The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-06-26
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
rFRoM OUR REGULAR coRREsPoNDEN
NEW York, June I, 1879.

It seems peculiarly unfortunate that
anything should give fresh start to
Striking" tactics at a period in the
wholesomely gradual recovery Of busi-
ness. when all branches of manufacture
/ ing and mercantile industry must yet
figure upon very small margins Of profit,
/ be the volume Of demand what it may.
/ Manufacturers are shipping TO Europe
now, because at last the costs of native
manufacture aud foreign freightage are
[ low enough to enable them to compete
in prices with foreigners on their own
soil. Capitalists are once more buying
and improving real estate, because
{ building materials and labor are cheap
enough to justify the venture, under
any possible hazard of the immediate
future. II, however, upon these auguries
Of better times skilled labor is to begin
crying at once for a full return to the
scale of wages ruling in the flush times
Of dozen years ago, our dawning pros
perity can be but short-lived. The
trouble seems to be that our working
men, hearing people talk Of the imprOv-
ing aspect of financial affairs, seeing
their employers favored with an access
sion Of trade, and noting that major
ity of their own hitherto unemployed
brethren have found work at last, take
it for granted that they are invidiously
wronged by being compelled yet to
accept rates Of pay established while the
times were hard. They do not realize
that these very rates are the only basis
upon which employers are yet able to
do any business at all, great or small,
and that whatever living profit accrues
to the employer from such basis has
its corresponding practieability Of liveli-
hood for the employed in the reduced
cost Of all the necessaries of life. If
labor can only have the good sense and
patience to wait until, in the due pro-
cess Of appreciating values, a growing
volume Of business means again pro-
portionately enhanced profits therein, it
may easily gain its commensurately
higher pay, without untimely strikes.
In its great contraction from the pro-
portions Of other seasons, the list Of
evening amusements presents few at
fractions for audiences either large or
critical, and they will be yet fewer in
another week. Each additional Sum-
mer now intenslfies the convictions Of
managers and public alike that in the
months of hot weather in New York I.
there is no living for either theatrical
or any other style Of entertainment re-
quiring closed doors. Two or three
houses on the old plan OF Niblo's Garden
might hope for paying gpatronage with |
some such light exhibitions as the in T.
imita6le pantomimic Ravels were wont
TO give; but theaters in the city can no |
longer afford the real estate luxuries Of
garden attachments, and, since the /
Ravel family finally dissolved, there has /.
been discovered no adequate substitute [
for their peculiar Summery character Of
performance. The garden" pure and |
simple, with instrumental music for /
the ears, ices aud iced beverages for the /
mouth, and divers artificial arrange !
ments Of shrubbery, Gagged birds, grav-
eled paths and statuary fountains for
the eyes, is the only existing representa-
tive Of the class Of resorts TO which citi-
zens yet in town can betake themselves
for an evening pastime adapted to a
tropical season. Thus that unsightly
enclosure Of widely varied uses formerly
known as GilmOre's is now greatly
thronged on all clear, warm nights, its
new title Of the Madison Square Gar
den, new DoGworth's Band, new cornet-
player, Liberati, and new dispensations
OF shrubbery, cascade and creams con-
stituting the nearest approach we have
TO the soundingly-named Summer
nights lounging-places Of foreign cities.
At the spacious Twenty-third street
German Music Hall, too, mentioned as
a marked popular success in a former
letter, the attendance is worthy of Ber-
lin or Vienna. The music of both es-
is excellent. Probably in
a few more years the business Of furnish
ing special Summer amusements for
the home bound multitude aud hotel
guests Of the town may be developed to
like metropolitan proper
tions; for there are unquestionably the
patrons in New York for half dozen
resorts of the "garden" order
from June to September.
The six electric lights on the Broad
way side Of the post office, which have
been in use for some time, have been
abandoned, and the clerks
are now compelled to perform their
work by gaslight. The return to the
gaslight is very much objected to by the
clerks, who say the electric lights were
in every respect. The light
is much brighter and pleasanter, and the
air, when the electric lights were in use,
was much clearer and cooler. The rea-
son for the abandonment of the electric
light is said to be that the company
operating the light do not think 1t adj
visable to continue free exhibitions un-
til some decision is made by the Gov
ernment either in favor Of or against
their system. When the Government
advertised for bids for lighting the
building, this company put in bid, and
also introduced several Of their lights
for the purpose OF afiording practical
test Of its efficiency. 4 short time ago
the Secretary of the Treasury sent
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