Morning journal and courier., 1885-06-01

A clerk has been discovered in the Post office department who has held office for fifty three years, and has voted the Democratic ticket every time there has been Democratic ticket to vote. He is, however, probably not an offensive partisan.
 The lower branch of the legislature of Pennsylvania has passed bill making eight hours days work, and punishing by fine and imprisonment employers who require em- ployes to work for longer period. If this bill becomes law the chief losers by it will be the working people.
 A Charleston South Carolina) inventor has devised knob, which may be made highly ornamental, to be affixed to lady's belt, so that her partner in dancing can "swing partners" without offensive familiarity. The Springfield Union believes that with another knob on the shoulder dancing might be as proper as swinging scythe snath.
 The abolition of slavery is making quiet but rapid progress in Brazil. The raising of funds for the buying of the liberty of slaves has 1atterly become all the vogue, and the new ministry takes another step by adding to the present system of gradual smancipa- tion a provision for a new fund to indemnify slave owners. If the slave owners of this country had been less hot headed they might have got something for their slaves.
 The laws delay is well illustrated by g Brooklyn case. A man named Bowen died in Brooklyn thirty-two years ago, leaving an estate valued at $1 ,500,o0o to be divided be- tween three heirs by two trustees. It has been in the courts ever since, and now all of the heirs, two of the lawyers and one of the trustees are dead, the surviving trustee being more than ninety years of age. An English Chancsry court could hardly have done bet ter.
 An interesting and important decision has been rendered at Philadelphis in the suit brought by Messrs. Gilbert and Sullivan against music publishing firm. The de- fendants published pianoforte score called fsMemories of the Pirates," very similar to the original score of the "Pirates of Pen zance" It was written by . musician from memory, after witnessing the performance of the opera. The master appointed by the court decides that ''substantial identity is the test of piracy" and that 8 public per formance is "not such publication as will defeat 8 copyright" but that, whatever the disabilities of an alien author under the statutes of Great Britain or of the United States, 'the has nevertheless an absolute property at common law in an unpublished literary composition" A decree requiring the defendants to account for the profits req lized from the sales of their publication was also recommended.
 Dr. Gould's astronomical labors, according to Professor w. A. Rogers of Harvard uni versity, have been without parallel in as tronomy. There are in the northern heav- ems, says Professor Rogers, about 4, 300 stars visible to the naked eye. These stars have been observed with more or less regularity at various observatories since about 1750. Within the same limits there are about 95,- 900 stars as bright or brighter than the ninth magnitude, which are usually observed in narrow belts or zones, and such stars are usually referred to as zone stars. The bright stars are common to nearly all gener-