Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-11

an ordinance requiring horse railroad com panles to provide every car with conductor as well as a driver The ordinance in ques- tion was directed against the so-ca1ed bobtail cars, drawn by single horses and managed by the drivers alone, who see that the pas sengers place their fares in locked boxes pro- vided for the purpose. Many accidents have occurred in the operation of these cars. The attention of the driver is frequently drawn away from his horse and the street by the necessity of making change and of look ing back to keep informed as to the move ments of his passengers. In this way several persons have been hurt and killed and the Common Council resolved to check the evil by prohibiting the running of cars without separate conductors
 If the transatlantic steamers will not make fast trips we shall get no cholera. At least so says Dr. Pettenkofer in new German book. The disease cannot make . sea voy- age of twenty days. If we could not cross the ocean from Europe in less time cholera would never reach us. Cholera never gets over deserts which require more than twenty days for caravans to cross. South America enjoyed exemption from cholera until 1854, when fast-sailing vessels carried it from Phil adelphia to Rio Janeiro, and a terrible cpl demic was the result. Cholera makes the most remarkable jumps The soil and it's moisture, Dr. Pettenkofer thinks, plays 8 principal part in starting epidemics. Clay soils in relatively dry conditions are most likely to assist outbreaks of cholera. His ar gument is that the rain-soaked earth has not had air enough for the animal germs to breathe. In heavy clay soils water drives the air completely out.
 That there is no sense in needlessly making enemies is well illustrated by story which Hannibal Hamlin tells. When he was speak CT of the lower house of the Maine legislature there was among the members a very dandi- fled old fellow whose chief weakness was in trying to conceal the badness which was rapidly stealing over his head He came into the house each morning with his hair so carefully combed that it looked as though each particular hair had been pasted in its place. Even as it was there was scarcely enough to cover the bald spot One morning Speaker Hamlin, th; king to have some fun, called this gentleman to him and said: "My dear Blank, I beg your pardon, but one of your hairs is crossed over the others" The member grew angry at once and replied "You insult me, sir; you insult meH' and walked stifiy back to his seat. He refused to be reconciled, and he became Hamlin's lifelong enemy. A few years later, when 
 States Senate, this man was again in the leg islature and his vote decided the contest in favor of Hamlin's opponent.
 In their annual report, just received, the New York board of State charities call at tention to matter which concerns the whole country. This is the arrival in this country of ''persons incapacitated in various ways from supporting themselves, and who are required to be returned in the vessels bring ing them from foreign ports, or not allowed to land in ours, under act of Congress" The board desire that the State department shall cause the said act of Congress to be promul- gated ip all European ports where our gov ernment have consuls or consular agents. They find that of the A, Ill insane in the State 7,790, or one to every 497 of the native population, were of native birth, and 6, ,321, {, or one to every 192 of the foreign popula- ton, were of foreign birth. This is an exces- sive increase over the past records, and the board are forced to the conclusion that the country, especially the State of New York, is being constantly burdsned with the in sane of European countries. or with persons from those countries so enfeebled by priva- tion through successive generations as to be- come insane under slight exciting causes, de ported from their homes by cities and towns, by relatives and friends, and by various emi- grafton aid associations.