The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-20
BALTIMORE.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1859.

The views presented in the Message of our
MAYOR are all couleur de 'unprecedentedly
gratifying" and Gathering" in short-if the
phrase in short may be used in reference to any
thing so lonq Yet we have made so many empty
meals on what the English term cooked reports
that we feel altogether less attered and grati6ed
by the provision of delicacies presented by His
Honor, than perhaps we ought to be- considering
the labor and taste displayed. The art of-we will
not say-inventing; but of insinuating non.tacts,
with the help of figures, has been of ate-if it has
not always been-the principal accomplishment
of the officers of many private corporations
as Railroad, Mining, Banking, Insurance Com
panies &c.
Whether the reports Of municipal corporations
can be said to partake of the same amiable weak
ness, as general thing we are not prepared to say,
as we have not felt any special interest in that de-
partment of literature and have kept the run of lit
tie beyond that relating to our own beloved city.
Such charges we have had occasion to observe,
have been freely made by the New York papers,
In reference to the official reports of that great
city-but we trust that the doings of New York
are altogether exceptional in this and other par
tculars Certainly, in times past, we have been
greatly deceived here by the statements
In Messages Of our former MAYORS and from rather
significant symptoms manifested in the First
Branch of the City Council, as reported in our COL
umns yesterday morning, itwould seem that some of
the MAYORS figures rejected by his own friends,
and one of his recommendations treated with con-
tempt.
Mr.. RANDOLPH Chairman of the Committee of
o,l hnc,@ 10, +,,,& A.
MAYOR is as much mistaken about the new taxable
basis, as The american on the subject of lea
ther or 'salted fsh''-while Mr.. MONTAGUE
declared that to attempt to impose limit
on the percentage of tax, to be hereafter
levied-as suggested by Mr.. SWAMI, is mere
"child's play" Now, if these gentlemen are
right-one in point of fact and the other in his
views of policy, as they probably are-here are
two very nicely prepared dishes swept from the
'feast to which we were invited
1t is, however, on Railroad matters that
Mr.. SWAMI spreads himself, if we may use
that homely but apt Anglo-Saxon word to
express the process of dilatation in which the
present "Executive'' delights. 1t was in this
school that he first learned to be an Executive"
and acquired whatever little culinary SKILL in pre-
pairing report or message, he may possess.
The MAYOR states that "the report of the Presi-
"dent and Directors of the Baltimore and Ohio
"Raroad Company shows decrease of S760, 513.l6
compared with the results of the preceding
"year' then goes on to say, ''the .fanering
Condition of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
Company as shown in the Annual Exhibit
''cannot be otherwise than gratifying" Whether
the arrangement of the terms ''fattering' and
"gratfying' in the last sentence, is sign that in
His Honors mind qualification naturally follows
fattery, we do not undertake to decide: but surely
no one, not extremely prone to be fattered, would
extract much qualification from the fact of
decrease in 1858 of three-quarters of a million
the diminished revenues of 1851 in the receipts of
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, or predicate
dividend thereon this year as Mr. SWAMI
seems to do. Possibly, Mr. SWAMI was edu-
Gated in that School of Railroad manage
ment which teaches-the less the earnings, the
greater the dividend. That we are not unfair in
assuming that there is, or has been such school,
will, we presume, be admitted. When Mr. SWAMI
was President we had dividends-what pity that
he should have resigned and gone to Europe
when he did. Had he remained at his post
in all probability no unforeseen contingency
would have prevented regular dividend all the
time.
We may do the MAYOR injustice, however, in
saying that he has been fattered, by the large de-
crease in the revenues of the Road the last year. into
positive certainty of the payment into the city
treasury Of S2le, 900 by way of dividend This is
the way in which he puts the case; IA confident
expectation is entertained that no disappointment
''in the dividend of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-
''road Stock, during the present year, will be ex-
''perienced,' &c. These terms, perhaps, admit
of the construction, that the MAYOR feels that no
disappointment will be experienced, even if no
dividend is paid. To us, we admit, it will be
quite an agreeable disappointment if it should be.
fit should happen, by any contingency evidently
at present unforeseen" by the MAYoR-that the
dividend of $4,000 should not be paid, there
will be another spoilt dish in the banquet.