Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-03-27
THE DAILY RECORD-UNI0N.
MANHATTANISMS.
MARCH HAPPENINGS IN NEW YORK
AN ANNUAL NUISANCE.
An Archbishop's Debt -Drou Reminis-
cences Of Horace Greeley The
Rector Of Trinity as Butt.
NEW YORK. March II, 1880


than it has for many 18th of March (; it
knows that, for this occasion only, it is to
be relieved of the yearly nuisance, the
municipal infection, the periodic tumul'
occasioned by the usual parade of scores of
Irish societies to commemorate St. Pat
ricks Day. In consequence of the famine
at home, the Milesian managers have de-
cided to intermit the grand procession
which for the last forty or fifty years has
taken entire possession OF the town, stop
ping trade and locomotion and turning the
public thoroughfares into crush and con-
fusion of the most turbulent elements in
the community. This is bad enough ;
but in addition to surrendering the city to
AN IRISH MOB,
We have invariably had any quantity of
drunkenness, brawling and fighting, often
ending in riots throughout the day and ex-
tending far into the night. Ordinarily, no
educated American woman ventures out on
st. Patrick's Day, and even strict law
abiding citizens deem it prudent to put a
pistol ia their pocket to protect themselves
from assaults likely to be made by Celts
maddened with spurious patriotism and
abominable whisky. | do not think that
any New Yorker can recall anything ap-
preaching peaceable 18th of March. The
average Irishman's idea of celebration of
any sort is unlimited poteen, destruction
of property and miscellaneous cracking of
crowns. He is particularly of this mind
when he wants to honor st. Patrick, who
was Scotchman, and who, according to
some authorities, never set foot IN Ireland.
The police, many of them natives of the
Green-very green-Isle, always look upon
this day as soldiers look upon the eve of
battle, and with entire fitness, since they
are very apt to have more fighting than
the greediest of them have stomach for.
The scenes of this day have usually been
disgraceful in the extreme, and a general
row is as much expected as cold weather is
expected in winter, and expectation has
never been disappointed. Under the cir
cumstances, you can easily see why we re-
ioice to be spared the celebration this year,
or any year. If the leaders of the Irish
had any intelligence or discretion, they
would
GIVE UP THE PARADE ALTOGETHER,
For it is an unmitigable nuisance, and does
much to create prejudice against the noble
Celtic race on the part of the native popu-
lation. 1t is supremely irritating to an
American to think that the commercial
capital of the country should be abused
every twelvemonth by the worst class OF
foreigners as neither he nor his compatriots
would ever think of abusing it. We New
Workers have very few rights that the Irish
feel disposed to respect on st. Patrick
Day we have no rights at all, and do not
pretend to have any. Still, things are not
so bad as they used to be, when, for exam
ple. Tweed & Co. ruled the city through
the Irish mob, and when Oakley Hall as
Mayor was in the habit of reviewing his
vote-early- land constituents at the
CITY Hall, clad in the greenness which
symbolizes their nation. The world does
move, and it may be that New York moves
with it. Let us hope that the time may
come when st. Patricks Day shall be no
longer celebrated with drunkenness, tu-
multi and riot, which is only another way
of saving that it shall not be celebrated at
all. l am one of the Manhattanese who
cherish the rank heresy that my city does
not naturally, necessarily, absolutely and
eternally belong to the Irish Ii l wanted
any Office, mis- ht be afraid to say as much !;
but l want no office, thank the gods in
this new and worse Dublin of the Western
Hemisphere Speaking of the Irish re-
minds me of
THE ENORMOUS DEBT OF ARCHBISHOP
PURCELL,
OF Cincinnati, now physical and mental
wreck, and whose death may be expected
any day. 1 have just had a talk with a
Cincinnatian, who has given me some
fresh information on this distressing bust
ness. The debt of the Archbishop, or,
properly speaking, of his brother, Rev.
Edward Purcell the Archbishop has
not, and never has had, any conception Of
business continues to increase in geomet-
rical ratio, which is to the creditors posi-
lively appalling. 1t really seems as if it
had no limit. At first it was put at $780,
900; then at $500, 900; then at 81, OOO,-
900; next at 81, 900, and it has in
creased steadily until it IS now estl-
mated at over 100000 900, some persons
believing it 100000 or 5000, OOO
At this rate it would not be long
before a large part of Cincinnati would
had to be sold to discharge the enormous
obligations of the Archiepiscopate. Rev.
Edward Purcell has been receiving money,
it is now reported, from any and all Gath
-olics, in any amount from So to 50, 600, for
fully forty years. He has had the reputa-
ton of an excellent business man, having
quite as many secular as clerical functions ;
and as an assurance of his business talent,
the latest story is that he has never kept
anv accounts. This seems altogether In
credible. How any sane person, presumlng
him to be honest, could have millions OF
other peoples money intrusted to him,
and yet preserve no record of his trans
actions, is scarcely to be entertained.
Still, the declaration made by him, some
months since, that he did not probably
owe over $500, 900, would indicate an ig-
norance or carelessness about his affairs
little less than criminal, especially when
it is remembered that the bulk of
the money is, or was, due-for,
plainly, it no longer exists-to the labor
ing poor. The sole exploitation is that Rev.
Edward Purcell had had the funds so long
that he had come to regard them as his
own, having no clear idea that they would
ever be called for. As he is man of 66
or more, it is not easy to see how he could
expect, in the ordinary course of nature,
to live a great while longer, and in what
shape he could expect to leave his immense
business after death. He would seem to
have been playing for years most desper-
ate game, and it is very hard to imagine
how any man of intelligence and integrity
could do what he has done. Inasmuch as
he paid the Interest," per cent.-when
called for, he could not have realized that
the principal belonged to the Woodworking
thousands who had placed it with entire
confidence in his totally irresponsible
hands. Likely enough he con,
sidered the money as the property
of the church. 1t is asserted in Cincin.
natl that he has always used it as if it were