The New York herald., 1871-09-19

| How Tilden Has Ou,scnera!ied the He.
publicans.
This is an old comedy that is now being
acted in the Cooper Institute and City Hail.
Every year or two we have loud moaning
for reform. The party press begins to shout
ward voters make appeals to the people,
-, leverlsh, dissatisfied politicians suddenly dis.
cover their own latent virtues and blazon
| them to the world. In time two or three
| wealthy men, retired from business, and crev-
ing excitement, tired of the club, the vestry,
the church fair, the Sunday school, Johns
evenings at home when he plays the fiddle,
and Mary's old tunes, with variations on the
piano; weary of billiards and whist and gossip;
too old to 60 to the theatre and too respect
able to go to the tavern, suddenly leap into
politics, and find themselves chaired in a
large hall before an immense mass Of people,
quietly doing under some soothing Roosevelt
or sleep-inspring Ottendorfer, and resolved
to ''reform the CITY," Then, when, in addition
to this, some mendicant newspaper publisher,
who peddles his newspapers as the razor
strop man sells his strops, accompanied by his
foreign Journalist, anxious to make acquaint-
ances in the land of his exile, joins the party
and prints their names in the newspaper their
joy Is complete. They have a new sensation,
new excitement for little money, a new
incentive to exercise, and cheap incense to
worn-out and almost deadened vanity.
We have had these phenomena so often
hat ell NboA
is only an old story-another performance of
the famous comedy Of 'Old Friends in New
Faces" There are the identical number OF
respectable men, the same Citizens Committee
which got into tangle of talk long ago, and
will dissolve into cluster Of adventurers
who want Office and fade away, the same
newspaper articles all duly paid for out Of
some public contribution. Behind this curtain
of gray boards and gold canes-this circle of
new faces-we see our old friends. They are
really old friends and have come to view every
winter for years-Fernando Wood, William
F. Havemeyer, A. III. Green, John Morrissey,
James O'Brien and twenty more. We have
had these friends in many phases. We have
known them as reformers and corruptionists,
opposing Tammany and serving Tammany, de-
nounced as thieves and applauded as virtuous
citizens; but we invariably found them, when
reduced to their last analysis, as shrewd and
audacious men, who had made money out of
politics, and were anxious to make more, and
who, after using the circle Of gray boards and
gold canes to reach power, would forget that
any such men ever existed and devote them
selves to amassing an honest independence at
the expense of the taxpayers of New York.
This is really all there is of it-razor-strop
journalists, anxious to sell their wares (home
and foreign), hungry politicians wanting
power and money. In this case, perhaps,
there is higher political motive. The
corruptions of Connolly and the Infamous
ring have so disguised the country
that the democrats have been beaten every
where. Grant has secured a denomination
and reelection. There is no more chance of
electing democrat, as things look now, than
Of re-electing Andrew johnson. So Tiden
comes to the front. He will ''purify the democ-
racy." He will show the world that there can
be an osteutation of honesty in New York. He
consults with the citizens gathering he takes
counsel of republicans, who do not hesitate to
walk into the trap; he allies himself with
men whom the Supreme Court has denounced
as highway robbers, and, in violation of law,
of public morals and decency, makes Comp
troller. His purpose is to rescue his party
from the odium thrown upon it by some of
the leaders of Tammany. So he takes the
chief spirit of the infamous ring and
says to the country :-"NOw we shall
show you honest democracy. Dick Con-
molly and l have arranged it between us.
Just be patient and we shall so fix things here
that you may undo much of what has been
done by the republicans and hope to defeat
Grant in 1872"
The World tells us that Collector Murphy
has taken hand in this game. If this is so,
then Murphy has walked into the prettiest
trap that ever was set for an unsuspecting
Irshman. If Tilden wins, then he shows
himself to be the clevcrest Old fox in the
democratic pack. What we see how, after
the elections will be only too plain even
to the English eyes of our Cockney contem-
porary, that i"ueu he"uo w pun iu1o tuo
place of Sweeny, Tweed, Hall and Connolly
such men as Wood and Ledwith and Morrissey
and Brennan. II is simply the comedy over
again of ''Old Friends in New Faces" IF Mr..
Tden really desires reform why has the
inspiration come to him now He has known
the present leaders of Tammany for years.
He has acted with them, taken their money,
sat with them in council voted for them,
selected Mr.. Hoffman, their special candidate,
as Governor of New York. Why, we repeat it,
does Mr.. Tdlden now, for the first time, ven-
ture his offices to reform New York-to reform
it by violation of the law, and by allying
himself with men denounced by Judge
Barnard as highway robbers Simply
l.aaauao ha nnlu 10 sorxa l.