Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-01-19
Our New York Letter,
TdE BENNErT-MAY AFFAIR-TEE SNOWMAN
pERBILT-THE DEATH OF AN ACTRESS
SOCIETY. ETC.-wEATBER.
INV York. Jan IL. ls.-

INV 1OEk, Jan IL. H..
To the Editor VI the Free Press and Times.
Young James Gordon Bennett Is an as q
the highest order, and young May is auoth-
er, with decided trace of the bully added.
Bennett owns the New York Herald. and
has an income of something like million
of dollars per annum, which, ass a. hc is,
makes him sought for by all the managing
mammas who have daughters to marry oa.
Miss Caroline May got him bee Lcd finally
and she was engaged to :rarry the Hcrald
man, but all OF sudden the match was de-
elared 81. The other night Il brother of
Miss May assaulted Bennett in IRON. Of tho
Union League Club. and gave him most
satisfactory horse-whipping. which resulted
in duel fought in Delaware, in which
young May was slightly wounded. May
goes to his friends in Baltim ore. and Ben
nett sailed for Europe. to get away from the
talk the succession OF events has produced.
Bennett says he broke the match because he
was satisfied that he Was not fit for marital
life. while the Mays, on the other hand.
claim that they broke it because Benpe;t
displayed too much of the blackguard to be
trusted with wife. 1t is told OF his going
to the house of his afhinced in n state OF
beastlv intoxication, of his getting the
ladies' at his house perchcd upon billiard
table and turning loose a hali-dozen fight
cocks, and not allowing them to get down
for an hour. Innumerablo stories are
told of his escapades, all Of which are brut-
al and semi-idiotic. The elder Bennett was
lust as eccentric az this enc, but
he was shrewder than Satan himself
Hc commenced the publication of
the Herald in cellar in Ann
street, and made it the property it is
by courses, which if followed now, would
corsign an editor to the penitentIary. lie
was notorious black-nailer. and made it Il
business TO he constantly involved in quar-
rels and difficulties. Nothing pleased him
so much as to provoke u man to c0whide or
kick him. lie would take his punishment
meekly, and without resistance, and rush to
his Office and write a long account of it, in
which his assailant would be more scan
dalously abused than ever. \ kicking was
delight to him. and he absolutely re-
yelled in libel suits. Tom HamlIr. the actor,
once forced his jaws open and spit down his
throat. ard james Watson Webb cowhided
him dozen times. Almost every respect
dUlC ludu III ANCW IOlh tBldSUtu DtllUCII,
hut he thrivtd wonderfully for all that
These affairs attracted attention to him, and
be did make the Herald the best newspaper
the country ever had, and it is now. lis
business was to collect news, and in the
doing of it he displayed wonderful energy
and amazing shrewduess; be established
pony expresses before the days of railroads {;
he had fast sailing boats to intercept YES
sells, and he was the first to realize the
power of the telegraph. And SO. while the
Herald never influenced an opinion while
it is conducted upon the principle ui deny
ing to-day what 1t said yesterday,
everybody reads it, and it is the best news
paper property In the country. Young Ben
Nets knows nothing about journalism, but
the system established by his father remains
and the men trained by his father still carry
it out in all its details We're he allowed
to manage it he would wreck 1t in year.
But fortunately, he is so absorbed in polo,
in walking matches, in catching and kin
dred amusements. that be can give no
thought to his paper. and So il gets on as
well as ever
THE BEAUTIFUL SNOW.
Snow j. all very well when you have logs
to haul, or when you want to slegbrido.
But In the narrow streets Vt New York, it
is nuisance, pure and simple. The street
cars are running only half the number Of
cars at the very time when the capacity for
carrying ought to be doubled. and the
streets are so blockaded as to make tracks
superhuous. The consequence is terrible
interruption of trnde. The terminal facili-
ties of New York are wretched at best, and
a very heavy proportion of the produce
consigned to this market has to be handled
by trucks. Now that trucking il an i'm
possibility, it is all going to Baltimore. The
merchants are indignant at the authorities
for not removing the snow. CargOes in
tended for New York are going to Bati-
more to save the fearful cost of handling in
this city. 1t is estimated that the snow
thus far. has cost the city round million,
and 4 general suspension OF brsine>si is fear
ed, if measures cannot be taken to remove
il.
vANDERBILr's
heirs are quarrelling over his estate as might
have been expected. lie left eighty-iive
millions, the most OF it to his iayOrite
son, William H.. who has virtually the con-
troll of the whole of it. His other son,
Cornelius, is not the best man in the world,
and the great ambition Of the dead financer
was to have his colossal fortune kept
together. william will do it, and will add
to it. lie is as good man OF business as
his father. and has been carefully trained to
take his place when death should exact the
first mortgage he holds on all Of US. The
other heirs squirm at his having control of
the estate. hut it won't make any differ
cnce. The Vanderbilt5 never let 20 any,
thing they get their claws on, and William
has too good a thing. The lawyers will
have q suit time Of it, for the old man left
them all enough TO make very pretty
fight with. There will be no change in the
of the great roads, for William
has been virtually the manager for several
years. Within very few months the Jour
richest men in the country have gone to
their long home-Astor. Vanderbilt, and
Of New York, and Hemenway, of |
Boston. They didn't take anything with
them.
POOR AMY rAwsITr
is dead, and died of starvation. Amy Faw-
slit was an English actress, who was, at
one time, the pet OF London and bid fair to
become fay0rite in New York. But the |
woman who could earn her thousands a
week did not save cent-they all seem to |
think that their popularity will last for
when she was taken sick she was |
forgotten. Her little money went, then her |
clothes, until finally she had not as much as
, pair OF stockings, and died in this great
city Tor want Of food and medicine. Two
years ago thousands Of girls, a. they saw
this beautiiu. woman clad in velvet and
oaded with jewels. envled her, There isn't
\ shop girl in the city who has not led
more happy life, and very lew but who
. ill die better death. Ii is not all gold
hat glitterl.
SOCIETY AND ADJUSTMENTS
Despite the snow, and despite the hard
lines. the fashionable end Of New York mas
'utiono itself this Winter Balls and re-
eptions have been more common than ever
'efore, and more money than EVER has
Deen spent upon dress and adornment of
lousc and person. The fact is there are
ew hundred families who are so rich that
utting Oft half their incomes makes no dli-
erence whatever, and they feel Il sort of
ride in being able to throw away money
' hen every body else is short OF it. What
dds is it" said one young fellow in COM
nenting on party just given. the wife of
he giver having sported Sc, 900 worth of
diamonds, "whether they have half mil
ion year, or million" But the amuse-
nents that draw their support from the
merely comfortable classes, are suffering.
he theatres arc drawing no money, the ac-