The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1849-08-28

PAL SECURITY FOR THE Rich, AND PorrER's FIELD
FOR THE PooR.-The gratifying fact Is now clearly
revealed-the cholera is fast disappearing from
this city. Public tranquility succeeds the painful
anxiety which agitated the community. In all de-
partments of business the usual activity exhibits
itself. Indeed, there is an extraordinary degree OF
animation In the various branches of trade and
commerce. The hotels are crowded to overflow
ing. Our streets are full of busting life. On all
hands we discover the agreeable evidences Of a
great and healthful reaction, after period Of
gloom and depression.
But while the cholera disappears it leaves be.
hind associations and impressions which will not
be soon forgotten or effaced. Many a hearth has
been made desolate. Hundreds of families have
been broken UP. A multitude of orphans have
BEEN cast helpless upon the world. Many pits
have been dug and filled in Pot.er's Field, and
the stockholders of Greenwood Cemetery joyously
await an enormous dividend Many Rachael
weeps for her children because they are not; and
scores of undertakers eagerly clutch the extra dol
lars which they are sure they have. Truly we
have been in the midst Of death. But it has been
amongst the poor the destitute the badly fed, and
the badly housed, that the pestlence has committed
the greatest ravages For one rich man that died
of the cholera fifty of the poor were smitten.
Is this sad fact to be lightly passed overt or does
II not provoke close and searching inquiry p
Let US see.
How have the poor been cared for by the NUM-
cipal authorities of this metropolis from the hour
that the startling announcement was made that the
cholera was here up to the present moment! Let
facts answer. 1t is notorious that while in the
wards and regions of the city In which Dives pur-
sued his honorable business, or enjoyed his voup.
tuous case, great precautionary measures were
taken to cleanse and purify the streets, and avert
the visitation of the destroyer; in those filthy and
neglected lanes and alleys where Lazarus starved
and rotted the pestilence was allowed to work its
deadly will, with hardly any let or hindrance
This is no light accusation; but it is fearfully
solemn truth. What did the authorities OF this
city do for the poor who died by hundreds and hun
dreds every week :! How many agents Of the cor
poration went on mission of charity among the
novels in the upper portion of the city-those villa
ges Of the Parias of this christian community
swarming with their wretched inhabitants, and the
flthiest of the brute creation, dogs and swine
and from which proceeded those pestential
eilluyia that swept along the banks of both
rivers, carrying thousands to the Potter's Field!
w Hdt cueIScuc, PidCticdl cHoIte Weic
made to cleanse those regions of the city!
What attempts were made to render timely and
adequate medical aid None, worthy of the
name. The most polluting nuisances were I'M
touched in the regions Of the poor. The herds of
swine, and the reeklng heaps of filth, and the
wooden lighthouses, crammed with their pallid,
ragged, ting inmates, were all allowed to remain.
But in the streets where the rich mantle Wall
street broker, and the Cedar street merchant, and
the SPECTATOR in corn, and the wealthy parson,
and the perfumed exquisite, and the great dealer
IN indigo, tea and tobacco-lived, municipal law
manifested no "masterly inactivity" Not one little
bit of ordure euded the cognizance of its faithful
nose. Not one foot OF unceansed gutter could
escape the range of its slecpless eye. All around
Union Square and Fourteenth street, and Aston
Place and Eighth street, municipal vigilance kept
watch night and day. Over the doomed districts
of Irish, and German, and native restitution, up
town, which assai and shock every sense of him
who enters the city, along the bank OF either
river, the pestilence permitted to flap its lurd
wings till fairly satiated with Its prey. Dives had
plenty of lime sprnlsed around his lordy dwelling
to make the air sweet and wholesome. Lazarus
got it In his coffin!
Nothing can excuse or palliate the conduct Of the
municipal authorities in this shocking indifference
to the condition OF the poor during the presence OF
the pestilence. 1t has been quite worthy Of the
olgarchy that rules the city, and which shot down
twenty-five citizens on the night Of the Tenth Of
May. What are these wing municipal authorizes
made Of Are they Of the same material as the
authorities Boston, who have always taken to
tell us that the majority Of deaths by cholera were
among the foreigners! ~Twenty.six deaths to-
day-iweniy. one foreigners, five nativesr' Only
a foreigner only an lrishman only German.
or, more contomp,uous stl-only can emigrant'
Merciful heaven lis this Christian lsud, Have
these civic authorities human hearts in their
bosoms Thank God, they have little in common
with the masses of the American people. In no
land under heaven is there community more dis
posed to deeds Of love and mercy than ours. Every
day witnesses acts OF individual bencvocnce which
do honor to our nature. But il is not among the
Artc--it Is not among those who arrogatc to them
selves all that is respectable--it is not among those
that knee TO their Maker on costly cushions Of
velvet, and desecratc the tenn Of The living God
by their Phansaisn, that we are to look for this
living charity.
We trust that the people will not forget or over
look the conduct of the municipal authorities in
this cly IN relation 10 tue cholcra. All along tbey
have triiled with the hopes and fears Of the COM
puniiy-they have inflicted immense injuries upon
our business in,erests-they have inhumanly ne.
elected the poor. II IL not for us to say a word
about their individual responsibility. That is a
matter TO be lett TO their own consciences and
God. But in their corporate capacity they are
amenabe TO the people; and we will be greatly
mistaken IL their ohastisement be not swift and
overwhelming. By the by, what about that cholera
report Have the doctors prepared that medical
report Has the corporation ordered that medic al
report DO tell US all about this cholera report!
GREET REVIVAL IN THE FAsnIoSsuLE WORLD
The Broadway Theatre, last evening, presented one
of those brilliant displays which only take place
a, particular epochs, since the first introduction of
the Italian Opera in tins metropolis by Mallbran
and Garcia The Opera was Norma" the iruia
donna, Tedeecc-thc rest, somebodies The spIen-
dor and beauty Of the audience would seem to in