Year: 1868

NicolsOn pavement could not be successful
because of some apprehension about the oc-
casional bursting of the Croton pipes; but this
could be easily provided for by taking care in
laying down the pavement that neither Croton
pipes nor earthquakes could disturb it. Surely,
Yankee ingenuity can guard against any dis
aster from either source


Singular Revival of the Hebrew Race.


Nothing can be more curious than to observe
the periods of elevation and depression in diff
ferent races of the human family. These alter
nations are most conspicuous in the progress
of the Hebrews, race so segregated and set
apart from the rest of mankind by distinctions
of religion, physique and moral attributes that
we can never fail to recognize them as ''pe-
culiar people," And in regard to this race it
is but quite recently they were considered little
better than outlaws in all Christian lands.
Their teeth were not drawn, indeed, nor were
they subject to torture at the discretion Of any
bold baron in need of gold, as in the earlier
days of Engands Norman kings. But the
fact was strange to remember while we re-
Gently saw Benjamin Disraei, member of this
race, at the head of the British government,
that it has been but a very few years since the
words ''on the true faith of Christian" were
stricken out of the oath which every member
of the English Parliament has to take previous
to assuming his seat. Everywhere over the
world there seems to be great revival of the
Hebrew nationality going forward; and though
the children of the tribes may not be restored,
nor wish to be restored to the physical Jeru-
salem in whose walls and beneath whose
streets their faith has its roots, there would
seem to be very reasonable indication that they
will make the power of their new Jerusalem,
their power as distinctive people, an ac-
knowledged reality in all civilized countries.
| Over the financial destinies of Austria, and
radiating from Vienna over all Europe, the
monetary genius and wonderful combinations
of the Rothschild family have built up power
to which both kings and kaisers have been
compelled to pay respect, if not submission.
| Achile Fould, also of this race, was recently
the official organizer of French finance, and in
the brothers Pereire had coadjutors of decided
ability and of similar faith. But it is here in
the United States, and more especially in the
city of New York, that the race claiming Abra-
ham, Isaac and Jacob as the founders of their
ancestral line are making most rapid progress
Here, under our free institutions, they have
no prejudices to contend against, nothing to
cramp the full development of their intense
and peculiar genius. In the rapidly shifting
fluctuations of American commerce and finance
their singular foresight and prudence, mixed
with boldness, give them a natural ascendancy.
Their strong clan feeling or brotherhood of
race, moreover, is in their favor, and to-day
they may be set down not only as the shrewd-
est of our daring speculators but as the largest
purchasers of real estate on Manhattan Island.
They are thus striking their roots far down
among our people and becoming an integral
part of our permanent population. Their syna-
gogues are becoming comparatively more
numerous than our Christian churches, and
their grand synagogue or temple on Fifth
avenue-cathedral, as we would call it--far
surpasses in beauty of architectural design any
religious edifce in this city with which we are
acquainted


1t is little singular, too, to find that while
Benjamin Dlsraeli has been placed at the head
of one great party in England-the conserva-
tive, or tory, party of that country-another
member of the same race, in the person Of Au-
gust Belmont is at the head of the conservative,
or democratic, party here, holding high position
as chairman of the National Central Commit
tee. How Mr.. Belmont has risen to this posi-
tion in the councils of the national democracy
we need not now discuss. It was o contest in
which his wealth could do nothing for him
was, in fact, a drawback, inasmuch as it excited
democratic jealousy; and he labored under the
further disadvantage of not being ''native and
to the manner born" Nevertheless, for more
than seven years he has sustained himself as
the official representative and chief of the reg
ular democratic organization throughout the
Union, having first been elected to the National
Central Committee at the Charleston Baltimore
Convention of 1860 and having remained at
the head of that committee and in control of its
operations during the stormy and costly can
vass which resulted nearly four years ago in
General McClelans defeat. Disraeli at the head
of the conservatives in England, Belmont at
the head of the conservatives in the United
States-this, surely, was an odd coincidence,
to say the least Of it; and yet there are more
| condolences of the same kind to be remarked.


In the councils of the late Southern con-