Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1874-12-10
NEW YORK.
our MID. WEEK LETTER,

DEATH IN THE CITY HALL--THE LATE MAYOR ol
skw YoRK-rnE WINTER pEsrnkNoE-rHl
STREET BoYs-scHooL suiP-cIrY HuMoRs AMI
| RUMogs
Special Correspondence Of he Commercial.
New YoAK, Dec. l, 1874.
Punctual to the almanac, Winter put in On ap
pearance to-day, though little more than for
NAL one, in hurries of the first snow, tina
whitened the surface and put the fnishin,
mourning contrast on tho dead black iraperiei
of the City Hall front
Deash has indulyed his preference for brigh
targets within few days, and has seemed t
delight III surprises. Sudden deaths in high ant
low stations grow remarkably frequent.
seems as II dropping dead from heart disease
| i'll particular, were n characteristic infirmty o
| the modern American. Some case of this kind
shows itself in tho papers somewhere, almost
iAsily. y aasiuus NAc1ence oocurs Ia our vita
| statistics. The nhi-ber OF deaths reported iI
the city last week was exactly the same az the
week preyious-,52l. With the beginnings Of the
cold weather-the most serious OF which, aud q
full blown boreal too occurred here ON SUNDAY
| nght-small pox as usual, increases, and ex-
| cites the usual desperate vaccinating raids Oh
the tenement houses and public institutions.
Both have broken out i'll the Deaf and Dumb
Asylum at l62nd street, overlooking the Hudson
riyer-s great modern stone mansion, on one OF
the most salubrous and select eminence in or
around New iork-and in less than week there
had been eleven cases of smallpox and six hum
dred of vaccination. This has stamped out the
more dreaded aud infectious evil there, There
are hundred cases in the smallpox hospital OIL
Backwells Island, and the only reason why
there are not more is that the hospital ia not
larger. And yet, not ono IN a hundred persons
would know there was such thing as small pox
in tho city, were 1t not for the newspapers.
But in the line of mortality, which seems to
have seized upon this letter with the rest, a more
startling event has hardly eyor shocked the CITY
than when at noon on Monday, ts Mayor was
struck dead in the city hall, while attending to
official business. The universal tribute to his
memory Ia that he was All honest man. This
not uncommon virtue has been made 80 re-
markable in public station by the operation Of
the electoral machine which seems to have been
invented to shake up rogues to the top, that TO be
called honest in office is the neXt thing canon
zation. While all due respect is universally and
heartily paid both to the Office aud tho virtue OF
the deceased mayor, there is also disposition
to do critical Justice with personal gentsness,
which is just what is wanted but not to be had,
Tor living public men,
The trouble with Mayor Havemeyer was All in
ordinate and arbitrary egotism Egotsm ia the
trouble with everybody, but il works In differen
ways. la Wm. NJ. Tweed, it worked in the di-
recton OF material pleasure and power out of
other peoples materials. In Mayor Havemeyer it
worked in the direction of having his own will at
aesthetic difference in favor of the latter tendency
creates the Illusion that it is vastly better NOR
ally, which 1t is not. 1t is the essence Of tyTan-
ny, and tyranny is robbery if not of the meanest
yet Of the worst kind although it always thinks
80 well OF iteeif, and enjoys certain fallacious
respect from others.
The rides Of the new Mayor-elect about the
suspended public works, bouevards, &C., and
the profound impressions made by them OF his
lnquiring mind, as registered by the self-acting
reportotial indicator, 1oreshadow moyement or
at least bunconibe. in the direction of public
employment for the iiboring classes this winter.
lhe mucli'mlssed corporeality Of our ex-Boss
ls coming to town Tomorrow, not clandestiieIy
or by conniyance this time, but in habeas cor
pis coach and SIX, which his lawyers confidently
expect to drive through the meshes of the law.
1t is feared that Judge Davis strained the mesh
es overhaul, when he gave the great thief twelve
sentences under one indictment.
The glory IL departing from the juvenile race
OF lshmaei in this city, II one may judge from
the scpea-nure OF Tho stree. hce.i y, the Boya'
Meeting Of the Rlyinet a street and other lodg-
ing houses of the Childfon's Aid Society. You
see them listening to addresses like rows of
Young deacons rather than devils, with washed
faces, smooth heads and Strengthened hair.
Sunday School teachers at the Five Points, and
one of the same in Rivington Street of whom l
have vivid remembrance now thirty or forty
years old, would have given much for few bot
ties Of Mr.. Braces Hair Stra,ghtener. The
~hrling sPirals IN which those boys used to go
over the desks and each other to the
street door whenever they judged there
was no more fun to be got out of the Sunday
School, were bewildering TO the brains of the
poor teacher left blooming alone in the crimson
OF mortiilcaton Their impish kinks have been
astohishiigly taken out them since then. The
secret OF tne mistake cannot be exactly stated,
uut 1t consists largely OF bread and butter, hu-
man nature and the love OF God, There are
lew iels see 10 badger and chaii the 'counter'
III tiie down town newspaper offices but 1t is
now u fuil proof that the street Arab can be CIV
,ilAeu II GAuSht young anu II the Y. a Society
lVes III Nir. Brace and Ills coadjutors decade or
Two longer the mocking little demon OF the gut
Yer VIII survive, as an institution only IN story.
An aumraDie klud OF vent Tor any VEN OF ec-
centrlcity III tile street boy which may prove too
ieiIacloiy Tor the civllzing processes OF The |
iousuis mouse, VIII bi the now s.ehoolship for
hhuButycaliy uisposed boys, which VIII be
lhanneu uhder the direction OF our Board OF Ed
acanoh IN 1ahuary-the yhip 81. Alary detailed
'or our accommotS', y by ths honorable the |
Ihe navy is 10 be praeticed on board, as far as
Possioe, ana ehe leaa,lis aim OF the disci-
phhe VIII p' TO make good sailors and
euhiieTs tor Inc merchant and naval
service. II VIII not reach as deeply or
or broadly as could be desired, however, until
.he system Is enlarged ana lowered to boys Of
sweNe. Inc present lnht IL 70 be hfteen.
Mercahtlle liberty ana enlightened self-interest
VIII De hkeIy 10 push the system onward when
pnce wen started. Inc training system for
ohcefs adopted not long since by one of our
great oseainslnp companies, Indicates the need
Lnat lh ieit III inc inercnat marine Tor school
lor SAILORS, ana tue liberal means that would
"ait on any practical effort to supply it.
Shooting at n noise ID the latest and sharpest