New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-03-10
HlCLRONJ AND VERMICELLL


Whales that, having foundered through the
ocean for a century or two SWALLOWING
whatever fish or fleets came in his way, he
choked on a herring bone at last, and 80 lg-
nobly died. A pathetic resemblance to this
historical fact is found in the record oil the
last hours of the XLIId Congress. AS 1t was
about to give up the ghost last week we are
told its sense of justice was outraged by
proposed duty of five per cent on Macaroni
and Vermicell. Until late on Saturday night
its indignation continued to rise. and was still
unappeased the next day. Even the Sabbaths
calm was devoted to Eliminated and angry
"discussion of this amendment by the mem
"bers.n To most of us this Congress had APP
reared a very Moby-Dick in its appetite.
Nothing came amiss to its nav. 1t Is true IL
took it az long to beslime and swallow Credit
Mobiler az it does boa to digest a tough
sheep, but the ugly business was accomplished
at last. Kelleys case, nauseOus as 1t was, was
bottled at gulp; so with PomerOy's, and still
it was calm and serene. 1t did balk at Cakes
Ames a little, but refused, unlike the whale
with Jonah, to spew even him out OF Its
mouth. But that the makers OF Genoese
paste should be mulcted of an additional
penny, was an injustice, an outrage on the
national honor, at which the gorge OF
Congress rose. 1t had just swallowed the
swndle by which the people were robbed OF
millions, and sat twirling its thumbs COM
placent as Falstaff stuffed with fat capon and
sack. and petted by Doll Tearsheet; but at the
duty on its soup thickening its virtue rebelled.
There was the herring-bOne which killed the
whale.
AS nation we are apt to gulp down bones
and choke on a bit of paste. We are Chris
tan people. In our great cities especially,
millions of dollars invested annually In
carved stone and stained glass and operate
choirs testify to our belief in Christ T; yet never
in the days of Caesar or Bourbon have the pol
itcs of any nation been more corrupted by
fraud or bribery, or its social life more abased
by the pursuit of money or show. The haste
to be rlch and the haste to display riches
faint every feature of American life. One
eighth of our population are avowedly of the
criminal class; drunkenness is crOwding our
prisons with felons and murderers, for whose
relief we have invented only the cure OF the
gallows. Yet the churches easily accept these
monster evils as facts accomplished and unal-
terable. The poi mt on which they have made
a stand during the last year is whether libra
ries should be opened and street cars run on
Sunday or not. There were their MacarOni
and Vermicelli.
As a nation, too, we have tendresse for the
Fenians Cretes, Poles, Hungarians-any people
whom we conceive to have been oppressed OF
dOwntrodden. 1t is not any very aggressive
craftsmanship, to be sure, which would lead us
into giving or taking ugly blows on their be-
half; rather a patronizing, sentimental tender
ness such as that with which heavy old
millionaires pat on the head but do not give
their money to the gallant lads with the fire
of youth in their veins and their trowsers out
at the knees. The wrongs of these people are
the pasty mOrsel over which our orators choke in
indignation until the tears stand in their eyes.
Yet on one side of Brother Jonathan is the
red man whom, from a savage, he has cheated
into being a fend, and four million of
blacks, still bearing civil disabilities for which
there is no shadow of apology; and on the
other a conquered but not reunited South.
Here is tough matter enough for our dges-
ton, without taking any foreign macaroni,
either to heart or stomach.