St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-01-26

| Two instances are known where ladies
who have seen better days, but are now
left to depend upon themselves with
only the very scantiest resources, rather
than descend from their social plane
devote the last attainable cent to the
payment of rent and a servant, and
then, under cover of disguise, and on
an assumed name, go around among re-
| lief societies and tladesmen to beg pro-
visions and coal.
Then the makeshifts and extremities
to which thousands are reduced who
are not absolutely dependent on chart
ty, would of themselves make long
and interesting chapter in a social his
tory of the present crisis. A reporter
tells of respectable and well connect
ed family now living on one of the more
modest avenues, the head of which sup
ports his dependents on an income of
twelve dollars a week, earned by driv-
ing truck all day for 81 week and
at night translating French novels for a
weekly paper at $3.50 a column. An
other "decayed gentleman" and his
wife, members of the theatrical pro-
fession, being out of an engagement and
DESTROYS of making their scanty savings
last as long as possible, have adopted
the plan of sleeping all they can and
playing cards the rest of the time. In
this way they dispense with fire and
find that they can support life on one
square meal day. There's philosophy
for you.
Then again, there is the fraternity of
hotel lOafers, which is never extinct in
New York, and which in these days
flOurishes enOrmously-in numbers at
least. Many of these are well dressed
and apparently respectable, but owning
absolutely nothing but their clothes,
subsist upon such uncertain forage as
they can pick up about the bar rooms
and lunch counters. These are nothing
but tramps of little higher order than
the kind that prowl about the slums
and alleys, but still have such an easy,
careless way of picking up bit of
cracker and cheese as they pass the
counter that they are seldom intelfered
with.
The pawn shops, as matter of course,
are dOirg an immense business. that is
to say they pay out large Sums of money,
but only very small proportion of
articles are redeemed. So crammed in
deed are these places with goods of
every conceivable description that the
prOpr1etOrs have cut down the proper
ton of advances till they will only lend
from One-tenth to One-siXth the value
of an article offered. A curious and
significant fact in this connection is that
many Broadway jewellers, who have no
license to hang out the three balls, have
in their safes the family plate and per-
sOnal jewelry of many household
whose heads are carried as high as ever,
but who find it very convenient to raise
money for pressing bills by pledging
these articles.
When we come to the substratum of
society all idea of the curious or the
ludicrous disappears at once. Misery
here is too bald and too real. Begging
is as common as in the worst infested
city of southern Europe, and is a very
different thing from the hypocriticaI |
of the foreign nuisances who |
get rich in their mendicancy. Here it |
is terribly in earnest. 1t is gaunt and
hollOw-eyed, pinched in feature and |
broken of voice too desperately genuine
to be mistaken or to be easily repulsed. |
But / will not follow up this branch
of the subject. could go on indefinite
ly, but it would do no good, and then
it would doubtless be more pleasant to
hear of something less depressing.
1t has been pretty generally supposed |
that Fifteenth Amendment" troubles
were over in this latitude at least, but
a suit just brought against the Astor
House seems to indicate the contrary.
The plaintiff in the case is j. Milton
Turner, "COnsul General and Minister
Resident to the Repdblic of LIBERIA as
ne mOdestly signs himself, and his
grievance is that he was refused ac-
at the Astor House some
lime last fall on account of his color,
which is some two shades darker than
he blacklist midnight. The hotel keep
ers on the contrary contend that the
Dnly reason for the nOn-reception of the
of the stars and stripes
III Africa's shores was the crowded con-
lition of their house at the time. The
,ase went before referee, and Turner.
who although born of a slave mother
md himself reared slave, is a pretty
sharp lawyer, conducted his own case.
t had but little to rest on, and be-
ieve he gets $500 damages.
A case of richly mounted duellinp
pistols in Broadway window bears this
disappointing placard "'Pistols not
lsed by Bennett and May" Just where
he pair that 1Uere used on this memoir
bile occasion is still mystery. But
lpon one point gossip is for once cor
ect. Mr.. Bennett has gone to Europe
fter lying concealed on the New JERSEY
ide for week after his duel with Nav.
lie was accompanied by several friends
nd proposes to make considerable i
tay, probably till he thinks the affair |
las blown over sufficiently to warrant i
rs return. But society must have its ,
title sensation as long as it can possibly
re kept alive; so, Mr.. Bennett being I
disposed of, attention is ,
ERECTED to his opponent, who is still i
nowhere" and with regard to whom t
he story is started that he is hiding his t
cad on account of his cowardly be- /
avlor at the duel itself, where he is t
aid to have tried to secure his own 1
afety by firing before the word was c
iven. His pistol missed fire, it is said. '
nd then Bennett, who, if this is true,
'ould have been almost justified in t
hOOting him down, fired in the air and s
sft the place. This story sounds rather t
min, but then people must have some C
hing to talk about beside hard times ]
nd politics. +
In view of the recent lamentable fail s
re of the Continental Life Insurance II
ompany, and the shock given thereby q
insurers everywhere, special care a
Mould be taken by the public to avoid e
the defunct corporation Fl
18th the original Continental Life of V
artford, whose strength and standing V
ave never been in the least impaired, t.
ut which on the contrary have grown \