The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-04-01
Our Social Condition-The Age Of Corruption
and Publication.

Our Social COnditt0n-Thc Age OF Corruption
and Publication.
This is great age 1t is a glorious age
the most glorious age in the history Of the
world 1t is the golden age-the real golden
age-the iron age-the age Of lightning and
steam-the age Of progress; nay more it is
not only all this, but it is also the age of specu-
lation. of humbug. of corruption but, better
than ALL the age Of purifcation-the age for
setting everything right that is wrong, at least
within the limits of the United States. We
start from this point
We see around us everywhere efforts to
purge mankind of the impurities that have
been collecting for years. Witness the re-
cent movements in the courts, in the City
Council rooms. in the State Legislature and
in Congress. Look at the columns Of argument
in the Broadway railroad matter; read the
city reform speeches in Albany ponder over
the evidence in the Gardiner case and inspect
the piles and piles Of certificates of character
that daily arrive in Washington, in favor Of the
thousands of office seekers. One would imagine
that Hercules was now engaged in performing
one of the tasks imposed upon him by Eurys-
theus.
Then, said his lordship, well, God mend
ALL" Nay, by God, Donald, we must help
him to mend it, said Sir David" Sir David
Ramsay has no lack of imitators in the present
day who would help Providence to patch the
rents in the social garment. Scores of philoso-
phical cobblers are ready, with wax and
awl, to mend the holes in the worlds old shoes.
Myriads Of moral quacks are thronging round
poor puzzled Demos. and beseeching him to
Each calls his neighbor an impostor, and will
lay his life that health and safety are out of the
question This peculiar nostrum is stinted One
will forever put an end to the rivalry between
labor and capital, by making every laborer his
own capitalist, and obliging every capitalist to
labor for himself Another sees salvation in the
opposite extreme. He will push the division of
employments until the business of writing let
ter requires the cooperation of half a dozen in
tellects and hands. A soft-hearted monomaniac
welters in tears over the sorrows of distressed
needlewomen, and sacrifices on the altar of his
compassion whole street full Of fashion
able ladies, without whose frivolity and ex-
travagance the needlewomen aforesaid would
starve altogether Over the bedraggled body of
PROSTATE topper some philosopher doth sapely
moralize. and, as the Scottish parson proclaimed
printing to be . foul invention Of the deyil.n
because bad books occasionally found their way
into type, denounceth wine merchants as muir
derers, and wine drinkers as accomplices This
world is too narrow sphere for some. they
must soar into the realms of spirits; and where
earthly advisers have stopped short, must
openly interrogate the ghost of their deceased
grandmother. One is for hanging all impostors,
that is to say ninety-nine hundreds Of the civil
liked population Of the globe His neighbor
would not touch hair of a parricide's head
but with kindness and tender affection en-
beavers to reason him into the conviction that
fathers were not intended to be throttled by
their sons One would batter the social edifce
into dust. Another would add fresh story
or two. A third prefers thorough process of
cleaning and withdrawing without interfering
with the existing walls and partitions.
Amid all this chaos of schemes and nos
trums, "bustlng trivialities and loud. empty
noises"-in these days so aptly termed days
of endless disruption. dslocatien, confusion
worse confounded"-poor common sense. bull
lied, badgered and abused on all sides. finds
yet some consolation in the discovery that the
main tendency Of the whole process of seething
which is going on. is towards reform and purifi-
cation. Many of us are striking wide of the
mark. Some are plunging into new vortexes
Of error and sloughs of fanatical prejudice; but
the main body Of the host is pursuing very
straight, Ineligible course towards practical
OF the world. We are adopting
no chimerical belief when we boast that
Inc Christian virtues are better understood |
and more generally practised, now than
they were formerly. Mans mind is expanding.
his meaner passions gradually becoming less
prominent, and his nobler qualities looming |
larger into view. There is q strong under chr |
rent IN most of the popular movements of the
iayi tending to drown od-fashioned hypocrisy
and cofruption-to sap the foundation of exist
ng "shams." and to devclope the substantial
germs of candor and manliness which God has
planted in our soil. The victims arc Of course |
Justify. Behind tremendous bar
ers of prejudice, timfdity, and that huge hum
Jug called Z" time-honor," they lie cnsconced, |
md fancy they are safe. We know better; and |
ooking round on the outward signs of the times, |
Jan freely applaud Thomas Carlyle's announce |