The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-15

reconstruction great volume Of moral power
in quarter where it could hardly have been
looked for without qualms of misgiving."
As to negro improvidence, the figures are
very significant. Since 1860, tenant-farmiuP
among the whites has expanded one hundred
per cent, but Of course the system was not
known to the negroes till after the war. Yet
in twenty-tbree counties in 1862 while the
whites produced bat 1905 bales of cotton,
the black tenant-farmers produced 40, 561
last year, 20, 1913 and 5O,978, respectively
Again, in twenty counties in 1862 the white
owners of the soil grew 100, 697 bales of cot
ton; the colored land owners, 4645; last year,
1O2, 491 and 614l respectively. And finally in
seven countless
SO colered people own real estate to gross
a7sS coiored people own personality to gross
1Is coiored people own both realty and per-
sonaliy TO gross value Of............ 22O,1O0
These people were penniless in 1865.
The criminal statistics call for examination,
but we must pass them by, merely alluding to
the determined attitude of Governor Alcorn
in regard to the carrying of deadly weapons.
We commend this and all other parts of the
message to thoughtful men every where, aud
conclude with repeating our satisfaction that
the State of Mississippi is so we'll led, and
that the demolition of the old rubbish pro-
misses to be succeeded by noble structure.
THE TENNESSEE AND ADMIRAL
PORTER.
From the N. Y. World.
The Admiral has been doing it again. In
the days of Admiral Farragut, when Porter's
statements were reported to him, he would
dispose of them with the remark, "Poor
David! He can't help it; it is constitu-
tional with him." If the gallant old Admit
raj were alive now he would conclude that
A6a itr1tfa xNf &c l.oo
received any shock since those old days,
and that the imagination of his ''David"
only grows brighter as his uniform glistens
with more numerous stars.
Admiral Porter states to the public his
theory of the Tenpessees disappearance. He
accounts for it by the very obvious method of
stretching geography till the distances are
great enough to require all the elapsed time
for the Tennessee to overcome them. He
says that she must have sailed ''ten thousand
eight hundred and ninety miles" before she
could be heard from, and that it 'would take
her ten days to reach Samana Bay" Sandy
Hook is in latitude 40 deg. % min. north and
longitude "a deg. west. Samana Bay is in 10
deg. north latitude and 90 deg. west longi-
tude. From point to point is a straight line
without any distractions within three hundred
miles of the course, except the American
coast, which is always growing more distant
miles; and from Samana Bay the ship should
have been heard from. The Admiral says it
would take ten days to go to Samana Bay.
That is true probably if no accident hap
pened, which is the Admirals hypothesis; but
what an admission A first-class man-of- war
sent on an expeditions expedition, with all
haste, in order to get a speedy report for
Congress to act upon before March, is only
expected to go one hundred and thirty miles
three days to go to England; and if she were
expected to carry our flag to China genera
tion might pass away before she would be
heard from.
The Admiral says that she would lose
hundred miles in crossing the Gulf Stream,
which, according to him, ''runs four knots
an hour" She would cross the Gulf Just
south of Hatteras, and the strength of the
current there is almost spent, and does not
exceed mile and a half an hour. If the
Admiral were right, however, in the speed of
the current and of the ship, then we might
look for her on the European coasts, where
the Northmen are said to have found strange
skin garments cast upon the shore, suggest
ing another hemisphere; for a ship that can
only go a hundred and thirty miles day
would be carried almost there by current
going ninety six miles day before she could
get out of 1t.
The track of this ship was exactly the track
of the Pacific mail steamers to Aspin wall.
They steer due south from New York, and if
there is no heavy weather to drive them out
of their course they strike the ''windward
passage" which is at the west end of San
Domingo, in five days and night, expecting
to make the passage in the morning of the
sixth day and go through by daylight. If the
weather is bad and they have to go through
by night, and they do not get observations,
they are apt to run for the ''Mona passage" !"
which is at the east end of the island, and
which is wider and safer in the night and
which from New York is forty miles or SO
further than the other. San Domingo lies
between these two passages, and these steam
ers pass it on one hand or the other, both
coming and going, on all their voyages. If
they took ten days to go to San Domingo they
would use up sixteen to Aspinwall, and when
passenger would see California exceeds our
arithmetieal power to calculate. We think
that the Navy Department ought to do better
than that story.
We also observe that Congressman Hale
informs the country that these ships were all
worn out in the service of the war, and there
fore are not fit for present duty. The fact is
that the vessels of the class of the Tennessee
have never been at sea at all-they are all new
ships. One of them-the Wampanoag, we
think they called her-was ordered into COM
mission as the flagship of the Atlantic
squadron. She got as far as Hampton Roads
and was found unfit for sea, and came back
to New York, whence she never again VEN
tured. This ship, we think, was never out
of harbor but once before, and then upon
a short cruise Gn distance, not time,
we mean) to the West Indies and
back; and then she was altered. The other
ships of her class have never been at sea at
oil l,,1f lie af tha Rrook1yn Navv Va.5 -.