New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-27

| Christmas stocking.
Yesterdays reports in the Street about the war
ring Western railroads were Of most pacific tenor.
1t was said that the Burlington was ready to JOIN
the tripartte alliance, aud that the Northwestern
was willing to pool all local competitive business
That some settlement within short time was
probable has from the first seemed evident but 1t Is
possible that the reports now current may be some
what premature The meeting of managers is like
ly to be disturbed as much by personal feeling as
by rivaries in business, and it has happened more
| than once that men who knew an agreement was
inevitable, and would have been glad to have it
made without delay, were nevertheless kept apart
for months simply by angry temper and charges OF
bad faith. The managers Of the old Iowa pool
have not been talking very savagely about each
other, however, and may be calm enough to reach
peaceful settlement very soon.
| William Congreve, poet who was born as far
back as 1870, expressed the opinion that hell has
no fury like a woman scorned." 1t is believed in
| Washington that if Mr.. Congreve could have
| been present in the House after the Speaker an
nounced his committees, he would have struck out
| "woman" from the words above quoted and in
| serted Springer of Illinois" IN their place.
The Labor Congress" in New-Jersey had some
people, and devised an ingenious way to make con-
victs cost the State as much as possible. 1t re-
solved that convict labor by contract must be
abolished and that the State must employ the con-
victs, but that q Board should appraise the prod
ucts of prisoners labor, and prevent such goods
going upon the market at less than market rates."
This Board, the sagacious Congress resolves should
be composed of 1.-TWO wage-earners, two business
men and one merchant" If the merchant is not
business man what is hef Ifany man in the country
really his wages, suppose it isthe manager
of some large corporation, like the Erie Railway or
the Western Union, but we suspect that Messrs
Jewett and Green not the kind of wage
earners" who are to be selected. What sort of
business men" are to be so balanced against
"wage-earners" that merchant is expected to be
arbter or umpire between them. On the whole
the composition of the Board might as well be left
to Governor Albeit, who has around him quite
number Of political wage-earneTs" and political
business men, They ought to be competent to
fix the price at which convict goods would not sell
and that seems to be the chief aim of the Labor
| Congress-" What the sO-called "laborers" really
want is to support the cOnvicts in deness, for fear
lest a thousand honest and industrious men may
be starved out by the compulsory work Of one
convict
Our late though unsuccessful candidate for the
Speakershp is quoted as saying of the recent or
ganizaton of the House Committees, that " the
leaders at present overlook entirely those who stood
firm during the years of corruption gone by" 1t Is
evident that Mr.. Cox appreciates the precise stua-
ton of his party in Congress Also THAT he regards
himself as one of those who stood firm then and
have now been entirely overlooked. And no reader
will fail to notice the distinction made in the
carefully chosen sentence we have quoted Mr.. Cox
haf 10 tha l.
| ruptions of years ago which have gone by.
Amenities of the Third Avenue Railroad Car No.
Is is goingup-town crowded on Saturday afternoon,
when young man on the platform pulls the strap
for lady who wishes to get off. Let go that bell,
YOU blankcty blank blank" screams the conductor,
from tho inside of the car As the torrent of pro-
family and indecency to be going on indefi-
nitey passenger whose ear happens TO be close to
| the conductors mouth threatens to report him II
| he does not stop swearing. The result, of course,
is TO divert the discharge upon himself. "Who
cares for you blank blank You ~ yells the enraged
| functionary. I'm managing this car. and you can't
| manage me ---w The passenger getsOff. On
| Monday afternoon there is a somewhat different
| scene on the same road. cOmely young woman,
| of the Miss Maud Matchn" type, is entering tho
car as the conductor after collecting fares is coming
ont Instead of making way for her, the conductor,
his arms IN such manner as to give her an ahcc.
tionate but not too obvious hug. She enters smir-
ing. and when she pays her fare she pats his hand.
The moral of these two stories is that snow-storms
do not affect all horse-car conductors in the same
way.
An election of church trustees Mt Syracuse the
other day seems to have furnished melancholy in-
stance of the extent to which party spirit will
| rio in cra1
gregation of st. Johns Lutheran Church was split
into two parties, which employed too many of the
devices used In ill-rcgulated political meetings A
| deputy United States marshal who had been con-
stituted special policeman for the occasion, stood
| I'm front of tho ballot-box. Behind him were the
| two inspectors, and behind them, In front of the
| pulpit lowered the form of police commissioner
| who took personal interest in the contest. When
the pastor stood up the box there were cries Of
"sit down. from his enemies, and fraud from
his friends. The election seems to have proceeded
amid great tumut, which, 1t must be said. the pas
tor did all in his power to restrain, so far as he
| could influence his friends. His opponent told him
TO "shut up " and keep still" caedhim "a crank'
and warned him in loud tones that he could not
"bulldozen them. The count showed one more
ballot than the number reported cast by the tellcrs
| When one ballot had been taken out 1t was found
that the pastor had been beaten by two votes. He
would probably have been successful II the women
had been allowed to vote, as the custom Is in
Lutheran churches One of the inspectors to
certify to the result and the quarrels Of St. Johns
Church are, probably, not yet ended.
There has been an interesting question of wOman's
right-not to vote, but to work-in New-Orleans.
Mrs Miller asked for captains license, that she
might take command Of her old and invalid hus-
honds steamboat She was in every respect quail
fed and had acted as captain in many an emer