The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-06-16
OUR LETTER FROM BRoADBRlM.

Retrospect-The Bicyclelsts' Parade
Grafton Day and the Brooklyn Bridge
| Horror.
New YORK. May 1a, 1883.
EDITOR CHIEF:
We are now in the year of grace 1883, and
| it may not be Improbable just at this time
| to look over the last decade, and if possible,
| indulge in little lf-glorifcation at what
we have accomplished. s-es-4-
| 1t is ten years ago since the Tweed ring
| met its Bete Noir-when the thieves scat
tered east, west, north and south, and from
that day to this they have been pointed at
as terrible moral, and occasionally they
have been made to adorn an interesting tale.
During these years in the course of my cor
respondence, have frequently indulged in
bursts of virtuous indignation whenever 1
spoke of the Ringsters, and on calm re-
view of the past ten years I am pretty we'll
satisfied that the era of Tweed and Sweeney
and Connolly was really New York's pure
and Golden Age, to which we may look
back with longing eyes, but the like of
which we may not hope to see again. Look
at the figures. The tax levy on the city's
Budget, under the ring thieves never reached
twenty-six million of dollars; and let us see
what we got for our money. Our magnif-
cent Park was finished by them, and even
in their death throes they went on with the
work, and they left it in a condition which
has not been equalled from that day to this.
They paved Broadway from the Battery to
Fourteenth street, and they did the work SO
we'll, that it is the only street in New York
which has not been repaved for ten years.
With persecution and prosecution above
and around them, and with ruin staring
them in the face, they went on and finished
the Battery improvement, which had been
an unsightly and disgusting ruin for years,
and made it what it ought to be-the most
beautiful place on Manhattan Island. They
paved the City Hall Park, and that pave
ment remains good to-day. They built the
New City Hall; and though the bills were
paid ten times over, it was still a more
economical work than any conducted by
the city to-day. Here are the facts. With
all these magnificent improvements, the
tax levy, as said, never reached twenty-six
millions. For several years past, under a
reform government, which gives US nothing,
which has added no great public work to
the city's wealth-the tax Budget has been
over thirty millions. "But," you say, "you
have increased your population "Yes, we
have, about one hundred and sixty thou
sand; but we have increased our taxes
nearly six millions" Mr.. Hewett, in the
course of the Bridge oration, the other day,
revived the memory of the Ring thieves;
yet he was giving us brief history of that
mighty structure, and notwithstanding the
fact that it cost two dollars for one of the
ali right, and that not penny had been
squandered. If the effect of honest and
economical government is to double our
taxes, then give US another reign of the
Ring thieves. If any remain in exile, call
them back; those that have served their
terms in State prison, elect them to our
city councils. At the present time they will
find nothing there as good as themselves.
1t may not be popular Or fashionable, but
it is just and true, that the Ring thieves who
stole thirty millions of the peoples money,
and who made their names infamous for
all time, gave us better, a more econom-
ioal, and purer government, than any
which has cursed us since. There is high
handed robbery and peculation in every de-
partment of the city government: it is rot
ten at the core, and nothing but fire Or an
earthquake will cure it. And that brings to
mind that this week an old-time Tammany