Morning journal and courier., 1885-10-10
EDITORIAL NOTES.

The Grant monument fund now amounts to over $S6,O0O. It is believed that few dollars more may be squeezed out of the in- habitants of the metropolis.
 A physician, in an article in the Homiletic Review, says that ministers als dyspeptic to an alarming degree and charges their indi- gestion to physical laziness and the big din- ners to which they are frequently invited. Ha! Ha!
 Dr. Curry, the new minister to Spain, has an uncommon record. He has been law yer, congressman, presidential elector, sol dier, clergyman, college professor and presi- dent, and has maintained good reputation through all.
 A recent interesting exhibition of appa- ratus in Paris by Dr. Boudet included mod ifcations of the telephone, adapting the in strument to variety of medical uses. In one form the pulsations of the blood vessels and all sorts of internal operations were very strikingly made audible, the observer being able to hear at will the movements of any part of the body. Another telsphonic appi- ance detected the presence of stones in the bladder and even made known their charac- ter when present.
 It is said that the first restrictive liquor law ever passed in this country was enacted in little town in Rhode Island and read as follows: 'fEvery saloon keeper who sells more than one gallon of liquor to minor shall be fined one dollar and costs" The first temperance pledge remembered in circu- lation in New England was thus worded: ''I solemnly swear to abstain from the use of in- toxicating liquors on all occasions except on training days, wedding days, baaquets and other great occasions"
 The campaign in Virginia is a very lively one. General Fitz Hugh Lee is riding about on saddle which was used by his uncle, General Robert Lee, during the late un- pleasantness. He rides at the head of . troop of mounted men who call themselves the Fitz Lee cavalry. The battle flag, torn and blackened, borne by Pickett's division at Gettysburg, floats at the front of the troop, and an old cavalry trumpetsr sounds the orders of the commander. The Virgini- ans call this "a critter company"
 A carriage road is to be built from Jerusa- lem to the ruins made at Jericho by the blast of Joshuas rams horns. A small mod ern village stands near the ruins, which are sunk one thousand two hundred feet below the sea level, in valley extremely hot but we'll watered Near the road, as proposed, is monastery, at the very cave in which Elijah is said to have been fed by the rav- ems. The monastery is literally hung on to the edge of the precipice, and 8 few Greek monks live like birds perched on the edge of a nest in this singular abode, to which . chapel pinnac1ed on rock is attached.
 For an American to be married in Mexico is pretty serious business. He must be three times married, twice in Spanish and once in English, besides havinga public notice of his intention of marriage placed on bulle- tin board for twenty days before the cere- mony. This is the law. The public notice can be gotten around by the payment of Q sum of money, but residence of one month is necessary. The three ceremonies are the contract of marriage, the civil marriage-the only marriage recognized by law since 1S5S-- and the usual but not obligatory church ser vice. The first two must take place before a judge, and in the presence of at least four witnesses and the American consul. The civil marriage is the legal form of marriage. These ceremonies are necessarily in Spanish. Most weddings are confirmed by a church service.
 
 The eight-hour agitation now beginning promises to be very thoroughly organized affair. The Knights of Labor, the Interna- tional Federation of Trades and Labor Unions, the State Trades Assemblies of New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio, Califor- nia, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri; the Social istic Labor party, recently in session at Gin cinnati; the German socialist party, whose representative newspaper is the New York Volkszeitung; the central labor unions and trades and labor councils of New York, Bos- ton, Chicago, St. Louis, Baltimore, New Or leans, Cincinnati, Denver, San Francisco, ct al with all the international and national unions connected with building trades; the machinists, the founders, the nailers and other workers in metals, with both unions of cigar makers and other smaller bodies, have publicly agreed to prepare for general strike early in May next, if the demand for