New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-08-17
FOR ENGLAND.

may recall the name The wsp8per files OF tue Day
eop,an curious accoant of the arrival Of this ship.
II arpears the. il was deemed event of the fret III
tere.t and importance Itis difficult to credit the state
merts Of the bi.to 'ians which cover pages of the
largest journals The pubic must have been greatly
excited by the Great Easterns arrival, although some
allowance must be made for the natural exaggeration
of the reporters Ii is well known that class these
renoIters are much given to magnifJing Incidents
trivial in themselves, hoping thus to stimulate
f4lie and unnatural public excitement II is plain
from their narrative no wever that the coming Of "the
big ship this was the title besto Eed upoa her,, was
anct ated with general and genuioe feeling Of pleas
ufe ard that tie event itself attended with extra
ordinary demonstrations rather those Of gala day
than those of an occasion little less frequent then than
now-that Of the into port Of ocean steam
en- The population much increas by arrivals from
the surrounding country deserted the places Of bust
ne,s and acked to the waters edge; the crowds were
cor, puted by tens of thousands, aud covered every
available spot commanding view of the har-
bori the shipping generally displayed aagsi
a feet of steamboats, and smaller craft
went down to meet the :" marine monster
and gave her enthusiastic escort to the foot Of an
mos street. while cai DO ,Ined music played,
al shouts went up. The foot Of Hammond street
speedily indeed at once, became most popular re-
Sort For weeks together, the strange atory runs
it was visited ~ hosts of persons, and slthough this
NAV be pure fiction dollar charged for admission
to the steamer. Tracing the history, we come upon
an excursion to Cape May at that time one of the
most fashionable waering-paces in America. Again
allowing for repoForal excess, the must accept
the fact of repetition of the of the ships arrival
The departure drew the people 10 dense TO the
wharves. Ore writer sets down TIE aggregate
Of spectators st hundred thouSaad and repors in
language more sober than usual, variety of tn
inultuous ard noisy displays Coming do vn TO
later period the fortunes Of the Great Eastern still
gage large share of public attention. although they
have remarkably changed. The name If Cox, coupled
with epithets that honest man might covet, appears
in connection with them Indeed the ship seems to be
los eight Of and Cox is the monster The voluminous
records Of the excursion present an incredibly SORROW
fn face. The features are distorted by auger
at what is designated, In the doubtless extrava
CANT style Of the reporters, the Great East
ern Swinds. The popular sentiment toward the whole
enterprise undergoes a startling change. National
pride is aroused and such bitter taunts are directed
sgainst the managers Of the vessel that rupture Of
the friendly relation with Great Britain that have so
long srbsisted seems mmireut To add to the wonder
Of the ost eondeful tale, there is legal process
against the big sbip,' account Of tie discovery
that the geniis Of her machinery stolen from the
American BRAIN With this disgrace the Great Eastern
sinks into a profound and black oblivion, and our
search for further memorials is rewarded with only
few obscure illusions to another excursion and TO
Cox.
We should be disposed perhaps, to view this episode
in the marine history OF country as one of the mys
terous fables of antiquity, to consider it all the
troubled dream of ambitious people, did not the in
cident of yesterday ito which auson was made in the
beginning arouse us to the reality, and vndicate the
truth Of the annals Of the past by the clear light of the
present. 1t announced tia, the steamer Great
Eastern would call for England. The date was dis
tnctly given. Even the terms of passage were given.
The very hour wien passengers would be expected on
board vac am ounced. Incredulous we wandered to
the foot of Hammond street. little changed in general
appearance from that day when it first tried on the
Great Eastern. The stenches indeed were of a more
ancient aroma and the booths and other festive resorts
which, We are told, surrounded the mooriugs OF
the steamer, had all disappeared and in ths place
were but few mocking of peanuts and bottles
of beer while piles of lumber betokened the silent yet
steady advance of industry into the haunts of plea
cure Yet the form of the foot answers exactly
the description afforded by our files.
Incredibly gave way to tender surprise at the vision
of very large steamer lying in the stream realizing
as the water spsrked about her grave hull and the
coors # several nations ntered from her mssts and
as ell sorts of boats from the Columbia to the
newly painted tkiff "John C. Keenan," measured
their te with the giant, the most emphatic state
ments of the early writers to her marvellous
size and magnificent proportion There she lay
~ he
still the triumph of marine architecture, the
grand embodiment of mechanical genius, proudest
Of al that ride the waves They say-they who have
been close by in small boats at twenty-five cents
head ia revival of the original practical or in the
steamer leland Belle that the mighty hull shows signs
Of aae Her iron features are marked with the rust of
time. Her paint is spotty There burrows in the
skin that was once 80 fair Moss cngs to her bottom,
and the barnsces Of dccreptude there. There
even traces of that painful voyage of pleasure, upon
the reality If which we have been disposed to throw
some doubt worn and moldy mattress is visible in
the hold and the mark of tumbler thrown, with its
lukewsrm contents at an impairment walters head is
shown h the woodwork of the grand saloon.
The steam is up--where is the crowd Where the
thousands that lined these wharves that pleasant SOM
day not icrg sincethat stood patiently Just here,
their elbows linking In each others bs their heels re-
posing on each others corns that chung in yonder rig
cling; that packed denfey on yonder gay decks The
aesm upwhere in those waters are the myriad ex-
cursicn boats that piled briskly in the Aud Lang
Sype, with blazing cannon and believing bands, and
CANDY fags and things! Here be we, ready to ex-
aggerae wildly the best Of our predecessors our
pencil acuiey shsrpened for sensation, our ear erect
for all manner of enthusiastic Doise.
The steam is up These melancholy groups OF men
ahn in hair