The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, March 08, 1888, Image 1

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ESTABLISHED 1865. NEWBERRY, S. C., THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1888. AN IMPORTANT DECISION. Judge Norton Decides that Township Subscriptions to Railroads is Unconstitutional. [Keowee Courier.] An important decision was rendered by Judge Norton at the recent term of court at Abbeville. It is important to tax-payers, as limiting the power of subscriptions to railroads by townships, denying such power in the. case at issue on two grounds: first, because a township, not being a corporate body, the Act chartering the Greenville and Port Royal Railroad and amendatory Acts chartering the road as a body cor porate, attempts to create a township a corporate body with the sole power and for the sole purpose of enabling it to subscribe to the stock of anothercorpo ration, the railroad. This he holds violates Article 2, Section 20 of the Conititution, that "every Act or reso lution having the force of law shall re late to but one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title." Second, were this point successfully controvert ed the Act would still be obnoxious to Article 9, Section 8 of the State Con stitution. Within the meaning of this provision Ninety-Six is not a township and the purpose as to it, subscription to the railroad, is not a corporate pur pose within the meaning of the provi sions. The two Acts so far as they authorize a subscription by townships to the railroad in question, and so far as 'they purport to incorporate any town ship or townships, are dec'ared to be unconstitutional and void a:id taxes levied under such Acts are iliegal. The following is the full text of the deci sion: THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, ABBEVILLE COUNTY, IN T_E COURT OF COMMON PLEAS. Jefferson Floyd, et al, Pl'ffs,1 Complaint against' J. Wadlaw Perrin, Treasur- ) for urer of Abbeville County, Defendant. J Relief. This action was begun by the plain tiffs on the 23d February, 1887, under Section 268 of the General Statutes, to recover three hundred dollars and five cents of taxes paid by the plaintiffs under protest, to meet the interest on the bonds issued by the County Com missioners of said county as corporate agents of Ninety-Six Township under the provisions of an Act entitled "An Act to charter the Greenville and Port Royal Railroad Company," passed 23d } ,December, 1882; and of an Act entitled "An Act to amend an Act entitled 'An Aet toeharter the-Greenville and Port Royal Railroad Company,' passed 24thDecember, 1885, which tax plain tiffs allege has been illegally assessed and collected; because, first sundry of the conditions precedent to the issuing of the bonds have not been performed; second, the railroad company has locat ed its line in a direction not authorized and has thereby forfeited its charter; and,- third; the Act authorizing the subscription is in violation of Article 2, Section 20 and Article 9, Section 8 of the * Constitution of this State, and ask judg ment, declaring the said Act and -amendment unconstitutional, the asses ment thereunder illegal and for the repaymentofthe sums paid by the plain tiffs thereunder, The defendant alleges that all of the conditions precedent to the issuing of the bonds were duly .performed and -pleads res iudicata as to the validity of the bonds. It is well settled that in the hands of a.n innocent holder, the recitation in the bonds of the performnance of conditions precedent, is binding on the tax-payers liable to their payment, but that in the * hands of persons with notice, the pera formance of conditions precedent may beinquiredinto. The defendant is en titled to whatever defenre the holders of bondIs could ma1ke. The bond-holders not having been made defendants, the burden of the proof is upon plaintiffs to1 show that the tax shouldnot be colleet ed. In the absence of evidenel must ~IIP assume that the bonds recite the per formanceof all the conditions precedent to their issue and are in the hands of innocent holders. The plaintiffs are therefore estopped from shioWin.g that the conditions prece d1ent have not been performed. They ye not estopped from contesting the v'aidty ofthe bonds on other grounds. The charter of the railroad company can be declared forfeited only by proceedings directly instituted for that. .purpose. Plaintiffs therefore fail on that ground. The Act under consideration being to charter a railroad company also gives power to counties, townships, &c., to r subscribe to its stock in a certain way p. 'and enacts that for the purposes of the Act townships "shall be, and they are khereby declared to be bodies politic and corporate, and vested with the necessa ry powers to carry out the provisions of * t,his Act." Authority establishes the validity of the Act as to municipal cor porations already in existence, such as counties, cities, etc. The questions therefore seem to nme to * ist. Is a township a municipal corpo ration? 2d. If a township be not a corpora tion, is its creation so foreign to the title of the Act under consi'daration as to5 be considered a distinct subject? 3d. If a township be a municipal cor poration is a subscriptonk to a railroad company a township corporate purpose? Municipal corporations are the inhab itants of small territorial subdivisions of the'Saeivse with subordinate local administration of their own af fairs. .- By the Act of September 26th, 1868, townships were incorporated with the grant and vote moneys for making ! highways. This Act was repealed by Act of January 19th, 1870, (14th St.. F 313) and townships were deprived of all corporate power; but the names and boundaries were preserved, presumably because such names and boundaries had been generally adopted as assessment ( and school districts under other statutes I which conferred no powers upon the or- t: ganizations as townships, though in the r( former they were mere geographical I lines for convenience in assessing and g collecting taxes; and in the latter pos- , sessed of corporate powers by law for e school purposes alone. Gen. Stat. Sec. ( 1008. I conclude that a township is not S a corporation. r The title of the Act relates only to the it incorporation of the railroad company, r but its general purpose being to provide t for the construction of the railroad, it si has been authoritatively held that any o subject germane to the object is suffi- o ciently embraced within the title, with- s out making the title a general index, e thus, that giving authority to a coun- a ty to subscribe to a railroad com- - v pany, which without such authori- 3 zation could not do so, is embraced with- 'f in a general title to incorporate that rail- E road, because a railroad is a highway, t the building of which is as much within e the general scope of the corporate powers & of a county as the construction of other fc highways, (legislative authority being J necessary to legalize a tax for the latter,) o and the authority to subscribe was mere- 2 ly in futherance of the object of the Act.. l A township not being a corporation v the present Act goes a step further and b creates a corporation with the sole power t and for the sole purpose of enabling it to f subscribe to the stock of another corpo- v ration. That further step renders it ob- h noxious to Article 2, Section 20, Consti- i~ tution South Carolina, in that it relates fc to the creation of two separate and dis- t tinct corporations, only one being men- li tioned in the title. t But as this conclusion will doubtles be o controverted, let us see whether if not b obnoxious to that provision of the con- hi stitution, the Act be not rendered void b by Article 9, Section 8, Constitution of s South Carolina, which authorizes the Legislature to vest the corporate author- i ities of townships, etc., with power to ( assess and collect taxes for corporate pur- t poses. All the authorities agree that . townships, etc., by reason of this provis- j ion of the constitution may not be vest- 5 ed with power to assess and collect taxes for any other than a corporate purpose. E Townships in this State have no corpo- s rate existence. The Act under consid- M eration does not purport to give Ninety- r Six Township any corporate existence or purpose, except to subscribe to that c railroad company. If it had failed to e subscribe, it would have been as lifeless t as if it had not been referred to by de- .a scription in the Act. By the Act it does i not become such a township as may be v vested with power to subscribe to the ~ railroad company. It is not a township within the meaning of Article 9, See tion 8 of the Constitution of South Car-1 olina. And the purpose is not a corpo rate purpose within the meaning of that constitutional provision. Weight man vs. Clark 103, United States Su preme Court 2.56, is analogous. It is ordered, decreed and adjudged that the Acts of the Legislature, enti tled respectively, "An Act to charter the Greenville and Port Royal Railroad Company," and "An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act to charter the Greenville and Port Royal Railroad Company," are unconstitutional and1 void so far ias they purport to authorize townships to subscribe to the capital stock of said railroad company; and, also so far as it purports to incorporate any township or townships; that the tax assessed, levied an~d collected to pay1 the interest on the bonds issued in be hal of the Township of Ninety-Six was illegal; and, I do certify that the taxes hereinafter enumerated, upon a trial upon the merits, were found to have been illegally and wrongfully col lected and ought to be refunded to the following named persom respectively. [Here follows th~e names of the persons from whom taxes have been illegally collected, which we do not deem of suf ficient importance as to give them to our readers.--EDIToBs COURIER.] The Sanctity of the Oath. [Pee Dee Index.] We would not maintain that the de fendant should be convicted merely be cause he is charged with the conimis sion of a crime, but, while feeling and sentiment incline us to be merciful, it should be remembered that some one has been wronged, and that the wrong should be redressed and the law vini dicated. Under the criminal law the only redress is the punishment of the offender, which indeed, is but meager amends to the injured. A man's last hope is in the honesty and integrity of his fellow man, and when that hope is shattered blame emiot rest upon him for defending his right and avenging his wrongs as best he can. Fire at Abbevilie. ADBEvILLE, S. C. March 1.-The res idence of Mrs. K. (C. Perrin was burned this morning. The fire war discovered about five o'ck>ck, and is supposed to have originated in the kitchen. Noth ing wa saved except sonie of the p)arlor furniture and a box of silver. The famn ily were all away on a visit in Augusta, Ga., except Col. H. T. Wardlaw, who was sleeping in the house and narrowly escaped with his life, losing all personal effects. Mrs. Perrin is expected home to-day. The house was insured for THE THREE C's. Dur Engineer Corps to be Put in the Field and the Entire Line Located at Once. [Johnson City (Tenn.) Comet.] At a meeting of the officials of the harleston, Cincinnati and Chicago ailroad Company in New York, on le 15th inst., Col. T. E. Matson was elected Chief Engineer and Gen. oser was apiointed Consulting En ineer, to have charge of location north f Marion, N. C., until the grading is umpleted onl the southern division. ol. T. E. Matson returned Monday via outhCarolina and was seen by a Comet !preseitative and found to be full of uportalt information that will be ad with pleasure by our citizens and aose interested in the future of John :ol City. He says it is the intention f the company to complete the location f the entire line during the coming mimer, and to do this four additional igineer corps will be put in the field t once. Two of the corps will be put to -ork between Marion, N. C., and the 'ennessee line and two between the ennessee line and the Breaks at the entucky line. Reports, &c., as here >fore, to be given to the Chief Engin er. The instruments, tents, costs, :e., have been ordered, and the outfits ir two corps are expected to arrive in ohnston City within a week. The ther two outfits will go to Marion, C. As has been said, the work of )cation will begin at once, but just here the crops will commence has not een definitely settled, but is thought aat the line will be located each way -om this place. As to when grading -ill begin no time has been fixed, but a trge Western Construction Company negotiating with them for the contract >r grading the uncompleted portion of ae road and propose to build the entire ne within twelve months. Whether ae contract is awarded this company r not, it is certain that dirt will be roken at different points along the ne during the coming spring, and will e pushed right along as rapidly as pos ble. In regard to the progress along the ne, Col. Matson reports favorably. apt. Johnston has completed the loca on through the Breaks and is now ith his corps on the Big Sandy near ikeville, Ky. Capt. H. W. Lumsden progressing as rapidly with his work f grading as the state of the work in the treaks will allow. It is said there is >me work in that section by the side on rhich the gorge on the Narrow Gauge >ad is a prararie. That is what Capt. ,umsden says. Capt. Ranisaur has ompleted the location between Ruth rordton, N. C., and Marion, N. C., and he contract for grading has been warded and work will be commenced a a few weeks. Capt Ramsaur is now at rork and will complete the location on he Augusta division, of which about taf, or seventy miles, has been graded .d the contract for the balance wvill be t at once and'.completed as rapidly as >ossible. It is the object of the coin rmny to close up the gaps along the line s fast as money can push it. Put Yourself in His Place. [Springfield, Mass., Republican.] The resentments of the war are dying >ut, yet a feeling lingers at the north hat the men who rebelled against the ~overnment were guilty of a crime, and hat they ought to repent of it. That eelinlg grows weak; there is a disposi ion to give the south the benefit of a ort of moral statute of limitations, and orgive what was done so long ago; but hatever vividly recalls the events of he war is liable to revive a feeling that he southerners rebelled wiekedly and vithout any excuse. -Now, why did he southerners fight? Let the northern -eader try to put himself in the place >f the average white southerner of 1860, Lnd see how things looked to him. slavery was a part of his whole social ife. As a child he had been nursed by tblack "mammy." The servants in is house belonged to him. If he was a lanter, his laborers were his property. [his was the state of things he had ~rown up in. He believed it right; he 'ead in his Bible how Jews and Chris ians owned slaves, andl Christ and the tpostles said not a word against it. He new that there was a great deal of Cindness and fidelity in the actual rela :ions of masters and slaves--and let the orthern reader who doubts this re nember that as the war went on the lacks were left unguarded on every lantation b y the withdrawal of the whites to the army, yet nowhere did :hev rise for revolt or revenge. The whole industrial system was built on davery. The slaves represented a comn nercial value of over a thousand mfill ons. Well, the southerner had for nanv years hea4rd this system assailed broughlout the north, and himself de lounced as a criminal. He was barred romx wvhat he considered his clear rights of property. If his slave ,ran 3way, the northern people would not let. him be reclaimed, though constitu ion and law required it. If he wanted to go into a territory, and to take with hinm his house-servants and field-hands, hie was told he could not keep them there. On just that point, the right to take slaves into the territories, the Re pubicans and Democrats battled it, un til at last the Republicans won the elee tion of Lincoln. Now tile southerner saw the national goverinent in the control of a party whose avowed pur pose was to exclude from the territories, and to limiit and discourage, wherever possible, the right to hold slaves. There upon the south said to the north: "Since you hate our system of industry, and moean omestrir.t it, and hnnp e ynr1 by to abolish it, it is time we parted o:ni pany. Good bye!" "Hold on," said the north, "this un ion is not a partnership terminable at will. It is a marriage, and there can be 1 nodivorce." But the south had long e held that in effect the union was a vol- 3 untary alliance of States. The southern people had little expectation that the 1i north would oppose it by arms, and at f] the north and amiong Republicans the a right and expediency of "coereing a v State" was very much in doubt till de- ft bate was cut short by the cannon of Sumter. So, first, the gulf States se- 11 ceded; then, when blood was shed and b passion roused,the other southern States o went, too. e Up to this point, many southerners r had opposed secession, and in the bor- r der States had made some head against t the passion of the hour and the tyranny e of public sentiment. But when once I a ,State had voted to leave the union, y almost every southerner believed that his State had a right to his allegiance. t Even if disapproving of secession, lie felt himself in the position of any citizen whose country goes to war, con- l trary to his judgment, but with the r right to command his services. After i: all, very few men reason out the right e and wrong of things clearly, especially t amid great social excitements. They a catch fire from the feeling in the air. North and south alike, men enlisted t under an impulse to fight for their e homes along with their neighbors and y in defense of their country. To a Mas- t saehusetts man, his country meant the i United States ; to a Virginian, his coun- I try meant Virginia or the South. s (George Washinjton, in his letters dur- 1 ing the revolution, wrote "my coun try" when he meant Virginia.) Then ] the war became to the south, what it ] never was to the north, a war of defense. The home and fire-side were threatened. t Who blames the men who took arms against that? Who has no feeling for the women who sent their husbands I and sons to keep back the hosts of Grant ] and Sherman, whose coming meant fire and sword? Who wonders if they t found it hard to forgive? This is the southerner's side. If we~ do not give the northerner's side here, it is because our readers have heard it I for many years. We need not repeat 1 to them that slavery was a gigantic evil, or that to keep this people one nation 1 was worth all it cost. But we would s do justice to our fellow-countrymen of 1 of the south. They were mistaken, and they paid a tremendous penalty. Think i how men love the flag they have fought 1 under for four long years, and measure ] the anguish when that flag sank to rise no more! Beaten, thinned, inpover- 4 ished, the men of the south had to face and make a wholly new future. They accepted the overthrow of slavery, and the ind issoluble unity of these States, as facts; as facts they made the best of them, until they grew reconciled to the result, glad slavery was gone, arid attached to the union they had fought: to break. In building up theii- waste: places, in looking forward and not back, in joining hands to-create a new Ameri ca, they have shown themselves braver men than on the battle field. We are proud of them as our fellow-country men, and we would not ask them to re pent or to be ashamed of their past. About Fence-Riding. [Lowdesville Advertiser.] It is very essential that the newspa pers of the country deel with living sub jects, especially so, when the subject involves the general interest of the peo ple. It is quite strange that some papers studiously avoid this, lest they b3 held accountable for their action be fore the public bar. Tro prevent this, they straddle the fence, and assume what they choose to call neutral ground. This at first glance appears legitimate, but on examination it wvill be found to depend upon certain contingencies. This fence-riding until living ques tions are settled, is for want of courage or for want of light ; or else because there is want of true principle in the ed itor. We like to see prudence, and we like to deal with men of caution, but there is a diff'erence between caution and cowardice. Five Little Negroes Locked Up and Burned to Death. [Special to the Register.] GREENvTLLE, S. C., March 1.-Five c>lored children were burned to decath four miles from this city last night. They had been sent home by their mother to make a fire in the house wvhile she stopped on the way at a neighbor's. When the woman reached her own home about 8 o'olock last night she found nothing but ashes and the charred remains of the five children. At least this is her story as told to the Coroner's jury to-day. But this story is doubted by many, as one of the children was nine years old, and it is singular that none of them escaped. It is believed by some that the woman locked the children in the house and burned them. but there being no evidence to support the op)in ion the verdict of the jury was that the burning was accidental. rTe woman had been separated from her husband, and at the inquest (lid not express any grief at the death of her children. The name of the womanr was Ellen Pet ty. Cot. Cash Alive. CHERA w, S. C., Felb. 29.-The rep)ort of the death of Col. Cash was premiature. He is still alive, although in a precari ous condition. This is the third time that Col. Cash has been buried by enter prising newspaper correspondents. The Man in the Moon. ews and Courier.] Everybody has seen the ian in the i',On; but how many, even of the wis <t of our neighbors, know who he is? lost of us, at any rate, have stared at ia night after night, singly or in coup ' from babyhood up, and are as far -om knowing his other name now as e were from Vapturinlg him bodily -ien he seemed to look down on us .0111 about the level of the nurse's head. We do not remuenber, indeed, ever to ave heard the question raised, whether e had a niame, and as for the accidents f his overhead career nothing what ver on the subject has been incorpo ited in the nursery records, save the leagre account of his single excursionl > England in years long gone by, and f the one game of leap frog, in which e played a stationary part about the ine period. It is usually assumed that he is alone, ut there is diversity of belief on this oint in some countries and in astro omnical circles below the stars. How e got into his present position is also a latter that is vigorously explained. It i well known that he carries a bundle f sticks on his back, but it is not cer ain that he has collected these to throw t the cats which he watches so intently aalf his nights,as some have been found o declare. Dante calls him Cain; Chau er speaks of him as undergoing punish aent up there for theft, and gives him a horn bush to carry, whereas Shakes eare, whilst assigning to him a thorn aad, by way of compensation gives him dog for a companion. The general be ief, however, was that his offence was Lot stealing, but Sabbath-breaking. aike the gentleman mentioned in the look of Numbers, he was caught gath ring sticks on Sunday, and as an ex mple to mankind, was pilloried in this onspicuous place with the objects of his uest bundled upon his back. Another egend identifies him with the figures of saac in the act of carrying fuel for his ontemplated sacrifice of his son, while he Jews have a Talniudical story that racob is in the moon, and that his face s occasionally visible. The Swedish peasantry explain the unar spot as representing a boy and gir] yearing a pail of water between them, vhom the moon once caught in her iorns and carried off into the heavens legend current also in Icelandic my hology. This shows, at least, that he has been n his present quarters a very, very long ime, since boys and girls do not carry >ails of water between them in these iays. Perhaps, however, such an inci lent happened once and the pair were :aught and fixed in the sight of all the world as a great and permanent curios ty. All the stories cannot be true, it my event, when they vary so widely i German table says that a man and a romxian stand in the moon-the man be ause he strewed briers one Sunda3 horning in the church path, the wo ~nan for making butter on the samn lay. The latter carries her butter tub :he former his bundle of thorns. Th< Dutch have it that the unhappy mar svas caught stealing~ vegetables. Th< atives of Ceylon have a hare instea< >f a man in the moon, the hare havini ichieved that honor by jumping into: fire to roast himself for the benefit o Buddha. The Chinese represent th< moon by a rabbit pounding rice in mortar. Their mythological moon Jut-ho, is figured by a beautiful younf woman with a double sphere behind he hiead and a rabbit at her feet. According to the clssic tale, th youth in the moon is probably Endy mion, beloved of Selene, and that' why so much "spooning'' is occasione< by the round-faced orb of night. Th Egyptian moon bears the figures c Nunos and his mother Isis. Plutarc] says Sibylla is in the moon, and Cleni ens Alexandrinus quotes Serapion t prove there must be something in claim which is sustained by so hig] and so aged authorities. The Austra lians, who have their own reasons fe not caring to assign rabbits to heavenl; places, say that the moon was a nativ cat, who fell in love with some one else' wife, and was driven away, to wande ever since. Among the Esquimaux th sun is a miaiden and the muoon is he brother. Trhe Khasias, of the Himalaya, sa; that the moon falls every month in lov with his mother-in-law, who throw ashes in his face; whence his spots. This legend comblines the imp)robab)1 and the probable in so extremne degre< even for a legend, that it need not b er)nsidleredl. The Malays believe that the moon is woman and the stars her chiidren. Thi is contrary to the facts known-sine how on earth can the man in the moo be a woman? The Malays evidently at a hopelessly benighted p)eople. There is but one way out of all the variedl and perplexing theories, and thy is to reject them altogether. We kno3 very well that there is a man in th moon, and, since we en a't possibly lear who he is and what is his name,why,w must treat him as we treat evervbod else of our acquaintances, and take hir for what lie is or what he seems to be. The Federal Balance Sheet. WAsHINGTON, March 1.-The debt statt ment issued to-day shows the decreasei the public debt during the month of Fe: ruary to be $7,756,366.67; decrease of del: since June 30, 1887, S76.974.020.20; cashi the treasury $512,390,887.3i. Gold eer tificates outstanding $99,697.913; silve certificates outstanding S184,452.659; cem tificates of deposit outstanding $11,215 000); legal tenders outstanding $346,081. 016; fractional currency (not includin amount estimated as lost or destroyet $6,941,825.12; total interest bearing del: $1.041,764,052; total debt of all classe $1,700.755,778.64; total debt less availabh cash items and less net cash in the treai ury $1,292945471A 829 The Tariff Bill. WAsHINGTON, March 1.-Estimates of the reduction in the revenue effected by the tariff bill submitted to the ways and means committee by the Demo cratic majority have not been completed in details, but the aggregate according tothe best information at hand is fixed at $55,(x)O,000. This total includes about $22,225,(X) on account of the free list, $17,225,ol)O on account of woolen good, $1,6)0,000 for china and glassware, $775,000 by the bill. The subject be ing purposely in the chemical schedule, something less than $500,000 in cotton, $1,500,000 on flax, hemp and jute, and sugar about $11,000,000. There are no internal revenue changes proposed left for lack of time, to the consideration of the full committee. RAW MATERIALS. Raw materials of every kind and na ture utilized in our manufacturing in dustries are placed on the free list. IRON AND STEEL. It is understood that the duty on coal and iron ore has not been changed. The Southern States rich in iron ore protested against any reduction. There will undoubtedly be a cut of not less than five and more than seven dollars in steel rails. Even if the re duction is only six dollars per ton no foreign rails could be imported into the United States to-day in competition with our home steel mills, as the price of American rails is less to-day by two or three dollars per ton than the price in London with freight and duties added. A general, but moderate reduc tion will be made in the iron and steel schedule, but so moderate that the iron mill men of the country ought not, it is said, and cannot complain. THE FREE LIST. The free list contains jute, hemp, flax, wool, lumber, salt and building stone. There is a long list of other ar ticles, but these are the most impor tant. The reduction on pig iron is very slight. It will simply be a drop from $6.72 to $6 per ton. A reduction of twenty per cent. will be made on plate glass and thirty per cent. on common window glass. Earthenware will be re duced about 121 per cent. ad valorem. METALS. The duty on metals is reduced practi cally from 37 70-100 per cent. to 331 per cent. wOOL. The most important schedule in the bill is the wool schedule. The framers of the bill, it is understood, believe that in the event the bill becomes a law wool manufacturers will be placed upon a ba sis of prosperity which they have not and do not enjoy under the present tariff. It is claimed that the bill if passed as drawn will give to the man ufaciurer of worsted and woollen goods at least twenty per cent. ad valorem more protection on their products than they now have. It will practically, too, open up the markets of the world to them. SUGAR. The sugar schedule is reduced twenty t two per cent., or in all a gross reduction of twelve millions. The main object of this reduction is primarily to reduce the revenue. At the same time it st:ikes at the sugar trust while protect ing the Louisiana sugar planter as far as it was practical. It is not believed that the members of the committee know exactly what the aggregat3 reduction on inmports will amount to. The general impression, - however, is that it will aggregate from fifty to fifty-five million dollars. TOBACCO AND LICENSES. The administrative features of pre vious tariff bills is in the One to be re ported, such as extending the bonded period, etc. The reduction on internal revenue will amount to from $20,000,000 to $30,000,000. This will be principally upon tobacco and the licenses and taxes -on distillers. It is very improbable r that any reduction will be made on whiskey, beer or spirits distilled from fruit. FIFTY PER CENT. REDUCTION. r SIt may be said in a general way that r the average gross reduction on all arti cles, including the free list, will lbe about fifty per cent. It is more than a probable that whatever the committee a proposes to do in connection with the reduction of internal taxationi will be e immediately followed by the introduc tion of a bill into the commlittee before the bill for the revision of the tariff is introduced into the House, or at least if n mot, it will follow the introduction of s the Tariff bill into the House at a very e early date. NO FREE FISiI. e The statemlent or rumor that fish is to be p)laced on the free list is absolutely fas.Te propositioni was never seri ously considered, anid will form 110 part of the bill. HOW MR. RAND)ALL WILL GE-,T LEFT. It is said that Mr. Ranldall is already 1 prepared to launch a tariff bill so ultra in its character that it re-establishes the duty on many articles which existed under the tariff prior to 18831, and many .others which were reduced by that tariff, that Mr. lRndall's bill will prob - ably never become a factor in the eOnl t test on1 the floor. Fire in Wlnnsboro. CHIARLEsTON, S. 0., March 2.-A fire -last night in Winnsboro, S. C., destroyed the livery stable and store of W. Doty & t Co., loss $15,000, uninsured; H. W. 8 Timms, general merchandise, 89,000, uin s insured; Landeher & Co., loss 81.200, uin - insured, and Paul Jenkins' restaurant, manO tininsume.Th r ti,al l1 i $30,0no. THE DEPENI)ENT PEN1sON BILL. A Teling Spwech by Senator Vest. The dependent pension bill was the taken up. Senator Wilson, of Town, moved a' amiendl.ent to insert the words "fror the infirnuities of age,' so as to pensio aIll ex-soldiers suferin from the it lirmities of age or from mental or ph. .ieal diisablility. In the delbate whithl took place o the aiieniient enator Plu deli' evi-d ant eloqluenct eulogy on the army. He referred partien!aarly t'' I1h fin when the war closed the armv coul have placed one of its leaders at th head of the (overnnilt, and coul have dictated its own terms, but ha asked nothing except to be permiitte to disband and return to peaceful av< eatiois. He did not believe that an patriotic man, any man who looke with a patriotic fervor on that portio of the country's history when tw millions of men sprang to arms to mail tain the Government, would ever 1 willing to oppose the enactment of an law whereby any of the men should 1 drawn from the ban of poverty an given at least a decent livelihood. The bill, as it came from the con mittee, was perhaps a step in the rigl direction. It was not what it ought 1 he and he had sought to makeit bette There was, he said, no insinuation i the Senate or elsewhere that Union so diers were to be beneficiaries under tt bill in the sense of being suppliants < unworthy persons. He did not thin that partisanship would go that fa and if it did he believed that tl American people would refute it. Coi gress was not now dealing with slend4 resources, but was dealing with abun, ance. Less than the pending bill pr posed would not be just, more was n< asked for. Senator Vest said that he had n had the slightest idea, when he spol to Senator Wilson's amendment, producing the burst of patriotic, ferv eloquence, which the Senate had ju listened to. They had heard a go< deal about almshouses, and he w; proud to say that there were no Co federate soldiers in' ahushouses eithc When Gen. Lee -surrendered at App niattox there were but eight thousar muskets left of that splendid am which had faced a world in arms, at which had been battered and beate back by overwhelming numbers. 0 of companies which had gone into th terrible struggle from 125 to 180 me strong, only ten had gone back to the kindred and their homes. The Soui to-day was covered with maimed ar crippled soldiers, who had been sh and shelled and sabre-struck for the honest convictions, and they asked i pension, and would not take it. (G< be blessed.) They were not in alir houses and none of them had ever >e< seen begging for bread. Whence the came the talk of Federal soldiers almshouses? They were not there. I was tired and sick of the insinuations robbery, and pretence and hypocrisy the name of the true and gallant s< diers of the Union. He had person friends among them, and (as he i said before) he would give to every d abled or dependent soldier of the Fe eral army, and the widows and orpha: of those who had lost their lives in ti service, the last acre of land and hi dollar. He would have done the sat for the Confederate soldiers "if G< had blessed our cause." Why say th Congress had not done enough for tl Union soldiers, when the country h; paid out since 1865 eight hundred a: eighty-three million dollars for pe sions. A liberality unparalleled in tl history of the world. The Senate had been told to-day th the country owed the soldiers a <debt eternal gratittude because they had r with mailed hand seized the Giovei ment. That great military and politi< organization, the G. A. R., had thro' its lance into the debates of Congre and had sent bills to their accredit Senators for the p)urpose of being ena edl. When the President of the Unit States had honestly and bravely d charged his executive duty and vet( an enactment which he consider improper, he had been threatened the otticers of that organization w. a personal insult if he had dared make his presence known in the c where it held its annual meeting. Th was a limit to human endurance. voted for pension bills, coerced by position, because he had been a C federate and because he was hones anxious for the honor and glory of 1 country. H-e had voted for them cause he wanted to evidence to1 world that the men with whom he I acted in the unfortunate strife respec: the fair and gallant soldiers of'1 Union, and were willing to give th even more than they demianded,1 (he repeated with strong emphas there is a limit, and I have reached I will be driveni no farther by ela agents and p)lunlderers in the garl soldiers. For the honiest and bravea real soldiers of the Union I am willi to vote any amount of pensions. In this eity is a corps of men engaf in inventing legislation to take mn money out of the Fedieral treasury. '] rep)ort of the commissioner of peni< shows that when the Arrears-of-P sions Acet of 18791 was p)assedl there w some 30,000) applications for plensit pendling. The very next year the nu ber of applications jumped to 110,0 Claim agents invented that law and a limitation on it, and the numbei ap)plications for pensionsjumped in< s ear from 30,000) to 110EJ0, and1 'amount of disbursemnents from thi millions to fifty-seven millions. Senator Vest went on to say that the 2,300,000) men enrolled as sobli during the four years of the war th were app1lications from 1,21 4 00) pensions onl accounlt of dlisab ilIity. Su military execution has never b< known in the history of the wh wo,rldl. The Confederates had thou!. that they had had powd(er and ordnmu stores, aird yet, niaking dhue allowar for the effect of climate in prduci dlisability, it would appear that< Confederate soldier, half-elothed a half-fed, had dlisabled three of his adv saries. There had been no such destr tion ini military annals siznce the Ci ren of Israel marched through wildercness destrnoyinzg whole nat iom a single day. The maz:rksnimnship o)f the Persi P'rince in the Arabiani Nights, whi arrows crossed miounittas and riv anid despised space in their flight, lI beenm nothing to that of the Confeder soldier. His bullet niust have hit t o)r more at the same time. and stri where it was not aimed. Fifty cent. of the host of the Union ara were applicants for pensions on accot of disabilities. Who he asked, lieved that they were honest applic-an Who believed that these pension b ,had not degenerated inito a p)olit abuse whieb cried aloud in the fae, all honest men for redress ? He had a. great regard for nmanv his friends on the opposite side of chamber, and in the wordls which ha spoken lhe had wished to give opportunity to some one of them w had lurked back in th.; contest over tks bill to throw his shining lance amon "the Confederate bri aiers," and try S:to carry off the Republican nominati for the Presidency. The recent dis a patch from Paris had caused Presid "" a tial candidates to become as thick as. n "leaves in Valumbrosa." Before th8 : - dispatch had come under the yeas waves of the ocean, the Repubican, party had been in the condition of n man, who, having gone home soue= hours before his usual time in thU morning and having been asked w he had gone home so soon, replied t (1 every other place in towii was shut up e The doors of the Republican party were, d now opened and Presidential candidate d were coming to the front without lit d as to quantily or locality. The Senate >- had been engaged for some days y in a political auction for the 'so d vote. n First had come his friend from . o Oraska, (Manderson) backed by the i- A. R.. and he (Vest) had listened e real gratification to his duleet and mod" y ulated voice from the beginning to to e- end of his speech. Even that Senatui. d flings at the President of the Uni s States had not detracted from the Y a i- eral merit of his bid for the soldier t and when he received a floral frib x> as a token of regard frer 'his adiriib r. constituents behind 1 he (Vest) n but one single suggestion to make .M& 1- that was that the letter should 'i ie been embroidered over the portals r the White House. That was the obje k of all the debates, of all the bidding r, the soldier vote of the country in - e coining contest. a- When the Senator from Nebrska r took his seat he, (Vest,) had 1- that the bid was in his favor, but o- the present occupant of the chair, at Senator form Maine, (Frye,) h "caught the eye of -auctioneer' A Grand Army of the Republic-and te "gone one better." That Senator of prepared to vote a pension to every id who has served a day in the F st army. )d He, (Vest). was about to knockdv as the prize to the Senator from Maine n- an amendment to the bill, whichi r. increase the expenditure under it . o- or seventy-five million dollars. td (Vest) had then been strongly ofo 'y that the auction should close and id prize be given to the Senator fro Kansas: but then the Senator fro at nois (Cullom) had come to the front at made a bid from that t n State, which had staggere his ir conviction as to the propriety of losi th the sale. id Since that time he had been in . ot dition of anxiety, waiting to hea ir the other bidders in the great n io auction. The Senate had not yet )d from his dulcet-toned friend fromI ; s- (Allison) who had kept his seat ?n merely nodded acquiescence to tlie n, extreme propositions for the beneft' in the ex-soldiers. Ie Nor had the Senate yet heard fri3_ r of the distinguished Senator from 0 in (Sherman,) whd in such a co >1- ought certainly to come to the al and bid something for the vote, w d (candidates thou'bt) was to de is- the contest. Neiter has the Senate. d- heard from presiding officer (I as who has been nominated by the e trict of Columbia, and every one_ st that the District of Columbiaonly .ie from the most disinterested-and - xd fish motives. He, (Vest), w at rather have a nomination from ue District of Columbia. than from : id state in the Union, because (as ev .d one knew) it came from the heart -..L n- never from the pockets. No man,W.. Lie man, or child in the District had i other object than the promotion at national honor and prosperity. A4 of so, when he read in a Democratie~ ot of Washington last Sunday, (before st -n tending church,) that the presidingof -al ficer of the Senate was the nommnceo en'i the District of Columbia, he said:E ss, reka! we have found the man at last" ed and the question is finally settled." . et- -The whole of Senator Vest's sec. ed |was distened to with the closest at?n'. is- tion by Senators and by the audience ed in the galleries, and his facetious sketdh ' 'ed of the Republican candidates and their' by supposed respective bids for the soldfdeM .th vote, seemed? to be enjoyed with ecjin t to zest on both sides of the chamber. In. ity concluson, Senator Vest said: ere "Partisan or no partisan, my convio I-e tions require me to vote ag'ainst the R,' his and I'say here now that I ho~ itin' >n- 'die the death' in the other bac1' tly the National Congress, and if not there :he at the hands of the Executive. If that ~~ be- be unparliamentary, make the most o4 :he it." Lad After further brief speeches from SenW.' ted ators Teller and Plumb, Snator Wil-. :he son, of Maryland, a member of the com emi mittee on pensions, declared himse1f2i ut opposed to the bill as it now stood2 is) amended. He gave the figures of then it. enormous amount paid in pensions, and i thought that the people were opposed iof to any further extension of the pension y nid system. It wagt time to call a halt. . ng The bill, as it wvas originally reportedn would make the pensioni list amount to ed one hundred million; wvith the amend- '' >re ments put on it the amount expended 'he would be $125,000,000 and probably ' mls more. Without taking a vote on the 21n- bill or pending amendnient, the Senate C e~re went into executive business and, at ms1 5.30, adjourned. (J0. should b~e Sent Uninstructed. - mlt -- of [Barnwvell People.] he According to the maps South Caro rty lina is a very small fraction of the - United States. But many people who - of ought to know better don't, and chief in ers tis~ eatego)ry are the editorial brethren ' Lere who are* trying to nominate th'e next for Demo:fratic' candidate fo,r the Presi ~en It is safe to say that they, singlv and ole colletively, do not know whaheyare rht about. It is impossible that they canbe we fully posted as to the chances of the wec different candidates for success. Our nig Ibest men should be sent to the NationalA me Convention, uninstructed as to choice nd of candidates and principlesof platform. j 'er- When they get on the ground and-learn Ue- the topography of the party theyecan Id- act more wisely than if they are sent . lie hampered with unhappy instructions, in All that we wa'nt is success and the ~ championing of any particular candi-5 (an date and p)latformf will not help the - ose cause a particle. Give us a rest. ers -~--e.- -- ad Mr. Corcoran's Win. ate wo WASHINGTON. February 29.-The will ick of the late W. W. Corcoran wa-' filed and.' per admitted to probate to-dy. The only ny public bequests are $100,000 to the Cor nit coran art gallery to which Mr. Corcoran be-: had already given $1~0.000; $50,000 to the ts? .Louis Home to which he gave in his life ills halt a million dolla-s; $5.000 each to three ) cal orphans asylums of the district, 83,000 to ' of the Little Sisters of the poor. He makes many bequests, ranging from of i1100) to $15,000 to relatives, perEonal ' ihe friends and servants. he The remainder of his estate is left min a n trust for his three grandchildren. -.