Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-04-04
NEW YORK NOTES.
What People Are Thinking and Talking
About In the Metropolis.

L
What People Are Thinking and Talking
About In the Metropolis.
| soNE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT DIR. cRosBY-
THE ENERGY AND PLUCK THAT MADE HIN
eREAT-rHE LITTLE WAR CLOUD AND Irs IF
| frcr ON THE ITALIANS OF NEW FORK.
NEW YORK. April 2, 1891.
The death Of DR.. Howard Crosby removes
one OF the few great citizens of New York city.
He was man who was intrinsically great. His
professional relations and attaiuments were
merely incidental. He would have been grea,
civil engineer or great blacksmith or grea,
anything he undertook. have had
occasion to see most Of the leaders in
public life and from that knowledge
can say that had he accepted the nomination to
Congress which once came to him he would
easily have taken rank among the few dozen
great statesmen of his generation. Perhaps in
Congress he would have found even q more
congenial field for certain of his requirements
than in the pulpit. He was q born reformer
and was physically adapted for his work.
He did not lack in gentleness, for. like
30 many Of these very strong men, he could be
as tender as a child, but scarcely ever saw q
man who could be 30 bitter and reckless in his
invective. When he opened his batteries against
the public vices there was always terrible exc
| cutlon. His eye flashed ightnings and his
voice rose to q roar, which reminded the star
tied listeners Of stories we hear Of Mirabeau in
| the French assembly
OF course a man like that had difficulties with
people. who, nevertheless, admired him and
followed Linn. He was looked upon in the
Presbytery as good deal of tyrant and fire.
| brand and very many good people looked quite
| askance at his heretical viewson such subjects
as temperance and politics. Nevertheless,
when he died, one Of the most va
liant soldiers OF Righteousness, and one
OF the wisest and most enlightened, too, laid
down his sword. None Of the pictures do
justice to him, especially when engaged in
pattle. He trimmed his white side whiskers
down low in the jaw, emphazing the logged
0uthnes OF the lower part OF his face. so that
against whom he happened to be laundering.
TEMPERANCE VS.. ABSTINENCE.
DR.. Crosby's attitude on temperance was
perhaps the subject on which he excited most
criticism from those who generally agreed with
him In his point of view. He took the ground
that total abstinence from wine was not bibli-
cal nor under the law of Christian expediency.
ana ne used wine perhaps much on the same
principle as the good old Quaker saint used to
take her knitting out on the veranda on Sun
day. DR.. Crosby's argument supplemented
the familiar one about Christ's making wine.
with the further statement that there were at
that time total abstinence societies in Palestine
and that Christ did not regard it as expedient
Tor Him to abstain for the sake of others,
| vino and drank it, and that therefore, Il
was not matter that fell within the lines of
expediency for His followers nowadays. He
! was, however, Passionately opposed to strong
drink, and he chased the local dealers and the
liquor interest from pillar to post with rod
| haa haa N =,
New York who has given the liquor dealers SO
much trouble, or whom they should be SO glad
| TO hnd cold in death. One of his last efforts
was to organize against the pending liquor bills
| In the legislature, and on the very day of his
funeral received a circular from a society de-
| voted to that purpose where his name ap-
board.
The multiplicity of employments which Dr..
crosby found time for was something amazing.
He had restlessness Of genius which com
PEELED him to take part in whatever interested
society, but be was never a mere meddler
Whatever he did he did with his might He
was one OF the very few men who could be
versatile and still be thorough. For example,
1t may not be generally known that he WAS one
Of the most important leaders during one
epoch OF the fight in the international copy
right agitation; but he was obliged to relinquish
activity there, owing to other demands on his
time, so that he was not prominent in the clos
ing scenes.
tbs GIT Up AND GIT THAT MAKES MEN GREAT.
Most people were much surprised to learn
that DR.. Crosby was only sixty-four years old.
and the universal comment was: "How could
he do so much in that comparatively short
hfeF The answer is easily found if we take
pains to seek it and it carries q valu-
able lesson for every youthful reader
In word, he began young. Nowadays
there is very absurd and costly
tendency in education toward extending
the pupil period into middle life. Let no youth
fai! to lay the truth to heart that he makes his
bed Tor life between twenty and thirty years of
age DR.. Crosby not only got up early in the day.
but he got at work early in life. For example.
he read Greek fuently at six. Not that this
was such a wonderful feat, beause MANY
children al that age can read English. which ia
q much harder language, but it illustrates the
| go-ahead quality of his nature which soon
| showed In all other directions He entered
college at fourteen, was graduated at eighteen.
was Greek professor at twenty-one or very
shortly after, and so rapid was his progress in
theological studies that he was made doctor
OF divinity before he became a pastor. In
short, like Blaine in politics, or Francis A.
Walker In economics or Lowell in poetry and
scholarship and almos. all the other famous
men OF an times. he got up very early in the
playfe.lows were still rubbing the academic
cobwebs out Of their eyes.
NOT VERY BIG WAR CLOUD.
The abrupt action of Minister Fava has made.
| OF course, much talk here, and that peculiar
| idiot who is always on hand to explain how a
foreign feet could anchor off Coney Island and
| lombard New York is reveling in his CUSTOM
airy horrors. The general opinion is that the
Italian ministry have been acting largely for
to the Italians to say that they are actuated
simply by q spirit of bluff I know that