Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-12

A1Ao1y A. StOE1S tn1QkS uS RaS Q168OVeEeQ strong feeling in New York in favor of Edmunds. Independents and stalwarts both
 favor him. Mir. Storrs' opinion about the matter is worth something.
 The Derby railroad petition was with drawn yesterday. It ought never to have
 been presented. Corporation Counsel Dris- coll is entitled to the thanks of the people of New Haven for his vigorous and effective opposition to it.
 People frequently sign petitions very care lessly. At 8 meeting of the New England Club in Boston the other day Speaker Mar den told about petition for legislation in the interests of coIored children, which was
 passed around and signed by governors, mayors, clergymen, lawyers and about every white person in Massachusetts, and read in this way: "We. the undersigned, parents of colored children"
 The Philadelphia Times remarks: It is only just to the colored reporters employed on the Times, if there are any, to say that neither of them wrote. aided or in any way abetted
 
 dispute as to the authorship of that story was extended to about everybody else, and we desire to shield the colored reporters of this journal from the imputation in ad- vance.
 Orders and titles are manufactured and sold to foreigners in Italy to such an extent that the Official Gazette of Rome has con- sidered it necessary to announce that the purchase of the estate of noble does not include the transfer of the title from the old possessor to the new one. as agents often falsely state. and that the crown alone has the right of investing with titles and orders In Asia Minor there is Aourishing factory for the production of Persian orders and medals of merit in art and science.
 new steel is said to have been produced at Sheffield, England, which is expected to be of incalculable value to the manufacturing and railroad world. It is said to be made I ''by adding from seven to twenty per cent. of the ordinary ferro-manganese of | commerce to iron either wholly or to good extent decarbonized and refined and treated 1 by any of the ordinary processes, or to steel produced by such processes" It is stated that 1 a small test bar containing twelve per cent of manganese was bent double when cold, and was sufficiently hard to turn iron; that an axe containing the same percentage, and I which had never been hardened or tempered, cut in two bar of iron half an inch square. 1 If these accounts are in any measure correct, ! fha T5 Iro1, k@ | importance.
 Mexico has no political conventions The ] newspapers do the nominating. The papers ! begin discussion of candidates about year previous to the presidential election. Next l they ''postulate," or nominate certain eandi- ! dates. At the head of the paper will appear 'sWe postulate' so and so, naming the jour ] nal's choice. Then, on election day, the 1 voters assemble at the polling places, and l each deposits 8 written ballot for electors, who are to constitute the electoral board of I the State. The law stipulates that the ballot l must be written, and table. with paper and l writing utensils, is provided beside the l ballot box, and the ballot must be written and immediately deposited under the inspec tion of the supervisor. Sometimes the ! voters of the different parties will meet a | few hours previous and agree upon some l candidate, but usually each voter has made a l choice of candidates without any pressure l from party machinery.
 The introduction of -two-eent postage stamps has had the not deplorable effect of l rodu For five years past the sales of postal cards l have steadily increased at an average annual | rate of fourteen per cent. whereas, since | two-cent postage was adopted, there has l been decided falling of in the consunp- Lion as compared with the previous years l and the department has notified Congress | that the original estimates for the cost of | postal cards during the fis- | cal year may safely be reduced by one eighth. 1 The falling of in the demand for postal l cards is more than compensated for by the | increased sales of postage stamps and stamped | envelopes, which have grown in amount eight l cen and twenty-five per cent, respectively, l since last July. Experience has thus vindi- | cated the claim that reduction of letter 1 postage would lead to great increase in 1 the number Of letters sent through the l mails
 There is considerable agitation in Belgium l over the lace making schools. They are 1 chief in the hands of different religious | communities, as the Apostolines, the Mari | coles, the Josephines, and Oollectines, and | are understood, while teaching the art of | lace-making. to give some primary instruc- | lion. It appears that less than an hour is | devoted to reading and writing the rest to [ the Litany and the loom. The age of admis- sion is as low as five or six years. The reg ulations issued by the Bishop of Bruges fix the school hours from a. m. to p. m., but the children are kept at work from half-past five in summer and seven in winter to half past eight in summer and eight in winter; heir health is consequently very bad. They are robbed in addition. child is mentioned n the report who, after working for two months, took home 30 centimes, or at the rate of half centime 8 day; another. 12 years old, received for three years work 5 :rancs or centime 8 day.
 ''Chinese" Gordon's explanation of his altitude regarding slavery in the Soudan is in ubstance that he recognizes slavery which awfully exists there, but not slave hunting, which he stopped when governor there some 7ears ago, and hopes now to prevent by measures to be taken hereafter. He says hat England, with the full consent of the Ehedive. has decided to separate Egypt from he Soudan, and the effect of the separation s to abrogate the treaties made at Cairo with oreign governments, by virtue of which lo varv vrao to naesa in fha Sondan in 7R&Q l