smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1879

An estimate of our present limited trade
with Mexico is not easily made because it
is broken up into innumerable fractions by
reason Of the manner in which it is con-
Quoted. For her area Mexico presents an
immense coast line, with very few available
ports. and her northern frontier extends from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. offering
q thousand points whore goods can
be sent into the country without
the preliminary passage through o
custom house. But if we estimate her
consumption. and deduct from it the at
tainable value of goods imported from
European and other countries besides the
United States, we will find that our share
of the trade is far from large and certainly
out of oil proportion to that which our
position as neighbor and our capacity for
production and supply would lead US to
expect. Nevertheless, there is no reason
why we should not compete with other ma
tions for the trade of Mexico and ultimately
control it by making it the interest of the
Mexican people to give us the preference.


Our special commissioner in Mexico tells
us in letter, which we publish to-day,
that we must 60 into the struggle in a
businesslike way, and follow the example
Of our competitors by establishing our
wholesale and retail houses in the important
ports and cities of Mexico, with the object
of selling our specialties in manufactured
goods and productions. He gives detailed
list of the number OF packages of goods inn
ported from the United States by one line
of steamers during the past four years.
While this number is not large it
still represents certain rather feeble
trade that may be strengthened by good
management and commercial enterprise.
Mexico has many products which find n
large consumption in this country. Coffee
alone forms On item worthy of notice, and
if we could establish such trade relations
with Mexico as would induce her to pro-
duce more of this and SO that we could take
it in part exchange for our commodities,
we would benefit both countries. Brazil,
for instance, sends us great deal of coffee
and other products, but takes comparatively
little from us in return. Her trade goes to
Europe. Suppose she saw that Mexico was
likely to become our source of coffee supply,
il 1t not likely that she would bid for q con-
tinuance Of our custom by becoming our
customer? She cannot afford to lose our
market for her produce. Let her offer US,
then, market for ours.
Year: 1879

is at present ready for business. Society
has done inestimable service to humanity
by ostracising brutal murderers. vulgar
thieves, shameless adulterer, and certain
other bad characters of whose lawlessness
the world has always had good reason to
stand in awe; but who dare say that 1t has
exercised the evil spirits which are at the
bottom of human misdeeds? Inclination,
selfishness and expediency are still the
rules of life of nearly every one who is not
exceptionally religious, and the Golden
Rule, which is the only standard by which
society can be compared with other redeem
ers accepted or suggested. is anything but
Mr.. James appoint to redeem society?
Year: 1879

IL l6 not easy 10 unOer6tauQ just Wunt
Alderman Shells means by his resolution
providing that hereafter oil work done for
the city in the various departments Of the
government shall be performed by days
work, and that the contract system shall
be abolished. The charter provides that
when any particular piece of work is to be
Gone, or any particular supplies are to be
furnished for the Corporation, the several
parts of which together involve the ex-
penditure of more than one thousand dol
lars, the same shall be by contract, ''unless
otherwise ordered by vote Of three-fourths
Council" This gives the Common Council
the privilege when any particular piece of
work or any particular amount of supplies
is ordered to set aside in that special case
the contract system. By exercising this
power in each separate case the Aldermen
might by piecemeal Legislation, it is
true, virtually abolish the contract system.
But they cannot do 30 sweepingly by gen.
eral ordinance or resolution any more than
the Governor of the State, who possesses
the power to pardon burglar who has been
convicted and imprisoned. would have the
right by general proclamation to declare a
pardon for every burglar who might be SEN
fenced to the State Prison. A head of o
department having to do piece of public
work involving more than one thousand
dollars expenditure would find on one side
city ordinance instructing him not to
give it out by contract, and on the other
side State law declaring that it shall be
done only by contract, unless otherwise
ordered by vote of three-fourths Of the
members elected to the Common Council.
1t would evidently be his duty to obey the
State law, unless he received official instruc-
ton that the necessary action to suspend its
operation in that particular case had been
taken by the Common Council.


IT. therefore, Alderman Shells resolu-
ton contemplates the abolishment of the
contract system altogether it is imperative.
If it relates to work done in or through the
several departments not involving an ex-
penditure of over one thousand dollars,
and therefore not embraced in the scope of
the charter provision regarding contracts,
1t Is unauthorized ana impertlnent. Inc
heads of departments are responsible for
the manner in which the work they con-
troll is done and for the careful and honest
expenditure of the amounts appropriated to
their use. The charter, which defines and
limits the powers of the Common Council,
nowhere gives them authority to interfere
with the departments in any such manner
as is contemplated by tho resolution in
question. Indeed, there is good reason to
suppose that the votes in the Board of
Aldermen by which 1t was adopted were
cast with the object OF making little cheap
capital among laborers, and not on tho
merits of the question. The resolution will
no doubt be vetoed by the Mayor. Should
it finally pass it would probably be disre-
garded by the departments.
Year: 1879

In THE SMITH TRIAL yesterday the testimony
went to show the intimate relations between the
wife of the murdered officer and her alleged
guilty accomplice Mrs. Smiths ncighbors seem
to have been deeply interested in her.
Year: 1879

II THE BILL introduced in the Legislature
yesterday in regard to the Department of Build
ings becomes law it will make some important
changes in that branch of the municipal ma-
chine.
Year: 1879

CIVIL SERVICE is to be begun in earnest in
the Custom House. The latest mandate from
Washington orders competitive examinations,
promotion for merit alone, and all that sort Of
thing There is no joke this time.
Year: 1879

mas resulted lTOm lucas OI the ShiHe nature.
Between the Transvaal and the Zulu coun-
try there is disputed frontier, and Eng
land in this dispute has taken the view that
gives the largest periphery to the country
she has absorbed. But it is evident that
the dcpreiations which Cetywayo has CON-
mittod in that country are Of doubtful
nature, and may be regarded variously as
one side or another is taken in the frontier
dispute. English officials regard the depre-
dations as Of slight account and rs more
than balanced by the deprcdations Of the
bc."s in the Zulu country but then they
hold that '.lesson must be taught !" that
the King must be shown the danger of
lifting finger against any one under Brit
ish protection. In that idea is the source
of the Zulu war.


Perhaps it is we'll enough in its way to
send out TO the savage and the heathen q
standard OF demeanor at the same time with
your missionaries and your Birmingham
goods and your troops to force them to
pray with you and trade with you, and, at
the same time, to ameliorate their style by
the dictation OF a code of etiquette toward
England and England's allies. But, then,
it is expensive; and point likely to awaken
in Parliament doubts as fierce as the rage
of the Zulus is whether or no England,
with the trouble she has at home, can afford
thus to constitute herself the instructor
general OF oil the barbarian princes in the
East and South. Indeed. considering the
Year: 1879

The success Of the Radicals in certain
Department elections in May, 1878, had
caused dismay among the reactlOnary lac
tions, and the cry was raised that So
ciety was in danger. Theirs would not
palter with the enemies of the Republic. He
would not dismiss Republicans from his Cab-
net or from office. He would not heed the
menaces and warnings of mOnarchicai in
triguers who knew as little about tho
real currents of the national Lille ana
thought as sea -guls know of the move
uents Of the tides or OF the Grllf
Stream. He would not turn about and
20 back. He urged the Assembly to establish
the Republic on permanent basis, ana wheh
a motion IN opposition to his policy was car
ried by the Right, he called upon his Cabinet
to resign and gave up the high once winch
had been conferred upon him lii q
great crisis of French history. Through
out his official term he had been his
own Premier, and when the Government
was defeated in the Chamber he did just what
the chief of the British Cabinet would have
done under similar circumstances. He was
not President in the American sense, nor "a
constitutional monarch like Lous Philippe,
but an English Premier invested with the
executive functions of the Crown.


The political conditions have changed dur
ing the administration of the second Presl
dent. He has never been his own Premier.
He has had Premier who formed Cabinet
for him, and whose main business has
been to manage him and to conduct
the administration as the representative
of the Legislative Chambers. The outcome
of the reactiOnary intrigue OF 1877 was
the establishment of the precedent that the
Cabinet must be in accord with the majority
of the lower house. The President has not
the freedom of action which an American
President enjoys. He cannot choose his own
Cabinet nor act independently OF it. lie can
not gather about him councillors or his own
party and administer the Government without
the interference of the Legislative Chambers.
His Cabinet is not responsible to him, but to
the Chambers. He himself is reduced to
something like constitutional figurehead.
The Government of France under the COnst-
tuition of 1875 is an anomalous tumble of the
American and English systems.


President MacMahon is pOwer!ess to resist
the policy of the French Republicans If he
will not 20 under he must go out, with his
Premier and his Premier's Cabinet He can
not resign with the same dignity and grace
with which Thiers retired from honorable
service. But he will have one source of salts
faction. The Republican leader who takes his
place will become constitutional dummy like
himself. VIII Gambetta care to be President
now9 Will he not prefer to wait until the
Constitution is revised at the close of the
SeDtcDnatef
Year: 1879

that the production of certain evidence was es-
sential to the ends of justice. and the evidence
had been produced. And from that momeut any
attempt to suppress it was blameworthy'
Those only were entirely in the right who in
sisted that all evidence called for and pro-
duccd no matter which party it might affect,
should be placed before the public. On any
other ground, it must be held that u
Congressional Committee has no hight what
ever to order the production of private tele-
grams, in its discretion, and OF that ground
the Democratic Committee of the House must
stand condemned as the chief offender.
Year: 1879

There IS a new furry III France. President
MacMahon REFUSES to reorganize the Army,
in compliance with the demands of the ma
jolity Of each Chamber. The wclworn
threat of resignation is renewed the Cabinet
may fall to pieces this week, and the com
pick question of the succession again be-
comes the supreme Issue OF French politics.
There may he compromise instead of Il
crisis, for Dufaure seems TO have been raised
up by an inscrutable Providence for the cx-
press purpose of managing the most amman
ageable of Presidents. Moreover, il is not
yet clear what the mastermind of the Re
public wants to have done. Gambetta has
made no sign


If the Marshal resigns. it will he because he
is not in sympathy with the majority of the
Legislative Chambers. The first President re-
tired from Office under similar circumstances
Year: 1879

which any man who dislikes trouble and kceniy
feels the hope deferred which maketh the heart
SICK may well ask himself. There are quite as many
suggestions of tragedy in the Patent once
as in any other department OF tho Govern
ment. But there is nothing inexplicable in the
litigations, prolonged and expensive TO which io-
ventions givo RISE The question of priority Is not
always easy to SETTLE especially in the matter OF
scientific discoveries. II is natural that there shonl
be doubt, when many clever minds have been seek
ing to supply single acknowledged want.
Year: 1879

The demand for THE TRIBUNE ALMANAC for 1870
has outrun expectations. The large edition which
was issued early this month has been exhausted,
and for a few days we have been backward in
filing some of the larger orders with which we have
been favored. The presses running on the new ed-
tiou have now caught up. and all orders are again
receiyinr Immediate attention.
Year: 1879

Evidently the "obstructives" have no
friends in the House of Commons, or no
friends certainly that are willing to help
them in case in which they had found
Joint in the Speakers armor. In the
ordinary course of legislation in the British
Parliament now the legitimate opposition
is of very little account for the liberals
under the presumed lead of the Marquis
of Harrington are an 'amiably disposed
body, and view almost all public questions
from nearly the same standpoint as the
government. This gives an opportunity
for a great deal Of outside enterprise-the
guerilla tactics of oppositlon-and band
of liberal guerillas recently amused them
selves by whipping the government on bill
for the regulation of corporal punishment
in the armed service. They were assisted
in this dash by those obstreperous Irish
members who have earned for themselves
the name of ''obstructives." In the course
of the skirmish the "obstructives," as they
generally do, carried their proceedings to an
extreme point, and the Speaker appointed a
special reporter to take more precise ac-
count of their doings than is given in the
ordinary report. He was called to account
tor this as for breach OF parliamentary
privilege, which in its essence it certainly
was, for only vote of the House could
give authority for such an act. Unfortu-
nately, however, for the motion of the sob
structives, the Speaker had the sympathy of
the House, which, by a vote of confidence,
assumed the responsibility for what he had
done. In the House OF Commons as in
many other houses, 1t depends upon whose
privilege it is that is violated as to whether
the violation is an offence.
Year: 1879

Indians desperate with hunger and deter
mined on war are to-day reported from the
neighborhood of Sitting Bulls camp as
likely to be the lively feature of the
summer. Many parties of Sioux are
scattered in the country north of the
Missouri on marauding expeditions, and
the concentration of all the Immediately
available troops under the command of Gen.
eral Miles points to the fact that the mil
itary authorities are fully aware of what is
on foot and are making timely provision to
meet the trouble. Another war with the
Sioux who have adhered to the fortunes
of Sitting Bull and those who are in SYM
pathy with them, has for good while ap-
peared to be an inevitable fact. Those Indians
cannot live on the Canada side of the line.
They cannot get meat by their own exer-
tions, and the British government will not
supply them. They must come on our
side +; yet they cannot and will not submit |;
they will not live on our side on the only
conditions on which we can permit them to
live They come as enemies, therefore,
and sooner or later they will all come
together. If that event is to happen now
we are perhaps as well prepared for 1t as
we shall be for good while to come


General Miles is one of the men who may
be relied upon to give good account of q
|. reasonable number of Indians, and his
present tactics of keeping the country be-
fore him clear of all Indians who pretend
to be friendly promises we'll for such a
hasty determination Of hostilities as will
not give time for the reservation Indians to
become generally demoralized.
Year: 1879

The developments in relation to the al
legged extensive conspiracy to defraud per-
sons out OF large sums of money by induc-
ing them to purchase or nuke loans on
diamonds which turn out to be worth
not q tenth OF the amount secured
promise to be somewhat remarkable.
The victims of such fraud scarcely
deserve sympathy. Pure diamonds are
worth fixed value, according to their
weight, and any person possessing them
can sell them or raise money on them up to
within small percentage OF their intrinsic
value. When bargains in diamonds are
offered it may be concluded that they are
faulty stones, without intrinsic value, or
that a swindle is intended in some manner.
If any person should tell o man of COM
mon intelligence that some lady in
temporary difficulty desired to borrow
five hundred dollars on hundred twenty
dollar gold pieces. he would be laughed ut.
Year: 1879

Sergeant Oates, of the First police pre-
cinct, ought to be instructed by his captain
or somebody else in his duty when oficiat-
ing at the station house desk. On Satur-
day afternoon two First ward politicians
were arrested on a charge OF fighting in the
public streets. One Of the combatants,
who has figured frequently in similar
disgraceful ARRAYS, was alleged to have
threatened the others life, and to have
been prevented from carrying his threat into
operation only by the quickness and vigor
of his antagonist with his fist. When car
ried TO the station house the brawlers were
liberal in their abuse of each other, but
were discharged by the efficient sergeant
because neither would prefer charge
against the other. The offence of which
they were guilty was that OF disturbing the
public peace, and the charge of the police
man who made the arrest was sufficient to
hold them. 1t was the sergeant's duty to
have locked them up and sent them to the
police court in the morning. They stood in
the station house as offenders against the
law, and not simply against one another.
The police have been instructed by police
commissioner learned in the law that it is
their duty to arrest and lock up oil night
any housekeeper who may sweep handful
OF dirt from her doorstep into the gutter.
Does the same authority hold that the
police have the right to dismiss q complaint
made against two brawling politicians who
create disturbance by fighting and
threatening to use revolvers in the public
streets
Year: 1879

An observation of the grain crop made in
all the counties on the line of the Union
Pacific Railroad as far west as the North
Platte River is reported in our kilograms
to-day; and gives indications substantially
similar to what have been hitherto reported
from many other parts of the country.
Wheat is in fine condition and corn is
likely to surpass any crop ever harvested.
Some damage has been done in places by
hail and some by insects. From other parts
of the country we hear of some complaints
that the dry weather has done harm. But
the areas affected by the various troubles
are small; while, taking all the grain pro-
ducing regions together, the evidence
is that we shall make crop greatly
in excess of our yearly average.
And this great product will coincide in
time with the occurrence of o good market,
for that there will be scarcity in all Western
Europe appears to be beyond doubt. 1t is
bad year in France and bad year in
England. Cold and rain have done the
harm in those countries, and cold and rain
have prevailed in all the other countries
Through this relation of the grain trade
the ''pull" against Europe that we have
had for some time-our season of great
comparative prosperity will be continued
yet throughout this year and will set our
financial condition beyond the reach of the
Congressional tinkers We shall hear less
and less of labor grievances as the money
gets more and more completely right, but
governments in Europe will have hard
time with overburdened and hungry
people.
Year: 1879

The verdict of the Coroner's jury in the
Seymour case, that the death of the de-
ceased was the result of accidental shooting
by some person or persons unknown. is q
convenient one for the police as seemingly
excusing their failure to detect the crimi-
nal, but is not sustained by the evil
dence. Indeed, while the tragedy is
involved in mystery. there is much
better reason for believing that it
covers murder than an accident.
The direction Of the wound favors the
theory that the shot was fred by some per-
son on a line with the deceased and only
short distance from him. Accidental shoot
ing implies that the pistol was fred from
the street below or from one of the oppo-
site houses above the level on which the
deceased stood, in either of which events
different. Besides, the chances are strongly
against the accidental firing of ball car
tridges into the seminary grounds, where
it is known that people are accus-
toned to walk. That people will recklessly
and criminaliy discharge loaded pistols in
the streets on the Fourth we know by acci-
dents resulting from the practice, but gen.
orally such shots are fred in the air. At
all events, verdict in this case of wilful
murder against some person or persons un-
known would have been more justi6able
than one Of accidental death. But then
that would have exposed the carelessness
OF the police in guarding the grounds and
have made record against them Of another
undiscovered crime, while now they get rid
of the affair and discontinue any further
Investigation"
Year: 1879

the course of Senators Blaine and Hamlin
by voting the greonback ticket. The green
back movement in Maine, as in many other
States, notably in the South, was the ex-
preston of discomfort and disgust with the
old parties. 1t gained its strength from the
support of men who were tired of empty
and barren personal politics and were not
disposed to be dragged at the heels of a few
machine men. If Secretary Sherman is as
wise and shrewd as he is generally believed
to be he may easily reunite the Maine re-
publicans on platform of honest money.
Year: 1879

The trial of Chastine Cox for the murder
of Mrs. Hull commences to-day. The
prisoners counsel makes no secret of the
fact that the defence will be s'homicidal
insanity" When the guilt Of a murderer
is undeniable the modern practice is to at
tempt to cheat the gallows by a plea Of in
sanity; but in this case there is but little
fear of its success. The confession of the
prisoner shows that his deliberate purpose
in entering Mrs. Hull's house at midnight
was to rob her Of her jewels,
and he has persisted in his assertion
that he nev er intended to charm hair OF
the poor lady's head" He was sane enough
to plan the burglary and robbery, and his
confessed acts after he entered the house
prove that he intended to secure the coveted
booty and escape arrest at all hazards. When
he sprang at his victims throat as she
moved restlessly in her sleep, and smoth-
cred her when in her terror she attempted
to scream, he was simply carrying out his
premeditated crime. A cooler, more sys-
tematc and more deliberate murder Was
never committed.
Year: 1879

yet it is just as ridiculous to suppose that
fashionable belle is anxious to sell or
pawn twenty thousand dollars worth OF
perfect old mine brilliants for five thousand
dollars. There is great deal OF imposition
and swindhng in diamonds, and when per.
sons are in want of such ornaments their
only wise and safe course is to treat with
responsible dealer and not 60 on search
after bargains.