Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-18

edent for the scheme in road over our Al
 leghany range, on which four-ton canal boat
 were carried. E}2 2 Stz
 When will the managers of hotels and othe
 large buildings likely to be burned learn wis
 dom ? We read that when the fire was dis
 covered in Pierce's Palace Hotel the chic
 clerk and two or three other men ran to tn
 sixth floor and turned on the chemicals, tn
 entire building being supplied with hose at
 tached to fire extinguishing apparatus in th
 basement, holding five hundred gallons ant
 constantly ready for use. When the hos
 received the pressure it burst near the attach
 ment in the wall, and was unfit for use. A
 the beginning of fire is not good time tt
 test hose.
 This is an age of great engineering
 schemes. In France plans for crossing ths
 English Channel by tunnel or viaduct are re
 vived and hospitably received. The bridge
 form is now rising fayorite. M. Verard an engineer of celebrity, proposesa viaduci railway partly open and partly tubular. In letter to President Grevy he sets forth the feasibility of the work On the route he se- lects the greatest depth of water is not over IA feet, with bottom of solid rock for the pillars or piers. In his opinion the current and winds which must be encountered are no obstacles. Like all inventors he is sanguine of success, and predicts that inside of five years express trains between London and Paris will cross MT Gladstone's 'sstreak of silver sea- in perfect safety. The estimated cost is not given. However great it may be. Frenchmen in their present humor of specu- lation will not be frightened by it.
 The American Humane Association, of which Edwin Lee Brown of Chicago is presi- dent, offered last summer prize for the best improved cattle car. The judges now announce that they have received APO models, and about two hundred plans and sketches, which they will examine and compare as fast as they can. The work of arranging these numerous designs, and comparing them with each other and with the one hundred and eleven patents heretofore, granted for stock cars,i is of course very great, and the judges ask the forbearance of com petitors, some of whom have already ex- pressed their surprise at the delay, until they have had time to make careful examination of all the models and plans submitted. Their award, as soon as it is determined upon, will be reported to the association, and due mo- tice will be given to the competitors and the public. The object of the competition is of course to obtain the best car which American ingenuity, prompted by humanity and inter est also, can contrive for the transportation of cattle by railroad. The present arrange nents for the business are defective, and cause needless suffering to the beasts and loss % their owners
 It is proposed to introduce the military lrill into the public schools of Massachu- 'etts, and Wendell Phillips begs leave to pro- est against what he calls "this harmful and lnchristian innovation" He says: "Our common school system has now critics and nemies enough without adding this element, wholly foreign to it's main purpose, and sure o give the judicious and thoughtful sound nd grave reason for disliking it. There is co much doctoring and tampering with our chool system, and loading it down with bur- lens, expenses and conditions that have noth- ng to do with it, and prejudice the public, with good reason, against it. Leave it alone, n it's simplicity, as our fathers created it. Exercise is one thing. Training every child or military service and inoculating him with military taste and longings is entirely anoth- r. and is besides very properly and gravely to large class of right-think- ng men. It is the worst form of tyranny to ompel such parents to forego the advantages f the public schools, or allow such mischiev- us interference with their children" This rotest will meet with much approval, and 1t to be hoped that there are enough mem CTS of the Massachusetts Legislature who gree with Mir. Phillips to vote down the roposition.