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Show LETTER FHOSI CHICAGO- Caries1 itic-oci. Le Hi.n.t'.) Chicago, Jan. 27, J-?T3. THE UKATHKIt. The W'.-ilii-jr ha- been a fruitful topic of convLT-vioa during the pat three j month-, udmI there ii quite a geci'.ral agreement, that wo have h;.d quite'a . euih';ieney cf wimcr.Lut there ia yet two . severe months of the season to pars i away, Marck bc-ictf in thii locality one of the most element months. In J Illinois such a sea.iun a.i ihii has not j occurred lor more than a VL-ocraiiuo, i but in the northern parts of iowa and I Minnesota the people havo sun e red ! beyond precedent. In a Mtiele county i of the laat named Stare, it is e-i'.imated ; that not lead than lUO persons havo , beei frozen to death in attempting to I make their W'iy toHJiue piace id' shel- tc-r; in general instances persons have j frozen btitf within a few yards oi a dwelling. The oid time winters seem to be coming upon us again; but wo can congratulate ourselves that the severity of the present season an hardly be excelled by any attempts of tho futuro. Tho driving snowstorm of la-t week blockaded nearly all of tiio railroads, and disarranged ail busiue.-a fir the week. HARD TIMES. Ever fiinc the election this hai been the prevailing cry. The banks are short, as they always are when the puoplc want money, and tho needy have had to submit to tho most cruel shares. Tho blund president of the National regrets exceedingly that he ounnot accommodate ycu with a discount, dis-count, but recommends you to a modest broker over the way, who "does" your paper from tho bank funds and divides profits with the officers. And why not? Congress puts tho power in the hands of a few capitalists, to realize twenty-five or thirty percent, a year on their investments, wnno tno larmcrs can hardly lieep abovo water. 'J his is the way a local paper figures out the possible profits of tho national banking ayptem. Now let us suppose that some shrewd but impecunious financier, with a capital of say $5,000, borrows ofsomo friend $90,000 more. With tho aggregate aggre-gate $115,000 ho buys $100,0UO of bonds, deposits them with the treasury, gets -pOO, 000 of tho circulation back, pays off his debt, and continues to draw $0,000 in gold for interest on the bonds, making an annual income of 40,780 in currency, or at tho rato of 20 por cent, per annum on his $35,-000 $35,-000 of capital invested. It is probable that this was tho class of "banks" to which the comptroller of tho currcnoy t referred to in his last roport, when ho asked for further legislation to enable him to promptly close up a certain class of national "banks." GOVERNMENT FINANCIERING. Yot Mr. Sherman, tho financial authority au-thority of congress, and tho advocate of immediato resumption of specie payments, has reported in favor of maintaining this rotten system, at an expenso to tho national treasury of soino twenty millions of dollars! His resumption bill is equally absurd, and might bettor bo denominated "a bill to authorize the secretary of tho treasury treas-ury to inflate tho currency and postpone post-pone specie payments." Those are the kind of floating humbugs to which tho country is supposed to havo been committed by tho verdict of tho late election! Boutwoll'a new "syndicate" means simply to place our finances in the hands of foreign capitalists. When Franco wants to raise money she advertises ad-vertises a popular loan, tho homo demand for which is an absolute furore, and the finance minister is overwhelmed overwhelm-ed with the ofl'erings of the people; but Mr. Boutwoll allows only bankers to handle his loans and monopolize the profits of tho transaction. Verily, this is the day of vast humbugs. CONGRESSIONAL SWINDLES.' The "Credit Mobilier" and kindred official schemes by which our legislators legisla-tors havo onriohod themselves at the expense of the people, is neither favorable favor-able to cur national credit nor our domestic proapp.rifj?. Tho rovolatioQO oftho present congress surpass anything any-thing previously narrated in the history of narliamentarv corruption: jinri Mir "rotten borough" system of England bids fair to bo rivaled by our corrupt and purchased senatorial scats. How : long is it possible to maintain a representative repre-sentative govornment under such circumstances? cir-cumstances? THE FUTURE OF PARTIES. But it's an ill wind, eto. It looks as if the recommended legislation to punish tho Mormons for minding their own business would bo neglected by this congress in its virtuous zeal to ferret out tho corruptionists among its household, and tho new administration will likely havo enough to do to Itoep together a respectable party of supporters, sup-porters, without meddling with the people and institutions of Utah. The . last election effectually demolished both of tho old political organizations, and tho scramble for tho "new departures" will fairly commence with tho open-niog open-niog of tho next congress in December next, unless some foreign complication should render it necessary for Grant to anticipate the regular day of meeting. The President has a dread of this new congress, and loves the pleasures of Long B-anoh too well fo hasten the congregation of tho belligerent politi cians at tne capital, mere is Jikely to be a grand rush to ' 'get from under1 ' during the first session, without particular par-ticular regard to tho interests of the White House lazzaroni or anything else save individual welfare. MANIFEST DESTINY. There is apparently but one possible contingency of administration safety. A bold position in regard to Cuba and Mexico might turn the popular current in favor of Grant; but this would involve in-volve a severe struggle between the 1 controlling capitalists and the qxp.cu- , tive, and congress would probably ; sustain the former. But the people . of this country of all parties are in favor of our continental manifest 1 destiny, and will probably make the inaction of tho parly in power in this regard ono of the electioneering indict- i mcnts of the election of 1670. LOCAL POLITICS. ' There is less interest evinced in , political affairs in Chicago than in any other of our largo cities. Local parti- i sanship does not hold a rigid sway. It ; is difficult to tell what party predomi-j predomi-j nates in this city and county, and the present legislature, thanks to the new State constitution, contains a liberal : representation of the political minority minor-ity so liberal indeed, that a proposition proposi-tion will bo made to amend this instrument by restoring tho old majority major-ity feature, but this amendment is not likely to succeed, as the popular tendency is in favor of minority representation, repre-sentation, which should be extended to members of congress as well as the State legislatures. BUSINESS, iC Business of all kinds is dull just now, still the aggregate transactions in ail our great staples are enormous acd continually increasing. There will probably tea lull in building operations I this year, especially in the line cf ' business blocks, is there are acres of 1 buildings ye: nnrented, and the space j devoted to etike purples io the burnt ; 1 district is much tarter than bo-fore bo-fore the tii e. Conveniently ac-i ac-i ceseible dwellings is now the grat want which will have to be supplied. sup-plied. EeaJ estate maintains its advance ad-vance well and dealers are looking for a moderately active season. The common com-mon council is pushing the matter of! street viaducts over ail the railroad ( crossings, the detentions to travel : from this eau-e having reached Lhs dunity of a nuiacce. The railway ( magnates grumble; b'Jt mayor Mediil. i tho sternest Konian of a:! cur evil ; 01 ag i traces, deals with these gentle- ! m-. n as he does wi:h cviry other cla.-i, . hoidicg their convenience as subordinate subordin-ate to that ot the public. What humbug is it for scinch railroad cor- i poratirns to set up leg-htive contracts I as giving them rilns wirch interfere. wi:ti the nevs of the pe-pe to c.oirol ' the public tizhTays azd re.utatc the 1 business ot these reat pihlic carriers. -and monopolies! Wdtetkee, i |