erty. Two round-houses were burned, containing 125 first-class locomotives, together with the extensive railway machine-shops, depot, and offices of the United States Transfer Company. The freight depot of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad, the depot of Adams Express Company, the Pan-Handle Railway Depot, and finally the great Union Depot on Liberty Street, a large four story-building, 2000 feet long-all these were totally consumed, besides a large amount of property too tedious to enumerate. The direct losses of the Pennsylvania Railway Company alone were estimated at two and a half millions of dollars-a debt still remaining unadjusted, but which must ultimately be paid out of the taxes of Alleghany County, in which Pittsburgh is situated. The firemen were not allowed to move a finger toward putting out the fire. The mayor and citizens seemed absolutely cowed and powerless, great crowds of the latter standing and looking on while these wild scenes of riot and destruction went forward. Meanwhile Governor Hartranft telegraphed to Washington for aid, and another proclamation was issued, and United States troops dispatched from the various garrisons along the coast. With returning confidence inspired by this movement, Pittsburgh once more resumed an orderly aspect. The mobs melted away in the presence of the public determination that no more destruction should take place. At Harrisburg a formidable riot was organized by the strikers, and a vast crowd assembled, threatening the property of the railroad company. About 2000 troops assembled at the State arsenal at the capital. The citizens organized a vigilance committee to guard the principal buildings, and kept so completely the upper hand, that the riot was quelled without any bloodshed. The people of the city of Reading did not fare so well. The strikers took possession of the Lebanon Valley Railroad tracks, set on fire the bridge, one of the finest in the State, and seized the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Depot, with all its trains. The Easton Grays and two militia companies from Allentown were quickly summoned, and were received at a deep cut near Penn and Seventh Streets with howls and showers of coal. The soldiers received orders to fire, which they did at first over the heads of the mob, but finally point blank, aiming a volley into the very midst of the crowd, which turned and rushed, with wild shouts and cries of blood and vengeance, from the cut. Next day more soldiers arrived, when a company from Allentown openly deserted the defence of the city and refused to act against the mob. It was plain that the State militia could not be relied on. About 600 United States troops of the First Artillery arrived that evening, and their measured tread and determined aspect preserved order thenceforward. The journals state that 10 men were killed and 40 wounded at Reading, besides 20 soldiers. The strike seemed to spread like an insurrection from road to road run. and from city to city. If order was restored in one place, the trains were so obstructed at other points that no through freight could be Mail trains were not stopped by the rioters, but some of the companies refused to run any trains unless safe passage to all was guaranteed by the Government. By the middle of the week (July 23d) strikes had occurred on all the following roads: Baltimore and Ohio, Pennsylvania Central, Erie, Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis, Vandalia, Ohio and Mississippi, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Reading. Philadelphia and Erie, Erie and Pittsburgh, Chicago, Alton and St. Louis, Canada Southern, and some minor roads. The journals at this date announced : "No through freight is arriving at New York, Philadelphia, Boston, or Baltimore. "On the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, where the strike began, the blockade continues at Cumberland, Keyser, and Grafton. "On the Pennsylvania Central the blockade is complete. "On the Lake Shore no trains are running. No trains leave Cleveland or Toledo. "On the Erie road the blockade at Hornellsville is perfect, way trains only running on the branches. "On the Central and Hudson, trains are running to Buffalo, but a strike is expected. 66 On the Ohio and Mississippi the road is blockaded at Vincennes. The Central Pacific, Union Pacific, Louisville and Lexington, Cincinnati and Muskingum, St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern have acceded to the demands of the strikers." Meanwhile the War Department at Washington acted with the utmost promptitude and vigor, summoning troops and marines from their stations all along the coast, and sending them into the interior wherever the rioters held sway. Major-General Hancock was sent to Philadelphia to direct military movements, and although great mobs, amounting to thousands, gathered in that city, and a train of cars was burned, the firm front presented by Mayor Stokley and the citizens, with the arrival of the United States troops, made it apparent by the 24th of July that no serious disturbances would take place in Philadelphia. At Scranton, on the Lehigh and Susquehanna division of the New Jersey Central, the strikers were recruited by a vast mob of coal-miners, making common cause. The company, which was engaged both in mining coal and transportation, refusing to grant the demand of 25 per cent advance in wages, the mines were flooded by the hands, though the railway strike was over in two or three days. In New York, the Central and Hudson River Railroad was interrupted at various points by the strikers, who held meetings demanding a restoration of the 10 per cent reduction that had been made on the 1st of July. The following table shows the rate of this reduc President Vanderbilt refused to restore wages in the face of menaces, but held out good promises for the future, if order were preserved, which promises were amply redeemed afterward. Trains were stopped at Syracuse, Buffalo, and West Albany, but the strikers were dispersed without bloodshed or serious destruction of property. On the Erie road, a great meeting of firemen, brakemen, and trackmen was held at Hornellsville on the 20th of July, and a strike resolved upon, making known their demand for larger wages, which the company declined to comply with. Gangs of strikers took possession of the trains and tore up railway tracks, but militia arriving from Rochester, and Governor Robinson, of New York, issuing a proclamation offering a reward of $500 for the arrest and conviction of any one interfering with railway trains, the mob were speedily cowed. The firemen and brakemen agreed to go to work again at the 10 per cent reduction, while on the company's part it was stipulated that no men were to be discharged except those who had destroyed the company's property. In Ohio the Lake Shore road was visited with a strike at Cleveland; and on July 21st to the 25th, mobs gathered at Newark, Toledo, and Cincinnati, and elsewhere, mainly composed of roughs and tramps, striving to close up factories and rolling-mills. Governor Young ordered out the militia and issued a proclamation, and this, with public meetings of the citizens, soon put down all violence, limiting the evil accomplished to the stoppage of freight between the West and the East. Chicago was the centre of one of the most furious mob movements, mainly engineered by the most radical of Communists, and was only saved from pillage and conflagration by the prompt organization and vigorous handling of its police force. Yelling crowds patrolled the streets, seizing upon arms and ordering all the workmen in machineshops, factories, and elevators to quit labor. The mob was harangued by Communist orators with such words as these, "We know what we are fighting for and what we are doing: let us kill those d-d aristocrats." It was at one time feared that Chicago would be a scene of blood, and the Governor of Illinois telegraphed, like the Governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, for the aid of Federal troops, which, however, was not ultimately required. At St. Louis, the Working Men's Party, as it was called, almost put out of sight the railroad strikers by their high-handed movements, by closing mills and factories, and compelling laborers and mechanics to stop work. Numerous strikes occurred throughout Missouri, but these, as well as the St. Louis movement, were soon put down. The whole country by the second week of the strikes was aroused to such indignation at the arrogant despotism of the strikers, and the violence, destruction, and bloodshed they had been guilty of, that there is no doubt the rioters would ultimately have fared more hardly at the hands of the people than of the soldiery, had they not been promptly put down by the show of military power. The blockade of supplies put the strikers in the attitude of saying to the producers of the West and the consumers of the East, "You shall suffer, and if need be starve, until we get our wages advanced. No more food shall be taken to market until we grant permission.” The press of the whole country, almost without exception, enforced the true view of the case, and the prompt and vigorous action of the general Government in placing the whole power of the military at the points where it was most needed, proved that our republican government, contrary to what is sometimes asserted, is not weak nor halting in the presence of popular violence and insurrection. No language, says a modern critic, supplies so many illustrations of the art of carrying things too far, as the German. That language has seven deadly sins, viz.: 1. Too many volumes in the language. 2. Too many sentences in a volume. 3. Too many words in a sentence. 4. Too many syllables in a word. “As good almost kill a Man as kill a good Booke; who kills a Man kills a reasonable creature, God's Image; but he who destroys a good Booke kills reason itself. A good Booke is the precious life blood of a master spirit embalmed and treasured on purpose to a life beyond life."-Milton's Areopagitica. TOM BROWN used to remark of bad wine (such as was ordinarily served at taverns in his day, as it still is in our own), that it was better argument for sobriety than all the volumes of morality could afford." [From the (official) Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom, 1877.] OF WHEAT AND FLOUR IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM, Wheat-Total of Grain and Flour in equivalent Weight of Grain (1 cwt. of wheat flour 1861. 1862. 1863. 1864. 1865. 1866. 1867. 1869. 1869. Austrian Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. British N. 3,387,949 5,118,698 3,198,187 1,831,897 Chili. Denmark Egypt France. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Germany 44,582 34,058 24,077 100,052 58,420 United St's. 7,385,717 6,511,718 4,548,386 Oth. Count's Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. Cwts. 155,656 96,767 1,188,707 65,749 1,320,228 873,776 1,878,415 372,001 38,950 12.749] 63,490 132,271 5,703 90,420 268,531 587 508,561 |