The daily critic., 1890-05-31


tits within two months of five wear.
since the city of New York, by char
acterstic game of bluff and assurance.
perpetmted the most stupendous piece
OF body snatching on record, in seoues.
tratinG 10 It's own uses and anticipated
emoIument the mortal remains Of Gen
eral Grant Before the wasted body Of
the great leader was fairly cold in the
cottage on Mount NIcGregor such munif.
cent promises Of monumental fulfil.
meut had been advanced by the
plutocratic metropolis on the Harlem
that the iuster claims of the Capital by
the Potomac were quite overslaughed
and set aside Now, after the lapse Of
a futile and frui,less lustrum, multi
millioped New York by her Dr0ctsin
ami Mr. Roswell p. Flower, comes
whining into court with a plea for as
sistance as urgent as It is contemplate.
In other words, after all her marnilo.
quent promises, followed by an equally
pismirish performance, the great, rich,
penurious city crawls, hat in hand, to
the back door Of Congress, begging for
S250,O00 or any other Crumb or uncon-
sideNd trifle that may fall from the
Nations table. In conscience's name,
then, and in the language of Rip Van
Winkle, let us give the beggar o cold
potato and show him the door.
1t will be remembered that when the
people Of France, not the great aud
rich, but the peasant and artisan, from
his hard and scanty savings, had given
to this self same city a monument as i'm
pressive in artistic execution as il was
touching and beautiful in sentiment and
conception, il lay long in bond or
hoe" OF whatother disgraceful limbo,
because that city was too poor, forsooth,
TO afford IL a beftting pedestal. At
last. by the persistent drumming of
newspaper. which its rivals delight to
decry as a gift enterprise" sheet,
enough enterprise was evoked to en-.
able the country TO accept the gift
There on Liberty Island It stands
monument alike to the generosity Of the
poor 0Uryier of France and the iuefra.
ble meanness Of the millionaires'of New
York.
The same disgraceful history D,Utlt0
a0D'iHe, may be recitcd of the me-
mortal arch which, with such flourish
of gilded, but brazen, trumpets, was an
nounced TO be erected ia Washington
Square It's history that repeats it
self with monotonous disgustfuluess
in the annals Of our boastful, but ever
frugal Gotham.
In the meantime, the little capital of
a city whose aggregate wealth
would be but as a forgotten penny Ia
the castoH trousers of New York-a
city rayished and impoverished by war
and slowly recovering from the blight
that devasted the entire south-Rich-
mond which already possessed the finest
group of heroic statuary in the country
in its monument to Washington, has
quietly, but effectively, secured the
second finest in It's splendid memorial
TO Lee
We trust shat this $3.50, 900 Flower Of
local aoqulsitiveness which has sprung
to life on the calendar Of the House
may not be Of the variety that blooms
In the spring, with ira la" or other.
wise, but rather of that other sort which
Is said to be born TO blush unseen aud
waste It's sweetness on the desert air Of |
a committee room. If Congress Is ap-
propriating money for a Grant monu-
ment at the present session, let Il be
the 100000 for a proper memorial at
the National Capital already provided
for in bin before the Senate, and not
the scheme Of injudicious charity so
proposed to the astonished |
House.