Current Topics

Col. Corbln, master of ceremonies at the Yorktown centennial, has issued a circular regarding the arrangement of the celebration October 18, 19, 20 and 21. Above 10,000 troops have already gignified tlieir intention f being presnt. It is believed that the militia done to take part in the celebration will exceed 80,'XX). Many states will end full legiments together with the [OvernorB of most states accompanied iy their staffs. For the reception and iroper comfort of the latter a building vill be erected. The adjutant generáis )l the state and cornmanding ofiicers ot' troops intending to particípate are equmtwl to cali for any informatidn coiicerning the celebration that may in any manner aid in rendering the occasion worthy of the great event it is designed to commemorate. The magnitude of the production of ron, steel, and coal will be strikingly shown in the forthcoming report of the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association. One item states that 1,500,000 tons of rails, iron, and steel were manufactured during the year 1880, and that 5,370,512 100 pouad kegs of cut nails and spikes were also produced. Coal to the amount of 4:,000,000 gi-oss tons was mined dnring the same time. It is now said that öulteau's attaek upon the guard was caused only by lus love of notoriety. Celluloid is a complex gorobination forined by mixing gun-cotton and camplior. tennial Exposition at l'hiladelphia, wliich was bought at auction recently by Mr. J. C. Biillit for $97,000. It is now stated on good authority that it is to be divided between the Wabash and New Jersey Central Kailroad Companies, and used by them for depots, car shops, etc. Capt. Cook, the Ohio veteran who was lined for slapping a man in the uiouth who expressed gratiücatlou at Guiteau'a crime, is likely to receivo several hundred dollars from a penny subscription started jy the Cincinnati Commercial, and now they are talking of sending him to the legislature. The reduction from 50 to 25 cents per word in the rate charged for cable messages, caused au increase of 100 per cent. in the number of dispatches passing oer the lines the iirst week of its adoptioii. Koomis, the fermentad milk ordered for the President, is frequently prescribed nöW by the physicians, and is readily prepared. It is kept by some of om' local dairymen. The Hussian original was of mare's milk. To make it of cow'b inilk ordiiiary beer bottles with patent stoppers are lilled with fresh milk, and into each one a teaspoonful of sugai aiu! one oí yeast is put. They are then slopped and lelt in summer heat. In a day or two a curU will rise lilling half ot' the bottle, but at a Bubsequent stage the wliey and curd coalesce again, and the mixture resumes the appearanue in a week of ordinair milk charged with caibonie acid. It is Uien to be drank, after cooltng. When the bottles are opened, the lontents are the most furious oí' all coi -keel stuff, and it will be hardly safe to attemjit it ia the White House, if it contains any work of art. Tbe bottle must be Liiiiii'U neck down into a big pitcher, the top covered wiüi a napkin, and the stopper loosened by passing the liare band into the pitcher. Otherwise it wil] be all over the clotliing, wall paper and otber olijucts of interest. The drink itself is a palatable acid, covered with a line froth, like beaten egg. It is a kind oí champagne milk, and is veiy favorable to persons who ueed au acid but nuiritious beverage. The Matrimonial Aid Society recently organized in Detroit, proposes to issue certiticates for froiu $500 to $2.000, at rates fröm 2.50 to $10 respectively. There is no limit as to age. When a meinber marries, payment of an indermite tinount, not exceeding the certicate is to be made by assessment. The organi.ers of this novel institution are not numbered either among our prominent financiers or our most experienced underwriters, and as some of the fundamental principies of mutual insurance are violated in their plans, it would hardly be safe to predict a brilliant success. .1 udge Vreeman, assistaiit attorneygeneral ot' the postoffice department, has given an opinión on the propriety of reducing exjiedited mail routes to the original sch-dule when the cost of the "expedición" is not warranted by the reven ues of the oftices supplied; or when f rom any other cause it is deemed for the good of the service to do so. He decides that under the law as it existed prior to the act of 1880 the postmaster general was not authorized to increase or expedite mail contracta except for causes appearing subsequently to the execution of the original contracta; and when orders have been procured by fraudulent statements, and payments have been made thereunder, it is the duty of the postmaster general to bnng suit for the recovery of such payments. Under the statute the postmaster general was not authorized to expedite or increase the service beyond 100 per cent of the original amount. He decides also that the advertising acts require the postmaster general to advertise not a portion, but all the vice tobe Iet, and tliat if, after making ;i contract, he should discover that the public good required liiui to doublé, triple, or quadruple the service, it would bn his duty to annul the contract and readvertlse; that where opdera for expedition have been improperly made he should annul them without one month's dtra pay. The only remarkable feature in the report of immigration for .July, issued liy the Bureau of Statistics, is the marked decrease in immigration from Canada. Last year 12,716 immigrants catne from that quarter in July, while the number in July, 1881, was only 4,890. It wlll be remembered that a surprisingly large immigration from Canada was one of ihe peculiar features of last year's returns, and there lias been some doubt whether the large manbers given represented in part immigrants from Europe, brought by steamers to Montreal, or persons previously resident in Canada. If the movement during the coming season should continue to resemble that of July, it would go far to settle the question. Froni (ennany the immigration last inontli was 20,074, against 11,275 in July, 1880; from Norway, 2,905, against 1,743; from Sweden, 0,067, against 3,779; and there was also a raarked increase in the arrivals from China. The Germán immigration amounts to nearly 37 per cent of the whole, and is unusually large. In the dim lightof thereports which have reached us about it, the tour of Czar Alexander III. and his farnily from Peterhof to Moscow and back beárs a very melancholy aspect. The motive of it is stated to have been - the communication comes from Copentiagen - the discovery on July 27 of a new plot against the imperial family, in which a number of persons of high rank were involved. The court departed a day or two later, without open preparation and without any announcement of the object and extent of the journey. The arrival at Moscow was, it appears, without eclat, and the words publicly addressed by the Emperor to the people of the oíd capital were nol words of cheer and encouragement, but a faint expression of affection and sadness: "Moscow bas always given an example to the wbole of Russia; I liope it will ever continue to do so." The newspapers explained that the Czar had come to Moseow to do homage before its holy Bhrines. On the 31st the imperial party left suddenly - the telegram says "secretly" - for Nizhni Nov gorod. In possible explanation of this unaxpectedly speedy departure, we have the news, concurrently ed ironi two quarters, that another conspiracy against the life of the Czar had been frustrated by the pólice, though the would-be assassin, a lady of high rank. managed to escape. AU we hear after this is that the imperial family arrived at Nizhni Novgorod cm August 1. at Yuryevetz, in the Government of Lostroma, on the 2d, and at Peterhof on the 5th - the journey having been completed in a week. It seems to have been the very opposite of a new monarch':} triumphal tour; if i was not a doublé flight. it certainly hac the appearance of it. Xo utterance ( ;uiy importance was niade by the Cza or by bis adviser and travelling com panion, Ignatieff. Xo allusion to th coming coronation was made, thoug mauy believed the Imperia] purty eoi templated staving in the oíd capital t ill coronat ion-duy. The Old Russians and Slavüphils expected a strong declaration in accordance with their politieal theories and aspirations, and must feel disappointed and mortiüed by Alexander III.'s lack of courage to make it. Nor is there any distinct indication that he is inclined to choose the opposite course and follow the path of liberal reforms which public opinión in St. Petersburg demands. He apparently hesitates and wavers, discouraging all his friends, while his foes are desperately active. The survivors of the old 20ch regiment of Michigan volunteers have decided to hold their next animal reunión at Eaton Rapids, fSept. 28. A. E. Cowles of Lansing is secretary of the association. ïhe X. Y. Times publishes some extracts from a letter on the subject of the proposed bankruptcy law, which calis attention to one oí the most crying evils which the lack of a uniform law always produces. ín many of the western and south western states, where jiublic opinión and consequently legislation are apt to be stronglj influenced by a consideration for the supposed interests of debtors, the exemption of "homesteads" from liability to sale under legal process has been carried to a point unknown in any other part of the civilized world. The Kansas exemption law, for instance, covers a quarter section of land in the country, an acre in an incorporated city, with all the improvements, and a good deal of personal property besides. It is said, and the estímate seems rather low, ihat undertheprovisions of this statute a debtor can withhold frorn seizure property to theextentof $100,000. The principie of the exemption of actual "homesteads" is a sound one, but the inilation of the "homestead" to this extent is objectionable. Such a law in many cases deprives a creditor of all redress. It is curious that communities which are always in the market as borrowers should think it advisable to pass laws which can only have the effect of frightening away lenders who do not like to take great risks; it is to the existence of such laws that the high rate of interest prevailinp in the communities which pass them is partly due. The fundamental idea of the land bill, which has received the queen's signature, is the recognition of the tenant's share in theownership of the soil. l'nderïts provisions he will havefixity of tenure for fifteen years on the payment of a rent which may be adjudged fair and reasonable by a special court, and he will have the absolute right of free sale of any improvements he may have made and also of whatever is implied by the good will of the occupant. The principies familiarly known as the "Three F's" are iucorporated in the measure: Fixity of Tenure, subject tu revaluation at the end of lifteen years; Fair Re.nts, as adjudicated by a tribunal of which the tenant has no reason to complain; and Free Sale of that new species of property which has been created by the peculiar conditions of the Irish land system and which was only partially legaliel in the land act of 1870. The land commission is emjiowered to advance to tenants threequarters of the money required for the purchase of a farm, and also to promote emigration to a limited extent, but these are side issues The main object of the measure is to remove the sources of discontent at home by providlng redress for the abuses of landlordism and by reorganizing the tenant's claim to a partial proprietorship in the soil. This object is secured through the intervention of a court eiiiiowered to lix a fair rent for a statutory period and through detinite regulntions for the sale of tenancies. Such are the crucial principies of one of the boldest and most complex agrarian measures of modern times.