Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-04-04
GENERAL NEWS.

The Steamer, Sam Hale, Rear mid
night of Sunday last, at Island 81 o.
bove Memphis, while bound south
with two barges III tow, burst her
steampipe almost fifteen feet forward
of the throttle-valye, killing three and
severely scalding two more of her
deck crew. The helpless steamer and
her barges drifted over twenty-five
miles, lodging at intervals in the tim
Der, sinking the fuel barge containing
over 5000 Bushels of coal-a total loss,
and wrecking the cargo box of one
hay barge. At daylight next morning
the City of Vicksbug hove in sight,
went to the aid of the crippled yes
sci, towed her to shore at the foot of Is
land so, ninety miles above Memphis,
and moored her safely to the bank,
much to the relief of the exhausted
crew. The barges, except in their up
per works, were not injured. The
killed were J. johnson, white, of Gin
cinnati, deck-hand, who has no fam
ily, Chas. Jones, colored fireman,
blown overheard and lost. A part of
his fingers, toe nails; and the flesh of
his hands, were seen IN the bunk
where he lay, but no traces of the
body were to be found. Richard Leo
nard, residence Cincinnati, badly
scalded, and died on the Nicksburg
while on his way to Memphis.
The session of 1873 and 1874 has at
last come to an end, and the rogues
and public plunderers, who have been
roOsting around the capital OF the
Palmetto State for the past five
months, have packed up their ill-got-
ten gains and retired either into the
peaceful pursuits of private life with
handsome completeness, or to emerge
therefrom during the next campaign,
and, cloaking up the fraud which COW
ers them like lepers with the specious
cry of reform, ask the suffrages of the
colored man and brother to return
them to Office and to power. The
handsome equipages and costly teams
in which the average legislator used
to drive to the State. House daily, are
retired for the present. The keepers
of the thousand and one peanut stands
are rushing about madly in search of
absent legislative debtors; and the
almost exhausted till in the public
Treasury is left to the swarms of at
tachcs who have been left behind I'M
provided for, and who are now engag-
ed in a scramble for the few dollars
which their rapacions masters have
left unstolen. The closing scenes of
the session were exceedingly interest
ing Charleston News.
Gov. Kemper, of Va, in his recent
message to the legislature upon State
finances, offers the following sugges-
ton which we regard as equitable
and practical: at is believed that
fair and deliberate conference between
the State and her creditors will result
substantially in the settlement now
proposed; q settlement providing for
the payment of such reduced interest,
for the time being, as may correspond
with our reduced means, and for such
greater interest hereafter as will
steadily increase with our increasing
population and resources, so that the
whole debt as heretofore assumed, to-
gether with the full interest as now
agreed, viii be discharged ultimately
and lust as quickly as the best ability
of tho State viii permit. It would
bind rs to do now what We are able to
dc, aud it would postpone so much of
our undertakings as we are unable to
perform. To do less on our part is
Reputation, to do more is to plunge
the Commonwealth into the abyss of
bankruptcy.
The following are the leading fea-
lures of the Sherman currency bill
lately reported by the Finance Com
mittee: ''The maximum amount of
legal tender notes outstanding shall
never exceed its present volume, $780,
900, 600; that Oh the first of January,
1875, the redemption of legal tenders
in coin or in five per cent bonds shall
commence; that national banks may
be organized in all States having a
less pro rata share of this kind Of
banking capital than the State OF New
York. whose proportion shall be the
general maximum, and that the Secre-
tary of the Treasury shall retire in
greenbacks 20 per cent of this increase
in bank notes, and such reduction
shall continue until the volume of out
standing greenbacks shall be reduced
10 $500. 600, 900; that one-fourth. of the
gold interest received by each bank
as interest on its bonds shall be re-
tanned as n reserve, and national banks
shall not be required to keep more
than One-fourth of their present re-
serve in New York city; also, that
redeemed legal tenders may be reis-
sued in redemption or purchase OF
bonds Of the United States, or to meet
current eXpences Of the Government,
but in no case to increase the public