Morning journal and courier., 1894-05-17

] will amount to something. defect ir
 the arrangement of the guns of the Colum
 bis has come to light. Four of the twelve six poundern on board cannot be worked ! properly. It will be necessary to lower l them and perhaps to set back couple of bulkheads in the rear of the pieces. Ac. cording to report, the Cramps charge the Bureau of Ordnance with all the blame, or
 that the Bureaus of Ordnance, Construction
 and Steam Engineering all together caused
 the trouble.
 It appears that even the United States Supreme court is not infallibie. It says 60 itself, and H-ought to know. In case where the title to certain piece of real
 estate in Nebraska was in dispute the court passed on certain phase of the case some years ago, but the other day the court went the other way. Ordinarily" ," said Justice Gray, speaking for his associates, "there would be no doubt ss to how to answer this question, and the inqu'-'ng body would be told to follow the decision of the Su- preme oourt of the United States. But here we are satisfisd that the supreme court of Nebraska was right and the Su- preme court of the United States was wrong, and the court of appeals will be 50 informed"
 The annual report of Fire Marshal Swenie of Chicago for the year ending De- cember 31, 1893, has just been received, and from it some idea may be formed of the burden imposed upon the Chicago fire department in consequence of the location in the city of the Worlds Columbian ex- position. The number of fires for 1891 was 2, 1858. The number in 1892 was 8, 549; but in 1893 the number was 5,224. Of this number only about 100 alarms were received during the twelve months from the exposition grounds, so that the 1,575 increase in the entire number of alarms re- ceived outside of these grounds must have been chiefly due to the increased fire risk resulting from large temporary accession to the population of Chicago.
 The city of Brooklyn has brought suits for the recovery of about $25, ,00O paid by order of the aldermen of the city under the administration of the late Boody in connection with the Columbus celebration. These payments included bills for cham pagne, whisky. cigars, dinners, music, the erection of reviewing stands and so forth, which represented in part the indulgence of the aldermen in creature comforts on the occasion of the parade, and in part the excessive charges for work which was done for example, @ man whom the grand jury pronounced a dummy for an employe of the building department was paid $11, ,7O4 for putting up stands; his bill was cut down by the auditing commission of the legislature to $3. 400, and he is sued for the difference, $s.sO4.
 In the course of his study of the bank note tax, Representative Springer, chair man of the committee on banking and cur rency, discovered in the congressional H. brary long-forgotten financial treatise by Albert Gallstin, Jefferson's secretary of the treasury, in which Gallatin wrote as follows respecting the power of congress to tax bank notes: Congress made and deemed it proper to lay e stamp duty on small notes which will put an end to their circulation. It may lay such duty on ell bank notes as would convert all the banks into banks of discount and deposit only, and annihilate paper currency and render bank of the United States unnecessary in reference to that object. But, if this last measure should be deemed psrnicious, or prove impracticable, congress must resort to other and milder means for regulating the currency of the country"
 An effort Is being made in England to form a society with+the object of prsserv- ing many of the species of South African anselopes, which are in danger of soon be- coming extinct. The scheme, which Is being promoted and supported by a num- Der of well-known sportsmep and scien- tists, Is to enclose suitable tract of ooun- try in the district near Fort Salisbury with a wire fencing of, say, forty-fve miles in circumference, and drive into this enclosure small herds of the still existing species of antelopes which 1t is desired to preserve. At certain seasons of the year, in order to prevent overorowdipg, Q mum. Der of specimens would be let loose or ex- ported for the use of geological societies. To carry out the plan a comparatively moderate capital would be required; and 1t is said that the British South African company will receive petition before long ssking their consent to the fencing in of the proposed preserve.