The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-12-22
OUR LETTER FROM eRoADBRlm.

OUR LETTER FROM BROADBRlM.
A Building Boom -Tilden's Noble Benefsc-
ness-Infiux OF fTramps- Batch of Grim
inal Items, Etc.
New YORK, December Is, 1883.
EDITOR CHIEF:
The winter opens with little improve
ment on past year, except in the matter of
building, on which New York and our sis
ter city Brooklyn appear to have gone mad.
Hor ses are going up everywhere, not poor,
cheap tenements, but costly palaces, fit for
the abode of kings, loaded with all that ex-
travagant wealth can bestow. There are
thousands of men here with very long purses
whose only chance to perpetuate their
names is to do it in brick and mortar. They
have never done any good thing. in all their
lives, charity knows them not, their hearts
are as hard as stone, as sere and dry; but
they can't bear the idea that their names
should be unknown, so they erect q build
ing; they fill it with costly Offices, elevators,
and every modern convenience, ssand they
call it after themselves. Twenty or thirty
years hence who will care for them? Let
their names and themselves perish. No
matter, posterity loses nothing.
Only few months ago curious New York
was busying itself with the affairs of Mr..
Tilden, Mr.. Tilden had cheat I'D the govern
ment; Mr.. Tilden had connived at faudu-
lent dispatches; Mr.. Tilden had used his
millions to corrupt the voters of the United
States to steal the Presidency. All this
about citizen who has lived here all his
life, and who was elected to the Governship
of the State by majority unprecedented
previous to the phenomenal election of Gov
ernor Cleveland. Suddenly we discovered
that he was remodeling his house in Gram
ercy Park, in the most costly manner; thou
sands and thousan ds of dollars were being
fool is in his dotage, instead of fixing up
h:s house he ought to be thinking of his
prayers. 1t was not enough that we had
abused him in every conceivable way, that
we had exhausted our vocabulary in calling
him names; after he had publicly announced
his abandonment of politics, we were not
satisfied to let him attend to his own busi-
ness, we wanted to manage it for him.
Everybody kept inquiring; "What is the
old fool going to do with all his money!"
If ever man had his revenge on COM
munity, it was. Samuel j. Tilden. While
some industrious citizens we're circulating
all sorts o. evil reports of him and heaping
imprecations on his name, the old man,
unmoved by their praise or blame, was pre-
pairing such bequest for the city Of New
York as has had but one rival in the pres
ent generation, the glorious monument left
by Peter Cooper. John Jacob Astor and
one of his sons have given New York IL
brary, costly building filled with costly
books, but to enter its portals, if you
chance to be poor, is very much like enter
ing tomb. For matter of that, nobody
cares much for the poor any where, but in
the Astor Library is a lot of snobs and place.
men; they are not accountable to the pub.
bic, they owe the public nothing, they hold
the tenure of their places by the favor of
the governing committee, whose sons, whose
cousins and poor relatives they are. Schol-
ars, clergymen, lawyers and men of like ilk
if not welcome are at least tolerated, but
God help the poor. The Astor Library is
not for them. The late Robert Lennox left
library to the city, and then locked it up
in a sort of marble mausoleum up by Cen
trail Park, placing such restrictions around
it that it might just as well have been en-
closed in the Pyramid of Cheops. The doors
are locked and the cases are locked, and it
looks now as if they intended TO keep them
locked till the day of judgment.
Samuel J. Tilden took different view of
affairs from either Mr.. Lennox or Mr.. AS
tor: hetook leaf from Peter Cooper's note
book. The costly mansion on Gramercy
Park. and all of its wonderful art treasures
and books, are a gift that the poor Of the
city are to enjoy by his munifcence for
ever. The millions he has made in fortunate
business ventures, he gives alike to those
who maligned him and those who blessed
him; he makes no difference, his gift to
the poor is free as the air. It will not be