The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-20

From Our o.sn Correspondent
ANEW lOhh, way ~ lofUs
Tho Beethoven Festival.

centennial anniversary in this city early in June
To the best of my knowledge and belief Bee
thoven was born on the 18th of December, ITO
go that it should seem though the centennial
ought to be observed on the 18th of next De-
cember. Leonard Grover, Madame Parepa the
American Institute, and musicians generally
however, appear to have determined otherwise
The early portion of June has been selected, and
the resolve to boat Boston has become uncon-
querable. The festival will be monster one.
Thousands of voices have already been bargained
for. Madame Parepa is to do the solo singing,
and is already getting some new dresses made
one for each of the four days upon which the CEN
tennial is to be held. These costumes are getting
up in style that would be credtable to Worth,
the Partisan man-modiste. They are meant to
be expressive of the musical sentiment of four
distinct eras in Beethoven's pensive life, from
the day when, in his eighth year, he created
astonishment by his performance on the violin,
to those unhappy years, in the latter portion of
his career, when he became totally deaf and
composed his most majestic melodies. About
100000 have already been expended on the
Beethoven festival, without counting the dress
makers bill. OF course, nothing could be done
without Gilmore, and Gilmore has accordingly
been.secured. Lacking him, the affair would be as
complete failure as a fashionable funeral with
out Brown. We may beat Boston, but it will be
with Bostons help. All the Handel and Haydn
societies of Boston have been engaged and in
the early days of June the smoke of our musi-
cal incense will roll all over the Union.
VIII He Do Ite
Will Weston walk one hundred miles in
twenty-five consecutive hours? The track at
the Empire Skating Park has been measured
before committee composed of Horace Greeley
Mr.. Dickinson, President of the Rink Associa-
tion, and several other equally discerning gen.
tlemen, and the trial will commence next We'd
nesday at noon. 1t has given an impetus to
pedestrianism. Young New York puts its best
foot foremost, and improvises a trial of speed
down Broadway. 1t believes that it can beat
Weston, other things being equal and that with
training and practice it would have equal claims
to being champion. Already the Rink is
visited by hundreds, although it is in one of the
most out-of-the-way quarters of the city. Even
if Weston fails-as it is most likely he will
there is no doubt but that the mania he is ac-
countable for does some good 1t rouses the
community, sets it upon its legs, informs the
calf with muscular power, and takes away the
talk from that eternal business which buzzes so
wearyingly in the metropolitan ear.
sIn the RIng.,
Unless q reporter is sin the ring" in New
York, it is in vain that he may expect to be a
success His failure is sealed until he can force
an entrance into that charmed circle and compel
respect to his talents. This is particularly
observable among the police and fire reporters,
who are an isolated body in themselves, having
little or no afiliation with any other department
upon newspaper. Every newspaper has at
least one ire-and-police reporter, whose busi-
ness it is to watch things at police headquarters
in Mulberry street, and see that nothing escapes
his attention. The reporters have room there
which is occupied exclusively by them but they
are far from being as amiable band of brothers
as might be expected. A few of them exchange
condolences with one another, give each other
the use of their notebooks, mutually compare
reports and so contribute to one another's ease
and comfort. These constitute the ''ring" into
which it is far from easy for new reporter to
be admitted. The man who is fresh to the city
or to the business bankers after the privilege in
vain. He is sedulously given the cold shoulder
and kept outside, until he proves that he can do
without its friendship, and can, sngly make
more correct and sensational reports than it can
in all its banded strength. From that moment
he is taken into companionship, but the moment
will never come to him unless he has q good
deal of cheek 1t is cheek more than industry
or energy that makes the success of the New
York police-aDd-fre reporter, although those
qualities, OF course, are not to be despised. But
the timid or over-conscientious novice stands no
chance at all. His own unassisted strength and
devices are totally unable to cope with those of
that cunning confederacy, and unless accident
surprises him into unintended success, he
will live and die outside the ring, for its MEM
bers feel no more commiseraton for him than
virtuous women do for fallen ones. The majority
have been in the business for years, and under
stand thoroughly all its ihs and outs, and would
no more extend a helping hand to a beginner
than they would think of throwing away the
chance OF earning five dollars extra. The his
tory of every reporter who is received into that
brotherhood is pretty much the same. He COM
mences by fumbing his way blindly along, en-
deavoring to visit all the five police courts and
not neglecting the Coroner's Office and the
Central Station. But not possessing the plea
SAINT quality of being ubiquitous, he misses day
after day items which other papers have and
some of which are important. He suffers re-
proof from the city editor, and sees dismissal
and starvation before him. The ring despises
him, and shuts him out, and unless he can out
wit them he is lost man. He ponders how this
can be done, and Luck comes to his assistance,
as it generally does to those who help them
selves. In happy hour he discovers "big
thing" in some signifcant-looking item which
more experienced eyes pass over. He ferrets
out all the details, and repairs to the fountain
head and secretly works them up. The next
morning his report is the only one that appears,
and like local Byron he finds himself suddenly
famous. The "ring" perceives that he is a
valuable man. and invites him to its embrace.
From that hour his position is one of comparative
ease, and one OF his sweetest privileges is to