The Portland daily press., 1878-06-04
Our New York Letter.
The Beard of Health squabble-The Lee
gal Tender Question and Congress-The
Crop Prospects.
NEW YORK, June 3, 1873.

NEW YORK, June 3, 1878.
The local farce which was rehearsed a week
ago was put upon the boards Friday The
Grand Jury appeared before the foo.lights iu
the Court of Sessions as solemn as owls aud
presented bills of Indictment for misdemeanor
against fifteen Of the twenty-five Aldermen,
and the four eminently respectable gentlemen
who compose the Board of Health. The Alder
men are charged with the heinous offense of
permitting man to keep news stand at a
street corner. The accusation against the
Health Commissioners is that their sense of
smell is not sufficiently acute. They failed to
appreciate the foulness of the odors exhaled
from certain manufacturing establishments
started on and near the banks of the East river.
Is is hardly worth while to be serious perhaps
about such ridiculous proceeding as this. 1t
certainly cannot amount to anything. The
Aldermen may give it an adventitious conse-
quence by retaining counsel and gravely enter
ing upon defense. Once get lawyer hold of
matter and he will magnify it aud keep it
astir as long as there is the remotest chance to
get fees or fame out it. On the other hand, If
it is let alone it will soon be lost sight of and
forgotten.
oue oii VHO oohie3 ~ 10 oh OOOocAOd VI ouaiAO
to the community, that burlesque of the extrav-
agant sort can be enacted in halls presumed to
be dedicated to the administration of justice.
1t is pity that score or 50 of grown up men
at the dctaton Of an eccentric magistrate
whose physical infrmities are generally sup
posed to have impaired his mental soundness,
could be prevailed upon to make such an exhi-
biton of themselves. Without being aware of
it they have usurped the authority of law to
perpetrate an act of defamation. The Health
officers on whom they have deliberately sought
to cast slur are men of irrepro roachable charac-
ter, of as high personal and official
integrity as any that dwell within the
limits of this municipality. The abuse
of the power vested in the Grand
inquest to bring reproach upon their honor is an
objectionable prostitution of an official prereg-
ative. 1t only shows what men will do when
they are invested with responsibilities to which
they ara not equal 1t is as true now as it was
in Shakspeare's day that
"Man
Dressed in a little brief authority;
Most Ignorant OF what he's most assured,
His glossy eSSeEce-like an angry ape,
| Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep"
The worst of it is that while there is all this
| wretched bleating over technical violations of
| ordinances that exist in such illimitable profu-
| sion that nobody ever pretends to heed them or
l to know what they are, great many statutes
| of vital Importance to the peace and welfare of
our citizens, are trampled upoa with impunity
under the very eyes Of the Court and Jury
whose zeal for the enforcement of Law has just
broken out in such remarkable way. There
is an occasional pretense of arraigning the
1 keepers of unlicensed rum shops, but the mum.
ber complained of is Insignificant compared
! with the mass who are suffered to pursue their
traffic undsturbed; those who are arrested are
| pretty certain to escape with the nominal pen
atty of a light fine. The tming houses ana
policy offices are seldom disturbed. In fact II
is entirely easy to practice the most hagrant
infractions of law unless some magistrate nap
pens in fit of pique or an outourst OF afdor te
take notion to exercise the attributes with
which he is clothed. In that event he IS just al
likely TO strike at a fancied as to a real abuse
and will be pretty nearly as apt to 60 wrong a.
| right. Even reforming things is a business tha
| cannot be prosecuted with entire success unless
| those engaged in it have had some little expert
ence of the grievances they are striving to rec
tify.
The resolution of Congress to adjourn on th
| 18th inst. will be hailed as promise of relic
from situation that is always threatening ant
often perilous. have every desire to writ
respectfully and think kindly of our nationa
legislators. do not sympathize in the ieas
with the fippaut spirit in which public mel
and public affails are too frequently spoken o
by shallow or careless critics. Wnen 'nes'
diatribes are delivered behind the detences
the newspapers or pulpit am especially in,ol
Grant and abhorrent Of them and grateiui
any Kuight-male or female-who may ente
!; the lists to break lance with the hpeilers
But do think any body is excusable for pray