St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-11-23
Our New York Letter.

Our New York Letter.
THE VANDERBILT WILL scANDAL-PA-
TERNAL DEvOTION-BROUGHT TO THE
BLoCK-THE WHEELS OF JUsTICE-A
SMART WOMAN.
NEW YORK, Nov. Is, 1877.
To the Editor of the Caledonian:
If testy old Commodore Vanderbilt,
from his abode above-or below, is per-
mitted to look in upon the scenes of his
life at this juncture, the intensity of his
wrath may be better imagined than de-
scribed. Months after the first troubles
arising from his will were finally settled
to all appearances, the contest breaks
out afresh with redoubled fury and
there is now progressing in the surro-
gates court in this city such washing
of dirty linen as one would think Mr..
VIM. II. Vanderbilt would have been
glad to avoid even at the expense of
the small fraction of his enormous
property, that was demanded by the
contestants of the will. If any one la
bors under the impression that tons of
gold and hundreds upon thousands of
shares of stock form barrier which can
keep the traditional skeleton out of the
rich mans closet, such a one should
read the newspaper reports of the pres
ent trial. Family secrets of the most
delicate and even scandalous nature are
ruthlessly dragged from their hiding
places and paraded before the public
gaze to the Offense not only of good
taste but of common decency. There
is no regard for reputation, for family
feeling or family pride, but the Wander
bilt name is allowed by those that bear
it, to be dragged through the blacklist
of mire before the curious gaze of the
whole country, the contestants seeming
entirely reckless of all considerations
save those connected with the main
chance. The dead mans sins and foibles
are rehearsed and traded upon by his
own flesh and blood. He is accused by
part of his children of infidelity as
cruelty to their mother, whom he is said
to have forced into an insane asylum {;
while the GOODNESS and want of natural
affection, which were unfortunately his
we'll known characteristics, are empha-
sized for a purpose and in a manner
which are humiliating to behold. What
ever the result of this unfortunate con-
test may be, the disgrace of the family
is already assured.
An increase in the apprehension which
the mothers of the metropolis have new
er ceased to feel for the safety of their
little ones since the disappearance of
Charlie Ross has been caused within the
last few days by an attempt made in
Brooklyn to abduct bright little boy,
the child of well-to-do parents. The
prOmptness of the latter, however, in
getting the police energetically at work
upon the matter resulted in the anOny-
nous return of the boy after a twenty
four hours absence. 1t is supposed that
the kidnappers finding the ferries so
closely watched as to render it impossi-
BILE for them to leave the city unob-
served gave up theft intended scheme
as involving too much risk. Mr.. Ross,
by the way, father of the now famous
Charlie, is said to have used up his en-
tire fortune, amounting to over 100000
in the search for his son. He has made
over three hundred fruitless trips in
following out the various supposed
clues which have been presented to
him, and insists that he will abandon
this heroic but hopeless quest only with
his life. To facilitate the work as well
as to gain living for himself in his re-
duced circumstances he has taken the
position of travelling salesman for a
mercantile house in this city.
An uptown auctioneer held sale the
other day at which he disposed of auto
graphs of between four and five hun
dred miscellaneous celebrities. l don't
feel quite sure that the prices realized
could safely be taken as criterion of
the relative positions to be occupied in
history by the gentlemen whose chiro-
graphy was thus ANONYMOUSLY brought
to the block I; but if so the public esti-
mates of some of them will have to be
considerably modified. For instance,
Daniel Webster brought $1.1O while
jefferson Davis saw him and went ten
cents better. Samuel j. Tilden was
sacrificed for dollar bill, while Henry
Ward Beecher, Roscoe COnkling, VIM.
A. Wheeler and Carl Schurz fell at thir-
ty cents each, beating Aaron Burr by
one dime The father of his country
held his own nobly, getting up to $3.50
and leading Charles Dickens by half
dollar.
The disposition to make respectable
swindling unpopular, which showed
itself in the recent sentence of the forger,
Gilman, seems to be longer lived than
the ordinary spasm of administering
justice which occasionally attacks New
York. This week has actually witnessed
the sentence of Robert L. Case, presi-
dent of the unpleasantly odorous Sc
curity Life Insurance Company, which
went to everlasting smash last year.
Mr.. Case was proved to have signed
and sworn to false reports of the con-
ditiOn of his company and was convicted
of perjury. In vain he pleaded igno-
rance of the contents of the report and
stated that he signed it only as matter
of form. The unfeeling judge was hard
hearted enough to insist that when the
chief officer of trust institution puts
his hand and seal to statement in
tended to influence the entrusting of
further funds to his keeping, it is his
business to know whether that state
ment is true or false.
Criminal justice in New York has
sucn short memory that we regard the
conviction of a man whose crime has