smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1878

to your favor OF the 20d INST, L would
state that l have been too busy to
consider fully the subject of our new
Constitution. The question of funda-
mental law is one which ought now
to be carefully considered and calmly
discussed by every intelligent man
and woman in Washington Territory.
Too many Constitutions are framed
in this country with reference only
to the present, and not to the future.
A garment which fits our childhood
will be useless when we grow to our
full stature. | do not hesitate to
give you my individual views as to
what should constitute some of the
leading features of a Constitution
suited to the present needs and future
requirements of our prospective young
State:


1st. AS to suffrage: Common pau
pers and those adjudged vagrants by
due process of law should be dsfran-
chised; for, however innocent or un-
offending they may be, yet as po-
ltical element they are as dangerous
to good government as criminals,
idiots, and insane persons. On ques-
tons of the levy of special tax, a
property qualification ought to be
imposed upon the voter. No less
than six months residence within
the State, and thirty days within the
precinct, should be required. The
question of woman suffrage should
be submitted in separate clause to
the popular vote.


I'd. Taxes: All property except
that belonging to the public corpor-
ations should be taxed. There should
be no discrimination between the
property of private corporations and
that of individuals. This includes,
of course, the taxation of all Church
property of whatever denomination
or for whatever purpose used, as well
as the property of all private char
liable or educational institutions. AS
sessment and apportionment of tax
on Railroad property should be fairly
but permanently fixed. Taxes should
be collected by certain specified Off
GERS, and ought to be made payable
semi-annually. No discri mination
should be made against the property
of non-residents.


Sd. Judiciary: Our Judiciary ought
to be appointed to hold during good
behavior; or if elected, only every
six years. The Grand Jury system
should be dispensed with.


4th. Executive: Executive Off
GERS, both State and local, ought to
be as few as possible, and should be
elected for no less than four years,
subject, of course, to removal for
cause.


9Th. Legislative: The Legislature
should be carefully restricted in the
exercise of its law making power; and
also in respect to the number of its
members proportionate to the popu-
lation; as we'll as to the length of the
sessions. Biennial sessions should
be provided for; and class legisla-
ton should be prohibited, not by a
general and indefinite clause, such as
may be found in most of our State
Constitutions, but by specific provisions,
such as have recently been introduced
into the new Constitutions of some of
the older States. Nothing tends so
much to destroy public confidence,
and unsettlc the material interests of
the American people to-day, as the
foolish exercise of an almost unlim-
tied power, whereby our law makers
are continually changing or amend
Year: 1878

IT would be lamentable if Nation which
had just proved its readiness to fight and suf>
fer for a principle, should fail at last for lack
of common honesty; fail to keep its word in a
simple business matter: make shipwreck of its
honor in the hope, and the baseless hope at
that, of gaining or saving certain dollars in a
forced bargain with its creditors.
Year: 1878

l want to read just here In connec-
tiou with what l have been saying, the
ringing words of Judge Thurman, ut
tered in the Senate of the United States
on the 9th day Of March, 1874, when
the currency question was being dis
cu5sed. r


b He said: "Are we to do the business
of this country, for all time, upon q
Year: 1878

The speeches at the Democratic meeting
on Saturday night were amusingly character
istic Of the Democratic system ofpolitics.


They simply ignored the issue about which
people are thinking, aud attended strictly to
denunciation of the Republican party after
the old fashion. The currency question,
the chief and almost the only one in this
campaign, was passed by with brief and gen.
eral mention. In two or three years, after
the Republican party has fought and won the
battle for honest money, the Democrats will
arrive at the question and with sounding reso-
lutions and orations will protest that they
are the original and only hard money men.
1t is curious to observe with what certainty
and persistency they plod along several years
in the rear of events, and with what alacrity
and apparent delight they mount our aban-
doned platforms. These platforms are good
ones, only obsolete. The Democrats are poll
tical carrion crows to whom no question
seems tempting until it i, very dead indeed.
Year: 1878

HERE is cheering note from the Boston
Transcript: The word comes from Maine
that we have expected to hear. Blaine's
bold march to the sea has proved the Green
hackers boasted New England stronghold
mere shell. For example, in Newport, Me-,
the other day, where few months ago there
was large club, only seven votes were cast
for president, in the place of Mr.. Patten,
who is now busy making honest money
speeches. We have no fear but that the
great Butler bugaboo in this State would sink
into Its boots shapeless mass OF old clothes,
had we Republican leader or two not afraid
to drive straight at the scarecrow aud the
noisy crowd shouting around it.
Year: 1878

The whole Greenback doctrine appears to


be based upon the one great fallacy that


money-real, not representatives. not a


commodity, and that any material which the
Government chooses to label s'money" there
| by acquire value far beyond its intrinsic
worth, becomes, irrespective of any attrib-
| utes OF weight or size, equal in worth to 9TH
er commodities of much greater intrinsic
| value, and is perfectly fitted to be medium
of exchange, a store and standard of value
| and standard for deferred payment that
is, the Government can take slip of paper,


mark it some dollar'' and so make it equal
in value to a bush el of corn, and then


can take another slip of the same size,
weight and texture, mark it "one hun
dred dollars" and so make it equal in
value to one hundred bushels of corn.


This basic fallacy exposed, the whole green
back structure falls to the ground. The
Greenbackers seem to think they make a
strong point in favor of their doctrine when
they point out that where our gold dollars
are received in a foreign country, they are
not taken as dollars, but as commodities.
Certainly they are, for the fact that they are
commodities make them money Money is
a commodity. That is its very essence.


That quality is what gives it its value, makes
it money. It is received throughout the
world in exchange for other commodities, by
general agreement,-and only by general
agreement. There is no law that can COM
pei man to give away his property for mon
ey. He only does it because he feels sure
that all other men will do exactly the same
thing Jas he has done, and will give their
goods for money as readily as he gave his
goods for it. The Greenbacker confounds
the voluntary affixing Of money prices on
goods with the obligation imposed by the law
of legal tender of discharging debts with
money. The test of money is not: Is it
legal tender? Governments can, unless re-
strained by their own laws, make anything
legal tender; but they cannot make some
thing out of nothing-that is a prerogative
of the Almighty. They cannot give value
to something that has no value. They can
not create values. The government stamp,
the mark on coin, is simply this: It certi-
fies that "a gold dollar-piece, for example,
really contains dollars worth OF gold; that
if you choose to melt it you can sell the gold
in it for dollar; that il you give it in ex-
| change for any article the man with whom
you trade has received something as valuable
as the article which he gave. When the Gov
ernment makes this coin legal tender it SIM
ply declares that its coinage shall be accepted


by all itsi citizens in their transactions at the
| weight and purity which it has certified.
This is in order that no man shall put his
| neighbor to trouble, in making payments, by
disputing these qualities of the coin. But it
| is evident that this does not give Government
right to debase the coinage by certifying
that to be dollar which contains less than a
dollars worth of gold, for this would be to


cheat the people; still less can it afix arbitra-
| ry denominations to things, as pieces of
| birch.bark. or of paper, and command them
Year: 1878

The Helena, Ark, World, whose editor is
a candidate for the Legislature on the Demo-
cratic ticket in the strong Republican county
of Phillips, has tie following: Helena should
furnish to the righteous movements of the
Democracy now going on at least four COM
panies OF cavalry and the battery of artillery
which is proposed. The countrymen, old
and young, are immersed in the matter, and
they are already beginning to ask, why
should the city people stay back and leave
the work to US? Surely they are equally in
terested."
Year: 1878

We do not read anonymous letters and communi-
cations. The name and address of the writer are in
ah Cases indispensable, not necessarily for publication
put as guaranty of good faith.


We cannot undertake to return or preserve COM
munications that are not used.
Year: 1878

APPARENTLY the Argus is getting ready
to advocate the payment of the Southern
claims-but not till after election. 1t already
asserts, in all the emphasis of Italic letters,
that the claims are those of Southern Union
men. Soon it will be asking why they
should not be paid. The cost will not, prob
ably, be over four or five hundred millions of
dnllars
Year: 1878

While the fever has been taking away
the people of New Orleans by hun
drcds, and the death wagon has been
going through the streets, the humorous
column of the New Orleans Proyunc


has never failed, nor has it assumed the
tone of grief. Every day the faithful
paragraphist has had his little joke
about the people who asked sixty dollars
for ton of ice. He has said that
they will find some time place where
it cannot be got even for twice the
money, and has warned them not to
come to New Orleans at present. He
has had his little joke at the country
villages that have established a quaran.
tine against New Orleans, as the only
means of letting the world know that
such place existed When he learned
that the. Buffalo police had sent two
hundred and sixty dollars, he said !:
"Let us hear no more of the clubbing
together of policemen" Later ON he
advised the doctors "To pool their
issues; the yellow fever must CO." And
with tinge of scarcasm he notices the
fact that the season at fashionable
Northern watering-places is about to
close, and then our poor refugees will
be obliged to enjoy themselves in the
crowded cities" When the roll of the
stand-bys is made up, let us place high
on the list the name of the brave para
grapher of the New Orleans Picoyn'e.
Year: 1878

The tremendous force of the ocean
waves has been illustrated at Wick, on
the extreme northern coast Of Scotland,
where a brcakwater has been building


for some years past. 1t may give an idea
of what is meant by wave-power. 1t
was found that stones Of ten tons weight
were as pebbles to the waves, which have
been measured to be there forty-twO feet
from crest to the bottom of the trough


The outer end of the breakwatcr where
the storms beat most violently was built
of three courses of one-hundred-
stones, laid on rubble foundations; next
above these were three courses Of large
flat stones, and upon these mass of
concrete built on the spot, of cement
and rubble. The end of the breakwater
was thought to be as immovable as the
natural rock, yet the resident engineer
saw it yield to the force of the waves
and swing around into the less-troubled
water inside the pier. 1t gave away,
not in fragments, but in one mass, as
if it was a monolith. The displaced
mass is estimated to weigh about one
thousand eight hundred and fifty tons.
Year: 1878

An engineer on the New York Cen
tral and Hudson River Railroad has
introduced new feature by placing
looking-glasses outside on the engine, at
an angle from the cab. These enable
him to see the rear part of the train at
all times without putting his head ont
to watch for conductors signals when
making up trains. The custom of using
such glasses on private residences has
been in vogue for some time. Two
glasses are placed on window-sill and 50
arranged that person sitting in room
can watch all passers-by from either
direction on the street, or in case any
one calls and rings the door.bell while
madame happens to be dishabillc,
all that is necessary is to give the glass
a turn, and the caller is rapidly dis
cernable.
Year: 1878

A YOUNG physician of Rochester has
recently been looking over some of the
older books in his library and came
across the works of the celebrated DIR.
Rush, Of Philadelphia, who wrote a
treatise on the yellow fever, or, as he
called it, the " bilious yellow fever"
He made extended observations on the
disease in Philadelphia during the lat
ter years of the last century and the be-
ginning of this. In looking over his book
we noticed that he speaks of children
being affected with it, fact which con-
Hicts with statements recently made
that until this year children down
South were not attacked with the dis
ease. The doctors of that day had
strong belief in the efficacy of salvation
in treating the fever and were wont to
give mercury enough to require quick
silver mine to supply it. Bleeding was
also thought to be efticacious and
patients were drained of the crimson
fluid in quantities that would amaze
butcher. Rochester Union.
Year: 1878

WHEN woman combs her back hair
with two ropes, holds one in hen mouth
until she winds the other upon her tuck
comb, and then finds that she has lost
her last hair pin, she feels that the sex
needs two mouths-onc to hold her hair
in, and the other to make remarks with.
Year: 1878

A TORNADO at New Preston, Conn,
drove brick through the side of
strong house, then through two rooms
and hall, and had sufficient momentum
left to make large dent in panel of
the parlor II went with such speed
that the aperture it left was the exact
size of the brick, aud the edges were
almost as smooth rs if cut with knife.
This WAS all the injury done to the
hOIISp
Year: 1878

WASHINGTON, May 24.-Thc main feature of
the bill reported in the Senate by Mr.. Edmunos
to-day, on the subject of the electoral vote for
President and Vice President,i is provision that
electoral vote from any State from which
but one return has been received shall be re-


jected, except by an affirmative vote of both
houses Of Congress, and that in a case where
more than one return is received from any
State, the votes only shall be counted of those
electors whose title of electors the two houses
acting separately shall concervcntly decide is
supported by the decision Of the lawful tri-
bunal of such State, provided for by its legis-
latnre
Year: 1878

and the government of Canada shall
interpose to restore Niagara, as far as possi-
BILE, to the wildness and sublimity OF its
original condition. We recollect reading,
many years ago, a letter written by Horace
Greeley from the Falls, in which he ex-
pressed wish that he could have seen
them before the hand Of man had de-
faced their forest surroundings Lord
Dufferin seems TO cherish similar
sentiment. This is indeed mere
matter of taste, but an international park
around the great cataract, as proposed by
Lord Dufferin, would create a pleasant
bond of sympathy between American and
Canadian visitors. The disposition of the
retiring Governor General to establish
cordial social relations between the two
cognate communities will endear his men,
ory to both long after he has passed to new
scenes of honor and influence in the land
of his birth
Year: 1878

In the course of the epidemic on the
Lower Mississippi the attention of the pub
lie has been called more or less vocifer-
ously to q dozen or twenty 'infallible reme-
dies" for yellow fever. Minute descriptions
of how this terrible malady was treated by
this or that physician, who ''never lost a
case" have been so abundant that scarcely
an issue of daily paper has been without
one. Despite this plenitude of knowledge,
however, the people at Memphis and New
Orleans have died as if this fever were the
one disease that no one knew anything
about; and if there is still living any
practitioner who ''never lost case"
it may be s.fely assumed that he
was not on duty in the Southwest this
summer. In different epidemics the same
disease is seen in phases of severity so
variable that what is true in one year
frequently has no application in another.
This year the fever has been uncommonly
virulent, and plans Of treatment or specific
remedies useful in other years have been
absolutely without effect, and those who
have had the disease and recovered owe it
apparently to some peculiar vigor of the
system and not to treatment. Quinine has
especially been noted this year for it's
failure to control the development of the
disease. Perhaps this may be due to the
wholesale adulteration of this medicine,
which is part of the commercial morality of
the time, though it may be due to the diff
ferent ways in which it was used. 1t ap-
pears to have been given as for intermittent
fever, in some cases reported but the old
doctors gave it very differently. They gave
at the outset one enormous dose of thirty,
forty-five or sixty grains, and claimed the
most marvellous results An important
statement is made that is worthy OF inves-
tigation, with o view to the necessity OF
nurses. 1t is reported that the Chinese
have an absolute exemption from this dis
ease. This is possible, as diseases act very
differently on the different races of men.
If the partial exemption of the negro is bet.
tered by the total exemption of the yellow
man, this fact may be made practically i'm.
portant for the performance of many need.
full services in infected places.
Year: 1878

Doctor Petermann, on Thursday re-
ported as the victim of stroke of
apoplexy, was yesterday reported dead.
result that was naturally anticipated,
for though he was not so old as to
make apoplectic trouble necessarily fatal.
his studies and severe labors were perhaps
equivalent to IN additional burden Of years.
In Petermanns death the German world of
learning loses a man of peculiar distinction,
whose equal in attainments is not now
before the world. Geography as a science
has perhaps fewer resplendent names than
any other science cultivated to an equal
extent, but in the little city of Gotha is
on establishment that might almost
be regarded as geographical uni
versity, and in that establishment
the Doctor was without a peer for the ex-
tent of the knowledge he brought to bear
upon given geographical problems or for
his vigorous reasoning on various theories.
He was naturally deeply interested in the
geography of Cen trail Africa and in that of the
polar regions, for these presented to man
with love for studies of this nature the great
reservoirs of unsolved problems. His adj
mirable theory of the real secret Of polar
geography was recently printed in the
HERALD in the record of an interview with a
Herald correspondent. He was the first
eminent authority in geographical science
to recognize the authenticity and impor-
tance of the labors of the HERALD corre-
spondent in Central Africa, and was honestly
outspoken against the absurdity and ignor-
ance of an opinion once prevalent that
Stanley's discoveries were fictitious.
Year: 1878

THE WEATHER.-The pressure is high
throughout all the districts except in the North
west, where there are evidences of the forma-
ton of another depression which may organize
storm centre during its passage over the north
,ern lake regions. The pressure is also rela-
lively low over the Gulf districts. Rain has
fallen the Middle Atlantic and the Gulf
coast districts. Elsewhere fair weather has
prevailed. The temperature has risen in the
northern lake region and the Northwest. In
the other districts it has fallen generally. The
winds have been from fresh to brisk Oh the At
1antic coast and the Gulf districts, from brisk
70 high in the Northwest and generally fresh
elsewhere. 1t is probable that another storm
like the one that has just passed will be organ
lied in the far West, but its course will be
north ofour district, SO that there is very little
chance that we will feel any of its influence.
The weather in New York and its vicinity to-
day will be cool and fair. Tomorrow the same
conditions are likely to prevail, followed by in
creasing cloudiness
Year: 1878

Ir WAS DISCOVERED yesterday on the New
York Elevated Railroad that piece of scant-
ling two inches by four and thirteen feet long
can be broken by the weight of three men placed
at its centre but testing timber in such a way
ut such height from the ground and ut such
frghtful expense of human safety and comfort
would seem entirely unnecessary. But probably
the persons in charge of the operation will claim
That the stick was a scailolding slung aloft for
practical purposes, but men certainly deserve
better accommodation when at work than that
which would be barely sufficient for monkeys at
play.
Year: 1878

As WE ARE Nor CANADIANS it is not disloyal
to venture the opinion that the coming race be-
tween Courtney and Hanlan is exciting more
thought and comment in the Dominion than
even The coming of Victoria's daughter and
Argyle's son. The opinions of the men about
themselves will be found in another column
Year: 1878

The Honorable w. +. Cody, better known
to fame under his earlier title of ''Buiialo
Bill, has introduced four genuine Indians
into the dramatic combination of which he
is the head, and though they have not yet
scalped any one it is not impossible that
they and their race may yet take lead
ing part in the great work of the eleva-


tion of the drama. There are various ways
in which the standard of the stage may be
raised, and it is not yet certain that the
scalping knife and tomahawk are to
be despised as reforming influences. Aside
from these, however, the aborigine has


some dramatic qualifications that the pro-
fession in general lacks. He is far tonder
of acting than of talking, for one thing, and
though he does not undervalue the inhu-
ences of dress and that converse which is
with poetic license denominated full dress,
he seldom regards these as the full duty OF
man. He has in marked degree the faculty
of repose, in which some artists otherwise
excellent are lamentably deficient. He is
not averse to cosmetics, though when he
paints he never attempts to make art take
the place of nature. Should he volunteer
for "beneft" performance of any sort he
is not at all likely to play Romeo or Claude
Melnotte, so the theaire-going public is


likely to be saved from many an oit-told
tale. And lastly, his philosophical mind
has not absorbed the mysteries of injunc-
tons; SO when he is billed to appear in any
thing there is reasonable chance that
Year: 1878

How MANY MORE lessons do our police need
before they can suspect an unconscious or disa-
bed man of some trouble beside drunkenness
Even although the man Tracy, who died in hos
pital yesterday, had been drinking hard, there
is something horrible in the idea Of his under
going trial and imprisonment while suffering
from fractured skull
Year: 1878

THE LATE EXHIBITION of the Horticultural
Society was so successful III every way that
another is already projected for this season.
The public is to be congratulated upon this new
and delightful feature of the yearly round of
entertainments while the tastes which will be
cultivated through the socieiys efforts cannot
fail 10 add TO the attractiveness of many
homes
Year: 1878

purchasers of tickets to new plays will not
be disappointed by beholding old dramatic
standbys instead Of novelties. Room for
the Indian. Even if he should draw the
scalping knife upon the histrionic field, it
is not certain that he will hurt the public
as much as he may benefit it.
Year: 1878

A CALL for clothing for inhabitants Of the
yellow fever districts will be found in another
column, and the charitable may rest assured
that answers cannot possibly be too prompt or
foO pcnerous tt' 0