Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1845-03-22

subterranenn Scenes In New York.

he"H"s, III tne last New YORK Observer,
quotes from the notes of a friend the following
SAD account OF recent exploration of one of the
IlVIns bells IN that city, which corroborates the
reports heretofore made by Dickens
1t was midnight. We had made an appoint.
mcnt with an officer of the city police, one of
the Oldest and trucst of thut department, TO meet
us at the - House, and we were all ready
The nelghborhood we proposed to visit, was un.
safe tor any man to enter in the night, unless
well protected, and we had therefore taken
such precautions as the first law of nature die
tates IN such cases. Turning down l. TO
O. streets we came to a large white wash.
ed door, at which the officer tapped as fgvng
a signal to be understood within The door
was cautiously opened, and we stood enveloped
in darkness, but the sound of distant music
broke upon our ears We CROPPED our way to a
light of stairs, doon which we marched, the
officer being at the head, till we came to ano.
ther door guarded by porter, who proved to be
the presiding genius of the establishment. He
knew the officer at a glance, and was ms com.
plaisant as i'a new customer had come and
on being informed that we were on pleasure
excursion through his domnions, he threw open
his internal ballroom door, and there, ms sure
as life, was a sight such as the discrdered brain
of a madman might conjecture, but which we
had never ventured to believe was one of
nightly similar scenes in this christian city.
motley multitude of men and women, yellow
and white, black and dingy, old and young, ugly
and - no not handsome; God forbid that
beauty should ever bloom in such hot. bed as
ths-but there they were, set Of male and
female Bacchanals dancing to the tambourinc
and fiddle, gigglng and laughing in style pc.
culiar to the remote descendants of Ham, and
making might hideous" with their lascivious
orgies, Talk octhc degradation of the heather,
OF savage pow.wows, and pagan carnlvas ; and
Stir up sympathy for the slaves Of Elm in the
depths Of Africa and ASIA. Here we were
within a stones throw of the City Hall, in the
centre OF the ilrst cry in the most christian
country on the earth, aud here vas sight to
make the heart slcken aud bleed. On one side
of the room was bar, tended bya rascay look.
ing wretch, who dealt o,it the liquors to the ire
gent calls OF his customers, and as the drinking
and fddlng went on, the fury of the company
waxed fcrcer, until the scene was as unreal
and bewIIderlng as # we had bccu suddenly
ushered into the revelIlug halls OF the Prince
OF darkness,
Wandering through this horrd group was a
young man whom we recognised as ofa rcspec.
table family, hut his bnatad face and blood-shot
eyes, and the loose familiarity with which he
addressed the company, showed that he was
at home among them, and was already near the
nsdir point Of his downward career. We
thought of the mother that gave him birth, and
whose heart would be wrung with agony at
the ruin of her son, were she not one Of the
many mothers in the ranks of fashion and pride,
perhaps a, this moment Haunting a; more
splendid ball, yielding TO the voluptuous bland
ishments of elegant vice, and listening TO the
fa,,ering tongue that will lure her TO meet her
lost boy at tho door of a lower hell
That gaudy girl, (sad the oficer,) dccked
with so much fncry, makes it her profession Ia
decoy men into houses kept for the purpose, and
there she robs them. Many men from the
country, prompted by curiosity follow such per
sons as you see her to be- and bcfnre they are
aware of their danger, they are in snare from
which escape is impossible. Resistance use.
less, and to complain to the police is attended
with an exposure worse than the loss Of the
money. In tact, the robbery of their victims is
the CHEF pursuit of this class of women of whom
that girl is one of the queens.
But we were glad to emerge from this den
and breathe sgain the pure air of heaven. A
bright pure moon poured on us food Of hgh,
as We gained the upper regions, ani what a
contrast TO the murky atmosphere from which
We had just escaped! 1t was beautiful nigh,
The mild moon sailed in glory over us, anC
the stars "whose PURITY aud DISTANCE make
them FAIR" danced like celestial virgins al
the blue ethereal sky" and we could Scdrccl,
believe that, under such canopy, there coul,
be such scenes as we had just left.
THE PREss.-"A journalist" said the grea
Napoleon, "is gIumbler, a censnreh give
of advice, regent of soveveigns, a tutor of ma
tions. -Four hostile newspapers are more to b,
feared than an hundred thousand bayonetts." Il
our own country there is not a man in office