New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-07-17
HMM LIBgPTY ~ DANGER.


1t would be idle to deny that a gloom has
been cast over the community by the painful
rumor which has been in circulation for sew
eral days, and which seems to be not without
some foundation, that coolness which may
lead to arrangement has sprung up between
those two leading Strugglers for Human Lib
erty, Mr. John Kelly and Mr.. Augustus Schell.
At the City Hall and Tammany Hall, and &
thousand centres of political influence where
they sell great big schooner of lager for
- five cents and throw in a helping hand III
the Struggle for Human Liberty, the subject
has been discussed with the most pro-
found feeling at great length. 1t
seems but yesterday-indeed when we con-
suit the almanac it ,odS only fortnight ago
that these two patriots were sleeping together
in Tammany Hall, under the preaching of the
late William Dorsheimer, while the Wiskin-
kies and Sagamores contemplated the pleas
ing spectacle with raptmes of delight. What
a rude awakening is this! That the friends
of Human Liberty. VINO, according TO Mr.. Ben
Hill, have just passed through the second
greatest epoch in their struggles, are sOrely
cast down by this difference between their
leaders, is feeble statement OF the
fact. On all hands the question rises,
"What now. will become of Human Lib
"erty2" IT, as has been remarked, Gree
"dom shrieked when KosciuskO fell" then
Human Liberty will certainly undergo some
sort OF a spasm at the falling out of Kelly
and Schell. 1t is true, we believe, that both
gentlemen deny the fact of the rupture, but
unhappily the denial amounts to nothing. Up
to the very moment of the actual outbreak of
hostilities dplOmatists always insist that the
great Powers they represent are on the fond
est terms. In this case, whatever the princi-
pals may say, the cohorts of Liberty, whom
these leaders have placed on the pay-rolls OF
a grateful people, know only too well that
cOdness has arisen between them, and that
the day may not be far distant when they
shall be called upon to decide which of them
they will serve, ill answer to the conundrum,
"Under which king, BezonianT
A shameful rumor is on foot that the diff
ference between these chieftains grows out OF
certain municipal schemes of speculative
character; that the faint of lucre and the
flavor of mercenarY considerations are dis
cernible in the causes which led up to the
present misunderstanding. This can hardly
be. The character and reputation of the two
men, their noble and unselish careers AMI
the long and arduOus struggle they have
maintained together for Human Liberty, forbid
that any such suspicion should be INDUCED
1t is true that the insnuation has taken
most definite and plausible form, and
mach has been made of the undoubted
fact that Mr.. Kelly eDergetically favored the
steam heating enterprise of Frank Spnoa
and as energehcally opposed the Fourth
Avenue Elevated Railroad scheme, in which
Mr.. Schell, as a director in the New York Cen.
tral and Hudson River Railroad, may be said
to have certain pecunlary interest. But men
who have struggled together for Human Lib
erty, as these two noble champions have
would never fall out over a little thing like
that. Mr.. Kelly has been too near Mr. Schell,
and knows too long his unselfsh devotion to
Human Liberty and the rights of man, to sup
pose that he would assist in gobbling up val
liable franchise and establishing nuisance in the
heart OF the city, from any other motive than
a desire for the public veal and Nj. Scbell
knows Mr.. Kelly too well to suppose for an
instant that that gentleman was not actuated
by sincere love OF freedom in pushing Frank
Spinoa's scheme for peddling steam at reason
able prices to the deserving poor. Ii Is, it
must be, an unfathomable libel; this umor
that pufa Two such men at variance for such
causes, or would have us believe that either
of them would let go his hold III the great
struggle for Human Liberty at a time when 1t
has just passed through its second greatest
epoch, for mere matter of steam heating or
rapid transit. We feel authorized by the
public records of both these leaders to say
that the rumor is false. We cannot say