Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-12-18
FIRST EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA.
OUR sAruR DAY LETTER.

tho all-prevailiDg topic. People have hardly
talked or thought of anything else, in pnbc
way, to-day. At this writing the down town
streets are full Of pleasurable excitement and
there is manifest intention on tho part of
everybody to spend the evening in the neigh
borhood Of the Continental Hotel and the Girard
House. There is great strangeness in the idea
of having in the midst both Houses OF Congress,
the President and Cabinet, the Supreme Court,
and variety Of other distinguished guests, in
cluding OF course highly numerous ''newapa-
| per-man"-and, altogether, such an assemblase
has never been known in our history. The in
terest in the event IL thus seen TO be two-sided
in the fact of the extraordinary meeting. and In
| the hope Of good things to which. it will lead
| There are over four hundred gentlemen in
| the expected party and tee best rooms in the
| "Continental" and "Girard" have, as far as
| possible, been secured for their acoommoda-
| ton. The President will be the guest OF Mr..
| Childs and Col. William McMichael. Mr.. A.
| e. Borie and other leading citizens entertain
| some Of the cabinet officers and Supreme Court
Judges. Some of, the Senators and representa-
| tyes will also be privately entertained but the
hotels named will receive the greatest bulk Of
| the excursion5s, so that 8sh and Chestnut be-
| comes the Capital for the time beng. Chest
nut and Walnut streets are illuminated. and
there is evidence on every hand that citizens
| appreciate the exceptional nature of the occa
| SION.
Councils disregarded, yesterday, the protest
brought to bear upon them from every quartor
| relative to the . improved pavement y which IL
il proposed to lay on various approaches to the
Park. 1t is matter of common knowledge that
| there is powerful combination here interested
in putting asphalt payements on those thorough
fares. The pavement has been proved by COM
| mon observation in New York and elsewhere to
be worthless, but still the speculators concerned
have gone ahead with the job and have now ap-
parently succeeded. There is, to be sure,
loop hole of escape,as the bill which passed yes
terday declares that the Mayor, the Chief Com
missioner OF Highways, and tho
Chief Engineer and Surveyor. must
select tho material to be used, and there
| il some hope that Mr. Stokely will not allow
| asphalt to be chosen. But on the other hand
the paving Ring evidently having the power to
pass their project would not have let it go
through Councils In this shape without the clear
understanding that the restrictions imposed dld
not interfere materially with their measure. The
asphalt project has been all arranged for in calm
assurance of the event. variety OF heating, cart
ing and paving apparatus OF an original and OK,
| pensive kind reached the city weeks ago, and all
| s i'll readiness TO go ut once to work. All this
| organization would not have been effected UNI
| less there had been the best assurance that the
outlay would not be wasted as it would bo if the
| discretion seemingly given to the officials men
| TONED should resllb III INC CHOlce Oh IL btOuo
| pavement. At least give you the two sides and
| you can draw as correct a conclusion as can any
| OF the outsiders-which ID to say, everybody but
a handful of operators here. specimen block
of what sarcastic people call " ponltice," or the
| molasses candy" pavement was laid week or
| 30 ago on 9Th street opposite tho Court House.
| Special care was of course taken with this show
| piece, and the freezing weather has also bee n
good to it, but with all favoring conditions it is
apparent that the asphalt has no capacity for
| hard wear. -
The Revival meetings continue to attract
great throngs of people, and TO do, it is verify
| believed, world of good. There is nothing
| more particular than this TO say, for the
meetings are naturally repetltions, there being
no design to do but the one thing, and that
| over and over. There is nothing disheartening
in the degree of success attained, but 1T IL
rather amazing to note the depreciation OF this
great effort on the part of many people of
| whom we had expected other things. The body
of intelligent interest in tho subject settles
down to this, shat the number or urgency OF the
| conversions" is matter of little account COM
pared with the getting of mon to show, by the sim-
pie fact of attendance at the meetngs,a desire to
lift their inner lives. The number of pronounc-
ed - converts has been small, but not ono of
the hundreds Of thousands who have gone to
the meetings but has feaped some beneht,
though perhaps at the time unfelt. This is one
way Of looking at it it may not he Mr.. Moody 3
OF the strictly orthodox way, but men have
builded better than they knew since the
beginning. have heard considerable discussion of
certain views in opposition to the Revival AZ ex-
pressed by Lucretia Mott, and have thought it
strange that 30 many sided person as Mrs.
Mott should have failed to sec the real point OF
the case, stripped of the narrowness which may
be called unpleasant from too near view.
.'The "Soctety" events of the week have been
the sMartha Washington Receptions at the
Academy OF Music on Tuesday and Wednesday
evenings Our fashionables have been prepar-
ing for the. fancy dress parties for months. They
were given under the management OF the Wo'
mems Centennial Committee and for the bene-
fit of the Women's Exposition Fund
and under such an impetus could not fail to be
both socially and pecunlarlly successful Ihe
idea was to have participants, as far as possible,
| arrayed in colonial costume, and much care was
taken to reproduce the old-tme effect. The la
dies naturally succeeded best, having faculty
| of ''givng their mind" in that direction which
i is denied to most members OF the other sex. A
pleasant feature Of the affair was the assump-
ton of various historical characters by the lead
ing spirits in the enterprise. "Martha wash
ington" each evening opened the entertainment
by receiving these shadows of former gayety
and greatness after which the principal char
actors danced q stately min,tet de la cour, hucl
Y az our q eat grand parents, many times removed
: Cor some of them) used to delight in after thai
4 solemnly cheerful performance the ball VA
opened to the giddy creatures of the present
The whole affair was piquatste and novel anu dl'
| the Woinen's Centennial Committee credit
The disintorested Citizens concerned in tht
y stPneumatic Railroad project, which it IS de
u signed shall tuunel Broad street. succeeded IL
: having their bill referred yesterday to the Com
u mittee on Railroads of Select Council rel
erence" means death to a measure very often
but 1t is sadly feared that it does not mean it i
| this instance; at all events the friends OF Tn
=, | measure regard it as an onward step. lt ls be
y lieyed that Messrs Leeds, Howell, et. al. have n
v idea of constructing any such road as the pil
q authorizes but merely desire to oeta,n& valua
BILE franchise which can hereafter be farmed ou
to well-understood advantage The trick Is no
% | n new one but it seems to work with our lnno
% % cents in Councils every time.
!. Another important railway question Is INA
| raised by President Morton of the Market stree
line. Ii is, in fact, a double question MI
Morton presents to Councils''a formidable ARA
o of legal authorities going to show that the crn
@ pany has right to cross the Market st. Brldg
II without any special legislation on the subject
l. The argument, in brief is that the bridge is pal
Of the highway, and that having the right to tli
t. highway the railway company necessarily ha
st the right of the bridge. 1t seems hardly poss
10 BILE to dslodge the energetic Morton frol
this position. But, again, the Market 5
n Company makes an offer of 100000 to pul
y chase the ecctusiye passenger railway f1Bht
~ the bridge, and this can be seen to be very di
= ferent matter. Legislation will OF course .
needed here, and the general feeling is that
NJ would be very unwise to sell such a privilege
o The Chestnut st. line, it is true, bought tn
o same privilege in the bridge at that street, bt
two wrongs do not make right, and since th