Year: 1875

Excise licenses. aaag'SSddSS 90 20
Premium on loans. aea212 ia
Market rents. 900 600 M
Real estate sold old................-. ZVzz'So9y 20 20


Total. a.........-...............'' =,


We are in doubt as to the correctness OF the
second item, being unable to satisfy ourselves
that there is not included in it considerable
sum derived from the sale of bonds issued 10
nav vacated assessments. Our first table shows
an increase of $4,255,110 SO in the net in
debtedness, and that is the sum by which the
taxes of 1874 should have been increased to
keep the Indebtedness from increasing.


INTERRUPTING THE CONTRIBUTION B0X


Why will people indulge in mathematics
when so solemn and interesting ceremony as
passing the contribution box is in progress
The utterly frivolous, not to say inhuman and
brutal conduct of some people, at time when
momentous events are getting ripe under their
very noses, is something that passes cOmpre-
hension. Here, now, is q newspaper in Wis
consin, light minded and profane, and-it goes
without saying-oppOsed to the present
National Administration-which does not hesl-
tate to break in upon the steady and majestic
tread of Judge Edmunds through the State of
Wisconsin, with q very indecent and wholly
uncalled-for mathematical process. Judge Ed
munds, who, as has before been remarked, is
the Postmaster at Washington, and the " Sec
"retary Of the Union Republican Congressional
Executive Committee" was calmly pervading
the State. In his red right hand he bore the
sign in which he conquered: the large, capa-
cious emblem of his calling; the subtle, bland,
insinuating contribution box. He was passing
it gracefully, and as one may say, fer
vently. He threw his whole soul into it
and still there was room. No Post-Office
escaped him; he paused pensively before the
mail agent, he nudged the drOwsy delivery
clerk, he surveyed circumstantially the Postmas-
ter. Many fled in dismay at his approach,
others looked him calmly in the face, and
while they curled their hands around their
ears and complained of Deafness persistently
misunderstood his mission; and occasionally
one would drop q button in the box.


The ceremony was ineXpressibly solemn, but
the Judge never faltered in his duty, never
deviated from the track of a Postmaster. He
could MT have been more serious had he been
soliciting subscriptions for tho Washington
Monument or the payment of the National
debt. And just here the ribald Wisconsin
newspaper to which reference has been made
broke in with wild mathematical yell.
Through some inscrutable dispensatiOn of Prov
idcnce, possibly from the hands of the person
to whom it was addressed, this dislOyal periOdi-
cal had come in possession OF one OF the
pathetic little circulars addressed by Judge
Edmunds to the persons who support the Ad-
ministration for regular pay. That circular
happened to be addressed to the holder of an
Office the salary and emouments of which
amounted to less than 5000 per annum,
and the remark of Judge Edmunds to the
official was that it was hoped the latter would
send fifty dollars to the Union Republican
Congressional Executive Committee "to pro-
vide for the immediate and thorough re-
organization of the Republican party and the
circulation of such documents as will be
" essential to the work." Whereat the irrev
erent newspaper whips out slate and pencil
and figures the amount as an assessment OF
more than 25 per cent of the salary; which OF
course is wrong as under the rules of
the reformed Civil Service there are no
assessments; they have been abolished; ;
we have nothing now but voluntary
subscriptions. From this point he goes on
with the further discovery that there are
two thousand Offce-hOlders in the State, and
that their salaries must average 5000 at least,
and that assessments in this proportion upon
all of them but he does MT mean assessments,
of course; he means voluntary contributions
would bring in the snug little sum of 100000
And then the newspaper man throws away his
slate and pencil and startles the contribution
box procession with the frightful cry "What
"forf" Not content with interrupting the SER
vices in this dreadful manner, he filings his
statistics about and calls the subscription q
corruption fund of gigantic proportions"


And this is what comes of an irreverent dis
position united with a taste for mathematics
and fOndness for statistics. There was no
need of computing percentages and calculating
aggregates and totals and all that sort of thing
upon such an occasion as this. 1t showed
bad heart to be doing it. The idea of whip
ping out slate and pencil and going into the
ciphering business when such man as Judge
Edmunds was engaged in passing the contri-
button box for Great Cause Nothing could
have been in worse taste. Nor would it be at
all surprising if the interruption should
interfere with the success of the movement,
and postpone the thorough reorganization of
"the Republican party,"-which would be bad.
We fear that Judge Edmunds has not taken
sufficient precautions to insure order and quiet
during the exercise. We recommend him next
time to precede it by little proclamation or
something, requesting everybody to keep still
while the contribution box is passed, and if any
body is found foolng with slate and pencil
during the passage, shoot him on the spot.
This is a kind of thing that requires a firm
hand, and wont bear trihing with