New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-18

moment the human smind begins to reason IT
ceases to indulge in grOsser reflections, ana
handles all matters subjected to it with phllo-
sopbical cOIdness This Brooklyn business is
bad enough; but we are happy to say that it
long since passed from the license of
comedy into the higher and sterner regions
of tragedy. IL has made serious all
whose volatility is not chronic, all readers to
whom earnestncss and sobriety are possible.
The lester continues to have his fun and his
fling; but he is not much attended to. The
caricaturst keeps at his work, but his great
triumphs are in the windows of the
newsman and with the few who rarely
read ard who like their pictorial en-
tertainmcnt gratis. We bore patiently with
the humor at first, however sorry it might be,
but it is ill jcsting in the presence OF life
ruined or of death imminent. The laugh grows
hollow when nothing is left to inspire it save
infrmity, failure, sorrow, distress, the weak
ness of man, and the woe Of woman. We are
quite free to say of public which we have
never cared to flatter, that its decOrum under
great prOvOcatives of frivOlity has been
solid ard honorable. The inevitable dis
cussion has been characterized by sobr-
city for which we were not prepared. The
moral disaster has been by no means such as
might have been reasonably predicted, and so
much less than q moral purist would have
anticipated that complete revision or our
usual fastidious method of Judgment seems TO
be possible. There is Il virtue which Is not Oh
words; there is morality which is not merely
of form and show; and in neither of them has
society lately shown itself to he wanting.
If evidence of this essential purity were
needed it would be enough to point to the
general tone of the communications which
have been sent to THE TRIBUNE upon this sub
iec.. Some Of them we have been obliged to
decline, but in hardly any instance have we
rejected any letter on account OF its improper
spirit And it il remarkable fact that from
women of an excellence of character, never IN
the least questioned, have come many OF
the best of these commentaries. 1t is not
every great law trial which brings with
it such wealth of instruction, such pro-
fuscness of valuable suggestion respecting the
conduct OF life, and so many hints towards
the wise ordering Of a professional career.
1t will be claimed neither for plaintiff nor for
defendant, by the best friend of either, that
he has made no mistakes The difficulty has
been ana sui Is, IN reRdru dC any IdIc W oiiO
of the parties to the controversy, to reconcile
his brains and his blunders. We sometimes
find great man to be upon one
side boy, but it is not often that
we find him completely wanting in
ordinary prudence, and hardly fit to be trusted
alone-the victim of swindlers, the sport OF the
crafty, the stalking-horse of the designing,
and child in matters of the EXTREMIST I'M
port. We trust that the great trial will make
all clergymcn not more honest, for we have
good opinion of their honesty, but, for the
sake of their VOCATION little more worldly
wise. One thing taught by these proceedings
is tho imperative necessity of avoiding even
the appearance of evil 1t may be an anti
climax to speak of the lesson, "Keep out of
scrapcsw uttered in the voice Of Gods own
thunder but we do not at present recall any
bit of wisdom which is wortllier of being pro-
claimed from the hOuse-top.