North Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1867-current, 1869-02-03

LIFE IN NEW YORK.
SUNSHINE AND SHADOW IN New York. By
Mathew Hale Smith. Illustrated 724
PIP. Hartford, Conn.,: j. b. Burr & Co.
It is not always that we can commend
our readers to purchase books of real
value even, for these may be so prosy,
though full of important facts, as to lie
forever unread on their shelves. But in
the book whose title we quote above, the
judicious and enterprising publishing
house Of j. B. Burr & Co., who know how
to cater to the wants of the public, the
people have something at once very yalu.
able and readable. Whoever opens the
book to read will not permanently lay it
aside till he has gone over every line of
its ninety-two chapters, and he cannot but
feel that he is more than paid for the cost
of the book several times over, in the val
liable facts, spicy incidents, etc., with
which the book is filled. lie will, in short,
kno,c New York far better than the ma
jority Of her native citizens; and to know
New York in all her aspects her high
life and low life her good and evil; her
vast fortunes and her countless misfor-
tunes; how her great financial leaders
have won their honest successes, and how
brilliantly vice shines, or sadly it wallows
in its infamy beside them, is to know
about all there is to be known of the active
life Of the whole country; for New York
is not only the commercial center of
America, but reflection of all the good
and bad in the land. Our readers will be
in the following excerpts from
the book, which they will not be satisfied
without possessing:
SHARP MERCHANT.
In travelling, passed the night with q
wealthy merchant. His name on change
was tower of strength. He had made
his fortune, and was proud of it. He
said he could retire from business if he
would, have fortune for himself to
spend, and settle one on his wife and chil>
dren. He was very successful, but very
severe. He was accounted one of the
merchants in the city. But he
had no tenderness towards debtors. In
the day Of his prosperity he was celebrated
for demanding the full tale of brick, and
the full pound of flesh. A few months
after I passed the night with him he be-
came bankrupt. His wealth fed in day.
He had failed to settle the fortune on his
wife and children, and they were pcnni>
less. He was treated harshly, and was
elected from the institutions
over which he presided. He complained
bitterly of the ingratitude of men who al
most got down on their knees to ask favors
of him, when he was prosperous, and who
spurned and reviled him when he fell. If
in the day of his prosperity he had been
kinder and less exacting, he might have
found friends in the day of his adversely.
TWO sHARPERs.
A noted sportsman, taking dinner at
one of our clubs, exhibited diamond ring
of great beauty and apparent value on
his finger. A gentleman present had a
great passion for diamonds. After dinner,
the parties met in the Office. After much
bantering, the owner consented to barter
the ring for the sum of six hundred dol
lars. As the buyer left the room, sup>
pressed tittering struck his ear. He con-
cluded that the former owner bad sold
both the ring and tie purchaser. lie said
nothing, but called the next day upon a
iewellcr, where he learned that the dia-
mond was paste, and the ring worth about
twenty five dollars. lie examined some
real diamonds, and found one closely re-
sembling the paste in his own ring. He
hired the diamond for few days, pledged
twelve hundred dollars, the price of it,
and gave a hundred dollars for its use.
He went to another jeweler, had the paste
removed, and the real diamond set. Hi,
chums, knowing how he had been imposed
upon, impatiently waited for his appear
ance the next night. To their astonish
ment they found him in high glee. He
Aourished his ring, boasted of his bar
gain, and said if any gentleman present
had twelve hundred dollar ring to sell
for six hundred dollars, he knew Of a
purchaser. When he was told that the
ring was paste, and that he had been
cheated, he laughed at their folly. Bets
we're freely offered that the ring did not
contain real diamond. Two men bet O
thousand dollars each. Two bet i've hun.
dred dollars. All were taken: umpires
were chosen. The money and the ring
were put into their hands. They went ia
a frst-class jeweler, who applied all the
tests, and who said the stone was dia
mond Of the first water, and was worth
without the setting, twelve hundred del
lars. The buyer put the three thousand
dollars which he had won, quietly in his
pocket. He carried the diamond back and
recalled his twelve hundred dollars, and
with his paste ring on his finger went tt
his club. The man who sold the ring wat
waiting for him. He wanted to get the
ring back; he attempted to turn the whole
thing into joke. He: sold the ring, he
said, for fun; he knew it was real dia-
mond all the time. He never wore false
Jewels. He could tell a real diamond
anywhere by its peculiar light. He would
not be SO mean as to cheat an old friend
He knew his friend would let him have
the ring again. But his friend was stub
born-said that the seller thought that il
was paste, and intended to defraud him
At length, on the payment of eight hun
dred dollars, the ring was restored. All
parties came to the conclusion, when the
whole affair came out, that when diamoad
cuts diamond again some one less sharp
will be selected.
The INDIAN.-ln the current number oi
Putnam's Magazine, there occurs in q
sketch of adventures on the western plains,
an APPALLING description of the savagery Of
the Indians and the deadly nature of their
primitive weapons, which we are accus-
toned to consider too much inferior to ours,
We naturally set down the accounts az
sensational and overdrawn; but we now
sec by q Winona paper that General
Sanborn, in his lecture in that city the
other day, expressed the opinion that the
most deadly weapon which the Indian can