a a a a a a a a a a 2 THE LANCASTER WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1887. The Lancaster Intelligencer. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1887. The New Freight Rates. The new railroad freight rates continue to be the most interesting feature in the business situation and the newspapers are busily interviewing business men as to their views and experiences under the changed conditions which have now been experienced for just one week.
As might be expected, there is found to be a great diversity of opinion as to the new rates small consumers and shippers generally being pleased because of a reduction which they find in the rates given them, while large manufactures are aggrieved at the withdrawal of the specially low rates which they have enjoyed by reason of their importance to the railroads and the interest these had in keeping them going. The railroad companies, especially the Pennsylvania, either believe or pretend to believe that the new law restricts them so that they cannot give a large shipper a better rate than a small one, and compels them to put the old tariff for the haul of a small shipment upon the present carriage of a large one. The Pennsylyania railroad managers pretend to be very much afraid of the prohibition made against undue discrimination, and seemingly have determined to give it the strictest construction to keep on the safe side until the interpretation of the commission is received. It is however generally believed by the public that there is further malicious intent in their policy, the purpose being to make the civil service bill obnoxious to the business community by a strained and rigid construction of it. This purpose, if entertained, is however defeated by the manifest fact that the civil service law under any fair interpretation of it does not justify the pretended fears of the carrying companies, or warrant their rates.
It is obvious to every one, for instance, that there is nothing in the law which forbids the issue of mileage tickets at reduced rates free to the purchase of everyone. The bill has simply been made the pretext for a changed policy which is due to the changed relations of the Pennsylvania and Reading railroads, whose managers, from enemies, have become friends, and have agreed to unite in dropping two-cent mileage rates. Again, it is clear that there is nothing in the new law which affects local rates, or which requires a carrier even beyond the state to charge a mileage rate for a short haul proportionate to that on a long haul. The Pennsylvania railroad can charge Lancaster the same price for a haul from New York that it charges Pittsburg or Chicago and it does come pretty near to this in its charges for carriage from the New England states. A gentleman who is engaged in erecting Massachusetts granite monuments tells us that his present freight rate to Philadelphia is twenty cents per hundred pounds, while to Lancaster, Carlisle and the interior towns of Southeastern Pennsylvania, it is just one cent more ten days ago the rate was thirty-six cents to Carlisle.
It is impossible to see upon what basis the calculation of the present charges has been made. It is certainly not on a mileage basis, as these rates show and as is further shown by the rate on bar iron in car load lots, of sixteen cents from Pittsburg to Philadelphia and of nine cents from Lancaster. The latter rate has been reduced, however, within the week to six cents, and that to New York from Lancaster has also been changed from thirteen and a half to eleven cents; the rate to Baltimore being ten cents. These rates are an advance upon the old charges and necessarily need modification. There is no justification whatever for an increase in the charges for conveying manufactured goods and raw materials in carload rates on the Pennsylvania.
Its charges on local freight have admittedly yielded a large profit. It declares that its through freight is but eight per cent of its total carriage. It has been carrying its through freight without profit, and it necessarily follows that if the state commerce bill should cut off all its through traffic it would not require an advance in its local rates to keep up its dividends. But the new law can have no such effect upon this railroad's business, because it has for years been its boast that it has not done what the law now forbids it to do, namely to charge more for a longer than for a shorter haul. The public will very carefully discriminate between things that the law and things that the railroads are responsible for.
The commission will before very long put a construction upon any doubtful points in the law, which the railroads will need to accept and adapt themselves to. There will no condemnation of the law follow the condemnation of the rates which the railroads make, through stupidity or malice, in seemingly seeking to obey the law. Two High License Deliverances. Two important liquor deliverances were made on Tuesday. Governor Hill, of York, vetoed the Crosby high license bill and the Pennsylvania House passed the Brooks high license measure by the very large vote of 123 for to 62 against it.
Governor Hill's veto of the New York measure is so much affected by his view of the local bearing of the measure that the principle of high license is not touched upon. He declares the bill to be special legislation in that it applies to only two cities of the state, New York and Brooklyn. He recites the fact that an amendment was offered in both Houses applying the provisions of the bill to all the cities in the state, and another applying them to several of the principal interior cities, but each of these amendments was unhesitatingly rejected by substantially the same vote that passed the bill. He further declares that the bill was adopted against the protests of nine-tenths of the representatives of New York and Brooklyn and was imposed upon these two cities by representatives who refused to accept its alleged beneficent provisions in behalf of their own localities. The governor in line of argument presents figures showing that of the twenty-seven cities of the state in twenty of them the number of licenses is greater in proportion to the population than in the city of New York, and in all but one of them the number is greater in proportion to the population than in the city of Brooklyn.
Finally the governor says that a clause of the bill is in conflict with the organic law of the state in not recognizing liquor as property, the sale of which may be regulated but which cannot be confiscated. It will be observed that there is no pronunciamento against high license, the inherent defectiveness of the bill weighing it down. In the Pennsylvania instance the big vote by which the Brooks' bill went through, presages its passage in the Senate. The pitfalls in which the New York high license people fell, seem to have been fairly well avoided by their Pennsylvania brethren. The main hitch has been on the amount of the license fees.
It will be interesting to watch if these will be further reduced in the Senate. A Spasm of Sense. The New York Tribune comments upon the spasm of sense which seems to have seized upon the belligerent Canadians, and which appears to have been induced solely by an attack on the policy of the Dominion government by ex-Minister of Justice McDougal. This gentleman is a keen lawyer who has no fear of the high and mighty Sir John Macdonald, and in a clear and short argument, he shows that the interpretation put! upon the treaty by that worthy is illogical: that the American view of the case is right, and that Canada has outageously violated the treaty of 1818. It may be prophesied that this display of sense will not be merely spasmodic, but that the sentiment of the Canadians will support the ex-minister so heartily that the government will not dare to push the matter to a more serious crisis.
The argument in question has been widely pub. lished throughout the Dominion, and the people there, who have heretofore refused to think of any clause of the treaty but that one admitting American fishermen for 66 shelter, repairs, wood and water," and for no other purpose whatever," will learn that this very clause was inserted for the purpose of preventing the nonintercourse construction that Sir John MacDonald has placed upon the treaty. If this change of sentiment should follow, the United States will then have a score to settle for the high-handed and insolent proceedings of the armed vessels of the Dominion, their many insults to our flag and injuries to our fisheries. By the time we are through with the matter the Canadians may be heartily sick of their form of mis-government, and anxious to escape from the protection of titled Englishmen possessed of more pride than sense. The People Awakening.
We are a long suffering and patient people, until an issue arises on which may be fixed our wrath, and then we carry that like a battle flag straight to the very citadel of the enemies that we have suffered from so long in silence. For many years we have borne with the insolence and tyranny of corporate power we have passively and peaceably watched the steady growth of corporate monopoly, the weaving of a spider web of railways under the soulless control of a money power. Wise men and patriots have given frequent warning that this vast accumulation of wealth and power boded no good to the country. With alarm we have watched the growth of a false aristocracy under the control of railway kings, and using its vast wealth to forge the chains of monopoly on our greatest industries. They have taken oil; they are claiming coal; they are scheming to enslave each staple of our commerce.
But like Gulliver in the toils of the Lilliputians, the nation is beginning to stir and to strain the feeble bonds. The interest in the struggle over the inter-state commerce act is the first symptom of an awakening that is inevitable. Here and there are impatient men who exclaim against the act, but the large body of intelligent citizens see that the railroads which have wilfully and maliciously misinterpreted this law, are alone responsible for the heavy increase of freight charges, and the vexations and outrages put upon passenger travel. The railroads have their servile tools among the newspapers and with hollow sophistry some of these are building arguments against the law on the angry exclamations of manufacturers and merchants who are suffering from the outrageous policy of the railroads. But after wrath comes reason, and men are reading this terrible act that the roads have charged with all the trouble.
They find that not a word is said in it on which common sense could base the great increase of freights; that as clearly as words can say it the act provides for the retaining of the commutation and mileage tickets; that the most probable effect of the natural operation of this law would be to put an end to the unjust discriminations that have enabled railway monarchs to build barriers of monopolies around their thrones. The people will see this and from it will take an issue. The time of awakening is rapidly approaching; the doom of monopoly may be confidently foretold no bribery of the press can avert it; no power of money can avoid the trial of strength. And ballots are stronger to day than any power under the sun. Encouraging Manufactures.
The Bethlehem Iron company has secured the contracts for armor plates and gun forgings for the navy at a total cost of $4,512,938.29. This is a just reward for their enterprise and foresight in spending a large capital with the object of securing this work when Uncle Sam should realize the necessity of a navy; but the good fortune of Bethlehem in having an establishment able to command a contract of this size should be a lesson to all those who cannot see the reason for encouraging manufacturers to locate among us. The whole of that sum may not circulate through Bethlehem, but a very large portion of it must go directly into the hands of the workingmen and merchants of that town, there are doubtless people in Bethlehem who would oppose the least effort to encourage by lower taxes this great enterprise, and that solely because it is great and rich. Wealth goes where it can earn most wealth, and the safety being equal, no argument can change this iron rule. To carry out great enterprises great wealth is needed, and the wisest policy is the one that offers the greatest inducement to capital to leave the safe investments in bonds and real estate, and venture out upon the more hazardous but more profitable field of manufacturing enterprise.
When men are debating as to the location of a great industry, a very little thing is often enough to fix the decision for one point, and the citizens of this town and county should use every just means to encourage here the establishment and growth of all kinds of manufacturing enterprises. Their value to the town is evident, and their value to the county is exactly proportionate to the present value of town to county. Agriculture a and manufacturing should together in Pennsylvania, and the greatest agricultural county in the state should be a great manufacturing cen- tre. Where the people can live cheapest, there they should labor, and when time has solved problems of transportation of raw material, where in the state will be found a cheaper, healthier home for labor 1 than the centre of this great garden of Lancaster county A Needed Law. Our contemporary, the Examiner, thinks that it finds in the present turmoil over the inter state law, strong testimony to the fact that 66 the complex affairs of our industral life cannot be run by an act of Congress." That is a fact undoubtedly but the inter-state law does not illustrate it, any more than does the law which prohibits highway robbery.
The law was passed to interpose between the people and the arbitrary power of the railroad companies to deal with them at their pleasure. We believe that it will turn out to be a good law but whether or no its provisions will be found to be wise, it is clear that some sort of national control of the national railroads is needed, to the end that the railroads may not legislate for the country more effectively than Congress. The strong influence they exert upon our industries has never been more strikingly illustrated than is now being shown, when the whole industrial world is thrown into ferment by their undertaking to change and raise their carrying charges. It is seen how completely industry is under their thumb, and how it may be crushed or fostered at a railroad magnate's pleasure. We have had this illustrated often before.
We have seen towns grow, upon which shone the sunshine of railroad official favor and we have seen them droop under the railroad frown. We have seen great monopolies flourish, like the Standard Oil company, by railroad partiality. This evil was so evident and so great that Congress passed the inter-state law to suppress it; and the first effort of that law demonstrates the need of it, or of something akin to it, that will bridle the great railroad power, which is shown to have it in its hands to say where and what factories shall flourish and what industries shall prosper. If there are any places where industry has flourished by railroad favor, overcoming natural disadvantages, it is right that these industries should wither under just law giving to all the people in the land the tights which the God of nature has given them, and which the managers railroads should not have the power confer. We concede that legislation is not a panacea for all our national and state woes, and that there is a vast deal too much of asked for and given than is for our good.
But still it i is true that judicious legislation is needed. We cannot get along without laws. Men must be controlled and it is obvious that when a class of men are put in possession, by the state, of great power to do good or ill to the people, they especially are a class which need be limited and controlled by the law in the exercise of that power. Such a class are the railroad managers, controlling railroads chartered by the state carry the people and their goods, and generally being without competition their local business. They are not gaged in an ordinary business where competition for public support will suffice induce them to just conduct; but they are engaged in a special business of carrying, which has through all our English civilization been deemed a public business, that required its conductors to treat impartially the public that it served and to carry all at a like charge; and this has been 1 common law since the memory of man runneth not to the contrary.
The business is recognized as a public employment, and there i is no license in conductors to refuse their service to to charge one more than another for a service. And when the railroads engaged in this business under a charter which gave them great privileges and powers, it especially was established that they were public servants engaged in the discharge of public duty and needing to be held tightly by law to its impartial and honest administration. They failed in this conspicuously and it became the duty of Congress to seek to bind them, as they have sought to do in this inter-state law. Anyone who is disposed to deny the wisdom of this attempt, or the right of Congress to make it, seems to us to have clearly lost his bearings. The law may be open criticism in its details, but in its scope, and in the advisability of its undertaking to establish a national control of the roads, it is beyond the reach of condemnation.
The Source of the Mississippi. Mr. Pearce Giles comes to the defense of the sadly battered Captain Willard Glazier in a pamphlet bearing the title The True Source of the Mississippi." It is a lame defense, and if the defenders of the captain have in this book put their best foot forward, they had better at once surrender and leave the bold Glazier to the place he will occupy, in history as one of the most successful impostors that ever hoodwinked a geographical society. As the name of Amerigo Vespucci sticks to the new world which he did not discover, so the name of Glazier will probably be fixed forever to the little lake above Itasca, which the other explorers surveyed and placed on their maps, but of which Glazier alone with sublime audacity claimed the discovery. This defense is based first on the claim that a lake was discovered by Glazier beyond Itasca, and, regardless of the facts that it had been discovered long before, 'and was accurately mapped in the government land office at Washington, it is asserted that the honor of discovering this true source of the great river belongs to Glazier.
Schoolcraft is quoted as saying that 66 the true source of a river is a point at the remotest distance from its mouth" and the unquestioned fact that Glazier lake is further from the mouth than lake Itasca is substantially the end of the argument. In a recent open letter Glazier says that neither Schoolcraft nor Nicollet give this lake place on their maps, or any description but they do give it location, though not so prominent or large a place as Glazier does. Of the government survey he simply says that it erroneously represents one of the feeders of Lake Glazier as emptying into Itasca. What has that to do with the case? The lake he claimed to have discovered is down in black and white on the map of a government survey made long before, and its connection with Itasca is correctly shown. Mr.
Pearce Giles was one of Glazier's companions on this daring exploration, and together with the captain's brother, and several Indians, christened the lake as the true source. That dignity may belong to it, as it is ninety-two feet higher above the sea than Itasca, but in justice the name of Glazier should have nothing whatever to do with it. The judgment of the men who believed it too insignificant to be considered the source should stand, and Itasca remains in the popular estimation the worthy source of the Mississippi. A Hot Time in the Commons. There has been some more violent oratorical exercise in the British House of Commons.
An honorable gentleman charged a large body of his colleagues with associating with criminals, dynamiters and murderers. One of the men so charged, Mr. Healy, divulged the startling news that the first speaker, Major Saunderson, was a liar, and positively refused to contradict the intelligence. Mr. Redmond also announced that Saunderson was a liar and this corroborative testimony was swiftly followed by the suspension of Mr.
Healy. Mr. Saunderson then proceeded to lie in detail with the confidence of a master of the art and Mr. Sexton shouted I say you are a willful, cowardly liar; and proclaimed his intention of thrashing Saunderson within an inch of his life. Under pressure from the speaker Major Saunderson then withdrew the words he had used and Mr.
Sexton withdrew his expression, but the former at once repeated his charge in another form. Mr. Sexton then shouted The honorable gentleman is again a liar 99 and the speaker again compelled both of them to withdraw their remarks. Saunderson closed, charging the Parnellites with connection with advocates of murder, and was cheered by the Conservatives. This whole affair is of prime importance as indicating the drift of events in England, and the possible outcome of it all.
The savage character of Major Saunderson's attack indicates that it was conceived and executed with the sole object of inflaming the anger of the Irishmen and drawing a sharp division line of bitter feeling between the supporters and opponents of the government. It is an astute political move to arouse partisan rancor and fix solidly in support of the government the majority that has been wavering before the obnoxious Crimes act and a great many weak men who would have opposed that measure may allow the anger aroused by this debate to smother conscience and reason and to prevent them from voting with the men with whom they have exchanged the little words, liar, murderer and coward. Will They Heed Us? We do not know what advantage the friends of the Irish cause in this country expect to flow from the meetings organized here to protest against the coercion bill proposed by the present English ministry. It is not to be expected, that any influence will be exerted upon the sentiment of the English Parliament by the sentiment of public meetings in this country, unless such infiuence be unfavorable to the cause advocated. We know very well that upon any domestic political question on which there might be a difference of opinion between parties in this country, it would not aid the cause of either party that it should be sustained by public meetings in England.
We would feel that it was not the right of English people to undertake to discate what our policy should be, and certainly no votes would be won in Congress by the expression of British sentiments. We take it for granted that the friends of Ireland here do not expect to convert any votes in the English Parliament or any favor among the English people by their public meetings here to protest against coercion. They are doubtless content with the effects they will produce in this country, and with the substantial benefit they may look for in arousing the indignation of our citizens, who feel so warmly for Ireland as the country of their ancestors' nativity. The Parnellite movement is sustained by the American contributions, and the knowledge of this does not make the English people feel any more graciously towards us. Whence the Wind.
The Philadelphia Press is troubled over the Democratic assault on Mr. Randall. It thinks it is a free trade blizzard that has struck him or pretends to think so; probably it knows better. It is true that Mr. Randall is not in sympathy with the majority of his party on the tariff issue, though the party is as much opposed to free trade as he is but he has been unwilling to accede to a modification of the tariff duties and their modification is undoubtedly the party's demand.
But there has for years, and ever since parties have existed in this republic, been great latitude taken in the maintenance of diverse opinions, inside the parties, upon this question, which has never been the sole dividing party issue and Mr. Randall might have been permitted to exhibit, without serious damage to himself, even the very great obstinacy in resisting party accommodation upon it which he has this winter shown, if he had been otherwise wise and accommodating. But he has been quite steadily re recalcitrant and has shown no proper disposition to follow the Democratic whom the sense of the party recognizes in its official head, the president. For good or evil, and we have no doubt that it tis for good, the party is led by the president, and all who cannot keep step to the music, step out. Mr.
Randall very needlessly, so far as public observation goes, voted to pass the universally condemned soldier's pension bill over the president's veto. It would take a very great man to do that safely in the present Democratic temper. Mr. Randall did not do it safely. Get Ready For Arbor Day.
On Friday next every citizen of Pennsylvania should either plant a tree himself or assist some one else in so doing. It will be Arbor Day and it ought to be made the most successful in the history of the institution of this day of forest preservation. This question appeals not only to the sentimental but the practical side of man's nature. If there is extensive tree planting to supply the great annual consumption of forests, the spring freshets will not be so disastrous, there will be a more equal distribution of rain and a general temperature more equable. These are only a few of the reasons for tree-planting on the practical side.
The forest in a landscape view, as aiplace of shade, as the home of birds and all variety of interesting animal life, has a world of meaning to the man of develop- ment. Practically and sentimentally it is great wisdom to plant trees, and they should be planted by the hundred thousand in this state next Friday. The Bethlehem Prize. The Bethlehem Iron company has scored a great achievement in securing the contract for the gun steel and armor plate required by the government. It may not be presently a very profitable contract but it is one which gives a pre-eminence to the Bethlehem company of which it would be very proud.
This national contract will enable it to prepare itself for a manufacture which must soon be of great importance in this country and will put it first in the field in a competition for it. In truth it has already made preparation for this work in anticipation of the government need, which it now meets, and thus had an advantage in the competition which gave it the contract. It had definitely determined to go into this class of manufacture, and has for some time been getting ready for it. The company, under the inspiration of John Fritz, its superintendent, has always inclined seek fresh avenues of development of the iron industry and has looked with much 1 interest upon the scientific results upon the pecuniary outcome of its ventures. It is a matter of great gratification to the country that an establishment has been found with the enterprise and patriotic zeal needed for the undertaking to supply the nation with the armor plate for its vessels and the steel forgings for guns.
Reasoning Shoemakers. The shoemakers of New York and vicinity to the number of about 6,000 threaten to withdraw from the Knights of Labor because of the quarrel of a foreman named Frank Campbell with the leaders of the turbulent Assembly No. 49. On Sunday 300 of the malcontents held a meeting and organized a protective union after listening to Frank Campbell's story the tyrannical conduct of Master Workman Quinn. He said that he had executed a contract between himself and his employer which was sanctioned by the Knights of Labor, and that he was ordered to strike and break that contract by a man who had been only two years in the business, and, as a workman, did not know a shoe from a watch, and it was time that workmen put down these men." There is a vast amount of sagacity in this remark, and whenever there is confusion in the mind of a mechanic as to whether a shoe is a shoe or a watch, he should certainly be put down in the medical records as a specimen of cross-eyed mental vision.
But, seriously, this man Campbell has a real grievance; for because of his refusal to break his contract, to which bound him, he was denounced as 66 a scab" and threatened with boycott. Labor men know that such a threat from an officer of a powerful labor organization means a great deal. Wherever he went the brand of traitor would follow him, and he would be forced into the ranks of the enemies of organized labor, his friends would forsake him while his enemies rejoiced. This is a mighty weapon, and that it is trusted to a few irresponsible men is a grave defect in the system of the Knights. Agnew Demolishes Brewster.
Ex-Chief Justice Agnew sends to the Philadelphia Press a very clear exposition of the constitutionality of the high license bill, which Brewster, ex-attorney general of the United States, has found to be unconstitutional. The very high authority of Judge Agnew will quite outweigh 1 that of Mr. Brewster, and the simple and lucid logic of his exposition of the constitutional questions involved will leave few to doubt the correctness of his position and to realize that age has not yet diminished the strength of his judicial judgment. The judge says that his conclusion is quite he is not in favor of the law, nor of any license law; and he considers the high license law particularly objectionable as postponing the day when total prohibition may have a trial. The people will not be particularly interested in the legal objections raised by Mr.
Brewster and demolished by Judge Agnew, being content to know that they have been demolished. The license law is not a revenue measure nor does it lay a tax it is passed to regulate the sale of liquor, and the payment of a license falls only upon those who choose to sell the liquor. The title of the bill gives fair indication of the purport, which is all that the constitutonal requirement demands; and the classification of, the licenses is as constitutional as the classification of cities. We have not lately noted a cleaner wiping out of a legal opinion, than Judge Agnew's of Mr. Brewster's.
THEY don't mince matters in the Sucker state. In the Illinois House of Representative on Thursday a bill was passed requiring non-resident aliens holding land in the state to dispose of the same within three yesrs after they shall have acquired title to the same, and providing that such land shall escheat to the state in case of failure so to do. VERMONT may boast of its Edmunds, but if it does not give more attention to education, it will produce few like intellects. There are Southern states where a larger proportion of the children attend school than in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Only 72 per cent.
of the school population of Vermont attended school last against 73 per cent. in West Virginia and 76 per cent. in Texas. The daily average attendance in Vermont was from 63 to 65 per aS against 69 per cent, in South Carolina and 73 in Florida. AT the Civil Service Reform association banquet in Philadelphia on Thursday, President Wayne Mac Veagh responded to the first toast "The President of the United States." He congratulated the association because the occupant of the presidency had done so much for the success of civil service reform.
"I ask you," he said, "to drink to the health and long life of President Cleveland." It was a noble toast to drink to. Just before commencing work on the new Carnegie Library in Allegheny it was found that the cost of the building planned would be far beyond the sum given for the purpose by Mr. Carnegie. At a meeting of the library commission held last Saturday the architect said that he could reduce the expense $10,000 by building the tower of iron instead of granite. Mr.
Carnegie remarked: "We'll let the granite tower go up. We'll finish the building in accordance with the original plans whatever it may cost." Wanted -a Carnegie in Lancaster. He need not build a palace with a granite tower; we only want four brick walls and a roof, over a stack of books. THE man who stole Fanny Davenport's jewels in Memphis has been sentenced to five. years in the penitentiary.
This is the first recorded case where such stealing from an actress was actually proved. AN amended revenue bill has been prepared by Auditor General Niles. It makes DO concessions to trust companies and other corporations, who will have to pay tax on personal property, including money at interest, bonds, mortgages, etc. Exceptions are made of mercantile book accounts, money deposited in savings funds, money deposited with other corporations subject to check without notice, and all money owned or invested in other states. The clause exempting building and loan associations from the three mill tax is amended to include churches, hospitals, uniyersities, colleges, seminaries or institutions of learning, benevolence or charity whose buildings, with the grounds annexed and necessary for occupation, are now by law exempt from taxation.
THE House has agreed to adjourn on May 19. This is the greatest act of the legislative session. MANY state legislators tail to keep clear the distinction between meum and tuum. Representatives Strine, of York, and Connell, of Philadelphia, each delivered the same speech on the bank examiner bill. The Legislative Record has made their literary theft monumental.
TAKING a calm glance over the earth, as reflected in the daily press, it is found in a remarkably tranquil state, though there are the usual mutterings of war in Europe and executions of assassins in Russia, with a steady of exiles to Siberia and another, of emigrants, towards America. In this country the matter of greatest general interest appears to be the fearful and wonderful gymnastic performance of the railways about the inter-state commerce act. Trapeze performances are interesting, but they are not particularly usetul and this inter-state business is too violent an exercise to be greatly prolonged. Whether it will be ended by a fall of the performers, or by their gradual yielding to fatigue and the laws of gravity, is the question of present interest. For it seems as sure as gravity that they must at abandon the present position modify their freight charges.
Meanwhile there are several matters of interest maturing and chief among them are the municipal bill which progressive Lancaster has condemned so strongly, the Canadian fishery dispute and the ever recurring English crisis. These things and the spring fever will all reach us about the same time, but so will the circus. THE great Ranke historical library in 1 Berlin has been gobbled up by the Syracuse, N. university. This country knows a good thing when it sees it.
THE combination which has been evident for some time between the new Reading management and the Pennsylvania railroad has been further evident by the now disclosed fact that the control of the Jersey Central railroad 1 has passed into the hands of these interests, including the Lehigh Valley railroad, which has long been in harmony with the Pennsylvania. It is said that the Pennsylvania has not directly become a purchaser of Jersey Central, and its directors figure among the proposed directory of the road; but there is little doubt that it is in the combination in some bt substantial shape and has taken a hand in the capture of the Jersey Central elephant. We may not look hereafter for much competition in railroad management in this state, when the great railroad interests after much ebullition and ferment have finally been composed into a step keeping march. HERR MOST declares that all policemen are loafers, butchers and murderers," and that "Freemen must substitute bullets for ballots in this country." Most ought to be condemned to wash himself regularly, and to drink only one glass of beer each day. THE Historical Journal, a monthly for preservation of the local history of the West Branch valley of the Susquehanna, the Juniata region and Northwestern Pennsylvania, has made its appearance.
It is from the pen of John F. Meginness, of Williamsport, an old Lancaster county boy. The first number is of high promise and is wortby of Mr. Meginness' reputation as an earnest painstaking and forcible editor. SPEAKING of the defeat of the bill approprating $60,000 to carry on the manufacture of mats at the Riverside penitentiary, Allegheny, 8 member of the prison board asserted that an English firm, who imported mats made in English prisons, were largely responsible for the defeat of the measure.
It may be that there is some truth in this, as the hostility to prison labor that the Knights of Labor have manifested might easily be played upon by designing men, and it was without doubt the opposition of the Knights that defeated the appropriation. As a result it is predicted that 15 per cent of all the prisoners will become insane within a year, if they are not given work of some kind. It is evident that we must give prisoners work, and it is hard to see why the same rules should not apply to prison labor as to all other labor, since the wages of it do no go to the criminals, but ultimately to the government, which is the people. The men who contract for prison labor may make large profits, but there is, or should be, competition for these, as for all other, contracts, and the only difference appears to lie in the fact that the laborer has, in this case, forfeited to the state the wages of his labor, which may be used to meet the expense of keeping him in prison. The working of criminals in chain gangs has been abandoned as barbarous and the only work that appears to be open to them is of the kind that the Knights of Labors have opposed.
They must have work or they will go mad, and surely an industrious criminal is of more value to the state than an idle madman, As long as we have prisons we must have prison labor, and as it is wrong to waste nything, it should be made as efficient as possible. WHAT has become of the project to extend the Quarryville railroad to the Peach Bottom Narrow Gauge line? THE latest piece of railroad news is that the control of the Jersey Central stock is owned in three parts, as follows: One-third by Austin Corbin and his friends, one-third a by thalra First National Bank, New York, and by the Lehigh Valley company. The latter represents the Pennsylvania. The principal owners of the Adams Express company are believed to be represented in one of the above interests. The Lehigh Valley, with the consent Pennsylvania will throw its business over to the Jersey Central, giving to the latter the haul of the soft coal coming to the seaboard from the Clearfield region, which is now controlled by the Lehigh Valley.
There will also be an adjustment of passenger and freight service between New York and Philadelphia. The white-robed angel of peace seems to be permanently hovering about recent railroad combinations. JAMES McMANES has announced that he is against Blaine for the presidency in 1888. He has found out that the cat is not going to jump that way. E.
H. RAUCH, the senior editor of the Mauch Chunk Democrat, has begun in that paper the publication of his rocollections of the workings of The Underground Railroad from 1846 to 1855. As Mr. Rauch was an active figure in those troublous times and, as he possesses a facile pen, he is capable of making a most interesting story. The original intention of the veteran editor was to present story in dramatic form, feelIng that it would have a chance of attaining equal popularity with "Uncle Tom's Cabin," but after mature deliberation he concluded to write the story for his own newspaper.
GEORGE RIDDLE, the actor, was not successful in producing Fawcett's play The Earl" in Boston. He thanks his stars, however, that the Hub's "damnation is purely local." Good for George PRESIDENT BARNARD. The Head of Columbia College, Now Celebra- ting Its Centennial. The centennial celebration of Columbia college was celebrated in New York, on April 13th, 1887, with every appropriate literary and other exercises, which WAS deemed necessary for the occasion. Dr.
Barnard, the president, the faculties and alumni of the college held a grand reception in honor of the event, where delegates from all sister institutions were well represented. Dr. Barnard became the president of Columbia college in 1864, and has since that time evinced an unflagging interest in all the 00- curring events of the institution. Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, D. LL.
was born at Sheffield, Massachusetts, May 5th, 1809. He became a student of and graduated at Yale college in 1828, becoming tutor there the following year, and sub. sequently a teacher in the deaf and dumb asylum in Hartford and New York. From 1837 until 1848 be was professor of mathematics and national pbilosophy and afterwards, until 1854, of chemistry in the university of Alabama. In 1854 he became professor of mathematics and astronomy in the university of Mississippi of which he was elected president in 1856 and chancellor in 1858.
An 1854 he took orders in the Protestant Episcopal church, and in 1861 resigned his chancellorship and chair in the University of Mississippi In 1864 he was chosen president of Columbia college, New York. In 1860 he was a member of the astronomical expedition to observe the total eclipse of the sun in Labrador and was elected president of the American association for the advancement of science. In 1862 he was engaged in the reduction of Gilliss' observation of stars in the Southern hemisphere, and in 1863 had charge of the publication of charts and maps of the United States coast survey. In 1867 he was United States commissioner to the Paris exhibition. Dr.
Barnard is member of various learned societies in Europe and America and has received the honorary degree of LL. D. (Jefferson college 1855, Yale 1859), S. T. D.
(University of Mississippi 1861), and in 1872, that of doctor of literature from the regents of the University of New York. He has published "Treatise on Arithmetic," 1830; "Analytic Grammar," 1836; "Letters on Collegiate Government," 1855; "History of the United States Coast Survey," 1857; "Report on Machinery and Industrial Arts," 1869; "Progress of Science," 1869, and the "Metric System," 1871, He has also contributed largely to scientific and educational journals, and periodicals. In conjunction with Professor Arnold Guyot he edited Johnson's "Universal Encyclopedia," 1874-1877. A Friend In Need, From the West Chester News. A man appeared upon our streets Wednes.
day clad in a rustic garb, consisting partly of a coat, the cut of which was somewhat similar to that worn by some members of the Society of Friends, and a low-crowned hat and an exceedingly wide brim. Not a button could be seen upon his clothing, but his coat and jacket were closed in front with hooks and eyes. He belonged to the religious body known as Omish. A representative of the News engaged in conversation with him and learned that he was 8 known and highly esteemed citizen of Lancaster county, by the name of Moses Hartz, who lived near Morgantown, in the fertile Conestoga valley. He came hither for the purpose of having a nephew released from prison on bail.
This man had been employed upon Mr. Hartz's farm, but having separated from his wife. She prosecuted him for failure to turnish her with support, and in the course of legal process he found himself in the jail of Chester county. His employer upon learning this said "I could not stand that. One of my blood can't stay in prison until duly convicted while my purse is sufficient to release him if the offense is bailable." Procuring the services of Lawyer Fairlamb they proceeded to the jail and shortly the man was permitted to go at large.
When inquired into as to his capacity to furnish the proper security, Mr. Hartz showed that he was the possessor of a farm of 340 acres with other valuable property. He dined at the Green Tree hotel, and said that he took a meal in the same room just 28 years ago and had not been here since; until Wednesday. This act upon the part of Mr. Hartz is an evidence of the kind feeling for which the Omish are 1a- mous in Lancaster county and wherever known.
MR. HENSEL ENTERTAINS. A Most Delightful Party Given Last Evening at Eshleman's Hall, One of the most elegant and delightful social events of the season in Lancaster, Was the party given in Eshleman's hall, Wednesday, by Mr. W. U.
Hen sel to his friends. The whole of the spacious building was thrown open to the guests, and from eight o'clock till midnigbt was several hours old, the rooms were filled with a merry company. There was handsome floral decoration in the corridors and in the dancing hall which was thronged all evening with brave men and fair women treading the light fantastic toe. Thorbahn's orchestra of seven pieces discoursed sweetest music, which was hugely enjoyed by the many middle-aged guests who did not dance. The dressing of the ladies was the most elaborate and beautiful that has been seen in Lancaster this season.
The supper provided was a triumph of the art of Trower, the Germantown caterer, and it was served at innumerable small tables, a convenience that was highly appreciated by the guests. The gay company did not disperse until a late hour, and the universal verdict was that the party wag one of the most complete and enjoyable events that has marked the social history of Lancaster. The number of strangers present was unusually large. They included visitors from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, York, Safe Harbor, Marietta, Quarryville, Wilmington, New York, Fort Wayne, Ind, and other places. KILLED HIS PLAYMATE.
Twelve-Year-O1d Frank Fatally Shoots Littie Robbie Printer, Robbie Printer was fatally shot by Frank Leland, his playmate, on Thursday last, at Jenkintown, Pa. After school the boys met at Johnston's Inn, and with Ben Springer, another youngster, went up the road for several hundred yards and struck across into the field to the right to play under the willow trees. Young Leland, whois the son of Howard Leland, manager of Partridge Richardson's establishment, Philadelphia, had a rifle which brought with him to practice on tomato cans. It fall to Leland to fire the last cartridge. He pulled the trigger, but it only snapped like a cap, and none of the boys could find the cartridge, though they thought the shell was empty.
Bobby, throw up your hands, and when I fire you're a dead man and must exclaimed young Leland, replacing the shell in the gun. A blinding flash, a loud report and Robbie Printer fell to the ground mortally wounded. Frank Leland lett fall his rifle and burst into tears. He hugged and kissed the dying boy wildly in his anguish. Joe Comfort, who was walking along the road and saw the boy fall, ran back to the inn and broke the news.
A back was secured, and the wounded boy taken to a drug store. The boy lingered until the next afternoon, when be died. An inquest was held on Saturday. The funeral took place Sunday, and was largely attended..
