AMERICAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1899, 16 February 1870, Page 5

AMERICAN NEWS.

Wb subjoin some further interesting extracts from our late American exchanges received per 'Nereid.' REMNANTS OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY SOLD AT AUCTION.— 2,269,709 DOLS. IN BONDS SOLD FOR 35 DOLS. (from TltE " NEW YORK TIMES," DECEMBER 9.) At.bert H. NICOLA.Y, tlie auctioneer, lately sold at public auction, at tlio Exchange Salesroom, No. 111, Broadway, several millions of bonds and notes issued by the Confederate Government, and by different State and Coilntv ; authorities during tlie rebellion. The sale was made under a decree of the United States Court of the District of Virginia, made in the suit of the Merchants' National Bank of Baltimore v. tlie Bank of the Valley in Virginia. There was a slim attendance of bidders—not more than half-a-dozen all told. The first lot offered wis Confederate Government bonds of various denominations and dates, amounting to 2,269,700 dols. " Now, gentlemen, give me your attention," said Mr. Nicolay; "1 am going to sell you millions of dollars' worth of securities cheap. Every man hero now has a chance to get rich, with a small amount of money. No. lon tlie list is 2,209,709 dols. in bonds issued by the Confederate Government (so called). Jlow much am I offered for the lot ? They are beautifully embellished with the portraits of Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and other great lights of tiio Confederacy. How much shall I liavo for the lot ? [No response.]] Come, gentlemen, make us an ofTer; don't bo bashful; give us a bid ; two millions of dollars, you know—a splendid chance to get rich—wl-at do you say ? Make us an offer. [No response.] Why, gentlemen I am surprised. Where's John Bull ? whore's Laird ? where's Roebuck ? Is there nobody tabid anything for two million dollars of Confederate bonds ? Where's Barnum ? where's 'Wood ? Will no one give us a bid ?' [No' response.] Why, gentlemen, I will sell them for waste paper by the pound if you don't want fch-m for anything else ; they're a good thing to have in the house, I assure you, gentlemen—good to light cigars with and for other purposes. Come, gentlemen, don't bo modest; give -us &'■ bid of soma sort or other." A Voice—Fifty cents. Mr. Nicolay—Thank you, sir. Fifty cents: I am offered ; only fifty cents.,' gentlemen', for two million dollars' worth of securities. Shall I hear any more ? - ■ ' Who says a dollar ? ' < ' • A Voice—A dollar. Mr. Nicolay—Thanks again, gentlemen ; I .101. lam offered. Why, gentlemen the blank paper is worth more than that, to say nothing of the bonds. Now give us a bid, gentlemen; who says 5 dols.; recollect, gentlemen, there are 2,000,000 dols. of securities. A Voice—Five dollars. Mr. Nicolay—Five dollars I am offered ; who soys six dollars. Some gentleman here bid six dols., when the j bidding run up rapidly I dol, at a time until it reached 16 dols. Here there was a long pause, but at length the bonds took a new start, and run up 1 dol at a bid, until they reached 31 dols., when there was another pause. Finally 'some one bid 35 dols., and after Mr. Nicolay; had exhausted his eloquence and powers.in voin to get another bid, the lot was jjnocked down at that figure to E. B. Parker. . The remaining'lots' were sold in a similar manner, at the following prices 696,635 dols. in r.ote9 issued by the Confederate , Government to A. Vaughn for 9 * ' ' b 5,000 dols. in Apgusto county (Va.) bonds, issued during' tlie War,'.'to C. Hetxbergli for 3 daU. sQ.centa.,-.'J.!' ' ;1. ~ * • . -!■ 1,498 dols.. in, Augusta county (Va.) bonds, issued durin|[" fclio' \rhv,"to A.'YjSugmi' foV'T dol. 50 cents. * • 355 dols. in "Corporation of.Staunton" notes, issued during the war,' to'A. Vaughn for 2 dols. 50 cents. 51,727 Virginia bonds and Treasury notes, issued during'the war, to Mr. Hodges, for 13 dols. 21,543 dols. in county and individual bonds" 1 and' notes. Issued during the war, to Mr. Smith for, I dol.

PROPOSED... JJNES OF AMERICAN STEAMERS BY THE SUEZ CANAL. We toko the following from the Kno York Herald,X)ee. 9 , ■. Mr. Hill,-of. New Jersey, has introduced in the House a bill to encourage the establishment of a line of steamships, under the flag of the Union, for the conveyance of. the mails of the United State 3 by European ports and ports of India and China by way of the Suez Canal, and for promoting emigration from Europe to the Southern States of the Union, and for reducing the rates of ocean postage. The first section pjovidea that for the purposa above-named the Postmaster-General be authorised and directed to enter into contracts with the Mediterranean and Oriental Stoam Navigation Co. of New York for the conveyance of mails of the United States from New York, Port Boyal, Norfolk, or Brunswick to ports of Europe, including Cadiz, Marseilles, Genoa and Trieste and Fort Said, in Egypt. The contracts are to be for four and twenty years. The Steamship Company propose to carry mail matter at the rate of three cents for half ounce letters as soon as postal treaties can bo concluded with foreign countries. For the purpose of promoting emigration to the South the Legislature of any Southern State may, to aid the Company in its operations, create a fund for its sole uso and benefit, by depositing with the Post Office Department, in the name and behalf of said Company, the authorised bunds and securities of any such State, payable in not less than fifteen years. These securities are to bo held by the Post Office Department lis security for the payment of the interest and bonds of the Company. The Company, in consideration of this, is to establish emigrant agepcies in Europe, and send emigrants to States which shall deposite funds. The bill provides lliat out of the uimpropriated lands of the Southern States the Company shall have forty acres to give to each emigrant as an inducement for him to come to this country and settle, upon the payment, by him, of tho appraised value of the land, payment to be made in ten yearly instalments.

HORRIBLE MURDER IN SAN J OAQUIN COUNTY. A despatch from Stookton gives an account of perhaps the most horrible madder thai vor occurrcd in the State." Oii 'the* Mokelnmno Hill road, 28 miles from Stockton, five men were taken from Medina's store, remove I to a gulch three-quarters of a mile distant, and 'shot. "When found in the morning the Ii mds of each of tho victims were tied. The deep i tch gives no explanation of the crime, but ii. was committed no doubt for tho pnrpose of robbery. Some tliree weeks ago a store was burnt in San Joaquin county, and the chu:-red bodies of two men were taken from the mhos the next day. They were in suoh a cond.!ion that it was easily discovered that they had had their hands tied and were then shot .ind their bodies left in the building, which was set on fire. That these terrible crimes have been committed by tho same fiends is highly probable from the circumstances of tho case. Their numorical strength may*be inferred from the fact that five men are overpowered, bound and murdered without resistance. Such a crime could only have been committed by a gang of the worst of criminals developed by the war. This event will, doubtless, strike tetror to the hearts of tho inhabitants of the San Joaquin Yalley. Every officer of tho law in the central part of the State should be on the alert for the detection of the murderers, and the Governor should promptly co-operate

with the authorities of San Joaquin county, in the most energetic mo.;sure3 to bring them to the bar of justice. ~ STRANGE STORY FROM JERUSALEM —FIRE SEEN NEA.II SOLOMON'S TEMPLE—W AR/NING- OF THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH. Our friends of the Hebrew faith will doubtless feel much interested in knowing of certain strange development which, according to the Austrian newspapers have manifested themselves in Jerusalem. These developments refer to the coming this year of the Jewish Messiah Tlie story, .m told, is certainly singular enough. It appears that- the lt;ibbi of Pftks, n town in Hungary, has received letters from Jerusalem which state that recently a column of lire was seen near the ruins of Solomon's Temple, and that a strong voice was heard, which addressed itself to nu Israelite who was worshipping there at the time. This voico warned the devotee of the coming this year of the Messiah, :iml declared lluit the Israelites should repent and bo more observant of the religion of their fathers. The man so addressed then went to tlie city and spoke prophetically of what he had heard. Thereupon the people treated him as ill imposter, and some even went so far as to seek to take his life ; but ho, as if miraculously endowed with more than human strength, fought hundreds of hie assailants, and when, afterwards, a b ittalion of soldiers was sent to arrest him, ballled them in their efforts to capture him. Two Israelites, the Hungarian journals say, have been despatched to Jerusalem to learn the exact facta ot this extraordinary affair. It is clear that, if not one of the race of projects, the man who, as above narrated, opposed this host of enemies, must be an athlete of no small pretensions. ASSASSINATION OF A JOURNALIST.— GREAT EXCITEMENT. Albert D. Richardson, a journalist who is well known on t he Pacific coast, was shot and seriously wounded on the 2nd December. He was in the Tribune counting-room, and his assailant, Daniel McFarland, who had been watching for him all the afternoon, fired over the counter at a distance of not more than four or fivo feet. The ball entered directly in front, perforating the stomach and lodging in tlie muscles of the back, but without injuring the spine. For several hours Mr. Richardson suffered intense pain, but late in the night he became very easy under the influence of opium. Last night, when he was supposed to be dying, lie called a stenographer to his side and gavo directions about his affairs with the utuioit coolness; as if he were simply dictating a letter .at his own desk. He talked very calmly, and several times jested about the occurrence. [Mr. .Richardson has since died. —E i>. Bullet <«.] CAUSE OF TIIE SHOOTING. The affair is of nearly three years date. Mr. McFurland was at that time living in a house in Amity-street, and Richardson had a room adjoining the oue occupied by McF. and his wife.-, SlcFarland's were intemperate, and when under the,influence of liquor he used to abuso his wife in a most shameful manner. She endured it a long time iu silence, and at last came to the determination to leave him. She carried out this determination and went to the house of a | friend where McFarland subsequently saw her in the presence of witnesses and agreed to a separation. Richardson became much interested in licr, and after the separation it was agreed that- they should be married whenever she obtained a divorce. About throe weeks after the separation McFarland intercepted a letter from Richardson to Mrs. McFarland, which revealed the intention to marry. Ho became frenzied, and sought Richardson to Blioot him, which he did one night while the latter was escorting Mrs. McF from the Winter Garden Theatre, where she was playing a minor part. The wound was painful but not serious, and out of a desire not to bring the lady's name into court, tlie would-be assassin was not prosecuted. Having escaped so easily,' he has made a second and more serious attempt. Ho has never charged, uutil very recently, that Richardson had improper relations with his wife, but only that lie had secured her affections. He was quite cool last night when arrested, and has not even the plea of intoxication in his favor. KICHABDSOS'B LAST MOMENTS.

The Sun of December 3 gives the following particulars of the last momenta of Richardson :—

" At 1 a.m. yesterday morning Mr. Richardson was very low. He had been unconscious since 9 o'clock in the evening, and had only been sustained by small doses of brandy through the night. Between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning he became momeutarily conscious, and pronounced the name of his wife whom he saw before him. In a minute he was again unconscious. His sufferings were evidently very severe. He frequently gasped for breath, and gave utterance to low moans'. He was exceedingly restless, and spasmodically turned himself from one side to the other. His eyes became fixed and glazed. At halfpast 4he sank into a quiet stupor, and for some minutes a deathlike stillness reigned in the room. Occasionally the muffled tinkle from the bell of a street car was heard, followed by the dull roaring of milk carts on Broadway. Shortly before 5 o'clock the dying man again essayed to turn himself but in vain. He was again conscious. The bell of St. Paul's struck 5. Before its last vibration had melted away, Mr. Richardson drew a last gasp, and was a corpse. He died without apparent pain. As the end approached his friends had clustered about his bedside, and their kind words solaced his last moments. But a small number of persons were present. They were Mrs. Richardson, his son Leander, Junius Henri Browne, Col Thomas W. Knox, and Doctors Swan and Carter. Col. Knox and Mr. Browne, the latter of whom passed 18 months in rebel prisons with Mr. Richardson, were deeply affected." DURING THE MOBNINfi The thin hands were folded over his breast, the eyes and mouth were closed, a dampened napkin was placcd over tho face, tho coverlet was ngain drawn over tho body, and everything was then left until the arrival of the Coroner. The news of tho death of Mr. Richardson was early posted upon tho bulletin-boards, and by 9 o'clock it was known throughout tho cit>. During the morning a number of journalists and acquaintances called to take a last look at tho countenance of their dead friend. The face hardly looked natural. The eyes were sunken and somewhat discolored. The skin had been apparently rubbed from a part of the nose. The beard, however, was neatly trimmed, and the massive broad forehead remained as it was during life. VICK-PBKSIDKNT COLFAX. About 10 a.m. Vice-President Colfax, who had jußt arrived in the city, visited tho Astor House. When told of Mr. Richardson's death he wos deeply affected. He was conducted to tho parlor on the second floor, where he stood for some moments looking at the corpse of his frie'd. "He has terribly changed," he said, at last. "iPoor Riohardson, I should scarcely have kfcown him." ' The face of the dead journalist was again covered, and the Vice-President left the room. Soon after he visited Mrs. Richardson, and had a long interview with her. He ofTerei her his sympathy, and expressed his sincere sorrow at the tragic ending of the life of his friend. The Rev. Mr. Field of Boston has also visited Mrs. Richardson, and condoled with her. After viewing the remains of Mr. Richardson ho left the corridor, apparently deeply moved. The New York papers of December 3 are largely devoted to obituaiy notices of A. D. Richardson, accounts of his marriage to Mrs. McFariand, and other matters pertaining to the subject. The Tribune eulogises him to the akies, representing him in the light of a moral saint. The Times speaks kindly of him, but is more guarded in its praise. Tho Evening Post, while denouncing the assassination and calling for the punishment of the assassin, obiorves:—

But because MeFarland did wrong, that docs not, as some journals apparently begin to think, make Richardson a saint. There is no reason why any one should sympathise with l.'ichardson. It is not denied that lie interfered between MeFarland and his wife ; that lie alienated Mrs. McFarland from her husband ; that he brought about a separation between Mr. McFarland itnd his wife, with the avowrrl purpose to marry the woman himself.

A man engaged in such a disgusting intrigue as this is not to be held up as a martvr, becauss the person whose family he has disturbed shoots him ; and while we condemn tiie shooting, we ought also (o condemn the conduct of Richardson, which preceded it. To do differently, to pity Richardson as a martyr, would be to intro.hiee into real life the mawkish sentiment.di-ni with which Bulwer turned the heads of silly yo ;th in his novel jf "Eugene Aram-"

The iSun, whose communis savor something of malice, says :—

Albert D. Kichiml.Mm ]U'f.i his lust at about. 5 o'clock yesterday morning. Of no man could it ever more truthfully be said : " He died as the fool dieth." And yet his terrible olfenee, and the end it brought upon him, are ehicfly to be attributed to the f;l':follies of the school of Free-love philosophy to which he belonged, rather than to any peculiar viciousness of character of his own. indeed, we believe that, with the excepti on of his unwarranted interference with M.r;. MeFarland, lie had lived an exemplary and a useful life. His card, published last. March, showed obliquity of perception as to the true relations between husband and wife, rather than any determination to do what he knew or believed to be wrong. And it is not so much on the deceased victim as on the heads of his living aiders and abettors, and especially on the clergymen who performed and sanctioned the hymenal mummery on Tuesday last , that the public censure must fall.

The mora 1 deductions from this case probably suggest themselves to every reader. Who has been made happier by this five-love episode ? Is it Richardson himself—stiff and cold, awaiting burial ? lie showed courage ; but courage in setting at defiance the laws of God is foolhardiness. Are his doubly-orphaned children better off or happier ? Is Mrs. McFarland—twice married, but now forever unhusbanded—happier? If poor McFarland himself had faults, is he now reformed and sainted—tell us; Oh ye long-haired sentimental reformers—iu his lonely cell in the Tombs ? Ave his children, more than fatherless, worse than motherless, happier? The conduct of certain Bohemians and freethinking transeendentalists, iu endeavouring to make a martyr of the deceased, and insulting the misery of the wretched McFarland, is severely censured. The Times pointedly remarks :

Would it not be well, for the sake of public decency, to keep reporters from harassing prisoners in their cells ? There is something almost. ferocious in the way the wretched man McFarland is being hunted down by the " interviewers." We express 110 opinion at present ou the case. ]3ut iie is amenable td the law, and the law, while it has possession of him, ought to protect him from those who are clamoring for his execution without a trial. The public have been treated to some striking examples of newspaper morality within the last few days, hut the trick of sending a man to McFarland at 11 o'clock at night to announce to him the marriage of his wife, is as cowardly in its way as the assassination itself. The impression made upon the prisoner by the news is dwelt upon with a glee worthy of savages who are torturing a captive at the stake. It is an outrage on public morals thus to gloat over the manner in which it is possible, in a civilized land, to put a prisoner to private torture. Let the law take it 1 course ; but for journalists to scream out for a man's blood in this wild way, because one of their own number is struck down, is a disgrace to the calling. We are not to break through all the bonds 'which liold society together because we happen to write in news- 1 papers;

The JForldis somewhat non-committal. The Herald moralizes thus : —

We would not prejudge this case. We liavo avoided it so far on this account; but wlieu we find it taken up by a women suffrage association in this city, and in advocacy of the free and easy divorce laws of Indiana, and the conduct of Richardsonin this melancholy business proclaimed by an organ of the Puritans as ■worthy of admiration, we feel at liberty to discuss the vital principles of the social order involved. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a shining light of modern reform, and President of the National Woman's Suffrage Association, has in this matter given us an extraordinary piece of evidence of his endorsement of these Indiana divorces. It was this Indiana divorce, no doubt, which directly led McFarland to the murder which followed. Thus (leaving McFarland in the hands of Justice) it appears from the facts disclosed that this dreadful tragedy, from first to last, on both, sides, betrays that contempt and defiance of personal decorum, vested rights, public sentiment and law and order which are sapping tho very foundations of our social fabric. The moral is to be found in that commandment which says, " Thou shalt do no murder," and in that other one, which says, " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife."