The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-11-10

- SSSSSAAeH 60
public schools. I don't know that Miss
Walsh was not quite worthy Of her position,
and may have been q very good teacher,
but this do know, that there is hardly an
venue of public preferlnent so difficult CT
;cess as the teacherships in our public
schools, yet Jack Walsh did that single
handed and alone which not one church
congregation in twenty in the city could
do. And so it is with all of the departments.
Our parks were never in such q miserable
plight, yet the outlay on them is four times
what it was when they we're i'll the highest
possible condition. This would be bad
enough if we were poor, but we are not,
We ara rich, Never in the memory OF living
fen5ive display Of wealth. 1t meets you
everywhere. Walk Broadway of an after
noon and dudes pass you by sucking dla-
,nonil-healed canes. They have rings on
every finger of each hand, and here ald
there supa-extra swell will wear ring
upon his thumb. Grand danes sweep by
you laden with wealth like Spanish galleon;
wearing diamonds and jewels that would
be a princes ransom. The lacquey who
blacks the boots of these monied kings is
better housed, eats better food, and wears
better clothes than a school teacher Or a
respectable mechanic.
If you want to see Dives and Lazarus, go
to either of our grand opera houses OF an
41,o 1on
90 to exhibit themselves and to look at
their neighbors, to gable scandal and
criticise the dresses. Not one Ill fifty goes
from the pure love of art, Or who knows
! artistically the difference between pure
gold and Brummagem, but they must go to
the opera. Lazarus stands at the door sur
yeying the dazzling splendor of the toilettes
with lean and hungry eyes; he looks with
envy on the wel-fed hunkey who opens the
carriage door, and well he may, for the
tluukey's coat is the finest of beaver cloth;
it costs his master $50: his hat is the CLOS
siest of silk surrounded by a band of gold;
his boots are SIS q pair; collar of the
finest otter keeps the wind from his wor-
ships neck, and the otter gauntlets on his
delicate hands are S25 pair. Is it pos
sible that this gorgeous individual Is only
a turnkey? That's all. Yet Solomon III all
his GLORY was not arrayed like unto him.
| No wonder there is discomfort, when the
starving wretches that gather around the
| door and sliyer in the cold know and feel
| that the $40, 900 which is paid by our money
| kings and queens for their pleasures each
| ooera night is Wrung from their sweat and
| blood, for it is the millions Of the poor who
| pay the opera bills, though they die without
| ever hearing a note of fine music, Or get
ting a look at the inside of an opera house.
The tax budget of 1883 is "a 600, 600, or
| about 800 Il head for every man, woman
and child in the city of New York. With
army and navy and diplomatic corps, with
hundreds of millions of pensions and in
terest to pay, a sinking fund to provide for,
16O, ,OCO, 900 legislative and judicial expen-
ses. and many millions Tor incidentals, yet
the tax imposed by the general government
amounts this year to less than S3 head,
and counting al, received from customs as
tax. not sc head. Yet they pay of the
national debt $150,OOO,0OO. 1t may need
revolution to get rid of the army Of harpiess
who are fastened on the city's throat, and
if it would only rid us Of the entire pack,
| fire, revolution, pest1lenCe, Or anything else
would be welcome.
| We are now in the midst of great dis
aDr ointment. Notwithstanding the BAL
looming that has been given Matthew ar
mold and Mr.. Irving, they both fell as fiat
as stale beer. Every distinguished foreign
er who comes to this country seems to be
seized with the cucoethes lOquenti. They do
not seem to realize that it is one thing to
sneak s we'll ana another to write we'll Lord
Coleridge could express himself like gen
tleman and scholar, out Sergeant Ballyn-
tine made regular mess Of it on the plat
form, and so did Matthew Arnold. His
matter, no doubt, was very elegant and
scholarly, but nobody could hear him TWEEN,
ty feet away, and the cries OF " Louder!
louder! we can't hear YOU" failed to move
scat he likes to get something for his mon
ey. Arnold's audience did not get it. Hen
nv Irving is another superintendent
to me, however, for I saw him i'll his own
theater in London, and if not an exceeding
ly bad actor, he seemed to me very far from
being good one. How an actor with his
offensive mannerisms ever captured the
British public is mystery. Compared with
Macready, Keene, Vandenhoff, Young or
James Anderson it would be difficult to
place him. He is not as good an actor as
| Barry Sullivan or Dibden Pitt, or many
others I could name, who within the last
thirty years have only occupied second Or
third-class position on the English stage.
l will not compare HIM to any American
peiAA''S@A NN~NJ
be offensive, but tried by the high stand
ard of dramatic art, which has been the
model for the English stage from Garrlck' S
time TO the present, Henry Irving IS the
smallest great actor that England has yet
produced. AS an artist deeply studied III
all the technique and tradition OF the stage,
as a polished, kind d-hearted gentlem an,
who extended q generous welcome to Amer
lean artists for many years past, ana as
man who has done more to elevate his pro-
fession than any man, living or dead, lien
ry Irving stands sans peur OF sails reproche.
Whatever may be the opinion O. his acting,
he has the wealth and fashion of New YORK
at his back, and after his return to A b on
Isle, as he counts his bags OF golden ei.s les,
he will have little accession to regret his
visit to Yankee land, though the critics
may not esteem him the greatest actor Ill
the world. j.,
Art circles are stirred to the center by the
libel suit now being tried between General
Cesnola, OF Cyprean fame, and MIR. Feuer-
dent, the celebrated European vlrtuoso,
The story is told i'll Il nutshell. General
de Cesnola Is the chief moving spirit Ill our
new mus. un of art, and Is deslrou5 OF
handing down his name TO pOsterity along
side of Sir Hans Sloan and other like ben
efactors of the human race. He has made
at considerable cost, quite q collection OF
statua;y and curios, and Ill the meantime
General Cesnola has not been neglected
A tirst-cass patriot, and an araent lover
, of his adopted country, he has nevertheless
contrived to get an enormous price for {
lot of old stuff, which, ii it were not Labeled
~ uS-Z, 1861 years old, you woulc
shoy g! it 1t OF your back yard. Mr. Feuer
dent thinks General de Cesnola q hunbug
and is not afraid to say so. Tie declares
, that numbers Of the statues, palmed off a:
ori yinals are nothing at all but bogus 1m1
tat1ons, and declares that General de Ces
nola, with a wilful intent TO deceive, lik'
| the heathen Chinee, i'll the secret recesse
of his laboratory has added arms and leg