Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1875-03-05
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
The Cause OF TrOuble-HOUy n Really
Rich Man Does It-MendIcanev-
Reecher-T1ltOn-Iee Ra-
neVOIenee-BuGlness
THE cAusE oE TROUBLE.


wherefore. Having given reasons enough
for the troubles in the Republican party,
he has undertaken, in a letter recently
written, to show how we can return to
specie payments, or rather why we do
not come to it. He charges all our finan-
cial trouble, to the extravaganza of our
women and children. He asserts that
there are 10000 ladies IN New York |
whose costumes, when in full dress, cost
at least, $1,000 each, and the same ladies |
fifteen years ago would have made quite |
fine show on $3.50 each, Also that ten |
Thousand children cost now from 500 |
to $3.50 each for dress, against $40 to $25 |
fifteen years ago. This is all very well |
Mr.. Weed, but how about the extrava-
gance of the men. True it is that the |
goods used by the ladies all come from
Europe. and that gold goes from here
there to pay for them; but have the |
sterner sex no eXtravag ances to answer |
for How about boots at $50 per pair,
made Of imported leather? How about
the thousands of y oung men, and old |
ones, too, who keep their measures in
Paris, and who use up ten or dozen |
suits per year, at fancy French prices
How about the French wines, the French /
brandies, and the French almost every |
thing else thai that class of men use, and /
use exclusively. How about the men /
whose cigars, at % to so cents each, come |
from Havana, whose eating is half i'm
ported, and who go abroad so regularly y |
to enjoy pleasures which, thank Heaven,
are not as yet acclimatized here.
The fact is, Mr.. Weed. the men of
New York, and of the country at large,
are just as extravagant as the women,
and if anything, more so and when con
traction is forced upon the country, both
sexes will be compelled to give up their
weaknesses.
AN EXAMPLE.
The terrible extraVagance is not pro-
.dueed by the really rich men of the cOun- |
try. The richest of them live simply |
Daniel Drew lives as plainly as though |
he was worth less than some millions, |
and so does Peter Cooper. A. T. Stew |
art, the great merchant whose wealth has |
mounted up till he does not know him |
self how much he is worth, rides in ON |
nibuses to and from his place of business |
half the time, and he has been seen on |
the box beside the driver of his delivery |
wagon. Of course he has carriages, but |
they are for use and not display. One |
young man who failed for 100000 but |
whose wife was conveniently endo wed |
with very large estate before the fail |
ure, remarked that Stewart was rich
enough to afford to SO ride.
THE BEGeARs.
The number of professional beggars
who are now infestIng the city is abso-
lutely fearful. They haunt offices to q
degree that makes life unbearable. Half
of them make trade of some sort pre-
text carrying for sale some light goods, as |
matches, backing, &C., but the other |
half ask for almes without qualification |
Sturdy men claim to be unable to get |
work and women have the usual story of |
sick husbands and children. Ofcourse
very large per cent. of the professionals
are foreigners, and very frequently the |
mistakes they make are funny. Let it |
be known that the manufacturer of play
cards for beggars is q regular business
and that the beggar can furnish himself
or herself with any cause of distress that
may be thought to be most effective. One
boy, who sits upon Union Square, an
Italian, who of course could not read
English. displayed playcard on which
was written This poor woman was lett |
a widow with four small children" He |
displayed this plaYcard two days when |
i. was shifted to something more in ac- |
cordance with the actual situation.
BEEcHER-TILToN.
The great scandal case still drags its
slow length along. The Tilton people /
rested the case with the testimony of
Mrs. Moulton, and now Beecher has his
innings. Mrs. Moulton was a surprise TO
everybody. Her testimony was clear and
explicit against Beeeher, and, besides, |
she is m ore difficult to impeach than any l
other witness. Beecher himaelf has |
put upon record his idea of her in more 4
ways than one, and his statement of her 1
absolute truthiulness must count terri |
bly, against him now. Eyarts tried all |
sorts of experiments to find flaw IN her |
sta tement, but without avail. She was /
by all odds the most dangerous witness /
to Beecher that has yet been called.
The defense Of Beecher will be, Of |
course, what was foreshadowed in his
statements last summer, viz that the pro
ceedure has been. from first to last, a con-
spiracy arranged TO extort money from |
him and ruin him. He can take 10 other
line without falsifying his previous state
ments. He may succeed in establishing
this, but it is difficult at this writing to |
see how. Of course no one knows what |
Witnesses he has or what they may testify |
but it seems impossible that he should |
successfully break down Tilton, Moulton,
the woman Carey, Richards. the brother |
OF Mrs. Tilton, and Mrs. Moulton. But 1
we shall see W hat we shall see, or rather |
hear what we shall hear. Let US hope |
that justice will be done, and that the
right ones will feel the scourge.
ICE.
In consequence of the warm winter of 4
73-4 the ice companies more than doub-
led the price of that very necessary arti-
Gle last summer putting it entirely out
of the reach of the poorer classes, and
troubling those who were better OF to
have all they wanted. This winter has
made such ice as has not been seen for
years. The blocks are any thickness you
want from 18 inches to four feet, and
as hard and solid as granite. The ques-
ton is, will ice be any cheaper The
supplying of the great city is, untortu-
nately in the hands of two companies,
the Knickerbocker and Washington, and
they own all the best fields near the city,
which, by their splendid organization and
immense capital, enables them to either
buy out or kill all rivals. When other
companies are started these grim mon
sters put down the price to below the
living point until they are driven out,
and then up it goes again. In this way
they have managed to keep the trade in
their own hands, very securely. The epri-
ces of last summer W i'll be maintained if
it is possible to do so for the ice companies
have no more souls than the railroad,
telegraph or express companies. The