smithclay/nortonstories huggingface dataset:
Year: 1877

The action of the Legislature excites the
belief that nothing is to be done this session
to protect the people against unsound and
savings banks. Bills and resolutions. all
differing in their provisions and objects,
have been poured into both houses with o
profuseness that savors of q design to COM
plicate the issue and defeat all legislation.
There might be some hope that the insur-
ance committees, to which the various
propositions in regard to life insurance
are referred, would bring order out Of
the confusion, and compound from the
various nostrums some eficacious remedy.
But Mr.. Bixby has openly charged in the
Senate that the Insurance Committee OF
that body would do nothing Objectionable
to the insurance companies. It is alleged
that the House committee bears similar
character. If the Legislature had any
honest intention to protect the public the
way would be clear enough, without all this
suspicious confusion. A simple amend
ment of the laws, placing better safeguards
around the investments of such institutions,
increasing the authority and responsibility
of the Insurance Department, and making
trustees. directors and officers civilly and
criminally responsible for illegal acts and
false statements, combined with the com
plete reformation of the present incapable
neglectful or unfaithful management Of the
department, would soon clear away all un
safe companies and leave those which ART
safe and honestly managed free from th'
suspicion that now does injustice to some
and injury to all.
Year: 1877

Resumption or Specie Payments.


The fact that gold dropped yesterday to
104 7-S proves the sagacity and timeliness of
President Grants purpose to send message
to Congress recommending Legislation look
ing to the immediate resumption Of specie
payments. We cannot expect in many
years recurrence of the highly favorable
combination of circumstances which in
vite the country to take now the
final step to a sound currency. The step is
so short that it would be attended with no
pcrceptible disturbance of values. Business
is about to revive, and rs soon as the great
mass of idle laborers find employment there
will be IN enlarged demand for commodi-
ties and consequent improvement in
prices. five resume specie payments be-
fore this advance sets in the rise will be
normal and healthy, and the rehabilitated
business of the country will rest on
q secure foundation. But if we defer
resumption until prices shall have gone up
we cannot resume afterward without inan-
cial shock and shall be in danger of another
panic Prices are now at a very low ebb--
below even the specie level in active and
prosperous times-and are sure to advance,
whether we resume or not. Hereafter we
cannot resume without putting pressure
on the whole community by dimin-
ishing the money value of every mans
property. But if we stake time by
the forelock" and resume now, when we
are Just on the eve of revival of business,
we shall go through the experiment on
rising tide which will float US over obstacles
on which we might otherwise run aground.
With gold so low as it is at present we shall
hardly feel the effect Of resumption If &C
complished at time when all the prospects
of trade tend to carry prices upward. We
must take the step at some time, and no
future time is likely to be so propitious as
the present


The state Of our foreign exchanges is as
favorable to immediate action as are the
condition and prospects of our domestic
trade. Our exports of commodities have for
some time exceeded our imports, and we
are actually importing large sums of gold,
although this is one of the great gold pro-
ducine countries Of the world. In this
condition of things there is no
danger Of o drain Of gold out of
the country, and we may boldly resume
without risk of miscarriage. There need be
no fear of contraction, for the banks will
issue oil the currency for which they can
find employment when q small part Of the
green backs is withdrawn by funding We
are glad that President Grant recognizes
and appreciates this great opportunity and
intends to press it on the attention of Con-
press
Year: 1877

The President of the Board of Aldermen
yesterday introduced resolutions into that
body setting forth the necessity of rapid
transit, and directing the Mayor to ascertain
the practicability Of enlisting private
enterprise in the solution of the rapid
transit problem by utilizing the tun-
nels above and below the Grand Gen.
trail Depot. The Aldermen have nothing
whatever to do with the initiation of pro-
ceedings for the construction Of steam rail-
way through the city. The law of 1875 pro-
vides that whenever the application Of fifty
reputable householders and taxpayers
of city, verified upon oath before
Supreme Court Judge, making it ap-
pear that there is need of such a
road, shall be made to the Mayor
that official shall appoint five commission
crs, whose duties the law then proceeds to
define. Mr.. Purroy's resolutions are there
fore entirely useless, and should not in any
degree discourage the efforts now being
made to give the city real rapid transit by
meaps of the proposed Elevated Railway. The
Board of Aldermen has no more power, au-
thority or influence in the matter than the
Board of Education. The Elevated Railway
has the full right under tho law to construct
the much needed road and the road will no
doubt be built despite the opposition of the
horse-car companies or the opinions of the
Aldermen.
Year: 1877

The farmer looks forward to the season Of
spring MS that which must brighten or
darl,en his prospects Of q favorable harvest.


The operations of agriculture are SO varied,


and depend so much on conditions of the
weather, that anxiety regarding the planting
season is always justiiable. The passing
winter is being regarded rs exceptionally
severe by those not engaged in farming.


Intense cold, heavy SHOWS and rains, de-
structive floods and violent gales, have
marked its progress and lent to its history
a very sad interest in view of the loss of life
along the coast and the devastation caused
on the Ohio and other rivers. The season
has presented to meteorologists one of those
instances of sudden and extraordinary
compensations by which nature adjusts
the atmospheric equilibrium which has
been subjected to o series of disturb
ances through several years The ex-
trenie warmth of last summer resulted in
many evils to tho farming class. In the
West the growing crops were injured by pro-
loprcd periods OF drought or were cut down
by the voracious swarms of grasshoppers,
which divested some extensive districts OF
every trace of vegetation. The potato bug
extended the area Of it's destructive opera.
tions from the Rocky Mountains to Cape
Cod. The various crops suffered in theiI
several districts from an excess and want
of moisture, and the whole agricultural in


terests of the country felt the stagnation o


business caused by our political uncertain
Year: 1877

ties and the difficulties that arose out OF the
question of cheap transportation.


Now. however, more cheering prospect
presents ITSELF for, after the severe winter.
we are pretty certain to enjoy fine spring
season, extremely favorable for farming op-
erations. The heavy SHOWS have brought
to the soil important chemical additions
which cannot fail to increase its fertility.
1t has also blanketed the face of the country
eastward of the Mississippi with good
non-conducting covsrirg. by which radia-
ton of heat has been checked and vegeta-
ton consequently protected from the de-
structive effects Of the intense cold. The
larvm of the grasshopper and potato bug have
been probably destroyed in the regions
Although q paragraph is being extensively
copied from Western paper to the effect
that an experimental thawing of some masses
of earth has proved that the grasshopper
eggs have not been destroyed by the recent
severe cold, no unfavorable deductions can
cause the conditions of the alleged test were
peculiar to it and will not attend the natu-
raj and very gradual thawing out of the soil
during the coming spring 1t is possible
that some region thickly covered with
snow may develop q grasshopper crop.
but the great area Of the North
west and West has not been so
covered during this winter. Our
political doubts are on the eve Of being dis
sipated by constitutional means, and there
con be no question about the early settle
ment of the transportation problem on a
basis satisfactory to all parties interested.
With these cheering considerations before
us we look forward to renewed activity in
the fields, which will be rewarded with
abundant harvests when the year grows
older.
Year: 1877

short notice, regardless Of whose pet It
might be- They should in like manner
welcome the wandering little Spitz demon
wherever he may be found, with ready
hands, to. the first available hospitable
grave If people love such pets lot them
keep them in their own arms Then If the
darlings bite anybody we shall only have
fewer simpletons in the world. The popular
cry should be ''War to the knife on the
swapping Spitz."
Year: 1877

A LUSATIc murdered his aged mother yestcr-
day ON Staten Island and tried to kill his sister.
natural repugnance to lunatic asylnms has
thus led to terrible tragedy. Tho care of
persons Of unsound mind should not he assumed
by relatives, for danger is then always lurking
about the house. We have had two or three
proofs Of this fact within as many weeks.
Year: 1877

The representatives of the commerce of
the city, who have undertaken to discuss
and agitate the question Of dock improve
ments and other subjects affecting the busi-
ness interests of the city, held an interest
ing adjourned meeting at the Chamber OF
Commerce yesterday. committee ap-
pointed at former meeting to consider the
important question of terminal facilities
made a report which will be found pub
lished elsewhere. The serious drawback on
the progress and prosperity of the me-
tropolis is we'll known to be the
difficulty of moving and the expense
of handling freight after it arrives
at the railroad depots on its transit
to the docks for shipment. This is in
great measure consequent on the shape of
the city, the railroads being compelled to
terminate at some distance from the lower
and at present mostly used docks. In other
cities freight can be carried on the railroad
cars to the door of the warehouse and the
side of the ship, but this has up to the
present time been impracticable in New
York. Transshipment has been necessary,
and the means of transporting freight from
the cars to the docks and to the business
centre have been entirely inadequate.


One plain remedy suggests ITSELF AS we
cannot bring trains of cars through the
heart of the city we must endeavor to bring
them along the water line, close by the
rivers which hold us in their arms. This,
with the improvement of dock facilities in
the upper part of the city, and clear, nav
igable passageway from river to river
through the improved Harlem River and
Spuyten Duyvil or Shermans Creek, will in
future years make us masters of the situation
and give us facilities which cannot be sur
passed. But we want Immediate relief. and,
recognizing this, the committee proposes
the rapid completion Of the bulkhead lines
by the use of wooden cribs and the widen
ing of the river streets, SO as to allow double
track freight lines all around the city. The
committee condemn the construction of
stone bulkhead, on the alleged ground Of
excessive expense and great delay.
In this, however, they are in error.
Because the dock improvements have
been going on slowly and expensively
it does not follow that stone bulkheads, un-
der proper management, cannot be rapidly
and reasonably constructed. Competent
authorities have declared that under con-
tract, with careful and strict supervision,
stone bulkhead wall can be built at the rate
of one mile year. There is no reason why
three or four contracts cannot be carried on
in different parts Of the line at the same
time, thus completing three or four miles
in year. 1t is estimated that the
stone wall might be built by contract for
about two hundred dollars per lineal foot.
These are matters that should be carefully
looked into by committee SO respectable as
that engaged in the movement. Let us
have the required improvements as rapidly
as possible, but do not let us, through mis-
taken ideas of speed or economy, commit
ourselves to plans that would be inefficient
or undesirable in the end.
Year: 1877

1T Is SEAsoNABLE to find two defendants in
court named Snow, but if all that is charged
against them be true the sooner they melt and
disappear tho better. The is remarka.
bic one and shows how dishonest business men
can be if 40 minded.
Year: 1877

UsunY LAws.-At the monthly meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce yesterday Congress was
petitioned for the establishment of a Department
of Commerce, and the bill repeating the usury
laws was indOrsed.
Year: 1877

It is perhaps scarcely worth while to dis
cuss the wisdom of the proposed appropria-
tion of money for the survey Of q railroad
route in Africa, inasmuch as it cannot be
possible that money will be spent in such a
way at time when the democracy, through
pursuit Of economy, is getting o cheap
reputation for legislative virtue The petit
tion in which this appropriation is asked
for presents as its ultimate purpose the
s'opening market for our manufactures
with Central Africa, which is . largo pro.
gramme. and proposes the modest initiation
Of preliminary survey ''from the Republic
Of Liberia one or two hundred miles into the
Niger valley" As 1t is proposed that the
railroad thus begun shall be transcontinen-
tai it will eventually exhaust q great many
such instalments, and before spending even
q little money Congress will naturally want
to know how much money it must eventu-
ally spend to utilize that little. It is alto
gether a bad time to propose that Con-
gress should build transcontinental rail-
roads, especially in Africa.
Year: 1877

of honest intentions and fear that the great


trouble with him is that he has had bad ad-


visers. We do not doubt that he can make
a better Cabinet than the present, and that,


too, without advertising and even WITHOUT
consulting the tastes Of sprightly Western


editors or enterprising Washington corre-
spondents. When he does change his ad-


visers we hope he will rely on his own good
sense-the same good sense that dictated
the best parts of his Message. We fear he
has lent too indulgent an ear to Western
prairie geniuses and brilliant Washington
correspondents. These correspondents
seem to think themselves commissioned to
wind up the clock of public opinion but
the editors are more than certain, they are
cock-sure that they correct the time.
Strangers at Washington, taking these twin
powers at their own valuation, would sup
pose that they rule not only the President,
but the Cabinet, Congress and the whole
country. Such strangers would return
home more mixed than Dickens was on his
first visit and be qualified to write sillier
book than his American Notes" In all
kindness to President Hayes we hope he
will cut loose from foolish advisers, whether
of the backstairs sort or belonging to his
Cabinet. n


In spite of some blunders he has still
golden opportunity, and with sagacious
Cabinet he might emulate our really great
Presidents and aspire to rank next after
Washington and Lincoln. 1t may be said
that Washington laid the corner stone OF
the Republic, that Jackson made it habita-
.ble, that Lincoln put on the root, and
Hayes, if he rises to the height of his oppor-
tunities, may accomplish work hardly less
valuable Besides, from the exceptional
achievements of Washington and Lincoln
the country has done much under other
Presidents. The War Of 1912 proved
our ability to take caro- Of our
selves, and the Mexican war attested
the resolution with which we protect
our borders and the generosity with which
we treat q conquered country. We paid
handsomely for all the Mexican territory
which we annexed, although we might have
held it by what Bismarck called the divine
right Of conquest. We feel sure that Presi-
dent Hayes will protect the public credit
and maintain the national honor unsullied,
and if it should become necessary to take
Mexico in hand again we hope he will equal
the vigor and eclipse the magnanimity of
our first Mexican war. He has great oppor-
tunities and has not yet fallen into any mis-
takes SO irretrievable as to prevent his leav-
ing brilliant record.
Year: 1877




The threatening aspect of the political
crisis in France has been happily changed
to one favorable to pacific and even COM
plete solution Of the problem Of government
by the withdrawal of Marshal MacMahon
from his untenable position Of dictator.
The reactionists who surrounded and
advised him to assume an attitude antag-
onistic to the country, having overdone
their work, were appalled, by the situation
they created. and have permitted the better
impulses of the President to assert their
supremacy and inspire him with desire TO
end the struggle by yielding to the popular
WILL Our special despatch this morning
recounts the incidents that ushered in this
policy Of conciliation. The Marshal found
it impossible to count on support from the
monarchical but anti-Bonapartist group
of the Senate for his scheme Of dissolution
which the more desperate of his advisers
prompted him to put in force, and,
knowing that the contest if prolonged
must certainly have ended in civil war
or his resignation. Of power, chose the
sensible course Of accepting o Ministry
representing France instead ofretaining one
that only represented faction. With mill
tary abruptness he says to NJ. Batbie, II
give you carte blanche TO make Ministry In
twenty-four hours" and to the Prefect Of
Versailles II sacrifice you, but am obliged
to do so." Here is the whole case in o nut
shell. The cause of France triumphs, but
officials lose their places.
Year: 1877

The striking cigarmakers have succeeded
In obtaining possession of large factory on
vesey street, which is to be opened to-
morrow or Monday and run on the CO.
operative principles 1t will, at starting, it
is said, have q force Of Ave hundred men.
It is to be hoped that the scheme will sue
coed, and there Is no reason to doubt
it's success with prudent management
The market must now be in need Of
o supply, and retail dealers will be
very likely 70 patronize the cooperative
association in preference to individual
manufacturers II they can get from
the one as good and as cheap an article
as from the other. Some Of the manufac-
turers have not manifested q good spirit
during the troubles. They have sought
rather to crush the strike by oppressive acts
than by conciliation, and tho result has
been to make the breach between the en-
ployers and employed the wider tho longer
the difficulty has continued. Should the
first cooperative manufactory prove sue
cess Il will lead to the establishment oi
others and may materially change the
character Of the business in this city.
Year: 1877




A Friendly Reproof Of tho President.
The best friends of Mr.. Hayes are panied
and perplexed by his weak. vacillating and
inconsistent course on the great subject OF
civil service reform. Like all men in power
he has sycophants as we'll as friends Syco-
plants play the lackey and fatter, but real
friends think it their duty to speak the
truth-somo with blunt plainness. in the
hope of arresting his attention others by
insinuation and elaborate courtesy. Mr..
Hayes must not make the mistake Of
reckoning those who speak out faithfully as
his enemies. At all events he will not
make that mistake in the case of SO true and
who 80 eloquently defended him in the
Rochester Convention Mr.. Curtis is the
editor of Harper's Weekly, and in the last
number of that considerate journal he closes
long leading article on the President with
the following candid and manly remarks:-
II would be uncandId however not TO state frankly
that those who are most disposed 10 support the ad
mnstral,on have been disappointed that its course
seems ~ times TO be both tInid and Inconsistent.
Decision, vgor and courage arc always inspirlng ana
u has been TOO often forgotten by the administration





ars not especially politicians and who do not make
themselves loudly heard When such friends see
things which they cannot explain nor reconcile with
the ASSUMED principles or tho administration
they have nothing 10 say IN reply 10 the Jeers and
taunts OF Its open opponents, and, without doubling
good Intentions, they are dishearoned and porpsxed
Undoubled the only chance for the republican party
lay, ana lies In the general direction IN which the Pres
ident began firmly to move after the inauguration.
But uncertainty ana hesitation destroy shat only
chancG' The same 1rnness ana vigor and reliance
upon the patriotic Intelligence Of the country viii
arouse all the national confidence and spirit Which
only ask courageous leadership 3tN iff
We hope the President will lay these
regretful sentences to heart and enable
those who would gladly support him to do
50 proudly, heartily and without reserve.
When SO true . supporter as Mr.. Curtis
feels constrained to tell the President that
his friends sssee things which they cannot
explain nor reconcile with the principles Of
his administration" that 'they have
nothing to say in reply to the taunts and
jeers Of its open opponents" and that
'they are disheartened and perplexed," it
is time for the President to revise his
course. N.i
Year: 1877




Por long while it has been acknowledged
that dinner with Duke Humphrey was
very insufficient repast for the hungry, and
future ages may be called upon to concede
that Judge OF the same family can render
judgments as light and airy with regard to
law as the Dukes dinner with regard to nu-
tritious viands. But II Judge Humphrey


decision in the case Of Senator Patterson
had not much law in 1t at least 1t contained
some fine phrases, some original views in
regard to faction and first rate testimonial
or character for the United States Senate.
II any one wants more than that in single
decision he is unreasonable. That body
(ths Senate) the Judge holds Is 'morally
and intellectually capaoitated" to decide on
Patterson's case, therefore the Judge "cannot
reconcile IL to his sense Of duty to give aid
in placing manacles and handouts around
and about the individual citizen for the
purpose Of surrendering him bound into
the hands OF those who may not be dis
passionate enough 70 vindicate the true
right OF the individual, or to those who
might be led BY impassioned appeals to .
Year: 1877

CONGRESS YEsrERDAY.--TheH House appears to
be disinclned to do any business until after the
holiday recess. 1t was only a short time in ses-
sion yesterday. The Senate after long dis
cussion decided to take up the Silver bill next
Tuesday. An effort to postpone it until after
the vacation was defeated by vote Of Al to 18.
Year: 1877

condition Of mind that could not resist. "
This is one Of the finest bursts in all the
records Of judicial eloquence or any other
eloquence. 1t would have been polite, per-
haps. to assume that the courts OF South
Carolina may care as much for mems rights
as the courts Of the District of Columbia
but judge with the fury on him could
scarcely be expected to stop for tride like
that; and this splendid refusal to cover and
surround citizens with manacles and hand
cuffs Is, considering the price of iron, at
least grand piece of economy.