Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-07-15
A DROLL PERFORMANCE


A DROLL PERFORMANCE
For an undoubtedly clever man, Gen
eral Butler says a great many silly
things. In speech at Boston he re-
Gently declared that civil service reform
was humbug. But as the general also
thought little while ago that paying
the national debt honestly was another
humbug, his opinion is not, perhaps, of
great Importance. But he was not con-
tented with so safe a generalization as
humbug, in which, indeed, the eminent
Carpenter of Wisconsin was before him.
The general proceeded to remark that
civil service reform means that men who
were at school while their brothers were
fighting are to pass examinations in
mathematics for permanent positions
All, general if the public were only
fool
The civil service reform, of course,
means nothing of the kind. 1t means,
in General Buffers district, for instance,
that the fitness of men for various posi-
tions shall be ascertained by some other
process than merely asking General But
ler's opinion when the general has few
hundred .ssound" and faithful men, who
have been electioneering and working
for him, to reward. The general says
he knows who ought to be postmaster
at Glouchester or Pigeon Cove as well
as any board of broken down school
masters. He naturally thinks so. In
deed, there are very few of his honor
able colleagues in Congress who are not
of the same opinion. They are very
sure that they, and they alone, are the
proper persons to distribute the patron
age in their districts and the people
to whom that patronage is distributed
do not forget to whom they owe it. In
the caucus and the primary meeting and
the convention they Loyalty tickle the
hand that tickles them IT'S beauti-
full merry go-round, cries General But
Ter: no broken down school-masters for
me For so clever man, General But
Ter plays the ostrich with most ludi-
crous observation-disclosures Weekly.
SAFETY ON THE SEAs.-There left New
York, on Saturday, six steamers for Eu-
rope, carrying grand total of nearly
six hundred passengers. All were En-
glish vessels, and not amenable to Amer.
lean regulations. AS so large a proper.
ton of their passengers are Americans,
who seek in Europe the rest and change
of travel, it becomes of some interest tc
know whether these transatlantic steam.
ers, that leave our shores every week,
make any adequate provision for the
safety of their living freight. Now and
then steamer goes down in mid-ocean
with all on board or some collision OIL
sudden accident brings death to por.
ton of the passengers. A brief horror
falls upon the public mind, and we hear
much about visitation of Providence.
1t is likely that human carelessness, ant
criminal neglect, have sometimes quit,
as much to do with it, The six steam
ers which sailed from New York on Sat
urday carried with them eight boats each
In heavy seas not more than fifteen per
sons can be carried safely in one of thes
boats. Suppose, then, collision. a leak
or accidents to which any steam
ers are liable; and for the sixteen hun
dred passengers on those steamers tn
boats afford a possibility Of escape t
: only seven hundred and twenty AM
: this, making no allowance for the officers
and crews What is to become of til
; remainder?
> The pastor Of church, just out G
: Boston, which was struck by lightnin
the other day, told his people 'sthat tn
Lord had fore-ordained the lightnin
e should come, because they had not ha
' the free will to put up lightning rods.
- The truth, thus well and quantity pu
= holds III its application to calamities a
" sea as ON land. Providence IS never re
Il sponsible for human neglect. If steam
e er meets with an accident at sea, an
i through the niggardliness Of its owner
: is found deficient IL boat and life-say
. ing apparatus, it is utter blasphemy
y assign to Providence that which is th
y result of criminal carelessness. If thel
is no way in which the law may touc
those lines which crowd their vessels an
III endanger the lives of their passenger
:" American tourists can, in some measur
y regulate the matter for themselves,
Y patronizing only such lines as prov
! themselves worthy of it.
Of
is Statistics prove that there are mo
l. people die of consumption in Delawa
&c than in any other state in the Union,
e. proportion to population. The dealt
y from this disease are more prevalent
s. the states on the seacoast and less III Il
a states in the interior of the continent