davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

In 1888 the number of taxable polls
was 79,157; in 1889, S0,192. In 1888
the appraisal of personal property was
$40 oil ,339; of real estate, Sl10,675,-
us, gain in one year of over 100000
in personal property, and over 81 ,G00,-
600 in real estate. In this connection
we notice that some astounding figures
of the states increase in wealth are
given by the Boston Journals Vermont
correspondent. The grand list of 1879
is stated at $50, 1893, 514; for 1889, at
S176,706,0 0S, ga gain of nearly 800, 000,-
600 in ten years" The correspondent
has become entangled in the intricacies
of Vermont's tax system. One per
cent of the figures he has given is the
truth of the matter in respect to the
"grand list" The Every handsome
appreciation in real estate and material
increase in personal property" in ten
years which the 800, 200, 900 represents
is not precisely what the correspondent
says his figures "show." Nearly $685.
00O, 1000 of this sum is sheer buncombe,
for the reappraisal of real estate and
personal property under the new listing
law of 1880 simply added about $685.
DOC, 900 to the appraisal under the old
law. So radical a change in appraising
property was wrought by the law of
1880 that there is no just basis of COM
parson between any year since that
time and any year or period prior to
that date; but, if comparisons are in
stituted, the additions made under the
requirements of the law of 1880, which
do not represent an actual increase in
real or personal estate, must be con-
sidered. This correspondent makes a
similar mistake when he compares the
valuation of the farming lands in 1859
with the valuation in 1889, and finds
ga gain of S42 500 900 in thirty years"
The law of 1880 added S31 100000 TO
the appraisal of real estate and the
correspondents handsome increase
in the valuation thereof since ante
bellum days" must be viewed in the
light of this fact.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

fcers. In the election of the members
of the house of representatives alone
could the system have any appreciable
effect. Here it might somewhat change
the personnel of the house, but very
likely would not materially alter the
course of legislation. In the larger in
dustrial and business centers, like Rut-
land, Burlington, st. Adams, st. Johns
bury, where there are reported to be
dominating individual or corporate in
terests, the system might encourage in
dependence in voting, and the result of
its adoption might be beneficial to such
communities, or it might not. And in
employer of labor, by improper inhu-
ences, may have put his personal inter-
ests or preferences into the ballot box,
or where some local creditor may have
used debt to crush the independence
of the debtor citizen, the system very
likely would be protection to the in
dividual voter. People remember the
colored ballot scheme that sent Ely
Goddard to the house of representatives,
and some second district people have
not forgotten the "zebra ballots " that
sent packed delegation from st.
Johnsbury to district convention not
many years ago. These incidents illus
trate abuses that are sometimes-but
not generally-practiced, in one form
or another, at elections and caucuses,
some of which the Australian system
might remedy; others which are pri-
mary and really the most important, it
would not reach. The wisdom or ne
cessity of arbitrarily imposing the sys-
tenn by law upon every voting commu-
nifty in state having population like
Vermont's is not entirely clear.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30
The New States.

When the newly-elected governors of
the two Dakotas, Montana and Wash
ington shall have notified the president
of the result of the late elections, he
will issue a proclamation announcing
their admission to the Union. The
event will be nprecedented, Since
the adoption of the Constitution four
states have never entered the Union
together. 1t is not proud recollec-
ton for free republic that during the
first half of a century the cardinal con-
sideraton in the admission of new
states was the preservation of an equal
balance between slave states and free
states. In 1850 the admission of Cali
fornia gave the preponderance to free
dom, and the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise which followed marked
the opening of the final struggle be-
tween the two fundamental forces of
our earlier politics. The admission of
new states now involves no such vital
consideration, and the event of this
year has excited little other emotion
than proud satisfaction in the vast and
extending empire of freedom. 1t af-
fects, without changing, the relative
present situation of parties in con-
gress, and it increases the electoral
vote in a way to diminish the inn
portance of the doubtful states.n
The immediate consequences of the
admission of the new states will be the
increase of the Union to forty-two
states, while men are not old who re-
member when it was composed of
twenty-four. 1t will advance the num-
Der of senators from seventy-six to
eighty-four, and of representatives
from three hundred twenty-five to
three hundred thirty, and the number
Of electoral votes from four hundred
one to four hundred fourteen. Party
divisions will be emphasized in con-
gress, the republicans securing forty
FIVE of the eighty-four senators and one
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

INTEREST in the state campaign in
Massachusetts centers in the trial of
the new ballot law. The opposition to
it is not very loud. There are polti-
clans enough who would be glad to see
it fail, but they dare not say so, lest
they make their motive evident. Some
chronic conservatives, who would like
TO die voting yearly the way they did in
Jackson's time, are also fearful about
the way this new thing will work. But
the great mass of good citizens of the
state look on it as the harbinger of bet
ter days in politics. The two candi-
dates for Messrs. Bracket
and Russell-are stumping the state
and arousing limited amount of en-
thusiasm. Mr.. Russell makes mis-
take, as we look at it, in condemning
the Boston police commission. Prac-
tically the commission works very
well, and theoretically the system is
sound. The people of the entire state
have interests in Boston that should be
recognized in the appointment of an
efficient police force. The strong OPP
position to w. E. Barrett in the caucus
which renominated him for the lower
house is the most interesting fact of
the campaign, aside from the test of the
new ballot system. Mr.. Barrett will
have a democratic and an independent
candidate to run against this year, but
his district is strongly republican. If
elected, he will again be a candidate
for speaker, but here, too, he will en-
counter opposition, it is said. Mr..
Barrett is what is termed "a hustler"
and up to the present time he has al
ways got what he set his mind on.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30
The Australian System in Vermont.

The lawyers at their recent meeting
concluded, respecting the action they
were asked to take in favor of the adop-
ton of the Australian ballot system by
Vermont, that it was political matter
with which the bar of the state as an
organized body had properly no direct
concern, no more than with woman
suffrage or some other political meas
ures. The necessity, and even the eX-
pediency, of adopting the system in
Vermont at the present time is not quite
apparent. We apprehend that it would
somewhat tax the patience of the voters
in communities such as exist in probably
Observation-Disclosures of the towns of the
state. Designed to remedy political
evils that have developed in thickly-
settled localities, the village folk and
farmers scattered over the hills of YER
mont would find the new machinery
something of an incumbrance, and one
affording, in the great majority of in
stances, little if any compensating ad-
vantage for the restraint placed upon
the ease and freedom of the old way of
voting. If the system could be applied
to the caucus in Vermont, it might effect
some political reformation. The eau
Gus determines the action of the state,
district or county convention, and the
latter predetermines the issue of an
election of state officers, representa-
tive in congress or state senators. APP
piled to an election only, the system
would probably avail nothing in a state
so one-sided in its politics as Vermont,
in the choice O. the above-named Of
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

SECRETARY PROCTOR is working out
plan to encourage enlistment in the
regular army by better class of men
than has heeu accustomed to enter the
service. Some of the methods he pro-
poses TO adopt have been made public.
He will send recruiting officers to the
state guard encampments and endeavor
to enlist men who are in the militia
Such men are almost certain to make
good soldiers. The details of regular
troops at militia encampments have Sc
cured some good recruits, and they will
be continued. Recruiting offices will be
opened in smaller cities and towns, and
the location will be changed frequently.
A new departure that will be service
able in securing recruits will be that of
placing men from the same state in the
same company, which will have the
name of the state. 1t is expected that an
esprit de corps will be cultivated in this
way, and that the men will be better
contented. The problem of the wal
department is to raise the morale of the
army and to decrease the number OF
assertions, which of recent years has
been very large.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

coast, except in enclosed bays, which
are exclusive within line three miles
from another line connecting headands
not more than six miles apart. Ten
miles is sometimes substituted for six,
but international law recognizes no
longer distance. 1t is said that Russia
had exclusive control of the sea before
we purchased Alaska. If she did, it
would not alter the principle of inter-
national law. But there is not
paper in existence that confirms such
statement. In 1922 the Russian minis
ter at Washington wrote Secretary
Adams: " ought, in the last place, to
request you to consider, sir, that the
Russian. possessions in the Pacific
ocean extend, on the northwest coast of
America, from Behring Strait to the
fifty-frst degree of north latitude, and
on the opposite side of Asia and the
islands adjacent from the same strait
to the forty-ifth degree" A diplomat,
trained to accuracy as Russian diplo-
mats are peculiarly, would not have
omitted, by carelessness or any other
reason, to mention possessions of water
if Russia had such. 1t is clear that
Russia did not claim exclusive possess
sion of Behring Sea when she owned
the surrounding land, and, that being
the case, she could not sell half of that
sea to the United States.
To answer the question of what the
United States is to do about the rapid
decrease in the number of seals, it can
be said that on the high seas nothing
can be done. Every craft afoat has a
! right to take seal on the high seas; but
much can be done by an agreement
among the nations interested affirming
common regulations and provisions for
protecting and propagating the seals
found on the coasts and within the
three mile limit. 1t is to be noted that
the British government is reported to
have instructed Sir Julian Pauncefote,
| the minister at Washington, to nego-
tate for the appointment of a commi--
sion, consisting of representatives. of
Japan, Russia, England, Canada and
the United States, to settle the matter.
A convention between these nations
would doubtless have practical binding
force. Let it be said to the credit of
Great Britain that she has been more
in spite of the clamors of the Canadian
fishermen and press for blood. 1t is to
the discredit of the United States that
it has not shown the same knowledge
of the subject and the same candor and
fairness in meeting its problems.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

ing. The public has recognized this
fact. and these officials have not been
handicapped to any appreciate extent
by unfair criticism. Mr.. Sanderson's
structures are uncalled for; they are in
bad taste, unwise and wholly unjusti-
fable. They impeach not only his wis
dom, but his common sense also, for
ordinary common sense should have
saved him from so great mistake.
Apparently, the atmosphere of his new
field of labor has somewhat exalted
him and moved him to assume the role
of censor. Law, superintendent and
supervisors will survive.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

GOVERNOR HILLS allusion to the
encyclopaedia in his Atlanta speech was
very unkind cut. 1t prepares the
way for the open rapture which is sure
to come between Grover and David
Hartford Post.
THE Virginian who has Just declined
postmastership rather than agree to de-
vote one per centum of his salary TO
the campaign fund and have his assist
ant named by Malone deserves an
honorable mention. His name is S. b.
CHM, and he is a pretty good brand
Boston Herald.
THE privilege of occupying a New
Hampshire or Vermont hill farm for a
month in summer or autumn is worth
the interest on the money it would
cost. And then there are the berries
and the trout, and the nuts, and the
squirrels and the parirdges, each in
their season. -BOStOn Traveller.
You can buy a New Hampshire or
Vermont farm for just about what you
have to pay for a seven-by-nine room
for single season at fashionable
summer hotel, and there's more COM
fort and bloom to be had on one of
these farms than can be found at any
hotel in the world. They ought to sell
like hot cakes.--B Herald.
ANY arrangement which would
make it safe and profitable for Ameri-
can labor and capital to 90 to Hayti
would relieve the pressure of black
population in the Southern States and
offer the easiest possible solution of
the race problem. An outlet would
then be provided for the dissatisfied
and oppressed southern blacks. Chi
cdgO Tribune.
WHEREVER the new plan of voting.
founded on the Australian system. has
been tried, it has worked well. 1t has
been found to be neither cumbrous nor
slow. 1t has enabled the voter to ex-
ercise his right of independent action.
1t has abolished the nuisance of ticket
peddlers and stickers, and it has made
bribery more difficult. 1t must come
into general use.-POrtland Transcript.
THERE will be widespread regret
over the illness of Judge Cooley, and
national desire for his speedy and COM
plete recovery. There are few places
which it would be so difficult to fill sat
isfactOrilv as that which Judge Cooley
holds. He may almost be said to have
been the interstate commerce commits
sion. His generally robust health will
strengthen the expectation of his re-
covery.-BoSton Journal.
THE Swedes are very good. The
Times believes in the Swedes because
they have made good citizens elsewhere
and are likely to do the same here. But
when Vermonters who have wandered
away begin to come home, then the
prospect is bright indeed While the
Yankee shakes hands cordially enough
with the Scandinavian, his grasp will
be little warmer, little heartier, for
the Yankee every time.-BellOwS Falls
! Times
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

ST. JoHNsBURY has Guiteau-a
Guiteau in cussedness and mental dis
arrangement, if not in other points of
resemblance to the arch crank. With
murderous fanaticism the latter assaulted
president with powder and ball, but
his unheroic prototype peppers gov
ernor with paper wads projected from
some sort of an engine worked by wind
Like the other Guiteau, however, his
st. Johnsbury imitator is blown up
with conceit, imagines himself hero
and is itching to be martyr. Make
him a place in the Waterbury asylum,
in the ward for harmless imbeciles /;
give him pop-gun and a target, and
let him while away his time in blazing
away at imaginary enemies of the pub
lie veal.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30
Rather CensOriOus.

The Vermont teachers were in ses-
sion at st. Adams last week. The SUBJ
iects for discussion were of the sort
customarily selected for similar meet
ings. The president of the association,
w. H. Sanderson, recently prin cipal of
the high school at Woodstock, but now
of Attleboro, Mass, in delivering his
address went out of his way to criticise
the new school law and to make per-
sonal attack on the state superintendent
and the supervisors. Mr.. Sanderson's
great objection to the new system seems
to be that it is not the town system.
Many people in Vermont, like Mr.. San
derson, had been ardent advocates of
the town system so long as there seemed
TO be shadow of chance that the
legislature would make it the system of
the state. But they recognized the cold
logic of a situation developed in many
years of discouraging efforts to secure
the adoption of the town system under
the optional law, and in several hard
fought but fruitless attempts in the leg
islature to make the system obligatory,
and they wisely turned their attention
to something that was attainable. The
law of 1888 was the result. Possibly
the new system is not so good as the
town system, which Mr.. Sanderson says
was forced on the people of Attleboro,
but whom all the people of Vermont
could not now persuade to return to the
old-fashioned way. Possibly, too, the
new law may prove to be far better
school law for Vermont than the one
which Mr.. SandersOn and the rest of us
tried so hard and so unsuccessfully to
persuade the people to adopt and the
legislature to pass. We believe the lat
ter possibility is the more reasonable
one. Certainly the friends and be-
levers in the town system in this state
are so loyal to the best interests of the
schools that they not only speak no
word Of disparagement of measure
that was the work of friendly and patri-
otto hands, but they are also among its
stanchest defenders and sincerest sup
porters. They are not disposed to seek
reputation for wisdom, or captious-
ness either, by assailing the law or its
officers, or by foretelling failure as the
fruit of inevitable imperfections. Ger
tainly, they do not court failure by
seeking to discredit the law before the
people.
Mr.. Sanderson bewails the fact that
Mr.. Dart, who had been superintend-
ent under the old law and whose duties
were largely of clerical character, was
not chosen superintendent under the
new law. Does the selection of another
man for superintendent account for the
bonny clabber in Mr.. Sanderson's CO.
coanut? The st. Adams Messenger, in
an extract published in another column,
fully iustifies the election of Mr.. Palmer,
and any one who has seen the super
visors together, or followed them in the
initial stages of their work, will feel that
they need no defense from Mr. Sander
sons aspersions. There was a new
order of things instituted. 1t was right
and proper and an omen of success that
new blood in anew class of men, bright
educated, energetic, full of resources
ambitious to succeed, should have the
: execution of the new law in their keep
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30
superintendent and Supervisors.

The same representatives and the
same legislature that enacted the law
also elected the superintendent, and
one is entitled to the same respect as
the other. Whatever Mr.. Palmer's at
titude toward the new law may have
been before its enactment, he has sup
ported it with all his energy and ability
since, and is striving as best he can to
make of it complete success. Mr..
Sanderson ventures to assail the county
supervisors also as not being up to the
desired standard of fitness. This, it
also seems to us, is an act of gross in
discretion. The supervisors have been
elected by the people and their repre-
sentatives, and while they may not be
such as the gentleman himself would
have selected, they hold their creden-
tials from a higher source. Included
in the number are experienced educa-
tors or those who have been engaged in
the profession, and who have received
higher educational advantages than
their critic, and doubtless are his SUI
periors in many respects. Mr.. Palmer,
especially, is very capable and schol-
arly man. His reputation in this re-
spect stood high in the last legislature,
which was obtained very much through
his address before the Vermont Off
GERS Association, which was prepared
at the last moment. 1t was pronounced
to be one of the most classical efforts
of the kind ever made in Vermont.
The friends of education should be its
friends under all circumstances, and
be careful in wbackinr around indis-
criminately. st A lbanS Messenger.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

thing to perpetuate the spirit of rebel
lion by monument. So far as posi-
BILE, future generations should be re-
minded only of the triumph of the
Union principle through the digni6ed
exaltation of Northern patriotism and
simple, tender respect for Southern
bravery. 1t is safe to say that the
Gettysburg Battlefield Association will
not allow any such monument to be
erected on its ground. Governor
Beaver of Pennsylvania, however,
favors placing standards in positions to
mark the rebel lines in the battle.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

TIE Episcopal General Convention
adjourned last week after a three
weeks session. The proceedings can
be summed up by saying that the
Nicene creed was sustained, action on
the Mosaic marriage law was postponed,
a strong impulse was given to home
and foreign missionary work, the
Hymnal was revised, and the Prayer
Book was amended. 1t was a hard
working convention.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

THE year 1889 will long be remem-
bered for its many and fearful catas-
trophies. Among them are the Johns
town flood; the overflow of the Yellow
River in China; floods, earthquakes,
and more recently tidal wave in
Japan, the latter destroying over twelve
hundred lives; the landslip at Quebec;
the loss of fifty-nine lives by an explo-
sion of coal gas in England, and our
catalogue is by no means complete.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

hundred sixty-eight of the three hun
dred thirty representatives. The pre-
sumption is that the republicans also
will gain electoral votes. The general
result, therefore, is favorable to con-
tinued republican ascendency. Every
branch of the government is in repub-
lican hands, and, having complete
power, they have also exclusive re-
possibility .-Harper' Weekly.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

THE Second Maryland regiment pro-
burg. This was a rebel organization,
and its monument is intended to com
memorate valor in behalf of the South
ern cause on the Gettysburg field,
This is carrying things too far. No one
ought to object to the spirit of confed-
crate reunions, in which the men who
suffered together in cause they be-
lieved right meet to renew associations.
Properly conducted, such meetings
should command the profound respect
of Union soldiers. 1t is quite another
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

Hon. DoRMAN B. EATON of New
York, while at Montpelier recently, said
Vermont was fast becoming one of the
most popular summer resorts for city
people not alone for its natural at
fractions, but the people of the Green
Mountain State were intelligent and
hospitable. He spoke of the fertility of
the soil, and said if land could be
bought at the prices named in the
newspapers, New York capitalists
would invest in it and plant it with GER
tain kinds of rapid-growiug trees that
he mentioned. The growth of the
timber, he said, would afford hand
some income on the investment.
The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-10-30

WHILE New Hampshire and Yer
mont are working for the resettlement
of their deserted farms, it may be well
for those attacked by the western fever
to view removal in all its aspects.
Just now Iowa farmers are selling
potatoes at seventeen cents bushel,
delivered. There is nothing very
tempting to Yankees in this.