The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-08-08

about as solemnly, fling their arms around as
majestically, enact their various parts as
! gravely as the more real actors in flesh and
blood; and the excellent joker who sits be-
hind the curtain and pulls the strings which
set his characters in motion meantime utters
for them the deepest tragedy or the most friv
olous comedy, while the spectators do not
know which is the most laughable the
ferocious bandit or the light hearted clown.
Look, for instance, at the amusing comedy
with which that celebrated and very able
impresario of marionettes, Comptroller
Green, is tightening the burden of rainy
summer. Nothing half so good has been
seen in our theatres for many month nor,
indeed, could anything nearly so meritorious
be expected, for not every manager has the
ability and the experience of Manager Green,
and not every manager has the good fortune
to be able so completely to control his play
ers to manage his machinery and to impro-
wise his situations
The manager of puppet show has adj
vantages in these respects which the manager
of real live, salaried, eating and drinking,
conceited, jealous, self-conscious, disobedient
performers has not Look at this fortunate
Green as he sits in his snug cubby hole in the
City Hall, with the strings within his reach.
He has only to pull them as he only knows
how to pull them, and all his characters per-
form precisely as he wishes. Here is Kelly,
the ferocious villain of his play, striking an
attitude and muttering indistinct anathemas
at Morrissey; here is Tilden, the Artful
Dodger of his show, running about, whisper
ing first In one ear and then in another; here
is Morrissey, leader of the Short Hairs,
launching out his left and uttering Ajax-ike
defances; here is Wickham, leader of the
Swallow Tails, pulling on his yellow kids and
making his and everybody else's best
bow; here are Porter and the pipe
men, the City Hall and Tammany
Hall; Fernando Wood trying to look like
Henry Clay, and the rest of the city democ-
racy trying to look like Tom Benton and
S1as Wright and looking SO horribly and
ridculously seedy in the effort that the be-
holder of this most admirable tragi-comedy is
convulsed with laughter; and oil the time the
great artist, the man of genius, to whom we
all owe the delightful and amusing spectacle,
sits with an air of unconcern on chest
marked "City Treasury" and pretends to be
counting greenbacks and examining tax re-
ceipts. He is true artist, Manager Green.
He knows that the perfection of art is to
conceal art. He would like to persuade US
all that he has no share in the performance;
that it is not he who inspires the mutterings,
the whispers, the defances that when his po-
ltical puppets stalk and stride and strike an
attitude it is not because he pulls the strings.
1t is not too much to say that the Comptroller
is the greatest artist of the day. He has had
few natural advantages; for it might be said
of him as it was of another
Tall and erect, unmeaning, mute and pale,
DER his blank face no CLEANS OF thought prevail
But he has had great teachers and great OPP
portunities. He had the astute Sweeny for
his model, who taught him that modest avoid
apce of daylight is best calculated to prolong
the success of an intriguer and who failed
only when his vanity got the upper hand of
his caution and led him to show his hand.
Green pulls the strings in modest conceal
ment He would not for the world have the
audience guess that it is he who moves the
puppets. Here is the celebrated puppet Nor
rissey, for instance, waging terrible war
against Tammany, determined, to all appear
ances, to 'sink or swim, survive or PERISH" in
the most approved and dauntless spirit But
it is only Green pulling the Morrissey
string which produces all those remarkable
effects. Here again is the amusing Kelly
,ho1r, of NJ
squeaking out, "Off with his head!" Don't
be uneasy-it is only Green pulling the Kelly
string and speaking the words in the Kelly
voice. When Wickham smirks and bows,
when Fernando buttons his coat and straight
ems his figure when Porter shows his swal-
low tail to the pipe men through the crack of
q closing door, when Tilden praises Silas
Wright or consults with Morrissey, when
Morrissey reports his own great political
deeds to the reporters, when the battle of the
clans grows fercest-it is all only Bottom,
the weaver.
The Comptroller is really an able man,
person of very varied talents, of great ambi-
ton. But we fear he is attempting too much,
and in too many directions. We do not
doubt his ability to manage the discordant
elements in New York and at Saratoga; to
maintain an equilibrium between the factions
by setting them by the ears; but meantime,
unluckily, the city finances are going to the
demnition bowwows; the people begin to
wonder which is increasing most rapidly, the
taxes or the debt OF the city. Mr. Green is
economizing at such rate that he has to
borrow continually to make up his defcien
cies, and whenever he borrows he pays hand
some interest 1t may be great stroke of
financial genius to make low tax levy and
then add to the debt enough to make up the
deficiency; but there are people who do not
understand it, and Mr.. Green would do well
to give the whole of his great mind to an ex-
nlanation of his financial system or to give it