New-York daily tribune., 1857-09-25
them 81. Other artish mar WOO us, but Browd
lvw will be TIE show man for our money


impsrt ssme curious, il not useful information
That article begins in q way to excite expectations
II is well understocd in this community, so We are
told. "tbat acts of in .endiarsm are of frequent
Occurrence, not merely from motives Of reveage or
"for the purpose Of defraudng the underwrters but
"rom strange as il may appear the pleasure derivsd
"yfIom eoraagration." This is touching the nail
on the head, ard might serve as preface to still
further disclosures. The article, however, does BY
no means fulfill all the expectations that might rea-
sonably be excited by it, Instead Of following out
this line Of reflection it subsidies into lame and
mp0tent conclusion. The pleasure derived from
conHseratiop consdt red as motive toincendarsm,
usually, we are told "actuates boys or young men,
"who are always to be found on hand when an
I" alarm is sounded at their favorite engine-h house"
This is true doubtless far as it goes; but it is
only very small part of the truth The pleasure
derived from a coDfseraton, leading in csrtsin
cases to acts of incendiarism, is not BY any means
confined to the boys or young men who follow en-
gipes and collect about their favorte engine houses
There s a very large class of the same sort com.
bining many gray boards among the number, wbo
rear of such newspapers as The Herald, aud who,
the greater the alarm they contrye to raise,
the more delighted and excited thereat.
The bind of confaaratOns to which we now refer
give indeed far more lurid pictures Of human
nature than any afforded in the case Cf burning
buildings, even though the fire may have been
kindled by some amateur inceudiary just for the
pleasure derived from the conhagration. We have
never yet heard that any of our fire engines have
fallen into the hands of these amateur incendares,
ard that in such hands, under pretense Of great
zeal for putting out the fire, it has been dashed
headlOng up and down the vicinity squirting its
somewhat muddy water, not on the fire, but into
the faces and eyes of the fremen, doing its best
to cut up the hose arranged to play on the burning
buildings and laboriog with all its might to Great,
confusion aud to spread panic terror, with the
very view it would seem, of giving the fire better
chance to diifuse itself
With respect to the financial confagration nov
raging we take the precise facts to be pretty much
these 1t had long been a very dry time. Toe
commercial world abounded with combustible mat
ter. There had been in certain quarters great
lack of prudence and precautiOn-ndeed, fatal
reckessness. Had it been otherwise, the utmost
efforts of incendiaries would have accomplished
little, since daily experience shows that, ingenious
and perseveriDg as they are under ordinary crcuu-
stances they fail to succeed beyond raising little
smoke or at the most firing single building or two,
and those generally unsafe ones. Tnere are, how
ever, times when the match of the incandiary ap
piled to single unsafe bulldog will kndle Ere
which will spread from house to house till it in
wolves half city including many buildings sup
posed to have been entirely fire prof.
Such We take to have been the case at II pres
ent crisis. Things had reached a danger, Us posi-
tion. The more thoughtful were beginning to be
aware Of this, and measures were already on foot
to put things into safer condition. Had little
time been afforded, the risk and danger might have
been greatly reduced. But unfortunately the City
is infested not merely by great numbers who like
the fun Of coDhagratiOD, and are ready at any
time to join in raising an alarm, careless whether
it be true false but (especis'ly Wall street and
its vicinity by a set of incendiaries not merely
amateurs but professional, to whom fire s not so
much an agreeable excitement as mise occasion
for hepirg Themselves to little Of their unfortu-
nate neighbors property. The copjonei efforts of
these and the amateurs resulted under the peculiar
circumstances, in kndlirg rather more Of fire
than either party expected, and from which some
Of the incendiaries themselves will, perhaps, not
escape without getting little singed
We shall probably be told, By way ofapo!ogy and
excuse, that no harm was intended, but rather a
public servi.e. Just so the amateur incendiaries,
to whom The Herald confines its observations, usu
ally pretend that the buildings to which they set
fire are Duisances, used for immoral or alleged
illegal purposes, which deserve to be burned down.
and which cannot be got rid of in any other way.
There is also another strong resemblance between
the two cases. What is said of the immunity of the
tfferdeIs applies equally to both. "Oftenders OF
this class are seldom brought before our criminal
Courts, owing to the difficulty of procuring evil
"dence of their guilt. Arson is a crime easy TO
"comHit, but most difficult to detect; hence the
"incepdiary may continue night after night, or day
LATTER day. his career of GRIN and it will only be
"by some buuder on his part or other accidental
circumstance that the guilt can be fastened on
"bim."
We may also very justly apply to both cases the
II Elections contained in the article which has sug-
eested these remarks: 1t is unnecs ssary for us to
comment On the enormity Of this crime, br
"per.on who would wsntony and deliberately pre-
pare aud as deliberately apply fire to destroy his
own property or that OF his neighoor II nos
"opy dangerous to the community but uniI to be
"at large"
A.