The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-12

vainly disquieting itself to get them back
again. All the seductive arts of which the
Boston mind was capable, from erotic ogling
to direct solicitation, have been brought to
bear upon the obdurate British breast But
the British ear has remained deaf to the voice
of the charmer; and the British breast, 'sfull
of sad experience, declines to move Slowly
or otherwise ''to the stiffness of its rest" in
Boston. 1t is found by sad experience
that city which neither received nor issued
any freight, to which no European ever wished
to go, and from which the small and rational
minority who wished to get away invariably
fled to New York as a preliminary to future
preregrlnations, was not desirable
city to run a line of steamships TO.
Wherefore Boston mourns for her
steamers and refuses to be comforted.
And now it seems that a similar frenzy has
ruffled the placid bosom of commercial Phila-
delphia, and that a meeting of merchants"
has been held to conjure owners of steam
ships to see their own interests and confer
upon the Old World the unspeakable boon of
direct communication with Philadelphia
But we grieve to see that Philadelphia is not
wholly unselfsh in her desires. She wishes.
1T is true, to confer upon strangers to the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and aliens to
the covenant of Penn the happiness of
knowing that she exists. But, also and alas
she yearns to work up her own pig-iron into
monarehs of the main, and to employ her
shipwrights in the construction of vessels
upon a Philadelphian modification of the
Noachian pattern.
But let the Philadelphians pause in their
mad career and consider before they waste
their substance for that which, although it
be cast upon the waters, will pretty certainly
not be bread. Let them reflect that steam
ships are sailed not for glory only, but also
for base lucre. The men who manage
steamers, being instigated thereto by the
devil, manage them partly for their own
sakes, and not exclusively for the sake of
ministering to the mind diseased of envious
towns. AS all good Americans when they die
go to Paris, all good Phiadelphians when
they can come to New York. 1t is not fit
that they should be plunged from the gloom
of their own sepulchral city to the glories of
European capitals without the intermediate
and preparatory probation which is afforded
them by this metropolis. 1t is necessary for
them to buy raiment which bears some simili-
tude to the habit of European men, and to
acquire manners which will cause them to be
regarded as members of a civilized commu-
nifty. No wise capitalist would project for
profit line of Steamers plying to Memphis
and old Thebes, to the ruins OF Baalbec or
the desert of Palmyra. Much less would any
rational person adventure his substance in
trading to Metropolis and the garden of the
souls. If any man should undertake to start
line of steamers to a cemetery, it is easy to
predict speedy separation between that un-
wise man and his money. While we commend
the piety of these Philadelphians, therefore,
we are forced to question their perspicacity,
and to counsel them to expend their money
In embellishing the Sparta they were born to,
and not to waste it in profane and vain at
tempts to establish lines of steamers, or in
otherwise converting their sedate, respecta-
BILE, but lethargic abode into a caricature of
the activities, the ambitions, and the great
ness of New York. Let them ponder the
proverb which assures them that no man is
to be called happy until he is dead. Let
them solace themselves with meditating how
very nearly dead, and therefore how COM
paratively happy, they already are, and how
much more intslerable would be their condi-
ton if they succeeded in galvanizing them
selves into an illusory and burdensome
vitality.