The Portland daily press., 1873-07-29


we have at last entered upon crusade against
filth and pestilence, that may ultimately re-
deem our city from the disgrace OF having
the worst markets in the world. No commu-
nity fit for self government would have borne
this evil as long as New Workers have. Moth
ing could more painfully illustrate the abject
slavery of people to the tyranny of cor
rupt partizan cabal than the patience and
docity with which they have tolerated an
evil which has been obtruding itself before
their olfactory as well as their ocular organs,
with such offensive persisteney, all these years.
1t is an unpleasant fact, that stranger
cannot approach New York City by water, on
either side of the river, without seeing dilapi-
dated piers, rickety pavements, unsightly
buildings and filthy streets, or without in
haling odors so nauseating that he will wonder
that the cholera and every other contagious
scouree does not come and take permanent
quarters In place which seems to have opened
its arms TO give them welcome. The wharves
are in most wretched condition. Some of
them have been put into a reputable guise,
by private lessees; but their spruce appear
ance only serves to make the others more
hideous TO the beholder. Those that are in
charge of the city functionaries are always in
state of hopeless decrepitude. Since May,
1870, we have had-until within sixty days
an expensive and snowy Dock Commission,
of five persons, each receiving $4,000 per
annum. They employed Gen. Mcclellan at
salary of 200 as chief engineer. What
stupendous projects he may have conceived,
what plans he may have been drawing, during
his incumbency of the Office, we shall probably
never know But there have been no palpable
results, from this formidable and costly organ
ization. The only drawings the tax payers
wot Of have been the salaries. The hero of
the Potomac has shown his capacity in peace
as well as in war to keep everything quiet.
If he ever makes rapid movement, or acts
with promptness and decision, it is when he is
on his way to the pay-;naster or the pho
tographer.
Thank fortune, after the visitor has fought
his way through a crowd of unsoaped and
villainous looking hackmen, and found per-
chance, his way into a crazy old carriage with
Innings torn and greasy, and bearing the gen.
eral appearance of having done duty between
emigrant ships and hospitals-they are all of
piece-he will, after long journey, find
himself in Broadway, which is a magnificent
thoroughfare from the Battery to Blooming
dale, or among the palaces, and in the cleanly
and beautiful streets around Union or Madison
or Washington squares, and his impressions of
the metropolis will be changed for the better.
But if he is thoughtful man, he will marvel
greatly, that million of people, located on
an island washed by two broad rivers, and as
healthy spot as can be found within the
limits of the continent, can sit supinely down,
under burdens of excessive taxation, seeing
millions upon millions wasted and stolen year
by year, and suffer their borders to be given
up to the disorder aad pollution, which one
sees in and around every pier of the great
city.
1t certainly is difficult to comprehend or ac-
count for the laxity of these people in refer
ence to the management of their public affairs.
There are great numbers of grave, earnest,
able and intelligent men in New York. men
capable Of large conceptions in the way of
progress and enterprise, far-reaching saga
cious and effective alike in thought and az
ton. But for some reason or other, few of
them can be persuaded to concern themselves
in the smalles! degree with any matter 'nvolv-
ing political action. They have been preached
to, prayed with and scolded at, but they are
incorrigible. Consequently smaller men are
brought to the surface and the business which
suffers most from negligence, ignorance and
cupidity, is that of municipal government
Occasionally some broad minded, and largely
gifted gentleman is prevailed upon to engage
in public service. Several of the Park Com
missoners have at times, been men of this
stamp. But they soon find the surroundings
disagreeable and the atmosphere impure.
They are but part of a system which is in the
main intended to work for the good of the
governing rather than of the governed. II
they undertake to stem the current by acting
unselfishly and periodically for the general
good, they will find themselves burrowed un-
der, plotted against and maze uncomfortable,
till they retire in disgust, and their places are
filled by more pliable men.
Still 'the world moves" and even New
York will and does make progress in the bet
ter direction. Things are not so bad as they
used to be, though they are bad enough in all
conscience. Light is slowly breaking in upon
the dark places; the humanizing influences of
civilization are not wholly unfelt even here;
and the spirit of reform, which is rapidly as
sorting itself all over the country, and holding
public servants TO stricter accountability
than ever before, will in some degree, quicken
the hearts, and waken the dormant sensibili-
ties of the sluggish, stolid and impassive citi-
zens of New York.
A new political disease has recently broken
out here; in the Office of leading morning
Journal. 1t is Cgsarism. The PAPER in
question has had several attacks of it, and has
shown signs of commissions. Later advices
report the patient more quiet, but its readers
fear a relapse at any moment. The first
symptoms of the disorder originated in
monomania about Gen. Grant running for
third term. There seems to have been no
cause for the hallucination, unless it was
paucity of subjects for first class leader, and
superabundance of unemployed talent.
Nepotism had its run last year, and was
the occasion of good deal of froth on the
hastings, and good deal of fun everywhere
else. But Casarism does not seemto be catch
ing and is not likely to spread. Nevertheless
there is something exquisitely grotesque in the
multiplication of double loaded essays on the
subject of third election of President
who is only in the fifth month of his second
term. The reelection of President Grant
was graceful and becoming recognition of
his great services and his acceptable admin
istration. 1t was wholly the work of the
people. The politicians had very little to do
with it. The shrewdest OF them acquielced
in the inevitable. The shallow ones tried to
prevent it, and were swept away like chaff.
The soldier-statesman, sustained by the over
whelming verdict of approval from the peo-
pie he has served so faithfully, will take his
place in history among the most illustrious of
our Presidents bearing his honors meekly as