Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1875-12-20
OUR NEW YORK LETTER.
NEw YoRK. Dec. IA. ls7

Tich tnan properly haIuiy Two weeks
ago public opinion as to Mr. Astor's
wealth crystalized at slO0.00O,00 His
will, recently admitted to probate, re-
duces that figure just about one-half,
bat still leaves a sum that the average
man would be tolerably we'll satisfied
to possess OF this, as was generally
understood would be the case, John Ja-
cob I'd gets the lions share, or some
S35 100000 The remainder was be-
slowed in miscellaneous bequests to re-
naming members of the family, charI-
tiss. etc, the latter. however, being but
feebly represented.
One of the sons, who committed the
objectionable sin of marrying "below
his station, was cut off with $4,000;
but happily in this instance the ends of
poetic justice were served by his having
been already made millionaire through
his grandfather's will.
The Hon. VIM. NJ. Tweed has been
suddenly called from the city on urgent
business, and his present whereabouts
are not known with any great precision.
The papers say that nothing has been
heard about him." but it seems to me
that We have hardly head anything
about any one else since his departure.
But seriously, it looks as though this
were to be the end of it, and as though
with the Boss's escape the curtain had
fallen on the long and tedious farce call
ed New York Justice Previous to
his incarceration on Blackwell's Island,
Tweed maintained the bland smile and
what are you-going-to-do-about-it air,
with which his caricatures have famil-
iarized the public but once within the
striped suit, ne realized that the game
had been more earnest than he had sup
posed. Then he commenced the fight
for liberty, which ended as we have seen.
Taught by the history of his previous
life to regard money as the one only
force that is universal in application and
irresistible in operation this was, very
naturally, the agent which he selected
to aid him. Nor were his calculations
at fault; for the result has proved that
money is stronger than the intense and
righteous indignation of whole people.
The steps in his progress toward free
dom are known to all. First, when the
law had deliberately and finally pro-
nounced him convict, and had sent
him to live among his kind, money
brought the craftiest legal locksmith to
pick his prison locks and set him free.
Re-arrested on other charges and again
imprisoned, the same powerful ally once
more came to the rescue, and once more
it was shown to be invincible. For a
while it only procured him extra luxu-
ries of living, but it was notlong before
bolts and bars began to be worn away
by its corrosion. Gradually as his case
progressed the mass of testimony and
decisions was piled higher and higher
against him, but apparently just in pro-
portion as the lneshes of the law drew
closer about him, were his liberties and
privileges increased, until at last, all the
plans for his fight having been leisure
ly perfected, and the eyes of keepers and
detectives tightly bandaged with green
backs, our bulky keeper quietly vanish
ed, leaving New York staring vacantly
in all directions in helpless Indignation
at this humiliating and disgraceful ex-
hibition Of official corruption. OF course
something has to be done to allay pOpu-
lar feeling, and SO tremendous hue and
cry is raised by the police. and a great
deal of talk made by the higher powers,
who blame and threaten to remove their
subordinates, but all that looks rather
thin as day after day goes by. and the
prospects of Tweed's recapture grow
beautifully less.
But even should he never be retaken,
there is some consolation in feeling that
the Boss has by no means escaped retri-
button. His terrible fall from power to
prison, and the trials of the last two
years, would in themselves be expiatior
for crimes less great than his, while L
man of his age and habits, ignominioui
exile and the consciousness he must leav'
e behind him a name so stained and black
f ened as TO be burden to all who bea,
: it, form punishment to which imprls
J. onment or loss of wealth could hardl,
S add much severity.
h Our metropolitan journals are not par
e tieularly celebrated for living togethe
S in harmony at any time, but there ha
). been little mill recently between th
S. Times and Graphic. which was rathe
n lively even for New York. The Time
S. commenced the attack. and in the cOurs
b of week or so had so covered It's ad
N versary with mud that the GraPh'
s, thinks il will have to have bath in th
ID courts to get back its pristine purity
IN The prOprietOrs think their charsct'
" has been damaged to the value Of 5000
st 600, and desire the Times to pay thi
to sum for repairs If one-half Of the Ia
70 ter's charges are true, hse cents woul