NEW YORK SOCIETY.

Southland Times, Issue 1653, 25 October 1872, Page 3

NEW YORK SOCIETY.

' An American author, who is described as having had an experience of upwards of 20 years of active labor among the neglected and outcast youth of New York, haa published a work ou the " Dangerous Classes " of. that city, full of startling details as to the magnitude, the ruffimistn, and tlie misery of those classes. If his statements are to be accepted aa trustworthy, the whole fabric of society in the Empire City rests upon the thin crust of a volcano which may explode at any moment. The enfants terribles of New York are mainly American-born, but the children of Irish aud German immigrants, ignorant in mind, brutal in habits, reckless in conduct, and bauded together in associations known by such epithets aa " Dead Babbit," " Plug Ugly," &c. Physically they resemble the athletes and gladiators of the Koman demagogues ; politically, they are " repeaters," in the service of the various rings. Mr C. L. Brace, the author of, the work referred to, says : — " They rifle a bank, where English thieves pick a pocket ; they murder, where European proletaires cudgel or fight 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 o( time and opportunity when the so-called civilisation of the commercial capital of America shall be drowned in blood or overwhelmed with ashea. _____^