Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1868-07-17
Correspondence.
From our Own Correspondent.
LETTER From .V'EIv' I'ORK.

/ suppose a correspondent may have a
vacation, like the rest of the world, and n
short respite from the heat and noise and
dust of a great city. There is where you
have the advantage; you have pure breezes,
you have quiet and peace, and escape that
constant war which is like the surging of
cataract, and between the late and the early
goers does not cease.
And the air | have stood at distance
ON II height, and looking over the city, have
seen it in n calm, clear day enveloped in
mist which was indeed but a cloud of dust.
II looks rs if the poor souls imprisoned in
such an atmosphere woul be unable to
breathe and must inevitably be choked and
smothered. But when you are in it you
are happily unconscious that the sky does
not shine clear above you, though ii surely
cannot be wholesome to live and breathe in
such "A cloud.
And yet so half million of people man
age to, exist, and those who have house,
or like your correspondent, room to them
selves, are filled with compassion for those
who have but one-room for family, and
then take boarders!
Our poor say they really suffer more in
summer than i'll winter, that they can more
easily manage to keep warm than to keep
cool, while the heat and foul odors are sick
ening. And then those who give them en-
ployment are away, and multitudes are
without work or any means of supporting
life, while many of the charities cease alto
gether during the summer. So we pity the
poor, but how shall we help them when
they number by tens of thousands? nav,
hundreds of thousands? for we have i'm
ported swarms from the old world, whose
profession is pauperism.
al t,tf inn oil IN "a
the demon of rum, the source Of much of
this mischief. The heavier the excise the
cheaL or is whiskey, and the more poisonous
its qualities and when men have no air to
breathe and no food to eat, the cheapest way
is to poison themselves with bad spirit. TO
be sure it works ruin and desolation, but
how are you to help it, so long as this is n
free country and men will do as they please
and kill themselves in spite of you? More
over this appetite is proved to be disease,
and soon goes beyond the power of the will.
The only safety is not to expose ones self to
the cOnla zion.
Had yOu been here you would have seen
how naturally this subject is suggested by
the late Convention, and the new Tammany
Hall. Know then the Tammany has for
saken its old quarters down town and gone
up to Fourteenth street, near Union Square.
There, near the Academy of Music, which
is mere opera house and music hall, You
behold the new Tammany, an imposing
III NIllt ON inc lace Oh II,
II you did not know that all these buildings
showed only the face, and that built in with
others, they are only finished in rough,
coarse brick. OF course it would be waste
of material to use marble where it would
not be seen, and yet Ruskin would go wild
over the want OF truth and reality.
Well, in this new hall met the great Con-
vention, to nominate President for these
United States. OF course few but members
of the Convention could be admitted, and
yet how un-Democratic to exclude any
The keepers of the various saloons and bars
which have sprung up like mushrooms
around the great centre, could tell how the
great excluded consoled themselves.
The weather was fearfully hot-amost
beyond endurance even to the seasoned vet
erans
You all know how the nomination went,
how skillfully it was engineered, and how
nicely lin some way managed. Any way,
we are content. suppose they could hard
ly have nominated better man for the
other party than Horatio Seymour. We
have anything but pleasant recollections of
him. The "July riots" are marked time
in the history of New York during the war;
and how many lives were lost at that time
will probably never be known. Our poor
colored people date back TO ii as to time of
horror, when man for his color was hanged
at the first lamp-post, and unoflending wo-
men and children suffered all the horrors
of pillage and rapine. "Never been well
since the riots" Suffered dreadfuly ever
since the riots" is even now common tale.
The burning of colored orphan asylum
showed the animus of those engaged in it..
There is something very curious in the an
tagonism between the native born negro and
the foreign born "dimmcrat."
our great grievance was that this intended
riot was known 10 our public men, that our
troops were withdrawn AMI our Governor
out Of the way, apparently purposely for
message after message failed TO bring him.
And when he finally came and addressed
the bllod-,hrsty mob, after their fell work
he called them friends" Yes, Seymuurs
friends will support him, but any true New
Yorker must rcase t. consider him friend.
The people would distrust him the man
who fOrsOOk his post in the hour of danger,
and who would have betrayed us TO our en-
eInieS, If the rebels had not been checked i'm
their northward march, can hardly be trust
cd with the interests of the country. Sup
pose he should fluid il convenient to bctray
his country in the same way?
Surely, we have had enough of that.
Public men have need TO be immaculate,
nothing in their life, public or private, es-
capes comment, and to speak plainly, many
lies are told about them, no matter on which
side they are. But these are very stubborn
facts about the riots, and those who would
fain be Seymour's friends cannot explain
them away. How dreadful his conduct was
none can feel like those who have seen
mOb-the concentration of all horrors. An
evil spirit, easily raised, but almost past the
power of man to subdue.
Heaven save our country from such ru
Ter. X.