The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-05-27
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.

Monster Meeting-The Masses and tn,
New Gospel-A Row Among the Saints
The Brooklyn Sundays schools and til,
May Festival-A Relic of the Dark A ees-
How tiae Democracy was Reorsanized in
Brooklyn, Etc.
NEW YORK, April %, 1882.
EDITOR CHEF:
The Academy of Music, at the corner
OF Fourteenth street and Irving place, is
one Of the largest in New York. It will
comfortably accommodate between three
and four thousand people, and except on
Grand Opera nights is very rarely full.
Many brilliant audiences have been
gathered beneath its roof, and some Of
the most notable receptions of moder,,
times have taken place there. Here san
That Immortal 1nartette-Parepa Rosa,
Adelaide Phillips, Santley and Wachtell
the like of which this generation will
scarcely hear again. Nilsson and Gerster
achieved their greatest triumphs here,
and here too at the present time the gal
liant Colonel Mapleson, of hor Majesty's
contingent, rules her Majesty's opera by
divine right. But of the many brilliant
audiences. gathered beneath its historic
roof, there has not been one that sur
passed the audience of Sunday last.
Long before the doors were opened the
street was thronged with people; car
rlages lined the way from Union Square
to Third avenue, and it required a
platoon Of police to maintain anything
like decent order. This was not the first
appearance of Robert Ingersoll in New
York, neither was the subject lcctured
OH new, for it is quite immaterial whetl-
er the lecture is "Wooden Gods" or
"What Shall Do to be Saved" or "An
Answer to Talmage." The same line of
argument runs through it all, the same
funny stories eniiven their illustration
and the same eloquent peorations to
Liberty, reason and advanced thought
bring down the house with thunders of
applause, till every individual, from the
gallery to the parquette, imagines him
self a Darwin, Huxley, or Tyndan.
Any one who had not time to attend the
lecture could purchase it for ten cents
on any of the book stands, and yet, not
withstanding this fact hundreds of peo-
pie were turned away disappointed, aud
choice seats in the house ranged at a
premium of two and three dollars apiece.
On the same Sabbath morning the major
ity Of the fashionable churches in the
city were only half full, and the few
worshippers that We're in them fell
asleep during the sermon. But Mr.. Inger-
soils audience were wide awake to the
close, and as lie wound up with one of
his most thrilling sweeps of eloquence,
his audience, like Oliver with his pud-
ding, kept crying for more. Do not
think for a moment that his audience
was composed of wild shriekers after in
tellectual freedom, or crazy icouoclasts
eager to destroy and pull down every
monument that has claimed the rever-
once Of past ages, for they were nothing
of the sort; but clear headed, thought
full, respectable, orderly people as could
be found in any church congregation in
the city. 1t may he a harsh thing to
nsv Inf f1,n o1,nro1,oc
spopsible for this state of things, and if
the men and women WHO once filled their
pews have now deserted them, and pay
a dollar and half to hear Col Ingersoll,
they've 10 one but themselves to blame.
The petty squabbles between members
Of the same denomination, are scandal
and reproach to the church; and it is
Therefore not surprising that Colonel In
gersoll is greeted with applause that
makes the welkin ring when he asks the
very pertinent question, "What shall
do to be saved 2"
Brooklyn, the City of Churches, re-
joices in a Snnday-school Union which
each year has sort of May festival,
when tho children to tha number of
thirty or forty thousand, turn out i'll the
sweetest Of the spring time to enjoy the
sunshine and flowers at May feast
Brooklyn is proud of its Sunday schools
and of its scholars, and the day set apart
for the festival is a red letter day in that
goodly city. Garlands of flowers deck
the way, music and perfume fill the air,
flags fly from every house that can raise
bit of bunting, and that family must
lie poor indeed which can not contribute
something to that joyful holiday. For
one day in the year the poorest child in
the city is made glad, and it would seem
as though even wild savage would be
melted to kindly thoughts by their inno-
cent happiness. But last week con-
vention was held to arrange for the fete,
when one of the most disgraceful scenes
occurred that has ever taken place in
that much disgraced city. One narrow
minded bigot stood up and declared that
he was an Evangelical Christian-an
Evangelical Christian! and he wanted
that distinctly understood; and further
more, he wanted the convention to also
understand that none but Evangelical
children would be allowed to walk in
that Sunday school procession if he
could help it, and he also wished it to