The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1877-05-12
Our New York Letter.
Real Estate Fashions The
POst.OAice CatastrOphe-L
Ensurance-Busin
NEw YOpK Nav 1877

ing five years ago 100000, and con-
sidered cheap at that, were put up at
auction to determine what reduction
in price and rentals should be made.
The property brought $55, 600 on the
usual terms. AS the sale was made in
good faith the reduction is accepted by
owners, and prices are established ac-
cordingly. This is a terrible let down,
but owners are compelled to stand it.
Rents have fallen more in proportion
than prices. Stores on Broadway
which rented formerly for $4,000 only
command $4,000 o: $4,000, and the
hoped for rise in May was not OBJ
tanned. There are thousands of stores
standing empty, and thousands upon
thousands of houses.
Common as Dolmans," is a saying
about some features of dress which
were new ten days ago. Every Biddy
on the streets has a Dolman, and
every cheap suit has the back of the
bodice in seven pieces, a style little
less than torture to an eye of any
cultivation, but, happily, so overdone
that its popularity promises not to
live with the season. To see the back
of a woman's dress cut into narrow
strips is painful waste of goods and
deforlnity, making the figure mean
ard stiff looking. The best models
in fine dress eschew this fashion, and
the basques have almost the simplicity
of the French form with bold side
cores which fit the fgure with the
ease and elegance of glove without
troublesome and disfguring cross
seams of more than one dart. The
best Breton habits are fitted in this
way. Fine imported toilets show a
notable simplicity of design, very
different from the fashion plates com
mon among us. The Breton jacket,
or the simplest fitting French jacket,
the same length all round and just
well covering the hips, buttoning
tliagonally, or the large fichu ruffied
with lace are the favored wraps in
these costumes. Overskirts are close
as possible, draped easily, or plain in
thick goods, and the trimming is a
mere piping fold, or facine of silk
three inches wide stitched twice on
the inner edge, a quarter inch apart,
for a finish.
g Before the war" is not a COM
parison for eheapness any longer.
With bleaehed cottons down to five
cents yard, and silks of desirable
grade at 81 so a yard, there is little
more to hope for in the way of cheap
goods. With suits to order, such as
gentleman can wear, at $25, and
ladies wear TO correspond, it is evil
dent that the baleful influence of in
flation is withdrawn, and if the Rus
sian war does not hurry prices up,
common people can get some good
out of their money again. Silk suits
are selling ready made for $22; and
long silk house dresses in Princesse
shape, with founces and ,lrapery, for
Sl2 to $17.
New York has Post Office said to
be the finest in the world, which looks
as substantial and solid as the pyra-
mids. But Tuesday the roof covering
one large room in the east side, fell
in and buried five men in the ruins.
1t was supported by iron girders, filled
in with cement, and of course the
poor fellows in the room were killed
instantly. An investigation shows
that rascally contractor put in de-
fective girders, which an equally ras-
cally inspector passed. 1t is the age
of shoddy and the government gets
more than its share of it.
The officers of the swindling Amer.
ican Popular Life Insurance Company
have been indicted, and there is {
decent prospect that some of then
will wear the stripes at Sing-Sing
There are dozen other companie!
which need just as thorough an over
hauling, and there are enough of th'
swindlers who ought to be in Sing
Sing to organize a Life Insurance hri
gade there. The effect of these fail
/ ures has been disastrous. Tho bnsi
ness of Life Insurance has come al