London, Paris, Beilin and ot Peteisourg aie allowed $17,5u0 a year. The English Embassador at Paris gets $50,(J00, at Vienna S4u,OUO, at Berlin $35,000 and at St. Petersburg $39,000. American representatives at Vienna, Rome, Madrid, Pekin, Yeddo, Rio de Ja-

niero and Mexico get $12,000, and Guatemala, Santiago and Lima SIO,OOO, at Brussels, Bogota, Stockholm, the Hague, Port au Prince, Constantinople, and Honolulu $7,500. The English Embassadors get at Constantinople $40,000, at Washington $30,000, Madrid $25,000, Lisbon and Rio de Janiero $20,000, the Hague SIB,OOO, Athens $17,000, Stockholm $15,000, Santiago, Bogota and Lim $lO,000. The German Ministers get, at Paris $30,000, at London and St Petersburg $37,500, at Vienna and Constantinople $30,000, at Rome $25,000. at Pekin $15,000. We are economical in public salaries at any rate,be our other extravagances what they may. This holds good in the comparison of home salaries or allowances. Here the President receives $50,000 a year, the Vice President slo,ooo,Senators SB,OOO, Representatives $5,000, Cabinet officers SB,OOO, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court $10,500, and Associate Justices SIO,OOO. In England seven Cabinet officers get $25,000, the Lord Chancellor gets $50,000, the Solicitor General $30,000, the Attorney General $35,000, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland SIOO,OOO, the Archbishop of Canterbury $75,000, and the prelates of York and London $50,000. In Germany, the Imperial Chancellor and Prime Minister—Prince Bismarck—is allowed a salary of $14,000, a house, and an additional $5,000 to keep it in order.

Of the 260,000 Indians in the United States, about 160,000 ih the West, Northwest and Southwest require more or lees military surveillance. One-fourth of them —or 50,000 in round numbers—are adults capable of bearing arms, but there are seldom more than from 100 to 1,000 Indians on the war-path. Yet we have on the border a force of 17,500 men for purposes of repression and suppression. The treasury department has prepared for the change in the revenue laws affecting stamps to be placed upon articles jrom which internal revenue will be collected after May 1, by shiping to collectors throughout the United States stamps of new denominations to the value of $30,000,000. The stamps weigh sixteen tons.

The President is said to have been sorely troubled in soul when he learned that his son Allan had been having a good time at the White House while he was away. Sad havoc was played with the wine cellar. This fact was communicated to the President Tuesday. He gave utterance to some words the fishermen of Florida use when they have bad luck, and young Arthur was melancholy for hours afterward. Commissioner Raum says there will be no reduction in the price of tobacco, cigars or cigarettes to the consumer on account of the reduction of the tax. Manufactured tobacco has gone up in price since the tariff’bill passed, and employes of cigar and tobacco manufactuers are striking for increase of wages. In preparing tobacco and cigars for retailers a tive-cent basis is adopted. There will be no change in the method of preparation, says Mr. Raum. The result will be that the consumer will be in the same position as he was before. “When 1 last heard from the Yellowstone Park,” said an official of the Interior Department, “Rufus Hatch and his associates. had their big hotel almost oomph ted. The bai ns were finished, and by the time travel fairly sets in they will be in readiness for the reception and care of guests. The company has only split up its ten acres into a half dozen pieces scattered about in one and two acre lots They get for S2O a year what they originally offered the government an annual rental of $9,000 a year for. There never was a more absurd charge than that accusing Rufus Hatch of trying to convert Yellowstone Park into a private pasture for countless thousands of wild cattle. Goats would have a hard time finding enough to subsist on in that region, and cattle would starve to death. They won Id have to have hay transported a long distance through the mountains to live on.

The busiest of Uncle Sun's workshops is the government printing office. The amount of printed matter delivered from that office, consisting of full-bound blank books, printed books and pamphlets documents, department blanks, circulars,* letter-heads, cards, envelopes, etc., for the six days ending on the 17th inst, is believed to be the heaviest ever delivered from auv printing office in the world in the same length of time. The number for each day was as follows: April 11, 2,038,900; April 12, 5,195,485; April 13, 6,407.975; April 14, 15,476,440; April 15, 6,919,81°; Apnl 16,11,124,580; total 47,164,148; making an average of nearly 8,000,000 a day. The office has also completed what is probably the largest single order for printing ever issued,namely 50,000,000 of labels in red ink for the Treasury Department. The job required 1,000 reams of fine paper and 31,000 worth of red ink. It was completed within six days after the order was received. The Treasury Department has issued a

circular to the customs officers giving notrceofa discovery that on some importations of wool into the United States the costs and charges specified in the invoices have been fraudulently increased above the usual rates with a view to diminish the dutiable value of wool, under a provision of the tariff act of March 1883, abolishing duties on charges and the department’s regulations allowing a deduction of charges specified in the invoice. It is possible that similar practices may be resorted to in the case of importations of other cases than wool. Appraising officers are. therefore, directed to scrutinize carefully invoices specifying charges to be deducted from the invoice value, and if, in any case, they shall discover by comparison with invoices formerly presented, or in any other way that the charges have been unduly increased they will make such additions for market value as the circumstances may render proper.