Science gets a footing everywhere. The loss of the United States steamship “Tallapoosa,” by collision with a schooner, has led to an investigation to ascertain whether the officers and men on duty are afflicted with color blindness. We have a notion that in this case the old-fashioned word carelessness is more scientific than any term used by optical learning.
One of the fine points of superfine theology is that Adam was the first member of the Christian Church, and was taken in immediately after the fall. We see it—the fine point reproduced in a religious paper. It is a pity that theology should be strained in men’s eyes by such uses—especially in view of the pressing wants of the living descendants of Adam.
The making of mortgages is one of the most fascinating of employments. It is like picking up gold in chunks. Paying mortgages is another affair, a most refined species of torture which takes away and returns nothing. But people who do not expect to pay have all the pleasure and none of the pain. The semi-civilized government which owns Panama proposes to mortgage its share of the earnings of the Panama Canal for $15,000,000. Considering that the canal may never be finished, and that it may never earn anything at all, it must be pure fun to make that mortgage. Public debts grow large easily because no particular person expects to pay any one of them. Selling such mortgages is picking up nuggets of gold—getting without effort—hence public borrowing needs conscience as a restraint.
It is a satisfaction to know that the best horses have been taken out of the hands of gamblers. Mr. Vanderbilt recently sold the queen of horses to Mr. Bonner, editor of the New York Ledger. On this side of the Atlantic, at least, fast horses are improving in reputation by keeping good human company.
The cholera of Asia is in Europe again after a long absence—since 1868. It has been a topic of great interest all summer, but its ravages have been comparatively insignificant. After a short period of general prevalence in Marseilles and Toulon, the unwelcome visitor went on its travels in search of dirty places in France and Italy—finding some good food in the latter country. Dirt is the delight of this scourge. Sanitary science easily handles it, keeps it within moderate limits, and stamps it out after brief duration. A renewal of the epidemic in the savage forms of 1832 and 1848 is not to be feared. The world is cleaner. The cholera has raged fiercely in Italy, especially in Naples, because sanitary reforms have made slow progress there. The people change their habits there with great reluctance, and all travelers know that Naples is the filthiest city in Europe. Wherever good sanitation prevails, cholera is checked with comparative ease. A fine use of royalty is shown by the visit of King Humbert to the afflicted towns and their hospitals.