The San Francisco call., 1897-12-18
Tammany Halls Chief Styled
the Arch Fiend of the
Inferno.
DARK FUTURE FOR THE
METROPOLIS.
Hsrding Of the Population In Large
Cities Dec ared Menace to
the Republic.
Special Dispatch 10 THE CALL

CHlCAGO, Dec. l6.-Ihe Inter Ocean
has printed voluminous review of
w. T. Stead's new book on New
York. saying in part: William I.
Stead, author of the Pail Mall Gazette ex-
posures, "If Christ Came 10 Chicago" and
other whitehot writings, has paid his re-
spects 10 Greater New YORK in q red-col-
ored pamphlet called "Satan's Invisible
World Displayed" 1t is a resume of the
tremendous exposition of rottenness that
resulted from the Senatorial investigation
headed by Lexow, joined to much other
matter OF a similar character. 1t is done
in Stead's singularly lucid and strong
style, and is destined to make a sensation
in all English-speaking countries.
As a statement of what Tammany Hall
has been, what IL is, and what it hopes to
be, the brochure is q valuable contribu-
ton to political history and the prophecy
OF doom. II does not underestimate the
gigantic powers OF the oldest, most pecu-
liar and frankest political organization in
America, and gives some foresayings of
the results now that Tammany controls
the government of by far the largest city
In America. 1t declares that what New
York has been London, Glasgow or Mel
bourne will be il the citizens lose interest
in the good government of their citv.
Mr.. Stead doesn't believe in the Greater
New York scheme. He regards 1t as an
unwjse attempt TO escape from the evils of
the old government by setting up one that
is worse. In his preface to the lurid
pamphlet under consideration he says:
The trite old saying Truth is stranger
than felton, has seldom been better ex-
empli6ed than in the story of the way in
which the second city in the world has
been governed, unless it be in the conse-
quences of the resulting despair. For if
the revelations made before the Lexow
committee are almost incredible, the Ge-
iioerate decision of the ablest and most
public-S spirited Americans that there is no
way of escape save by the hamstrung
Cesarism of the charter of Greater New
! Y ork it is still more marvellous as a con-
fession of the shipwreck of faith.
"Sin, when it has conceived, bringeth
forth death, and the corruption that
rotted the administrator previous to 1894
! has only brought forth its natural frulun
| the adoption of the bastard Bonapart-
ism of the second empire as the best gov.
ernment for the first city in the American
republic
mighty Hudson; he becomes infused with
! the rushing, driving, constantly hurryIng
| life tha; Is characteristic of the great city;
! he says that il is one of the most wonder
| full beautifully sug festive of scenes. He
enJoyed his visit and was painfully i'm
| pressed on landing by the vast energy that
| see ms part OF the air.
New York was to him typical city of
American life. Looking at its swarms
| and deafened by its mighty roar, ne be-
| gan TO understand something of the racs
| that in little moro than a century has re-
claimed continent pandemonium of
| typewrlting machlnes-of gigantic type
writing machines. driven by demons who
| never tire, in some vast hall of Eblis-the
| clank OF type, the swish OF machinery, the
| quick, nervous ring of bells, all in
| definitely multiplied and magnified, fills
the vast space with reverberating claug or
| This clangor continuously increases until
| its very vibrations seem 10 become clot-
| ted and Till the air with sounu that can
| be felt in every pore. 1t Is like the
! pressure of an atmos here so dense you
/ can almost cut it with knife, an atmos-
| phere that is never still, but perpetually
! frets and means and snarls with feverish
unrest. How many machines there must
! be to crowd the air with this a million
! times multiplied by the misery of the
click and clang and clang and click, that
never stops, but rises and falls, rhvthm-
! less and rude, like the waves of choppy
! sea on a rocky beach.
hubbub there pierces q dreadful wall.
| You are not even in the outermost circles
| OF Dante's Inferno" You are trying TO
! sleep In the heart of Central New York,
! in the midst of all the thunder and rush
| and roar OF her million crowded streets,
| along which surges as the restless tide the
tur bid and foaming food of citv life.
The bells OF tram cars continually
| sounding, the weariless lrampllng OF nor
| shod hoofs over the granite roadway, the
| whirllng rumbilng OF wheels, the roar OF
| trains which on elevated railways radiate
the uproar from kind OF internal trma-
ment on high all suffused and submerged
| in the hum that rises unceasing
from hurrying footsteps in the crowded
street that mart culate voice of New Y ork
sad as the wall that from populous
| earth all day and night to high Oily m pus
| soarS'-and that dreadful shrek is the
farewell of an ocean liner, sounding
| sonorouS note with stentorlan lungs as II
! quits the wharf.
The English writer believes with De
| ToQuevllie that the American tendency TO
| herd in cities is full of the gravest danger
TO the republic. He calls attention to the
| fact that the percentage OF urban popula-
! tion to the total population oil the United
| States was 3. 35 in 1870 and 29.12 in 1890.
Cities hold %. 600, 600 of the estimated T.
OOO, 600 lnhaoilants. The population OF
| Greater New York now equals the total
population Of the Uniteu States at the
| time of the declaration OF independence.
LIS population of 5, 2u0 coo exceeds nearly
! fourfold the total reputation OF American
| ci les al the time De To1uevllle visited us.
| Mr. Stead thinks il possible the tate OF
the American republic may become
! bound up with the fate OF Greater New
York. He pays proper amount OF re-
spect to the far-fung influences OF Wall
street. He thinks it possible, but does
| not say il is probable.
Here in New York" says Mr.. Stead,
1--WE have the whole Internal phantas-
| magoria once again, with heeiers for