Morning journal and courier., 1881-01-04
New York City.

NEW YORK, Jan. 3.
 Il The new Common Council met to-day, but
 failing to organize adjourned to Wednesday. ! Tanmany, anti -Tammany and the Repubi-
 cans are making despe1ate fight to secure
 the presidency of tho Board.
 fire which at one time threatened to be
 very disastrous broke out this afternoon in . the toy stote 5f L. Newffian, $40 B0wery.
 The flames descended to 338 and 342, doing
 some damage. Total loss, $6,500:
 sl THE NATIONAL CAPITAL.
 The Refunding BilI--Prospects of Mir.
 Woods Measure-Reduction in the Pub-
 lie Debt-Congressmen Returning to
 the CapitaI-Condition of the Public 1 Business-A Short Time for Work
 WAsHNereN, Jan 3.-There is scarcely i any room for doubt that refunding bill
 will be passed by the House early in the
 present month. While the bill reported by Chairman F. Wood. from the Committee of Ways and Means may be amended in impor-
 tant particulars, it's general form will prob ably be retained MT. Wood has been con fined to his residence with rheumatism since the beginning of the holiday recess AL though somewhat improved, he is not yet able to walk and may be compelled to go to the House in the same manner that Alex. Stephens has adopted. A reporter visited
 Mr. Wood to-day and asked his opinion re- garding the passage of the funding bill. q have no doubt of the passage of the bill re- ported by me from the Committee of Ways l and Means,n said MT. Wood. 'I am conf l dent that any effort to defeat refunding will ! La fo;I Tn Ina frSt 1lta is q solid Republican vote, with the exception of
 Judge Kelly, in favor of the measure, togeth- CT with the votes of those Democrats whom I know to be friendly toward it. I think there are two-thirds of the House, at least, in favor of the bill Of course, amendments may be adopted. That expect. But the principle on which the measure was framed will be re- 1 tained."
 'tHave you made any estimate of the roll of members of those who favor and those who l oppose the bill ?" No, sir," was the reply; ! q have launched the bark full-rigged, to use | sailors phrase, on the legislative sea. If ! there is sufficient number desirous of chang | ing the cut of the sails they of course will do so. The Greenbaokers and few Democrats, I led by MT. Mills, of Texas, will endeavor to prevent all funding legislation. When they ! fail in this attempt they will, in my judg- ! ment, vote for Kellys bill. So far as I know, Mir. Buckner's bill has no appreciable strength in the House,
 sIt seems probable that your bill will be amended with respect of the amount of re- deemable Treasury certificates to be issued If it is changed in any particular D said the re- porter. ..very probably" was MT. Woods of interest in the bill. I desire it retained at the rate reported in the bill, 3 per cent. for the bonds and 34 per cent for the notes. If it is the judgment of the House that more than 200, GOO, 900 notes shall be issued I will abide by the decision cheerfully. The posi- tion of the Secretary of the Treasury on the subject of the notes is somewhat peculiar. About year ago when he appeared before the Committee of Ways and Means he an nounced himself to be utterly opposed to the issue of any Treasury notes. Now he favors, I understand, the issue of greater amount of notes than propose in the bill.
 Mir J. N. Oliver was found at his resi- dence, having just returned from New York, where he appeared for and with Mrs. Chris tiancy before Examiner King. 'tWhat do you know of this Dr. Blood, who according to the New York papers appears in side show sort of way in the Christiancy case ?" asked re- porter. ''Blood came to me with letter
 from Giro saying he was the best friend he had. On that I introduced him to Mrs. Chris tiancy." s'How about the costly jewelry said
 to be given Mrs. c. by Mir. Giro ?' '"The jewelry appraised at $195 was given, but it
 had been in Blood's possession for some time.
 It was sent back by Mrs. Christiancy to Giro by Blood on the understanding that he was
 his best friend. Blood now claims it was originally loaned by him to Giro and keeps it.
 Giro had Blood arrested under warrant
 for obtaining this iewelry and some money by false pretences.' ''How about the story
 of conspiracy to have girls indiete4 here?" ''As far as am concerned 1t is simply lie. y
 'sWhat shall you do now on the case?" q shall make a motion to strike out the testi- mony the ground of the threat made by the commissioner in New York to MT. Giro to make him testify.'' ''What do you think of Giro's testimony" 1T think he is lying" ''Why should he do this ?' ''Be- cause he is mad with Blood and duplicates Mrs. Christianey in his resentment. He is with Blood is sufficient to rouse his Spanish blood to take any means to gratify his mal- ice"
 The circular of the Secretary of the Treas ury of Jan. 1st, proclaiming the estimation of the Director of the Mint of the values of the standard coins in circulation of the various nations of the world, changes the value of the following coins from those proclaim l ed by the circular of 1880: The | horin of Austria has been reduced from | fl. 5 10 4O.1 the DOlV1anO or bOnV1a rom | 83.6 to 82.3; the milres of Brazil is increased | from 54. 5 to 54.6; the peso of Ecuador is re- duced from S3.6 to 82.3; the rupee of India | from 39.7 to 30. Japan having adopted the | free coinage system for silver, the ajien, which was previously given as 99.7 in gold, is now 9S.9 in silver. The Mexican dollar is l reduced from 9O.9 to 89.4; the sol of Peru | from 83.5 to 82.3 the rouble of Russia from | 66.9 to 65.S; the mahbud of Tripoli from l 76.8 to 74.3; the pesa of Colombia from S3.6 l to S2.3 The pesa of Cuba is given at 93.2, and the bolivar of Venezuela at 19.3. The | monetary unit of Egypt, which was formerly | stated as the pound at 9.97, is now fixed as the piastre O.49.
 The Cheyenne River Sioux who came here l in relation to a railroad grant of land through | the Sioux reservation, visited the Interior | department this morning to take leave of the | Secretary. They said they had heard he was | about to leave and they wanted to express | their regret They had found him the best | friend the Indians had ever had, and under | his administration they had had more pros | perity than ever before. They will leave for | home tonight in charge of their agent Ma | jor Lane, who will also take charge of the | Yanktonnais and Lower Brules on their jour- | ney home.
 The full scope of the opinion rendered by | the Attorney General at the Cabinet meeting | on Friday relative to the designation for act ing Secretary of the Navy has not been pub | lished. The Attorney General not only deci- l ded that Secretary Ramsey could not act for | a longer period than ten days, but that the | President could not make second designa- tion. He must make a permanent appoint ment immediately upon the reassembling of l Congress. The decision of the Attorney | General is based upon section 1so of the Re | vised Statutes as follows:
 vacancy occasoned by death or resignation must | not be temporarily filled under the three preceding sections for longer period than ten days.
 The President will doubt nominate a | new Secretary of the Navy on Wednesday. | It is thought MT. John W. Hogg chief clerk l of the Navy department, will be nominated 1 He is eligible and in every way qualified. | The Navy department has been without a | head since Friday last, MT. Ramsey not hay | ing acted under his second designation, and | the new Secretary, whoever he may be, can- not act until he is confirmed by the Senate | and sworn in.
 The distribution of standard silver dollars | for the month of December amounted to | $1, ,8o7, ,4S1, against $1 ,935, ,921 for the cor responding month of 1879.
 The debt statement issued to-day shows 1