Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-05-06
MINOR NOTES.

The debt was reduced 50, $50, 900 in April.
The bill compelling the removal of all
screens in front of bars in liquor saloons,
thus making the purchase of liquor as open
to the public eye as the purchase Of sugar,
has passed both houses of the Massachusetts
Legislature, receiving the support not only Of
prohibitionists but of those also who merely
wish to reduce tipping to moderate limits.
Ex-senator Dorsey has written letter TO
Postmaster General James in which he de-
MES, by implication, that there is anything
in the records Of The post Office department
which can connect his name unfavorably with
the alleged frauds committed upon the de-
partment, and calls for a special investigation
at once as to every contract with which his
name has been connected.
Stanley Matthewss confirmation being op-
posed by some on the ground that it would
be equivalent to placing jay Gould on the
Bench the Cincinnati Commercial says that
he never owned a dollar in any corporation
controlled by Gould, and never received
dollar of counsel fees from any Pacific Rail
road Company.
Let il be remembered that the Star route
rascality came out in its present form not be-
cause it could not be kept back, but because
the Garfield Administration found that the
evil existed and were determined to break it
up.
The foes of the Republicans will not get
much material for comfort out of the rumor
that the Star Route contractors, as such, paid
large sums into the Republican campaign
fund. 1t appears that copies of letters were
sent out to some of these contractors among
Others soliciting donations of money, and
that these like others responded, sending
$780, 1t is further asserted that the plan to
appeal specially to Star Route contractors was
objected to by an official high in authority,
who said it would not do. The boasts of the
Star Route people that they have made large
contributions are untrue.
The star-route investigation proceeds stead
lily, but it is probable that there will be no
more results within the next few days
Postmaster General James said Wednesday
that he was hopeful it would soon be over.
DE Lesseps has accomplished nothing yet,
on his Panama canal, that calls for the dogs
of war. He has a hundred or more Jamaica
negroes cutting brush with some diligence,
and about forty Frenchmen are running lines,
carrying chains, etc., to find out where todig.
As for the digging, the most that has been
done was when the treasurer recently "dug
out" with $4,000.
According to a recent law passed by the
Massachusetts, legislature, all club rooms in
Boston where liquors are sold without licenses
/ are ueclhreu cOtnLnOn uulhhuceh, anu tuOhe
who maintain them are liable to the laws gov
erning such cases.
A careful record of the rebel war records in
the possession of the government is now be-
ing made, and greater care exercised in their
preservation 1t is said that they have suffer
ed some losses in the past, papers having been
stolen in the interest of disloyal persons, who
have presented claims against the govern
ment.
No little of the popular impatience respect
\ ing the Senate dead lock is due to the misap-
prehension that the senators are drawing extra
pay and consequently making a good thing
out of it. Such is not the case. Members of
| Congress are paid a gross salary for each
year, whether in session one, three, six or
twelve months, and it is they who suffer 80
far as the expense is concerned.
Edward Heath. of New Orleans, brother of
Charles Heath, whose story of Southern out
RACES has been the subject of some contro-
versy, makes a statement in the New Orleans
Democrat fully corroborating his brothers
statement in all essential points He confirms
the story of the repeated warnings Of violence
received, and the details of the destruction of
the property by fire.