Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1892-06-07
NEW YORK ROASTED.
RuDyARp kiPLlNo'S SARCASTIC DE-
scRIpTloN OF THE CITY.
Gotham's Dreadful Streets and Corrupt
Govcrnment---yts Mixed Stinks"-
A Contrast with Sc. Paul.

versed. and for that reason we fingered IN
New York till the city felt 80 homeike that
IL seemed wrong to leave II. And further,
the more one studied it the more gro
tesquely bad it grew-bad in its paving.
bad in its streets, bad in its street-pclice,
and but for the kindness of the tides.
would be worse than bad in its sanitary
arrangements. No one as yet has approach
ed the management Of New York In q
proper spirit; that IS to say. regard.
ing 1T rs the shiftless outcome OF
squalid barbarism and reckless extraya-
eance. No one is likely to do so. be-
cause reflections on the long, narrow pig
trough are construed as maleyolent At
tacks against the spirit and majesty OF the
great American people. and lead to angry
comparisons. Yet, If all the streets OF
London were permanently up and all the
lamps permanently down, this would not
prevent the New York streets in lump
from being first cousins to Zanzibar fore
shore or kin to the approaches OF 0 kafiir
kraaL Guliies, holes, ruts. cobblestones
awry; curbstones rising from two to SIX
inches above the level of the slatterniy
pavement; str9et-car track from two
to three inches above the street Levels;
building materials scattered half across the
street limo, boards, cut stone, and ash-bar-
wheeled traffic taking Its chance. dray rs.
broueham. at cross roads sway-backed
poles whitfield aud unpainted; drunken
lamp-posts with twisted-irons; and lastly.
a generous scatter of filth. and more
mixed stlnks than the winter wind can
carry away, are matters which can be
considered quite apart from the spirit
of Democracy" or 1.-The future of this
great and growing country" In any other
nd ha mol n
slovenliness. sordidness. and want OF ca
pacity Here 1t is explained, not once, but
many times they show the speed at which
the city is grown, and the enviable mali
ference of her citizens to matters OF de-
tail. One OF these days. you are told,
everything will be taken III hand and put
straight.
IMPoJEsr LAWS.
The nutritious rulers of the city Will be
swept away by "A cyclone or tornado, or
something big and booming. of popular in-
dignation. Everybody will unanimously
elect the right men. who will justly earn
| fhe enormous salaries that are at present
being paid TO inadequate aliens for street
sweeping, and all will be well. AT tne
same time the lawlessness lngrained by
Governors among the governed during the
| last thirty. forty or it may be nifty years (;
| the brutal levity of public conscience III
| regard to public duty; the toughening
and supplying of public morals ana
| the reckless disregard for human life bred
| by impotent laws and fostered by famill-
arity, with needless accidents and criIni-
nal neglect, will miraculously disappear
| II the laws of cause and effect, that con-
troll even the freest people In the world,
say otherwise, so much the worse Tor the
laws. America makes her own. Behlnu
her stands the ghost of the most bloody
8 no
| land by long temporizlng with lawlessness,
| by letting things slide, by shiftlessness
and blind disregard of all save the ma
terial need of the hour till the trouble
long conceived aud let alone stood up
| full-armed, and men said. " Here Is an un-
| foreseen crises" and killed each other IN
! the name Of their God for four years.
In heather land the three things tbat
are supposed to be the pillars OF mode
ratelv decent government are regard for
human life. justice. criminal and civil. as
| far as II lies in man TO do justice, and
GOOD roads. This Christian city where
they think lightly of the tirst-their own
papers. their own speech, and their Own
actions prove it-buy and sell the second
at a price openly and without shame;
and are apparently content 70 90
without the third, one would almost expect
the racial sense of humor would stay
them from expecting only praise-slab,
lavish. and slavish from the stranger
within their gates. But they do not. IL
he holds his peace they forge tributes TO
their own excellence which they put into
his mouth. thereby treating their own land
which they profess to honor rs a quack
treats his pills. If he .speaks-but you
shall see for yourselves what happens then;
and they cannot see that by untruth ana
invoctive It is themselves, anu themselves
alone, that they inlure.
FOE TIE ALIEN.
The blame of their city evils is not Ito
gether with the gentlemen, chiefly OF tor
eien extraction, who control the city.
These ind q people made TO their hand-a
lawless breed ready to wink at one evasion
of the law if they themselves may proht
bv another, and in their rare leisure hours
content TO smile over the details OF q
| clever fraud. Then says the cultured
| American: "Give us time. Give US time.
and we shall arrive" The otherwise
American who is aggressive, stralghtway
proceeds to thrust piece OF half-hanged
| municipal botcb-work under the nose OF
| the alien as q sample OF perfected
effort. There is nothing more delight;
| fnl than to SIT for O strictly limited
| nina with a child who tells you what be
means to be when he is man; but when
| that same child, loud-volced. insistent. un-
| blushingly eager for praise. but thin
| skinned as the most morbid or hoDoieue-
| hoys. stands about all your ways telling
| Won the same story In the same voice, you
| begin to yearn for something mace anu IN;
| ished-say Egypt and completely dead
| mummv. IT is neither seemly nor safe to
| hint that the government of the largest
| cItv in the States is despotism OF the
| alien bv the alien for the alien, tempered
| with occasional Instructions OF the decent
| folk. Only the Chinaman washes the dirty
| linen of other lands.
ST. PAUL. MISN.
Yes. il is very good TO get away once
more and PICK up the old and ever fresh
] business of the yagrant loahng through
| new towns, learned IN the manners OF dogs,
| babies. and perambulators half the world
over, and tracking the seasons by the up
| Growth of flowers in stranger peoples gar
| dens. st. Paul, standing at the barn door
| of the Dakota and Minnesota granarles. IS
| all things to all men, except 10 MINNIE
| anolis. eleven miles away, whom she
| hates and by whom she is patronized. Sne
calls herself the capital of the Northwest,
"tho new Northwest" and her citizens
wear not only the tall SILK nat OF trane'
| brt the soft SLOUGH OF the west. she
| talks in another tongue. than the New
! Yorxer and-sure sign that we are far
| across the continent-her papers argue
With the San Francesca ones over rate
wars and the competition of railway com
NAMES. st. Paul has been established
many years, and If one were reckless
enonch 10 90 down 10 the business quar-.
ters one would hear all about her and
moro also, But the residential parts OF
the town are the crown OF II. In
common with scores of other cities,
| 81 Paul has reared for herself broad
crowned SUBURBS, using the WORD Ill
tie Enalish sense. that make the stranger
JEALOUS. You get here what you do not get
In the city-well- paved or asphalted roads
Wanted with trees. and trim, sidewalks
stabbed with house of individuality. not
hoorishly fenced of from each other. but
standing each on its plot of well-kept,turi
running down TO the pavement. IL Is al
xgays SUNDAY in these streets of morning
| The cable-car has taken the men down
town to business, the children are
81 school. and the big dogs, three
and n third to each absent child, llt
nos,ne the killed grass and wonder
mo when the shoots will make 1t possibie
for gentleman to take his spring medi
cine. In the afternoon the children, on
tr;cveles stagger up and down the asphalt