The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-09-16
; equal to any sort of straddle.-

LOCeU Courier.
THE civil service act is now agreed
to be the one thing altogether lovely in
world that has so few perfect things
in it that we should hate to have the
supreme court knock it out in one
round, and leave big, aching void in
the heart of every true reformer.-
Traveller.
THE question of the advantage of
sleeping with the head to the north has
been revived. Pending an authorita-
tive answer, it can be said, without
fear of contradiction, that the northern
democrats believe il good policy to
| lie awake with their heads to the South.
Tribune.
LETTERS from missionaries in the
Congo region say that the natives there
are so low in mentality that any hope
of Outstanding them must be based
on a long and patient course of intel
lectual training. They are too densely
! ignorant to comprehend the simplest
statements of doctrine.
THE government of the Dominion
is evidently determined on hanging
Riel, be the consequences what they
may. The full court concluded that
the convicted was "a clever and de-
signing man, who sought to advance
his own personal interests by using
the half-breeds as tools.n
WHILE Mr.. Phelps finds time and
opportunity to make speeches con-
stantly in England, chiefly to the aris-
tocracy, however, he never in his life
made a speech for the democratic party
al home outside Vermont, and the only
speech he made in his own state which
survived its delivery he has repudiated
and disowned.-N. Y. World (Dem.)
INSANITY does not appear to be on
the increase in England. con exam
ination Of the figures" says the COM
missioner in lunacy, " it will be found
that the increase is almost entirely due
to accumulation of chronic cases of the
pauper class, so that the community at
large would pot appear more liable than
iOihiSilO w w otteiNNCu WIN liSdhlly'
In several courts in the Northwestern
States the principle has been affirmed
that the plaintiff, in the trial of actions
to recover damages for personal in
juries, may be required to submit to a
personal examination by physicians
chosen by the defence or designated by
the court. Decisions to this effect have
lately been rendered in Iowa, Wiscon-
sin and Nebraska.
IT has been quite the fashion to sup
pose the Prussian school system an alb.
solute model But a correspondent
of the Philadelphia Times says the
volksschulen are overcrowded and the
teachers miserably underpaid. From
eighty to three hundred children are
often in charge of boy fifteen to
eighteen years old. Most of the
teachers are forced to other employ.
ments, out of school, to gain living
IT is claimed that there is coloret
man in Dalton, Mo-, who is one hun
dred twenty years old. His mind il
clear and his appetite and digestion
are as good as they were eighty year.
ago. He has used tobacco for one hun
dred ten years, and always drink:
whiskey when he can get it. The i'm
probable feature of the story is that he
was not body servant of Genera
Washington and has no recollection o.
ever seeing him.
THE consumption of tea has beer
falling off in this country, and that o
coffee increasing, with just the opposit,
drift in England, till now we drinl
about eight times as much coffee az
tea, and our cousins across the wate
five times as much tea as coffee. Poo
tea on the one hand, and fragrant
, freshly-roasted coffee on the other, ar,
given as causes. But the average
American would rather have poor cot
fee than any tea whatever.
AS to the expense of Indian educa
ton, there is only one thing to be said
, If it is more expensive than the educa
ton of whites, the extra cost must b(
laid to the charge of the injustice O
our government. That injustice has
| proved to be one of the most expensive
4 follies that the government ever in
dulged in. 1t is now economical tC
, pay any amount that will settle this
miserable matter. The damages fol
all our broken promises and our brutal
, ity to those who were too weak to de
fend themselves are large, but they
must be paid; and we have fraudulently
taken from Indians far more thar
enough to pay Decentralization.
WE all know that whatever consttu
ton you may write on paper, whateve
laws you may engross on parchment
whatever your theoretical form of gov
: eminent may be, you have neithei
| constitution, law nor political rights a.
a republic-you have no living repub
lic-unless the President of the admin
istration and the measures of Legislation
are the fair result of the will of a ma
jority of the people, and unless you are
to have honest elections, honest votes
honest counts. Now we are perfectly
willing to submit to democratic rule il
t the majority of the American people Sc
will it, but we are not willing to submit
to a rule brought about by the method.