The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1876-04-13
EDITORIAL NOTES.

the present depressed state of International
trade may be judged of from the fact that
the large Atlantic steamers are stated to be
losing equal to $50, 600 voyage"
A local wit of Lafayette, Arkansas. I'M
dertook to fool DR.. Westbrook one dusky
evening last week into the belief that
plug of twist tobacco that be pointed st the
doctors head was pistol. He succeeded
admirably, and was shot dead before he
could explain that it was-all joke.
At the town meeting IN Foxboro', last
Monday, an old farmer spoke strongly
against making a large appropriation for
the schools, saying that education does not
make a person honest, but rather tended to
dishonesty, citing Winslow, Babcock, Orvil
Grant and Gen. Schenck as illustrations of
the evil effects of liberal education.
The Investigators are still after the de-
voted Secretary of the Navy. The Com
mittee on Expenditures are now reported to
have elicted evidence which viii justify his
impeachment. 1t is said he has violated
the statutes by going ahead of his appro-
priations. If all these things don't turn
out correct the Secretary will at least have
an opportunity to feel scared about them.
The surrender of Winslow, the Massachu-
sets forger, by the English government is
far from assured. His extradition is re-
quested under the treaty of 1912, but it APP
pears that in 1870 Parliament passed law
requiring proviso to be inserted in treaties
for the extradition of criminals that the
prisoner should not be tried for any other
otfense than that for which he was given
up. 1t is said that the English government
has asked that special law be passed by
| Congress making this provision in Wins
lows case.
/ 1.-THE Centennial Exposition costs 81, 600,-
600, the amount claimed to complete it,
the Philadelphia Ledger computes that in
order simply to realize this sum it will be
necessary for 10, 900, 900 people to visit it
once at the price, of admission, fifty cents,
and as the time is confined to 158 days,
from May 10 to November 10, deducting
Sundays, on which it will be closed, it will
require the daily attendance of over "a, 900
people. From these figures may be formed
some idea of the crowd and hustle in that
city during the six months succeeding the
tenth of May.
A Washington letter of Monday says:
''Gen. Sherman said to-day that the new
Secretary of War having expressed wish
that the headquarters of the army should
return to Washington, he had assented to the
change If the embarrassments which had sur
rounded him before were renedied. 1t was
decided that the general of the army should
exercise the prerogatives of his office with
out interference. .Under Belknap that en-
terprising tunctionary sent orders to the
army, leaving the general to find them out
as best he could, 1t is proposed to place
the Adjutant Generals Office under the d.
rection of the general" y
Gen. Sherman says that he has not the
slightest desire to return to Washington,
and will not unless compelled to do so by
the passage of Mr.. Barnum's bill, which
fixes the headquarters of the army in that
city. Sherman says that his objections to
| Washington still remain good. He does not
like the influences of society, and he could
not live decently on his pay and keep up
appearances. Now that it is proposed to
reduce his pay nearly one-half, and to re-
quire him TO have his quarters in Washing
ton, he don't know what to do. He says,
however, that he will wait until Congress
settles the question before giving positive
answer as to his future intentions.
The BRENNAN Bd1aaer states that Southern
cotton crops are made 10 pay proft-frst,
to the cotton buyer; second, double profit
to the transportation companies, by freight
on the raw material and again on the man.
ufactured goods; third, profitit the fac
tory; fourth, profit to the wholesale mer-
chant dw6m Cue r 6 III f pI E5sdta pei 81
the raw material buys the manufactured ar
ticle for consumption. In these FIVE items
of profit we have entirely ignored the profit
to the producer, it being an open question
whether the producers of the cotton make
any profit on it OF not. We should convert
the crop into thread or osnaburgs before
exporting it. .aa ...- ..l. .f.5.l. 30 l.. .
Among conclusions recently adopted by
scientists is the interesting and novel one
that the aurora is. a. luminous phenomenon
in those portions Of space which are either
entirely outside of our atmosphere, or so
situated that only, the lowest part enters
into the out ermost strata of the atmosphere
and, though the observed altitude varies
from time to time, the lower portion has
been determined 10 be at least forty miles
ia height which, of Course, would pre-.
clude the idea OF q direct association of this
phenomenon with clouds, or of the posi-.
"
mountain and tie observer The largest
portion Of an surora is "a luminous ocean of
white light. WHICH p, ebsbly has It's center
In the magnetic pole, and thence may ex-
tend more or less toward he South; its ex-
act magnitude, however, can only be deter
mined by corresponding observations in
high northern aud more southern ATTITUDES
at great distance apart, and, in regard to
the depth of this luminous stratum. or the
distance between its upper and lower Dor
ders, nothing has yet been satisfactorily as
certalned.L logo 292uailG .lEUI g.. 30.
The Colorado Citizen seems to think
Baldwin fraud He says himself that he
Is, and that his tricks are frauds, and that
all his imitators and those whom he initiates
are sublime frauds. Each fellow in the
business, except Baldwin, has his special,
peculiar trick, and, of course, attains in .
finite skill IN it. Baldwin, on the contrary,
undertakes to do all the tricks and feats of
jugglery done by all the tricksters. and he
can't get through in an evening. But when
Baldwin shows how half dozen spiritual
miracles are done by very ordinary devices
] ana slight-of-hand, we may well conclude,
since reason and human ex Experience cnrrobo-
rate the inference, that all other spiritual
miracles which Baldwin does not or even
cannot duplicate, are in, like manner me-
chanical. Such wouldsbe the conclusion
of any sane reasoner who has learned to
distrust his own senses. If dead people
do come back and play poker and make ta-
bles rattle and thrust ghostly hands from
holes in cracked wardrobes and shuttle off
handouts, as they have this mortal coil,
Baldwin, who isn't dead worth cent, does
lieving that those supposed defunct ghostly
individuals are also living BaldSins. In
fact, Baldwin knocked spiritism bald
headed in Austin, his private painstaking
explanations of Fosters and Shades tricks
being much more satisfactory than bis hur-
ned explanations on the rostTum.