New-York tribune., 1885-02-10

If such walk had existed, the poor porter
who lost bis life at Fifty -third-st. anu iniru-
ave. yesterday would not have slipped irom
the narrow iron girder to the street Deio"'
The death of this black man will cause no coin-
motions but if the company had heaf' VI
soul it would be most uncomfortable.
There is certainly need of reform in the man-
ner of giving fire alarms in the engine ana trucA
houses At present when an alarm is rung' IL ID
repeated in every engine and truck mousse
in the city, causing much unnecessary wear anu
tear on the men and horses OF course they are
not all needed for every fire and yet they are
rousedwhen ever one occurs. To describe such
a system is to condemn it, and the only wonder is
that the Commissioners did not see the neces-
sity of changing it long ago. The city should
be divided into districts, as is now proposed,
and an alarm of fire in one of them should not
be repeated elsewhere unless extra help is re-
quired.
Only nineteen more legislative days remain
for this dO-nOthing Congress, andif the country
is to be spared the affiction of an extra session
the Representatives must drop their chickering's
and attend to their proper business Many OF
the most important appropriation bills are stlli
uncOnsidered, and if the members of the House
work faithfully from now until the Attn OF
March the items cannot be properly discussed;
thus the public service must suffer proportion
ately. But there is one hopeful feature about
the situation. One more Congress OF this kind
will give the voters of the Nation good deal
more than an elegant sufiiciency OF Bourbon
legislative methods.
The most pungent thing we have had lately
in life insurance literature is the sharp attack
on the whole TOntine system,-" the iniqui-
tous Tontine," by the president of the Con-
necticut Mutual Life Insurance Company,
printed in another column this morning. There
may be another side to the question. II so, the
outspoken and fiat footed president OF the Con-
necticut Mutual Life has made it pretty plain
duty for the managers of companies indulglng
in the TontIne luxury to tell what 1t is. His
arraignment of the TOntine system as "pure
gambling" the thing gambled for being the
loss of families" and his account of the Pc
culIar fascination attending the TOntine ex-
penses,are calculated to set the gentle public to
thinking.
It is announced that one of the ocean steam
ship lines will soon try the plan of allowing
passengers to order their meals from the card
when they please, and to pay for them in adj
dtiOn to the passage mOney-which naturally
would be reduced. Much interest will be felt
to see how this system works 1t will have its
advantages of course; but there will be draw
backs to it. The dining cabin, tor instance,
under the present plan is used largely as sit
ting room by passengers when the weather is
bad, and to serve meals in it at all hours would
give it too much the character of a restaurant
to be pleasant. Economical passengers would
probably try to make picnic of the voyage by
getting their own meals in their staterooms.
That would add a bread and butter smell TO the
long list of odors which even now make the
staterooms almost uncomfortable.