The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1877-04-28
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

DreadfM Condition Of tie .Strests-Frank-
Inns Statue-7he Young Editor in TIE
TAI To'cer- Chatham Street.-The Fire
P0ints-G Grand Duke-Romdnce0 Of a Poor
Young Man-Fdshion Notes, Sc, Sc.
It's very sloppy and rather muggy, and
don't see no chance of its gettn' no bet
ter" remarked Jack, my porter, as he fused
around my table this morning, vainly en-
deavoring to get the dust off of a pile Of
newspapers, with the stump end of what
was once feather broom. GIVE watched
this ere kind q weather poorly close for
several year," he remarked, land | hev
ginerally obsarved that when it don't get
no better it ither stays where it is, or gifts
WIS" | looked out of my office window
Jack was right. Ugh, it makes me sick to
look at the streets-rivers of dirt dotted
with islands of filth as far as the eye can
reach. Here is horse down, blocking
Broadway with swearing coachmen and
stage drivers-dirty gamins and bawling
policemen-and,m mercy on me, there goes
that fat woman with the basket down on
her-new dress that must have cost ten
cents yard, if it cost nickel: and now
look at that big patch on the-well it's not
nice place to have a patch of dirt. |
pulled on my coat, took look at an acct
dental insurance policy that | had in my
side pocket, and sailed out. | ran the
muck a muck of Broadway successfully
merely losing one rubber and getting my
left ear and MY overcoat pocket full of
mud. | crossed the Park and taking off
my hat reverently to the statue of Frank
lin, which sanctities Printing House Square,
observed for the first time that he had
turned his back on the Tribune office, and
the young editor, whose eagle eyre is away
up in the tall tower near the sky. | pass
by old Tammany Hall, now occupied by
Dana and the Sun. All me, the light of
other days is faded since Captain Rynders
led the Empire Club, eleven hundred
strong, down through the Sixth ward, and
Mike Walsh, with the Spartan band at his
back, was good for two thousand majority
from the Bowery to the river. love Chat
ham street; there is such a sweet and pleas
ant perfume of old clothes, ancient boots,
and dllapdated hats about it, that it is
really quite refreshing. | love Chatham
street as | remarked before, because there
are no new smells there: it's the same old
smell that | recognized more than a quar-
ter of century ago, and they say the PEG
pie don t mind it who are used to it, on the
contrary they rather like it, in fact it is
said they cannot live without it; this may
be so, but | confess l do not altogether
banker after it myself. | recollect a some
what similar aroma or bouquet during my
travels in Canada. Istopped at log house
one evening for supper and lodging, and
thirteen ood-choppers had pulled off their
boots and lay sleeping with their feet to the
stove-the memory haunts me still, even
the sight of an old boot, or wooden sock
is enough to disturb my piece of mind for
week; but Chatham street is mild along
side of that and as contemplate the gen
tie faces of the inhabitants, am constantly
reminded of my wanderings in Palestine
aud my trip to the Holy Sepulcher. |
would almost be willing to take my oath
that that fellow with the hook nose and
the eye is the same chap who, nearly thirty
years ago, seized me by the waistband of
my breeches, dragged ME into that ident
cal shop and compelled me to buy, for two
dollars and a quarter, coat big enough
for my great-great-g grandfather. But here
we are at Baxter street. Yes, heaven be
thanked it is still the same Mike Doc
ley's new tenement house in the middle of
the block seems little out of place, but
the Five Points still remain intact. Yes
sir, every one of them. 1t seems to be the
curse of all large cities to have a living
ulcer in the center of their hearts. Lon
don has it's St. Giles and Saffron Hill: Paris
has its Faubourg St. Antoine; Vienna, ST.
Petersburg, Berlin, all have these living
cancers-within rifle shot of mighty build
ings where Bibles are printed for the
heathen-and near churches from which
thousands of missionaries go out TO the
four quarters of the globe and the scat
tered islands of the sea. | look up toward
the Five Points Mission and | read on Il
tablet: " Erected on the site of the old
brewery, A. d., 1851 For four and
twenty years these saints have been wres-
thing with the devil, and it's astonishing to
see how healthy the old man looks; they
| don't appear to have worried him bit.
Here are his camp followers all around US
by hundreds; the very air is redolent of
crime and sin; it rises like miasma from
| the filthy cutters in the streets, it oozes
out of the damp walls; it floats up from
the dark cellars, and down from the rick.
ETY. garrets-it is all around us-virtue
finds it hard to maintain a foothold here,
for the soil is barren, sterile and foul.
| Look in those faces, soiled and SCARED
| with crime and sin, and you almost doubt,
| notwithstanding the promises of the Savior,
There goes party Of young thieves into
Teddy Mannix's junk shop; see how sus-
| piciously they look around to see if the
police are in sight, and now they are down
with Teddy in the cellar driving hard
bargain for their plumber. That girl with
| the red head is scarcely twelve years old,
yet she is as deeply versed in crime as a
vicious woman of thirty. Look at that
group around the lamp post, they are pick,
| ing each others pockets just for practice