Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-03-23
CLEVELAND'S BRAVERY.
SIGNING THE ROOSEVELT BILL
TO HIS OWN LOSS.

Matthew Arnold.
Correspondence Of the Morning Ye1os.
NEW YORK, March 20.-By signing the
Roosevelt bill. putting appointments in
the hands of the Mayor alone, Gov. CleVe-
land has proved that he had rather be
right than be President. He made the
bill law in the face of the outspoken
threat of Tammany Hall to sacrifice the
Presidential ticket next November to the
interests OF its local candidates. Unless
Tammany undergOes a change of heart
within the next six months, which is not
much more likely than the leopard chang
ing his spots, Cleveland, should he be
nominated by the Democratic Chicago
Convention, could not carry his own
State, and he knew this when he signed
the Roosevelt bill.
Whether one approves of the bill or not,
one cannot help admiring man who thus
has the courage of his convictions. No
one act in Cleveland's career has proved
him so worthy Of the Presidency than that
which made the Roosevelt bill law. In
deed, his act is almost without parallel
in our political history. He sacrificed
himself and a noble ambition to what he
believed to be tho e0uso of good govern
ment in the metropolis of the Western
world.
He will doubtless follow up his first
step with the signature of the bills which
are the cOrOllaries of that affecting the
MayOr-those providing for the election of
the Comptroller and for the President of
the Board of Aldermen, and prohibiting
the present Mayor from making appoint
ments to the offices which became vacant
before his successor takes his place. He
will probably, too, still further bait the
Tammany tiger by removing Sheriff
Davidson for Irregularities, which, to be
sure, were cOuntenaneed by custom, and,
if after doing all this, he should be able to
make friends with the mammOn of un-
righteousness and cOnciliate the Kelly
faction, his astuteness would deserve
almost as much praise as his honesty.
The Times did good turn to Governor
Cleveland and the Democracy in its issue
of to-day. Its Albany dispatch has this
to say of John j. O'Brien, the leader of
the New York city Republicans: ''What
would be characterized as blackmall in
the ordinary routine of affairs, becomes
political pressure when associated with
his name. He is surrounded by
eX-members and eX-ofiicers of the Legisla-
ture who can scent carriOn quite as far
as OBrien himself. In these
latter days of O'Brien's declining politi-
cal power the grand old party is being
worked for all it is worth by this choice
specimen of the East side slums." When
the foremost Republican paper in the
country uses this language regarding the
leader of the party in the chief city in the
country, the prospect of the 'swalIow-
tail'' lamb lying down next autumn With
the ''shOrt-hair' lion is not encouraging.
The crushed worm may turn and the
swaiIOw-taiis vote Democratic.
THE NEWSPAPERS HAVE BEEN MAKING
GREAT ADO
over an order of Postmaster Pearson re-
quiring the holders of money orders to
prove their identity before the amount
called for is paid to them. This a stran-
ger in the city often cannot do, and the
requirement is productive of incOn-
Venience and loss of time to those who
can comply with it. The devil, however,
is not so black as he is painted, and had
comparatively little trouble the other day
when l went to the general post Office to
get an order cashed. OF course when
presented the order / was told to get some
one known to the postal officials to GER
tify as to my identity. l met this demand
by showing an envelope addressed
to me. anybody can get hold
of an old envelope" said the Fed
eral officer with dissatisfied
air. l then showed him my card and
talked in the tone of one having author
me- an ORDER on the cashier for <he re-
quIred amount. This involved my taking
my station at the end of line Of persons
who were on the same errand as myself.
The line, however, was much shorter than
it ordinarily is, and within fifteen minutes
from the time l entered the post Office l
received my money.
1t may have been that my being a news
paper man helped mein breaking through
| the red tape, for l saw several unfOrtu-
nate women turned away because they
had no one to identify them; but a conf
dent tone and assured manner will doubt
| less enable anyone to get an order cashed
without going through the trouble of get
ting themselves identified. Nevertheless.
| advise those Of your readers who NAV
visit New York while this Identification
requirement is in force to have their re-
mittances from home sent to them in some
other way than by postal money order.
If money order is sent to them, let it be
made payable at the postal station nearest
to the hotel or house where they stay.
While this would not solve the ldentifica-
tiOn problem, it would enable them to
avoid the crowd and delay of the general
post office. For the same reason, money
orders should be made payable at a sta
tiOn rather than the general office, even
I when Postmaster PearsOn's rule requiring
identification becomes dead letter, This
much money has been paid to the wrong
persons, and so great has been the loss to
the postal department, that the rule Will
be adhered to as long as it proves a pro-.
lection.
THE PRACTICE OF DRINKING HOT WATER
as a preliminary to eating has spread
among fashionable people. and has be-
come perfect mania. On every side one
hears of persons well known in society
yielding themselves to the shot water
MANIA" One of the Astors is cOnspicu-
Gus as a believer in the efficacy of boiled
crOtOn as an aid to digestion, and he has
converted many of his friends to his way
of thinking. Hot water is considered not
only cure for dyspepsia, but panacea
for nearly all the ills flesh is heir to, and
all sorts and conditions Of inyalids drink
it. People, too, who have nothing the
matter with them drink it, apparently on
the principle that it is a preventive as
well as cure-all.
Pickwick, in Dickins' delightful novel,
who every time he drank the bath waters
remarked that he felt very much better.
This announcement naturally gave his
friends great delight, although they had
supposed him TO be in the best of health
to begin with.
Between sick and we'll drinking hot
fast table IN any well established house
hold is without it's pot of boiled croton,
while the more particular use distilled
water. At the rate the mania is spread
ing the near future may find the hostess
at dinner parties offering her guests a
cup of hot water as the first course of the
meal.
TW0NOT HALF BAD
las the English would say) stories are
being told about Matthew Arnold. He
was invited by Education Commissioner
Wood to visit the Normal College. The
Commissioner called, as was his custom
when a distinguished stranger was pres
ent, on the members of the crack class in
the college to show their literary taste by
reciting poetry for the poet of sweetness
and light. The girls had anticipated both
the visitor and the request, and were
primed for the occasion. They all, with one
or two exceptions, recited selections from
MIR. ArnOld's verses. Commissioner
Wood. being a Scotchman, did not see
through the joke and gravely congratu-
lated Mr.. Arnold on the compliment
which had been paid to him. Mr.. Arnold,
more acute, estimated the compliment at
its true worth.
The second story was originally told at
the last social gathering Mr.. Arnold at
tended in this CITY hut OrOhahlv not tn