Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-09
EDITORIAL NOTES.

f
 l EDITORIAL NOTES. A marriage license costs only twelve cents
 in New Jersey. Perhaps that is all that it | is worth.
 1 We publish this morning the first of
 series of discourses by Rev. Newman Smyth, l dealing with matters which are just now seriously disturbing society. The series will undoubtedly form an important contribu- 1 tion to the discussion of the relations be- tween Labor and Capital.
 Crime is increasing ct terrible rate in
 Italy. In 1874 there were 3,210 serving life
 sentences in it's penal establishments; now there are 5, 1863, of whom 2O4 are female pris- oners Italy pays s6 60OO, 900 for the mainte- nance of it's penal system, while for educa- | tion only $5, 400, 900 is set aside.
 A London lawyer suffered long time l from lead poisoning before the doctors dis covered that it was owing to his use of snuff put up in so-callsd tin foil wrappers. Ac- 1 cording to the Medical Press there are now on record thirty-four cases of this kind. Some
 samples of moist snuff contained 2.50 per cent of lead.
 The late astonishing increase of mortality among children in England has lead to an investigation which discloses the fact that the increase comes simultaneously with the growth of the practice of insuring children's lives. Many companies calling themselves friendly societies encourage parents to insure the lives of infants by the payment of a pound annually for "beneft" of e40 or e50 on the death of the child. It is found that this insurance becomes potent inducement to wholesale infanticide.
 A prize of ten guineas was offered by the Pall Mall Gazette for the list of the ten greatest living Englishmen, divided into ten classes. Some fifteen hundred persons sent in their judgments. The greatest unanimity was found in the of MT. Irving, who heads the poll with l, 1887 votes; Lord Vol seley greatest general came next, with 1,060; Mir. Sala as journalist, MT. Millais as painter, each received between 800 and 900 votes. MT. Ruskin as writer received 568 votes. The voting on the others was more scattered None of the rest received ma jority of the votes recorded.
 
 The election day liquor bill pending in the Massachusetts legislature is sweeping enough. It not only closes all the saloons, but it pro vides that no candidate for official position, or any person in his behalf or any individual in behalf of any political association, shall give away, dispense, distribute or deliver any intoxicating liquors, or cause the same to be given away, dispensed, distributed or delivered on any election day mentioned in section one, in any city or town wherein such election Is held, before the hour of 6 o'clock in the evening of said day. and every viola ton of this section shall subject the offender to penalty of s10O.
 The misplaced lenity of French juries for the most ferocious criminals has received one more illustration in the small village of Broom, near Dinan. A young peasant, called Gautier, was in the habit of brutally ! i1l-trsating his mother, in the hope of coming in sooner for her property. Unable to endure I it, the latter resolved to sell her land and go somewers out of her sons reach Exasperat- ! ed at this resolve, he determined to get rid of her at once. Finding her asleep, he first tried to strangle her with rope. Black finger marks on the victims neck show that, finding this method intellectual, he had used one hand to throttle her, while with the other he had closed her mouth and nostrils. Some of her teeth were knocked out by the ! violence of his grasp. The jury found "ex- tenuating circumstances" and the murderer I escapes with hard labor for life.
 While there is much exaggerated talk l about the extent of the opium habit, there | can be no doubt that it is steadily becoming l moro common and that active measures are needed to cheek it's growth Dr. F. N. Ham mond, of Auburn, read paper at the meet ing of the State Medical Society in Albany | the other day which presented some rather \ startling statistics. In 1840 only about 20, | 900 pounds of opium were consumed in the | United States, while in 1880 the total reached 533, ,450 pounds. In other words, while the population of the country had only trebled, the consumption of opium had become twsnty-seven times as great. Dr. Hammond estimates that the number of habitual opium eaters was 90, 900 in 1866, and has now grown to fully half million, the victims being di- vided between the sexes in the proportion of three women to one man. More care in the of the drug by physicians and severer restrictions upon it's sale by druggists are obviously necessary.
 The Cullom Interstate Commerce bill which has been passed by the Senate dis poses of the Reagan bill, and is much more measure. It provides for nine with salaries of $7, 300 a year each, the commissioner to act board of arbitration to decide questions at issue be- tween railroad companies and parties having grievances. The board is without judicial powers and cannot enforce it's decisions, but being supported by the authority of the na- tional Congress it will manifestly as rule be for the interest of contestants to accept it's although it does not prevent an appeal to the courts. The members of the are to be selected by the Presi- dent, one from each of the judicial circuits of the United States, and not more than five members can belong to the same political party. The commission is given supervision of the general management of all railroads engaged in interstate commerce, with the object of establishing just system of regu lations for the government of the same. It has power to summon witnesses, to examine books and papers and to require full statis= tical reports. It is especially charged with the investigation of the subject of maximum and minimum charges, pooling, the watering of stocks, unjust discriminations, etc. The commission can decide what is @ reasonable rate for the transportation of freight, and the charging of greater amount is declared to be misdemeanor. Determinations be- tween individuals for the same service, or the refusal to grant one person the same privileges granted to another for the same scrt of service ia also misdemeanor. Any company negleeting or refusing to comply with the regulations of the commission will be proceeded against by United States attor- ney for the district in which the act com plained of occurs, and fines are provided for | extortion or unjust discrimination
 CHARITABLE.
 A charity baw1: "Gimme some cold vic | Free Press.