Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-01-10
Notes and Notions.


Now that Gambetta of France is dead,
Bismarck Of Germany talks Of retiring from
Office. The third great figure in the poll
tics of Europe, Gladstone of England, has
the infirmities Of age, and often refers TO
the retirement that he desires 90 enjoy.
With the disappearance Of these three giants
from the political stage the aspect of Eu-
ropean craftsmanship will be less pictur-
esque than IL has been for years past
THE supreme court Of Ohio has decided
that a telephone company has the right to
cut off the connection of person who, in
speaking through or over wires, uses
coarse, unbecoming and profane words"
The word so branded in the case at issue
was "damn." One judge dissented, and
one of the reasons of his dissent was that
the word was not profane. The judges
who have taken the responsibility Of putting
"coarse and unbecoming language under
the ban have laid broad foundation for
stringent enforcement of good manners in
telephone conversation.
CONTRARY to all expectations, the house,
on Thursday, passed the civil service reform
bill, after half an hours debate, by vote
Of one hundred fifty-fve to forty-seven. OF
those who voted for the bill one hundred
were republicans, the others greenbackers
and democrats. Four republicans, one
greenbacker and forty-two democrats voted
against the bill. The democratic opposition
came chiefly from the south. Dorman B.
Eaton, the author of the bill, it is generally
conceded, will be chairman of the commits
sion, and of the other two one will be taken
from each political party.
WE have published very full abstract of
the remarks made by Mr.. Bracket at the
meeting Of the teachers association in this
village, by reason of the great Importance of
the subject aud of the force and merit of
his treatment Of it. The address should be
read and its points carefully considered.
There is in it much food for thought and it
will be safe for any town sincerely anxious
for better schools to embody Mr.. Brackets
ideas in its vote when the time arrives
for the choice of town superintendent Su-
perintendents cor scientiously DESTROYS of do
ing their duty may also draw inspiration
from his suggestions.
GOVERNOR CORNELL retires from office
with the reputation of having made good
governor. Friends and former foes, politi-
cal or personal, concur in praising his ad-
ministration for its honesty and efficiency.
1t is a suggestive circumstance that the two
men who were removed from high offices by
President Hayes for alleged autagonism to
reform had, in the very offices from which
they were turned out strikipgly exemplifed
the principles which should prevail in prac
tical, efficient civil administration, and have
since, the one as governor of over five million
people and the other as president of more than
fifty millions, extorted from the secular and
religious press acknowledgements of the
wisdom and efficiency of their respective
administrations which have not been so
reasonably and SO unanimously accorded to
any high functionaries for many years.
THE debate of the presidential succession
bill, it is prophesied, will end in the passage
of that measure by the senate. The law
regulating the succession is well enough as
the fathers left it, Legislation would be
more to the point that would fill the gaps
suggested by the experiences of the present
presidential term-the non-existence of
either president of the senate or a speaker
of the house, and which would define the
disability" of the president which should
Justify the vice president in assuming the
chief executive functions and provide for the
many delicate questions connected there
with. Legislation regulating the electoral
count is also ahead of the presidential sue.
cession on the popular calendar. The
country has once gone to the verge of civil
war in dispute over this matter, and it is
little less than a political crime to leave it
unsettled.
GOVERNOR CLEVELAND of New York, for
whom thousands of ultra civil service re-.
formers voted, gave the great reform a
very black eye before he was fairly in
Quoted into office. On the very day on
which the Pendleton bill passed the senate
the new governor of the Empire State re-
moved Edward Miggael, appointed pardon
clerk by the democratic Gov. Hoffman, four
teen years ago. No cause is alleged. He is
conceded to have been model officer and
to have acquired a knowledge of the pris-
ons and their inmates, of the varied inter
ests involved in the exercise of the pardon.
ing power and of the circumstances and
conditions surrounding every one of thou
sand cases where clemency is invoked which
is without parallel. Succeeding governors
of either political party have retained Mr..
Miggael in office, and Governor Cornell, who
was removed from the custom house at New
York by reason of alleged opposition to Mr..
Hayes civil service reform schemes and
who was bitterly opposed at the polls in
1879 by the professional reformers, stead
lastly maintained the democratic pardon
clerk in his position. Now, to make room
for young man from Buffalo, his head rolls
in the basket at the hands of the man elected
by the aid of those who esteem themselves
the very elect of the reformers.