New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-05-23
OUR SISTER CITIES.

It is as we feared. The Greater New-York Is
paying the penalty Of greatness. The great
charm which the new charter, with its enlarge
ment Of boundaries and increase Of population,
had for many minds was that 1t made this me-
tropolis the greatest city on the continent and
the second city of the world. 1t gives to the
average New-Yorker on his travels, whether in
Alaska or New-Zealand. something Of the "Civis
ROmanus sum- feeling when he plants his name
on the hotel register. The consciousness Of be-
ing citizen of the greatest city on our hemi-
sphere and the second In all creation is some
thing worth making sacrifices for. We have
made some; how many we are not yet thorough
" aware; but we shall gradually arrive at full
knowledge of them as the structure Of the new
municipal government rises into view and we
discern in its outlines an approximate estimate
of its eventual cost. 1t may be we shall be able
TO read it in the character of the architects who
will be summoned next November TO the work
of construction-the men who Will have the dis
posa of 900 of patronage in running the
greater municipal corporation. And we are very
likely to read it in the tax lists. For, of course,
we cannot expect TO be the greatest city on the
continent and the second city in the world for
nothing II will come high, but our ambition
is superb, and we have to crafty It,
1t is one Of the drawbacks TO the intense en-
joyment felt by all Of us at this sudden acquisl-
ton Of greatness by extension Of boundaries and
accumulation Of population that 1t excites feel
ing on the part Of sister cities which we should
hesitate TO call jealousy, still less envy, but
which really in its outward manifestations has
the appearance Of unfriendliness There was
an outcrOpping of it during the recent celebration
of the dedication Of the Grant monument on the
part of that great metropolis of the interior, our
sister city of Chicago. with which our readers
are familiar. 1t was very sudden and uneX-
pected outbreak. wholly unaccOuntable except
upon the theory that, in the judgment of our
Western friends we were putting on airs on ac-
count Of our recent enlargement, and for that
reason had presumed to relegate the represent
atives Of the city Of Chicago and the State OF
Illinois TO a subordinate position in ceremony
when, by the rules Of precedence and in the or
binary fitness Of things. they should have had
the first place and been the ranking heroes Of
the occasion. The Tribune, as our readers will
bear witness endeavored with all its might to
mitigate the asperties which had been engen-
dered and by explain ton and apology TO soften
the resentment and sOO'he the wounded pride
of the Western metropolis. But all TO pur-
pose Chicago is still angry and ready at a mo-
ment's notice to march east and empty the Grant
tomb of its iustriOus tenant In revenge for the
slight.
Then Philadelphia rose up because we did not
send representatives to the memorial ceremonies
attendant upon the dedication Of new monu-
ment and statue TO George Washington. The
Philadelphia Inquirer said things about us,
heretofore quoted in The Tribune. that savOred
Of unkindness, and that we really do not think
we deserve, as, for instance TINT we were mer-
cenary and selfish and preyed upon strangers;
that we forgot that Independence Hall was In
Philadelphia, and that Horace Porter a
Pennsylvania, and that we were mot so warm. .
but that there were "other pebbles on the beach
Again The Tribune endeavored TO smooth over
asperties and convince our sister city that the
absence of our representatives from the Wash
ingtOn celebration was an oversight and not an
intentional slight: TINT we recognized the great
ness Of Philadelphia. and that IL any New-York
newspaper spoke dlsparagingly Of 1t as quiet
town that slept in the middle Of the day, such
newspaper did not express the general senti-