Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-01-31


Many years ago knew that General But
Ter was good democrat. To-day wouldn't
dare to say what he is"
In Colorado, Thomas NJ. Bowen has been
elected United States senator for the long |
term, and II. A. w. Tabor, a native of Yer
mont, for the short term. Both are repub- |
licans.
THE following item appears in the Eng
lish journals, but is not fully explained
there 4; As far as the emperor of China ia
obeyed in his own territory, he has ordered
the closing of the Buddhist temples, being,
in his estimation, places where nothing but
immortality and superstition are conserved"
BosToN PosT; "Our good friend Hiram
Atkins of the Montpelier argus and Patriot
explains the incongruity in the report of
the Butler dinner and the editorial referring
to the purpose of that banquet. We accept
Mr.. Atkins apology, but he should apply it
to the speech rather than to the editorial.
His able associate kept good company while
in Boston, got his facts straight and made
good use of them"
FOLLOWING so closely upon an extraor-
binary series of storms and disasters, the
announcement of discovery Of a new comet
by the Mexican astronomers will doubtless
be regarded by superstitious persons as an
omen of more evils to come, especially II the
comet should turn out to be big one.
With its shipwrecks, fires, floods, tempests
and explosions, and the appearance of new
comet, the month will not soon be forgotten.
WILLIAMSBURG, once the seat of the learn
ing wealth, fashion and social position of
Virginia, seems to be fast going to decay.
The college has entirely gone down. Last
year there was only one student-this year
none. The president has splendid resi-
dence Just out Of town and the buildings
are quiet and lonely looking and seem to
hide within their walls much of wisdom,
but this is all that is left of the once proud
seat of learning, William and Mary college.
THE well known artist, Gustave Dore,
died in Paris last week, at the age of fifty.
lie was essentially draughtsman and an il
illustrator, not painter, although there are
many canvases from his pencil, some of them
of extraordinary proportions. He began his
career as a designer for comic paper in
Paris, and is very widely known through his
illustrations Of the Bible, of Dante, the An
cient Mariner, and innumerabe other books.
He was a man of extraordinary fertility,
and leaves greater mass of work than was
ever furnished by any other artist.
THERE is justice in the complaints against
the congressional custom of devoting a
day to each of its dead members. In this
session particularly, where the press of i'm
portant business is so great and the time for
dealing with it so short, the absurdity of the
custom is glaringly obvious. The two
houses have already given day to the
memory of Ben Hill, February 3 has al.
ready been set aside for eulogies on the late
Congressman Updegrsff; February is to be
similarly devoted to the late Mr.. Lowe, and
Orth of Indiana and Shack!eford of North
Carolina will each monopolize a day as well
out of the slender and diminishing total Of
time remaining.
| So determined is the opposition in the
French legislature to Cericalism," or any
phase of it, that the senate lately struck
out of the budget all provisions for "pre-
centors and cathedral choirs.' Singular
enough, Gounod, the great composer, ap-
pears on behalf of the church, and one SEN
tence of his apology has attracted our atten-
ton. He says ;" The cathedrals are, perhaps,
the only places where the study of vocal
music is and can be pursued free from the
most pernicious of all preoccupations-
that, namely, of the desire to produce eff
feet" The vice of choirs everywhere seems
to be the same-the change of an act of
\ worship into a mere performance.
THE famous blue laws of Connecticut
enacted by "the people of the Dominion Of
New Haven" were so called because printed
on blue paper. They prohibited the Ger
emony of marriage being performed by 9
parson, on the strange ground that magis
| q
the church. Adultery was punished by
death. Wearing clothes trimmed with gold
silver, or lace above one shilling yard in
volved tax on the persons estate of Sl5
"No one to cross a river on the Sabbath bu
authorized clergymen. No one shall travel
cook, make beds, sweep houses, cut hair Of
shave on the Sabbath. No one shall kiss hi
or her children on the Sabbath or fasting
days. The Sabbath day shall begin at sun
set Saturday"
The New York Sun, the honest outspoker
democratic sheet, says of the civil servic,
bill which has passed both branches of con
gress Competitive examinations, crammet
candidates, life tenure of Office, an office
holding class, irresponsible servants of tn
public, government by commission, un
American neutrality-suspicious., sooner o
later, restriction of the suffrage
The Pendleton bill either is sham, will
which the reformers of the civil service will
never be satisfied, or it is only prelude t.
further experiments upon the American sys
tenn of administering public affairs. Tn
curious feature of the civil service reform
craze is the distortion it produces in tn
mental vision. When man gets it, SINAI
, abuses swell in his view until they shut GU
the sky, while great evils dwindle into con
psrative insignificance.
} In November next four hundred year
will have passed since the birth of Marti
! Luther, and new edition of the reformer'
works is announced as one of the PROPOSED
modes of doing him honor which German
will adopt. Hitherto the best edition of hi
Latin and German works has been publishe
! at Erangen, in ls26-lS57, and in secon
edition, 1861. That edition will be supe
seeded by the new one. The German EN-
peror has presented the necessary funds 70
, the undertaking, and the Prussian ministr
= of worship has appointed committee
superintend it. The editor will be Paste
Knaake, who has an unrivaled knowledge {
Luther, and has for some years been explo
ing German and English libraries in scare
of books and manuscripts bearing on tn
. subject. The edition will be published |
Weimar, and the first two volumes of it wi
appear on the anniversary of Luther's brit
November 10.
Npuy XnrE ,yon,an aitapdino tho 40 n