New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-07-15

WAS due largely to the decrease in the prices
of labor and material The increase IN the
number Of structures, taken together with the
fact that large proportion of them are
erectod by the owners of the land on which
they stand, is further proof of the hopeful
condition of the real estate market, which the
Commissioners of Taxes described the other
day.
Both sides to the microphone' controversy
have now been heard with mOTo or less full
ness, but the result can hardly be considered
satisfactory On the announcement of Pro-
lessor Hughess discovery, Mr.. Edison
wrote to THE TRIBUNE claiming that the
microphOne was merely modification
of his carbon telephone, and charging
Mr.. Preece, the electrician of the British
Post Office Department, with breach OF faith
in giving his discoveries to Hughes. In the
letter which we printed on Saturday, Pro-
fessor Hughes denied the similarity of his
micropbOne with the Edison carbon telephone,
whether In principle, form, uses or results"
He also asserted that Mr.. Edison had not
even discovered the principle upon which the
carbon telephone is based, and claimed the
credit of this for Mr.. Clerac, the cleo
trician of the French Telegraphic De-
partment. Mr.. Edison promptly replies to
Professor Hughes in letter elsewhere
printed this morning, but only to notice one
or two incidental points on which he has EVIL
IDENTIFY caught Mr.. Hughes tripping. Thus
far, Mr. Edison has clearly the better side OF
the controversy, but he makes mistake II
he thinks the public has no interest IN the
further discussion of the subject, or will rest
satisfied with its present outcome.
There is a melancholy similarity between the
utterances of the lady who seems about to
start in the statement business in Jersey City,
and those of the unfortunate woman In Brook
lyn who, having made every declaration upon
a certain subject which the limited resources
of the language will permit, has wisely ceased
to contradict her own oath in the name OF
conscience The New-Jersey member of this
queer fraternity, while her husband was upon
his trial for alleged attempts to take
her life, made a statement against him
to the authorities, covering more than
forty pages of foOscap, then refused to
support it with her testimony now that he
has been acquitted, at least by her silent aid,
she demands the statement presumably that
she may publish it, and though this privilege
is refused to her, returns to her original story.
Nothing in all this, however, is so singular as
the calmness with which sine admits her own
falsehOOds; and when she says of one of her
assertions that she "did believe it with her
clips" and may or may not believe 1t with
"her heart" it is easily seen that the Brooklyn
dialect and the Brooklyn notion OF the nature
of an oath are not confined by the boundaries
of Long Island. Perhaps some lattcr-day
Solomon will be kind enough to tell us
whether there is not something new under the
SUM new kind of woman.
Various as the disclosures have been of fraud
and rascallty in the management OF some OF
the broken savings banks, the charges made by
the secretary Of the defunct TeutOnia reveal
an entirely new method of swindlIng poor
depositors. His confession, for it is such,
is that at the suggestion of the trustees he
charged the bank with larger prices for bonds
purchased than he actually paid and that the diff
ference between the real and the fictitious price
was divided up into equal shares, each trustee
receiving his in hard cash; also that the sala-
ries of the principal officers were levied
upon in the same manner, definite proportion
of the money which the books represented as
paid to the president, treasurer and secretary
going into the pockets of the trustees. 1t Is
difficult to conceive of such a system of theft
in Operation In an institution for the care Of
trust funds. In all important particulars it
was nothing more nor less than a duplica-
ton of the Tweed way of dividing up
plumber, except that Tweed had an exhaIlatess
treasury to draw upon, and these men were
stealing the money of depOStOrs who expected
to be repaid with interest. 1t should be added
that the trustees generally deny the whole
story but the books of the bank seem to
prove the truth of it, the secretary has
turned States evidence, one of the trus-
tees admits his participation in this
meanly dishonest business, and the re-
ceiver of the bank is pressing the suits
The presumption is strongly against the
trustees, and, if it Is rightly so, the courts
ought at least to see that the money is
restored to the unfortunate depOsitOrs TO
whom it belongs.
GENERAL BUTLERS FORK IN WASHIEGTON