New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1854-11-09

Of cape,s YOU can see az one view in hat ysult-
Then 20 along the narrow ss1eeta snd lanes where
human beings are hived, and like an over-crowded
colony of bees hang on, around the deor-wsys and
look down, or hold your breath, and so down and
lock at life under ground. and ,hink, il you can, how
life, almost without light, exists there.
Think of another phase of ife-animal life OF alsw
grade and how exists in iron cells beneath the very
paving stones of every street. closed up through all
lie existence in iron chambers, where light, hea; or
air can never penetrate, and yet there is life.
From the great stone heart at Fortieh.st down
through all the highways and byways Of this great
metropolis deep down below the surface, unseen, IN
seen, unbeard, like the blood through all the veins
and arteries of the human body, flows ths' hfe-sus-
tanning fluid, the Cro,on water.
Unlike the human heart neverb beats receives
back the onward flow, and Whatever Of life goes our
goes never to return Yet life does go down into those
miles Of iron tubes and there alone has It's existence
From the frs, germ-for nothing else can enter
nothing bat infnitesinal life pass through the fine
copper sraner that nervenes between the heart aud
arterie.-the germ take. on Ire and strength and lives
and grows q thing Of power and travels up and do Vn
beneath the million things of life tha. live in light
while these living things creep through the streets
beneath our feet
Only few days ago, the pipe that feeds the boilers
Of one Of the ferry boats at Gtand-st with supply
of Croton wa.er-for that il Is that gives life TO all
these things of life J" that bridge the streams, and
connect the great city with hall dozen lesser ones
upon the opposite shores;ih pipe was choked, and
refused to give out the usual stream Not choked as
we are sometimes for want Of water, but choked
while full, and yet it would not flow. Some mys-
terious power held old Aqusrius back. What could
/. be that acted like living thing !-sonetmes hold
ing ALL sometimes giving all and sometimes part
something that had the power OF moving back and
forth, or swelling and contracting giving and with
holding at will, much against the will OF those who
were dependent upon the unobstruced flow OF water
through that pipe. SO the pipe was uncapped. anu
there living eel, three and half feet long, and
nine inches round for the first time in its aquatic, sub
terranean life, saw the light Of the upper world.
Over six pounds Of sohd flesh had grown in water,
out of water for II had nothing bat water for food
How that eel must have been astonished, after
years Of life in lie black abode TO such new ele-
M mt as light breaking in upon its dungeon da'k-
ness. Is it probable it thanked its deliverer who
dragged il out Of its prson-or prison 1t bad
become 1t he'd lived and grown in the great arte
res-eome Of which are three feet in diameter, but
having rowing disposition, and like some OF the
animals that crawl upon the surface, 1t followed the
downward current, from the great street TO the mar
row one thence 10 the ane ana finally into that mar
row alley, whore it could not turn, and where the
rearwad pressure was always onward, too strong to
resist 1ld against which il could not go back aud
there it choked the way. Like many An ee-lke hu-
man being it had lived through its liquid life in is
DARK abode, and worked its shiny passage into such
stIaighened way that there was no return to the
broad path Of freedom, where 1t might still live on,
still 90 up or down this island through It's
many .chambersd passages.
What must the other members of this fellows fan
lily have thought when they found that he was missing
How they must have wondered how he got out
Wheeler he had discovertda northwest passage
or passage across the sihmus AT any rate, he had
found way out Of their world Of dark water into
world Of light.
Set fancy at work to look down into the late home
Of this captured monster, and all through the many
miles of non pipes that underle our sre$ts see the
ees coming up and down, eecure from oil danger Of
barbed spear hook, and only liable to capture when
some adventurous traveller some needless fool tries
10 explore the narrow pipes which, when once en-
tered admit Of 10 return.
There are just such ways in human life-just such
dwell.rs in the darkaways in the under current that
flows through the streets of the City, and all tending
into strajghtened path where they choke up the dow
of pure sseam and cut off the supply Of those that
dwell in the light above their own subtersnean
abodes. There these human eels are as useless az
those that live in the Croton pipes and when dragged
out to light, are often found slippery to hold, and
glide away out Of their capors hands into the nearest
puddle.
How unlike, too, the human eel to it, prototype in
he Croton pipes One floats in his subterranean cur.
rent of living water and the other sinks down int the
lowest sub,erranean abode OF rum-engendered dark
nes. where it often perishes in lie own excess Of
slimy filth.