Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-06-20
our NEW YORK LETTER.
One Good Rich Woman- What she does aOith
her Money-DuH TImes-The Summer
-Mlgration-B Biddy-The Weather.
OH nnnn pIcu rrnArAN

applies to women as well, and l am in no
mood this morning to dispute the asser
ton. The care of my estate so worries
me that am seldom in a Christian frame
ofmind. Nobody knows the anxieties |
attendant upon great wealth. MIR. Van |
derbilt and 1 weep over it hours together. |
But there is one exception in this rule.
1 know of one woman who has great
wealth, who will, when AZrael waves his |
dark pinions over her head, go straight |
to heaven, and by the shortest possible
route and her name is Stokes, the wife |
of Anson Phelps Stokes, of the great |
house of Phelps, Dodge & Co.
Mrs. Stokes has the enjoyment of ex
ceeding great wealth. She might, if she
chose, be the finest and most useful wo-
man in New York she could dawdle in |
purple and fine linen she could loll in
carriages she could cover herself with |
diamonds she could live from day to
day in luxurious self indulgence, and die |
finally, leaving no soul behind TO mourn
her going. And this is being done by
thousands of ladies in the circle in which
she moves and adorns.
But Mrs. Stokes does not happen to be
one of that kind, and fervently thank
Heaven for it She is a strong, active
woman, full of the noblest impulses and
the broadest love of her kind. She has
magnificent house up town, and a more
magnifcence one on that gem of the sea-
Staten Island. On that island she has had
an immense building erected, which is IN
its way a sort Of an asylum. Now see
what one good woman can do with
money. The charities of New York
shelter and harbor thousands upon thou
sands of homeless orphan children, and
during The summer they suffer in their
necessarily close quarters. Mrs. Stokes
takes seventy of these waits at time
down to. her home on the Island-thls be-
ing the capacity of the building-and
keeps them there a week. They have
the freshest and best fruits, milk from
her own COWS, and the best of everything
that the market can furnish On the ex
tensive grounds swings are erected. play
grounds are arranged, and the chill
dren enjoy not only the pure air Of heav-
en- and the best of food, but all sorts and
kinds of innocent and healthful pleasures.
Their, week up, they are returned, and
another seventy taken down, all at her
own expense And this time goes on from
the time the hot weather begins till the
cold autumn makes 1t unnecessary, this
good, kind woman experimenting it all.
Would that wealth always fell into
such hands Would that there were
more such rich women in New York, and
everywhere else! Would there were
more women who could so honestly wear
the title 'lady" Talking about position
making the "first ladyI" Thousands o
poor neglected children will in the days
to come rise up and say "blessed" of this
woman, whose goodness was their first
| ray of sunshine.
DULLNEss.
The city is dull TO degree never known
before There Is no business, positively
none. There is no buying, no selling, for
the reason that the farmer has no money
to pay the country dealer; the country
dealer has no money TO buy of the job
bers, and the jobbers' goods consequently
lie on their shelYes or remain hidden IN
boxes The hotels were never so empty,
and hotel proprietors never looked SO
blue. Indeed it has come to point
where a hotel clerk will actually give the
weary traveller who seeks rest, civil
word. By this you may imagine how
much they want to see people. And the
trouble is, no one can prophesy as TO the
duration of this state of things. "When
will business revive ?" is the query, the
answer always being, 1.-THE Lord only
knows" No human can tell, for there
was no apparent cause for its beginning,
The country was strong and sound in
September last, yet in a week a panic
swept over the country like a tornado,
prostrating the strongest houses, uproot,
ing the most firmly established credits
and with its long fingers reaching down
to the most humble people. For it has
effected the most humble people. With
the suspension of business everything Is
suspended. There is no building and the
builders are out of work. The consump'
tion of everything that goes into the bow
els (except whisky is lessened, and the
coopers are idle. Men wear their boots
longer, and the shoemakers are on their
oars in short, 1t is distress, and nothin g
but distress 1t goes even to the beggars
One placid looking, old blind beggar. who
has seat on Fulton Street, told me yes
/ terday that the panic had ruined HIM.
| His collections he said with a whine, had
dropped to So per day, but he wouldn't
t care so much about that, but rents had
' fallen thirty per cent. aud he had three
t houses and two stores empty, even at
\ this reduction. The old fellow has sat or
the sidewalk, and had enough pennies
, dropped into his hat to make a fortune
which, by judieious investment, has
swelied TO fortune.
THE SUMMER.
/ Summer Is on us at last The sun 10
now hurting its rays direct upon 'ne o''y
heating the pavements, heating 'ho a,' Du''r
/ ings, heating humanity, heating "n''.ia'' , :.
ty. A great city is terribly no. wuon i. ~
, IA hot The tall buildings not only retain
heat, but they prevent the lFeo cirCula-
tion of air that would otherwise mitigate
:, Then the ten thousand distinct odors
, that smell to heaven make it unhealthy as
well as dlsagreeable.
Consequently all of New York that
can get out, gets out Away to the
mountains, to the sea side, to springs, to
every earthly place where fresh air aud
trees are to be found the New Yorker his
wife and daughter goes. The theatres,
such as are kept open, are half filed with