The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-07-16
~ n wy o ELS M 9 j.
From Our 0tsn Correspondent
New YORK, July 16, 1870.
Piety as n Money! Maker.


Preachers are found to be so extremely un-
spiritual in their practice whatever they may
affect to be in matters of faith. The eye which
they have to the main chance is far from being
identical with that single eye which has regard
for things heavenly. If they abandon specula-
tion in doctrinal matters it is only to adopt that
equally loose and wild speculation which has
Wall street for its theatre and bulls and bears
for its principal actors. They most emphati.
cally do take thought for the morrow, and for a
good many days after, too and mani
fest at least much interest in the
rise and fall of gold in the rise and fall of reli-
gion. l will not say that with them piety is
not something more than q money maker, but
it certainly is that whatever else it may be- The
house Of God is also their house of merchan-
disc, and the communion-table is too often de-
graded to the level of counter. fair Illus
tration of this principle has Just been furnished
by the young pastor of a certain church. whose
congregation had presented him with a valua-
BILE lot on Lexington avenue. The lot was sutfi-
cieDtly capaeious for him to erect thereon a
large and handsome parsonage, and to surround
it with large and well-laid-out grounds. The
prudent recipient of this present was far too
prudent to do anything of the kind, however. He
built upon it an insignificant little parsonage,
hardly large enough to swing cat in-a
mean enough affair, in fact, to be disgrace TO
his congregation, whose feelings may be ina
gined. Upon the remainder of the lot, which is
about ten times the area of that occupied by the
parsonage" he has erected three handsome
brown-stone fronts which he has lately sue
ceeded in renting out at an enormous sum. There
is union of spiritual -mndedncoe and fine bu,i-
ness tact for you The property was his own,
you will say and he had a right to do as he
chose with it. Certainly; but L am afraid the
words of life and salvation will not drop auy
more persuasively from his lips because he has
shown himself extremely sharp at driving a
bargain. The act is very fair sample OF what
the average New York minister is, however, all
as such deserves mention.
Those Blessed Baths.
That the baths are blessings is proved daily
by the hundreds of men, women and children
who throng to them. They are used and
enjoyed to an extent surprising the expecta-
| tions of the Board of Public Works, which
erected them. 1t is now proposed to increase
! their number indefinitely, and finally, as cir
! cumstances may warrant, to provide stone
wharves and immense stone reservoirs until the
beauty, efficiency, and durability of such struc-
lures shall rival those of the antique. After all
there is something pleasantly naked, natural,
and Greek" in these hourly facilities for
bathing, in which each sex and every age
institution are worth the sacrifice one makes of
| ones exclusivism in attending them. 1t is
something to know that the duty of being
cleanly is recognized by the multitude and ap-
| proved by the Fathers of the City. Among a
perspiring crowd one feels sweeter comfort in
| the sense that it is no longer an unwashed one.
| 1t is soothing to realize that you belong to a
community which reposes faith in the flesh
brush and confidence in the crash-towel. Soap,
even if it be yellow, rubs better sentiment
into dirty people with the sediment it rubs out,
and am convinced that the better minds among
the lower orders of the community experience a
! growing attachment to the batht tub.
| Poor Superintendent JourdaB.
| Since Superintendent Jourdan has held his
present position as head of the police he has
had no easy time. He doubtless brought to his
work the same disposition which is said to make
a new broom sweep clean, and it was manifestly
his intention to sweep very clean indeed. To
this end he has worked day and night, tighten
ing relaxed laws, and satisfying himself by a
personal round of visits in various quarters of
the efficiency of their operation. Under his -ule
we have had quieter and more peaceabe Sun
days than under the last days of the reign of
Kennedy. During the last few weeks, particu-
larly, the excise law has been made more strn-
gent in its operation. The countless saloons
which had begun to steal open on the Sabbath
were instaptaneously closed, as though they had
one door. If he had turned as much of his
attention towards the disreputabe dongs on
Canal street, he would have accomplished a
more important work. For instance,
during the last few months the
streets in that vicinity have been literally honey
combed with those wretched little cigar-shops
the name of which is merely a euphemism for
almost every kind and degree of crime. Females
accomplished in the last degrees of vice have
sprung up there like fungus, and during their
short reign have converted Canal street, between
the Bowery and Essex street, into locality less
tolerable than the Five Points. The cleansing of
this and kindred localities is part of the work
which Superintendent Jourdon finds himself
unequal to perform. Not the consciousness OF
having performed good aud noble mission,
not the emoluments or honor of his position,
not the support he has received from the re-
spectacle press, can reconcile him to remaining
in this notoriously ungrateful post. His reSig.
nation accordingly, will take effect from the first
of next month. He has discovered the police
suPerintendency to be eminently unfavorable tC
his health his hours of labor lasting from an
early morning hour of one day till after midnight
of the next.
Amusemeuts.
The l amer ballet troupe has not been a:
evenly successful as il was natural to anticipate
it would be, on account of the illness of Madame
Lanner herself. That lady had been working
extremely hard, experimenting rehearsals, anC
taking laborious share in everything in which
her own reputation and ambition were concerned
and broke down under the trials of a new