The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-07-25
The Absent One.

| Inc eyes grow Jearlul anu Oho hO"As Doooo
heavily as we read the cable despatch an
nouncing the names of the guests who are to
honor the Mayor of London with their pres
ence at the coming banquet. We see the cniei
magistrates of Paris, Calais and Bordeaux; OF
Geneva Rome Turin and Florence; OF Chris
tiana, Boston and Quebec of Brussels, Ant
werp and Amsterdam. Here are French
men, Italians, Swiss and Swedes, with one IN
trusive Yankee all the way from Boston. But
we do not see the name Of the Mayor of New
York
This is to be an international banquet,
and, as we urged the Mayor when the
invitation came it was due to New YORK
that he should assert our Manhattan's place
among the cities of the world. We warned
him that the Mayor of some rural inland
town like Boston or Philadelphia would quietly
edge IN at the last moment and proclaim his
city as the exclusive home and dominion of
the Eagle. 1t is just as we feared. Here is
the Mayor of Boston among the guests. He
will have all his own way about Boston, and
this at time too when we are anxious about
our metropolitan supremacy, our commerce,
|
impudent Yankee, who has probably made
his money out of hickory nutmegs and
cedar hams, to stalk into Guildhan
to the music of 'Yankee Doodle and exalt
Boston in the eyes OF the assembled mayors
of the world, with no one to say word for
New York, is maddening. The result will be
that the mayors of Calais and Bordeaux,
of Christiania and Rome, of Geneva and
Brussels, will return home feeling that Bos-
ton is the only American city, that Boston is
the metropolis and that henceforward oil the
goods should be sent to Boston So that
from this time forward we may expect to see
the commerce Of Boston rise in value, while
New York sinks into provincial inferiority.
And all this because the Mayor did not
have the genius to grasp a splendid opportu-
nifty. He could not tear himself from the
charms of the Manhattan Club. There were
Irish professions to review, and this, his
only undisputed function, he would not sur
render to Ti!den. There were short-hair and
swallow.tail controversies to arrange, and he
could not forego the pleasure of mingling in
the strife. And yet what display the Mayor
might have made How he could have tow
cred over the Dutch Burgomaster from Am
sterdam, the macaroni-munching Mayor
from Rome, the cheese-nibbling magistrate
from Geneva How he could have defied the
British Lion in the face of the mayors of the
world and dared the Lord Mayor to come out
in the street and show which was the better
mani How he could have appealed to the
Italians, the Dutch and the Swedes to leave
their decaying and bloated old nations and
come with him to the land of the free and
the home of the brave, where the citizen can
vote early and often where land is cheap
and plenty and we have the freest,
if not the most economical, government,
the land of Tammany Hall and taxation;
where a Morrissey rules in politics, Jay
Gould in finance and Tweed in the admins
tration of justicel He could have told them
how New York is governed by four descend
ants of Irish kings-Boss Murphy, who comes
from Heremon, son of Milesius first Irish
monarch, and who is now king of the beef
eaters Boss Kelly, of the swallow-tails, de-
scended from the O'Kellys, who were kings
antecedent to Brian Boriohme, the great mon
arch of Limerick, who now rests with God
Morrissey, of the short hairs, whose name
signifies "a brave man." and who descends
from the Upton Slasher, successor to the
Staleybridge Chicken, who ruled centuries
ago in Donnybrook Kingdom Boss Dreamer,
of the Plug Uglies, descended from the
O'Gradies, also sons of Brian the Great,
whose motto is ''Shdnnet boo" which
means to stake what you can and answer no
questions" Mayor Wickham could have ex-
planned to the assembled mayors, in French
and Dutch, Italian and Swedish all of which
tongues he speaks with equal facility how,
under the benign government OF these kings,
New York has become a great city, a city in
which honest work receives honest pay; where
restitution" has become mark of gentility;
where virtue reigns where court houses
are built; where taxes are collected,
and where if a laborer steals a ham
he receives twenty years imprison-
ment, but if statesman steals five millions
he has only to pay half million to lawyers to
enjoy the remaining four and half with i'm
munity. He might make profound sensa-
ton in the minds of the Italian mayors by
showing how much better this is than bri-
gandage in Italy, which has now become On
established industry. Italian brigands have
only the smallest gains after all, and are apt
to be hanged, while brigands in New York are
never in danger of anything more than few
restful months on the Island.
But why dwell upon it all? Why mourn
over speeches that might have been made2
| We know well what our own Wickham would
have done once he felt himself on his feet, the
fountains of his eloquence opened by generous
wine. We know that he would have been
worthy OF himself and his city, worthy of the
centennial year aud OF the descendants of
Bunker Hill But the vanity of reviewing
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