New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-04
Il ROUGH WORLD. MY MASrERSi"


A late English visitor to this country de-
clares that he was constantly surprised at
hearing from fashionable and wealthy people
here the wish that we could adopt q monarch
zeal government, and so improve the structure
of our society and make their own places in
it more comfortable. GOethe's rule, elf thou
"thinkest thyself superior to the poor man,
"bring myself face to face with him and
"prove it," is troublesome and uncertain
one as to result No wonder those who stand
on slippery social places wish they could build
a fence of rank about them, and SO keep the
vulgar herd off out of reach of parley. But
setting aside these gentlemen and ladies with
their heraldic tendencies, there is a not incOn-
siderable number of honest, straightforward
folks among us who lately hint frequent
doubt whether the English form of gov
eminent, in which each class becomes
a guard and watch upon the other, would
not protect us better than.2our own from the
danger of such wholesale robbery and bribery
as that of the late election machinery, or the
Credit Mobilier forgetful apparently that the
poaching upon the public preserves which is
so intoerable to us when it is done by our
neighbors Smith and Wilson, would be no
less CALLING if legitimatized into the shape of
public Office, church ivngs, or pensions, and
paid generation after generation to Baron
de Smythe, or a Fitzwilliam, whose great
grandmother had been the mistress of the
King. The ducal and baronial estates of half
the nobility are held by as unfair tenures as
any of the other plumber of their Norman
ancestors. Their possessors may be clever,
ol,;o foll oh hnf -
is no less certain that they have inherited
with the coats of arms upon their shields the
itching palms beneath them, which in old
times gave largesse to the poor man, but held
back from him the space and chance to make
an honest and sufficient living. What is the
Credit Mobilier, after all, to such wholesale
pickings and stealingsS
But whatever abnormal longings may possess
the souls Of our wealthy classes, and cause
them to cast wishful eyes toward a monarch
cal government, our working men at least viii
probably be content to believe that q republic
suits their situation better. Here are one or
two facts which we clip from The PaHIhaH
Gazette to illustrate the subject. Three cases
wero heard in one day before the County
Justices at Newbury, some weeks since,
which The Gdsette quotes as exemplifying the
"sad lack of self-dependence which prevails
"among the lower orders" Henry Ballard,
half-starved, spiritless looking man, was tried
for shooting rabbit on demesne of one Of
his richer neghbOrs. Ballard burst into tears,
and stated that his wages were but II shillings
per week, out of which he had to sup
port thirteen children, beside his wife and
h,nsalf HE uifa uvaa DIVING nf contamination
and longed for bit of meat; 80 he tried to
catch the rabbit. Ballard was Severely repri-
manded and fined sir shillings. to be paid in
q fortnight. The second case was that of
" Elizabeth Vokins who was sucking an in
" FAINT, and sent to Beading Jail for two weeks
"for taking some pieces of brass belonging to
"a thrashing machine, out of barn at We'll
ford, where her husband had worked for
twenty years" Mr.. VokiDs complained that
IL his vito were sent auay his six chill