NEW YORK SOCIETY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1306, 5 October 1872, Page 4

NEW YORK SOCIETY.

An American author who ia described as having had an experience of upwards of 20 years of active labor annong the neglected and outcast youth of New York, has published a work on the "Dangerous Classes " of that city, full of startling details as to the magnitude, the ruffianism, and the misery of those classes. If his statements are to be accepted is trustworthy, the whole fabric of society in the Empire City rests upon + he thin crust of a volcano which may explode at any moment. The enfants terrihles of New York aro mainly American-born, but the children of Irish and German immigrants, ignorant in mind, brutal in habits, reckless in conduct, nnd banded together in associations known by such epithets as "Dead Rabbit," "Plug ugly," &c. Physically they resemble the athletes and gladiators of the Roman demagogues ; politically, they are " repeaters," in the service of the various rings. Mr 0. L. Brace, the author of the work referred to, says : — " They rifle a bank, where English thieves pick a pocket ; they murder, where European proletaries cudgel or light with fists ; and in a riot, they begin what seems about to be the sacking of a city, where English rioters would merely batter policemen or smash lamps.*' In fact, there are all the materials in New York, we are told, for just such a terrible outbreak as occurred in Paris, under the Commune- It is merely a question of time and opportunity when the so-called civilisation of the commercial capital of America shall be drowned in blood or overwhelmed with ashes.