The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-08-26
THE NEW YORK DISASTER.


The cursed thirst for gold never had
more frightful illustration Of recent years
than is furnished by the fall of the rotten
building in New York city, which cost
some fifty persons their lives. One Buden-
seick was sent to Sing Sing few years
ago for erecting buildings with brick walls
of insufficient thickness, in gross violation
of the law. These paper walls fell and
crushed the poor wretches TO death who
were at work under them. Popular
Indignation ran so high that Bud
enseick narrowly escaped lynching,
and many man has been lynched
for less crime. Rosenfeld, the owner Of
the buildings whose fall has killed so many
people, is reported TO be in hiding. In the
island of Martinique. French West Indies,
an earthquake and hurricane has just
destroyed some go persons out of 10000
in an area of 351 square miles, calamity
that could not be prevented, but here in
the area of single building a fifth as
many persons are destroyed by calam-
ity for which the base, criminal avarice
of the owner was entirely responsible.
The morbid passion for money, which
persuades man to imperil the lives OF
his fellow creatures in order that a
wretched death-trap may be made to de-
clare an extravagant dividend, is one of
the most degrading spectacles of human
nature. A man who, for the sake of few
dollars, will construct a death-trap and
rent it as human dwelling would be
capable of highway robbery or murder to
get money, if he had courage equal to his
inhuman greed and cruel selfshness. The
of such dwelling houses and a cut-throat
who kills you simply for your money is
merely temperamental.
A hardy, bold villain who loves money
will take your life to get your purse, while
q more timid, shrinking villain who loves
money will build death-trap for a song,
rent it to his fellow creatures at high
price, and then when his house of cards
falls and brushes the life out of his tenants
as completely as he might crush a cock
roach, this murderous miser goes into
hiding until 1t is safe for him to plead the
baby act for his crime by shedding
hypocritical tears over the ruins of his
rotten tenement that has become the tomb
of his poor tenants. This Rosenfield
ought to be followed all his life, if he
escapes prison, by the daily public re-
proaches and scorn of his fellow-men, even
as Whittier represents the fisher
women of Marblehead following
Skipper Ireson with tongues of
flame because he sailed away. from a
rival fishing smack that was laundering
and let its crew drown. The Yankee skip
per's life became such a burden to him
that even the bereaved fish wives were
silent and ceased to prosecute him, when
they heard him confess that the spectre of
that sinking ship, with its crew of scream
ing, sobbing, imploring wretches, was be-
fore his eyes day and night. "God has
punished him; why should WEI" said the
women, but every cruel man is not as
sensitive as Skipper Ireson; the majority
see no spectres, hear no cries of disem-
bodied victims, if they only escape the law;
SO let Us hope that if Rosenfeld escapes
the law that public opinion will organize
a moral and social boycott against him SO
complete that, no matter where he goes,
he will feel it wrapping him round about
like the suifocating and repulsive folds of
o great snake.
Such men when they escape the law
ought to feel the vengeance of public opin-
ion from the top TO the bottom of society
80 that they will be compelled to dwell
among social exiles; among the outcasts
and moral lepers of civilization. The am
bition to become rich is commendable, but
TO love gold for its own sake so much
that you are willing to cement the stones
of your rising fortune with the hearts
blood of human beings, sacrificed to your
murderous, criminal avarice, is to become
fiend incarnate.
The moral insanity and moral imbecility
that seems to sometimes attack men
afflicted with the cursed thirst for gold is
one Of the most frightfully repulsive spec
tacles in human nature: it is thrift,
economy and healthy acquisitiveness run
stark, staring mad through lack of discip-
line and moral restraint