The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-03-20
Catacnzy's Cup OF NIisfortune-A Sea Scr.
pent ssV0ucher'' story.

maui tueI acquaintance.
Catacazy's Cup OF Misfortune-A Sen Ser.
pent "voucher'' story.
After all our Dragging about facilities for
communication we must admit this morning
the fact that we are indebted to St. Peters,
burg for some interesting Washington news,
1t is about Catacazy. He was robbed while
here, under a conspiracy of circumstances
painful to contemplate, of the documents
which were to vindicate him to Gortschakof|
and the Gar and to carry unutterable confu-
sion to Hamilton Fish, his enemy and de-
stroyer. This news will cause astonish ment
and regret to great many on this side whose
sympathies are always on the side of unde-
served misfortune. Willy Hamiltoal Uafor-
tunate Cat. But about the robbery.
We had voucher burglary here in the
famous New York Court House, which
exhibited so many suspicious features
that, although the virtuous Mr.. Hagerty
pointed to three-cornered hole in thick
pane Of plate glass, the burglary" was uni
versally put down as ''thin." The evidence
of Hagerty's servant girl about that guileless
gentleman carrying an armful of papers
up stairs and burning them has not shaken the
incredulity about a burglary" that settled on
the public mind when the tell-tale documents
had first vanished. To return to Catacazy.
After all he had endured and the subdued
threats which hurtled ominously through the
air touching his personal safety, and which he
alone had heard, no wonder he was placed ON
his guard. In his possession were valuable
papers which, like the diamonds in ''Les Trois
Mousquetaires" that turned up in the nick of
Queen, he was reserving for the eye of his
imperial master to cap the climax of his
triumph in q tableau representing him amid
red and blue fire in his grand cooked
hat and court dress, reading the docu-
ments to an Emperor in tears, amid
the cheers of the Russian Court.
To take the greater care of these documents
he placed them in a silver casket in some
exposed place and retired with some other
documents to his bedroom and waited events.
Slow music on the bass fiddle. Conscious Of
innocence the child of Greece slumbefed
peacefully. Shortly after midnight 1--WE sup
pose) enter somebody (of whom did certain
exalted persons choose they could tell what
they don't know. Exit the somebody with
the casket in his hat, carefully stamping the
print of his neat, well-made boot With the airs
and appearance of o gentleman in the carpet.
This idea is patented. The moonlight falls
over the footprint aud gets up again. Enter
No eli i1ip o1u
reminds me of my slvery casket while adj
vanciny he stumbles over the footprint; what
is that ?-moonshine. Be still, troubled heart,
thou hast been beat often enough.
will read my documents by the moonshine.
Ha, gone! (hurried music by the trombone),
retires to bed, and does not speak of the
''stolen vouchers" for q couple of months.
Now, what we most regret in this extrava-
ganza is that the tableau in the end of the
piece will have to be left out. 1t is a caution
to diplomatists- Firstly, not to plan the last
act before the first is played; secondly, not to
possess documents Of that nature; thirdly, not
to put them in a silver casket; fourthly, to
take them into their bedrooms and, finally,
not to get into trouble with Fish. We are
not quite sure about the sequential order of
this piece of advice to ambassadors; but we
ask, is it not as logical as the story itselfa
But is the age Of chlvalry no more ? Is there
no DArtagnan to board the Brooklyn ferry
boat when she is eighteen feet out from the
Fulton street dock, or the Pacific mail steamer
as she paddles out through the Golden Gate,
to seize the casket from the somebody,
whom he will recognize by his neat
and well-made boot, and then spring
in mid-river or mid-ocean upon the
boat going the other way, rush excitedly to
the Office of the Atlantic Gable and telegraph
in Russian cipher to ST. Petersburg, "Saved!
saved" 1t is splendid chance for Buffalo
Bill and the Bowery Theatre. In the mean
time we await developments. The misery Of
the whole affair is that there is terrible posi-
bility if the chivalry does not put in an APP
pearance very soon. 1t is that when the last
scene is reached, and Hamlet Fish takes up the
foils with Laertes Catacazy and the bout COM
mences, unless the action is changed at
a. ~1c