SUBSCRIPTION, $1.00 PER YEAR. POLITICS; EVENTS; COMMENTS; LITERA TURE; (BOOKS, REVIEWS, ETC.)

IN MEDIAS RES.

LEGISLATIVE.

At a largely attended meeting of Hindoos at Madras, resolutions were adopted protesting against proposed British legislative interference with Hindoo marriage customs.

The Mexican Government, by way of retaliation, has placed a tax of $500 a car on horses and cattle from the United States and a tax of $2.50 per head on American hogs.

The commissioner of railroads says in his last annual report with regard to the bonded roads :"The same unfortunate condition of things exists now that has always existed since the bonds granted in aid of their construction were issued, namely, that the amounts annually received from the roads fall largely below the amounts of interest annually accruing upon the subsidy roads. The debts, therefore, due the Government from these roads, instead of being reduced, as it was the evident expectation of Congress that they would be, are rapidly increasing year by year.

"This increase, however, is not due to any failure of the railroad companies to comply with the provisions of existing laws. The fault rests in the laws themselves. The per cent of net earnings required by law to be paid in discharge of the Government obligations is not great enough to meet the interest which annually accrues upon the bonds issued to aid in the construction of the roads."

The commissioner recommends that the time be extended in which the railroads may meet

Price 5 Cents.

their obligations to the Government. Government ownership and operation of the roads he regards as a calamity.

In his annual report to the Secretary of War, Gen. Schofield, after saying that the time has come when the future possible or probable necessities of the country should dictate military policy," and that "the important seaboard cities should be so fortified, armed, and manned as to be capable of self-defence against the attack of any foreign fleet," expresses his hope "that Congress may be pleased at an early day to increase the limit of the enlisted strength of the army to that fixed in the act of July 5, 1870, viz., 30,000. Without this number of men this peace organization can't be made thoroughly effective, and cannot be relied upon for the service which may immediately be required of the regular troops in any emergency and before the ranks can be filled by recruits or volunteers called into the field."

Among the bills introduced in the Vermont Legislature are: an amendment to the law relating to intimidation, making it lawful for workmen, individually or in combination, to quit work when they see fit to do so, and also to combine for any purpose lawful in itself.

A bill directing the Board of Railroad Commissioners to investigate freight rates and to order reductions of exorbitant rates within fifteen days.

A bill to provide for the granting of pawnbrokers' licenses by selectmen. Pawnbrokers shall keep a complete record of their transactions, and the same shall be open to the inspection of the selectmen. No property shall be disposed of till after three months after maturity of the loan, and twenty-five per cent per annum may be collected on sums less than $1,000.

A bill authorizing towns to exempt new manufactories from taxation.

A bill to prohibit "docking" horses' tails and the use of the check rein except in specified

cases.

A bill prohibiting travelling on Sunday, except to church, or on errands of humanity and charity.

A bill making nine hours a day's work in Vermont, except in the case of farmers.

A bill making employers liable for injury to workmen caused by defective machinery, etc. In case of death, damages may be from $500 to $5,000.

Among the bills rejected by the Vermont Legislature are: The bill compelling corporations to pay their employees weekly, the bill exempting veterans from the payment of poll-tax, and the bill permitting the formation of co-operative savings and loan associations by any fifteen persons.

Iowa has a tramp law, which declares that "any male person sixteen years of age or over, who is physically able to work, who is wandering about begging or idle, and who cannot show reasonable efforts to secure employment, shall be deemed a tramp, sent to jail, and put at hard work. While in jail he shall not be be allowed tobacco, liquors, sporting or illustrated newspapers, cards, or any other means of amusement."

The Mississippi Constitutional Convention has adjourned. A resolution for submitting the new constitution to popular vote was tabled, following the precedent established by previous conventions of that State.

JUDICIAL.

Judge Bond, of the Springfield Superior Court, has decided that a man may select his own domicile and thus choose the place where he would be taxed, wherever he might live.

Judge McConnell, of the Circuit Court at Chicago, has decided that the Chicago Gas Trust has no right to deal in or to hold the stock of other gas companies The Court held that the statutes did not intend to authorize the aggregation of capital under corporate control for the purpose of mere investment, but only for the purpose of carrying forward legitimate business enterprise, while in the articles of incorporation of the Gas Trust there is distinctly announced the purpose of absorbing in different ways not only the property and good-will of other corporations engaged in the gas and electric light business but also the franchises of corporations organized before the passage of the act under construction and to be organized hereafter as they come into existence. This the Court held to be a confession of a usurpation of powers, and decided against the Trust.

A Chicago restaurant keeper refused to serve a colored theological student and ordered him from the premises. Suit was brought to test the constitutionality of the law relative to the drawing of the color line in hotels and restaurants, and the jury, under Judge Baker's instructions, awarded the plaintiff $211 damages.

The postmaster of Leavenworth, Kan., having excluded an edition of the Times because of a list of a Catholic fair raffles which appeared therein, the publishers of the Times instituted proceedings against the postmaster for $10,000 damages.

The Board of General Appraisers has decided the question of the constitutionality of the act providing for the classification of worsted cloths as woollens, which question has been raised by New York importers (TO-DAY, page 354). The board, expressing at the outset its opinion that it has jurisdiction over the matter, proceeds to discuss the main subject, as follows:

"The journal of the House proceedings unquestionably shows a majority of all the members to be present, and a majority undoubtedly constitutes a quorum to do business. The inquiry, then, is reduced to this: Can the House authorize its journals to be so prepared as to show a quorum to be present, although many of those included to make up the quorum were silent when the vote was taken by Yeas' and 'Nays' and refused themselves to record their votes? In our judgment, this authority seems to follow by implication from the three powers expressly enumerated in Sect. 5, Art 1.: —

"1. The power of the House to keep a journal of its own proceedings, which carries with it the power to make such journal speak the truth. 2. The power to compel the attendance of absent members, which also implies the authority to utilize their attendance after their corporal presence is enforced. It could not be intended that any member should be compelled to vote irrespective of any parliamentary rule on this subject. 3. The power of the House to make its own rules of parliamentary proceeding. This would seem to embrace the authority to adopt any mode of ascertaining the presence of a quorum in the House within the discretion of that body not expressly or impliedly prohibited by the Constitution."

The board cites decisions of the United States Supreme Court sustaining this method of obtaining a quorum, and therefore the validity of the law.

INDUSTRIAL.

Following the example of the English shipowners, the German ship builders and owners have resolved to form a masters' league to oppose their workmen's unions.

When a delegation of the unemployed mechanics of Milan some days ago asked the Italian Minister of the Interior to procure work for them, their speaker pointed out the fact that Switzerland, although it has neither domestic coal nor iron, possesses a flourishing metal industry, while the metal-workers of Italy, with its prohibitory tariff on metal ware, are suffering from idleness and starvation. "It is singular, indeed," the Minister is reported to have said. He promised to order two hundred railroad cars at the Government shops in Milan to partly relieve the distress of the complaining mechanics.

In the by-elections at Kiel, the Socialists, for the first time, elected both their candidates for the Reichstag.

The Pope, it is stated, will appoint a new commission of cardinals to engage in the discussion of the social and industrial questions.

Whole blocks of dwellings in the East end of London have been closed by order of the authorities, as unfit for human habitation. The county council has a scheme to purchase the lands on which these are situated and erect improved dwellings in their places, to be rented to the poor at very low rates.

In response to Gen. Booth's appeal for funds to carry out his scheme for the relief of the English poor, contributions are pouring in to him from every quarter, without pledge on his part as to when they shall be used. He has already purchased for $20,000 an old brewery at Sporeditch, and will fit it up as a house of refuge and school of industry. This is to be an experimental station open to inspection by every one.

The telegraphers in the Western cities have lost their strike. They have surrendered unconditionally, returning their charters to the "Brotherhood." The discharged men will not be re-employed.

By agreement made last summer with their employers, the journeymen plumbers of New York began work under the eight-hour rule on Oct. 1.

At Forth Worth, Texas, agents of Colorado coal-mining companies have been arrested on charge of "unlawful assembly." The agents had been securing men in Texas to work in the Colorado mines. The charge against them is made under a statute passed by the Legislature immediately after the Southwestern railway strike in 1886, which statute was designed to protect workmen against false representations.

Of the wage-earning inales in Massachusetts, about one fifth get less than one dollar per day; of the female wage-workers, on the contrary. over seventy-two per cent belong to that class. It is also stated that only 7,257 workers get over $20 a week, of whom 268 are women.

IN GENERAL.

"The Kreutzer Sonata was seized in Galicia by order of the Public Prosecutor. When the case was brought to trial the booksellers said that the novel contained no attack on public morals. The judge ordered the work to be read from beginning to end, and, this being done, he decided against the Public Prosecutor, and ordered the book to be restored to the owners. As a result, French and German translations are sold now freely, and others in Polish and Ruthenian are in preparation.

The London police closed an art gallery in Pall Mall where pictures were exhibited representing scenes from Rabelais. A number of pictures were seized, and the owners will be prosecuted.

The street department of Wilmington, Del., yielding to requests, has forbidden the Sunday display of bill-boards on the street.

At Amiens, France, a circus is being built at the expense of the municipality. It is also reported that when completed the establishment will be maintained at the expense of the city.

The London school board has decided to provide pianos for the schools under its charge.

A special institute will be erected at Berlin, at government expense, for Dr. Koch's experiments with his announced cure for consumption. Dr. Koch will read his report before the Berlin Academy of Medicine at the December meeting.

"The truth of the matter is, we are suffering from too much legislation, State and National. If the Legislature did not assemble for ten years, I do not think it would result in the slightest detriment to the State. It would rather be beneficial. I know what I am talking about, for I have served in both bodies of the General Assembly. I represented Oldham County in the Legislature of 1857, and served through the war and until 1865. I am in favor of extending the legislative term to four years, providing for but one session during that period, but allowing the governor to call the members together, in case there should be need."

And the Courier-Journal editorially indorses the judge's view, saying: "The judge is hitting close to the bull's-eye when he says we have too much legislation, and that once in four years is often enough for the sessions of the Legislature."

At one of the daily sessions of the Congress of the National Prison Association the chairman of the Committee on Police made a report in the form of "a protest against political intermeddling" in relation to the police force. The committee says that:

"A policeman should be able-bodied, pure in morals, and scrupulously honest; keen as an observer, in order to anticipate possible evil results. He should be insensible to fear, and should be the servant only to the law, and in no manner the subservient tool of any man or party."

"It follows that in order to get a chief capable and resolute to act thus his appointment must not be for political effect, and his removal must be for causes upon which politics do not act. He should be appointed because he has gained experience in the lower grades of the service and has won promotion by his zeal, integrity, and prudence. He must be removable solely because of incompetency, negligence, insubordination, or corruption. Given these conditions, and we shall hear and see no more of a chief of police granting virtual protection to gambling-houses to propitiate the civic head of a political party.

"And as with the chief, so with the rank and file, lieutenants and captains of the force. The rank and file should be appointed after a thorough examination as to mental and bodily fitness for the service, and upon satisfactory proof of these conditions testimonials as to moral character should be demanded, but no testimonial from an alderman, office holder, or saloon-keeper should be accepted. If accepted as mentally, bodily, and morally fit for service, he should be enrolled on probation, and after the lapse of six or twelve months he should become a full member of the force, liable to promotion for good conduct, and for that only, and to dismissal for bad conduct, and for that only.

"It is the pull' that gets bad men on to the force, and prevents them from being discharged from it. It is the pull' that procures the dismissal of an honest and zealous policeman, whose zeal and honesty have made him obnoxious to the dangerous classes. It is the pull' from a mayor or board of police that prevents the chief from closing gambling dens, from prosecuting pimps, from suppressing pool-rooms. And the pull' always is in favor of these vile elements, which improperly have been called political, but which really are but organized vice."