The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-05-11
THE MERCANTILE MANIA.

The historical incident of the Scottish milk
maid throwing her stool at the right reverend
head of Laud, and the still more impressive
scene of the rival prelates confusing each
other with cresiers in the choir of ST. An
drew's, are both painful to the sensitive and
cultivated mind. But it is equally distressing
that the dreadful note of preparation should
sound for conflict through academic groves,
and that the cry of the frantic shopman aud
the belligerent apothecary should vex the
studious stiffness of the Mercantile Library.
The scene Of the orgies is indeed the
home quite as much of Mars as of
the MUSES.. 1t was there, that the
champions of American art attempted
a score of years ago to wreak upon the
beer-nourished person of a Macready the in
dignities inflicted by British criticism upon
the shrinking form of Forrest. That
historical outbreak of patriotism gone esthe-
tically mad did not indeed effect its imme-
diate and professed object, since in spite of
it the British tragedian has since revisited the
glimpses of the theatrical moon, and with his
wonted persistency bayed THAT luminary.
But it did succeed in manning and doing to
death many persons who had assembled either
with the dark design of seeing Mr.. Macready
act or with the comparatively harmless de-
sign of regarding the commotion excited by
the persons who violently declined either to
see him act or to permit other people to un-
dergo that ordeal, which did not seem to the
riotous mind to carry with it the full measure
of its punishment The ebullition of the
opposition in the Mercantile Library seems
equally to have fallen alike on the Just
and the unjust The origin of the conflict
is shrouded in the same mystery as
always wells the vagaries of youthful spirits
or youthful spite. There is no more reason
why the studlous mercantile person should
turn off the gas during the orations of his
opponent, or necessitate the intervention of
the police, than why the sophomore should
decorate the abode of an obnoxious professor
or seal the doors of hateful tutor. But
these latter feats have grown too common to
excite remark. 1t is accepted among the con-
tingencies of academic life in a didactic capa-
city that one shall be in continual peril of life,
liberty, and property whenever an inexpli-
cable earthquake of mischief shall heave the
undergraduate breast. The President of Har-
ward has indeed deviated so far from the
traditions of that seat of learning as to under
take the punishment of the undergraduates
whose youthful exuberance carries them the
length of destroying vast edifces. But he has
been so snubbed and sneered at by the press
and the adult public, as we'll as the consen-
tient feeling of the institution over which he
presides, that there is not much danger that
his example will be followed, and the right of
students to demolish dormitories and to per-
secute professors will remain, in spite of this
transient protest, a matter of august and i'm
memorial prescription.
There is no reason why the urban young
man, because he is engaged in more sordid
pursuits, should be denied the same privi-
| leges as are thus accorded to his scholastic
contemporary. The annual election of the
Mercantile Library has become an event
which evokes factious feeling, and sometimes
leads to downright disorder. But as Cicero,
and writer's since his time, have declared that
| it was we'll there should be class set apart
! from society for the purpose of protecting the
peace of the other classes in society, so we
may say that it is proper that a safety-valve
should be provided whereby the turbulent
tendencies which might otherwise be pent
up and produce general commissions, may
| harmlessly if somewhat noisily dissi-
| pate themselves and pass away. Nobody
| knows but that some potential Foster may
| have by this means worked off the bile
! which might otherwise have led him into
numbering his fortuitous fellow passenger on
/ street-car, in the playful feat of knocking q
rival candidate or a rival orator on the head
with harmless necessary bottle. There are
limits, TO be sure, to the indulgence of this
frisly feeling President Eliot attempted to
draw the line of the demolition of building:
and failed. At what point the young men OF
the Mercantile Library, if they are not inter
fered with, will stop, nobody, and least of al
then selves, can tell. But their bellicose ten
dency at least signifies the warmth of theil
interest In an institution which is a credit
and safeguard alike to themselves aud the
city in which it is established; aud SO long al
their enthusiasm confines itself even within
the wide limits which it has played between
the mere settled and decorous portion
Of their fellow citizens eau affocd to shu