Our New York Letter.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 907, 19 July 1889, Page 8

Our New York Letter.

As we cannot have another Washington Centennial for a hundred years—and there will not be many of us left to enjoy the occasion—l can find nothing more interesting to write about than the circumstances and things which, during the hurry and bustle of Centennial week and the weeks which preceded it, I was obliged to overlook. And, right here at the start, let me pause for a moment to pay a passing tribute of respect and honour to William Murray, the Superin. tendent of the police of New York. Mr Murray’s name has not figured much in the reports of the Centennial. Everybody has heard of Mr Fish, Mr Gerry, Mr W T ard McAllister, not to mention President Hardson, Vice-President Morton, all the secretaries, judges, generals, colonels, and lesser dignitaries with whom we have lately been honoured and blessed, but few have heard much of Superintendent Murray,—and yet, to no one man, aye, to no one hundred men connected with the celebration, was it indebted for its success so much as to him. With a force of less than two thousand available men—for, recollect, the whole city had to be taken care of as well as the portions where the celebration actually took place, with between two and three millions of people to look out for, he maintained such order and afforded such security to life and property as never was witnessed in any other city on the face of the earth It was a magnificent triumph of discipline in which every officer and man in the force shared the glory of the chief. Order was everywhere ; peace and security reigned supreme. There were many things took place that it is impossible to pass in silence, and one of the most notable was the sermon of Bishop Potter at the services in St. Paul’s Church, on

Tuesday. St: PauHs Church is the only revolutionary landmark left standing in that part pf Brdadway. It i£as here that Washington lihelt iiiid played jlist: before taking the.oath of office; and it was resolved that President Harrison should go through the same foltms there. St. Paul’s is very ‘ high churchon the front of the pulpit, surrounded by a golden halo of light, is the sacred legend found on every Catholic altar, ‘I. H.’S ’ Jesu Hominum Salvator —Jesus, the saviour of men. While examining some of the tablets, on Monday, a young man stepped up to me and asked if it was a Catholic church, —no WOH* der that he thought so. The Bishop’s sermon was a shock to the more respectable portion of the commnnity ; it was not only in exceeding bad taste to insult th? President and his Cabinet by his broad and spiteful implications, but his inferences were false and his so-called facts untrue. The age of Washington was not an age of purity or republican simplicity. The republican court was given to pomp and grandeur and show as far as it was able, and the plutocrat was more of a power in social 1 fe and politics in 1789 than -he is in 1889. • Votes were publicly bought and sold ; riot and violence characterised their elections, which then occupied three days, And the obscenity and indecency of their political literature finds no parallel in these latter days. The Bishop is pining for the simplicity of our forefathers) and he represents and Controls the richest and moit plutocratic corporation iu America. He lives in a magnificent house, surrounded by the most costly luxuries that the earth can produce. Fine paintings, statuary, bronze and multitudinous articles of veitu and ornament, costly hangings greet the eye everywhere, the rarest wines sparkle on his Grace’s table, and this is the way the Episcopal bishop cf New York illustrates his belief in the lowly Nazarehe who said, ‘ The foxes have holes, tho birds of the air have ne&ts, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.’ It was the stump speech of a clerical cad and snob, who took occasion to insult the city’s guest, on the most memorable event of the century.. He speaks of Jefferson and Jackson as vulgar. This will be news to the States that honoured them in their day aUd generation. Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia gentlemen of the old school, of high breeding, large experience and courtly manners. Andrew Jackson was a plain, blunt man, but a gentleman nevertheless, who would have considered himself eternally disgraced to have done as vulgar and indecent and cowardly a thing as Bishop Potter did in St. Paul’s last Tuesday. There was a good deal of folk about the behaviour at the ball. It was expected that about s>x thousand people .viiuld be iheie ; about ten thousand actually got in. Free v ine i 3 a grand mistake, and it is not at all surprising that in such a misoeliaaeouo crowd some should be found who violated all rules of decency and order. There were several people who behaved very badly, and the grand Centennial Quadrille, which was the catiße of so mauy heart-3calds, was one of the direst failures of the celebration. Ward McAllister had his revenge, and Fish, who ousted him, has been busy . escaping tne reporters ever si ce. There was a terrible financial leak in the sale of seats. The legitimate returns would have given over ninety thousand dollars—only thirty-turee thousand found its way into the treasniy. The gate-keepers waxed fat on the Centeunial plunder, and I look to see some of them buying brown stone houses within the next thirty days.

One of the surprises of the last day’s procession was the magnificent turn-out made by the Italians. They were brought side r.y side with some of the finest organizations in the country, and under the pitiless light of the noonday sun they lost nothing oy the comparison. The man who passes judgment on our Italian population by the poor and wretched creatures he sees cleaning our streets, or searching our ash barre's, should have seen the procession on''Wednesday. In an aggregation of nearly one hundred thousand men, the very i.eat that this nation could turn out, there was no single body that surpassed the Italians iu their soldierly appearance ; the splendour of their uniforms, or in the magnificent civic parade, which was hardly second to the military. It was a proud day for the Italians, and a surprise and a revelation to everybody else. One of the unique features of the Celebration was the Loan Collection displayed at the Metropolitan Opera House. It was contributed by various institutions and private families, and was, as an historical compendium, worth a whole library of books. Here was the family plate of the Van Rensellaers, the Livingstons, the De . Lanceys, the De Peysters, and hundreds of other old families whose names are equally famous. Here, too, was Hamilton’s court suit and sword. John Jay’s knee breeches and coat, shoes, buckles, and all, old Governor Sfcuyvesant’s' wooden leg, Lafayette’s snuff-box and miniature, Washington’s army suit and camp equipage, one of Martha Washington’s silk dresses, for which an old clothesmau would have hesitated to give seventy-five cents. Portraits of Washington were there by the dozen, and no two of them were exactly alike. Gilbert Stuart’s picture of Washington, the portrait which is the one accepted by posterity, held a conspicuous place. The collection was perfectly bewildering, and the visitor departed in doubt, asking himself, * What did Washington look like ?’ For me this question is definitely settled by a little picture about 20 by SO, painted by Col. Trumbull, of Connecticut, as a present from Washington to Martha, in commemoration of his birthday. Trumbull was his life-long friend, and Washington gave him many sittings for this priceless little picture. It was a love-gift to his wife, and she treasured it as such up to the day of her death, leaving it as a sacred heir-loom to her son, Mr Curtis. Washington is painted standing beoide his horse, and the iace is a characteristic face altogether, unlike Gilbert Stuart’s or either of the Peales. Being approved by Washington himself, and treasured by his wife, the presumption is that it is the most correct likeness extant.

Tho marvel of the Centennial was the sudden disappearance of hundreds of thou-an.ls of people from our streets, which, forty-eight hours after the celebration had passed, resumed their wonted appearance. That there was a few mistakes, a little incon.

venience, and some petty jealousies which slightly marred tho celebration may be admitted ; yet it is safe to say that no other event of equal magnitude was ever conducted with less ; and its successful termination is afi esamplo to the oiviiißed world, and an hOnotir tt> the.people of ths United States. \. Broadbrim.