Wilmington daily commercial., 1873-11-29
FIRST EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA.
OUR SAT RDAY LETTER.


-ths fixing Of the tax rate has been decided
on. AtleAst, the Finance Committee Of Coun-
ellis has oome to a conclusion, and that seems to
be- regarded as definitely settling the matter.
Il is generally the custom of Councils to accept
the findings nf this Committee, just as the i'm
portant work OF Congress is done In many cases
not in the General Assembly, but in sub-bodies
the chairmanships OF which are 80 largely
sought by party leaders. This important FL
nance Committee OF Councils has said, them
that property holders in Philadelphia in the
year 1874. shall pay over TO- the city %. TO- on
every s1OO worth Of property in their posses
son This year tho tax is $20s, 30 that we
go up steadily, il slowly. The extra ten cents
is for the erection Of the new Public
Buildings, and although it looks like very tidy
provision for that purpose the Building Com
mission appears not to be satisfied with it. A
meeting oi the Commission was held this week
at which members stated that the ten per cent
tax would not raise half the money required for
the operations OF the year, and tuat Councils
would have to provide funds by special tax. So
it appears II tue rate for 1874 were 20 instead
OF 2 ~ 1t would really be no more than enough
The authorities feared to make such demand
however, aud apparently trust to some special
legislation later in the session. This will
amount TO the same thlnB Dut II VIII not look
quite AB overwhelming.
The JAY Cooke case Aas taken another turn.
The firm has been forced nlo bankruptcy and a
receiver las been formally appointed. strong
effort was made to pr eHent this solution of the
difficult but some OF the creditors were refractory
and as they had the law on their sidg the
present result could not be escaped. 1t was
sought to be shown that the affairs OF a sus-
pended hrm always suffered greatly
by bankruptcy proceedings, but nolhrg
4 a. H.
haId to assure creditors who favored thiS
course that II they would withdraw their mo-
lion they would reach any speedy settlement,
A man who deposited money IN MIR. Cookies
Banking House three months or a month be-
foro IL failed owes MIR. Cooke nothing, he ID not
bound to consider his bankers feelings and
what he might or might not like the obligation
IL all the other way. Mr.. Bullltt counsel for
the Cooke firm said at the hearing before Judge
CadWa lader on Wednesday that his eide of the
case could not complain OF the action demand
cd. lie thought there had been great conf
dence shown aud no disposition to be uuwont-
edly hard upon the debtOrs The Judge some
weeks ago strongly counselled totbearance an
those creditors who moved for bankruptcy, but
he apparently thought on Wednesday that there
bad been sufficient delay for he declared that
the creditors had been extraordinarily lenlent,"
aud thought there should be no further hesita-
tlou. Judge Cadwallader has always besn, as /
may say, on the Cooke side, and these admis-
siOns were significant. 30 the important step
was taken, ana the order Issued which sdjudges
Jay Cooke IL 90, Bankrupt. Mr.. j. GIllIngham
Fell was named for Receiver, but he declined.
ur Edwin Nj. Lewis, President Of the Farmers
and Mechanics Bank was then offered the i'm
poItAnt trust and, after some confederation, ac-
cepted II
heard curious story recently concerning an
old time family and interesting to all persons In
any way affected by the POTTERY Mania as it
has been perhaps Irreyerently called. There il
a class of culIectors" who indulge the hobby of
hoarding old china and porcelain, claiming that
such portable properly is more valuable as show
iug the customs OF other times tLan are cOiue,
weapons or the other innumerable articles which
serve this varied purpose, You have of course
heard great deal about tue old Butler family.
FLEECE Blller. vino married Fanny holsble was
-cluu OF this house, winch in its day ranked with
the aristocrallc families OF the country. Invent
back IuIther thun the Revolution, and il report
is tue was never overly famous in those days
Tor It's loyalty 10 the republic. Philadelphia was
the Headquarters of this old family, although it
nad extensive Southern connections. Not great
whle since some old fashioned articles, which
had boen for years awaiting final disposition on
the part of the executors Of the Butler Estate,
wore put up for sale at Thomas Il Sons
| auction rOolnS. Among these articles was
III antique dinner set OF china,
| 1t was offered for sale a. something
o tritliug value which the family had thought 30
II t.e Uf as to allow to remain covered with dust
for half a century or more in the garrett OF the
| Old mansion OH chestnut htlbbl IL WAS, now
over an extraordinary sci OF china, particularly
IN its duplication OF dishes. Thus, sre were no
1858 than iofly different dishes for fishes alone.
Altogether there we're over 800 peices in the set.
| Well 10 and behold you. this outlandlsh, old
/ fashioned cumbersome dinner set, which 1t would
take Que OF the longest tables at the . Clayton "
i to display properly, and which even then would
not be mt 10 DO seen, brought p30O,-tho auo-
ioueers thinking they were doing very well III
Leed at that hsure Dr. Pepper,on OF our prom
AIR npf IA al
| of some Of the designs, and ran the set up
| otherwise it might not have brought plOO FOL
| no onB at the sale seemed to caro- about II Du
| DE- Pepper and chlua ware dealer. The dealer
| yule the Doctors patience out, finally, and goi
the old CHINA few hours after he was greatly
urprlsed to receive all offer OF $500 for it. Ihi,
| ne was glad to accept, and the Butler china wa,
transferred, as everything else is here soonel
| or later. 10 New York. The Gotham pro
| pretOr had some vague ideas on th'
| suDiect OF the value Of the old dinne
| set. To give them form he shipped one Of th'
| pieces 10 the ksnsingtun Museum at London
| famous it seems Tor It's collections OF materla
| of the kind. Word was speedily returned tina
| the old Dinner Set was one of the rarest thing
| IN the world II was one Of three sets OF - lm
| perlal" clnna (nade for the personal service o
some Chinese potentate) aud II was not only yer
| scAIce but il had some peculiar historical slBnl
| hcance, The kenslngtOn Museum had odd piece
| ut this china but the Butler Set, being complete
| was entirely unique. Accompanying these wei
come remarks WAS an offer of e2O, 900 for tn
| chiua which was even more to the purpose
, | the most Tomant part oil the story ls the rae
| of this treasure lying unsupported Tor no long
lime III the Butler attcs, for 1t is scarcely TO .
| suppused that its value was known TO the family
Probably the last generation did not even kno'
| of it's existence :,
Nasts entertainment here amused an i'm
| msuse audience, but the result was to an exten
| Disappointing 4he eBotish ol the ieStuiei
| (tur ms remarks, instead OF giving any idea 9
/ nis art were manly devoted to a sketch OF III
: | own effurts) dii not eatly please, but ths
| could have been overlooked II the pictures ha
! been of a CIffeI cat sJlt. People want to st
, | the pictures naiuly. and not 30 much to hes
+ | the lecture Objection was made, lat, th'
the plctures were not remarkably good, znt
ihAt they were gnot drawn as rapid
= an ether artists in tue same line have worke
a here and 3rd tnat they were III no sense III
= car az had been promised They were mel
reuroductions of the johnson, Butler, Twee
nnrtralts &c which we allIVerT familiar witt
i. n Tins is the manner Of Mr. Nasts lectuTing se
| aon in full land there indications that 1t Il
il constitutes no peculiar attraction. Drawn
/. | ths same haokneyed subjects, night after nigh
| should give him sufficient facility but 1t does III
| fulhl the announcement made nor give the ehte
"a | tainnent any effect OF spontaneiety. The re
4. charm of such an effect should be the touchlI
an resident topics aud peculiarlle5. singul
,a | sketch OF ux.mayor Fox or the Hon DICK Nau
! would have put his PhIladelphia audience
b.tter humur tnan did all the pictures show
= rho suspicion attached to the exhibit on til
vara NM off ban mi hut hai been Dr