The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-03-13
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.

turned 10 W asnlnHtoui but the invest y ga-
tion is not vet ended Enough is known,
however, TO enable those who have fol-
lowed the testimony to form very sat
isfactorv conclusion as to the effect of a
marvellous testimony that has been
taken in this city. There is bat one
+ conclusion in Republican circles here,
which is that nobody believes the testi-
mouy of Tilden or any Of the coparcen-
ers, who have been so busy in swearing
I to each others ignorance and innocence,
while Tilden's defense, that Of ignorance
or mental paralysis, is regarded rs the
meauest Of all. No one believes that
the man who forced himself uIbu bis
party, who purchased public sentiment,
who bought up opposition aud hired adj
vocacy, whose presidential campaign
was strictly personal, and who attended
to the minutest details of the campaign,
greatly to the disgust OF the party man
ayers, forgot all his cOrruptions, craft
and cunning on the night OF November
5th, and retired 10 his chamber as an in
nocent imbecile, who knew nothing Of
the campaign OF cash aud craft that was
being managed by the inmates of his
own household, who had also been his
most potent agents throughout the pres
idential campaign. One Of the most
conspicuous and attentive listeners pres
eut a: the investigation Saturday was
Whitelaw Reid. He is tall, dark
skinned, rather large-boned, and thin
man, without much color, but sensibil-
ity in every line Of his nostrils, concave
contour, and smoulderiug eyes He
looks like one who felt appreciated, re-
seuted, aud was easily indignant, even
on impersonal things, but was proud Of
opinion Of the world, though he would
not ask for il. The path of talent is
lonely, even though one has social pro-
peusities, as AIr. Reid has. In the care
less life aud haLits Of newspapsr writers,
few Of them pay enough attention 10 in
door society. Mr. Reid always seemed
to me to divide his time into three parts,
one for writing, one for society, one for
business. He therefore grew equally
not the tagged hack nor the wasteful
Bohemian nor yet the mere beau OF the
boud0ir, but moderately rich in letters,
in friends, and i'm affairs. His eve was
single to two things, financial independ-
ence and career. He has never married.
though he has been capital son and
brother. The original elements Of his
character were rather hard and positive,
but time and satisfaction are softening
them. Most young men in the press
hold mankind TO too rigid an accounta-
bility, aud expect an ideal politics aud no
public motive less than lofty. Happy il
that journalist who, beginning too high,
falls not into misanthropy nor abuses
his independence, but learns at last that,
diamond though he is, the world will
polish him or grind him. As the truest
relief Of the skeptic is the church, 80 the
knights must yield TO a system. Party
life is the only true field of political use
fulnsss. Mr.. Greeley lived and wrote
his best, creating the Republican party;
the time he spent i'm destroying it was
ruiuous TO his paper, his friends aud his
health of mind. Out Of the wreck Of his
great property his young successor has
extracted popular Republican journal
again.. creative in its purposes, enter
prising in the news. The place for in
dependence is within party, not like
detached private railing at the instinct
Of organization itself
a New Orleans Sunday in New York
IS just what the sportively Inclined have
long desired; and the entering wedges
having been put in the shape Of "sacred
concerts" behold, Harry Hill, the wick
edest man in Gotham, gives a sacred
concert at his dauce-house on Sunday
night, in opposition to the one at the
Grand Opera House. While the clyus
aaiH1an pealed forth at one, the gay
and seductive music of Odenbach was
fiddled aud footed at the other. There
were about four hundred people who
came in by the ladies' entrance, the front
being demurely closed and blinds put up,
with a most Methodistical air Of SUNDAY
propriety. Harry himselfsat with A glass
OF beer ia his hand, cigar in his mouth
and his chair tilted back, while the rak.
ish set Of his stove-pipe hat gave most
un-Sunday-like look to his "toot-in-
semble." The bearing of the audience
generally was more quiet and dignified.
but singers and hearers INDUCED in
unanimous wink when fair svipb an.
swered an encore with ahymn and an
unmistakable sense Of a joke on the sa-
cred day, or rather night, pervaded the
assembly. At times nice young man
asked the pretty bar-maid il Miss Mollie
or Miss Sarah had been i'm, and was an
swered by an encouraging promise and a
consolatory admouition, 'nOtto fret" A
colored.troupe Of jubilee singers gave a
plantation darkey hymn very melodi-
ously, with the refrain, "Didn't old Pha-
roah get lostin the Red Sea9"-derisive-
ly by the chorus, Didn't old Pharoah get
lost, j." etc. And this was a sacred con-
cert. Let ~ seek week day aud sun
light for something comparatively Sab
bath-like.
As Gotham improves in wiekedness,
the divine truth is dispensed in various
advanced methods; but the best is to suit
the church to the world, instead Of try