Wilmington daily commercial., 1874-12-30
FIRST EDITION.
NEW YORK.
OUR mrD WEEK LETTER.

Ever since the great snow storm of ten days
since-twenty inches deep, back in the higher
suburbs-the city has been pretty constantly en-
yeloped in alternate fog and rain, with brief
snatches of indian summer sunshine. A sue
cession Of winters like this would soon make 1t
| as famously nebulous as London. To one perch
ed in the editorial garrett or correspondence
| bureau. overlooking the deep stratum of vapor
| in which the city lies buried, and from which
arse on every hand the ceaseess howls and
shrieks of hundred STEAMBOATS, wandering like
| lost spirits in torment between the spectral
| shores of the North and East riyers-nay, what
| is IL like? | set out with confidence, at the be-
ginning of that last sentence to tell. | was go
| ing to call it the bowling Wilderness Then it
| became shrieking inferno dim. vast void, with
ont bounds or marks of locality sensible in no
way but by the dolefu noises it sends up from
the abyss of everywhere aud nowhere.
II il a mysterious. weird voyage across the fer
ry. Styx and Acheron, and Charon's boats might
have enriched their fanciea of substantial hor-
| rors if Homer or Virgil had ever got an obalus
worth of ferriage between New York and Brook
| lyn in fog You can't even see the end of the
boat you are ON. 1t shades off spectrally into
| the universal nothingness around, above and
below, occupied only with portentous sounds of
roaring water, steam and machinery, of tumul-
tous and ubiquitous shrieks and toll of bells-al
from nowhere and everywhere, and not an OBJ
iect, Or a cause or source for sound to be per-
ceved. Long and slowly drifts the lost and
lonely boat, with an occasional half turn Of the
wheels, Just TO keep the faintest headway that
can give the helm control of her. The rush of
wheels and shrek of steam come appeahngy
near at Tunes, from other phantom ships, almost
| touching us, but totally impapable. At last a
faint reddish spot comes out almost overhead
| 1t reddens more and another and another show
| IN succession, the pie lights are made, and we
glide still silently and spectrally into the invis-
bio ''slip," outlined merely by the red points of
! it's angles.
| Now il YOU go down Vesey street, near old
| Washington Market, on a Saturday evening, no
matter what the fog or darkness, you will find
| the cloud shot through with splendor from cal
| lum lights as we'll as with the shouts and cries
of innumerable hucksters. The noises of that
roaring Of traffic not muffled in obscurity
| by the opaquest fog. Real and palpable market
men and women yisibly below aud screech in
all the keys of sound aud tongues of merchan-
| disc. The boiling aud flowing throng of men,
| women, children and baskets, s refulgent III tie
| bleze OF the lights, which make a mimic day in
/ tensfed by reflection and contrast from the
| dome of darkness bending down around them.
| Oranges and lemons glitter like piles of gold.
Forests OF cedar evergreens (tls was at Christ
mas time) reflect the light in emerald tints, and
| make the whole street v@r'al sccNe. Every
thing eatable that is known to man, and maly
| more things than are known usually to one man,
| are piled in reckless profneion along the street,
ana Yoc.fcrated with their prices aud piases
from a hundred throats of brass, in juring
chorus. painters genus could not ind
| richer or more brilliant the;ne-lf he could but
paint the uproar
| But while the all-penetratng calcium iliumi-
nation is now applied to almost every other des-
cripton of night work. it is singular-but char
acteristic-ot our sluggish ferry companies, that
| all the loss yexation, and disaster they them
selves suffer continually through fOgs, lave
never led to the employment Of any but the 1T
| tie feeble oil lanterns ON their PIERS to guide
the incoming boats, or on the boats to guard
them from collision. The terrific collision of
two ferry boats yesterday. by which several
persons we're killed and wounded,
and hundreds placed III imminent jeop-
ardy, wonld have been ut least very improb-
| able il modern means of illumination had been
| ia use. This desideratun IN fog navigation
might well be made the subject of legislative i'll
The contrast between Bsecher aud Glendeu-
ming in ministerial conduct under accusation, is
much remarked on, and serves to emphasize to-
judge, ma jority of minds, what, not a few
20 80 far as to characterize as the lnsolence of
claiming the verdict before trial, and taking up
in advance a position of defiance to the verdict
| whatevor it may be- as Mr.. B.echer does III his
| editorial prOnunctdmento. The Kernel OF that
document is the announcement that he will con-
tinue TO preach in spite of any verdict, the con-
diton that his church wish him to do 30. being
a foregone conclusion. In short, Mr. Beecher
has tested his personal power to stand III the
pulpit and society under no matter What con-
diton or moral character, and coolly lets usknow
that lie Intends to do it whether or no. Aud he
will Those who expect the coming trial to
crush Mr.. Beecher are ignorant of one or all
of three things how commanding his talents
are how much more the world worshps power
than moral worth aud how little Mr.. Beechers
past position has really depended on his relation
to Christianity
tbe confidence of his friends and church, as Mr.
Bnecher has. He has also been fully acquitted
after severe trial, of all but indlscretlon. he
also stands in an unimpeaceable position OF
ordor aud regularity as the pastor of his church
peuding his appeal on the decision which
rensured him and dissolved his pastoral re-
lhtion Yet he voluntarily subsidies into modest
privacy. and resists the request to continue his
ministry, until the censttre passedupon MN shall
be removed. And those who imagine that he has
been influenced to tlls course by the brutal iu-
timidation attempted on him III tho matter by
the baser elements of the community, show q
singular incapacity to recognize pluck, IN the
indomitable bearing of this young and obscure
| clergyman under an assat 1t to which man oil
but ordinary courage might have succumbed at
| the outset, by " marrying or paying.
! Well Tilton has carried his point, the "blli OF
particulars Is set aside out OF his path, ana the
way before him is clear, to test the value OF ms
evidence by the severest ordeal of legal princi-
pies applied By tile combined legal and intellec-
tua power OF the bench aud bar. Ii will be n
, magnificent trial both of powers and principles.
] But never Thought it would make much dlHer-
ence (except aga nst Mr. Beecher morally if
the bill of particulars stood, 80 long al the evi'
. dence was lot in. Simply for the reason that q
Q verdict can scarcely be looked for, under any
: conditions Judge McCue is well understood to
I be Beecher man and his order was a partisan
= order, though somewhat ingenlously befogged
with an appearance of fairness And tins divl-
sion of tie cout--two against one--lH typical
of what the trial will bo in the end. IL will be
little less than a miracle if twelve men are en-
= = | panellel without at least one Beecher man aud
! | one lilion man, from whom nothing can bring a
7 verdict IN favor of their respective opposltes.
= The only real verdict to be attained IL that oil
9 the public, which can act by majority, and be-
: fore which this great question is really on tral
y Aud neither that verdict nor the verdict OF the
!. | Jury IL going to make any difference TO MIR.
Y | Beecher. SO he tells aud hls church and
Y | counsel tell ua, and for one believe them sc
long ~ he il able to make as splendid an grafton
3 ma lie pronounced before the New England So
= ciety last week. he will have his choice OF pulpit
II or platform to do it from, Or don't know the
world.
learn that the original Dr. Robinson, ol
st Whose hymn-book made some menIlon lately
& il engaged on still another "Hynna,' asst Is tht
fashion to call them and has it ab nut two-thlrd5
J. dome 1t is to be dedicated especially to his own
great branch of the church, as the Presbyterian
" Hymnal. -,
a 1t will suit the new Federation Era, and vii
"a be sPan' Presbyterian. The Scotch brethren
o will find the Psawms o'Dawved standing by then
Q nlways in their sanctity. 1t is also to be pan
=, presbyterially revised, approved and sancnohe9