New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-03-18

| and factories are Closed lar Is c"h'u'""iJ
burned in the streets, other disintectants are
scattered about from wagons, and the physl-
clans, who are constantly busy, wear rubber
suits while on duty. 1t can hardly be needless
repetition to remark again that, in all the
cases of smallpox which have broken out Ill
the town. the dispatches assert that not one
of the patients had been previously vacclnateu'
Labor troubles have recently broken out III
neighborhoods widely separated. First IL was
in Omaha then in Maryland, and now IL Is III
Lawrence Mass. Here the strike threatens 10
assume large dimensions, and 1t Is declaTeu
that by Monday thirteen thousand persons
Gf construed legally will be vagrants-per-
sons without visible means of support The
size of the corporation affected, the Paclhc
Mills. may be judged from the fact that 1t
conducts 275 boarding-houses in addition to
its regular business
Nothing more has yet been done concerning
the investigation of the Department OF Public
Works and the countcrinvestigatlOn OF the
Police Board Except the persons directly in
terested, nobody has yet declared with much
confidence that there is nothing concealed i'll
these two places which ought to be found out,
but pretty nearly every one believes that the
inquiries are merely begun to further political
ends, and that they will end in nothing but
political advantage or disadvantage. The chief
sufferers, therefore, will be innocent taxpay-
ers, who will have to foot the lawyers bills,
which experience has shown are never trtles.
One of the recommendations that have
seemed necessary to make theatres safe i'll case
of fire on the stage is that the prOscenium
arch should be of brick but the Fire Commits
sOners declare that they have no power to en-
force their recommendation in this case as the
laws are at present and they are told that
law giving them the authority would be I'M
constitutional. 1t is hard to see how this can
be so. The Commissioners express some dis
couragement at the result of their efforts
concerning the Windsor Theatre, part of
which they declared TO be about to tumble
down, while the courts found its stability all
that the law could require.
That missionary, formerly of White Swan,who
testified yesterday in the Hinman-lIaTe libel
suit has ha considerable worldly experience for
a person of his clOth-at least one would think
so, If such extraordinary developments in the
matter of missionary experience had not been
developed at this singular trial. This reverend
gentleman (even now so called spent seven
months in jail on account OF a controversy
about Is cents, and he once had the nerve to
persuade backmailer ont of 5000 which the
latter had extorted from him by promise not
to divulge the fact that the divine had an
swered matrimonial advertisement. Judging
from the WITNESSES replies it seems that he
may properly re called frivolous and face
tious, as well as muscular Christian.
Sufficient progress has already been made in
the legislative investigation of receiverships
to demonstrate to every one who has followed
the testimony taken that there was urgent
need of such investigation, and that the exist
ing law in relation to the appointment OF re-
ceivers and their functions and compensation
needs radical amendment A bill has been in
trOduced in the Senate, which goes so far as
to provide for the abolition of receiverships
altogether, and the transfer of their duties to
the Superintendent of Insurance or Banking,
according to the nature OF the company re-
curing attention. Yesterday bill on the
same subject was introduced in the Assembly.
1t provides that hereafter no receiver shall be
allowed to receive more than So, 600 a year as
compensation for his services. Any allowance
in excess of such sum is declared to be without
authority of law and void. Evidently the
golden age of recciverships has ended.
The Senators may be said to have insin-
uated that they do not think that their
committees always arrive at correct conclu
sons. General Logan's bill on the franking
privilege for written matter was referred some
weeks ago to the Committee on Post Offices
and Post Roads, by which, after full discus
sion, it was decided that the restoration of the
privilege was not practicable ami an adverse
report was made on the measure. But General
Logan's point has been carried in the form of
an amendment to the Post Office Appropriation
bill There was little debate in the Senate
on Thursday when the matter came up,
and the action may he considered as hasty, as
it was hurried up after a motion had been
made to 20 into executive session. Possibly,
however, some of the Legislators were i'm
pressed with the fact that they had not ac
complished much at this session, and felt like
showing a spirit of reform even in small
things which rebound to their own advantage.
The privilege, as it now stands TO be passed
upon by the House, is about as liberal as 1t
was when it was abolished nine years ago, and
the reasons for and against it have not
changed. Perhaps the restoration is to be at
tributcd TO the liberal feeling that pervades
Senators as well as common citizens, owing to
the prosperity of the country and the surplus
III the Treasury.