Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-01-02
FIRST EDITION.
PHILADELPHIA.
OUR sA1ua DAY LETTER

iYec1ut correspondence OF uhe COflneTctdt.
PHILADELPHIA, Jan. L.
1t is the seaeon OF statistics of balancing ac
counts, and of getting ready to do the whole
thing over again. Happy fellow he whose ac
counts will balance on this latest of New Years
Every man one meets has the same doleful sto
ry-no money made during the year Yet some
body must have made little, and where nont
has been made, even to hold ones own is some
thing i'll such a year as we have just go
through. Evidence of this feeling is shown il
to-day's congratulations. People pass 'sthc
compliments OF the season" with more meaning
than usual. Translated, the customary phrase
declares i've are through with particularly
unpleasant season. Let us thank our Starr
we are no worse off,"
Among the "setlle nents" OF the I ime tho
Inauguration of Mayor Stokely; the organization
OF the new courts; the fire record for the pas
year; the semi-annual payment OF interest and
dividends; the retirement of divers aldermen Of
whose services we have no longer any need; the
installation OF Councils and various local officials
the customary partnership changes, &c. New
Years ID i'll short kind of revolution. Corpor
a ions of all kindsreorganize at this time, though
few of them do 30 Oh New Years day; the regu
lations being generally for tho first Monday il
January. Next Monday will therefore be the
busy day, but New Years stands in a general
way for the combined change Mayor Stokely
WAS safely inaugurated, this morning, and made
the speech proper to the occasion. Mr.. Stokely
for the most part congratulates us upon oui
civic prospects, but he il free to say that the fl
nances are not all that could be wished. He seer
both expenses and debt steadily increasing and
by implication blames the JOINT committee OF
Councils for not imposing higher tax rate. Yet
he conveniently dismisses the complaint against
high taxes, and the proof that heavy imposts are
endangeripg industrial interests. Other people
are aware of the dilemma as well as Mr.. Stokely
and have no clearer notion than he how we are
to get out of it,
The dissolutions Of partnerships are the most
interesting events of the new year for many
people. fhe formation of new firms is not 50
interesting except to personal friends of the
parties, because the concerns have to make rep
utation before their affairs become matter of
common report. But all firms attain charac-
ter outside of their own business relations.
Among the principal dissoutions of the present
season are Grove Brother, iLinseed OIL &c
Heyl, Gibbons, Il Co., sugar retners John NJ.
Sharpless Il Co., dye stuffs Z; Ghese occasioned
by deaths) Creswell, Slack Il Gemmill, dry
goods Hale, Kilburn 4 Co., picture frames
VIM. r. Lafourcade & Co., cloths (these by mu-
tua consent) Dornan, Maybin, Chapman " Co.,
carpet. manufacturers j. L. Kirkpatrick Il Co..
leather McComas, Gilman Il Co., clothing ;
Mellor Bains MelIor, notions and white
goods and T. W. " NJ. Brown a Co., dry goods
(these last by limtation.) All the firms named,
rank among the very first i'll wealth and bonora-
BILE standing of the busines concerns of the
panied with arrangements for renewal of bus
mess in some similar shape certain members
going out others being added, and names being
changed.
seen that the Losses by fire during 1874 were
s7i7, 316 the smallest total since 1871. The
amount, as whole, was entirely covered by in
surance, although some imprudent parties lost.
But all the mann risks were covered and with
so much of margin that we can be properly
said to have lost nothing by fire last year. There
were 3O3 alarms i'll all, only 25 of which were
"general alarms" There was but one great
fire during tile year,-that at Cramps Ship Yard
the loss at which is now officially stated to have
been $117, 900. There were five other fires rang
ing iii loss from s20,0 600 to s35, 900, and the re-
mainder were small atfairs,-to all but the par
ties concerned. The principal "causes' of fire
during the year Ga good ittea this, of the De-
partment) were defective fines, &c., 3S alarms
fireworks, q sparks from chimney, 90 /; chill
dren playing with matches, II overheated
stoves, 10. There were 81 incendiary aud 16
supposed incendary fires, and 0 cases of spon-
taneous combustion.
The " trunk Tragedy is not being cleared up
rapidly as it was thought last week it would
be. The identity of the victim has been estab-
lished as previously reported but there is appar-
emily effort being made to shield the guilty
parties. servant girl in the house when the
murder was committed has made affidavit to cer-
tain facts duplicating the woman who kept the
establishment and others, but the persons Grim
be a matter of no difficulty to find them. The
women making the affidavit charges we'll
known detective with having screened the same
parties from Justice on other occasions We
need not be greatly surprised to hear in the end
that nothing has been done in this vile case and
that poor job ma Morfisseys murderers will be
allowed to go unpunshed.
An exhibition of an unusual character is to
be seen here at present. You may remember
that two winters ago one of our prominent art
collectors, Mr.. James l.. Claghorn, placed on
view in the parlors of the Union League sci
ection from his private gallery of engrayings and
etchings. Comparatively few people could at
tend an exhibition given in that way but the dis
play nevertheless caused much favorable com
ment. The wish was at the time expressed that
not part only but the whole of Mr.. Claghorl,'s 8
collection could be seen aud under wider condi-
tions. This wise has now been gratified. The
large building adjoining the yet unfinished Acad-
envy of Fine Arts at Broad & Cherry Streets
known in political times as "the Wigwam"-
has been purchased by the leading Directors,
and in it has been placed the Claghorn store of
prir ts, which is thus given the fullest publicity
The Academy intends eventually to improve
this property by erecting upon it wing to its
main building; in the meantime the old struct-
ure has been tastefully fitted up and an
swers its present purpose very we'll. The
collection of engravings on view is unrivaled in
the United States, and is supposed to have
few superiors anywhere 1t embraces five spec
imens of the art of every age and master. The
from the rude beginning of the 18th century
to the ch f d'enores of our day. In the pleas
ant pilgrimage he may be astonished to find that
fine work was done between the years 1850
and 100 as is done now. The contrasts offered
are, indeed, extraordinary. Certain epochs-
such az the just mentioned-are brilliant
and other and succeeding ones are dull. Thus
there was a time long after 100 when the en-
gravers art seemed to fall back behind the time
Of Albert Durer; when drawing, execution and
artistic spirit were vastly inferior to what they
were hundred years before ; then there a
revival and at one step the lost ground was re-
gained. Nothing can be more curious and in
structive to persons interested in such studies
than to follow the art in it's progressive steps as
shown in this unique display. Its completeness
may be illustrated by further reference to the
great master already named, Durer. No less
than eighty examples of his work are here CIV
en-. This comprises the major part of all the
known labor of all artist who lived over 300
years ago. Throughout, the collection is simi-
larly complete, and the result. it may be sup
posed is very noteworthy. INDEX.
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