New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-02-23
NO ANNIVERSARIES!

NO ANNIVERSARIES!
IL is stated that tho American Bible Society
will not hold it's usual anniversary meeting in
May next, and that other religious and beneV-
olent associations have determined to follow
the example. The Observer in announcing this
fact, attributes "the decline OF anniversary
"enthusasm to the desertion of the Tabernacle
down town, and the removal of that place OF
"worship to Thirty -fourth-st. Then the socie-
" ties scattered some meeting in churches,
"son.e in public halls.n 1t having been de-
termined that the cause Of this lamentable
scattering and consequent decline OF "anniyer-
I" sary enthusiasm was tho loss of tho ancient
fold. il seems to us that 1.-THE enthusiasm"
should be reawakened by rebuilding the Taber-
nacle, and thus providing receptacle for the
re- gathered tribes If they have an Exeter Hall
in London, we do not see why we cannot have
n similar edifice for our Jubilee in New-lork,
with a proper platform and other architectural
conveniences, including spacious tea-room,
with a tea-making laboratory attached. 1t Is
little scandalous for the religious societies to
be wandering about taking refuge in the
Academy of Music and in other temples of
Thalia and Melpomene. A handsome hall might
it. haply, there remains any spark of
il in the ashes. And such structure would,
no doubt, pay excellent (pccuniary) interest
on the capital invested in it, While there
is money TO risk in all manner OF worldly
and transitory Observation-Disclosures. hippo
dromes, music halls, opera houses and haunts
of the Ethiopian minstrels-and while religious
bodies are forever pulling down their churches
and building bigger ones, it seems shameful
that the American Bible Society and kindred
bodies should not have where to uphold their
heads aud exalt their horns The Tabernacle
WAS il must be confessed, by no means
triumph of architecture but, rs in the human
being, clocks are nothing and behavior g all"
it ia much to be regretted that the old place
was sold for filthy lucre. Ia another Taber-
nacle equally ugly and commodious impossi-
blof
We should have had word to say for our
country friends, for the clergymen and the wives
and daughters of the clergymen, who were wont
to come up to enjoy themselves (and lose their
umbrellas) in the rain, in our usually pluyiOse
May; but as most Of them, if they do not
come here will go to Boston, where tho halls
arc numerous, and where it always rains
harder than it does with us, and will, there
fore, have their Mecca still Ito say nothing of
their Mocha, perhaps We need not waste upon
them any gushing sympathy. The halls
devoted to platform eloqaence IN
Boston, Of which there are several
have not been moved uptown" and
cannot he, for this plain reason-there Is no
"up-town" there to which they can be removed.
Boston is expansive, but it is in horizontal,
not in an oblique way. She goes all round,
but she does not go Dup" She reconcies
physical impossibilties, and soars, so to speak,
upon q level. We shall hear nothing Of aban-
doning tho Vernal Anniversaries in Boston,
She knows too well the value of morals and of
money. Any proposition there to surrender the
Spring Meeting would be instantly frowned down
by the railway companies. by the owners of
real estate by the proprietOrs of eating houses
and by the keepers of shops in body. There
would be no talk OF the need Of q Tabernacle
if that were wanting-a Tabernacle would be
built We have some reason to suspect that
this proposition to give up the Anniversary
Week in NewYork is the result of o deep
plan, shrewd Bostonan plan, by which the
Tn-Mountaineers expect to have their little
revenge upon New-York for putting salt upon
the tails Of so many steamships. If so, the
sooner we begin to rebuild the Tabernacle the
better
We are told by The Observer that "the late
" civil war completed the destruction of interest
"in the week Of religious anniversaries" Per-
haps it is hardly fair to charge it all to the
late civil war, which is made responsible for a
great number Of the most incongruous things
with little too much recklessness. Would it
be absurd for us to suggest that many Of the
absentees became so through feeling that
more than one of these societies were hardly
alive enough to the moral features of our great
struggle, and had little too much to say
about the Curse Of Canaanf There was, it is
true, late and highly commendable effort
made to retrieve this error and the patriotism
of many of the associations was sometimes ex-
hbited In an extremely honorable way; but
the people have long memories, and remembered
the dreary debates of other days-tlle schisms,
the separations, and the secessions which were
not nfrequent. If all the religious associations
wont TO convene here in the month of May
had always fairly met the vital issues of the
hour, and had grappled with them faithfully |
and with muscular earnestness, perhaps tho
general interest in Anniversary Week would |
not have been 50 completely lost. Mistakes |