New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-06-09

give up 100000; he finally made his peace
for 100000. Net gain by this little tranSac-
ton TO Mr.. Sweeny-'s brother, $2OO,0O0.
A deficient water supply enabled the fire at
Bridgeport to gam Roadway. TO that circum-
stance, and to the defective architecture of
the building which was burned, the sad loss OF
life was Due. There is no excuse for
city like Bridgeport to have made so httle
provision against fire. and TO have permitted
the erection of such frail structures as was the
factory whose walls fell so readily. 1t Is a
lamentable fact that such fearful lessons
should be needed so often to teach the obvl-
Gus need i'll our cities of strict, well-enforced
building laws, and of ample provision for ex-
tinguishing fires 1t is yet more lamentable
that the lesson is too often half learned and
soon forgotten.
The great Ring case in Brooklyn has at
length gone to the referees. They will proba-
bly, decide it without considering the political
issues involved; but it is safe to say that no
suit in any court was over the means OF con-
tinuing more worthless and incompetent oili-
GERS in responsible executive and legal posi-
lions in the city administration. OF course, 1t
is only natural to expect that the result Will
be adverse to the gentlemen who began the
suit originally in the interest of genuine re-
FORM but who suffered its management TO fall
into the hands of politicians.
That the churches were carried along III the
tide of extravaganza in the time of reckless
debt-making is an old story, but 1t has
fresh application in the table printed, on
another page. of comparatively recent mort
cages on churches in this city. This shows
the mortgages on about 60 churches, being
only those registered since 1869, to amount
TO nearly S2,5OO,OOO. This load of debt has
been piled up in the shape of new ediiceS,
little of it having been incurred for the fur
tberng of church work. We commend the
table to churches ambitious of new buildings.
It is curious revelation in the article
about the ownership of bank stock in another
column that so many Of our largest banks are
practically managed by hirelings. Take, for
instance, the Park. 1t has a capital Of $4,000
600. The par value of It's shares is 500 each,
and of these its Cashier owns none at all ana Its
President the enormous number of ten! TINS
is the President that signalized his accession
10 Office by promoting clerk, whom he had
every reason to know all about, and who,
nevertheless, turned out in a fortnight 10 he
dcfaulter for large sum. II Is an interesting
question which stockholders in these times are
likely to ponder somewhat whether If, III case
like this, Mr. President Worth had been liable
to lose little more by the dofalcation, he
might not have had a kcener eye for the de-
faultcr AT any rate, the policy of lntrustnS
a capital of two millions to the management
of a man who has just thousand dollars in
tcrest in it, strikes the outside public, ignorant
of financial mysteries, as a trihc novel.
A Georgia letter on another page, which re-
ports the Democratic party as solid III that as
in every other Southern State, gives some in
teresing facts with relation to the condition
of the blacks. These show that good share
of the negro vote has become Democratic, and
another good share is not cast at all, and that
the Democrats, in return for this aid and COM
fort. treat the negroes with good-natured toll
Grafton. Negro militia companies parade with
the white militia, and the same demonstration
that, in South Carolina, provoked the Ham
burg massacre, in Georgia Is not only left UNI
molested, but is regarded with some local
PRIDE. The negro vote Is practically suppressed.
but the negro himself is otherwise well off,
and is getting an education. This is a curious
condition of affairs, but is so plainly to the
present interest of both parties to the bargain
that the politicians must inevitably let it
alone 1t will work out Its own solution.
Gen. Grant is working away bravcly in En-
gland, eating a distinguished dinner every
dav, listening to Mayors speeches, and doing
his whole duty at agricultural fairs. Indeed,
he has been kept so busy that he has not
caught glimpse yet of the one person in En-
gland whom he doubtless most wished to see
his daughter. A perspective OF nearly three
weeks of feasts and speeches and receptions
still stretches out before him, for it is not
until nearly the end of June that he makes his
escape to France. But before he goes he is to
be made a ID. C.. l.. by Oxford and is to receive
the freedom of the City of London. This
latter franchise will enable him to set up as a
retail trader in that city, when lie has grown
tired of his travels, without having his goods
taxed at the gates, will forever secure him
from being drafted into the British army-a
point on which the evident admiration of
the British for his military prOwess may have
excited his aarm-and will secure to him the
valuable privilege of hunting in Middlesex.
Altogether Gen. Grant is having a pleasant
pilgrimage.