New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-11-21
rHE MISERY or nUD.

Mr. Hoyoakc in the course of his excellent break
fast speech last Tuesday read letter to himself
from Mr.. Rusln, in which the critic spoke of The
Capitalization of Thames mud" The phrase was
used to express the impossible and our guest
might have strengthened the comparison, II his
civllity had permitted by an allusion to New-iork
mud. Flash TOBY Crackit. IN Oliver Twist" con-
sldered it among the desagr mems of Punishment
from London to the country, that. Notwithstanding
the badness of the walking. be couldn't get bis
Butchers properly BACKED. So far the FURNISHED
boot is concerned, we might all well be in some
rural district with stiff, clayey soil; 1t Is only the
little polshers at the corners who make heaps of
money out of the pasty payements. The
mire, for some time past las been such
that care has been in vain. anu the
splash inevitable. 1t is all very well to talk OF
picking ones way; but what is the use of that when
there is no clean place to chOosei The most eau
tous Is almost mudlark before lac knows 1t. and
the very opposite of the skyark IN the melody of his
expressions. A man of scientific turn as he looks
down upon the mixture under his feet, naturally
wonders what analysis would show Its cOmpOnents
to be- if analysis possible. Millions of materi-
ais must 20 it, for it is vegetable aud mineral
cabbaeestalks, ashes lime. earth and what not, in
a vehicle OF rain water
This sweet coating has so long been spread over
slipped and waded over it. that it has become to us
a thing OF CUSTOM like his desert sands Arab,
or his oozy canal to a Dutchman. We think OF the
mud lakes which travellers tell exist in Africa
of the mud-cure devised by some High-German
Escuapius of the essays and poems of some of our
friends of the obligations of the human race TO
the man who invented doOr-mats; of the cOnclud-
ing stanzas of THE Dunciad )" of that tremendously
clean town in Holland. in which there has not been
speck of dust dirt for centuries; of GAYS TRIVIA
aud Of that condition of our globe described
by the cosmogonisis where many horrible creature
with many legs and miles of tail ana a sesqupeda-
Ian Latin name, crawled through the pre-Adamite
pudding. which bubbled and bllstered and opened
before HIM and closed behind MIN. a. he made his
slow way. And finally, who has not thought toll
ing musingly and muddy through our side streets
of Dr. Stop and Obadiah meeting, and thanked his
stars that runaway vehicle sent him sprawling
into the brown smother beneath him.
Yesterday it was mud, to-day it may be dust or
dried mud pulverlzed. covering our garments until
like milers, penetrating our eyes and
mouths and nostrils, and reminding more fOTcby
than pleasantly of what we are and 10 what we
shall return or seem to have returned already. II
one were allowed a choice of these dis
comforts would he. If wise, take the dry
ono OF moist one The last may be
scraped from our boots-'tis surface evl-a little
Lee or Bxby. with five cents worth OF elbow work.
makes all right again; but the dust us to
cry literally, and half blinds u.s. and enters in at
month and nostril and goes everywhere where it
ought not to 20. 1t is hard To be cheerful about
THESE annoyancts when. as we are constantly told,
they are quite needless. 1t is OF incompe-
tency, 1t is said of official negligence; of immense
and unprecedented skill and ingenuity in not dong
it. Our best street scavengers, it would seem. are
tie wind which dries IN concert with the blessed
sun. and the rain which sometimes washes the
city's face. Nature has nothing to do with poll
tics. She is her own Commissioner and Bureau and
Board Fortunately, we cannot remove her, nor
quite put Injunction upon her. Ours is a
city 50 situated that it is impossible entirely to
spoil IT. For winch, as we walk in infinite discom-
fort let us be thankful