Year: 1876

The Ruler of the inverted Year is anything
but an agreeable sovereign, in large city
like ours The attempts to enjoy his special
forms of recreation only reveal the dreary re-
verse of the picture. No article IN the wOrld
seems quite so foul as sullied snow; and there
is almost a travesty of mer11ment In the slght
of sleighs speeding through substance when
might be taken for cheap sugar or superf1ne
sand. Ixion. set to the task of keeping q
New York sidewalk clear of ice, would soon
long for his stone in Hades. Walking, In these
days, is a succession of escapes, Alternating
every few minutes, with plunges into refIlger-
ated filth. Every disagreeable feature OF the
streets is carefully kept fresh In Natures I'M
mense ice-chest. If the fall of snow could be
restricted, by city ordinance, to the region
above Twenty -third-st., we could get on toll
erably with cold and wind downtown; but,
as it is, every storm which brings cheer to the
country people, warmth to the wheat, and
brimming urns to the rver-heads, SINKS us
deeper into q snowy quagmlre.


The weather, too, as any one may discover
by watching the wavering and wobbling white
line on the "TRIBUNE Local Observations"
seems to have set its course by the polltlcal
barometer. 1t sways this way or that, as If
the freezing point were majority figure.
When the Hayes comes, with softer air,
which promises to melt the impacted corrup-
ton of our streets and let them drain Off to
the rivers on either side, the next day is sure
10 bring Tiden blast over the Alleghames
(from indiana p, and we more than ever silde
and wade on our way. Such succession Oh
half thaws, whole freezes, storms OF rain which
would fain be snow and snow which partly
consents to be rain, "spasms of sunshine
which accomplish nothing and heavy skies
which cannot unload themselves and be done
with it, has not been experienced for years.
Who does not remember the perfect day on
which the Year 1876 came into the world
But now, the sprites of the atmosphere, tired
of smoke and cannon and brass bands, worn
out with all manner of Centennial commemo-
rations, have grown petulant, irritable, per-
verse. The burden of their song is: some
~ DAYS must be dark and dreary."


Now is the time when any general annoy
ance becomes an aggravation. 1t would be
only equity to infict lighter sentences for
breaches of the peace, at this season. Let us,
at least, respectfully suggest to Mr.. Bergh
that the success of such humane and neceS-
sary work as his should not be imperlled by
any action which cOmpels human beings to
measure their own sufferings with those OF
animals When it comes to that point, the
animals, having no voice in the matter, are
always defeated To be stopped in a street.
car, ON one of these dismal, inhospitable even
ings halfway to ones uptown home, and
Obliged to wait for an indefinite length of time,





the same track,-excites another feeling than
that OF mere pity for Gmping horse. Why
should not the agent of the ). L. Z. A. ac-
company the car to the terminus OF the track
before laying his embargo on the animal
WHY, in fact, shOrld he not station himself
near such terminus, and arrest the car where
its detention will cause least embarrassment to
the line, and least suffering to the innocent
passengers2 We have seen wOrn-loOkinS wo-
men, thus forced to wait, shivering in their
sodden shoes at once losing precious time and
absorbing disease. There have been several
long detentions of late, in such weather as
makes them q positive public injury.


At night it is labor and risk enough to pick
ones way along the slippery sidewalks, and
avoid passing vehicles, in the light of gas



gradually becomes accustomed to that peculiar
nightly atmosphere which has become tea-
ture of our city-we don't know whether to
call il gray darkness or black light. Then, all
at once, one is smtten full in the eyes by a
concentrated glow of calcium, which blOts out
houses, streets, cars, and carriages. For hun
dreds of yards it streams forth on the exact
level of the human head, spreading tempo
rary blindness in its track. An unmitigated
nuisance at any time, the use of calcium lights
in the present condition of the streets is q
fragrant outrage. A certain amount of suffer-
ing, we are aware, is always expected of us but
Just now it is poured so pentifuly from above,
and preserved so carefully below, that we can
not resist uplifting feeble voice of protest.
We must endure the sweeping blast the skies
o'ercast; give up the silveDed and emined
adiectiyes of the poets make acquaintance
with Winter as a trollop instead of nun !;
lose our physical Lprightness and secure manly
tread-but let us at least have few atoning
convenences of locOmotion and travel, until
Rapid Transit comes!


-@--- ---