New-York tribune., 1873-05-19
uruOPJFS or THE TRJBUyE

To-day continues the demolition of The
TRIBUNE buildings. The rooms in which we
have so long worked, in which we have re-
ceived so much intelligence of events which
have passed into history, and in which, night
and day, we have ceaselessly taken note of
the worlds affairs. are disarrayed, ungarnished,
and dismantled, and these are the last words
which will be written within these walls by
one vino has lived long enough to see so
many Of the companions of his early labOrs
fade one by one out of the ranks of journal
ism into the cold obstruction of the grave.
The place which knew them shall know them
no more forever, and is itself to disappear.
1t is not an antiquity: the building which
is about to fall is comparatively modern
one but it has been the scene Of many ex-
periences, of various labors, of some failures
and of some victories. On this its last
day it is haunted by the ghosts of its old in
habitants, and their presence glOrifes its igno-
minious dilapidation. We see their old familiar
faces we hear their well-remembered voices !;
and we catch the sound of their footsteps
upon the dusty stairway. We recall the
earnest tone of serious discussion, or the
light laughter following some sally of wit
or of humor but we know that it is
all fond illusion, and that we shall
never hear those voices again. The we'll
managed newspaper can know no decrepitude; /;
it fourishes in perpetual youth; but those who
have fashioned its character and whose skill
has secured its usefulness pass away and give
place to fresher hands and to brains less worn
and weary. This is the fiat of ever fugitive
and irreparable time. Journalists cease from
their labor perhaps to be utterly forgotten |;
perhaps to be remembered by work well per-
formed outside the field of their principal
profession. The man who was the Founder
of THE TRIBUNE will be freshly remem-
bered by many o generation; and the
newspaper itself ia sufficient monument
of his energy and ability. Nor can we to-day
forget the noble minded woman who gave the
wealth of her erudition, her fine critical acu-
men and thoroughly honest literary habits to
dignity and illustrate our columns-whO, just
az she was entering upon the new happiness
of wifehood and maternity, was snatched from
MS by the cruel sea. She has her place in the
roll of American writer's where the name OF
Margaret Fuller will always stand as refu-
tation of any theory which denies to woman
capacity for the severer pursuits Of literature
Nor can VIC forget the old associate to whom
death came in q foreign land, and whose earn
est love of simple truth forbade any idle dal-
lance with the Muse of History; whose work
stands to-day in Dorio simplicity, as far as
possible from romance and as near AS possible
TO simple verify, with all mythical delusions
respecting public characters banished from its
pages, and with every great fame critically
and remorselessly examined. As Mr.. Hildreth
wrote of the past, so he was accustomed to
write in these columns of the present.
He feared no man, and in exposing
great wrongs he was never dismayed by great
regulations. lie was writing in THE TRIBUNE
during dreary and discouraging period, when
to speak the truth was to be branded rs a
traitor and an iDeeldiary; but tho remop-