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art. In the scenery, which surpassed everything ever before witnessed, and formed a potent adjunct to the drama, about the only exception taken was at the clumsiness of the dragon-scene. The friends of Wagner, who had heard parts of the work before, were surprised at the new power which those parts gained in being presented in their right connection; the wonderful unity and organic development both of the drama and the music were admitted and admired by all. Many who came to cavil and condemn went away enthusiastic converts. The "Ring des Nibelungen," in its true dramatic character, is a trilogy, to which the first part, Rheingold," forms the prelude. Founded on several of the ancient Germanic sagas, Wagner has developed the powerful dramatic character of his work only by freely altering the connection

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and final bearing of some of the events, while at the same time preserving all the main episodes-in one instance even when the story is hideous to the modern sense. In the introductory part, "Rheingold," are presented supernatural beings only, the three warring races of Northern mythology, the gods, giants, and dwarfs. Their jealous struggles, plots, and counterplots for power form the motive of the drama. The Rhine-gold, the emblem of earthly power, rests in the depths of the tranquil Rhine, faithfully guarded by the Rhine-Daughters, a beautiful race of mermaids. The dwarf Alberich, a Nibelung, from the region of subterranean gloom, robs them of the treasure out of which he forges the ring of magic virtue, the symbol of earthly power. The god Wotan, or Odin, by crafty arts, masters the dwarf in Nibelheim, and extorts from him the

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wonder-working ring. This ring he must deliver to the giants Fasolt and Fafner, as a ransom for Freia, the goddess of love and beauty. Fasolt is slain by Fafner, who, in the form of a dragon, guards the talisman, whose curse threatens destruction to the god unless it be rescued by a spotless mortal hero. In the second part of the tetralogy, "Die Walküre," the scene of action is transferred to the heroic world of the old Teutons. The dark legend of Siegmund and Sieglinde, and the protection of the erring hero against the wrath of Wotan by the Walküre, Brünnhilde, afford poetical and musical motives of the highest grandeur. The fruit of the guilty union of the abovenamed pair was Siegfried, the destined deliverer of the ring. The third part, "Siegfried,"

forms the dramatic climax of the tetralogy. The well-known legend is faithfully recounted: the human interest is here stronger, the music sweeter and richer. In the fourth drama, the "Gotterdämmerung," the legend of the "Nibelungenlied" is concluded: Hagen's treacherous plots, Siegfried's love for Gutrun, and victory over Brünnhilde, under the disguise of Gunther, her suitor and Gutrun's brother, and the final fall of Walhalla, afford material of deep tragical moment, which fitly closes the great work. In the "Ring des Nibelungen Wagner has completed the story which is only partly told in the "Nibelungenlied," connecting it with the sagas of the two Eddas, and supplying the logically consequent and necessary dramatic linka

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NAVY OF THE UNITED STATES. The Naval Observatory, Nautical Almanac, etc....

Steam-machinery, tools, etc..
Provisions and clothing..

Repairs of hospitals and laboratories.
Surgeons' necessaries..

Contingent expenses of various departments

and bureaus.. Naval Academy..

Navy now comprises 146 vessels of 150,157 Repairs and preservation of vessels, etc.......
tons' measurement, carrying 1,142 guns, exclu-
sive of howitzers and Gatlings. Of these 23 were
sailing-vessels, carrying 229 guns; and 123,
of 120,894 tons, and carrying 913 guns, were
steam-vessels, including 24 iron-clads of 72
guns, 27 tugs, and two torpedo-boats. Of the
whole number of vessels 75 were in actual use
at the close of the year, of which 37, including
11 iron-clads on the North-Atlantic Station,
were in commission attached to fleets. In his
last annual report Secretary Robeson says:

The reduction of the force of our fleet by act of Congress, from 8,500 to 7,500 men, has placed our Navy, in the personnel of the enlisted men, below that of nearly every navy of Europe. The effect of this reduction has been to lose to the service many valuable seamen, who, for want of continuous employment in the Navy, and in the absence of any commerce of our own, have been forced to go abroad for employment. Their services are thus lost to the country, and the time and care given to their education as men-of-war's-men has been to some extent in vain. As a remedy for this misfortune, and for the purpose of maintaining a trained class of men in the Navy, skilled in their duties and devoted to their flag, I have the honor to repeat my recommendations of last year, that Congress give the necessary authority to enlist annually 750 boys for the Navy, under existing laws, but in addition to the number of men now allowed. The cost of these boys, so far as the pay of the Navy is concerned, would not amount to more than the cost of 250 men; and it is expected that this number enlisted annually will, in the course of a few years, not only fill the vacancies made by discharge, death, and desertion, but finally

man our fleet with educated American seamen.

Support of Marine Corps.
Naval Asylum, Philadelphia..
Maintenance of yards and docks..

Total.....

$54,200 00 8,300,000 00 2,000,000 00 1,403,721 85 40.000 00

40,000 00

851,000 00

199,262 40

905,769 00

68.597 00

862,029 00

$18,646,012 69

The amount estimated for new buildings and the repairs and improvements necessary at the various navy-yards, stations, and hospitals, is $2,908,596. There is also submitted by the Bureau of Ordnance an estimate for $775,500 to provide the proper armament for large ironclads and other ships being fitted out for sea.

The following is a statement of the number and yearly amount of pensions of the Navy on the rolls June 30, 1876, and the amount which was paid during that fiscal year:

PENSIONS.

Navy invalids...
Navy widows and others.

Total..

On Roll June 30,

1876.

1,643
1,744

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8,887 $471,442 $496,471 11 NEAL, JOHN, an American author; died at He was born Portland, Me., June 20, 1876. in Falmouth (now Portland), Me., August 25, The system of training boys has been in success- 1793. His parents were members of the Soful operation for little more than one year, and there ciety of Friends, with which he also was conare at present 479 in the service, one-half of them nected until the age of twenty-five, when, under instruction on board the training-ships Minnesota and Monongahela, and the others already principally for his inability to "live peaceably afloat in various sea-going vessels. The Department with all men," he received his formal dismissal. has stationed the Minnesota at New York, the Con- About the age of twelve he was employed in stitution at Philadelphia, and the Monongahela at Portland as a shop-boy; a few years later he Baltimore, as permanent school-ships for these lads, and the experience of the past year fully demon- taught drawing and penmanship in the prinstrates the success of this effort to improve our sea- cipal towns of Maine; in 1814-15 he was a men. I feel myself, therefore, most fully justified dry-goods retailer and jobber in Boston and in earnestly renewing my recommendation of this New York, and afterward established himself addition to the personnel of the Navy. in Baltimore as a wholesale dealer in partnership with John Pierpont. In 1816 they failed, and Neal began the study of the law. He read through a legal course intended to embrace a period of several years in a twelvemonth, besides attending lectures and studying several languages. In 1816 he produced a review of the works of Byron, written, it is said, in four days, which appeared from month to month until completed in the Portico, a Baltimore magazine. In 1817 he published his first novel, "Keep Cool" (2 vols., Baltimore), 205,922 00 originally called "Judge Not," followed the next year by "The Battle of Niagara, Goldau, and other Poems." In 1819 appeared "Otho, or the Bastard," a five-act tragedy; and about

On July 1, 1875, the amount of the appropriations applicable to the year ending June 30, 1876, was $18,301,731. The actual expenditures during the year amounted to $17,937,355, or about $364,376 less than the appropriations. The appropriations available for the year beginning July 1, 1876, aggregate $12,961,790. The estimates for the general maintenance of the Navy for the next year are as follows:

Pay of officers and seamen of the Navy..
Pay of civil establishment in navy-yards.
Ordnance and Torpedo Corps..

Coal, hemp, and equipments.!.
Navigation and navigation supplies..
Hydrographic work..

$7,800,000 00

445,575 00 1,250,000 00 135,136 44 89,500 00

for

thereafter, and it is probable that the law will be speedily changed to conform thereto, dispensing with the annual enumeration. The following table furnishes a comparison of the last two censuses:

Adams..
Antelope..
Boone.
Buffalo.
Burt.
Cass
Cedar..

Butler.

Dakota..

COUNTIES.

Clay..
Colfax.
Cuming (estimated).
Dawson..
Dixon.
Douglas (estimated)..
Fillmore.

the same time he assisted Dr. Watkins in writ-
ing the "History of the American Revolution,
by Paul Allen." Admitted to the Maryland
bar in 1819, he entered upon practice, but
continued his literary labors. Besides pre-
paring an index for "Niles's Register," then
amounting to upward of fifty volumes, he
published in 1823 the novels "Seventy-six, a
Romance of the Revolution," "Logan," "Ran-
dolph," and "Errata." They were severally
written, according to his own account, in pe-
riods of from twenty-seven to thirty-nine days.
He went to England in January, 1824, and
wrote articles for various periodicals, including
"Sketches of the Five American Presidents and
the Five Candidates for the Presideney"
Blackwood's Magazine. His literary efforts
attracted the notice of Jeremy Bentham, who
invited him to take up his residence in his
house, of which he remained an inmate during
a considerable portion of his stay in England.
In 1827 he returned to America, and settled
in Portland, where he employed himself in
practising law, writing, and lecturing; "and,
that no superfluous energy might run to waste,
established gymnasiums and gave lessons to
large classes in sparring and fencing." This
life he continued till 1850, when he gave up
his profession. He also published "Brother
Jonathan (3 vols., London and Edinburgh,
1825); "Rachel Dyer" (Portland, 1828);
"Bentham's Morals and Legislation" (Boston,
1830); "Authorship, a Tale" (1833); "The
Down-Easters" (2 vols., New York, 1833);
"One Word More (1854), essays of a reli-
gious character; "True Womanhood, a Tale"
(Boston, 1859); "Wandering Recollections of Nemaha
& Somewhat Busy Life" (1869); and "Port-
land Illustrated" (1874).

NEBRASKA. The existing law in the State of Nebraska requires an enumeration of the inhabitants to be made every year by the precinct assessors, and returned to the county

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Dodge..

Franklin..
Frontier (estimated).
Furnas..
Gage.......
Greeley (estimated).
Gosper (returns not complete).
Hall..

Hamilton..
Harlan.

Hitchcock..

Howard..
Jefferson.

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Cheyenne (estimated).

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Keith.
Knox

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Lancaster

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Lincoln

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Saunders..

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Seward (estimated).

[blocks in formation]

Sherman.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Johnson..
Kearney..

Nuckolls.
Otoe
Pawnee..

Phelps (estimated).
Pierce (estimated).
Platte..

Polk.
Red Willow

Richardson (estimated).

Saline....
Sarpy..

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clerks, by whom they are forwarded to the Secretary of State. The new constitution provides for a census in 1885, and every ten years

Thayer.

Valley.
Washington..
Wayne..
Webster...

York..
Unorganized territory..

Total.........

The valuation of property in the State in 1875 for purposes of taxation was $75,467,398.81, and for 1876 $74,178,645.48, a decrease of $1,288,753.33. The tax-levy for each year was four mills on the dollar for the general fund, one mill for the sinking-fund, one mill for the common-school fund, one mill for the penitentiary fund, one-quarter mill for the university fund, and one-tenth mill for the State bond fund, or 7 mills in all. The aggregate revenue to be obtained by this levy is $540,

305.11 for 1876, but there were taxes due on the 30th of November, delinquent for different years, amounting to $765,815.25. The receipts of the Treasury for two years ending November 30th were $1,693,849.59, including a balance of $234,543.41 on hand at the beginning of that period. The disbursements for two years amounted to $1,369,795.91, leaving a balance at the end of the last fiscal year of $324,053.68. This balance, together with delinquent taxes, made the resources of the State (exclusive of unsold lands) $1,089,863.95. The total liabilities were $528,524.36, classified as follows:

Certificates of indebtedness issued to the permanent school-fund for general-fund warrants paid by said fund...

Outstanding general-fund warrants...

Interest on outstanding general-fund warrants.. Outstanding penitentiary-fund warrants.. Interest on outstanding penitentiary-fund war

rants..

Outstanding State building-fund warrants.. Interest on outstanding State building-fund warrants...

Outstanding temporary school-fund warrants.. State bonds...

Total.......

$342,957 34 2,480 74 652 23 74,756 08

A new wing has been added to the Hospital for the Insane, at a cost of $35,000. The maintenance of the hospital for two years cost $60,746.69. Of this amount $26,962.99 was charged to the counties having patients in the institution. The number of inmates on the 30th of November was 93, an increase of 47 in two years. The whole number admitted during those years was 118; number discharged as recovered, 50; improved, 9; unimproved, 6; escaped, 1; died, 5. The daily average in 1876 was 81 patients; the weekly cost per patient was $7.551.

The State penitentiary has been completed in a substantial manner. The daily average of convicts for two years ending November 30th was 63. The cost of maintenance for that period was $57,658, of which $50,000 was appropriated by the Legislature, and the balance earned by the convicts. The average daily cost of each prisoner was $1.20. The contract for the labor of the prisoners has expired, and it is 389 41 proposed to establish some branch of industry in the prison itself for the employment of the inmates. The younger class of criminals are kept separate from the rest, and night-schools have been established for their benefit.

5,865 83 81,059 32

20,463 41

50,000 00

$528,524 36

The new constitution provides for the funding of the certificates of indebtedness issued to the school-fund.

The sixty organized counties of the State are divided into 2,510 school districts. The number of children of school age is 86,191, of whom 59,966 attended the public schools during the year. There were 1,984 school-houses, valued at $1,585,736.60, and 3,361 teachers, receiving an average salary of $34.24 per month. The total receipts of the year from all sources, for school purposes, were $1,093,275.39, and the expenditures $1,098,974.75. The bonded and floating school-debt was $1,063,058.60. The State University, at Lincoln, is in a flourishing condition. The attendance increased from 132 in 1874 to 282 in 1876. The Normal School, at Peru, is also on a satisfactory basis. The average attendance for the year was 142, while the whole number of different students was 268.

The Legislature of 1875 made an appropriation of $10,000 for the erection of an Institute for the Blind at Nebraska City, on condition that the citizens of that place should raise $3,000 for the same purpose. The condition was complied with, and the necessary building constructed in 1875. The institution was opened on the 13th of January, and has accommodations for fifty pupils. The number in attendance on the 30th of November was seventeen. Prof. Samuel Bacon is the principal.

The Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, at Omaha, has been in successful operation since 1869, and during the past two years there have been fifty-three pupils connected with the school. Appropriation was made in 1875 for the construction of a new building for this institution, which was nearly completed at the end of the year.

The State has twenty-two organized and well-armed companies of militia, favorably situated for the protection of the frontier against incursions of the Indians. After the outbreak of hostilities with the Sioux, arms were obtained from the Federal Government, the Governor executing a bond for their safe return, and the companies were fully equipped. They have served a useful purpose in protecting the frontier and giving the people a sense of security.

The title of the State to the salt-springs near the city of Lincoln has been confirmed by the United States Supreme Court, against the claim of a private party.

The Democrats of the State held a convention at Lincoln, on the 19th of April, for the purpose of choosing delegates to the National Convention of the party. They adopted resolutions favoring reform in administration, and a return to specie payments "as soon as it can be done without detriment to the commercial and industrial interests of the country." A State Central Committee was also chosen. No instructions were given to the delegates, but a large majority of the convention was understood to be in favor of the nomination of Mr. Tilden.

The Republicans held a convention at Fremont on the 23d and 24th of May, organization not having been effected until the second day, owing to a number of contesting delegations. The local divisions were between those known as Hitchcock and anti-Hitchcock men, or the supporters and opponents of Senator Hitchcock as a party leader. Six delegates to the Cincinnati Convention were chosen, and instructed to vote for James G. Blaine as the candidate for President. The new

Central Committee was strongly "anti-Hitchcock."

The Democratic Convention for the nomination of candidates was held at Omaha, on the 6th of September. The State ticket adopted was as follows: For Governor, Paren England; Lieutenant-Governor, Miles Zentmeyer; Secretary of State, Joseph E. Ritchie; Treasurer, Samuel Waugh; Auditor, G. P. Thomas; Attorney-General, D. L. Ashby; Superintendent of Public Instruction, I. N. Jones; Commissioner of Public Lands and Buildings, Henry Grebe. The candidate for Congress was General Joseph Holman, of Dakota County. The following was the platform adopted:

Resolved, by the Democracy of the State of Nebraska, in convention assembled:

1. That we heartily indorse the statement of principles of the Democratic party as enunciated by the St. Louis Convention; and that we look upon the election of Tilden and Hendricks as the only means of saving to this country the government our fathers gave us.

2. That, in view of the history of the Republican party, we have no faith in their pledges of reform; that they have so often deceived the people and obtained their support on the strength of such pledges, that it is the height of folly to trust them longer; and that the people place no confidence in a party whose entire history is replete with broken pledges, violated personal rights, criminal extravagance, and unpunished corruption.

3. That we arraign the Republican party, and particularly a Republican Senate, as being false to the interests of the people, and to their repeated pledges of economy in refusing to consent to a reduction of the expenditures of the Government, made by a Democratic House of Representatives.

4. That we denounce the policy of the Republican party in furnishing the Indians with arms and ammunition with which to take the lives of tax-pay ing white men, and in protecting the Indians while they leave our frontier unprotected.

5. That we denounce interference on the part of the General Government with a free exercise of the elective franchise by keeping a standing army over the ballot-box in several States of the Union as an unwarranted exercise of the Executive power, in a time of profound peace, for the sole object of subserving party purposes.

6. That the pretended claim of the Republican party that they are the friends of the soldier is a gross and deceptive fraud in that after a Democratic House had passed a bill for the purpose of equalizing the bounties of the soldiers, a Republican Senate defeated the same.

7. That we demand the utmost economy in the expenditures of our State government, and that the public money shall not be used by its custodians in speculation, or to advance party ends, and that such use be punished with severe penalties.

The Republican nominating convention was held at Lincoln, on the 28th and 29th of September. The ticket was made up as follows: For Governor, Silas Garber; Lieutenant-Governor, N. O. Abbott; Secretary of State, Bruno Tzschuck; Treasurer, J. C. McBride; Auditor, J. B. Weston; Attorney-General, George II. Roberts Superintendent of Public Instruction, S. R. Thompson; Commissioner of Pablic Lands and Buildings, F. M. Davis; member of Congress, Frank Welch. Presidential electors were also nominated. A long series of VOL. XVI.-37 A

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resolutions was adopted. The preamble reaffirmed the faith of the party in the perpetuity of the Union and the sanctity of the Constitution, and steadfast loyalty to its principles under all circumstances. The platform and nominations of the Cincinnati Convention were approved in the first two resolutions. Then followed these declarations:

3. We affirm that the Republican party stands pledged to the principle of the equality of all citizens before the law, without regard to color, creed, or nationality. The fact of citizenship clothes all alike; its panoply is over all, and each and every one is entitled to the fullest protection in accordance with the Constitution in every State of the Union.

4. We commend the legislation of Congress, the orders of President Grant, and the action of the Attorney-General in his letter of instructions to the United States marshals to enforce the laws, and protect the citizens in the performance of their political rights, and sacredly shield the elective franchise in

States where obstructed.

5. We unhesitatingly indorse the financial policy of the Government in its successful efforts to "restore the public credit and maintain the national honor," and the late fiscal arrangements, by means of which $300,000,000 of bonds have been placed at four and a half per cent. interest, and an equivalent amount of six per cent. bonds retired, thus effecting a saving of $4,500,000 interest money annually, meets the unqualified approbation of the Republican party. standing currency in coin or its equivalent, so as to 6. We approve the policy of redeeming the outmake it convertible at any time at the option of the holder, either into gold, silver, or government bonds, at an equal interchangeable value, and we look with confidence to a returned prosperity and to such a revival of commerce, trade, and manufactures, as will make such redemption speedily practicable. 7. Owing to the requirements of the public debt, revenues must be provided in addition to the ordidischarge the accruing interest; which revenues nary expenditures of the Government, sufficient to must in the nature of things be derived principally from duties on imports; and, in the adjustment of the tariff laws, equitable protection should be given to domestic manufactures, and thus foster labor, promote enterprise, and advance the public welfare.

8. We approve and commend the generous and beneficent policy of the Government in granting pensions to loyal men who periled their lives that the nation might live, and to their widows and orhans. A grateful people will cheerfully pay taxes for this holy purpose.

9. We desire to express our abhorrence of and place our seal of condemnation on that element in Hamburg, S. C.; which looks with complacency the Democratic party which justified the slaughter at on the butcheries at Coushatta, La. ; which approves of the shot-gun policy in Mississippi; which indorses the displacement of Union soldiers, and establishes the Confederate guerrillas in their vacant positions; which has cut down the appropriation for the army and navy, while a savage warfare is in progress on our borders; which has sent to the congressional halls the most violent and bitter foes of the restored republic; which has in solemn convention declared the amendments to the Constitution null and void, defiance and hostility to the peace, integrity, and and which presents itself to-day in an attitude of autonomy of the nation.

We, the Republican party of Nebraska, charge the above on a portion of the adherents of the Democratic party, and we reject with disdain the presentation of statements made in the platform of that party at St. Louis. To the maintenance of all herein set forth, we pledge ourselves as becomes all

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