St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-03-23
Our New York Letter.

| OUR FIT OF THE BLUES-THE SCIENCE OF
GLAsS-THE MANIA IN NEW YORK-RA-
DIX EXPERIENCE VANDERBILT's WILL
AGAIN-THE BOND STREET CALAMITY
PETER B. SWEENY- A COOL SUICIDE.
NEW YORK, March Is, 1877.
To the Editor Of the CdIedOnian
To say it is the fashion doesn't do the
subject half justice. It's the rage; it's
the mania it's the sensation. Even
the little dogs are only waiting for hot
weather to don blue glass goggles and
trot around impervious to hydrophobia
| am not quite certain that the newly
discovered panacea will cure balky
mule or man with wooden leg, but
we are assured by copious testimony
that no lesser ailment can withstand its
beneficent influences more than an hour
or so at the outside.
1t is rather novel business to say the
least, for Major General of the army
to turn quack doctor and set the whole
Yankee nation by the ears over his
queer cure-all /; but still, as we've no
war on hand OF in prospect, | don't
know as General Pleasanton is to be
blamed for turning his restless talent to
getting up a big sensation especially as
he has made such first class success
of it. Indeed he may have had very
benevolent Intention i'll throwing out
his pretty and innocent bauble to catch
and distract the public eye at a moment
when that organ, in consequence of an
overdose of politics had begun to have
"blOod' in it, and seemed for a time to
he bent on mischief. If this was his
motive he did nobly, for blue glass has
fairly divided public attention with the
Joint Commission, and who shall say
that its modifying rays have not been
instrumental in holding subdued the
riotous blood of party feeling?
Then again it is possible that the
distinguished officer who fathers this
latest wonder really believes in it. He
persists that a course of blue glass cured
him, and adduces letter after letter to
prove that it cured good many others
all of which is important if true. The
professional scientists turn up their
noses at the whole thing, calling it ga
silly mania" and CHASING it along with
the Kelley Motor excitement and to
tell the truth 1T is hard to believe that
at this late day, any man, even Pleas
ant-One, has been able to improve on
the old original sunlight under which
the world has thrived ever since the
creation. Still, it isn't safe, in this age
of discovery to scOff at any thing new,
just because it is new, and we must
wait till the very Jealous and faithful
trial which the new notion is receiving
has had time to show its results before
cOndemning it entirely.
No one can pass day in this city
without being astOnished at the hold
that blue glass has got upon us. Every
paint shop, glass store and house fur
mishing establishment has blossomed
out with placards and azure panes. On
Broadway two or three shops have
opened to deal exclusively in the article;
while so much of it has been sold al
ready and hung up in the windows of
and the neighboring aristOcratic streets
look like long rows of second and thir d
story drug stores. One of our after
noon dailies has published a large ex-
ira printed in blue ink and devoted
solely to the history and condition of
the 'science." The horse cars even
ere putting it into their windows. To
crown all, and to settle finally the ques-
ton OF its prominence, blue glass has
got on to the stage. Now the stage is to
any topic of interest what the hand
organ Is to piece of music, namely |
the tOuchstone of its popularity. Just
the moment that ''Tramp, Tramp or
"Silver Threads among the Gold," be-
gins to be ground out at the street cor
ners, we know that it is fixed fact
and so likewise when last week Au-
gustin DAILY came out with the play of
"Blue GLASS; at the Fifth Avenue The |
atre it became evident that these magic |
words were to pass into history. !