The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-12-26

front rank among all the nations of the
Orient. In Eastern affairs she must
henceforth be regarded "with distin.
guished consideration"
FRIDAY was day hot with sensational
developments before the Lexow inves-
tigating committee. Captain Schmitt-
berger, under indictment for bribery,
was persuaded to confess and to tell
what he knew of municipal corruption
in New York city, His revelations
surpassed anything hitherto disclosed.
The captains testimony accused the
pre- sident of the police board Of pro-
tecting disordeily houses, and of pun
ishing officers for arrests under the ex-
else law. Commissioner Sheehan, the
captain swore, had protected gambling
houses and Inspectors McAvoy and
Williams had systematically taken bride
money from policy shops, pool rooms,
and disorderly houses. Captain Mar
tin, it was averred, had paid Inspector
Williams $500 to be made roundsman,
81 900 to be sergeant, and $l4 900 to
be captain. Captain Schmittberger's
testimony exonerates Superintendent
Byrnes from completely in any wrong
doing, and il is a gratifying circum-
stance that the smell of fire has not yet
been detected on the superintendent
garments. -
AT this distance, the LeXow commit
tee, Counselor Golf, aud the crowd at
tending the investigation they are con-
Quoting, seem to be attaching an unwar-
rantable degree of glory and honor to
bribetakers and perjurers. Here is
police captain who had denied under
oath that he paid for his promotion,
but who suddenly turns about and con-
fesses that he did pay S15, 900 for his
promotion. Thereupon he is warmly
congratulated for his honor and integ-
rity by committee and counsel; the
testimony which marks him as bride.
giver and perjurer is received with
the plaudits of the spectators in the
court room, and the witness is treated
with all the marks of honor that might
be bestowed upon moral hero. 1t is
easy to be seen that this man, having
once lied under oath, and, havin re-
pented and concluded to tell the truth,
might do the cause of justice a great
service. 1t is easy also to see that the
difficulties besettiny the course of the
committee may justify the pledge of
immunity from prosecution of those
Witnesses who are disposed to tell the
truth; but the exaltation as heroes of
these men, who have for years pursued
systematic course of wrong-doing, is
concession to crime hardly demanded
by the cause of justice even in it's dir
est distress.
THE New York Worlds Z ,stern cor
respondent telegraphed to that paper
an account of shocking barbarities, it
alleged, were committed by the Japan
ese after the capture of Port Arthur.
After the taking of that fortress, it was
averred that the Chinese were indis-
criminately and mercilessly put to the
sword. Slaughter was unrestrained.
These reports went back to Japan and
Immediately recei yed the attention of
the Japanese officials. The fullest in
vesti yation was promised. The Japan
ese government desired no conceal
meut of the facts. From the begin
ming of the war, said the minister of
foreign affairs, every precaution had
been taken to guard against excuses.
He expressed his grief and alarm that
in this single instance discipline had
been unavailing. 1t certainly would
not have been remarkable, under all
the circumstances, had the troops of
even the most civilized of the western
nations broken over all restraint and
trans crossed the rules of civilized war;
fare in the instance named. In this
war no japanese prisoners, in the
hands of the Chinese have survived
to tell the tale of the savagery of their
captors. They have been invariably
put to death in the most horrible
fashion. Ia the light of all the facts,
IL would not have been surprising had
these stories of the bloody retribution
inflicted at Port Arthur been strictly
true. Later developments, however,
including those to the London Times,
state that the japanese were not guilty
of the "relapse into barbarism" the
Worlds correspondent had charged
them With The Times declares that the
japanese soldiers exhibited restraint and
self-control that wonld have done credit
to the army of the most civilized of the