Omaha daily bee., 1888-11-04
GEN. NEWTON'S MAD RAGE
He Champions His Friend Hewitt
Against Grants Attacks.
THE FoRoeR eEoELu RePeNTs
The Metropolitan Art Museums FAIL
Observation-Disclosures of the Board
of Trustees Beautiful objects ,
Refused for Personal Spite.
Fighting Madly.

NEW YORK, Oct. 80, 1SSS.-There is
blood in every eye, and there is a
tomahawk in every hand. New York
is now the theatre OF a series of single
combats between leaders of the two
great hosts-Tammny and the county
democracy. 1t is quite Homeric, and
no doubt those who are shouting the war
whoop and hurting the tomahawk cher
ish the fond delusion that victory will
times by the individual proves of lead
ers, not by the steady onset Of nameless
thousands. We know better, and next
Tuesday night will tell the story. We,
who only look on and laugh. are per-
fectly we'll aware that the extraordinary
antics of Hewitt, who is more amusing
than a monkey, and the bellicosity Of
Hlghie Grant, who has got his
Irish we'll up, as the boys
say, will have no effect upon
the ultimate result. This being
so, every one is surprised that General
Newton, who is at the head Of the pub
lie works department, should have
thought it necessary to plunge into the
fray. He was the United States engi-
nee in charge of the important govern
ment work at He'll Gate, and when re-
ired on account OF age according to the
regulations, he was made chief of the pub
lie works department of this city, mainly
through the instances of Mayor Hewitt.
Though a proud, reserved and some
what supercilious gentleman. he be-
came so enraged at Sheriff Grants on
slaught against Hewitt's knownothing-
ism that he descended into the arena
Of newspaper warfare and has been
soundly pummeled. He has done Hew-
lit no %good-he has done Hughie Grant
no harm, and he has succeeded in earn
ing the enmity of the New York World,
which is making a tremendous anvas
against Hewitt. That paper editorially
calls Newton a humbug and a fabricator
of false statements, n brands him as
inefficient.
MENTIONS TELL GATE WORK.
Since the Worlds expose of his inef-
f~iciency as a commissioner Of public
works, men are beginning to talk of
the work he did for the United States in
the improvement of He'll Gate channel.
He had been on that most important
task for very many years, and the first
submarine explosion, that of Hallet' s
cause of its complete success. 1t, how
ever. ameliorated but little the passage
from the East river to the Sound. not
from any shortcoming in General New
toms work, but because it was simply a
preliminary to the real business, the
clearing away OF the Middle reef and
the Niggerheads. General Newton
attempted this four years ago and ut
terly failed, but nj paper "a the
Evening Telegram had the courage to
| say so. The cause of the failure was
principally that he used rock-rend, an
explosive whose powers of resisting
water had not been sufficiently
proved, and secondarily because he had
| out due consideration of the nature OF
| the rock with which he had to deal.
That rock is gneiss. Usually gneiss
may be considered as unstratitied, bu,
in the Middle reef it was practically
sJratified, for there were streaks OF
pure quartz alternating with streaks Of
mica in large scales, n the gneiss lay
between these. l witnessed the explo'
sion and knew it was a failure from the
peculiar water jets. There was a cer-
tain amount of nitro-glycerine used
and this was effective, but it did not
shatter the rock because the lines o.
batteries were parallel with the streaks
of the gneiss, and OF course the gases
streaks of mica. l satisfied myself Of
the truth of this by visiting the reef al
least twenty times. 1 interviewed
General Newton about it, and he stoutly
denied that there was any failure and
said that I had better be careful
in my visits to the reef, for it was liable
to sink down at any moment. That wa
four years ago, and the reef is just a!
visible as ever it was, and all the effec
tive work in the channel has been Dy
surface blasting with dynamite a
tridges, by the Atlantic Dredging com
pany of Brooklyn. BY this slow blu
sure process the Niger Head reef ha,
been removed, and some work has beer
reef, opposite the lunatic asylum OF
Wards Island. That is all. came Il
the conclusion that General Newton
was a humbug, and capable of saylnl
the thing that is not, and am glad to b,
confirmed in my view by the New Yorl
World.
SAGE TILDEN's LIBRARY.
AS it has been decided that Samue
Tilden's will stands good, his benef
cent gift of a library to the city of New
York will probably be carried int
effect mainly by Andrew H. Green
Ordinary men would be swamped b,
suggestions, for great public interes
has been manifested about this Ii
brary, and the papers are lamentinI
that all the public libraries of the cit
have been practical failures and hintinI
that this one will be just like tn
others, the Astor and the Lennox an
the Historical Society and so on. An
drew H. Green is a silent, reserved
conscientious man, who by his honest
and his capacity and his power OF listen
ing had endeared himself to the sage {
Graystone, and if any man knows wha
kind of a public library Sam Tide
meant to give to the city of New Yor
he does. Nothing surprises me NOR
than some journalistic comments l hav
read about the Astor and the Lenno
libraries. There is a belief that tn
public is being wronged, and that thes
libraries ought to be made more popl
lar. This view is given editorially
All this is pure delusion. job
Jacob Aston never gave u popula
library to New York. 1t W,
not his intention. He founde
a reference library for the service
poor scholars, and Of men whose trad
Ia literature To these the Aston lihrar