The New York herald., 1874-10-05
A New City Muddle.

NC" NAty HAuuuAOs
The Legislature, in its wisdom, enacted q
charter for the city of New York in which
provision was made for the publication OF al
official journal. The important organ thus
called into existence appropriately made its
appearance from the Executive basement in
the City Hall. 1t is an imposing sheet, in
more senses than one, and measures about
twenty inches by twelve It's issue did not
revoluionize the city press or seriously affect
the circulation of the HERALD. Neverthe-
less its twenty-nine subscribers felt assured
that it would rise to fame and form the foun-
dation.upon which the fortunes and the repu-
tations of great historical characters would be
erected Both these predictions have been
verified. Disbecker, its earliest supervisor,
sits in the seat of honor and profit in the great
Mulberry street tabernacle, at whose shrine
the devotees Of the club and the pilgrims of
the broom bow down in reverential worship.
The litigious Green, the patron saint of the
pastoral Columbus and the skeleton in the
tenement house closets Of poor scrub women
and laborers, is now resolved that the organ
itself shall win notoriety. Left alone, as an
insignificant side crib at which the festive
Havemeyer feeds some of his young cronies,
no person would know Of the existence Of such
a sheet as the City Record But Green, who
fights almost everything and everybody except
Columbus Ryan, Whittemore, Vaux and the
aerial fire ladder has determined to do battle
with this spicy little official journal and
10 xuff xv1,t to1,
to topple over the whole municipal
fabric. He finds that the organ has never
been legally established The contract for its
publication is sent to him, in order that, in
pursuance of his duty under the charter, he
may approve or reject the sureties on the con-
tractors bond but he constitutes himself
judge, jury and counsel, declares that the
whole thing is a fraud and myth, and that
no such journal as the City Record has legal
existence.
The charter requires that no resolution or
ordinance Of the Common Council shall be
legal or operative without specified publica-
ton in the official journal; that no clerk or
employe in public department shall be con-
sidered legally in Office until his appointment
shall have been published in that wonderful
sheet; that no public improvements shall be
undertaken until they have been advertised
in the city Record; that city bonds and stocks
cannot be legally issued, contracts made or
bids accepted without previous publication in
that important organ. And now comes the
captious Comptroller, the marplot Of the
municipalitv to tell us that the CifD Record
is itself an illegality that he viii not approve
or reject the contractors boud; that he will
not pay the publisher his money ; that the
sheet may discontinue publication as soon as
it likes, and the Executive basement be left
without its paper.
II the publication Of the City Record should
be suspended it's twenty-nine subscribers
might possibly bear the loss, but it is very
evident that the machinery Of the city govern
ment would come to halt This might be
regarded as Of little consequence, since under
the wonderful honesty and capacity
Of Havemeyer and a Green all
the progress we make, as the Lord
Mayor Of Dublin would say is in backward
direction. Nevertheless it is significant Of the
peculiar genius Of Mr.. Green that he should
have discovered in the insignificant little
sheet that wastes its sweetness in City Hall
cellar the means Of creating this latest and
most startling of our city muddles.