Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-10-27

In the war against the ring active operations
seem at last to have begun. What has pre-
ceded has been only maneuvering for pc sition
The New York papers announced that Tweed
would he arrested yesterday. This was a trihe
premature but the telegraph informs us that an
order for his arrest was issued yesterday by
Judge Learned, at Albany, and was to be served
Immediately. Tweed, if not the most danger
Gus is the most conspicuous of thieves, and APP
parently the most powerful. To seize him is
taking the bull by the horns MIR. O'Conor is
in earnest; he is fearless and incorruptible and
in knowledge of law, power as an advocate and
weight of personal character, is Infinitely more
of a match for any legal champion that the ring
can call to its aid. Mr. 0'Connor is said to
have declared that he would recover from Tweed
alone in civil suit, So 800 900 of the money
stolen fiom the city. This would help consid-
erably in meeting the present urgent demands
upon the treasury, and if the other harpes
could be made to disgorge in like manner, Mr..
Green, the acting controller, would be tenn
porarily troubled with an excess of riches.
To compel the restoration of their plum
der viii be a slender satisfaction to the public,
who have been watching with more or less hope
fulness the assaults OF the reformers, aud it is
not probable that Mr.. O'Conor will stop there,
for the same evidence that compels reimburse
meut must be sufficient to consigu these corrupt
officials to the penitentiary, where we trust some
OF them may spend at least one winter. The pro-
ccetiings are 10 be conducted at Albany, because
It Is not thought entirely safe to trust the virtue
Of the New York judges, notwithstanding Judge
Btruard's recent professions of adherence for
corruption, and his acts, which seemed to be
evidence Of sincerity. Judge Calvin Pratt of
Brooklyn, we suppose, may be relied upon to in
terfere at some stage OF the proceedings with
his faT5rite process Of injunction, or order for
stay OF proceedings, bat in a matter Of so much
importance and general interest, short work will
BE- made Of him. Hall and Sweeuy are, we
suspect the most dangerous of the ring leaders,
and any proceedings, civil or criminal, which
leave them untouched, viii fall far short of sat
isfying the demand for justice.
The little town of Ash1eld in Franklin coun.
ty, with population Of 1880 and a valuation in
1865 OF little less than s612 900, has had
most unfortunate experience in litigation.
About four year, ago a four-horse coach, con-
tanning about dozen persons, while crossing
stream in that town, fell through the bridge
about twelve feet TO the rocks below. Most of
the passengers were more or less injured, some
of them seriously That there was defect in
The bridge, making the town liable for damages,
was not denied The town settedwith most of
them, hut thought the claims of others unrea-
sonabe and refused to satisfy them. One
brought suit in Franklin county and recovered
$4,000 and costs. Another, whom the town of
fered $500, recovered in the superior court in
Boston s4132 for damages and costs, and a third
who had offered to compromise for $500, recov-
cred in the supreme court at Boston. $4,000
damages. A motion for a new trial. on the
ground Of excessive damages, was made in this
case, but the court Overruled it, and last month
judgment was entered on the verdict Tor s18,322
and costs taxed at S16S0. Besides these judy
ments, amounting altogether to nearly $4,000,
the town has had to pay its own witnesses in all
the suits and the fees OF its counsel, which will
bring up the whole cost of that rotten bridge to
$4,000, probably, or not much short of five per
cent Of the towns valuation.
Narrow gauge railroads have no doubt much
10 recommend them, bat not everything claimed
for them is true. The statements Of their advo-
Gates must be received with caution. In an ar
ticle, which has found its way into several of
our exchanges, it is asserted that passen-
ger cars accommodating twenty-Gour per-
sons comfortably, and weighing only three
hundred and thirty pounds each, have been
made and successfully used on road
of three feet gauge. The abSurdity of this
is too manifest TO impose upon anybody
who has the smallest practical knowledge OF
vehicles OF this kind. Yet the writer from whom
it is quoted evidently used it in good faith, aud
enlarged, as well he might, on the enormous
contrast between such carriage and those in
use on ordinary railways. He was simply pre-
Stunning TO instruct the public on subject of
which he knew as little as is possible for man
living in civilized community to know, and
had not taken the trouble 10 make use of what
lnhnilesimal shreds Of knowledge had unavod-
ably made their way into his brain. Political
and other subjects are too often discussed in a
similar STRAIN of presumptuous ignorance.