The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-05-18

lOItH lIOul IuuCc, hu5Slh ana OW6ucQ, nave
each helped to throw new light on the dangerous
navigation In the Arctic waters which must
prove of incalculable advantage to the present
explorers. The intention of Messrs. Payer
and Weyprechts expedition is given in letter
from Vienna, published in another page.
Summers Presidential Problem-Big G
and Little g-Where is b. b.
Mr.. Sumner is man of letters in every
sense of the word. Scholastcally he is far
ahead Of the good little boy who knew only
two letters, namely:-Let her be and let her
rip. He has got as far as letter G, and has
made the astounding discovery that of the
Presidential genus there are two distinct spe
cies-namely the big G and the little G. How
fer his astute mind may have been put on the
track which led up to this great fact by the
light Schoolboy Fish threw on the subject in
his quotations from the Latin dictionary, when
wrangling with his master, Granville, as to
what the term ''generically'' meant, we can
not say. At any rate, he takes Greeley and
Grant, and initiates the first until he is big G
and congresses the latter until he is little G.
This process is highly defensible in politics and
remarkably easy. Tomake this clear to the eye
observe the following recipe:-Having placed
Horace on the top Of the Franklin statue and
Ulysses on the top Of the Custom House, pro-
cure Professor Thatcher's telescope; then take
IN observation of Horace according to the
regular method. When you are assured that
he looks as big as the United States and his
hot CIR &1,o -
reverse the telescope and observe Ulysses. He
will be found, to your entire satisfaction, to
look about the size Of lonely sparrow on the
house top, with the lighted end of his huge
cigar dwindled to the apparent size of star
of the seventy third magnitude Those who
prefer the fruit of the Appomattox apple tree
to the cabbages Of Chappaqua may reverse
the process, and it will then be observed that
Grant is the big G, and Greeley the little 6.
We understand however, that Mr. Sumner,
with his accustomed gravity and rare erudition,
has set about applying his discovery to mathe-
matics in novel way. Well versed in the
mysteries Of algebra, he has, on the big G and
little G basis, resolved the whole question of
the Presidential succession into an algebraic
problem. Big G and little suggested
themselves at once as the unknown guam
titles" Keeping these well under his Sena-
torial eye, he reasoned as follows:-Horace is
good square old man; therefore he will stand
for the square of big G. Added to him
we can put Mr.. Tweed, who still counts as Big
Six, plus three millions of democrats, North
and South; from the foregoing deduct little
and the square radix of the republican party,
which will give big G fifty thousand majority,
and the whole White House for a homestead.
What the chances are that this will be
worked out as the reverend Senator puts it, no
one better than the Senator knows, depends on
the people who will meet at Baltimore in the
dog days. 1t is at best deemed hazardous to-
predict. Grant, it is understood, has ordered
a CARLOAD of chalk, and with the party slate in
his lap intends to work it out to his own salts
faction, eft it takes all summer" as it un-
doubleday will.
We fear, however, that another very great
unknown quantity has been entirely over
looked-namely, B. B. We shall not make
this mistake; but the perversity with which
it has been keeping out of the way of late has
puzzled us very much. Need we say that we
mean the Hon. Benjamin Butler, sacred to
Cape Cod? Vague hints have been thrown out
that he was ct the bottom of the California
earthquake, although he himself has not been
known to believe in "shakes." It was also
whispered that he was the author Of the
Open Polar Sea excitement, which was to
be granted in fee simple to the Gloucester
| Cell e. H. c., II.
The grounds on which he was reported to
have set his peculiar eye upon it were that
it looked every like whale in pros
pectve. A sinister rumor said that he had
secretly brought about the persecution of the
Roumanian Jews in order to make public
capital by championing them and obtain the
lasting help Of the Rothschild interest. All
these were unfounded, as well as the report
that he was coquetting for the colored vote
| by agreeing to paint the Goddess of Liberty
on the Capitol a shade between coffee color
and chrome yellow. He is said, however, to
have been pointing out to the culled bredren the
significant fact that Greeley invidiously wears
q white hat, leaving them to draw their own
conclusions. His action in the House about
the Ku Klux business shows his animus on
the matter. His opinion on the Supplemental
Treaty is adverse to Fish. Thus much is
known positively. He would like to own Fish,
as the memories of Fisher and the care of the
fisheries are already his he is sorry he cannot
haul on the one net with him, Let the alge-
braic calculators on the Presidency, therefore,
look well out for B. B., as his unknown guam
tity'' will take positive shape between this and
next November, and somebody will be hurt
The Case Of the steamer Edgar stewart.
Our advices from Kingston, Jamaica, of the
nth G,r,;Sh nc ,y;tl, H. &c A.