The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1873-05-28

during the war Tor the Union, had intro
, duced q gigantic system OF tlnanCiering
by which they obtained control Of vas
: railway properties, and managed them L
the confusion OF stockholders and theil
own ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Moreover, the
solid capitalists, who acquire such prop
critics by more legitimate means, invent
ed methods Of consolidation before un'
known, stretching their corporate domin.
ion clear across the continent, until single
individuals governed hundreds Of millions
Of wealth, and became more powerful
than the Dukes Of feudal times. Farther
and farther spread the grasp Of the true
Railway kings-the Vanderbilts, Scots
and Drews; while swarm of magnif.
cent adventures, among whom the gas
conadoes who seized and held "Erie" may
be selected as familiar types, aped their
finance, and far exceeded them in osten.
tatious display. All this became possible
through the policy oil the Government,
which extended the period OF money In.
ilatiOn for years after the war. 1t really
seemed as il the bubble never would burst;
although in 1871, to such an extent had
over. construction been pushed, the nun.
Der Of miles Of railway in the United
States exceeded that Of ten years before,
when compared with the totals Of wealth
and population at the respective dates, IN
the proportion Of two TO one. These
movements centCrcd in New York City,
the financial heart OF the country, and
every wall street clearinghouse was
stuffed with bonds for sale, or had a rail.
way loan OF its own 10 otFer. the public;
the pretensions Of these Investment" &C.
curities varying with the credits OF the
vendors AS to the State, County, City,
and Township bonds offered and placed
their maine was legion. No preceding
imitation has been so extensive and pro.
longed; none in England, France, or
America, has ever had so large field OF
expansion, or been so disastrous in its
collapse.
What were thevisDle elects upon New
York social life? Successful Adventures,
devoid alike Of morals and refined tastes,
gave their leisure hours 10 the most prOdi.
gal luxury and dissipation. Their man
sions lined the avenues and bOulevards;
their mistrcsses outdressed queens and
iostled virtuous women to the wall; in
their dinners and festivals they Knocked
the Roman extravaganza. They erected
theatres, opera houses, and hotels for their
own Qualification and amusement; laid out
race courses; with inherent VulgRrity dis
played diamonds, each worth q fortune,
upon their persons; their yachts covered
the harbor; their expenditures seemed to
be governed by caprice, and often, in q fit
OF the spleen, some one OF the most IN
scrupulous would endOw church or es-
tablish charity, by way oil touching lie
at all points. They imported every vice
Of foreign countries, with none Of the sale
guards by which an instinct Of dCcency
and ClEpreservation there CLOSES them
over. In short, wherever the dominant
inanciers and politicians OF New York
were to be found, there were debauChery,
extravaganza, coarseness-s social deca-
deuCe beyond parallel. The press chroni.
clsd and satirized it; butsuch warnings as
the press and clergy uttered were so light
or hopeless in tone, that few gave ear,
and 20 the revelry went on.
LIS MEsERADLEs.
But, if the very horses Of the tricksters
were stalled IN marble and iron, the
dwellings OF the haplcss voters who sus-
tanned them-oi the duped and danger
Gus classcs"-were meaner than those Of
the swine. The most iorlorn and sudden
misery encompaSsed them, whenever they
turned, from doing their masters bidding,
to the sites and kennels which they called
their homes
No horrors have equalled those Of the
tenement houses Of New York. Think
of one hundred and sixty thousand fami.
lies packed into such tenements as
abounded In the Tenth, Eleventh and
Seventeenth Wards-in Cherry, Mul.
berry, Baxter streets, and tho purlieus Of
the avenues to the north and east Lazsr.
dens, ofwhich the old "Sweeney's Sham
bles" was fair example, crowded upon
double city lot one hundred families,
devoid Of every appliance for health,
privacy and deCCncy." This multitude
Of wrelches lived over common sewer,
where the ordure Of fifteen hundred hu'
man beings daily was deposited. Hunger,
Drunkenness, Lust, and Crime were the
LarCs and Penates of their abode. No
wonder they sailed forth to ruffianly
outrage and crime, deeming, in their H.
logical misery, the Law their enemy, and
the rich men-the representatives Of
property and order-greater offenders
than themselves!
There are two sides to every question.
The dcpraved rulers who now have gone
to their own places in the final chastise.
ment, first rendered communistic up
rising possible by their indifference to the
ignorance, degradation, and impoverish
ment OF their miserable followers.
Such was the actual condition Of New
York at the height ofthe Tammany rule,
three years ago. That we have not over
drawn 1t the events Of the closing drama
have iearlully demonstrated. Yet what
stranger, visiting. the metropolis, where
everything on the thoroughiares and re-
sorts Of those 10 favor was glorious to the
eye, where palaces Of stone, brick and
iron followed each other for miles, where
the pride Of architecture and beauty OIL
landscape art were wonder and delight
what traveller could believe that here was
the dominion Of prohigacy, fraud, corrup
ton and legaliZed crime; that all this
splendor was flanked on the right and
lelt, and intermlugled with the most squat
: i'd and loathsomC abodes ever Inhabited
by mankind; wherein were seething ID
Indebtedness and vice half q million o.
human beasts, ready to break forth upon
} their keepers and make the whole city
wilderness Of ruin and despair?
TuR CRISIS oF ~.
From that time it is easy to,trace a dole
Iul succession Of events which are fresh
in the public mind, and now present
,, themselves with terrible significance
The year 1872 exhibited the first portenuI
of coming financial distress. People be-
gan TO realize that q reaction from thC
/ colossal speculation and ovGrtrHding o.