Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-06
EDITORIAL NOTES.

EDITORIAL NOTES.
 There appears to be general surprise be- cause the Tariff commission made report reduction of the tariff of from twenty to twenty. five per cent.
 Thanks to the enterprise of MT. Charles E, a weekly and semi. weekly paper in New Britain, that thriving place is to have daily paper, called the Eoeaaimg He,uM The first number was published Saturday and was neat, "newsy'' and promising. We wish MT. Woodruff the success due his energy and ability. The people of New Britain ought to and doubtless will give his new enterprise hearty support. daily paper is really need ed there.
 Experiments recently made in Germany promise to overcome the difficulty heretofore in the use of the telephone for long distances where the wires are laid un- derground. The details of the new scheme are not made public, but it was found on the underground cable that runs from Cologne to Elberfeld that messages were safely con- veyed distance of more than thirty miles, and this in spite of the fact that the rest of the wires ill the cable were used at the same time for other purposes.
 If all that is said of a new gas, called me- tallic gas, which is being made in Liverpool, is true cheap and good illuminator has been discovered. It is estimated that the labor of three men will by this process pro duce as much gas as the labor of one thou sand men by the old methods, and the new gas when produced has six times the Iun,in osity of the old, present, sort. The new gas is dry, odorless, and not affected by cold. Ii can be carried any distance in pipes without condensing, and is as good months after it was made as when it was fresh. The light is white like the electric light.
 The high-license lquor-law seems to have proved success in Nebraska. It is reported that s'there are not more than one third as many drinking places in the State as there were before the new law went into effect, the general result in small towns being to replace a dozen small and i'll conducted saloons with two or three we'll kept establishments The price of license in cities of over 10000 iu- habitants is $1 1000, and $500 in places hav- ing smaller population. The money re- ceived for the licenses is added to the school fund. In Omaha this fund receives $9O, 900 yearly from the sale of the licenses.
 The land of Mzab, which the French have just annexed, is situated in the center of Sahara about 25O miles from the Mediterra mean coast, to the southeast of Algiers. It consists for the most part of arid and rocky hills and ravines the only fertile region be- ing the valleys watered by the Oued Mzab, the cultivated part of the country being a strip of land about twelve miles in length by one or two wide. The Mzabite population, numbering about 40, 900 in all live in seven villages and towns, the chief of which is Gar dala, with 12, 900 inhabitants and the chief of the country is 8 Djemaa, who has the management of public affairs almost unre strictedly in his own hands. The Mzabites who are descendants of the schismatic Mo hammedans who were driven out of tht States of Barbary many hundred years ago are very unfriendly to strangers, none ot whom have hitherto been allowed to stay 6 fortnight in any of their towns As in al the other oases of Sahara, the cultivation o the palm tree is the principal occupation O inhabitants and 1sO,OOO trees grown Mzab yield in good year about $50, ,oO' worth of dates.
 xino ficbt a ta he Ooa6a drrinp thi session of Congress by "the descendants 0 American citizens who suffered by Frencl spoliation on American commerce prior t 1901, and whose claims upon France wer surrendered to her and assumed by tn United States in consideration of the releas of this country from obligations unde treaties between the two nations" Tn claimants will urge the passage of the bi now pending which authorizes the Court C Claims to hear and decide such claims an report upon them to Congress for final at tion. There are upward of a thossan claimants residing in all parts of the Union and it is expected that they will be repre- sented before Congress by some of the mol distinguished men in the country. Willial 1 Gray, John N. A. Griswold, Charles Franc
 Adams, jr., Henry k. Pierrepont, and sever
 others whose names are equally well know1
 have joined in asking for the passage of th
 bill. In their petition to Congress they say
 "The reference of this subject to the Cou
 of Claims has been for the first time pr
 posed in the present Congress, and it seen
 simple justice that these claimants should
 least have their day in court. The appeal
 made on behalf of the descendants of origi
 al sufferers many of whom are
 very narrow circumstances, and fe
 that their government has long enjoye
 without compensating them, the benefits a,
 advantages which have accrued fir om the sr
 render of their rights for the public we
 We therefore make this earnest request th you will give an opportunity for a judic
 hearing of these claims, so long deferred, t
 justice of which touches closely the hon and integrity of our government.
 We commend the following, from the Pro
 idence Journal, to the consideration of C
 readers It is agreed on all hands that
 retail stores in town and country were ne,
 better supplied with articles of
 cessity, comfort and luxury than